Emperor Tiansheng had just announced that the Xu family had achieved great merit by coming to the capital, and the grand hall had only just quieted down. Wei Zheng, the Left Assistant Censor-in-Chief of the Chief Surveillance Bureau, stepped forward from the ranks.
At this moment, the eyes of all the officials were concentrated on him.
Wei Zheng turned around, staring down condescendingly at Xu Youde and Xu Qinghuan, who were kneeling on the ground.
Raising his tablet high, Wei Zheng declared, I, Wei Zheng, impeach the Magistrate of Jiangning, Xu Youde, for illegally manufacturing prohibited military armaments and raising a large number of death-sworn soldiers with the intent to rebel and commit treason.
With these charges thrown out, there was not a single sound in the grand hall. Xu Qinghuan knelt on the floor. The coldness seeped through the floor tiles.
Wei Zheng stated his case at a measured pace.
The Jiangning prefectural office examined the scene and cleared away three hundred and twelve unidentified corpses around the Broken Bridge. After the coroner worked through the night to examine the bodies, it was found that all three hundred of these men were killed by a single strike from a penetrating sharp weapon.
Wei Zheng raised his voice.
I dispatched censors to ride fast horses through the night to investigate urgently. The objects that pierced their flesh and bone were no ordinary arrows. They were repeating mechanical crossbows, explicitly banned in the Great Qian military and issued only to the Imperial City royal guards. This crossbow possesses immense lethal power. The laws of Great Qian have long clearly stipulated that any civilian secretly hoarding armor and repeating crossbow mechanisms shall be executed immediately according to the law.
Wei Zheng turned and pointed at Xu Youde, who was prostrated on the ground.
Xu Youde was originally a mere merchant who bought his position as magistrate through bribery and scheming. Not only did he not think of serving the country, but he also exploited the common people and amassed a massive fortune. He used these illicit funds to secretly hide such heavy military killing weapons within his private residence, the Lingering Garden. Over three hundred bodies were slaughtered by the Xu family private soldiers.
Wei Zheng heavily smashed his tablet into the palm of his hand.
Privately training elite troops and illegally manufacturing military weapons. Such actions are no different from raising a banner in rebellion. His methods are extremely brutal, treating the laws of the nation as nothing.
Facing the beaded curtain, Wei Zheng bowed deeply.
If such rebellious ministers and traitorous scoundrels are not severely punished, how can the laws of the nation survive? I beseech Your Majesty to immediately strip the Xu family of all titles and confiscate their entire estate. Execute Xu Youde and his relatives, wiping out his entire clan, to serve as a warning to others.
The words wiping out his entire clan smashed against the golden bricks.
The grand hall was dead silent. No one spoke. No one stepped forward to defend the Xu family. The officials who had just been shouting about righteousness all shut their mouths at this moment.
A faint sound of rustling clothing rang out.
Two fourth-rank capital officials standing beside the Xu father and daughter began to move. With the soles of their feet clinging to the ground, they took a half step back diagonally.
This was a clear signal.
The officials in the civil servant ranks near the aisle backed away one after another. As the people in front retreated, those behind followed suit. The ranks of military officers on the opposite side also began to shrink back.
Some officials uniformly distanced themselves.
The aisle in the center of the hall instantly widened. The black official boots in front of Xu Qinghuan eyes completely disappeared.
She and Xu Youde were completely isolated in the exact center of the throne room. A large expanse of golden floor tiles was left empty all around them.
This was the unspoken understanding of the civil officials and military generals; they were drawing a clear line. A loom with ten times the efficiency had threatened the interests of far too many people.
This group of people needed to use the excuse of hoarding military weapons to uproot the Xu family entirely. In this grand hall, there was no place for the Xu family to stand.
Xu Youde made no move to defend himself.
His hands lay flat on the golden bricks, his upper body pressed completely against the ground. His forehead remained rigidly knocked against the golden bricks, the fabric on his back pulled taut from extreme tension.
Xu Qinghuan also lowered her head and did not argue back.
As for where the repeating mechanical crossbows were made, the emperor surely knew already. The three hundred lives on the Broken Bridge were indeed taken by the Xu family private soldiers.
Every word Wei Zheng said was an undeniable fact, and any defense would be labeled as mere sophistry. In the face of imperial power, abandoning all defense was the only path to survival.
Above the imperial steps, there was movement behind the curtain adorned with eastern pearls.
A hand wearing a jade thumb ring was raised, the arm suspended in mid-air.
Wei Zheng opened his mouth, preparing to continue his speech. But when he saw that arm, he immediately shut his mouth.
Emperor Tiansheng voice drifted down.
Those repeating mechanical crossbows were specially authorized by Us.
The voice was not loud, yet it echoed throughout the entire hall.
Emperor Tiansheng continued speaking, his pace steady.
Xu Youde has spent years raising silver for the national treasury, solving the imperial court urgent needs. The trade routes between the north and south are long, often plagued by fierce bandits and roving marauders. Considering his exhausting travels, We specially granted the Xu family a quota of three hundred guards, permitted to be equipped with mechanical repeating crossbows for self-defense and property protection. As for those three hundred bandits at the Broken Bridge, they attacked a meritorious minister of the court; their deaths are not worth pitying.
Emperor Tiansheng paused for a moment.
My loyal minister, are you impeaching Us for a lack of foresight?
Since the founding of Great Qian, there had never been a precedent of allowing officials to carry military-grade repeating crossbows.
This was a blatant case of calling a deer a horse.
Wei Zheng knees gave way. He knelt heavily on the floor tiles. His forehead was covered in sweat.
I would not dare. I failed in my investigation. I beg Your Majesty for forgiveness.
Holding his tablet in both hands, Wei Zheng scrambled up from the ground. With his head bowed, he took a few steps backward, retreating into the civil servant ranks.
The officials remained standing. No one in the grand hall mentioned the word treason again.
Xu Qinghuan watched Wei Zheng retreat to his original position.
It was obvious that the emperor had just protected the Xu family.
The emperor needed the blueprints for that loom to enrich the national treasury. By using this most unreasonable method to wash away the charge of treason, the emperor was issuing a warning to all the civil and military officials in the court.
This matter was of grave importance, and no one was to interfere lightly.
Eunuchs walked to both sides of the beaded curtain and hooked it up.
Emperor Tiansheng stood up from the dragon throne, the hem of his bright yellow dragon robe draping down.
The sole of his boot stepped onto the first tier of the jade steps, emitting a dull thud.
Emperor Tiansheng walked down the steps.
One step, two steps.
Only Emperor Tiansheng footsteps could be heard in the grand hall; each sound was exceptionally clear and evenly paced.
After descending all nine steps, Emperor Tiansheng reached the flat ground.
He walked forward along the red carpet in the exact center, his bright yellow dragon boots coming to a halt just in front of Xu Youde head.
Xu Qinghuan saw the dragon claws embroidered with gold thread on the boots.
Emperor Tiansheng did not speak.
He lowered his head, quietly looking at Xu Youde, who was prostrated at his feet.
Xu Youde body was trembling ceaselessly, and his forehead still had not left the floor tiles. The sound of his teeth chattering carried through the silence, and large drops of cold sweat dripped down his chin onto the golden bricks.
Emperor Tiansheng spoke: My beloved minister Xu, what is the reason for this?
Emperor Tiansheng bent down, his face drawing close to the side of Xu Youde face.
Xu Qinghuan held her breath.
Emperor Tiansheng voice was kept extremely low, somewhat muffled by his sleeve.
Luoxia Valley. A two-story underground armory, with the entrance hidden right beneath the Buddha statue in the City God Temple. Ten smelting furnaces, burning day and night without extinguishing.
Emperor Tiansheng tone was flat as he stated a series of figures.
The mechanical bearings of the repeating crossbows are one point two inches long, forged from pure copper. The arrowheads are quenched in cold spring water, blended with two parts refined steel. The guards at Luoxia Valley number two hundred and seventy, rotating day and night, and the password changes daily at the hour of You.
Emperor Tiansheng voice held no inflection.
In the hidden compartments of the carriages you brought to the capital, there are ledgers containing blackmail material on sixteen fabric merchants in Jiangnan. That short dagger Xu Qinghuan carries on her person has a blade quenched in anesthetic.
Xu Youde body suddenly went rigid.
Such an important place as Luoxia Valley, the old emperor inevitably knew about it.
But the crossbow data being accurate to one point two inches, the ledgers in the carriage compartments, and the short dagger on her person, these were details known only to the Xu father and daughter.
The secret agents of the Imperial City Bureau had likely infiltrated the Xu family until it was as full of holes as a sieve long ago.
The royal authorization just now in the imperial court was nothing more than a play put on for the officials to see.
These whispered words were the actual truth.
It truly was the feudal era, and undeniably the world of The World of the Powerful Minister or perhaps The Chronicles of Daqian.
The power of life and death rested entirely upon a single thought of the emperor.
Emperor Tiansheng straightened his back.
He raised his hand and rested his palm on Xu Youde's right shoulder, patting it heavily twice.
Emperor Tiansheng then walked back along the red carpet to the imperial steps, his boots treading the stairs until he reached the dragon throne and sat down.
"The father and daughter of the Xu family have come to the capital to offer their strategies, rendering great merit to the imperial court. Xu Youde is hereby granted the honorary title of the secondary fourth rank. The former site of the Marquis of Changping's estate on Chongwen Street in the east of the city is bestowed upon them as the Xu Residence. They are to take residence in the capital this very day."
"His official position shall be discussed at a later date!"
The Marquis of Changping's estate was the former residence of a noble family whose entire household had been executed and their property confiscated.
Placing the Xu family there was a boon, but also a blunt warning.
An old eunuch holding a fly whisk stepped half a pace forward from the side.
"Court is dismissed—"
The shrill voice pierced through the grand doors, and the civil and military officials bowed down in unison.
Xu Youde pressed both hands against the floor tiles. He tried to stand up, but unexpectedly, his legs gave way, and his body tilted to the side.
Xu Qinghuan reached out and firmly supported Xu Youde's forearm, pulling him upward with force. Only then did Xu Youde barely manage to stand steady.
Father and daughter stood side by side.
Step by step, they walked backward. From the exact center of the grand hall, they retreated toward the doorway. Not a single official around them looked up at them. The implications could not be more obvious.
The two exited the Golden Throne Room, and the cool wind from outside blew directly against them.
