I am a prince in Zhutian Films

Chapter 138 Twenty-five Years Later

Haitang Duoduo returned to Shangjing City seven days later. By then, Fan Xian had already moved into the Northern Qi court with a large number of experts from Dongyi City.

For Northern Qi, the surrender of Fan Xian and the masters of Dongyi City was good news, but fortune and misfortune go hand in hand, so Haitang Duoduo brought extremely bad news.

Grandmaster Ku He is seriously injured and his end is approaching!

Zhan Doudou couldn't understand why a letter from Li Chengzong caused Grand Master Ku He to be seriously injured and on the verge of death.

But none of this matters anymore. What matters is that Li Chengzong’s strength is too terrifying.

It is safe to say that no one in the world can be his opponent. Even the grandmaster brought by Fan Xian and the peak Ku He are no match for him.

Zhan Doudou didn't believe Li Chengzong's threat to kill all the members of the Zhan family.

After all, the Zhan family has developed over so many years, and she herself doesn't even know how many people there are, let alone Li Chengzong.

But she knew that it would be easy for Li Chengzong to go to the imperial palace in Shangjing City and kill her, the emperor and the empress dowager.

If she and the Queen Mother died, their Qi State would not have a prince like Li Chengzong to stabilize the situation, and Northern Qi would inevitably fall apart and repeat the mistakes of Northern Wei.

Zhan Doudou didn't dare to gamble.

In addition to Li Chengzong's personal military deterrence, there was also a sentence Zhao Huai'en said before he left.

The general meaning is that if Northern Qi invades the border, even if Li Chengzong does not take action, Qing will mobilize the entire country and attack Northern Qi at all costs.

In terms of the national strength and military forces of the two countries, Qi could not be a match for Qing. This can be seen in many wars. It can be said that Qing defeated Qi every time.

Not to mention, Qing State has two great masters. Once Qing State really goes crazy and attacks Qi State, Qi State will not be able to hold on for long.

Therefore, Zhan Doudou decided to honestly do what was written in the letter. After all, there was still twenty years, and there might be a possibility of a turnaround in the end.

After taking the Queen Mother and Fan Xian to the green mountain that day, Zhan Doudou began to rest and recuperate, while at the same time re-employing Fan Xian with a strong attitude.

The reason why she reused Fan Xian despite everyone's opposition was because Zhan Mingyue told her before her death that Fan Xian possessed the mystery of the temple, and the temple might be the only way to deal with Li Chengzong.

On the Qing Kingdom side, after the Ye family's Dingzhou army returned to Kyoto, Li Chengzong officially started the national war.

This national war is completely different from the previous national war started by Emperor Qing. What he wants to take over is not just a state, but to destroy at least one country.

Most of the people in Dongyi City fled to Northern Qi, and the small countries in the east became a mess.

But as the army led by Li Chengru marched to the eastern border of Qing State, they miraculously united.

For a while, the battle with the expeditionary army was difficult to resolve.

This made Li Chengru very angry.

You know, before going on the expedition, he planned to completely destroy the small countries that had been causing trouble with Dongyi City when his child was born, and expand the territory of Qing Kingdom to the coastline of the East China Sea. He never expected that he would be dragged into the quagmire of war by the united small countries, making it difficult to determine the winner.

Of course, in addition to anger, I am also very depressed.

The reason for this situation is not that the coalition forces of small countries in the east and the army that conquered the east had the strength to compete, but because the logistical supply of Qing country failed to keep up in time. It is really like a skilled cook cannot cook without rice, and not even half of her skills can be used.

After all, war is not just about the number of troops at the grassroots level and the command capabilities of generals and commanders, but also about logistical supplies.

The war in the east was not going well, and neither was it going well on the battlefield in the south.

It wasn't because of the lack of logistical supplies, but simply because they didn't understand the mountain warfare in the south, which caused them to suffer a great loss.

In addition, the Jiaozhou navy defected to the Nanzhao Kingdom.

The Nanzhao Kingdom originally depended on the Qing Kingdom for survival, but ever since the old emperor passed away last year, the new emperor began to have some ideas.

The key point is that the new emperor is quite talented. He brought together the surrounding countries, which made the Western Expedition Army led by the Qin and Ye families helpless.

As for the final battle in the west, it went unusually smoothly.

There is no way. The Blood-Cloth Army is too strong. The Blood-Cloth Army alone can be called the strongest army in the world, and is particularly good at plains pursuit battles.

Not to mention, before Li Chengzong returned to Beijing, he killed a lot of people in the west, and the Blood-Cloth Army also had the help of the Black Cavalry of the Supervisory Council.

So in less than half a year, the Western Expedition Army had wiped out the entire Western Hu.

After the war in the west ended and the Western Hu royal court was completely destroyed, the court officials no longer wanted to fight any further.

In addition, the wars between the remaining two parties were not going smoothly. Not only did the court officials begin to persuade Li Chengzong not to fight, but even the people in the harem began to persuade Li Chengzong not to fight.

However, Li Chengzong did not listen to the advice and demoted Lai Mingcheng, who strongly opposed him. Then he recalled Lin Ruofu, who had retired to his hometown, back to Kyoto. Although he did not reinstate him as prime minister, he made him a cabinet minister.

Lin Ruofu was speechless about this. He had already handed over all the connections in the Lin Mansion to Fan Xian, and then they were cleaned out by Li Yunrui, the Minister of Revenue. Now he had no one available under his command, but he had to come out of retirement, and he had to face all kinds of messes right from the start. Even he, the prime minister who once had great power, was troubled by this.

However, despite the headache, he was very satisfied with this situation as he could now show his talents.

Like the vast majority of court officials, Lin Ruofu actually did not agree to continue the war. He was more inclined to annex the territory of the Western Hu and make that vast land truly part of the Kingdom of Qing. However, he knew very well that the former Third Prince had insisted on fighting, so it was impossible for him to go against Li Chengzong.

With the addition of Lin Ruofu, and the fact that Li Yunrui and Li Chengze had complete control over the inner treasury and the national treasury, the war between the two sides gradually became smoother.

In the eleventh year of the Qingli period, the coalition forces on the eastern battlefield announced their surrender.

In the 12th year of the Qingli period, the Nanzhao Kingdom was destroyed and the southern countries submitted requests to submit.

Only then did Li Chengzong stop the national war, let Li Chengru garrison Dongyi City, and let Ye Chong garrison in the former capital of Nanzhao Kingdom.

In the same year, Li Chengzong changed the country's name to Hua, ushering in a new era.

When the external situation was completely stabilized, he began to carry out vigorous reforms, and his series of measures were opposed by many officials.

Just like he insisted on the national war in the first place, Li Chengzong completely ignored the officials' dissuasion and acted on his own.

All the opposing officials who were found to have no problems would be either demoted or dismissed. Among them, Lai Mingcheng, former Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate and current Vice President of the Supervisory Yuan, was dismissed by Li Chengzong.

This is also the highest-ranking official dismissed by Li Chengzong since he came to power.

As for those officials who had problems themselves, they were basically executed later.

For a time, the entire Qing Kingdom was flooded with blood, and officials were executed in various places.

From then on, the Qing court became completely controlled by Li Chengzong, and no official opposed the national policies he implemented.

Li Chengzong also earned the title of "tyrant" because of this.

At the beginning, everyone thought that the Qing Kingdom might be doomed and would soon be destroyed by this tyrant.

As a result, five years later, the Qing Kingdom not only did not collapse, but became even stronger.

Ten years later, Qing Kingdom had swept across all the surrounding small countries, and the territory on the southeast side of Qing Kingdom extended to the coastline.

Twenty years later, the people of Qing have moved to the West, and the furthest-reaching ones have even migrated to what was once Europe.

Before he knew it, Li Chengzong had been on the throne for twenty-four years.

This year, Li Chengzong announced that he would abdicate to the crown prince Li Jingxiu. Lai Mingcheng, who had felt that the country was going to be destroyed and was now trembling with fear, led a group of retired old officials to kneel directly at the gate of the imperial city and refused to allow him to abdicate. In fact, these old officials headed by Lai Mingcheng could not understand why the tyrant Li Chengzong could develop Qing Kingdom... oh, no, now it should be called Hua Kingdom, into such a huge empire?

But they went with a smile. China was so powerful now, and these old ministers would definitely leave a strong mark in the history books. Although they had been trying to dissuade him, they failed. In the end, they helped the emperor to maintain the operation of China. Therefore, China's current strong national strength is inseparable from their abilities.

Despite the persuasion of veteran ministers such as Lai Mingcheng, Li Chengzong still insisted on his own way. He asked the Ministry of Rites to choose a time to pass the throne to his son. He then wrote a letter to Zhan Doudou and took a steam train to the border between the two countries.

The twenty-first year of the Chinese Era, spring!
On the border between the two countries.

The two groups faced each other across a railway track.

Relatively speaking, Li Chengzong's side has much more people, men and women, young and old, totaling about a hundred people.

On the other hand, there were only a dozen or so people on Zhan Doudou's side, namely Fan Xian's family, Zhan Doudou's mother and daughter, and Northern Qi's Saint Maiden Haitang Duoduo.

"I heard you abdicated?"

Perhaps because of imitating China's policy of allowing women to serve as officials, Zhan Doudou has now regained her female body.

Although the announcement of her female birth caused some turmoil in Northern Qi, she eventually secured the throne and became the first female emperor of Northern Qi, which was a historic achievement.

Li Chengzong hummed and said with a smile: "My eldest brother is quite capable. Sooner or later, the throne will be passed to him. The sooner he sits on it, the sooner I can rest. Being an emperor is really tiring."

Zhan Doudou was too lazy to talk nonsense with Li Chengzong, and said coldly: "Tell me, what do you want from me?"

"I wasn't looking for you. I called Fan Xian. Who would have thought that you would follow me." Li Chengzong said speechlessly.

"You invited Fan Xian's family." Zhan Doudou said unhappily.

Okay, I forgot that Zhan Doudou and Fan Xian have a daughter. Although they are not married, they can still be considered a family.

"You are right, okay? I called you here just to let the younger generations get to know each other. After all, we are relatives, and several elders also want to say goodbye to Fan Xian's family."

Zhan Doudou glanced at the people on the other side who were in tears, then looked back at Lin Wan'er and the others who were in tears, nodded, and said, "Do you want to come over, or do we go over?"

"Do you remember what happened back then?"

"How dare I disobey your words, Grandmaster Li? Otherwise, you will kill my entire Zhan family!" Zhan Doudou said sarcastically.

As expected, women are the most vengeful creatures.

It's been twenty-five years, and I still hold a grudge.

Li Chengzong was speechless. "Let's go over there. After all, I said that Fan Xian must not set foot on Qing's territory. It's not good to break my promise."

As he spoke, Li Chengzong waved his hand, and the people who had been waiting anxiously in the back crossed the tracks in an instant.

Li Chengru's family of thirteen people went straight to Zhan Doudou.

The second son's family led the eldest princess Li Yunrui towards Lin Wan'er.

Lin Dabao, the silly boy, got married and had children, even a grandson. The whole family followed Lin Ruofu and walked towards Lin Wan'er.

Li Chengping, with his mother, wife and children, walked towards Liu Ruyu and Fan Sizhe opposite.

Si Lili walked towards Haitang Duoduo with the eldest princess Li Jingyue, who was still unmarried, and her two eldest grandsons.

As for Li Chengzong, he found Fan Xian.

Before Li Chengzong could speak, Fan Xian asked, "Is Dean Chen okay?"

"It's OK. The old man is in good health."

After all, Chen Pingping was a martial artist. Although he later became a disabled person, his physique was much stronger than that of ordinary people.

In addition, in order to allow his son to get more good things from Chen Pingping, Li Chengzong combed and nourished Chen Pingping's body many times, and the loss in his early years had long been made up.

The old man is the healthiest among his peers. He is even healthier than Hong Sixiang and living to be eighty or ninety years old is no problem.

The reason why he didn't come this time was because his only disciple had just ascended the throne and the old man was a little worried.

Upon learning that Chen Pingping was still alive, Fan Xian laughed.

"That's fine, that's fine."

"Don't you want to go back and take a look?"

Fan Xian was stunned: "Can you let me go back?"

"No, you know I always keep my word."

Fan Xian was a little disappointed, but then Li Chengzong changed the subject: "But the whole family is fine. Although the old man didn't say it, he has always missed you in his heart. Besides, I am planning to take my wife to the West recently. We will be gone for about half a year."

Fan Xian understood and expressed his sincere gratitude, "Thank you very much!"

Li Chengzong waved his hand: "Speaking of which, how have you been doing in recent years?"

"good."

"It doesn't look good."

Fan Xian was speechless.

He actually lived a good life in the first few years after he arrived in Northern Qi, but as time went on, his life became difficult.

Not only Zhan Doudou was on guard against him, but even his daughter, who was named Crown Princess, began to be on guard against him.

Come to think of it, it’s quite hurtful.

After all, he worked hard for the State of Qi, but in the end he did not get a good result.

It can be said that if he and Zhan Doudou did not have a child, if Hongdoufan was not his daughter, and if Wuzhu did not have the protection by his side, he would have ended up like his mother.

"I have actually heard about your actions over the years. You have done well, but it's a pity that you have forgotten Zhan Doudou's identity. She is a native ruler of a country. It is impossible for you to realize your mother's vision in Northern Qi because it will threaten the rule of the imperial power, and no emperor can accept it."

Li Chengzong sighed and continued, "In fact, I have discussed your problem with Chen Pingping. You are now following your mother's old path. Zhan Doudou is not as vicious as the old man, otherwise you would have died by now. In my opinion, you should not have come to Northern Qi. You should have taken those people in Dongyi City to conquer a piece of land in the west, then come back to swallow Northern Qi and become the emperor yourself."

"You are just talking after the fact. When you asked me to leave Qing, you actually wanted me to come to Northern Qi. So no matter if I come to Northern Qi or not, you will eventually find a way to make me come to Northern Qi."

Li Chengzong was stunned, and smiled awkwardly: "How did you know?"

"I'm not stupid, okay? You've always wanted to unify the Central Plains, and everyone in the world knows it. Others don't know, but I know that you still want Qing, no, it should be called Hua, to become the empire on which the sun never sets in our memory. Since you have such big ambitions, why did you give Northern Qi twenty years? Because you don't want a backward Northern Qi, so you will definitely force me to come to Northern Qi, develop Northern Qi for you, and then eat up Northern Qi."

Fan Xian snorted in dissatisfaction, then laughed and said, "However, the food in Northern Qi is not so delicious nowadays, be careful or your teeth will break."

Li Chengzong was stunned for a moment and asked, "Did you get the weapons out of the temple?"

"No." Fan Xian shook his head.

Li Chengzong felt relieved and said with a smile: "Three years, at most three years, Northern Qi will be destroyed, unless you can find the weapons of mass destruction in the temple."

(End of this chapter)