I, the prince, only want to be deposed.

Chapter 306: Isn’t the prince afraid of disgracing his status?

"Ouch! What happened, cousin?"

Liu Ju was not sitting firmly in the car and almost bumped into Zhao Zhou who was trying to thank him. He finally held on to the car to steady himself, then asked doubtfully through the curtain.

Huo Guang was not an ordinary person. He had stayed in fixed places every time he entered the palace for many years. Before that, he had been the coachman of the Liu Che's six-gold-rooted carriage for several years. His driving skills must have reached perfection. Under normal circumstances, such a mistake should not have occurred.

"?!"

Zhao Zhou also looked surprised.

He was not as lucky as Liu Ju. Just now, when he was bending down to thank Liu Ju, the carriage shook and his body leaned forward involuntarily, and he kowtowed with a "dong".

Fortunately, there were not so many sharp edges in the car, so there was no wound, only a small bump on the forehead.

"cousin……"

When he heard this name, Huo Guang's body stiffened again, and an indescribable fear enveloped his heart.

next moment.

He suddenly gritted his teeth, became ruthless, closed his eyes and threw himself under the car!

"Captain Huo!"

"What's wrong with you, Captain Huo?"

"Someone, come quickly, Captain Huo is injured!"

There were exclamations and footsteps outside the car, and many of the accompanying guards gathered around.

"what's going on?"

Liu Ju was also shocked and quickly lifted the car curtain to check.

Only then did they realize that Huo Guang had fallen off the carriage at some point, and his head had hit an angular stone.

Although he had been helped to sit up by the crowd, there was an obvious cut on the top of his head, and blood was flowing down his cheeks and temples, staining a small area of ​​his always clean and tidy collar red.

But judging from the amount of bleeding, the injury should not be serious, mainly soft tissue contusion or scratches...

"Cousin, what are you doing..."

Liu Ju was a little confused. He didn't understand why Huo Guang, who was usually such a careful person, behaved like this today. Not only did he make a mistake in driving, but he also fell into this state.

"Cough! Cough! Cough!"

Huo Guang coughed heavily a few times, frowned, and apologized weakly.
"Your Highness, please forgive me. I have been feeling unwell recently. I thought that I could get through it as long as I was young. I wanted to accompany Your Highness on the trip, but I suddenly felt faint and weak, and I couldn't even control the carriage... cough cough!"

"It seems that I am afraid that I am unable to accompany Your Highness on this trip. Otherwise, not only will I not be able to meet Your Highness, but I will also become a burden to Your Highness."

"Fortunately, we are not far away now. I will go back and apologize to His Majesty and ask His Majesty to send someone to replace me to serve Your Highness immediately. Please do not delay Your Highness' important affairs."

"Someone, help me up... ahem... I... I have betrayed His Majesty's trust. I must go back and apologize to His Majesty in person!"

"This……"

Seeing Huo Guang had become such a person, Liu Ju could not say anything but concernedly asked,
"Cousin, it's already this hour and you're still worrying about this? You should stop the bleeding and bandage the wound first before you think about other things. Or you can stop by Bowang Garden and let Yishuo treat you before you go back to the palace."

"Thank you very much for your concern, Your Highness. I am deeply ashamed."

Huo Guang was finally helped up, and he struggled to bow and apologize to Liu Ju.

"I am unable to accompany Your Highness to the distant Wiman Joseon this time, which will surely be a lifelong regret for this humble official. If I were not worried about dragging Your Highness down, I would definitely go even if I died of illness on the way..."

"Alright, cousin, go back and heal your wounds. When I return triumphantly, we two brothers will have a drink together."

Liu Ju was not worried about Huo Guang's illness. History books had already given the answer: this guy had a long life. If nothing else unexpected happened, he could live for at least another forty to fifty years with this body.

And it would be good for him if Huo Guang didn't go.

Although Huo Guang could not restrain him, as his cousin and the future leader of the eleven heroes of the Qilin Pavilion, Liu Ju could not help but consider whether it would implicate his cousin when doing certain things. After all, the previous time when he pacified the Kingdom of Nanyue, he almost lost his position as the Commandant of the Imperial Chariot.

Therefore, with Huo Guang around, he always has to consider one more thing before doing things. Isn't this a restriction?
Now that Huo Guang is not going, he can naturally do whatever he wants.

I just don't know who Emperor Liu Che will send to replace Huo Guang now that he is not leaving... Liu Ju's idea is to simply not send anyone. The current number of people is definitely more than enough to do the job, and most of them were even forcibly sent by Emperor Liu Che in order to restrict himself, which is really not a good idea.

"In that case, I will take my leave now. I will pray for Your Highness in Chang'an and wait for good news from Your Highness."

Huo Guang sighed helplessly, and with the help of several guards, he tremblingly took his leave.

The moment I turned around, a feeling of regret mixed with a sense of relief surged into my heart:

"Cousin, please don't blame me. I had no choice but to resort to this measure..."

"I also have a mission that the Wei and Huo families cannot reveal. If I continue to get involved with you like this, I will completely lose the trust of His Majesty. How can I continue to carry out my mission?"

"I hope you'll understand soon."

“Don’t be so reckless as you were before… God bless you, please take away my cousin’s magical power, and don’t let anything serious happen this time…”

...This "accident" of Huo Guang did not affect Liu Ju's itinerary.

The person who drove the carriage for Liu Ju was replaced by the commander of the imperial carriage, Huo Guang, and the commander of the imperial carriage, Jin Midi, while everything else remained the same.

This went on until the next day.

Then two more people caught up with the caravan and took over Huo Guang's mission on Liu Che's orders.

These two people are even more interesting.

One was a close attendant named Chang Rong who was sent by Emperor Wu of Han to secretly investigate Liu Ju when Liu Ju "destroyed the dikes and flooded the fields".

This person is Liu Ju's mortal enemy in history books. When Liu Che was older, he felt unwell once and sent Chang Rong to summon Liu Ju. After Chang Rong came back, he lied that Liu Ju was not sad at all, but looked happy about it, hoping to destroy the relationship between father and son.

As for the incident of "destroying dikes and flooding fields", this person also intended to find Liu Ju's fault from the beginning. Unfortunately, he was frightened by Liu Ju's audacity and rushed back to the capital overnight to report to Liu Che in person, and even suffered a lumbar disc herniation as a result.

Later, when Emperor Wu of Han held a court meeting to discuss the "Fengshan Ceremony".

This person went to Bowang Garden to convey the imperial edict, and deliberately did not explain the topic of discussion, hoping to embarrass Liu Ju in the court.

As a result, neither Liu Ju nor Chang Rong had expected that they would be severely stabbed in the back by Dong Zhongshu. Far from being embarrassed, Liu Ju even made a great contribution for it.

Unfortunately, apart from the records in history books, no one knows what role Liu Ju played in the "destroying the dikes and flooding the fields" and the court meeting.

But it didn't matter. Just based on the records in the history books, he had already been on Liu Ju's blacklist, and he would never treat him as one of his own...

The other person was the younger brother of Li Guangli, Li Yannian and Li Qing'er, named Li Ji.

With Li Qing'er giving birth to the fifth prince for Liu Che some time ago, the Li family immediately became prominent.

First, Li Qing'er was promoted from a beauty to a lady, and was regarded as a senior minister, with a rank equal to that of a marquis.

Then Li Yannian was officially appointed as the Commandant of Music, in charge of the palace's musical instruments, music composition, and court rituals and music, and was awarded a salary of two thousand stones.

Li Guangli was appointed as the assistant commander of performances, in charge of the rural performance tours, and was awarded a salary of 2,000 stones.

And Li Ji was temporarily appointed as the messenger and stayed beside Emperor Liu Che as a close minister.

It should be noted that the two thousand stone salary of Li Yannian and Li Guangli is already equivalent to that of the nine ministers in the court. Together with Li Qing'er, the wife of a marquis, they have already entered the ranks of the top wealthy families in the entire Han Dynasty.

Although Li Ji is currently only granted the title of Ushers, as a close minister of Emperor Liu Che, he has a promising future...

However, Liu Ju knew what happened to this man.

According to historical records, after the Li family became prominent, Li Ji revealed his arrogant and licentious nature.

Not long after Li Qing'er's death, Li Ji was exterminated along with Li Yannian because of his affair with someone in the harem. Only Li Guangli escaped because he was leading his troops to attack Dayuan at that time.

This time, Li Guangli will most likely not become the "Second General" again. I wonder if he can escape this disaster?
But it doesn’t matter.

If the course of history had not changed, Li Guangli would still not have had a good ending even if he had lived a few more years.

But Liu Ju knew better.

These two men were very different from the other officials.

If Jin Midi, Zhao Zhou, Han Shuo and others became obstacles to his journey, Liu Ju would find a way to bypass them and try not to involve them, otherwise he would feel a little burdened.

But if it was Chang Rong and Li Ji...

Liu Ju had no psychological burden at all. He would not hesitate to use any means to make them regret getting involved in this matter.

……

More than a month later, the convoy entered Wei County, Jizhou.

"Report!"

Soon, a Jianzhang rider came to the front of the carriage and reported to Jin Midi.
"Captain Jin, there are nearly a hundred people ahead who are trying to stop us from seeing His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. The leader claims to be His Royal Highness's groom and has presented his seal to prove his identity. Most of the people accompanying him are criminals who have been subjected to tattooing!"

Since Huo Guang fled from the battlefield, the task of driving for Liu Ju and escorting the convoy naturally fell on Jin Midi.

Jin Midi was also a little confused when he heard this. He wondered how Prince Xianma could be mixed up with such a group of criminals. He took the seal and prepared to examine it carefully.

Then I heard Liu Ju's voice coming from inside the car:

"No doubt about it, that is my crown prince Xianma Guo Zhen, bring all the people here."

Before this, he ordered Gongsun Qing to go to Qi to recruit that group of fraudulent alchemists, and he sent Guo Zhen to lead people to accompany him, so that Gongsun Qing would not return and delay his plan this time.

Before leaving, he made an appointment with Guo Zhen to meet up in Yan and Zhao as soon as he was done.

"...Yes, order them to be searched first, and then brought to see His Highness."

Jin Midi hesitated for a moment, and although he agreed, he felt even more confused.

What is going on? These criminals are actually the prince's men. Aren't they afraid of disgracing their status?

(End of this chapter)