Chapter 103 Falling out of favor
Prince of Qi Yang Ling also came up and awkwardly admitted: "We are cousins. What happened before is nothing. Qiao Lingze and Liu Qian'an, the two fools who made trouble out of nothing, have already been driven out of the palace by me."

Li Jiancheng sighed, looked over there pretentiously, and whispered:

"Of course I remember the blood relationship with Your Highness, but I was suddenly assigned by Your Majesty. These guards are also your Majesty's trusted guards. I can't control anyone except my two servants."

Hearing this, the two men trembled and were speechless. Li Jiancheng slowly admired the anxiety on Yang Ling's face, then turned to the other side and waited for the result.

He had already guessed what he could find. A few days ago it was probably the former crown prince, and now it was most likely the emperor's grandsons who were conferred the title of prince. If Yang Ling was ruthless enough, maybe even His Majesty.

Liu Jianzhi grabbed Yang Ling and said, "Go to His Majesty now and confess your guilt. Don't hide anything. Tell him everything clearly."

Yang Ling was already at a loss. He nodded woodenly after hearing this and was about to run to the palace. Liu Jianzhi grabbed Li Jiancheng and begged, "Just please go slower."

Li Jiancheng shook his head. He saw the leader of the guard team coming out from the back house holding a bunch of small wooden men and talismans. Seeing that Li Langjun was held back, he jumped on his horse and rushed towards the palace as Li Langjun had instructed.

Liu Jianzhi wanted to step forward to stop him, but he was already old and frail, so how could he stop the palace guard commander whose skills were no less than Shen Guang? He fell to the ground powerlessly, watching the knight's back as he walked away in the flying dust.

Li Jiancheng stepped forward to help him up and said, "You did your best."

But in the eyes of Your Majesty, if one tries his best but fails to get the job done, then he is incompetent. Why waste food while still being incompetent?

They both knew the emperor's character clearly, which was why Liu Jianzhi insisted on teaching the King of Qi even though he knew that the King did not have the bearing of a monarch.

"It is still difficult to escape this disaster, Mr. Li. If I die here, Your Majesty, can you spare my children and grandchildren?"

"That will only make His Majesty more angry."

"Why do you teach me, sir?"

Li Jiancheng said: "We must not conceal the faults of the King of Qi in the slightest. We must tell them all so that everyone in the world will know that it is not that Your Majesty does not love the King of Qi, but that the King of Qi is a dandy and unrepentant person."

"Your Majesty really intends to pass the throne to your grandson?"

"Mr. Liu, if you follow my instructions, you can still save your life. As for the rest, it is not your place to make decisions, so why worry about it?"

When the two returned to the palace to report, they saw the emperor holding the previous emperor's imperial staff, circling around the king of Qi and scolding him. The king of Qi was no longer as unruly as before, and he buried his head and stuck out his butt, shouting: "My son is guilty, my son is guilty!"

"Of course you are guilty! As an uncle, you actually used the method of curse to suppress your own nephew. You deserve to be born worse than pigs and dogs!"

This is really hard to judge. The King of Qi was just praying to the gods for help, but you treated your own nephew directly and killed him directly.

But obviously no one dared to bring up this topic. When the emperor saw them come back, he pointed at Liu Jianzhi's nose and scolded him, and then summoned all the officials of the fourth rank and above in the court and the officials of the Prince of Qi's palace to come over.

Li Jiancheng stepped forward and repeated to the emperor what Liu Jianzhi had said, including the matter about Wei, in a tone without any emotion.

Yang Ling turned back to look at Liu Jianzhi angrily. It was impossible for Li Jiancheng to find out everything so quickly. Yang Guang did not expect Yang Ling to be so arrogant. He waited until he became emperor to do whatever he wanted. This guy dared to keep Wei's daughter Yuan as his concubine before he ascended the throne.

He immediately ordered the commander of the guards who had just returned to order Wei to commit suicide, and then dealt with all the people in the outer house.

Upon hearing this, Yang Ling rushed forward, hugged Yang Guang's legs and said, "Father, Wei gave birth to a daughter for me, which is also a merit. What's more, she is pregnant now, which may be your grandson. Please have mercy!"

The emperor was so angry that he couldn't speak. He kicked him away and hit him hard several times with his stick. Then he threw away the imperial stick and sat back on the dragon throne, panting. As his breathing calmed down, there was no trace of joy or anger on his face.

Everyone lowered their heads at the same time, quietly waiting for the arrival of court officials and officials from the Prince of Qi's palace.

After a while, court officials arrived. Seeing this situation, no one spoke. They just kept their mouths shut and stood by quietly. However, the officials of the Prince of Qi's mansion were not like that. They were frightened on the way here and kowtowed and begged for mercy when they arrived before the emperor.

The emperor ordered the beheading of thirty people and the exile of more than a hundred people and their families to Xinjun. The emperor questioned King Qi and Liu Jianzhi in public. King Qi dared not speak. Liu Jianzhi reported the truth and demoted King Qi to a beast.

Everyone thought that Liu Jianzhi would definitely die, but unexpectedly, the emperor sighed after hearing his sentence and simply demoted him to a commoner.

As for the King of Qi, the emperor removed him from his position, exiled all his old ministers, and ordered the commander of the imperial guards to be promoted to the rank of Tiger Guard General, who was responsible for guarding the King of Qi and not allowing him to do anything evil.

What a cruel move! The King of Qi could forgive and befriend anyone except the commander of the imperial guards, who personally killed Wei and the child. He was a person who had an irreconcilable feud with the King of Qi, yet he was responsible for guarding him.

When the emperor becomes cruel, what does his son matter?
Li Jiancheng did not say anything, but the officials who had been silent all this time could no longer sit still. They had heard about how many mistakes the Prince of Qi had made, but after all, he was the emperor's only legitimate son who had grown up.

Compared with the fact that the throne cannot be inherited in an orderly manner in the future, what the King of Qi did is just like that. Not to mention a country, even a county or a prefecture cannot be without such people.

The Grand Historian Yu Zhi pleaded for the King of Qi, but this was what the emperor least wanted to hear, especially since he remembered that Yu Zhi's son was an official in the King of Qi's mansion.

"You cannot serve me with all your heart, but instead let your son serve the King of Qi. Why are you so disloyal?
Yu Zhi hurriedly said, "I serve Your Majesty, and you serve the King of Qi. We are truly of one mind and dare not have second thoughts."

The emperor sneered and looked at Li Jiancheng and asked, "This is one heart, do you agree?"

Li Jiancheng said solemnly: "There is no two suns in the sky and no two rulers in the country!"

After hearing this, the emperor immediately demoted Yu Zhi to a county magistrate. The other officials also guessed the emperor's intention and it seemed that he was going to arrange for his children to accompany the emperor's grandson in school.

After the farce was over, the emperor kept the Secretary Yuan Mao, and after comforting him, promised that he would marry him to a princess of the Yang family after the storm died down. Yuan Mao thanked the emperor in tears for his great grace.

Although Liu Jianzhi lost his official position, he still did not dare to rest. He talked to people everywhere about how ridiculous the King of Qi was. The common people also talked about it and despised the King of Qi.

But it was soon overshadowed by good news from the other side. General Chen Leng led his troops across the sea to conquer the Ryukyu Kingdom, successfully captured the capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom, killed its king Kecidou, captured more than 10,000 Ryukyu people, and returned to the capital.

…………

(End of this chapter)