Chapter 286: The First Case in the Tang Dynasty, Strict Punishment

Outer hall of Kunning Palace.

Chen Huaian had just sat down when Xiao Po, the Marquis of Loyalty, hurried over. After kneeling down, he reported in a low voice:

"Your Majesty, Hu Dalin, the vanguard general under the command of Liu Ziyu, the deputy general of the Longcheng Southern Expedition Army, got drunk and broke into the palace at night. He had a conflict with Wu Feng, the deputy commander of the Jinwu Guard and the Earl of Guangling, who was guarding the palace gate, and accidentally killed Wu Feng, the Earl of Guangling!"

"What?"

Even Chen Huaian, who had been cultivating his mind day and night in recent times and thought he could not show his emotions, could not help but frown after hearing the news brought by Xiao Po.

He guessed that Xiao Po's late-night request for an audience must be something big.

However, Chen Huaian never expected that the arrogant soldiers and brave generals in the army broke into the palace at night and killed the deputy commander of the Jinwu Guard on the spot.

To put it mildly, this was a drunken trouble by the arrogant soldiers and brave generals;

To put it seriously, this was preparing for a rebellion!

Chen Huaian immediately asked: "Xiao Po, when did this happen?"

Xiao Po replied: "Your Majesty, it was one stick of incense ago!"

"When I was leading troops to inspect the gates of the imperial city, I arrived at Chengtian Gate and saw Hu Dalin holding a knife and wounding people. Guangling Bo Wu Feng fell in a pool of blood;"

"I immediately ordered the accompanying Jinwu Guards to arrest Hu Dalin and his five companions and take them to the Jinwu Guards' station for temporary custody, and then rushed to Kunning Palace to meet the emperor."

Chen Huaian asked again: "Who else knows about this?"

Xiao Po replied: "Your Majesty, except for the parties involved, me and the accompanying Jinwu Guards, no one else knows."

Hmm!

Chen Huaian nodded and ordered: "Xiao Po, I order you to interrogate Hu Dalin and his group overnight to find out the whole story;"

"In addition, no one is allowed to reveal a single word to the outside world before the case is clear."

"Go!"

"Minister, obey the order!"

After receiving the order from Emperor Zhaowu Chen Huaian, Xiao Po, the Marquis of Loyalty, immediately took the order and left.

And Chen Huaian still sat in the outer hall of Kunning Palace for a long time, with a gloomy look in his starry eyes.

Someone died on the first day of the founding ceremony.

It seems that someone in this new dynasty wants to express his dissatisfaction with him as the emperor in this way of "bloodshed and death"!

In fact, Xiao Po didn't need to interrogate Hu Dalin and his group overnight, Chen Huaian could probably guess the whole story.

Obviously, these arrogant soldiers and generals of the Sixteen States of Youyun were dissatisfied with the emperor's reward to Liu Ziyu and wanted to speak up for Liu Ziyu;

What Chen Huaian could not be sure of was whether there were any surrendered generals and old ministers from the previous dynasty in the south involved in this.

Among the sixty people who were conferred dukes, marquises, and earls of the Tang Dynasty, six dukes were all Chen Huaian's direct generals; among the eighteen marquises, there were only three surrendered generals from the previous dynasty; and among the thirty-six earls, there were only twelve civil and military officials from the previous dynasty.

Among the sixty people who were conferred, forty-eight were from the north and only twelve from the south.

In this way, with the end of the conferment ceremony, the court structure of the Tang Dynasty will also undergo subtle changes.

This is not just a contradiction between the emperor and the powerful ministers, but also a contradiction between the interest groups of the previous dynasty and the noble groups of the new dynasty, and between the interest groups of the north and the interest groups of the south.

Chen Huaian had a hunch that the arrogant soldiers and generals of the Sixteen States of Youyun breaking into the palace gate at night was just the beginning of the outbreak of contradictions.

In the future, there will be more headaches for him!

"A thousand things to think about!"

Ah——

Chen Huaian leaned back in his chair and sighed, closing his eyes and thinking about what the next path of the Tang Dynasty should take.

The next day.

Before the court meeting, Xiao Po, the loyal and righteous marquis who interrogated Hu Dalin and his group overnight, reported the confessions of Hu Dalin and others to Chen Huaian before Emperor Zhaowu Chen Huaian went to court.

Hu Dalin and his group were bachelors, taking all the responsibility on themselves, and never mentioned their good brother Liu Ziyu.

Looking at the confession, several people confessed unanimously, insisting that they had an argument with Guangling Bo Wu Feng, who was guarding Chengtian Gate, after drinking, and then accidentally killed him. Chen Huaian couldn't help but sneer.

As he expected, the civil and military groups in the states of Youyun have been intertwined and united after hundreds of years of development. It is estimated that it is more difficult than climbing to the sky to dig out some useful information from their mouths.

Although the Dragon City Internal Guards in Jinling City had witnessed Hu Dalin and his group riding horses directly from Liu Ziyu's drinking party to the palace;

However, Chen Huaian did not want to use this as an excuse to purge the Youyun nobles and arrogant generals in the court at the beginning of the new dynasty.

On the one hand, he did not have any substantial evidence to show that Hu Dalin and his group broke into the palace at night and committed manslaughter at the instigation of Liu Ziyu, the head of the Youyun Sixteen States;

On the other hand, now that the new dynasty has just been established, the generals responsible for guarding the important border towns of the Youyun Sixteen States are all Youyun generals of Liu Ziyu's faction. If the Youyun nobles in the court are purged at this time, it may provoke a mutiny at the border;

At that time, it is still the border people of the Tang Dynasty who will suffer!

In addition, the frontier officials of the southern provinces will surely try to figure out the emperor's intentions in handling this matter. Once they find that he, the emperor, has the idea of ​​purging the old ministers of the previous dynasty, they will inevitably rebel.

In the end, Chen Huaian decided to keep a low profile on the matter, not to exaggerate it, and to deal with Hu Dalin and his men in accordance with the Tang Dynasty Law.

At the court meeting that day, Chen Huaian handed the matter over to the Ministry of Justice for handling.

The Ministry of Justice responded very quickly. Hu Dalin and his group had committed crimes such as privately storing weapons, breaking into the palace at night, and accidentally killing people. According to the Tang Dynasty Law, they were sentenced to death for multiple crimes.

In addition, in view of the bad influence of this case, the Ministry of Justice suggested strict and severe punishment when sentencing. It was decided to behead Hu Dalin and his group at the Caishikou of Jinling City three days later to serve as a warning to others.

As the core and key figure in the first case of the Tang Dynasty, Wuyi Bo Liu Ziyu learned from other people that Hu Dalin and others broke into the palace last night after leaving the court that day;

He accidentally killed Wu Feng, the deputy commander of the Jinwu Guard and Guangling Bo, and then was directly sentenced to death by the Ministry of Justice at today's court meeting, and the execution will be carried out three days later.

After hearing this news, Liu Ziyu collapsed on the chair in the inn.

Liu Ziyu did not attend the court today. According to the arrangement of the Ministry of Rites for the civil officials and military officers who went to Beijing to attend the Emperor's coronation and enthronement ceremony, after the enthronement ceremony on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the civil officials and military officers from all over the country had to set off to return to their respective garrisons.

Therefore, Liu Ziyu should also lead the civil officials and military officers of the Sixteen States of Youyun to return to their garrisons today and continue to guard the border for the Tang Dynasty.

Only because Hu Dalin and his five companions had not returned, Liu Ziyu postponed the time of leaving Beijing again and again.

He even held a glimmer of luck and fantasized that Hu Dalin's breaking into the palace to meet the emperor last night would change the emperor's mind and bring him some good news.

Who would have thought that he would not be able to wait for the return of his top general Hu Dalin in the end.

But he waited for the news that Hu Dalin and his five companions would be executed at Caishikou three days later.

At this moment, Liu Ziyu felt cold sweat running down his face and fear was born in his heart.

"General, Prince, the Prince is here!"