The weather was cold, and Prince Fenyang had been living a life of luxury. He had not suffered such hardship for many years, and he soon felt exhausted. Not only did he have back pain, but the cold air kept rising from the soles of his feet to his shoulders, making him shiver uncontrollably. After sneezing violently, he couldn't help shaking his head, and his whole body was sore and weak.
But he had no mood to complain about these things. When he heard some movement in front of him, he immediately perked up and looked forward. Then he saw the Prime Minister Yang Bo and the Second Prime Minister Xu Shun and a few others coming out.
When encountering such a thing, the emperor's confidants always knew how to avoid suspicion. When they saw him kneeling here, Gao Ning hurriedly asked Yang Shoufu for advice: "This time it has been decided to provide disaster relief. What do you think about the case of the Ministry of Works supervising the construction of the river embankment..."
Yang Bo and others pretended not to see King Fenyang kneeling on the ground in embarrassment, and quickly walked past him and walked away.
King Fenyang breathed a sigh of relief.
No matter what, he was a nobleman, and he could not stand being watched in such an embarrassing scene.
Lowering his eyes, he felt a little irritated unconsciously, and waited with a dry mouth for the summons from Emperor Yuanfeng.
As time passed, he could no longer clearly describe his feelings. He just felt that every moment was torture. After a while, he heard movement inside again and could not help but look up.
Eunuch Xia came over to invite him politely: "Your Majesty, His Majesty invites you in."
It was already late, and the sun was actually out, but he still felt freezing cold. He reluctantly nodded to Eunuch Xia and mustered up the courage to step into Emperor Yuanfeng's study.
Emperor Yuanfeng was reading a memorial at his desk. Prince Fenyang walked forward a few steps in cold sweat, called out "Your Majesty" cautiously, and lowered his head, looking nervous.
Emperor Yuanfeng looked up at him, raised his eyebrows, picked up the memorial in his hand, looked at him and asked, "My brother is here? Do you know what this is?"
It was a memorial. Even though he was still unsure of the contents, Prince Fenyang was already beginning to feel a chill in his heart. His mind raced, and he felt a little dizzy from the ambergris in the imperial study. Then he suddenly gritted his teeth and knelt down: "Your Majesty, I am guilty!"
Emperor Yuanfeng remained silent for a long time. The room was filled with unbearable silence and depression. Prince Fenyang felt that he could no longer breathe, and his hands, which were supporting him on the ground, were shaking unconsciously.
Fortunately, after a long stalemate, Emperor Yuanfeng finally responded. He sneered softly, leaned back in his chair casually, said "oh", and asked calmly: "What crime has my brother committed? I haven't told you what is written here yet."
Prince Fenyang's heart was already hanging in the air, and his younger generation was completely soaked with sweat. He suddenly gritted his teeth and kowtowed: "Your Majesty, I have something to tell you!"
Emperor Yuanfeng threw the memorial on the table and finally became serious: "Okay, tell me about it." He sneered and said, "I also want to know what happened that made my brother so panicked."
Fenyang Wang Zhen's face was full of bitterness: "I am guilty. I accepted 50,000 taels of silver from the prefect of Chengde..."
Emperor Yuanfeng raised his eyebrows and said, "Is that all? Brother, do you know what is written in this memorial and who wrote it? If you don't know, I will let you take a closer look."
As he spoke, he threw the memorial in front of King Fenyang.
Prince Fenyang picked it up with trembling hands and unfolded it. He immediately lost even the last bit of hope and threw his head to the ground without hesitation: "Your Majesty, I am guilty of death!"
"You also know that this is a capital crime!" Emperor Yuanfeng looked at him with a gloomy and cold gaze, "The Su family has just revived, and Su Rong has only taken the position of commander of Chengde Guard. How can you chase him relentlessly, causing such a big commotion, and even losing soldiers and generals, disregarding the foundation of the country, just to take his life?! You can command a local governor at will, my royal brother, do you really think I am deaf and blind!"
Emperor Yuanfeng was extremely furious, and Prince Fenyang was terrified. The cold sweat on his forehead kept dripping into the cracks of the checkered stone bricks. He trembled for a long time before shaking his head hesitantly: "Your Majesty, I... was blinded by greed. I was blinded by the hundreds of thousands of silver... I didn't care about so much..."
Prince Fenyang quickly thought of a countermeasure. He could not just keep crying out for injustice, nor could he admit everything.
Because both of these could trigger Emperor Yuanfeng's anger, his thoughts became clearer and clearer. He considered, trying to capture Emperor Yuanfeng's emotions calmly while testing him: "Jin Dong, he gave me a gift of 100,000 taels of silver on my birthday six years ago..."
"One hundred thousand taels!" Emperor Yuanfeng couldn't help but sneer: "What a generous sum."
Prince Fenyang burst into tears: "It was my fault. I needed money at that time..."
"What do you need so much silver for?" Emperor Yuanfeng looked at him with mixed feelings: "The ordinary court's tribute to you is not small."
Because the number of royal family members has decreased a lot, and also because Emperor Yuanfeng did not want to be known for being harsh, the treatment of royal family members in this dynasty is much better than that of the deposed emperor.
Apart from anything else, Emperor Yuanfeng could never believe that Prince Fenyang was short of money.
Prince Fenyang pursed his lips and smiled bitterly: "I dare not hide it from Your Majesty. Who would think that money is too much? At that time, I had lost a lot of money in gambling, and I also owed a lot of money, which attracted people to come to my door. At that time, Jin Dong sent me this money, which was just a timely help. I... I couldn't control myself for a while, but I accepted it the first time, and then the second time... And because I accepted his money, I had to help him a little."
Emperor Yuanfeng was full of sarcasm: "How could you, a prince, be controlled by a prefect?"
"I dare not let the emperor know about this..." Prince Fenyang said bitterly, "After all, Shao Wenxun and Chun'an have made mistakes one after another, so I am even more afraid that you will be completely angry with me. This time Jin Dong came to me, saying that he had many deficits during his tenure and that there were many unsettled accounts with the previous commander, but Su Rong was really hard to talk to. After he went there, he refused to budge. He tried both soft and hard tactics, but Su Rong would not listen. So he came to me and begged me to let me give him a personal guard so that he could use my name to find a way..."
Emperor Yuanfeng sneered: "If what you said is true, my brother, you only took the money and it has nothing to do with you?"
Prince Fenyang argued hastily: "Your Majesty, I really dare not hide anything. It is true that I accepted the money, and it is also true that I helped Jin Dong cover up for the past few years, but I really didn't know that he was so bold that he dared to directly attack Master Su! What he did in Chengde, I really didn't know until later..."