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

Seeing Li Tai's cowardly appearance, Su Wan felt a little soft-hearted and was about to untie his ropes...

However, Xue'er disagreed: "Master, don't be fooled by his current docile appearance. If you untie his ropes, he'll become very arrogant."

What I mean is, bring another rope and tie him up tightly to prevent him from running away.

After Su Gui has assembled her troops, we'll observe his performance before departure and then consider whether to release him.

Su Wan nodded, thinking to herself that Xue'er had become more shrewd now, and smiled, "Alright, let's do it your way."

Upon hearing this, Li Tai grinned, thinking to himself that Xue'er was truly ruthless, showing him absolutely no affection and letting them untie him.

Instead of loosening their bonds, they added another rope. Why did I do this?

If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have needed to beg Su Wan.

At the fourth watch of the night,

Su Gui returned and reported to Su Wan: "Everything is ready, the troops have been assembled, and we are ready to depart at any time."

Su Wan nodded: "Very good. I asked you to go back and bring our parents with you. What did they say?"

"The two elders refused to leave, saying that if the Emperor wanted to punish them, then let the Emperor punish them." Su Gui had no choice but to accept this.

Upon hearing this, Su Wan looked in the direction of her home with tears in her eyes: "Father, Mother, your daughter is unfilial!"

I'm sorry to have caused you both trouble.

"My lady, you don't need to blame yourself. No one could have foreseen these things," Xue'er said, offering words of comfort.

Su Wan then stopped crying and wiped away her tears: "Take Li Tai with you. We'll release him once our army reaches a safe area."

"Don't worry, sis!"

"If he dares to try anything funny, I'll end his life with one stab," Su Gui said viciously.

Li Tai thought to himself that he was really unlucky to have run into Su Wan and Su Gui, the siblings, neither of whom were easy to mess with.

Meanwhile, Su Wan ordered people to fetch silver from Li Tai's warehouse, filling more than a dozen cartloads.

Li Tai watched as the fully loaded trucks passed by him one after another, his heart aching so much he felt like he couldn't go on living.

He squandered almost all of his family's wealth this time.

Therefore, many soldiers were willing to follow him and Su Wan, but not Li Tai.

The reason is that Li Tai is too stingy.

Despite being very wealthy, Li Tai is extremely stingy. As the saying goes, the more money one has, the more calculating one becomes.

Li Chengan led his troops, eating and living with his soldiers.

Li Tai is not like that.

He felt that all the soldiers were lowly people, how could they be worthy of being with him?

He was well-fed and well-slept. Why would he care about the lives of his soldiers?

Sometimes, Li Tai even wanted to emulate Emperor Yang of Sui, who, it is said, took monks, Taoists, courtesans, concubines, and envoys from various countries with him when he launched his three campaigns against Goguryeo.

The Sui emperor wasn't going to fight a war; he was clearly going on a sightseeing trip.

Li Tai is someone who knows how to enjoy life.

He would never allow himself to suffer.

Su Wan and Su Gui, a brother and sister, led 30,000 soldiers westward.

The navy will enter the Yangtze River from the Wei River and sail upstream.

Just then, several fast horses caught up, carrying many heroes on their backs.

Then they heard people shouting, "Princess Consort, we'll go with you."

Su Wan reined in her horse and turned around to look. It turned out that Xue Rengui, Luo Cheng, Ashina Simo, Shanbei Daxiong Wang, Tuoba Chici, Murong Shun, Ashina Jieshe, Hegan Chengji, Li Chunfeng, and Zhang Shizheng were among those who had come after them.

After reading this, Su Wan was deeply moved and gracefully curtsied, saying, "Duke Yue, gentlemen, what are you all doing?"

Luo Cheng said, "We already know that the Crown Prince has been deposed."

However, we believe that it was a decision His Majesty made in a moment of confusion.

I believe that His Majesty will restore his status as Crown Prince before long.

We have heard that you and your brother are going to lead troops to rescue the Crown Prince and fight against the Western Regions.

We are willing to follow you into the Western Regions.