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

Chapter 403: Father and Son, Swords of War (Part )
There was a sudden silence in Wanchun Palace.

Suddenly, there was a "clang" sound, and the long sword was unsheathed, completely breaking the dead silence in the night.

Li Chengqian turned around in confusion, and then saw that the Imperial Guard General Sun Wukai had drawn his sword and was pointing it at Li Chengqian.

The sharp blade was right in front of him. Li Chengqian regained his composure instantly and stared at Sun Wukai coldly: "What are you going to do?"

"Your Highness!" Sun Wukai's face was extremely ugly. His eyes fell on the emperor lying in Wu Meiniang's arms, and then looked at Li Chengqian. Even though he was reluctant, he still gritted his teeth and said, "Your Majesty left a will..."

"Get out!" Li Chengqian suddenly shouted angrily, and the next moment, more than a dozen long swords were unsheathed at the same time, and then pointed directly at Sun Wu.

Qin Huaidao, who was standing aside, watched the scene with trembling body, his face full of shock.

At this moment, all of his Qianniu Guards who were guarding the prince drew their swords.

He drew his sword without any hesitation towards Sun Wu, the General of the Imperial Guard.

How could this happen? Didn’t he, the Prince’s Guard Commander, give the order?
Why are they taking action together at this time?
Qin Huaidao couldn't help but look at Li Chengqian.

He was sure that the prince had not given the order.

Even Li Chengqian had his back to him, so he couldn't see his expression at all.

Qin Huaidao lowered his head slightly. When the emperor suddenly fell down and the General of the Imperial Guard had to draw his sword against the prince, the prince did not give any orders, and all the thousand bulls in the East Palace had already drawn their swords against the General of the Imperial Guard.

Even he, the commander of the Eastern Palace's Thousand Bull Guards, had nothing to do with this.

Qin Huaidao suddenly knew what happened, but he didn't expect that such a thing would happen to him.

He wanted to draw his sword, but the emperor was lying on the ground.

Qin Huaidao suddenly felt a chill.

It seemed that at this extremely important moment, he made the wrong choice.

But is he really wrong?

Qin Huaidao still had no intention of drawing his sword at this moment.

……

At Xianchun Gate, Sun Wu drew his sword and faced Li Chengqian.

The Qianniu guards of the Eastern Palace drew their swords to oppose Sun Wukai, and the guards under Sun Wukai could not help but tighten their weapons at this moment.

A conflict is about to break out.

"Get out! Go and call the imperial physician." Li Chengqian suddenly shouted coldly, and Sun Wu was stunned.

Li Chengqian didn't continue looking at him. Instead, he glared at the surrounding guards and said sternly, "From this moment on, no one except Sun Wukai is allowed to enter or leave... You, go and call the imperial physician now, and call the Duke of Guo. Don't disturb anyone else. Father is not dead yet!"

"Ah?" Sun Wu was startled and subconsciously looked at the emperor.

Li Chengqian snorted coldly, then quickly walked to the emperor's side, looked at Wu Meiniang who was holding the emperor's body, and said, "Put father down carefully."

"Yes!" Wu Meiniang did not hesitate and quickly put the emperor down.

Under the darkness of the night, the emperor's breathing had completely stopped.

His face was also pale.

Li Chengqian put his hand on the emperor's chest, pressing hard and carefully, and the emperor's body immediately began to move.

A little sound came out of the body's mouth.

"Your Majesty!" Sun Wukai couldn't help but shout out.

Li Chengqian frowned, turned around and glared at Sun Wukai: "What are you standing there for? Why don't you go quickly?"

"Yes!" Sun Wukai gritted his teeth, sheathed his sword, and then walked quickly towards the outside of Wanchun Gate.

As soon as Sun Wukai left, the atmosphere at the scene suddenly became a little relaxed.

Li Chengqian turned and looked at the emperor with a serious expression. A hint of hesitation flashed in his eyes, but in the end he continued to press regularly.

……

By the time Sun Wukai brought the imperial physician Zhang Baozang over, the emperor was already lying in Li Chengqian's arms, and gently opened his eyes.

Although the emperor's breathing was weak and his eyes were blurry, he was really awake.

The emperor is not dead.

The tears on Sun Wukai's face immediately flowed down, and he knelt down directly: "Your Majesty!"

"Shut up!" Li Chengqian glared at Sun Wukai again before whispering into the emperor's ear, "Father, that wasn't Zhinu. News arrived from Yizhou today. Zhinu has just arrived in Rongzhou. Your servants, the Censorate, the Thousand Oxen Guards, the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Court, and even the Yizhou government are all watching closely. Zhinu can't possibly come back."

The emperor's eyes turned slightly, and he struggled hard before raising his head a little and looking at Li Chengqian.

Li Chengqian nodded vigorously, then looked at Sun Wukai and said, "Look at what's going on with the corpse... Duke Guo!"

At the Wanchun Gate, Zhang Shigui, the Grand General of the Imperial Guard and Duke of Guo, walked in with an anxious look on his face.

Seeing the emperor lying in Li Chengqian's arms, he couldn't help but walk forward, kneel to one side, and carefully examine the emperor.

Seeing that the emperor was still alive and the imperial physician had taken over the emperor's treatment, he looked at Li Chengqian and said, "Your Highness, what's going on?"

"I don't know either." Li Chengqian frowned and said, "We'll talk about it later. The imperial physician will use acupuncture first. Duke Guo will send someone to call my uncle and Duke Liang over... Be careful and don't alarm anyone."

Zhang Shigui's expression became serious, and he quickly turned and left.

Today is the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Tang Dynasty.

Tonight is the time for a celebration banquet for all officials and people inside and outside the palace.

The emperor's current condition is still unclear, but it is definitely not good. Once the news gets out, it will spread all over the world.

By then, I don’t know how many foreign countries that have submitted to the Tang Dynasty will immediately turn against it.

Even Goguryeo, Western Turks, and Tubo may send their troops down.

In fact, the biggest threat is not these, but the eastern Turkic tribes within the northern Great Wall and the Uighurs in the northern desert.

Once they join forces, the Great Wall's defense line will immediately become nothingness.

Not only will Bingzhou fall under the iron hoof, the entire north may be plunged into war.

This is not nonsense.

The Eastern Turkic tribes were afraid of the emperor's butcher knife, not the second-generation Li Chengqian.

When the emperor launched an eastern expedition against Goguryeo, they had been ready to take action several times.

Even if Li Chengqian succeeded to the throne normally, he would still need to deal with the affairs of the Eastern Turks carefully. He might even have to marry a noble lady from the Eastern Turks into the palace as a concubine, so as to stabilize them. If the news of the emperor's accident spread at this moment, I am afraid that the world would immediately fall into chaos.

Li Chengqian turned sideways and looked at Zhang Baozang.

Zhang Baozang is giving the emperor acupuncture.

This was not the first time that Li Chengqian had used first aid to save the emperor.

It was he who took over and rescued the emperor last time.

Li Chengqian breathed a sigh of relief, looked up calmly, and saw Qin Huaidao standing on the side.

Qin Huaidao's face looked a little ugly. His eyes kept falling on the Donggong Qianniu who had put away their swords on the side, with a serious look in his eyes.

Li Chengqian thought about it for a moment and immediately understood.

The scene just now finally made Qin Huai realize that the loyalty of these Eastern Palace masters under his command to Li Chengqian was far beyond his imagination.

At critical moments, they would fight for Li Chengqian without even Li Chengqian saying anything.

Qin Huaidao, who was the commander of the Prince Li Chengqian's guards, was unknowingly sidelined.

It can’t be hidden!

There's no need to hide it anymore.

The Eastern Palace seemed peaceful in recent years, but in fact, all the guards inside and outside the Eastern Palace, as long as they were close to Li Chengqian, had already been quietly replaced by his confidants.

Even if they were not his close confidants, they were won over to become his confidants over the years.

He has been regent for many years.

Although Qin Huaidao was Li Chengqian's Eastern Palace Thousand Oxen Guard Leader and a close minister to Li Chengqian, he was never part of his core circle.

The only criterion for Li Chengqian's core circle was that they would stand with him without reservation when he had a conflict with the emperor.

But Qin Huaidao said that he had reservations.

……

Although Changsun Wuji and Fang Xuanling were drunk, they walked into Xianchun Gate with serious expressions.

The two of them saw the emperor lying in Li Chengqian's arms at a glance.

Although the emperor's eyes gradually turned to the situation, he lay on the ground motionless, and Zhang Baozang was using a needle to treat the emperor.

Changsun Wuji and Fang Xuanling were startled and looked around subconsciously. Seeing Zhang Shigui and Sun Wukai were there, they breathed a sigh of relief.

The two men then walked up to Li Chengqian and the emperor, looked at the emperor, and asked in a low voice: "Your Majesty, what happened?"

Zhang Baozang looked up and said, "Your Majesty was shocked and had a stroke for a while."

Fang Xuanling hadn't said anything yet, but Zhangsun Wuji's eyes couldn't help but change slightly. He quickly asked, "Your Majesty, what has provoked you?"

"Someone created a fake corpse of a young slave, and Father stumbled upon it, and that's what happened." Li Chengqian frowned, turned to look at Wu Meiniang, and asked, "Lady Wu, I'm here investigating potential dangers. Why did Father suddenly come over... I remember Father went to rest, didn't he? Why did he suddenly come over here? And where's Zhang... Zhang Ananda?"

Li Chengqian suddenly became alert. From the beginning till now, he had not seen the figure of the eunuch Zhang Ananda.

"Zhang Jian went to the kitchen." Wu Meiniang quickly looked in the direction of the kitchen, but she could not see anything in the numerous palaces. Wu Meiniang quickly turned around and said, "Your Majesty suddenly remembered Empress Wende today, so he wanted to go to Wende Hall. I didn't expect..."

Li Chengqian looked up at Zhangsun Wuji and Fang Xuanling and said, "Today, I presided over the ceremony and banquet. I noticed that many of the banquet performances included flying, which seemed a bit dangerous, so I temporarily removed all the risky movements. Most of them were fine, but during the Dunhuang flying dance, Lu Dongzan showed some signs of unease."

"He wants to attack Your Majesty!" Changsun Wuji and Fang Xuanling said at the same time.

"It shouldn't just be Father." Li Chengqian turned to look at the corpse behind him, wearing a python robe and with a face somewhat similar to Li Zhi. He shook his head and said, "They must be planning to catch fire when the long silk flies into the sky, setting the box on fire at the same time, revealing the corpse inside, and then the flames will burn the corpse..."

Zhang Sun Wuji suddenly raised his head and looked towards the corpse: "That's not the Prince of Jin..."

When he was halfway through his words, Changsun Wuji's horrified gaze had already fallen on Li Chengqian, but at this moment, he suddenly remembered the appearance of Zhang Shigui and Sun Wukai, and was suddenly shocked. Then when he looked again, he found that although the corpse was somewhat similar to Li Zhi, there were some problems with some details.

"That's not the Prince of Jin!" Changsun Wuji said firmly, then looked at Li Chengqian and the emperor.

Li Chengqian nodded calmly, then said, "Father also thought it was a young slave at first, so he was a little shocked and fell to the ground."

The people around him lowered their heads slightly.

Li Chengqian's words were mostly correct, but he omitted the most important key point.

The emperor ordered the arrest of the crown prince.

He stopped them with a knife.

(End of this chapter)