The atmosphere in Xuanzheng Hall was extremely depressing, and the ministers did not dare to breathe.
Such a thing happened under the feet of the world, and the Emperor of Great Xia was now so angry that they did not dare to show up and provoke the Emperor at this time.
After a long while, the Emperor of Great Xia spoke: "Since I ascended the throne, this is the second time such a terrible incident has occurred in the capital. This is a contempt for the imperial power and a provocation to me!"
At this point, the Emperor's eyes fell on the commander of the imperial guards, "Li Ming, have all the assassins last night been caught?"
Hearing this, the commander of the imperial guards, Li Ming, knelt on the ground and said hurriedly: "Your Majesty... Your Majesty, when I arrived at the Eighth Prince's mansion yesterday, the assassins had already escaped."
Li Ming was sweating profusely, fearing that the Emperor would have people drag him out and chop him up in a rage.
Hearing Li Ming's words, the Emperor said coldly: "Last time you let the remnants of the Chen Kingdom sneak into the palace, I did not punish you. This time, there was another terrible incident in the imperial city, such as the bloodbath of the prince's mansion, and you didn't even see the shadow of the assassin. What's the use of you as the commander of the imperial guards!"
"From now on, Li Ming will be relieved of all his duties and exiled to the frontier."
Hearing the Emperor's words, Li Ming breathed a sigh of relief, then kowtowed and said: "Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Although he lost his position, at least his life was saved. Li Ming still felt a little fortunate.
At this time, the Emperor continued: "This case will be handed over to the Ministry of Justice for investigation. Within three days, I need a satisfactory answer!"
As soon as these words came out, the officials of the Ministry of Justice trembled.
How could they investigate such a thing? How could they dare to investigate it?
The assassins directly bloodbathed the mansion of the eighth prince, and even the master of the mansion of the eighth prince was killed, which means that at least one of the assassins last night was a master.
The one who can send a master and dare to go to a prince's mansion with great fanfare must be a powerful force behind it.
It is even possible that it was done by another prince.
If they really find out that it was done by another prince, it will definitely be a hot potato for the Ministry of Justice. In Great Xia, the Ministry of Justice has no way to deal with it and is not qualified to try the crimes of the princes.
Although they know that this is a hot potato, the officials of the Ministry of Justice dare not refuse. Now the Emperor is angry. If they dare to say anything at this time, they may lose their heads later.
At this time, the Emperor said to Lu Shuyun: "Prince Qi, get up. I will make the decision for you in this matter."
Lu Shuyun hurriedly said: "I, your son, thank you, father."
The Emperor did not continue to say anything about this matter. Although this matter is very bad, the assassin has not been caught yet, and there is no information about the assassin. It is too early to discuss how to deal with the assassin.
They had other things to discuss today. The Emperor looked at the Minister of Revenue and said, "Minister Wang, I heard that you have been holding back the food and grass of the army heading to Beijun. Is this true?"
Minister of Revenue Wang Hai hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, it's not that I want to hold back the food and grass of the army. It's that the Ministry of Revenue is in serious deficit and it's hard to get so much silver in a short time."
The Emperor said coldly, "Do you mean that if you can't get the money, the court doesn't have to send troops to Beijun to resist the barbarians?"
"Wang Hai, could it be that you are colluding with the barbarians and want the barbarians to march straight into the capital and deliberately delay the departure of the army?"
Hearing what the Emperor said, Wang Hai's face turned pale instantly. Their Wang family did collude with the barbarians, but he didn't expect the Emperor to say it directly.
Although it sounded like the Emperor was testing them, Wang Hai always felt that His Majesty seemed to know something.
Wang Hai immediately knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, I am doing my best to prepare food and fodder for the army."
The Emperor said coldly, "If the army is still unable to march north within three days, you will no longer be the Minister of Revenue."
Just as the Emperor was about to say something else, a voice suddenly came from the door of the hall.
"Urgent news from the north!"
The next moment, a red silk messenger rushed into the hall.
After seeing the red silk messenger, the faces of the ministers in the hall turned very ugly.
Using the red silk messenger at this time, does it mean that the barbarians have begun to move south?
The army of the court is still worried about food and grass, and the barbarian cavalry in the north has already moved south. How can we defend Beijun?
Is it really necessary to rely on that useless prince?
Forget it, I am afraid that the barbarian cavalry will flee back to the capital before they reach Yancheng.
At this time, the red silk messenger said: "The barbarian Northern King has led 100,000 cavalry to meet at the court of the barbarian Tianlang King and is about to move south!"
"This is the battle report of the Northern King. In addition, the Northern King sent a letter to His Majesty."
Hearing this, everyone in the hall was stunned.
Family letter?
A prince who has been enfeoffed wrote a letter to the emperor?
This...
seems to be possible.
Although the Northern King has been enfeoffed, he is the emperor's son after all, and there is a father-son relationship.
However, since the founding of Great Xia, it seems that no vassal king has ever written a letter to the emperor. They all submitted memorials.
The eunuch beside the Emperor did not hesitate and immediately came to the front of the Hongling messenger, picked up the battle report and the letter, and then presented them to His Majesty.
After the Emperor took the battle report and the letter, he first looked at the battle report. There was nothing wrong with the war report, and the King of the North also talked about the arrangements for Beijun in it.
However, what puzzled the Emperor was that Lu Chen actually planned to build a strong defense and clear the fields, and transfer all the people north of Yancheng to the south of Yancheng, and then he led the army and the 300,000 barbarian army to fight a decisive battle in Yancheng.
The Emperor frowned. Who came up with this strategy?
He didn't think that his useless son had such courage. Let's not talk about whether this strategy is effective or not. How much courage does it take to dare to do this.
Yancheng currently has only 30,000 soldiers, and at most 50,000 soldiers. It is probably not so easy for Yancheng to stop the barbarian cavalry.
Moreover, this would lead to Yancheng being besieged by the barbarian army. How could he not know what kind of character his son was? The Emperor did not believe that Lu Chen would put himself in danger.
After reading the battle report, the Emperor then opened Lu Chen's letter.
Just seeing the beginning of the letter, the Emperor snorted coldly. He said that Lu Chen had become so courageous all of a sudden. It turned out that he wanted him to send a large army to Beijun for support as soon as possible.
Seeing Lu Chen's cowardly look in the letter, the Emperor wanted to tear up the letter immediately, but he finally resisted the urge to read it.
When he saw the back, his face darkened instantly, especially when he saw the last line of text, the Emperor frowned immediately.
He actually knew that the barbarians' southward movement must be related to the aristocratic families. This kind of thing can be guessed without investigation, but he didn't know who was colluding with the barbarians. The Great Xia-style weapons mentioned by Lu Chen in the letter just confirmed his guess again.
What really made the Emperor frown was that Lu Chen mentioned the eighth prince in the letter.
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