Chapter 15 The Hidden Pain of the Empire: The Death of Xuanwu (Part 2)

The first thing Li Jiancheng heard was a call. The voice came up from behind and gently fell into his eardrums. It sounded so calm and familiar that he didn't even realize it for a while—it was a call from the god of death. The still young King Qi reacted quickly.Although his face turned pale in an instant, and his eyes were full of panic, he still turned around and quickly set his bow and arrow. However, what is incredible is that the fourth prince of the Tang Dynasty, who has always boasted of being brave, failed to draw the bow in his hand three times in a row. As a result, all three arrows shot fell to the ground ten feet away from King Qin.Li Yuanji looked at his trembling hands in surprise, and couldn't believe that he would become so weak when death struck.At the same time, Li Jiancheng was frantically waving his horsewhip, leading his small group of attendants and rushing towards the East Palace without looking back, trying to escape the clutches of death that was close at hand.

However, Li Jiancheng's galloping speed is obviously not much faster than Li Shimin's killing speed. There was a sharp whistling in the air. Li Jiancheng looked back subconsciously. At that moment, his wide-open pupils were like frightened birds. A sharp arrow sank into his back impartially, and then shot out through his chest.Li Jiancheng saw the bright red blood gurgling out and spreading out on his chest, like a red peony in full bloom. This is the last sad and beautiful scene Li Jiancheng, the first crown prince of the Tang Empire, saw in the world. When the boundless darkness completely engulfed him, Li Jiancheng still opened his eyes in confusion.

Why did everything happen so hastily?But it ended so hastily? Yes, it's over. One thing that I have been thinking about day and night for a long time is finally done.When Li Shimin shot that arrow, he knew that his elder brother and his biggest political opponent Li Jiancheng had disappeared from this world since then.It turned out that this matter was not as difficult as I imagined.This arrow was the same as the thousands of arrows I had shot—it shot out, and then someone fell off the horse and died, it was as simple as that. But is it really that simple? If it was really that simple, why did I not have a trace of excitement and joy of victory when the most fortunate scene in my imagination happened, but a kind of emptiness and bewilderment as if I had lost something?Why did the powerful force in my chest suddenly collapse and dissipate when the biggest stumbling block on the road to succession was cleared in one fell swoop?

Li Shimin fell into a dreamlike state unknowingly.The surrounding things looked so illusory and ethereal, as if they had stood still.Li Shimin didn't seem to notice when the mount under him rushed into a thorny grove.It was not until he was tripped off his horse by a horizontal branch and fell heavily to the ground that Li Shimin had a faint feeling—maybe at the moment when his eldest brother Li Jiancheng fell to the ground, something on his body had already fallen with him, falling forever . what is that? Nobody knows. We only know that it will be something that Li Shimin will never be able to regain after exhausting his life.

Li Yuanji used to think that he was used to bloodshed and death, so he had long since dispelled the fear of death.But it wasn't until his eldest brother Li Jiancheng lay motionless on the ground with his blood-red eyes open that Li Yuanji realized that he was wrong—it turned out that death, like the sun, cannot be seen directly. Just as Li Yuanji was stunned, General Yuchi Jingde of Prince Qin's Mansion led more than seventy cavalry to rush over, and arrows shot at Li Yuanji one after another.He dodged left and right, was shot by the arrow in a panic, and fell off his horse.But Li Yuanji quickly got up again, and rushed into the grove beside him in embarrassment with the arrow wound. As a result, he saw King Qin lying on the ground with a dazed expression at a glance.Li Yuanji got angry from the heart, grabbed Li Shimin's bow with his hands, and tightly strangled his throat with the bowstring.

Just when Li Shimin's life was hanging by a thread, Yuchi Jingde arrived in time and yelled loudly.Li Yuanji reluctantly dropped the bow in his hand, spread his legs and ran desperately towards Wude Hall.Yuchi Jingde chased after him with his horse, and at the same time shot an arrow calmly.At the sound of the strings, Li Yuanji let out a muffled groan, and collapsed facing the dust.His hands and feet twitched violently a few times, and then he remained motionless. Li Yuanji was deeply ashamed when he competed with Yuchi Jingde in Ma Chan Kungfu and lost repeatedly.If he and the crown prince's plan to annex the generals of Prince Qin's mansion succeeds, Li Yuanji will surely kill Yuchi Jingde with his own hands.But he would never have thought that he would die in the hands of Yuchi Jingde in the end.

The "beheading operation" suddenly carried out by the King Qin Group in front of the Xuanwu Gate was very successful.Generals Feng Yi and Feng Li of the Eastern Palace heard the news that the crown prince had been killed, and immediately looked up to the sky and sighed: "How can we accept his kindness during his life and escape after his death?" Xie Shufang, the general of the Qi Palace, led two thousand elite soldiers from the East Palace and the Qi Palace, and quickly rushed to Xuanwu Gate. The soldiers arrived suddenly, and the situation was critical. Zhang Gongjin, who was so strong, closed the heavy palace gate alone before he could call to the left and right.

General Jing Junhong, who was in charge of defending the Xuanwu Gate, was about to step forward to fight, and he was dissuaded from left and right: "The matter is not yet clear, let's wait and see what happens, and it is not too late to wait for the soldiers to gather before going out to fight!" It should be said that the worries of the left and right soldiers are justified.Although King Qin eliminated the prince and King Qi in one fell swoop, no one can predict how the situation will evolve next, so it is the safest way to sit on the sidelines.However, Jing Junhong, who was loyal to the King of Qin, did not adopt this passive and wait-and-see suggestion. He led his troops to fight with Zhonglang General Lu Shiheng without hesitation.However, due to the disparity in the strength of the two sides, after a bloody battle, the two generals Jing and Lv were finally killed one after another because they were outnumbered.

Feng Li, Xue Wanche and others continued to command the army to storm the Xuanwu Gate, and the fighting was extremely fierce.Seeing that there were many casualties among his subordinates and the palace gate could not be attacked for a long time, Xue Wanche immediately clamored with the soldiers to attack Qin Palace.The soldiers at Xuanwu Gate were terrified.The elite of Prince Qin's Mansion have all been mobilized, and the old and weak soldiers guarding the Palace now have no defense at all, what should we do? When everyone was anxious, Yuchi Jingde suddenly galloped to the front of the East Palace and King Qi's guards.

He held two bloody heads high in his hands. Feng Li, Xue Wanche and the others immediately despaired—they knew exactly how the soldiers would react when they saw the heads of the crown prince and King Qi. Sure enough, Yuchi Jingde's actions immediately demoralized Donggong and King Qi's troops, and the soldiers began to flee in all directions.Xue Wanche had no choice but to escape from Chang'an City with dozens of trusted cavalry, and fled to Zhongnan Mountain.Feng Li said to his followers: "I killed Jing Junhong, so I can repay the prince to some extent!" Then he disbanded the army and fled alone.

According to the "Tongjian" records, when the prince and the king of Qi were fighting blood at the Xuanwu Gate, and his tribe was fighting fiercely with the army of the king of Qin, the great ancestor Li Yuan was in Haichi (artificial lake in the palace) with Pei Ji, Chen Shuda, Xiao Yu and others. Enjoy rafting on the boat. The sky is blue and the water is green, the butterflies dance and the warbler cries. Li Yuan, Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, was still enjoying a beautiful and peaceful morning as usual. Li Yuan never expected that the bowl of water that he had been carrying tremblingly for many years had been completely overturned this morning. The boat docked slowly, Gaozu Li Yuan and all the ministers were ready to go to the morning court.Yuchi Jingde, who was covered in blood all over his body, approached Haichi at this moment.He is wearing armor and holding a spear, followed by a group of heavily armed soldiers.With the same stern expression on their faces, they walked straight towards the emperor with big strides, like a sharp awl mercilessly piercing into this quiet and beautiful morning, and also severely wounding Gaozu Li Yuan. The huge shock and astonishment made Li Yuan's face pale as paper in an instant, and the ministers around him also looked at each other in blank dismay, at a loss. Li Yuan's mind went blank. His intuition told him—something very serious and terrible must have happened. It wasn't until Yuchi Jingde walked in front of him and knelt and kowtowed that Li Yuan came back to his senses.He used all his strength to ask sharply: "Who is making trouble today? What are you doing here?" Although Li Yuan tried his best to show the majesty an emperor should have, he could clearly hear the trembling in his voice.He didn't know whether the trembling was from shock and anger, or from fear of an ominous omen. "Reporting to the emperor, the crown prince and the king of Qi have rebelled, and the king of Qin has led the army to kill them! In order not to disturb your majesty, he specially ordered his ministers to escort them." It really was the expected shocking news. Like a bolt from the blue exploding in his ears, Li Yuan felt a severe dizziness.His body was shaking, and the left and right rushed forward to help him. The most terrifying thing still happened, and the long-standing worries and doubts finally turned into bloody reality.In the end, I still failed to prevent this tragedy of fratricide from happening to the royal family of Li and Tang, and it was inevitable to repeat the mistakes of my uncle Yang Jian... No, it led to a court that was even more tragic than the royal family of Yang and Sui Disaster and political disaster. Who caused all this?Why have you come to this point? Is it because I didn't play the role of an emperor well, or didn't fulfill the responsibility of a father?Is it because the crown prince and King Qi have forced King Qin to nowhere by all means, or is King Qin deliberately trying to usurp the throne? In fact, it is meaningless to ask about all this now.Even if you can get a definite answer, isn't it just to deepen your grief and regret in vain? Li Yuan felt a splitting headache. He had to face such a painful reality—the political balance he had painstakingly managed and the family ties he had worked so hard to maintain were now like a bird's nest that was torn apart by a storm, drifting to the ground in the squall.Li Yuan had a premonition that the rest of his life was destined to become a broken feather, without any weight, and unable to control the direction, so he could only wander alone in the trajectory set by King Qin, and finally walked towards the end of his life sadly. In fact, this fate has already begun from this moment.Li Yuan smiled wryly in his heart, Yuchi Jingde said it nicely, escort!Is there such an escort in the world?To put it bluntly, isn't it just forcing the palace? Looking at the bloodstains on Yuchi Jingde's body, Li Yuan's eyes suddenly became blurred.He didn't know which cluster belonged to the prince and which cluster belonged to the king of Qi among the bloodstains that had turned black and even somewhat dirty? For a moment, the voices and smiles of Jiancheng and Yuanji appeared in front of his eyes very clearly, and Li Yuan felt that when he stretched out his hand, he could still touch their young faces and feel their warm breath... However, such illusions are fleeting. With difficulty, Li Yuan moved his eyes away from Yuchi Jingde, turned his face to those ministers, and said in a voice almost exhausted: "I didn't expect this kind of thing to happen today, what do you think should be done? " Pei Ji, who had always been inclined towards the crown prince, was even more bewildered and at a loss than the emperor, opening his mouth not knowing what to say.However, Chen Shuda and Xiao Yu, who have always sympathized with the King of Qin, said categorically: "Jiancheng and Yuanji did not participate in the uprising at the beginning, and did not contribute much to the establishment of the empire. They are also jealous of King Qin's high achievements, so they jointly plan something that is not good for King Qin." Conspiracy. Since the King of Qin has wiped them out today, and has made great contributions to the universe, and the world has returned to his heart, if His Majesty can make him the crown prince and hand over the power of the government to him, there will be no more troubles!" At this moment, does the old emperor have any other choice? "You are right." Li Yuan murmured, "This is exactly my long-cherished wish." At this time, the fighting at Xuanwu Gate had not yet ceased, and the Forbidden Army, King Qin's Guard, East Palace, and King Qi's Guard were still fighting fiercely.Yuchi Jingde asked Gaozu to issue an edict-ordering all armies to obey the command of King Qin. Li Yuan knew very well that this was an inevitable move for King Qin to kill the Prince and Queen Qi.The first step is military power, the second step is the power of the prince, and the third step is undoubtedly the imperial power. This is a coup trilogy that a usurper will inevitably stage. However, knowing this, Li Yuan could only follow through. A moment later, the inspector (acting) attendant and Sima Yuwenshi of Tiance Mansion flew out of the palace from the gate of Dongshangge, loudly announcing the emperor's decree all the way, and the soldiers who were still fighting fiercely put down their weapons one after another.In order to further stabilize the situation, Li Yuan ordered Pei Ju, the servant of the Huangmen, to go to the East Palace to inform the soldiers, and the panic-stricken people in the East Palace gradually calmed down. Now that the crown prince and King Qi have been "put to death", and King Qin has taken over the military power in Gyeonggi and fully controlled the palace, this bloody political disaster should be over, right? At this moment, everyone in the East Palace and Prince Qi's Mansion may be praying in secret—I hope that King Qin will put away his butcher knife and stop killing them all. Unfortunately, King Qin's sword was not in its sheath. Soon it will draw a beautiful arc and land on the crown prince and the ten sons of King Qi accurately. No one can stop it.