Chapter 292 Three Days Later, I Will Behead You
In the imperial palace, many civil officials and military officers were staring at a pillar in the hall.

There was a chair over there and Li Ji was sitting on it.

He held a teacup in his hand, pressed the lid over it, and blew gently on the surface of the cup to take away the heat.

Behind Li Ji, Guan Goudou and Zhu Laoba stood on the left and right, like two door gods.

In the imperial hall, all the ministers were standing. How could they have the right to sit down?
Not to mention such a relaxed look.

If someone else dared to do this, some civil officials would come up and point fingers at him and scold him for being “audacious” and not taking the Emperor seriously. They would definitely drag him out and beat him with a stick.

But who dares to say this to Li Ji?

Putting aside his identity as the emperor’s uncle, just considering the 5,000 cavalrymen still surrounding the outskirts of Kyoto, all the civil and military officials in the court felt that they should shut up and not speak nonsense.

The little emperor Li Rongxian sat high on the golden dragon throne, with the old eunuch standing beside him.

He looked around at the hundreds of civil and military officials who looked like they were dead, and a happy smile appeared on the corner of his mouth:

“Everyone, why don’t you talk about government affairs today? In the past, I always listened to you discuss important matters. Today, you are silent, and it seems that I am lonely in the court.”

The ministers remained silent, feeling that the young emperor of Daliang was becoming more and more adept at being sarcastic.

Only then did Li Rongxian smile with satisfaction.

In the past, this group of ministers had many “opinions” in the court. Today, they suffered a setback, and Li Rongxian felt very happy.

“The ministers just didn’t know how to admonish such a disrespectful person, so they didn’t speak.”

Suddenly, a weathered male voice came from outside the court. Li Ji turned his head to look at the entrance of the imperial hall, and saw an elderly man walking in with his head held high, followed by a number of officials.

He was thin, with gray hair, and wore a brocade sleeve suit often favored by great scholars. His eyes were bright and his back was very straight, as if even the raging waves and wind and rain could not make him bend his back.

After entering the main hall, the old man glared at Li Ji.

This made Zhu Laoba unhappy:

“Who is this old man?”

“The Left Prime Minister of Kyoto, Duan Bo.” Li Ji introduced him as “a pedantic scholar, with decent skills but an outdated mind. I can smell a rotten smell from him from a distance, and he doesn’t get along with me.”

Duan Bo walked to where the civil officials were and bowed in the direction of Li Rongxian:
“Your Majesty, I am Duan Bo.”

Then he put his hands behind his back and looked at Li Ji coldly:

“Your Highness, King Wei, no one except Your Majesty may sit in the court. You are really breaking the rules by doing this.”

“rule?”

Li Ji placed the teacup on the small table next to him and crossed his legs:

“When I used to run around the yard with his father in crotchless pants, no one shouted at us about the rules. How come after so many years, someone suddenly appeared here to shout about the rules?”

“The present is different from the past. Your Majesty’s father has not yet ascended the throne. The two are brothers, and the brothers are friendly and respectful to each other. This is a good thing. But now that Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven, the monarch and his subjects should be before their relatives and friends. Only in this way can you govern impartially and not be bound by blood and do something absurd.”

Duan Bo’s words were so confusing that Li Ji sneered:

“You are an interesting person. You use the rules to pressure me. Why don’t you kneel down to my nephew? There is a difference between the emperor and his subjects. It is not right for you to just bow.”

Duan Bo straightened his chest:

“I am the left prime minister. The founding emperor has set a rule that the left and right prime ministers do not have to bow when they see the emperor. This is also the rule. I can’t break the rule.”

Li Ji glanced at Duan Bo:
“Wall of shit.”

“You!” Duan Bo’s expression changed slightly, but he quickly suppressed it: “I hope Your Highness can improve his moral character.”

Li Ji continued to serve tea and drink water, with no intention of getting up.

Duan Boben wanted to continue bickering with Li Ji, but was interrupted by the old eunuch above:

“Left Prime Minister, didn’t the Right Prime Minister say he would come with you today? Where is he?”

“The right prime minister said he was unwell and would probably have to rest for two more days.” Duan Bo said.

“It seems that my Right Prime Minister has not been in good health recently. He has not attended court for several days.”

Li Rongxian said, and the yin and yang energy in his words could not be concealed, and the ministers were not surprised.

The relationship between the young emperor and the left and right prime ministers has never been very good. Most of the important affairs of the dynasty are now controlled by these two prime ministers, and the young emperor has no say at all on weekdays.

Now that I finally have a chance to catch my breath, I must take this opportunity to bite back.

“I will recover from my illness.” Duan Bo said, “Your Majesty, we have more important things to do today. We should not discuss the Right Prime Minister.”

“Please tell me, my dear minister. I want to hear what you have to say.”

“Of course it’s that Taoist priest.” Duan Bo said in a loud voice, “A savage from the Jianghu who entered my capital, killed the scholars in the library, and broke the rules of the world! He is a traitor! If we don’t kill him, he will surely cause chaos in my Liang Dynasty!”

After saying that, he glared at Li Ji.

Guan Goudou stood in front of Li Ji, with his claws glowing slightly.

But he was stopped by Li Ji.

“King Wei.”

Guan Goudou questioned Li Ji with his eyes.

“It’s okay, you can withdraw first.”

After watching the dog fight, they retreated obediently.

Li Ji narrowed his eyes and stared at Duan Bo.

Not quite right.

This old man is pedantic, dull, and slow-witted, but he is by no means stupid.

He seldom leaves any evidence behind when doing things, so he must have a purpose for jumping out and shouting today.

The right prime minister has disappeared, and the left prime minister has jumped to the front to attract attention… Is he doing something behind the scenes?

Just as Li Ji had this thought in his mind, he suddenly saw a minor official running in from outside the door.

After he arrived at the hall, he knelt down on the spot. He even slid forward a few meters because he rushed too hard. Then he hit his head on the ground with a bang, kowtowed loudly to everyone in the court.

The clerk bowed his head and immediately attracted everyone’s attention. After bowing, he raised his head hastily and said:

“My Lords, something terrible has happened!”

“Speak.” Li Rongxian said.

The clerk swallowed his saliva:
“Master Zuochen Zuo just went to the Changxian hermitage and used some magic to move the entire Changxian away!”

After hearing what the clerk said, most of the officials immediately turned grim:
“Where are the people inside? There should be someone inside Changxian Palace today…”

Hearing this, the clerk turned pale and his lips trembled slightly:
“The young masters who gathered in Changxian today… were also moved away by the Taoist priest…”

There was deathly silence in the court.

Many officials looked as ugly as if they had eaten shit and feces.

Li Ji couldn’t help but smile.

He has to be a Taoist priest.

……

Zuo Chen took Caiyi out for a walk all day.

After cleaning up the yard in the morning, Zuo Chen and Cai Yi wandered around aimlessly, ate some snacks, tasted some delicacies, and then ran to the Pear Garden to listen to a crosstalk. They watched two gentlemen, one fat and one thin, perform on stage, telling the strange stories about a man named Zeng and a female ghost.

The fat one was the supporting actor and the thin one was the funny actor. One of them imitated Mr. Zeng and the other one imitated the female ghost. Their stories were quite interesting and witty.

After listening to the two people’s jokes, Zuo Chen also left a few more taels of silver, all as a tip, and then left with Caiyi, staggering towards Yaochi Tower.

I returned to the building just in time for dinner.

A few delicious fat fish had just been caught by fishing boats in the surrounding lakes and were sent to the kitchen of Yao Chi Tower for the chef to prepare. After removing the scales and internal organs, he added more green onions, ginger, and garlic, stewed a pot of milky fish soup, and added some mutton to it, making a fish and mutton dish and serving it to Zuo Chen.

Zuo Chen first tasted a spoonful and found it delicious, then he took a large spoon and scooped a full bowl, drinking it happily.

When I was halfway through the bowl of soup, I heard a lot of footsteps outside the door.

Hey, someone is coming.

Zuo Chen didn’t stop drinking the soup at all. He waited until a group of people squeezed in from the door. Then he put the bowl down and looked at them with a faint smile.

Those who came were all elderly people, wearing official uniforms, looking serious and old-fashioned.

One can tell at a glance that they are famous powerful officials in Kyoto.

The dozen or so guys I caught today are somewhat similar to these old guys.

It must be the elder in the family.

Isn’t this also a case of beating the younger and then the older one coming?

However, this group of old men had no intention of arguing with Zuo Chen. All of them had bitter expressions on their faces and no one dared to speak first.

Seeing that this group of people couldn’t hold back a single drop of soup for a long time, Zuo Chen was not in a hurry and just drank the soup slowly.

Finally, an old man couldn’t help it. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief and approached Zuo Chen, saying cautiously:

“Master, my surname is Chang, and I am from the Chang family in Kyoto. I have a kid in my family, and I don’t know how he offended you today, so you caught him.”

“Hey, how can you say that you are capturing someone?”

Zuo Chen put down the bowl of soup and looked at the group of officials in front of him with a smile:

“Actually, the main reason I invited you gentlemen to come here this time is that I want to meet you all.

“Ever since I came to Beijing, I have wanted to take some time to meet with everyone from the noble families. Unfortunately, the noble families are too scattered, and it would take too long to visit them one by one. I have no choice but to resort to this last resort and gather everyone here.”

“So…what do you want to talk to us about?”

“It’s not a big deal.” Zuo Chen said, “Do you know who the nobleman in your noble family is?”

“Ah?” The old man murmured, “This… I don’t know either…”

“do not know?”

“I really… I really don’t know.” The old man said with a sad face: “Maybe he is a general? Maybe he is the left or right prime minister? Maybe he is the eunuch? I am just a third-rank official, I dare not talk nonsense.”

“Forget it.” Zuo Chen waved his hands, as if he was tired: “Since you don’t want to talk, then forget it.”

The officials breathed a sigh of relief visibly.

Unexpectedly, Zuo Chen immediately added:
“Three days later, I will set up a magic altar in the center of Kyoto, and then I will clean up those who were involved in harming the capital one by one.

“During these three days, you can make your own preparations, whether you want to flee Kyoto or think of a way to deal with me. I won’t care.

“After I finish my ceremony, all previous grudges will be written off. Unless you break taboos again and kill someone, I will not hold on to the past anymore.”

“This……”

The officials who heard this widened their eyes, at a loss. The one who had just asked the question was even more anxious:

“Master, can’t we discuss this further?”

Hearing this, Zuo Chen showed a slight smile on his face.

He stood up and looked around at his ministers:
“This is not a negotiation.

“This is a notice.”

(End of this chapter)