Datang: Just been appointed as the crown prince, the counterattack system is here

Chapter 206: Killing is far less satisfying than destroying one's heart! [Seeking monthly votes]

"Eat people! Eat people!"

"Crazy! They're all crazy!!"

Huineng ran out shouting, as if demons and monsters were chasing him.

The other monks of Xing'an Temple also fled in panic.

Such a scene made the people who were about to go to Xing'an Temple look confused.

Although they had no idea what had happened in Xing'an Temple, the appearance of these monks still made them feel afraid. So, without thinking too much, they all started running away like the tide receding.

For a time, stampedes occurred frequently, the scenes were horrific, and the people were filled with grief.

"What's going on? What happened?!"

As soon as Cui Renshi and others' carriage arrived outside Xing'an Temple, they encountered a group of people fleeing, and everyone's face was full of surprise.

But then Lu Chengqing shouted coldly: "Come here! Go and capture a monk and ask him what happened to Xing'an Temple!?"

"Yes!"

Soon, several guards rushed towards the monk who was running in the front and brought him directly in front of Cui Renshi and others.

Coincidentally, this monk was none other than Huineng.

"My Lords! Please save my Master! He's about to be eaten by those lunatics!"

Huineng quickly asked for help from Cui Renshi and others.

Upon hearing this, Cui Renshi and the others looked at each other in bewilderment. Then Wang Gui spoke first, "Hui Neng, you just said your master was going to be eaten by a madman? What's going on?"

Huineng was startled when he heard someone calling his name. He immediately looked in the direction of the voice and burst into tears, "Censor Wang! Someone spread a rumor that my master's flesh can make people immortal. Those people believed it and actually wanted to eat my master!"

"What!?"

When Wang Gui heard this, he was stunned with shock.

The other family heads were also shocked and their faces were full of disbelief.

"Who is so bold as to spread such a rumor?!" Li Zhen said angrily.

Huineng cried and shook his head, "I don't know who started the rumor, but I heard it was in the newspaper!"

"newspaper?"

Lu Chengqing frowned and immediately turned to look at Master Cui Ren.

But Cui Renshi quickly said, "I didn't ask the newspaper to write something like that. It's definitely not our newspaper!"

"If it's not our newspaper, then it must be the prince's newspaper?" Zheng Shanguo said in surprise.

"This boy is truly vicious! How could he have come up with such a despicable plan? We will immediately go to His Majesty and impeach him for his disregard for human life and his lies that mislead the public!"

"Wait a minute!"

Li Zhen was just about to return to his carriage to the palace to see the emperor when Wang Gui suddenly grabbed his sleeve and said in a deep voice, "General Li, have you forgotten that we also published newspapers praising Master Faya? If the crown prince uses this to bite us back, what should we do?!"

"This"

After hearing this, several family heads finally reacted.

"That's right! We can't go to His Majesty!"

"Then what should we do now?"

"Where is Pei Sikong? Where is he now?"

"Still in my master's meditation room, but my master..."

"Gentlemen? Why are you here?"

Before Huineng could finish his words, Dai Zhou rushed up with his soldiers, looking at them with confusion.

"Prince of Dali Temple?"

When Cui Renshi and others saw Dai Zhou, they were slightly startled and looked at each other. Then they quickly reacted and hurried to meet him.

Cui Renshi was the first to speak, "The Dali Temple Minister's arrival is perfect. We had originally planned to come to Xing'an Temple to pray for the people, but we didn't expect to encounter such a shocking incident. That Xing'an Temple monk, Faya, misled the people with his lies and ultimately suffered the consequences. The people mistakenly thought he was a holy monk and devoured him!"

"What!?"

Dai Zhou was also shocked when he heard this and asked hurriedly, "Are you serious?"

"Absolutely no lies!"

"hateful!"

Dai Zhou's face darkened, and he immediately called out to the officers and soldiers behind him, saying, "Quick! Go up and see what's going on!"

"promise!"

The leading officer responded with a promise, and then without saying a word, he led his officers and soldiers into Xing'an Temple.

At this time, Dai Zhou looked at Huineng again and frowned. "My lords, I have come here on the orders of His Majesty to investigate the matter of Faya. This monk must be from Xing'an Temple. I want to take him away. Do you have any objections?"

"No objection, the Dali Temple Minister can do whatever he wants!" Cui Renshi smiled and waved his hand.

Dai Zhou nodded without saying anything, and then ordered again: "Take him away!"

"Several adults, please save me!"

Huineng did not expect that he would be captured, and hurriedly called for help from Cui Renshi and others.

However, Cui Renshi and others responded with cold faces, pretending that they didn't know him at all. Not only did they ignore his request, they also tried their best to distance themselves from Xing'an Temple to Dai Zhou.

It was obvious that they were planning to give up on Faya and Pei Ji.

Because Li Shimin ordered an investigation into Faya, it meant that Faya's next actions would no longer be successful.

Moreover, Faya messed herself up.

Saving such a waste is a waste of resources. It’s better to give up on him as soon as possible.

As for Pei Ji, he is probably finished too.

At the same time, in the Prince’s Mansion.

In addition to attacking Faya, Li Chengqian also planned to pursue the Five Surnames and Seven Families, and had no intention of giving them any breathing time.

But he heard him say to Cai Kun, "How's the research going on on the Tang Dynasty Rich List that I asked you to investigate?"

"Your Highness, thanks to the help of the Xingtang Chamber of Commerce, the investigation is almost complete. It covers property, stored grain, land, and other industries!"

Cai Kun smiled and bowed, saying, "As you said, I'm going to compile it based on estimates, from hundreds of thousands of gold to hundreds of gold, and sort them all."

"Well, good job!"

Li Chengqian nodded in satisfaction and asked, "What about the title? Have you thought of one?"

"Not yet, please give me your instructions, Your Highness!"

"Ah!"

Li Chengqian laughed, then looked at Cai Kun teasingly and said, "I heard you recruited dozens of reporters, including some scholars. Are they so useless?"

"Uh,"

Cai Kun grinned awkwardly, not knowing how to respond.

In fact, those reporters had already thought of the title, but this kind of thing must be decided by the leader, otherwise how can they make the leader happy.

As if seeing through Cai Kun's thoughts, Li Chengqian smiled and said, "Well, since you haven't come up with a plan, I'll give you one. It's called [If an official doesn't serve the people, he might as well go home and grow sweet potatoes.]"

"Good! That's a good title!"

Cai Kun's eyes lit up, he truly admired Li Chengqian's talent.

However, Li Chengqian smiled nonchalantly and waved his hand, saying, "Now that we have the title, let's go back and print it!"

"Yes!"

Cai Kun responded and left without saying a word.

At this time, Sun Fujia came over, sweating profusely, and reported: "Your Highness, the site for the Academy of Sciences has been finalized. Lord Liu is communicating with the Ministry of Works and is preparing to construct it according to the drawings you drew!"

"it is good!"

Li Chengqian smiled and nodded, then walked straight into the study and picked up a cup of tea handed to him by Lai Fu. Just as he was about to drink it, he remembered that Sun Fujia was behind him, so he handed the tea in his hand to the sweaty Sun Fujia and said with a smile, "You drink it!"

"No, no, no, Your Highness, you drink first!"

"It's okay, just drink it if you're told to! Lai Fu, get me a glass of ice water!"

"promise!"

After watching Lai Fu leave with his promise, Sun Fujia didn't hesitate to take the teacup and gulp down the tea. Only after he had finished the tea in the cup did he breathe a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "The tea in His Royal Highness's mansion is thirst-quenching!"

"Why, don't you have any tea to drink when you go back?" Li Chengqian said with a smile.

Sun Fujia said somewhat embarrassedly: "To be honest, Your Highness, although tea is now widely available in Chang'an, not everyone can afford to drink good tea!"

As he spoke, he raised the teacup in his hand and said with a wry smile, "For example, this yellow tea, a small jar costs one hundred coins, and the supply is still far from enough to meet the demand. I really can't get any of it."

Li Chengqian laughed when he heard this. "I never thought that even in the Prince's Mansion, there would be times when officials couldn't get tea. This is really out of character!" "Well, go tell Lord Cen and tell him I said that all officials in the Prince's Mansion will get ten kilograms of yellow tea per month. No, twenty kilograms per month!"

"Thank you, Your Highness the Crown Prince!"

Sun Fujia was overjoyed and quickly saluted Li Chengqian.

The treatment in the Prince's Mansion is truly incomparable to that in the imperial court.

How lucky I am to be able to work in the Prince's Mansion!

Just when Sun Fujia was filled with joy, he heard Li Chengqian say again: "Master Sun, there is something I want to discuss with you!"

"Your Highness, please speak!"

Sun Fujia immediately straightened his posture and put on a businesslike attitude.

Li Chengqian couldn't help laughing, but he still said to him seriously:
"I have obtained His Majesty's consent and am preparing to intervene in the end-of-year special examination. You were the top scholar in the fourth year of Wude, so you should be familiar with the imperial examination. However, this special examination is not an ordinary one. I intend to reform the imperial examination system. In addition to the Mingjing and Jinshi examinations, I will also add an engineering subject. This engineering subject will include knowledge of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and other aspects."

"Therefore, the examination questions for the Mingjing and Jinshi exams will be set by the Hongwen Academy, and the examination questions for the Gongxue exam will be set by you!"

"Ah?" Sun Fujia was surprised for a moment when he heard Li Chengqian's words. He couldn't help but ask, "But they haven't studied engineering yet. How can they take the exam?"

"Don't worry about that. I have engineering textbooks here. They can get them for free. If you can learn, then study. If you can't, there's no need to force yourself. The Enke exam is mainly based on the Mingjing and Jinshi exams!"

"Then what is the purpose of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince doing this?"

"In name, it is to select talents for the court, but in fact it is to select scientific researchers for our Academy of Sciences!" Li Chengqian said with a smile.

Sun Fujia became increasingly confused as he listened, and could not help but ask again, "Since the imperial examinations are not mandatory, and the examinations are mainly based on the Mingjing and Jinshi subjects, then they certainly won't study engineering!"

"That's not certain. If someone spreads the word that His Majesty will test engineering knowledge during the palace examination, or that the threshold for becoming a disciple of the Emperor is engineering, what do you think they will do?"

"what?"

When Sun Fujia heard this, he was so shocked that his jaw almost dropped to the ground and he stood there in a daze.

Li Chengqian had often encountered this kind of routine in his previous life.

Especially during exams, a certain teacher would say something is mandatory to be tested, and then they would study very hard, but when the actual exam came, nothing was tested on that subject.

Of course, there are teachers who have actually predicted the exam questions, but this situation is generally rare.

By doing this, Li Chengqian was actually making life more difficult for the scholars from aristocratic families, forcing them to devote themselves to studying engineering.

However, knowledge like math, physics, and chemistry relies heavily on innate talent. If you know it, you know it, and if you don't, you don't. There's no such thing as simply working hard and you'll definitely understand it.

The future development of the Tang Dynasty cannot be separated from new types of talents, so it is natural to fundamentally solve the problem of the group of civil servants who only study hard.

Therefore, it is imperative to reform the imperial examination system.

"Your Highness, good news! Great news!"

Just as Sun Fujia was dazed, Cen Wenben rushed in from outside with an excited look on his face. He bowed and said, "Your Highness, the Crown Prince, the evil monk from Xing'an Temple was bitten to death by his fanatical followers, who thought he was immortal meat!"

"what?"

Li Chengqian's eyelids twitched, and he thought to himself, were the ancients so fierce?!
If someone actually believed what was written in Journey to the West, wouldn't I dare to write mythological novels anymore?!
What if someone really uses the content in the novel to cultivate immortality? Wouldn’t that be a disaster?!
However, just as Li Chengqian was in a state of confusion, Cen Wenben seemed to see through his worry and said with a smile, "In fact, Faya was bitten to death by those fanatics. It's not our newspaper's fault. He brought this upon himself. He actually performed a comeback in front of those fanatics!"

"Doesn't this prove that he is a holy monk? It truly proves what His Royal Highness said: If you don't seek death, you won't die!"

"Wait! You said he performed a resurrection show? What's going on?" Li Chengqian asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"Harmful!"

Upon hearing this, Cen Wenben said with a mixture of laughter and tears, "In order to deceive the people who were afraid of the locust plague, he called the locusts the gods of heaven. Then, in the name of blessing the people, he gave them some kind of clear and spiritual water to drink. It was actually poisonous water. After the victims drank it, they became poisoned. Then, on the pretext of their grave sins, he defrauded them of their merit money and gave them the detoxification!"

"Such a demon monk! His death is not a pity!"

Upon hearing Cen Wenben's words, before Li Chengqian could express his opinion, Sun Fujia was already filled with righteous indignation: "We should report this to His Majesty and punish the monks of Xing'an Temple severely!"

"Oh, Lord Sun, don't worry. The Dali Temple has already arrested all the monks in Xing'an Temple, even Pei Sikong!"

"Oh?" Li Chengqian raised his eyebrows: "Pei Sikong was also arrested?"

"Yes, it is said that this matter is also related to Pei Sikong!" Cen Wenben nodded.

Li Chengqian was speechless and couldn't help but raise his hand to hold his forehead. "He really is a man who won't die unless he's courting death. I warned him before to behave himself, but he's courting death again!"

"It's hard to persuade a damned ghost with kind words. It's not the Crown Prince's fault!"

Cen Wenben shrugged.

Li Chengqian glanced at him, then at Sun Fujia, nodded, and said nothing more.

After all, his current target is not Pei Ji and Faya, but all the aristocratic families.

On the other side, the Liangyi Hall.

Li Shimin sat calmly and majestically on the imperial throne, quietly looking at Pei Ji who was kneeling below.

At this time, Pei Ji seemed to still be trembling because of Faya's matter. He wanted to say something but couldn't.

He never imagined that Faya would be bitten to death by her own believers. This was simply horrible.

If Dai Zhou had not led his men in in time, he would probably have been scared to death by those fanatical believers who were like demons.

But Li Shimin suddenly said, "Faya's disciple Huineng said that you knew Faya's evil words. Now, although Faya is dead, do you have anything else to say about what you did?"

"minister"

Pei Ji heard this and said tremblingly: "I only heard Faya say that a locust plague would come and that locusts are the king of heaven. I don't know anything else."

"is it?"

Li Shimin asked coldly, then turned to look at Dai Zhou beside him and said, "Show him the file!"

"Yes!"

Dai Zhou responded and handed the file to Pei Ji without saying a word.

Pei Ji took the file and slowly unfolded it to examine it.

It would have been fine if I hadn't looked at it, but once I did, my whole body went limp.

But then Dai Zhou said coldly, "Pei Sikong, you colluded with Faya and deceived the people, hoping that the disaster relief efforts would fail in order to prove that you were destined to succeed. Are you still trying to make excuses?"

"I"

Pei Ji was speechless.

Li Shimin said coldly: "You are the Minister of Works, an important official of the court, how dare you behave like this..."

"His Majesty!"

Before Li Shimin could finish his words, Pei Ji prostrated himself on the ground.

However, Li Shimin remained unmoved and continued coldly, "I have decided to remove all your official positions and titles and send you back to your hometown in Puzhou. You will never be allowed to return to the capital!"

When Pei Ji heard the words "never to return to the capital", he trembled all over and burst into tears, saying: "Your Majesty, I am already old, please allow me to stay in the capital."

"Humph, I'm letting you go back home because I already consider you a veteran of Wude. If it weren't for the face of the retired emperor, what do you think your fate would be?"

Li Shimin snorted coldly, slowly stood up from the throne, looked down at Pei Ji, and said calmly and majestically: "According to the consultation of the court ministers, the lightest punishment for you is exile!"

"Ah? This"

Pei Ji was suddenly speechless.

But then Li Shimin said solemnly: "You are old. Exiling you is tantamount to sentencing you to death."

"Although I do not like to kill meritorious officials, ask yourself, what contributions have you made to the Tang Dynasty?"

"I"

Pei Ji opened his mouth, but hesitated to speak.

Li Shimin walked down the steps, stepped in front of him, and said calmly and indifferently: "During the Wude period, the government and criminal law were full of mistakes and omissions, and discipline was lax and chaotic. Don't you have any responsibility at all?"

"I'll allow you to stay in the capital. With your connections, who knows what kind of trouble you'll cause!"

Having said this, he looked up at the sunlight outside the palace, walked past Pei Ji, and said as he walked: "With your merits, how could you be promoted to such a high position?"

"You are simply favored by the Emperor, and fortunately ranked first among all the civil and military officials!"

"Because you are one of my former subordinates, I cannot bear to punish you according to the law!"

"It's a blessing to be able to return home alive. Do you think you deserve to stay in the capital?"

After saying this, he stepped over the threshold of the hall and left without looking back.

Although Pei Ji deserved to die for what he did, in Li Shimin's heart, killing someone was far less satisfying than destroying their heart.

Especially in front of Pei Ji, denying everything he said was more painful than killing him.

He came back to his senses in a daze from what Li Shimin had said. He was stunned for three seconds, then he raised his head and cried heartbreakingly: "The Emperor—!"

Hearing Pei Ji's crying, Li Shimin, who had not walked far, could not help but look up at the sky. After a while, tears flowed from the corners of his eyes.

"Zhaoren, you can rest in peace."

　Please give me a monthly ticket. Please give me a monthly ticket.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)