Li Yuanying had never interrogated anyone before, but he didn’t need to do it himself. He could just watch others do it.
He called Huang Ying and Huang Li, and had them boil a pot of tea on the spot. He sat down leisurely and watched as the men tortured the bandits, his eyes never blinking. He felt no sympathy for these people who had tried to kill him. He sipped his tea and watched coldly as the bandits cried out in pain.
The accompanying guards felt ashamed of their failure to detect the bandits in advance. During the interrogation, they all tried their best to torment the bandits, making them wish for death.
Li Yuanying watched for a while, noticing that the bandits didn’t care about the physical pain. They cried out in pain, but they wouldn’t reveal anything. “Separate them and interrogate them individually,” he said, “Then compare their confessions. Whichever one has inconsistencies, once we find their lair, we’ll wipe out their entire family.” He curled his lips. “If the father is a bandit, the son is bound to be one too. The sooner we kill them, the better.”
Those bandits, around thirty to forty years old, didn’t look like they were homeless. Upon hearing Li Yuanying’s words, they glared at him with fierce eyes, looking like they wanted to kill him.
With so many people around, Li Yuanying wasn’t afraid at all. He called for Huang Li to pour him another cup of tea and said slowly, “What? Did the person who told you to do this not tell you that attacking the royal family is punishable by death and confiscation of property according to the law? Do you still want to protect your family? Whoever confesses honestly, I can write a petition to the Emperor, saying that he has made a confession, and ask the Emperor to pardon his family. Your lives are definitely lost,” he scanned the faces of the bandits, who had changed expressions. He felt that it was terrifying not to understand the law, but he didn’t show any mercy. “Whoever confesses first, who can save their son.”
After finishing his instructions, Li Yuanying said nothing more and ordered the bandits to be dragged away for separate interrogation. He put down his teacup and sighed, feeling exhausted.
If he could, he wouldn’t want to be involved in this killing and dying, this fight.
After a while, people from nearby areas all arrived. Li Yuanying’s attack was a major event, and no one dared to delay. If something had happened to Li Yuanying, they would have lost their positions and their lives! Li Yuanying perked up and responded to the arriving crowd, asking them to send people to track down the whereabouts of the remaining bandits.
With so many people on his side, Li Yuanying felt relieved and asked people to take inventory of the losses. The bandits’ catapults weren’t very accurate. Some carriages were not hit, but many were unfortunately damaged. Jade and porcelain were inevitably smashed to pieces. Even though Wei Jiu had reinforced them in advance, it was useless. However, the paintings were wrapped in many layers, so many managed to escape unharmed.
These were all precious treasures that Li Yuanying had painstakingly collected while paying New Year greetings. He looked around and his eyes turned red. These people were too much! They didn’t know how to use catapults, they shouldn’t have used them! Why did they have to aim at the empty carriages? What was even more frightening was that if those large stones had landed on people, they would have been smashed to pieces!
Li Yuanying ordered people to continue taking inventory and he wrote a letter to Emperor Li. He detailed the strength and ruthlessness of the bandits and included drawings of the carriages that had been damaged by the catapults.
When Li Yuanying finished writing the letter, filled with righteous indignation, the people below had also finished the interrogation. These people were indeed not the masterminds, they were bandits who had been wandering around. A few days ago, someone told them that a merchant caravan would be passing by, and offered them weapons and a plan to ambush Li Yuanying’s group in this dangerous valley. But they were only promised half the spoils. Of course, they didn’t agree to this split, and they haggled for a long time, finally deciding on a three-seven split. But they had to kill everyone in Li Yuanying’s group, because one of the people in the caravan was their enemy!
As for who these people were, the bandits didn’t know. They usually didn’t ask about the origins of the people they worked with. However, they said that after they got the bows and arrows and catapults, they turned against the person who had hired them and locked them up, but they didn’t know whether the person had escaped.
At this point, Li Yuanying knew that he couldn’t ask for any more. He ordered the letter to Emperor Li, the living bandits, and their confessions to be sent back to the capital by fast horses. They entered the city for a night’s rest, and the next morning, without staying too long, they set off for Tengzhou again.
This time, both the government office and the garrison felt uneasy. They assigned people to firmly protect Li Yuanying’s group in the middle. When they reached the next jurisdiction, they even proactively handed over the protection to the local officials, asking them to continue assigning people to take over, so that no one would have another chance to attack.
Li Yuanying’s urgent letter soon reached Chang’an.
Emperor Li was in a good mood that day, but when he received Li Yuanying’s letter, he flew into a rage.
Li Yuanying was a prince of the Tang Dynasty, his own brother! Who dared to attack him with such ferocity?
Not only were they equipped with bows and arrows, but they had also used catapults!
Who was so eager to kill Li Yuanying?
Emperor Li was furious and ordered the bandits that Li Yuanying had sent back to be interrogated thoroughly.
Even if the incident had happened far away from Chang’an, Emperor Li could easily wipe out the bandits’ lair. Within a few days, the results came in. Indeed, someone had instigated them to attack Li Yuanying’s group. They had already double-crossed the people who had found them to “get rich together” and locked them up. But after the incident, those people disappeared, and even the guards and the old and young who stayed behind were silenced!
This assassination was clearly not just for money, but for Li Yuanying!
The mastermind was clearly ruthless and cunning, once their plan failed, they immediately wiped out the bandits’ lair, cutting off all clues.
Emperor Li’s face became as heavy as water and he ordered the continued interrogation of the bandits.
With their wives, children, and elders killed, the bandits who had been captured would definitely confess everything, even if they had hidden things before.
News of Li Yuanying’s attack quickly spread throughout the court. Upon learning that someone dared to attack Li Yuanying, many people thought that the person must have been tired of living. Of course, some people also thought that Li Yuanying was too arrogant and deserved to be targeted.
But even if they couldn’t stand him, they shouldn’t have tried to kill him! A beating with a sack would have been enough. Trying to kill him was going too far! For a while, whether they liked Li Yuanying or not, all the officials submitted petitions saying that in broad daylight and under a benevolent rule, these bandits were so audacious, they had to be punished severely!
Emperor Li’s expression softened after reading the petitions from the officials.
Even if Li Yuanying hadn’t complained in his letter, or hadn’t come back to ask for his help, he wouldn’t have let him suffer this fright for nothing. Thinking back to what the guards who delivered the letter had said about Li Yuanying charging ahead at the front, Emperor Li felt, on one hand, “As expected, he’s my brother,” and on the other hand, he felt that Li Yuanying shouldn’t have put himself in danger.
After all, it was Li Yuanying who had been wronged. Emperor Li couldn’t write another letter scolding him, so he opened the imperial treasury, personally selected a batch of treasures and ordered them to be sent to Tengzhou to appease Li Yuanying, and expressed that he would thoroughly investigate the matter. At the end of the letter, he finally warned Li Yuanying that he shouldn’t charge ahead at the front next time. Swords have no eyes. This time he was lucky, but next time he might not be so fortunate.
After finishing the letter to Li Yuanying, Emperor Li went to court the next day and proposed to severely crack down on bandits, preventing such incidents of robbery and murder from happening again.
Of course, no official dared to oppose.
A grand campaign to suppress bandits and encourage them to surrender began.
But simply doing this wasn’t enough to relieve Emperor Li’s anger. According to the bandits’ confessions, it was obvious that someone was behind the scenes trying to kill Li Yuanying.
Who was it?
Emperor Li listed his suspects in his mind. After listing them all, he realized that Li Yuanying had actually offended a lot of people, such as his fourth brother who had been at odds with him, or how he had gone to talk to people when Hou Junji was imprisoned, or how he had gone to report that Zhang Liang was raising 500 loyal followers and didn’t know what he was up to, or how he had helped Gao Yang and Fang Jun dissolve their engagement and then asked Fang Xuanling to help Lu Zhaolin marry Gao Yang.
However, none of these grievances were worth killing Li Yuanying for.
His fourth brother, who was the most likely to have done it, was being watched by Quan Wanji, and couldn’t have carried out such a move. Zhang Liang and Hou Junji, even if they didn’t agree with what Li Yuanying said, wouldn’t have been so hateful as to want to kill him.
As for the Fang family, they didn’t have that kind of ability.
If it wasn’t old grievances, then it must be new ones.
Li Yuanying’s recent action was to publicly propose the construction of the Straight Road and the development of sea transport, vigorously encouraging everyone to engage in maritime trade and transportation using the Henan Straight Road. This involved a lot of interests. First, it would have taken away the benefits from those who had been engaging in smuggling and secretly profiting from it. Second, every canal and land transport route had people attached to it who profited from it. Li Yuanying’s change was equivalent to cutting off their source of income!
Emperor Li’s anger surged within him and he ordered people to investigate along these lines to see if those people had been acting suspiciously lately. After eliminating those who could not have produced catapults and crossbows, the remaining people were not difficult to investigate. Soon, the results of the investigation were presented to Emperor Li: It was actually related to the Duke of Xun Guo, Zhang Liang.
Zhang Liang wouldn’t be stupid enough to attack Li Yuanying himself, he was still sensible. But Zhang Liang, who was sensible, was extremely foolish in one thing: He loved his wife, Li.
Li wasn’t his original wife. After falling in love with Li, he divorced his first wife and married Li. He showered Li with love and affection, even ignoring her affair with someone else. The person who had tried to kill Li Yuanying this time was Li’s brother. Li and her brother were arrogant and didn’t care about the law or etiquette.
Li’s brother had originally profited from the canal transport, relying on Zhang Liang’s influence. But because he was too frequent in stopping ships and collecting money, people would rather take the extra trouble of going around, which led to a significant decrease in his profits for half a year. After learning from Zhang Liang that Li Yuanying was going to develop sea transport and encourage everyone to use the seaports and Straight Road he built, Li’s brother was both angry and anxious. He secretly planned to kill Li Yuanying.
Zhang Liang wasn’t innocent in this either. When he learned that his brother-in-law had done such a thing, he didn’t report it, but instead sent people to wipe out the bandits’ lair and cover up for his brother-in-law!
Emperor Li was furious and summoned Zhang Liang back to Chang’an.
Zhang Liang received the summons and was both surprised and afraid. He discussed with his loyal followers for a long time that night and didn’t go to see Li. The next morning, he went straight back to the capital to meet Emperor Li. As soon as he saw Emperor Li, Zhang Liang rushed forward and wept bitterly, saying that he had made a mistake, that he shouldn’t have covered up such a major crime for his brother-in-law, and begged Emperor Li to punish him, to strip him of his title and office.
Emperor Li looked at Zhang Liang, who was holding onto his leg and crying, and sighed. When Hou Junji had harbored treasonous intentions, Zhang Liang had directly told him about it, showing his unwavering loyalty. Even when Li Yuanying had told him that Zhang Liang was raising 500 loyal followers, he had only ordered people to keep an eye on him, without truly suspecting that Zhang Liang was planning to rebel.
Now that Zhang Liang was crying and admitting his guilt, Emperor Li couldn’t help but think of the time when Zhang Liang had recruited loyalists for him and had been framed by Yuanji. He had refused to confess no matter how severely he was tortured. “This matter, I must give Nascent Soul an explanation,” he said.
Zhang Liang said that he would accept whatever punishment he received.
Emperor Li ordered the confiscation of the Li family’s property, but allowed Zhang Liang to return to Luoyang and continue his post.
The matter was considered settled. Emperor Li had the results sent to Li Yuanying. To appease Li Yuanying, Emperor Li, in addition to the treasures he had sent earlier, granted him permission to recruit three thousand more elite soldiers and gave him three minting furnaces. It was illegal to mint private coins in the country, but some princes had minting furnaces and could mint their own coins, which were also legal currency that could circulate throughout the country.
But there were not many princes who had this privilege.
When Emperor Li was made the Prince of Qin, he only received three minting furnaces.
It was obvious that Emperor Li had a heated argument with the officials before making this decree.
When Li Yuanying received the letter, he had already arrived in Tengzhou and had received a round of warm greetings. He was quite satisfied with this decree. Even though Emperor Li hadn’t punished the Duke of Xun Guo, Zhang Liang had been following Emperor Li before he was born, so what was there to compare? He didn’t hide anything from Di Renjie and the others, and told them everything that had happened.
Di Renjie said, “We have a blood feud with this Duke of Xun Guo.” Li’s brother could act so arrogantly relying on the Duke of Xun Guo, showing that he was very close to Li. Now that Emperor Li had confiscated the Li family’s property for Li Yuanying’s sake, wouldn’t Li be whispering in the Duke’s ear every day? Besides, even if Li didn’t whisper, they wouldn’t forgive the Duke!
Just thinking about how if that ruthless plan had succeeded, Li Yuanying would have been gone forever, they were filled with hatred. Could this matter be settled just because Li Yuanying had reacted in time? That Duke Xun Guo dared to cover up for his brother-in-law!
Li Yuanying said indifferently, “We are in Tengzhou and they are in Luoyang. Even if we have a blood feud, we won’t see each other often.”
Dai Ting, who had been standing in the corner without speaking, said, “I will go to Luoyang.”
Li Yuanying looked at Dai Ting.
Dai Ting had rushed back as soon as he received news of Li Yuanying’s attack. But because Japan was across the sea, the matter had already been settled by the time he arrived.
Dai Ting raised his head, a cold fire in his eyes. He repeated himself, “Your Highness, I’m going to Luoyang.” Emperor Li and Zhang Liang had an old friendship, but they didn’t!
Seeing Dai Ting’s insistence, Li Yuanying hesitated for a moment before agreeing, “Good, go. Be careful.”
Dai Ting replied in agreement.
**Author’s Note:**
The little prince is not speaking today!
There are a full 3,900 words today! So diligent!
Since everyone says the mural gallery is beautiful! I’m going to change my ticket to go and see it again in the afternoon! I went too late that day, and after touring four museums, they were all closed!
One girl mentioned the Stele Forest. It’s actually quite beautiful too, I just forgot. It has Emperor Li’s beloved six horses! Their names are very Mary Sue! One is called Sa Luzi! But this one is a replica, the original was stolen. There are also many genuine inscriptions, showcasing the beautiful calligraphy from different dynasties. People with bad handwriting might start doubting their lives when they walk through it (no).
I’ll take a walk around Kaifeng in the afternoon, so that I’ll have covered Luoyang, Chang’an, and Kaifeng, where the little prince and Wang Xiaopang grew up! Happy! You might not believe this, but this is actually the first time in Sweet Spring’s life that she has gone on a trip alone! There are two more days left until the end! Including the travel time, it has only taken half a month! A happy occasion, let’s celebrate with some red envelopes! I’ll send out 200! I’ll send them on the bullet train in the afternoon!
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