Traveling through the Gaowu Tang Dynasty, Li Kuan and Li Shimin became the second sons of the Prince

"Alas..." Jiang Qu sighed when he heard this: "But as for Lord Dou..."

"Hmph!" His Royal Highness the King of Chu stiffened his neck when he heard this: "The master is away, and the servants have no right to obey orders!"

"...You understand the master." Ashina Helu at the side felt that his master was really capable of stirring up trouble, but... Ashina Helu felt that as a retainer, he should do something at this time: "Your Highness, how about I accompany you?"

"Are you sure?" His Royal Highness the King of Chu looked at Ashina Helu and said, "Helu, Zhishisili, Ashina She'er, Qibi Heli, Ashina Simo and the others are all on duty now, and you are the only one on leave. But even if we go to the grassland at the fastest speed, it will probably take a month to go back and forth. Can your leave be that long?"

"Your Highness, you are not familiar with the grassland..." Ashina Helu felt that he needed to explain the interests involved to the other party: "The eighteen tribes of the grassland, especially the Tiele tribes, although they often fight among themselves, if you enter the grassland at this time, they will definitely form an alliance as quickly as possible and be ready for you!"

"That would be great!" Li Kuan said as he stood up and started to walk out: "It would save me from having to look for them one by one! Okay, Jiang Sheng, Yuwen Qing, Gangzi, you guys follow me to the stable to get the horses. It's a full moon tonight, we have to take advantage of the moonlight and hurry on our way, otherwise that tyrant will bring his men to kill us!"

"Your Highness, how about I go with you?" Jiang was determined to go see the King of Chu. He knew he couldn't stop him, but he also couldn't let him leave.

"Lord Jiang, if it were in the past, I would have taken you away." The young prince, who was already at the door, turned and looked at the old man sitting in the hall: "But this time we have to travel day and night, and when we get to the grassland it will be early summer, and the dew will be heavy. I'm afraid your body can't stand it."

"I am not that squeamish!" Jiang Qu said with a straight face, "Your Highness, do you despise me for being old?"

"I hope you can live to be my son's groom, so I don't want to torture you!" His Royal Highness the King of Chu never liked to say overly sentimental words. He took a last look at the old retainer who looked stunned, curled his lips, and kicked Yuwen Qing who was standing outside the door in a daze: "Look at the hammer?! Come on, follow me to the grassland to kill people!"

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That night, inside the palace.

His Majesty Li II sat in the Taiji Hall. After listening to Tang Jian's report on the cause and effect of the matter, he was silent for a while. Thinking of Du Ruhui who had just recovered from a serious illness, he simply turned his spearhead to Tang Jian: "My dear Tang, why did you come here at this time?!"

"Your Majesty..." Tang Jian felt that he was also quite wronged: "Mr. Du's carriage was dismantled by His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu... In order to prevent the news from leaking out, I did not go to the stables of the Honglu Temple to get the horse, but trotted all the way into the palace... Your Majesty... I am already old, and you know that my legs and feet are a little inconvenient..."

“Heh…” His Majesty Li II looked at Tang Jian in front of him and sneered, “In my opinion… Lord Tang, you are just throwing away your life. You know you can’t stop that brat, so you just help him cover up, right?! Fine, fine… why don’t you stop him?!”

"Your Majesty..." Upon hearing this, Tang Jian looked at Du Ruhui beside him with grievance.

“Your Highness…” Du Ruhui, who came with Tang Jian, saw his old friend’s accusing look, so he had to stand up and explain to His Majesty Li Er with a bitter face: “The old saying is right: ‘No one knows a son better than his father.’ – You should know His Highness the Prince of Chu. What you think His Highness the Prince of Chu wants to do, even if Lord Tang and I risk our lives to stop it, we can’t stop it…”

"..." Emperor Li II was so choked by Du Ruhui's words that he lost his temper.

After a long while, he continued, "What should we do now? The Queen probably still thinks that the bastard had dinner with me. How can I explain this to the Queen when I return to Ganlu Palace? And the Emperor..."

Speaking of the retired emperor, His Majesty Li II pursed his lips unconsciously.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs is really ignorant... How can the belt given to the retired emperor be of the same standard as mine...

I created such a lethal belt out of the need to educate a certain boy.

Emperor Taishang... it's not necessary... it's really not necessary...

"Your Majesty..." Just when Emperor Li II was trying to relieve his worries by thinking about some irrelevant things.

Tang Jian suddenly stood up and started to disrupt the situation: "I think... you might as well look at this matter from a different angle: Although all parties have come to pay tribute this time, most of the foreign tribes in the northwest still have ambitions. They say that they respect the Tang Dynasty as their suzerain, but many of them are openly and secretly dissatisfied. In this case... why don't you acquiesce to His Royal Highness the King of Chu to lead the team north this time, and use this opportunity to warn them..."

"What I'm asking you is what to do now, not whether that bastard of yours has a legitimate reason for doing this!" His Majesty Li II was already on the verge of a rage at this moment: "Also, what do you think a warning is? A warning to scare the tiger? Killing a chicken to frighten the monkey? Let me tell you, if it's that bastard who comes, the word "warning" means literally: knock off the skull, break the spine! I don't even dare to imagine how much trouble that bastard will cause when he goes to the grassland this time..."

"Your Majesty... I think you should issue an edict." Du Ruhui had already put himself in the role of the straw sandal military advisor. Of course, he did not specify which family he was from. "Your Majesty the King of Chu will most likely lead his own retainers and his 1,000 black armored troops to the northwest. In this way, the passage of the army will inevitably cause some unrest. You might as well issue an edict to the local officials, and ask them to appease the people..."

"Ke Ming..." After hearing Du Ruhui's words, His Majesty Li Er suddenly felt that his Tiance Mansion was about to collapse: "You are really thoughtful..."

"Your Majesty, as for the envoys..." Du Ruhui pretended that he did not understand the deep tone of the Emperor Li Er's words, and said to himself: "Do you think we should keep it secret, or..."

"I think we should let them guess for themselves!" - At the critical moment, Tang Jian's political wisdom began to rise sharply: "We will not reveal the whereabouts of His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu, and let them find out for themselves."

"Lord Tang, you finally gave me a useful suggestion." His Majesty Li II withdrew his gaze from Du Ruhui and looked at Tang Jian: "I will leave the specific operation of this matter to you."

"Yes!" Tang Jian bowed and accepted the order, then left the hall.

"Ke Ming." His Majesty Li II turned back to the imperial desk and began to write an edict.

"I'm here." Du Ruhui replied with an extremely respectful expression.