Sky Curtain: A Review of Historical Foes and the Secrets of Ministers

The voice-over on the screen suddenly shifted its tone, becoming laced with sarcasm.

You all know about Zhao Da's "releasing military power over a cup of wine," right?

[The title of "General of Heavenly Strategy" is offered in exchange for your military power. Would you trade it?]

On the sky, Li Er slammed his spear into the ground and began to question him.

At this point, you, the wise man watching, surely know you can't switch sides; surrendering military power means death. But back then, I, Li Shimin, did switch! I voluntarily relinquished military power and returned to Chang'an to obediently serve as the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat!

But what was the result? Did they feel at ease after handing over military power? No!

My dear older brother tried to fool me with an untamed, wild horse, claiming it was for me to try it out.

I mounted the horse, and with each lash of the whip, it stumbled. Three lashes and it stumbled three times!

I almost doubted whether my riding skills were lacking.

[If I hadn't been quick enough to leap off my horse in time, I probably would have been dead on the spot.]

Li Chengqian rubbed his leg, staring intently at the sky.

Hearing this story, a flicker of fear crossed his eyes. He muttered to himself, "My uncle... was he really that cruel? My father... he was always walking on the edge of death?"

On the sky, Li Er raised his spear and pointed it at the crowd, his face full of grief and indignation, and questioned them again.

[And then? That wasn't the end of it! Less than two years later, my older brother invited me to another banquet.]

I truly considered him my brother! I picked up my glass, took a sip, and felt like my insides were on fire; I practically spat blood three feet away.

[I've been poisoned! My own brother poisoned me! If I hadn't been lucky, I would have died on the spot!]

But guess what my father said? Huh? What did he say?

He said, "Erlang, you can't hold your liquor, so you shouldn't drink anymore."

【What do you expect me to do? Huh? I'm just asking you, if you were in this situation, wouldn't you rebel?】

This soul-searching question struck like a heavy hammer against the hearts of everyone gazing at the sky.

After all, the incident of Emperor Taizong poisoning wine is documented.

At this moment, Li Shimin, standing in the square, had tears welling up in his eyes, but he forced himself to hold them back in order to maintain his dignity.

Fang Xuanling and Changsun Wuji also wept, kowtowing repeatedly, "Your Majesty has suffered greatly. Emperor Gaozu was extremely biased; Your Majesty's uprising was merely for self-preservation!"

Although Old Zhu already knew this part of history, he was still so angry when he heard this that he cursed loudly.

"You're senile!"

"Poisoning one's own brother—this is a horrific tragedy! That old bastard Li Yuan actually claimed he couldn't hold his liquor? His heart is completely biased! And Li Shimin is a piece of clay; if it were us, we'd have led our troops to slaughter the Crown Prince's residence that very night. Why wait until Xuanwu Gate?"

Xu Da muttered under his breath, "You're only looking at things from an outsider's perspective. Emperor Taizong relinquished his military power back then..."

The criticism of Tianmu has reached its climax.

The most outrageous thing is yet to come!

[My elder brother smuggled armor to his confidant Yang Wengan, plotting a coup! This is tantamount to rebelling against our own father! The plot has been exposed, and Father Emperor is furious, declaring he will depose Jiancheng and make me Crown Prince.]

[I believed it, I fucking believed it again! I led troops to quell the rebellion. And guess what happened when I returned?]

[Hey! The old man raised the issue high, then gently lowered it, only exiling a few officials from the Eastern Palace; he didn't shake Jiancheng's position as Crown Prince at all!]

So, I, Li Shimin, was just a tool for suppressing rebellions?

[And you still curse my Xuanwu Sect every day? What can I say? If I don't kill them, they'll tear me to pieces!]

In the scene, Li Shimin draws his long sword from his waist and roars to the sky.

【Then let me ask you another question.】

Since I, Li Shimin, ascended the throne, have I ever killed a single meritorious official? Hmm?

My father and elder brother are always afraid I'll become too powerful and threaten their rule; they'd love to kill me. Look at me, I'm the emperor now, am I afraid?

[I conquered half of the Tang Dynasty! What kind of achievement could possibly sway a ruler like me?!]

Xianyang Palace was deathly silent.

Ying Zheng remained silent. He finally understood what Tianmu meant by the hexagonal warrior at the beginning.

This is an emperor who completely overwhelms all his generals in terms of military strength and achievements.

"What kind of merit could possibly be enough to subdue a ruler like me..."

Ying Zheng pondered these words repeatedly, his eyes blazing with intense fighting spirit.

"What an arrogant junior! What an overbearing emperor! I love this saying!"

On the sky, the scene instantly shifts to an ancient battlefield filled with the clash of swords and the thunder of horses.

[In one-on-one combat, I charge into battle, the first to charge! Even struck by an arrow, I fight to the death, slaying nearly a hundred men! I am not only a commander, but also the greatest warrior of the Tang Dynasty!]

[In terms of coordinated attacks, Laozi captured two kings at the Battle of Hulao Pass, and fought against Dou Jiande's 100,000-strong army! He captured Dou Jiande alive and forced Wang Shichong to surrender!]

Although I look down on them, those two blockheads, if they were in any other chaotic era, they would have already pacified the world and become emperors, right? But they ran into me, so we're both packed up and sent back to Chang'an.

"Capture two kings in one battle? Three thousand defeat one hundred thousand?"

Ying Zheng stared intently at the Xuanjia Army in the picture, whose black armor made them seem like a black steel torrent that swept through the enemy ranks.

The Qin emperor and his ministers were all terrified.

Wang Jian, the famous general who destroyed Chu, stared wide-eyed and murmured to himself.

"Cavalry... can they really be used like this? This is Li Shimin's art of military command, this old minister, this old minister..."

Wang Jian felt ashamed, realizing that only top-tier military generals understood Li Er's art of command, and he admitted that he was no match for Li Er.

—Throughout history, no one has been more capable of leading a military campaign than Li Shimin; Zhu Yuanzhang is second only to him.—

Ying Zheng's arrogance subsided slightly.

If the Qin Dynasty encountered such an army and such a commander, could it win?

On the sky, after venting his grievances, Li Er began to complain and vent.

The emperor and his ministers in my Great Tang Dynasty were partners, they were brothers.

[Li Ji drank too much and fell asleep on the table. Afraid he would catch a cold, I took off my own dragon robe and draped it over him.]

[I'm talking to you, Zhao Da! Do you dare?! You guard against your generals like they're thieves every day, would you dare drape the imperial robe over a general? You're probably too scared to sleep at night, hahaha!]

The devastation from the sky continues.

[A censor named Liu Ji, relying on his good relationship with me, jumped directly onto my imperial bed to snatch a piece of calligraphy I had written.]

[If this had happened under any other emperor, like that petty, beggar-turned-emperor later on, wouldn't he have just sent Liu Ji to a nine-clan elimination round?]

[But what did I do? I wasn't angry at all. I just told him, "You think you're worthy of serving me in bed?"]

The Tang emperor and his ministers, who were still weeping, suddenly changed their demeanor upon hearing this.

Fang Xuanling coughed awkwardly twice, and Li Shimin also blushed and stroked his beard.

"How come Tianmu even knows about such private jokes? But, that's really what I said back then, hahaha!"

The relationship between the emperor and his ministers in the Tang Dynasty was just that casual.

But at this moment, the Ming Dynasty seemed to have detonated a nuclear bomb.

"Nine Clans Elimination Game? A petty and narrow-minded founding emperor?"

Zhu Yuanzhang's face had turned as black as the bottom of a pot. Although he didn't understand what "Candy Crush" meant, the combination of "nine generations of relatives" and "beggar emperor" made even a pig know who Li Er was talking about.