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

Chapter 308: Fatherly Love and Filial Piety (Part )

"Your Highness, His Majesty has just called the Duke of Wuchang over." Changsun Xiang entered the side hall and bowed to report to Li Chengqian who was about to rest inside.

Li Junxian, Duke of Wuchang and General of the Right Guard, was in charge of escorting Li Chengqian and Li Zhi north.

Li Chengqian sighed softly and said, "Zhi Nu's sudden trip north has put the Duke of Wuchang in the most trouble. I'm a little worried that he won't say anything good about Zhi Nu in front of my father."

"The Prince of Jin is too ignorant and too bold." Chang Sun Xiang's expression was also not good. The key point was that although he knew that Li Zhi had the intention to compete for the throne before, there had been several conflicts between him and Li Chengqian, but this was the first time that he had directly poisoned Li Zhi.

But the real crucial moment happened after Li Zhi entered the palace.

Although Li Zhi was sucking out the pus for the emperor when Li Chengqian entered the palace, what did he say in front of the emperor before that?

Whenever he thought of this, Chang Sun Xiang felt a chill all over his body.

At the same time, he also felt a surge of admiration for Li Chengqian.

Li Zhi obviously wanted to gain the emperor's favor by sucking out the pus for him.

Almost everyone knows about Deng Tong's affairs.

By sucking out pus from Emperor Wen of Han's sores, Deng Tong gained great favor from the emperor during his lifetime. Even Emperor Jing of Han, who was the crown prince at the time, could not do anything to him.

If Li Zhi really gained the emperor's favor in this way, Changsun Xiang could imagine that the originally stable court would become turbulent again.

Li Zhi once again gained the basis to compete with the crown prince for the throne.

But unfortunately, he failed.

Fortunately, he failed.

The prince responded very well.

Seeing the expression on Changsun Xiang's face, Li Chengqian smiled softly, then faded. He then said, "Let's see how Father handles this matter. I'm a little worried that the Wuchang County Duke will tell the generals about this..."

"Your Highness, I'm afraid this matter has spread by now." Chang Sun Xiang couldn't help but shook his head.

The prince's arrival from Chang'an was a huge event in itself.

Not to mention that in today's military, many people have part-time jobs in the Eastern Palace, or are even related to the Eastern Palace.

For example, Li Ji was still the Prince's Left Guard Commander; Li Daliang was the Prince's Right Guard Commander; Li Daozon, his son-in-law was the Prince's Deputy Commander of a Thousand Oxen in the Eastern Palace; Xue Wanche, his brother Xue Wanbei was the Prince's Right Guard Commander.

In addition, there were a group of officials led by Yang Wulian who served as supervisors.

There are also many other people whose families have connections with the Eastern Palace, such as Liu Xiangdao and Gao Shenxing.

Those foreign generals also had a good impression of the prince.

These people paid more attention to the prince's arrival.

Prince Jin's attempt to compete for the throne was too obvious. I'm afraid that if Li Junxian revealed a few words about it, someone would exaggerate the matter and spread it to all the generals in the army.

With the lessons learned from Hou Junji and Zhang Liang, the army will stay away from Li Zhi in the future.

Many generals even disliked Li Zhi because he took advantage of the emperor.

All this was before outsiders knew about Li Zhi's reckless actions that had harmed the emperor's health...

Li Chengqian withdrew his thoughts, sighed softly, and said, "Forget it, forget it."

"Yes!" Chang Sun Xiang bowed.

"The matter of the Xingzhou Postmaster." Li Chengqian looked up and said, "Although the emperor said that the person should be handed over to me for disposal, it is not appropriate to kill him like this. How about this, send him to the Military Works Bureau.

Tell Yang Wulian to use him to make weapons. Don't let him die. I will use him to make weapons for the rest of my life."

Chang Sunxiang raised his eyebrows, then bowed and said, "Yes!"

"And those two maids." Li Chengqian sighed and said, "Forget it, let's settle them first and deal with the others after we return to Chang'an."

"Your Highness, do you want to ask again?" Changsun Xiang looked at Li Chengqian in surprise.

"It's better to investigate and find out all their details." Li Chengqian said, raised his hand slightly and said: "Okay, let's do it this way."

"Yes!" Chang Sunxiang breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I'll take my leave!"

……

The hall was already dark.

Li Chengqian lay on the bed and sighed softly, "What a pity!"

It’s really a pity.

He originally wanted to send these two women to the emperor.

These two women have nothing to do with Li Chengqian. They are not Li Chengqian's people. They are criminals brought in by the Xingzhou Postmaster.

Moreover, these two people's surname is Qi.

That’s right, it’s the woman from Yifeng Qi family.

She is Qi Zhixuan's sister.

These two women were found by the Xingzhou Postmaster, so they can be considered to have been found by Qinghe Zhao, that is, by Li Zhi.

If these two women were really sent to the emperor, anything that happened in the future would be Li Zhi's responsibility.

After all, Li Chengqian had never really had any contact with these two women.

Of course, Li Zhi could use these two women to consolidate his position beside the emperor.

However, as soon as these two women spoke, the emperor would probably react immediately, sentence them to death, and implicate Li Zhi as well.

These two women may not care about Li Zhi, but instead hope to save their own people from the emperor.

It’s just the Qi family of Yifeng, and there are a few others.

But what Li Chengqian really hopes is that they can do something else...

It’s a pity that the emperor didn’t want these two women.

Li Chengqian shook his head slightly and sighed.

Never mind, it’s just a chess move with little possibility.

Li Chengqian turned his head to look to the side and whispered, "Where are our people now?" Behind the curtain, a figure bowed gently and said, "Your Highness, according to your order, they have already gone to Taiyuan."

"That's good." Li Chengqian breathed a sigh of relief and narrowed his eyes slightly.

The emperor had not investigated the intentions behind the postmaster before, which meant that he would not hold the Qinghe Zhao family accountable. If he did not hold the Qinghe Zhao family accountable, he would not hold Li Zhi accountable.

This seemed to be a kind of care for Li Zhi, but Li Chengqian smelled something different from it.

In the past two years, Li Zhi's actions have been enough to make the emperor disappointed in him.

Especially now, under Li Chengqian's various tactics, very few civil and military officials in the court are inclined to support Li Zhi.

Even though Li Zhi became the crown prince, he had no foundation to govern the world.

If the emperor forced him to ascend the throne, the end result would only be chaos in the world.

As long as Li Chengqian does not make any mistakes, his position as crown prince will be more stable.

Li Zhi.

Li Chengqian shook his head slightly. At this time, it was not possible to let Li Zhi go back.

The longer he stayed by the emperor's side, the more conspicuous he would be, and the more dissatisfied his ministers would be.

The emperor was not Yang Jian, and the ministers were not the same people under Yang Jian.

Especially since my uncle is here.

As for Bingzhou, Li Chengqian sneered lightly, saying that there were too many of his people in Taiyuan.

Same as Luoyang.

With a plan in mind, Li Chengqian closed his eyes slightly.

Behind the curtains was also quiet.

……

In the early morning, the morning light illuminated the entire palace.

Li Zhi knelt on the mat with his cloak draped behind him. In the winter night, he had already fallen asleep due to exhaustion.

A crisp sound of footsteps sounded behind him. Li Zhi suddenly woke up and looked back.

A black cloak appeared before his eyes and then covered him.

When the cloak fell, Li Zhi saw Li Chengqian in a bright yellow python robe appear behind him. He was stunned for a moment.

Li Chengqian covered Li Zhi with his cloak with a look of concern, and then said softly: "Zhi Nu, it's dawn, and it's been a night. No matter how big your fault is, kneeling all night is enough. Now, it's time to go back and rest, otherwise you will really get sick."

"Emperor...Emperor brother!" Li Zhi's voice was inexplicably hoarse.

Li Chengqian frowned and reached out to touch Li Zhi's forehead. Then he looked up at the eunuch beside him and said, "Prince Jin has a low fever. Why don't you help him down to rest?"

The eunuchs standing by were shocked. If Li Zhi was really sick, the emperor would definitely blame those of them who were on duty outside the palace last night.

So, the eunuch immediately ordered two guards to help Li Zhi up.

Just as Li Zhi was about to struggle, Li Chengqian reached out and held him down, saying sternly, "Young slave, stop being so reckless. Do you really want to get sick and make your father uneasy?"

Li Zhi paused.

At this moment, Li Chengqian moved aside slightly, and Li Zhi could see clearly that there were already countless ministers standing solemnly on both sides holding their tablets, as if they were about to attend court.

They all saw what happened just now.

Li Zhi's breathing almost stopped for a moment.

"Take the Prince of Jin away." Li Chengqian glanced at Li Zhi, shook his head, sighed, then took out the jade sceptre from his sleeve and walked towards the upper left of the ministers.

Li Zhi allowed the guards to take him down. Finally, he couldn't help but look back and saw that Li Chengqian had already entered the hall with the ministers.

Looking at the backs of countless ministers, Li Zhi inexplicably felt that something was rapidly moving away from him.

He shook his head vigorously, instantly extinguishing the feeling.

He lowered his head and began to think again.

……

In the hall, the emperor was already sitting on the imperial couch, looking strong.

All the ministers couldn't help but feel happy when they saw this scene, except for Li Chengqian and Changsun Wuji, who had a hint of worry on their faces.

Although the abscess on the emperor's body was temporarily gone, the infection had already quietly seeped into his body.

He looks good now, but in the future, the pain will come back more violently.

"Your Majesty, we are here to pay our respects. May Your Majesty live forever." All the ministers bowed in unison.

Li Shimin looked at his ministers with satisfaction, nodded, and said, "Everyone, please stand."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" All the ministers bowed and stood up.

The emperor smiled and said, "I was delighted when the Crown Prince arrived in Dingzhou yesterday, but I must first attend to state affairs."

The ministers bowed slightly and couldn't help but glance at Li Chengqian.

Many sensitive people had actually noticed before that the emperor was actually a little worried about the prince.

After all, the emperor has been away from court for two years, and the prince has been regent in Chang'an for two years. Who knows what the people in Chang'an are like during these two years.

Especially now that they know that the emperor is unwell, if the prince has other thoughts, who knows what will happen.

Fortunately, after receiving the imperial edict, the prince went directly to Dingzhou without any hesitation.

This in itself is a very commendable thing, but it happened to coincide with the reckless behavior of the King of Jin.

Fortunately, everything ended smoothly in the end.

Li Shimin looked at Li Chengqian and asked calmly, "Prince, please tell me first. How are things in Chang'an going now?"

Zhangsun Wuji, Liu Li, Chu Suiliang, Li Ji, Li Daozon, Li Daliang, Zhang Shigui, Yan Lide, Yan Liben, Jiang Xingben, Xue Yuanjing, Xu Jingzong and others all looked at Li Chengqian at once.

How has the prince governed the country during the two years that the emperor has been away?
(End of this chapter)