Thinking of this, Qiu Yizhi sighed softly and muttered to herself in a voice so low that even she couldn't hear it clearly: "It seems that everything can only be done according to the emperor's will..."
Zhongli Kuang didn't know if he heard Qiu Yizhi's words. He stood up, brushed off the dust on his body, and said, "Okay, it's okay if you don't go to see it. I've said this much, so you can do whatever you want. In addition, I came here to talk to you today as your teacher. I don't need to teach you the secrets, right?"
Everything Zhongli Kuang said to Qiu Yizhi tonight was a top secret of the imperial court. If even a few words were leaked, disaster would follow. He quickly replied with a "yes".
He saw Zhongli Kuang was about to get up and leave, so he hurriedly stood up to see him off. However, as he was still a prisoner, it was inconvenient for him to go out to see him off. After seeing him off at the door, he turned back, took off the clothes he had casually put on, and lay half-naked on the bed in a daze.
Qiu Yizhi had no interest in being released from prison to watch the "Prisoner Offering Ceremony", so Zhongli Kuang naturally asked the emperor to release him from prison. However, this "Prisoner Offering Ceremony" was a major event in the emperor's mind, so it was held with great fanfare.
The person in charge of this matter was the Minister of Rites Shi Liangzhi.
He was indeed a shrewd and capable bureaucrat. Although the emperor only approved a budget of 50,000 silver coins for him, he was creative and chose the "Wuding Gate" which had been the scene of a great war as the venue for the ceremony. He assigned the government troops to demolish all the dilapidated houses that had been ravaged by the war. Without spending a penny, he cleared up a large venue.
He also ordered that every household in Jinling City must hang up lanterns and decorate, set up tables and burn incense, so as to join in the celebration. In this way, he used the money of the people, and did not spend much himself, but he managed to decorate the huge city of Jinling with joy.
However, the maintenance of the Jinling city walls and gates, especially the Wuding Gate, was a siege that required a lot of money. The Jinling city walls were originally built with donations from merchants in the previous dynasty. The wood, stone, bricks and tiles used were all top-quality materials. Even the gaps between the bricks were filled with thick glutinous rice porridge, which was better than the city walls of the capital Luoyang.
However, this section of the city wall had withstood several bombardments from the King of Lingnan, and had become riddled with holes and mottled. It would be extremely troublesome and costly to repair it before the "captive surrender ceremony". The 50,000 taels of silver that Zheng Rong granted to Shi Liangzhi was not enough even if it was all used to repair the city wall.
So after asking for permission, Shi Liangzhi imitated the method used when the city wall was built, and encouraged merchants to donate and pay tribute, with the funds specifically used for the maintenance of the city wall.
The emperor Zheng Rong was now at the height of his prestige. Who in the world would not want to curry his favor? The first to bear the brunt were the wealthy merchants Zhou Cijing and Li Zhi, who donated 100,000 taels of silver each. Seeing this, the other merchants also donated tens of thousands of taels of silver as tribute.
In this way, in just a few days, Shi Liangzhi had collected nearly one million taels of silver, which was enough for the court's income for a quarter.
Prime Minister Zhongli Kuang was in charge of all court affairs, so this matter certainly could not be hidden from his eyes.
He knew that Shi Liangzhi had received so much silver, and in order to prevent him and other officials from the Ministry of Rites from misappropriating the money, he did not take care of it personally, but instead set up a "Jinling City Defense Restoration Office" and let the Ministry of Rites, Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of War, Ministry of Works and the Censorate work together. However, he did not appoint anyone to be in charge, and only asked them to work together to discuss and handle the matter, and use the money to repair the Jinling city wall.
With so many eyes watching such a large sum of money, and knowing that the strict and awe-inspiring prime minister was also in charge of the money, naturally no one dared to lay a hand on it, and they could only throw the money onto the city wall without leaving a single cent.
As a result, it would take some time for the walls of Nanjing to return to their original state, but the walls of Wuding Gate and the surrounding areas were repaired in just ten days, and only a fraction of the 50,000 silver dollars approved by the emperor for Shi Liangzhi had been spent.
Shi Liangzhi then spent half of the money to buy tens of thousands of rolls of red cloth from weaving and dyeing shops in Jinling City, and sent people to hang them inside the city wall, dyeing the entire wall red to make it look festive and solemn. The rest of the money was used to purchase new clothing, weapons, ritual vessels, musical instruments, etc. for the ceremonial officers and soldiers who participated in the "Prisoner Offering Ceremony", and even the emperor's crown and yellow canopy were replaced with new ones.
After everything was ready, the "Prisoner Surrender Ceremony" was finally held inside Wuding Gate on an auspicious day.
On that day, colorful flags were flying, red satin was flying, and after a solemn and loud royal music, the supreme emperor Zheng Rong finally appeared in front of everyone. His health was still not good, and today he came to the scene of the "Prisoner Offering Ceremony" with difficulty in order to show the orthodoxy of the court and the majesty of the royal family.
When everyone saw him coming, they, led by Heluo King Zheng Hua, performed the ceremony of three kneelings and nine kowtows. The shouts of "Long live the emperor, long live the emperor, long, long live the emperor" to celebrate his birthday were as loud as mountains and seas, shaking the heavens and the earth.
Zheng Rong was of course happy to see this scene. His slightly old but heroic face turned red, and he raised his hand and said, "All the nobles, please stand up and take the rebel king Zheng Gui!"
According to Shi Liangzhi's idea, they would have selected a few Hanlin scholars with outstanding literary talent to compose a beautiful article praising the emperor, and then sent someone with a loud voice to read it aloud in public before escorting the King of Lingnan up.
But Zhongli Kuang knew that the Hanlin scholars all relied on one article to stand out, so most of the articles produced by the Hanlin Academy were ornate and flashy, exuding the sour and pedantic atmosphere of vulgar scholars, and they were endless to read - this is the so-called "Hanlin flavor" of the articles. Considering the emperor's physical condition, the ceremony could not be delayed too long, so he simply skipped this part of the agenda and directly escorted Lingnan King Zheng Gui up.
The people in charge of escorting Zheng Gui were the bandit soldiers under Qiu Yizhi, including Zhao Chengxiao, a total of eighteen people. Among them, "Iron Head Jiao" had recovered from his injuries and came to Jinling City, but missed the opportunity and was not selected.
These eighteen people were divided into three teams. Each team of six people escorted Lingnan King Zheng Gui, Zheng Gui's eldest son Zheng Nuo, and his second son Zheng Yu. They entered from outside Wuding Gate and came to the high platform where Emperor Zheng Rong stood.
This group of people had fought enough battles with the Lingnan Army and had long lost their fear of the King of Lingnan. They all looked ferocious, like King Kong descending from the sky or Shura emerging from the ground. They shouted in unison: "Kneel down!"
Zheng Nuo and Zheng Yu were so frightened by the angry rebuke that their legs immediately went limp.
Lingnan King Zheng Gui was calm, and looked at his two sons with a little disdain. He straightened his legs and feet, grinned, and said to Zheng Rong: "Second brother, Your Majesty! You have locked me up for a long time, and my legs are broken. I can't bend my knees. Why don't you send two warriors to hold me down, or just break my legs."
Zheng Rong had expected that his most perverse little brother would be dissatisfied, so he was not surprised at all when he heard his words. He said calmly, "You have brought this upon yourself! You don't want to be the King of Lingnan, but you want to rebel. You are destroying the ancestors of the Han Dynasty!"
Zheng Gui sneered and raised his voice to retort, "Your Majesty's words are so convincing and high-sounding, which is really admirable. But my brother, don't forget that the throne under your butt was also obtained by rebellion, right?"
Zheng Gui felt proud of what he said, but he didn't expect that he had fallen into the emperor's trap.
Emperor Zheng Rong sneered and raised his voice intentionally, saying, "You have never been serious in studying since you were young. You only know half of what you know and what seems to be true. Before me, my brother Emperor Muzong indulged in government affairs, which led to the decline of the country. The false emperor Zheng Yao was even more perverse and harmed the lives of the people. I did not want the people of the world to suffer, so I reluctantly raised an army to fight against the rebels, which was the "Battle of Rebellion". After the success, I wanted to make my brother's descendants emperors and fulfill the work of Duke Zhou. Unfortunately, my nephews and grandchildren were all slaughtered by Zheng Yao, so I inherited the throne. It can be seen that I got the throne from my father, Emperor Shenzong. The legitimacy of my throne cannot be doubted!"
This was what Zheng Rong had thought of long ago. Although the logic behind it had some flaws, he said it with such confidence that no one could doubt it.
"And what about you, Zheng Gui? You chose to go against the will of heaven, sent out all the best soldiers in the sect, and destroyed half of the Han Dynasty, but ended up with such a fate. A minor official of the seventh rank under my command was able to capture you alive, which is enough to show that you are trying to stop a chariot with a mantis arm and an ant trying to shake a tree!" Zheng Rong finished the article here and finally concluded it successfully. He took a deep breath to calm his rapidly beating heart.
The "seventh-rank official" that Zheng Rong mentioned was Qiu Yizi.
Although Qiu Yizhi was extremely talented and was the emperor's adopted son, his official position was only a seventh-rank county magistrate. Zheng Rong's exaggeration of Zheng Gui's experience of being captured would undoubtedly make this arrogant Lingnan prince lose face, as if his rebellion with hundreds of thousands of troops was just a child's play.
But what Zheng Rong said was all true, leaving Zheng Gui unable to refute a single word. There was even a moment when he himself believed that he was indeed not blessed by heaven, and that his failure was natural.
Emperor Zheng Rong saw that Zheng Gui was a little discouraged, so he quickly shouted: "Zheng Gui! You are guilty of a heinous crime, why don't you surrender!"
As soon as these words came out, countless imperial guards lined up from both sides. They were all tall, well-dressed, and well-equipped. They surrounded Zheng Gui and wanted to arrest him. This was the originally scheduled agenda, just for show. These imperial guards would naturally not use force against the King of Lingnan, who was a royal relative, in public.
Lingnan King Zheng Gui was very dignified. He straightened his chest and said, "I can walk. You don't need to catch me."
After saying that, Zheng Guiji turned around in a very casual manner and walked back towards the prison van. When he walked to his two sons, he reminded them, "Don't be afraid. You must die with dignity! Otherwise, I will not recognize you two unfilial sons in my grave!"
After hearing this, Zheng Nuo and Zheng Yu stood up tremblingly and followed their father Zheng Gui forward step by step.
In front of them were three newly built prisoner cars presided over by the Minister of Rites Shi Liangzhi. These prisoner cars were certainly not the crude prisoner cars used by ordinary government offices, which were made by randomly nailing together thick logs. Instead, they were made by dismantling three large green velvet sedan chairs.
Zheng Gui calmly boarded the prisoner car, but stuck his head out and shouted to his brother Zheng Rong: "Second brother, you won and I lost. The winner is the king and the loser is the bandit. There is nothing to say. I will wait for you to kill me!"
The high and mighty Emperor Zheng Rong had no idea whether he had heard the last words of the prisoner Lingnan King Zheng Gui, and he loudly issued an order: "Escort him to me and keep him under careful watch!" With these words, Lingnan King Zheng Gui, who had long been captured by Qiu Yizi, nominally became a prisoner of the emperor.
Therefore, before the emperor finished speaking, all the civil and military officials present shouted in unison: "Long live the emperor, long live the emperor, long live the emperor!" Then they knelt on the ground and kowtowed continuously.
This was also planned in advance. Everyone shouted and carried out the order, not daring to make any mistakes.
Amidst the thunderous voices praising the emperor, the prison cart carrying Zheng Gui, King of Lingnan, was slowly pushed away. This "superfluous" yet "inevitable" "ceremony of surrendering prisoners" finally came to an end amid the cheers of the crowd.