Tiantang Splendid

Chapter 4008 Your heart is like iron
Fang Jun turned and retreated, took two steps, turned around again, under His Majesty Li Er's scorching gaze, carefully moved two steps forward, then quickly squatted down and grabbed Liang Guan, turned around and ran...

His Majesty Li Er was so angry that he cursed again: "Bastard!"

Wang Shoushi offered warm tea on the ground at the side, and said in a low voice, "Duke Yue certainly has merit, but disobeying His Majesty's decree this time is a death penalty. Why didn't His Majesty punish him?"

"capital offense?"

His Majesty Li Er drank his saliva, snorted, and said helplessly: "Don't say anything about capital crimes, even if I seize his military power and title now, and take all his official positions to the end, do you believe there will be tens of thousands of people in the morning tomorrow morning?" The army roared and clamored, forcing me to take back my order?"

The emperor is the supreme being in the world, but can he really do whatever he wants?
Stop bullshitting.

Why have imperial power, ministerial power, and military power always conflicted and checked each other since ancient times?Fang Jun has made great achievements in these years, and when it comes to military merits alone, even compared to Li Jing and Li Ji, the top ministers of Zhenguan, he is not far behind.

This time guarding the East Palace turned defeat into victory, it is justifiable to help the country and save the building from falling. Not only the court has a lot of praise for him, but the people will also gain a lot of prestige from him. The prosperity of his momentum has reached the pinnacle of his life. .

Under such circumstances, if he, the emperor, forcibly seizes the military power, removes the title, or dismisses the official position, it will inevitably cause a reaction from the whole world... The imperial power is indeed supreme, but it can only be in name. Power is supreme, and that is the time for turmoil and dynasty change.

Everyone in the world praises the emperor for his promises and his words, but if the emperor really wants to say what he says, the people of the world will not do it. Who wants their life, death, wealth and honor to be determined by the emperor's words?

It's not that you can't kill, but you have to bear the surging backlash!

Unless you want to be an extremely stupid king of subjugation like Xia Jie, Shang Zhou, etc., if you have a semblance of reason, you must also understand the principle of self-denial and forbearance...

After panting for a while, His Majesty Li Er felt that although the kick had vented a lot of depression in his heart, his energy was unsustainable. There were waves of dizziness and nausea, and his body was extremely exhausted, so he said: "I want to rest. Now, let those people outside go back, and come here to discuss matters tomorrow."

Wang Shoushi bowed and said, "Here!"

He turned around and walked out, but his rear buttocks had been torn by the whip, and the torn flesh rubbed against his trousers, which was burning and painful, so he had to work hard to retract his rear buttocks to reduce the friction area. Well, it's really weird...

Out of the palace gate, Wang Shoushi stood on the stone steps, looked down at the civil servants and generals standing respectfully in front of him, his eyes lingered on the crown prince at the front for a while, and then he said: "Your Majesty has an order, it's late today, please Everyone, go back for now, and come back to discuss matters tomorrow morning."

The civil servants and military generals who stood for a long time in the drizzle outside the hall were stunned. They first looked at Fang Jun who had just come out of the audience, and then at the prince who was at the front of the crowd.

The prince has accompanied Yujia here since the bank of the Bashui River. After standing in the light rain for a long time, His Majesty entered the Wude Palace and took up the prince's original office. However, he didn't even see the prince's face from the beginning to the end. His intentions are clearly revealed. Where else do I need to figure it out?

It is really outrageous to declare such an attitude to the courtiers so directly. After all, he is the prince of the country, so it is better to be more reserved...

For a while, the ministers had different thoughts.

Li Chengqian's face was pale, his expression remained motionless, he bowed to the ground, and said in a respectful voice: "I respectfully obey my father's will."

Then he turned around and bowed slightly to salute the officials present: "Gu will leave first."

All the ministers returned the gift in unison: "We will send you off to Your Highness respectfully."

After getting up, I saw Li Chengqian struggling to move his legs and walk out. Under the rain, his back was extremely bleak, and Fang Jun was the only one beside him...

Looking back at the brightly lit Hall of Wude, no matter what the position of the ministers who are used to the ups and downs of the officialdom and the cold world, at this moment, their hearts are full of slander: His Majesty returns to Beijing and will occupy the magpie's nest, and expel the prince to take the queen of Wude Hall as his own , That's all, not even the prince's daily utensils have been moved out, and there is no clear statement about where the prince will stay tonight...

Your heart is like iron.

It's really too much to do so.

After all, he is not only your eldest son, but also the crown prince of the country. It's nothing more than a firm and easy-to-storage with a heart as hard as a stone, but now you don't even want the most basic decency?

*****
Under the curtain of rain, the tower of Xuanwu Gate towered high and majestic, looking particularly oppressive and heavy.

Under the city tower, Zhang Shigui in armor respectfully sent the crown prince out of the palace, Fang Jun patted him on the shoulder, and said with emotion: "Duke, you are in trouble, so you can take care of it yourself."

Zhang Shigui wiped the rainwater off his face, smiled wryly and shook his head.

My heart is full of bitterness, but I don't have much regret...

He is from the merits of the dragon, the meritorious service of the empire, he was ordered by the emperor to guard the Xuanwu Gate, and he was in charge of the palace guard. His loyalty to His Majesty Li Er can be learned from the sun and the moon.But even if an eunuch can't even come up with a will, and wants him to follow orders and cut off the prince's escape, how is that possible?

Unless he knew in advance that His Majesty was "playing dead" and hadn't died as shown by various signs, otherwise even if he chose a hundred times, he would still choose to submit to the Crown Prince, stabilize the imperial court, and completely stabilize the turbulent situation.

Of course, now that His Majesty Li Er is back, his so-called correct choice is actually "resisting the edict and not obeying", especially the current situation has shown that His Majesty's easy storage is imperative, and his behavior of submitting to the prince will inevitably be unreasonable. tolerated by His Majesty.

How can the emperor rest assured that the leader of the imperial guards who once swore allegiance to the prince will be imprisoned by the imperial guards?
Shaking his head with a wry smile, Zhang Shigui patted Fang Jun's shoulder back, jokingly said: "I have followed His Majesty for decades, and I always have some kind of love... On the contrary, it seems that you will bear the brunt of it. Keep it."

Everyone knows that Fang Jun is the foundation of the prince. Seeing that only Fang Jun is with the prince at this moment, they understand that if you want to depose the prince, you must first demote Fang Jun.

Fang Jun smiled and didn't care about it: "You can't beat me to the end, right? As long as I have a job and can do something, I will be satisfied."

Zhang Shigui knew that this was his character, so he nodded and said nothing.

Passing through the long dark doorway to the Xuanwu Gate, Zhang Shigui sent Li Chengqian respectfully, Li Chengqian looked complicated, and said apologetically, "I'm afraid I'm going to hurt you, Duke Guo. I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do."

Zhang Shigui hurriedly said: "Your Highness, why did you say that? The old minister's loyalty to His Majesty can be learned from the sun and the moon, and you are also sincerely following Your Highness. Anything that is conducive to the stability and prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, the veteran will never look back."

When he opened the Xuanwu Gate back then, it was the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty who surrendered to him, not a certain person. His loyalty to His Majesty Li Er has not been reduced by half. If His Majesty Li Er believes that he is disloyal, he has nothing to say, but he has no regrets in his heart. .

Li Chengqian nodded, then turned and walked towards the Youtunwei Camp.

……

General Youtunwei and the family members of the Eastern Palace were already waiting outside the gate of the camp. When they saw the prince and Fang Jun, who were soaked in rain, riding together, they were worried about His Majesty Li Er's sudden return to Chang'an after "resurrecting the dead". There was not much strangeness on the faces of the two of them, and they both felt a little relieved.

A group of people rushed back to the camp, the crown prince and Fang Jun bathed and changed their clothes, and then the two monarchs and ministers sat in the tent, drove everyone out, made a pot of tea, and remained silent for a while.

After a long time, Li Chengqian let out a long sigh, rubbed his face, and said dejectedly: "Up to now, I have nothing to say, life or death is up to fate. Only dragging Erlang down, I feel deeply guilty, Erlang's affection The friendship cannot be repaid in this life, but waits for the next life, and we will never lose each other!"

All the strength, indifference, and immobility that he showed during the day all collapsed and shattered at this moment. He covered his face with his hands, trembling all over, and his voice was choked, full of despair.

No one understands the heart and methods of the emperor better than him, and because he understands, he is afraid.

As long as the father returns to Chang'an, this Great Tang will always be his Great Tang, and everyone can only prostrate under his wings.

Now it can be seen that the reason why Li Ji ignored Guan Long's rise of troops was because of his father's order. His father wanted to watch Guan Long set off a monstrous momentum to destroy the East Palace and depose him as the prince, and then sent his troops to Beijing. To wipe out the rebels in the name of "rebellion", it is logical to establish another prince.

Now that the father has made up his mind, who in the world can resist his methods?

Perhaps the imperial decree will not be directly promulgated to depose him as the prince right now, but when his wings are cut off one by one and become a bare prince, like Fang Jun and other pillars of the Eastern Palace are removed or even defeated, he, the prince, will be the fish on the chopping board , let it be disposed of...

And Fang Jun made great contributions, originally he had a bright future, and even his father acquiesced in the past, and he would ascend the imperial court and serve as prime minister in the future, but in the end, he angered his father because he protected him, a useless prince, to reverse the victory over the Guanlong rebels. The emperor is about to be implicated.

Fang Jun held the pot and filled the teacups in front of the two, let out a breath, and said with a wry smile: "Your Highness, don't you blame me for not revealing the news about His Majesty's construction?"

Li Chengqian sighed again, and said helplessly: "Now that I think about it, Erlang, you have hinted at Gu several times. It's because Gu didn't understand it... But even if he did understand it, so what? There must be father's eyeliner by Gu's side. If Erlang said bluntly Telling the situation of the father will definitely anger the father... Gu is useless, it was a waste of Erlang to follow him to the death, but he couldn't protect you, and I feel ashamed."

Everyone knew that His Majesty would attack Fang Jun in order to cut off the wings of the East Palace, but as a prince, he didn't even have the ability to resist, so how could he not let Li Chengqian collapse and lose face?
Fang Jun took a sip of tea, his eyes dim.

He was determined to change the political structure of the Tang Dynasty in order to eliminate the hidden danger of military law separatism, but the inertia of history is really strong, even if he tried his best, he still ended in failure.

(End of this chapter)