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Nirvana in Fire
Episode 53
I think...
The plead of all the ministers is very reasonable Your Majesty, please grant their plead
You, you
-Your Majesty, your Majesty- -Leave me
What do you think you're doing
Are you forcing me?
Xie Yu is long dead!
Merely by a hand-written letter that is easily forged
and her her words that come of sheer imagination
You want me to remand a decade old case
Your Majesty, Your Majesty
Your Majesty This case is not only about what to charge Xie Yu
but rather to convince the country of the Imperial Court's sentences
If we let this go, rumors are sure to arise
What will take damage is Your Majesty's name and stability of the country
Therefore, I again beg Your Majesty, to accept our plead
and grant the remand of the Chiyan Case.
Your Majesty, I too support the plead! Such outrageous injustice has been unheard of
Whoever hears of this, cannot keep a clear conscience and pretend not to know
Since the verdict war wrong, it has to be righted again That's the most simplest principle Your Majesty
How dare you
Mu Qing Mu Qing Are you revolting too
I too join in the plead
Your Majesty, Grand Princess Liyang words just now
show a clear string of logic, the facts unambiguous
Whether according to law or to reason, there is nothing that speaks against reviewing the case
I do not understand, what it is that causes Your Majesty to hesitate as such
Precisely as Marquis Yan pointed out Your Majesty, we support the plead Please grant us your approval
We support the plead. Pleas grant us your approval.
You are all clan relatives Part of the clan
Who Who made you treat me like this
How could you all treat me like this?
Your Majesty
Jingyan
I join the plead Please grant approval to remand the Chiyan Case
You
You...it was you. I should have known
It must have been you.
According to Liyang's charge
The main culprits are no one else besides Xie Yu and Xia Jiang
As they have already been executed why are you still pushing for a retrial
This case concerns the truth, the innocence
It's not just about convicting two people
Then who else do you intend to convict
This case concerns cardinal principles of right and wrong
All those who are guilty, all those who have failed their duties, need to be punished
Such grand words "those who are guilty" "those who have failed their duties"
Just who are you talking about
What if I don't give my consent
Is the Crown Prince going to force me to abdicate my any chance
Jingyan has been taught by Prince Qi in my early years As everyone knows
Brother's sole wish was for the kingdom to last for eternity and for the people to live in happiness
What he did not do in the past, I too will not.
So you will not What about him
If not for Sir Su's outstanding talents
I probably will not see such a scene
Surely now you will not tell me, that you can hold back, can you, Sir?
Will you keep silent
26th year of Jingyun Your Majesty was still a prince
Falsely accused, a Damocles sword at your pulse
It was your classmate and camarade, later Commander of the Chiyan Army, Lin Xie
who risked his life and found evidence of your innocence Brought them back to your precedessor
that saved Your Majesty's life
Jingyun 29, Struggle of the Five Princes poured the capital into blood
back then General Lin was only a Commander General at the City Patrols
He himself led 300 men on horses, stormed into the Imperial Guard's battalion, used all his powers, finally helped Your Majesty to the throne
Silence! I order you, silence!
Kaiwen 10, Xijin was lost, Jinling surrounded
It was again General Lin, from the distant Southern Borders, he came to take down the enemy's leader In a bloody battle that lasted 3 days, he ended the chaos in Jinling
Whether as a friend or as a subordinate General Lin never once betrayed Your Majesty's trust
What the Crown Prince and the ministers ask for today
is nothing but to restore the truth back then
Just why is Your Majesty this antagonistic towards such a natural request
You, you Who are you? You are not Su Zhe!
You are the resurrected traitor, aren't you?
Guards, kill him! Kill him!
Traitor
Traitor. Out of the way.
Traitor. Traitor.
-Traitor -Your Majesty
Traitor
Your Majesty. Your Majesty.
Traitor.
Move aside.
Move aside
Do not think I won't kill you.
if I kill you, tomorrow, there can still a new crown prince.
You can kill me.
You can kill anyone who dares to reopen the Chiyan case because you are the emperor.
But once you have killed everyone are you still the elevated emperor?
Jingyan has always taken Prince Qi as a role model
But I, will never be another Prince Qi
Traitors
-Brother -Traitors
Traitors
So be it. After the ceremony, we shall continue our battle
Your Highness
"We shall continue our battle"
What is there I can fight over now
Unknowingly A Crown Prince, only my delegate in Court
Has long slipped out of my grasp
The Imperial Army, the Capital Patrols
All of them adhering to the orders of the Crown Prince
The Ministry of Defense, the Xingtai Army outside the capital
They are all his people.
Although I am the emperor, high above all else,
yet he has pushed into the corner, into such a pitiful situation
You dare to show yourself before me?
Your Majesty, the Crown Prince is only requesting to reopen an old case,
not start a rebellion.
What is His Majesty calculating troops for?
You mother and son, you two have been hiding your ulterior motives all along
Scheming stealthily to remand the Chiyan Case
I truly must have been blind
to favor and trust such unfilial, disloyal creatures as you!
So the we were scheming.
But there is on thing Your Majesty should realize
The reason the Chiyan case is bound to be reopened
other than our "stealthy scheming",
there is another important reason.
What reason?
The truth.
The truth that was always there.
Your Majesty, as the Son of Heaven
As long as you don't want to know what happened
no one can force you to.
Yet, even the most powerful and dignified emperor
has things he cannot achieve
For instance You cannot influence the conscience and morals of the people
you cannot change the criticism of historians in the future.
Just as you cannot prevent the once close deceased
From entering your dreams, walking towards you
Has Your Majesty recently again dreamt of Consort Chen,
Princess Jinyang
-Dreamt of Prince Qi- -Stop it!
Why are they looking for me?
It wasn't my fault. It was all Xia Jiang... Xia Jiang and Xie Yu.
I do believe
Even someone as despicable as Xia Jiang
Will have to have one or two persons he dare not see in his dreams
One thing that Xia Jiang was right about - he has returned hasn't he?
All of this, it was because of him.
It was because he came back. Isn't it?
What does it matter if he has or not?
Xia Jiang's treason is a fact, Chiyan's innocence, too, is a fact
Your Majesty only has to be clear on these two things
you can see it like black and white, what more is there to infer?
Has Your Majesty still not realized
That time, the bond between father and son, the love between husband and wife, the fraternity between comrades,
the commitment between emperor and subordinate They all disappeared
amidst your endless, ungrounded suspcions
I don't want to hear this. Gao Zhan!
Gao Zhan!
Coming
-Your Majesty -What is the current state outside?
-The crown prince is outside the palace -And the Ministers?
Your Majesty, none of them have left the court.
Your Majesty, would you like to meet with the Prince?
No. Not the Crown Prince.
I want to see Su Zhe.
I want to speak with him alone.
Yes.
If you don't want to see him, you don't need to go in.
There was a time when he was just a doting uncle.
But now there is only hatred and bitterness between us.
Xiao Shu
He cannot stop me from re-trialing the Chiyan case.
Don't worry. He and I will just be having a chat.
Greetings, your Majesty.
Remember the first time I met you, I asked you
why did you come to Capital for?
You said it was because you saw something in Jingxuan and Jinghuan
that you had to come, am I right?
It was the truth.
But it wasn't the whole truth.
At the time, everything was under your Majesty's control. How could I tell the complete truth?
And now? Now I have grown old and fragile in the palace
Unable to command a single soldier
So now, you no longer
need to have any scruples, do you?
Your Majesty is still Your Majesty. Even now, the people await your rule of virtue and justice
So you mean to say, that only if I agree to reinvestigate the Chiyan Case,
will I be considered "virtuous" and "just"?
The Crown Prince has hold of the entire Court now
I can no longer do him any harm
Why did you not wait till I died before re-trialing this case?
Because that would be different.
What would be different?
For Prince Qi, it would be different.
-How long has he been in there? He- -His Majesty right now can't do anything to Xiao Shu.
Tell me then, at Jiu An San
why didn't you take action then?
This is what your Majesty asks.
Consort Chen. Prince Qi. Princess Jingyang.
Those that died, were they not related to your Majesty? Were they not your family?
But the moment their names are mentioned, what is it that your Majesty thinks?
I don't believe it. Do you really just want a re-trial?
Especially you. I don't believe you.
How hours has it been since Princess Liyang spoke of Xie Yue's written confession?
Does your Majesty not want to see Xie Yue's confession?
Does the truth of what happened really not matter to you?
Your son, your blood, was forced to death,
-does this not bother you? -Enough!
Enough
I have seen this confession. How General Lin was framed,
how Prince Qi wronged, died in prison
Everything was written very clearly and detailed.
I have a copy, does His Majesty want to read it?
No
Or I can read it to His Majesty.
No, don't read it.
I..I don't want to hear it. Don't read it.
Does His Majesty not want to hear it or is it because he's afraid of what he will hear?
Prior to his death, Prince Qi insisted for the Imperial Order that instructed his execution to be repeated thrice
After he heard the edict, he said only one thing.
Father does not know the son, son does not know the father.
After saying that, he drank the poison wine. Does His Majesty know why he said those words?
If Your Majesty knew Prince Qi
You would not suspect him of ever wanting to revolt
If Prince Qi knew Your Majesty
He would never go as far as refusing to believe till his execution, that you truly wanted to kill him
Your Majesty, may I ask Now, knowing that both Prince Qi and General Lin were innocent
Do you feel even the slightest bit of regret?
But Lin Xie, Lin Xie growing his military influece and his defying the imperial authority is a fact
People I sent him, he sets aside, only trusting Prince Qi's men with important positions
Going into battle, he keeps on saying "On the front lines, a field commander must decide even against the king's orders"
How could I indulge such arrogance! And there is Prince Qi
In court, he cultivates his support among the ministers, at his manor, he prone to presumptuous wild talk!
Even the daily reports of the ministers showed such traces
In their reports, the ministers would mention "...which is also intended by Prince Qi"
How, how am I to tolerate him
He is both subordinate and son
Yet he repeatedly defied me, all the while saying "for the country", "for the country"
Tell me! Is this country mine, or Xiao Jingyu's!
The country, is the people's country!
If not for the people, what need for an emperor
If not for the country, what need is there for a rule
For the spark of a doubt, you instructed a massacre
Your Majesty's heart, only has room for your imperial powers, has it ever granted so much as a corner to the nation?
Prince Qi's good name is earned through his own achievements
Whenever you differed in opinion, he always voiced as such to His Majesty directly, never resigned to disrespectful words behind your back
Yet his honesty and righteousness is reduced to merely "defying" in Your Majesty's eyes
When he took the poison in prison
how desolated must he have felt in his heart
I assume Your Majesty would never understand
Even for the long gone bond between father and son
For Prince Qi's resolution, never to raise his weapons against you even in death
Is it so hard to re-investigate the case, is it so difficult?
It is not that I was born heartless.
As long you sit on this throne
people will change.
Remember, no matter how jingyan is like now
when he sits on this throne, he too will change.
The Court that Lin Xie once wanted
the empire that he desired
I could not give it to him. Prince Qi could not give it to him.
No one could have given it to him.
Your Majesty's stray from the right path on the throne, lost your original intention
But not everyone will end up like this
As a father, you did not know Prince Qi. And you don't know Jingyan either.
Very well then.
What you want, I will do it.
Re-investigate, Re-judge.
Then, I personally will announce the truth to the people. For all I care!
But I have one condition.
No matter what
Jingyan is my son.
But you
you are different
Blood of the Chiyan men have been shed all too much
I cannot let Lin Shu
I cannot let you live here, in this palace
standing in front of me, in front of everyone
do you understand?
Very well.
I promise.
What about Jingyan?
He won't agree to it. How would you convince him?
Your Majesty would never allow for Lin Shu to exist
for the people would point at mistakes of the past.
This I had thought of already. Lin Shu no longer lives.
How I convince Jingyan, will be my business.
But from this day forward, you and I need not see each other again.
Wait. Wait.
You have to believe me, I was deceived by others.
Lin Xie supported me for ten years.
Your mother, Jingyang, was my blood sister.
I held you, took you riding with me,
piggy backed you, flew kites with you
do you remember?
His Majesty's decree
Grand Princess Liyang was the first plaintiff for the Chiyan case.
With Xie Yu's handwritten confession as evidence,
the Crown Prince is ordered to manage the reopening of the case.
Prince Ji, Marquis Yan and
official Ye Shizhen of the Supreme Court will be presiding the trials.
Re-investigate all evidence, interview all witnesses
and return justice to the world.
Receive this grace.
I accept the decree.
We accept the decree.
Everyone, please rise.
The criminal Xia Jiang is currently imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice.
You may call for him at any time. Please remember that
I only want the facts, and the truth.
There is to be no dishonesty and distortion of events.
This, I trust the three of you can do.
Yes.
This case took a month, and has finally finished.
I ask that Minister Ye report to His Highness.
Ever since the Chiyan case reopened, I have not been able to sleep.
Who would've thought that a longstanding General's household, an honorable Prince and tens of thousands of loyal officials and soldiers
would be wiped out by the hand of corruption.
If it weren't for the Crown Prince's anger and turmoil that burned until this day,
the truth of this case would never have been revealed.
Indeed. Everyone knows how concerned the Crown Prince is.
However, he has never involved himself in the trial. It is obvious that
he truly believes the innocence of his eldest brother and General Lin.
What is Marquis Yan thinking about?
I was think if this Su Zhe is...
Never mind, it's nothing.
The crown prince has arrived
What do you guys want to say
I was initially very worried the day you presented the case in front of the imperial court.
I was worried that once you achieved what you set out to do, that last bit of energy you had would be gone
Over the past 13 years, with every step I take, I have been able to be slightly relieved.
I've walked to this last moment simply because I want to see the outcome, and see my wish come true.
Since the result is within my grasp, what difference does the feeling of relief make?
Stop lying now. Do you think I don't know you?
What do you know about me?
Appearing to be composed doesn't mean that you are truly calm.
It is because you have never had a feeling of relief. Am I right?
You are afraid. Afraid that now everyone is happy, your body takes for the worse
and cause worry for everyone.
So you are thinking that no matter what, you have to hold on a few more months.
Even if for a few days, it would be better than dying as soon as the case was overturned.
It is not that I don't trust your skills
If that is the case, then trust me
don't give yourself a timeline. Don't think about how much longer you can live, whether it be five months or 10 months.
You just have keep trying, and I will too. Okay?
Okay.
♫ How many scrolls can be filled with stories of change? ♫
♫ Troubled times stirring fear ♫
♫ Blood still flows but no one cares ♫
♫ Raging fires consume lifelong hopes ♫
♫ The sword is given away to her ♫
♫ With no wish to live out the rest of my years ♫
♫ The Emperor’s palace is still imposing, and towers above all ♫
♫ Crystal clear vows split the night sky ♫
♫ The red bow of yesteryear hangs empty on the wall ♫
♫ The march of battle begs for an end while the armor is still bright ♫
♫ The world cannot hide my pure heart ♫
♫ It is my belief that the world be like a painting ♫
♫ Holding up the spear at the borders, who will repair the heavens? ♫
♫ A spear of justice and sacrifice, the youth of yesterday ♫
♫ returns by his lonely self, beacon flames no longer seen ♫
♫ It is written for all to see ♫
♫ That wind ♫
♫ scatters the clouds. ♫