Chapter 2325
Although more than a month has passed since the incident occurred, and the Haihan Army arrived in Seoul and began to take over the city defense, the military control state inside and outside Seoul still continues. The only difference is that the implementer is replaced by the Haihan Army.
People in the city still cannot get permission to leave the city, but they can leave their residences and go out for activities during the specified time during the day. Shops selling daily necessities, such as grocery stores and rice stores, have also gradually reopened. Seeing that the situation is gradually calming down, the mood of the people in the city has stabilized, and they believe that this storm should be over soon.
Then the official released the latest news. Due to the unfortunate death of His Majesty the King, the crown prince who just returned from Haihan Kingdom will succeed and become the new king. At that time, the martial law regulations in Seoul will be gradually lifted, allowing people's lives to return to normal. state.
It seems that everything is moving in the right direction, but not everyone has escaped the shadow of the coup. Those who were directly or indirectly involved in the chaos a month ago now have to face strict investigation after the incident.
All kinds of protective umbrellas that could play a role in the officialdom in the past were all ineffective this time, because the person who ordered the thorough investigation of the king's assassination was the crown prince Li Zhen who was about to ascend the throne, and the person who carried out the investigation was the Haihan people. It was necessary to deal with these two people. It would be unwise for any of them to go against each other.
All civil and military officials in the city from second rank to above have been informed, and the prince asked them not to leave the city until they were investigated. The military attachés who hold military power are the first to bear the brunt. They must report to Bingcao Yamen at the designated time, otherwise they will be treated as suspects.
Such an order cannot be resisted. After the military commander Shen Jingzhen returned to the city, the military power of all military attachés was temporarily frozen. Without Shen Jingzhen's order, they were not allowed to command and mobilize any troops. This basically cut off some of the The possibility of people taking desperate risks.
The office of the temporary investigation agency is located in Bingcao Yamen, but the person in charge of the investigation is not Bingcao judge Shen Jingzhen, but a Haihan man. Shen Jingzhen only sits on the second seat to assist in the investigation.
Although this arrangement is somewhat unreasonable, the officials in the DPRK and the Central Government knew that the Crown Prince went to Haihan for a year, and that he quickly returned home after this incident, and returned to Seoul to take charge of the overall situation under the escort of the Haihan Army. This shows that the Crown Prince has great regard for Haihan. With trust and reliance, it is not surprising to find a Haihan person to preside over the investigation work.
Even if some people are dissatisfied with the Crown Prince's behavior, they would definitely not dare to publicize it at this time. After all, the Crown Prince is about to ascend the throne and will soon be the king of a country. From now on, everyone will have to beg for food under his hands. No one wants to be in this situation. Sometimes I ruined my job.
As for this investigation, most people have the mentality of just dealing with it, and not many people think that the investigation led by the Haihan people can really find out anything.
But only when they actually enter the Bingcao Yamen to be investigated, they will realize that this investigation is not just a formality to fool the superiors. It is almost impossible to deal with it casually. The person from Haihan who presided over the investigation was quite powerful. All the questions he asked were straight to the point. Moreover, Shen Jingzhen was sitting next to him. If he did not cooperate well, he would be suspended on the spot for investigation.
The inner imperial guards, concurrent servants, and Habayashi guards known as the inner three halls are all regarded as key targets of this investigation because they are directly responsible for the personal safety of the king. The heads of these three departments have never left the Bingcao Yamen gate since the beginning of the investigation.
Fu Li spent about a day and roughly got a grasp of some of the circumstances on the day of the accident through questioning. Regarding the assassination of the king in the royal study, the first reaction was made by the servant who served as a guard around him. After receiving the warning from the servant, the Imperial Guard and the Habayashi Guard immediately implemented martial law inside and outside the palace. On the one hand, they controlled the palace. Insiders blocked the news, while the other party also tried to capture the assassin and his accomplices.
As for the situation in the royal study, only a few chamberlains and military attachés who were also servants knew about it at the time. Then it was announced that the king had been assassinated. The assassin committed suicide on the spot after succeeding.
The Royal Guards Battalion immediately entered the palace and took away all relevant persons in the name of investigating the case. Even the king's body was secretly transported out of the palace in the same name. According to reliable information, the top leaders of the imperial guard camp have all promoted Cui Gaoyang, who is a relative of the same clan as Cui Mingji, who is in charge of political affairs. According to the genealogy, he is Cui Mingji's nephew. Cui Gaoyang's series of actions after the assassination seemed to be inseparable from Cui Mingji.
Kim Sang-hyun accused Cui Ming-gil of colluding with the Manchus to plan the assassination. If connected with it, Cui Goyang's actions seemed to be to eliminate relevant evidence of the assassination. After all, the relevant people disappeared after being taken out of the palace. Not only were there no interrogation results, they even disappeared. This is obviously not a normal investigation method.
Now that the matter has been investigated, it seems that it will be clear as long as Cui Goyang is detained and brought back for a first trial. However, the problem is that in the previous battle launched by Kim Sang-heon against Cui Mingji's faction, Cui Goyang was killed in the battle and his subordinates were also dispersed. It was not possible to confirm for a short time whether there were other insiders.
Fu Li could only turn around and investigate the Jian Si Pu who was the first to alert him. However, the Jian Si Pu who gave the order at that time was also taken away by Cui Gaoyang and has not been heard from since. Later, his deputy took charge of commanding the Jian Si Pu. What happened in the Imperial Study Room at that time is not clear.
However, through this series of investigations, Fu Li also confirmed one thing. After the incident in the palace, Cui Mingji and Kim Sangxian, both important ministers of the imperial court, rushed to the scene of the incident quickly. This means that Kim Sang-hyun is likely to be the only insider who knows the circumstances of the Royal Study assassination case.
However, Qian Tiandun believed that there were many loopholes in Kim Sang-heon's initial description of the incident, so he did not trust him or the version he described. Fu Li would probably come to the same conclusion if he went to him for evidence again.
While the investigation work temporarily hit a bottleneck, Li Zhi ushered in the most important turning point in his life, inheriting the throne and ascending to the throne as king.
However, because the matter was decided in a hurry, no large-scale celebration ceremony was held. There were only dozens of North Korean officials and invited Haihan representatives in Qinzheng Hall.
After Cui Mingji's death, Kim Sang-heon became the first person in the court, so he presided over this ceremony. Since the previous king had gone to the west, the whole ceremony was missing many links and started directly with paying homage to the late king.
According to tradition, Kim Sang-heon took the lead in adding a posthumous title to the deceased King Li Jie, "King Xuan Dexian, Moon Yeol, Wu Myeongsu, Sunhyo", which is considered a good thing.
As for the new king's ascension to the throne, in addition to the designation from the previous king, another indispensable condition is the recognition and canonization from the suzerain country. In the past, the Ming Dynasty was responsible for this errand. Every king of Li's North Korea was canonized by the Central Plains Dynasty, so that it was justifiable to sit on the throne. At this stage, North Korea has basically broken away from its dependence on the Ming Dynasty and no longer regards it as its suzerain state. The task of canonization was naturally handed over to Haihan to complete. There happened to be a high-ranking official from Haihan attending the enthronement ceremony, so the matter was settled.
After receiving Kim Sang-hyun's signal, Wang Tom stood up, cleared his throat and said loudly: "Our country deeply regrets the unfortunate death of His Majesty the King of your country, and will assist the Crown Prince to conduct a thorough investigation of what happened before and after His Majesty's death. . His Royal Highness is young and promising, and has demonstrated extraordinary diplomatic and governance abilities while studying in my country. We are convinced that after the Crown Prince ascends the throne, he will continue to promote the friendly cooperative relations between the two countries and maintain the unbreakable alliance! ”
"On behalf of the State of Haihan and the Executive Committee of Haihan, I would like to express my approval and congratulations to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince for inheriting the throne of the King of Korea. From today on, the Crown Prince is the new king of the Kingdom of Korea recognized by our country! Our country will continue to work with His Majesty the King as always We will jointly maintain good diplomatic relations between the two countries and maintain a unified stance on international affairs. Our country will also provide firm support to the way His Majesty the King governs the country.”
Although what Wang Tom said was all official, it also fully demonstrated Haihan's support attitude towards Li Zhi - except Li Zhi, he would not recognize anyone who would sit in this position.
Haihan's attitude was actually expected by all parties. After all, so many resources had been invested in Li Xie, how could he just sit back and watch the throne fall?
It is worth mentioning that the two brothers who had been avoiding Li Zhi since he returned to Seoul finally came to the Qinzheng Hall today to watch their brother's enthronement ceremony together.
Li Zhi's absence from them was actually a suggestion from Haihan, in order to avoid unnecessary complications as much as possible. After all, some people in the court may still have the idea of taking advantage of the chaos to support his two brothers. It is best for the two brothers to give up such thoughts on their own. If his two brothers had enough brains, they should understand what Li Xie's attitude meant.
Wang Tom's speech already stated Haihanguo's opinion, and naturally no one dared to question it. At this point, there was no obstacle to Li Zhen's succession to the throne. Kim Sang-hyun held up a tray and presented the king's jade seal, asking Li Zhen to come to the throne and accept the kneeling of the ministers.
After hearing this, Li Yan straightened his clothes, then slowly climbed up the few steps in the palace and stood in front of the throne.
He was named the Crown Prince when he was more than ten years old. It has been more than ten years now. He has been attending the government with his father for several years. Of course, he has dreamed of the day when he will sit on the throne more than once. But when the moment actually arrived, he was not excited. He looked at the ministers in the palace with calm eyes, as if he wanted to see more from their humble and cautious expressions.
After all the ministers knelt down and bowed in obeisance, Li Xie subconsciously said, "Everyone loves you, please be free." Only then did he finally have the real feeling of being a king.
Regarding what to say and do at today's enthronement ceremony, Li Xie had thought about it many times in the past two days, and immediately started to organize it one by one.
The first thing to emphasize is, of course, the follow-up investigation of the assassination of the late king. Li Zhi said coldly: "Regarding the assassination of my father, although the assassin who carried out the attack is dead, there are still too many doubts in this matter that need to be ascertained. No matter who in the court is related to this matter, I will definitely be completely alone." Find out! I have entrusted this matter to the experts of Haihan Kingdom. I hope that all my dear friends can cooperate with the investigation and do not try to hide the truth. Once anyone is found to be obstructing the investigation, they will be treated as treason! ”
Everyone in the hall lowered their heads to listen, but no one dared to answer at this time. The officials who can stand here and go to court now, even if they have not directly participated in the battle in the past month or so, have at least stated their position to a greater or lesser extent and have not chosen the wrong side. Although the young king did not mention it, he must be very aware that the essence of this chaos lies in the conflict of interests between the Jin faction and the Cui faction.
But whoever dares to form cliques at this time will really make themselves uncomfortable. The king obviously wants to investigate not only those people who died, but the more important targets should be the people standing in the Qinzheng Palace.
There are even some people who have already thought about their position. The Jin and Cui factions are all nonsense, and they don't dare to make mistakes in front of a truly powerful faction like Haihan. From today on, I am an iron-blooded royalist, loyal only to the king.
Li Zhi then announced the second thing: "In this process of quelling the rebellion, General Wang Tom and General Qian Tiandun of Haihan Kingdom played the most important roles. In view of the fact that these two generals played a major role in the war against the Qing Dynasty last year, Our country has made great contributions and has been stationed on the banks of the Datong River after the war to protect the great country of Korea. How can we not be rewarded for such contributions! Chuan Gu ordered that the two generals, King Tom and Qian Tiandun, be the generals of our country's protector. ! From now on, the two generals will not need to communicate with each other at any time, and will be given special seats when they go to court!"
This move, which was clearly seen by the officials, was to tightly bind Haihan and himself. Two generals named Haihan were appointed as generals to protect the country. Although this was just a title, they might not fight tooth and nail for North Korea if there was a war. But with Haihan's backing, who would dare to challenge the authority of the young king? ?
Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun thanked Li Xie for the reward together, and then enjoyed the exclusive seats. Although there are only two Taishi chairs, it is a very good treatment to be able to sit in the court and watch the excitement.
Of course Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun understood that Li Zhi was using tiger skin as a banner and wanted to use his status to intimidate the ministers. However, they did not mind being tools for a time. After all, they wanted Li Zhi to secure the throne as soon as possible. , which is also the goal they want to achieve.
Li Zhi then announced the third thing: "As we all know, our country and the Haihan Kingdom have become allies and have cooperated extensively in many fields. However, there has been a lack of corresponding guarantees before, so I recently discussed with the two generals After that, it was decided to sign a new cooperation agreement to standardize and manage some specific matters. Today, we signed this agreement with Haihan State in front of all the ministers. ”
After saying that, someone handed over the text of the agreement. Li Xie raised his hand to signal, and the official who handed over the text began to read out the contents of the agreement.
(End of chapter)