Chapter 43 Account
"Okay." Li Ying nodded and asked someone to send Dou Bai out of the cell.

After Dou Bai stumbled away, Li Heng squatted down and asked Hong Yue, "You were originally planning to use death to persuade your lover to leave. Now that your lover has been saved, you can tell him now."

"Your Highness, aren't you afraid that I will lie to you?" Hongyue asked.

Li Heng said: "I'll let you know what kind of man you died for. You tell me what you know. This is a deal. It's a good deal."

Hong Yue struggled to get up, kowtowed to Li Heng, and said, "Your Highness, I am more useful alive than dead. I know their stronghold. As long as Your Highness spares my life, I will cooperate with all Your Highness' actions."

Li Heng said, "I said one of you must die. If I don't kill you too, it would be a waste of money."

Hong Yue said: "I will cut off his head with my own hands and give it to Your Highness. When the time comes, My life will be at Your Highness' disposal."

Li Heng said: "In that case, you could have disagreed with letting him go just now."

"Letting him go will complete our relationship."

"That makes sense," Li Heng thought for a moment, "I promise you."

……

……

……

In the room, Li Heng and Hong Yue were alone together.

Hongyue began to explain what she knew, starting with her life experience.

Many years ago, when Su Dingfang conquered the Turks, Bukhara sent people to assist him, and Hongyue's grandfather was among them.

Later, Hongyue's grandfather made great contributions and yearned for the Tang Dynasty, so he came to the Tang Dynasty to accept the reward and settled down in the Tang Dynasty.

It was not until the Kaiyuan period that Li Longji pacified Princess Taiping. Hongyue's father became attached to Princess Taiping, so all the men in the family were killed and the women were made into official prostitutes.

In this sense, like Hongyue and Dou Bai, Li Longji can be considered their enemy.

So after hearing Hong Yue's life story, Li Heng asked curiously, "If that's the case, you should target my father, not me."

Hong Yue said: "The emperor is surrounded by guards. It is harder to kill him than to ascend to heaven."

"You should call him a saint," Li Heng corrected, and explained, "You should know that with Dou Bai's character, I only need to torture him for a while and he will confess everything. But I gave you this choice. Do you know why?"

Hong Yue shook her head and said, "Please give your instructions, Your Highness."

Li Heng said: "Among me, Xin Yunjing was sent by my father, and Zhang Mujin is a daughter of Zhang Jiuling, so there are some things they can know and some things they cannot know."

Hong Yue was startled and said, "So Your Highness wants to choose a person with a strong mind to stay and cooperate with you?"

"I guess so." Li Ying did not deny it.

Hong Yue said: "But the truth will come out eventually."

"Yes." Li Heng affirmed, "Father has already pardoned those involved in the Princess Taiping case. Logically, you should have redeemed yourself a long time ago, but you were involved in something you shouldn't have been involved in and were taken advantage of."

"Dou Bai lied to me!" Hong Yue suddenly realized, then looked at Li Ying and said, "Your Highness already knew all this?"

"Aqisi said you might be from Bukhara, so I just found out." Li Heng smiled, "I have always admired General Su Dingfang and know something about his deeds. So, as a Bukhara person who can serve as an official in the Tang Dynasty and be made a courtesan, it is not difficult to guess your identity."

"No wonder a person who lied to me from the beginning would choose to let me go." Hong Yue sighed, returned to the original topic, and continued: "According to the original plan, the assassination of His Highness has only just begun. Once His Highness dies, the court will definitely investigate. At that time, they will find out that we have had contact with the people of the Crown Prince and Prince Zhong in Chang'an, and then the Crown Prince and Prince Zhong will fight each other. When these two people fight, the court will be in chaos. Once the court is in chaos, Tubo and Turks will take advantage of the situation, and then our people in Chang'an will take the opportunity to start a rebellion." "You have others in Chang'an?" Li Heng didn't expect the matter to be so deeply involved. After thinking for a while, he said, "Is your leader in Chang'an Liu Zhicheng?"

Hearing the name Liu Zhicheng, Hong Yue was startled and asked in surprise: "How did Your Highness know?"

Li Heng actually had no idea about this. He only remembered a sentence in the Old Book of Tang: "In the summer of the 736th year of the Kaiyuan Period of the Tang Dynasty, AD, the evil man Liu Zhicheng of Jingzhao led his people to cause chaos and was about to march towards the capital..."

It is impossible that these people went to such great lengths to do something that would leave no trace at all in history, so I made a bold guess, and unexpectedly my guess was correct.

Li Heng did not answer Hong Yue, but asked again: "So you have connections with Tubo, Turkic, and the imperial forces?"

"Yes." Hongyue nodded. "Huangfu Bin's retainer found Dou Bai and asked him to track and assassinate His Highness in exchange for freeing me from slavery. Later, Dou Bai failed in his mission and returned to Chang'an. He wanted to find Huangfu Bin's retainer again, only to find that the retainer was dead."

Li Heng said: "It's normal to sacrifice the rook to save the king."

Hong Yue said: "But later we found out that this man was not killed by Huangfu Bin. He was killed by Li Yao, the Prince of E, in the name of riot."

"Li Yao's people?" Li Heng was a little confused. "In other words, it was Li Yao who killed people to silence them. He was sent by Li Yao?"

"How can Li Yao send Huangfu Bin's men?"

Li Heng was a little stunned for a moment, then he reacted.

"Li Yao's mother, Huangfu Deyi, is from the same family as Huangfu Bin, so Huangfu Bin made his fortune by relying on Li Yao in the beginning. But later, Huangfu Bin became Li Heng's teacher and stood on the opposite side of Li Yao. However, some of Huangfu Bin's subordinates still miss Li Yao's feelings."

Li Ying figured it out.

If Dou Bai succeeds, the conspiracy will eventually be traced back to Huangfu Bin's followers. By then, it will be Huangfu Bin who instigated the matter. And Huangfu Bin is Li Heng's man, so if anyone is to be implicated, it will be Li Heng.

Moreover, Li Yao knew that many people knew that Zhang Mujin would reveal the news of Li Heng's itinerary to Imperial Physician Zhang. Revealing the news to Imperial Physician Zhang would mean revealing the news to the Prince's side.

Those who know the news would choose to ambush rather than follow the enemy when killing others.

But Li Yao chose to let Dou Bai follow him, in order to prevent others from suspecting the prince's party who knew the news.

I have to say, this trick of frame-up is very clever.

If Hongyue hadn't told him this news, he would still think that Dou Bai was instructed by Huangfu Bin.

But what about Huangfu Bin?
Didn't he take any action?
Could it be that the people who were ambushing in front were sent by Huangfu Bin?
If so, that means there are also people from Li Heng's side in the prince's team.

"Interesting, interesting." Li Ying stood up and said, "You are in me and I am in you. This is where all the bad things in the world go wrong."

Li Ying sighed and asked Hongyue, "Where do you think Dou Bai will go now?"

Hong Yue said: "He should contact the Tibetan secret agent and ask for asylum."

"You said before that you knew their base?" Li Heng asked.

"I know." Hongyue nodded.

"Okay, then let's get rid of the Tibetan secret agents first, and then deal with the affairs of Chang'an."

After Li Heng finished speaking, he was about to go out and call Gao Shi, but he saw Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing rushing in, exhausted.

Gao Xianzhi knelt as soon as he entered the room and said, "Your Highness, I have fulfilled my mission. The Arabs have withdrawn their troops."

(End of this chapter)