I only wished to take up my fiefdom, but my elder brother forced me to rebel.

"Kneel down."

Ling Yiyang stood up from the ground and then kicked Sun Yiqian's leg behind her.

Sun Yiqian's legs went weak, and she knelt on the ground.

The arrogance from before had vanished, and he was only focused on looking up at Lu Yuan.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince?"

"You...you are really His Highness the Crown Prince?"

She glanced at Su Bo'an again, then at the kneeling female officials in the room, before bowing her head and kowtowing.

"Your Highness, I was unaware of your arrival, so I mistook you for someone else."

"Your Highness, I have offended you. Please forgive me."

The servants of the Sun family also knelt on the ground.

The officials from the Imperial Household Department who had been hiding outside also came in, and one after another they knelt down to pay their respects.

Nobody wanted to intervene before, but now nobody dares to pretend they don't know.

Lu Yuan ignored them, took the ointment brought by the palace maid, and applied it to Zhao Mingzhu's arm to make red marks.

When the ointment touched the wound, Zhao Mingzhu flinched and tried to pull her hand back.

"I'll do it myself."

"Don't move."

Lu Yuan applied the ointment to her hands.

Zhao Mingzhu looked up at him, then stopped struggling and simply turned her face away.

Sun Yiqian knelt to one side watching, her face drained of color.

Zhao Mingzhu was actually the Crown Prince's concubine.

She not only led a group to attack the Crown Prince's concubine, but also boasted that even if the Crown Prince came, he would have to give face to the Hung Hing Company.

Did I get kicked in the head by a donkey?

After closing the medicine box, Lu Yuan looked up at the people in the room.

"Who hit her with the wooden ruler?"

The steward of the Sun family shrank back and took a few steps back.

"Your Highness, I did it according to the wishes of the Consort of the Prince of Xiang."

Lu Yuan threw the wooden ruler at Ling Yiyang's feet.

"Take him out and beat him fifty times."

"After the beating, send them to the Ministry of Justice to investigate how many evil deeds these people have committed under the name of Hung Hing."

Ling Yiyang summoned several eunuchs.

The steward of the Sun family had his arms held up, and his shoes left two gray marks on the ground as he continued to shout.

"Miss, save me! I'm doing this for you!"

Sun Yiqian didn't raise her head; she remained lying on the ground explaining.

"Your Highness, when I came to the Imperial Household Department to select palace attire today, I mistakenly thought that Zhao Mingzhu was impersonating a member of the royal family, so I wanted to teach her a lesson."

"Your Majesty, I truly did not know she was one of your people."

Lu Yuan stood up and walked up to her.

"My person? Zhao Mingzhu is the Crown Princess personally appointed by the Emperor. To humiliate her humble origins and say she is unworthy to marry into the royal family is to question the Emperor's decree."

"Making her crawl out of the Imperial Household Department on her knees is an insult to the Crown Prince's Palace."

Sun Yiqian placed her forehead on the ground.

"Your Majesty, I know I was wrong. Please forgive me this time for the sake of Prince Xiang."

"Drag him away and give him thirty strokes of the cane."

Ling Yiyang bowed and accepted the order, and two eunuchs pulled Sun Yiqian away.

Sun Yiqian left them behind and then took a few steps back.

"Thirty strokes of the cane, and I'll be beaten to a pulp!"

"Your Highness, I am the Princess Consort of Xiang, the eldest daughter of the Sun family! Hongxing Company manages most of the silk, grain and medicinal herb business in the north."

"The Sun family provides 30% of the things used in the palace each year."

She grabbed onto a corner of the table next to her and wouldn't let go, no matter how much the two eunuchs pulled at her.

"His Highness the Crown Prince punished me because of a woman from a security escort agency. How can my Sun family maintain its standing in the capital after this?"

"If the Hongxing Ship stops supplying goods, the palace, the military, and shops in the capital will all be affected."

Lu Yuan laughed after hearing this.

Threatening a prince—does this belong in a female-oriented novel?

When Sun Yiqian saw him smile, she thought things had taken a turn for the better, so she loosened her grip on the table corner and knelt down, taking two steps forward.

"Your Highness, if you do not kill me today, the Sun family is willing to give the Crown Prince 50,000 taels of silver."

"I will no longer pursue the matter of Zhao Mingzhu damaging my palace attire and injuring members of the Sun family."

Zhao Mingzhu was holding a knife.

"Aren't you going to pursue this any further? Your people were the ones who started it!"

Sun Yiqian turned her head towards her, "Shut up! Do you even have the right to speak here?"

"you!"

Just as Zhao Mingzhu was about to speak, Lu Yuan pulled her behind him.

"Ling Yiyang".

"Your subject... Your subject is here."

"Issue my order."

Ling Yiyang knelt down to receive orders, and the clerk from the Imperial Household Department immediately spread out paper and picked up a pen to wait.

"Sun Yiqian offended the Crown Prince's concubine, threatened the royal family, and coerced the Crown Prince, which is equivalent to treason."

"Notify the Ministry of Justice to seal off Hongxing Firm and seize all of the Sun family's account books, warehouses, and land."

"The parents of the Sun family failed to educate their daughter properly, and she was paraded in shackles on the streets of the capital for a month."

"The rest of the clansmen had their property confiscated and were exiled to Lingnan."

"But no innocent person should be implicated. Those who have never benefited from the Sun family and have not broken the law should be removed from the list and should not be implicated."

Ling Yiyang knelt down to receive the imperial decree.

"I will take care of it immediately."

Sun Yiqian lunged forward and grabbed his clothes.

"We can't go! I only said some things in anger, why should the Sun family's property be searched?"

Lu Yuan saw the executioner standing in the courtyard.

"Sun Yiqian insulted the Crown Prince and resisted execution; her sentence of thirty strokes of the cane was commuted to death by caning."

Sun Yiqian knelt on the ground and didn't stand up for a long time.

"Lu Yuan, how dare you! I am already the concubine of the Prince of Xiang, I am your sister-in-law."

"The Sun family has supplied the imperial court with goods for so many years, how can you ruin the Sun family because of a lowly woman?"

"His Highness Prince Xiang will not let you off the hook."

Two eunuchs dragged the man into the courtyard.

Sun Yiqian kept struggling, kicking over several pieces of cloth at her feet.

"Let me go! Lu Yuan, you wantonly killed the Empress's sister-in-law, you are not worthy to be the Crown Prince."

"The court officials will definitely depose you."

After the cane fell, several muffled thuds were heard in the courtyard.

Sun Yiqian started hurling insults, but after being hit a dozen times, her voice quieted down.

"Your Highness, I was wrong, Sister Mingzhu, please save me!"

"I will never dare to provoke you again."

Zhao Mingzhu turned around and saw the scattered cloth on the ground, but did not plead for her.

After the thirty strokes of the cane were finished, the eunuch came over to check them over, and then returned to Lu Yuan's side.

"Your Highness, the man has been beaten to death with sticks."

Lu Yuan reached out to pull Zhao Mingzhu, "Send them to the concubine's residence, and hand the rest over to the Ministry of Justice for trial."

After receiving the order, the people from the Imperial Household Department scattered and the servants brought by the Sun family were taken away one by one.

The room, which was crowded with people, quickly became empty.

At this moment, inside the Sun family compound, more than a dozen managers of Hongxinghao were sitting around a table doing accounts.

On the table was a list of urgently needed items for the imperial court, such as grain, medicine, and cloth, with each item marked with a price increase.

After glancing at it a few times, Sun Wanjin threw the purchase order sent by the Ministry of Revenue onto the table.

"The more anxious the imperial court is, the less we can afford to back down. The price of medicinal herbs has increased by 30%, and the price of grain has increased by 50%."

"The floods, coupled with the invasion from the Northern Liang, have become unbearable for the imperial court."

One of the shop owners agreed with a smile.

"The patriarch's move is brilliant. When the people have no food to eat, they will naturally force the government to pay up."

Sun Wanjin raised his wine glass, gesturing for everyone to drink together.

"If the common people suffer, the Sun family can make more money."

"Once the imperial court agrees to the price, we'll have Prince Xiang help us secure a position in the salt administration."

Just as everyone raised their wine glasses, the sounds of overturned tables and chairs and shouts from outside came from outside.

Before the shopkeeper in the main hall could even go out to check, the courtyard gate had already been smashed open by the Ministry of Justice's officers.

Shen Yilei led his men into the main hall, drawing his sword and pointing it at Sun Wanjin.

"The Ministry of Justice, acting on the Crown Prince's decree, is to investigate and confiscate the property of the Sun family

"Everyone, stay still!"