Chapter 872: The Lips and Teeth Are Cold
After Dong Mingchun entered the palace, he reported the results of his investigation to the emperor.
The group of bandits who attacked Li Qingyan were indeed killers in disguise, and these killers were not ordinary killers, they were all specially trained death squads.
Their master was Wang Kai.
Wang Xie is the current head of the Wang family.
When the Qin family was at its peak, the Wang family was second only to the Qin family.
Now that the Qin family has been destroyed, the Wang family has naturally become the number one family in the entire Shengjing city.
At the same time, the Wang family is currently the family with the largest amount of land.
Once the new tax law is implemented, the amount of tax that the Wang family needs to pay will be extremely huge.
Obviously, the Wang family is unwilling to pay the money, and they do not want the new tax law to be implemented smoothly.
So there happened the incident of Li Qingyan being attacked.
Dong Mingchun presented the collected evidence to the emperor.
He has done everything he should do, and the final decision still depends on the emperor.
Luo Qinghan said expressionlessly, "King Xuan will come with you to see me."
Not long after, Wang Xie arrived.
He is now in his seventies, which is definitely considered old in ancient times when the average age was only in his fifties.
His hair has turned gray, his face is covered with wrinkles, his long white beard grows vertically on his chest, his body is a little hunched, but he looks in good spirits.
He stepped over the high threshold, walked into the imperial study, and bowed respectfully to the emperor.
"Your humble servant greets His Majesty."
He was once the third place in the imperial examination chosen by Emperor Sheng Guang. In terms of talent and bearing, he was a rare talent.
Later, he entered the Hanlin Academy, and rose step by step from the seventh-rank editor, and finally entered the cabinet and became the Grand Secretary of the Wuying Palace.
But even after entering the cabinet, he was always suppressed by Qin Lie.
It was not until the Qin family was destroyed and Qin Lie died that Wang Xie had a chance to turn things around.
The most glorious moment of his life was probably the period after Qin Lie's death.
Later, when the new emperor ascended the throne, he realized that the new emperor was not a good person to deal with, so he took the initiative to resign from the position of cabinet minister. The new emperor tried to retain him twice, but seeing that he was determined to leave, he agreed to his request and appointed him as the Grand Tutor.
The Grand Tutor was responsible for teaching the Emperor. Although his position seemed high, he had no real power and was just an honorary position.
Luo Qinghan was too lazy to talk nonsense with him and directly asked someone to put the evidence in front of Wang Xie.
Wang Xie seemed to have anticipated this.
Faced with overwhelming evidence, he was not surprised at all and even smiled helplessly.
“When Your Majesty was still the crown prince, you overthrew the Qin family in one fell swoop, which shows that Your Majesty is not friendly to the aristocratic families.
Therefore, after Your Majesty ascended the throne, I immediately took the initiative to withdraw and resigned from my post, hoping to preserve myself and the royal family.
I didn't expect that it would fail in the end.
In fact, when I decided to take action against Li Qingyan, I had already anticipated that I might not be able to escape unscathed this time.
But I am in a situation where I have to do some things. I hope Your Majesty will forgive me."
When the Qin family was destroyed, he secretly laughed at Qin Lie for being too stupid. Now that things have changed and it is his turn to be in this position, he finds that many things are beyond his control.
Who doesn’t want to be a loyal minister who is dedicated to the country and the people and will be remembered for generations to come?
But people living in this world are not alone.
He has parents, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and a large number of tribesmen and friends.
These people formed a huge network that enveloped him. He could not avoid it, and in the end he could only accept reality.
Luo Qinghan asked coldly: "Do you know what the crime of assassinating an imperial official is?"
Wang Xie smiled bitterly and said four words: "The whole family will be executed."
Then he continued, "But Li Qingyan is not dead. The assassination attempt failed. I can only regard it as an attempted assassination. The whole family should not be executed."
Luo Qinghan: "Even if your entire family is not executed, you will still die."
Wang Xie: "I am willing to die."
Having said that, there is nothing more to say.
Luo Qinghan dismissed Wang Xie from his position as Grand Tutor on the spot and ordered him to be imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice, awaiting execution in the autumn.
At the court session the next morning, many officials stood up to plead for Wang Xie, hoping to spare his life.
But they were all vetoed by the emperor.
The noble families in Shengjing City were in panic.
The Wang family is the number one family, and Wang Xie is the head of the Wang family, which means he is a role model for many aristocratic families today.
Now that this benchmark has fallen, the remaining aristocratic families can only feel that they are in danger of losing their teeth.
First it was the Qin family, then the Lu family, and now it's the Wang family's turn.
Who will be the next unlucky one?
No matter how many storms there are outside, the harem is always calm and peaceful.
As usual, Princess Li lost all her money today.
She shouted angrily: "I have no money, I don't want to play anymore!"
Xiao Xixi asked curiously, "How much of your royalties are left?"
When this topic was brought up, Concubine Li became even angrier.
She gnashed her teeth and said, "All my royalties went into your pocket. There's not a penny left!"
Xiao Xixi: "Then don't you have to go back to work on your manuscripts to make money?"
Princess Li was filled with grief and anger and didn't want to speak.
However, Concubine Yao next to her showed envy.
"It's great that Sister Li Fei can still make money by writing articles!"
Her family background was not as good as Concubine Li's, and her natal family could provide her with very little support. She could only live on that little allowance on a daily basis, and her finances were quite tight.
So she really envied Concubine Li, who could make her own money and spend it however she wanted. How comfortable!
Xiao Xixi looked at Yao Jieyu and suggested, "You can also make money by writing articles."
Yao Jieyu waved her hands quickly and said, "No, no, I don't have the brains of Li Fei, and the stories I write are simply unreadable."
It’s not that she hasn’t tried writing storybooks before, but writing storybooks also requires a bit of talent.
She really has no talent for storytelling. Every story she writes is dry. Not to mention showing it to others, even she herself finds it boring.
Xiao Xixi suggested, "You have to write about what you are good at. Since you like gossiping, then write some gossip-related articles. However, this kind of article has to be timely and cannot be printed into a book like a storybook."
The little hope that Concubine Yao had just felt was extinguished again after she heard what the imperial concubine said.
She smiled bitterly. It turned out that not everyone could make money by writing like Concubine Li.
At this time, Xiyu came in with food.
There is milk tea with ice cubes, iced watermelon, and ice cream made with milk and fruit.
When Princess Li saw the small bowl of ice cream, she was quite surprised and didn't know how to eat it.
It was not until she saw the imperial concubine eating with a silver spoon that Concubine Li followed her example and also scooped out a small piece with the silver spoon and put it in her mouth. It was icy cool, with a very rich taste of milk and fruit, and it was super delicious!
(End of this chapter)
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