Chapter 110: War of Words
On the second day, Li Hao put on court clothes and Shi Shiran went out to prepare for the morning court.
Speaking of which, this was the first time that Li Hao officially went to court. He used to be an official in Kaifeng Mansion and had no right to go to court.
Later, when he returned to Beijing, although he was promoted to the fifth rank, he also received the casual official title of a civilian official. The official position was still a military position, so he did not need to go to court.
I attended the court meeting today because I had to go to the palace with Ouyang Xiu to report the matter about Wuyou Cave.
When Li Hao arrived in front of the palace gate, he discovered a problem, because the civil and military positions were separated.
In addition, Li Hao has never been here before, so it is a bit troublesome to know exactly where to stand.
Logically speaking, since he was a Jinshi, he should stand on the side of civil servants, and based on the current situation, Li Hao also wanted to stand on the side of civil servants.
But now the official position is also a military position, which allows Li Hao to stand in any direction, but it doesn't seem to be suitable.
Moreover, Li Hao didn't recognize many of the officials on duty, and he didn't know where to stand.
Fortunately, Ouyang Xiu saw the situation at this time, and Li Hao came over and said: "Why are you standing there alone? If you haven't returned to work, you will go to Hajj soon."
After saying that, he led Li Hao to the civil servant side. At this time, Sheng Hong seemed to have suddenly discovered Li Hao and said, "My dear nephew, please stand here with me."
As he said that, he took a step back to make room."
At this time, Li Hao looked at Ouyang Xiu and saw that Ouyang Xiu didn't say anything, so he walked over.
However, Li Hao did not stand directly in front of Sheng Hong. Instead, he greeted the officials standing behind Sheng Hong and stood behind Sheng Hong.
Seeing that Li Hao was already standing, Ouyang Xiu returned to his seat.
At this time, Sheng Hong enthusiastically introduced the colleagues around him to Li Hao, and Li Hao was polite to them.
It was not until the chamberlain came out that the team became quiet, and then the chamberlain summoned the ministers to appear.
Li Hao followed the team into the Daqing Palace. At this time, Zhao Zhen was already sitting on the throne, accepting the audience of the ministers.
After that, everyone stood up according to the rules. Li Hao didn't understand much, so he followed Sheng Hong all the way.
At the court meeting, Fu Bi first reported on behalf of the Zhengshitang, and then Han Qi reported on military affairs on behalf of the Privy Council. After these two people finished.
It was the ministers who presented the notice, but most of the courtiers were quiet and lazy, waiting to get off work.
When the last topic came up, Ouyang Xiu reported on the eradication of Wuyou Cave. After finishing the follow-up, Li Hao went out to supplement the details of the bandit suppression, and then went back to work.
According to the normal procedure at this time, the next step should be to retreat from the court, but Li Hao knew that he would not retreat so early today because it was time for his opponent to take action.
Sure enough, at this time, someone came out of Kaden's team.
Said: "I have something to report to the imperial censor Shi Pan Shili. I want to attend the Grand Scholarship of Xuanhe Palace. I know that Ouyang Xiu, the governor of Kaifeng, the doctor Chaosan, the personal guard doctor, and the internal inspection commander Li Hao are bending the law for personal gain and connivance.
The royal family members deceive the officials."
As soon as these words came out, the court suddenly became quiet, and everyone looked at Pan Shili, Li Hao, and Ouyang Xiu.
Seeing this situation, the two of them went out of class to salute, but Zhao Zhen didn't say anything.
Ouyang Xiu then asked Pan Shili: "I don't know what Master Pan said. When did I protect the royal family and who did I protect?"
Pan Shili said: "You two adults must be aware that the Wuyou Cave was cleared yesterday. Didn't Mr. Ouyang and Mr. Li find anything?"
Upon hearing this, Ouyang Xiu looked at Li Hao and motioned for Li Hao to answer.
Li Hao said: "Since we have eradicated the bandits, we will naturally gain something. I just don't know what Mr. Pan said and how it became my crime."
Hearing these words, Pan Shili turned to Zhao Zhen and said: "Guan family, yesterday evening, after the two adults cleared the Wuyou Cave, a man came to my house to report.
What this person reported was that when Mr. Li was clearing Wuyou Cave yesterday, his subordinates found an account book and letters, which mentioned that Wuyou Cave was related to a certain clan relative.
I originally thought that Mr. Li would report this matter today, so I didn’t want to overstep my authority, but I didn’t expect that today they kept silent and deliberately concealed it. Isn’t this a cover-up by the clan?”
Hearing this, Ouyang Xiu thought of Gu Tingye's various performances yesterday, and already had some guesses in his mind. However, Ouyang Xiu still believed in Li Hao on this matter, so he said nothing, only waiting for what Li Hao would say.
Li Hao stepped forward and said to Zhao Zhen, "Guan family, you know this. When I just returned to the camp yesterday, a fire broke out in the camp and destroyed everything.
Even my past collections and all kinds of materials that I wanted to give to my subordinates were burned. I really don’t know what Lord Pan is talking about.”
Hearing Li Hao's words, Pan Shili said directly: "You dare to set fire to destroy the evidence. You are so audacious."
Li Hao retorted: "I don't understand what Mr. Pan said anymore. If I set fire to it, how could I burn all my belongings?
And there is one thing that I don’t quite understand. The fire happened suddenly yesterday, so the things confiscated at that time had not yet been registered.
Let’s put aside the truth or falsehood of what the Lord said, but considering the time, no one in my camp should have come into contact with him. I don’t know who made this complaint to Lord Pan.
Now I have some doubts, whether this person started this fire and wanted to deliberately frame Mr. Ouyang and me.
Why don't Master Pan call someone here and confront me face to face? If it's really my problem, I'm willing to be punished."
At this time, Zhao Zhen also said: "Pan Qing's family, when Ouyang Qing's family and Li Qing's family came to the palace yesterday to report, they did explain the fire in the camp.
Now, since the Qing family believes that the Li Qing family set up the fire intentionally, why not bring up the person who informed you of the news and confront me face to face."
Hearing what Zhao Zhen said, Pan Shili was helpless. If there was evidence, it would be no problem to pull the person out.
But now that everything has been burned, exposing people now is of no use at all.
At this time, Pan Shili complained in his heart that these people were unreliable and did not know that such an important matter was spread.
Pan Shili had no choice but to say: "This person was afraid of being retaliated yesterday, so he came here covered up. Now I don't know his whereabouts. Please forgive me."
After hearing this, Li Hao said: "Master Pan's words are a bit bizarre, because a masked man said a few words late at night.
Mr. Pan impeached his colleagues in the court. I am afraid not many people will believe his words. Could it be that you want to frame Mr. Ouyang and me?"
When Pan Shili heard this, he hurriedly said to Zhao Zhen: "Everything I said is true and there is absolutely no lie. Please take a closer look at it."
However, Zhao Zhen did not speak at this time, and just looked at the field lightly.
So Li Hao said: "Although officials have the right to speak out about official rumors, they can't just talk nonsense without any evidence.
If this is the case, in the future, Master Pan will join in the fun of anyone he sees who is unhappy, and the court will not be in chaos."
After listening to Li Hao's words, Zhao Zhen asked Pan Shili: "Do you have any evidence about the participation of the two Qing family members, whether it is personal evidence or physical evidence? If you have it, please present it and let me make a decision."
Then I saw Pan Shili hesitating there for a long time, unable to say anything.
So Zhao Zhen shook his head and said, "Please step aside first. As for your unreasonable impeachment of your colleagues today, I hope you can give me an explanation."
After this, no one came to play, so everyone retreated from the court.
After resigning from the court, Li Hao left the palace and went straight back to his home camp.
Seeing Li Hao come back, Gu Tingye and Yang Wenyuan gathered around him and asked, "How is it? Did anything happen to the court today?"
Li Hao then told the two of them what happened to Pan Shili today.
After listening, Gu Tingye said: "Fortunately, after the fire yesterday, you took the opportunity to lock the barracks and not let anyone in or out. Otherwise, it would not be so easy to continue the scene today.
Chapter completed!