I, the prince, only want to be deposed.

Chapter 274 I wish you a long life
"From today on, no one in Hejian State, from the prefecture to the county, from the King of Hejian to the officials, from the nobles to the prominent families, can stay out of this. Those who are clearly stated will be severely punished, those who are not clearly stated will be sentenced to death, and those who are not clearly stated will be exterminated!"

The smile on Liu Ju's face gradually stopped, and his cold eyes swept across the instantly changed faces of everyone present, lingering only briefly on Jia Xun's body and Guo Xuanzi. His voice became more playful, and he said, imitating Guo Xuanzi's words just now,
"If you want to blame someone, blame them for tricking me into coming to Hejian State and even daring to assassinate me. When such a sinister plan was made, someone had already put all of you on the chopping block."

"Whether this succeeds or not, you will end up like this today. The ending was already decided then."

"Hehehehe."

"..."

Liu Ju's words were clear enough. In fact, even if he didn't say it, everyone present was not a fool. How could they not understand this truth?
If Liu Ju was successfully assassinated, without the crown prince, the emperor would not let them go.

Now that Liu Ju has not been stabbed to death, such a major event will never let go easily. All the people on the list in Hejian State will pay the price for it.

So no matter what the outcome, as long as this happened, they were doomed to die.

It is only right that those involved pay the price for this, but how can those who are not involved be willing to endure such involvement and frame-up?

Just as Liu Ju said, the person who made this plan had already disregarded their lives from the very beginning and put them in a situation where they were bound to die. If they wanted to hate someone, they should really hate the person who made such a plan first...

"Your Highness, I am innocent. I really know nothing about this matter!"

"Your Highness, please spare my life. I can swear to heaven that I have no involvement in this matter. If I tell you even a single word of falsehood, I will have my entire family killed and I will never be able to reincarnate again!"

"Even if I had the courage of heaven, I would never dare to participate in this matter, let alone not report it..."

"..."

Many officials were so frightened that their faces turned pale and they collapsed to the ground. They didn't care about the blood on the ground at all and kept kowtowing to Liu Ju and begging for mercy, their foreheads making loud banging sounds.

The lightest charge now is dereliction of duty, but they know better that it is absolutely impossible to deal with this matter only as dereliction of duty. Even saving their own lives may be a luxury. Being able to save the lives of their clansmen is already a great blessing from heaven.

"Grandpa Prince!"

Even Hejian King Liu Shou could not stand and knelt down in front of Liu Ju with a plop.

"Grandpa Crown Prince, I am extremely filial to you and would never dare to do such a bold thing. I have been framed. I beg you to see through this and clear my name!"

Even if there is no evidence now, the people who are most responsible are Hejian County Magistrate Wei Chen and Hejian King Liu Shou.

Protecting Liu Ju is not just the responsibility of Gongsun Jingsheng and the Qimen warriors. As local dignitaries, they also have an unshirkable responsibility. Anyone else can shirk it, but these two absolutely cannot shirk it.

By the way, there is actually a prime minister who also has a responsibility.

The county magistrate is the highest administrative officer of a county, responsible for governing the people, promoting talented people, deciding lawsuits, and investigating corruption.

But if this county became a country, the court would also appoint a prime minister, who would be responsible for supervising and admonishing the dukes. Some, like Bu Shi, would also serve as junior tutors, teaching and guiding them.

However, Liu Ju went to Hejian State twice, and only met the Prime Minister of Hejian State twice at the welcoming banquet.

He was an old man in his seventies who had difficulty walking and had to be carried by others to attend the banquet. His name seemed to be "Guan Changqing". Anyone who saw him in Hejian would respectfully address him as "Guan Gong".

It is said that he was a disciple of the great Confucian scholar "Mao Chang", and the "Shi Gu Xun Zhuan" he passed down is today's "The Book of Songs", so "The Book of Songs" is also called "Mao Shi".

Jia Yi, who was mentioned together with Qu Yuan by Sima Qian in "Records of the Grand Historian" and collectively referred to as "Qu Jia", also gave him "Zuo Zhuan", which was then sorted and verified by him and formed the "Zuo Zhuan" taught in the Imperial College today.

Among the Five Classics of the Imperial Academy, he alone mastered two of them. He was a veritable editor of textbooks for the Han Dynasty, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that he was the editor of textbooks for the Celestial Empire's feudal dynasties for more than two thousand years. His status and influence among today's Confucianists are definitely more powerful than Dong Zhongshu, who is currently committed to Bowang Garden... What's more, Dong Zhongshu has now been criticized by Confucian scholars as a "Confucian traitor."

It was also because Guan Changqing was too old and in poor health, so apart from personally welcoming Liu Ju at the welcoming banquet, he was basically unable to accompany him to participate in any activities at other times, and no one could blame him.

But after this incident, he will definitely be implicated...

As Hejian King Liu Shou knelt down to beg, some of the officials behind him also knelt down.

One of them was a middle-aged man with a square face and prominent jawbones on both sides of his chin, who was still making a loud appeal:

"Your Highness, please think twice!"

"Your Highness, Confucius said that a benevolent person has five virtues: respect, tolerance, trustworthiness, agility, and kindness. Respect will prevent insults, tolerance will win the support of the people, trustworthiness will make people trust you, agility will achieve success, and kindness will make people work."

"If Your Highness were to kill all the people of Hejian State with one blow, and act without leniency, I'm afraid it would be difficult to convince the people, and it would also damage Your Highness's reputation for benevolence."

"Besides, this action is probably against etiquette. The officials of Hejian State were appointed by Your Majesty, and the King of Hejian was conferred by Your Majesty. Even if Your Highness wants to punish them, you should report it to the Emperor first and let him make the decision. Otherwise, it may be suspected of usurpation!"

"???"

"!!!"

Hearing these words, everyone in the hall trembled and looked at him with fear and resentment on their faces, as if they were looking at an idiot.

Please make a holy judgment?!

Have you become stupid from studying so much?!
If your brain is useless, you can donate it to people in need!
Who do you think the emperor is? If the emperor were to deal with this matter, he might not even ask a single question and would just slaughter everyone in Hejian State! Before he finished speaking, Liu Ju actually agreed with the man's advice and nodded vigorously.

"You have a point!"

"In that case... Guo Zhen, immediately prepare a memorial to my father and tell him that I was assassinated in Hejian State and that I was too frightened and in critical condition. I will no longer be involved in this matter."

"!!!"

When everyone heard this, their hearts almost burst and the blood rushing up almost burst their skulls.

How could he be so frightened out of nowhere that his life is in danger? !

If the emperor received such news, the sky of Hejian State would collapse immediately. No matter whether it was high or low, all would be crushed into mud. There would be no room for maneuver!

and also.

Is this deceiving the king?
What the prince did is definitely deceiving the emperor. He is so bold to do so!
Everyone was overwhelmed and shocked by Liu Ju's outrageous actions, and their brains were unable to work.

But Liu Ju was holding his forehead, and as he let Guo Zhen help him walk out, he shook his head weakly:

"Cousin, I will pretend to be dying. After we capture all these people, you can rest and wait for my father to send more professional people to deal with them."

"!!!"

Is this still possible? !

This prince is so straightforward and unpretentious that he even said in public that he would pretend to be dying!

Everyone just felt their heads were buzzing.

If Liu Ju had done this, the situation would have escalated again in an instant, and the emperor would certainly not have held him accountable for deceiving the emperor. How could his method of deceiving the emperor be so sophisticated, as if practice makes perfect?
at the same time.

"Ahhhh——!"

A sudden but appropriate scream came from somewhere outside the hall, and it was immediately recognized as Wei Kang's voice.

"!!!"

Everyone was shaking violently from fear, and some were so nervous that they peed.

Some people came to their senses and hurriedly fell to the ground and begged:
"Your Highness, please spare my life. Your Highness, please forgive me. I know something that seems to be related to this matter. Please give me a chance to make amends for my crime!"

"Your Highness, I have heard some secrets before. I am willing to tell you everything without hiding anything..."

"Your Highness..."

Even those who have nothing to do with this matter know very well in their hearts that this is definitely their last chance. If they do not take the initiative to fight for it now, they will definitely die.

Before today, many people actually held the attitude of not caring about anything.

Even if they really knew some secrets related to this matter, they would only regard it as a scam. Even if it was deceiving the emperor, it was someone else's business and had nothing to do with them. They were unwilling to offend some people who were difficult to offend and damage their own interests.

But now, there is absolutely no possibility of remaining unscathed. How can they still sit still?
"You want to talk now, but I don't want to listen anymore. I wish you a long life."

Liu Ju just waved his hand indifferently and left the living room without looking back, leaving them with only the back of his head with a protruding occipital bone.

The next step is for these people to blame and expose each other.

If anyone thinks that failing to report knowledge is simply dereliction of duty and that exposing it now can mitigate the crime, they are greatly mistaken.

This is a question of loyalty!
Even if one simply watched others deceive the emperor, not knowing that these people dared to carry out the assassination, it could never be forgiven.

In Liu Ju's mind, they were no different from his accomplices!
Moreover, Liu Ju did not intend to really wait for Liu Che to send someone to deal with the matter.

He is well aware of the principle of "one good punch is enough to prevent a hundred blows from coming."

He must do this himself!

He just wanted to let the people of the world see that Liu Che was not someone who could be messed with, and he, the crown prince, was not someone who could be messed with either.

It would not be Liu Che's turn to take action against anyone who dared to offend him or intended to do something wrong to him. He would be able to deal with them cleanly and clearly, and his methods would be no more merciful than Liu Che's.

At the same time, people were afraid of Liu Che.

You must also be afraid of him as the crown prince, so that you can avoid a lot of unnecessary trouble in the future.

(End of this chapter)