Yusui Chang'an

Chapter 1313 Treat each other with courtesy
No matter how angry the emperor was in his heart, he still treated Master Yao with courtesy on the surface.

On the pretext that Grand Tutor Yao had just recovered and was not suitable for overwork, and had been away from court affairs for many years, although Grand Tutor Yao was allowed to return to the court, he was not sent on any real mission and was only allowed to attend court sessions as an observer.

It was within Yao's expectation that Grand Tutor Yao would not give up his power, so he readily agreed without any dissatisfaction and expressed his gratitude to the emperor for respecting his teacher. The emperor was so annoyed that he got very angry after leaving the court. The palace servants who served him were all so nervous that they dared not even breathe.

The emperor thought that Master Yao was enough to annoy him, but the next day he received another report from the commander stationed in Pingzhou:
When clearing out the bandits, they discovered that the weapons they used were all Tianchu weapons.

A few days later, the Dingbei Army also sent a secret report:

The weapons used by the Mobei people seemed to be made by the Tianchu government, and their quality was better than those received by the Dingbei Army. As a result, the Dingbei Army was defeated in the first battle with the Mobei Army.

Fortunately, both sides intended to test the enemy and sent only a small number of people to fight, so there were not too many casualties.

Although the emperor already had his suspicions in his mind, he felt that the two events were too coincidental. For the sake of the overall situation, he temporarily suppressed the matter and sent spies to investigate privately.

After much deliberation, the emperor sent a message to Concubine Xian, allowing her to hold a farewell banquet for her brother in her palace on the grounds that the Han family would be heading to the border soon.

In order not to appear deliberate, the emperor first let the empress dowager spread the news: a banquet would be held in the Changshou Palace to see off his nephew from his natal family, Yue Jianlin, a general of the Pingnan Army.

Allowing concubines to hold banquets to entertain their families was a great favor. Concubine Xian thought that the emperor did so because he relied on his brother to pacify the world.

When he heard that the emperor knew that the empress dowager wanted to hold a farewell party for his nephew and therefore thought of asking her to host the banquet as well, he immediately let down his guard, thanked her joyfully, and sent someone to deliver a message to his brother.

He summoned his brother, sister-in-law, nephews and nieces into the palace, and asked Chu Chengye and his wife to keep them company, making for a lively half-day.

After the Han family left the palace, the emperor heard Zheng Cheng's report. Han Yaohui used the excuse that he had just recovered from his injury and Han Qi had recently quit drinking, so both father and son did not drink a drop of alcohol. The emperor played with the sachet on his waist with a deep look in his eyes, and after a moment, he became complacent:

The old fox was on guard, but he was still one step behind.

Zheng Cheng glanced at the sachet:
Others only knew that the sachet was sewn by Lady Yi, who had recently gained the emperor's favor, but they did not know that the original spices inside had been replaced by anti-poison beads by His Majesty.

At that time, the Prince of Jin presented the anti-poison bead to the emperor. The emperor asked the imperial physician to check it, but he was still worried. After testing it many times and finding nothing wrong, he started to wear it close to his body.

While he was thinking, a palace servant came in to report that the prince, who had just been released from house arrest today, wanted to see him, saying that he had found clues about the assassination at Shanchuantan.

The prince bowed and stood up, presenting a large stack of clues and confessions. The emperor glanced through them, his eyes filled with anger and hesitation.

Just as he used the confession of Mingye Pavilion to judge Qin Zongliang as the mastermind of hiring a killer to kill Lin Jinyan many years ago, the prince took out the clue that Chu Chengyao planned the assassination...

Without waiting for the emperor to ask, the prince took the initiative to speak:

"Father, the assassination at Shanchuantan happened so suddenly and so strangely. Since the assassination, I have been worried about your safety every day. I have been investigating the matter privately and vowed not to let go of the thief who wanted to harm you.

After searching carefully for many months along the route, we finally found clues. I know that bringing out these evidences at this time may be seen as an attempt to exonerate my cousin.

But my cousin also brought disaster upon himself because he helped me investigate this matter. Although Cheng Yao is my blood brother, he colluded with the Mobei spies to assassinate my father. I will never tolerate this. I beg my father to investigate it carefully. "