Chapter 49: The Little Buddies Were Stunned (Part Two)

"A single flower blooming alone does not make a fortunate state!" Pei Ji's words were like a magic-infused seed, growing wildly in Li Yuan's heart.

Li Yuan was not a magnanimous man by nature; his suspicions and paranoia were extremely heavy. Even his own biological eldest son, Li Jiancheng, had never fully earned his unreserved trust.

Since ancient times, there has been no true familial affection in imperial families. It is precisely because the lust for power far outweighs familial ties that the tragedy of the Tang royal house was predetermined. Throughout the Tang Dynasty, the heartbreaking tragedy of brothers slaughtering each other and sons murdering their fathers played out repeatedly—and the root of it all, one might say, lay squarely with Li Yuan.

Pei Ji said, "Your Majesty should rejoice!"

Li Yuan was stunned, looking at Pei Ji in confusion: "What do you mean?"

Pei Ji replied, "If... the Crown Prince... had endured in silence and made no move, the consequences would be too dreadful to contemplate!"

Li Yuan nodded noncommittally. Pei Ji was right; if Li Jiancheng had not made a move in this matter, Li Yuan would never have realized how vast his eldest son's influence in the imperial court had already become. After all, he was already over fifty years old, whereas Li Jiancheng was in the very prime of his youth. If the prince had grown impatient and committed patricide to usurp the throne, he truly would have been powerless to stop him.

For a son to kill his father is an unfilial crime of the highest order from a moral perspective. Yet in the imperial family, it was hardly a novelty. Emperor Wu of Liu Song in the Southern Dynasties intended to depose Crown Prince Liu Shao; Shao raised troops, killed Emperor Wu, and succeeded him. Liu Jun then mobilized troops to crusade against Liu Shao, killed him, and declared himself emperor. Emperor Daowu of Northern Wei in the Northern Dynasties was killed by his son Tuoba Shao, who was subsequently killed by his successor upon ascending the throne. These were the ones in history who successfully usurped the throne; those who failed were too numerous to count.

At this moment, Li Yuan made a resolute decision to begin trimming Li Jiancheng's wings starting right now.

Li Yuan sighed and said, "The blue comes from the indigo, yet is superior to it. Good, good, very good!"

As one of the emperors who had seized the throne, Li Yuan regarded imperial power above all else. Pei Ji understood Li Yuan thoroughly and knew what was on his mind. Seeing the conflicted expression on Li Yuan's face, he knew that the emperor had in fact made up his mind to begin clipping the Crown Prince's feathers.

Pei Ji said, "Your Majesty, please show mercy. After all, even a fierce tiger will not devour its cubs!"

"Minister Pei, you are overthinking things. I know where the priorities lie!" Li Yuan said, "Mortality is the fate of all men, and this throne will be his sooner or later. However... it must be given by me before he can take it. If I do not give it, he must not reach out his hand!" Li Yuan paused for a moment and added, "Minister Pei, I recall that Lushi (referring not to a profession, but to Pei Ji's eldest son, named Pei Lushi, a commander of imperial guards who later married Li Shimin's younger sister, Princess Linhai!) has also reached adulthood at twenty?"

Pei Ji smiled faintly, "What does Your Majesty mean?"

Li Yuan said, "Let Lushi enter the Censorate through the privilege of hereditary protection!"

According to the Tang Dynasty's hereditary protection system (yinbu), court officials could have one son appointed to an actual official post. Currently, Pei Ji held the rank of Director of the Left Secretariat of the Second Rank. Under this system, Pei Lushi could directly be appointed to a post of the Seventh Rank.

However, the Censorate was a unique institution. Aside from the Grand Censor at the Third Senior Rank and the Vice Grand Censor at the Fourth Senior Rank, the Investigating Censors were at the Sixth Junior Rank, and the Secretary of the Censorate was at the Seventh Junior Rank. This meant that even as a newcomer to officialdom, Pei Lushi could at the very least serve as a Secretary of the Censorate upon entering office. Above him within the Censorate were merely one Grand Censor, two Vice Grand Censors, and six Investigating Censors. Although the rank of Secretary was not extremely high, he held the official seal, received petitions, audited agency affairs, and managed official offices, household slaves, and merit ranks.

If the Censorate were compared to a modern-day anti-corruption discipline inspection commission, the Secretary of the Censorate would be equivalent to the Director of the General Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection—a core figure entering the standing circle.

Li Yuan operated with far more seasoned cunning than Li Jiancheng; once he struck, he aimed straight for the vital point. One could imagine that as long as Pei Lushi took office, it would be equivalent to driving a nail straight into the Censorate. Previously, Li Jiancheng had been unable to completely control the Censorate, relying merely on a handful of individuals such as Supervising Censor Tang Lin and Examining Censor Li Shi'ao, while the lower-ranking censors and supervisory censors were mere pawns. With just a little guidance from Pei Lushi, naturally some would defect toward Pei Ji and Li Yuan.

Just as Li Yuan's scheming had yet to manifest its full effects, a series of triumphant battle reports from the Battle of Lingzhou also reached Chang'an.

Starting from the Battle of Boguli, Chen Ying successively defeated three of the four major Yabgu Khagans of the Turks—Ashina Helifushe, Ashina Yiwuzhenmo, and Ashina Shhibi—while incidentally beating the Yabgu Khan Ashina Yizhen so badly he could barely find his teeth on the ground.

Most crucially, even Shibi Khagan had died in the campaign.

When Li Yuan received this series of successive victory reports arriving in Chang'an, his first reaction was that Chen Ying had fabricated or exaggerated his military achievements.

Staring blankly at the reports in utter astonishment, Li Yuan blurted out, "How is this possible?"

Li Shimin, however, did not doubt the authenticity of Chen Ying's report, because by the time the dispatch reached Chang'an, Ashina Mohe, one of the four major Turkic Yabgus, had already quietly slipped away without a farewell. If the report had been false, Mohe would certainly have come forward to clarify the matter.

Stupefied by the dispatches, Li Shimin stammered, "Since when did the Turks become so fragile and unable to withstand a fight?"

Upon reading the reports, Li Jiancheng wore an expression of wild ecstasy: "Chen Ying truly has not辜负 (let down) my trust!"

Naturally, there were also ministers who disbelieved. For instance, Liu Wenjing, Director of the Right Secretariat of the Second Rank, who had been Li Yuan's right-hand man and a founding veteran since the raising of the rebellion. Liu Wenjing found it utterly unbelievable and remarked, "Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince, the sun has not yet set; how can you be speaking in your sleep?"

Having served as an envoy to the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, Liu Wenjing was well aware of the regime's formidable strength. Leaving aside the four major Yabgus plus an additional Yabgu Khan, the sheer numbers of recorded enemy heads severed and supplies captured alone were enough to make one's head spin. The crux of the matter was that Liu Wenjing simply could not accept this outcome. If this battle had been fought by Li Shimin, it would have been a different story entirely.

Li Jiancheng replied, "What is true cannot be false, and what is false cannot be true. General Chen holds nearly thirty thousand Turkic captives in his hands, as well as a Yabgu like Ashina Yiwuzhenmo. I imagine that Lord Liu must have been acquainted with Yiwuzhenmo when you went on your diplomatic mission to the Turks in your earlier years. Why not ask Lord Liu to journey to Lingzhou and distinguish the truth from the falsehood with his own eyes?"

"Your minister holds precisely that intention!" Upon seeing the name of Yiwuzhenmo, Liu Wenjing already believed eighty percent of it. On the eve of Li Yuan's uprising, fearing that the Turks would dispatch troops to intervene, he had specifically been ordered by Li Yuan to act as an envoy establishing contact with the Turks, negotiating for mutual friendliness. To that end, Liu Wenjing had done a substantial amount of homework, specifically studying the habits and behaviors of the Turkic people.

He had also received word that the Yabgu Mohe had fled. Although the Great Tang possessed the ability to hunt Mohe down, China was, after all, a state of etiquette, and the unwritten rule that emissaries should not be executed during hostilities between two nations was deeply ingrained in people's hearts.

Doji-shih would have sent Mohe to Chang'an precisely because of Mohe himself, who had always been renowned in the Eastern Turks for his quick wit and eloquence. If even Mohe dared not come forward to offer clarifications, instead leaving behind a message that Shibi Khagan had passed away and requesting the Tang state to send an envoy to mourn, Liu Wenjing was already ninety percent convinced of Chen Ying's victory report.

None of the court ministers paid attention to Liu Wenjing's petty quibbling; instead, they carefully passed the battle reports among themselves, terrified of missing a single character. Soon, gasps of cold air echoed continuously through the Ganlu Palace.

"Incredible, truly incredible!" Although Pei Ji also viewed the Crown Prince's subordinate Chen Ying as a thorn in his side, he had to admit that Chen Ying's actions were deeply gratifying to the populace.

The Turks had always been a massive boulder pressing down upon the chests of the Tang sovereign and his ministers. Though Chen Ying had merely wiped out less than tenth of the Turkic military strength, it was more than enough for the rulers and ministers of the Tang to celebrate joyfully.

"For General Chen to achieve such a monumental victory at the tender age of twenty—he is truly an outstanding general of our era. With such a brilliant commander guarding us, the common people of our Tang borders will never again have to suffer the ravages of the Turkic incursions!" Even the elderly and prudent Li Gang praised him repeatedly.

The news that Chen Ying had repeatedly defeated the Turks in four successive battles with an inferior force, routing three Yabgus and one Yabgo-Khan, capturing over thirty thousand prisoners, and severing more than twenty thousand enemy heads spread rapidly as if it had grown wings!

Sincerest apologies, I must step out for a moment; typos will be corrected shortly upon my return!