In my previous life, I killed my whole family. In my next life, I killed the royal family.

The emperor suddenly issued an order to punish a cripple by skinning him alive and pulling out his tendons! This order was like a bolt from the blue, shocking the entire court. They looked at each other, wondering who this cripple was and what crime he had committed to deserve such a cruel punishment.

Most of the officials had never heard of someone committing a serious crime and suddenly being subjected to torture that had not been used for a hundred years, so they felt so horrified.

After some inquiries, they finally learned that the lame man was named Ren Zhang, and he was the military advisor of the Third Prince's mansion. When the news came, there was an uproar in the court, and all the officials talked about it.

Some say that the Third Prince thought highly of Ren Zhang and even gave him the Emperor's dragon pendant;

Some people also believed that Ren Zhang was just a cripple and it was impossible for him to receive such a precious reward, so he must have stolen it.

Some people also speculated whether the dragon pendant in the third prince's hand was given by the emperor, but there is no definite answer.

However, when the prince learned about this, he was extremely angry and complained in his heart: "My father is so partial that he gave the dragon pendant to the third prince!" He felt that he was being neglected and ignored, and his heart was filled with dissatisfaction and resentment.

"I haven't gotten the Nine Dragon Jade Pendant passed down from my grandfather."

The royal family's children know best that the late emperor left behind nine jade pendants of different shapes.

No one dared to ask who got the nine jade pendants in the end.

The guess is in the emperor's hands.

The prince looked out the window with an angry face, his heart full of dissatisfaction and resentment towards his father. He felt that he was ignored, while the third prince received more attention and support. This unfair treatment made him extremely angry.

At this time, his tutor Huang walked into the room and told the prince, "Your Highness, the Third Prince actually reused a crippled man named Ren Zhang. This must be something serious."

After hearing this, the prince showed a look of surprise on his face, but he soon regained his composure. After thinking for a moment, he turned to ask Huang Taifu, "Have you ever seen a similar military advisor in the Second Prince's residence?"

Huang Taifu replied, "No."

The prince's brows knitted tightly together, forming a deep "川" character. His face was frighteningly gloomy. He said angrily, "I used to be friendly to my third brother, and even recommended him to the emperor for the lucrative job of making dragon robes. I didn't expect that he actually had a military advisor behind his back. He must be plotting against me!"

Over the years, the Crown Prince has been winning over the Third Prince and suppressing the Second Prince.

Tutor Huang calmly winked at the captain of the guards, who immediately stepped forward, saluted, and offered to investigate the third prince's affairs.

The prince gritted his teeth, a ruthless look flashed in his eyes, and he vowed to let the third prince know how powerful he was. He decided to take action to maintain his status and dignity, and make those who dared to challenge his authority pay the price.

"I don't care who he is. If he dares to plot against me, I will kill him."

The people in the army knew more than the prince: "Ren Zhang was once General Qi's fourth military advisor. Because he raped a woman, General Qi beat him with dozens of sticks and drove him out of the barracks."

The second prince's brother-in-law Li Zhi learned about this from his father, General Li.

Back then, General Li was General Qi's deputy general.

Li Zhi went to the Second Prince's residence to see his brother-in-law and told him about this.

Li Zhi also said: "Your Highness, the Third Prince is very ambitious, you must be on guard against him."

The second prince chuckled while holding a glass of wine, "I didn't expect that the crown prince usually keeps a close eye on me, but in the end there is another person who wants to take his crown prince position more than I do."

He thought back to the past ten years, when the prince had always targeted him.

Even if the prince himself got sick from eating, he would still shout, "Someone poisoned me."

Once, the prince was hunting outside the city and was chased and bitten by a wild dog. He came back and complained to the emperor, "Father, someone raised a dog to bite me, hoping to scare me so much that I fell off my horse and got injured."

The second prince and the third prince were called by the emperor to be lectured, "Brothers should love each other and not cause trouble. If I find out, I will not let you off easily." The emperor's eyes fell on the second prince's face.

The Second Prince felt very resentful, and cursed inwardly more than once, "Father always targets the Crown Prince, and the Crown Prince is on guard against me, causing me to not be able to live a peaceful life for a few days. I am so unlucky."

The Crown Prince has always tried to win over the Third Prince to distance himself from him.

Who would have thought that the Third Prince would secretly set up such a big scheme? The Second Prince smiled happily and clapped his hands in applause, "Great, really great! The Third Prince should stab the Crown Prince in the back a few more times, until he dies!"

He was thinking about how to pick on the two dogs to kill each other so that he could benefit in the end.

Li Zhi whispered, "Second Prince, you underestimate the Third Prince's ambition. He is not just targeting the Crown Prince, he wants to seize..." He pointed in the direction of the palace.

The second prince glanced at his brother-in-law and asked, "How do you know so much?"

Li Zhi sat up straight and explained the reason, "I met the eldest lady of the Qi Mansion at the Prime Minister's Mansion and fell in love with her at first sight. I asked the official matchmaker to propose marriage. According to the official matchmaker's reply, the eldest lady of the Qi Mansion will choose between me and Lu Fengyun."

……

He told the second prince what happened from the beginning, and then said, "The third prince put a lot of thought into setting up Miss Qi. How could his intentions be small?"

The second prince nodded slightly, "He does have big ambitions."

He didn't show it on his face, but after thinking it over in his mind, he patted Li Zhi's shoulder and said, "I think you and the eldest lady of the Qi Mansion are a perfect match. I will help you marry her."

Li Zhi was overjoyed and bowed respectfully, "Thank you, Second Prince."

He came here today to persuade his brother-in-law to help.

Unexpectedly, before he even opened his mouth, the Second Prince took the initiative to express his willingness to help him marry Miss Qi.

The second prince made a request: "Give me one of the military advisors in the Li family army."

Li Zhi was stunned for a moment, then nodded, "Okay!"

Qi Mansion Upper House

The people from the Qi family's eldest house were sitting in the hall talking.

Qi Ze and Qi Yuan rushed back from Bianzhou exhausted after taking care of the funeral arrangements for the third family.

After the two brothers returned to their room to bathe and change clothes, they came to the hall of the House of Lords, greeted their parents, and sat down to drink a cup of tea.

Qi Ze told what happened after they brothers arrived in Bianzhou.

Prefect Fang personally came out to receive them and said, "I sent someone yesterday to find several boatmen on the boat and told them that the boat capsized that day because Master Qi's family and the servants were sitting on the same side of the boat, which caused it to capsize."

"In order to save his life, Master Qi San threw his wife and children into the river. Later, the boat capsized and Master Qi San also sank into the river."

Qi Lu shook his head when he heard this. He knew that his half brother was capable of killing his wife in exchange for his own life.

Pei and Zheng were stunned when they heard this. Master Qi threw his wife and children into the river with his own hands, and he himself died.

Qi Wan chuckled and thought to himself, "It seems that what happened that day was really a coincidence."

She learned that the third house had arranged for someone to go to Bianzhou to book a boat, and arrived at the river bank in Bianzhou three days later.

On the third night, Qi Wan turned the rosary and "capsized the boat that Qi Fu was sitting on."

However, in order to save his life, Qi Fu threw his wife and children into the river with his own hands, and he himself was later killed by the Third Prince's men.

Qi Ze said: "The weather was too hot, and the bodies of Third Uncle and his family could not be left to rot. When we arrived, the funeral home had already burned their bodies. We bought a piece of land in Bianzhou to bury them."

Qi Lu nodded, "People who died unexpectedly like this cannot be buried in the ancestral tomb, so it's better to bury them where they are."

Qi Wan thought to herself, “People who colluded with outsiders to harm their siblings and family members in their previous lives deserve this fate.”

All the owners of the main house were sitting in the hall, and the servants were guarding outside.

Qi Ze said something strange, "More than a dozen servants taken away by the third house were found dead and alive."

"When we asked the boatmen questions, they looked evasive and were shaking with fear."

Qi Ze expressed his guess, "Father, I was wondering at the time if the servants couldn't stand the beatings and scoldings from the Third House, so they teamed up with the boatmen to capsize the boat, took the Third House's property and ran away."

"Before the Third House left, someone from the spy department came to deliver a message that the Third House took tens of thousands of taels of silver notes to Yangzhou."

"Not them." Qi Lu waved his hand.

Qi Lu whispered: "I'm afraid the death of the third wife is related to that man." He pointed in the direction of the Third Prince's Mansion.

Qi Ze thought about it and felt that this was entirely possible.

If Qi Fu leaves the capital to serve as an official in Yangzhou, the Third Prince will surely vent his anger on him and kill someone.

Qi Wan said, "I once heard Lan Ting mention that the second son of the Ding family, together with the third prince, won a large sum of money from Qi You."

In fact, Qi Wan only learned about this from Wu Yi recently.

After hearing this, Qi Lu felt even more disgusted with the Third Prince.

He commented: "This person has extremely bad character, does things by any means necessary, and is insidious and vicious."

Qi Lu thought of Ren Zhang. The emperor didn't even try him, but directly framed the prince for treason and had him skinned and tortured.

The next day, the Ministry of Justice dragged him to the execution ground, skinned him, and pulled out his tendons. He was a living bloody man, howling in agony for several hours before he died. The scene was extremely horrifying.

From this, Qi Lu deduced that the emperor would not take action against his own son to prevent him from being subject to further unpleasant comments.

Qi Lu couldn't think of any way to solve the big trouble of the third prince for a while.

Once the Third Prince's leg injury heals, he might ask the Emperor for a marriage.

Qi Lu began to feel a little worried.