A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

"Your Majesty, we have chosen the posthumous title of Crown Prince Xiaojing."

Minister of Rites Yang Sijing stepped forward and spoke.

Since ascending the throne, the Crown Prince has not accomplished anything, and his mother, Wu Zetian, has taken over all the political affairs. He has never done anything for the country, let alone made any achievements.

The Ministry of Rites had no choice but to determine his posthumous title based on his personal character and moral cultivation.

Out of respect for the deceased, the Ministry of Rites bestowed upon the Crown Prince a posthumous title of filial piety.

Filial piety is defined as loving and caring for one's parents. Praising Li Hongren for his filial piety, his respectful service to Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu, his compassion for his relatives, his pity for Consort Xiao's two daughters, and his preferential treatment of the imperial clan, all meet the standards of a filial son.

"Respect" means to serve diligently day and night, and to be cautious and self-disciplined. This praises the Crown Prince for his upright character, rigorous governance, diligence in public service, respect for etiquette and law, and courtesy towards court officials.

This is praising Li Hongren for his filial piety, respect, and perfect virtue.

Li Zhi nodded, somewhat satisfied with the posthumous title, but the fact that it was only for the title of Crown Prince made him somewhat dissatisfied.

"His posthumous title is Xiaojing, so he shall be buried as Emperor Xiaojing, and all funeral arrangements shall be in accordance with the standards for an emperor."

Yang Sijing was slightly taken aback. After the Crown Prince's death, his posthumous title and all the ceremonies were the same as those for the Emperor. This was not in accordance with the established rites.

Throughout history, even crown princes, unless they ascended the throne, were given the posthumous title of "Crown Prince So-and-so," and there has never been a posthumous title directly given to an emperor.

Yang Sijing raised his head slightly and found that Li Zhi's bloodshot eyes and Wu Zetian's icy gaze were staring intently at him.

Yang Sijing was so frightened that he shivered and, no longer caring about etiquette, immediately knelt down and said, "Your humble servant obeys the decree."

For the next month, the three departments of the imperial court went all out to investigate the Crown Prince's death at all costs.

The entire capital was in a state of panic, especially the prime minister Hao Chujun, who was also somewhat afraid.

He did not actually arrange for anyone to assassinate the crown prince, but he couldn't help suspecting that someone was secretly doing so, hoping to gain some credit for his role in the succession.

No matter how you look at it, they are the prime suspects in this matter.

In the past few days, he had been secretly investigating, thoroughly examining the entire power structure of the aristocratic families, but he still found no trace of them.

This did not dispel his suspicions. Anyone who would dare to plot against the Crown Prince must have used the most secretive forces within their family, which he could not easily uncover.

However, he was unable to find any trace, and presumably the three departments couldn't find anything either.

As long as there is no evidence, regardless of whether they did it or not, they are safe for the time being.

Hao Chujun breathed a sigh of relief, then warned all the powerful families in Beijing that political struggles were acceptable, but they had to be careful about their methods, or the consequences would be unbearable for them.

The three departments worked together for a month but still found nothing. After submitting all the information to Li Zhi, Li Zhi had no choice but to accept the fact.

That evening, Li Zhi arrived at the Prince of Yan's residence with the information gathered from the investigation by the Three Departments.

"Senior brother, have you found out who murdered Hong'er?"

Li Zhi was still somewhat unwilling to believe the results of the investigation by the Three Departments, so he not only sent a thousand cavalry to investigate, but also entrusted Wei Ye to mobilize the power of the Wei family, wanting to get to the bottom of this matter.

Wei Ye glanced through the investigation results from the Three Departments and nodded; they were pretty much the same as what they had found.

"Your Majesty, the Crown Prince did indeed die of illness."

The results found by the Wei family were similar to those of the Three Departments: "I asked Prince An to examine the Crown Prince's body. The Crown Prince was not poisoned by any other toxins and indeed died peacefully from illness."

Li Zhi finally breathed a sigh of relief. The crown prince had indeed died peacefully from illness, and there had been no fratricide among the Li brothers.

"Thank you for your trouble, senior brother."

Li Zhi cupped his hands in greeting to Wei Ye, who quickly avoided it.

"Your Majesty is too kind. This is what I should do."

After confirming that the Crown Prince's death was indeed an accident, Li Zhi ordered his ministers to discuss the selection of a new Crown Prince.

This position undoubtedly fell to Li Xian, the second son of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Empress Wu Zetian.

Li Xian gained the legitimate status of Crown Prince and the support of many important court officials, rapidly expanding his power and becoming a pivotal faction in the court.

Li Xian was intelligent, learned, and ambitious, possessing the qualities of Emperor Taizong.

Now that Emperor Li Zhi is ill and unable to handle state affairs, he, as the crown prince, feels that he should shoulder the heavy responsibility of the court.

His mother's power is now too great, even threatening Emperor Li Zhi's position.

Given Li Zhi's poor health, he might very well pass away before Wu Zetian. At that time, with the Empress Dowager's status and her years of accumulated power, Li Xian would be powerless to contend with Wu Zetian.

If he doesn't want to become a puppet emperor in the future, he must now stand with these powerful and influential families in order to counter Wu Zetian.

The two men were in love, and the women were interested in each other. They quickly became entangled and formed a political alliance to resist Wu Zetian.

Li Xian probably never imagined that both his elder brother and he were pawns in the hands of Li Zhi and Wu Zetian.

The powerful families are deeply intertwined and have profound foundations; if they don't step forward, no one will know their true strength.

In order to eradicate them completely, it is necessary to gather their forces together.

The Eastern Palace, which could rival Wu Zetian, was the gathering place prepared for them by Li Zhi and Wu Zetian.

The power of these powerful families was continuously channeled into the Eastern Palace, where they were eliminated one by one.

In the twenty-eighth year of the Yonghui era, the political struggles in the imperial court intensified, leading to a gradual weakening of the Tang Dynasty's control over the border regions.

With the aging of veteran generals in the court and the lack of prominence among young generals, there was a sense of a generational gap.

The countries surrounding the Tang Dynasty once again harbored ambitions to challenge its dominant position.

In that year, war broke out all around the Tang Dynasty, with various countries joining forces to invade its borders.

Urgent reports from all over the country rushed to Luoyang, directly dampening the political struggle in the city.

The imperial court immediately dispatched troops to the border to quell the rebellion.

The imperial generals Xue Rengui, Liu Rengui, Pei Xingjian, Li Jinxing, Lou Shide and others were each in charge of a main force and rushed to the frontier to resist foreign enemies.

This multinational invasion of the Tang Dynasty was a massive undertaking, involving 18 countries and splitting into five routes to invade the Tang.

The first route: the western front of Anxi in the Western Regions, with Pei Xingjian as the commander-in-chief, deployed along the western foothills of the Pamir Mountains and the banks of the Amu Darya River to resist the main land forces of the Shu, Wei, Zheng, and Chen kingdoms.

Relying on the cities in the middle of the river and the strongholds of the Tang Dynasty such as Sogdiana, the main strategy was to defend the city, while elite cavalry constantly harassed the supply lines of the allied forces.

The second route: the Hexi-Longyou defense line, with Lou Shide as the commander-in-chief, deployed along the Yumen Pass, Liangzhou, and Qilian Mountains.

If the war in Anxi goes badly, this place will become the second line of defense for the Tang Dynasty. The troops stationed here will also be able to send troops westward to reinforce Anxi at any time, while preventing enemy troops from sneaking across the Gobi Desert to Hexi.

The third route: the northern frontier and southern desert defense line, with Xue Rengui as the commander-in-chief, deployed along the Great Wall in Dingxiang, Yunzhou, and southern desert to resist the elite cavalry forces mainly from the Wu, Hai, Cao, Yan, and Zheng kingdoms.

Relying on the fortified cities established by the Tang Dynasty in the northern desert as bulwarks, Xue Rengui personally led a large army to fight the enemy in open battle, with the main goal of annihilating them.

The fourth route: coastal defense in the South China Sea, led by Admiral Liu Rengui, deployed troops in the South China Sea and defeated the combined naval fleet of eighteen countries.

The fifth route: the Strait of Malacca defense line, with Li Jinxing as the commander-in-chief, leading the Tang Dynasty's ocean-going fleet to guard the Strait of Malacca, blocking the naval routes of the two states to invade the Tang Dynasty, and at the same time bearing the heavy responsibility of cutting off the rear of the Eighteen-Nation Alliance fleet.