Chapter 178: Forced to do so?

After leaving the palace, Chu Tianming did not go directly back to his own residence.

Instead, he arrived at an inconspicuous teahouse away from the sight of others.

Came to the second floor.

An old man was already waiting in the box by the window.

It was King Qian.

"You're here."

Prince Qian glanced at the fierceness in Chu Tianming's eyes that had not yet disappeared, and smiled slightly.

Pushed a cup of tea in front of Chu Tianming.

I've prepared some hot tea for you. Have some first.

Chu Tianming picked up the hot tea in front of him, drank it in one gulp, and almost got scalded to death.

"Cough, cough, cough."

"You are just too impatient."

Prince Qian shook his head, picked up the hot tea in front of him and slowly took a sip.

"You have to drink this hot tea slowly and savor it slowly to appreciate its flavor."

"If you drink too fast, not only will you not be able to taste the tea, but you may also burn yourself."

“Like you are now.”

"Your Majesty has placed the three princes in the court to observe government affairs, and has entrusted you with such an important matter as negotiating with Beiliang. If you are patient and do this well, you will naturally be able to establish your image in the court and attract the support and attention of more ministers."

"But what about you? You were so eager to succeed that you didn't even figure out the composition of your team. Now that you've been plotted against, who can you blame?"

Chu Tianming naturally knew that what King Qian said was right, but...

"What on earth is going on with that Chen Ge?"

"Isn't he yours?"

"Don't think I didn't see that what happened yesterday was the work of Chen Ge and Dugu Yanran. Why didn't they tell me before they took action?"

"And what do they mean by that? They want the officials of the Ministry of Rites to kill the people in the Beiliang delegation. If so, wouldn't the subsequent peace talks be put in an awkward situation? How can I do this job well? Isn't this clearly messing things up for me?"

I have to say that Chu Tianming is not a fool.

He saw everything that happened yesterday. Although he did not figure out the whole story on the spot like Chu Wuxun, he thought about it after going back and figured out the whole story.

Plus what Chu Yingrui said today.

How could he not see what was going on?

King Qian chuckled.

"Chen Ge is indeed my man, but he is also a spy hired by Beiliang."

"I recommended Chen Ge to you before, but you didn't buy him off properly, so it's no wonder that Brother Chen is biased towards Beiliang."

"After all, you lack leadership and are not decisive enough. I finally planted an important chess piece in the Ministry of Rites, but it was abandoned before it could be used. Seventh Prince, do you want to blame me?"

Chu Tianming looked embarrassed.

He said these right from the start with the intention of preemptively holding King Qian accountable.

But he didn't expect that King Qian could easily stop it.

"But how can your important chess piece still be Beiliang's? You and Beiliang..."

King Qian chuckled.

"What is my relationship with Beiliang? Seventh Prince, you have already guessed it."

"Thinking back then, they took advantage of the border war to secretly sell military rations and weapons, and smuggled a lot of items to the north. Although now all of this is being taken care of by the former Minister of Revenue, you and I both know who benefited the most from that incident."

"Now he is thinking about marrying Princess Beiliang."

"Seventh Prince, you and I are clearly the same kind of people, aren't we?"

Chu Tianming's expression was uncertain.

Through previous smuggling and trading incidents, he did guess that King Qian and Beiliang were in close collusion.

Even the biggest traitor who colluded with Beiliang might be King Qian.

But he didn't expect that King Qian would admit it right in front of him.

However...

"Uncle Wang is right. We are the same kind of people."

Now the war between Da Chu and Bei Liang has ended, and it is unlikely that war will break out again in the next ten years or so.

So it doesn’t matter who is colluding with Beiliang.

What's more important is whether I can help him get the treasure in the future.

He lowered his head and took another sip of tea.

Chu Tianming talked about the real purpose of coming to see King Qian today.

"Father wants to hand over the responsibility of the peace talks between Beiliang and Da Chu to the Third Prince."

"What?"

Prince Qian finally couldn't keep his composure anymore.

"Give it to the Third Prince? No wonder, no wonder the Third Prince entered the palace early this morning."

"I'm afraid that the reason you received such a severe punishment is also related to the Third Prince."

"Oh, and what happened yesterday."

Prince Qian's expression suddenly became strange.

"I heard that an official from the Ministry of Rites stopped the crazy Dong Nian in time yesterday, so he didn't stab anyone from Beiliang. Instead, Dong Nian stabbed Chen Ge to death in a panic."

"Is this true?"

Chu Tianming nodded.

"That's true. And the official from the Ministry of Rites who stopped Dong Nian yesterday...his reaction was too quick."

"Uncle Qian, do you know this person's identity?"

King Qian smiled coldly.

"This man's name is Zhao Cuo. What a coincidence, he is a brother-in-law of one of Prince Qing's conspirators."

Chu Tianming's eyes narrowed suddenly.

"Are you saying that what happened yesterday was planned by my third brother and the prince?"

King Qian nodded and shook his head.

"It wasn't his plan. It should be that the man heard the plot of Chen Ge and Dugu Yanran, so he followed the trend and took advantage of their trick."

"But it is certain that this person has already been recruited by the Third Prince."

Speaking of this, King Qian couldn't help but look at Chu Tianming again.

"You, I told you Chen Ge's identity a long time ago, but you didn't subdue Chen Ge early, and instead let the Third Prince subdue your people in the Ministry of Rites in advance. This loss is not unfair to you."

Chu Tianming didn't want to admit his mistake.

The most critical thing now is how to deal with the current crisis.

"Uncle Qian, since the Third Prince and Prince Qing are so disregarding their old friendship and have used such a vicious scheme against us, we can no longer be merciful."

King Qian was a little hesitant.

The three princes had an agreement before that they had the same stance. Although they were assisting different princes, they actually wanted to use the fights between the princes to prevent Chu Yingrui from having time to interfere with their secret development, while at the same time consuming Chu Yingrui's strength.

But this has just begun... the words are still fresh in my mind, how can he break the agreement between us so easily?

Seeing this, Chu Tianming couldn't help but add some firewood.

"Uncle Qian, I know you are a man who values ​​your word and cares for your brothers, and you are unwilling to attack King Qing."

"But now it was Prince Qing who attacked you first. Could it be that he didn't know that Chen Ge was your man? Yet he still killed Chen Ge directly."

"Uncle Wang, you had such a hard time placing Chen Ge in the Ministry of Rites, but Prince Qing got rid of him without any cost. Are you willing to accept this?"

"Now that it is Prince Qing who has betrayed us first, we have no choice but to fight back, Uncle Wang."