Li Shu held the ink stick in her slender hands and ground the ink gracefully while supervising Zhu Ping'an to drink the tonic soup, allowing Zhu Ping'an to truly enjoy the beauty of a red-sleeved woman. After Zhu Ping'an finished the tonic soup, Li Shu gently twisted her slender waist and left gracefully.
Zhu Ping'an watched Li Shu leave, the scent left by Li Shu still lingering in his nostrils, a faint fragrance.
Such a night is intoxicating.
However, now is not the time to be indulged, as Senior Brother Yang is still at the gates of hell and urgently needs to be rescued. Zhu Ping'an shook his head, threw away the beautiful thoughts in his mind, withdrew his gaze from the door, and once again concentrated his energy on the petition.
After Zhu Ping'an reorganized his thoughts, he picked up the brush, dipped it in ink, and began to draft a petition:
Zhu Ping'an, the lecturer of Prince Yu's Palace, respectfully reports: There is a wise ruler above, and there are remonstrators below. Now there is a wise ruler above, and the channels for speech in our dynasty are wide open, so there is the crazy and foolish remonstrator Yang Jisheng today. Yang Jisheng is a crazy and foolish person. His memorial impeaching Grand Secretary Yan Song was full of false words, and he deserves death. However, his heart is sincere and he has no other intentions. He takes the long-term interests of the Ming Dynasty as his responsibility. I only hope that Your Majesty will remember his loyalty and pity his crazy and foolishness, and banish him to a distant place to preserve the virtue of the holy ruler who loves life.
After finishing the draft, Zhu Ping'an put down his brush, read it silently, and then carefully considered every word.
After pondering for a long time, Zhu Ping'an circled and revised several places on the draft and added a few sentences at the end.
Then continue to consider.
In this way, he revised it several times, until he could vaguely hear the night watchman's voice outside, "It's the third watch of the night, everything is safe and sound." Zhu Ping'an finally formed a petition that made him somewhat satisfied.
Zhu Ping'an stretched his waist, gathered his energy, and copied the draft of the memorial into the official memorial. Then, he carefully placed the official memorial in the inner pocket of the sleeve of the official uniform he would wear tomorrow.
Zhu Ping'an plans to meet at Prince Yu's mansion tomorrow, and then submit the petition for mercy to the Tongzhengsi Yamen.
After everything was ready, Zhu Pingan left the study and went to the bedroom to sleep.
"Brother Zhu, you are finally done with your work. Don't stay up so late in the future. It's not good for your health..."
After Zhu Ping'an walked into the bedroom, Li Shu, who was still sleepy, looked at him with resentment on her face and pouted.
"Why aren't you asleep yet? Go to bed earlier next time and don't wait for me."
When Zhu Ping'an saw the dark circles under Li Shu's eyes, he knew that she had been waiting for him and felt distressed.
"I'm not waiting for you, I just can't sleep..." Li Shu refused to admit it, her tsundere look was very cute.
Zhu Pingan smiled slightly.
Li Shu's pretty face became more and more red.
It was the middle of the night. The moon was bright outside the window and the night sky was dark blue. Lovely stars were dotted around it, blinking and flashing golden arcs of light, like the Weaver Girl weaving golden threads of love for the world.
It’s late at night and everyone is asleep. Have a good sleep.
Early the next morning, after breakfast, Zhu Ping'an, accompanied by Liu Dadao, rode to Prince Yu's Mansion to report for duty.
The topic of discussion in Prince Yu's Mansion is still yesterday's court trial, and everyone feels relieved about yesterday's court trial.
Yesterday, although some members of the Yan Party, such as Wang Xueyi, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, forced Yang Jisheng to reveal who was the mastermind behind the scenes, intending to drag Prince Yu's Mansion into the water, Yang Jisheng refused to admit that he was instructed by someone, so Wang Xueyi and others' conspiracy failed.
Although I can't completely relax yet, I can at least breathe a sigh of relief. The situation is much better than the day before yesterday.
Zhu Ping'an had originally planned to enter Prince Yu's mansion, take care of the important matters at hand, and then ask Prince Yu for a short leave to go to the Tongzhengsi Yamen to submit a petition for mercy. However, he did not expect that he would be hobbled by trivial matters as soon as he entered Prince Yu's mansion, and he was not able to get away until the early morning. By the time he asked for leave from Prince Yu, it was almost eleven o'clock.
Time was of the essence, so Zhu Ping'an hurriedly left Prince Yu's Mansion with the memorial in his pocket and went straight to the Tongzhengsi Yamen.
In order to save time, Zhu Ping'an took a shortcut, crossing the square to the Meridian Gate, and then crossing the Meridian Gate to the Ministry of Public Administration.
Before reaching the Meridian Gate, Zhu Ping'an saw from afar that there were many people there. He also heard a lot of noisy shouting and groaning, and a sound of wailing everywhere. When he got closer, he found that three officials at the Meridian Gate were being beaten with a stick.
What's going on
How come three officials were caned at the same time? It's been a long time since we saw a group of officials being caned at the same time.
Zhu Ping'an was surprised and went forward to ask, and then learned that these three officials had submitted petitions to plead for mercy to Yang Jisheng in the morning.
"The emperor has issued an oral decree: From now on, anyone who dares to plead for Yang Jisheng, seeks fame, or talks too much will be severely punished. My lords, please be careful. If anyone wants to plead for Yang Ni again, these three lords are role models. No, these three lords are lucky. As the first offender, they were only beaten with a stick in the court. If anyone commits the same offense again, it would be knowingly committing a crime. I don't need to tell you the consequences. Please consider it carefully."
During the beating process, a white-faced, beardless eunuch walked up to the crowd and announced the edict with an expressionless face. After reading the Jiajing Emperor's oral order, the eunuch deliberately said a few more words to warn everyone.
As soon as Emperor Jiajing's oral order came out, all the adults present were shocked. They originally had the idea of pleading for Yang Jisheng in their hearts, but after hearing Emperor Jiajing's oral order and the eunuch's warning, that idea was instantly extinguished.
Emperor Jiajing's oral order was not just talk.
Since Emperor Jiajing ascended the throne, similar oral instructions have been left many times, and each time they were carried out. Any minister who violated them, no matter what position he held, would be severely punished. The lightest punishment was exile and imperial caning, and the worst was the possibility of losing his life.
Don’t let my friends die, as I am afraid of death.
This is a universal principle throughout the ages.
Therefore, after listening to the oral instructions of Emperor Jiajing and the warnings of the eunuchs, the ministers all made a "wise" choice. There were several ministers in the crowd who were originally preparing to go to the Tongzhengshisi to submit petitions for mercy, but now they had quietly torn the petitions in their sleeves in half, turned around, and went back home.
The only exception is Zhu Ping'an.
Zhu Ping'an, who was standing in the crowd, seemed to have suddenly become deaf, as if he had not heard the Emperor Jiajing's oral order and the eunuch's warning. The eunuch had just finished reading out the Emperor Jiajing's oral order and warning the onlookers, and the next second Zhu Ping'an in the crowd had already raised his foot and continued to move forward towards the Ministry of Public Security.
Based on Zhu Ping'an's understanding of Emperor Jiajing and the emperor's temper, he knew that he would probably be beaten with a stick in the court after submitting the memorial to plead for mercy.
However, if I could save Brother Yang's life by getting beaten with a stick in the court, it would still be a good deal.
It goes without saying which is more important, a beating in court or a life.
In addition, if you pay some tribute, you can get a discount on the beating. It will probably only take ten days or half a month to recover, which is very cost-effective.
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