The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 126 The End and The Beginning

Liu Xingshen’s and Han Wenyue’s death declared the end of the conspiracy. Li Yan entered the Imperial Palace successfully and saw Li Cui, who was still in a coma, in the Sleeping Palace. The emperor, who enjoyed pleasure, was so lucky that he could still sleep as if nothing had happened, even if the country had been turned upside down.

Immediately, Li Yan issued a decree in the name of Li Cui that Liu Xingshen and Han Wenyue intended to rebel, but Li Yan perceived it in time to lead the rescue. Now the chief culprit had been executed and the overall situation had been settled.

Led by Tian Lingzi, the Regal Guards had withdrawn from Chang’an City. All the guards of the Imperial Palace were in the charge of the guards of Prince Pu, Prince An, Li Maozhen and Wang Jian temporarily.

Inside of the Imperial Palace, masters of the Regal Guards surrendered themselves one after another, but Li Yan didn’t deal with them. The Regal Guards were so powerful that it was impossible to kill all the masters of the Regal Guards, even if Li Yan had already controlled the Imperial Palace, therefore, he could only let Tian Lingzi lead the Regal Guards temporarily.

Fortunately, Tian Lingzi had been a senior officer of the Regal Guards for a long time, so he didn’t encounter any trouble.

In the conspiracy, Liu Xingshen, Han Wenyue as well as their relatives and trusted followers were executed, while the rest of the Regal Guards weren’t convicted. As an interest group with great power, the Regal Guards were unshakable and they would continue to maintain the control over Chang’an City. The only difference was that Li Yan would give them a new leader who was loyal to him.

It was undoubted that this leader was Tian Lingzi.

When Li Yan was busy in the Imperial Palace, Li Ye helped Li Xian to come to the Kang Fu lane.

Li Xian didn’t ask for trouble as he asked Li Ye to send him back. After the fierce fight in the West Garden, Li Xian vomited a lot of blood and he was very weak. He even had difficulty in walking.

It was midnight, so there were no people on the street. Because the Imperial Palace was in turmoil and the Regal Guards rushed into the city, every family shut their windows and put out their lights. It was dark and quiet everywhere, and there were only their footsteps, which was a bit strange on the empty street.

“No matter which prince will ascend the throne, I can’t appear in public again,” Li Xian said, “In the future, if I’m able to walk without difficulty, I will take a trip at Jianghu; if not, I’m afraid I have to stay in a Taoist temple at leisure.”

Li Ye certainly understood what Li Xian meant.

He was a dead man, so if he appeared again, the history of the Battle of Bagong Mountain would be rewritten, but in fact, nothing needed to change. Although Li Xian was wronged, the imperial court gave him a decent title.

Died from the suspicion of the emperor, so nothing needed to rehabilitate.

However, it was easy for Li Ye to build a Taoist temple for Li Xian to let him live in seclusion there.

In the entire Kang Fu lane, only Splendid Pavilion still had a light on.

To be exact, it was a house in Splendid Pavilion that still had a light on.

Li Ye looked up at Splendid Pavilion.

Li Xian said calmly, “Where the light is on is home.”

After he handed over Li Xian to Liu Sanniang who desperately endured the tears welling up in her eyes, Li Ye didn’t stay much longer. The matter in the Imperial Palace wasn’t over yet, so he had to go back and have a look.

...

The conspiracy had been over, but Li Cui didn’t wake up. Eventually, he didn’t survive this winter and died before the Spring Festival.

Li Yan ascended the throne successfully. He pardoned prisoners and changed the reign title, and at the same time, he rewarded the meritorious officials.

Those who had made great efforts in the battle of the conspiracy were rewarded with satisfaction. Tian Lingzi became the Lieutenant of the Regal Guards; Li Maozhen and Wang Jian were promoted; Nangong Diyi was promoted from the leader to the minister of the Imperial Astronomical Observatory; Li Ye became the magistrate of the Chang’an Office, and Xu Shaomu was transferred with great satisfaction. Before he left, he sent Li Ye a large box of books which were his private collections.

After bringing down Liu Xingshen and Han Wenyue, Li Ye’s name spread all over the world again. He caused a bigger sensation this time than that time when Wei Baoheng was overthrown, and his popularity also reached a new height. Li Ye’s good name spread not only in Chang’an City but also in the entire Central Plains, and he had a tendency to become the second Li Xian. Moreover, he was promoted. Half a year later, Li Ye achieved Level 7 of Qi-refining by the Luck that converged constantly.

Li Ye went to Yipin Lou later, but he didn’t see Huang Chao again and even the blind old storyteller, who sat by the stairs in the first level lobby, disappeared. Li Ye had sent a special person to inquire and found out that Huang Chao disappeared from Chang’an directly without taking part in the spring civil examinations.

Li Ye built a Taoist temple for Li Xian outside Chang’an City. Liu Sanniang lived in the Taoist temple with Li Xian, taking care of his daily life. Song Jiao and Liu Dazheng would go to the Taoist temple to chat with Li Xian from time to time.

After Li Yan had ascended the throne, he was no different from Li Cui in way of doing things. He didn’t pay much attention to political affairs, but he was good at having fun. Li Ye tried several times to persuade him at first, but Li Ye gave up finally because he found out that a leopard couldn’t change its spots.

In less than a year of Li Yan’s ascending the throne, Lu Yan and Wang Duo began to fight with each other, because Lu Yan flattered Li Yan and made Li Yan so happy that he was more and more favored and powerful. Therefore, he took corruption and bribery and violated the law, just like another Wei Baoheng. While Wang Duo was upright and outspoken, and he often admonished Li Yan directly, so he was left out gradually.

After the two men fought for less than half a year, Wang Duo was demoted and sent out to be a local official.

After replacing the status of Liu Xingshen and Han Wenyue, Tian Lingzi became the most powerful person in Chang’an City. Except for Li Ye, he put nobody in his eyes, and even Lu Yan had to be polite to him. Tian Lingzi wasn’t a good person either and he was only responsible for corruption and bribery and making Li Yan happy.

In the first year of Qianfu, the first year of Li Yan’s ascending the throne, the drought was followed by floods and natural disasters caused a shortage of crops, while the imperial court extorted excessive taxes and levies, so that starving people were everywhere, which finally led to human disasters. In Puyang, Wang Xianzhi, Shang Junchang and the others staged an uprising first. After attacking and occupying counties, they occupied several states. Their momentum rose, and the world was shocked.

In the second year of Qianfu, Huang Chao gathered people to raise an uprising in response to Wang Xianzhi.

From then on, the rebels fought battles throughout the length and breadth of the country, attacking cities and plundering lands, to develop into hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

The imperial court ordered Huainan, Zhongwu, Xuanwu, Yicheng and Tianping to join forces to suppress them.

From then on, the official troops suffered more defeats than victories, and the imperial court changed the commander in chief several times. However, the rebels couldn’t be settled and their momentum was growing.

In the fourth years of Qianfu, Huang Chao captured Yunzhou and killed the commissioner of Tianping, and then he captured Yizhou. In order to prevent the rebels from controlling Ziqing, the imperial court appointed Li Ye as the commissioner of Pinglu to stop the advance of the rebels.

The commissioner of Pinglu took charge of Qizhou, Zizhou, Qingzhou, Laizhou, Dengzhou and the other states. There was a sea in the east of Pinglu, the west was bounded by Mount Tai, and it was adjacent to Yunzhou and Yizhou.

...

West Garden had been restored as before. The spring sun was shining.

Li Yan was feeding fish by the lake. He sprinkled a handful of fish food, clapped his hands, turned around, and shook his head. He sighed. “They’re just a few rebels and making noise. There’re people who can lead the army on the imperial court and the vassal states have enough elite troops, so it’s very easy to pacify them. Why should you go there personally? You will feel tired, so you should be free and comfortable staying in Chang’an.”

Sitting in the pavilion, Li Ye was looking at Li Yan. Li Ye shook his head as he heard this. “It has been four years since the rebels started an uprising. If it were easy to pacify them, it wouldn’t delay until today. The imperial court has changed commander in chief several times. Although we have achieved some victories, the rebels won’t stay in a place for long and they are mobile fighting and running in all directions, so it won’t be easy to surround and annihilate them.”

Li Yan was somewhat indignant as he heard this. He gnashed his teeth. “It should blame those vassal states for not fighting their best! Before the battle, they looked at each other, and no one would rush ahead. When the rebels came in large numbers, they fled in a hurry to preserve their own strength and refused to be loyal to the imperial court! Instead, when they asked the imperial court for money and food, they all shouted loudly, which really annoys me to the extreme!”

What Li Yan said was a truth, but not complete.

Of course, the troops didn’t win quickly because the vassal states looked at each other and no one was willing to suffer losses. But several times when the troops won a great victory and almost forced the rebels to lose, the imperial court suddenly changed the commander in chief because of the factionalism and because all of them wanted to gain the biggest credit for winning the battle, so that the rebels had a chance to fight back, which was also an indisputable fact.

Good commanders led the troops when the battle was in a bad situation, while once the troops had gained an advantage and they were sure to win, the good commanders would be replaced by their trusted forces, so the result was that the good-for-nothings spoiled the good commanders’ hard-earned successes and that let the rebels narrowly escape death.

This was what Lu Yan had done.

In addition, the generals sent by the imperial court wouldn’t be punished for their big mistakes, but they would be rewarded for their tiny merit. However, the imperial court was stingy with rewards when the troops of the vassal states achieved success, but the blame for the defeat would be laid on them. The reward and punishment were not clear, which led to a great loss of prestige of the imperial court. The troops of the vassal states, who originally fought hard, gradually became dissatisfied and passive.

All kinds of conflicts of interest were rife in the battle, but they were not well coordinated, which was the fundamental reason why the battle wouldn’t win.

Li Ye couldn’t explain it to Li Yan because Li Yan wouldn’t listen to him, nor would Li Yan necessarily agree with him.

So he could only say, “The troops of the vassal states look at each other on the battlefield, but no one will try his best, so the imperial court needs to erect a typical example of heroic fighting. At the same time, the vassal states are not satisfied with each other, so the imperial court also needs to send an important minister to force them to submit and obey the orders of the imperial court.”

Speaking of this, Li Ye smiled. “Although I have not much prestige, I’m the Grand Prince of the empire and all people know that I have your favor, so I can borrow your prestige. With Your Majesty’s prestige, who dares not to obey?”

Li Yan smiled bitterly. “I can’t win the argument with you.”

...

When Li Ye returned to Prince An’s Manor, he called Shangguan Qingcheng, Song Jiao, Li Zhen and the others. He made a lot of arrangements and let them prepare separately.

Li Ye didn’t know how long for him to go out to suppress the vassal states, so he took all eight hundred guards of the manor. These guards had fought side by side with Li Xian, so they should be used on the battlefield. Instead, they were overqualified to guard the manor.

A few days later, all things were well arranged. Li Yan’s decree had been promulgated to announce that Li Ye would take office in Pinglu, and the token of the commissioner had also been given to Li Ye. Everything was ready, so he just waited for a good day to leave.

Li Xian had no intention to leave with Li Ye because he was too weak for a journey.

In fact, Li Ye knew clearly that Li Xian didn’t come back to Chang’an for helping him. When he achieved the Spiritual Master Realm, Li Xian hardly had fetters in the secular world. The fate of Tang Empire was his only remaining obsession.

Lived for the empire and died for the empire. This was Li Xian.

At night, a bright moon was shining in the sky.

Sitting on the roof, Li Ye brought a pot of wine, drinking alone.

After finishing the wine, he stood up and bathed in the night wind without saying a word.

He had been working hard for going out to suppress the vassal states for a long time.

When he arrived at the vassal states, he would also enter Jianghu and the world.

He took a big step on the road to immortality.

More challenges awaited him.

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Volume 1 The End.

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