Chapter 241 Captivity
"Sir Wang, why did you leave your post without being summoned?"

Wang An paid his respects and said, "Your Majesty, I have heard about Pei Ji's affairs. I had several correspondences with him not long ago, and the letters involved the King of Qi. Therefore, I have come to the capital to apologize."

The emperor asked calmly, "So, as the King of Qi said, you framed the prince of the court?"

"No, I just followed Pei Ji's instructions and told the imperial envoy the truth about the King of Qi."

"You are talking nonsense, my brother..."

Li Jiancheng was no longer in the mood to quarrel with Li Yuanji, so he asked Wei Zheng directly, "Is there any injustice in the matter of the King of Qi?"

Wei Zheng said: "I don't know what connection Wang Shaoyin has with Pei Ji, and I don't have time to investigate. I was ordered to investigate the King of Qi, and the King of Qi is indeed evil and corrupts the court's laws. Wang An and others are officials of Bingzhou. They knew about it for two years but didn't report it. They should also be severely punished."

Li Jiancheng nodded: "What do you think should be done?"

Jin Wang Li Xuanba stepped out and said: "I think the Qi Wang should be dismissed from his post, stripped of his title, and imprisoned in the capital to reflect on his mistakes."

"What do you think?"

If it were in the past, the vast majority of officials would have agreed with what Prince Jin said, but now, after an intense emotional upheaval, many officials understood one thing.

If the so-called position cannot be changed according to the emperor's wishes, then there is only one way out, which is death.

Therefore, half of the officials agreed with the King of Jin, and half of them advised that he should be severely punished, just like the example of Li Youliang, the former Duke of Changle County.

In this way, the emperor's attitude became decisive.

Li Jiancheng had long lost his patience with his restless brother: "The Prince of Qi has betrayed my will, is cruel and violent, harms the people and breaks the law. I order him to be stripped of his title and dismissed from his official position, expelled from the clan and imprisoned in the clan house!"

"No! Brother, Your Majesty, I know I was wrong! I won't dare to do it again. No... You can't treat me like this. I am your brother, Father and Mother, I want to see Father and Mother!"

Li Yuanji's face was distorted. He could not be imprisoned forever, but no one paid any attention to him. All the ministers and royal family members just lowered their heads, and their fear of the emperor became stronger and stronger.

Some old officials felt very familiar with it. They were also like this when Emperor Yang ascended the throne...

The King of Qin and the King of Jin looked at each other and stood up to plead for mercy, but the emperor ignored them. Instead, he warned all the ministers in front of him to learn from the incident.

The deposed King of Qi, who had lost his composure, was dragged away. He would rather go without food for three days than go without hunting for a day, and it was unknown how long he could survive in the small space of the clan residence.

Then came Wang An. The emperor put him in the prison of the Ministry of Justice. He had to wait until the court sent envoys to Bingzhou to investigate the case again before he could be convicted and punished.

Wang An thanked the emperor profusely. Although he might still not be able to escape death, since the emperor did not directly order his beheading on the charge of colluding with Pei Ji, it was a great favor from heaven. At least his family would not be implicated.

Before the court was dismissed, the emperor issued an edict to promote the Prince of Chu to the rank of Prince, and to temporarily take charge of all affairs in Bingzhou.

…………

When Xu Shiji and others learned that Pei Ji and his followers had their property confiscated and their families exiled, they no longer had any worries and focused on fighting the Turks.

In the Turkic camp, Jie Li Khan had a gloomy face and looked towards Chang'an from time to time, while Tong Yehu Khan, who was sitting on the other side, had an even uglier expression.

"The agreed time has long passed, and none of the messengers we sent have returned. It seems that the plan has failed."

Jie Li Khan said angrily: "Damn the Central Plains people. We told them long ago that if we let them reach the gates of Chang'an, they would be safe. But they still wanted to guard against us. In the end, they accomplished nothing!" Tong Yehu stood up and said: "I will lead my troops to retreat. Maybe I was wrong this time. I shouldn't have trusted those Central Plains people, let alone you.

Now we have not obtained the covenant, but have offended the Emperor of Central Plains."

Jie Li sneered: "Did I beg you to come here?"

Their confidants hurriedly tried to stop the fight. If it was on the grassland, it would be fine, the worst that could happen would be a war, and there have been conflicts every year, but now it is in the Central Plains.

In fact, the reason why the two Turkic tribes joined forces was very simple. The Tang Dynasty recovered too quickly, and the Sui Dynasty had just passed not long ago. They all remembered how the Sui Dynasty oppressed them during its heyday.

At that time, the Turkic Khan could only humbly lie on the ground and weed in front of the emperor of the Central Plains, bowing and fawning like a dog.

Therefore, they would put aside their hatred for each other and head south here, just as the Central Plains is always willing to send people to sow discord among the tribes on the grassland and let them consume each other's strength.

They have already learned this trick, and this time they are here to verify that a weak and divided Central Plains is the best.

At this time, someone reported that the envoy they sent out had returned. The Turks did not have so many rules. As soon as someone reported it, they came in directly.

But they looked extremely miserable. Besides the blood stains all over their faces, the most obvious thing was that they were all missing an ear.

"What's going on? What on earth happened over there?!"

Tong Yehu's uncle Gelulu replied with tears in his eyes: "They are all dead, the prime minister of the Central Plains, other officials and nobles, and even their wives, children and parents."

Zhishishili didn't cry, but said with some fear: "These days, we are taken to a place every morning to kneel down, and then they start beheading us. Every day, they kill from dawn to dusk, and there is blood everywhere..."

The vivid description made all the Turks feel uncomfortable. Why did it feel like the emperor of the Central Plains was even more brutal than us Turks?

That shouldn't be the case. Many people here have seen the emperor. He was a handsome man like General Changsun, generous, kind, powerful and interesting.

"We just met the Emperor of Central Plains yesterday. He first ordered his men to cut off one of our ears, and then asked us to come back and tell the two Khans.

He is going to send a million troops to conquer us. I hope we will not flee, but come to decide in an upright manner who will dominate the grasslands and the Central Plains."

Are you kidding? We only have 200,000 people. If you really send a million-strong army, anyone who doesn't run away would be a fool.

The eagles on the grassland are always free to come and go.

Tong Yehu asked Jie Li: "Do you think what he said is true? Or is he just trying to scare us and make us withdraw our troops?"

Jie Li Khan recalled his impression of Li Jiancheng and always felt that this was not something that person could say.

Of course, the most crucial thing is that according to convention, if they retreated, the Central Plains would definitely gather troops to attack him first, not the Western Turks.

Jie Li shouted, "It's fake. The Central Plains is very complicated. Even if he killed those people and saved his throne, he would have fallen into civil strife. He simply couldn't muster so many troops!"

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(End of this chapter)