“Move away, move away!” The Capital Guards waved their horse whips to drive away the common people, and the fat woman who had spoken was also driven off along with the rest.
“These are important criminals of the court, to be personally dealt with by the Emperor! How could you commoners decide whether they get water to drink? Should we listen to you or to the Son of Heaven?”
The Capital Guard’s voice boomed like thunder, imposing and intimidating. The common people had only dared to speak earlier because they saw these people weren’t talking and weren’t preventing them from approaching. But seeing such a scene now, how could they dare say more? Even if they were dissatisfied and had a sense of justice, not everyone was willing to risk danger for the righteousness in their hearts.
Qin Yining lowered her eyes, concealing the contemplation in them.
The Capital Guards and secret agents all realized they had chosen a poor time to enter the city. Not yet knowing how the Emperor would decide, though they felt the Emperor’s demand for Prince Zhongshun to return to the capital wasn’t exactly a secret, they hadn’t received explicit instructions after all, making it easy to incur his wrath.
Therefore, they immediately pushed Qin Yining’s group to quicken their pace.
“First to the Ministry of Justice prison. Lock them up to await the Son of Heaven’s judgment.”
“Yes!”
Everyone responded in unison, immediately pushing the group forward. Though the common people lining the streets had objections, this time no one dared speak.
Qin Yining closed her eyes. Her disheveled long hair fell beside her cheeks as she lowered her head. Her steps stumbled for a moment before she struggled to straighten her posture.
But everyone could see that Princess Zhongshun was very weak.
Some people had already nervously clenched their fists, while others craned their necks forward from the back of the crowd.
Qin Yining had been exhausted from the journey. Her frostbitten hands and feet, along with all her joints, were screaming in pain. Her hungry stomach cramped and contracted even more from breathing too much cold air. She had only gritted her teeth and endured because she was too worried about the children, relying purely on willpower.
Though she could continue to persevere if she had to, she was more aware that she no longer needed to persist, because Li Qitian’s people were too arrogant and, like their master, ignored public sentiment. Now was the perfect time for her to create public opinion.
Qin Yining gave up her persistence. She had been forcing herself to remain numb to the physical pain. Now that she allowed herself to feel it, the discomfort and weakness immediately overwhelmed her like a rising tide.
Stumbling two steps and nearly failing to keep up with the group, her footsteps heavy as if filled with lead, a nearby Capital Guard seeing Qin Yining slow down and act strangely immediately assumed she was plotting some trick and raised his whip.
“Move faster! Stop putting on an act! Who among you can bear responsibility if you delay the Son of Heaven’s business?”
This whip struck Qin Yining’s back. She had endured many beatings along the way – whips, sticks, branches, and slaps. She had forced herself to get used to it, but now her mental defenses had crumbled. That heavy lash on her back hurt so much her vision went black, and her legs gave out as she collapsed.
“Princess! Princess, what’s wrong!” Everyone cried out in alarm.
Qin Yining was between Bingtang and Ji Yun in the line. Since they were all tied to the same rope, when she collapsed, Ji Yun and Bingtang, being closest, were immediately pulled down too. Those immediately before and after them also fell, causing the entire escort convoy to fall into chaos.
Ji Yun screamed as she embraced the collapsed Qin Yining, crying out in anguish: “Princess! Princess!”
Bingtang’s face was also streaked with tears as she hurried to check Qin Yining’s pulse.
Xie Yue struggled to get up, gripping the rope tightly with both hands, tears streaming down his aged face as he roared: “The Prince fights for the country, yet you arrest the Prince’s wife and children! Do you have any humanity left! What wrong have the Prince and Princess done! You’ve beaten and cursed the Princess all along this journey, insulting her at every turn. Aren’t you afraid that after death, when you go to the underworld, the King of Hell will throw you into boiling oil!”
“Shut up!” A Capital Guard stepped forward and kicked Xie Yue over.
But how could Jingzhe, Liao Zhibing and others accept this? Even with their hands and arms bound, they still fought back with their feet.
For a moment, the street was filled with neighing horses and shouting people, with sounds of fighting and cursing mixed together, frightening the capital’s citizens into retreating repeatedly. Many citizens felt chilled watching this scene.
The Tatars had been driven out of Great Zhou, and Prince Zhongshun’s family immediately suffered such treatment. The Prince fought for the country but received no rewards or trust. Even when he brought troops to the capital’s aid, the Son of Heaven wouldn’t let him enter the city gates!
Now that the battle situation had stabilized somewhat, the Son of Heaven urgently summoned the Prince back to the palace. When the Prince wanted to continue fighting the Tatars, the Son of Heaven arrested the Princess and the Prince’s family, and even abused them so publicly.
When the cunning rabbit dies, the hunting dog is cooked – but surely it needn’t be done so ugly?
How could the Son of Heaven face his conscience acting this way?
The common people didn’t understand many grand principles, after all, they had no access to those secret affairs. But they maintained good hearts, knew right from wrong, and understood the basic bottom line of being human. They might normally quibble with neighbors over trivial matters like needles and thread, but when it came to major issues of right and wrong, how could they not remember who had done beneficial things for the Great Zhou Dynasty?
Watching the Prince’s family suffer such abuse, with the Princess already so weak and unable to bear more, hearing the pitiful cries of infants in the carriage, plus the dull thuds of flesh meeting fist when the Capital Guards brutally beat the Prince’s household members, including the elderly and young.
Was this still the capital?
Was this still at the foot of the Son of Heaven?
Many citizens no longer knew where they were or why they were watching such a farce. They didn’t dare say much for fear of being implicated, but their respect for the Son of Heaven was being worn away bit by bit, leaving only the shadow of the Son of Heaven abusing a meritorious minister’s family.
“Stop, stop! Everyone stop!”
“You go over there and arrest all these rebels. All of Pang family’s people, immediately escort them to the Ministry of Justice prison!”
The Five Cities Military Commissioner’s forces quickly arrived. A team of people parted the crowd like Moses parting the sea, separating the fighting people, beating and kicking Jingzhe and other Prince’s household members, and retying them tightly with ropes.
Qin Yining still lay on the ground unable to get up. They had no choice but to cut the rope section around Qin Yining, tie Ji Yun and Bingtang together, while Qin Yining was bound hand and foot and thrown onto a carriage.
“Move!” Someone gave an order, and the convoy immediately proceeded. The Five Cities Military Commissioner brought over a hundred men to separate the watching citizens from the street.
Everyone watched the direction where Qin Yining’s carriage departed, expressionless as if thinking nothing.
But who could completely fathom the people’s hearts?
Imperial Study.
Li Qitian looked with deeply furrowed brows at the three rows of kneeling secret agents before him.
“So, you brought Prince Zhongshun’s family back, but you also alarmed the entire capital’s citizens?”
“Your Majesty, please calm your anger. Princess Zhongshun suddenly collapsed, delaying the proceedings. Combined with the Prince’s household steward crying out loudly, this caused the citizens’ discussions.”
Everyone kept their heads lowered, not daring to look up at the Son of Heaven’s expression.
Li Qitian looked at this group of people, veins bulging on his forehead.
“Idiots, a bunch of idiots!”
“Your Majesty, please calm your anger!” Everyone hurriedly kowtowed.
Li Qitian sneered: “When you botch assignments, you only know to tell me to calm my anger. Did you all leave your brains at home? Must I analyze every detail of everything? Bringing back the Qin woman’s group – couldn’t you use your brains to know whether this should be announced publicly? Instead, you made such a mess of things!”
“Your Majesty, we acknowledge our guilt and beg Your Majesty’s forgiveness!”
Li Qitian stood up, clasping his hands behind his back, pacing slowly.
Xiong Jinshui and all the eunuchs serving in the hall held their breath and restrained themselves, not daring to let the Son of Heaven notice their existence.
The secret agents also pressed their foreheads to the ground, breaking out in cold sweat as they awaited Li Qitian’s judgment.
But after a moment of silence, Li Qitian actually seemed to think it through.
Now the southern disasters had been resolved, the northern Tatars had been broken, he had Pang Zhixi’s crime of defying imperial orders in hand, and he held all his family members in his grasp. He didn’t believe that with Qin Yining and the two new babies in his hands, Pang Xiao wouldn’t surrender!
The world had always been one where victors became kings and losers became bandits. All history was written by the victors. As long as he could capture Pang Zhixi in one stroke, what was there to worry about?
Reputation? Fear of bearing infamy?
Those ignorant foolish people – aside from moving their lips, what else could they do? They normally wouldn’t care about what really happened between the imperial family and ministers. They only cared about whether they could eat their fill and whether they had plenty of silver to spend. As long as he worked diligently and changed the current situation, the people would naturally cast irrelevant people and matters behind them. They would know whom they should be loyal to!
Moreover, at worst he was still the Son of Heaven. How much would these people dare discuss behind his back? Did they all have death wishes?
Thinking of this, Li Qitian’s furrowed brow finally relaxed.
Currently he needed people and couldn’t dispose of all his subordinates. Finding suitable personnel to do things would be difficult in the short term.
With this in mind, Li Qitian said peacefully: “Forget it, get up.”
Everyone could hardly believe their ears. After exchanging glances, they all kowtowed to Li Qitian: “Thank Your Majesty for the grace of not executing us!”
Everyone stood up with hands at their sides.
Li Qitian said: “This won’t happen again. If you act without thinking and ruin my affairs again, I’ll use your heads as balls to kick!”
“Yes!” Everyone responded in unison. Regardless, this crisis had passed.
Li Qitian then asked about the journey, where and how they had captured Qin Yining’s group, what had happened along the way, and especially emphasized: “…Did you find any letters from Pang Zhixi or any messages from Pang Zhixi?”
“Reporting to Your Majesty, we found no letters from Prince Zhongshun. We imagine that even if there was correspondence, these important items would have been hidden by the Princess or simply destroyed. As for account books, they were burned in a fire when we were capturing them. We tried to rescue them from the fire basin but couldn’t save anything!”
Li Qitian’s expression darkened several degrees.
Everyone felt fearful. The lead secret agent lowered his head in thought for a moment, then suddenly his eyes lit up: “Your Majesty, actually when capturing Princess Zhongshun, we encountered another strange matter.”
“Oh? What matter?” Li Qitian’s attention was successfully diverted.
The secret agent thought it over, then embellished the story: “Actually, when capturing the Qin woman, there was secretly another group of guards protecting her surroundings. But it seemed the Princess was completely unaware of these guards’ existence, and they were mostly killed by us and fled in great defeat.”