A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

Su Dingfang dismissed his men and left only a few dozen personal guards who would stay with him to defend the city gate.

Together, the group chiseled a large hole under the boat, and a steady stream of water flowed into the boat, causing it to begin to descend at an imperceptible speed.

"Oh no! The boat is leaking! Everyone, get on another boat!"

After a while, when he could clearly feel the ship descending, Su Dingfang hurriedly said.

He led everyone to transfer from the deck to another ship. During the transfer, everyone seemed to forget that there was another person on the ship, a wanted criminal by the imperial court.

As a serious criminal, Li Yuanxiang's door was naturally locked, and he remained in the room, making it difficult for him to even sense the ship's descent.

However, although he could not feel the ship descending, he could sense that it seemed to have stopped.

Have we arrived in Qinglai County?!

That shouldn't be happening, it can't be that fast!

Li Yuanxiang was completely baffled and lay listlessly on the bed. He was just a prisoner now, so what did it matter whether he arrived or not?

Arriving earlier means a faster verdict, and he can be freed sooner.

He didn't believe Li Zhi would kill him; at most, he would imprison him until he died.

We continued to treat him to good food and drink every day, but we couldn't mistreat him too much.

After a while, Li Yuanxiang began to clearly feel the boat tilting.

Some seawater began to seep in through the windows and door cracks.

Everything in the room had collapsed, and Li Yuanxiang was gripping the headboard, struggling to stand.

"No, this isn't just capsizing, it's taking on water!"

"Help! Help! The boat is taking on water! Help!"

"Where are they? Where have they all gone?!"

"A bunch of useless idiots, don't they even know the boat's taking on water?!"

Li Yuanxiang wanted to continue cursing, but found that no one responded.

He suddenly turned pale. The ship had already capsized to this extent; he didn't believe that no one else would have noticed.

It was discovered, so why didn't anyone stop him? Why didn't anyone notify him to change boats?!

A sudden, unbelievable thought arose in his mind: the ship had been sunk by Su Dingfang's men, with the intention of drowning him.

"How dare he? How dare he plot against a prince of the current dynasty? I am the son of Emperor Gaozu and the younger brother of Emperor Taizong! In terms of seniority, even the current emperor has to call him Imperial Uncle!"

"Su Dingfang is just a common soldier. He wouldn't even give him a second glance in the past. How dare they kill such a scoundrel?"

"Did he eat the gall of a bear and the gall of a leopard?"

"No, that's not right. Su Dingfang definitely doesn't have that kind of guts."

"It must be Li Zhi. Li Zhi must not want me to return to the capital alive."

"Has Li Zhi gone mad? He actually dared to kill his own uncle?!"

"Aren't you afraid that the Li family will be plagued by brothers killing each other and uncles killing nephews for generations to come?"

"Li Shimin murdered his brother and forced his father to abdicate; Li Zhi murdered his uncle. What were these two, father and son, trying to do?"

"Madmen, they're all madmen!"

Faced with death, Li Yuanxiang finally could not suppress his inner fear.

He could no longer care about his princely dignity and began to cry for help.

Even though he shouted until he was hoarse, no one responded. There was no one else on the ship except him; everyone had moved to a safer boat before the ship began to tilt.

After the ship was almost completely sunk, Su Dingfang pretended to discover this and did not bring Li Yuanxiang with him.

"Where is he? Where is the prince?"

"Didn't you bring the prince with you when you fled?"

Su Dingfang roared at the people around him.

Everyone around him knelt down in unison, heads bowed and silent.

Su Dingfang's face was ashen. "Men, change direction! This general is going to rescue people!"

The soldiers nearby quickly stopped Su Dingfang, "General, the rebel king's ship has sunk and cannot be saved!"

"Yes, General, the ship has sunk, and that rebel king is probably dead. We can't lose our lives over a corpse, General. It's not worth it!"

Su Dingfang was held back by the soldiers and could not break free. Tears welled in his eyes as he cried out, "I, Su Dingfang, came here by imperial decree to quell the rebellion, but I never imagined that I would fail to send the traitorous king to the capital for public execution. I am ashamed! I, Su Dingfang, have failed to live up to His Majesty's trust!"

Su Dingfang knelt down and kowtowed three times in the direction of Luoyang. He glanced "reluctantly" at the spot where Li Yuanxiang had fallen into the water, then turned around and said, "Let's go back to Luoyang."

All the ships continued toward Luoyang, but one ship fell behind.

Shortly afterward, as the ship reached the location of the wreck, several people jumped off the vessel. It took them a long time to resurface.

Once everyone had returned to the ship, it caught up with the main force at a faster pace.

When Su Dingfang saw the ship again, someone on the deck nodded to him, and Su Dingfang was relieved and returned to his room on the ship.

In Luoyang, Li Zhi was having a headache over how to deal with Li Yuanxiang, and his headache was acting up again due to his frustration.

"Your Majesty, something terrible has happened!"

Wu Zetian came up behind Li Zhi and used her slender fingers to massage his temples.

"Meiniang, what's happened now?"

Li Zhi closed his eyes wearily. One wave of trouble had barely subsided before another arose, and more bad news arrived.

"Just now, General Su Dingfang sent a message to me, apologizing and hoping that I could put in a good word for him before His Majesty."

As Wu Zetian rubbed Li Zhi's head, she spoke slowly.

"Su Dingfang? What happened to him? Wasn't he supposed to be successfully suppressing the rebellion and already returning with Li Yuanxiang?"

Li Zhi opened his eyes and asked in confusion.

"That's true. However, some problems arose on the way. The ship that Prince Yan, Li Yuanxiang, was on suddenly sank. Due to the urgency of the situation, the soldiers neglected Prince Li Yuanxiang when they were carrying him, which caused Li Yuanxiang to sink to the bottom of the sea with the ship, and his fate is unknown."

Wu Zetian's voice was already extremely beautiful, and the news she uttered sounded like celestial music to Li Zhi.

"This isn't bad news at all; it's good news..."

"Cough cough cough, what's wrong with this Su Dingfang?"

Li Zhi couldn't help but smile. With his political acumen, how could he not know what was going on?

It must have been Wu Zetian's instruction, and Su Dingfang's execution.

If Su Dingfang had thought of this, he wouldn't have brought Li Yuanxiang back alive.

However, given that it was a royal scandal, he couldn't show any happiness.

"I must punish him severely; this is outrageous!"

"If he can't even keep an eye on one person, how can I trust him to govern a region?"

"I originally intended to appoint him as a prefect, but now it seems I should reconsider."

"If it weren't for his meritorious service in suppressing the rebellion, I wouldn't have wanted to reward him!"

"Meiniang, what title do you think would be best for him?"

Li Zhi reciprocated by giving the choice to Wu Zetian.