Li Chengqian of the Tang Dynasty: Please say long live His Majesty

Chapter 150 I Want Fang Xiang to Defeat Qingque with My Own Hands (First Update)
Li Chengqian sat in the main seat, talking and laughing. He glanced at the pretty and beautifully dressed Su Yi and asked jokingly, "I heard that Yi Niang is engaged. When will she get married?"

Su Yi was the daughter of Su Xu and Princess Nanchang. She was both Li Chengqian's cousin and Su Shu's cousin.

The Su brothers and Li Chengqian all have such a relationship.

Su Yi, who was bending down to put down the tea bowl, quickly raised her head and said with a blushing face, "It's March 27th."

"No matter which family she marries into, if her family background is not good, I won't agree!" Li Chengqian turned sideways and looked at Su Jun on the side with an inquiring look.

"They are the children of the Jingzhao Wei family's western branch." Su Jun bowed slightly and said with a smile, "After they get married, I will definitely bring them to Your Highness for viewing. I hope Your Highness will support them in the future!"

"There is no problem with this, but why is it a child from the Western Family House?" Li Chengqian frowned slightly.

"Is there something wrong?" Su Yu, the youngest on the side, heard Li Chengqian's voice-over and couldn't help but look a little anxious.

"You can't say it's wrong." After a brief pause, Li Chengqian said, "The Jingzhao Wei family has the East Branch, West Branch, Xiaoyao Gongfang, Yun Gongfang, and Prince Consort Fang, but to be honest, the other branches are all on the rise, and only the West Branch has been declining in recent years, and..."

Li Chengqian suddenly fell silent.

"Cousin, if you have anything to say, just say it." Su Yi's face turned slightly pale. She was also a smart woman. If something could make the prince worried, it was probably not a good thing.

"Well then." Li Chengqian looked at Su Yi and said, "In recent years, the atmosphere in the Western Branch of the Wei family has not been very good. The younger generation of scions are often domineering, and when they are in office, they are all arrogant but lack the ability to act. There are many cases of wrongful convictions and oppression of the people."

"What Your Highness said seems to be the words of the Ministry of Personnel." Su Jun's face became more and more solemn.

"Yes, Duke Chen mentioned this when we were chatting once." After a brief pause, Li Chengqian shook his head and said, "But this is more of the opinion of the Ministry of Examination. The Minister of Revenue and Duke Chen don't care too much."

Su Jun had a bitter smile on his face. The Vice Minister and the Minister of Personnel were all targeting high-ranking officials such as the Provincial Governors, the Junior Secretaries of the Nine Temples, and the Vice Ministers of the Six Ministries, while the remaining officials of the fifth and sixth ranks were mostly in the eyes of the Langzhong of the Ministry of Examinations. Officials of the eighth and ninth ranks who had just entered the official career were not even in the eyes of the Langzhong of the Ministry of Examinations.

If the Ministry of Personnel's Examination and Reward Office had formed a preconceived notion about the disciples of the Western Branch of the Jingzhao Wei family, then their official careers would not only be difficult, but at least would have had a bumpy start!

This is especially true for the children of officials who have been granted official positions.

"What kind of person is Yi Niang's fiancé? If he is good, I will go and tell the Ministry of Personnel." Li Chengqian turned to look at Su Yi.

Su Yi looked past Li Chengqian and looked at Su Jun with three parts of anticipation and three parts of uneasiness.

"Not bad, not bad." Su Jun smiled and nodded, saying, "His family has a good tradition."

Su Yi breathed a sigh of relief, but Li Chengqian could see some reluctance on Su Jun's face.

The family tradition is good, but the person is not that good.

Li Chengqian sighed in his heart, Su Yi had not married well in her previous life.

Especially after Su Xu was implicated in the case of Li Ke, Gao Yang and Chai Lingwu, his status plummeted.

"Well, let's not talk about him anymore. When he becomes one of our own, we will take care of him." Li Chengqian turned to look at Su Jun and asked, "How is your uncle now? Didn't I hear that the compilation of the Comprehensive Geography is almost finished?"

"It seems that there is something that needs to be modified slightly, but I am not sure about the details." Su Jun couldn't help shaking his head, his face a little confused.

"I see." Li Chengqian smiled and then changed the subject to talk about something else.

……

The night is shrouded and the palace lanterns are hung high.

In Cheng'en Hall, Li Chengqian looked at the pile of memorials lying flat on the bookshelf, turned sideways and asked in surprise, "Has he really read them all?"

"Yes, today the Crown Princess first received everyone from the Su family in Cheng'en Hall. Su Gan took advantage of the fact that there were so many people around and the princess suddenly started crying, and took the opportunity to open the books and take a look. However, I suspect that he has a photographic memory and remembered everything after just one look." Li Anyan walked out from the back with a serious expression.

"The princess suddenly started crying?" Li Chengqian's eyes turned cold, and he turned around and asked, "What exactly happened?"

"I have carefully checked and found that Su Gan was waiting the whole time and did not do anything rash." Li Anyan bowed seriously.

"Let the imperial physician give the princess a thorough check tomorrow. If there is anything wrong with the princess, I will tear him apart." Li Chengqian's face was extremely ferocious.

"Yes!" Li Anyan immediately bowed.

Li Chengqian's expression relaxed, and he sneered, "Su Jun, Su Gan, and Su Yu, of the three brothers, Su Gan was the quietest today. I didn't expect that he was the one most closely connected to Chai Lingwu. He's quite thoughtful."

Li Anyan bowed and said, "The Prince Consort first met with a mysterious figure in Pingkangfang yesterday, then went to Princess Gaoyang's residence, then to Princess Nanchang's residence, and finally returned to Princess Baling's residence."

Looking at one princess mansion after another, Li Chengqian sighed in his heart. The emperor had married so many royal women to the descendants of meritorious officials. Who would have thought that today they would give them the qualifications to intervene in the fight for the royal crown prince.

Recovering his composure, Li Chengqian said, "Actually, it's not hard to understand. The Su family has three sons. The eldest son, Su Jun, would never take such a risk. The third son, Su Yu, has not yet entered the officialdom and is naive.

Only Erlang Sugan, a ninth-rank official in the Secretariat, understood the difficulties of officialdom and was easily deceived.

"Your Highness, does Sima Su know about this?" Li Anyan's expression became serious.

If Su Xu had ordered his son to come to the Eastern Palace to secretly read the memorial, then the matter would be serious. At the very least, Su Xu and the Eastern Palace would be at loggerheads. "No," Li Chengqian waved his hand and said, "My uncle knows the seriousness of this matter best. If he were caught, Su Gan's career would be completely over, and even the three of them, father and son, would be affected..."

Although my uncle is the Sima of King Wei, I'm afraid he's not willing to gamble his fortune on Qingque now."

"So, it was the prince consort who directly contacted Su Gan?" Li Anyan suddenly understood.

"It must be so. They are both the second sons of the princess. Although Chai Lingwu is the son-in-law of the Baling emperor's sister, he is far inferior to his brother Chai Zhewei. That's why they can talk to each other. It's normal for Su Gan to be bewitched." Li Chengqian picked up the memorials on the bookshelf, turned to the eighth one, and picked it up.

Li Anyan's expression suddenly became serious.

"He probably doesn't have the ability to remember everything he sees, but he does have the special reading ability. Isn't that what the proofreader in the Secretariat does?" Li Chengqian opened the memorial and looked at its contents calmly.

Using the leg bones of a living person as a reference for the treatment of the prince - Li Anyan.

No, it would go against the harmony of nature. We should take the leg bones of the deceased as a warning. - Sun Simiao

Take the leg bones of the death row prisoners in the Tianlao as a warning - Crown Prince Li Chengqian.

After taking a look at the memorial, Li Chengqian calmly tore off the pages from it, then walked to the candlelight on the side, lit the pages, and finally threw them into the brazier, then crushed the burning ashes bit by bit.

"Since they have already seen the things, let's see what they will do with them. Falsely accusing the prince is no light crime." A sneer flashed across Li Chengqian's lips.

Yes, since everyone already knew that Chai Lingwu went to Princess Nanchang's Mansion, and the Su family would come to the Eastern Palace the next day, how could Li Chengqian not prepare.

"Remove everything from Chongjiao Hall, Lizheng Hall and Guangtian Hall. This one is enough." Li Chengqian looked at Li Anyan calmly.

"Yes!" Li Anyan bowed seriously.

In the entire Eastern Palace, except for the most strictly guarded Chongde Hall, where no one else is allowed to enter, today, Li Chengqian made arrangements in other places to make it easier for the Su family to take action.

This time, he wanted to trick Su Xu badly.

……

Li Chengqian stood up and clapped his hands, then said, "Chai Lingwu went to Gao Yang. Fang Yiai didn't make any other moves, right?"

"No, except for a visit to Duke Liang." Li Anyan bowed and said, "After that, I didn't do anything."

"Prime Minister Fang is the one who is best at understanding my father's thoughts. My father is now fully supporting me, so he will definitely not do anything rash at this time, especially after Fang Yiai has come out of Prince Wei's Mansion. He will not care about Qingque's affairs even more." Li Chengqian shook his head slightly.

Two years ago, he took action against Fang Yiai in order to sever the relationship between Li Tai and Fang Xuanling.

Without Fang Xuanling's support behind him, Li Tai did many things wrong, and each time he did them, he became more absurd than the last.

"In the future, most of the people who are watching the Duke of Liang's Mansion should be withdrawn." Li Chengqian sighed lightly.

"But about that matter... Your Highness, Prince Wei still has some leverage over Prime Minister Fang. If Prince Wei were to threaten Prime Minister Fang..." Li Anyan was interrupted by Li Chengqian before he could finish his words.

"If Qingque threatens Prime Minister Fang, he might choose to silence Qingque forever, or make any words Qingque speaks become random attacks." Li Chengqian looked at Li Anyan and said, "He will personally bring Qingque down to the ground."

Even if it is a threat, the strength of both parties needs to be similar. Obviously, Li Tai is becoming less and less qualified now.

"Then the only person left is the one who had the secret meeting with the prince consort in Pingkangfang." After a brief pause, Li Anyan bowed and said, "Your Highness, we only followed him as far as Guangdefang. We didn't follow him any further for fear of being discovered."

"Send someone to Guangdefang for an hour every day. Don't ask questions, just run into them by chance. That's their territory, and we'll be discovered if we're not careful." After a brief pause, Li Chengqian put the blank memorial back on the shelf and said, "Take it one step at a time. One day, we'll figure out their details."

"Yes!" Li Anyan bowed, then said, "But Your Highness, I still think there are risks over there."

"No, if you knew who they are, you would know that they are absolutely not dangerous." Li Chengqian turned around calmly and walked to the couch in the middle hall and sat down.

Li Anyan bowed in surprise and asked, "Your Highness, do you already know who they are?"

"That's not hard to guess." Li Chengqian shook his head and said, "What they do is nothing more than smuggling between the Tang Dynasty and Goguryeo. Think about it, with a local family like the Qi family and a current emperor's son-in-law like Chai Lingwu, what else do they need in this line?"

"What?" Li Anyan asked carefully.

"Of course it's the soldiers in the army guarding the border checkpoints. So as long as we screen the backgrounds of the soldiers along the border checkpoints, it will not be difficult to find the people behind them." Li Chengqian's eyes were terrifyingly calm, as if he already knew who was behind all this.

"Then Your Highness, we..." Li Anyan's expression became serious.

"Do you know, Anyan, that Master Sun will reattach my leg in March? He will break it and then reattach it." Li Chengqian looked up at Li Anyan, his eyes stern as he said, "If it weren't for the Ma Fei Powder, how much pain would I be in then?"

"Yes!" Li Anyan already understood completely what Li Chengqian was going to do.

He wanted to completely destroy the King of Wei, using the most thorough means.

(End of this chapter)