Datang: Just been appointed as the crown prince, the counterattack system is here

Chapter 104: Controlling the World with the East Palace [Please Subscribe]

"Sir, now everyone in Jiangling has joined the game. Should we close the net?"

Ma Zhou suppressed his excitement and asked Li Chengqian in a low voice.

Li Chengqian looked at him with a smile and said jokingly, "Wasn't Assistant Coach Ma always unruly when he was in Bozhou? Why are you so impatient? Is this your first time doing something bad?"

"Uh,"

Ma Zhou's mouth curled up awkwardly, and he said a little sheepishly, "I've read the sage books for so many years, but I always feel that what I learned is useless, so I gave up on myself. I'm sorry to make you laugh."

"but."

As he spoke, he changed the subject and continued, "Sir, you are right. This is indeed the first time I have done something bad."

"hehe."

Li Chengqian smiled, then said meaningfully, "Books of sages are meant to be read by others. They are useless when used to get things done."

"What I'm saying to you today may subvert your understanding, but I still want to tell you!"

"This"

Ma Zhou hesitated for a moment, then bowed and said, "Sir, I'm sure you have something else for me to do. Please feel free to speak frankly!"

"That's why I'm going to tie you up and take you to Jiangling!"

Li Chengqian sighed, then added, "You can hear the hidden meaning, that's enough."

As he spoke, he told Ma Zhou in detail the plan for the next stage, which left Ma Zhou stunned and shocked.

After a long while, Ma Zhou asked in surprise, "Sir, aren't you afraid that His Majesty will find out if you do this?"

"There are some things I cannot explain in detail, but you must understand that what others give you is not necessarily yours. Only what you hold in your hands is yours. I do this not only for myself, but also for the court, and for our shared ideals."

"I believe in you, sir. I'm just afraid those people will become desperate and harm you."

"hehe."

Li Chengqian laughed again: "As the saying goes, scholars are the most unfaithful. The fact that you have such thoughts proves that I am not wrong about you. In that case, I will tell you the truth!"

"In a few months, an unprecedented locust plague will strike across the country. By then, the imperial court will be in great trouble, as will my father. The Five Surnames and Seven Families will also emerge at this time. I plan to use this locust plague to break one of their arms! Strike out my own strength!"

"Therefore, Jiangling must be completely under my control, both in terms of governance and military power. Only in this way can I mobilize all available resources and quickly build up strength within a few months."

"Only in this way can we firmly establish our position in Jiangling and control the world with the Eastern Palace."

"call"

After hearing what Li Chengqian said, Ma Zhou couldn't help but take a breath.

He never imagined that the eight-year-old prince in front of him would have such great ambitions.

Use the East Palace to control the world!
Is this an attempt to seize power from the emperor?
Isn't he afraid?
Thinking of this, Ma Zhou suddenly came back to his senses and looked at Li Chengqian again. He found that the confidence revealed in his eyes could be summed up in four words.

Fearless!

No wonder he abandoned the Eastern Palace and ran to Jiangling. Only the outside world was worthy of his ambition.

Ah!
My trip to Chang'an was really not in vain!
Smiling with relief in his heart, Ma Zhou immediately bowed to Li Chengqian again and said, "I will definitely do as you say, sir!"

"it is good!"

Li Chengqian nodded in satisfaction and said seriously, "You must remember two things. First, you and I are king and subject. We share the same fate. Second, you must keep what I say to you tonight deep in your heart forever."

"My subordinates will remember it."

"No, not a subordinate. From now on, you are my Eastern Palace Left Bailiff!"

"Your Highness the Crown Prince."

Ma Zhou didn't expect Li Chengqian to treat him so well, and he choked up.

Li Chengqian smiled slightly, patted his arm, and said gently, "Go!"

Upon hearing this, Ma Zhou sniffed, then fell to the ground and kowtowed, saying, "I will follow His Royal Highness the Crown Prince until death!"

After saying this, he returned to the barren mountain without saying anything else.

On the other side, Jiangling government office.

Zhang Ping, the governor of Jingzhou, had not yet recovered from the shocking news about the gold mine. He was sitting in his seat, lost in thought, as if in a daze.

Pei Xuan, who was equally shocked, felt something was wrong the more he thought about it. He couldn't help but mutter to himself, "How could there be a gold mine there? We've been in Jiangling for so long and didn't even know there was a gold mine there. How come a gold mine appeared there as soon as the prince arrived?"

"What does the Governor mean? Is there something fishy going on?"

Upon hearing this, Cai Sima smiled cunningly.

He and Pei Xuan have been in cahoots for many years, so he naturally understands his boss's thoughts.

This means we need to send our own people to investigate the truth.

If that barren mountain is really a gold mine, as the top official in Jiangling, he would have a lot of room to maneuver.

Even if he was facing the prince, he had countless ways to deal with it.

He glanced at Cai Sima calmly and said calmly, "There is indeed something strange about this matter, but we can't make a conclusion yet!"

"How about I send someone to take a look?"

"This matter involves the Crown Prince and officials, so it's not convenient for them to intervene at the moment!"

Hearing this, Sima Cai poured tea for Pei Xuan while observing his expression and said:
"That barren mountain is the Liu family's ancestral property. Although it has now been sold to the Crown Prince, according to the laws of the Great Tang Dynasty, ancestral property belongs to the family, not just one person. Any sale requires the consent of the rest of the family. Therefore, I must handle this impartially and send someone to investigate this matter."

Pei Xuan shook his head. "That's inappropriate. Although the Liu family has declined, Liu Changshi is still here. If Liu Changshi is involved in this matter, it will be even more troublesome. You know his temper."

"In my humble opinion, this matter involving Liu Changshi may be a good thing for us!"

"Tell me, what's the best solution?" Pei Xuan lowered his head and sipped his tea, seemingly indifferent.

Sima Cai smiled wryly and said, "Liu Changshi has a straightforward temper and is very rigid in his approach. If there's something fishy going on in that desolate mountain, he'll definitely handle it impartially. A conflict between him and the Crown Prince will be inevitable, and we can just sit back and watch. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

Pei Xuan sucked his teeth and said word by word, "We need to find a suitable excuse, otherwise there will be endless troubles in the future."

"What Governor Pei said is absolutely right!"

Cai Sima smiled knowingly: "After all, that barren mountain is still under the jurisdiction of Jiangling Prefecture. Whether it is for public or private reasons, if we discover a gold mine, we will send people to take a look!"

"Well, that makes sense."

"Then let Liu Changshi lead the way for us."

"Permission!"

Pei Xuanzhi smiled complacently: "General Zhang and I will be going to the capital to take the examination in a few days. It's time to let Liu Changshi come back."

After saying this, he suddenly leaned forward and approached Cai Sima, saying with a smile: "I'm afraid Cai Sima has received a lot of benefits from the Pang family."

Cai Sima's face turned pale, and he was about to make an excuse, but Pei Xuan immediately straightened his posture and said, "This matter was entirely planned by Cai Sima, and Cai Sima's contribution is invaluable."

Cai Sima smiled awkwardly, but his back was covered in cold sweat.

At this moment, a thunderbolt suddenly struck the sky, and Zhang Ping was instantly awakened from his trance. The two of them looked at him and raised their glasses to greet him. The deafening sound instantly drowned out the joyful laughter.

at the same time.

At the foot of the barren mountain, Liu Wu was holding a torch, hesitating whether to secretly go up the mountain to dig for gold.

Although he was driven away by the owner of the barren mountain during the day, the scene of Gou San digging up gold still lingers in his mind, making him toss and turn.

So he went back and thought about it. Gou San dug up a piece of gold. Although the owner of the barren mountain was angry, he did not take the gold back.

What does this mean? It means that the owner of the barren mountain bullies the weak and fears the strong! Because Gou San is from the Cai family, and the Cai family is one of the four great families in Jiangling.

And I also have the support of the Pang family, one of the four great families in Jiangling. Why don't I also dig for a piece of gold?

At worst, I can hand over part of it to the Pang family!
But when he reached the foot of the mountain, he became scared again.

I wondered what I should do if the Pang family didn’t care about me.
However, just as he was hesitating, he suddenly heard some movement coming from the mountain. He was startled for a moment: "What's going on? Could it be that someone has already gone up the mountain?"

Thinking of this, Liu Wu did not hesitate and hurriedly rushed up the mountain with a torch.

The torches on the mountain looked like stars and the Milky Way falling to the ground.

Good guy!
I feel like I'm too late!

So he found a piece of open space, held up a torch and started digging, swinging the hoe very quickly as if he was afraid that the gold would be stolen again.

Fortunately, the owner of the barren mountain did not show up and they were not driven away.

It was three days later that Chief Secretary Liu Li was transferred back from Xiangyang by Pei Xuan.

"Master Liu, that barren mountain is your ancestral property, you have to take care of it!"

When Pei Xuan saw Liu Li coming back, he found him immediately.

Liu Li frowned and glanced at him, then said gravely, "Prefect Pei, have you forgotten that I have long since stopped interfering in family affairs? If it's a private matter, the family can handle it. If it's a public matter, Prefect Pei can also handle it. Why call me back?"

"hehe."

Pei Xuan smiled awkwardly, then said with some embarrassment, "Liu Changshi is clear about the distinction between public and private matters. I know that, but this matter involves the Crown Prince, and I am a little undecided. Look at this."

"If a prince breaks the law, he will be punished just like the common people!" Liu Li interrupted Pei Xuan sternly.

"Yes, yes, Lord Liu is fair and strict, and I admire him. I wonder how Lord Liu thinks we should handle this matter?" Pei Xuan nodded repeatedly.

Liu Li frowned and asked, "Is this matter indeed related to the Crown Prince?"

"Although there is no direct evidence, it is almost certain."

"How can you speak nonsense about the prince without any evidence?"

"This"

Pei Xuan hesitated for a moment and said, "How about Lord Liu personally investigate and prove the Crown Prince's innocence?"

"Why not, Master Pei?"

"I have to prepare for the Ministry of Personnel assessment, so I really don't have time!"

Before Liu Li could finish his words, Pei Xuan interrupted him: "What's more, some time ago, the Crown Prince came to Jiangling, and we neglected him because of official business. We are afraid that the Crown Prince will feel resentful and refuse to cooperate with us."

Hearing this, Liu Li hesitated slightly, but finally nodded and agreed to investigate the matter.

Soon, he took his men to the barren mountains.

"Stop! Everyone, stop!"

When Liu Li saw these crazy people, he immediately became furious and shouted loudly.

But the people just looked at him, picked up their hoes and continued digging.

"Come here! Follow me and arrest these villagers!"

Liu Li was angry and gave the order.

The dozen or so officers who followed him were completely stunned.

I thought to myself, are you okay, sir? There are only a dozen of us, how many hundreds of people can we capture?

However, not all people dared to ignore the police. After more than a dozen police officers shouted at them, most people stopped digging.

But then Liu Li asked in a deep voice: "Who can tell me what is going on here?"

"This"

The people looked at each other in confusion.

But no one stood up to tell Liu Li.

Just when Liu Li was about to ask someone about it, Ma Zhou suddenly rushed over from a distance, crying out in tears: "Sir! Sir! Please help me! They are all thieves! All thieves!"

As soon as these words came out, the whole place was in an uproar.

The people's faces changed drastically.

But then Ma Zhou continued, "I bought this barren mountain! There's gold in the mountain, and they're here to steal my gold!"

"You're talking nonsense! We didn't steal the gold! You hired us to clear the wasteland!"

"That's right! We came here to open up the wasteland, we didn't dig up any gold!"

Some of the people who did not dig up any gold immediately denied it.

However, at this moment, Liu Wu stood up, gave Gou San a resentful look, and said loudly: "I testify! Someone really dug up gold!"

Liu Li's face darkened and he shouted, "Who dug up the gold?"

"Gou San has struck gold!"

When Gou San in the crowd heard this, he was so frightened that he was about to run away.

At this moment, a villager who had been on guard against his escape tripped him and knocked him to the ground.

"Hahaha!"

The crowd burst into laughter.

Liu Li raised his hand and waved, and several officers immediately rushed over.

But then I heard Gou San yelling, "Liu Wu, you're just too unlucky not to dig up any gold, so you want to harm me, right? You ungrateful thing, you deserve a bad death!"

Then he hurriedly said to Liu Li, "Sir, I'm not the only one who has dug up gold. Many others have also dug up gold. I am willing to hand over the gold. Please forgive me, sir!"

"Humph!"

Liu Li snorted coldly, then turned to look at Ma Zhou: "They've been digging for gold for more than a day or two. Why didn't you report it to the authorities before, allowing them to dig and only coming out today? What's your motive?"

After saying this, he glanced at the barren mountain and said as if he saw through everything: "I think you are just taking advantage of the greed of these people to speed up the progress of land reclamation for you, right?!"

Wow!
The whole place was in an uproar!

Ma Zhou was surprised and thought to himself that this person was indeed not a simple person.

The people also realized that the barren mountain that would have taken a month to reclaim was reclaimed several times in just three days and three nights.

Someone roared to the sky and glared at Ma Zhou.

Someone rolled up his sleeves and was about to beat Ma Zhou up.

Others looked at Ma Zhou with gloating eyes.

But Ma Zhou was only surprised for a moment, then said with a sad and angry look:
"Your Excellency, I am wronged! I am a merchant from Chang'an. I originally wanted to grow some food in Jiangling, a place with excellent feng shui. I didn't expect to find gold in the place where I was growing food."

"Of course, I'm outnumbered and have tried to drive these gold diggers away several times, but to little avail. Later, I learned that they were from the four great families of Jiangling, and that they were sent by them to steal my gold!"

"what?!"

Liu Li was surprised when he heard this.

(End of this chapter)