The common people could also see that Li Qitian and Xiong Jinshui’s group were either wealthy or noble—not people they could afford to offend. Some of the bolder ones immediately became curious about Li Qitian, their gazes constantly glancing in his direction from time to time.

Li Qitian took a deep breath to calm himself somewhat, so he wouldn’t do something to the onlooking common people on the spot. He very much wanted to immediately reveal his identity as the Son of Heaven to make these people not dare to act presumptuously anymore.

But the words reached his lips and were swallowed back.

At this moment, the Son of Heaven’s image had been completely destroyed. If Li Qitian revealed his identity in public, he would very likely face questioning from the common people. Could he arrest all those who questioned him?

Since he couldn’t, and he couldn’t lose face before his subjects while needing to maintain the Son of Heaven’s lofty image, this was not the time to expose his identity.

Li Qitian stood in place with his hands behind his back, waiting for Xiong Jinshui to lead people to disperse the onlooking crowd and tear down the proclamation, then bring it to him with both hands.

He was too lazy to look at the writing again, only bringing the paper close to carefully examine the imperial seal’s imprint once more.

It seemed to be real…

“Return to the palace. Order someone to open the storeroom and find edicts from the previous dynasty for comparison.” Li Qitian said with a dark expression as he departed.

Xiong Jinshui hurriedly acknowledged and had people make arrangements.

Li Qitian summoned several trusted ministers, and they spent an entire afternoon comparing everything. Finally, they could confirm that the seal was indeed not fake—even which parts had raised or recessed areas, which parts weren’t smooth enough, and the angles were all identical.

In the imperial study, everyone was frowning in deep thought.

Li Qitian said, “What do you all think—is this Northern Ji prince’s identity authentic?”

Back then he had indeed ordered people to massacre the Northern Ji rear palace, killing everyone who should be killed without leaving a single one. But in such a vast imperial palace, he couldn’t have killed everyone himself—naturally he had used his subordinates to carry out the task.

Among them, which person had carelessly let that prince escape, or was there someone who had deliberately done so, leaving behind a prince from that time?

“What Zhou Lian—I’ve never even heard of him!” Li Qitian gulped down some tea and casually threw the tea bowl on the table. The tea spilled all over the table, frightening Xiong Jinshui into immediately using his sleeve to wipe it up.

The ministers looked at each other, and one stepped forward saying, “In response to Your Majesty, the previous dynasty did indeed have a prince named Zhou Lian, born to Consort Yu. Back then Consort Yu was only a Lady, and she died after giving birth to the prince. The Northern Ji emperor then posthumously elevated her to consort rank, while the prince was given to Consort Lian, who held the primary position in Fuchun Palace where Consort Yu had resided, to raise. Later, records in the previous dynasty’s Imperial Clan Court stated that Consort Lian’s palace servants were negligent in their duties, and the young prince, only five years old, fell into a pond in the imperial garden and drowned. That drowned prince was called Zhou Lian. But no one expected that he actually hadn’t died. If he’s alive now, he should be sixteen or seventeen years old.”

Li Qitian’s eyes narrowed coldly.

He naturally understood rear palace intrigue. That tyrant of Northern Ji had no other abilities, but he certainly had many offspring. It seemed that Zhou Lian wasn’t particularly favored either.

“A prince who should have drowned has suddenly appeared now.” Li Qitian sneered coldly. “Either the records were wrong and he deliberately faked his death, or someone is impersonating his identity! I believe it’s the latter.”

A prince whose birth mother had died, who had been raised by Consort Lian from a young age—how could he have thought to guard against Consort Lian faking his death to escape? He must have truly died.

So now, someone was using the previous dynasty’s imperial seal to impersonate a prince of the former dynasty!

Li Qitian made this judgment, grinding his teeth in hatred.

Seeing the Son of Heaven in such a state, the ministers didn’t dare say much.

Li Qitian angrily ground his molars. “What does this mean! Getting hold of the previous dynasty’s seal and then daring to issue commands to the realm before me. That Zhou Lian is simply shameless! We should tell the constables below to search the entire city for proclamations that haven’t been posted yet.”

In Li Qitian’s view, this was the best method available at the moment.

“Whoever dares to spread rumors, once I catch them, I absolutely won’t spare them lightly!”

Several ministers all bowed their heads in salute and hurriedly went to carry out the orders according to his instructions.

However, this search process was like looking for a needle in a haystack. The constables had limited manpower, and Li Qitian later added the Capital Guards to assist. But searching house by house was extremely disruptive to the people. Using the pretext of capturing dangerous criminals, they instead made the common people anxious and fearful, enveloping the entire capital in tension and solemnity.

The common people who had just experienced the baptism of war now feared such events most of all. Everyone privately discussed what kind of dangerous criminals these were, and eventually connected it all to the “proclamation” incident from a few days ago.

Thinking this way, it all made sense. The current emperor had seized power by destroying Northern Ji, and now a Northern Ji prince had appeared—naturally the current ruler feared that Northern Ji might rise from the ashes.

There were many clever people, and once everyone figured out this reasoning, they naturally didn’t dare discuss it further. Finally, there were no more people in the capital discussing the former dynasty prince and the imperial seal. But the capital also displayed an atmosphere of dark clouds pressing down on the city, with everyone on edge.

Just as the Capital Guards were conducting extensive searches, overnight, proclamations were again posted on several main streets. The positions of the imperial seals were the same as last time, and the contents were very similar.

Only this time, former dynasty Prince Zhou Lian, in his capacity as imperial clan, severely condemned Li Qitian’s selfish and self-serving evil deeds of not caring whether common people lived or died.

These were again seen by the common people to their heart’s content. By the time the Capital Guards and Shuntian Prefecture officials arrived to tear down the proclamations, everyone had seen about as much as they could.

Such searches continued for over twenty days, still without any leads.

Just then, a fast horse galloped into the capital. The rider held up a victory report and shouted loudly, “Great victory! Great victory! Prince Zhongshun and Duke Dingguo, together with loyalist forces from various regions, struck directly at the Tatar capital, captured the Tatar Khan alive, and now the Tatars are leaderless and have sent people to surrender! The Tatar Khan and the families of the traitorous rebel Lu Heng have been escorted to the capital to await Your Majesty’s judgment!”

The mounted rider spurred his horse toward the imperial palace, loudly repeating these words all the way—a very practiced manner, clearly having said this set of words many times along the route.

Upon hearing this, the common people immediately began clapping and cheering, sweeping away the recent tension and gloom. Everyone said, “Come on, let’s quickly go to the city gate to see them escorting the Tatars and traitors!”

“Right, right! How many years has it been—we’ve been bullied all this time. This really lets out a breath of frustration!”

“Prince Zhongshun and Duke Dingguo are mighty! This battle was truly not easy!”

The common people were jubilant, and even more so, those advanced in years who had experienced the Tatar iron cavalry’s trampling were already wiping away tears of excitement.

It was precisely because of constant warfare that their lives had been precarious, forcing them to wander homeless.

What they longed for was nothing more than peaceful, stable, self-sufficient lives, and Prince Zhongshun and Lu Heng working together had accomplished this!

The victory report spread through every street and alley. Almost all the common people in the capital poured out, surging toward the city gates to wait along both sides of the road for the prison carts to enter the city.