My father, Li Shimin, requests Your Majesty to become the Retired Emperor.

Li Tai blinked, thought for a moment, and said, "No wonder Li Chenggan was able to get out of the Dali Temple prison so easily. It turns out he used Cheng Yaojin to pass on a message to the Emperor. He's really cunning."

Fang Xuanling took a sip of tea: "If I may be so bold as to say something I shouldn't, Li Chengqian is incredibly intelligent, perhaps even more so than you and Li Zhi."

Whenever he encountered difficulties, he always had a benefactor to help him.

He accomplished many things that seemed impossible.

This is so rare.

Putting aside other matters, let's take the Battle of Tuyuhun as an example.

The situation was very good at the time. You led 100,000 troops to conquer Tuyuhun, and I believed that you would surely succeed.

However, you were too careless and fell into their ambush. Your army of 100,000 was utterly defeated and routed, fleeing in panic and completely routed!

Later, your father reassigned Li Chengan to the front lines as the Grand Commander of Pingxi.

It is said that Li Chengqian had afternoon tea with Murong Shun in front of the two armies.

Upon returning, Murong Shun killed the Heavenly Pillar King and forced his father to surrender to the Tang Dynasty.

Historically, has anyone ever managed to make an enemy nation surrender after having afternoon tea?

Upon hearing this, Li Tai clenched his fists, for in his view, it was a great humiliation.

In fact, Li Tai never thought he was inferior to Li Chenggan.

He always felt that he was unlucky, because every time he went to war, the enemy's army was too strong.

Whenever he sent troops to engage in combat, it was often when the enemy's army was at its strongest and had the most abundant supplies.

Therefore, Li Tai had always felt resentful and indignant about this matter.

Li Tai coughed and said, "Your Excellency, you say that Li Chengqian is skilled in military strategy, but I have a different opinion on this."

Fang Xuanling picked up his teacup and took a small sip: "I wonder what brilliant ideas the King of Yue has?"

"If it were me who commanded the troops back then, how come I almost got utterly defeated and nearly wiped out when we fought in Yanqi?"

If Ashina She'er and the Tibetan army hadn't arrived in time, they would probably have been wiped out long ago.

Fang Xuanling listened with narrowed eyes, then smiled slightly: "King Yue, what you said makes some sense, but why were you so badly defeated when you led your troops to Yanqi?"

You lost 5,000 soldiers as soon as you arrived in Yanqi. How do you explain this?

Li Tai became a little impatient: "Wasn't that just Xiao Wang being careless?"

If there is a next time, I will absolutely not repeat the same mistake. The Yanqi army is extremely cunning.

Fang Xuanling thought to himself, "You've already lost, but you're making up so many excuses."

"I believe what you say, but there are no assumptions in this world."

Li Tai stood up and walked back and forth in heaven with his hands behind his back.

After a while, he suddenly stopped again, looking at Fang Xuanling: "Grand Secretary, are we really going to let Li Chengqian's serious crimes of releasing hostages and recruiting soldiers without authorization go unpunished?"

Fang Xuanling gazed out the window for a long while, then sighed, "We still have to endure it."

"Endure? How long are you going to endure?" Li Tai was very disappointed when he heard Fang Xuanling say such a thing.

What he was thinking was that he should overthrow Li Chenggan immediately and take the throne as crown prince.