Princess Promotion

At the Xiao family, Lord Xiao only left Minister Xiao behind and let everyone go back to rest.

Minister Xiao: "Father, do you want to change your clothes and go to the palace to see the emperor now?"

Elder Xiao did not answer and seemed to be thinking about something.

Elder Xiao suddenly asked, "Did the princess go to other families and make a scene to get someone?"

Xiao Liang: "Yes, the people we sent back reported that the Wang family has already set off for the palace."

Elder Xiao fell into deep thought again.

Minister Xiao lost his composure and asked, "Father, are you really afraid of the Princess?"

Xiao Ge Lao suddenly asked out of nowhere: "Do you think the eldest princess is a fool?"

Minister Xiao: "I don't know if she's a fool, but she's definitely not afraid of death. Tonight, even the dogs in the imperial capital will be beaten by her."

Lord Xiao felt that this matter was not simple. Even though Yao Chuguang was reckless, he was not stupid. He just broke into the door and demanded someone back. Even if Lord Xiao could finally find out something from the interrogation, he could say that it was a frame-up under torture.

Xiao Ge Lao's decades of experience in officialdom told him that this matter was not that simple.

The eldest princess made a huge move late at night. Even if she arrested people from several major families, it would be a pipe dream to try to shake them with a few marginal figures without any evidence. What is the eldest princess's real purpose?

The more Elder Xiao thought about it, the more mysterious it became. If he wasn't looking for the person behind Kunshan, was he trying to frame someone else?

No! It shouldn't be that simple.

Tonight, the eldest princess single-handedly caused unrest in the entire imperial capital.

It can be said that the attention of the entire imperial capital is now on the eldest princess.

Wait! Attention, that’s attention.

Is it to muddy the waters and divert attention?

The only family that the eldest princess really cares about is the Li family. What major event in the Li family requires the eldest princess to alarm several major families at the same time to divert attention?

The answer is obvious: war!

Lord Xiao immediately summoned the guards and went to Hecheng to closely monitor any unusual movements.

Just as Lord Xiao finished giving his orders, there was a hurried sound of footsteps outside.

A servant stumbled in and knelt down, saying, "Oh no! The young master has been kidnapped!"

Minister Xiao: "Why don't you send someone after them?"

Elder Xiao remained calm and asked, "Can you see clearly who did this?"

The servant frantically pulled out a letter from his pocket, "The man who came was masked, so we couldn't see his face clearly. He left a letter saying that if anyone was sent after you, they would kill you to silence you. Then he knocked me unconscious."

After reading the letter, Lord Xiao handed it to Minister Xiao with a strange expression and remained silent.

After reading the letter, Minister Xiao began to feel a little dazed.

The two looked at each other and saw shock in each other's eyes.

Finally, it was Elder Xiao who ordered, "Tell Madam that things are turbulent these days and I've sent Liang'er to a farm in the countryside to avoid disaster."

Yu Zhijian followed Yao Chuguang from house to house, knocking on doors and kidnapping people. He went from being terrified at first to feeling ashamed, then condemned by his conscience, and finally returned to being numb.

After offending all the wealthy and powerful families in the imperial capital, both those who should and shouldn't be offended, Yao Chuguang returned home contentedly.

Yu Zhijian thought dully that the court would be in chaos after tonight or tomorrow. On the bright side, he thought that he might be detained for a few days. It would seem too hasty to interrogate him now.

If you leave it alone for two days and then interrogate them again, they will be much more panicked. The inexperienced family members will usually tell everything after being scared.

Just as the day was about to dawn and I was feeling the most sleepy, a sudden sound of footsteps was heard in the cell.

Yu Zhijian slowly opened his eyes, which showed no sign of fatigue despite not sleeping all night, and thought to himself that it had finally come.

Yu Zhijian pushed open the prison door and walked slowly to the middle of the corridor. As expected, he saw the eldest princess Yao Chuguang who was supposed to return to the palace!

When Kunshan announced the second name, Yu Zhijian realized something was wrong. It was as if the two names were announced one after another by coincidence and it was as if they had been arranged in advance.

The eldest princess cooperated and arrested them one by one. Those who were arrested were all marginal figures from wealthy families. Those families would be angry but would not really fight for them.

It can turn the entire imperial capital upside down without letting the situation get out of control.

The degree of control here is just right. Even if Kunshan is not the eldest princess's man, he must have reached some kind of cooperation with the eldest princess to facilitate the arrest tonight.

Yu Zhijian guessed that the person who actually colluded with the enemy had died in the war. Although the princess knew that there was something fishy about this matter, she had no clues and could not find the person behind it.

Anyone who has the ability to communicate with foreigners must be able to clean up the evidence and it will be impossible to do anything about it.

The only way is to take an unconventional approach and make a show of force to scare the enemy, to see if anyone will lose their patience and reveal their true intentions?

If there is no traitor, then create one; if there is no confession, then create a confession.

The method used by the eldest princess has been used to some extent by experienced criminal judges. In some cases, due to lack of evidence, sometimes it is known that several of the people are guilty, but there is a lack of strong evidence.

At this time, an experienced criminal judge will deliberately say some unfavorable evidence to deceive the suspect, and people with unstable mentality will easily reveal their true colors.

This method has certain limitations. It is very effective when used on first-time offenders with poor psychological quality, but it has little effect on repeat offenders.

The person behind the scenes would definitely not be someone who would be disturbed by such a small commotion. Regardless of whether Kunshan was his man or not, he could guess that this was a deliberate trap to deceive him.

But it was precisely this calmness that gave him away. The people behind the scenes knew that Kunshan was not a traitor, and the eldest princess was most likely deceiving him, but others didn't know!

Imagine that a high-ranking official's family wants to be involved in this case. Who can guarantee that their marginalized children have not been bribed to commit evil?

Now that he has been arrested, the eldest princess is not a fool who would dare to arrest someone for no reason and leave such a big handle. She must have had some substantial evidence before taking action.

The fate of the princes a while ago was not enough to warn them.

Now let’s see which of these aristocratic families is the most stable and which one is the most suspicious.

Later, Yu Zhijian noticed that although the people arrested by the eldest princess were all marginal figures, she had always intentionally or unintentionally taken the next heir or the most valued children in the family to threaten them, and even used verbal provocations to force those people to temporarily retreat back to the mansion.

It was as if these people were left alone on purpose. At that time, everyone's attention and guards were in the front yard, and the defense in the back yard must have been weak.

Yu Zhijian had a vague idea of what was going on, so he waited in the cell for a night. Facts proved that his guess was right.

Yao Chuguang looked at Yu Zhijian standing in the middle of the aisle. Although he was a little surprised that he reacted so quickly, he praised him, "Master Yu is really dedicated to his work. He came to investigate the case so early!"

Yu Zhijian: "The adultery case is simply a cover. If I am not mistaken, Princess, your target from the very beginning was the people behind you. No one would have thought that you would actually kidnap them and hide them in prison."

In order to find these people, the nobles would definitely search the entire imperial capital. Even the eldest princess could not transport so many people out quietly. The only places in the entire imperial capital that could stop the powerful and wealthy were the palace and the dungeon.

The eldest princess was willing to take such a risk and pay such a huge price to kidnap the powerful people in the imperial capital. Once this matter was exposed, even her identity as a royal family would not be able to save the eldest princess.

Duke Yu Zhijian could not think of a second possibility, and the Duke eventually embarked on the path of treason and there was no turning back.

This case of treason really bothered Duke Han Dao. He probably felt that the court could no longer tolerate him, and that decades of guarding the border had only earned him suspicion.

Yu Zhijian breathed a long sigh of relief. It would be a lie to say that he didn't feel regretful. It would have been better if he could have found more clues.

Unfortunately, it was too late to say anything now. From the moment he met the eldest princess, he could never get out of this dungeon.

The Duke might have already dispatched troops to ambush outside, and the eldest princess is acting as an insider in the imperial capital. If the rebellion succeeds.

The hostages in the eldest princess's hands can be used to force the nobles to submit. Even if they fail, these people can be used to buy a retreat and save their lives.

Seeing Yu Zhijian sad at one moment, angry at the next for not fighting back, and now sacrificed heroically, Yao Chuguang couldn't help but be dumbfounded.

No, big brother, you finished the whole show by yourself?

Yao Chuguang... looks like a normal person, but her imagination is a little too much?

Yao Chuguang: "Alright, alright, I'm in a hurry, please make way and do what you need to do!"

Now it was Yu Zhijian's turn to be dumbfounded. He blurted out, "You won't kill me?"

Yao Chuguang: "Actually... Is it possible that they knew I was the one who kidnapped them? After all, I left a letter."

Yu Zhijian: “········What letter did you leave?”

Yao Chuguang said, "Tomorrow morning, there will be victory reports back to the imperial capital. The Duke has triumphed over the barbarian invasion. I request the imperial court to lead the troops in pursuit. Victory will ensure that the border remains free of war for ten years."

Yu Zhijian patted his chest and asked, "You left a letter threatening them to agree to send troops?"

Yao Chuguang looked at Yu Zhijian as if it was a matter of course, the answer was self-evident.

At this moment, Yu Zhijian finally realized a problem that he had been ignoring. He had been using the thinking of a smart person to infer the motives of Yao Chuguang's behavior.

Now he finally understood that neither the eldest princess nor Li Yinhan were normal people.

Is this what I thought the power struggle was about planning every step carefully and winning the battle from thousands of miles away, while the eldest princess's power struggle ended with kidnapping hostages?

Yao Chuguang threw the tightly bound prisoners behind him into the cells one by one, walked to the middle and said calmly, "I've left letters for their families. If you want them to live, you'll become mute tomorrow."

Yu Zhijian: "Princess, why are you doing this? You obviously have a better solution. Besides, it's not the last moment yet..."

Yao Chuguang's eyes were calm: "Yu Zhijian, I learned one thing from my trip to the border."

"The lives of the people and soldiers at the border are controlled by officials in the imperial court. This is their greatest sorrow and misfortune."

Yu Zhijian: "This war benefits the country and the people. Why would the officials stand in the way? You are actually exacerbating the conflict. Even if the officials want to agree, they will become suspicious. Otherwise, why would you threaten them?"

Yao Chuguang: "Master Yu, you are still too naive! When have the officials in the court ever cared about the lives of the people? They only care about the power in their hands."

Yu Zhijian: "I don't deny that what you said does exist for some people, but some people don't represent all people."

Yao Chuguang: "Master Yu, how about we make a bet?"

Yu Zhijian: "What are you betting on?"

Yao Chuguang: "If someone reports me in the court tomorrow, I will release them."

After saying that, Yao Chuguang shook his head, turned around and walked out of the cell, and Li Yinhan followed closely behind.

Li Yinhan: "Are you really not going to do anything?"

Yao Chuguang: "Don't worry! Yu Zhijian has no reason to leak the news. If he is a man who knows how to protect himself, then his mouth is more reliable than anyone else's. On the other hand, if he wants to protect these people, he will not act rashly."

Li Yinhan: "Are you afraid that we will just kill them to silence them?"

Yao Chuguang nodded: "No, whether he reports it or not, it will not affect our plan."

Yao Chuguang looked at the somewhat gray sky and said, "It's almost dawn, brother, you should leave."

When Li Yinhan heard this, his expression twisted for a moment and he asked, "Do you really want to do this?"

Yao Chuguang: "Of course!"