61: Li Shimin was forced into a desperate situation!

That single phrase, “How should it be handled?”

It was like an invisible giant hammer, carrying immense force, smashing heavily onto the golden bricks of Taiji Hall, and even more so, striking Li Shimin’s heart.

The air in the entire hall was instantly sucked dry, becoming thin and scorching hot.

Li Shimin’s chest heaved violently, the muscles beneath his Dragon robe tensing like iron.

He looked at his tall and upright son below the steps, and for the first time, he felt a strange, bone-chilling coldness.

This was not his son, Chengqian.

This was his enemy.

An enemy who, with the most respectful posture, forced him into a desperate situation!

He wanted to speak, to reprimand, to use the Emperor’s supreme authority to suppress this presumptuous question.

But a lump of burning charcoal was stuck in his throat, each word too hot for him to utter.

How to handle it?

How could he handle it?

Kill Cui Renshi?

That would be equivalent to him, the Emperor, bowing to the Crown Prince!

It would be equivalent to admitting that Li Shimin couldn’t even control his own court affairs!

The Qinghe Cui Clan had been entrenched in the Central Plains for hundreds of years, deeply rooted, and touching one part would affect the whole.

If he executed one Cui Renshi today, would the Five Surnames and Seven Clans tomorrow not feel insecure and unite to cause him trouble?

But if he didn’t kill… Li Shimin’s peripheral vision swept over the hundreds of officials below the steps.

Those officials who usually kept their heads down, though still bowing their heads now, he could feel that every pair of ears was perked up, and every gaze was secretly peeking towards the Dragon Throne from the corners of their eyes.

The evidence was conclusive, the culprits caught red-handed.

The imperial examination system he personally championed, the laws he was so proud of, were now a knife handed to him by Li Chengqian, with the hilt facing Li Chengqian, but the tip pressed firmly against Li Shimin’s throat.

To advance was to have his throat cut.

To retreat was to lose a limb.

“Chengqian,”

Li Shimin finally spoke, Li Shimin finally began to soften his tone.

No matter what, he had to protect the Cui Clan.

The Qinghe Cui Clan was the foremost noble family in the realm, the head of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans.

“This matter… is of great importance, with wide-ranging implications, and should… be deliberated at length, it cannot…”

His words were cut short by Li Chengqian.

Li Chengqian did not retort, nor did he even look at him; instead, his gaze turned to a trembling figure in the civil official ranks.

“Minister of Justice, Lord Zhang.”

Li Chengqian’s voice remained steady, yet it carried an irresistible penetrating power.

The Minister of Justice, Zhang Lin, whose name was called, trembled violently and almost collapsed to the ground.

He felt as if he was being stared at by a fierce tiger; the blood throughout his body instantly froze.

“Your… Your servant is here…”

Zhang Lin stammered in response.

“Lord Zhang, you are in charge of our Great Tang’s criminal law, a national paragon.”

Li Chengqian’s tone carried no hint of anger, as if he were merely conducting an ordinary inquiry, “This Prince asks you, according to the ‘Tang Code and Commentaries,’ what is the crime for imperial examination fraud, colluding with officials, and selling official positions?”

Zhang Lin’s cold sweat immediately poured down.

He looked up, pleadingly gazing at Li Shimin on the Dragon Throne.

He saw His Majesty’s eyes, almost spitting fire; the warning and killing intent in those eyes made his legs go weak.

But when he looked back at the Crown Prince, that calm, unruffled gaze struck him with more fear than the Emperor’s thunderous rage.

The Emperor’s anger was like a landslide, a tsunami, immense in power, yet predictable.

But the Crown Prince’s stillness was like a bottomless cold abyss; you didn’t know what lay hidden within, and once you fell in, it was eternal damnation.

If he dared to protect the Cui Clan today, dared to twist the law, he had no doubt that tomorrow, the second household to be raided would be his own, the Minister of Justice’s residence!

His Highness the Crown Prince could unearth decades of Cui Renshi’s past; Zhang Lin secretly admitted that his own past wasn’t that clean!

“What? Has Lord Zhang forgotten?”

Li Chengqian’s voice carried a faint hint of urgency, “Or are you saying that the laws of our Great Tang become a mere scrap of paper in Taiji Hall?”

“Your… Your servant dares not!”

Zhang Lin’s Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, he no longer dared to hesitate for a moment.

His legs trembling, he practically shuffled out of the court ranks, each step like treading on knife edges.

He walked to the center of the great hall, dropped to his knees with a thud, burying his head low, his voice trembling uncontrollably.

“Reporting… Reporting to Your Highness, replying… replying to Your Majesty…”

“Imperial examination fraud… is a grave crime that shakes the Foundation of the nation!”

“According to the ‘Tang Code and Commentaries’… ‘All those who carry forbidden texts, transmit, ghostwrite, or reveal examination topics in the imperial examination halls, including the final examination, shall be punished with one hundred strokes of the heavy rod and forever barred from officialdom’!”

At this point, he paused, seemingly trying to get away with it.

But Li Chengqian’s cold gaze, like a tangible sword, hung over his head.

Zhang Lin closed his eyes, steeled his heart, and practically roared out.

“If… if the circumstances are severe, involving the selling of official positions and titles, leading to… leading to affecting the court and corrupting national ordinances…”

“Then… execute!”

The final word “execute,” like a bolt from the blue, thundered in the dead silence of Taiji Hall!

Buzz—!

Everyone’s minds went blank.

Cui Renshi, who was slumped on the ground, let out an inhuman gurgling cry upon hearing that word, his eyes rolled back, and he completely fainted, a foul-smelling liquid rapidly spreading beneath him.

He regretted it.

He truly regretted it!

Why did he have to step forward?

Why did he have to provoke this killing god!

He now only wished he could go back to this morning; he would definitely feign illness and stay home, rather die than attend court!

Among the officials, there was a collective gasp of cold air.

Zhangsun Wuji’s face was so grim it could drip water; he looked at Li Chengqian, his eyes filled with apprehension and shock.

Wei Zheng, who was at odds with Li Chengqian, now frowned deeply; he had dedicated his life to straightforward remonstrance and hated corruption the most, yet at this moment, looking at Li Chengqian’s back, a chill ran through him.

This was no longer a simple punishment for evil; this was an overt scheme, a forced abdication!

Li Chengqian seemed oblivious to everything around him.

He slowly turned around, facing the Dragon Throne once more, and bowed deeply to his purple-faced father.

This time, his voice carried a sense of sorrow, a noble and righteous Qi for the nation and its people.

“Imperial Father!”

“The heavens are clear, and the sun shines brightly!”

“The Foundation of our Great Tang, the hope of our myriad poor scholars, all depend on this!”

“Now, the evidence is like a mountain, and the law is like a knife!”

He raised his head, his gaze directly meeting Li Shimin’s on the Dragon Throne, and he said, word by word: “How to punish, to uphold national law, to serve as a warning to others, and to reassure the scholars of the realm!”

“Please, Imperial Father… make your decision!”

As his voice fell, he bowed deeply again, remaining on his knees.

The entire Taiji Hall was silent.

All eyes, all pressure, all contradictions, at this moment, converged on that solitary Dragon Throne.

Li Shimin sat there, feeling that the Dragon Throne, crafted from South China Sea sandalwood and gold, was now colder than ten thousand-year-old black ice from Siberia.

He had been put on the spot.

By the son he had placed his greatest hopes in, using the laws he himself had established, using the popular sentiment and reputation he valued most, he was placed over a pile of raging flames capable of burning all his imperial stratagems to ashes, repeatedly roasted.

How to decide?

Li Shimin, at this moment, was forced into a desperate situation by Li Chengqian!

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