Li Chengqian of the Tang Dynasty: Please say long live His Majesty

Chapter 306: Emperor Wen died two or three years after Deng Tong's abscess incident (Part )
In the inner hall, Li Chengqian stood in front of the hall door, looking at Li Zhi's smug and provocative eyes. For a moment, he had the urge to rush up, kick Li Zhi away, and then slap him hard.

However, for some unknown reason, Li Chengqian couldn't help but feel a sense of vigilance in his heart.

If he slapped Li Zhi at this moment, and Li Zhi pretended that nothing had happened and bit back, then no matter how good the countermeasures Li Chengqian had prepared, they would probably be of little use.

His expression calmed down, and Li Chengqian walked into the hall, stood beside Li Zhi, looked at the emperor's wound, and then bowed slightly to Li Shimin.

Under the emperor's surprised gaze, Li Chengqian turned around and said calmly, "Uncle, please send for the imperial physician."

"Why do we need to summon the imperial physician?" Li Shimin couldn't help but ask.

Li Chengqian knelt down and kowtowed to Li Shimin, saying, "Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you, Father. May you live forever."

"Stand up." Li Shimin waved his hand slightly, and then still looked at Li Chengqian questioningly.

Li Chengqian did not stand up. Instead, he raised his head and said solemnly, "Father, from a medical point of view, there are two dirtiest places in the human body, one above and one below."

Li Shimin was slightly stunned, and then couldn't help feeling a little funny.

Li Chengqian lowered his head and continued, "Your Majesty, you must have seen the fate of those soldiers whose wounds were contaminated with filth. Your Majesty must have witnessed it firsthand. While sucking out abscesses with your mouth won't lead to such a fate, it will make it much harder for the abscess to heal. To put it more seriously, the pain will never end, with recurrences constantly and causing endless torment."

"What did you say?" Li Shimin put his hands on the bed and stood up, his face looking terribly ugly.

"My Royal Highness, stop talking nonsense." Li Zhi, standing aside, grew anxious and could not help but say, "Since ancient times, there have been countless cases of people sucking out pus from sores with their mouths. The most famous one is the story of Deng Tong in the Western Han Dynasty."

Although the story of Deng Tong sucking out the pus for Emperor Wen of Han was not highly praised in history books, it is a true story.

Li Chengqian looked at Li Zhi with some sadness. His eyes made Li Zhi feel his scalp tingling for some reason.

Li Chengqian then lowered his head slightly.

"Chengqian, you say!" Li Shimin felt inexplicably uneasy and stared at Li Chengqian.

Li Chengqian hesitated for a moment, and finally said, "Your Majesty, please block the way."

Li Shimin frowned, then raised his hand slightly, and all the guards and maids in the halls on both sides walked out of the hall. Even the guards outside the hall were driven away by Zhang Ananda.

Only then did Li Chengqian look up with some sadness: "May I ask, Father, how did Emperor Wen pass away?"

Li Shimin was slightly stunned. This was not recorded in history books.

Zhang Sun Wuji stood at the back, frowned, and asked, "Prince, just speak frankly."

"Then I have offended you." Li Chengqian looked at Li Shimin worriedly and said, "If I remember correctly, Emperor Wen passed away two or three years after Deng Tong's abscess attack."

Li Shimin was completely stunned.

Changsun Wuji at the door also reacted, his face instantly became extremely ugly, his eyes, like knives, stared at Li Zhi's back.

Li Zhi reacted at this moment, quickly knelt on the ground, and kowtowed to the emperor, saying, "Father, I knew nothing about this matter, absolutely nothing...Father, this may not be true. Emperor Wen's death may not be due to abscesses, but perhaps other causes."

Li Shimin looked at Li Chengqian.

Li Chengqian hesitated, but still said, "The Buddha said that there are 84,000 insects in a bowl of water. If people can clean their mouths and tongues, then perhaps there won't be so much harm."

Li Shimin suddenly turned his head to look at Li Zhi, and Li Zhi's face turned pale inexplicably.

At this moment, Zhang Ananda's voice rang out from the doorway: "Your Majesty, the imperial physician has arrived."

Li Shimin withdrew his gaze from Li Zhi, and then looked outside the hall. The imperial physician Zhang Baozang quickly entered the hall, then bowed slightly to Li Shimin, and then walked to the emperor to check his wound.

Seeing the saliva on the wound and the wound that had healed, Zhang Baozang's expression couldn't help but change slightly.

Li Shimin frowned and asked, "Zhang Qing, the Prince of Jin just sucked out the abscess for me. The Crown Prince said it might be harmful. What do you think?"

Zhang Baozang's expression changed again. He carefully glanced at Li Chengqian and Li Zhi, who were kneeling on the ground. His mind raced as he said carefully to the emperor, "Your Majesty, doctors don't recommend sucking out abscesses with your mouth, as it could harm the person doing it..."

"That's not what I want to hear."

"Your Majesty, I don't know why, but the medical knowledge passed down for thousands of years by doctors doesn't include sucking out abscesses with the mouth." After a brief pause, Zhang Baozang said, "That's why I didn't think of using this method to treat Your Majesty from the beginning."

Li Shimin's face darkened completely.

Although Zhang Baozang didn't say it very directly, they knew that doing so would be of no benefit.

As for the bad consequences, Li Shimin couldn't help but shudder when he thought of the fate of the soldiers whose wounds were contaminated by filthy things.

"Your Majesty, I am guilty. I am guilty." Li Zhi kowtowed hard at this time. Only now did he realize that he had done something wrong.

Li Shimin turned around and looked at Li Zhi with a gloomy expression.

"Your Majesty, Zhinu didn't do it on purpose. If this matter hadn't been discussed with Master Sun, and Master Xuanzang had returned to the court this year, we wouldn't have brought it up." Li Chengqian turned to look at Li Zhi and said, "Zhinu was indeed filial. Your Majesty, don't blame me."

Li Shimin breathed a sigh of relief, looked at Li Chengqian with satisfaction, and then looked at Li Zhi and said, "Zhi Nu, you should go down and rest first. You've been running around all day and you must be tired. Also, since the pus has entered your mouth, you should go see the imperial physician for a checkup."

"Don't worry too much, just rinse your mouth with some wine." Li Chengqian saw Li Shimin looking at him in surprise, so he forced a smile and said, "Father, wine was also a medicine in the beginning."

Li Shimin nodded, glanced at Li Zhi, and waved his hand, saying, "Zhi Nu, you can go now." Li Zhi's mouth twitched slightly, and after hesitating for a long time, he finally kowtowed and said, "Your son will take his leave first. I will come to visit you later."

Looking at Li Zhi's leaving back, Li Shimin couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

At this time, Li Chengqian looked at Zhang Baozang and said, "Go get the wine and boil it. Then go get the white silk and boil it as well. Then bring it over."

"Yes!" Zhang Baozang immediately bowed.

Li Shimin watched all this calmly.

After Zhang Baozang left, Li Chengqian picked up the medicine box he had placed aside, and finally took out a silver needle. He held it up and walked under the candlelight, roasting it carefully.

After seeing this scene, Li Shimin understood everything.

Li Chengqian is right.

……

Li Chengqian took a clean and hot white silk, dipped it in hot wine, and carefully helped Li Shimin clean the wound.

Because he arrived a step late, the abscess was almost sucked out by Li Zhi.

So it was not difficult to clean. Li Chengqian wiped it many times until the pus was completely gone. Then he took the plaster from Zhang Baozang and stuck it firmly on the emperor's back.

Li Shimin was lying on the bed, waving gently at Changsun Wuji and Zhang Ananda at the door.

The two men immediately bowed and then retreated silently.

"Chengqian." Li Shimin looked up at Li Chengqian and realized that Li Chengqian's face was still covered with tears. He was a little stunned: "Why are you crying?"

Li Chengqian was slightly stunned, then immediately used his sleeve to wipe the tears from his face, from the corners of his eyes...

But for some reason, the more he wiped, the more tears welled up in his eyes. Finally, he lowered his head, rested his forehead on Li Shimin's back, and cried softly, "Father! Your son, ah..."

This time, Li Chengqian could no longer control himself and burst into tears.

Even though he tried hard to control his tears, for some reason, he just couldn't, and the tears slid down his face. He quickly avoided Li Shimin's back, not daring to let his tears fall on him.

In the end, he just knelt on the ground and cried.

Crying in pain.

……

"Okay, okay. You're such a grown-up, why are you still crying?" Li Shimin quickly patted Li Chengqian's shoulder, and at the same time waved slightly to Zhang Ananda and Changsun Wuji who were peeking out of the hall. The two then breathed a sigh of relief and retreated.

The prince suddenly burst into tears, which was really scary.

However, while the two of them breathed a sigh of relief, they also felt inexplicably sad in their hearts.

After a while, the grievance and bitterness in Li Chengqian's heart slowly receded. He kowtowed and said, "Father, it was I who lost my composure."

"Okay, I'm fine again." Li Shimin sighed with some emotion, and then asked: "Tell me, what exactly happened today?"

Li Zhi suddenly led his men to the camp early, but Li Chengqian was nowhere to be found. Although Li Zhi explained the reason, Li Shimin still had some doubts in his mind.

"I don't know the details." Li Chengqian wiped his face briefly before whispering, "Last night, I was resting at the Xingzhou Post Station. Before I went to sleep, the postmaster suddenly sent me a bowl of ginseng soup and asked two beautiful maids to serve it. I originally wanted to send them away after drinking the soup, but who would have thought that I noticed something was wrong as soon as I took a sip."

"Ok?"

"It's a tranquilizing soup with added ingredients. After drinking it, you'll feel drowsy for twelve hours and won't be able to muster much strength." Li Chengqian looked up and said bitterly, "There are also two beautiful maids."

"They will sleep with me at night." Li Shimin's face had darkened.

"Although I sensed something was amiss, I had no idea what was going on, so I left the ginseng soup aside and knocked the two maids unconscious and threw them under the bed. The next day, I woke up a quarter of an hour late..." After a brief pause, Li Chengqian added, "I didn't miss my journey."

"Go on!"

"After I woke up, I realized Zhinu had suddenly disappeared. Later, someone reported seeing her heading north with her guards, so I hurried to follow." Li Chengqian hesitated for a moment before continuing, "But because the floating bridge over the Hutuo River had burned, we were delayed for a while. Fortunately, a fisherman noticed the fire and came to ferry people across. I was able to successfully cross the river and finally reach the palace."

"Child slave!" Li Shimin narrowed his eyes slightly.

Li Chengqian quickly said, "Father, I am just a little anxious and miss you. After all, you haven't been in Chang'an for two years. I don't have any other thoughts."

Li Shimin looked straight at Li Chengqian, shook his head and said, "You are just too kind."

Li Chengqian raised his head slightly, then said seriously, "As the eldest brother, I should tolerate the mistakes of my younger brothers. This is what I should do."

"Oh!" Li Shimin sighed, his expression complicated for a moment, and no one knew what he was thinking about.

Li Chengqian reached out and pulled the emperor's clothes up, then whispered, "I'm not worried about anything else. I'm just worried about your injury. After returning to Chang'an, I'll have to have a good talk with Master Sun about how to completely cure it... The injury isn't serious, but I'm worried about the endless pain. It could lead to other illnesses, so it must be treated immediately."

"Okay, okay, I'm fine." Li Shimin looked at Li Chengqian, and his mind inexplicably calmed down.

(End of this chapter)