Chapter 1461: Xiao Jingrui's Order!
When he requested to be a commoner, some of the officials in the court requested for His Majesty to make him a sinecure king. After all, he was the Emperor's biological son. If he were demoted to a commoner, it would be a disgrace to the royal bloodline.
After that, the Emperor did not demote him to a commoner, nor did he confer him the t.i.tle of a sinecure king.
He was still living in the palace, but he was no longer imprisoned.
The Emperor wanted to keep him alive in case of need!
A need on the battlefield!
This made the empress and the crown prince's faction feel threatened.
The Empress had sent people to a.s.sa.s.sinate him several times, but in the end, they all died without a cause!
From then on, Xiao Jingrui stayed peacefully in the courtyard of the dilapidated palace.
As a result, after a period of time, he seemed to have disappeared from the eyes of the emperor, empress, and crown prince, as if he had returned to Xiao Jingrui a few years ago.
Xiao Jingrui was keeping a low profile, but he was secretly gathering and developing his own forces.
Then, most of the officials in the imperial court and most of the people in the palace became his people.
Xiao Jingrui had even bribed the emperor's trusted eunuchs.
Until the five-nation exchange meeting arrived.
Xiao Jingrui suddenly took control of the Emperor, Crown Prince and Empress and then led a diplomatic mission to Longyan Country.
However, some people who didn't know the truth were wondering why His Majesty suddenly thought of the Second Prince and sent him to Longyan Kingdom.
One had to know that the exchange of the five countries was a very important meeting. Usually, they would send important royal descendants and courtiers.
Thinking of this, Xiao Jingrui sneered.
He had endured humiliation for more than 20 years. His main goal was to take revenge and take away everything that the Empress cared about.
Before people realized anything, he suddenly appeared and quickly suppressed the Empress.
After suffering once, he would not suffer a second time.
Therefore, he had been planning in secret and finally succeeded.
His goal this time was no longer just the position of Great General but the throne.
In fact, he had never truly been locked in the palace for more than ten years. He placed a subst.i.tute there.
Fortunately, he was smart. He had always asked Grand Scholar Lu and his master, General Lingyun, to secretly look for someone who looked like him. Then, after a little disguise, the replacement became him.
Over the years, he had been travelling around various countries, bribing officials and developing his own power.
However, the few incidents that he had planned in Longyan Country had been cracked by others, disrupting his plans.
After some investigation, they found out that this person was Jiang Zhennan's fiance, Lin Yuelan, who had suddenly appeared.
Previously, there were rumours about Jiang Zhennan's fiance, but he thought it was just a woman and did not pay much attention to her.
He even mocked Zhennan in his heart for finding a woman who was also wearing a mask as his fiance. Obviously, this fiance was an ugly woman, and she was a woman who only wanted to climb up to power.
Otherwise, why would she marry Jiang Zhennan despite knowing his fate as a jinx?
However, whether Jiang Zhennan had a fiance or not had nothing to do with him. His opponent was only Jiang Zhennan.
However, it was precisely the woman he did not value or pay attention to that ruined all his plans.
Therefore, he quickly sent someone to investigate Lin Yuelan.
The results of the investigation really surprised him.
This woman really couldn't be ignored!
However, when he reacted, everything was set in stone.
She was the one who had stolen the map hidden in Jiang Yunfeng's hands.
Jiang Yunfeng said that he did not understand the map.
Therefore, he wasn't sure if Lin Yuelan could understand it. But so far, he had not heard anything about gold mines and iron mines from the palace.
Regardless of whether there was such news in the imperial palace, he had to get his hands on the two mines. Otherwise, once Lin Yuelan handed the gold and iron mines to Yuwen Longyan, he could imagine the rapid growth of the Longyan Kingdom.
In addition, with Jiang Zhennan, it would be even more difficult to say who would win when they attacked Longyan Kingdom.
Therefore, if he wanted to get his hands on the two mines, he would first have to destroy the trust between Lin Yuelan and Yuwen Longyan.
He knew that Yuwen Longyan was very attached to Lin Yuelan, so even under his coercion, braving the situation of the country being shaken, he also refused to let Lin Yuelan marry him.
Moreover, he felt that Lin Yuelan was a little strange.
That was because General Ling Yun had died from a sudden illness thousands of miles away. He didn't even know about it, so how did she know?