Chapter 104: Downfall

The Emperor of Southern Qi was on the verge of a rage at any time, and even the Queen's consolation was useless. Only his grandson Yuan Yi could comfort him for a while.
Tang Ying stepped into the Crown Princess's bedroom, and the palace servants who were waiting on her wept and said, "Master Tang, the Queen has not slept for several days. She just drank some tranquilizers and lay down."
The emperor was furious, and many people who served the prince in the East Palace lost their lives. Even the palace maids around the princess were trembling with fear, fearing that they would offend the Emperor of Southern Qi. They did not dare to neglect the officials of the Forbidden Cavalry Division sent by him.
"Then please ask Your Majesty to stand up. I have official duties to attend to and I dare not slack off."
The Crown Princess took off her hairpins and jewelry, took off her outer robe, and was leaning against the head of the bed with the quilt in her arms. When she heard the noise outside, she invited Tang Ying in.
Tang Ying was wearing official uniform and carrying a long sword at his waist. After entering, he paid his respects to the Crown Princess and said dryly, "Your Majesty, please accept my condolences." In his heart, he cursed the Emperor of Southern Qi for being inhumane, as he wanted the people around the Crown Prince to be buried with him when his own son died of illness. In fact, the Crown Prince had been ill for a long time and his condition had been deteriorating. But he still believed that the people in the Eastern Palace had not served him well or had done something to deceive him.
Tsk, the emperor's suspicion.
The Crown Princess wiped her tears with a handkerchief: "The Crown Prince is gone, leaving us an orphan and a widow. We don't know how to live in the future. Since Manager Tang has received the order from His Majesty, why don't you conduct a thorough investigation and find out all the seductresses who have been causing trouble in the East Palace? Who knows if they have done anything to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."
Tang Ying: “…” The first wife took this opportunity to use someone else’s hand to eliminate the second wife. It was quite thoughtful.
"I will definitely handle this impartially and will not let off anyone who has done anything bad to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince." As for those who have never done anything bad to the Crown Prince, I'm sorry that this is your family's internal affairs and I can't interfere.
The Crown Princess heard the hidden meaning in her words, raised her head and looked directly at the newly appointed Phoenix Department Chief, with tears in her eyes, and even did not forget to put pressure on her: "When His Majesty was furious, only my Yi Er could make His Majesty feel distressed. Chief Tang, you have to think it through, do you want to thoroughly investigate the Eastern Palace?!"
Tang Ying: ...I should have asked Lord Fu for advice before coming here on how to deal with this kind of shit.
"Your Majesty has entrusted me with an important task, and I will conduct a thorough investigation of the women in the Eastern Palace." As for eliminating dissidents, it was beyond her job scope, and she couldn't refuse too awkwardly, so she could only gloss over it: "Your Majesty, please rest assured!" Our slogan is: Never let a bad guy go, and never wrongly accuse a good guy.
The Crown Princess heard her ambiguous words and didn't know whether this Manager Tang had figured it out or was just fooling her. Fearing that she was not conscientious enough, she assigned her maid Sui Chun to say, "Manager Tang is not familiar with the East Palace. You take Manager Tang with you so that he can get familiar with the masters in different places."
Tang Ying: ...Are you sending someone to point out who her mortal enemy is?
Sui Chun brought Tang Ying and his subordinates to identify most of the women in the Eastern Palace. Among them, Feng Liangdi had a son and a daughter. The daughter was the eldest daughter of the prince, one year older than Yuan Yi, and the son was one year younger than Yuan Yi. She was probably the most favored one, and was given special care and introduced by Sui Chun . Feng Liangdi did not show any panic.
The remaining Wei Liangyuan has a son, and Song Liangyuan has a daughter. They seem to have some face in the East Palace. Sui Chun mentioned Wei Liangyuan: "Wei Liangyuan is an honest person. She used to treat the queen respectfully." When he mentioned Song Liangyuan, his tone was not so good: "Song Liangyuan used to go to Feng Liangdi's palace quite frequently. Tang Zhangshi must investigate carefully."
Tang Ying: ...Even people from both camps have pointed this out?
The rest of the concubines, including Cheng Hui, Zhao Xun, Feng Yi and the palace maids who had served them, had never given birth. Except for the newly promoted Zhang Fengyi who was exceptionally beautiful and was given special attention by Sui Chun, the other concubines seemed not worth mentioning. When they saw Tang Ying, they were all submissive and frightened, like lambs to be slaughtered. Some of them had personally witnessed the Emperor of Southern Qi killing palace maids in a rage, and they were so scared that they almost bowed to Tang Ying in return.
Tang Ying took more than 20 subordinates of the Imperial Cavalry Division, including Baoyi, Hongxiang Wanyu and others, and walked around. She sat in a side hall that was temporarily vacated for the Phoenix Division to guard, and asked humbly, "Do you have any clues?"
Bao Yi: "I will follow the orders of the master."
Wan Yu: "I will follow the orders of the master."
Hongxiang looked around and said nothing.
The funeral ceremony of the Eastern Palace was handled by the Ministry of Rites and was held normally. The officials who came to mourn every day were all sincere. The Imperial Cavalry Division, under the secret instructions of the Emperor of Southern Qi, arrested people very efficiently. It was said that the Imperial Prison was already filled with dozens of officials involved in the Eastern Palace. Compared with Lord Fu's achievements, Tang Ying and his subordinates had been wandering around for several days and had not caught even a single cat or dog.
Tang Ying bit the bullet and asked Fu Chen for advice: "...Excluding the concubines who couldn't take care of the prince when he was sick, most of the palace servants who served him personally have died. From the prince's wife to the concubines, they all gave birth to children and depended on the prince for their survival. No matter from the time or motivation, there should be no possibility of taking action. What should we do now?"
Lord Fu: "The question now is not whether there is a motive or possibility of action in the East Palace Backyard, but how to calm His Majesty's anger."
"Using human lives?" Tang Ying had witnessed with her own eyes the scene where the Emperor of Southern Qi beat the people of the Eastern Palace with a stick, and she still felt a little uncomfortable with it.
In the eyes of the emperor, are other people's lives worthless?
Tang Ying couldn't help but think of her father and brothers, as well as the men who sacrificed their lives in Baicheng. What were they in the eyes of those in power?
Fu Chen looked at her deeply, and revealed the cruel truth of politics in one sentence: "Master Tang, sometimes conscience is not important, and the truth is not important either."
"If even human life is not important, what else in this world is important?"
Fu Chen said with a soft "hush": "In the future, you will know what is most important. For example, some people think power is the most important, while others think their emotions are the most important... As long as you can influence the life and death of others and will not be easily influenced by others, you will know what is the most important thing."
Tang Ying felt that this was a bit confusing, but not difficult to understand.
If she could easily decide other people's life and death and become more powerful, perhaps it would be easier for her to thoroughly investigate the White City incident.
She turned around and went into the backyard of the Eastern Palace for a thorough investigation, and she did uncover several old incidents involving lives lost, competition for favors and harm to the royal heir, but none of them had anything to do with the crown prince. She simply arrested them all and took them to the inner prison for interrogation by Chunniang, so as to deal with the current situation first.
For a full three months, from the beginning of the New Year to the beginning of spring, the Emperor of Southern Qi ordered the arrest of people like a madman. Fu Chen and Tang Ying were busy arresting criminals even during the New Year. The inner prison and the imperial prison of the Forbidden Cavalry Division were full, and they could not wait until the autumn to execute people, so they received the order from the Emperor of Southern Qi to kill a group of officials first and then fill in new prisoners.
Tang Ying also took this opportunity to find out some old stories. For example, the soldiers from the northern border were transferred away in the name of rotation of guards. It was actually initiated by Li Tong, the Minister of the Crown Prince's Mansion, who was supported by two officials from the Ministry of War who were from the Crown Prince's faction. Of course, it was the Emperor of Southern Qi who finally agreed to the rotation of guards and troop transfers.
After the death of the crown prince, Li Tong was detained in the Eastern Palace and was soon taken into custody by Fu Chen and imprisoned in the Imperial Prison of the Imperial Cavalry Department. His wife and daughter were imprisoned in the inner prison and fell into Chun Niang's hands.
Tang Ying took time out several times to visit Li Tong's family. She was friendly and casual, and chatted with Mrs. Li about family matters. If Li Tong could not clear his name, she would become close friends with Mrs. Li regardless of their age difference.
"Miss Li is seventeen, right? Are all girls of this age married in Beijing?"
"This girl has already been engaged, and she's still in mourning for her mother-in-law's death... You're almost old enough to get married, right? Why aren't you getting married?"
"Madam, are you talking about me? Alas, I have a hard life and have to observe mourning. Besides, getting married is a matter of fate. Maybe I am doomed to be alone. I probably won't be able to get married in this life."
Madam Li: "Master Tang is too modest." She heard that this person almost became the second prince's consort.
The two chatted about this and that, and Tang Ying admired Mrs. Li's mentality very much. She also asked the old woman guarding the prison to take good care of Li's mother and daughter.
When she came out, the gatekeeper looked strange and whispered, "Just when the master was chatting with Madam Li, Commander Fu came over."
"Oh." Tang Ying wondered in her heart whether Li Tong's original proposal was instigated by someone or was simply for the sake of the Crown Prince's overall situation. That's why she wanted to weaken Tang Yao's influence among the generals. It took her a while to react: "Did Lord Fu leave a message?"
"Nothing was said." Judging the situation, the old woman did not dare to tell her that Lord Fu was standing outside the cell listening to her conversation with Madam Li, and when he mentioned the phrase "a star of misfortune in one's life", his face changed drastically.
Logically speaking, Master Fu shouldn't be scared by the words "a star of misfortune". Compared to the words "a star of misfortune" whose truth or falsehood is unknown, Master Fu himself is more frightening, right? !
Just after the death of the Eastern Palace, the Imperial Cavalry Division arrested nearly a thousand officials of all ranks, and half of them lost their heads. Now, when Lord Fu is mentioned in the capital, everyone turns pale, as if they saw the executioner on the execution ground. I don't know how disgusted they are.
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