The Return of the King: A Generation of Prodigies

Chapter 425 Killing the chicken to scare the monkey

Li Rui saw that the court officials below all had pale faces and kept their heads down in silence.

Then he continued, "General Chu, I order you to send people to raid the homes of Li Zhishan, Sun Feng, and this Liu Xun."

"Gather all the evidence of their treason and hand it over to the Queen for disposal."

"All their property will be confiscated, and the men in their families will be exiled to the frontier and enlisted in the military, forced to fight for their country. The women will be sent to the Jiaofang Bureau to become official prostitutes. In short, no one will be spared."

Li Rui's punishment of Li Zhishan, Sun Feng, and Liu Xun was unprecedentedly harsh.

In the past, when this kind of thing happened, at most the whole family would be exiled to the frontier. It was not like this time, where they killed people, exiled them, and even sent the women in the family to the Jiaofangsi.

Because although these people were plotting treason, they were royal relatives after all, and the royal family still had to maintain its reputation.

But this time, 'Li Rui' directly tore off all his reputation and left no so-called face at all.

Of course, all the things that Li Rui did were approved by Shen Tianjiao. Without Shen Tianjiao's consent, he would not dare to be so bold.

In fact, it cannot be said that Shen Tianjiao agreed to this matter, because the person who made this decision was Ruan Yuhu.

It’s not Ruan Yuhu’s fault that he is cruel and determined to kill all these people.

They can only blame themselves for not being content with their lot and instead of enjoying their good lives, they are greedy and join others in rebellion, wanting to gain more power, status, fame and fortune.

In order to deal with these people, Shen Tianjiao has paid too much price, time and energy.

As a result, she was completely unable to free up her hands to implement her policies of governing the country and enriching the people, and she was unable to go to the northern border, which delayed her plan to conquer the nine provinces and six kingdoms.

The reason why Ruan Yuhu took such a heavy hand this time was actually because she had her considerations.

The reason why Yun Li has been involved in rebellions and treason one after another in recent years is that.

One reason is that someone is instigating it behind the scenes, and the other reason is that the punishment is not severe enough.

In the past, when such things happened, not only would all the family’s property be confiscated, but at most the entire family would be exiled.

Although exile is a very dangerous thing, none of those who dare to take the lead in rebellion are powerless and have no connection with the royal family.

Because of their close relationship with the royal family, most of the time, as long as someone arranged it for them in advance, the officials in charge of managing exile affairs would choose to turn a blind eye.

After all, although these people have fallen, the backing and connections behind them are still there, and no one would be stupid enough to offend them at will.

Because if you offend them, you might be retaliated against by the forces behind them one day.

Ruan Yuhu was not unaware of the twists and turns involved in this matter, but she was unable to do so before, even though she was willing to do so.

Now, if this matter cannot be completely resolved, Shen Tianjiao will be trapped in this matter endlessly and will not be able to free up her hands and feet to do other things.

This is why Nguyen Yuhu made up his mind to increase the punishment for these rebels in order to deter them and make them restrain their behavior.

In this way, Shen Tianjiao can get away from these things and do what she should do.

In the past, Ruan Yuhu didn’t think that Shen Tianjiao’s plan to attack the six kingdoms of Kyushu was important.

But now Ruan Yuhu has changed his mind, since he has determined that Shen Tianjiao wants to be the queen.

All of Ruan Yuhu's thoughts and actions began to be directed towards this goal.

She now has to consider the overall situation, rather than just thinking about how to help Shen Tianjiao manage Yun Li.

If Shen Tianjiao were to declare war on the six kingdoms of Jiuzhou and win a complete victory, then such a great achievement would be paving the way for Shen Tianjiao's future ascension to power.

So now Ruan Yuhu is strongly supporting Shen Tianjiao and declaring war on the six kingdoms of Jiuzhou.

But the prerequisite for declaring war on the six kingdoms of Kyushu is that Yunli’s internal situation must be stabilized as soon as possible.

Only in this way can Shen Tianjiao free up her hands to prepare for the war against the six kingdoms of Kyushu.

Of course, Shen Tianjiao cannot be the villain, so Li Rui, who is already dead, will be pulled out at this time to be a scapegoat and a shield.

Hearing what Li Rui said, Li Zhishan suddenly jumped up excitedly. If his mouth had not been blocked, he would have started cursing.

'Li Rui' looked at Li Zhishan jumping up and down, with a scornful smile on his face.

"Li Zhishan, I don't want to hear any dissatisfaction or resentment you have in your heart. It's better to wait until you die and go to the underworld to speak in person before our ancestors."

"Look at your ancestors. Will they forgive you? Will they listen to you talk about your grievances?"

"After all, the evil things you've done have reached the point where both humans and gods are outraged. I'm afraid that your ancestors would want you dead again just by seeing you."

Li Rui withdrew his gaze from Li Zhishan, looked at the courtiers below, and said, "I did this today not because I am cruel, nor because I am a ruthless and incompetent ruler."

"The punishments Li Zhishan, Sun Feng, and Liu Xun received today were all what they deserved."

"I have always been clear about rewards and punishments. I will not wrongly accuse a good person, but I will never let a bad person go."

"The reason I gathered all of you here today is to let you see with your own eyes what happened to Li Zhishan, Sun Feng, and Liu Xun."

"It's also to warn you, so that you can use your brain before doing anything in the future and think it through before you act, so as to avoid ending up like them, with your family torn apart and your head and body torn apart."

All the court officials below buried their heads in their chests and dared not show their faces, for fear that Li Rui, who was angry at the moment, would see their faces and suffer an unexpected disaster.

"Lift your heads and watch carefully what will happen to these traitors."

"You must always remember this scene today, otherwise their fate today will be your fate tomorrow."

"I am the crown prince appointed by the late emperor himself. I am the legitimate emperor of Yunli. Now I have appointed the crown prince. The kingdom of Yunli will belong to the crown prince from now on."

"Except for the Crown Prince, no one else can covet my throne!"

After Li Rui said this, the scene became eerily quiet.

The reason why the court officials were afraid of 'Li Rui' and not the Regent Shen Tianjiao was because they understood one thing very well, that is, their emperor was a ruthless man who could do anything.

In the past, when Li Rui was still in good health and was in charge of the government, he was an absolute madman, and he would do anything he wanted. Anyone who displeased him would suffer bad luck.

That 'Li Rui' can absolutely guarantee that you will suffer a fate worse than death. Not to mention ordinary court officials, even those aristocratic families and the elders of Yunli have been punished by him.

'Li Rui' is a man who does what he says. His style of doing things is completely different from Shen Tianjiao's.

Although Shen Tianjiao is now the queen regent, her status is equal to that of Li Rui, but Shen Tianjiao is not as cruel as Li Rui.

As the Queen Regent, she deals with things, not people. She will punish whoever makes a mistake and will never implicate the innocent. Moreover, Shen Tianjiao's attitude towards punishment is much milder than Li Rui's style of wanting to kill someone's entire family at every turn.

Seeing that everyone was silent, Li Rui turned around and ordered, "Begin the execution."

As soon as they heard 'Li Rui' say that the execution was about to take place, the other two, except Li Zhishan, fainted immediately.

The reason why Sun Feng and Liu Xun dared to follow Li Chaohui in rebellion, besides their greed, was that they had the support of powerful forces behind them.

They usually lived a life of luxury and were used to being praised by others, and before this incident, 'Li Rui' had never made things difficult for them.

So this creates the illusion that they can do anything.

But what they didn't expect was that the thing they spent so much time and effort on was declared bankrupt in just one day.

This gamble cost them and their families everything.

Of course, they cannot bear such a result, so fainting is the most normal thing.

Among these three people, only Li Zhishan has not fainted. The reason he did not faint is not because he has good psychological quality and can accept his failure calmly.

But at this time, Li Zhishan was already overwhelmed by anger. He tried his best to have a quarrel with Li Rui to vent his anger.

His anger now outweighed his fear of death.

Of course, there was another reason why he dared to do this, that was that he had only one daughter, who had married far away in Pizhou more than ten years ago.

"Li Rui" just said that the whole family should be convicted, but this whole family does not include the married daughter.

After his daughter got married, she became someone else's family and had nothing to do with him, Li Zhishan, so this incident would not affect his daughter in any way.

As for the other people in his house, since he, the master, was going to die, they would of course die with him.

So at this time, Li Zhishan became the courageous one among these people.

Listening to the humming sounds coming out of Li Zhishan's mouth and the noises made by his constant struggling, Li Rui frowned.

Then he ordered: "Take the cloth out of his mouth. Since he has so many complaints against me, I will grant his wish and let this dying man speak out what is in his heart."

"If not, wouldn't everyone here criticize me and say I'm arrogant and unreasonable?"

The guard immediately took the cloth out of Li Zhishan's mouth.

Li Zhishan was gasping for breath, and it took him a while to recover.

Just as he recovered, Li Zhishan started cursing, "Li Rui, I am still your elder after all. Even if you are the emperor now, you still have to respect your elders. What's the meaning of your behavior?"

"Humph!"

Li Rui snorted contemptuously and retorted, "Respect your elders? Li Zhishan, who gave you the nerve to act so arrogantly in front of me?"

"I am the ruler of a country. In my place, there is only ruler and subject, no distinction between old and young."

"You actually dared to speak such arrogant and disrespectful words in front of me today. You deserve to be punished even more severely. I will exterminate your entire clan."

Li Rui knew why Li Zhishan was still so arrogant at this point, so he hit Li Zhishan's weak spot as soon as he opened his mouth.

This move was indeed powerful, and Li Zhishan's arrogance immediately subsided a lot.

But Li Rui did not intend to let him go.

Li Rui continued to speak frantically, "It's true that your last name is Li, but the relationship between you and me is already five generations apart."

"Don't even mention you're my elder. You're not even my relative now."

"Do I need to remind you again? You are no longer a prince. You are just a commoner now."

"You are here today not because I hold you in high esteem, but because you are one of the masterminds behind Li Zhaohui's rebellion."

"I am not letting you participate in this heaven sacrifice to give you honor, but to slap you in the face. Not only will I slap you in front of the entire court, but I will also slap you in front of our ancestors."

"Don't you know how you were deprived of the throne?"

"You're not even worthy of being a human being, and you dare to rebel? And you still dream of continuing to hold a high position and abuse your power?"

"If your plan with Li Zhaohui succeeds today, it can only mean one thing: the fate of our Yunli nation has run out and it is doomed to perish."

"In front of our ancestors, you are nothing but a worm, yet you still dare to speak nonsense here."

"I'm afraid that after you die, when you meet your ancestors in the underworld, they will be disgusted by the sight of you and will spit in your face and drown you again."

Li Rui's outburst was as ferocious as a tiger, and it completely stunned Li Zhishan and everyone present.

However, what Li Rui said left everyone present with no reason to refute.

This Li Zhishan is really a piece of shit. Other playboys from aristocratic families can only bully men and women and cause a few deaths.

But the evil things Li Zhishan did really cannot be described in words, otherwise he would not have been deprived of his hereditary throne.

Li Rui did not kill Li Zhishan back then, not because he did not want to, but because the old men in the royal family strongly opposed it, so he had to give up.

But no matter who comes today, no one can stop Li Zhishan's fate of death.

"Don't worry, Li Zhishan. After you die, I will send someone to Pizhou."