NCCnovel Chapter 901: Killing Three Sons in One Day
Chapter 901: Killing Three Sons in One Day
As the autumn air permeated the Daming Palace, ambergris tributed from the South China Sea was still burning in the warm room of the Changsheng Hall.
On Yang Yuhuan's newly made brocade tent, a pair of lovebirds embroidered with gold thread were floating in the candlelight. Li Longji was personally tuning the strings of the pipa for her, and wherever his fingertips passed over them, delicate and warm sounds were produced.
"Yuhuan, listen, isn't the string sound smoother?"
There was a smile between his eyebrows and eyes, and there was no trace of the majesty he had during the morning court.
Several volumes of newly composed music were spread out on the table. The ink of "Lingbo Qu" had not yet dried, and the reports from the Purple Palace had piled up half a foot high outside the palace - the military supplies in Longyou Road were looted by Tubo, and the locust plague in Hebei Road had spread to Henan. These urgent reports were suppressed by Li Linfu, who only said, "Everything is stable and will not disturb Your Majesty's interest."
At this time in the government hall, Li Linfu was sneering at a map of Chang'an.
The Eastern Palace, Prince E's Palace, and Prince Guang's Palace, circled in red ink on the picture, look like three glaring nails.
He tapped his fingertips on the East Palace and said to his trusted censor Zhou Ziliang, "The Crown Prince has been very close to Princes E and Guang lately. Last night, he even set up an altar in the palace, claiming to be 'praying for Your Majesty,' but the prayer on the altar was a copy of the line 'Zheng Bo conquered Duan Yu Yan' from Zuo Zhuan."
Zhou Ziliang understood and bowed, saying, "This humble official will immediately draft a memorial to accuse the three princes of forming a clique for personal gain and harboring ill intentions."
"Wait." Li Linfu picked up the teacup, the tea foam gathering and dispersing on the surface. "Just a prayer is not enough."
"Go, find a few old friends from the Eastern Palace and have them 'recall' last Mid-Autumn Festival when the Crown Prince said by the Qujiang Lake, 'Your Majesty is already old, and it's time to establish order for the country.'"
He took a sip of tea and let out a low laugh. "Your Majesty, we must convince you that this isn't just some figment of your imagination, but a hidden danger with a knife at your neck."
Three days later, this "testimony" and a copy of the prayer were presented to Li Longji by Gao Lishi.
At that time, Li Longji had just finished watching Yang Yuhuan's "Hua Xuan Dance" and there was a thin layer of sweat on his forehead. When he took the memorial, his fingers were pricked by the burrs on the paper.
"Prince... said this?" His voice was very soft, but it made the fragrance in the warm room freeze.
Gao Lishi bowed his head and said, "There's also a palace maid who reported that Prince E, Li Yao, was hosting a banquet at his palace the other day. During the banquet, someone recited 'The Day Duke Zhou Feared Rumors,' and the Prince of E actually clapped his hands and laughed."
Li Longji's knuckles turned white as he held the memorial.
He remembered that twenty years ago, he had launched the Tanglong coup in the name of "clearing the court" and wiped out all of Wei Hou's followers.
Now, among these three sons, one is the crown prince, and two hold the military power in the capital. If they really want to imitate what he did back then... He slammed the memorial on the table, and the strings of the pipa hummed.
"Tell the Crown Prince, Prince E, and Prince Guang to come to Wude Hall to see me immediately."
The floor tiles of the Wude Hall were made of bluestone laid during the Zhenguan period, polished to a shine by the boot soles of emperors of successive dynasties. But at this moment, they reflected the confused faces of the three princes.
Crown Prince Li Ying was wearing casual clothes, with the jade belt around his waist askew - he had just rushed in from the lecture hall of the Imperial College, still holding an unfinished copy of "The Book of Rites" in his hand.
Prince E, Li Yao, was the most fiery-tempered. As soon as he entered, he shouted, "Father, the Emperor urgently summoned you. Could it be that you have listened to the slander of this villain again?"
Prince Guang Li Ju tugged at his second brother's sleeve, motioning him to look at the memorial on Li Longji's case. The places circled in red ink were the names of the three of them.
"A villain's slander?" Li Longji stood up from the dragon throne, his bright yellow dragon robe swept across the table, dropping a jade pen washer to the ground.
"Then tell me, why did the Eastern Palace hide the prayer text of 'Zheng Bo defeated Duan'? And why did the Prince of E dare to satirize Zhou Gong during the banquet?"
Li Ying stepped forward, sweeping the jade fragments on the ground with the hem of his robe. "Your Majesty, please understand! That prayer was written by me to pray for your mother, the Queen Mother. Copying it from an ancient book is merely a way of expressing my filial piety through allusions."
"As for the banquet at Prince E's palace, it was merely a literary exchange of poems, and there was absolutely no intention of irony!"
He pulled out a scroll from his sleeve and said, "This is the 'Zhenguan Zhengyao' that I recently annotated. Every word on it is an admonition to emulate the ancient sages. If you have any second thoughts, you will be struck by lightning!"
"A wise man?" Li Longji sneered. "A wise man wouldn't think of 'establishing the country early' while my father is still healthy!"
He suddenly raised his voice, "Do you dare to say whether you said that by Qujiang Lake last year?"
Li Yao's face flushed. "That was when I, your son, noticed the severe drought in Guanzhong and advised the Crown Prince to remind your father to be compassionate to the people. How could I have ever mentioned coveting the throne? Someone must have taken my words out of context!"
"Out of context?"
Li Linfu's voice came from outside the palace. He walked in with several imperial guards, followed by three trembling clerks. "These are all old members of the Eastern Palace. They heard the Crown Prince say with their own eyes, 'Your Majesty has indulged in pleasure in recent years, and the government has been neglected.' He also said, 'If this continues, the Tang Dynasty will be in danger.'"
The three clerks fell to their knees and said repeatedly, "Yes! I heard it with my own ears!"
Li Ju looked at those unfamiliar faces and suddenly understood - this was a plot that had been set up long ago.
Moreover, the mastermind behind the scenes may not be Li Linfu.
He turned to Li Longji, his voice tinged with tears: "Father! Since we were born and educated, we have never had any rebellious thoughts! Have you forgotten?"
"In the 17th year of the Kaiyuan reign, there was a locust plague. I accompanied you to the fields. You said, 'A ruler should always think of the people.' I never forget that for a moment!"
"Shut up!" Li Longji was hit in the sore spot and pointed at the palace door. "You three formed a clique for personal gain and criticized the government. The evidence is irrefutable and you still dare to quibble! Come here--"
The imperial guards immediately stepped forward and held down the three princes.
Li Ying struggled to turn around, looking at the white hair on his father's temples. He suddenly smiled, tears streaming down his face. "In the early years of the Kaiyuan period, I accompanied you in governing the country in Hanyuan Hall. You taught me that 'water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it.' Now, for a woman, you can't even tolerate your own son. How will I face Emperor Taizong in my grave?"
These words made Li Longji feel a sharp pain in his heart.
He thought of himself in his youth who worked hard to govern the country, and of Yao Chong and Song Jing talking eloquently in the court. Those memories overlapped with the faces of his three sons in front of him, and were torn apart by the singing and dancing in the Changsheng Palace.
He suddenly closed his eyes, his voice hoarse as a broken gong: "Demote Li Ying, Li Yao, and Li Ju to commoners, and immediately... execute them!"
“Father——!”
Three roars hit the temple beams, causing the painted decorations to peel off.
Li Yao tried to break free from the imperial guards, but was pinned to the ground. He stared at Li Longji's back, his words tearfully spoken: "You will regret this! You will destroy the Tang Dynasty with your own hands!"
As the imperial guards dragged the three men out of the palace, Li Ju suddenly broke free and pulled out a jade pendant from his bosom—a birthday gift from Li Longji in the tenth year of the Kaiyuan reign, engraved with the characters for "loyalty and filial piety." He hurled the pendant at Li Longji, causing it to strike the armrest of the dragon throne and break in two.
"Your son...I do not recognize you as my father!"
The bloody smell of the day when Wei Shuren was executed once again filled the Daming Palace after more than twenty years.
The three commoners were sentenced to death at the post station west of Chang'an City. Before his death, Li Ying asked to see Li Longji for the last time, but Gao Lishi refused with the words "Your Majesty's health is the most important."
He looked at the poplar trees outside the post station and suddenly remembered that when he was fifteen years old, his father took him to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and said, "This world will be yours in the future." Thinking about it now, it seemed like an absurd dream.
Li Yao was forced to drink poisoned wine. He smashed the wine cup to the ground and cursed for a full half hour, from Yang Yuhuan to Li Linfu. Finally, his voice was hoarse, and the imperial guards pinched his mouth and forced the wine down his throat. When the poison took effect, he stared fixedly in the direction of Chang'an, his eyes bloodshot.
Li Ju chose to hang himself.
When he untied his belt, half of an unfinished poem fell out from his sleeve. The ink was stained, and the last sentence was "I wish to turn into a green maple root to protect my Tang Dynasty land."
When the news reached the Eastern Palace, Crown Princess Xue, dressed in plain clothes, sat in the deserted main hall, holding her five-year-old son, Li Qu. When a palace maid arrived to announce that the three princes had passed away, she calmly took a pair of scissors, cut a lock of her hair, and placed it before Li Ying's spirit tablet: "Your Highness, I will follow you on the road to the underworld."
Three days later, Xue committed suicide by hanging herself, and Li Qu was sent to the imperial mausoleum to guard the tomb. He never set foot in Chang'an again in his life.
The women of Prince E's and Prince Guang's palaces were taken into the palace as slaves. A county lady who had just married into Prince E's palace was beaten to death in front of the palace gate on Gao Lishi's order because she cried out, "Your Majesty is unfair."
For a time, everyone in Chang'an was in danger. The royal family members stayed indoors and even the storytellers on the streets did not dare to tell the story of the "Xuanwu Gate Incident" anymore.
Li Longji stayed in the Changsheng Palace for three days.
He looked at the broken half of the "loyalty and filial piety" jade pendant on the table, and suddenly remembered that when Li Ju was a child, he taught him archery. The child was not good at archery, but always said, "I want to be like my father and shoot back all the invading enemies."
The dull pain in his heart came in waves, but he could only numb it with strong liquor - he was the emperor, he could not regret it, and he could not let others see his hesitation.
On the morning of the fourth day, he finally walked out of the Changsheng Palace. His first decree was to appoint Li Linfu as the Minister of the Central Secretariat, in charge of the government.
Li Linfu ascended to the pinnacle of power by stepping on the blood of three princes.
His first act upon taking office was to purge the imperial court. Although Zhang Jiuling had been dismissed from his position as prime minister, he remained in Luoyang to recuperate. Li Linfu had him fabricated, accusing him of "secretly having an affair with the deposed crown prince," and demoted him to the position of Chief Clerk of Jingzhou. The following year, Zhang Jiuling died of illness in his place of exile, lamenting on his deathbed, "The prosperous Kaiyuan era has finally come to an end."
Wang Zhongsi, who once knelt outside the palace gate to advise against corruption, was framed by Li Linfu for "secretly communicating with Tubo". Although he was spared the death penalty due to his outstanding military achievements, he was demoted to the prefect of Hanyang and was never allowed to return to Beijing.
Those imperial censors who had redressed the grievances for the three princes were either demoted to places infested with malaria, or charged with "corruption and abuse of power", and their properties were confiscated and they were executed.
The court soon became Li Linfu's world.
He often said to his courtiers, "Have you ever seen the horses in the ceremonial guard? They are fed with third-grade fodder, but if they neigh, they will be immediately taken away and replaced with other horses."
This statement became the golden rule in the officialdom. All the civil and military officials in the court were silent as a mouse, and even had to walk lightly, for fear of angering this "sweet-mouthed but treacherous" prime minister.
In order to consolidate his power, Li Linfu began to promote Hu generals.
He said to Li Longji: "The Hu people are brave and good at fighting, and they have no party members to worry about. Let them guard the border and we can ensure that nothing will go wrong."
Li Longji was happy to hand over the government to him, and spent his days enjoying himself with Yang Yuhuan, and obeyed Li Linfu's every word.
As a result, An Lushan, Geshu Han, Gao Xianzhi and other Hu generals held heavy troops, and the military strength of the border towns was three times that of the central imperial guards. The military power of the Tang Dynasty gradually fell into the hands of others.
When An Lushan entered Beijing, Li Linfu personally went to Baqiao to greet him.
This 300-jin (approximately 160-pound) Hu man was like a well-behaved child in front of Li Linfu, not even daring to breathe - he knew that this prime minister could easily separate his head and body.
The two smiled at each other, but there was calculation in their eyes.
Li Linfu regarded An Lushan as a chess piece, while An Lushan regarded Li Linfu as a ladder to climb up.
The people of Chang'an gradually discovered that the patrolling guards on the streets had changed their faces, taxes were getting heavier, and the news coming from the palace was always "The imperial concubine has a new favorite" and "His Majesty ordered Lingnan to send lychees on fast horses to make the imperial concubine smile."
One veteran official, recalling how, during the Kaiyuan era, Li Longji personally ordered cuts to the harem's expenses to save money, burst into tears in a teahouse. Someone sitting next to him covered his mouth and said, "Be careful what you say! Didn't you see the sign at the street corner? 'Anyone who criticizes government policy will be executed immediately!'"
In the third year after the three princes were sentenced to death, the peonies in Chang'an City were still in full bloom, but the mood of the people who viewed the flowers had changed.
Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan held a banquet by the Qujiang Lake. The shore was filled with exotic flowers and plants shipped from the south of the Yangtze River. The band played the newly-composed "Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Coat". The dancers' skirts swept across the water, causing a series of ripples.
During the banquet, An Lushan once again acted out the "recognizing his mother" scene. He lay on the ground, imitating the crying of a baby, which made Li Longji laugh out loud. However, he did not notice the disgust in Yang Yuhuan's eyes when she turned around.
After the banquet, Li Longji returned to the palace and dozed off on the dragon chariot. Suddenly, three blurry figures appeared in his dream. He could not see their faces clearly, but only heard them say, "Father, Chang'an is going to fall."
When he woke up with a start, the dragon chariot was traveling on Zhuque Street. Crows were cawing hoarsely on the locust tree beside the street.
Gao Lishi whispered, "Your Majesty, Lord Li Linfu has requested that An Lushan be granted the title of Jiedushi of Fanyang, Pinglu, and Hedong."
Li Longji rubbed his brows and waved his hand: "OK."
Now he just wanted to return to the Changsheng Palace as soon as possible, where there was a warm fire and Yang Yuhuan's smile, and he didn't have to listen to these annoying political affairs.