Many wise ministers, who had already seen through Murong Jie's intentions, were immediately encouraged, because the prince's behavior made them unable to see the future of the Great Zhou. If the Great Zhou was to be handed over to such a person, it would be defeated sooner or later.
Of course, everyone still has reservations about the King of Liang, but since Murong Jie said that the King of Liang that everyone saw was deliberately smeared by someone, what is the real King of Liang like? Everyone wants to know.
Murong Jie ignored the Queen's anger and continued in a deep voice: "When the King of Liang was thirteen years old, he broke his leg. Everyone must have heard that he broke it accidentally, but the truth is that it was the Crown Prince who caused it. What kind of intention the Crown Prince had at that time to cause the King of Liang to be injured is not to be investigated for the time being. However, the Queen clearly knew the truth, but she ordered the matter to be sealed. All the palace people who knew about this were driven out of the palace. The King of Liang was injured and disabled. Not long after, the Emperor established the position of the Crown Prince and Murong Qiao was named the Crown Prince. This King would like to ask all the noble ministers, if the King of Liang had not been injured, who would have been the Crown Prince?"
Murong Jie had never spoken like this before. He always kept his word, but it was obvious that he was going to tell the story tonight. The last sentence of the torture made Prince Murong Qiao furious. He said sternly, "Murong Jie, stop talking nonsense. He broke his leg himself. What does this have to do with me? Besides, my mother was not partial. It was my father who felt that he was not virtuous enough and did not make him the crown prince. Are you questioning my father's wisdom by saying this? You are so bold."
Taifu Liang also said coldly: "So the prince is using the name of discussing crimes to talk nonsense today, making a big fuss and saying that the prince is destroying diplomatic relations and that the prince is disloyal and unfilial, but he is just digging up a bunch of old accounts. It's been so long, who knows what's true and what's false?"
Murong Jie looked at the queen, "Queen, am I talking nonsense?"
The queen turned pale and said sadly, "Your Highness knew that this was a great pain in my heart, but he did not hesitate to bring it up in front of all the noble ministers. Although many years have passed, every word you said today is like a sharp knife stabbing my heart."
Murong Jie smiled, "Really? The Queen will be heartbroken, proving that she is not an indifferent mother. But what did you do? It is not difficult to track down the truth of that year. Does the Queen think there are really no witnesses in this world?"
The queen gripped the armrests of the chair with both hands, her nails digging almost deeply into them, and her face turned from pale to ashen.
The Queen Mother said sternly, "Ah Jie, go on!"
Murong Jie's eyes moved away from the queen's face and continued, "Yes, after the King of Liang was injured, the queen did show her true feelings of great regret, so she asked for the title of prince, fiefdom, and troops for the King of Liang in an attempt to compensate for his losses. However, at the same time, she was also afraid that the King of Liang would have a quarrel with the prince, so since the King of Liang left the palace and set up a mansion, she has been sending people to lurk in his mansion to monitor his every word and action. The people sent by the queen to monitor are still in the mansion. If you want to know, I can find them out. At the same time, the prince is also worried that the King of Liang will bear a grudge. In order to make everyone hate the Prince of Liang, he instigated the Queen to take in many concubines for the Prince of Liang's mansion. However, after these concubines entered the mansion, they died for no reason and were beaten before they died. Gradually, rumors spread that the Prince of Liang had a twisted personality and was cruel because of his disability, and he killed these innocent concubines. The Queen saw all these things the Prince did. She moved the Prince of Liang with emotion and asked him to forgive his brother's willful behavior, because he was now the Prince and could not let his reputation be damaged. The Prince of Liang was foolish and filial, and could not bear to hurt the Queen, so he tolerated it again and again and retreated again and again. "
Everyone gasped, they didn't expect that King Liang had to bear so much.
The queen sneered and kept shaking her head and sneering, "Nonsense, nonsense."
"Whether it is nonsense or not, I have witnesses and I will know later." Murong Jie glanced at her calmly and continued, "For so many years, Prince Liang has been living like this, bearing the injuries of his mother and brother. A few days ago, my princess knew medical skills and she told Prince Liang that she could cure his leg injury, but was opposed by the Queen. What did the Queen worry about? She saw that I loved Prince Liang very much and was afraid that he would have enough political capital to compete with the Crown Prince. So, she summoned Prince Liang again and threatened him with the life of his sweetheart, Wang Yier, to give up treatment voluntarily, because she knew that the reason Prince Liang could not be made the Crown Prince was because he was disabled. If he got better, the Emperor would definitely re-examine the issue of the Crown Prince. Prince Liang gave in again, but The prince was still unyielding. When he saw Wang Yier, who came to the princess's mansion to tell him the whereabouts of the blood antelope horn, he captured Wang Yier and ordered his servants to humiliate her at will. Fortunately, the princess and Wang Yier's mother, Liu Yue, the leader of the Daliang Salt Gang, arrived in time to prevent Wang Yier from being humiliated. As I said just now, all the monks in the imperial temple can testify to this. The prince's provocation this time finally made King Liang explode. He broke into the East Palace, beat the prince severely, and stabbed him thirty-eight times. However, he always recognized this brother, and the thirty-eight swords avoided the vital points. Therefore, the prince can still be arrogant in front of the hall today. However, because of the beating of the prince, King Liang was severely punished by the queen. He was beaten with a rattan stick for sixty times, and threatened to deprive him of his princely title and demote him to a prince..."
Murong Jie was interrupted by Prince Baoan when he got to this point. "No, the Queen Mother came to me about this matter. She said that the King of Liang was only beaten with thirty sticks with the cane, not sixty sticks with the thorn stick. She also mentioned that he should be stripped of his title of prince. However, I am still considering this matter and have not convened a clan meeting to discuss it immediately."
"Uncle, is it sixty thorn sticks or thirty boards? Why not ask the Queen directly?" Murong Jie turned to look at the Queen, "Really? The Queen herself said how to deal with the King of Liang?"
The queen's eyes were almost spitting fire as she stared at Murong Jie. She knew that she was the protagonist today. Murong Jie wanted to expose the affairs of the three of them, mother and son, in front of the clan members and ministers.
Seeing that she remained silent, the Empress Dowager shouted, "Tell me, is it thirty or sixty strokes of the cane?"
The queen raised her head, the curve of her chin was particularly sharp and cold, "Sixty lashes of the cane, brothers killed each other, and the one who was hurt was the current crown prince. Sixty lashes is not excessive."
Prince Baoan did not expect that the Queen would lie to him. He was so angry that his face turned blue on the spot. "Sixty strokes of the cane are not too much, but sixty canes of the thorn stick are too much. The canes of the harem have hooks. After sixty strokes of the cane, even if he can survive, his legs will be really crippled. How can the Queen bear it? If there is the previous situation that the Regent King said, Prince Liang had to do it. The consequences caused by being forced to do it should be handled appropriately. He is your biological son. How could you do this? Would you be satisfied only if you really beat him to death or crippled him? Moreover, as the Queen, you actually concealed the truth from me. I am the deputy head of the royal family and was in charge of the affairs inside and outside the palace during the emperor's serious illness. The Queen's deliberate concealment will make me make a wrong judgment. Isn't it framing me injustice?"
(End of this chapter)