The ministers begged me to ascend the throne

Chapter 567: Fourth Brother had already lost by allowing Eighth Brother to go to Qingzhou.

When the news of Prince Jing's death reached the capital, it did not cause much of a stir in the court. Many ministers had expected that he would not live long. His death after such a long time actually surprised many officials.

As for whether Prince Jing really died in an accident or it was fake, no one in the court cared. A prince who had lost power was not worthy of the attention of the ministers in the court.

The emperor did not order a thorough investigation into the truth behind Prince Jing's accidental death. He only ordered a grand funeral for him, with the specifications for a prince.

After all, Prince Jing was the biological son of the emperor, so he had to be buried in the imperial mausoleum. In other words, his body had to be transported back to the capital, and his funeral had to be held in the capital.

The emperor ordered the King of Wei to go to the fiefdom of Prince Jing and take his body back to the capital for burial.

The ministers in the court discussed the emperor's arrangement. In the eyes of many people, the emperor sent the King of Wei out at this time, which was clearly to drive the King of Wei out.

Now, there are only two princes left in the court, the King of Chu and the King of Wei. The situation of the competition between the two of them has been laid bare. At such an important time, the King of Wei was arranged by the emperor to leave the palace. Isn't this a disguised way of driving him out?

The King of Wei was going to leave the capital for a while, which was a good thing for the officials who supported the King of Chu. They could take advantage of the King of Wei's absence to deal with his forces. When the King of Wei returned to the capital, he would no longer have a place in the court.

The ministers who supported King Wei were very worried about his leaving the capital, but they could do nothing about the emperor's order.

The people of the King of Chu thought that the emperor was helping the King of Chu and that it was a foregone conclusion that the King of Chu would be made the crown prince after the King of Wei left. However, the King of Chu and Yang Ling did not think so.

In the study, the King of Chu and several trusted ministers were discussing the real purpose of the King of Wei leaving the capital.

Yang Ling, as an important counselor to the King of Chu, was also there. He felt that the King of Wei must have other purposes in leaving the capital at this time, and he must be on guard.

"Your Highness, with the scheming and tactics of the King of Wei, even if the Emperor sent him to Qingzhou to pick up the Prince of Jing, he would have a way to refuse, but he didn't. There must be something fishy going on." Qingzhou was the fiefdom of the King of Jing after he was demoted to the position of a Prince of a County. "There must be something in Qingzhou that the King of Wei must go to in person."

Minister A: "What could happen in Qingzhou that would make the King of Wei leave the capital at such an important time?"

Minister B: "Although Qingzhou is small, it is no longer the poor and remote place it once was. Since the lifting of the maritime ban, and with His Royal Highness the King of Han holding a trade conference in the Swamp Palace, Qingzhou has become one of the most important ports in the Great Zhou."

Minister Bing said: "In the past two years, the income of Qingzhou has not been low. When the emperor demoted Prince Jing to Qingzhou, I felt something was wrong."

Minister Ding said: "That's right. Although Qingzhou is smaller than other prefectures, it is not poor at all. Prince Jing made a mistake, why would the emperor demote him to Qingzhou? He should have demoted him to Liangzhou."

Yang Ling added: "Also, the death of Prince Jing was most likely caused by Prince Wei."

Minister A echoed, "Mr. Yang is right. Prince Jing's death is closely related to Prince Wei."

Minister B continued, "If the death of Prince Jing was really caused by Prince Wei, then Prince Wei deliberately used Prince Jing's death to go to Qingzhou."

Minister Bing was shocked and said, "If this is true, the King of Wei must have some shameful purpose in going to Qingzhou."

Yang Lingjin frowned, his expression solemn: "We don't know much about Qingzhou, and we can't guess the purpose of King Wei's visit to Qingzhou."

Minister A suddenly remembered something and became a little excited: "Your Highness, I remember that His Highness King Han's relatives seem to be doing business in Qingzhou. Maybe His Highness King Han knows something. You can ask His Highness King Han."

Minister Ding agreed, "Yes, although Swamp Prefecture is far from Qingzhou, they are both ports. His Royal Highness the King of Han might really know something."

Minister A was right. No one in the world knew more about Qingzhou than Zhao Yao. At the beginning, Zhao Yao had chosen Qingzhou as his fiefdom, so he had arranged for his uncle to do business in Qingzhou.

Today, Zhao Yao's uncle is already a wealthy man in Qingzhou, with extraordinary financial resources and power. It can be said that the Liang family is a wealthy and prestigious family in Qingzhou.

Furthermore, before Zhao Yao went to Swamp House, he asked his uncle to do many things in Qingzhou, such as building merchant ships in Qingzhou. Now, his uncle is still building merchant ships and warships for him in Qingzhou.

Qingzhou was not Zhao Yao's fiefdom on the surface, but in fact it had long become Zhao Yao's place.

In addition to doing business and building merchant ships and warships in Qingzhou, Zhao Yao also established an intelligence agency in Qingzhou.

The intelligence agency in Qingzhou was established earlier than that in Swamp Prefecture. At that time, the maritime ban was not lifted, but Qingzhou was the only place that allowed overseas ships to dock and the only place that allowed overseas merchants to come to Dazhou to do business. It was necessary to establish an intelligence agency to find out the news and purpose of these foreign merchants.

Zhao Yao had set his sights on Qingzhou and had arranged everything there early on. He knew everything about Qingzhou.

The King of Chu remembered that Zhao Yao had mentioned to him that his uncle was doing business in Qingzhou and was more familiar with the affairs of Qingzhou.

"Your Highness, you have a good relationship with His Royal Highness the King of Han. If you ask His Royal Highness the King of Han, he will definitely tell you."

The King of Chu waved his hands and said, "You can't ask my tenth brother." Once he asked his tenth brother, he would be asking him to participate in the fight between him and the King of Wei.

Several trusted ministers also understood why the King of Chu could not ask His Royal Highness the King of Han. Alas, His Royal Highness the King of Han was not only on good terms with their Highness, but also with the King of Wei. "Before, we sent people to Qingzhou to investigate, but we found nothing." Yang Ling felt even more depressed when he thought of this. "From this point, it can be seen that the King of Wei is likely to control the entire Qingzhou." He did not dare to think about what it meant to control the entire Qingzhou.

"What exactly does the King of Wei want to do in Qingzhou?" Several trusted ministers thought about it but could not figure it out.

The King of Chu said calmly, "No matter what he is planning, his fox tail will eventually be exposed. We will then counter his moves."

"Your Highness, I'm afraid the King of Wei will give us a surprise attack."

"King Wei is so cunning that his plans in Qingzhou will definitely not be small."

"Is the King of Wei planning to rebel?"

"No, the King of Wei wouldn't be that stupid."

"Then what is he planning in Qingzhou?"

After Zhao Yao, who was thousands of miles away, received the news of Prince Jing's death, he guessed that the King of Wei would personally go to take Prince Jing back to the capital for burial. As expected, he was right.

"Qingzhou is a good place now. To be honest, I really want to go and see it."

"Your Highness, I remember that you chose Qingzhou as your fiefdom."

"Yes, the first place I took a fancy to was Qingzhou. I even arranged for my uncle to do business in Qingzhou. After my uncle had learned everything about Qingzhou, I chose to come to Lingnan. For this, my uncle wrote a letter to complain about me." Zhao Yao did not regret giving up Qingzhou. Compared with Lingnan, Qingzhou was really too small. What he wanted to do could not be done in Qingzhou. "When I have time, I will go to Qingzhou to have a look." It doesn't take too long to take a boat from Swamp House to Qingzhou.

"I will go with you."

"I will take you with me, but you can't go now." Zhao Yao thought of what the King of Wei did in Qingzhou, and his brows knitted together. "Fourth brother, if you let eighth brother go to Qingzhou, you've already lost."

Tongxi didn't understand and looked puzzled: "Your Highness, why do you say that?"

"Even if I tell you, you still don't understand." Zhao Yao stood up, patted his butt, and then picked up a piece of grass at random and put it in his mouth, "Go back and continue working."

"Your Highness, will His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu be in danger?"

Tongxi's question made Zhao Yao pause involuntarily, and he sighed quietly: "Ah... It's hard to say."

"Your Highness, what is the Prince of Wei doing in Qingzhou?"

"Of course it's a big deal." Zhao Yao said, "Fourth brother should know that Eighth brother chose to leave the capital at this time, which must be wrong. If Fourth brother does not stop Eighth brother from going to Qingzhou, Fourth brother will really fail."

"I don't understand."

"You don't understand, and Fourth Brother doesn't understand either, so..." Zhao Yao said this and shook his head slightly, "Fourth Brother is no match for Eighth Brother."

"Your Highness, how do you know that if His Royal Highness the Prince of Wei goes to Qingzhou, His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu will lose?"

Zhao Yao pointed at himself and said proudly, "Your Highness, I know the situation in Qingzhou best. It was my eighth brother who had my father demote the seventh son to Qingzhou. It's a pity that my fourth brother didn't see it."

"What? It was His Royal Highness the Prince of Wei who had King Jing banished to Qingzhou?"

"Otherwise, how could the Seventh Brother be demoted to Qingzhou for his crimes?" Zhao Yao added, "The current Qingzhou is a prosperous and bustling prefecture, which is completely different from the Qingzhou of the past. Besides, Eighth Brother arranged some people in Qingzhou many years ago."

After hearing this, Tongxi said with a look of horror: "Your Highness, His Highness the Prince of Wei has long been plotting against His Highness the Prince of Chu, right?"

"Yes, the trap has been set a long time ago, but it's a pity that fourth brother didn't notice it." At this point, Zhao Yao's face looked a little ugly, "I mentioned the matter of Qingzhou to fourth brother a long time ago, but now it seems that fourth brother didn't take it to heart." At that time, he told his fourth brother that Qingzhou was a place not to be underestimated, and he also suggested that his fourth brother send people to Qingzhou to do some business, but his fourth brother didn't listen to him.

"Your Highness, now that things have come to this, you cannot intervene to help His Highness the Prince of Chu."

Zhao Yao sighed and said, "Forget it, it's not something I should worry about." Then he returned to Beishan Laboratory and continued to tinker with rubber. In the past year or two, he has been studying how to make rubber, but unfortunately he has not succeeded. Just a few days ago, the research finally made a small breakthrough, and he had to continue studying.

At this time, in the imperial study, the King of Chu was begging the emperor to send him and the King of Wei to Qingzhou to bring Prince Jing back to Beijing.

Just half an hour ago, the King of Chu was still discussing with his confidants the purpose of the King of Wei's visit to Qingzhou. After much discussion, they still could not come to a conclusion.

The King of Chu originally planned to counter the move, but the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong, so he hurried into the palace to meet the emperor and asked the emperor to send him and the King of Wei to bring Prince Jing back to the capital.

After a while, King Wei received the news, which surprised him very much.