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

“Lord Dou… you mean… the reason why the old lady kept them until today is…” Wang Xuance was so shocked at this moment, “In order to make His Majesty feel at ease?!”

"Have you seen the old Taoist priest?" Seeing that Wang Xuance found it difficult to accept the truth of the matter, Dou Shilun suddenly changed the subject.

"I have met him..." When Wang Xuance mentioned the old Heavenly Master, a look of respect flashed across his face again: "The old Heavenly Master is indeed a kind and benevolent elder."

"That guy wasn't always kind..." Dou Shilun touched his nose after hearing this: "Did he say anything to you?"

"The old Taoist priest told me to follow His Royal Highness the King of Chu well, saying that the greatest fortune in my life is to be loyal to His Royal Highness the King of Chu." Wang Xuance pretended not to hear the first half of Dou Shilun's complaint and just answered the question honestly.

"Old Taoist priest, did you say anything else?" Dou Shilun shook his beard when he heard this. It was obvious that Wang Xuance did not tell him the truth.

"The old Taoist priest said that if I follow His Royal Highness the King of Chu, I will be blessed with great fortune... I will be able to... become a prime minister and be granted a title of nobility..." Seeing that Lord Dou was still asking more questions, Wang Xuance scratched his head in embarrassment and then told the truth: "But I am not very confident about this..."

"Are you not confident that His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu can open the Xuanwu Gate, or are you not confident in your own ability?" Dou Shilun saw this and began to torture Wang Xuance repeatedly: "Didn't you say before that you were willing to die for His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu? What's wrong? Are you not sure now?"

"Dou Gong... I don't mean that..." Wang Xuance waved his hands quickly after hearing this: "I will listen to your Highness..."

"If one day I am no longer around..." Who would have thought that Dou Shilun would suddenly lean forward and give Wang Xuance a meaningful look: "Remember, you can have that intention!"

boom!

Wang Xuance was completely stunned at this moment.

"Stop pretending! Your teacher has already told me what kind of person you are!" Dou Shilun saw someone trying to pretend to be a grandson, and immediately said dissatisfiedly: "Our Highness the King of Chu studied the Art of War with the mentality of treating the enemy as a grandson. Since you have great ambitions in your heart, why don't you be more courageous?!"

"Mr. Dou...you weren't like this before..." Wang Xuance could not forget the scene of being strangled by this big man and almost losing consciousness: "Are you testing me again..."

"I might have tried it in the past, but not after today." Dou Shilun's expression was very serious at this time: "The old lady... took poison and committed suicide just before Your Majesty came home. This was not only her warning to us retainers, but also her warning and accusation to Your Majesty - the death of Princess Pingyang Zhao, the old lady can't let it go, but the future of His Royal Highness the King of Chu, she can't let it go even more...

So, in the end, she decided to do as His Majesty wished and chose to help His Majesty in the increasingly fierce struggle for the throne...

However, the old lady was afraid that one day in the future, His Majesty and His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu would have a huge quarrel over this old incident.

Therefore, during the years when His Majesty the Prince of Chu was not able to take charge on his own, Li Zhongwen and his four men were able to survive. This was both a sword that the old lady was hanging on His Majesty Li II's neck and an umbrella that was held over His Majesty the Prince of Chu's head.

And now, His Royal Highness the King of Chu has already won the upper hand.

His Majesty Li II also mentioned the whereabouts of the four people to His Royal Highness the King of Chu at the right time.

So Li Zhongwen and the others deserved to die. Diing at the most appropriate time can be considered as a meaningful death in the end. "When Dou Shilun said this, the depth revealed in his eyes was no longer understandable to anyone.

"Dou Gong..." Wang Xuance always thought that he was a genius once in a generation, but today, he finally understood that he was still very immature when it came to real power struggles.

"Don't think you are not good enough." Facing Wang Xuance who was starting to lose confidence, Dou Shilun suddenly smiled and comforted him, "I am still a little inferior to you at your age. The powerful one... has always been the old lady. The one who personally taught the old lady was Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Yuwen Yong!"

"Your Majesty's action today... was it an accident, right?" Wang Xuance still couldn't forget the shock he felt when His Majesty Li II appeared in Yonghefang today.

"He originally planned to let me lead the army to support His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu, but perhaps..." Dou Shilun suddenly hesitated when he said this.

“Dou Gong,” Dou Shilun hesitated, but Wang Xuance showed his loyalty and courage as the confidant of His Royal Highness the King of Chu: “There is no maybe.

Perhaps your majesty has a change of heart and wants to pay back the guilt he felt in the past?

Or perhaps, Your Majesty could not bear to see His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu being branded as a man who killed his retainers without knowing the truth?

Not so much. Maybe. We are the retainers of His Majesty the King of Chu. What we should consider is the worst situation that His Majesty the King of Chu will face in the future, not anything else.

There is no chance of luck!" Wang Xuance said at the end, his expression gradually becoming serious.

"Well said!" Dou Shilun smiled and nodded, "Xie Minlin, that kid, has taught a good student after all!"

In response to Dou Gong's praise of himself and his teacher, Wang Xuance bowed to him neither humbly nor arrogantly without saying a word.

"You actually guessed wrong about one thing." Dou Shilun looked at his future successor and said in a deep voice, "The loyalty of Dou's retainers is not something that ordinary people can understand, so the old lady actually wants His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu to bear the bad reputation of 'killing retainers' - she doesn't want her grandson to actively fight for that position again. She knows her son's character better, so..."

Dou Shilun stopped talking here.

Wang Xuance met Dou Shilun's gaze at this moment, and was stunned at first, then nodded silently: "Xuance understands."

The death of Li Zhongwen and others was a bottom line drawn by the old lady herself.

If His Majesty Li II does something that endangers the life of His Royal Highness the King of Chu after this incident.

So……

Some things, although extremely outrageous, are unavoidable and have to be done.

Waiting to be killed? As a mother, the old lady felt that she was the only one who was hurt, so she could only be sad and endure silently. However, there was no reason for her clever and lovely grandson to suffer such an injustice!

Moreover, as the old lady's son, Li Shimin was not the first one who dared to cross the old lady's bottom line!

As for what happened to that person in the end, Dou Shilun probably didn't need to say more...

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That night, in the palace.

"Mother! Mother! Sister! Sister!" In Ganlu Palace, Emperor Li II suddenly woke up from his dream. The emperor was sweating all over and tears were streaming down his face.

"Your Majesty, what's wrong with you?" Empress Changsun had seen Emperor Li II having nightmares before, but this was the first time he called out "mother and sister" in his dream.

“Guanyin maid… how many years have passed… how many years have passed?!” His Majesty Li Er was still wearing a beard guard at this time, but his crying was particularly miserable: “How many years…you haven’t come to see me in my dreams…”

"Your Majesty..." When Empress Changsun heard this, she immediately hugged her husband with heartache.

“Guanyin maid…” It took a long while for His Majesty Li Er to calm down. He looked at the gauze curtain above his head and said with a melancholy expression: “You don’t know… in the dream… my mother and elder sister… they didn’t talk to me… they didn’t talk to me…”