Li Hong felt a little lonely. What he was doing now was far beyond the scope of the life he wanted. All this was thousands of miles away 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 far from being as simple as I imagined when I was just born.
From the moment he was crowned the prince to now, everything has been going smoothly. He originally thought that he could be recognized by many people based on what he had done over the years.
But what happened in the past two days made him realize that the royal family's choice of successor to the throne was far from being as simple as he thought.
Even if you have been established as the prince, even if you have not made any mistakes, this does not mean that you will definitely be able to successfully inherit the throne.
During this period, whether intentional or not, many things will happen around you to test whether you are qualified as a prince, whether you are qualified to inherit the throne, and whether you have enough ability to lead the courtiers.
Kindness, kindness, tolerance, generosity, open-mindedness and other qualities, all these things under the sun, no one will test you, you only need to do it yourself.
The test often comes from the dark side behind the glamor: cold-bloodedness, cruelty, murderousness, intrigue, selfishness, ambition, city government, etc.
These elements that a qualified ruler should possess will all come into contact with you after you become the prince, and you will inadvertently come into contact with something that no one can see, but everyone knows, called "ambition". After switching on and off, these difficult tests will hit you like a storm.
Throughout the dynasties and generations, the alternation of royal power will always be accompanied by a bloody background.
In Li Hong's view, under the bright and noble surface of the royal family, there is actually a living animal world, a perfect interpretation of the laws of survival.
Just like a pack of wolves choosing a qualified alpha wolf, it is always necessary to fight and fight to select the best, strongest, most intelligent and strategic, most ambitious, greedy, and most cruel and cold-blooded alpha wolf.
Only such an alpha wolf can lead a pack of wolves and protect his own pack in a world where the weak can prey on the strong. Only then can he expand and consolidate his territory, make himself the sole master of this territory, and lead the way for future generations. Come to a stronger imperial power!
Just like what my father is doing now, whether it is a series of wars and oppression against the countries in the Western Regions or Goguryeo, Baekje, Silla, etc. in the east, it is not just to prove that he is a qualified royal orthodoxy and a Qualified leader of the wolf pack!
And it was because he, Li Hong, touched this button called "ambition" that he ushered in the current stormy situation.
All this seems normal in the royal family. There is no family affection, no friendship, no warmth, only hard and cold lust for power.
Just like a wolf pack, in the struggle for the position of the alpha wolf, for the future development and growth of the wolf pack, the contenders for the alpha wolf will always need to go through a fierce and cruel struggle before they can be qualified.
My father is weak in character and indecisive, but he is good at planning the overall situation and being patient with the city. Therefore, in order to prove that he is a qualified ruler of the Tang Dynasty, he must use external wars to convince the ministers that he has the ability to bring long-term peace and stability to the Tang Dynasty.
The mother has a strong personality and is decisive, but weak in ethics. When the struggle between the emperor and the empress first emerged, the mother's strengths made up for the father's weakness in making political decisions.
Therefore, the two people complemented each other, resulting in the so-called "empire and empress struggle" in the court. Intentionally or unintentionally, the empress mother also touched the button called "ambition".
But this did not hinder them. After they touched the "ambition" button because of Li Yifu, they began to carry out various tests on themselves.
And what he is facing now is just a small test they have given him.
Lawless and Wutian are the names of two people. They are surprisingly the same as Ken Lao Wu Tian. They are both twin brothers.
It's just that he joined Li Hong a year later than Ken Lao Ren Yu, and Li Hong bought these two people from Yazi, a man from the West City of Chang'an City.
Welfare and Wutian also look very similar. They don't have any obvious features. They are ordinary and can't be more ordinary. They are the kind of looks that you will never notice if you are stuck in the crowd.
Even if you saw these two people passing by in a hurry, if you didn't remember them deliberately, you wouldn't even be able to remember what these two people looked like.
The ordinary one has an extremely ordinary appearance, the medium and well-proportioned one has an extremely well-proportioned body shape, and both of them walk in the same way they look. They are always so calm, calm, and unhurried.
But Xia Zhi is very afraid of these two people. Even when Mang Zhong and Hua Meng see these two people, they can't help but feel tense all over, and their muscles are at the highest alert.
"Myth" is the code name of their organization. Xia Zhi and others don't know how many people the prince has gathered for the "Myth" organization.
She only knew that under the leadership of these two people, "Mythology" was not as nice as its name sounded at all. They were the butcher's knives in the hands of the prince.
"Myth" has only been used two or three times so far. Last year, the Japanese envoys led by the Japanese were assassinated and sent to the Tang Dynasty. In the end, the Japanese who came to study in the Tang Dynasty were forced to return without success.
But this assassination did not discourage the Japanese people. This year, about 500 people came to study in Datang. They also strengthened their manpower to protect their envoys to Tang and the many young people who came to study in Datang.
No one knows who assassinated the Japanese people last year. Xia Zhi only knew that the prince had summoned "Mythology" the night before, and then the envoy sent to Tang 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 people from Goguryeo, Baekje, Silla and other countries. Any envoys from these countries who asked to see the prince were ignored. Refuse to refuse.
Li Hong had already been waiting in the pavilion in the East Palace Garden, and Xia Zhi led the two of them to the pavilion quickly.
After watching Xia Zhi's retreating figure, Wu Wutian slowly knelt down and saluted: "I have never seen the crown prince before."
Li Hong didn't seem to hear the two people's greetings. He was still looking in the direction of the Daming Palace and the vague scene of the busy construction. After a long time, he slowly said: "Being the daughter and son-in-law of Li Yifu, the crime scene has been completed." The false appearance of death caused by the conflict between buying and selling an official position made Xu Yushi's son Xu Ziran a victim at the crime scene. Another thing was to find the perpetrator who killed Liang Jianfang and kill him."
"Yes, Prince." Lawless's voice was calm, as if he was listening to an extremely common thing, unlike Li Hong's voice, which was full of helplessness and bitterness.
Li Hong rubbed his cheeks to make his facial expression no longer so heavy, slowly sat down on the chair, and then said again: "How long will it take?"
Lawless looked at each other, pondered for a moment and said, "Going back to the Crown Prince, I need the cooperation of Jingwei. If they cooperate with Shinhwa, three days will be enough."
"Give you two days. The Jingwei will cooperate with your actions and give you accurate information, including who the murderer was who killed Liang Jianfang. The Jingwei will give you clues. There are only two days, If it takes three days, I'm afraid it will be difficult for you "Mythology" to pursue those things lost in the medicinal kitchen."
"Yes, Prince." Lawless lowered his head and said.
The two of them breathed a sigh of relief at the same time. If "Jingwei" cooperated, two days would be enough for these things.
As the two major organizations of the East Palace, the "Myth" of assassinations and the "Jingwei" of intelligence, if the two groups 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 things about Helan Minzhi, and even add some charges to him." Li Hong said lazily while lying on the table, fiddling with the exquisite tea set.
Lawless didn't understand. "Jingwei" and "Shenhua" had always been at odds with each other, unless the Crown Prince ordered it, but why he was asked to inform them this time.
"Prince, "Mythology" and "Jingwei" have always been incompatible..." He couldn't help but said.
"Follow it, the situation forces it." Li Hong waved his hand and let them leave.
After Wu Wen and Wu Tian knelt down and saluted, they slowly left and began to prepare for what the prince had told them. Since the prince asked him to inform the "Jingwei", he had to do it even if he risked being killed by the "Jingwei". Tell "Jingwei" what the prince means.
But who leads the "Jingwei"? Neither Lawless nor the two knew, but he knew that notifying the "Jingwei" was very simple. He just had to write down what he wanted to say in a few Arabic numerals and give it to the concierge of Prince Pu's Mansion. If the concierge picked up the message, it would be considered as a notification.
This was the contingency plan prepared by the Crown Prince for "Myth" and "Jingwei". I didn't expect it to be used so quickly.
Under the dim light of night, Chang'an City will appear quiet after nightfall. A carriage walks slowly on Zhuque Street, looking so leisurely and contented.
Bai Chun returned to Chang'an, and Taiyi City strengthened its guards, but she could not 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. It was as white as Jade's brows gradually relaxed, but then they quickly knitted together again.
Bai Chun lowered his head and thought for a while. Seeing that the carriage was about to arrive at Chengtian Gate, he whispered: "Stop in front of Chengtian Gate."
The palace guard carefully checked Bai Chun's token and read it back and forth several times. Finally, he let Bai Chun into the palace, and the carriage behind her quietly disappeared into an alley after she entered the palace.
"My slave Bai Chun has met Your Majesty." Bai Chun appeared in Li Zhi's study in Ganlu Palace.
Yang Wu looked at Li Zhi's gesture, silently bowed and retreated outside the study, gently closed the study door slowly, waved away the two maids at the study door, and stood with other eunuchs in the Manlu Hall. At the door, he looked around warily.
"Are there any things stolen from Taiyi City that Li Hong valued very much?" Li Zhi put down the memorial in his hand and leaned back on the chair and asked.
"Yes, mercury is very important to the prince, but it is not the key. The key is that what the prince calls the "imperial kitchen" was stolen." Bai Chun lowered his eyes and said calmly, standing opposite the desk.
"Do you know what it is?" Li Zhi asked, playing with the ink pen in his hand.
"My slaves don't know. Only Lawless knows about this matter, and they are responsible for it." Bai Chun still said calmly.
"Lawless? Is it the assassination organization organized by Li Hong himself?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. I reported to you last time. I suspect that the envoy sent to Tang Dynasty last year was assassinated by the "Myth" organization led by Lawless."
"How many people are there in this assassination organization?" Li Zhi looked indifferent, not at all surprised that Li Hong had such a mysterious assassin organization. What's more, he knew that Li Hong secretly cultivated such an organization four years ago.
"No more than three hundred people." Bai Chun replied simply.
(End of chapter)