A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 289: King Qin Enters the Palace with a Sword
Tai Chi Palace.

Li Shimin hurried back from Changchun Palace in Tongzhou and went straight to Taiji Palace.

"Your Majesty, the King of Qin has entered the palace,"

A eunuch ran into the hall breathlessly to report. Li Yuan jumped up and said, "Erlang is back?"

"The King of Qin disregarded the palace restrictions and rushed through the palace gate without even removing his sword."

"How many people did Erlang bring?"

"Only the King of Qin."

Li Yuan heard this and sat down again.

Li Shimin's voice rang out from outside the palace, "Your Majesty, I beg to see you!"

In the hall, Li Yuan stroked his beard and ignored him.

Li Shimin again requested a meeting outside, but Li Yuan still ignored him.

After Li Shimin shouted for the third time, he pushed aside the eunuch at the door and rushed into the hall.

The emperor, dressed in a purple silk robe with a dragon pattern, sat on the couch, half of his body leaning on the armrest. He looked at his son's sword, which was still on his waist.

He snorted coldly.

"Who is the Guardian of the Gates today? The King of Qin entered the palace with a sword. The Guardian of the Gates has seriously neglected his duty and deserves death. Send an order to execute the Guardian of the Gates immediately!"

Only then did Li Shimin realize that he had hurried into the palace and had not yet taken off his sword.

"Your Majesty, I heard in Changchun Palace that Liu Wenjing had been convicted of treason and imprisoned for execution. Their property was also confiscated. I hurried back to the capital, and in my haste, I forgot to unsheathe my sword. Please forgive the guard captain!"

Li Yuan stared at his son.

After a moment, he turned to the Palace Supervisor Lu Kuan and spoke slowly, "Immediately execute the guard on duty, confiscate his property, and send his wife and daughter into the imperial palace."

"Father!"

"The King of Qin should address me as Your Majesty!"

The atmosphere in the hall was solemn for a moment. Li Shimin's face turned red, and Li Yuan's eyes were extremely sharp.

Palace Supervisor Lu Kuan stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, please unsheathe your sword!"

Li Shimin took off the sword and handed it to Lu Kuan.

The father and son just stared at each other.

"King Qin, you are the Minister of the Imperial Court, the Grand Marshal, the Right General of Wuhou, the Governor of Yongzhou, the Minister of the Grand Secretariat of the Eastern Shaanxi Road, and the Governor of Puzhou.

"What's your intention in entering the palace with a sword?"

Lu Kuan pleaded for Li Shimin, "The King of Qin only brought the knife in by mistake, he did not intentionally break into the palace. Please forgive me, Your Majesty."

Li Yuan snorted coldly, "We will hand this matter over to the officials for discussion later."

"Now I will reply to your question about Liu Wenjing. He is indeed a meritorious official of Taiyuan Yuanmou and he also wanted to be on good terms with you, but now he is plotting rebellion and should be executed!"

Li Shimin knelt and said, "Your Majesty, when we started the uprising in Taiyuan, Liu Wenjing was the mastermind. Later, he was sent as an envoy to the Turks to win their support. Only then could we march south without any worries."

As the Sima of the General's Office, he was the first to propose to Your Majesty the strategy of "taking advantage of the opportunity to enter the pass and rule the world today". We made alliances with Li Mi in the east and the Turks in the north, recruited soldiers and generals, and captured Guanzhong. It was precisely because of this strategy that we were able to seize the initiative.

Liu Wenjing also led his army to defeat Sang Xianhe at Tongguan, captured Qu Tutong, and pacified the area west of Xin'an, paving the way for the Tang Dynasty to enter the pass and making great military achievements..."

"enough!"

Li Yuan stopped his son.

"The evidence is irrefutable that Liu Wenjing was conspiring to commit treason. I personally convicted him of the crime. Please do not mention it again."

"Your Majesty has granted iron certificates to seventeen meritorious officials of Taiyuan Yuanmou. Liu Wenjing was granted the privilege of being pardoned and having two lives left. I, your son, beg your father to grant Liu Wenjing only one death!"

"Treason is not covered by the Iron Certificate of Death!"

"Your Majesty, Liu Wenjing was a founding hero. Now, only two years after the founding of the country, a disgraced concubine has accused him of treason and is demanding his death. How will the people of the world view the Tang Dynasty, and Your Majesty?"

"I don't need your advice. I've decided to kill Liu Wenjing. No one can persuade me. I can let him live until September!"

After a stalemate,

Li Yuan asked his son to sit down.

Ask Lu Kuan to pour a cup of tea for them.

"You step back first." Li Yuan said to Lu Kuan.

Only the father and son were left in the hall.

"I have tolerated Liu Wenjing for a long time. When the time was not right, I was reluctant to start a rebellion hastily, but you and Liu Wenjing persuaded me again and again, forcing me to start the rebellion early, and in the end, nothing was prepared.

Your eldest brother, fourth brother, fifth brother, and your third sister were all away in Hedong, so Wulang Zhiyun was captured and killed."

"Also, when Liu Wenjing insisted on me submitting to the Turks, tens of thousands of Turks came south to attack Taiyuan. I opened all the city gates and set up an empty city plan, which scared off the Turks.
When I first started my rebellion, I wanted to support the Sui emperor and fly the Sui banner. However, Shibi Khan insisted that I become emperor before he would support me. I disagreed, and Liu Wenjing actually colluded with the Turks, mobilized the Xingguo Temple troops to cause trouble, and forced me to agree to the Turks, otherwise he would not follow me in my rebellion.

Li Yuan was dissatisfied with Liu Wenjing for many reasons.

When Li Shimin heard the emperor's words, he broke out in a cold sweat. Both father and son knew that at the time, Li Yuan's only son was Li Shimin; Jiancheng and Yuanji were in Hedong. Li Shimin had urged Li Yuan to raise an army four times, and Liu Wenjing had urged him five times.

Later, he even planned to submit to the Turks in exchange for their support. This was also planned by Li Shimin, and Liu Wenjing carried it out from outside.

The agreement reached with the Turks was that after conquering Chang'an, the land and population would belong to Duke Tang, and the gold, silver and other valuables would belong to the Turks. This was also reached by Liu Wenjing first with the Turkic Khan and then reported to Li Yuan. Li Shimin was more involved in this matter than Li Yuan.

From the beginning of the uprising until now, the relationship between the Tang Dynasty and the Turks has always been dominated by Liu Wenjing, but in fact it was more advocated by Li Shimin.

Now the Turks were about to go to war with the Tang Dynasty. After Shibi Khan died, Choro Khan succeeded him and still sent troops to support Liang Shidu's invasion of Lingzhou and Liu Wuzhou's invasion of Taiyuan.
The relationship collapsed suddenly.

While Li Yuan was under tremendous pressure, he was also more dissatisfied with Liu Wenjing, who had always advocated submission to the Turks.

In addition, after Liu Wenjing was dismissed from his position as prime minister, he had various confrontations with Pei Ji. He opposed anything Pei Ji supported, which was completely emotional.

Pei Ji said that the world is not yet stable, there are powerful enemies outside, and the Turks are invading. If Liu Wenjing is pardoned, it will definitely leave hidden dangers.

Li Yuan knew exactly what the hidden danger was. Although it was not certain, it was possible.

Liu Wenjing kept attacking Pei Ji, and Li Yuan could tell that he was actually complaining about the emperor's injustice.
In addition, Li Shimin asked the emperor to be vigilant and suppress Liu Wenjing. Liu Wenjing was his confidant and was so nervous, so he must be killed.

Killing Liu Wenjing has another meaning.
This represents another change in the emperor's attitude towards the Turks. He had to pretend to be accommodating in the past, but now that his attitude has collapsed, he should be tough. People like Liu Wenjing, who have always advocated submission to the Turks, should be killed first.

Li Yuan had too many reasons to kill Liu Wenjing. If there was only one reason, Li Yuan might have endured it.

But now, he couldn't bear it anymore.

Especially since the second son rushed back from Changchun Palace after traveling three hundred miles and broke into the palace with a knife, this was already too much and Li Yuan would not keep Liu Wenjing any longer.

"Your Majesty, could you, considering his past merits, exile him to Yizhou or Lingnan without implicating his family?"

"Treason is an unforgivable crime!"

Li Shimin knelt there in great disappointment. He never expected this result.

for a long time.

"Your Majesty, Li Zhongwen was defeated in Queshu Valley, and all 9,000 soldiers were annihilated. Now Pingyao has fallen, and Jiexiu is under siege.
Although Li Yi stabilized the rear army and entered Lingshi and Huoyi in time, and defended Yindi Pass and Fenshui Pass, he only had a few thousand soldiers and could not rescue Jiexiu, recapture Pingyao and Yuci, or reinforce Taiyuan.

Taiyuan is the foundation of the king's cause and the root of the country. Hedong is rich and prosperous, and the capital's capital. If you abandon it like this, I will be outraged.

Please give me 30,000 elite soldiers, and I will destroy Wu Zhou, recapture Pingyao and Yuci, and protect Taiyuan."

Li Yuan said, "You must have worked hard on this 300-mile journey back to the capital. Go back to the West Palace to see Changsun and Chengqian first. As for the battle in Hedong, we will discuss it in court tomorrow."

Wait until the second son leaves.
Li Yuan swept all the teacups of the two people on the table to the ground, and the green porcelain and glassware from Gongxian Kiln, which the emperor loved very much, was smashed into pieces.

Lu Kuan comes in.

"Leave me alone."

Lu Kuan lowered his head and retreated.

He didn't know what the emperor and the King of Qin had said in the hall just now, which caused the King of Qin to leave with a grimace on his face and the emperor to smash the cup here.

It took Li Yuan a while to calm down.

There were many urgent memorials on the case.

Wang Shichong attacked Yizhou several times. Zhang Shanxiang, a former subordinate of Li Mi who defected to the Tang Dynasty, ran out of food and no reinforcements arrived, so the city fell. Zhang Shanxiang cursed Wang Shichong until his death.

Yizhou is located south of Luoyang.

Li Yuan sighed deeply, picked up the red pen, and granted his son the title of Duke of Xiangcheng County.

In addition to the fall of Yizhou, Wang Shichong also captured Yizhou. Yizhou, also known as Xinxiang, is located north of the Yellow River, adjacent to Weizhou. Currently, Li Shentong, the pacification ambassador of Shandong Province, and Li Shiji, the governor of Lizhou, are holed up in Liyang.

After Wang Shichong captured Yizhou, he sent troops to attack Xijizhou, which is located in Jiyuan, north of Luoyang and west of Huaizhou. Not long ago, Wang Shichong surrendered Ding Bode with the county, and the Tang Dynasty established Xijizhou and appointed him as the governor. Now Wang Shichong sent troops to attack again.

Li Yuan picked up the red pen to approve the reply and quickly ordered Liu Hongji to lead troops to rescue him.

Picking up another memorial,
However, the brothers An Xinggui and An Xiuren conquered Liangzhou, captured Li Gui, and pacified Hexi. This was a good thing, but Crown Prince Li Jiancheng was supporting them at Xiaoguan in Yuanzhou while defending against the Turks. Yang Gongren, the Crown Prince's Chief of Military Affairs and Inspector General of Liangzhou, reported that the Crown Prince's excessive hunting, coupled with the scorching heat, had exhausted his soldiers, and more than half had deserted.

Yang Rengong's memorial made Li Yuan want to smash a few more cups.

He deliberately let the prince lead 20,000 people to Xiaoguan to support Hexi while defending against the Turks. This was also to give him military merit and increase his prestige.

The result is that hunting is excessive and more than half of the soldiers have fled. How can we not be angry?

Hexi was pacified by Li Gui, but he was of no help at all. It was all done by An Xinggui and Kong Xiuren. Li Jiancheng was stationed at Xiaoguan, and half of the soldiers escaped. Fortunately, Hexi went smoothly, and Lingzhou also defeated the Liang army's invasion.
Otherwise, if there is an emergency and we rely on Jiancheng for support, that would be fatal.

Li Yuan took a long breath before he calmed down a little. He picked up the red pen and wrote an imperial decree, ordering Yang Gongren to inspect the governor of Liangzhou, pacify Hexi, and order An Xiuren and An Xinggui to bring Li Gui and his children to Chang'an.

After a pause, he wrote again, appointing An Xinggui as the Right General of Wuhou, Shang Zhuguo, and Duke of Liang, and giving him ten thousand pieces of silk; An Xiuren as the Left General of Wuhou and Duke of Shen.

Order the prince to return to the court!
A series of bad news,

Li Yuan sighed and took out several memorials from a rosewood box on the desk, but they were all related to Li Yi.

Li Zhongwen divided his troops, underestimated the enemy, fell into an ambush and was completely wiped out. However, Li Yi, leading the rear army, was able to advance steadily and trapped thousands of elite soldiers of Liu Wuzhou's general Huang Ziying in Queshu Valley.

Li Yi did not advance rashly. He divided his troops to guard Huoyi and Lingshi, and stationed them at Yindi Pass and Fenshui Pass. This performance made Li Yuan very satisfied. If Li Yi's more than 10,000 auxiliary troops were gone, Lingshi, Jiexiu and Huoyi might have been lost.

After thinking about it,
Li Yuan wrote in red: Li Yi can be granted the title of Jinzi Guanglu Dafu, the founding duke of Jin Anding County, and be given a thousand pieces of silk.

(End of this chapter)