Just sixteen days later, a thousand elite soldiers of the Forbidden Army rode hard from Chang'an to Luoyang, the Eastern Capital, whipping their swift horses onward day and night.
The emperor was old, suspicious by nature, and plagued by illness, making him ever more sensitive to anything that dared encroach upon imperial authority. Upon receiving the denunciation from Dou Jing, Prefect of Henan Prefecture, along with the crucial evidence-the lion's mane-he erupted in imperial fury. He immediately ordered the Minister of Punishments and the commanding general of the Left Imperial Guards to lead troops to Luoyang at full speed and deal with this brother who presumed to rebel against him.
The thousand soldiers of the Forbidden Army joined the two thousand men of the Yamen Army under Dou Jing, surrounding the Prince of Qi's Residence so tightly that not a drop of water could pass through. Yet the officials and generals commanding them all understood without saying so that this was merely a formality. Li Yu, the Prince of Qi, had been assassinated more than half a month earlier. Only his wives, concubines, children, and grandchildren remained inside, awaiting investigation, utterly powerless to resist. Had there truly been any rebels or death-defying retainers, they should already have been found.
Dou Jing handed over the sixty suits of "armor" he had confiscated, and Wei Changfu, the Minister of Punishments, spotted the discrepancy at a glance. But the emperor's position was perfectly clear: he had long harbored suspicions toward this elder brother. Whatever material the armor was actually made of, the charge of rebellion was already established. Anyone who dared exonerate the Prince of Qi would be openly affronting the emperor.
To flesh out Li Yu's crimes and make the case ironclad, Wei Changfu personally led men to dig three feet into