Chapter 111 Accountability
Jin Sui whispered, "Before, I was worried about him discovering my identity. Now that you're here, what if he finds out?"
"Since I came to Yandi, the Yan family has helped me a lot. Yan Jiulang is a very good person."
Gu Changxiao thought about how he had commented on him in the same way when they first met: You are a good person.
I couldn't help but twitch my eyes: "Your standards for being a good person are really low!"
I wanted to give her some earnest advice, saying that the Yan nobles cannot be trusted. They only bowed down to you because they saw your strength, otherwise they would be no different from the Zheng family.
But now is not the time to discuss this issue. Gu Changxiao came to tell him that Zheng Pengpeng had come with the Zheng family.
They knelt in front of the mourning hall for a long time, begging for King Li's forgiveness.
Jin Sui thought of Zheng Yun and discussed with Gu Chang Xiao:
"I only want the lives of Zheng Yun and the Zheng family's cattle and horses that caused the riot that night to commemorate the sacrificed soldiers. King Li will be generous and not pursue the others. What do you think?"
Gu Changxiao nodded in approval, believing that only by using both soft and hard tactics could the goal be better achieved.
Erasing the Zheng family is not the most important thing. What is important is to intimidate the gentry and at the same time use the Zheng family to divide the gentry's power.
He looked at Jin Sui with more and more respect. Taoist Xiao Ji's ability was stronger than he thought. Being a Taoist priest is too much of a waste of talent. You should be my counselor!
"Also, what are you going to do with Huo Zian? Do you have to take his life?"
Gu Changxiao's heart moved, and he asked back: "Now that you are the King of Li, how are you going to deal with him? If a living person is more useful than a dead person, it's okay to keep him alive."
Jin Sui had an idea in her mind. She was worried that Gu Changxiao was determined to kill Huo Zian. After all, Huo Zian had led people to chase him and treated Gu Changxiao badly.
If she couldn't negotiate life and death with Huo Zian, it would be detrimental to her next plan.
Someone was called to call Huo Zian over. He looked much more haggard and looked as if he was heartbroken.
He saluted, but he didn't know who to call the 'King of Li'. He looked at Gu Changxiao and then at Jin Sui, and finally said:
"If the prince wants to kill me, please make sure to give my reward for the military exploits to Niu Da's child."
Military merit can benefit descendants. For example, if Niu Zhan died, his eldest son could directly join the border army when he came of age.
But the same cannot be said for his second son. Huo Zian said that he would give the military merits to Niu Da's son, meaning that his second son could use his military merits to gain influence over others.
Jin Sui pointed out mercilessly: "You are a serious criminal who attempted to assassinate King Li. To inherit your military merits, do you mean to let Niu Da's son go to jail for you?"
Huo Zian was startled, and suddenly looked up at Jin Sui, but he didn't dare to argue. Finally, he gritted his teeth and said, "Then my reward will be given to the Niu family."
Jinsui didn't know what happened between the two of them when Huo Zian was working as a dung carrier under Niu Da that made Huo Zian feel so guilty towards Niu Da.
This is the friendship between men that she will never understand. The military is the place where it is easiest to establish life-and-death bonds.
Who can believe that, life and death are inseparable, and I will be with you forever; holding your hand, and growing old together. Is it describing the friendship between comrades-in-arms? "This king will give you a chance, not only can I erase the crime on you, but also let you record your military merit openly."
Huo Zian's first reaction was to look at Gu Changxiao, but seeing that he did not comment, he could not help but sigh in his heart and realized that he could only let this fake King of Li take control of him.
He bowed and said, "I will do whatever the prince asks me to do."
It saves effort to talk to smart people. If I were to say this to Yan Shiyi, I would have to explain it clearly so that he would understand what I mean.
Jin Sui handed him the note: "Go find Zheng Yun and tell him that I'm a fake..."
As soon as these words came out, Gu Changxiao and Huo Zian both looked at her.
"You are here to investigate me, the fake King Li, on the orders of King Yu. Now that I have established myself in Border Town, you alone cannot bring me down."
"But now there is an opportunity at my doorstep. That opportunity comes from the imperial envoy of the court. The envoy knows the King of Li. As long as we join forces with the envoy, we will be able to eliminate this impostor like me!"
"Tell him what Zheng Pengpeng did and offer him ten thousand acres of good farmland. From now on, the Zheng family will be at the King's disposal."
"Zheng Yun will definitely join forces with you. You should personally take him to meet the imperial envoys."
Huo Zian went from being doubtful at the beginning to admiring and sympathizing with Zheng Yun now.
This plan was extremely vicious! They dug a fire pit openly, and Zheng Yun jumped in willingly, then was burned in the flames.
King Li could trick Zheng Yun back and kill him without spending any soldiers.
The Li King was indeed a fake, and the Imperial Envoy would definitely investigate, but who would have thought that the real Li King was not only not an enemy of the fake Li King, but the two were actually companions! From what we saw, the real Li King was even acting as a bodyguard for the fake Li King!
Huo Zian was once again thankful that he did not escape during the chaos that night, otherwise his fate would have been even worse than Zheng Yun's.
"This is the first task. The second task is, if there are people from Prince Yu in the imperial envoy group, you are responsible for finding them."
"Complete these two tasks, and I will not pursue your crime of assassination. I will also submit a letter to the court, and you will serve under me from now on."
Huo Zian really wanted to say, if you don't pursue the charges, can you let me go?
But then he thought about how he had completely offended Prince Yu, so where could he go if he left? If he left Yandi, he would probably die.
Moreover, he wanted to watch his children grow up for Niu Da. The conditions in the border town were so difficult. Could three children without a father grow up safely? So he bowed and saluted: "Subordinate, I obey your order!"
After Huo Zian left, Jinsui and Gu Changxiao went to the mourning hall and met Zheng Pengpeng in public.
Zheng Pengpeng struggled to kneel down from his wheelchair, kowtowed heavily, and even pulled his three-year-old son to kowtow: "Please, Your Majesty, spare the entire Zheng family."
For a moment, the scene was extremely silent. All the nobles present held their breath, and the only sound was the sound of yellow paper burning in the brazier.
It seemed as if what King Li wanted to announce was not the life and death of the Zheng family, but their life and death.
Jin Sui went forward to light a stick of incense in the mourning hall first. He did not answer Zheng Pengpeng, but asked Li Heng: "Did you bring the things that the king wanted?"
Li Heng's attitude was unprecedentedly respectful. He almost trotted forward and handed over something: "Your Highness, here is the list of 3,000 soldiers of the Yanzhou Army."
Jin Sui took it, held up the list and said to the nobles present: "As far as I know, half of the Yanzhou army comes from you clans."
"In the battle at the border town, the Yanzhou army disobeyed military orders and deserted the battlefield. They were as scared of the Tartars as sheep are of wolves, and our border soldiers suffered heavy casualties."
"For those soldiers of Yanzhou who died on the battlefield, I will not pursue their crimes of cowardice, but anyone who escapes will be executed according to military regulations!"
"You will escort these deserters to the border town. I will give you three days. If you fail to escort the deserters to the border town within three days, I will hold their clans responsible!"
"Don't blame me for the crime of shielding someone when the time comes!"
After hearing this, all the nobles were worried, fearing the power of King Li and hating his severity.
Looking at the morale of the border soldiers standing by, if they don’t agree today, they may not even be able to leave the border town.
Everyone first looked at Li Heng, the governor of the state, only to see that Li Heng kept his head down the entire time, pretending not to notice the burning gazes of the other family heads.
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