Deposed? I couldn't be happier! I wouldn't even be a dog to the crown prince.

The wind howled across the training ground.

Li Shimin held the sword that had just been "retired" in his hand, as if he were holding the hand of his first love.

He touched the back of the knife and flicked the blade. The obsession in his eyes gave Wang De, who was standing next to him, goosebumps.

"call out--!"

Li Shimin suddenly swung his arm, and a cold light drew a perfect semicircle in the air.

The thick wooden stake in front of him, which was used to test the knife, slid off at an angle without making a sound.

The cut is as smooth as a mirror.

"Excellent! Excellent knife!"

Li Shimin was so excited that his face turned red. In that instant, he seemed to have returned to his youthful days of fighting and conquering.

His dragon robe seemed to have transformed into armor, and his body, full of fat... cough, his air of wealth had turned into murderous intent.

"That feels great! That's fucking great!"

He turned around, slung the knife over his shoulder, and laughed loudly at his old comrades, Yuchi Gong and Cheng Yaojin.

"Look at this! Now that's what you call a weapon!"

"Compared to this thing, the ones we used before were just fire pokers! Wooden swords for kids to play with!"

Yuchi Gong looked at the broken piece of wood on the ground, then at the remaining half of the steel whip in his hand, and tears welled up in his eyes.

"Your Majesty, please stop talking, it pains me."

"Feeling sorry for you?!"

Li Shimin waved his hand with boundless pride, "Chengqian said, these knives will be mass-produced! Enough to go around!"

"Once the entire Xuanjia Army is equipped with this gear, let alone those barbarians in leather armor, even if they were dressed in iron armor, I could slice them up like tofu!"

He took a deep breath, his chest filled with boundless pride, feeling as if he had inexhaustible energy.

"How I feel right now..."

Li Shimin struck a starting pose, his eyes looking down upon the world.

"I believe I could take on ten of them!"

"Father is mighty! Father is so powerful!"

A perfunctory round of applause came from the side.

Li Chengqian sat on a large rock, holding a newly delivered secret report in his hand, with a smile on his face that sent chills down one's spine.

"Since Father is in such high spirits, then I will add fuel to the fire."

"Let your anger, like the blade, become even sharper."

Li Shimin was taken aback, then composed himself: "What do you mean?"

"Azure Dragon".

Li Chengqian didn't explain, he just called out softly.

"exist."

The Jinyiwei commander, who was like a shadow, had somehow appeared behind Li Shimin, presenting a confession stained with mud and blood.

"This was sent back by Shen Liangang from the ancient Qinling trail."

Li Chengqian pointed to the confession, his tone as calm as if he were discussing what to eat for dinner.

"The convoy has been intercepted. The people have been captured alive. The goods have also been inspected."

"Father, why don't you guess what's on those carts?"

Li Shimin looked at his son's ambiguous smile and his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

The excitement I felt just now, thinking I could take on ten people, instantly cooled down by half.

He took the confession and unfolded it.

His brows furrowed the moment he saw the first line of text.

As the second line of text came into view, his breathing became heavy.

By the time he finished reading the last line, the Tang emperor's hands were trembling so badly they looked like they were being shaken.

That's not something to be afraid of.

That's from anger!

I was so angry that I was trembling all over, so angry that my internal organs felt like they were about to explode!

"You bastard...you worthless scoundrel!"

Li Shimin slammed the confession to the ground and let out a roar like a wounded beast.

"Thirty thousand catties of refined iron!"

"A whole 30,000 jin!"

"I had to beg and plead with the Ministry of Works to scrape together the funds just to get some equipment for the Xuanjia Army!"

"And what they've got! They're transporting these strategic materials, truckload after truckload, towards the Turks?!"

Li Shimin's eyes were bloodshot, and blood vessels instantly filled his eyeballs.

He pointed to the northern sky, his voice stern and mournful.

"This is aiding the enemy! This is treason!"

"What do they want? Do they want the Turks to forge these iron blades and come back to cut off my head? Cut off the heads of the people of the Tang Dynasty?!"

"You treacherous bastards! Even my dog ​​knows to bark at outsiders, these people are worse than dogs!"

The joy he felt while testing the knife just now has now transformed into a raging fury.

This angered Li Shimin even more than when he first heard that they had run out of food and salt.

Cutting off food and salt is an internal strife, a struggle for interests.

Selling refined iron to foreign tribes is betrayal! It's an act of utter treason!

This has touched the very sore spot of an emperor and a soldier at the very bottom!

"Kill! They must kill them!"

Li Shimin, panting heavily, his chest heaving, roared, "No matter who they are! No matter which family they belong to! I will exterminate their entire clan! If I don't kill one, I will have failed the soldiers who died on the frontier!"

"Father, please calm your anger."

Li Chengqian strolled over slowly and picked up the newly forged sword from the ground.

He flicked the blade lightly with his finger, producing a crisp "clang".

"Getting angry is useless; it's a sign of weakness."

"The strong only wield their swords."

Li Chengqian handed the hilt of the sword to Li Shimin, but just as Li Shimin reached out to take it, he twisted his wrist, bypassing Li Shimin, and handed it to the man in the dark green flying fish robe.

There, someone had appeared sometime earlier.

Shen Lian, commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

He had just ridden back at top speed, his flying fish robe still damp with rain and mud, and even carrying a faint smell of blood.

"Shen Lian".

Li Chengqian's voice was soft, yet it carried a chilling undertone.

"It's a good knife, but it's a pity it hasn't been sharpened yet and hasn't seen blood."

"Father just tested the wooden stake. Although it was easy to handle, it still feels like something is missing."

"What do you think is missing?"

Shen Lian knelt on one knee, took the horizontal sword with both hands, and a bloodthirsty glint flashed in his eyes.

"Your Highness, it lacks humanity."

"Weapons that do not drink blood are ultimately lifeless objects."

"Well said."

Li Chengqian nodded and turned to look at Li Shimin.

"Father, I have delivered this knife on your behalf."

"Let Shen Lian take it to those noble families to fix their faces and straighten their bones."

"What do you think?"

Li Shimin stared intently at the knife in Shen Lian's hand.

His distorted, furious face was reflected in the gleaming blade.

a long time.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, all that remained in his eyes was endless ruthlessness and decisiveness.

"allow!"

There is only one word.

Yet it weighs as much as a thousand pounds.

"Go."

Li Shimin turned his back, no longer looking at the knife, his voice as cold as if it came from the deepest hell.

"I want to see it stained with blood."

"Tell Yu Huatian to block the door for me."

"Tonight in Chang'an, entry is permitted, but exit is not."

Shen Lian slowly stood up, gripped the horizontal sword in his hand, and bowed deeply to the bright yellow figure.

"Your subject obeys the decree!"

"After tonight, there will be no more noble families in Chang'an!"

A sudden gust of wind arose.

It swirls up fallen leaves and flies them into the gloomy sky.

Night fell.