Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors

Even if there was no rebellion at this time, what about later as time passed?

Just then, the Crown Prince appropriately said, "Father, even if Lord Qin is not to be killed now, he should still be held accountable. Otherwise, if Father repeatedly indulges him, Lord Qin will become even more arrogant and reckless, no longer taking Father into consideration.

"In my opinion, Father should issue an imperial edict to reprimand Lord Qin, dismantle the Heavenly Strategy Mansion, to show a rattling of the mountains and tigers, warning Lord Qin to rein in his behavior."

Clearly, the two brothers also deeply understood the art of negotiation.

If one starts off by asking to open a window, it is mostly likely to be refused; but if one first suggests tearing off the roof and then retreats to just asking for a window to be opened, then the likelihood of this proposal being accepted greatly increases.

Sure enough, Emperor Gaozu of Liang fell silent once again.

The Crown Prince's proposal was indeed a good strategy.

Emperor Gaozu of Liang also did not want to see Lord Qin's power expand unchecked, but after all, he was not an ordinary meritorious subject, but his own second son, tied to him by blood; he couldn't be disposed of as easily as other meritorious subjects.

Although Emperor Gaozu of Liang often played favorites among his three sons, he still had paternal feelings for Lord Qin.

After a long silence, Emperor Gaozu of Liang nodded, "Alright, if that is so, then I will have someone draft such an edict."

The Crown Prince and Prince Qi left, overjoyed.

However, after the two of them left, Emperor Gaozu of Liang immediately found the current Prime Minister, wanting him to draft such an edict.

Yet, Prime Minister Chen Shuda was terribly alarmed, "Your Majesty, this must not be done!

"Lord Qin has made significant contributions to the world, how can he be dismissed lightly? Moreover, Lord Qin is a man of strong character, extremely resolute; if suppressed with such an unjustifiable reason, I fear his heart will be filled with irreconcilable grief, leading to an unforeseen illness!

"By then, it will be too late for regret!"

Emperor Gaozu of Liang was silent once again.

After pondering for a long time, he still decided not to issue the edict.

As for exactly what made Emperor Gaozu of Liang change his mind, that's hard to say.

The key to Chen Shuda's original words lay in four characters: "unforeseen illness."

The character "illness" in ancient texts has many meanings, such as harm, jealousy, detest, rapidity, fierceness, etc. But here, "illness" could only have two interpretations.

The first explanation is its original meaning, which is "disease," and the second explanation is its extended meaning, such as "flaw, fault, disaster," and so forth.

Chen Shuda's words were indeed profoundly crafted.

He did not say "unforeseen disaster" but used the word "illness," conveying two meanings at once.

The first meaning hinted that Lord Qin, being of strong character, might fall ill out of anger and die if pressed too hard.

This was intended to awaken Emperor Gaozu of Liang's paternal compassion.

The second meaning suggested that forcibly suppressing Lord Qin could lead to unforeseeable calamities.

And this hinted at the risks involved in taking such action.

As for which interpretation Emperor Gaozu of Liang focused on, only he himself would know.

Li Hongyun leaned towards the second interpretation.

Clearly, although Emperor Gaozu of Liang temporarily abandoned the idea of punishing Lord Qin, his suspicion towards Lord Qin would intensify after this incident.

Because in the process of deciding to issue the edict and then canceling it, Emperor Gaozu of Liang realized that even as the emperor, it was no longer easy to deal with Lord Qin arbitrarily.

And this was unacceptable to an emperor.

Even if the other party was his own son.

In history, there had been numerous incidents where emperors personally took action to execute their Crown Princes, not to mention Lord Qin was not the Crown Prince.

The palace intrigue came to a temporary close, and Li Hongyun turned his attention back to Yuchi Jingde's residence.

He hadn't looked too closely at what had happened here before, but now, zooming in for a closer observation, Li Hongyun almost laughed out loud.

Because the light that had been lingering outside Yuchi Jingde's residence for a long time was actually an assassin!

Clearly, after failing to enlist Yuchi Jingde's support, the Crown Prince and Prince Qi had resorted to another method.

If they couldn't win him over, then assassination was the next step.

Yuchi Jingde held an extremely high position within Lord Qin Mansion, being Lord Qin's absolute loyalist and right-hand man.

In hindsight, Yuchi Jingde indeed played a major role in the Xuanwu Gate Incident, being the first to be rewarded for his contributions.

The Crown Prince and Prince Qi were not wrong in their decision, but the only problem was...

Assassinating Yuchi Jingde?

What kind of genius idea could have spawned from such a thought process?

Yuchi Jingde had all the doors of his residence wide open with no guards arranged, and he himself was fast asleep in his room.

And after seeing Yuchi Jingde's open nature, the assassin was so moved that he woke Yuchi Jingde and explained his purpose.

The two of them actually became friends unto death because of this.

Afterwards, Yuchi Jingde treated the assassin with great hospitality, adding to the respect before sending him off.

Seeing this, Li Hongyun frowned slightly once again.

This clearly seemed too idealistic, evidently an effect after fiction embellishment.

With Li Hongyun's intervention, the scene became more realistic.

Yuchi Jingde had advanced knowledge of the assassin's intent to kill him, so he opened all the doors in his home and was fast asleep.

But this was not to show the assassin his open-heartedness, attempting to subdue the assassin with the righteousness of the jianghu, it was more akin to a strategy of deceiving into complacency.