Chapter 306

The Ministry of Justice sent over twenty or thirty prisoner officials in one go, all of whom were more or less involved in the affair of the deposed Crown Prince.

With the Crown Prince deposed and personnel changes in the court, the situation was in complete chaos.

Among this group of prisoner officials, the most eye-catching was undoubtedly Master Xie Changling, the Left Scribe of the Donggong. This person had once been famous throughout the world as a top scholar, and his subsequent official career had been slightly bumpy but overall stable. Because of his outstanding talent and learning, he was appointed as an official of the Donggong, cultivated as part of the Crown Prince's future official staff after inheriting the throne, and was to be heavily used once the Crown Prince inherited the throne.

Who could have imagined that having walked ninety steps of a hundred-step journey, he would stumble in the final ten. The future reserve talent for Prime Minister had now fallen into a prisoner.

Chen Guanlou picked up his brush to divide the personnel, assigning Xie Changling to Xiao Jin's territory, and instructed Xiao Jin to take good care of him.

"Master Xie has great talent and is an official of the Donggong; he must not be humiliated. You contact the Xie family and tell them to send money quickly. With Jiang Jiang Yucheng Lei assuming his post, they are the first batch of prisoner officials, and I do not wish to see any debt arrears, nor can we leave any handle for Jiang Jiang Yucheng Lei. Understand?"

"I understand! However, I have one thing I don't understand: for what reason was this Master Xie imprisoned? Just because the Crown Prince was deposed?"

Chen Guanlou's mouth curled up slightly, revealing a trace of sarcasm. "Master Xie's crime is dereliction of duty, causing His Highness the Loyal Prince to take a wrong step, resulting in the most painful deposed Crown Prince incident in the three hundred years of our dynasty."

"Ah?" With Xiao Jin's brain, he clearly could not understand this charge. "Does that mean it's groundless, just randomly pinning a crime on him?"

Chen Guanlou nodded; it was indeed groundless. During the mutiny, what happened in the Donggong was gradually being revealed by those with ulterior motives. From beginning to end, the Crown Prince had no signs of wanting to rebel, and from the very beginning, he had been trying his best to restrain the Donggong guards and officials. As a result, thousands of Donggong guards were surrounded for several days without firing a single shot, avoiding the most tragic situation.

The Crown Prince had done enough to be worthy of the old Emperor and worthy of the father-son bond. He was only unworthy of his "Crown Prince" status, unworthy of the personnel in the Donggong, and unworthy of the court officials who supported him. If the deposed Crown Prince had been determined at the beginning to raise three thousand Donggong guards to rebel, perhaps the person sitting on the dragon throne now would be himself, not the immortal Emperor Taixing.

What a pity!

A single thought of difference.

The deposed Crown Prince tried his best to be thorough, wanting to protect everyone in the Donggong.

Alas, look, the former Donggong officials were thrown into the big prison, tsk...

One cannot be too wishful in life.

Xiao Jin was a bit hesitant, pondered for a moment, and asked in a low voice, "My lord, has the court started purging the Donggong personnel?"

Chen Guanlou was silent; he couldn't be sure either.

If one spoke of purging, currently the Donggong guards had been broken up and rearranged, but there was no order to execute them. Some Donggong guards were even kept to continue protecting the deposed Crown Prince, His Highness the Loyal Prince.

If one spoke of no purging, the former Donggong officials had all suffered varying degrees of suppression. It was estimated that imprisonment was only a matter of time.

A typical case of cutting meat with a dull knife.

Cutting them all at once would certainly be tragic, but it would also allow the world to remember, to remember the old Emperor's cruelty, forever recorded in history books and nailed to the pillar of shame.

Cutting meat with a dull knife was different; how many of the subsequent encounters of the Donggong officials would be recorded in history books? People of later generations probably wouldn't even know what these people encountered after the Crown Prince was deposed.

The old Emperor was cruel, but he also wanted face. His way of wanting face was to be both a whore and build a memorial arch. When the court officials thought the old Emperor had found his conscience, the old Emperor turned around and started a major purge. The court officials were abused miserably time and time again, yet they still didn't learn their lesson, and there were still many officials who held expectations for the old Emperor.

Just like this time with the deposed Crown Prince, many old officials cried bitterly, kneeling outside the gate of the Taiji Palace, imploring the old Emperor to change his course, believing that the old Emperor had gone astray in his cultivation and that was why he was so muddled, and that it would be fine if he changed.

Zhao Mingqiao was different; he had seen through the old Emperor's nature. It couldn't be changed; he was just such a person. Since it couldn't be changed, then let it be destroyed.

Chen Guanlou met Xie Changling in person.

Xie Changling had a standard official face.

What was a standard official face? Upright, serious, and grand. Seeing this person was like seeing awe-inspiring righteousness. But his eyes were exceptionally lively; he was not a dull bookworm, and one could tell at a glance that he was a person with active thinking. He wasn't old either, just over thirty.

Let's calculate the years he had been an official.

Damn!

Another genius.

Passing the top scholar exam in his early twenties, he was a proper academic god with top-tier IQ. Placed in the court full of smart people, he also belonged to the smartest small group, an existence that crushed others in IQ.

If the Loyal Prince hadn't been deposed, this person would have had a high probability of becoming Prime Minister in the future, governing the world.

"If Master Xie has any needs, feel free to bring them up. We will try our best to satisfy what can be satisfied."

Xie Changling accepted the result of being imprisoned quite calmly, his expression indifferent. He looked towards Chen Guanlou and asked curiously, "Are the prison guards of the Heavenly Prison all so polite now?"

"There are always exceptions." Chen Guanlou said so.

Xie Changling said oh. "Thank you! Could you give me a few books? In the long time, I wouldn't know how to pass it without books."

"Can do! Any other requirements?"

Xie Changling shook his head. "I won't make things difficult for you either. I will also try my best to satisfy your requirements. For the money that should be handed over according to the rules, you can find the steward of my mansion; he will cooperate with you. Let him bring me a few changes of clothes, and another quilt I'm used to sleeping with. These are no problem, right?"

"These are all small matters, no problem. Our Heavenly Prison emphasizes humanized management; as long as you don't add trouble for us, we are all very easy to talk to." Chen Guanlou smiled.

Xie Changling nodded. "In that case, I'm quite lucky not to have been locked in the Imperial Prison, but came to the Heavenly Prison. Will you use torture?"

"Does Master Xie have any criminal facts to confess?" Chen Guanlou asked back.

Xie Changling was stunned upon hearing this, then laughed heartily, laughing until he was out of breath. "Criminal facts? Haha, what criminal facts could I have! Why don't you help me make one up."

"That is not our work content; we are prison guards, only responsible for guarding prisoners."

Xie Changling nodded with a smile. "Well said, I almost misunderstood. Asking you to fabricate is also making things difficult for you. Thank you, Prison Clerk Chen. By the way, I seem to have heard of you."

"Ah? Can a small prison clerk like me enter your ears, my lord?" Chen Guanlou was very surprised. What virtue or ability did he have to enter the ears of an Donggong official? Did he have such great fame?

"Last year, the Grand Tutor was imprisoned, and the Donggong guards were responsible for security. I heard of you from the mouths of the Donggong guards." Xie Changling had a very good memory.

Do not doubt the memory of an academic god; they could connect a small point and recall the whole thing.

"Guard Cui seems to have quite an opinion of you. I rarely see the expression of defeat on his face. At that time, you were still a prison guard, yet you could make the Donggong guards suffer a setback; it's quite remarkable."

"My lord, you can't say that! What virtue or ability do I have, and when did I make Guard Cui suffer a setback? Guard Cui has a huge misunderstanding of me! So much time has passed, and it seems it can't be explained clearly." Chen Guanlou appeared very aggrieved.

Last year's matter, and someone was still mentioning it this year.

Did these academic gods not know what the amnesia technique was?