Watching Jia Lingyun draw closer and closer, Murong Chong cried out desperately in his heart.
"Don't you dare come over here!"
*I got no share of the Prime Minister's post!*
*I got no part in your showboating and slaughter!*
*Now that you've made enemies everywhere, you want to drag me down with you by calling me "Brother Murong"? In your dreams!*
Murong Chong wanted to slip away immediately, but Jia Ruoxiang and Jia Yi walked over and firmly held him back.
"Minister, my third brother wants to have a chat with you. Why are you in such a hurry to leave?"
"Let's not!" Murong Chong said. "As the Minister of Justice, I swear that I cannot coexist with evil!"
At this moment, Murong Chong wanted nothing more than to draw a clear line between them. He never expected Jia Lingyun, that bastard, to reach out a wicked hand and grab him, while casting a threatening glare at the surrounding officials.
"Are you all a bit too free?" Jia Lingyun asked. "The Minister and I are conspiring on some underhanded business. Would you like to listen in?"
The assembly of officials paled at his words.
"I... I have some urgent business at home, I must excuse myself!"
"Let's go, let's go..."
A few of them were still whispering as they hurried out.
"No wonder the Minister made that solemn oath to heaven with the Prime Minister. It turns out they had planned this all along!"
"With this, the position of Prime Minister is within Jia Lingyun's easy grasp, and no one will dare oppose him. What a brilliant scheme!"
"It's just that the Minister of Justice is such a scoundrel, playing us all for fools!"
In the blink of an eye, only Jia Lingyun and his group were left in the grand hall.
Murong Chong wanted to cry but had no tears. "Jia Lingyun, oh Jia Lingyun, you have utterly ruined this old man! After this, I'm afraid everyone will think I am in league with you!"
"But we were always in league, Brother Murong!" Jia Lingyun replied. "You are my dear brother, my cherished friend. As the saying goes, when a man makes it to the top, even his dogs and chickens ascend to heaven. Now that your brother has found wealth and power, how could I forget you? I was even planning to promote you and grant you a noble title!"
What on earth?!
Murong Chong turned pale with fright. In the past, if he had heard about promotions and noble titles, he would have been grinning from ear to ear.
But now, Jia Lingyun had offended absolutely everyone. If he promoted Murong Chong the moment he took power, wouldn't the old Grand Preceptor, Long Gu, think they were partners in crime?
If he were targeted by Long Gu, he wouldn't even know what hit him!
"No, no, no! This humble official has not made the slightest contribution. To rashly grant me a promotion and a title would surely invite the resentment of my colleagues. Let's just forget it!"
Jia Lingyun chuckled. "You are the father of the current Empress Dowager. You raised such an outstanding Empress Dowager—how could we possibly not promote you and grant you a title?"
Murong Chong continued to decline, preferring death over acceptance. "If you insist on granting me a promotion and a title, this official will bash his head against this pillar and die!"
Jia Lingyun leaned close to Murong Chong and whispered, "If you don't want a promotion, that's fine too. But look at those three corpses on the floor. Do you think the court officials will accuse me of slaughtering the innocent?"
Murong Chong had navigated the imperial court for many years, maneuvering with ease among the various powerful factions of Jia Tu, Long Gu, and others. He was a seasoned old fox.
At this point, he finally understood what Jia Lingyun was after. It turned out the man wanted him to clean up the mess of his murderous rampage.
"Prime Minister, how can one silence the mouths of everyone in the world? If you knew it would come to this, why did you do it in the first place?"
"I care deeply about my reputation, and I value my face," Jia Lingyun said. "Thinking about this makes me unable to eat or sleep. And whenever I can't sleep, I like to bestow noble titles on people! Second Brother, send an order to the Secretariat to arrange a barony for Brother Murong!"
A threat! A naked threat!
In the Dawei Dynasty, noble titles were divided into six ranks: Prince, Duke, Marquis, Count, Viscount, and Baron. Each rank was further subdivided into first, second, and third classes.
Civil officials like Murong Chong rarely achieved military merit, so they had no titles.
Murong Chong gritted his teeth. "Prime Minister!"
He drew a sharp breath. "Those three... the Ministry of Justice already has evidence of their crimes. Every single charge is a capital offense, and their guilt is beyond redemption. I will have someone quietly deliver the files to your estate shortly!"
"Thank you, Minister. Please rest assured, no third person will ever know of this besides you and me!"
***
It was the third month of spring, and the temperature was pleasant.
This court session had dragged on for far too long. By the time Jia Lingyun and the others adjourned and headed home, the sky was already dotted with stars.
Their three official sedan chairs traveled side by side, with the Imperial Guard clearing the way ahead. The patrolling Nine Gates Garrison along the route did not dare to block them when they saw the three sedans, letting them pass through the checkpoints without hindrance.
Jia Lingyun lifted the curtain of his sedan and asked softly, "Second Brother, why does everyone say Father is a treacherous official? Did he do something bad?"
Jia Yi was filled with righteous indignation and said resentfully, "It is pure envy and jealousy!"
"Those bastards couldn't compete with our father, so they had those scholars smear his name as hard as they could. Our father was a deeply loyal official! He did so many good things for Dawei!"
Jia Lingyun also thought this made sense. With each new ruler comes a new court, and history is always written by the victors.
"Then it doesn't matter. Tomorrow, I will have the court historians write down all of Father's great achievements to silence the critics once and for all!"
Jia Ruoxiang frowned slightly. "Third Brother, don't play around. Those 'great achievements' of Father's... they won't look good if they are actually written down."
"What did he do?"
Jia Ruoxiang pondered for a moment and casually mentioned a few. "Actually, it's nothing much. For instance, the Late Emperor's final edict—he forged it. Originally, Cao Ziheng was supposed to ascend the throne, but Father insisted on installing a young prince instead, saying it would be easier to control him."
Jia Lingyun's face went dark.
He finally understood why Cao Ziheng couldn't become the emperor and could only be Prince Lu. It turned out to be the handiwork of his own treacherous father!
"The Imperial Sword you hold in your hand—he actually led troops to force the Late Emperor to issue an edict granting it to him."
Jia Lingyun was speechless.
"The Ink Guards in our estate—he secretly formed them. After someone reported him, he forced the Late Emperor to issue an edict to legitimize them."
"Your marriage to Princess Taiping was also forced upon the Late Emperor by Father!"
"And Aunt Zhao in our estate was actually a favored concubine of the Late Emperor. Later, Father took a liking to her..."
"..."
Alright!
Verification complete. He was absolutely, without a doubt, a massive, treacherous villain!
He possessed the distinct aura of Cao Mengde.
Jia Lingyun looked gloomily at Jia Yi. "Second Brother, did the scholars even need to smear him? He's already blackened his own name to a mirror shine!"
Jia Yi quickly changed the subject, pulling a pitch-black object from his breast pocket and tossing it to Jia Lingyun. "This is the tiger tally to mobilize the Ink Guards. You must keep it safe!"
Jia Lingyun rubbed it carefully.
It was a tiger tally cast in bronze, shaped like a crouching tiger. The middle of the tally connected with an interlocking clasp, and its back was engraved with gold-inlaid inscriptions to verify its authenticity.
Jia Yi explained from the side, "Generally, a tiger tally is split into two halves: one is kept by the Emperor, and the other by the general. They must be joined together to mobilize troops. However, the Ink Guards were gifted to Father by the Late Emperor, so the complete tally has always been in Father's hands!"
"Third Brother, the new Emperor is quite wary of the Ink Guards. This is our Jia family's final shield. You must guard it well and never lose it!"
"Second Brother, I keep hearing you all talk about the Ink Guards. What exactly are they? Private bodyguards?"
"You could say that, but the Ink Guards are no ordinary private guards. Let me put it this way: when Prince You, Cao Xiu, rebelled and trapped the Late Emperor on Wujue Mountain in Youzhou, it was Father who led three hundred Ink Guards on a rapid night march, tore open a gap through the enemy lines, and rescued the Late Emperor!"
Jia Lingyun's mouth hung open in astonishment.
What terrifying combat power!
Three hundred men tearing open a gap in the midst of tens of thousands of troops!
This was absolutely insane!
These weren't some lazy private guards; they were elite special forces!
"Second Brother, have you ever investigated this man, Fa Yun?"
Jia Yi smiled sheepishly. "No, we haven't. After all, back then he was only a low-ranking eighth-grade official; who would have noticed him? But Father did show him some kindness, which we are well aware of."