I don't want to be the favorite concubine of this palace anymore

Emperor Tiansheng frowned, she was well-informed.

"Let her in."

After a while, the queen walked in with a nervous look.

When she saw the Crown Prince and Minister Wen kneeling on the ground, her eyes turned red and she knelt down as well.

"Your Majesty, I wonder what mistake the prince made to make you so angry?"

Emperor Tiansheng looked at the queen coldly: "Queen, have you forgotten that the harem is not allowed to interfere in government affairs?"

The Queen's body froze. "I dare not forget, but the prince is wrong. It is because I did not educate him well. Your Majesty, please do not be angry. Just punish me. Give him a chance to correct his mistakes!"

When the Queen heard that the Crown Prince and Minister Wen were summoned to the Imperial Study by the Emperor, she had a bad feeling. She knew that the Crown Prince's account book was lost.

She rushed here in a hurry. If the matter was investigated, the crown prince might be deposed. She must protect the crown prince.

Emperor Tiansheng looked at the queen. He had never liked this woman, but she had been sensible and managed the harem well over the years, so he had always given her the honor she deserved.

He even gave the crown prince position to the queen's son, but he didn't expect that the Wen family's ambitions would grow bigger and bigger. They couldn't wait to win over the court officials. Are they trying to force the palace to rebel?

As long as the prince doesn't make any serious mistakes, the throne will be his sooner or later. Emperor Tiansheng really can't understand why they have to do so many things in private.

Now it seems that the Queen is not as indifferent to fame and fortune as she appears. She arrived so timely, and it seems that she has planted her people in the Imperial Study.

She avoided the main point in her few words, turning the suspicion of the Crown Prince and the Wen family embezzling money from the Ministry of Revenue into the fact that she had failed to educate her children well. She really is worthy of being a member of the Wen family.

But Emperor Tiansheng also knew that deposing the crown prince would shake the foundation of the country and could not be done so hastily, and now was not the right time.

He looked at the queen coldly: "The amount involved in this account book is more than two million taels. Queen, do you know what this means?"

The Queen knew that Minister Wen had secretly misappropriated money from the Ministry of Revenue to subsidize the Crown Prince and had made a lot of false accounts, but she did not expect the amount to be so huge.

With their salaries, they probably wouldn't be able to save that much money even if they didn't eat or drink for decades.

She hesitated for a moment and said, "It was I who gave the dowry and money to the prince. Your Majesty also knows that the prince's treasury was looted last time, and his salary is not enough, so..."

The emperor smiled and said, "This account book records the amounts for the past eight years, and the Prince's Mansion was robbed only a few months ago. Your excuse is far-fetched."

The queen was speechless. She really couldn't think of any excuse. She couldn't just make up an excuse for this amount of money.

The emperor waved his hand and said, "I can give him a chance this time. If he still wants to be the crown prince, he should pay me the two million taels of silver.

Besides, Minister Wen is no longer suitable to continue to be the Minister of Revenue. Please hand in your resignation tomorrow, which will save some face for your Wen family."

The three men turned pale, knowing that the emperor had shown them mercy this time, but they were still unsure where to get so much silver.

"Get out of here! You don't have to go to court any more recently. You have one month to go! If you can't collect the money, you won't have to be the crown prince anymore."

After they left, the Queen angrily scolded Minister Wen, "Brother, how could you embezzle so much silver? How can we collect it all?"

Minister Wen was also very angry: "Who am I doing this for! Most of this money was sent to the Crown Prince's Mansion, and our Wen family used less than one tenth of it."

The prince was worried about how to collect the money: "Mother, the most urgent thing now is how to collect so much money. I don't want to lose my position as the prince!"

The queen also calmed down: "I still have some private property, but I estimate that I can only raise 300,000 taels. If you sell all the farms and shops under your name, you should be able to raise several hundred thousand taels. As for the rest, please help me think of a solution."

Minister Wen sighed helplessly. He did make some money in the past few years, but half of it was spent on supporting his assassins. The rest was the savings of several generations of the Wen family.

It is estimated that everything will be lost this time, but there is no other way. In order to ensure the prosperity of the Wen family for a hundred years, the prince must be protected.

After the few people had discussed it, they immediately went back to collect the money.

Li Ruize went to the imperial study. He came here specifically at the right time.

Emperor Tiansheng was so angry that he couldn't even read the memorials.

Seeing that Li Rui's mood had calmed down a little, he looked at Li Rui lovingly.

"Rui'er, father will definitely find all the herbs to detoxify you. Now he has found two!"

Li Rui didn't expect that Emperor Tiansheng really sent people to help him find detoxifying herbs everywhere, and he felt a little complicated.

He blamed Emperor Tiansheng for abandoning him to Concubine Li and for not finding out the cause of Concubine Rong's death.

But if he hadn't been protected by Emperor Tiansheng for so many years, he wouldn't have been able to live well until now. He also had some father-son feelings for Emperor Tiansheng in his heart.

But now he can't tell Emperor Tiansheng the news that the poison has been detoxified. The Wen family has not fallen, the queen has not fallen, and he cannot expose himself.

"Thank you, Father. Are you in a bad mood today? Why do you look so grim?"

Emperor Tiansheng sighed, "I never thought that the Wen family would embezzle so much money from the Ministry of Revenue. The Crown Prince is not innocent either! How can I not be angry!"

"But I can't remove him from the position of Crown Prince now! Rui'er..."

Emperor Tiansheng did not finish the rest of his words, but Li Rui seemed to understand his implication.

Li Rui told Emperor Tiansheng what Jianying had found out about Yin Huaiyuan's sneak attack on Marquis Anyang.

Attached was a signed confession from many generals of that time.

"It seems that Emperor Father's Yin Huaiyuan has also accepted money from the Crown Prince!"

Emperor Tiansheng thought about the account book that he had just looked at and indeed had Yin Huaiyuan's name on it. He got so angry that he started coughing violently!

"What a thief! I always thought he was guarding the border diligently, but I didn't expect he was such a person! Marquis Anyang had helped him in the past!"

Li Rui saw that the groundwork was almost done, and hurriedly said, "Father, I think the General of Zhenxi should have been replaced by the Prince of Anyang. Now that Prince Lu has been training in the military camp for a few years, he can inherit his father's career."

Emperor Tiansheng looked at Li Rui deeply. He had proposed that Li Rui be trained in one of the six ministries, but he chose the Ministry of Rites.

He didn't even come to court, but today was unusual. He actually took the initiative to nominate Prince Lu to take charge of the military camp.

This move is obviously an attempt to place his own people in the court.

But Emperor Tiansheng felt very relieved. He couldn't protect him forever, so this was also fine.

"Okay, I'll do as you say."

"Gao Quan passed down the decree that General Zhenxi Yin Huaiyuan was suspected of ambush and killing the commander, Marquis Anyang, and falsely accusing his colleagues of accepting bribes to exclude dissidents. His military power is hereby taken away and he is immediately imprisoned in the Jingzhao Prefecture Prison and dismissed from his post for investigation!"

Gao Quan immediately accepted the order.

"Wait, there is another imperial decree."

"Lu Qingfeng, the son of Marquis Anyang, is as brave and good at fighting as his father. He is specially appointed as the General Zhenxi and in charge of the Zhenxi Army. He will take office in ten days and inherit the title of Marquis Anyang after marriage!"

Gao Quan's expression froze and he glanced at Li Rui. It seemed that His Royal Highness Prince Rui had finally started to interfere in court affairs.

After Gao Quan left, Li Rui said to Emperor Tiansheng: "Father, the Right Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Revenue works diligently. I heard that he was always excluded by them because he didn't want to be in the same boat with Minister Wen. This person can be used."

Emperor Tiansheng smiled: "Rui'er, father underestimated you. Although you never interfere in the affairs of the court, you know a lot."

Li Rui also looked directly at Emperor Tiansheng and said sternly: "I was ignorant before and made you sad. From now on, I will try my best to share your worries!"

Emperor Tiansheng looked at Li Rui with satisfaction: "I'm glad you have this intention. I know you are a smart child."

Li Rui struck while the iron was hot and told Emperor Tiansheng about a few more candidates, replacing some of the princelings on the list with some of his own people.

It just happened to solve Emperor Tiansheng's urgent problem, and for a moment, the two of them showed a rare scene of loving father and filial son.