Qi Rong curled his thin lips slightly. His cold eyes slowly swept across the courtiers in the hall, lingering on a certain Minister Li for a while before he said meaningfully, "Your humble brother will surely tell everything I know without reservation!"
Then Qi Rong told them how Qiu Daoji had used the royal name to amass wealth for the Shenque Palace, causing the common people to complain bitterly but dare not speak out.
After that, Qiu Daoji used this money to play tricks. He frequently created strange phenomena in the Dragon Field and even spread fallacies to bewitch the people, claiming that "the dragon vein had been damaged."
The Dragon Field was rich in minerals. Since the reign of Emperor Gaozu, it had always been regarded as the heart of the Liu Kingdom, crucial to the imperial power.
Therefore, after the emperor learned of this, he was extremely worried. Persuaded by Qiu Daoji, he deliberately sent Prime Minister Yun Sheng, who was said to have the "heaviest fate," to secretly investigate the matter.
Upon arriving at the Dragon Field, Prime Minister Yun Sheng actively launched an investigation. Although Qiu Daoji thought he had covered up all the clues, Yun Sheng still managed to find some traces and gradually got closer to the truth step by step!
At this time, Qiu Daoji began to threaten and coerce Yun Sheng, trying to make him collude with him and hide the truth from the emperor. However, Yun Sheng refused. As a result, he was assassinated and trapped in the Dragon Field for several months!
He even faked his death to deceive Qiu Daoji's spies and quietly returned to the capital.
However, after learning that Yun Sheng had not fallen to his death from the cliff but was about to return to the capital, Qiu Daoji, in order to prevent Yun Sheng from revealing the truth and for some ulterior motives, framed Yun Ni, the second young lady of the Prime Minister's Mansion, into poisoning the crown prince two days ago!
This led to Yun Sheng being arrested by the imperial guards and thrown into the imperial prison as soon as he entered the capital, before he even had a chance to meet the emperor. Thus, the truth was buried in the darkness and difficult for the emperor to know!
After listening to Qi Rong's account, not only the civil and military officials present but also Emperor Qi Hong himself was shocked and remained speechless for a long time.
If what Qi Rong said was true, Qiu Daoji was simply guilty of heinous crimes!
But why did he do this?
As the national master of the country, enjoying wealth, glory, and the emperor's trust, wasn't that enough?
Why did he abandon his bright future and take such risks? It didn't make sense no matter how one thought about it.
"Do you mean that both the incident in the Dragon Field and the poisoning of the crown prince were all done by Qiu Daoji alone?" the emperor asked suspiciously, looking at Qi Rong. He knew very well that regarding the incident in the Dragon Field, considering the negative impact and fearing that the common people would speculate that the royal fortune was coming to an end, he had deliberately concealed it.
Except for himself, Qiu Daoji, and a few other ministers like Yun Sheng, he had not mentioned a single word about it and even strictly prohibited the spread of this matter.
Moreover, in order to cover up this secret, he had even ordered the killing of the common people around the Dragon Field who knew about it!
However, Qi Rong not only knew about it but also had a very clear understanding of how Qiu Daoji had persuaded him and how he had sent Yun Sheng to the Dragon Field.
This showed that he must know the whole story!
On the other hand, if all these were really done by Qiu Daoji alone, the emperor would never believe it.
The emperor didn't know whether Qiu Daoji had supernatural powers, but it was simply impossible for him to have the ability to stir up such a storm and even play him around!
The emperor stared at Qi Rong with a heavy tone and sharp eyes.
"Of course not!" Qi Rong raised his eyebrows. The next moment, his gaze fell on Minister Li again. He smiled and said, "Brother Emperor, think about it. How much power can a wandering Taoist priest who has only been the national master for one year have? He is just a mortal and can be easily killed by my sword. There must be someone behind the scenes pulling the strings. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had the courage to do such things!"
Then Qi Rong changed the subject and stared at Li Haichang, the Minister of Revenue, and said, "Am I right, Minister Li?"
When Qi Rong mentioned his name, Li Haichang was shocked. He deliberately lowered his head and saluted the emperor, hiding a trace of panic in his eyes. "Your Majesty, I think His Highness the Prince of Xian's words are full of loopholes. Since Prime Minister Yun Sheng knew the truth, why didn't he defend himself for such a long time? Even if he was thrown into the imperial prison, there were still the emperor's imperial guards guarding him. Didn't he ever think of passing a message to the emperor through them?"
"Everyone knows how hard it is in the imperial prison. Yun Sheng would rather endure the torture than reveal the secret. This doesn't seem reasonable, does it?"
Li Haichang's doubts were also the questions in the minds of the emperor and many other ministers. Their eyes all involuntarily turned to Qi Rong, wanting to know how he would answer.
"Minister Li, have you forgotten? I took a concubine yesterday. I deliberately made such a big fuss in the capital just to see if Brother Emperor knew that I had returned. However, to my disappointment, Brother Emperor didn't even hear about it until today!"
"If the imperial guards in the court were really as loyal to Brother Emperor as before, how could Brother Emperor be kept in the dark? And why would Prime Minister Yun Sheng be afraid of being killed and keep silent?"
As Qi Rong spoke, he slowly walked up to Li Haichang and looked down at him with a determined expression. "Minister Li now controls all the powers of the imperial guards, but you pretend to be ignorant in front of Brother Emperor. May I ask what your intention is?"
As soon as Qi Rong said this, Li Haichang's face suddenly changed. He glared at Qi Rong and sneered, "Prince of Xian! Don't slander me here! I am loyal to the emperor, but you are trying to sow discord here. I even suspect that you are colluding with Yun Sheng, betraying the country, and deliberately confusing the emperor!"
Li Haichang had been in the officialdom for many years. His father was the famous Duke Xun, and he was the emperor's mother's nephew. Naturally, he would not let Qi Rong manipulate him.
Although his words were forceful and incisive, Qi Rong remained calm. He sneered contemptuously at Li Haichang and said, "Since ancient times, there has been the trick of the thief crying 'stop thief'. I have seen this many times in the plays, but I never thought that Minister Li could act even better than the actors on the stage!"
"As far as I know, before Qiu Daoji entered the capital, he had a close relationship with the Li family. Somehow, he suddenly became a 'cultivated Taoist' and was later met by Brother Emperor and invited to be the national master of the Liu Kingdom!"
"May I ask, Minister Li, do you know the ins and outs of this? Or was it simply planned by you?"
Qi Rong's black eyes suddenly turned cold. Li Haichang was immediately speechless. He became extremely agitated and said, "Prince of Xian, don't talk nonsense here! Before Qiu Daoji became the national master, I had never even heard of this person. How could I be involved with him later?"
The reason why Li Haichang was so agitated was not that Qi Rong had hit a sore spot. Instead, Qi Rong's words were all slander and completely against the facts!
However, Qi Rong was distorting the truth and being aggressive, showing no sign of guilt at all.
Watching the confrontation between Qi Rong and Li Haichang, the people present were all confused and didn't know who to believe!