Li Hong felt a little lonely. What he was doing now was far beyond the scope of the life he wanted. It was all a far cry from his original plan.
Moreover, all of this was caused by an invisible force that forced his hands to become stained with more blood.
The life of a royal family is not as simple as I thought when I was just born.
From the moment he was crowned as the crown prince to now, everything has been going so smoothly. He originally thought that he could gain recognition from many people based on his actions over the years.
But what happened in the past two days made him realize that the royal family's choice of the heir to the throne was far from as simple as he thought.
Even if you have been named the crown prince, even if you have not made any mistakes, it does not mean that you will be able to successfully inherit the throne.
During this period, many things will happen around you, whether intentionally or not, to test whether you are qualified as a prince, whether you are eligible to inherit the throne, and whether you have enough ability to lead all the court officials.
Kindness, mercy, tolerance, generosity, broad-mindedness and other virtues, all these things under the sun, no one will test you, you just need to do it yourself.
And the test often comes from the dark side behind the glamour: cold-bloodedness, cruelty, killing, power struggle, selfishness, ambition, scheming, etc.
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These elements that a qualified ruler should possess will all be present after you become the crown prince. When you inadvertently touch a switch called "ambition" that no one can see but everyone knows, these difficult tests will come upon you like a storm.
In every dynasty, the succession of royal power is always accompanied by a bloody background.
In Li Hong's view, beneath the glamorous and noble surface of the royal family is actually a vibrant animal world, a perfect interpretation of the law of survival.
Just like a wolf pack choosing a qualified alpha wolf, it always needs to struggle and fight to select the best, strongest, most intelligent and strategic, most ambitious and greedy, and most cruel and cold-blooded alpha wolf.
Only such an alpha wolf can lead the wolf pack and protect his own tribe in a world where the strong prey on the weak, expand and consolidate his own territory, make himself the sole ruler of this territory, and bring a more solid imperial power to future generations!
Just like what my father is doing now, whether it is against the countries in the Western Regions or Goguryeo, Baekje, Silla and others in the east, he has launched a series of wars and oppressions, isn't it just to prove that he is a qualified royal orthodoxy and a qualified wolf pack leader!
And it was because Li Hong touched the button called "ambition" that he brought about the current stormy situation.
All of this seems normal in the royal family. There is no family affection, no friendship, no warmth, only the hard and cold desire for power.
Just like the struggle for the position of alpha wolf among wolves, in order for the pack to grow and develop in the future, the competitors for the alpha wolf will always need to go through a fierce and brutal struggle before they can become competent.
My father was weak and indecisive, but he was good at strategizing and forbearing. So in order to prove that he was a qualified ruler of the Tang Dynasty, he had to use foreign wars to convince his ministers that he was capable of bringing long-term peace and stability to the Tang Dynasty.
The Queen Mother was strong-willed and decisive, but weak in ethics and moral principles. When the rivalry between the Emperor and the Empress began to emerge, the Queen Mother's strengths made up for the weakness of the Emperor's decision-making in political affairs.
Therefore, the mutual complementation between the two led to the so-called "contest between the Emperor and the Empress" in the court. Intentionally or unintentionally, the Queen Mother also touched the button called "ambition".
But none of these prevented them from starting to put themselves through various tests after they had touched the button of "ambition" because of Li Yifu.
What he was facing now was nothing more than a small test given to him by them.
Wufa and Wutian are the names of two people, who are surprisingly similar to Renlaorenyuan, and are both twin brothers.
It was just that they joined Li Hong's army one year later than Ren Lao Renyuan, and these two people were bought by Li Hong from the human traffickers in the West Market of Chang'an City.
Wufa and Wutan look very similar. They don't have any obvious features. They are so ordinary that you would never notice them if they were in a crowd.
Even if you saw these two people passing by each other in a hurry, if you don’t deliberately remember them, you won’t even be able to remember what they looked like afterwards.
They have looks that couldn't be more ordinary, and bodies that are of average to perfect proportion. The way they walk is just like their appearance, always so calm and composed, neither hurried nor slow.
But Xia Zhi was very afraid of these two people. Even Mangzhong and Hua Meng would involuntarily tense up and all their muscles would be in a state of maximum alert when they saw these two people.
"Shenhua" is the code name of their organization. Xia Zhi and others have no idea how many people the prince has assembled for the "Shenhua" organization.
She only knew that under the leadership of these two people, "Myth" was not as good as the name sounded, and they were the butcher's knife in the hands of the prince.
"Myth" has only been used two or three times so far. Last year, the Japanese envoys to the Tang Dynasty were assassinated, and finally the Japanese who came to the Tang Dynasty to study were forced to return empty-handed.
However, this assassination did not discourage the Japanese. This year, they gathered about 500 people to come to the Tang Dynasty to study, and strengthened their manpower to protect their envoys and the many young people who came to the Tang Dynasty to study.
No one knew who assassinated the Japanese last year. Xia Zhi only knew that the prince had summoned a "myth" the night before, and then the Tang envoy died inexplicably the next day.
The prince had never dealt with the Japanese, but she felt that the prince was full of disgust towards the Japanese, as well as the people of Goguryeo, Baekje, Silla and other countries. All envoys from these countries who asked to see the prince were ruthlessly rejected.
Li Hong had already been waiting in the pavilion in the East Palace Garden. Xia Zhi led the two of them quickly towards the pavilion.
Wufawutian watched Xia Zhi's back go away before he slowly knelt down and saluted, saying, "Your servant Wufa, Wutian greets the Crown Prince."
Li Hong seemed not to have heard the greetings of the two people. He was still looking in the direction of Daming Palace, watching the vague scene of the construction in full swing. After a long while, he slowly said: "Pretend to be the daughter and son-in-law of Li Yifu, and make the crime scene look like a death caused by the conflict of buying and selling official positions. Pretend to be Xu Ziran, the son of Xu Yushi, and make the crime scene look like a victim seeking revenge. Another thing, find the murderer who killed Liang Jianfang and kill him."
"Yes, Your Highness." Wufawutian's voice was calm, as if he was listening to something extremely ordinary, unlike Li Hong's voice which was full of helplessness and bitterness.
Li Hong rubbed his cheeks to make his facial expression less serious, slowly sat down on the chair, and then spoke again: "How long will it take?"
Wufawutian looked at each other, thought for a moment and said, "My Lord, I need the cooperation of Jingwei. If they cooperate with Shenhua, three days will be enough."
"I'll give you two days. 'Jingwei' will cooperate with you and give you accurate information, including who killed Liang Jianfang. 'Jingwei' will give you all the clues. You only have two days. If it's three days, I'm afraid it will be difficult for you 'Shōng' to track down the things lost in the herbal medicine room."
"Yes, Your Highness." Wufawutian said with his head down.
Both of them breathed a sigh of relief at the same time. With the cooperation of "Jingwei", two days would be enough to accomplish these things.
As the two major organizations of the Eastern Palace, the "Myth" of assassination and the "Jingwei" of intelligence, if the two combinations do these things for more than three days, they really don't have to serve the prince.
"Also, tell 'Jingwei' to start collecting all the illegal deeds of Helan Minzhi, and even add some charges against him." Li Hong said lazily, lying on the table, fiddling with the exquisite tea set.
Wufawutian was a little confused. "Jingwei" and "Shenhua" had never communicated with each other unless the prince gave the order, but why did they ask him to notify them this time?
"My Lord, 'myth' and 'Jingwei' have never been related..." He said helplessly.
"Do as you are told. We have to do so." Li Hong waved his hand and let them leave.
Wufa and Wutan knelt down and saluted, then slowly left and began to prepare for the things the prince had told them to do. Since the prince asked them to notify "Jingwei", they had to tell "Jingwei" the prince's intention even if they risked being killed by "Jingwei".
But who led the "Jingwei"? Wufawutian and the others didn't know, but he knew that it was very simple to notify the "Jingwei". He just needed to write down what he wanted to say in a few Arabic numerals and give it to the gatekeeper of Prince Pu's Mansion. If the gatekeeper took it, it would be considered as a notification.
This is the emergency plan that the prince prepared for "Shenhua" and "Jingwei". I didn't expect it to be used so soon.
In the dim night, Chang'an City appears quiet after night falls. A horse-drawn carriage moves slowly on Zhuque Street, appearing so leisurely and contented.
Bai Chun returned to Chang'an. Taiyi City strengthened its guards, but she didn't feel relaxed at all. She looked up at the night sky and saw a white dove flapping its wings and flying out from the direction of Prince Pu's Mansion. Her jade-white brows gradually relaxed, but quickly frowned again in an instant.
Bai Chun lowered his head and thought for a while. Seeing that the carriage was about to reach Chengtian Gate, he whispered, "Stop in front of Chengtian Gate."
The palace gate guard carefully checked Bai Chun's token, flipping through it several times, and finally let Bai Chun enter the palace. After she entered the palace, the carriage behind her quietly disappeared into an alley.
"Your servant Bai Chun greets His Majesty." Bai Chun appeared in Li Zhi's study in Ganlu Palace.
Yang Wu looked at Li Zhi's gesture, bowed silently and retreated to the outside of the study, gently closed the study door slowly, waved away the two palace maids at the study door, and stood at the door of Ganlu Hall with other eunuchs, looking around vigilantly.
"Among the things stolen from Taiyi City, are there any that Li Hong values very much?" Li Zhi put down the memorial in his hand, leaned back in his chair and asked.
"Yes, mercury is very important to the prince, but it is not the key point. The key point is that the thing the prince called the 'imperial kitchen' was stolen." Bai Chun lowered his eyes and said lightly while standing opposite the desk.
"Do you know what it is?" Li Zhi asked while playing with the red pen in his hand.
"I don't know. Only Lawless knows about this matter, and they are responsible for it." Bai Chun still said indifferently.
"Lawless? The assassination organization organized by Li Hong himself?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. I reported to you last time that I suspected that the Tang envoys were assassinated by the 'Shinhwa' organization led by the lawless."
"How many people are there in this assassination organization?" Li Zhi looked calm, not feeling strange at all that Li Hong had such a mysterious assassin organization. Moreover, he knew four years ago that Li Hong had secretly cultivated such an organization.
"No more than three hundred people." Bai Chun still answered simply.
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