Chapter 268 Self-trapped
The next day.

Li Ying personally led Bian Lingcheng and Yang Zhao to inspect the treasury.

Bian Lingcheng took the money and didn't want to make things difficult for Li Heng for the time being, so he didn't really look at it and just laughed it off the whole time.

Yang Zhao checked and calculated carefully, but the result was exactly the same as the number reported to the court.

Li Heng said to Bian Lingcheng, "General Bian, these are all the treasury in Qiuci. Do you want to go to the other four towns to have a look?"

Bian Lingcheng said: "One leaf can tell the coming of autumn. If it is like this in Kucha, then the other four towns should also be fine. Your Highness is busy with official duties, so I think there is no need to waste your time."

Li Heng said, "Okay, if the border inspector wants to go to other border towns, he can ask the civil and military officials of Qixi to go with him. Don't go alone. Qixi is a vast land with few people, and it is full of deserts and Gobi. Without an acquaintance to lead the way, it is easy to get lost and die. Sometimes, even if there is an acquaintance to lead the way, it is easy to encounter bandits or even attacks by the enemy."

"I understand." Bian Lingcheng replied quickly, then turned to Yang Guozhong and said, "General Yang, you have heard it clearly. For your own safety, do not act on your own."

"Thank you for the reminder." Yang Guozhong replied respectfully.

As they were talking, the postman served them some iced wine.

Bian Lingcheng took a sip and said, "This wine tastes better when it comes from Qixi. It tastes great with the special ice. Qixi is really a great place."

"Yes." The postman continued, "In addition to wine and saltpeter for making ice, Anxi also has several copper and iron mines..."

When the postman said this, he noticed Li Heng's expression, and immediately stopped talking and retreated.

Yang Guozhong keenly captured this detail and made up his mind.

Bian Lingcheng pretended not to hear anything.

Li Ying did not explain and just talked about wine with Bian Lingcheng.

……

In the next few days, Yang Guozhong temporarily gave up his obsession with the Qixi treasury and turned to conducting open and secret investigations on the Qixi mineral deposits.

After some hard work, Yang Guozhong finally reaped the rewards.

He discovered that there were indeed several high-quality copper and iron deposits in Qixi, but the government had not mined them. So he wrote a memorial to report the matter and impeached Li Heng at the same time.

He impeached Li Ying mainly for two things.

The first one was that Mi Qian and Kang Yi escaped from prison and were killed by Aqisi. The second one was that he said Li Ying had ulterior motives in concealing the discovery of the mineral deposits.

However, his memorial was returned to Li Heng soon after it was delivered to the post station.

Li Ying took Yang Guozhong's memorial and read it carefully for a while, then said to Yang Yuhuan beside him, "He really did say bad things about me in it."

Yang Yuhuan came over to take a look and said, "Should we drown this memorial?"

"No need." Li Heng shook his head. "What he said about me was not necessarily a bad thing. Besides, someone explained it for me. My memorial had already reached the court a long time ago."

Li Heng handed the memorial to the postman and said, "Return it to the original form and send it to the court as soon as possible."

"Yes." The postman took the letter and went out.

……

Changan.

Li Linfu received Yang Guozhong's memorial and presented it to Li Longji without delay. After reading it, Li Longji said to Gao Lishi beside him, "Lishi, Bian Lingcheng just praised Shiba Lang in his memorial, and Yang Zhao followed up with a book impeaching Shiba Lang. Who of them lied?"

Gao Lishi said respectfully: "I am not sure either. It would be best if you could send another person to take a look."

"That's not necessary. The people sent to Qixi by the court before all praised Shibalang. As for Yang Zhao..." Li Longji glanced at Li Linfu and did not give any comment.

At the beginning, Li Longji sent Xin Yunjing to supervise Li Heng. Later, he sent some other people. Until now, these people have given very good opinions about Li Heng.

Only Yang Zhao had some complaints about Li Heng.

But Yang Zhao is Li Linfu's man after all. It would be strange if he was Li Linfu's man and did not target Li Heng.

Li Linfu observed Li Longji's words and expressions and probably guessed what he was thinking. At the same time, he also came to his senses and thought to himself, "The saint is well versed in the art of being an emperor. He interprets all the struggles between me and the prince of Shou as political struggles. From now on, no matter who says bad things about the prince of Shou is used by me, the saint will not believe them. The saint has trapped himself."

Thinking of this, Li Linfu thought further.

Given Li Heng's means, how could Yang Zhao's impeachment memorial against him be sent out from Anxi so brazenly?
Unless Li Heng did it on purpose.

Therefore, this was most likely Li Heng's strategy of testing the waters. If Li Longji did not give Li Heng some admonitions this time, Li Heng would only become more and more unscrupulous.

Li Linfu thought about this and stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, since Yang Zhao has impeached His Royal Highness Prince Shou, I think it would be better to send someone to investigate. Once the investigation is thorough, His Royal Highness Prince Shou will be cleared of all charges."

Li Longji asked, "Does the Right Prime Minister still remember Zhou Ziliang?"

Zhou Ziliang impeached Niu Xianke and Li Shizhi, but was beaten to death by Li Longji.

At that time, Li Linfu secretly did something bad in order to target Zhang Jiuling.

Now, the roles are reversed, and Li Longji's hints are also obvious.

Li Linfu was startled and said quickly, "I made a mistake."

Li Longji did not blame Li Linfu, and said, "Regarding the copper and iron deposits in Qixi, Shibalang has submitted a petition to the court requesting that someone be sent to mine them. Now that Yang Zhao has mentioned this again, it seems that it is time to make some arrangements."

Li Linfu said: "Qixi is remote, and the copper and iron ore mined are not easy to transport back to Chang'an."

"Then we can use it locally." Li Longji thought, "The Central Plains sends a large amount of military supplies and equipment to Qixi every year. If Qixi can solve some of them on its own, it can also reduce the pressure on the court."

Li Linfu said: "This is difficult to control."

Li Longji nodded, pondered for a while, and said, "But we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Let Shibalang do the initial mining. Aren't Bian Lingcheng and Yang Zhao in Qixi? Let them supervise together first, and when the Qixi workshop has taken shape, the Right Prime Minister will send someone to take over."

In theory, all the weapon workshops in the Tang Dynasty should be operated by people specially sent by the imperial court. However, as the saying goes, Qixi is too far away from Chang'an, and the cost of doing anything is terribly high. Only by delegating power to the local governments to handle it themselves can efficiency and benefits be maximized.

Therefore, Li Longji delegated the right to forge weapons to Li Heng. Although it was risky, it was a decision made after careful consideration.

Li Linfu had no choice. After all, the court's expenses were too high. Saving some money and allowing Li Longji to have more money to spend was more important than anything else.

Therefore, Li Linfu said: "The sage is wise, and I will obey your orders."

Li Longji nodded with satisfaction and turned to ask the new left prime minister Chen Xilie: "What do you think, left prime minister?"

Since Chen Xilie took over as the left prime minister, he has been obedient to Li Linfu. Li Linfu handled government affairs at home, and all officials gathered in front of Li Linfu's house waiting to be summoned. Although Chen Xilie sat in the government hall, no one came to see him. Chen Xilie had basically gotten used to the days of doing nothing but signing.

Chen Xilie quickly followed up and said, "I second the proposal. The saint is wise."

(End of this chapter)