The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 518: hinder
Chapter 518 Constraints
“You can do it, and your father will be at ease! Remember… you must check carefully to see if it is a letter from our Li family!” Li Mao squeezed his son’s hand and hinted secretly, “This letter… concerns the lives of all the members of our Li family. Will they remain on their shoulders or bleed to the ground?”
“Don’t worry, father. I know the importance of this matter!” Li Mingrui said solemnly.
After Li Mingrui arrived at Prince Liang’s mansion with wine and snacks in the name of visiting Prince Liang, he saw with his own eyes Prince Liang take out a letter from a brocade box full of letters and hand it to Li Mingrui.
Li Mingrui recognized his father’s handwriting and was horrified. While King Liang was drinking tea with his eyes downcast, he pretended not to see clearly and took a closer look at the paper under the sunlight coming through the diamond-shaped window lattice. The dust floated in the light, reflecting the very faint word “Li” on the paper… which could only be seen under strong light. Li Mingrui’s heart sank.
The letter really came from the Li family.
He glanced at the brocade box beside Prince Liang, and to show respect, he stood up and placed the letter on Prince Liang’s desk: “Where did Your Highness get these letters? These letters have never been found, which is my father’s concern, not anything else… I am afraid that someone will use these letters to cause trouble, and Your Highness Prince Liang will have no one to use in the court.”
“How I got it cannot be told to Mingrui directly at the moment. I hope Mingrui will forgive me.” Prince Liang said politely and put the letter back into the brocade box.
“Your Highness, what are you talking about!” Li Mingrui became more respectful to King Liang. “I am your Highness’s subordinate, how can I ask about my master’s affairs!”
“Mingrui, what you said is too polite! I have always regarded Mingrui as a brother and have never treated Mingrui as an outsider!” King Liang paused here, and suddenly took out the letter from the brocade box, unfolded it for Li Mingrui to take a look, and then lit it directly.
“Your Highness!” Li Mingrui was quite surprised. He stared at the letter paper that was gradually being consumed by the flames, his throat churning.
“The letter of the Left Prime Minister has been destroyed. He can deny it in the court!” King Liang put the almost burned letter into the pen wash, patted the brocade box and said, “Mingrui, to be honest… I just got the letter last night! Please rest assured, Mingrui and the Left Prime Minister, these letters are here with me, they will never see the light of day! The Left Prime Minister was once a close minister beside my brother, and I will never watch him being threatened by others. I… hope that the Left Prime Minister can work together with me to achieve great things, just like he assisted my second brother!”
King Liang’s words were both clear and not so clear.
Li Mingrui’s eyes fell on the brocade box and his brows twitched. He wondered if King Liang was threatening his father to obey him by using the letters, or if he hadn’t received all the letters?
If Prince Liang had really read those letters, he would surely have been able to see that it was his father who had instigated the Second Prince to rebel, and that it was his father who had promised the Second Prince to support him from the outside. But when he finally realized that the Second Prince could not accomplish anything… he abandoned the Second Prince and immediately rescued the King.
Li Mingrui speculated that the latter was more likely.
After all, when in Yanwo, Li Mingrui followed his father’s instructions and took the lead in showing goodwill to King Liang to demonstrate his loyalty.
But Li Mingrui was just guessing and didn’t dare to be sure.
After coming out of Prince Liang’s mansion and getting on the carriage, Li Mingrui’s eyes were gloomy, thinking of Prince Liang’s action of burning the letter just now. The safest way was to burn it… and let the letter disappear from the world.
It is not certain how many letters King Liang has in his hands, nor is it certain how many Bai Qingyan has in his hands.
People from Shuoyang Baifu found out that the secret guards were guarding the place like an iron barrel, and as for the Prince of Liang’s Mansion… the emperor had just withdrawn the secret guards and the patrol camp. Now was the best time to take action, as Prince of Liang had not yet gained power.
Ever since Wen Zhenkang’s wife came to threaten her father with the letter, this matter has never ended. Their Li family must not be restrained by more people because of these letters!
Li Mingrui was more decisive than Li Mao. He sent people to burn down Prince Liang’s mansion that night. The emperor was awakened in the middle of the night and was shocked to hear that Prince Liang’s mansion was on fire. He hurriedly asked how Prince Liang was. He was relieved to learn that Prince Liang was safe.
The next morning, the Imperial Censor Pei Lao Sir reported that the Left Prime Minister Li Mao was very close to the Second Prince who had once plotted rebellion, and bluntly said that the Second Prince must be a wiser ruler than the current emperor if he could ascend to the throne! Lao Sir Pei asked His Majesty to thoroughly investigate whether Li Mao was involved in the rebellion, and presented a handwritten letter from the Left Prime Minister Li Mao to the Second Prince.
Left Prime Minister Li Mao was temporarily dismissed from his post and thrown into prison. After reading the letter, his eldest son Li Mingrui said bluntly that the letter was a forgery and asked Your Majesty to invite Master Tan and Lord Shoushan, who were both highly accomplished in calligraphy, to come and identify it. The two gentlemen also seemed to think that the letter was suspected of being a forgery, and for the sake of safety… more time was needed to study it.
The metropolis was becoming more and more lively day by day, and its people had endless things to talk about.
At the same time, a blue-clothed counselor from the Left Prime Minister’s Mansion named Ziyuan also arrived in Shuoyang and presented a visiting card from the Left Prime Minister’s Mansion to the gate of Bai’s mansion, asking for an audience with the Princess Zhenguo.
When Bai Qingyan received the letter, she was studying the approximate time when the Rongdi people seized Dengzhou over the years. When she heard Nanny Tong’s report, Bai Qingyan responded and asked them to invite people to the main hall, and she would go over afterwards.
The blue-clothed counselor of the Left Prime Minister’s Mansion was sitting restlessly in the main hall. As soon as he stepped into the front gate of the Bai family, he was shocked by the profound background of the Bai family. Thinking of the fact that he had previously advised Li Mao and sent people to Shuoyang to capture or create leverage over Bai Qingyan, he felt that he was like a frog in a well.
Before he came to Shuoyang, he thought that Bai Qingyan would have a hard time after returning to Shuoyang. He didn’t expect that Shuoyang was the real foundation of the Bai family. No wonder… the Bai family had to retreat to Shuoyang to protect themselves.
What made the blue-clothed strategist even more uneasy was that Bai Qingyan was training his troops!
This was almost Bai Qingyan’s handle, but… she had reported her military training to the emperor and the prince, and the emperor even rewarded Bai Qingyan with gold and silver for her military training.
The blue-clothed strategist was greatly shocked. Bai Qingyan was training the people in Shuoyang to be soldiers. When they were trained well in the future, Bai Qingyan would be able to become the local emperor here and command the support of hundreds of people.
The blue-clothed strategist was anxious and clenched his fists tightly.
Soon, seeing Bai Qingyan approaching, the blue-clothed counselor knelt down and saluted: “I greet the princess.”
“Are you the…staff member of the Left Prime Minister’s Mansion?” Bai Qingyan glanced at the blue-clothed strategist, then walked slowly to the main seat and sat down.
The counselor knelt and turned around, kowtowed to Bai Qingyan, “Princess, that’s right! The Left Prime Minister sent me here this time… to apologize to the princess. I dare not deceive the princess. The Left Prime Minister is worried day and night because the princess holds the handle, so I sent people to Shuoyang, waiting for an opportunity to exchange the handle with the princess. I have no other intentions. This time I have angered the princess, and the Left Prime Minister has realized his mistake. I have sent me here to admit my mistake to the princess and accept the princess’s punishment. I beg the princess to forgive me.”
The first update is coming! Keep rolling around to ask for monthly votes! Last month’s monthly votes ranked second, I’ll update more for you guys during the Spring Festival! The bald author is working hard to save up manuscripts! Whether I’ll update more next month depends on how many monthly votes I get, little ancestors!