Liang Sheng's rhetorical question immediately left Li Haichang speechless. Meanwhile, Qi Rong sneered and clapped his hands, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"May I ask, Lord Li, from which official of the Jingzhao Prefecture did you get this information? Didn't that person tell you what happened next?"
"Or perhaps, you got the news from other sources and knew in advance that someone was going to frame the prime minister by using the dead soldiers of the Li Kingdom?!"
Qi Rong's words hit the nail on the head, making Li Haichang's scalp tingle. Even the emperor's face grew darker.
"Li Haichang, how do you explain all these accusations?!"
Hearing the emperor's rebuke, Li Haichang looked solemn. Even the usually calm man couldn't help but feel a twinge of panic.
"Your Majesty, you personally ordered the Embroidered Uniform Guard to investigate. The facts are conclusive. I didn't lie!"
Li Haichang deliberately ignored Qi Rong's questions and repeatedly emphasized that the emperor himself had been involved. After all, it was the emperor who had sent Yun Sheng to the imperial prison, not him!
The emperor knew exactly what Li Haichang meant. However, when he thought that he hadn't heard about Qi Rong's arrival in the capital until just before the morning court, he couldn't help but doubt the loyalty of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
If the Embroidered Uniform Guard had been under someone else's control, then the investigation he had ordered before might not be reliable.
Maybe he had been deceived from the very beginning, and Yun Sheng didn't even have the military talisman!
Realizing this possibility, the emperor's anger flared up uncontrollably, and his headache became unbearable.
The emperor's face darkened. He waved at Father Qin, who immediately understood and held a snuff bottle under his nose. The emperor gently pulled out the stopper. As he inhaled the strange fragrance, Qi Hong felt refreshed, and his headache eased a bit.
Meanwhile, Li Haichang was busy defending himself. He pointed at Qi Rong and said,
"Your Majesty, don't you find this whole thing strange? Whether it's the matter of Qiu Daoji, Longchang, or Yun Sheng, these were all things that were deliberately hidden. How did the Prince of Xian know about them?"
Qi Rong had been far away in Lingchuan overseeing the construction work. Logically, he shouldn't have known so many things.
Unless he had been keeping a close eye on the royal family's movements and monitoring the emperor's every move!
Hearing Li Haichang's words, Qi Rong burst into laughter.
"Lord Li, you're so good at playing the thief crying 'Stop thief'!"
"I also want to ask if the person who pretended to be the dead soldier of the Li Kingdom, who also has the surname Li and is from your hometown, Chongzhou, is somehow related to you, Lord Li!"
Qi Rong's sarcasm made Li Haichang's face turn red. He had just uttered a single word, "You...", when Qi Rong interrupted him.
"Of course, Lord Li probably never dreamed that the young master of the Rakshasa Gate, whom you once bribed to assassinate the crown prince, was once saved by me!"
"The Rakshasa Gate?!"
At the mention of this name, the officials in the court were in an uproar.
This was the largest martial arts sect in the Li Kingdom. Its influence wasn't limited to the Li Kingdom alone. It even had branches in the Liu Kingdom, and its reach was extensive!
But how did such a sect get involved with the Li family? And how did the young master of the sect get saved by Qi Rong?
What kind of coincidence was this?!
To help the emperor understand, Qi Rong briefly told him the story of how he had saved Gongsun Jie, the young master of the Rakshasa Gate in the Li Kingdom. It was because of this young master that he knew so many things.
Gongsun Jie had accidentally learned about the close relationship between the Li family and the royal family of the Li Kingdom. He had been secretly hunted down by the royal family of the Li Kingdom and was accidentally saved by Qi Rong.
After learning that Qi Rong was the Prince of Xian of the Liu Kingdom, Gongsun Jie expressed his intention to move the Rakshasa Gate to the Liu Kingdom and seek the protection of the emperor of the Liu Kingdom. In order to pledge his loyalty, he had told Qi Rong many things that the Rakshasa Gate knew, hoping to stop the Li family's conspiracy.
This was also the main reason why Qi Rong had rushed back to the capital from Lingchuan.
The Li family had previously been unaware of Gongsun Jie's identity. They had even bribed members of the Rakshasa Gate to assassinate the crown prince on the way to Longchang.
After saying that, Qi Rong took out a scroll from his sleeve. It was passed to the emperor, Qi Hong, through Father Qin's hands. It was a letter of surrender written by the head of the Rakshasa Gate himself, with the seal of the Rakshasa Gate at the end. It was genuine!
"Qi Rong, you're slandering me! This is a false accusation, Your Majesty!"
With the support of the Rakshasa Gate, Qi Rong's words became more credible. Li Haichang's situation was now extremely precarious.
But his agitated state made the emperor suspect that he was guilty.
"We'll know if it's a false accusation or not by asking the crown prince."
Qi Rong said calmly from the side. The emperor did as Qi Rong suggested and sent someone to summon the crown prince to the court. The crown prince gave an affirmative answer.
Qi Yu was already out of danger, but his face was still pale. When he was questioned by the emperor, he answered truthfully, but he didn't mention that Qi Rong had left Lingchuan without permission to go to Longchang.
However, before he was saved by Qi Rong, he had indeed heard the conversation between those people and Qi Rong and knew that those people were from the Rakshasa Gate.
"Alright, go back to the palace and rest."
Seeing the crown prince's pale face, the emperor held back his anger and let Qi Yu leave.
In order to completely bring down the Li family and not give them a chance to catch their breath, Qi Rong continued,
"You failed to assassinate the crown prince, so you instigated Qiu Daoji to poison him. Since it was difficult to poison him openly, you deliberately tampered with the books that Qiu Daoji gave to the crown prince and set up a trap to shift the blame onto Yun Ni, the second young lady of the prime minister's mansion!"
"Lord Li thought that your 'switching the flowers for the trees' scheme was flawless, but you forgot that there's no such thing as a secret that can be kept forever!"
Just as Qi Rong finished speaking, a ten - year - old boy appeared at the entrance of the Fengtian Hall. He had a handsome face and was wearing a Taoist robe. The name of the Shenque Palace was embroidered prominently on his chest.
With the appearance of the young boy, Li Haichang immediately looked extremely embarrassed because he recognized at a glance that the young boy was Qiu Daoji's attendant. He was usually very quiet, so Li Haichang hadn't paid much attention to him.
Li Haichang still wanted to defend himself, but unexpectedly, the young boy suddenly took out a notebook.
It was filled with records of the people Qiu Daoji met every day, and the names of the Li family members appeared frequently!
The wrapped books that Qiu Daoji had given to the crown prince were brought over. Under the personal test of Imperial Physician Zhang, it was confirmed that the book covers were indeed coated with a deadly poison.
"Do you think you can distort the truth just with a notebook and your unfounded words, Prince of Xian?"
The facts were right in front of them, but for the sake of the Li family, Li Haichang still fought like a cornered beast.
"I've never had any grudges against His Highness the Crown Prince. Why would I keep trying to kill him?!"
In response to Li Haichang's rhetorical question, Qi Rong sneered,
"According to the Rakshasa Gate, the Li family not only wanted to harm the crown prince but also wanted to poison Your Majesty! Qiu Daoji claimed that the pills he made for Your Majesty were for longevity, but in fact, those pills would deplete one's vital energy, make one irritable, and cause headaches. In the long run, the consequences would be unimaginable!"
After the emperor and the crown prince died, only the second prince in the royal family could inherit the throne legally.
But the second prince was still young, and his mother was from the Li family, so he was easy to control. Naturally, the world would fall into the hands of the Li family!