Chapter 646: What Kind Of Fart Can He Produce?....
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
It was indeed Xie Jun’s men who abducted Xie Rui.
They brought Xie Rui all the way back to their hideout. “The few of you guard the surroundings. You must not let his people find this place.”
“Yes, Sir.”
They knocked Xie Rui unconscious and tied him up securely before tossing him into the house.
“Leader, it really is the First Prince.” After that person settled Xie Rui down, he immediately went to another room.
The person in this room got up and went to check. With the help of the dim candlelight, he saw Xie Rui’s face clearly.
“So the rumors are true. He really came to this godforsaken place.” “Leader, we also heard that the First Prince wanted to take over the iron mine but failed. He was even locked up by the other party’s people. They wanted him to hand over the iron-smelting technique. Those people were only willing to release him after he promised to get the iron-smelting technique.”
The leader was very shocked. “Such a matter happened? Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
“I just heard about it. We were lucky to bump into them while they were rescuing him. Otherwise, we would have killed him before we abducted him.
That way, His Highness would have one less strong competitor.
“Do not act on your own before receiving His Highness’s explicit instructions.
You may go. Keep a close watch on him.
“Yes, Leader.”
The Jin State had yet to appoint a Crown Prince, and the two most popular candidates for the Crown Prince’s position were the First Prince Xie Rui and the
Second Prince Xie Jun.
Xie Rui had the backing of his mother’s family, which was Prime Minister Zhou’s faction, while the Second Prince was the grandson of the Great General Zhenyuan. The two factions, one civil and the other military, were evenly matched.
Not long ago, Xie Jun found out that Xie Rui had secretly gone to the northern wilderness. He had thought that it was strange back then, so he sent people to investigate and found out what Xie Rui had done in the northern wilderness.
In the Second Prince’s Mansion in the Jin State.
When the Second Prince Xie Jun heard the news from the scout, he couldn’t suppress the smile on his face. Xie Rui was really stupid to the extreme. He wanted to grab whatever credit available and take whatever advantage there
was.
“Your Highness, now that he is in our hands, what are your plans?
Xie Jun paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back. After a while, he asked, “Does Grandfather and the rest know about this?” “Your Highness, the news has already been sent to the General’s Residence. The Great General’s intention is that even if that fellow dies, he must not die in our hands. As for what to do with him, it’s up to Your Highness.”
Xie Jun was very satisfied with his maternal grandfather’s reply. It was true that he had to rely on their strength, but the person who could really make the decision was still him.
“It’s not enough to take his life. Don’t the people from the northern wilderness want the iron-smelting technique? Just give it to them.”
The trusted aide was very shocked. “Your Highness, that… that is a capital crime!”
They knew better than anyone how important the iron-smelting technique was. It was because of this that the Emperor divided the iron-smelting technique into three parts and distributed them to the three different factions.
One part was in the hands of the Prime Minister’s faction. Another part was in the hands of Great General Zhenyuan’s faction while the last part was in the hands of the Emperor himself.
Even if they wanted to give the iron-smelting technique to someone else, it would be very difficult for the receiver to lay his hands on the remaining two parts.
Xie Jun laughed confidently. “I have my ways.”
Recently, the Jin State’s ruler was obsessed with women, and a group of beautiful women had just entered the palace. Each of them was as beautiful as a flower.
Every night, the ruler of the Jin State would choose a different beautiful woman to serve him in his bedroom. And he even split it into 2 sessions.
At night, the Jin State’s ruler would cavort in bed until it was almost dawn before falling asleep.
The beauty lying beside him slowly opened her two eyes after hearing his regular breathing.
The ruler had a brocade pouch on him which he would carry with him every day. Even when he took it off to sleep, he would still put the pouch under his pillow.
The beauty got up and carefully took out the brocade pouch from under the pillow. After opening the pouch, she saw two black pills and a strange key inside.
She took out the key and pressed it hard on the lump of soft mud hidden in her hair. After making imprints of both sides of the key, she put the key back. Three days later, a fire broke out in the storage pavilion of the Imperial Palace in the Jin State. Fortunately, it was the rainy spring season, and the fire did not spread. It was put out by the palace guards who discovered it while on patrol. Even so, the fire still burned the entrance of the storage pavilion until it became charred. From afar, it looked like a piece of charcoal.
When the ruler received the news, he rushed to the storage pavilion overnight. After sending everyone away, he opened the secret compartment of the storage pavilion and found that it was empty.
The ruler flew into a rage and immediately ordered the arrest of the thieves who had stolen from the storage pavilion. He said that he had lost the part of the iron-smelting technique that was in his hands!
A thief had entered the palace to steal the iron-smelting technique. This was no small matter. The palace guards immediately sealed the city gates and conducted a blanket search throughout the entire city.
After quite a few days, they still couldn’t find the iron-smelting technique, but there was another piece of news in the capital city.
The First Prince had trespassed into the northern wilderness on his own accord and was captured by the people of the northern wilderness. The other party wanted the First Prince to hand over all parts of the iron-smelting technique before they would let him go!
News of this incident spread to the Prime Minister’s Mansion immediately. Even Prime Minister Zhou, who had weathered all kinds of storms, panicked in that instant.
Previously, they were still thinking about how to save the First Prince before plotting how to defeat the Second Prince. To their surprise, the Second Prince decided to launch a big operation and catch them off guard.
What was the point of taking Xie Rui’s life? It wasn’t like Empress Zhou couldn’t give birth to another son. What the Second Prince wanted was to bring down the Prime Minister’s faction that was supporting Xie Rui.
After all, Xie Rui had been captured. Who else had the ability to send people to steal the things in the storage pavilion? In this palace, besides the Emperor, who else had more power than the Empress?
“Xie Jun’s move is certainly vicious enough! He wants my entire clan to die! Prime Minister Zhou took a deep breath to calm himself down. He couldn’t afford to be flustered at this moment, or else it would be even easier for the enemy to take advantage of the situation.
“Father, what should we do? Are we just going to let him manipulate us like this?”
Prime Minister Zhou’s white brows furrowed tightly.
“Think of a way to send a letter into the palace to tell the Empress not to act rashly. Then, tell her to get people to investigate who set the fire in the storage pavilion. She must not get tainted by this matter at all.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Go and make the preparations. I want to change into my official robe and enter the palace to beg the Emperor to save him.”
“Father, you want to enter the palace?” Would the Emperor believe them if they entered the palace at this point to explain?
Prime Minister Zhou nodded. “Yes. All of you go and investigate. Find out who spread that rumor. Dig that fellow out for me.”
“Yes, Father.”
Prime Minister Zhou proceeded decisively to the outside of the palace gate. However, he did not immediately seek an audience with the Emperor. Instead, he knelt outside the palace gates and begged the Emperor to save the First Prince.
At this moment, the Emperor was extremely annoyed by the rumors and was about to mock Prime Minister Zhou mercilessly when he heard that the latter had arrived. To his surprise, Prime Minister Zhou was here to beg him to save the First Prince.
“Now he is thinking of begging me to save him? What was he doing earlier? Does he think that he’s too capable? My son was captured but he didn’t tell me and was sneaking around doing other things behind my back. Why don’t I just give up my position to them?”
The ruler of the Jin State was angry, but he still wanted to hear what kind of fart Prime Minister Zhou was capable of producing..