I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 177 How can I be the King of Bohai when I am so old?
Regarding how to deal with Liu Kui, Liu Hong quickly issued an edict to the Secretariat, which then issued an edict to Jizhou Governor Li Shao, who officially executed it.

The news quickly spread in the court. Many people were surprised and shocked by the sudden imperial edict. Soon, an official submitted a petition to inquire about the authenticity of the matter and hoped that the court would give a response.

Yuan Wei already knew about this matter, but as the Prime Minister, he still wanted to express his opinion, so he submitted a memorial to the court, asking what was going on.

How could we ignore the opinions of court officials when dealing with such a serious matter as punishing the prince?

Even if you want to do this, you should inform everyone in advance, right?

If you do this, it will be easy for us to think that you are going to act first and report later.

Yuan Wei took the lead in asking questions, and other officials also submitted reports one after another, which put enormous pressure on the inner court.

However, all these memorials were intercepted by the eunuchs, and only a few with mild wording were sent to Liu Hong. After reading them, Liu Hong thought that the court officials did not react strongly and were just asking questions, so he felt more relieved and thought that this was the right thing to do.

He issued another decree, explaining that the matter was of a serious nature and must be dealt with as soon as possible, so he did not discuss it with the important ministers in time. However, the matter did exist and the evidence was conclusive, so there was no need to argue.

Therefore, the execution of Liu Kui must definitely go ahead.

This decree caused wider discussion and confusion, but under the pressure of the eunuchs, this discussion ultimately did not affect the court's decision-making.

However, neither Liu Hong nor the eunuchs knew that Yuan Shu had already known about this matter a long time ago, and Yuan Shu had sent people to Jizhou to report the matter several days before Liu Hong's edict was issued, asking Lian Da, who was staying in Jizhou to deal with the matter, to take immediate action.

After receiving the report, Lian Da immediately became nervous and immediately sent someone to the Bohai Palace to inform Liu Qi of the matter.

Liu Kui has been in a state of great tension these days. He dared not drink alcohol for fear of delaying his work. He could not eat or sleep well and was extremely anxious. He even fell ill because of this and is now taking medicine every day.

But thanks to his illness, there were more doctors coming in and out of the Bohai Palace, making it more convenient for Lian Da to contact him.

When the news came, Liu Kui was shocked. He learned that Liu Hong was really going to attack him. He was extremely nervous and summoned Lian Da overnight, asking Lian Da to protect him.

Lian Da said that Yuan Shu kept him just to protect Liu Kui's family. Now that things have come to this point, there is nothing more to say. Liu Kui quickly gathered all the family members and told them to get ready!
Liu Kui was not vague either. His life was almost gone and he didn't want to think about anything else. He asked his trusted old servant to gather his wife, concubines, sons, daughters and other immediate relatives at night and informed them of the matter, which terrified the whole family, young and old, men, women and children.

Fortunately, they already had a way out, so the whole family quickly packed up their belongings, but they couldn't let too many people know about it. Only their closest servants and maids knew about it.

Even so, the number of people in this group reached seventy-three, which was quite a large number, and required a lot of vehicles. Add to that some necessary underwear and soft clothing, and the entire convoy was indeed a large target. It would be somewhat difficult to leave openly.

However, Lian Da is not without a solution.

The response plan has already been prepared.

The caravan that came to Nanpi County to sell products from Liangzhou and Guanzhong was already large in scale. They had been operating here for about a month, so it was natural for them to set off for return at this moment. Lian Da incorporated this family's caravan into the caravan, using it as a cover and letting them follow the caravan.

After a day and a night of preparation, on the morning of the third day, Liu Kui's family, including men, women, young and old, and necessary servants, left together.

The remaining people who did not leave with them were arranged in advance to stay in a villa outside the city, under the pretext that Liu Kui was going to the villa to recuperate.

After Liu Kui's entire family, young and old, followed Run away, only a 70-year-old servant was left guarding the entire Bohai Palace, and the Bohai Palace closed its doors to visitors.

So an explanation was given internally and externally, and everything seemed calm, so at first, it didn't attract any attention.

It was not until three days later when Bohai Prime Minister Gao Cheng sent someone to visit him that he learned from the old servant that Liu Kui had gone to a villa outside the city to recuperate.

The people who came to visit the patient went to the villa to inquire about the news and unexpectedly learned that Liu Kui said he would come to the villa, but he had not arrived yet. They just came to the villa in advance to clean and arrange the place.

The visitor felt strange and went back to Bohai Palace to inquire about the news. He learned from the old servant that if Liu Kui had not yet gone to the other courtyard, he might have gone to see a doctor or go on an autumn outing to recuperate. The visitor found nothing and felt that something was wrong. He went back to report to Gao Cheng that Liu Kui was neither in the palace nor in the other courtyard, and he did not know where he had gone.

It's funny to say that Gao Cheng had always had an unhappy relationship with Liu Kui, and he didn't care much about this prince who had offended Liu Zhi. Sending people to inquire about his condition was just a symbolic understanding, and he actually didn't care about his life or death at all.

He felt that it would be better if Liu Kui died. Otherwise, he would be very unhappy to have to guard a prince who was suspected of plotting to seize the throne.

The prime minister is nominally a subordinate of the prince, but in reality he does not listen to the prince at all. He is directly under the imperial court and is the highest military and political chief in the local area. He truly holds local power and has a lot of things to do and is very busy.

The princes are the ones who live off taxes and enjoy themselves. If they meet a troublesome one who makes trouble everywhere, although they have no real power, their status is there and it is difficult to deal with them. If they are not careful, the prime minister will be in trouble both inside and outside, which is really annoying.

It is now the autumn harvest time. This year the harvest is bad and the grain harvest is poor, so collecting taxes has become a problem.

But the harvest is poor, and the government cannot afford a poor harvest, otherwise there will be one less dish on the masters’ table, and that would be a serious matter.

However, the common people are not easy to fool.

Others collect so little, but you still collect so much tax. People can't survive. How can they not go against you?
As a result, between August and September, many tax resistance incidents occurred in the Bohai Kingdom.

These tax resistance incidents were not large in scale, but occurred frequently, and many tax collectors were injured. The intensity of the civil resistance was getting higher and higher. Gao Cheng was already overwhelmed by these problems, so how could he have the time to care about Liu Kui's affairs?

So he just nodded and said he understood, and then he got busy and actually forgot about it.

After that, he was always busy dealing with tax resistance, going out early and coming back late, looking very embarrassed. He sent troops to suppress the resistance and maintain stability, or personally led troops to "appease" the people.

He had been busy for a month before, and then had to work non-stop for three days before he managed to put an end to the tax resistance, arresting many troublemakers and throwing them into jail.

The jailers have many ways to teach these tax resisters who refuse to pay taxes to the court a lesson.

At this point, he finally had some free time, and suddenly remembered that Liu Kui was still sick, so he sent someone to ask about Liu Kui's condition.

The result was the same answer as three days ago.

Liu Kui was not in the palace. He said he went to a villa outside the city to recuperate. However, people in the villa outside the city said that Liu Kui had never come. So there was no trace of Liu Kui and no one knew where he had gone.

Gao Cheng then remembered that the person he sent eight days ago had brought him the same news, but he forgot about it when he got busy and only remembered it now.

His heart skipped a beat and he had a bad feeling, so he quickly went to Bohai Palace and the villa outside the city. He also sent people to other places to look for Liu Kui, searching everywhere inside and outside the city.

Half a day later, the news was summarized.

Liu Kui disappeared.

Not only Liu Li himself, but also his wife and children were missing. Only a few servants were left in the entire Bohai Palace. Everyone else was gone, disappearing without a trace, as if they had evaporated from the face of the earth.

The beads of sweat on Gao Cheng's forehead suddenly slid down.

Where is I, the King of Bohai?
How can I, who am so old, be the King of Bohai?
How could a living person just disappear?
Although the power and status of the prime minister are similar to those of the prefect, he has an additional special responsibility, which is to supervise, or simply monitor, the princes and not let them cause trouble. If the princes just eat, drink and have fun, then it doesn't matter, but if they mess around and do something unnecessary, then the prime minister will be jointly liable.

Therefore, the prime minister must know the whereabouts and actions of the prince, and report to the court from time to time. Now that a prince has disappeared and no trace can be found, does he still have the chance to continue his job as prime minister?

"Send out all the people you can right now to find the king! Even if we have to dig deep into the ground, we will find him!"

(End of this chapter)