Chapter 47 Trust
Shortly after returning from the queen's funeral, Yang Jian officially canonized Chen and Cai as noble ladies and began to live a life of drunkenness and debauchery.

Yang Su, who performed very well in selecting a lucky place for the queen, was praised by the emperor. "Yang Su managed the funeral affairs and diligently sought a lucky place. Judging from his heart, he was extremely sincere and filial. How can his achievements be compared with those of pacifying the enemy and suppressing the bandits? You can give your son the title of Duke Yikang and grant him a fief of 10,000 households."

Li Jiancheng was not promoted to a higher position, but was rewarded with a thousand households, a hundred hectares of land, ten thousand pieces of silk, ten thousand stones of rice, gold, pearls, silk and brocade, and three hundred slaves.

Because Xiao Ji's last words were unlucky, he did not receive any reward.

The reward Yang Su received was undoubtedly beyond the limit. Choosing a cemetery was rewarded much higher than winning a battle that affected the fate of the country.

How would the soldiers guarding the borders think? And how would the officials working hard to govern the local areas think?

Yang Su's reputation became worse and worse, and the momentum to attack Yang became more and more massive.

In the Prince's Eastern Palace, You Pushe repeatedly assured that he was old and frail and only wanted to retire from this position and return home, with no intention of going any further.

Li Jiancheng pointed out: "The key lies in Liu Shu. Without him, no matter what the others do, they cannot shake the Duke of Yue."

"Has Your Highness ever tried to appease Prince Consort Liu?"

Facing Li Jiancheng's questioning, Yang Guang said in embarrassment: "Of course. He would never agree to anything else, but when it comes to this, he said the princess would not agree either."

Everyone's eyes fell on Yang Su, and Yang Su couldn't help but frown.

When the princess got married for the first time, her husband Wang died of illness due to poor health. Her father-in-law, Grand Tutor Wang Yi, felt sorry for the princess who had to be a widow at such a young age, so he took the initiative to write a letter to the emperor, asking him to issue an order to allow the princess to take off her mourning clothes and remarry.

It was a good thing both morally and logically, but Yang Su, the Imperial Censor at the time, impeached him, saying, "He is disrespectful to customs and hurts education. He is unkind as a father. He neglects etiquette and makes funerals easy, which makes his wife unrighteous. If he indulges her without being upright, it may hurt customs. Please punish him according to the law."

This eventually led to Wang Yi violating a taboo and being sentenced to death. The princess was kind-hearted to begin with, and when she saw her eunuch die for pleading for her, how could she not hate Yang Su?

As for the grudge with the Liu family, the father and uncle of the prince consort were originally friends with Yang Su in the same dynasty. When the emperor established the Sui Dynasty, the two did not explicitly support him. Naturally, his status in the new dynasty was not high.

After Yang Su became famous, he ridiculed the two men, saying "The two Lius are all destroyed, and only Yang stands tall." Liu Shu naturally resented his father and uncle for being ridiculed in this way, and he wanted to be irreconcilable with them. His lifelong hobby was to humiliate Yang Su in public.

Now Yang Su is the Prime Minister and commands all the ministries, except the Ministry of War. Whenever Yang Su's orders are passed to the Ministry of War, Liu Shu will simply refuse: "Tell the Minister of War that the Minister of War will not agree!"

Everyone didn't know what to say for a moment, and there was no particularly good idea. It was easy to frame the Crown Prince, the King of Qin and the King of Shu because they involved the emperor's connivance and acquiescence. The King of Han did not escape unscathed, it was just that he backed down.

If he didn't retreat, just standing there would be enough to make Yang Guang, Yang Su and others worry.

The same is true for Liu Shu now. The emperor favors him, so he has an indestructible golden body and it is difficult for any shady tricks to harm him.

Li Jiancheng stopped talking, just looked at Yang Su and thought, the moon is full and then it wanes, just as the water is full and then it overflows, the Yang family's most glorious time is about to pass, and Yang Su will soon be pulled down.

When a high-ranking official like Zuo Pushe was helpless against the provocations of his subordinates, his authority was doomed to weaken, and in the court, the weak were not worthy of being in a superior position. Some time later, Yang Su, with the full support of his followers in the Eastern Palace, began to suppress Liu Shu and others. Others could still be demoted, but Liu Shu's crimes, no matter what they were, were trivialized in front of the emperor.

During this period, the Yang family and the Li family also returned to their honeymoon period, because compared with the Yuwen family, the Li family seemed extremely sincere and actually brought in their in-laws and old friends to work together.

Li An was demoted because Liu Shu found a handle on him, but he remained unshakable and would strike back fiercely against the Liu family if he had the chance.

Not only did Yang Su hold a special banquet to entertain him, but even Yang Jishan was forced by Yang Xuangan to be Li Jiancheng's younger brother.

Although this little brother had a sullen face every day, fortunately he was obedient. After Li Jiancheng teased him a few times, he stopped bullying him and treated him with the same attitude as before, which touched Yang Jishan quite a lot.

But Liu Shu was not someone who was easy to bully. After all, he had the emperor's support, and the prince could not confront the emperor head-on, so Li Jiancheng's official position was demoted again and again.

They had all fallen to the ninth rank of Prince's Stables Supervisor, in charge of the Eastern Palace's carriages and horses, idle stables, and livestock management.

Fortunately, he has never relied on his rank to make a living, and as an official in the Prince's Mansion, he has a leisurely life and does not even need to report for work.

Crown Prince Yang Guang even sent an order to the Eastern Palace, stating that as long as the Eastern Palace had anything, no matter if it was rare treasures, eagles, dogs, or fine horses, Li Jiancheng could take whatever he wanted, and no one could stop him, and he did not need to be informed.

Li Jiancheng was not polite either. The prince said this as if he was offering a fortune for a horse's bones. He was telling everyone that as long as they abolished private letters and considered the overall situation, he would remember it and reward them generously.

As Yang Jian himself indulged in lust and pleasure, he naturally could no longer make the same demands on the princes as before. In addition, as Yang Guang was the crown prince, it was natural for him to have some interactions with the ministers.

There are indeed a lot of good things in Yang Guang's palace, which is incomparable to the former Prince Jin's Palace.

If he was still the Prince of Jin, and Yang Guang said he could take whatever he wanted, Li Jiancheng would have to spit inwardly and ask, "Do you want me to use the clothes given by the Princess of Jin to subsidize the household expenses, or your broken zither with broken strings, or that rotten screen made of plain silk without any pattern on it?"
But now it is different. The celadon Biyong inkstone, the crackled green and yellow glaze is really nice, take it away. The thirteen-ring black jade belt is a good thing, take it away. The silk fabrics of Xiangzhou are really good. The gorgeous clothes of Qingzhou are as beautiful as their reputation. This rosewood screen is really exquisite, take them all.

The rest of the horses, hawks and dogs are even worse. Whenever they have nothing to do and come to check in, they will definitely take a few away.

Not only was Yang Guang not angry, he sometimes even made fun of Li Jiancheng for his young age and poor taste at banquets. He deliberately placed several extremely rare treasures in that room, but Li Jiancheng did not choose any of them and moved away those flashy ones.

Li Jiancheng pretended to be angry and said angrily: "I will choose a day to wipe out all your treasures!"

Yang Guang laughed loudly, while the others were envious. They wondered when they would be able to be so unscrupulous with the prince.

As Li Yuan was also seized the opportunity to be demoted and dismissed from office, the father and son, one in the East Market and the other in the West Market, spent the whole day hosting banquets for guests and spending lavishly, making the scene very lively.

The situation on Yang Su's side was not so good, mainly because he could not stand Liu Shu's ability to meet the emperor and serve him every day on the pretext of the princess. Such persuasion made the emperor doubt Yang Su's character and loyalty.

………………

(End of this chapter)