Use a substitute on your wedding night to scatter the ashes of your entire family - Chapter 620: Sit-in
Li Yuanqiao shrugged: "What else could he do? Commander Lu took off his official uniform and hat on the spot, stuffed them into the little eunuch's hand, and left."
Li Shuangwan turned to look at Li Huaiying: "Dad, why did you nod just now? Did Ling Heng promote a new Jinyiwei commander and ask him to investigate?"
Li Huaiying shook his head and said, "No, let the commander take over temporarily. We'll talk about it after this matter is settled."
Li Shuangwan did not respond.
Lu Dongqing served as the commander of the Jinyiwei for several years. With his Feiyu uniform and embroidered spring sword, he was able to intimidate all the officials and the rest of the Jinyiwei.
She remembered that the commander-in-chief was called Yuan Ziyong, and he was very loyal to Lu Dongqing, so it was very likely that he was just pretending.
Zhang Zizhen was anxious: "General, what should we do now? Even if the soldiers sell everything they have, they can't come up with so much silver."
Li Huaiying took a deep breath. With 300,000 soldiers from the Li family, he didn't know how much money his Zhenguo Mansion would have to spend every year.
More than half of this money came from his wife's dowry.
"I will enter the palace immediately."
Li Yuanqiao's face was dark. The prince was really going too far. "Father, I will go to the palace with you. Drag him to the military camp and let him see what kind of life the soldiers live! He even has the nerve to ask them for money."
"Brother, don't be impulsive. Of course you have to go to the palace, but you and Dad are not the only ones going there. It's not something you two can do to make Ling Heng give up this idea. If you force him out of the palace, you're holding the crown prince hostage, which is tantamount to treason!"
By then, Ling Yan would most likely take the opportunity to ask his father-in-law to shoot arrows in the name of saving the prince, and he and Ling Heng would be shot like hedgehogs in an instant.
Zhang Zizhen nodded: "Young General, you really should not be impulsive. If things go wrong, the Crown Prince will accuse the Duke of Zhenguo Mansion of having an army for self-reliance, and that will be troublesome."
Li Yuanqiao was just speaking out of anger.
He was a little discouraged. Although he understood that his sister and General Zhang were right, he just felt very aggrieved.
This won't work, and that won't work either.
"Sister, do you have any good ideas?"
Several people looked at her, as if she had become their backbone.
Li Huaiying knew that the ballad was composed by his daughter.
Li Shuangwan frowned and thought for a while, then looked up at the three men standing in front of her, who were half a head taller than her.
His eyes were full of determination: "Everyone has a share in distributing the silver. In this case, we should all work together and become grasshoppers on the rope. No one can escape. The prince can't kill everyone."
Li Huaiying was stunned when he heard his daughter say this.
This statement is somewhat outrageous.
But, so what? We can’t survive anymore.
Li Shuangwan turned to Li Yuanqiao and said, "Brother, we need to ask Miss Zhong's father for help in this matter."
Zhong Jiawei's grandfather, Mr. Zhong, was the old chief academic officer of the Imperial College. After he retired due to old age, he let his son, Zhong Jianhong, inherit his career and become the current chief academic officer of the Imperial College.
The two of them had students all over Northern Jin. In Shengjing for example, among those who passed the imperial examinations and entered officialdom, at least three out of ten were once students of Mr. Zhong or Mr. Zhong Jijiu.
"Will this be a bad thing?" Li Huaiying hesitated.
Isn't this clearly a threat to the prince and the royal family?
The Zhong Mansion has always been independent of other forces. Even when the six sons of Emperor Jingzhang were competing for the throne, the Zhong Mansion never got involved in these affairs.
Just when they were feeling worried, the butler came running over with a pale face: "Duke, something big has happened!"
The faces of several people in the hall changed. Could it be that someone was going to rise up and destroy the palace?
Li Shuangwan asked anxiously: "Uncle Li, what happened?"
"The students of the Imperial Academy and several teachers sat in front of the palace to protest the court's demand for money from every official and soldier, and to protest the forced collection of taxes."
Zhang Zizhen slapped his thigh and said, "Oh no! I knew it was so strange. When I first arrived, I saw Zhong Jijiu leading a group of students towards the palace in a heroic and high-spirited manner."
The housekeeper had a sad face and said, "Not only that. Many officials in the court also rushed there after hearing the news. They were crowded in front of the palace and wanted His Royal Highness to take back his decision and ask His Majesty to come out and administer justice and seek an explanation."
Several people were shocked. They were just discussing how to get the officials in the court to work together to fight against Ling Heng, but they didn't expect that someone had already gotten ahead of them.
Still a student and a teacher.
If things go wrong, someone might die.
"Uncle Li, do you know who took the lead?"
Zhong Jijiu could only motivate students, but he could not motivate so many officials.
You know, unless their lives are in danger, these people know best how to protect themselves.
The housekeeper, Uncle Li, had a pale face: "Old Mr. Zhong, as well as the chief priest Zhong, several old censors are here, and even the old prince Huai has come out."
"Old Prince Huai?" Even Li Huaiying was shocked.
"Yes, the old prince is now over 90 years old. He was carried on a sedan chair. When the imperial guards saw him coming, they didn't dare to chase him away. The old prince didn't enter the palace either. He just sat quietly at the palace gate with the adults and students."
Li Shuangwan's heart sank. This time the matter had really gotten out of hand.
But at the same time, he thought about it again and felt relieved. With old Prince Huai around, no matter how bad Ling Heng was, he would not ignore old Prince Huai.
Prince Huai is the great-uncle of Emperor Jingzhang. He is highly respected and virtuous, but he has rarely appeared in public over the years.
"Uncle Li, have someone find Chen Ping and ask him to meet me at the gate of the palace immediately."
"Oh, yes. Princess, are you going too?"
"Let's go, Daddy, Brother, Uncle Zhang, let's go together."
"Okay!" Several people responded.
He did not even bother to finish his half-finished lunch and immediately rode to the palace.
From afar, all I could see was a dark mass of heads, hundreds of them at least.
Li Shuangwan knew there would be a lot of people, but he didn't expect there would be so many people.
Li Huaiying and a few others went over, but Li Shuangwan did not go forward.
At the gate of the imperial palace, Zheng Xinjiang, the commander of the imperial guards, was overwhelmed and had the imperial guards surround them.
He knelt in front of old King Huai and said something earnestly, but there were too many people and Li Shuangwan could not hear clearly. He just asked him to go back.
However, old King Huai closed his eyes, sat on the sedan chair, and ignored what Zheng Xinjiang said.
Somehow today's autumn wind feels particularly cold when it blows on people.
The sunlight slanted down on the glazed tiles of this centuries-old imperial city, but it could not shine into the gloomy hearts of the students at the Imperial College.
Wu Changyuan, an old doctor from the Imperial College, sat quietly at the front, his hands tucked into his tattered autumn robe.
The three hundred young men sitting behind him all had indignation on their faces.
At this time, Chen Ping arrived.