My father, Li Shimin, please call me Crown Prince

Chapter 421 Li Shimin: Father, I have walked the path you once came from.

The sudden tremor of the earth caused the command flag in Li Ji's hand to fall to the ground with a clatter. He grabbed the spear shaft beside him to barely keep his balance.

Looking beyond the layers of military formations towards the northwest, one could see a thick column of smoke rising from the direction of Xuanwu Gate, with crimson flames leaping wildly upwards from the base of the smoke, even staining the night sky with a trembling light.

"That's... Xuanwu Gate?" Li Ji's voice was low, and the bloodshot in his eyes spread with his rapid breathing.

He subconsciously touched the quiver at his waist. When his fingertips touched the cold arrowheads, his fingertips trembled uncontrollably. The last time he felt this tremor was in front of the gunpowder workshop in Daming Palace.

At that time, he personally led his cavalry to smash open the workshop gate, ignited the gunpowder, and the entire workshop rose into the air as if struck by lightning. The scorching heat scorched half of his battle robe.

But the tremor before them was more than ten times more intense than that day. The ground beneath their feet continued to tremble, the banners in the distance crackled and popped, and even the warhorses were pawing the ground and snorting restlessly.

"General, look!"

The guard beside him suddenly exclaimed and pointed to the top of the smoke column.

The clouds there were being torn apart by an invisible force, and the broken clouds scattered and fled like cotton wool being swept by a gale, revealing the bluish-gray sky behind them.

Li Jing's brows furrowed. He reined in his restless mount, his black cloak fluttering in the evening breeze.

That muffled thud just now could not have been produced by artillery.

The cannons roared fiercely beneath Tongguan Pass, but the sound was accompanied by the crisp clang of metal clashing. The vibrations were more like the roar of a giant beast from the earth, making the air itself feel hot.

"What happened? Was it the Crown Prince's cannons?"

Li Jing's voice carried an urgency he himself was unaware of.

He dismounted, his boots touching the ground, and he could clearly feel the aftershocks rising up his ankles.

During the Battle of Tongguan last year, he witnessed firsthand the power of cannons to breach the city walls, but this commotion now goes beyond the scope of cannons.

"How could the Crown Prince's cannons possess such power?"

The lieutenant leaned closer, his face pale: "Has the Crown Prince improved the cannons again?"

Everyone had already speculated about the Crown Prince's backup plan. The news about the muskets had not yet reached Li Jing, and everyone was wary of the Crown Prince's trump card.

Now that such a big change has occurred, it is naturally assumed that the Crown Prince has used his trump card.

“It wasn’t artillery.” Li Jing denied it decisively, his eyes sharp as an eagle: “Artillery bombardment produces continuous muffled sounds, but the vibration just now was an explosion, as if all the force was concentrated in one place and exploded.”

He suddenly turned to look at Li Ji: "You were at Daming Palace last time..."

Li Ji's bombing of the gunpowder workshop marked the beginning of Li Jing receiving the emperor's edict. Li Jing naturally received this news, as this matter not only caused a great stir in Chang'an, but also forced the emperor to go to war with the crown prince.

Li Ji shuddered, as if he could smell the sulfurous odor of burning gunpowder again: "It's different, completely different."

He gestured to the scene, his hands trembling slightly as he recalled: "At the Daming Palace, the workshop destroyed half of the palace, but the commotion at Xuanwu Gate... I'm afraid the entire gate tower is gone."

Li Ji suddenly stopped, his pupils shrinking sharply: "It's Thunderbolt!"

"Thunderbolt?" Li Jing pressed, his fingers unconsciously tapping the saddle.

"Yes, it's Thunderbolt!"

Li Ji's voice suddenly rose, filled with shock and realization.

"We seized some last time, powder packets wrapped in cotton cloth, which were far more powerful than those developed by the Imperial Gunpowder Bureau!"

He stared at the towering column of smoke, his Adam's apple bobbing violently: "But ordinary thunderbolts can't breach the foundation of Xuanwu Gate... unless..."

“Unless there are many, many Thunderbolts tied together.” Li Jing continued, his voice heavy as iron.

He recalled the thickness of the Chang'an city walls, the centuries-old bluestone foundations of Xuanwu Gate, and how His Majesty had been constantly reinforcing Xuanwu Gate.

The amount of thunderbolt fire required to cause such a majestic pass to tremble like an earth dragon turning over is simply unimaginable.

"Has the Crown Prince gone mad?" the lieutenant exclaimed in shock. "That's Xuanwu Gate!"

Li Jing suddenly mounted his horse, the tip of his spear pointing directly towards the West Inner Garden: "The Crown Prince isn't crazy, he's just burning his bridges."

"The Xuanwu Gate connects to the imperial guards of the palace, numbering around 100,000. The Crown Prince's forces total only 30,000 to 40,000. After breaching the city gate for so long, the losses are even greater."

"If nothing else goes wrong, the Crown Prince will undoubtedly lose, but now the Xuanwu Gate has collapsed."

"What makes the Crown Prince most feared is not his tens of thousands of elite Liaodong soldiers, but his artillery."

"If the Tongguan city walls couldn't stop the cannons, how could the Imperial Guards' flesh and blood possibly withstand them?"

"If the Crown Prince's cannons directly bombard the Imperial Guards..."

Li Ji also realized what was happening and looked at Li Jing: "Please, Lord Wei, go ahead first."

He only had infantry, so their speed was definitely slower.

According to the previous plan, he should have set off together with Li Jing on foot and cavalry from the West Inner Garden. This was also to prevent the Crown Prince from using the Thunderbolt Fire Guard as a defense measure.

But now, I can't worry about that anymore.

If the Crown Prince really manages to blow up Xuanwu Gate, that would be an earth-shattering event.

At this time, time is of the most crucial factor.

"it is good!"

Li Jing agreed in a deep voice, and then led his cavalry at full speed.

The sound of horses' hooves exploded instantly, like a torrential downpour hitting the bluestone slabs.

They needed to get to Xuanwu Gate as quickly as possible.

the other side.

Prince Wei, Li Tai, and Prince Jin, Li Zhi, looked at each other in bewilderment.

Li Tai gripped the jade belt at his waist, his gaze fixed on the towering column of smoke in the northwest. When the second wave of tremors hit, he staggered and nearly fell.

“It’s over…it’s all over…” Li Tai’s voice was weak, as if his bones had been pulled out.

He whirled around and grabbed Li Zhi's wrist: "Zhi Nu, did you hear that? The Xuanwu Gate has been blown up! That traitor Li Chengqian... he really dared to blow up the Xuanwu Gate!"

Li Tai wasn't stupid; he knew very well what the collapse of Xuanwu Gate meant.

Li Zhi's face was paler than paper. He leaned against the wall to keep from collapsing, his Adam's apple bobbing for a long time before he finally managed to stammer, "Fourth Brother, don't panic... Father still has 100,000 Imperial Guards..."

"The Imperial Guards?" Li Tai suddenly flung his hand away, laughing maniacally, his laughter laced with sobs. "Could the Imperial Guards withstand cannon fire? Could they withstand the thunderous fire that could split mountains and shatter rocks? Have you forgotten what happened in the ninth year of the Wude era? Have you forgotten how your uncles and the others died?"

He suddenly lowered his voice, leaned close to Li Zhi's ear, and said with a deep fear in his voice, "If Li Chengqian enters the palace, the first people he'll kill are you and me!"

As Li Jing's cavalry headed towards Xuanwu Gate, Li Ji was mobilizing infantry reinforcements when Li Tai suddenly grabbed Li Zhi's arm with such force that he almost crushed his bones: "Run! We have to run!"

Tonight is a nightmare for Li Tai.

He was kidnapped by Hou Junji in the first half of the night, and just after being rescued, he heard the news that Xuanwu Gate had been bombed.

At that moment, all he wanted to do was escape.

He fled Chang'an, where he had lived his entire life, and ran far away.

"Where can we run to?" Li Zhi's voice trembled, his eyes staring blankly out the window. "The city gates are all guarded by the Imperial Guards. Even if we leave Chang'an, the world is vast, isn't it all part of the Tang Dynasty? If Li Chengqian becomes emperor, a single arrest warrant will be enough to make us hide at the ends of the earth."

If he could have escaped, Li Zhi would have done so long ago, but he knew very well that he couldn't.

Li Ji had previously said that if anything changed, he should leave Chang'an first. If he wanted to leave, he would have already done so.

"Let's go to the Western Regions!"

Li Tai's eyes shone with an alarming light, as if he had grasped at the last straw: "I heard some time ago that the Abbasid Caliphate attacked the Western Regions but was driven back."

“We can go to the Abbasid Caliphate from the Western Regions. So what if Li Chengqian becomes emperor? Can he send troops to attack the Abbasid Caliphate and bring us back?”

Li Tai became more and more excited as he spoke, and suddenly felt a sense of hope.

"Fourth brother!"

Li Zhi suddenly raised his voice: "Do you know how far the Western Regions are? Do you know how long it will take to get there?"

Li Tai was taken aback, then shook his head and said, "I don't know."

He never left the center of the Tang Dynasty and had only been to a handful of places. At most, he knew Luoyang, since his father had given him many rewards in Luoyang.

As for the situation in more distant places, it was merely something I 'heard about'.

Li Zhi said, "Going to the Western Regions will take at least several months. Fourth Brother, do you think we can escape Li Chengqian's pursuers in several months?"

"He became emperor, and everyone wanted to have contributed to his rise to power."

"Not to mention Guo Xiaoke of the Western Regions Protectorate, even if we went to the Abbasid Caliphate, they might not necessarily protect us."

Li Zhi was utterly despondent; the current situation was something he had never anticipated.

Just when Li Chengqian was about to lose, and he had already decided to become the new crown prince, how did he suddenly win?

The conversation between Li Jing and Li Ji was very clear: with such a huge explosion, Xuanwu Gate definitely couldn't withstand it.

And Li Chengqian's cannons.

Just as Li Tai said, no matter how many Imperial Guards there are, they can't stop them.

“He will kill us…” Li Tai’s voice was like a leaky bellows, “That’s what Father did back then, he didn’t spare a single one of my uncles’ sons…”

He suddenly jumped up and staggered outwards, shouting, "I don't care! Even if I have to hide in the Turkic lands, I can't stay in Chang'an and wait to die!"

Li Zhi watched his retreating figure and slowly closed his eyes.

"Fourth brother!"

Li Zhi's voice was soft, yet carried a deathly calm: "Let's preserve some dignity."

Li Tai stopped in his tracks.
-
Xuanwu Gate.

When the smoke and dust completely cleared, three hundred cannons were already approaching.

"The Crown Prince's decree!"

"fire!"

Without any hesitation, the moment three hundred cannons simultaneously spewed fire, it was as if the world had been silenced.

First came a piercing shriek that tore through the air, like tens of thousands of hungry wolves baring their fangs at the same time, followed by a deafening roar that shook the ground beneath our feet and made the city walls tremble again.

The Imperial Guards at the front fell like waves of wheat swept by a whirlwind, a series of fires flickered among them, and a huge shockwave sent many soldiers flying.

"vomit--"

Changsun Wuji leaned against the wall and retched violently. He had seen mountains of corpses and seas of blood on the battlefield, but he had never seen such a scene that resembled divine punishment.

Through the gap torn in the Imperial Guard's line, soldiers were retreating, stepping over the corpses of their comrades, their long spears trembling like reeds in the wind.

"Your Majesty! Retreat quickly! It will be too late if we wait any longer!" Fang Xuanling's voice cracked, his white beard covered in dust, as he tugged at Li Shimin's sleeve and pulled him inside.

Li Shimin remained motionless, his gaze sweeping across the chaotic battlefield and landing on the three hundred still-smoking cannons behind the ruins of Xuanwu Gate.

Amidst the roar of cannons, he seemed to hear the sound of arrows from the ninth year of the Wude era.

He stood in the same spot back then, watching Yuchi Gong rush towards him carrying Jiancheng's head. The smell of blood then and the smell of gunpowder now were so similar.

"Where to retreat to?"

Li Shimin's voice was soft, yet it drowned out the sound of cannons: "Retreat to Taiji Palace? Watch him use cannons to collapse the beams and pillars of Taiji Hall? Or flee Chang'an and let the world laugh at me as a homeless dog?"

"Your Majesty! As long as the green hills remain..." Changsun Wuji's words were interrupted by the roar of cannons again. Just then, a cannonball flew past the corner tower and shattered a stone carving of a dragon head.

Pebbles splashed onto Li Shimin's dragon boots, but he didn't even blink.

"Wuji, Xuanling, look at those cannon muzzles."

Li Shimin suddenly pointed to a cannon in the distance, spitting fire.

"Back when I used the Xuanjia Army to crush Dou Jiande, I thought there was no army in the world that could stop me. But now..."

He chuckled softly, his laughter carrying a detached indifference that seemed to have seen through everything: "But the Crown Prince has created something even more powerful than the Xuanjia Army."

Fang Xuanling's heart sank. He understood what was in His Majesty's eyes.

It wasn't fear, but a kind of peace that felt almost liberating.

Just like the look in Emperor Li Yuan's eyes when he put down his fishing rod on the dragon boat in the sea pond on the day of the Xuanwu Gate Incident.

His Majesty is exactly the same.

In a daze, His Majesty's gaze gradually overlapped with that of the late Emperor. Changsun Wuji shook his head violently, shaking off the illusion, his voice trembling with tears: "Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven! The foundation of the Tang Dynasty!"

"Even if we lose Xuanwu Gate, we still have Guanzhong and Hebei! As long as His Majesty is here, we can regroup and fight again!"

Upon hearing this, Li Shimin gently shook his head: "Regroup and fight again?"

He turned to look at Changsun Wuji and asked, "Do you think someone said the same thing to Father back then?"

"I wonder how my father answered back then."

"If Father had chosen to regroup, would the Tang Dynasty still be as powerful as it is today?"

As Li Shimin gazed at the smoke rising from Xuanwu Gate, he seemed to see the figure of Li Chengqian amidst the billowing smoke.

"Is this karma?!"

"When I killed Jiancheng and Yuanji back then, I also thought it was the only way!"

Li Shimin's gaze became distant, as if piercing through time and space, seeing himself twenty years ago: "But now I understand that the road of an emperor is always paved with blood. If he wants to take this road, I cannot stop him, nor should I."

At this moment, Li Shimin felt the same emotions his father, Emperor Li Yuan, had back then.

Was there really no other choice after killing Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji?

No, no, it's just that the Tang Dynasty at that time couldn't withstand any more turmoil.

But now, Li Shimin no longer wants to disrupt this prosperous Tang Dynasty.

Fang Xuanling watched as the white hair at the Emperor's temples trembled in the wind, and suddenly understood something.

This emperor, who had dominated half his life, didn't not want to leave; he simply couldn't leave.

Just as the late emperor could not escape from the dragon boat, Your Majesty cannot and will not escape from this land that you conquered with your own hands.

(End of this chapter)