Do you know: I am the crown prince

Chapter 515 Arrest
When Queen Liang heard what Zhao Xing said, she could no longer remain calm.

She knew very well that it was impossible for the Tangut nobles in Western Xia to negotiate with the Song Dynasty to allow her to return.

At most, it's just a superficial clamor and gesture.

It was precisely because of this that after she met Zhao Xing, she directly seduced Zhao Xing in order to seduce him and return to Western Xia.

When her seduction failed, she began to talk to Zhao Xing about the benefits of letting her go back.

Who knew that Zhao Xing had no intention of letting her go back.

If she stays in the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty will definitely not do anything to her for the time being, but what about the future?

Judging from Zhao Xing’s performance just now, if she stayed in the Song Dynasty, she would only become a plaything.

Although she was confident in her looks, Zhao Xing would not lose interest in her any time soon.

But she was the queen of Western Xia, so how could she be willing to stay in the Song Dynasty and be Zhao Xing's plaything?

"Your Majesty, with your intelligence, should understand that if I cannot go back, the Liang family will have a hard time in Xixia. I am willing to contact the Liang family and help the Song Dynasty when it sends troops to Xixia."

"In this way, the Song Dynasty will surely be able to easily destroy Western Xia. I have only one request. After the success, Your Majesty must not treat my Liang family badly, and must confer me the title of Imperial Concubine!" said Queen Liang.

"Let's talk about this later. For now, the Song Dynasty has no intention of sending troops. From today on, you will live in the palace." Zhao Xing said.

Zhao Xing naturally couldn't believe that Queen Liang surrendered so easily.

Zhao Xing understood what she was thinking after just a moment's thought.

Queen Liang wanted to get in touch with the Liang family. Only in this way could the Liang family rescue her.

As for whether the Liang family will do this, there is no need to consider it at all.

Just as Queen Liang said, the Liang family is now in a difficult situation, and the only way to break the impasse is to rescue Queen Liang.

This matter does sound tempting, but if Empress Liang is allowed to contact the Liang family, even if the correspondence is reviewed by someone before being sent to Western Xia, it will be difficult to prevent her from passing on any news to the Liang family.

Who knows if they have a secret code or something.

In order to prevent the Liang family from rescuing people, Zhao Xing simply let Queen Liang live in the palace.

As for whether there would be any adverse effects, Zhao Xing didn't care at all.

Empress Liang was different from Empress Dowager Xiao. Empress Liang was captured by the Song Dynasty and was equivalent to a trophy.

Besides, it was Gu Tingye who presented it to him. Not to mention keeping it in the palace, even if he took it as his wife, no one could say anything.

In ancient times, when generals went to war, if they captured women of status and good looks, they would present them to the monarch.

The monarch has always accepted such offers, because it not only represents the monarch's status and authority, but also the subject's loyalty to the monarch.

For example, when Hou Junji conquered Gaochang in the early Tang Dynasty, he not only intercepted a part of the treasures, but even enjoyed the queen of Gaochang while in Gaochang.

After returning to the Tang Dynasty, although he was not directly held accountable, he was never reused by Li Shimin again and was left on the bench.

Out of resentment in her heart, she hooked up with Li Chengqian.

Does Li Shimin care about the little treasure he has hidden?

It was very common in ancient times for military generals to intercept some of the spoils of war. As long as the matter was not too excessive, the emperor would pretend not to know even if he knew about it.

If the water is too clear, there will be no fish. Otherwise, if your subordinates taste the benefits, who will work for you?

Don’t think that those who supported Li Shimin in launching the Xuanwu Gate Incident were noble. Perhaps they were impressed by Li Shimin’s personal charm, but more importantly, they did it for the purpose of following the dragon.

They have been labeled as Li Shimin's followers, and even if they surrender to Li Jiancheng, they will not be reused.

In addition, Li Jiancheng has been suppressing Li Shimin's confidants. Once Li Shimin falls, their lives will only become more difficult.

For their own sake, they had to fight together with Li Shimin.

If Hou Junji was just greedy for money, Li Shimin would not care at all.

However, Hou Junji directly enjoyed the Princess of Gaochang, which was unacceptable to Li Shimin.

Even though Gaochang was just a small country, the princess was equivalent to the queen of a country.

Whether Li Shimin wants it or not is one thing, and even if he despises it, he can give it to Hou Junji as a reward, but Hou Junji cannot decide on his own.

Empress Liang's identity was sensitive, as she was the Empress of Western Xia. Even if she was a trophy of the Song Dynasty, no minister dared to take her when Zhao Xing rewarded her to him. He could only enjoy her with great effort.

Empress Liang turned pale when she heard this. Although she was originally under house arrest, the Song Dynasty had not yet decided whether to release her or not, so the residence arranged for her was not small.

Her freedom was restricted, but her residence was no secret. If the Liang family sent someone to rescue her, they would still be able to find out.

Although the Liang family wanted to rescue her in the capital of the Song Dynasty, the hope was slim.

But there is hope after all.

Once you are kept in the palace, there will be no hope at all.

"I thought that His Majesty the Emperor of the Song Dynasty was a wise and brave man, comparable to the Qin Emperor and Han Emperor. I didn't expect him to be so short-sighted." Queen Liang said sarcastically.

"Such sarcasm has no use to me!"

Zhao Xing pinched Queen Liang's face as if he was looking at a work of art.

"You are very beautiful. I have tasted you and you are indeed fascinating. If you are obedient, I can let you enjoy wealth and luxury for the rest of your life. But if you still have delusions, I will send you to a brothel."

"The Queen of Xixia is so beautiful, and she is worth 10,000 taels a night. I think there will be countless people flocking to her. What do you think?"

Queen Liang looked at Zhao Xing's smiling face and felt that he was like a devil, which was chilling.

If Zhao Xing really treated her like this, then even if she was rescued and brought back to Xixia, the people of Xixia would not recognize her as the queen mother.

"Why do you look so unhappy? Be good and smile. Otherwise it won't look good."

Upon hearing this, Queen Liang forced out a smile that was uglier than crying.

Zhao Xing nodded in satisfaction and said, "That's good. I like obedient women."

…………

"His Majesty!"

Yin Hanzhang bowed.

"Are there any progress?"

Zhao Xing waved his hand and asked.

Yin Hanzhang knew what Zhao Xing was referring to and shook his head, saying, "There has been no progress so far. The counterfeit currency issue has yielded some results."

"Speak!" Zhao Xing said lightly.

"It has been found out that officials and wealthy businessmen from all over the country were involved in minting counterfeit currency, and the son-in-law Li Jie was the mastermind." Yin Hanzhang said.

Zhao Xing pondered for a while after hearing this and said, "He was pushed out as the mastermind by someone else, right?"

Although the matter of counterfeit currency has not been fully investigated, one thing can be confirmed: counterfeit currency has existed since the founding of the Song Dynasty.

In other words, counterfeit currency existed as early as the Tang Dynasty, but it is hard to say whether it existed earlier.

Although the technology used in minting copper coins in ancient times was the most advanced at the time, it is very difficult to mint counterfeit coins.

But those counterfeit coins were not minted very finely, and although they could not be distinguished as real or fake at a glance, they were almost the same.

However, truth or falsehood is often not important; what matters is whether you recognize it or not.

It does not need to be recognized by the whole world, as long as it can be circulated as genuine, is there any difference between real and fake?

How old is Li Jie? Even the entire Li family has not been prosperous for a long time, only in recent decades.

"Your Majesty is wise!" Yin Hanzhang said, "Before, it was Prince Yong. After Prince Yong got into trouble, these people found Prince Consort Funing."

"Now that we have found out the truth, let's start arresting people!" Zhao Xing said calmly.

It doesn’t matter whether Li Jie is the real mastermind or not. What matters is that he committed the crime knowingly, so he is guilty.

"Yes!"

Upon hearing this, Yin Hanzhang bowed and walked out.

…………

In the south of the inner city, just a few hundred meters away from the imperial palace, there is a mansion covering an area of ​​more than 100 acres.

There is a plaque hanging above the gate of the mansion with five large golden characters inscribed on it - Princess Funing's Mansion.

In ancient times, marrying a princess was not called "marrying". In ancient times, the emperor's daughter getting married was called "going out to marry" or "going down to marry", while marrying a princess was called "marrying a princess".

After a princess gets married, she does not need to live in her husband's house, but lives in the princess's mansion.

In a sense, marrying a princess in ancient times was no different from marrying a son-in-law, except that the children did not have to take the princess's surname.

After all, the princess is of noble status, and even her parents-in-law need to bow to her when they see her.

For example, Fang Yiai, who was known as the cuckold king of the Tang Dynasty, married Princess Gaoyang. Princess Gaoyang had an affair with someone, and he had to guard her outside.

Many people find it difficult to understand Fang Yiai's actions, but if you understand the ancient system, you will understand it.

The princess represents the reputation of the royal family. What can Fang Yiai do if the princess has an affair with someone?
Report?

Stop joking, where is the royal family's dignity if they do this?
Even if Li Shimin was in the wrong and didn't do anything to the Fang family on the surface, wouldn't he make things difficult for the Fang family in secret?
But it was different for Fang Yiai. He had suffered so much injustice, but he was still guarding outside to save the face of the royal family.

When Li Shimin finds out, he will feel that he owes the Fang family a lot.

To be honest, Fang Yiai definitely couldn't have done this with his brain, and no one would believe him if he said it wasn't arranged by Fang Xuanling.

But there are exceptions to everything. When Wang Gui's son married the daughter of Li Shimin, he insisted that the princess should abide by folk etiquette and pay respect to her parents-in-law when she got married.

Not only did he and his wife sit at the top, waiting for the princess to pay her respects and offer her tea, he also asked to live in the house.

Li Shimin also generously agreed to this.

However, Wang Gui was born into the Wang family of Taiyuan, one of the Five Surnames and Seven Aristocrats.

Although Princess Funing was born out of wedlock, the retired emperor had no legitimate children and had very few offspring, so he was very fond of her and built the princess's mansion according to the specifications for a legitimate princess.

It’s just that the son-in-law Li Jie is the nephew of the retired emperor’s biological mother and has a special status.

If you count it, Li Jie is Princess Funing's cousin.

However, the emperor was counted under the name of Empress Dowager Liu, so he could marry Princess Funing.

Although Princess Shang's gift to the Li family was a favor from the retired emperor, Li Jie did not see it that way.

In the Song Dynasty, even members of the royal family could not hold power, let alone a prince consort.

In the Song Dynasty, the son-in-law of the emperor, like members of the royal family, could only hold a nominal position and not any real position.

In Li Jie's opinion, given the favor the retired emperor showed to the Li family, if he did not marry a princess consort, he would not only be able to become an official, but his position would not be low.

Although the status of a son-in-law is not low, it is still very different from controlling real power.

Therefore, after the two got married, their relationship has been bad.

Although there was no explicit rule in ancient times that a prince consort could not take a concubine, due to the royal family's reputation, few prince consorts took concubines.

Even if he wanted to take a concubine, he had to get the princess's consent.

But Li Jie didn't care about all this after marriage. He always hated Princess Funing because he felt aggrieved.

Not long after the marriage, he took a concubine without Princess Funing's consent.

Princess Funing was gentle in nature. Even when she was wronged, she would not say anything but said that she agreed to it.

Seeing Princess Funing like this, Li Jie became even more unscrupulous.

The two had been married for more than ten years, and Li Jie Na had more than a dozen concubines, all of whom lived in the princess's mansion. Some of them even dared to contradict Princess Funing in public.

Yesterday, Princess Funing was contradicted by one of Li Jie's concubines. Princess Funing could tolerate it, but her son could not and ordered people to give the concubine a good beating.

Although Princess Funing was worried, she was very relieved.

But when Li Jie learned about it, he believed that it was Princess Funing who instructed his son to do so.

Although Li Jie didn't dare to do anything to Princess Funing, his bullying made her so angry that she fell ill.

In Princess Funing's bedroom, Li Wen looked at his pale mother and said worriedly, "Mother, please ask the imperial physician to come and see you."

"No, Mom is fine."

Princess Funing shook her head and said, "If we seek the imperial physician, we won't be able to hide it from His Majesty."

"It's better if my uncle knows. If my uncle intervenes, my father won't dare to do this to you." Li Wen gritted his teeth.

Li Wen is only ten years old now. Although he understands some principles, due to his age, he is still ignorant about many things.

He didn't understand why his mother didn't want his uncle to know.

Given his uncle’s personality, if he knew about this he would definitely take action, and his mother’s life would be much better.

"Silly child, you will understand some things later." Princess Funing said with a smile.

The reason why my father promised her to Li Jie was because he felt he owed his mother, Mrs. Li, and he wanted to make up for that debt by repaying the Li family.

She endured because she didn't want to embarrass her father.

As for not wanting Zhao Xing to know, he had a similar idea.

Zhao Xing has a strong personality. If he knew, he would not let Li Jie off easily.

Moreover, she and Li Jie have been married for so many years, and although Li Jie has kept many things from her, she still knows some of them.

Once Zhao Xing knew about these things, Li Jie's life would be in danger.

Although she had no feelings for Li Jie, if Zhao Xing wanted to execute Li Jie, would her father agree?
At that time, this incident would affect the relationship between my father and Zhao Xing.

"Princess, something's wrong!"

At this moment, a palace maid ran in hurriedly. She bowed and said, "Someone from the Imperial City Department came to the house and said they wanted to take the prince consort back. The gatekeeper didn't dare to stop them and could only let them in. They have already gone to the prince consort's courtyard."

"what?"

Princess Funing's already pale face instantly turned pale when she heard this.

Although the current Imperial City Bureau is not as feared as the Jinyiwei of the Ming Dynasty, it is well known that the Imperial City Bureau takes orders directly from the emperor.

Otherwise, the gatekeeper of the princess's mansion would not have dared to stop him.

If it were someone else, even someone from Kaifeng Prefecture, the doorman would dare to stop them from entering.

"Hurry, help me up!" Princess Funing said anxiously.

She thought that Zhao Xing had learned that she was sick from anger and wanted to deal with Li Wen.

"Mother, you are not well yet. Don't worry, I will go to see you." Li Wen said.

"No, His Majesty has sent people from the Imperial City Bureau. This means they are serious. It's useless for you to go." Princess Funing said, propping herself up and about to get up.

(End of this chapter)