The Bad Guys: Playing the Fake Li Xingyun at the Beginning

Su Ming put down the memorial and looked coldly at Kong Xianwen who was standing in the center of the hall. His sharp eyes were like a blade, captivating.

Noticing Su Ming's gaze, Kong Xianwen lowered his head, not daring to look him in the eye. He knew very well that he had already offended the emperor to death.

If there was still room for redemption in the previous events, then now it was a real struggle. After accepting other people's benefits, he had become the vanguard of King Jin.

However, Su Ming's words shocked him, "I heard that Lord Kong was born in the family of Confucius?"

No matter in which dynasty, Confucius' family occupied a very high status among the literati. In a sense, they represented the scholars of the world by holding high the banner of the descendants of Confucius.

After suffering setbacks at the hands of Kong Xianwen and Yan Suchen, Su Ming ordered the Xuanming Sect to find out about them and learned a lot of information.

Kong Xianwen, born into Confucius' family, is the younger brother of the current head of the Kong family.

Yan Suchen also had a prominent background. He was a descendant of Yan Hui and a direct descendant of Yan Zhenqing, a famous calligrapher during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. He enjoyed a very high reputation among literati.

These two people together can represent all the scholars in the world, and this is the confidence that gives them the courage to act in this way.

But they would never have thought that Su Ming didn't care about scholars at all.

Kong Xianwen had no idea what he was up to, so he replied honestly, "Your Majesty, I am indeed descended from the lineage of Confucius."

Su Ming sneered and threw the memorial to the ground. "The lineage of Confucius is such a big name, but you are a member of the Kong family who don't even know what loyalty and righteousness are. You are receiving a salary from the court, not from a vassal state."

"Throughout the dynasties, even during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, there has never been such a reward. The title of general is given without any hesitation. Do you think it is just cabbage? Is it given casually?"

"With such generous gifts, where do you put the generals in the court? Where do you put the soldiers who are fighting in the border towns to defend the country? They fight to the death but can't even get a few grains of military rations. You just wave your pen and award honors at will, but in the end, the court still has to pay their salaries!"

The deep voice echoed in the hall, resoundingly.

Kong Xianwen and Yan Suchen looked at each other and had a bad premonition in their hearts. From their previous tests, they thought that the emperor was a man who took the overall situation and his face into consideration. Even if he was not satisfied with the memorial, the most he would do was to send it back for redoing.

But they never expected that on the first day after he ascended the throne, Su Ming would show his fangs, without any regard for the face of the monarch and his ministers or the harmony of the court.

How to do?

You can only admit your mistake.

Kong Xianwen and Yan Suchen knelt on the ground at the same time and begged for Su Ming's forgiveness.

Li Siyuan, who was standing on the side, also had a very unhappy expression on his face. This scene was beyond his expectations.

But things had come to this point, and there was nothing he could do. The matter of honors and titles was sensitive in the first place, and the emperor seized on this oversight and did not target him as he had imagined. Instead, he used this point to criticize him, and it was not easy for him to intervene.

There was silence in the court. The ministers held their breath and dared not make a sound. No one dared to stand up and advise Su Ming and face his anger.

Su Ming stared at Kong Xianwen coldly and said, "Take it back and redo it. You are so old, but you can't even handle such a small matter. If there is a problem next time, it will not be as simple as a few scoldings!"

It was just a small matter, not enough to deal with them, so Su Ming took the opportunity to give them a way out.

The two old ministers no longer dared to act pretentiously and knelt on the ground respectfully, "Your Majesty, I thank you for your forgiveness."

Su Ming vented his anger again and waved his hand, "Alright, get up. Don't hurt yourself by kneeling."

At this time, Li Siyuan felt a little regretful. He shouldn't have instructed Kong Xianwen and the others to do this.

When he was in charge of the court, in order to win over his confidants, he granted titles and honors lavishly, forgetting that the situation in the court had changed. He wanted to grant titles lavishly to cause trouble for the emperor, but he didn't expect that he would be seen through at a glance.

What is even more terrifying is the impact caused by this incident. In addition to reprimanding Kong Xianwen, the emperor was more interested in winning over and paying attention to military generals.

Too many honors will become worthless. By doing this, he indirectly protects the interests of the military generals and will make them gradually get closer to the emperor. This is a very scary thing.

Thinking of this, Li Siyuan shuddered and became even more wary of Su Ming.

After the recent episode, there were no mistakes in the subsequent discussion of state affairs. Everyone was in a friendly manner. If there was something wrong, Su Ming would reject it and discuss it again. If it was appropriate, he would nod.

Li Siyuan also stopped and dared not to touch his tiger's whiskers anymore.

Even so, after two hours, Su Ming felt a little dizzy.

However, just when Li Siyuan thought that today's court meeting was about to end, he suddenly saw Su Ming's lips slightly raised on the dragon throne, which made him alert.

Oh no, this kid is up to something bad again!

Chapter 39: Naked Conspiracy, Dividing and Separating

Coincidentally, Su Ming seemed to have noticed Li Siyuan's gaze, smiled at him, and then asked, "Did Prince Xue attend court today?"

The sudden question startled the court officials. After they reacted, one of them replied, "Your Majesty, Prince Xue does not have the right to discuss politics. Without an imperial decree, he cannot attend court."

When Li Siyuan heard the name Li Cunli, various speculations kept emerging in his mind. He thought that Su Ming wanted to deal with Li Cunli.

However, Su Ming disappointed him again. Not only did he not deal with Li Cunli, he even rewarded him.

Sitting on the dragon throne, Su Ming raised his lips slightly and said softly, "This coronation ceremony was very well done. I heard that King Xue was running back and forth for this matter, busy all the time."

"I have never been stingy with rewards for ministers who have made contributions. Come, draft an imperial decree. Prince Xue is loyal to the emperor and loves the country. He has made great contributions and has made great contributions. I hereby grant Prince Xue ten thousand taels of gold, ten thousand pieces of Shu brocade, a pair of jade bi, and fifty beauties."

At this moment, all the court officials widened their eyes in disbelief, having not yet digested this shocking news. As everyone knows, Prince Xue Li Cunli is a close confidant of Prince Jin Li Cunxu. Why would His Majesty reward him?

The next moment, some court officials realized that this was His Majesty's strategy to sow discord between the King and the King. These things seemed to be rewards, but in fact they were intended to sow discord between the King of Jin and the King of Xue.

What a sinister intention, what a vicious conspiracy!

No, this is not a conspiracy, but an open plot. However, whether it will succeed or not depends on how much trust there is between Li Cunli and Li Siyuan.

If they did not harbor resentment towards each other and did not suspect each other, Su Ming's conspiracy would have been in vain.

This was a test for Li Siyuan and even more so for Li Cunli.

Realizing Su Ming's plan, Li Siyuan stared at Su Ming with an extremely cold look. He never expected that this kid would come up with such a vicious plan and target his confidant right away.

However, even though he knew it was an open conspiracy and a naked provocation, he couldn't stop it.

Grace comes from above. If the emperor wants to reward his subjects, what reason does he have to refuse or object?

What's more, it was he who ordered Li Cunli to prepare for the coronation ceremony. The ministers had all seen his hard work these days. If he refuted the emperor and asked him to take back the reward, who knew that this would not make Li Cunli suspicious?

Human nature cannot stand the test, and he dare not test it.

Therefore, he could not and dared not stop Su Ming's reward, and could only watch the decree pass.

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At the same time, in Tongwenguan, Li Cunli was sleeping soundly with a beautiful woman in his arms. Suddenly, he frowned and shuddered, as if he had encountered something terrible in his dream.

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Prince Xue was not in the court, so Li Siyuan had to step forward to accept the imperial decree on his behalf. "On behalf of Prince Xue, I would like to thank Your Majesty for the reward."

Seeing Li Siyuan pinching his nose and having to admit it, Su Ming laughed in his heart, Li Siyuan, do you think this is enough?

His tactics go far beyond this, this is just the first step in his plan to sow discord.

Next, he would give Li Cunli the right to attend court meetings and discuss state affairs, then transfer him to the imperial court, grant him greater power, and then frequently summon him to the imperial palace, constantly rewarding him during this period.

Over time, even if Li Siyuan did not doubt, he would become wary.

Because he was a suspicious person by nature, he betrayed Li Keyong and ascended the throne of King of Jin by stepping on Li Keyong's corpse.

Now, it's his turn, how can he not be on guard.

More importantly, Li Cunli was the biological son of Li Keyong and the younger brother of Li Cunxu. According to the legal system, he was more qualified than Li Siyuan to inherit the throne of King of Jin.

King Xue was just a prince in name only, without any fiefdom, while Li Siyuan's King Jin had a real fiefdom, and it was in Taiyuan, an important city in the world.

After Li Siyuan's death, the person most likely to inherit the throne of King of Jin was Li Cunli.

Moreover, through the investigation of the Xuanming Sect members, he found that Li Cunli did not seem to be as loyal to Li Siyuan as he had imagined. As long as there was enough benefit, there was nothing he could not betray.

Su Ming looked at Li Siyuan deeply. He would not be able to sleep when he returned this time.

"Be flat."

Then, the court meeting came to an end.

Before leaving court, Su Ming once again assigned the ministers a task: to think of a suitable reign title.

When a new emperor ascends the throne, a new reign title will be used in the second year, but sometimes the reign title will be changed in the same year. Everything depends on the emperor's wishes.

However, this time, after Su Ming changed the year name, he did not plan to change it again.

Since the Han Dynasty began to use reign titles, every emperor had to change the era name and system after ascending the throne to demonstrate the new atmosphere of the new dynasty. Some emperors did not like to make such changes and only used one or two reign titles in their lifetime.

Some emperors changed their reign titles very frequently, changing them every year, which caused great inconvenience to the court in issuing decrees. (Here you can refer to the female emperor Wu Zetian, who changed her reign title every year after she ascended the throne, which was quite troublesome.)

Especially when reading history books, you have no idea what year it is, and you have to use the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches calendar to calculate. Once the year number is changed, you have to recalculate, which is extremely troublesome.

As soon as this order was issued, the court officials dared not neglect it any longer. Didn’t they see that Kong Xianwen and others were severely reprimanded by the emperor? As a lesson learned from the past, they had better not touch this issue to avoid being implicated.

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After the court session, Li Siyuan did not return to the Prince of Jin's Mansion, but went directly to Tongwenguan. He wanted to give Li Cunli a shot of prevention and inform him in advance to avoid any misunderstandings. At this stage, he still trusted Li Cunli very much.

When Li Siyuan arrived at Tongwenguan, Li Cunli was having dinner. He sat down at the table and asked with a smile, "Sixth brother, how are you doing recently?"

Then, Li Cunli began to complain, "Brother, you know I have been busy with the coronation ceremony for a while, and I was busy all morning yesterday. Now I finally have a break, please let me go."

Li Siyuan listened to him complaining, his expression did not change at all, "Don't worry, you should have a good rest these two days, and you don't have to worry about the Tongwenguan."

"Perhaps soon, His Majesty will entrust you with an important task. You must be prepared early."

The first sentence was nothing, but the second sentence frightened Li Cunli, "Brother, what do you mean by this?"

Li Siyuan smiled coldly, "Li Xingyun is so crazy that he actually wants to alienate us two brothers. Today, he praised you lavishly in the court and gave you a lot of rewards."

Li Cunli knew that he was very suspicious, so he quickly put down his bowl and chopsticks, patted his chest and assured, "Brother, don't worry, I will definitely not accept those things."

However, Li Siyuan shook his head and said in a deep voice, "No, you must accept those rewards. This is what you should take. Why not accept it?"

"I want to see how much this kid is willing to give." After saying that, he patted Li Cunli on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Since the emperor has given you the reward, you can't be stingy. I have a lot of good things in my warehouse. I will pick a few and send them to you later. You have really worked hard these days."

Chapter 40 The fish is hooked!

A strange look flashed in Li Cunli's eyes, and he said with a smile, "Then I will respectfully obey your command. Thank you, big brother." He had to accept the gift even if he didn't want to, otherwise his big brother would definitely suspect that he had something to hide.

Li Siyuan stood up from his chair, put his hands behind his back, and smiled like Maitreya Buddha. "Sixth brother, you are one of us. I will definitely trust you. No matter how Li Xingyun tries to win you over, just agree. I want to know what this kid is planning."

Hearing this, Li Cunli was horrified. He knew that Li Siyuan wanted him to go undercover to Li Xingyun? Did he really not worry that he would betray him?

But since Li Siyuan had said so much, he could only agree, "Don't worry, big brother, leave everything to me."

Li Siyuan narrowed his eyes and nodded expressionlessly, "I always trust Sixth Brother to do things. Li Xingyun wants to alienate us brothers, which is simply a pipe dream. Since the death of Second Brother and his friends, we are the only ones left among the Thirteen Guardians. At this critical juncture, we must work together and be of one mind."

"The emperor wants to seize power, and Jin is a stumbling block. He will definitely try to get rid of us and annex Jin. In order to protect my adoptive father's foundation and our prosperity, we must do our best. In the future, who will win is still unknown."

Having said this, he turned his wrist and raised his folding fan slightly, showing a somewhat elegant demeanor.

Li Cunli understood the principle of "the lips and the teeth are cold". "Brother, don't worry. I will definitely complete the task you assign to me."