Chapter 126 Impeachment of Yang Jingchen

If nothing unexpected happens, the Second Prince will be the next crown prince, but his grandson-in-law, the Fifth Prince, has no interest in the throne at all, which makes him feel helpless.

He gradually became the Prime Minister of a dynasty, which was already a high position, but when the opportunity was before him, it would be unreasonable not to fight for it.

This is the only chance to change to a higher level, how could he miss it?

His granddaughter has been married to the fifth prince, so he must go one step further and become the emperor's teacher and a member of the royal family. The Wei family can then prosper for hundreds of years.

But the Fifth Prince was a fool who would rather support the Second Prince than take the throne himself, which made him feel quite helpless.

Lu Zhanyan chuckled, picked up the teapot beside him and poured water into his cup until it was full and overflowing. A cold voice rang out: "Sir, you should have heard of the saying that water will overflow when it is full or that prosperity will eventually decline, right?"

"Isn't our Anguo Mansion an example?"

Lord Wei raised his eyebrows, he could no longer hide his admiration for Lu Zhanyan. His analogy was very correct. After all, he had experienced two dynasties as well. He knew how glorious the Anguo Mansion was when the previous emperor was in power.

But now, it has fallen to the point where Prince Lu is the only official in the court, and he is even sent to serve in other places. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that His Majesty is going to completely destroy the Anguo Mansion.

The death of General Lu Zhen, Lu Jin being forced to resign, and Prince Lu being sent to serve as an official in another place, all these things indicate that Your Majesty is eroding the pillars of the Anguo Mansion bit by bit.

Although Wei Ge Lao understood this truth, he still couldn't help but say: "The Second Prince is in his prime. If Prince Lu continues to support him, he might be able to gain the credit of following the dragon. Why bother with this?"

Lu Zhanyan lowered his eyes and said calmly: "He doesn't deserve it!"

During the autumn hunt, in order to help him gain the favor of Emperor Qian, he did not hesitate to let Mu Qingli risk his life and use forbidden techniques. After the success, how did the Second Prince treat this meritorious official?

If my grandfather was gone, and I had no help at all, let alone my younger brother Xing and Yaoguang to help me, would I really be able to come out of the prison safely?

Even if he could, it would be impossible for him to come out intact. A narrow-minded person like Emperor Qian would always find a way to make him bedridden for several years before he would give up.

Although Lu Zhanyan did not explain in detail, Lord Wei had roughly guessed something. The Second Prince did appear to be kind and steady on the surface, but in fact, he was just the next Emperor Qian.

"Why choose the fifth prince?"

"I am fortunate to be able to go to Yizhou with His Highness the Fifth Prince to provide disaster relief. At least he is upright and honest, and I can still trust him! Moreover..."

He raised his eyes and looked directly at Elder Wei: "Besides, the Fifth Prince only likes to wield spears and sticks, and is not interested in government affairs. If the Fifth Prince takes the throne, wouldn't it be better for Elder Wei to directly control government affairs?"

Lord Wei thought about his future potential as regent, and although he appeared calm on the surface, the light in his eyes could not conceal his ambition.

"Prince Lu is indeed the number one scholar. No one can match his wisdom."

Lord Wei no longer concealed his admiration for his granddaughter and secretly hated himself for not having more granddaughters.

Lu Zhanyan shook his head and chuckled, "It was just a helpless move. In the future, I hope that Lord Wei will take good care of the Anguo Mansion."

"Okay, okay! I heard that bandits are rampant in Yanzhou, so please take care of yourself, Prince Lu!"

The two continued their conversation until the night watchman passed by, then they ended the topic.

To ensure safety, Lord Wei left first. Lu Zhanyan played with the teacup with his slender fingers, and the ambition in his eyes was even greater than that of Lord Wei. In order to ensure that his brother Xing was safe in the capital, he could only pretend to form an alliance with Lord Wei.

If anyone targets the Anguo Mansion, Lord Wei can still protect it.

Early in the morning, Lu Zhanyan took Princess Yaoguang, several servants and guards to bid farewell to Lu Zhanxing and others, and went to Yanzhou to take up his post.

Now that his brother is gone, Lu Zhanxing feels empty inside. He hopes that his elder brother can really succeed!

But before she could get over the loss of her elder brother, she heard the news that the impeachment of Yang Jingchen, the head of the Ministry of Personnel, had appeared in the court today.

In the court, the censor, instructed by Lord Wei, directly impeached Yang Jingchen for abusing his position to make a fortune and deceiving wealthy businessmen into paying him large sums of money in exchange for the opportunity to become an imperial merchant.

“Your Majesty, the eight imperial merchants are all regulated. Lord Yang, a small official in the Ministry of Personnel, dared to bypass the Minister of Revenue to directly recruit merchants. It is obvious that he wanted to make up for the debt owed by the Ministry of Revenue.

He is so audacious that he wants to amass wealth. His behavior is extremely bad. He is even worse than the previous head. People who behave like this must never serve as the head of the Ministry of Personnel again. Your Majesty, please punish him severely. "

Yang Jingchen is only the head of the Ministry of Personnel and is not yet qualified to attend court. The Fourth Prince has not yet returned to court because of a mistake he made.

Now, Prime Minister Su is the only one who is the Fourth Prince’s in-laws. I wonder if Prime Minister Su will help the Fourth Prince’s mother’s family. After all, the Duke Qing’s Mansion is the Fourth Prince’s helper!

Many of Prime Minister Su's people kept looking at him, hoping to get his instructions, but Prime Minister Su looked straight ahead and completely ignored the officials' glances and arguments.

Seeing that Prime Minister Su ignored them, the officials had no choice but to pretend to be dead.

But the people who were attached to the Duke of Qing's Mansion could not help it, and quickly stood up to defend Yang Jingchen: "Your Majesty, Lord Yang has just returned to the capital to take up his post, and he would never be so reckless and make decisions on his own. Someone must have deceived Lord Yang..."

The censor snorted coldly, "Master Zhou spoke for Master Yang. Could it be that he was also involved?"

"You are talking nonsense. How could I do such a thing? I just thought it was a bit strange, so I said something. How could Lord Yang be so stupid as to do such a treasonous thing right after returning to Beijing?"

Other officials also thought it made sense. If Yang Jingchen returned to Beijing to take up his post, the position of the next heir to the Duke of Qing’s Mansion would be a foregone conclusion. Why would he do such an evil thing?

The Second Prince and the Fifth Prince were both involved in this matter. They had already earned tens of thousands of taels of silver in a short period of time, so naturally they didn't want anyone to destroy it.

He secretly looked up at his father sitting on the dragon throne, hoping that he would say something.

Emperor Qian glanced at him indifferently, his eyes full of disappointment. He couldn't even do such a small thing and was impeached by the Censor.

If he had already found out that the imperial merchants were amassing wealth, he could still say that it was his own idea, but the eight imperial merchants were still fine, so he couldn't just issue an order to confiscate their property now, right? Wouldn't anyone with a discerning eye see that he was protecting Yang Jingchen?

The Second Prince's face turned pale after seeing this. He realized that he was only concerned with collecting the money but did not help Yang Jingchen cover up, which led to the matter falling into the ears of the Censor.

The Censor has the duty of supervising all officials. He will impeach at the slightest sign of trouble. His eloquence is unmatched. If he impeaches someone he hates, he will find them lovable. But once he impeaches their own interests, they will become despicable. It is really a love-hate relationship.

He didn't dare to stand up and speak at this time. If he was found out that he had also amassed wealth, what would the officials think?

I haven't appointed a crown prince yet, so I can't make this kind of mistake.

His eyes turned to a young eunuch. The young eunuch received the signal and retreated quietly while the court was noisy.

Although he didn't understand why the Second Prince had to go out and inform the emperor himself, he had no choice but to do as the Second Prince ordered.

But before he could inform Concubine Ru, he was bumped into by a palace maid, who then accused him of stealing. Concubine Xian happened to pass by and had someone search the eunuch, and indeed, they found a gold bracelet on the young eunuch. He had no way of defending himself and was beaten to death by Concubine Xian.

Originally, the Second Prince was waiting for someone to notify Concubine Ru, and Concubine Ru would find a way to notify Yang Jingchen, but the plan was strangled in the cradle before it was implemented.

Because Lu Zhanyan had been on guard against this move of his, how could he succeed?