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

Chapter 383 Mei Niang, Help Me Find a Solution (Part )
Right Guard General Li Junxian, dressed in black clothes and black armor, calmly appeared in front of the window.

Li Zhi's eyes widened and his pupils dilated.

He didn't expect that it was actually Li Junxian.

"Your Majesty!" Li Junxian put his hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist, walked to the side of the emperor, and bowed solemnly to the emperor.

The emperor turned sideways and looked at Li Zhi with indifferent eyes: "Zhi Nu, do you still remember the commander Sun Wukai? He is now the General of the Imperial Guards. He is the one guarding the mountaintop now."

Li Zhi's expression changed involuntarily.

At that time, Ashina Jieshe led more than 40 cavalrymen to attack Jiucheng Palace. They broke through the four lines of defense on horseback, and their arrows even shot into the emperor's hall, killing dozens of guards.

But it was such a Sun Wukai, the commander of the army at that time, who single-handedly stopped Ashina Jieshilu. In the end, Jieshilu was unable to resist and turned to flee. He was chased by Sun Wukai to the bank of the Wei River and killed directly.

A man like this, guarding the mountain, who can rush down?

"And more." The emperor raised his eyes, looked into the distance, and said softly, "The Duke of Wuchang is here, but where are his 3,000 Right Guard cavalry now?"

Li Zhi's face turned pale instantly.

Li Shimin didn't even look at him, but waved slightly at Li Junxian.

Li Junxian bowed, then took out a bone whistle from his arms. The shrill whistle sounded throughout the hot spring palace.

With a "boom", countless figures suddenly stood on the inner palace wall, holding countless crossbows pointing at the Hot Spring Palace.

Li Zhi raised his head, his mind in chaos.

Suddenly, his expression changed and he turned his head abruptly to look towards the main entrance of the Hot Spring Palace.

With a "creak", the main gate of the Hot Spring Palace burst open, and the next moment, countless cavalrymen rushed in.

"Tian Renhui!" Li Zhi couldn't help but roar.

"Kill!" The emperor's voice rang out, cold and cruel: "Within three breaths, anyone standing with a weapon will die."

Three breaths, the cavalry charge only takes three breaths.

In a blink of an eye, the ferocious Right Guard cavalry had rushed into the Jinyang Gate and then charged towards the Zhaoyang Gate.

Originally, the Jinyang Gate was closed, but when Ji Sizhong rushed in with Li Chengqian's head, he opened the Jinyang Gate.

In three breaths, not many people even reacted.

The right guard cavalry had already started slaughtering ferociously with long spears in hand.

……

Blood flew everywhere.

There were sounds of killing.

The cold halberd pierced directly through the side of Li Zhi's face and fiercely stabbed into Ji Sizhong's chest.

The splashing blood dripped onto Li Zhi's right eye, and his right eye instantly turned blood red.

His right hand tightly grasped the hilt of the sword. Looking at Xue Rengui who was almost close to him, Li Zhi was unable to pull out the sword in his hand.

Xue Rengui glanced at Li Zhi with sneer, and the next moment, he swept his long spear across and fiercely attacked Li Zhi's left side.

Before Li Zhi could react, there was a "bang" and a corpse fell to the left side of his body.

He clearly saw with his left eye that the man was Ji Jiafu.

It was from this moment on that the sounds of fighting in the entire hot spring palace disappeared.

Li Zhi just stood there, unable to do anything.

I couldn't even pull out the sword.

A warhorse suddenly appeared in Li Zhi's left sight. Immediately, the commander dismounted and, facing the emperor in the Hall of Eternal Life, bowed earnestly and said, "Your Majesty, I am Li Xiaoyi, the Lieutenant General of the Right Thousand Oxen Guard and the Duke of Liang. I have been ordered to strangle the rebels. Now that the rebels have been pacified, I present this order to Your Majesty."

Li Zhi subconsciously turned around and looked at Li Xiaoyi with a hint of surprise in his eyes.

When did Li Xiaoyi come?

Only at this time did Li Zhi realize that there was no one left in the entire Zhaoyang Sect who was still resisting.

In fact, the number of assassins who were actually killed was only two or three hundred, that is, the group of people that Li Zhi led to attack the Hot Spring Palace at the beginning.

Later, among the 800 people brought by Ji Sizhong, not many fought to the death. Most of them chose to kneel down and surrender when they were in a disadvantageous situation.

At this time, he saw two strong horses, escorted by more than a dozen soldiers, coming to Li Xiaoyi's side.

The two men dismounted and bowed to the Emperor in the Hall of Eternal Life, saying, "Your Majesty, I, the Imperial Censor Sun Fujia and the Crown Prince's Secretary Dou Dexuan, present our respects to you. All the rebels below the mountain have been completely wiped out."

Li Shimin nodded calmly and said, "Send an order to Xu Enyuan, the commander of Tongguan, to go to Shanzhou immediately and work with the governor of Shanzhou to eliminate the rebels in the territory. Send an order to Qiu Xinggong, the governor of Luozhou, to immediately arrest Zhao Zhongjian, the Sima of Luozhou, and confiscate the Jinwang Mansion in Luoyang. Send an order to Dou Xiaoshen, the chief officer of Bingzhou, to confiscate the Jinwang Mansion. Send an order to Xu Shuya, the chief officer of Jingzhou, to confiscate the Jingzhou governor's office and the local powerful families involved in the case..."

Li Zhi suddenly looked up, Xu Shuya?

He heard something, and the emperor asked Xu Shuya to investigate and confiscate the local powerful families involved in the case.

Xu Shuya was a loyal but somewhat pedantic person, so Li Zhi did not allow Xu Shuya to participate in many of his affairs.

Unexpectedly, even at this point, the emperor still trusted Xu Shuya.

Or did Xu Shuya report his affairs to the emperor from the beginning?

Not only Xu Shuya, the emperor also knew about the affairs of Shanzhou, Luoyang, and Taiyuan.

At this moment, Li Shimin looked at Li Zhi with disappointment in his eyes.

……

The night was deep and the hot spring palace had become completely quiet.

Li Zhi walked up the stairs step by step and entered the Hall of Eternal Life under the escort of the imperial guards.

The emperor's voice could be heard faintly: "Order the Crown Prince, tell him to stay in the Eastern Palace and depart for Mount Li tomorrow as planned. Order General Zuo Kuangzheng of the Left Jinwu Guard and General Liang Jianfang of the Right Jinwu Guard to arrest the traitors according to the list. Those who resist will be executed. Order the Minister of the Imperial Clan Affairs Bureau, Li Baiyao..."

Li Zhi appeared in the emperor's sight at this moment. Li Shimin gave him a deep look and said, "Send an order to Li Baiyao. The Zongzheng Temple should immediately send people to the Prince of Jin's mansion to replace most of the people there as quietly as possible. At the same time, tell the people who serve the Princess of Jin not to tell her what happened and to serve her well."

"Yes!" Chu Suiliang bowed, then turned and walked out of the inner hall, heading outside without even looking at Li Zhi.

Li Zhi just watched Chu Suiliang leave, and his heart ached terribly at that moment.

Chu Suiliang had actually sold him out a long time ago.

When, was it after he met him in Hangzhou, or after he returned to Chang'an from Hangzhou, or was it tonight?

Li Zhi walked into the hall and saw more clearly. The emperor was sitting on the main couch, Wu Meiniang was kneeling behind the curtains, and Gao Yang was holding Li Xiang, looking at him with resentment on his face.

Gao Yang never thought that he would become Li Zhi's tool for rebellion.

Not only did he successfully break into the Hot Spring Palace, he even planned to make a big fuss, causing his father to fall ill or even die. In the end, all the responsibility would be put on her, Gao Yang.

Not only that, when something happened to the emperor, the affairs of Gao Yang and Bian Ji could no longer be covered up.

At that time, Li Zhi ordered Gao Yang to be executed, which not only won the hearts of the people, but also put an end to the matter completely.

Li Zhi knelt down on the ground calmly.

Yes, at this moment, his heart was completely calm.

He opened his mouth and said only three words: "Why?"

Why, yes, why?
From today's perspective, the emperor knew a lot about Li Zhi.

Even today, when he led his troops to attack the Hot Spring Palace, there may have been some accidents, but the overall situation was under the emperor's control.

"Before leaving the city, the Duke of Xindu left a secret letter for the prince. Afterwards, the prince asked the Chief Censor, the Duke of Liang, and Dou Qing to go to the Right Guard Camp at the foot of the mountain, right behind you." The emperor shook his head with emotion.

The prince remained very calm. He did not choose to leave the city, but sent someone to communicate with Li Junxian in advance.

The Imperial Censor Sun Fujia had never had any personal relationship with the Eastern Palace.

Together with Li Xiaoyi, the General of the Right Jinwu Guard and the son of Li Shentong, King of Huainan, the emperor's confidants have always had an unusual relationship with the Eastern Palace.

The last one is Dou Dexuan, the Prince's Secretary, who is actually the emperor's cousin.

He was a cousin of Dou Huaiqi, the son-in-law of the emperor and the junior supervisor of the palace.

These people are not the prince's absolute confidants, but they are enough to show the prince's attitude.

When they arrived at Mount Li, they handed over all the rights to dispose of Mount Li to the emperor.

"Then who is the dead person?" Li Zhi raised his head slightly.

The emperor sighed softly, then shook his head and said, "There is no such thing as a dead person. That was just a random person you killed on the road to deceive me."

"Huh?" Li Zhi was a little slow to react for a moment.

Li Shimin didn't want to talk about this anymore. He waved his hand and said, "I originally transferred you to Jingzhou because I hoped you would make a difference there. However, I didn't expect that you would encounter too many villains in Jingzhou and be bewitched by them. In the end, you went further and further astray, leading to the disaster you are facing today."

"Hmm?" Li Zhi's eyes suddenly became serious. Only then did he understand that the emperor's eyes were not on him, but on the aristocratic families of Jingzhou.

No matter what the emperor wanted to do with the aristocratic families of Jingzhou, Li Zhi was the most important banner, but Li Zhi chose to coerce the aristocratic families of Jingzhou into rebellion.

The emperor raised his head and said calmly, "Although the Tang Dynasty is vast, many places have been targeted by others. In ten or twenty years, they will steal these places. Therefore, for the sake of national interests, it is inevitable to develop Xianghu and Jiangyou."

Jiangnan is a land of fish and rice, but the aristocratic families in Jiangnan are not good people.

Since the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, countless dynasties have been established in the south of the Yangtze River. Their hearts have long been raised, and it is inevitable that they will fight for power in the court and for profit in the local areas. Therefore, suppressing them is something that every emperor of the Tang Dynasty must consider seriously.

What Li Shimin wanted here was to develop Xianghu and Jiangyou. At the same time, if they could be connected with Jingzhou, they would be able to compete with the southeast.

However, the local aristocratic families in Jingzhou may become an obstacle at this time.

No, it will definitely become an obstacle.

If they help Li Zhi and establish their dominance by developing Xianghu Lake, they will also disperse their power while developing Xianghu Lake, and their threat to the center will appear in a few decades.

At that time, Li Zhi was also old.

Moreover, Li Shimin believed that Li Chengqian had enough means to disintegrate the Jingzhou families without causing major chaos.

However, they chose this time to gather around Li Zhi and rebel.

This is the worst option, the most short-sighted option.

However, this was also within the emperor's calculations.

……

Li Zhi sighed deeply and asked slowly, "So, what will happen in the end?"

"I don't know either." The emperor shook his head somewhat sadly and said softly, "The decision-making power on this matter is no longer in my hands. You know what you did, and I don't have much to do."

Li Zhi killed "Li Chengqian", and this is what the emperor was unwilling to talk about.

This incident may completely block Li Zhi's way of life.

"Alright, you can go down. I will return to Chang'an tomorrow, and you can come with me." The emperor waved his hand and watched Li Zhi being led away with a calm expression. He looked up at Princess Gaoyang and said, "Gaoyang, you can go down too. Your affairs will be handed over to the Crown Prince tomorrow. You are so useless."

"Father!" Princess Gaoyang pouted immediately.

Li Shimin shook his head and said, "Go down and think about how to explain this to Fang Qing tomorrow."

Princess Gaoyang's expression changed slightly, and Fang Xuanling was probably having a hard time too.

"By the way, take Xiang'er away as well and take good care of him." The emperor looked up at Princess Gaoyang, who immediately looked delighted.

After everyone had gone down, the emperor lay down on the bed and said softly, "My children!"

"Your Majesty!" Wu Meiniang gently massaged the emperor.

"Mei Niang, please talk to the Crown Prince about your family's affairs." The Emperor smiled and said, "After all, you were not involved in this matter."

"Yes!" Wu Meiniang breathed a sigh of relief, and then whispered, "I don't really care much about my family's affairs. As long as my elder sister and younger sister are fine, the rest of the people don't matter."

"This is actually simple." Li Shimin sighed and said, "If my affairs could be this simple, it would be great."

"Your Majesty!" Wu Meiniang looked at the emperor and asked in a low voice, "Is the matter of Prince Jin difficult to deal with?"

"I would like to protect him, but the prince..." Li Shimin shook his head, his face full of helplessness.

Li Chengqian's stab at the critical moment was too cruel.

It hurts so much.

He had already made it impossible for the emperor to speak on this matter.

After a long while, the emperor said softly, "Mei Niang, please help me think of a way to save Zhinu's life."

Wu Meiniang remained silent, but her eyes couldn't help but look towards Chang'an.

Prince, what exactly does he want to do?
(End of this chapter)