During the meal, Xue Huan asked, "How come you have so many treasures?"
Even if he is the prince, it wouldn't be like that. The treasury in the palace is probably not as rich as his.
Pei Ji scooped her a bowl of soup and slowly told her the origin of those treasures.
What's the fastest way to accumulate wealth? War! Otherwise, how could there be such a thing as making money from war?
Ninety percent of Pei Ji's treasures were obtained through wars.
He is only twenty-one years old now, but he has been in the military for nearly ten years. Since he was ten years old, he has followed several uncles of the Huo family to various military camps in the northwest border.
It took him a full ten years to start as a logistics soldier who picked up corpses and gradually rise to a prestigious commander who was feared by the enemy.
During this period, he experienced no less than a hundred battles of varying sizes. Although he was not the one who started most of these wars, he had only one goal when facing the enemy, which was to beat them until they were afraid and dared not attack again!
The Golden Kingdom in the western desert, the Iron Tribe in the northern grasslands, the Snow Corpse Kingdom in the snowfields... These countries and tribes are barbaric and powerful, with great ambitions, and are always coveting the rich and vast land of Daqi.
In order to avoid being harassed repeatedly by them, Pei Ji has attacked their lair more than once and looted a large amount of treasures and supplies.
War was not what he wanted, but over the years, he had indeed gained a lot through war, and those mountains of treasures were just a small part of it.
Listening to Pei Ji's narration of those battles, Xue Huan's blood boiled, and she felt proud and distressed.
She picked up a piece of goose meat and fed it to his mouth, "My boyfriend is so awesome!"
Pei Ji ate the goose meat happily.
Xue Huan thought of a problem. A son of a wealthy family should not sit idle in the hall. As the crown prince and the heir apparent of the country, Pei Ji should not be fighting on the front line. After all, swords have no eyes. If he is seriously injured and cannot be saved, wouldn't that be a big problem?
But why did he stay at the border for ten years?
"Because I am in greater danger in the palace. Many people want to kill me, including the emperor. They almost succeeded once." Pei Ji said in a flat voice.
Xue Huan's heart tightened when she thought about how he was surrounded by dangers at such a young age. She wished she could travel back to his childhood to protect him and give him candy.
But this is obviously impossible.
She held his hand and said, "I will protect you from now on. No one can take your life!"
Pei Ji held her hand and put it against his face, looking at her with a gaze so soft it could drip with tears. "Okay, my life belongs to Huanhuan, and no one can take it away except you."
Xue Huan: "So, the Huo family brought you to the border?"
"Yes, and at that time I wasn't the crown prince yet. Later, under pressure from my maternal family, the emperor appointed me the crown prince. But from that day on, he was always thinking about getting rid of me so that he could make way for his beloved second son."
"But he certainly didn't expect that the second prince wasn't his child. When he learned the truth, he must have been furious." Xue Huan gloated.
Pei Ji also laughed.
*
Pei Ji gave Yuan Huai three days to find out who poisoned the emperor. In fact, he already knew who this person was, but he just needed time to collect evidence.
At the same time, it is also to alert the snake and force the rabbit to jump over the wall, so as to reveal more flaws.
Sure enough, within just one day, rumors were spreading outside, saying that "the prince poisoned the emperor in order to sit on the throne."
Anyone with a little common sense knows that the prince is now in power, and the emperor is terminally ill and dying. It is only a matter of time before the prince ascends the throne. Why bother to poison the emperor?
But the people didn't care about all this. They talked about this matter in private with all kinds of details, as if they had seen it with their own eyes, and the stories became more and more outrageous.
Pei Ji did not forcibly curb the spread of rumors, because the more he prohibited rumors, the stronger people's desire to explore them would become. Rumors could not be stopped unless he used iron-blooded means to suppress them.
But doing so will inevitably lose the support of the people, and perhaps this is what the people behind the scenes want to see.
Pei Ji adopted the method of removing the fuel from under the cauldron.
At the morning court meeting that day, Imperial Censor Chu Jianglan submitted a letter impeaching Prince Rui, denouncing his crimes harshly: "Prince Rui Pei Heng poisoned the Emperor, showing disrespect for his father and the ruler, and is unfilial and disloyal! He forged an imperial edict, deceived the emperor, and committed treason! He spread rumors and framed the crown prince, committing heinous crimes!"
Chu Jianglan's official title was "Left Censor-in-Chief", a fourth-rank official title. Although his position was not high, as a censor, his job was to "specially impeach hundreds of officials". In certain specific circumstances, he could even report things based on hearsay.
He can be said to be a professional troublemaker and argumentative person.
Chu Jianglan is a leader in this industry and is known as "Chu Maoshi". People say that he is stubborn and stubborn, does not know how to adapt or compromise, makes people feel uncomfortable when doing things, and often offends his colleagues, but he still goes his own way and does not follow the crowd.
If other censors caught something wrong with an official, they would usually consider various options or approach the official to resolve the matter privately. This is just like some modern entertainment reporters who, when they discover a celebrity scandal, often do not release the news immediately but instead use it to blackmail the celebrity.
If the celebrity is willing to pay, then the news will be suppressed. Otherwise, the entertainment reporter will spread the news and generate a lot of traffic.
The same goes for the imperial censors. They are called the emperor's eyes and ears, but in reality not all of them perform their duties impartially and work wholeheartedly.
In short, profit comes first.
But Chu Jianglan refused to do that. If he caught someone's handle, he would expose it to the public. No matter how others threatened him, he would not give in or compromise.
The emperor likes such ministers very much, which is why Chu Jianglan is hated but always sticks to his post.
Now, the Left Censor-in-Chief has turned his attention to the fourth prince, Prince Rui.
Everyone was suddenly in an uproar, and the entire court was in an uproar.
Among the ministers in the court, a considerable number of them are staunch neutrals. No matter how fiercely the princes fight, they don't care. As long as they are loyal to the one sitting on the throne, that's all.
Among the remaining part, most people are the prince's party, but the other princes are also not without supporters.
At this moment, Prince Rui's father-in-law, Sun Daoxun, the Minister of Dali Temple, came out to battle with Chu Jianglan.
"Censor Chu, you can eat whatever you want, but you can't say anything you want! How dare you slander Prince Rui like this?"
Chu Jianglan was calm and collected: "Master Sun, why are you so anxious to jump out? Since I dare to say so, I must have evidence."
When Sun Daoxun heard the word "evidence", his heart skipped a beat and he subconsciously looked towards Prince Rui. However, he saw that he was calm and there was no trace of panic on his face, which made him feel relieved.
The fact that Prince Rui was so calm meant that Chu Jianglan must have been slandering him, right? Otherwise, how could he be so calm?
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