荔枝影院

Edited by: Michyrr

“I misspoke! Nothing of the sort happened! Nothing! I was just randomly speculating...”

Li Heng paled, and deep fear appeared in his eyes.

As a child, he had studied the ‘Admonitions of History’ and the mindset of a sovereign, so he was even more afraid than Wang Chong.

Not even he would believe that the First Prince wanted to rebel, let alone anyone else. Still, one could not speak with a loose tongue.

“...But I still feel that the mood in the palace is strange, extremely strange.”

Li Heng’s lips were trembling, his entire body oozing unease.

“Wang Chong, you have to believe me. There’s something different this time. You have to help me!”

Li Heng raised his head to Wang Chong with eyes brimming with hope.Whenever he was in grave danger, Wang Chong would always make a timely appearance to solve his problems.

It seemed like there was no problem in the world that he couldn’t solve. Thus, the moment Li Heng ran into trouble, he immediately thought about Wang Chong.

He had nothing but trust and respect for Wang Chong!

The room was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop. Wang Chong was silent, a pensive look in his eyes.

He did not doubt Li Heng’s words, but he needed to think about this matter carefully. Too many things made no sense.

There’s no reason for it. Based on my memories, this should be a period of comparative peace and quiet, with no major incidents. Moreover, since the First Prince has been made regent, if all goes as expected, he should be the next sovereign. There’s no reason for him to do all of this, acting so openly and leaving behind so many clues. That doesn’t match with his personality!

Wang Chong’s brows locked together in confusion.

Far too much had happened while he had been gone. He had originally believed that he only had to deal with the powerful Li Junxian and the Confucian Sect backing him.

But to his surprise, he now had to deal with the First Prince.

And though Li Heng said that he was sure that the First Prince had done all this, there was still no firm evidence that could link it all to the First Prince, Li Ying.

Thus, even if Li Heng reported this matter to the Imperial Court, it would be useless.

Moreover, not even Li Heng believed that the First Prince had placed the Sage Emperor under house arrest and was plotting rebellion, so why would anyone else?

There was simply no reason for him to do it!

“It’s not right!”

Suddenly, Wang Chong remembered something, a matter that he had almost forgotten, a major incident that had almost completely altered the Great Tang’s political scene.

It wasn’t that Li Ying was disinclined to plot rebellion. On the contrary, he was more ambitious than anyone else. But his composure and shrewdness had concealed this ambition.

Thus, others felt that even if he had this ambition, he would never carry it out!

This could be seen from both Wang Chong’s and Li Heng’s reactions.

But in reality, such an incident really had taken place in history.

The Rebellion of the Three Princes!

Near the end of the Sage Emperor’s reign, when the Wang Clan had already fallen, the fleeing Wang Chong had heard of an earth-shaking incident. First Prince Li Ying, Second Prince Li Yao, and Third Prince Li Ju had joined together and rebelled. Taking advantage of a time when the Sage Emperor’s condition was declining from his failure to reach the Divine Martial realm, they instigated a coup in an attempt to replace the Sage Emperor1.

This rebellion had left the Imperial Palace flowing with blood and countless ministers dead. After the coup was over, almost eighty percent of the court had been wiped out.

This was the last major incident in the end days of the Great Tang. Although the losses in this incident were far smaller than those from the war in the southwest and the Battle of Talas, the effects far surpassed those of any war.

The strength of the entire country was rapidly expended in this coup.

The deaths of countless civil and military officials had ripple effects on innumerable great clans.

The Great Tang had already been weak and feeble from the two major defeats, and the Rebellion of the Three Princes finally managed to hollow out this colossus.

After the rebellion, the court no longer had anyone to guide it, allowing Kang Yaluoshan to jump in and deliver the fatal blow to a once-dazzling empire.

When Wang Chong became Grand Marshal, he inherited a tattered and devastated mess. Even though he tried his best, he could not prevent the sun from eventually setting.

But Wang Chong recalled that there was still an extremely long time until this incident occurred.

Thus, Wang Chong had not even considered the possibility when Li Heng began to bring up all these incidents.

Could it be that my changing of this world’s history has caused the Rebellion of the Three Princes to be moved up?

Wang Chong’s face slowly turned grave.

At its most prosperous, the capital had been home to at least one hundred thousand great clans, but the rebellion had swept up almost all of them.

Li Ying had used various threats and promises to force these great clans into joining, and after the incident, fewer than one out of ten great clans had survived.

One could easily imagine the shock this would have on the country.

The one hundred thousand great clans didn’t just represent themselves. They represented the strength of the country as a whole.

Back then, he hadn’t cared. After all, he could hardly keep his own stomach full, so he had little ability to care about any of these things.

But now, more than half of the great clans in the capital were tied up with him, and these great clans had rendered great service for the Great Tang in the war of the southwest, and the Battle of Talas. Wang Chong could not ignore their plight.

No matter what, he couldn’t let them end up this way.

More importantly, Wang Chong could not permit the Rebellion of the Three Princes to take place again, wasting the bit of energy he had managed to gather up for the country.

But... if it really is that, then this is no small matter. I’ll have to think about this matter much more carefully! Wang Chong quietly said to himself.

History had changed and the times had changed, and the Great Tang was at a different level of power. There was no guarantee that the Rebellion of the Three Princes would enact itself in exactly the same fashion.

His past experiences would be of no help here.

Moreover, unlike the war of the southwest and the Battle of Talas, where he had all sorts of information regarding those two wars, the Rebellion of the Three Princes was a matter of internal strife within the imperial household. Many matters had been concealed from outsiders.

No one except those involved knew the exact details, and when Li Heng assumed the throne, he placed a taboo on the incident and sealed the records.

In addition, most of the participants had been massacred. All this meant that little was known of this extremely influential event other than its name. This was also partially why Wang Chong had not initially thought about this incident.

And what also made Wang Chong hesitant was that the Rebellion of the Three Princes was not a conflict where the weapons were out in the weapon and the fires of war thickly burned. Many of the dangers were in places one couldn’t see.

Contests of intelligence, shrewdness, and schemes were always more dangerous than contests of the very visible swords and sabers.

Without firm evidence and without knowledge of any specific time or place, reckless action would not solve any problems and might end up getting him accused of some crime.

At that time, it wouldn’t just be Wang Chong, but the entire Wang Clan and everyone related to it that would join him in death.

The enormity of the affair meant that Wang Chong had to move cautiously.

“Your Highness, did you think of something?”

Li Heng had been staring at Wang Chong this entire time.

“It’s nothing! Leave this matter to me. I will think of a way to deal with it!”

Wang Chong quickly came back to his senses.

“In addition, you don’t have enough people at your side and might get into danger at any time. I will send a few people to your side. They are skilled in medicinal arts and are also powerful martial artists. Take them into your palace as guards. They should be enough to keep you safe for now.”

Wang Chong wasn’t referring to guards of the Wang Clan, but to martial artists that he had earlier recruited from the martial arts world. In his northwest adventure, Wang Chong had not just seen the Origin Immortal Lord and obtained the Origin Immortal Art. He had also gained many followers in the martial arts world.

Although not many people in the martial arts world had answered his call, he still had quite a few followers.

“Mm!”

Li Heng firmly nodded, his mind calming down. Since Wang Chong had said that he would intervene, Li Heng was no longer worried about any danger to himself.

“The rules of the palace are strict and First Imperial Brother might send someone to watch me at any time. I have to go back soon,” Li Heng suddenly said.

As Wang Chong was leaving Morning Song Pavilion, in the dazzling Imperial Palace of the Great Tang, the beating heart of political power, the strumming of zithers rose from a dazzling golden hall.

Written in gold on the black signboard were several dazzling words:

‘The Pavilion of Petal and Sepal’!

The buildings of the palace were usually called palaces, such as the Taihe Palace, Taiji Palace, Xingqing Palace... Only this place was called a pavilion.

This was a place where the Great Tang Empire feasted foreign emissaries and honored guests.

The Great Tang had been established for several hundred years, but the Sage Emperor had been the most expansionist of all its sovereigns, expanding the borders to an unprecedented size. After subjugating the surrounding countries and gaining their fealty, he erected the Pavilion of Petal and Sepal.

At this time, the Pavilion of Petal and Sepal was awash with music and joyous feasting.

“Come, a toast!”

“To the First Prince!”

Within the pavilion, palace maids stood in attendance while bells melodiously rang. First Prince Li Ying stood on a raised platform, his cup raised. A moment later, amidst a chorus of thickly-accented Tang, hawk-nosed and deep-eyed Hu with thick beards stood up and raised their cups to the First Prince.

The guests at this banquet were emissaries from various countries, as well as princes from the Eastern and Western Turks, the Western Regions, Arabia, Charax Spasinu, and even Ü-Tsang and Mengshe Zhao.

The status of the guests made this a state banquet.

But while there were maids serving wine and dancing girls, there were no ministers of state. Moreover, the gates were firmly shut, with not even a recording eunuch present.

Moreover, a Prince of the Great Tang was not meant to visit places like the Pavilion of Petal and Sepal. Even as a regent, he should have had ministers around him. All this was in defiance of protocol.

This made this a private banquet, not a state banquet.

“Come! Let us give a toast to the future Son of Heaven of the Great Tang!”

“That’s right! His Highness the Regent is benevolent and righteous. In the future, our countries will definitely be able to coexist and prosper!”

______________

1. Historically, the Princes Li Ying, Li Yao, and Li Ju were undone due to the machinations of one of Xuanzong’s consorts, Consort Wu. Consort Wu had become Xuanzong’s favored consort, and these three Princes had complained to each other how the favor the Emperor showed to Consort Wu had caused their own mothers to lose favor. One day, Consort Wu deceived the three Princes by saying that there were bandits in the palace and that the three of them should come dressed in full armor. She then went to the Emperor and accused the three Princes of plotting rebellion, pointing out how they were dressed in full armor. The Princes were accused of treason, demoted to commoners, and eventually forced to commit suicide. Consort Wu would be plagued by nightmares of the three Princes and would die the same year.↩