Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 901 Sharp Explosion, Li Tang Dynasty.

"Shang-ge'er...is here as a hostage?!" Zhang Jianzhi shouted, his voice cracking, even sounding a bit like a eunuch's. He grabbed Li Zhi's arm, his eyes wide: "Your Highness! Say it again? Who's here? What are they here for?"

Li Zhi was gripped so tightly it hurt, but he could understand his loss of composure. He smiled bitterly and repeated, "Father sent a message saying that Shang-ge'er... Crown Prince Tuoba Shang of the Great Wei has arrived in Chang'an. He claims that he has had enough of being the Crown Prince and is willing to come as a hostage."

"Experiencing life?! Stabilizing diplomatic relations?! He's talking nonsense!" Zhang Jianzhi practically roared, veins bulging on his forehead. "He's the Crown Prince of Great Wei! The only heir apparent! Coming to another country as a hostage? He's just stirring up trouble!"

He was so anxious that he spun around in place twice, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

The slight sense of accomplishment from the initial pacification of Hedong was instantly shattered by this shocking news. Shang Ge'er was the undisputed future emperor of Great Wei, and he was going to Chang'an as a hostage? This wasn't a hostage; this was clearly a top-priority hostage delivered to their doorstep! It was like throwing a water droplet into a boiling oil pot!
“Father…Father just sent a message, saying…” Li Zhi was also somewhat helpless at this moment: “He said, ‘Little Shang is here, that’s good, you brothers can get together.’”

Zhang Jianzhi's vision went black, and he almost fell off the city wall. He could almost imagine the chaotic scene that must be unfolding in Chang'an at that moment.

Li Zhi sighed helplessly, the first to recover from the news of Shang Ge'er's antics: "Quick! Quick! Back to Chang'an!"

The carriage shot out of Luzhou City like an arrow, raising a cloud of dust. Li Zhi sat in the bumpy carriage, but his heart had already flown back to Chang'an.

Meanwhile, in Chang'an City, at the Taiji Palace.

"Snap~~~"

Inside the Imperial Study, the Third Lady snapped the vermilion brush she used to review memorials in two. She abruptly rose from the dragon throne, her phoenix eyes wide, staring at the kneeling officials of the Court of State Ceremonial reporting below, a barely perceptible tremor in her voice: "You… say it again? Who's here?"

The official was terrified, his body trembling like a leaf. He lay prostrate on the ground, not daring to raise his head, his voice trembling with sobs: "Your Majesty...it is...it is the Crown Prince of Wei, His Highness Tuoba Shang...he...he carries the Crown Prince's seal of Wei, and with no more than a hundred guards, he has arrived outside Chang'an...he says...he has come on his father's orders...to be a hostage, to solidify the alliance between the Wei and Tang brothers..."

“As hostage…” Third Sister repeated these two words, feeling a surge of evil fire rushing to the top of her head. She could even hear the sound of her own sanity breaking down.

Xia Lin! It must be that bastard Xia Lin's doing! How could he... how could he dare to send the sole heir of the Great Wei to Chang'an as a hostage?! What is he trying to do? Test us? Provoke us? Or has the world been too peaceful for too long?!

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty, please calm down!" Seeing that Third Sister's face was ashen and her chest was heaving violently, the female official next to her quickly stepped forward to help her up.

"Calm down? How can you expect me to calm down!" Third Madam shoved aside the female official, her voice suddenly rising in anger. The Empress had lost her composure in an unprecedented manner: "That's Tuoba Shang! The lifeblood of the Great Wei Dynasty! He came to my Chang'an as a hostage?! What kind of logic is this! If word gets out, what will the world think of me? What will they think of the Li Tang Dynasty? Will the Great Wei court immediately send troops to the border?! What exactly is Xia Lin trying to do?! Where is he?! Drag him here to me!!"

Inside the Ganlu Palace, the Empress's roar nearly lifted the roof. The palace maids and eunuchs standing outside were all trembling with fear, exchanging bewildered glances, each seeing the same terror and absurdity in the other's eyes—the Crown Prince of Great Wei had come as a hostage? This was truly an unprecedented and utterly absurd event!
The news spread like wildfire, accompanied by countless cries of horror and astonishment: "What?!", "Impossible!", "He's gone mad?!", quickly reaching the mansions of the powerful and wealthy in Chang'an.

Changsun Wuji was in his residence discussing with several key figures from the Guanzhong Plain how to deal with the upheaval in Hedong when he heard the news. His hand trembled, and he spilled scalding tea all over himself without even noticing. He stood up abruptly, his face instantly turning deathly pale: "Tuoba Shang... willingly offered himself as a hostage?! Quick! Prepare a sedan chair! No, prepare a horse! I must go to the palace immediately!"

His mind was buzzing, and his first thought was—this is going to rip the sky apart!
Whether it was the Pei family, the Cui family, or almost all the high-ranking officials who heard the news, their first reaction was disbelief, followed by boundless panic. The Crown Prince of Wei had gone to Tang as a hostage—this was the fuse that ignited war between the two countries!
Upon hearing the news, the generals of the Northern Imperial Guard camp, who had just undergone reorganization, were collectively speechless. Wei Dingfang, who was supervising the drills, stumbled upon hearing this and nearly fell off the reviewing stand. Holding onto the railing, his voice trembled: "Who? Tuoba Shang?! He's here as a hostage?! Quick! Strengthen the defenses of the four gates! No, double the number of patrols! We cannot allow him to suffer even the slightest mishap in Chang'an! Otherwise, we will all die without a burial place!"

The entire city of Chang'an, from top to bottom, from the imperial palace to the streets, was thrown into chaos by the news that "the Crown Prince of Wei, Tuoba Shang, has voluntarily entered Tang as a hostage." Discussions rose and fell, creating a chaotic mess.

At this moment, the central figure of the incident, Crown Prince Tuoba Shang of Wei, stood outside Chunming Gate in the west of Chang'an with a look of curiosity. He was dressed in a neat Wei state uniform, with an upright posture, but exuded an aura of scoundrels.

He looked up at the tall, majestic city walls and exclaimed in amazement, "This is Chang'an! It looks even more imposing than Jinling!" He turned to the Wei guard commander beside him, who had a bitter and resentful expression and was trying to persuade him to go back, and smiled, "General Zhao, since you're here, make the best of it. Don't worry, would my good brother mistreat me? Besides, I'm here as a hostage; they'll have to treat me well!"

Under layers of protection, Tuoba Shang was brought before San Niang.

"Hello, Aunt." Tuoba Shang greeted her with a smile, "It's been quite a while since we last met."

“Call me Your Majesty when you are at work.” Third Sister said coldly, “Why have you come here! If you can’t give me a clear answer, don’t blame me for tying you up and sending you back.”

Tuoba Shang was furious at the mention of this. He pointed to the south and said, "It's all because of my father. He's always having a good time, drinking and having fun, making those kinds of movies all the time, and always doing dirty things. It's one thing to make a movie about the last emperor in the palace, but he even plays the role of the deposed emperor himself. He makes those awful movies during the day and then spends his nights fooling around with those actresses."

He became extremely angry at this point: "If he doesn't care about politics, fine, all the uncles and elders in the court are outstanding, it doesn't matter whether he's there or not. But he doesn't care, and he wants me to oversee the country? He has his movies, and I have my literature! Why can he pursue his dreams while I have to share his burdens? There's no such thing in the world."

Hearing this, Third Sister felt her head buzzing and leaned forward slightly: "Then you..." "I had a big fight with him. He said that if I kept talking nonsense, he would depose me from my position as crown prince, and that I have younger brothers and sisters. I said, if you're so great, why don't you pass the throne to Li Zhi? He's good at both civil and military affairs, and he's more suitable to be emperor than me."

"Then he beat me up."

At this point, Tuoba Shang even felt extremely aggrieved, and this tall, burly man looked like he was about to cry.

“I won’t suffer that injustice, so I’ll leave. I won’t go anywhere else, I’ll go wherever my uncle is. Anyway, I’ve only ever had someone by my uncle’s side who cared about my well-being.” Tuoba Shang couldn’t help but shed tears as he said this: “He wanted to remove me from the position of Crown Prince, but I won’t trouble him to do it. I’ll just come here as a hostage.”

After saying that, he rummaged in his pocket for a while and pulled out a cloth bag: "Aunt, he doesn't deserve this, so I brought it for you."

Her Majesty the Queen is having a terrible headache right now, all because of this family squabble...

However, when the lady-in-waiting presented the cloth bag to her, upon opening it, even the composed and worldly-wise Empress let out a sharp, explosive sound.

"The Imperial Seal of the Nation!!!"

"I...you...sigh..." Third Sister leaned back on the dragon throne and waved her hand weakly: "This is terrible. Take your jade seal and get to the door to wait for your uncle! I don't want to see you!"

At this moment, Xia Lin, who had been urgently summoned, arrived at the palace gate. Just as he was about to enter, he saw Changsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, and Du Ruhui standing in a row at the gate. They even breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Xia Lin arrive.

"They didn't invite you in?"

Changsun Wuji silently shook his head, his eyes darting slyly at his colleagues beside him, and lowered his voice to ask, "Marshal Xia, is this really not your doing?"

"I could do something like that?" Xia Lin flicked his sleeve, rolled his eyes, and left. "I only found out about it a day or two earlier than you guys."

"That's troublesome. I wonder what Wei is planning."

Xia Lin waved his hand and said, "I'll go in and take a look. I'll probably get a good scolding too."

The expressions on the faces of those high-ranking officials of the Tang Dynasty were quite intriguing, their meaning roughly being, "Who cares about your petty squabbles behind closed doors?" However, their words were still quite explicit: "We urge Marshal Xia to provide clear guidance once he emerges; this matter concerns the fate of both nations..."

"must."

Soon Xia Lin arrived at the palace and saw Tuoba Shang sitting on the palace steps from afar, holding his damned Imperial Seal in his hands.

He was overjoyed to see Xia Lin and quickly stood up, saying, "Uncle, I'm here!"

Xia Lin grabbed his Imperial Seal and shoved it into his pocket, then said with a wry smile, "Come in with me."

The two approached San Niang again. San Niang was resting one hand on her head, clearly in a somewhat uncomfortable position. Upon hearing footsteps, she raised her head and coldly asked, "May I ask what business General Xia has with His Highness the Crown Prince of Great Wei?"

"What are you pretending for?" Xia Lin sighed, turned around and pinched Tuoba Shang's ear: "Why did you come over here, you little brat!"

"I've come to offer treasures to the Tang Dynasty! My father is unworthy of the throne; he should be removed from his post immediately!"

Xia Lin took the ruler from San Niang's desk and started hitting him repeatedly, but Tuoba Shang, with his thick skin, not only didn't dodge but also chuckled.

"Enough!" Third Sister shouted sternly, "Now a real fight is brewing! What are we going to do?! Who's going to give me an explanation?"

(End of this chapter)