sovbooks Chapter 18 Imprisonment and Death!
Chapter 18 Imprisonment and Death!
"You damned servant, how dare you obstruct me?!"
Empress Dowager Zhang had already run into a brick wall with Zhu Houzhao, but now a mere servant dared to stand in her way.
This made Empress Dowager Zhang feel even more humiliated, and she immediately ordered, "Guards! Drag this servant out and give him a hundred lashes!"
Liu Jin was, after all, a person close to Zhu Houzhao, so Empress Dowager Zhang restrained herself and did not dare to execute Liu Jin directly.
But after receiving one hundred strokes of the cane, Liu Jin would have to stay in bed for at least another month to recover.
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Several eunuchs in Cining Palace immediately stepped forward to arrest Liu Jin.
Liu Jin was terrified, his face covered in sweat, but he still stood firmly in front of Empress Zhang, not moving an inch.
"Your Majesty, please calm your anger. His Majesty is very busy with state affairs, and it is truly inappropriate for the two ladies to disturb him at this time. Please meet again another day!"
As Liu Jin spoke, he kowtowed to Empress Dowager Zhang and Empress Dowager Wang.
The two ignored Liu Jin's desperate pleas, while the eunuchs had already caught Liu Jin and were about to drag him out of the Qianqing Palace.
Suddenly, Zhu Houzhao appeared at the entrance of Qianqing Palace.
"Let's see who dares to move!"
With Zhu Houzhao's angry roar, the palace maids and eunuchs in Qianqing Palace immediately knelt down and shouted "Long live the Emperor!"
"This servant greets Your Majesty!"
The eunuchs who came to arrest Liu Jin knelt before Zhu Houzhao, trembling with fear.
Zhu Houzhao's gaze swept indifferently over Liu Jin, and he said coldly, "Mother, Liu Jin is someone I'm used to using. It's inappropriate for you to touch one of my people, isn't it?"
Upon seeing Zhu Houzhao, Empress Zhang's expression softened slightly, and she said in a gentle voice, "I was looking after you, but you have been too impolite, which is why I thought of teaching you a lesson."
"My people don't need you to teach them a lesson!"
"It's your people who really need to be taught a lesson."
Zhu Houzhao stared coldly at Empress Zhang. Her actions today had crossed his bottom line.
Her actions today are challenging his imperial power and offending his authority.
This was completely intolerable to Zhu Houzhao. He had to strike hard and wipe out Empress Zhang's inappropriate thoughts!
"Someone come here."
"Your subordinate is here."
"Drag all the eunuchs who just committed the act out of here and beat them to death!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
At Zhu Houzhao's command, more than a dozen eunuchs from the Eastern Depot stationed in the Qianqing Palace swiftly took action and subdued all the eunuchs who were trying to drag Liu Jin away.
When the eunuchs in Cining Palace heard the words "beaten to death," they trembled all over and almost peed themselves in fear.
They kowtowed to the ground, crying and begging for mercy: "Your Majesty, spare us! We were just following orders!"
"Your Majesty, please speak quickly and save our lives!"
"Your Majesty, spare me! Your Highness, save me!"
"..."
Empress Dowager Zhang was shocked and widened her eyes, unable to believe that Zhu Houzhao had directly ordered the execution of these eunuchs in his Cining Palace.
Then came a deep fear: she feared that Zhu Houzhao had completely escaped her control, and that he was becoming more and more like a real emperor.
He wielded absolute power, was ruthless and cruel, and seemed like a political monster devoid of any personal feelings.
This sense of loss of control terrified Empress Zhang, but she masked her fear with anger.
"Zhao'er, have you gone mad?!"
"You dare kill my people?!"
"Stop! All of you, stop right now!"
Empress Zhang roared almost hysterically, but the agents of the Western Depot paid no attention to her fury and continued to carry out Zhu Houzhao's orders meticulously.
Those eunuchs were dragged out of the Qianqing Palace and immediately executed by the Eastern Depot agents.
They disposed of the corpses and cleaned the execution ground with practiced efficiency. In the blink of an eye, the eunuchs vanished without a trace, as if they had never been in the palace at all.
Empress Dowager Zhang and Empress Dowager Wang both changed their expressions, feeling a chill run down their spines.
At this moment, Zhu Houzhao suddenly felt incredibly unfamiliar to them.
Zhu Houzhao, however, looked at them without changing his expression: "Mother, Grandmother, didn't you want to see me?"
"Now that we've met, tell me what's on your mind."
Empress Dowager Zhang took a deep breath and composed herself: "Zhao'er, why did you take back the salt permits from your two uncles and their maternal uncles?"
"So what if someone issues salt permits? So what if someone earns the money?"
"They are your own uncles, your own great-uncles! Why are you so cruel to them?"
"Do they really have no regard for family ties at all?"
Upon hearing this, Zhu Houzhao was furious and laughed: "I'm heartless? I don't care about kinship?"
"If I truly disregarded kinship, their actions alone would be enough for me to tear them to pieces!"
Zhu Houzhao's dislike for these four relatives of the empress was evident in his words.
"Do you know that every year there are hundreds of posts impeaching them?"
"Forcibly seizing farmland, illegally occupying imperial estates, engaging in usury, beating civilians to death in the streets—for these crimes alone, I could execute them ten thousand times over!"
Empress Dowager Zhang was startled and quickly explained, "How could this be? These must all be those censors slandering them!"
"Those censors have always targeted the imperial relatives and nobles; this is nothing new."
"I know my brothers better than anyone. They have always been honest and law-abiding, and would never break the law!"
Empress Dowager Zhang feigned composure and tried to exonerate her two younger brothers.
Zhu Houzhao's face darkened. Seeing that things were not going well, Empress Dowager Wang simply remained silent and chose to observe how things would develop.
Empress Dowager Zhang's words elicited a series of cold laughs from Zhu Houzhao.
If Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling were honest and upright, then there would be no dishonest people in this world!
"Be honest, and never break the law or violate regulations?"
"And who committed the rape of the palace maids?!"
"Even He Wending, the late emperor's close eunuch, couldn't stand it anymore. He only complained a couple of times, and you ordered him executed!"
"These are the two honest and well-behaved younger brothers you were talking about?!"
When this matter was mentioned, Empress Dowager Zhang's face turned deathly pale.
This was a memory she didn't want to recall; she had gone to great lengths to suppress it back then.
"Stop talking, stop talking!"
"Now you want me to stop talking? Haven't my two uncles committed enough crimes punishable by death?!"
Zhu Houzhao sneered: "Back during the Lantern Festival, they took advantage of the late emperor's absence to steal and wear his winged crown. Such an act of usurpation was enough for me to have their entire family executed!"
"I have always been very merciful to them, but since you say I am heartless, then I will simply be heartless to the end!"
Zhu Houzhao grew increasingly angry and immediately issued an order.
"Guards, arrest Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling! Hand them over to the Three Judicial Offices for trial and sentencing; they will be imprisoned or sentenced to death!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"