The revitalization of the Tang Dynasty began with the Ganlu Incident.

"Xue Jiling?"

Li Ang raised an eyebrow slightly, his scrutinizing gaze falling on Liu Hongyi, and finished what Liu Hongyi hadn't said.

Liu Hongyi bowed his head and clasped his hands, making it impossible to see the emotions in his eyes: "Everyone, this old servant believes that coming here with Lieutenant Xue for confrontation will be enough to clarify the truth."

Seeing this, Li Ang smiled, but shook his head and said.

"I naturally believe your words, but I don't understand why Xue Jiling would do this?"

In fact, Li Ang had already guessed the answer.

After all, no one but him could have known Liu Hongyi's actions in advance.

Moreover, like Liu Hongyi, Xue Jiling was also on good terms with the Niu faction.

With his connections, it was entirely possible for him to leak the information to Linghu Chu.

Despite guessing it, Li Ang still maintained a slightly doubtful expression on his face.

Seeing this, Liu Hongyi pondered for a moment, as if he had made up his mind, and knelt down in the tunnel.

"This old servant begs everyone's forgiveness."

Li Ang looked down at him, but did not speak immediately. Instead, he tapped the table lightly twice with his hand, then leaned back in his chair and asked casually.

"What crime do you want me to forgive you for?"

Liu Hongyi said, "In fact, after the Qiu Shiliang incident, Xue Jiling and I secretly discussed how to get rid of Li Xun and other treacherous officials for everyone."

Afterwards, Liu Hongyi recounted his conversation with Xue Jiling after returning to the Privy Council from the Zichen Palace that day.

Of course, it's impossible to tell everything.

He omitted the earlier attempts to guess the emperor's intentions and some overly explicit remarks, focusing instead on how the two planned to deal with Li Xun.

"...At that time, Lieutenant Xue said that Li Xun was a wolf in sheep's clothing. He first eliminated dissidents and cultivated his own faction, and then plotted to take control of the Shence Army. Such a treacherous minister would bring disaster to the country if kept by our side. Therefore, we wanted to take this opportunity to unite with the court officials to eliminate Li Xun's faction."

"But I think that although Li Xun is wicked, he is still a high-ranking minister, and his departure should be decided by everyone. Therefore, I suggest that we consult everyone's opinion first."

"We couldn't reach an agreement, and in the end, Lieutenant Xue suggested that the old servant collect evidence of the crimes committed by the other henchmen besides Li Xun, while Lieutenant Xue would be responsible for dealing with Li Xun himself."

"Only then did the old servant present Wang Yuanyou's testimony to everyone."

That makes sense now.

According to their division of labor, Liu Hongyi was responsible for interrogating Zheng Zhu, while Xue Jiling was responsible for dealing with Li Xun.

Through the Song Shenxi case, Liu Hongyi has already obtained the power to imprison Zheng Zhu. All that remains is to pry Zheng Zhu open his mouth little by little.

Therefore, he remained calm and unhurried.

However, Xue Jiling's situation is relatively more complicated.

Li Xun had many followers in the court, and there was no pretext to convict him of returning to the capital without permission. To deal with him, it would be necessary to unite with other forces in the court.

Clearly, Xue Jiling chose Linghu Chu, a member of the Niu Party.

But everyone in the court and among the people knew that Li Xun was the emperor's favorite minister.

The emperor may not have been unaware of the things he did in private, but he always turned a blind eye.

Otherwise, Li Zongmin and other veteran officials would not have been so easily expelled from the capital.

To deal with Li Xun, the first thing to determine is the emperor's will.

If the emperor continues to trust and favor Li Xun, then even if those incriminating facts are brought to light, the matter will likely be downplayed, and the emperor will instead face retaliation from Li Xun afterward.

Therefore, the challenge facing Xue Jiling was how to convince Linghu Chu that Li Xun had lost the emperor's trust.

In this situation, Liu Hongyi's mission to leave the capital on a secret imperial edict and arrest Zheng Zhu, a henchman of Li Xun, is clearly the most compelling evidence.

Although doing so may pose a risk of information leakage, as long as all parties can reach an agreement, even if Li Xun struggles desperately, it will be to no avail.

"So, the recent rumors circulating in the court and among the public that 'His Majesty intends to order the Prime Minister to command the troops' also originated from the palace?"

Li Ang asked in a cryptic tone.

Liu Hongyi did not answer immediately, but hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"Reporting to everyone, this was not done by this old servant."

That means it was Xue Jiling who did it.

Li Ang had his answer in mind. He quickly waved his hand and stopped criticizing Liu Hongyi. Instead, he focused his attention on the evidence that Liu Hongyi had just presented.

"Were all these found at Zheng Zhu's brother-in-law's house?"

Liu Hongyi carefully stood up, but his tone was somewhat hesitant.

"That's right, but..."

"But what?"

As he asked questions, Li Ang opened the letters.

After quickly reading it, he finally understood why Liu Hongyi was hesitant to speak.

"Has anyone else besides you read these letters?"

Li Ang's tone was somewhat somber.

For no other reason than that most of these letters were about the same thing.

That is to discuss when the Fengxiang troops should enter the capital and how to cooperate with Li Xun in implementing the plan.

Although, because it was a letter, many of the words were written in a very cryptic manner.

But even the most politically obtuse person, upon considering the recent major events in the capital, would immediately understand what the so-called plan in these letters actually refers to.

"This Zheng Zhu, how dare he! He's threatening me!"

The current conclusion regarding Qiu Shiliang's case is that Qiu Shiliang conspired with Yu Hongzhi to commit treason, and after the plot was exposed, he was executed by the Imperial Guards.

Although these words seemed absurd and laughable to the ministers present at the time.

However, for most people, including the vast majority of court officials who attended the court assembly but could only stand in line outside the palace, they actually did not know what had happened.

In their view, the emperor discovered that the tea prepared by Qiu Shiliang and others was poisoned while preparing to observe the sweet dew, and therefore dispatched troops to kill them.

Perhaps some people can guess that there are unknown inside stories, but after all, these are just guesses.

But with these letters, things would be different.

These letters clearly show that Li Xun and Zheng Zhu had long been plotting to kill Qiu Shiliang.

Since there was a prior conspiracy, the so-called plot of Qiu Shiliang's rebellion was naturally nonsense.

Zheng Zhu and Li Xun have been in cahoots for so many years, and the evidence he has is definitely more than this.

However, he chose to hand these over first, saying that it would have been impossible for him not to have his own agenda.

Liu Hongyi was clearly aware of this, which is why he was so helpless.

Zheng Zhu did not lie to him. If these letters were used as evidence, they could indeed prove that Li Xun, as prime minister, had maintained private contact with the Fengxiang military garrison and had even privately mobilized troops into the capital without an official edict.

Once this is made public, this one point alone would be enough to ruin Li Xun.

However, this was evidence that could not be made public. More importantly, even though Liu Hongyi knew Zheng Zhu's intentions, he still had to present this evidence to the emperor for him to handle personally.

From this perspective, Zheng Zhu's cunning was indeed beyond what ordinary people could possess.

"I would like to inform you all that before Zheng Zhu was imprisoned, he kept saying that he wanted to see the Emperor. Now that he has produced this evidence, he must have a good idea that everyone does not want the court to be in turmoil again."

"This old servant thinks that, having fallen to this state, all he wants is to return home safely. If everyone can see him and grant him peace in person, Zheng will surely hand over the other evidence..."