On the fifteenth day of the first month of the first year of the Zhaowu reign of the Tang Dynasty, the Lantern Festival was celebrated.
Chen Longxiang, the first prince of the Tang Dynasty, openly launched a coup in Pyongyang, the capital of Goguryeo, a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty. He detained all 27 generals of the Tang Dynasty above the rank of deputy general who were stationed on the Goguryeo Peninsula and forcibly confiscated the military tally to control the Tang army on the Goguryeo Peninsula.
That night, the Tang rebels, led by Prince Chen Longxiang, fought a fierce battle with the Tang army that was holding out outside the Goguryeo capital. The rebels won a great victory.
The next day.
King Chen Longxiang of Jin made a high-profile announcement in the royal palace of the Goguryeo capital that he would support the deposed emperor Zhao Lingwu to regain the throne, restore the previous dynasty, and restore the Daxin kingdom.
On the same day, a mutiny involving 500,000 troops of the Tang Dynasty stationed on the Goguryeo Peninsula also broke out, with hundreds of thousands of Tang soldiers fighting amongst themselves.
Half a month later, news of Prince Chen Longxiang's rebellion spread throughout the Tang Dynasty.
The whole country was shocked!
Guangling County, the residence of the Prince of Zhongshan.
Su Muchen, the second-generation Prince of Zhongshan and the elder brother of the former empress Su Wan'er, fell into deep thought as he looked at the "Proclamation of Rebellion of the Prince of Jin" that the steward of the Prince's mansion had just retrieved from the city gate.
In fact, several days earlier, Su Muchen had already received a secret letter from his younger sister Su Wan'er, who was far away in the capital of Goguryeo, through his family's overseas merchant caravan. The letter informed him of the news of "the Prince of Jin's rebellion and the Tang Dynasty's military coup."
Furthermore, Su Muchen was secretly tasked with cooperating with the Goguryeo "righteous army" to wage commercial warfare in the Central Plains dynasty and to fund the uprising of the former dynasty's righteous army, thereby disrupting the Tang court's plans and working together with the Goguryeo righteous army to restore the Great Xin dynasty.
The moment Su Muchen received Su Wan'er's secret letter, his first thought was that his younger sister had gone mad, hopelessly insane!
However, out of love for his sister, he still secretly sent several large ships of grain and hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to Su Wan'er, who was far away in Goguryeo, through overseas merchant caravans, as a way of supporting his nephew Zhao Lingwu in his attempt to restore his kingdom.
Su Muchen originally thought that the "uprising" mentioned in his sister Su Wan'er's letter was nothing more than a childish game played by the exiled young emperor of the previous dynasty in a vassal state, and that it would soon be suppressed by the Tang Dynasty's heavy army.
However, after he received another secret letter from the Goguryeo capital last night, as well as a rubbing of the Tang Dynasty court's "proclamation of the Prince of Jin's rebellion" that he had just obtained from his steward;
After analyzing the information gathered from various parties, Su Muchen immediately came to a result that left him speechless—his younger sister Su Wan'er's uprising on the vassal state of Goguryeo was not a small-scale disturbance in the former dynasty's deposed empire, but a true rebellion.
Forehead--
No, it should be "restoring the previous dynasty and restoring the new dynasty to its former glory".
In her secret letter, Su Wan'er clearly informed Zhongshan King Su Muchen that his "brother-in-law," Chen Longxiang, the regent of the Daxin Dynasty, had completely taken control of the situation on the Goguryeo Peninsula a few days ago.
Furthermore, he also formed an alliance with King Gojang of Goguryeo, who was in exile and hiding in the primeval forests of Afeihu Ridge, and the Goguryeo exiled regime he controlled, to jointly resist the Tang Dynasty.
By the time Su Wan'er sent this secret letter, the regent Chen Longxiang of the Daxin Dynasty had more than 200,000 troops under his command. The remaining 300,000-plus Tang troops stationed in Goguryeo were either dead, wounded, or captured, and no longer posed a threat to the Daxin regime in the Goguryeo capital.
King Gojang of Goguryeo also led his exiled regime back to the capital, raising the banner of "opposing the Tang and supporting the new," and recruiting soldiers on the Goguryeo peninsula in preparation for an eastern expedition.
In the secret letter, he once again requested that Prince Zhongshan, Su Muchen, assist the "righteous army" in raising an uprising and restoring the empire of the Great Xin Dynasty.
Subsequently, Su Wan'er also compiled a list of required supplies.
"A quantity of various types of cannonballs; ten thousand fine horses from the Western Regions; fifty thousand sets of various swords, spears, halberds, heavy armor, and light armor; one million shi of grain..."
Inside the study of the Prince of Zhongshan, Su Muchen was reading the contents of the list to himself, his handsome face almost turning a liverish color from holding it in. He muttered to himself in annoyance, "This Wan'er, she's treating my Prince's residence like the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works of the Great Xin Dynasty!"
"Right now, I am nothing more than a powerless prince in this Tang Dynasty. At most, I have a little money. Apart from these 1 million shi of grain, I can't get any of the things on this list!"
Eh—
As Su Muchen spoke, he couldn't help but sigh, "But these are things I can't discuss with outsiders. You can imagine how much trouble this has caused."
"If only I had known—"
"Your Highness!"
Before Su Muchen could finish speaking, the voice of the Prince's steward suddenly came from outside the study.
Um?
Inside the study, Su Muchen raised an eyebrow, then lit the secret letter in his hand on a lit candle and burned it to ashes. Only then did he say to the people outside the study, "Come in!"
A moment later, the Prince's steward rushed into the study, closed the door, and whispered to Su Muchen, "Your Highness, something terrible has happened;"
"This old servant noticed that many new merchants have suddenly appeared near the Prince's residence. This old servant is not sure if these people who appeared out of nowhere might be spies or informants of the Dragon City Guard!"
"What did you say?"
Upon hearing this news, Su Muchen's expression immediately turned serious.
When he was still the brother-in-law of the previous emperor, he had dealt with the Longcheng Inner Guard under Emperor Zhaowu Chen Huai'an and knew the terror of the elusive Longcheng Inner Guard.
Being targeted by them is not a good thing!
Su Muchen muttered to himself, "Isn't Luo Yucheng, the deputy commander of the Dragon City Inner Guard, already dead? Why are his lackeys and henchmen still not quiet?"
"Could it be that news of my transport of grain to Goguryeo has leaked out?"
As he spoke, Su Muchen suddenly turned his head and glared fiercely at the steward of the Prince's Mansion beside him, as if he wanted to see through the steward's thoughts with his sharp gaze.
"Your Highness, this old servant is innocent!"
Before Su Muchen could even question him, the steward of the Prince's mansion immediately knelt before him with a thud, tears streaming down his face, and said, "Your Highness, this old servant has served the late Prince and Your Highness in this mansion since I was twelve years old, for a full forty years now. This old servant has been utterly loyal to Your Highness and to the mansion, with absolutely no disloyalty!"
"Your Highness..."
"Alright, get up!"
Su Muchen waved his hand impatiently and said, "What I wanted to say was, is it possible that the matter of transporting grain and silver to Goguryeo has been leaked? I didn't say it was you!"
"Your Highness, I—"
The steward of the Prince's mansion stood up, looking aggrieved.
Then, Su Muchen instructed, "Listen, I'm sending you to make the purchases..."
......
The merchants who suddenly appeared outside the Zhongshan Prince's Mansion were indeed spies and informants of the Dragon City Inner Guard.
Their mission was to monitor every move of the Prince of Zhongshan's residence.
When the disguised steward of the Prince's mansion quietly left from the back of the mansion with a wary expression, he was immediately spotted by the Dragon City Guards who were keeping an eye on him and followed him.
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