"What?" Lieutenant General Li stared wide-eyed in disbelief.
Xie Shiyan gestured towards the entrance of the Imperial Garden and said, "Come in."
Everyone's eyes turned to the same place.
A thin, hunched-over young man walked in, looking timid.
He stood in the center of the banquet, and all eyes were on him.
The young man seemed nervous, and his bowing movements were not quite standard; he was not someone from the palace.
"This humble general, Chen Xiaoliu, a centurion of the Left Wing Army, pays his respects to the princess and the general."
"How could it be you?" Lieutenant General Li was taken aback.
The princess, on the other hand, looked anxious and displeased.
Her scheme has failed, and judging from the current situation, Gu Jiangli's reputation is definitely safe.
So much so that she didn't want to listen to Chen Xiaoliu at all, and didn't want to see anyone else siding with Gu Jiangli.
"Brother Ayan, today's banquet was to celebrate your triumphant return, so why did you bring unrelated people to the palace?"
She said coquettishly, hoping that Xie Shiyan would stop pursuing this matter.
Moreover, the fact that Chen Xiaoliu was not allowed to stand up clearly suggests a deliberate attempt to make things difficult for him and intimidate him.
Xie Shiyan looked displeased. "Is the princess sure she's doing this to celebrate my triumphant return? But I think the only one who's happy after all this is the princess herself."
Before the princess could speak further, he raised his head and said to Chen Xiaoliu:
"Chen Xiaoliu, the princess is in a bad mood, you don't need to worry about it. I know you were there when Vice General Li took a few brothers to find Gu Jiangli that day. Tell me what happened."
Chen Xiaoliu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, lowered his head, and began to recount the events of that day.
"Reporting to the General...Reporting to the Princess, I heard everything that Lieutenant General Li said just now, and almost not a single word he said can be believed."
Princess Jinghe suddenly stood up: "What did you say? It's all fake?"
Chen Xiaoliu then said:
"That's true."
"Actually, we all know that Miss Gu is not a spy."
"It was just that her wet nurse was greedy for twenty taels of silver and deliberately portrayed her as a spy from the Southern Kingdom."
"Lieutenant General Li did indeed take a liking to Miss Gu's beauty and attempted to...do something improper to her, which is why he kept her in the military camp."
The crowd gasped in disbelief.
The young soldier said almost exactly the same thing as Gu Jiangli.
Chen Xiaoliu deliberately avoided mentioning the scar, hoping to divert everyone's attention with what was to come, so he continued:
"On the day we returned from our victory over Nanlin, Lieutenant General Li immediately remembered the imprisoned Miss Gu and, along with two of his men, prepared to assault her."
"I tried to dissuade him repeatedly, but because I am of low status and my words carry little weight, Lieutenant General Li simply wouldn't listen to me."
Princess Jinghe interrupted, "Are you the fourth person present?"
Chen Xiaoliu nodded: "That's right."
"Then tell me, did those three actually...?"
Before Princess Jinghe could finish her question, Lieutenant General Li began to scream incoherently as if he had gone mad:
"No! No! You're talking nonsense! Who's interested in her beauty! I think it's you! Chen Xiaoliu, I did say something about you in front of all the soldiers! But you can't deliberately retaliate by slandering me like this!"
Chen Xiaoliu was surprised by Vice President Li's rebuttal and immediately became angry. His fear of the princess was now replaced by annoyance.
"Where is the slander? Vice General Li did not succeed. Even though they were practically drooling when they saw Miss Gu's face, he ultimately failed because of his sudden..."
"Stop talking!" Lieutenant General Li struggled to his feet, ignoring the suffocating pain in his chest, and kept shouting incoherently:
"Shut up! Shut up! It's all slander! It's all lies! It's all utter nonsense!"
Seeing Li Fujun's frantic state, Chen Xiaoliu knew what Li Fujun was feeling guilty about, so he became even more confident.
He shouted, "I'll say it! The reason why Lieutenant General Li failed is because you and the other two brothers were willing but unable!"
"Miss Gu even said that you were eunuchs visiting brothels! Didn't you just agree with that at the time?"
"You clearly have your own health problems, yet you're blaming Miss Gu for being unchaste and trying to smear her. This behavior is a disgrace to men!"
"I shouldn't have kept this a secret back then. I should have told all the brothers in the camp! Otherwise, Miss Gu wouldn't have been insulted by you for nothing today!"
Lieutenant General Li's face turned paler than rice paper.
To say such a thing in public would be nothing short of a disgrace to him.
For a moment, Lieutenant General Li noticed that the way people looked at him became particularly strange.
To him, those surprised looks that covered his mouth were all mocking his incompetence.
He roared hoarsely, "Nonsense! It's all your word! You've been bribed by Gu Jiangli too! What did the General... what did the General promise you? You can't believe a single word you say!"
Chen Xiaoliu was not afraid of his slander and said:
“From that day on, you and your two other brothers were often absent-minded, and you would randomly grab one of your brothers and ask him if he was a virgin, because you needed virgin urine.”
"Zhang Cheng told me privately that this can cure your hidden ailments."
"If you have nothing to hide, why don't you bring the soldiers in the army you questioned about whether they were children? Let's confront them face to face, and after that, you'll know that what I said is true!"
Lieutenant Li was so angry he couldn't speak, his finger trembling as he pointed at Chen Xiaoliu's nose: "You..."
Chen Xiaoliu was full of confidence. Compared to Li Fujiang's incompetent rage, everyone knew the truth.
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