Ministers Begging Me to Ascend the Throne

Chapter 1070: Chapter 118: Does the Princess of Annan Want to Shake the Great Zhou Dynasty’s Court?

The speed at which the Imperial Court of Judicial Review handled the case was incredibly fast. It didn’t even take three days—within two days, all of Prince Zheng’s crimes were verified. The accusations Princess of Annan made against Prince Zheng in court were all true, with no framing or fabrication involved.

Over the years, Prince Zheng had recklessly taken over a thousand lives within his fiefdom. Just this crime alone stirred a shocking uproar in the court. Calculating this way, it seemed Prince Zheng was killing one person every day.

After reading the verified results from the Imperial Court of Judicial Review, the emperor’s expression turned terrifyingly grim. He immediately had Sun Kui announce all of Prince Zheng’s crimes, then issued an imperial decree to declare Prince Zheng’s punishment. First, Prince Zheng was demoted to a commoner and removed from the Imperial Jade Scroll. Second, his residence in the capital and the Prince Mansion in his fiefdom were confiscated. Third, a thorough investigation was to be conducted on the officials in Prince Zheng’s fiefdom; any official found to be in collusion with him would be severely punished. Finally, Prince Zheng was to be beheaded in public.

When the civil and military officials heard the emperor was going to behead Prince Zheng, they were all astonished. They knew Prince Zheng’s sins were grave, and assumed the emperor would never execute his own son. Yet, unexpectedly, the emperor mercilessly decided to behead his own flesh and blood.

The emperor felt deeply remorseful over Prince Zheng’s crimes and, in front of the ministers, confessed, saying as a father he failed to teach Prince Zheng well, resulting in a beast worse than an animal coming from the Royal Family. He wanted to apologize to the people of Prince Zheng’s fiefdom, acknowledging that they lived in dire misery because of Zheng, and yet he, the father, was oblivious.

Prince Zheng would not be executed in the capital but rather returned to his fiefdom for public execution, allowing the people of the fiefdom to see it firsthand. This served several purposes: one, to appease the grievances of the local people; two, to show the local populace that even a prince, if guilty, shares the same fate as a commoner. If he killed, he must pay with his life; three, to let the local people know that the emperor had not abandoned them and that he would stand for justice; and four, to intimidate others.

The emperor sent an imperial envoy to personally escort Prince Zheng back to his fiefdom for execution. Naturally, the imperial envoy had another task, which was to gather evidence against local officials colluding with Prince Zheng. If found, the more egregious culprits needed not be brought back to the capital; they could be executed in public on the spot. Those whose crimes weren’t punishable by death were to be sent back to the capital, where they would be demoted, exiled, or imprisoned as deemed necessary.

While the imperial envoy escorted Prince Zheng back to his fiefdom for punishment, the emperor took special care to write an imperial decree to apologize to the local people.

While Prince Zheng was being escorted back to his fiefdom, the public, aware of his crimes, furiously pelted him with stones, rotten eggs, and decaying leaves. The guards escorting him did not interfere, allowing him to be pummeled.

Before setting out, the imperial envoy was concerned that Prince Zheng might commit suicide on the way and asked the emperor whether measures should be taken to prevent it. The emperor assured the envoy that Prince Zheng was neither daring enough nor courageous enough to take his own life. If the envoy was still worried, he could stuff a rag in Prince Zheng’s mouth to prevent him from biting his tongue.

In the prison cart, the former Prince Zheng was in a wretched state, his forehead and face covered in blood, his head reeking of rotten eggs and decaying leaves, his body too. He emitted a foul stench.

The former Prince Zheng was scared out of his wits, barely holding on to life. With his mouth stuffed with a rag, he couldn’t make a sound. While in the prison cell, he kept muttering things like "Mother, save me. Uncle, save me. I don’t want to die..."

After learning he was to be taken back to his fiefdom for public execution, he went mad, and soon after became lethargic and almost lifeless. However, to ensure he lived to face execution, the guards would feed him medicine and food along the way so that he wouldn’t die en route.

Speaking of which, after the former Prince Zheng was sentenced to public execution, neither his concubine mother nor the Duke Anyang Mansion pleaded for him. Common sense would suggest that the concubine mother, as his birth mother, would plead for her son. However, not only did she not plead, but she also proactively approached the emperor to confess, admitting her failure as a mother for not guiding her son properly, leading to his heinous acts. She also requested the emperor to punish her.

As for her brother, Duke Anyang, the concubine mother did not plead either, understanding that helping him would only harm him. Her goal was to take all the blame upon herself, hoping the emperor, taking her voluntary confession and their years of rapport into account, would spare the lives of Duke Anyang and his son, preserving the Wang Family.