After the banquet ended, Li Qin led his younger brother Li Wenqi to the back hall.
After sitting down, Li Qin looked at Li Wenqi through the candlelight and asked:
"Did you complete all the arrangements I gave you before you left Liaodong?"
Li Wenqi looked at his elder brother in the candlelight and suddenly felt a sense of unfamiliarity for some reason.
But after looking closely and confirming that it was indeed his older brother, he nodded and said:
"Brother, I've done everything you asked me to do. I've even planted spies around Zhang Hengshuo."
You can report his every move at any time.
After listening, Li Qin nodded and said:
"That's good."
After seeing his elder brother nod, Li Wenqi frowned and said:
“Brother, Zhang Hengshuo has followed Father for many years and is extremely loyal. Would you do this?”
After hearing his younger brother's words, Li Qin shook his head and said:
"Second brother, you need to understand what we are doing right now."
We publicly claimed it was to purge the emperor's inner circle of corrupt officials, but in reality, it was a rebellion.
We can't trust everyone completely; we have to be careful with everyone except our family.
Although they have rebelled against us, our Li family has no way out; failure means the extermination of our entire clan.
However, these generals did have a way out.
You said if the imperial court sent someone to contact Zhang Hengshuo and told him to surrender Liaodong, they would grant him a noble title.
Do you think he might be tempted?
A person's thoughts are unpredictable and the most difficult to fathom.
We cannot put our lives on something uncertain.
All we can rely on now is our family, the people in our clan.
After all, if they can betray the court with us today, they can betray us for other things tomorrow.
They could even drape the imperial robe over me for their own benefit.
It is also possible to drape the imperial robe over someone else for greater benefits.
Most of them are loyal to their own interests, not to us.
They support us simply because supporting us is in their best interest.
I guarantee that if the emperor issues an edict tomorrow, declaring that all of them will be kings, with hereditary titles and the fate of the nation intertwined, then...
Those who swore to be loyal to us at the banquet will immediately cut off our heads as a pledge of allegiance.
After all, they are all human beings, and human beings have thoughts and their own little schemes.
Everyone can weigh the pros and cons themselves.
After listening to Li Qin's words, Li Wenqi nodded silently.
Then he looked up at Li Qin in front of him and said:
"Brother, you've changed. You've become more cautious than before."
When Li Qin heard Li Wenqi say that he had changed, his eyes turned noticeably cold.
But then he shook his head and said:
"Caution? How can we not be cautious about what we're doing now?"
We're doing a business that could lead to execution and the extermination of entire families.
Afterwards, Li Qin and Li Wenqi talked about some other things, and that was the end of the conversation.
Li Qin personally saw Li Wenqi out the door.
As Li Wenqi walked away, the coldness that Li Qin had previously concealed gradually became apparent.
As his younger brother, Li Wenqi is the most likely person to replace him.
He was also the person within the organization who posed the greatest threat to his position.
Moreover, it seems that he has also built up some of his own forces during this large-scale troop mobilization and campaign.
Fortunately, he had a very good relationship with the original owner of this body, so it was unlikely that he would do anything to threaten him.
After returning to his room, Li Qin looked at the nearly burnt-out candle on the table, shook his head, and hoped that in the future, his brother wouldn't come to see him with an axe or anything like that.
Li Qin then stretched his neck.
Looking at the place where the banquet had just been held, he thought about it carefully and shook his head helplessly.
He was well aware that among the people he had just met at the banquet, there were many ambitious individuals and opportunists.
They have absolutely no loyalty to me; they're just following me to make a fortune.
Once they are defeated, those people will immediately scatter like monkeys when the tree falls.
Add to that the Liaodong officers who are dissatisfied with themselves, and all the crises will erupt.
Can I still go back to my hometown in Liaodong?
After sighing and shaking his head, Li Qin went to his room as the night deepened, intending to relax and rest.
You need to keep your mind in a state of maximum alertness at all times.
The capital city.
With the coordination of the cabinet and the six ministries, all kinds of supplies have been basically prepared.
The laborers responsible for transporting the grain have already been recruited.
All the armies are ready and will soon be able to set off.
Because this was the emperor's personal expedition, he was accompanied not only by nobles and military generals, but also by a large number of ministers and eunuchs who served the emperor, all of whom went on the expedition with the army.
The current head of the noble military generals, Zhang Fu, with his full head of white hair, sat on a chair on the city wall, looking at the large army that had gathered before him.
In a daze, I felt as if I had returned to my youth, when I followed Emperor Taizong on his expedition to the northern desert.
Looking back now, it feels like it was just yesterday.
I never imagined that I would once again follow the emperor on a personal expedition in my lifetime.
But this time, it was the emperor he was following.
Zhang Fu couldn't help but sigh when he thought about the emperor he was now following.
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