The court's efficiency this time was extremely high. In less than a month, the Imperial City Division commissioner, who was the case investigation officer, had arrived in Fengzhou. The leader of this Imperial City Division was still Li Ling's old acquaintance, Lu Zhen.

Li Ling naturally did not dare to neglect him, so he personally went out of the middle door and smiled: "I didn't expect that a trivial matter would actually take Lord Laulu to take this trip. It really made the lower officials flatter."

Lu Zhen also smiled and stepped forward to return the salute: "Mr. Li was joking. You are very famous in the court now, which has caused endless debate among the officials of the court. Even Your Majesty is quite concerned. He issued several orders to ask my Imperial City Office to investigate the matter strictly. I was ordered by the emperor, so how dare I slacken off."

Although the two of them have a deeper relationship when they really talk about it, they still act like they don’t have much close relationship in front of everyone. After being polite, they entered the yamen one after another, then left and left to discuss matters in private.

It was not until this time that the smiles on the two of them slowly dissipated and they both became a little solemn. Especially Lu Zhen, he even looked up and down Li Ling and said, "Wen Zhong, I heard that you were injured before, can you heal now?"

"Thank you, Lord Lu, for your concern, I've almost finished raising it."

"That's good, I'll tell you, not only me, but also Eunuch Wei was very worried after hearing this, for fear that you would have something to do." After a pause, he got to the point, "But you were too anxious this time, why did you drag the prince in? Even if this is the fact, once you have something to do with the royal family, things will become extremely complicated. Not to mention you, even my Imperial City Department can't afford it."

Li Ling nodded in agreement. Yes, the prince is related to the foundation of the country and has always had a good reputation of being kind. Now he is suddenly accused of trying to murder the court officials. This incident has caused quite a lot of storms, both in the court and among the people. This has doubled the pressure on the Imperial City Department who found out the inside story. He only felt that it was very difficult, so he naturally had to explain his attitude and situation to Li Ling first.

Li Ling nodded quite convincedly: "What Lord Lu said is that if there was no way, I wouldn't dare to make the matter public. In fact, we have encountered too many conspiracies and framed in the northern Xinjiang during this period, and almost died several times. If we don't think about it, the prince dares not do anything randomly, I'm afraid I'll even lose my life at any time, let alone the task of doing it in the northern Xinjiang..."

"Is it really that serious?"

Li Ling nodded vigorously: "Maybe the prince doesn't have the intention to kill me, but when the lawless generals on the frontier receive such a secret order, they don't have much concern..."

"Hmph, Your Majesty is still here, they are so unscrupulous, it's really damn!" Lu Zhen cursed again angrily. As the people of the Imperial City Department, they are the ministers who are most loyal to His Majesty today, and naturally they are most afraid of the influence of the prince's prince than the monarch's power. At this time, they are all determined to help Li Ling die the case. "So in addition to the evidence that has been reported, you might as well hand it over it all. If you really have the chance, others may be afraid of the East Palace, but our Imperial City Department is not afraid!"

"Of course there are clues, but..." Li Ling looked at him, as if he was worried, "Is this really good for Lord Lu, Eunuch Wei, and the entire Imperial City Department?"

"Huh?" Lu Zhen was a smart man. He immediately heard some other deeper meanings from Li Ling's words, and asked thoughtfully, "What else do you have to say?"

"At the beginning, I really thought about fighting the prince to the end. Even if I was forced to lose my post and dismissal by various forces in the end, I had to pay enough price for the prince! But just now, two people came to the door, but I changed my mind."

"The two of them are here? Who are they? Could it be that the prince's man came first?"

Lu Zhen's reaction was indeed fast enough, which made Li Ling admire him, and then nodded: "It's the prince's people. They made considerable concessions to calm this matter." In front of this person, Li Ling had nothing to hide, so he told the truth.

But Lu Zhen frowned even more: "They are so quick, so they promised you a lot of benefits, which made you change your mind? But have you ever thought about it? Are their wishes and promises really trustworthy? And can you explain them if there is His Majesty?"

"Mr. Lu, if I really wanted to hide it for the prince, I wouldn't have told them all the truth." Li Ling looked at him calmly and smiled. This made Lu Zhen stunned at first, and then laughed and shook his head: "I'm thinking a little bit, what do you mean?"

"Why listen to the conditions I have made to them first. First, I asked them to take out 500,000 taels of silver as compensation for injuring me and everyone around me."

"Five hundred thousand taels... This makes the prince feel so painful. Did they agree?" Lu Zhen obviously knew the prince's situation, and knew that he was not very generous at work.

Li Ling nodded: "After I persuaded them, they agreed even though they were a little reluctant. Then the second point, I asked him to hand over at least twenty border generals who were too close to the prince, and they could be regarded as his confidant in the northern border. However, under their request, the number was finally settled to fifteen."

This request made Lu Zhen even more shocked: "Fifteen generals from the Northern Xinjiang who are closely related to them? You are going to uproot all his hard work in Northern Xinjiang for many years!"

"If it weren't for this, how could I let out this anger? How could Your Majesty agree?"

"Hmm?" Lu Zhen glanced at Li Ling again, as if he could hear something different from his words.

Li Ling smiled and said, "Mr. Lu, why do you think Your Majesty sent you here to investigate this case?"

"Isn't it because my Royal City Secretary is a confidant, and he is more trustworthy than the officials of other legal yamen?"

"Yes, not. Our Imperial City Department is indeed the most trustworthy yamen of Your Majesty. Because we are different from other yamen, all power comes from Your Majesty, so you must be completely loyal to Your Majesty to have a foothold. But have you ever thought about it? This time the matter involves the prince, and I am also a member of the Imperial City Department, how could Your Majesty be so relieved?"

Looking at Lu Zhen who was enlightened, Li Ling continued: "So Your Majesty has already sent you to punish the prince, but at the same time, he wants to control a certain degree. If other officials are sent, they may cover up the case for the so-called overall situation, turn big things into small things, or simply investigate the matter, or even involve the entire Eastern Palace, making it difficult for the prince to deal with it... This is not what His Majesty hopes to see.

"And our Imperial City Department is different. We can fully understand the Holy Will. We will find out which step Your Majesty wants to find. And with your relationship with me, I will definitely cooperate with this. From this, I can confirm that Your Majesty is definitely unwilling to be in trouble now. After all, the court has only won the Yong King. If even the prince is in a loss of virtue and even does lawless things, then Your Majesty's wise wisdom will be damaged, and may even affect the stability of the court.

"But at the same time, we can't spare him easily. At least we must let the prince be curbed and prevent him from being as unscrupulous as before. So I thought of starting from his confidants on the frontier, and they would hand over the people themselves. This will not only weaken his power in the northern border, but also attack his prestige among court officials, so that those officials dare not really use it. A prince who will abandon his subordinates at any time will dare to truly serve?"

Lu Zhen was stunned for a long time and could not come back to his senses. But after thinking carefully, he felt that Li Ling's statement was indeed very reasonable, especially his grasp of Your Majesty's thoughts, which made people feel even more heartbroken and shocked.

After a while, he said sincerely: "Wen Zhong, you are worthy of being a person from the Ministry of Revenue. These accounts are calculated too clearly, so you have predicted that the prince will inevitably be forced to make concessions?" Seeing Li Ling nodding, he said with some concern, "But have you ever thought that doing so will leave you endless troubles? Your Majesty is old and will one day be succeeded by the prince. At that time, how do you do it yourself?"

"That's right, but I have to wait for it to be seen in the future. What I can do now is to try to weaken the prince's strength so that he can no longer attack me. If I look at it for too long, I am afraid that I will not even survive now." As he said that, Li Ling took out another document and handed it to Lu Zhen: "By the way, this is the various secret confidants I found about the prince's in the northern border that I found in these days. At that time, Lord Lu can hand it over to Your Majesty, which can be regarded as an explanation to Your Majesty in this case."

Lu Zhen took it casually, and then he looked at it and his heart was thrilled again. Good guy, there are dozens or hundreds of names on this. From the soldiers in the army to the minor officials in a certain place, he was really full of details. This made him a little confused: "Since you already have this thing, why do you have to let the prince explain it himself?"

"This is different. That is used to be given to the court publicly, which is also a statement from Your Majesty to the people in the court and the country. But this one is for you to secretly tell Your Majesty. As for how to deal with these people, it is not yours and I can ask about it."

At this time, Lu Zhen still didn't understand the purpose of Li Ling's arrangement. The two things of Yin and Yang not only solved the problems in front of His Majesty, but also allowed His Majesty to grasp more of the hidden feelings of the prince, and made him completely express his loyalty. It was really a generous gift.

"I understand, don't worry, I will handle this matter properly. Also, I will have someone to accompany you next, and I will definitely not hurt you any more!" Lu Zhen immediately patted his chest and expressed his opinion.

"Then I'm thankful Lord Lu." Li Ling smiled and bowed, and at the same time he made a complete decision. With so many arrangements, of course, not only to buy peace for himself, but also to make people ignore the third condition proposed by him and the prince!
Chapter completed!