Chapter 85 Soldiers Besiege Hou Junji's Mansion (asking for monthly tickets)

Li Xiang pulled over a stool, sat on it with his legs crossed, and spoke in a kind tone.

"We are all civilized people. King Han, you are also a royal family. I will not punish you in an indecent way. After all, seeing blood is not suitable for respectable people."

At this point, Li Xiang pointed at the "torture instrument" that Li Lifu had just brought over and began to introduce it to Li Yuanchang.

"You may not know, King of Han, that what Lieutenant Li prepared just now may seem insignificant, but it is decent after all. It is called water torture. As the name suggests, during the execution, the victim is usually tied to a bench with his feet higher than his head, and his mouth and nose are covered with a wet towel to make it impossible for him to breathe. Under the control of his subconscious mind, the victim will open his mouth and breathe hard to swallow."

"If water is poured on the victim's face at this time, a large amount of water will be sucked into the stomach, lungs and trachea, causing the victim to vomit and cough in the water, secrete a large amount of thick mucus from the lungs and trachea, and suffer incontinence, and suffer indescribable pain."

This section on water torture was not only explained to Li Yuanchang, but also to introduce to the soldiers of the Xuanjia Army how to carry out the exercise.

Li Lifu, who was standing next to him, was holding a piece of paper and writing down with enthusiasm what Li Xiang had just said about water torture.

Li Xiang's language skills were very rich, and he spoke vividly. In addition, Li Yuanchang's imagination was quite strong, so after being frightened by this, his crotch immediately became wet.

Seeing that he was scared to death, Li Xiang immediately planned to add fuel to the fire.

He shouted to Li Lifu behind him, "Come here, show your talent to the King of Han!"

Seeing Li Lifu walking forward with a sneer, Li Yuanchang immediately panicked. In desperation, he subconsciously wanted him to stop.

"slow!"

slow?
Li Xiang smiled.

What, you want Yuanchang out?

"how?"

He raised his hand to stop the Black Armor Army guards behind him.

Li Yuanchang begged for mercy: "Don't do it, don't do it, let's talk it out..."

A Black Armor Army guard beside Li Lifu smiled coldly, knocked on the copper basin with his hand, and said in a tone very much like a colonel: "There is an old saying in the Central Plains, which is that he who knows the current situation is a hero. I think the various torture instruments now... will definitely be able to pry open the king's mouth..."

Li Xiang looked in the direction of the voice and saw that the guy had a typical grassland man's face.

"I am Ge Shunian." The black-armored guard saw Li Xiang's gaze and immediately bowed and said.

Oh, so he is a Turk. No wonder his mouth smells like mutton skewers.

Li Xiang nodded in affirmation: "Yes, this king needs talents like you."

He turned to Li Yuanchang and said, "It seems that our King of Han will not give up until he sees the Yellow River. In this case..."

"I said! I said!"

Li Yuanchang was sweating all over as if he was exhausted. It was unclear whether it was because of the pain in his ribs or because he was too scared.

"Say? What?" Li Xiang smiled: "If I don't make you suffer a little, who will know whether what you said is true or false?"

"Don't! Don't..."

Li Yuanchang burst into tears. He had lived a life of luxury since childhood, how could he have ever suffered such injustice?
"I said, I swear to Aye, everything I said is true!" He said with tears in his eyes, his tone sincere to the extreme.

"In that case, I'll give you a chance." Li Xiang pondered for a moment, staring at Li Yuanchang with sharp eyes.

Li Yuanchang didn't dare to look directly into Li Xiang's scrutinizing gaze and had to look away.

"Liu Li has already confessed. If your two confessions don't match, I think you know what the consequences will be." Li Xiang threatened again.

In fact, Liu Li did not confess anything at all. He just said that the mastermind was Li Yuanchang, and then he hurriedly led his troops to arrest him.

"Then let's start with Liu Li. How did you get to know him and how did you place him in Shang Pharmacy?"

Li Yuanchang gasped for breath, and when the pain in his ribs eased a little, he spoke in a hoarse voice: "In the ninth year of Wude, the emperor rebelled at Xuanwu Gate..."

"Watch your words!" Li Xiang frowned and scolded, "My grandfather is just following the will of heaven!"

Li Yuanchang laughed twice and did not refute. Instead, he continued, "Whether it is following the will of heaven or rebelling, I have fallen from a prince to the emperor's brother. It may sound the same, but in fact it is very different. Back then, I could indulge the hounds to bite the small dogs raised by Qingque to death, but when the new emperor ascends the throne, even Li You and Li Yin, two dogs, can bully me!"

At this point, Li Yuanchang was already gritting his teeth, and even a fool could see the unwillingness in his eyes.

"Do you know that in the third year of Wude, I was named King of Lu! Later, the emperor changed it to King of Han! Do you know the difference?"

Li Xiang did know a little bit. Generally, the title of king was based on the great powers during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Lu was a vassal state of the Ji clan, a fiefdom of the Duke of Zhou. As for Han...

"Since then, I have been dissatisfied with the emperor, but the queen is in charge of the six palaces, and there is nothing I can do."

"But the opportunity came soon. The queen died of illness six years ago, and the harem was in a state of disarray for a while." Li Yuanchang laughed twice: "The emperor was also immersed in grief and neglected the management of the palace. I seized this opportunity and met Liu Li."

"At that time, Liu Li had offended the eunuchs in the palace, and was bullied and targeted everywhere. I spoke up for him."

"After a few visits, we got to know each other. I gave him a lot of money to smooth over his connections and helped him settle his family. Liu Li was grateful and expressed his willingness to be loyal to me. That was it."

Li Xiang reached out and knocked on the table. If that was the case, then it was right.

It is not impossible to take advantage of the vacuum left by Empress Changsun's death to quickly develop one or two insiders in the palace.

Besides, Li Yuanchang had never asked Liu Li to do anything, so the possibility of being caught was very small, unless Liu Li surrendered himself.

Actually, the management of the palace is also quite confusing. It is not to say that the palace is impenetrable. If that were the case, would the Ming and Qing dynasties have to test for poison with silver needles before eating? Would two emperors have been killed by the same imperial physician? You have to know that the secret service agencies of the Ming and Qing dynasties were much more developed than those of the Tang Dynasty...

"Then why did you want to murder the two princesses?" Li Xiang asked again.

Li Yuanchang smiled: "Princess Changle, that sickly girl... I didn't really want to harm her. She had taken good care of me in the past, but who let her stand in my way?"

Hearing this, Li Xiang took a deep breath and asked coldly: "Since Aunt Changle has done you a favor, why do you want to take it as revenge and repay kindness with hatred?"

"I can't help it! I don't want to! I can't help it!"

At this point, Li Yuanchang roared, with the muscles on his neck standing up, looking extremely ferocious.

"Your uncle was unfair to me, so I will take revenge on him. I will make his sons kill each other like my uncle's sons! Let him also taste the pain my uncle suffered!"

"As long as Li Lizhi is here, she can mend the relationship between the father and son, as well as the relationship between Li Tai and his brother. Tell me! If she doesn't die, who will die?"

There was a moment of silence between the two of them. Li Yuanchang also slowly calmed down and said to Li Xiang: "The palace is heavily guarded. It is definitely unrealistic to poison, but if we tamper with the medicinal materials a little, it will be easy. Liu Li is the manager of the Shang Pharmacy. He is in charge of supervising the amount of medicinal materials. In fact, he has the final say on how much medicine to use."

"This method can deceive the people who are testing the medicine. After all, no one can tell what ingredients are missing or added to the bowl of boiled medicine. There will be no problems when testing the medicine on healthy people. But it's different for two sickly people like Li Lizhi and Li Mingda." When Li Xiang mentioned Li Mingda's name, a trace of hostility flashed in his eyes.

But he hid it very well, so he asked again: "You were the one who sent people to kill the guards of the Eastern Palace and frame the King of Wei, right?"

"Yes and no." Li Yuanchang replied.

"Is it or isn't it?" Li Xiang asked with raised eyebrows.

"That's what I meant, but he's not mine." Li Yuanchang glanced at him and laughed disdainfully: "People say that the Prince of Tianshui is smart, but I can't stand it. How can I, a prince who lives a life of idleness and waits for death, mobilize a team of archers to shoot and kill the guards of the Eastern Palace?"

Li Xiang was not angry either. Getting angry with a dying person would only make him uncomfortable.

"Tell me, who provided you with the bow and arrow?" Li Xiang asked.

Li Yuanchang hesitated and suddenly fell silent.

"My patience is limited, King of Han," Li Xiang said coldly.

Li Yuanchang was silent for a while, then said in a hoarse voice: "I can tell you, but I have one condition."

"It's already come to this. Do you think you have the capital to make conditions with me?"

Li Xiang laughed. It’s already this fucking time and you still want to make conditions?
Do you still want to live?

Li Yuanchang took a deep breath and said, "I just hope I can use this news to get some relief."

Since he was asking for a quick death, there was nothing Li Xiang couldn't agree to.

"I can agree to this condition. Tell me what you want."

Li Yuanchang didn't expect Li Xiang to agree so readily. He couldn't believe it and asked hesitantly, "You...you didn't lie to me?"

Li Xiang's eyebrows sank: "If you keep talking nonsense, I will have someone increase your strength right now!"

Hearing Li Xiang's threat, Li Yuanchang did not dare to neglect it and immediately said, "It is... Helan Chushi."

"Helan Chushi?"

Li Xiang curled the corners of his lips imperceptibly.

Helan Chushi...

Li Xiang knew this man very well, after all, he was the key figure in his father's rebellion in history.

He is not very famous, but his father-in-law is somewhat famous, namely Duke of Chen Hou Junji.

As one of the only two meritorious officials killed by Li Shimin in his life, you can imagine how excessive Hou Junji was.

Before Li Chengqian rebelled, he learned that Hou Junji had a grudge against him for being imprisoned after conquering Gaochang, so he asked Helan Chushi to take Hou Junji to the East Palace to ask him for a strategy for self-preservation. Hou Junji thought that Li Chengqian was stupid and could be used, so he persuaded him to rebel.

The real mastermind behind this incident must be Hou Junji. Li Yuanchang, this idiot, was being used without even realizing it.

Thinking of this, he shouted coldly: "Do you know what you are talking about! Helan Chushi is the chief of the Eastern Palace, and the most loyal guard of my father. How could he possibly assign people to you and let you attack and kill the guards of the Eastern Palace!"

"Helan Chushi and I have known each other for a long time."

Li Yuanchang did not rush to refute, but told Li Xiang how he met Helan Chushi.

"I have a good relationship with the Crown Prince, so I often go in and out of the East Palace. After a few visits, I got to know Helan Chushi, and we became close friends."

"The other day, Helan Chushi came to my house and explained the pros and cons to me. He said that the crown prince was deceived and actually believed that the king of Wei would get along with him. Once the king of Wei ascended the throne, the officials of the East Palace would be dead without a burial place. I didn't say anything at the time, but I secretly took note of this matter."

"Later, I went to Pingkangfang with him and took advantage of his drunkenness to get a lot of information from him. The gist of it was that he was very dissatisfied with the prince's weakness and that the King of Wei had schemed a vicious plan to deceive the prince."

"The next day, I invited him to my house for a drink, and during the meal we talked about this matter again. I suggested that we try to kill someone with a borrowed knife. Is there any way to stir up a dispute between the King of Wei and the Crown Prince? It would be best if the two of them were incompatible. This way, the Crown Prince would wake up and get out of the wrong path."

"Helan Chushi told me about the East Palace guards going south, so I asked him to help me allocate a team of archers to ambush them on the road that the East Palace guards must pass. That's all."

Li Xiang sneered. How could he be using Helan Chushi? He was being manipulated by Hou Junji behind Helan Chushi without realizing it.

He thought he was in control of everything, but he didn't know that he was being used like a clown.

Almost immediately, Li Xiang locked onto Hou Junji who was standing behind the scenes.

Damn it, I finally found a reason to deal with you, this hidden danger!

In this case, Li Yuanchang cannot be killed now. He must be kept as a witness.

Thinking of this, Li Xiang ordered: "Come here, first detain the King of Han and treat him well, and don't be rude to him!"

"Yes!" Li Lifu responded immediately.

"No, wait!" Li Yuanchang struggled for a moment: "Didn't you say you would give me a quick death?"

"You are still useful now. Otherwise, if I catch Hou Junji, what will I do if he denies everything?"

Li Xiang's words made Li Yuanchang's face change drastically: "Duke Chen? What does Duke Chen have to do here?"

Li Xiang taunted, "Stupid, you don't even know that you've been used by Hou Junji? Where do you think Helan Chushi, a senior official of the Eastern Palace, can get you archers?"

Hearing Li Xiang's words, Li Yuanchang's face instantly turned gloomy.

He never expected that all his scheming was just a trick used by others.

Li Xiang ignored him but was thinking something in his mind.

With Hou Junji's ability, he must have known the news of Li Yuanchang's exposure by now and would most likely take action.

If he were to slip away from Chang'an City, it would be like a bird entering the sky and a fish entering the sea.

No, we must strike first before he runs away!
Thinking of this, Li Xiang ordered loudly: "Black Armor Army! Listen to my orders!"

"exist!"

Li Xiang ordered loudly: "Leave 20 men here to guard Li Yuanchang, and the rest of you, go with me to capture Hou Junji!"

"promise!"

(There will be more later. Currently, each chapter is 4000 words, which is equivalent to two chapters in one before it goes on sale. There will be at least three chapters a day.)
(End of this chapter)