Everyone in my harem is talented

Chapter 543 Test

"Before, I was able to seize his peach of stabilizing Annan. Now that Jiaozhou is stabilizing, I can also seize the fruits of conquering the Three Kingdoms first."

"I hope that the news that the royal families of the three countries hired assassins to kill the Seventh Prince will spread to the territories of Jiaozhou, Pagan, Siam, and Luohu."

The emperor is far away and he cannot interfere with the public opinion in the capital. His wife, Qin Miaoyin, is said to be the most favored princess of Qi by the late emperor. Now she has become the eldest princess, but her relationship with His Majesty is mediocre. She is not very smart. When encountering problems, she can only rush around like a headless fly and ask for help everywhere. Meng Xingye has never counted on her.

As for his biological sister Meng Xinghe, a woman in the deep palace, if she could have come up with an idea to rescue him from the calculations of someone thousands of miles away, she would not be just Concubine Hui now.

The heavy rain outside blew away the heat in my heart. In the dim house, the flame of the tinderbox puffed and lit up.

The man in Confucian robes in the shadows lit the candle, and his true face was revealed in the flickering candlelight.

Li Xiguang sighed softly, feeling deeply regretful. "Why is this happening? If you mobilize your troops now, people will mistakenly think you're planning to establish independence."

"The message you asked me to spread concealed the location where the Seventh Prince was assassinated... Are you trying to shift the blame onto an external enemy? This isn't a very clever idea. To me, it's like trying to cover your ears and steal the bell. Are you, General, desperately worried?"

Li Xiguang deliberately looked at Meng Xingye with suspicion.

He traveled between Jiaozhou and the Three Kingdoms without holding an official position, so he was just called a commoner. He had a vague guess about Meng Xingye's purpose.

"And General Meng, you also know that this news cannot reach the court."

"Your Highness the Fifth and Seventh Princes, as princes, you have used your own precious lives to frame you, framing you as disloyal, unjust, and incompetent. We never intended for you to return alive and speak."

"In Jiaozhou, anyone with some ability, even skilled farmers, has been sent to the capital as gifts by the two princes. The rest of the people are silent. The soldiers and generals under your command are now your subordinates. Once you leave, who is willing to risk their lives to seek justice for you?"

"I'm afraid they're all happily distributing the fruits. It's already a rare thing for me to offer you a stick of incense and a few words of regret during the festival."

Meng Xingye sat down with his horse and sword, looking at Li Xiguang coldly, "Can't I be so detached from the world that I only wish to die on the battlefield to repay your kindness?"

"It is I who am narrow-minded." Li Xiguang felt ashamed when he heard that.

"Before the Fifth and Seventh Princes came south, the Third and Fourth Princes sent someone to bring a letter to me, saying that His Majesty had sent two groups of people to monitor them. One group was from Lin Su, the consort of the eldest princess, and the other group was from Lin Qingyu, the cousin of the virtuous concubine."

"You said His Majesty sent two people with close ties to the Fifth and Seventh Princes to monitor the two high princes. Originally, the Fifth Prince's side could have monitored the Seventh Prince, and the Seventh Prince's side could have monitored the Fifth Prince, with both monitoring each other. But... the Fifth and Seventh Princes colluded and came together."

"Once the events in the south are over, Your Majesty will have witnessed the loyalty of all parties. The Seventh Prince has pledged his loyalty to the Fifth Prince. I wonder if the eldest princess's consort, Lin Su, will follow his brother-in-law, the Seventh Prince, and pledge his loyalty to the Fifth Prince."

"The Fifth Prince's deception of the Guangdong and Guangdong naval forces is not over. I will not let him take any actual credit. However, how he brags about it and how he misappropriates my achievements to attribute them to himself is entirely up to the Fifth Prince. I actually hope everyone, from top to bottom, will help him steal my credit."

"Your Highnesses staged the assassination for everyone to see, without hiding it from me. This is a clear intention to force me into a corner, to let me die knowingly, to let me know that I must die. They claim it's a test of my loyalty to Your Majesty, but in reality, it only leaves me with two options: rebel and kill my entire family, or kill myself."

As long as Your Majesty is alive, he will have no chance to establish himself. Where can he escape to? He cannot survive in a cowardly way. There is only one way to go, and that is death.

"Your Highnesses have shown such devotion to me, how could I possibly let them down? My loyalty to Your Majesty is unparalleled, but I wonder who could have chosen the wrong person."

Li Xiguang frowned.

"I have written two swan letters. One of them expresses my unwavering loyalty to Your Majesty, my inability to defend myself, my desperation, and my determination to repay Your Majesty's kindness with my own death."

"It accuses the Fifth Prince of bribing the soldiers and sidelining me, and the Seventh Prince of buying the hearts of the people. It's also a confession of my own incompetence, and expresses my concern for Your Majesty. These are all words uttered with tears and blood."

"I will seal these two letters after you have read them. You may keep them and use them as you please."

"While I'm raiding the Three Kingdoms to avenge the assassination of the Seventh Prince, I'll have someone continue investigating the assassination. I want you to mislead the uncle and nephew of the Lin family into believing that the Fifth and Seventh Princes are innocent of this matter."

In this way, the information they sent back to the capital would make people think that these two people put the two princes above His Majesty and gave their loyalty to the princes, and they could no longer be trusted.

"How can General Meng be so sure that I will help you, and not His Royal Highness the Fifth Prince, who will allow me to realize my ambitions?"

"I won't speculate whether you are the Third Prince's man. I'll just ask you...how does it feel to stir up trouble?"

Li Xiguang was stunned for a moment, then chuckled softly, "I never thought General Meng would see through my true self. So, I'll tell you the truth. This feeling of calling the wind and rain, stirring up trouble, is incomparably refreshing."