"No..."
"I am about to lead the army in person. Bringing him into the palace now would be to harm him!"
"Harm him?"
The innocent Si Zi could not possibly comprehend the cruelty of the struggle for the throne. Li Shimin, on the other hand, had experienced it firsthand and knew that there were countless ways to manipulate things within it.
If Li Jue is brought into the palace now, even if Emperor Gaozong is kind and doesn't lay a finger on the child, there will be others to stand up for him.
They don't need to make any arrangements; they just need to orchestrate an accident to cripple the child, and that will ruin the child's life!
Looking back now, how could my Chengqian not have been tricked by others?
Upon returning to Chang'an, Li Shimin began making intensive arrangements for his personal campaign. Although many officials tried to dissuade him, if he insisted on leading the campaign in person, there was really no one in the Tang Dynasty who could stop him.
However, he still kept Li Jue's wish in mind. However, he did not assign Li Jue to the Sixteen Guards. Instead, he added a Zhechongfu (a military unit) to the existing organization of the Sixteen Guards, making him a Zhechongfu captain within the Sixteen Guards. This can be considered as fulfilling the boy's wish.
However, he did not rush to announce the appointment, planning to give Li Jue a surprise on his birthday.
After all, once his birthday celebration is over, the next year will be his eldest grandson's birthday.
Time flies, and a month has passed in a flash. Li Shimin has finally celebrated his forty-sixth birthday.
On this day, all the civil and military officials, princes and princesses presented birthday gifts, and even envoys from foreign vassal states brought greetings from their respective rulers to the Taiji Palace to present gifts.
As the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty, Li Zhi was naturally the first to present gifts.
Instead of choosing anything valuable, he hand-copied a longevity painting as a gift to congratulate His Majesty on his birthday.
Li Shimin was very pleased with Li Zhi's gift and praised him extensively in front of all the officials. Li Zhi was so pleased that he almost blew bubbles from his nose.
Next came the gifts presented by other princes, princesses, and other royal family members.
Although the gifts were very valuable, they were not much different from those of previous years, consisting mainly of things like gold, pearls, and jade.
Relatively speaking, the gifts presented by different countries at different times were more useful.
For example, the Xueyantuo presented 500 warhorses and 5,000 sheep. Tibet presented 10 white yaks, plus 3,000 cattle and 3,000 sheep. Although Silla was a small country, currently being suppressed by the combined forces of Goguryeo and Baekje, it still emptied its treasury to prepare generous gifts for them, not only contributing 300 beautiful Silla maids, but also having six golden warhorses made in the likeness of the Six Steeds of Zhaoling.
However, just as the envoys from various countries finished presenting their gifts and were waiting for His Majesty the Emperor's summons, Fang Xuanling, the official in charge of the ceremony, suddenly discovered that their Emperor was missing!
Where is His Majesty?
"I don't know, we were just in the palace a moment ago..."
"Oh, oh, I remember now, the palace eunuch from the Prince of Qin's residence just came by, said a few words to His Majesty, and then left in a hurry!"
Fang Xuanling was even more puzzled when he heard this. Why would His Majesty go to the Prince of Qin's residence? Hasn't that place been abandoned for many years?
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