Throughout late April and early May, Chang'an City's attention was attracted by the affairs of Hou Junji and Xue Wanjun.
Two princes were imprisoned and countless soldiers were punished. This was extremely rare in the Zhenguan Dynasty. It can even be said to be the biggest case in ten years. Few things can surpass it in popularity.
After all, Hou Junji was also an old man in the Qin Palace, and had friendships with many dignitaries in the court.
Except for the first few days when everyone was unsure of the emperor's intentions and did not dare to make any moves, gradually some people began to come up with ways to help him.
This is especially true for the Xue family. Xue Wanshu, the eldest brother of Xue Wanjun, is the governor of Puzhou; the second brother, Xue Wanshu, is the general and holds the title of Duke. Although he has been relegated to the second line, his influence is still considerable.
The fourth brother, Xue Wanche, was a general and became a Duke; the fifth brother, Xue Wanbei, was a senior official and served as a royal chariot. He was a true nobleman.
Although the brothers have separated and live their own lives in name only, they are still related by blood, and the relationship between them is not comparable to that of ordinary people.
After getting over the initial panic, the Xue family also began to lobby for his rescue, and gradually more and more people interceded for them in the court.
However, before Li Shimin could speak, the judicial officers from Yushitai, Dali Temple and the Ministry of Punishment joined forces to silence them.
In short, they did not take advantage of any reason. The people were dissatisfied and the officials were very angry with them. There was really no excuse.
The Hou family and the Xue family also knew this, and instead of trying to persuade the officials, they played the emotional card with the emperor.
Why do they have no merit but hard work in fighting for the country? Why do they get carried away and do not mean to offend? Please spare their lives for the sake of past kindness.
Li Shimin never spoke or expressed his stance.
The officials of the Third Division finally caught a major case and overthrew two princes at once. For them, it was something worth feeling proud of.
They didn't want to have the case overturned just like this, so they quickly concluded the case and submitted the file to the emperor, hoping to make this matter a solid case.
Then the file was withheld by Li Shimin, who neither approved nor rejected it.
No one could understand what the emperor meant, and the matter was at a stalemate.
Just when everyone was speculating on the emperor's thoughts and discussing the possible direction of the matter, an unexpected thing happened.
Xue Wanjun is dead.
…
Chen Jingke was so shocked when he heard the news that he lost his composure and said, "Xue Wanjun is really dead? How did he die?"
Cheng Huailiang drank some water to moisten his throat and said, "I will die on hunger strike."
Chen Jingke asked in confusion: "Why? Hasn't His Majesty not made up his mind yet?"
Cheng Huailiang said: "According to what the jailer said and the blood letter left behind, he was filled with grief, anger and shame, and felt that he had no face to see the saints and the people of the world, so he went on a hunger strike."
Chen Jingke frowned and said, "Do you believe it?"
Cheng Huailiang said: "It doesn't matter whether I believe it or not. The jailer, the blood letter and other prisoners in the prison are the evidence. And he did starve to death, not any other way."
Chen Jingke couldn't help but feel his scalp numb. No matter what the reason was, starving himself to death would be cruel.
"Where is your Majesty? Do you have any news?"
Cheng Huailiang said: "The saint regrets very much and should not treat the hero like this."
"All the files were destroyed in front of hundreds of officials, their sins were pardoned, and Xue Wanjun was ordered to be buried lavishly. General Hou was also released, but was removed from all positions."
Chen Jingke frowned and thought deeply. This matter seemed normal and there was no conspiracy in it. But thinking about the history of his previous life, he felt that everything was weird.
In the previous life, only Hou Junji was punished and imprisoned for this incident. Later, Cen Wenwen wrote a letter saying that the court should not treat heroes like this.
Li Shimin thought of Hou Junji's contribution again and released him, but also removed him from all official positions.
Xue Wanjun was not punished in this incident, but the next year he was imprisoned by Li Shimin for a trivial matter, and died in prison out of grief and anger.
I don’t know what went wrong in this life. Hou Junji and Xue Wanjun were imprisoned at the same time. The final result was similar to that in the previous life. Hou Junji was released from prison without any danger, and Xue Wanjun died.
When history has changed, but the same result occurs, the problem is huge and cannot be explained by coincidence.
But after much deliberation, he could never figure out what went wrong.
After pondering hard for an explanation, he accidentally discovered that Cheng Huailiang's attitude was a little too calm, and he thought: "Do you know something?"
Cheng Huailiang didn't hide anything, or he was just waiting for him to ask questions, and said bluntly: "According to me, Aye, Xue Wanjun will send heavy gifts to the Wei Palace during every festival."
"And after he was imprisoned, Xue Wanshu went to the prison and sent away all the jailers. No one knows what they talked about."
"Hiss..." Chen Jingke took a breath and said, "You mean..."
Cheng Huailiang nodded and said: "It's very possible, but we have no evidence, and it's not easy to speculate on this kind of thing."
But Chen Jingke couldn't control that much anymore, and scolded all eighteen generations of Xue Wanjun's ancestors: "@#￥%&*@#￥... He deserves to die, and he deserves to be starved to death."
He was indeed very angry. With the efforts of Changsun Wugou, Li Shimin did not use the tactics of raising gu as in his previous life, and Li Tai was deprived of the opportunity to seize the throne early.
Seeing that the entire country is moving in a good direction, some people are unwilling to be left alone and want to take advantage of the sidelines to gain support.
If Li Taizhen was deceived by them and had thoughts he shouldn't have, many things would really end badly.
Especially since he is now studying gewu with Chen Jingke, how will Chen Jingke deal with himself then? Or can the transcendent status of Zixiaoguan be maintained?
In the end, it was not just them who were tricked to death, but many others. Although Zixiaoguan was not tricked to death, he still had to shed a few layers of skin.
How can Chen Jingke not be angry?
Cheng Huailiang also understood this, and after he vented his anger, he warned: "Don't say these words to anyone. The matter has been finalized. Xue Wanjun committed suicide in shame and anger."
Chen Jingke was still angry and said: "I know... Bah, this trash is taking advantage of him."
After telling him what had happened, Cheng Huailiang went to study in the Gurwu class. In the past few days, he had studied Gurwu and found that it was indeed quite interesting and he was very fascinated by it.
He is not obsessed with mathematics or anything like that. It is difficult for ordinary people to be fascinated by this stuff. He is interested in material changes and inventions.
Interest is often the biggest driving force, prompting people to learn boring theoretical knowledge. This is the case for him.
After Cheng Huailiang left, Chen Jingke wanted to go to Li Tai to get some information.
When I arrived at the Gurwu class, I walked to the door of the classroom and heard him giving a lecture to the students in the class.
He spoke very seriously and explained important knowledge points over and over again until everyone understood them.
Seeing him like this and thinking about his performance in the past year, Chen Jingke felt a little ashamed.
Li Taihe himself can be regarded as both a teacher and a friend, so he should not doubt him so much.
Moreover, there was Li Shimin and Changsun Wugou, a magical couple, watching over him. If he had really dared to do anything else, he would have been beaten up by a mixed male and female team long ago, and he would not be able to be as leisurely as he is now.
Thinking of this, he turned around and left. Li Tai in the room was still lecturing seriously, unaware of what was happening outside.
I went back to the backyard and stayed alone for a while, sorted things out again, and found a lot of doubts.
Come on, don't guess alone, go find our think tank to discuss it.
So he went to Wu Shu and told the story, including Cheng Huailiang's speculations.
Wu Shu was also surprised that Xue Wanjun committed suicide, but he soon became aware of it.
Chen Jingke quickly asked: "What did you think of?"
Wu Shu asked back: "Tell me what questions you have first, and I will explain them together later."
Chen Jingke immediately said: "It's almost time to enfeoff, why does Xue Wanjun still want to seize the side? Isn't it more cost-effective to honestly wait for the enfeoffment and become the vassal king than to risk participating in the battle to seize the direct descendants?"
Wu Shu waited for him to finish asking, and said: "I will analyze it for you one by one... First of all, Xue Wanjun's bet on the King of Wei does not necessarily mean that he really supports him in seizing the throne. It is more out of the habit of the powerful people in the family."
"What habit?"
"Don't put your eggs in one basket... He doesn't really support King Wei, but the brothers make separate bets, and one of them will succeed in the end."
Chen Jingke sneered and said: "This, haha... is really smart, but it's a pity that times have changed."
"Yes, times have changed." Wu Shu looked at him with admiration and said, "Because of you..."
"Well, anyway, the saint has money in his hands and has the power to enfeoff. The imperial power has completely overwhelmed the nobles and nobles, and Gan Gang has truly become the dictatorial power."
"As long as the saint doesn't allow it, anyone who thinks about betting on long will end up in misfortune. The Xue family didn't understand this in time, and they will definitely pay the price."
"Moreover, when their family made their bets, there was no enfeoffment yet. By the time they wanted to stop, it was already too late."
"Your Majesty just used the Xue family to scare the monkeys and warn those who want to place long bets. However... Xue Wanjun's death should not only be due to this reason."
Chen Jingke asked: "Oh, what other reasons are there?"
Wu Shu's face was a little complicated and he said: "It's a long story. The Xue family was on the side of the crown prince."
Her father was a close confidant of the Supreme Emperor, and was also liquidated during the Xuanwu Sect. Although his life was saved, he was demoted to a local post and could not return to the central government until his death.
Chen Jingke questioned: "There were too many people who supported the crown prince back then, and I didn't see the saint liquidating a few of them. After so many years, it is unlikely that Xue Wanjun is still being treated."
Wu Shu shook his head to throw away these unhappy things and explained: "But among the five brothers of the Xue family, one stands as the Supreme Emperor and three stand as the Yin Prince. Only one who is too young is not qualified to join the team."
"Furthermore, since the five brothers have one prince and two county princes, they will give the Xue family three principalities during the enfeoffment in the future. Do you think His Majesty will be willing to do so?"
Chen Jingke understood somewhat and said: "So all the factors combined mean that Xue Wanjun must die. But His Majesty is not willing to be infamy for killing a hero, so he has been dragging this case, neither judging nor letting go."
"The Xue family also understands this truth, so when his eldest brother Xue Wanshu visited the prison, he tried to persuade him to die, right?"
Wu Shu nodded and said: "It's almost the same. Maybe there are other factors we don't know about, but it won't be too different from my guess."
Chen Jingke smiled bitterly and said: "I see, things are really complicated. Fortunately, you are here, otherwise I would never have thought of this."
Wu Shu showed a sweet smile and said: "If it weren't for you, no matter how smart I am, there would be no use for me."
…
Royal Palace, Qinzheng Hall.
Changsun Wugou said calmly: "Sometimes killing someone is so simple. Not only do you not have to do it yourself, you don't even have to say a word... Have you learned it?"
Li Chengqian said respectfully: "I learned it, thank you for your teaching."
Changsun Wugou nodded with satisfaction and said: "Remember, don't kill people easily. Every time you want to kill someone, you must think twice about why you want to kill and whether it is worth killing."
"Which is greater, the benefits or the losses, after killing him? Don't kill for the sake of killing, let alone kill for the sake of anger."
Li Chengqian said: "Well, my son will remember his mother's teachings."
Seeing that he had indeed heard it, Changsun Wugou stopped talking and said instead, "I heard that you built a lonely garden in Nancheng?"
Li Chengqian said cautiously: "Yes, I saw many elderly beggars and orphans who had lost their relatives in the city, so I wanted to follow the example of Emperor Wu of Liang and bring them together for easy relief, so as to prevent them from living outside and damaging the reputation of the imperial court."
Changsun Wugou encouraged: "You have done well. Doing more good deeds will help you accumulate fame. However, there are many fish and dragons in the south of the city. You must protect yourself when you go to Loneliness Garden."
His actions were appreciated, and Li Chengqian was very happy and said: "Yes, I will protect myself, don't worry."
At this moment, Princess Gaoyang, Princess Chengyang, Princess Jinyang and Princess Xincheng came running over chirping.
As soon as he entered the room, he shouted: "It's too hot, it's really too hot. Mom, do you have any iced sour plum soup here? Give me a bowl."
Changsun Wugou is not always a tiger mother. Privately, he is still very gentle. He smiled and said: "Whatever, I have prepared it for you."
Then the waiter was asked to bring out the iced sour plum soup, and each person was given a cup.
Princess Gaoyang and others picked up their cups and drank them all in one go. Only the little Sizi drank in small sips.
Gao Yang put down the cup, took a deep breath, and said, "Xiao Sizi, there are no outsiders here. Why are you so reserved when drinking water? It's not a good idea."
Princess Chengyang also said: "That's right, drinking a lot makes you feel better."
Xiao Sizi was not angry and said: "Brother said that when it's too hot, you shouldn't eat cold food too fast, as it will hurt your body."
Gao Yang scratched his face with his fingers and said: "Shy, shy, I talk about my brother every day. Oh my god, let her grow up and get married quickly."
Xiao Sizi's pretty face turned red, but she opened her mouth to fight back: "Don't you think that my sister doesn't want my brother from the Fang family?"
Gao Yang's face turned red and he said harshly: "Who would think of him? He is as stupid as a cow."
Even though she said this, she no longer dared to tease Xiao Sizi, which showed that she did not mean what she said.
Looking at his sisters, Li Chengqian's eyes were full of smiles. But when he turned to look at the bright sun outside, his brows couldn't help but wrinkled and he said:
