I am a prince in Zhutian Films

Chapter 97 Knife
Ever since the prince’s family banquet on the first day of February, smuggling in Northern Qi seemed to have come to an end.

Even Fan Xian, who advocated strict crackdown on smuggling, did not mention it again.

However, the war between the second brother and Fan Xian started quickly, and Fan Xian took action quickly.

Although the breakthrough of the Vegetable Inspection Office was exposed ahead of schedule due to Li Chengzong's intervention, the second brother had been running business in Kyoto for many years. Even without the Vegetable Inspection Office, there were other government offices.

With the support of Chen Pingping, the powerful weapon of the Censorate, the support of the Crown Prince and Lin Ruofu, and the fact that the second brother's followers were not clean, Fan Xian quickly used the censors of the Censorate to investigate corruption.

On the other hand, the second brother's situation was very bleak. Without the Baoyue Tower to counter Fan Xian, he was almost completely defeated by Fan Xian. He seemed to think that he was unlucky and was willing to give up his men, shake hands with Fan Xian and make peace with him, asking Fan Xian to stop.

However, Fan Xian refused to give in and insisted that he was investigating corruption in the interests of the laws of Qing State and was not targeting the second brother.

The second brother is not stupid. If Fan Xian really just wanted to investigate corruption, how could he only investigate the officials under his command?

So, the second brother also took action.

On the one hand, he sent people to capture Teng Zijing's family and found something very interesting, that is, Teng Zijing was alive and well. Unfortunately, Danzhou was the old nest of the Fan family, and there were guards of the Fan family, so the people sent by the second brother failed.

On the other hand, he spread the news that Fan Xian was using the Supervisory Council to investigate him. The general meaning was that if Fan Xian could use the Supervisory Council to deal with him today, he could use the Supervisory Council to deal with others tomorrow.

For a time, all the officials in Kyoto were in a panic.

Even Qin Heng went to Chen Pingping to negotiate and made a special trip to Chen Garden to see Fan Xian.

If Li Chengzong was not there, there would be no problem for Qin Heng to meet Fan Xian, but with Li Chengzong's presence, Qin Heng's meeting with Fan Xian would be a big problem.

With the third prince Li Chengzong around, what does it mean for the Qin family's heir to go find Fan Xian specifically?
Is it that the third prince Li Chengzong also has a problem?
Or is the Qin family going to give up their own nephew and turn to Fan Xian?

Or was it that in the matter of investigating corruption, it was Li Chengzong who teamed up with Fan Xian to target the second brother?

As soon as Bu Lao Er learned that Qin Heng had met Fan Xian, he went to Prince Ding's Mansion in person.

"Third brother, what does the Qin family mean?"

"To be honest, I don't know either."

Li Chengzong really didn't know what the Qin family meant. He had been very busy recently, busy with the full moon banquet for his child, and had no time to pay attention to what was happening in the court. He got the news not much earlier than the second brother.

Li Chengze was stunned and said uncertainly, "If I remember correctly, Qin Heng is the next head of the Qin family. Is the Qin family going to abandon you and make friends with Fan Xian and the prince's party?"

"It doesn't matter. Fan Xian is still useful for the time being. I won't touch him."

Li Chengzong smiled and said seriously, "But second brother, it's not a bad idea to let Fan Xian investigate those people under you. It's better to keep your followers clean. At least no one will use this matter against you in the future."

Li Chengze was relieved after confirming that it was not a collaboration between Li Chengzong and Fan Xian.

"If I let Fan Xian investigate further, I would suffer heavy losses."

"You have losses, but the prince cannot have losses?"

Li Chengzong smiled and said calmly, "Isn't Fan Xian investigating corruption? Don't you have any evidence against the prince's followers?"

"The people around the prince may not necessarily be his people."

It seems that not only the prince knows that many of his followers are other people's undercover agents, but even the second in command knows it too.

Li Chengzong smiled and said, "Even if they are not, they are still Lin Ruofu's people. Those people are also Fan Xian's helpers. Fan Xian can use the Censorate to investigate your people, so won't you use the Censorate to investigate the prince and Lin Ruofu's followers?"

"If this is the case, won't it offend Prime Minister Lin?"

It can be seen that Li Chengze is still quite afraid of Lin Ruofu, the old fox.

"In this situation, you and Fan Xian are already at loggerheads. Fan Xian is Lin Ruofu's son-in-law, and it's not an exaggeration to say that he is the future heir of the Lin family. You are actually still thinking about not offending Lin Ruofu?" The second brother was silent for a moment, then smiled and said, "You are right. Since Fan Xian wants to make a big fuss, he might as well make it bigger. He can't just investigate me for corruption. Then we'll see if he dares to take action against Lin Ruofu and the prince's people. I'll go back and send the evidence to the Censorate."

Li Chengzong suddenly thought of something and said, "Lai Mingcheng is a good person. Second brother, please tell him not to go to Fan Xian. For now, no one can touch the Supervisory Office. Anyone who touches him will die!"

"Lai Mingcheng has participated in the Supervisory Council more than once or twice. I hope the emperor won't do anything to him?" Li Chengze obviously did not understand what Li Chengzong meant.

"Of course there is no problem with participating in the Supervisory Council. I am just afraid that Lai Mingcheng is not in his right mind and will join hands with Fan Xian to investigate corruption. The old man wants Fan Xian to take over the inner treasury and may even let Fan Xian take over the Supervisory Council. Fan Xian must be a lone minister. Except for Fan Jian, Chen Pingping, and Lin Ruofu, any court official who gets too close to Fan Xian will only have one end, and that is death."

Li Chengzong is still very optimistic about Lai Mingcheng. The court needs people like Lai Mingcheng, and Qing Kingdom also needs people like Lai Mingcheng.

When the second brother heard about taking over the inner treasury and the Supervisory Council, he was visibly stunned. He said with an inexplicable look, "Speaking of which, isn't His Majesty too partial to Fan Xian? Apart from you, my third brother, even we princes are not as favored as Fan Xian."

"It's normal to be partial to someone. You'll understand in the future, brother."

Li Chengze understood and said with a smile: "It seems that it is difficult for Third Brother to explain, so I won't ask. I will come back to drink the full moon wine in a few days."

"Then take care, second brother. I won't see you off."

"We are all brothers. It would be a bit awkward for you to send me off specially. Besides, I don't know you at all. You can't leave your niece."

Li Chengze made a joke and left the palace with Xie Bian and Liu Juefan.

Just as Li Chengze said, after he left, Li Chengzong turned into a nanny and went directly to the backyard to take care of his daughter.

"Second brother is gone?"

"Let's go." Li Chengzong took his daughter from Si Lili and started teasing her.

"You're using him like this, aren't you afraid that he'll get angry if he finds out?"

"The second one should thank me."

No matter what the reason was, Li Chengzong supported Fan Xian in investigating corruption.

At least in Li Chengzong's opinion, it is better to keep the court clean.

Then Fan Xian cannot miss this opportunity to investigate corruption, but the second brother does not have enough people under him. So even if Li Chengze does not come today, he will find a chance to let the second brother drag the prince and Lin Ruofu's people into the vortex of investigating corruption.

Emperor Qing wanted the Crown Prince to sit on the mountain and watch the fight between the two tigers, but he had to ask him whether he agreed or not.

From the beginning, he decided to use Fan Xian to clean out the corrupt officials in the court.

Now, the second brother is also a knife in his hand to clean up the court.

Once the second son is gone, the crown prince will also be gone, and then the crown prince will no longer be able to stay out of it just because he wants to.

According to Fan Xian's temperament, the prince will inevitably fight with Fan Xian in the end.

Maybe the Crown Prince and the Second Brother might join forces. After all, Fan Xian has many "fathers". I'm afraid the Crown Prince and the Second Brother alone may not be able to defeat him.

In short, whether it is Fan Xian, the prince or the second brother, it is best for them to restrain each other, while he sits on the mountain and watches the fight.

But he had to admit that Qin Heng's sudden move to find Fan Xian did surprise him a little.

At the same time, Li Chengzong also realized a serious problem.

The reason why he could sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight was mainly because he had the Qin family, the first family in the military, as his support. However, the Qin family was still uncertain, and he should not only sit on the Qin family...

(End of this chapter)