Chapter 183: Mortal Fear
Zhao Yushu suddenly had a bad feeling, and he was not the only one who had this feeling.
Because when the prince held the letters, he looked around instead of just looking at Li Tong.
Zhao Yushu quietly looked at Sun Wuyang who was sitting in the corner. Sun Wuyang also looked over and nodded slightly.
Well, it turns out that Wang Yan really has some tricks up his sleeve. Each family has to go through him to get their share of the profits. But would this old guy be so stupid as to keep the correspondence as evidence?
"Sister, do you want to guess what's in this letter?" The prince changed his address.
"If the letter states that my father is involved in salt tax embezzlement, I am willing to follow the example of the ancient sages and go to jail on my father's behalf." Li Tong stood up and pulled out several hairpins on her head one by one. Suddenly, her long hair fell down like a waterfall. This was the posture of a criminal.
Li Tong knelt on the ground and said, "If it has nothing to do with my father, Your Highness can kill me, but you cannot humiliate me."
Absolutely!
This trick is really amazing. It will directly cut off your idea of testing. Just like Wang Yan, if you have evidence, you arrest people. If you don’t have evidence, you shut up.
"Your Highness! This old minister thinks this is inappropriate!"
Unexpectedly, the first person to stand up was Duke Yue!
"Prince Fu is the Emperor's brother, born of the same mother. Even if he has committed a serious fault, he should be reprimanded and ordered to come to the capital to defend himself. If he has done nothing wrong, would it not chill the hearts of the princes and nobles of the world to threaten him with falsehood? I hope Your Highness will put the country first!"
Duke Yue left his seat, knelt beside Li Tong, and kowtowed heavily.
The prince could no longer sit still. If these words were said by the unlucky Qiuzi King Li Jian, the prince could just scold him back or even beat him up. But it was different for the Duke of Yue.
Yesterday the prince was still calling him his uncle, but today he is scolding him directly. After he ascends the throne, he will learn what it means to be lip service and what it means to be far away from the emperor.
"Uncle, you are too kind! Too kind!" The prince came down in a hurry, helped Duke Yue up, and then helped Li Tong up. "Sister, you still have such a bad temper. We are a family. Get up quickly. Okay, I won't keep you in suspense. These letters were all written by Wang Yan to Dongdu, but the content of the letters is obscure. It is impossible to tell which important person they are written to. I only know that this person is negotiating with Wang Yan about the profit sharing of private salt next year. Wang Yan, can you tell me who these letters are for?"
Wang Yan raised his head and read it: "I, your humble servant, have never written it."
"It was found on your servant, and it was written in your handwriting. Wang Yan, there's no point in denying it."
Wang Yan sighed: "The servants can be bribed, the handwriting can be forged, why don't you tell me a name, I will blame whoever you want me to blame."
The wind was blowing hard, and Zhao Yushu's spiritual power was surging. He split the wave of spiritual power that surged in front of him and sat still.
The prince pulled Duke Yue and Li Tong behind him one by one, while Wang Yan in front of him was suddenly stretched straight and endured the furious attack from the sixth-level cultivator.
The sound of bones breaking was heard, and blood flowed from all seven orifices of Wang Yan. His eyes rolled back, and his snow-white prison uniform was instantly dyed blood red, but surprisingly, he did not die.
"I wanted to give you a decent treatment." The prince put down the frightened Duke Yue and Li Tong, "But you don't want to. Come on, give him the best medicine. I want him to be able to stand in front of me alive and kicking tomorrow. Wang Yan, your bones are not as hard as you think."
The prince waved his hand and walked towards the back hall, indicating that today's so-called trial was over. A farce was ended in such a rough and bloody way.
Zhao Yushu forcibly suppressed Madam Xu's restlessness. The reason why imperial power could still exist in this world with strong spiritual power once again fell in front of him. When imperial power can be used to suppress others, then use it. When you no longer fear imperial power, you will find that as cultivators they are also the top ones.
Force is always the only backing for rights.
Duke Yue adjusted his crown, and looked at the prince's back with fear in his eyes, while Li Tong silently tied her hair up again and bit her lips tightly with her pearly teeth, as if she hated herself for not being able to awaken as a monk.
Wang Yan, covered in blood, was dragged away by several Jinwu Guards. Perhaps within two days, he would do as he said, and would bite whoever the prince told him to bite, just to die quickly.
Li Jian stared blankly at Wang Yan being carried away, his hands shaking uncontrollably. Although he was a prince, he was not the crown prince, he was still a mortal.
No mortal can withstand the wrath of a monk.
The group left the Duke's Mansion one after another. Zhao Yushu and Sun Wuyang were together, but when they reached the gate, they were stopped by a housekeeper.
"Mr. Liu, my master would like to invite you to chat for a while."
Duke of Yue? Why did he want to see me?
Sun Wuyang gave him a questioning look, and Zhao Yushu shook his head: "I don't know, let's go and listen, Senior Brother, you go back first."
Following the butler to the back garden, Duke Yue was sitting alone in a pavilion, without playing chess or drinking tea. He did not look like he was entertaining guests, but more like he was in a daze.
The butler bowed and left. Zhao Yushu sat opposite him with a puzzled look on his face, waiting for Yue Guogong to speak.
"When Taizu founded the country, Jiangning was the fiefdom my ancestors took from the previous dynasty. In the previous dynasty, the Wang family was not called the Duke of Yue, but the King of Yue."
As a king with a single character, and with the fiefdom of Jiangning, his actual power is even greater than that of many royal princes.
"When Taizu started his rebellion, Wang's ancestors led a large army to defend Jiangning, and neither side helped."
Zhao Yushu wanted to laugh. The result of not helping either side is often that both sides will dislike you. After all, who knows whether you are not helping either side or waiting for a good price.
"Then Taizu took over the two capitals and rested for three years, intending to march south of the Yangtze River. The ancestor of the Wang family decisively surrendered the city, winning the Wang family a hereditary dukedom. Haha, at least Taizu promised not to crown him king in Jiangning."
Zhao Yushu frowned: "Duke asked me to come here to tell me about history?"
Duke Yue looked at him and said, "The Wang family is the Wang family of the Tang Dynasty. In the past four hundred years, the Wang family has only produced two cultivators, and the highest one is only the third level. The reason why they can have the power they have now is because the heads of the Wang family in all generations have recognized their position, which is to be dogs of the Tang Dynasty."
Zhao Yushu was stunned. He never expected that a duke, the de facto landlord in the southeast, would bluntly call himself a dog in front of his enemy.
"I don't understand what the Duke wants to say."
The Duke smiled and said, "Your Majesty, the old Pavilion Master, the Tang Dynasty, or the Academy, you are all gods, and you can kill me with just a flick of your finger. If the old Pavilion Master is unhappy, he can just poke the whole Duke's Mansion with one finger, and the Emperor will pretend not to see it. I am really scared."
Zhao Yushu didn't say anything. He couldn't figure out what Duke Yue meant by what he said.
"We mortals are nothing more than greedy for power and money. You have seen today that when the prince is angry, his cultivation is more effective than the law. Mr. Liu, I did some wrong things in Nanyang, but the victims were just mortals, just like me. I am willing to sacrifice my reputation and five hundred thousand taels of silver per year to ask you for one thing."
Zhao Yushu's face was serious. He seemed to have guessed what Duke Yue was going to do, but he still asked, "What is it?"
"I only ask Mr. Liu to spare my life."