Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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“System, what is in the southeast corner of the harem?” Li Yuebai asked.
Since he entered the palace, he had spent most of his time in Qingxin Pavilion. In order to avoid suspicion, he never walked around without permission, so he didn’t know the layout of the harem.
The system searched the data for a moment, took out the topographic map directly, and projected it in front of Li Yuebai.
The harem was vast, with many palaces and gardens, which made people dazzled. Li Yuebai went directly to the southeast corner – there was a large abandoned garden there. In the corner of the abandoned garden, there was a small palace with a name marked on it: Dian Yi Palace.
This name, at first glance, showed that it was not a good place.
“Dian Yi Palace is a cold palace.” The system said: “It is cold and deserted, heavily guarded, and there is a madman locked up in it.”
“Madman?”
“It’s the second prince.” The system said meaningfully.
The second prince Murong Yi, who committed treason a few years ago, suffered from madness after the failure, and was ordered by the emperor to be imprisoned in Dian Yi Palace.
“Speaking of this, I have long felt that something is fishy.” Li Yuebai said, “The second prince and his mother are weak and incompetent, how dare they conspire to seize the throne?”
“Yes, all signs show that there is a master behind the second prince, and this master is hidden and has never revealed his whereabouts.” The system said.
“System.” Li Yuebai asked, “Is it Zhao Ne who instigated the second prince to rebel?”
“…Yes.” The system replied.
“Then why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Li Yuebai was annoyed by the system.
“Host, it’s useless to tell you about this kind of thing.” The system said, “You have no evidence, it’s just adding to your troubles.”
After returning to Qingxin Pavilion, Li Yuebai informed Murong Nan of this discovery.
At first, he had an impulse in his heart – to pull Murong Nan to Dian Yi Palace, to personally interrogate the second prince, and let the second prince spit out Zhao Ne’s name. But soon, he gave up this impulse.
The second prince was imprisoned and forbidden from meeting anyone. Even Murong Nan could not get permission, and it might not be fruitful to do so – the second prince was already crazy, and it was difficult to ask anything, and it was easy to alert Zhao Ne.
So, Li Yuebai only told Murong Nan about the system’s revelations.
Murong Nan snorted coldly and said, “Zhao Ne, this old thief, has already dominated the court, but he is still greedy.”
“Dominating the court?” Li Yuebai was stunned.
In the court, there were many officials higher than Zhao Ne, including the three dukes, the Grand Tutor, and the Grand Protector, and the military officials guarding the border. How could Zhao Ne, a third-rank commander, then dominate the court?
“Those are all court ministers.” The prince sneered, “Zhao Ne is a dog at the feet of my father. No matter how high the official position is, he is afraid of being bitten by the dog.”
Li Yuebai understood.
Zhao Ne was the commander of the Jinyiwei. The Jinyiwei was different from ordinary officials. It was a secret agency that only obeyed the emperor’s orders and could break into the private residences of court ministers to search. Therefore, no matter how high the rank was, it was inevitable to be afraid of the Jinyiwei.
“What kind of power is this?” Li Yuebai laughed dumbly: “After all, Zhao Ne is just faithfully executing the orders of His Majesty the Emperor. He does not have much power himself. He is just a fox relying on the power of the tiger.”
The emperor was the tiger, and Zhao Ne was the fox. The important officials in the court seemed to be afraid of Zhao Ne, but in fact they were actually afraid of the emperor.
“Father also thinks so.” Murong Nan said leisurely.
“So…” Li Yuebai said: “His Majesty the Emperor thinks that Zhao Ne is his pawn, so he trusts him quite a lot. What’s more, the emperor is busy dealing with the aristocratic families, and he needs Zhao Ne to work for him even more.”
“Yes.”
“System.” Li Yuebai said: “Assess the emperor’s trust in Zhao Ne.”
“Yes, host.” The system calculated.
After a while, the calculation result came out.
Zhao Ne was very smart and cautious. He knew that his job was to walk on the edge of a knife, so he paid special attention to maintaining a balance, making the emperor think that he was loyal but not too arrogant, and making the important officials in the court fear him but not letting them fear him to an obvious degree.
Therefore, the system judged that Zhao Ne now maintained a good balance.
“Then what we have to do is to break this balance.” Li Yuebai smiled.
Zhao Ne’s current power would be too less if it was reduced by one point, and too much if it was increased by one point.
“How to break it?” Murong Nan raised his eyebrows.
“Increase one point.” Li Yuebai said.
In the original plot, whether it was the aristocratic families or the Crown prince, they had restrained Zhao Ne openly or secretly to prevent his power from expanding too much.
Of course, it was great to do this, but in the long run… it would make Zhao Ne hide deeper. Just like a balloon that was blown up just right, letting it out a little air from time to time would only make it survive longer.
If you do the opposite and put some air in it… you may get unexpected results.
Li Yuebai was silent for a long time, with countless solutions sweeping through his mind. After thinking for a long time and calculating with the system, he finally sighed and whispered: “Your Highness, if you follow my suggestion, you will have a chance to overthrow Zhao Ne in a few months, but these few months… we must endure.”
“If we can get the final victory, what does it matter if we endure for a while?” Murong Nan said: “But, can you guarantee that you will win?”
His eyes flashed with the eagerness unique to young people.
“I…” Li Yuebai lowered his eyes: “I dare not guarantee it.”
Nothing was absolute in the world, he could only do his best, and the final victory or defeat was always a variable.
“…” Murong Nan stood up, moved forward, and came to Li Yuebai, smiling: “Blame me, how can I put all the responsibility on you?”
He realized that his question put a lot of pressure on Li Yuebai and hurried to remedy it.
“I’m fine.” Li Yuebai also smiled: “Since I want to make a suggestion, of course I have to take responsibility to the end – if I fail, I will live and die with Your Highness.”
Based on the principle of responsibility, he said this, but as soon as he said it, he felt strange.
What live and die together, how can it sound like a love talk?
Sure enough, Murong Nan did not miss the opportunity to tease him, and immediately raised his eyebrows and said: “I knew that you have me in your heart.”
“…”
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had a strong ability to act and soon implemented Li Yuebai’s proposal.
He no longer secretly opposed Zhao Ne, and even deliberately lost to Zhao Ne in some things, and persuaded the Queen and the Xiao family to cooperate with him.
In the current court, the civil servants from aristocratic families were irreconcilable with Zhao Ne, and the relationship was very tense. The emperor raised the Jinyiwei, a special agency, to deal with the civil servants. Naturally, the civil servants hated and feared the Jinyiwei.
Xiao Jing, the current head of the Xiao family, the queen’s family, was a member of the civil servant faction. He often opposed Zhao Ne and the Jinyiwei in his letters. Xiao Jing was very eloquent, and his letters were eloquent and magnificent, and every sentence was a needle hidden in cotton, which had frustrated many of Zhao Ne’s plans.
Now, under the strong persuasion of the prince, Xiao Jing had also retreated several steps. On the surface, he was still against Zhao Ne but secretly let Zhao Ne do what he wanted.
For example, recently, Zhao Ne intended to send Jinyiwei to search the homes of ministers. In the past, Xiao Jing and others would definitely try every means to negotiate with Zhao Ne and resolve this matter. This time, they just showed anger and did not make any effective response, which made this plan go smoothly. Jinyiwei became more and more arrogant, and the court officials became more and more frightened of Zhao Ne, fearing that he would catch them and fabricate crimes, and they all deliberately flattered him.
Two months later, the time was ripe.
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