Going to Beijing to save his father, all the powerful officials in the city are vying to be his fath

Jin Tong smiled awkwardly at Zhao Liangchen. He now sincerely felt that Zhao Liangchen was much more capable than him.

The imperial guards he was in charge of were almost infiltrated by King Liang like a sieve, but Zhao Liangchen was able to sneak through Chencang and lead the imperial guards to redress the injustice.

Zhao Liangchen made a great contribution this time, and he was a little worried that Zhao Liangchen would replace him.

Zou Tai saw Zhao Liangchen rushing over and looking him up and down: "Are you injured?"

Zhao Liangchen shook his head at him: "No."

Zou Tai breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good. You don't know how anxious I was when I heard you guys fighting outside in the city yesterday. I really wanted to rush out and fight with you."

Zhao Liangchen: "It's not easy for you in the city either."

Zou Tai nodded: "That's right, sometimes I really admire King Liang, he is so well prepared.

He has arranged a lot of people in this city, and he has dug tunnels through many houses. You never know where a few people will pop up and kill people indiscriminately. If we hadn't made preparations in advance and asked the people to stay at home, who knows how many people would have died yesterday.

Yesterday, while escorting the emperor back to the palace, we encountered several assassination attempts.

It was incredibly thrilling.”

After saying this, he excitedly added: "However, we didn't let them succeed yesterday, and all the people from King Liang's faction were caught in one fell swoop. This is definitely a great achievement.

The Emperor will definitely reward you today. Have you thought about what reward you would like to ask the Emperor for?"

Zhao Liangchen shook his head: "I don't want any reward."

Zou Tai asked in confusion: "Why?"

Zhao Liangchen didn't explain, only saying, "Last night, my mother killed my father, and then she committed suicide."

Zou Tai instantly fell silent. After a moment's silence, he offered a dry comforting voice: "My condolences. Don't be too sad."

Zhao Liangchen: "I'm not sad, this is the ending they deserve."

Zou Tai didn't know what to say. At this time, all the officials entered the palace, and the two of them went to court in silence.

Usually, Zhao Liangchen would be guarding outside the hall and would not stand in the hall, but today was different. He was a meritorious official and the main meritorious official in suppressing the rebellion of King Liang, so today he stood in the hall and in front of the military generals. In front of him were the Duke of Lu, the Marquis of Wuning and Qi Jingde.

Marquis Wuning had not attended court for more than ten years. He was not used to coming to court so early. He was busy outside the city all night yesterday and had not slept yet, so he kept dozing off while standing there.

Zhao Liangchen stood behind him and saw that he was staggering and about to fall, so he quietly moved closer and supported his body with his hands so that he could lean on him.

Marquis Wuning felt someone supporting him. He turned around dazedly and saw it was Zhao Liangchen. He wanted to stand up straighter, but Zhao Liangchen stopped him: "My Lord, you haven't slept all night. You should take a rest before the emperor comes. I'm afraid today will be a long day."

Qi Jingde turned around and saw this scene, immediately embarrassed. He wanted to reach out and take Wuning Hou to lean against him, but Zhao Liangchen refused. "Your Highness has been busy fighting for so long, I'm afraid he hasn't had time to rest. Take a break now. I'm afraid you will have a lot to report to the emperor soon."

Although Qi Jingde had a lot of good intentions, he was really tired. He didn't get a good rest during the ambush before, and he fought all day yesterday. He had no time to rest because he had to clean up the battlefield and count the casualties at night. Therefore, he did not refuse Zhao Liangchen's kindness, but just thanked him gratefully.

Marquis Wuning did not refuse. Instead, he took out an oil-paper bag from his bosom and stuffed it into Zhao Liangchen's hand, saying in a low voice: "My wife made this. Eat some first to fill your stomach. I don't know when you can have dinner today."

After saying that, he turned back and continued to doze off.

Zhao Liangchen felt a little warm in his heart. It seemed that everyone except his father remembered that he could not go hungry. He opened the oil paper package with one hand and silently stuffed the pastry inside into his mouth.

With Marquis Wuning blocking the way in front, no one noticed him eating with his head down. However, Duke Lu next to him saw it, but he didn't say anything. He just looked at Marquis Wuning with envy. He was much older than Marquis Wuning. He also went out of the city to fight yesterday and didn't sleep all night, but no one supported him. His eldest son was not a military general and did not stand with him.

On the military side, there were many people dozing off like them, and even the civil officials were listless. For a while, the hall was very quiet.

Until a eunuch sang: "The Emperor has arrived."

Everyone finally cheered up.

The emperor did not get a good rest last night. Looking at the court where almost half of the officials were missing, the emperor's face looked even worse.

He first looked at Tong Zhongqian: "Tong Zhongqian, have the charges against those officials been investigated?"

The upright Tong Zhongqian really wanted to roll his eyes at this moment. Even if he worked himself to death, he couldn't finish the interrogation of dozens of officials and their hundreds of family members in one day and one night.

In the past, the three courts could still hold a joint trial, but now the Dali Temple Minister has defected to King Liang, and all the people in the Dali Temple are useless. Half of the officials in the Inspectorate have also defected to King Liang. There are not many others who can help him. Only he, the Minister of Justice, had eliminated those with ill intentions in the last disaster relief fund case, and the situation has become cleaner.

The Jingzhao Yin of the government office did not defect to King Liang, but he did not defect because of his firm stance, but because he was really mediocre and King Liang looked down on him and did not try to win him over.

Tong Zhongqian naturally looked down upon a person whom King Liang looked down upon, so only people from the Ministry of Justice were working on the entire case.

Tong Zhongqian stepped forward, holding up a stack of evidence. "Your Majesty, I have been investigating the case overnight, and the evidence against the main culprit official has been basically ascertained, but..."

He paused, glanced at Zhao Liangchen on the side, and said something that shocked everyone: "But last night, many officials committed suicide out of fear of punishment."

The emperor was so shocked that he stood up and asked, "Dead?"

Tong Zhongqian: "Yes, last night, Zhao Jian and his wife committed suicide out of fear of punishment. Then, upon hearing the news, Mrs. Zhao's father, Lord Qian, also committed suicide out of fear of punishment. After that, many officials committed suicide as if they had discussed it together.

"I was investigating a case overnight yesterday, and the people in the Ministry of Justice were so busy that they didn't notice anything unusual happening. By the time they found out, many prisoners were already dead. I failed to supervise them properly, and I ask Your Majesty to punish me."

After saying that, he knelt down to apologize. Zhao Liangchen lowered his head and curled the corners of his lips. Who said that Lord Tong is an upright adult? Isn't this very flexible?

The emperor was surprised, then silent for a moment and slowly sat down: "Are they all dead?"

Tong Zhongqian hurriedly shook his head: "No, more than a dozen people died. There is a list here."

He raised the stack of memorials in his hand, and Liu Jin hurried down to get them and handed them to the emperor. The emperor took them and looked at the list first.

After reading it, he looked at Tong Zhongqian with a complicated expression. He really didn't know whether Tong Zhongqian did it on purpose. The people on this list were all King Liang's confidants. They had followed King Liang for a long time. The longest one was Madam Zhao's father, and the rest were all people he helped King Liang to win over privately.

He didn't sleep well yesterday because he was thinking about how to deal with these criminals, even though he had promised them yesterday that as long as they turned from evil to good, he would forgive their past crimes.

But he was unwilling to let bygones be bygones. Those people had betrayed him. If he let them off so easily, people would think they were rebelling, and the consequences would not be serious. How could he deter those who had rebellious intentions? And what prestige would he have as the emperor?

But now that the person is dead, he feels relieved for some reason. The person is dead, and he was not the one who executed him, so what does it have to do with him? This way he does not break his promise.