Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 365 My military camp is quite big
Li Zhi stood in front of Li Ming like a wooden stake, with his head lowered and not saying a word, just staring at Li Ming's right hand side, just like a schoolboy standing in the corner as punishment.

Li Ming sighed:

"Don't you want to say something, Brother Nine?"

Li Zhi opened his mouth and said only one word:

"water."

"Water?" Li Ming was stunned and suddenly felt his thigh burning.

Only then did I realize that the tea cup was already overflowing.

"Oh, I'll go!"

He quickly put down the teapot and patted his soaked trouser legs.

Li Ming rarely gets confused, but today is an exception.

It's not his fault.

Anyone would be confused if the emperor and crown prince of the enemy camp were suddenly teleported in front of him.

"You don't want to say it, right... What about you? Big brother, what do you want to say?"

Li Ming dusted off his pants and turned his gaze to the other boss.

Li Chengqian was still twisting his handkerchief and sobbing:
"Ahem, I am just passing by. I don't know why this young man kidnapped me here..."

"..." Li Ming's mouth twitched, and he silently covered his face like Li Zhi.

He almost forgot that Li Chengqian was also a cosplay enthusiast.

You must have played a lot of special games with your beloved couple behind closed doors, right?

By the way, speaking of Chengxin, where is your adulterer?

Li Ming turned his gaze to the third person present.

He was an ordinary Ming army soldier with a bruised face and nose, and he was the sergeant who stopped Li Chengqian and his party.

"Your Majesty, I remember your teachings and never let down my guard even in my ordinary post. I successfully captured the false emperor of Tang. However, the terrain of the battlefield was complicated and the rest of the Turkic bandits, led by their leader, fled in all directions.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, thank you Ming Dynasty, and thank you for the support of the friendly forces..."

This is the situation.

Because Brother Li Daliang was eager to rescue the emperor, he had good intentions but did something wicked. He shouted loudly, which aroused the vigilance of the Ming army sergeant, who quickly called for help and defeated the Tang army.

They also captured the fleeing Majesty, the Crown Prince, and the entire royal family.

"Shekui Khan" Chengxin retreated northward with the remaining Tang army and Turkic cavalry.

"You did a great job, you did a great job!"

Li Ming stood on tiptoe and tried to pat the elite soldier's shoulder, but he could only reach his back.

The sergeant felt extremely honored. His whole body straightened and he almost held his breath.

After being patted on the back by His Majesty, that piece of skin must be kept as a gift. I won’t take a bath for at least ten days, no, a month!
"Thank you for your hard work. Go to the rear and rest first. I will personally award you and your comrades with medals then."

Li Ming gave a few words of encouragement and sent away the sergeant who was almost fainting from excitement, then turned his attention to the fourth elder brother present.

The eldest and ninth sons of the Li family were able to become "Lao Da" and "Lao Jiu" all thanks to the friendship and sponsorship of this elder brother.

"Li Daliang, I think I should give you a medal, one that weighs a ton."

Facing this high-ranking Tang army prisoner who was tied up, Li Ming teased with a hint of sarcasm.

To be honest, if Li Daliang hadn't lit up the map in time, the Ming army checkpoint would have allowed Li Chengqian and his gang to escape successfully.

"...I have nothing to say, I just want to die quickly."

Li Daliang spoke in a very tragic and heroic manner, but his tone lacked confidence.

It's not that he is afraid of death.

But the mess he had created was so huge that dying would make him feel like he was shirking responsibility.

His Majesty Li Shimin asked him to go south to meet and escort the fleeing emperor and crown prince, but he sent the two nobles in with just a shout.

The Ming army was able to capture the emperor in one fell swoop, and it was a "double emperor egg", and Li Lao played an indispensable role.

Therefore, when the two emperors were arrested, Li Daliang lost his will to live and rushed headlong into the Ming army's guns.

The result is what it is now.

Because he refused to surrender, he was forcibly abducted by the Ming army. After all, a general of such a high rank usually has extremely high intelligence value, and it would be a pity to kill him in battle.

"I'm curious, what were you thinking at the time? Why did you shout 'Your Majesty'? Were you afraid that their identities would be exposed?"

Li Ming swore to Emperor Gaozu of Tang that his questions were sincere and there was absolutely no ulterior motive.

If he didn't know that Yuchi Xunyu didn't have this ability, he would have really thought that Li Daliang was an undercover agent who had been lurking in the enemy camp for many years.

"You can kill me or chop me up, it's all up to you." Li Daliang looked like a dead pig that was not afraid of boiling water.

Even though he died, his name will be recorded in history. This is probably what it means to be in this situation.

"He thought that the Ming army sergeant was going to do something bad to us, so he shouted in a hurry to intimidate the other party." Li Zhi said quietly.

An awkward silence fell in the air.

Only Li Daliang was still muttering, like Xianglin Sao:

"Kill me, kill me..."

Li Ming couldn't bear to look at such a pitiful look.

Li Daliang was a typical worker in the Tang army. He had fought in many battles over the years and had made many military achievements.

But both in fame and position, he is several levels lower than his colleagues.

He is the one who does all the dirty and tiring work, but he is not the top-notch worker among the ones who get the year-end commendations.

This time, he was assigned a high-risk mission of "protecting a VIP behind enemy lines", and as expected, he failed.

This guy was able to bypass Li Ming's large group without being noticed and successfully connect with Li Chengqian. This shows that this worker's business ability is still online.

Second, it shows that the Tang army controlled local trails that were unknown to Li Ming's side.

This is very important combat intelligence.

Today I can go around and support Li Chengqian, and tomorrow I can go around and be the sixth and poke the ass of Li Ming’s army.

This information must be extracted.

However, using force to pry open the mouth of this desperate worker is obviously counterproductive.

Li Ming decided to change his thinking and signaled to his left and right:

"Untie General Li and give him a seat."

The royal guards rushed forward, untied the ropes for the unconvinced Li Daliang, pressed him on a mat, and then stood guard at his side with knives in hand.

If this guy dares to make any move against His Majesty Li Ming, he will be beheaded immediately.

"No, no need."

Li Ming waved away the guards who were eyeing him covetously, walked up to Li Daliang and patted him on the shoulder.

"General, you don't want your glorious feat of capturing two emperors in one battle to be sung forever by future generations, do you?"

Li Daliang's whole body shook as if he had been electrocuted, and his lips trembled.

As expected, people in the Tang Dynasty attached great importance to evaluations of their descendants after their death.

"Tsk tsk, it's impossible to erase this history. The impact is too great. Your famous name will definitely be engraved in the history books. It's too detailed to be recorded in history books."

Li Ming stuck his tongue and shook his head.

Li Daliang looked as pale as death.

"but--"

Li Ming dragged out his tone:
"I have some connections with historians, so it's not impossible for me to help you reverse the case."

Li Daliang's eyes lit up:
"You want to tamper with historical data?"

Li Ming immediately shook his head: "I won't do such immoral things as eating books.

"It's just a slight distortion... No, it's just to guide the pen a little bit and present facts that are slightly different from the facts from another angle."

As the founder of Chang'an Newspaper and the pioneer of "Journalism", for him, historical materials are just another kind of "news" that does not pursue timeliness.

Li Ming thought for a moment, then he put his hands behind his back, paced and began to chant:
"Li Daliang, male, is a man of righteous character, who likes to help the weak and punish the strong.

"Because he sympathized with the peasant movement and was quite fond of the Ming Dynasty's land distribution policy, he began to identify with the entire Ming Dynasty regime.

"In order to help the Ming Dynasty unify the world as soon as possible and make all the tillers in the world have their own land, Li Daliang took the initiative to approach the Ming Dynasty, offered advice to capture the false emperor of Tang - Brother Chengqian, please don't look at me with such resentment - and gloriously joined the Ming army.

"How about this version of 'historical facts'?"

Li Daliang broke out in a cold sweat and was struggling fiercely inside.

"But... I also come from a prominent Longxi Li family. What you said is not true. It is a fabrication..."

He lowered his head and muttered, not daring to look up at Li Chengqian and Li Zhi who were being made miserable by him.

Li Ming curled his lips, leaned close to Li Daliang's ear, and whispered like a devil:

“Being born into a wealthy family and sympathizing with the weak, doesn’t this make you appear even more great, glorious and correct?
"Anyway, these are all your own inner thoughts. The historians are not the worms in your stomach. How can they know your true thoughts?

"If you say yes, then it is."

Li Daliang was already sweating profusely:
"But, but..."

Li Ming interrupted the persuasion at the right time:

"General Li is tired, please ask him to go down and take a rest. Show our Ming Dynasty hospitality and treat him well."

"Yes!" The soldiers shouted in unison, and then rushed forward aggressively to drag Li Daliang away.

"Wait a minute! Who asked you guys to come up here? I mean that literally, without the quotation marks."

Li Ming dismissed the heroic and high-spirited soldiers, replaced them with a gentle and sweet maid, and helped the bewildered Li Daliang down.

Only the three Li brothers were left in the room.

The six of them looked at each other in silence, and the atmosphere was very awkward.

At first, Li Chengqian broke the silence with a bitter smile of helplessness and relief:
"Now that things have come to this, Fourteenth Brother, how do you plan to deal with me?"

Li Chengqian is also his old rival, since the Lide Hall era.

Li Zhi was even more of a typical example of repaying kindness with enmity. He saved his life in Jiucheng Palace, but then launched a coup and drove him out of Chang'an.

Li Zhi and the deceased Li Tai bear an unshirkable responsibility for causing this chaos in the world.

It was just a meeting between enemies, and Li Ming did not feel any pleasure of revenge at all, he just felt a headache.

He didn't shy away from it at all. In front of the two of them, he rubbed his temples:
"You really gave me a difficult problem."

He looked annoyed, but it didn't seem like he was pretending.

This made Li Zhi feel puzzled and annoyed, and his tone was somewhat emotional:

"It's all over, what are you worried about?"

This long-lasting battle for the throne has come to an end. One of the four contestants has died and two have been imprisoned.

Didn’t Li Ming automatically win?
When the ruler of the world is still troubled, isn't this guy a bit pretentious?

How about letting your brother Zhinu share some of your worries?
Li Ming glanced at the young man and was too lazy to waste words with him.

Lao Jiu's self-awareness seems to be a bit excessive, and he really thinks of himself as the final boss.

Does Li Ming want to succeed to the throne and be crowned?

What he wants is for everyone in the world to submit!

First conquer them, then rule them, and make all the people in the world bow down at his feet with sincerity.

In this way, the whole world can allow him to do whatever he wants... no, reshape the world according to his ideals.

And who is the biggest obstacle in this process?

Could it be some sissy emperor who loves cosplay?

Or is he some young man who is keen on conspiracy and intrigue?
Can such people win the love of the people of the world and make people willingly fight to the death with the Ming Dynasty for their status?
Can Li Ming completely conquer everyone's hearts by defeating such a guy?
impossible.

Li Ming's opponent, the opponent for the hearts and minds of the people, is only one——

That was their grandfather, Li Shimin.

This man who was both civil and military proficient created the prosperous Tang Dynasty. It is no exaggeration to say that he brought the Tang Dynasty to a height that did not belong to this dynasty.

Apart from a minor problem in choosing his successor, he was a hexagonal ruler of the classical era.

There are still people in the world who are willing to die for His Majesty Li Shimin.

In order to win the trust of the whole world, Li Ming must cross this mountain.

I traveled back to the Tang Dynasty just to beat up Li Shimin!

Therefore, Li Chengqian and Li Zhi, this pair of funny guys, are not the final bosses who can be defeated and everything will be fine. Instead, they are a pair of hot potatoes.

Must be handled with care.

If he is not careful, he may be criticized and his image of "greatness, glory and justice" in the hearts of the people may be damaged.

With the "Xuanwu Gate Succession Law" that had been criticized for a thousand years as a precedent, Li Ming had already killed Li Tai. He couldn't kill Li Chengqian and Li Zhi as well, leaving Empress Changsun without an heir, right?

From the perspective of etiquette, Empress Changsun was also Li Ming's mother for a while!

"Oh, as long as you and I live in this world, my brother Ming will never be able to sleep in peace." Li Chengqian smiled bitterly, his tone full of resentment.

"This is determined by blood. Don't have any illusions."

"What should we do? Does Li Ming really want to kill us?" Li Zhi's face turned pale.

Unlike brother Cheng Qian who is plagued by illness and has lost all desire to live, his sun is not setting yet. He is still the sun at seven or eight o'clock in the morning!
"Hey, stop yelling."

Li Ming looked at the two crying brothers in silence.

According to the advanced experience of later generations, there are too many ways to make the two brothers die "naturally" in a perfect way.

Li Chengqian's half-dead physical condition made this sudden death much more convenient.

But in the melon field and plum garden, there are the sounds of axes and the shadows of candles.

It is because they are both in Li Ming’s hands now.

So if anything happened to them, Li Chengqian would naturally be in trouble.

People all over the world will also blame Li Ming for this.

After all, in a sense, Li Ming is now their guardian and bears full responsibility.

This is also why Li Ming didn't want to bother with them and let them fend for themselves in Puzhou.

But I didn't expect that these two people would force their way in from Hell...

Alas, it was also the Ming army's fault for being too proactive. They were only assigned the duty of scouts, but they ended up kidnapping the emperor and the crown prince...

"You two can rest assured. I won't embarrass you or kill you, because I just don't bother to care about you."

Li Ming said this with a slightly irritable tone, and it didn't sound fake.

"I will send someone to escort you back to Chang'an... No, if something happens on the way, I won't be able to wash myself clean even if I jump into the Yellow River.

"You should stay in the barracks. My barracks are quite big. You can play around here and sleep when you are tired. It's no problem.

"No other questions, right? If you have any, go and rest. I still have work to do."

He coaxed and deceived the Emperor and the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty to leave.

Before leaving, Li Zhi suddenly asked:

"Aren't you going to go see Sister Sizi?"

The women in the palace were also detained in the military camp, including Li Mingda.

Li Ming frowned and said in a muffled voice:
"Now is not the time to see her."

(End of this chapter)