Rebirth of the Merchant Woman's Revenge

"No need. Since they can discover the ambush here, Liuzhou must have made preparations. Let's retreat." Li Junze waved his hand helplessly and asked them to go out.

What exactly went wrong and since when did it start that no matter what I do, nothing goes as I wish and none of the tricks I tried in secret have succeeded once?

Although he was reluctant to admit it, his luck had indeed not been very good in recent times.

"Your Highness, something bad has happened..." Wen Jiaxiang had just gone out with Cao Xingwen, but soon came back, with a look of panic on his face.

"Tsk, what's wrong again?" Li Junze asked with a frown.

"The emperor has sent an order from the palace to summon you."

After hearing this, Li Junze stood up. The emperor summoned him, and Wen Jiaxiang just said something bad again. What was going on?

"Did you talk about what happened?" Li Junze asked anyway, his heart starting to panic inexplicably.

"It's said, it's said, the letter from Jinzhou was delivered to Elder Yang's house, and today Elder Yang brought a few leaders directly into the palace."

Wen Jiaxiang answered hesitantly. This was what he had just learned from the eunuch who came to convey the imperial edict by paying money.

"What, the Book of All Peoples?" Li Junze was shocked. He thought that as long as Niu Penghai's mouth was blocked, no one would cause trouble again. He didn't expect this thing to appear.

So, he packed up hurriedly and rushed to the imperial study.

Along the way, he was thinking about how to deal with the situation. Only after entering the palace did he regret not going to Wang Zhuo to discuss it before entering the palace.

It's too late to regret now.

In the imperial study, the emperor waited angrily for Li Junze to come in. After paying his respects, he asked coldly, "Prince An, when you came back from Jinzhou to provide disaster relief last time, were the memorials you wrote true?"

"Your Majesty, you are wise. How dare I say something untrue?" There was no way Li Junze could admit it now. He had to say it even if he had to bite the bullet.

"Hmph, you don't dare? I think you dare very much..." After the emperor said this, he asked Eunuch Chengping to present the letter from the people to Li Junze.

It was a folded piece of paper. Li Junze saw dense red fingerprints on it without even opening it, and beads of sweat the size of beans had already seeped out of his forehead.

He slowly opened it. It was a huge piece of paper with a detailed account of what he had done in Jinzhou, including what happened with Gu Qiongsi, the banquet at Niu's house, and the fact that he had never visited the fields to check on the disaster.

The most crucial thing is that the relief food was delayed in arriving. It was only after the food donated by Wangyu Tower arrived that the relief food arrived, but more than half of it was sand.

After Li Junze finished reading these, he saw dense fingerprints below, and at the top was Niu Penghai's name.

"This, this is a false accusation, father, this is a false accusation, please understand." Li Junze didn't know how to defend himself. He could only say this while kneeling in the hall.

"Framed? Who framed you? The tens of thousands of people in Jinzhou? Or Lord Yang? Or me?" The emperor's angry voice rang out.

Framed? They have used this word too many times. I could choose to believe it before, but this time, how could I believe it?

"No, no, no, your son, your son..." Li Junze was so nervous that he didn't know how to answer.

Jinzhou is his fiefdom, and he really never thought that such a thing would happen. Niu Penghai, it must be that old man Niu Penghai who was behind all this.

"Father, I had a big disagreement with Jinzhou Governor Niu Penghai during the disaster relief. I didn't expect he would do such a thing. I hope you can understand." He could only push the blame onto Niu Penghai.

"Your Highness Prince An, this letter of all people was not written by Lord Niu, but was written by the victims on their own initiative. Lord Niu just signed his name on it."

At this time, Yang Ge Lao, who was standing aside, couldn't stand it anymore and had to speak up to defend himself.

"Yes, yes, we wrote it ourselves. It has nothing to do with Lord Niu." The two young men standing behind Lord Yang also quickly echoed.

"You want to write it yourself? How do you know what I did in the governor's mansion? Do you believe it?"

Seeing that they all refuted what he said, Li Junze had to question them.

"Of course I know. Our family members are in the governor's mansion, and they have all signed the Book of All People. If it weren't for the food donated by Wangyu Tower and the big merchants in the surrounding counties and prefectures, we might have starved to death outside Jinzhou City."

One of the young men spoke very fluently and seemed to be a sharp-tongued person on weekdays. Now that he had arrived at the imperial study, he had gotten over the nervousness and was speaking more and more fluently.

"How dare you make random accusations here?" Li Junze was immediately furious. "Didn't you eat the disaster relief food? Or did you receive benefits from Wangyu Tower and say these things against your will?"

Yang Ge Lao frowned unhappily, "Your Highness Prince An, this is too unwise. There are so many people in Jinzhou. Even if you put aside the people in this book and randomly find some people, what do you think they will say?"

"Could it be that they all benefited from Wangyu Tower?"

After hearing what Yang Ge Lao said, Li Junze's eyes began to avoid him. He was screaming madly in his heart.

"I can't admit it. I can't admit it. If I admit it, everything will be over..."

"Ze'er, look up." The emperor suddenly spoke, asking Li Junze to look up and meet his gaze.

"Tell me honestly, father, why did the relief grain arrive so late? When you went to Jinzhou, the relief grain left with you. Even if it was delayed on the way, it couldn't have been delayed for so long."

Li Junze raised his head, but he didn't dare to look the emperor in the eye. "There were some problems on the road, so, so..."

He really couldn't find any excuse, and he didn't dare to say anything nonsense here. Every lie he told would have to be covered up by countless lies. He was worried that the more he said, the more loopholes would appear.

When the emperor saw him like this, how could he not understand that it was obvious that what was written in the Book of All People was true.

"Prince An, you are so bold." The emperor shouted angrily, followed by a violent cough.

"Father, please calm down. Father, please calm down. I really didn't do it. They framed me. Please believe me." Li Junze felt the emperor's anger and was so scared that he fell to the ground and cried.