The Queen Mother was sitting next to the Queen. Seeing her fingertips trembling, the Queen Mother sighed quietly in her heart. What an injustice!
The prince looked up at Murong Jie, "Although I stole the blood antelope horn, it was also a brotherly quarrel with King Liang. How can you say that I am disloyal and unfilial? If the uncle wants to say that I can still be filial to him after being stabbed more than 30 times by him, then please forgive me for not being a saint. I can't do it. Please do whatever the uncle wants."
Lord Cui said, "Your Highness, the one who needs the blood antelope horn is not His Highness Prince Liang, but the Princess Zhenguo."
The prince was startled and subconsciously turned around to look at Liang Shulin at the door. Liang Shulin lowered his head and did not look into the hall.
"This... This I don't know." The prince defended himself, but in his heart he wanted to tear Liang Shulin to pieces.
Murong Jie suddenly slapped the armrest of his chair and said sternly, "Can you get away with saying you didn't know? Now the Princess Zhenguo is in danger because of your theft of the blood antelope horn. You have committed the crime of disloyalty and unfilial piety. As a prince, you do not do your job properly, but do these sneaky things every day to seek personal grudges. You think the blood antelope horn is the only chance for King Liang to survive, so you ordered people to steal it to end his life. No matter who uses the blood antelope horn, you have committed the crime of murder."
The Imperial Tutor stood up again and retorted, "Your Highness, what you said is not quite right. The Crown Prince said that he originally intended to steal the blood antelope horn to intimidate King Liang, and he didn't know that I would lose it. This was an unintentional mistake, and although it was a mistake, it can be forgiven. Moreover, the Crown Prince did this for a reason. King Liang broke into the palace for a civilian woman and hurt the Crown Prince first regardless of their brotherly love. Although the Crown Prince's revenge was irrational, it can be forgiven. Besides, King Liang's serious injury was not caused by the Crown Prince. You say that he has committed a serious crime of murder, which is unreasonable. I don't think it is established. At most, it is revenge for personal gain. Moreover, he was unaware that the Grand Princess needed the blood antelope horn to save her life. As the saying goes, ignorance is not a crime, so it is not his fault."
Murong Jie said coldly: "Ignorance is not a crime? This king wants to ask the royal family and the ministers in the court, do you know that the blood antelope horn is used to save the princess?"
Everyone was silent for a moment, and then they all said they knew, because, the imperial edict had already been posted to search for the blood antelope horns, so how could they not know
"I have posted an imperial edict, offering a large sum of money to find the blood antelope horn. Anyone who cares about the princess knows about this, but the crown prince says he doesn't know. That's nonsense. You have visited the princess several times, so how could he not know about this?"
The prince said angrily, "Don't talk nonsense. I just don't know. I care about the Grand Princess, but I'm not a doctor. How can I know what medicine to use? Besides, what good will it do me if I kill the Grand Princess? I must have a motive, right?"
Murong Jie said coldly, "When you arrived at the gate of the princess's mansion that day, someone heard you ask the doorman if the princess needed a blood antelope horn to save her life. The doorman told you that she did. After asking, you muttered that I must get the blood antelope horn. Even with the doorman's testimony, you still don't admit it?"
The prince was furious when he heard such an injustice. "You slandered me. When I arrived at the gate of the princess's mansion, I didn't even talk to the doorman. I just saw that little bitch coming out and learned that she was the sweetheart of the useless King Liang, so I immediately ordered people to arrest her. I didn't stay for a quarter of an hour. Murong Jie, you have to provide hard evidence to convict me of a crime, instead of relying on false accusations."
"Shut up!" The queen jumped up suddenly, "Stop talking nonsense."
The prince was stunned and looked at the queen in confusion, not knowing what he had said wrong.
Murong Jie's face was livid as he said, "You said before that you took Wang Yi'er away because she provoked and insulted you, and you took her away in anger. But now you say that when you saw her come out and learned that she was the beloved of King Liang, you immediately took her away. Which of your statements is true?"
The prince said angrily, "You are so cunning. You actually tried to trick me like this? I have not contradicted myself. She provoked me first, and then I learned that she was the sweetheart of King Liang, so I took her away to avenge King Liang. Yes, I admit that I wanted to seek revenge on King Liang, but Wang Yi'er was not harmed. I just took her to the imperial temple to listen to Buddhist music. If you want to punish me, this is the only crime I have. But you made such a big fuss for a commoner girl, and even summoned all the officials and clan members to the palace to discuss the crime. You are targeting me and trying to pile up charges to depose me so that you can ascend the throne and fulfill your ambition of hegemony, right?"
The prince's stern questioning was met with the approval of Grand Tutor Liang, who said sarcastically, "That's right, your Highness's questioning today was also illogical. He just made up a charge and exaggerated it, so that everyone would think that the prince has no morals, and then mobilize everyone to depose the prince. His intentions are sinister."
Murong Jie was not anxious at all, and said, "Whether the prince is piling up charges or the prince is truly immoral, we will soon know."
He looked at the deputy head of the clan, Prince Baoan, and said, "Uncle, I want to ask you a question. If the current crown prince forcibly seizes the princess of a state, forcibly detains her, and lets her servants insult her, what crime should he be charged with?"
Baoan Wang said: "If this crime is proven, depose him!"
Murong Jie nodded and said in a deep voice, "Okay, now that we have come to this point, I will sort out the previous events and consequences for everyone to dispel the doubts in everyone's hearts. Just now, the Grand Tutor said that I have no rules for questioning people and I just make up a charge at random. However, all the things originated from one person, that is the Queen. The Queen's partiality has created the Prince's domineering and indifferent behavior, and has also caused the King of Liang to suffer all kinds of grievances and abuses. Everyone knows that the King of Liang, Murong Xin, is a cruel person, but is this true?"
"What nonsense are you talking about?" The queen did not expect that Murong Jie would eventually put the blame on her, and she was immediately shocked and angry.
Many people suddenly understood when they saw this, that today's discussion was not about the crown prince, but the current queen. Condemning the queen could indeed serve as a warning to others, and could also intimidate the Grand Tutor, achieving three goals at one stroke.
It is a fact that the crown prince is incompetent. What the crown prince has done and whether he is deposed or not are not the most important things at the moment. However, the actions of the queen and the tutor will directly affect this battle for imperial power.
This means that the battle for power had actually already begun in the imperial court, but many outside officials were unaware of it.
Everyone's guess was correct, but Murong Jie had another purpose, which was to prevent the Queen from doing what she originally planned to do.
The Queen once said that she wanted to take away the title of Prince of Liang. Although he was still a prince, he was very different from a prince. A prince had no real power, but a prince did. A prince had soldiers and fiefdoms.
Another point is that he wanted to clear the name of King Liang and let everyone know that the rumors about King Liang being violent and vicious were deliberately slandered by someone.
Why did Murong Jie want to clear the name of King Liang? Over the years, he had never said a word for King Liang and had not investigated the things behind it. It was because, at that time, no matter who King Liang was, it would not affect his normal life. At that time, King Liang only wanted a normal life.
But things are different now. Now that he has decided to depose the crown prince, he has to clear the name of Prince Liang so that all clan members and officials will know what kind of person Prince Liang really is.
(End of this chapter)