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

Chapter 645 You also want to be the Crown Prince?

Wude Hall.

After being imprisoned in the back hall of the Secretariat for three days, Prince Qi, Li Yuanji, was brought to the Wude Hall.

This is where Yuanji lived for several years, and it is still preserved for him in the backyard of Wude Hall.

Li Yuan, dressed in a purple robe, stood in the hall with his hands behind his back.

The fifty-eight-year-old emperor, after this upheaval, suddenly aged considerably and appeared somewhat old.

He inherited the title of Duke of Tang at the age of seven, became a Qianniu Beishen (a high-ranking military officer) in the Sui Dynasty at sixteen, and proclaimed himself emperor in Chang'an at the age of fifty-two. During these years, Li Yuan always felt that he was still young and vigorous. Especially after becoming emperor, he fathered nine sons in just a few years, which made him feel even stronger.

But the poisoning incident involving Shimin three days ago made him realize that he was getting old.

His sons are already vying for power, which also means he's getting old.

"Your Majesty, the Prince of Qi has arrived."

Qian Jiulong, the Right General of the Imperial Guard and Duke of Xun, reported this.

Li Yuan turned around.

"Didn't Yuanji admit that he poisoned the King of Qin?"

"The King of Qi refused to admit it."

"Have Yuwen Bao, Xue Shi, and the others confessed that they poisoned and murdered the Prince of Qin?" Li Yuan asked again.

Qian Jiulong answered truthfully: "Yuwen Bao and Xue Shi only confessed to recruiting fugitives for the Prince of Qi and poisoning Pei Xuanyan."

They also confessed that on that day, King Qi ordered Yuwen Bao to lead assassins to ambush King Qin in the palace, intending to assassinate him. However, King Qi later canceled the plan. They denied that they had poisoned King Qin, claiming they knew nothing of King Qi's arrangement.

One link is missing.

Other corroborating evidence is possible.
All of this proves that the King of Qi plotted to kill the King of Qin, and that the poisoning of Pei Xuanyan by the King of Qi's palace was also caused by the poison of Gelsemium elegans.

Although Qian Jiulong thoroughly investigated the kitchen, ingredients, staff, and slaves of the Qi Prince's residence afterward, he still couldn't find out how the Prince of Qin was poisoned at the Qi Prince's family banquet.

However, the King of Qi could not escape suspicion.

Li Yuan's anger was still not appeased.
"Are Yuwen Bao, Xue Shi, and Keda Zhi already on their way to exile?"

"He has been ordered to leave the capital."

Li Yuan raised his hand, making a chopping motion with his palm, "I don't want to hear any more news about them."

Qian Jiulong understood.
This meant the three would die on the way, but the emperor, out of consideration for their families, still left some leeway for the Crown Prince and Prince Qi.
Their cases were not subject to public scrutiny.

But the emperor did not want to let them go.

A secret order
A certain post station on their journey of exile became the final resting place for these three men—either a white silk ribbon or a pot of poison.
They would never reach their place of exile.

"Call Yuanji in."

Qian Jiulong withdrew.
A moment later, Li Yuanji entered the hall.

Inside the spacious Wude Hall, incense smoke curled upwards.

Father and son looked at each other.

Looking at that ugly face, Li Yuan felt even more disgusted.

"Look at you! With your pointy mouth and monkey-like face, you're not only ugly, but also wicked. You three are all brothers from the same father and mother. The Crown Prince and the King of Qin have a conflict, and instead of helping to mediate, you, as their brother, are stirring up trouble and sowing discord."

what you up to?
"You also want to be the crown prince?"

Li Yuan angrily berated the fourth son.

Yuanji was ugly from a young age. His own mother even disliked him because he was so ugly at birth. It was his maid Chen who secretly hid him and raised him until Li Yuan, who was serving as an official elsewhere, returned home, thus saving him from dying young.

But this ugly appearance has indeed been something he has been extremely concerned about since childhood.

The emperor said he was ugly, and Yuanji could not accept that either.

"Ugly? I was born of you, I am also of the bloodline of the Li and Dou families. I am ugly, and Your Majesty is not a handsome man either."

Emperor Yang of Sui often called Your Majesty "Grandma's Face," implying you weren't much better looking than me!

"You wretched child!" Li Yuan roared in fury.

Li Yuanji, however, stubbornly refused to listen, saying, "In His Majesty's eyes, there are only my eldest and second brothers, never me."
They are all His Majesty's sons, all legitimate sons, so why should I be inferior to them in every way?

The eldest son is the legitimate heir, so it is only natural for him to become the crown prince.

But the King of Qin is only the second son of the legitimate wife. If he can compete for the position of crown prince, why can't I?

Li Yuan laughed in anger.
"Look at you, you're ugly, but you dream big. Jiancheng is the eldest son of the legitimate wife, and Shimin has made great contributions to the country. Which of these qualities do you possess? And you still want to be the crown prince?"

Yuanji countered with a question,

"Your Majesty, how did you obtain this throne? What is your relationship to the Sui emperor? What qualifications do you have to inherit the throne of the Sui Dynasty?"

Wasn't it stolen too?

If His Majesty can seize it, why can't I?

Li Yuan turned his head and looked left and right.

He wanted to find a sword and stab this bastard to death.

"So, you finally admit that you deliberately sowed discord between the Crown Prince and the King of Qin in order to seize the position of Crown Prince, and even secretly poisoned the King of Qin during the family banquet?"

Yuanji was confined to the provincial capital for three days.

Before he arrived, Feng Deyi had given him a message, informing him of some information, such as that Yuwen Bao and Xue Shi had been exiled.

Yuanji had always believed that the poisoning of Prince Qin and Pei Xuanyan was the work of his subordinates. Now, seeing that both of them had been exiled, he was even more convinced that the emperor knew everything.

At this point, they simply gave up and went all out.

"May I ask Your Majesty, how did Emperor Gong of Sui, Yang You, die?"

"How did Wang Shichong die? And how did Dou Jiande and Du Fuwei die?"

Li Yuan was so angry that he kicked Yuan Ji over.

Yuanji's words undoubtedly admitted that he had poisoned the King of Qin.

Upon receiving Yuanji's personal admission, Li Yuan was extremely disappointed.

Siblings cannibalize each other.

He wanted nothing more than to kill this beast with a single sword stroke, but in the end, his heart softened.
He is, after all, his own son.

"You shouldn't stay in Chang'an either,"

Li Yuan angrily pointed at Yuan Ji, "I hereby demote you to the Prince of Rinan, and send you to Rinan in Jiaozhi to be a vassal king. You are not to return to the capital without an imperial edict!"

"Get out of here now and go back to the backyard of the provincial government to continue your self-reflection."

Yuanji took off his robe, threw it on the ground, and left without looking back.

"Beast!"

"We shouldn't have kept this beast alive in the first place!"

Li Yuan cursed loudly, then sat down heavily in the middle of the hall, panting, and couldn't help but shed tears.

A son grows up and is no longer under his mother's control.
They were no longer under their father's control.

Jiancheng and Shimin were arguing, and Yuanji also got involved.

Send Yuanji to Rinan in Jiaozhi.
But what about the eldest and second sons? The original plan was for the King of Qin to decisively enfeoff them in the southern frontier after returning to the capital.
Whether it's Rinan or Nanzhong, both are thousands of miles away from the capital.

But after experiencing this poisoning incident,

Li Yuan felt indebted to Erlang, who had rendered such great service yet suffered such injustice.

More importantly, through this incident, Li Yuan discovered that in addition to his lack of military expertise, the Crown Prince had also revealed many other shortcomings.

They lack both benevolence and the ability and means to achieve their goals.

In Li Yuan's view, Jiancheng was the crown prince, and he would protect him. He had no need to resort to poisoning to deal with the Prince of Qin, let alone unite with Yuanji.

More importantly, he actually failed.

He had to re-examine his decision.

Should we really continue to make Jiancheng the crown prince?
However, if he were to change the crown prince to Prince Qin, another hesitation arose in Li Yuan's mind. After all that had happened, if he were to change the crown prince to Shimin,

Will he be able to let Jiancheng and Yuanji off the hook in the future?

Historically, deposed crown princes rarely met a good end. Although Jiancheng had many shortcomings, Li Yuan did not want to see his eldest son suffer such a fate.
He had a total of four legitimate sons, one of whom died young, leaving three.

He didn't want to see Jiancheng and Yuanji killed in the future, or even their children.

After Crown Prince Yang Yong of the Sui Dynasty was deposed, Yang Yong and his ten sons all met their end.

Li Yuan couldn't help but think that with Shimin's current achievements and prestige, if he were to be made crown prince, it wouldn't be long before the power of the court would be entirely in Shimin's hands.

He himself, the emperor, would likely be sidelined.

headache.

Li Yuan summoned Jiancheng to an audience.

"Shimin is your own brother, why can't you tolerate him?" Li Yuan directly questioned his eldest son.

These three days were extremely difficult for Li Jiancheng.

The King of Qin was poisoned, and the King of Qi was imprisoned.

Immediately afterwards, Ke Dazhi, the Right Commander of the Eastern Palace, was taken away, followed by the three hundred Youzhou cavalry he had secretly transferred from Li Yi of Jingzhou.

Before they could be moved, they were surrounded by Qian Jiulong and his imperial guards, who took them away one by one.

He couldn't eat or sleep for the past three days.

He looked extremely haggard.
They even grew gray hairs.

When Li Jiancheng heard that the King of Qin had woken up and his symptoms had improved, his feelings were even more complicated. He was relieved, but also somewhat regretful.

"Your Majesty, I was only trying to protect myself," Jiancheng said, tears streaming down his face.

Faced with this answer, Li Yuan suddenly couldn't continue.

After a long time,
Li Yuan sighed, “Yuanji has acted too recklessly. I have decided to demote him to Jiaozhi and re-enfeoff him as the King of Rinan, so that he can establish his own fiefdom there.”

"Erlang,"

"Erlang has rendered great service to the country. Will you be able to tolerate him in the future?"

Jiancheng looked up and said, "Father, I know I was wrong. I will treat Erlang well from now on."

"Then tell me, how should we settle Erlang?"

Li Jiancheng's heart skipped a beat. He sensed from the emperor's words that he was going to retract the decree he had given at the family banquet that day, in which he had enfeoffed the Prince of Qin to go to the frontier.

But at this moment, he couldn't care less about anything else; securing his position as heir apparent was the most important thing.

After thinking about it,
“If Your Majesty continues to implement the policy of enfeoffing princes, then I believe that since Erlang has made great contributions, he should be enfeoffed in a rich and prosperous place. Rinan and Nanzhong are too remote and unsuitable.”

Your subject suggests that the Prince of Qin be enfeoffed in the Shu region, and that the entire Jiannan Shu region be granted to him as a fiefdom to govern Yizhou.

"Sichuan is a rich and prosperous land, known as the Land of Abundance. The enfeoffment of Erlang in Sichuan can be considered compensation. In the future, Erlang's descendants will inherit the land and forever guard Jiannan, so they can continue to enjoy this wealth."

Li Yuan thought this arrangement was alright.

Having just experienced the poisoning incident, Li Yuan felt it was not appropriate to immediately grant the title of Prince of Qin a fiefdom.

"Anything else?"

Jiancheng's heart skipped a beat again. If the King of Qin were to be enfeoffed in Shu, there would be some hidden dangers, but it would also be a way to resolve the current crisis.

But if the emperor is not satisfied and wants to keep the Prince of Qin, then there will be big trouble.

As long as the King of Qin does not leave Chang'an,

Then his position as heir is not secure for even a day.

He hesitated, "The Tian Ce Mansion and the Shaanxi East Circuit Grand Secretariat are both located in Luoyang. Perhaps Erlang could go to Luoyang to oversee the affairs of the Tian Ce Mansion and the Grand Secretariat."

"Leave the capital to Luoyang?" Li Yuan murmured, thinking that this was not a bad arrangement.

"My dear brother, I am getting old and will soon be sixty."

"In the future, when you ascend the throne and become emperor, how do you plan to settle Erlang and your other brothers?"

After thinking for a moment, Jiancheng said, "When I succeed to the throne, I will treat all my brothers well. Erlang has made great contributions to the country. I can let the King of Qin choose a rich land to establish a kingdom, and allow his descendants to inherit the throne without fail."

As for my other younger brothers, I will also treat them well, and upon their coming of age, I will grant them fiefdoms in prosperous lands.

(End of this chapter)