Jiang Cheng quickly figured out what to say, then had Mo Qiong translate it into the current pronunciation and transmit it to him.
Jiang Cheng pretended to be agitated, covering up the awkwardness of his accent.
He first bowed to Wen Tianxiang, then said impassionedly, "The Chancellor has fulfilled both his loyalty and filial duty! This student has been enlightened. With the affairs of state reduced to this, as a member of the Imperial Clan, Mengshen would deserve death a thousand times over. How could I suffer further humiliation?"
"I... I will certainly repay the country with my death and preserve my honor... Sob, sob, sob..."
As he spoke, Jiang Cheng was overcome with grief, and tears streamed down his face.
My rank as a duke!
He was genuinely crying. He did not know whether Wen Tianxiang would die after hearing those words, but he himself definitely would not live much longer...
Although he and Wen Tianxiang were still being treated with courtesy, their lives and deaths were actually subject to a single thought from the person in the capital. Zhang Hongfan simply did not dare to act on his own authority.
Apart from the emperor and officials who had surrendered when Lin'an fell, the scholar-officials, generals, and members of the Imperial Clan captured afterward had basically all been executed.
Even Emperor Deyou, who had surrendered, was later exiled to Tibet, where he died of illness.
Wen Tianxiang and the others would be sent to the capital and executed as well. As for Jiang Cheng, a member of the Imperial Clan, he could forget about surviving unless he wholeheartedly shouldered some infamy.
Once the Battle of Yamen ended and the Southern Song was completely destroyed, a minor member of the Imperial Clan like him would have no further value. They