Chapter 665: The Life Gate of the Royal Family

"See Your Highness, the King of Zhao!"

Li Yi bowed respectfully to Li Qingan, his face full of flattery smiles. If it weren't for the huge gap in generations, he would have wished he would kneel down.

"You don't have to be polite to King Sijiang, please sit down!"

Li Qingan's tone was very polite, but he was really disgusted with this so-called elder of the royal family. Not only did he disgusted, but many officials had tactfully told him that the third-rank Zongzheng Temple Minister was not very qualified. Later, Li Qingan learned about some little things about Li Yi, which made him feel troubled.

Zongzheng Temple was originally a clear water yamen, and with the large number of royal families fled south, Zongzheng Temple suddenly became the most idle department in the court. If King Sijiang was idle all day and had nothing to do, no one would talk about him.

The key is that he wants to find trouble for himself. At the end of last year, he applied for replacement and repair on the excuse that the gate of Taimiao was decayed and needed repairs. Of course, Zongzheng Temple did not need to be intervened in the repair. After the repair, the craftsmen found that the gate that was removed was missing, and some scrap copper stored in the Taimiao were also missing. After a long time of investigation, he finally learned from the guards of the imperial city that those things were transported away by Li Yi and where they were transported. No one knew that this incident left the imperial court stunned. How did they turn from a third-rank high-ranking official to a rag pickup?

In February this year, Li Yi thought of another way to make money. He released news in Chang'an that some descendants of the royal family might be tragic among the people, and Zongzheng Temple needs to be re-registered and reviewed. To put it bluntly, he is selling the royal family quota.

For example, Li Dongzhu, a certain tea seller, made a fortune, but this person is inferior to the businessman's status as a low man, so he can give the Zongzheng Temple a thousand stagnant money. Then this person becomes the illegitimate son of a royal prince, and is wandering among the people. There are records in Zongzheng Temple to check.

Fortunately, this matter was reported in time. The Censorate warned Li Yi, so he was forced to stop. However, this matter had already had an extremely bad impact among the officials of the court, making the court officials extremely disgusted with him.

Li Qingan also heard about these things, but he had to endure them. Now he still needs this royal family of the highest seniority to do something for him.

Seeing that Li Yi refused to sit down, he smiled and said, "Don't be so nervous. You are a senior of the royal family. Why do I have the nerve to let you stand and talk? Please sit down!"

"I am just the king of heirs, and His Highness is the prince. How dare I sit down at will!"

Li Yi said as he sat down next to the edge of the soft pillow, and laughed dryly: "I don't know what you have to do to let me serve you."

"Have the situation of the Chang'an royal family been counted?" Li Qing'an asked as if nothing had happened.

"There are records in the Sonzheng Temple. I wonder what aspects of your Highness want to know?"

"I want to know a lot, the current situation of the royal family in Chang'an and Luoyang, how many people are left, how their property is? There are also the royal family who fled south, what is their property in Chang'an? How many houses do the royal family have in Chang'an? I want to know all of these, I have written a list for you, you can prepare it for me! Give it to me tomorrow morning."

As he said that, Li Qingan handed Li Yi a list prepared in advance. Li Yi carefully put it away, got up and smiled and said, "Your Highness, then I'll go back first."

"You go!"

Li Yi was about to go out, but Li Qingan called him again, "King Sijiang, wait!"

Li Yi stopped quickly, bowed and smiled, "Your Highness, is there anything else?"

Li Qingan seemed to be thinking about something, but did not answer him for a long time. After a while, he asked indifferently: "Generally speaking, what are the princes of the royal family most afraid of? I mean, besides losing their lives."

Li Yi said, and he felt the deepest and qualified to answer this question, "Your Highness, many people say that the royal family is most afraid of losing their title of prince, and some people say that the royal family is most afraid of people rebelling. In fact, these are not mentioned. What the royal family is most afraid of is the word "poverty". Generally speaking, the royal family is a person who is not diligent and has no ability to tie a chicken, and they are also people who are used to living and drinking, so they become paupers and make sure that they all go out to beg for food."

Although Li Yi is ignorant and greedy for money, he is very cunning. He has been thinking about Li Qing'an's thoughts for a long time and has already figured out some tricks. Li Qing'an is not a descendant of Li Shimin. It is estimated that most of these royal princes will not support him ascend the throne. Not only will he not support him, but he will also destroy and obstruct him. Therefore, if Li Qing'an wants to ascend the throne, he must first impose these royal families.

So when Li Qingan asked what his royal family was afraid of, he immediately guessed that Li Qingan was going to attack these royal families. Li Yi also hated these younger royal families in his heart. When he asked for it from both the people and the people, he was full of eyes and humiliation. If he could clean up these royal families, he would have calculated his anger.

He knew these royal family members very well. These guys were most afraid of poverty. Once they became poor and had no money to support their families, their women would have to give them away and their sons would have to beg for food. At that time, the rules of the royal family and the blood relationship of ancestors were all unimportant, and they would knelt down and kowtow to Li Qing'an for mercy.

The evil ones will be beaten by the evil ones, and the little ones will be beaten by the little ones. Li Yi’s role is here. He knows how to deal with the pretentious royal children.

Thinking of this, he became unconscious and added suggestions: "Your Highness, the royal family in the Southern Tang Dynasty believe that your Highness dare not touch their property, so your Highness confiscate them all, even the real estate, money and property, and their land throughout the country. In fact, there are records in governments in various places, so they simply take them all as officials, turning those guys into paupers. At that time, they will kneel down and beg for mercy to Your Highness."

"Yeah! That's pretty good."

Li Qingan was very satisfied with his suggestion and nodded, "You go! Prepare the documents for me quickly."

"Don't worry, your highness, they are all ready-made, I can deliver them to you in the evening."

After saying that, he exited the room.

As soon as he left, Li Qing'an stood up and said to his personal soldiers: "Prepare a carriage for me. I want to go to the Siqi Palace and let the inner guard Qin Haiyang and the intelligence hall Hu Peiyun come together."

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The Siqi Palace that Li Qing'an was going to was not the former Qi Palace. The Qi Palace was the Seven Kings House located in Yongfufang. After Li Longji ascended the throne, he ordered his brothers to live together to monitor his brothers. Later, he moved his sons into the Ten Kings House, and then moved his grandsons into the Hundred Grand Courtyard to build a hundred grandson courtyard. In short, it was four words: "Easy to monitor."

In the late Tianbao period, with the gradual death of the Li Longji brothers, their descendants began to buy land and build houses by themselves. They were no longer limited to Yongfufang, and were distributed almost throughout Chang'an.

The Siqi Palace, which Li Qing'an was going to, is located in Pingkangfang. It lives next to the old Li Linfu's house. The carriage slowly drove past Li Linfu's mansion. Shortly after Li Linfu's death, his house was confiscated. His children died and scattered. No one stayed in Chang'an. The mansion was taken away by the court and was closed until now. The mansion was deserted. The craftsmanship grew half a person tall wormwood on the steps. The paint of the gate was peeled off, revealing a large piece of mottled grayish white. The proud sign of the Prime Minister's Mansion above the gate had been taken off. Two tattered death lanterns were still hanging on the eaves, but they could no longer see their original colors.

Li Qingan couldn't help but remember the situation when he first came to Li Linfu ten years ago. They were wearing tattered military uniforms and standing under a wall not far away. It seemed raining at that time, but there were still carriages coming and going in the rain. Li Linfu's house was the end or starting point, which was crowded with people. But now, the decline in front of him made him feel lost. "In the old days, the swallows in front of Wang Xie Hall flew into the homes of ordinary people." This was the feeling.

The carriage quickly drove past Li Linfu's old house and stopped in front of King Siqi's mansion. The inner guards were very quick. A thousand soldiers had surrounded Prince Siqi's mansion. In front of the gate, Qin Haiyang and Hu Peiyun had just arrived. When they saw Li Qing'an getting off the carriage, they stepped forward to salute together, "See General!"

Li Qingan waved his hand, "No need to be polite, go in with me and have a look."

A group of people walked into the Siqi Palace. The Siqi King was named Li Zhen. After Li Yu had a surgery on the royal family and confiscated his land, he fled to Chengdu with his family. Now he is the Minister of Zongzheng Temple in Southern Tang, and he has land and houses in Chengdu, and his life is still very comfortable.

But because he was in a hurry when he escaped, he had no time to take away his wealth, so he sealed off the wealth and enjoyed it when he came back in the future. In order to prevent the thieves from coming in and stealing, he ordered more than a dozen trusted servants to stay in the old house. However, it was these so-called trusted servants who became internal thieves and were honest at first, but a servant accidentally discovered a cash bin a year ago. Under the temptation of copper coins, the servants began to steal the property in the mansion. Not only was the 20,000 ounces of money in the cash bin a stolen, but many valuable items in the inner house were also stolen. This is how the leopard skin found by Li Qingan today was stolen.

Fortunately, these servants are less courageous and have children, so they dare not do too much. Except for Qian Jiao who was stolen, the rest of the losses were not large, and most of the houses remain sealed.

After Li Qing'an entered Chang'an, he confiscated some of the royal family's property, but it was mainly concentrated in Yongfufang and Chongrenfang. There was no time to investigate the large number of royal family houses in other houses.

He was already preparing to set off for Jianghuai the day after tomorrow. An accidental discovery reminded him of this big event. This was indeed a big event and must be completed before the demise of the Southern Tang Dynasty.

As soon as Li Qing'an walked into the mansion, a general rushed up to report: "General, brothers found a secret passage in the fish pond in the back garden. It seemed that there was an underground dark room, all sealed by the big bluestone. May I ask the general, do you want to excavate?"

Li Qingan was stunned. He didn't expect that he had just wanted to see the situation of King Siqi's house, but he didn't expect that there would be unexpected gains. He immediately ordered: "Discover immediately!"

Li Qingan also walked quickly to the back garden. He wanted to see what his son hid in the basement of King Qi, who was once called a wealthy country.

The back garden covers a vast area, with a size of more than a dozen acres, pavilions, towers, rockery, ponds and fish, and is planted with various strange flowers and plants, and is decorated very luxuriously.

In the middle of the garden is an artificial lake covering an area of ​​about five acres. It is understood with the river water outside the mansion. Usually, the servants in the mansion would never dream of having a name in the lake, but the soldiers of the inner guards were very experienced. When they entered the mansion, they cut off the inflow of the river. As a result, the river water only came out but not in, and the water level dropped rapidly, revealing a basement entrance at the bottom of the rockery, which was sealed with large bluestone. Even if the servants found it, it would be difficult to open it.

The basement entrance is slightly higher. When the lake water flows halfway, there is no water around the entrance. More than a hundred soldiers have jumped into the water and are using pry sticks and ropes to open the bluestone that seals the door.

In just a moment, with a rumbling sound, the bluestone collapsed, revealing a dark hole.

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Chapter completed!