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

"Your Majesty, the historian is by your side today. I am responsible for every word I say!" Hong San has seen too many changes in the world in his life, but he realized as he got older that the only person who treated him as a human being was actually His Royal Highness the King of Chu, who was always clamoring to drag Jiang to "deal with" him.

What on earth did His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu do wrong?

Taking advantage of the brief break in the conversation with Emperor Li II, Hong San thought again and again, and finally came up with an answer: His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu was wrong in that he was too well protected by Empress Taimu, so he always had a pure and innocent heart; his mistake was that he was born in a royal family but was unwilling to grow up.

"Hong San, are you determined to make things difficult for me? What gives you the right?! What gives you the right?!" The roar of His Majesty Li Er has resounded throughout the Taiji Hall.

"I am now a servant of the Dou family. After my death, my name will be recorded in the Dou family genealogy and my body will be buried in the Dou family ancestral tomb. I will not become a lonely ghost." - Hong San seemed to think that this answer was not enough to kill people, so he simply repeated it: "I used to think that I would live for a lifetime, but now I think I might want to live for a moment, like now, like now. I live a fulfilling life and have no regrets!"

"..." As soon as Hong San said this, Zhang Nan, who had just rushed in to report that "the prince executed Gu Lianzhi", was shaking like a sieve.

No... What's going on? Is the Hong Gong in front of him still the Hong Gong he knows?

As eunuchs without balls...how can we be so "gutsy"? !

"What a man who has nothing to be ashamed of!" His Majesty Li Er sneered when he heard this. "I am just an emperor, doing what a father should do, but you call me a heartless and capricious villain. Fine! Hong San, I will not kill you today, but I must make you see clearly whether I have done anything wrong! Come here!"

"Your Majesty..." As His Majesty Li II gave an order, a large group of soldiers immediately rushed in from outside the hall.

"Catch this cunning slave and lock him up in the prison of the Ministry of Justice!" Emperor Li II was so angry that he felt dizzy, but he still silently adhered to the bottom line: if he really killed Hong San for his treasonous words, then Kuan'er would really do something shocking to the world.

Perhaps others would not rebel for a eunuch who spoke up for them, but King Li Kuan of Chu definitely would.

Of course, right now Emperor Li II had no time to care about Hong San, the "good retainer of the King of Chu" who was taken away by the soldiers, because the next person to appear on the scene was His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, who personally took action for his brother and killed a third-rank official of the court.

It was an interesting scene when His Majesty Li II met His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

King Shu Li Ke, who came with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to apologize, was stopped outside, so he simply knelt outside the palace without saying a word.

"You two brothers have such a good relationship." After experiencing Hong San's sudden outburst, His Majesty Li Er didn't seem so angry anymore. At this moment, he looked at his "most honest" Crown Prince with an uncertain expression on his face: "Do you know what kind of official the Minister of the Ministry of Rites is?"

"I know. According to the Han system, I should be the head of the Nine Ministers." Although the prince was still kneeling on the ground, his spine was straighter than ever before: "Father, I plead guilty and am willing to be punished."

"Execute?" His Majesty Li II laughed coldly upon hearing this. "Execute? Even if you are the crown prince, you should know how serious a crime it is to kill the Minister of the Ministry of Rites. Why, are you planning to get involved and give me the bad name of 'killing my son'?"

"Your Majesty's plan for Hebei Province is no different from killing Kuandi." Upon hearing this, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince looked at his father calmly, "Father, I have always known that you are a wise leader with the world in mind, but I really don't understand why a wise leader with the world in mind can tolerate the Yin family who once dug up our ancestral graves, and tolerate Wei Zheng who changed his master three times and advised you all day long, but can't tolerate a prince with royal blood flowing in his body and heroic spirit? Father, how much of your care for Kuandi in the past was real?"

"You! You..." Emperor Li II felt guilty and unfamiliar again when facing his son who spoke so sharply.

What's going on? Hong San is like this, Cheng Qian is like this, not to mention Xuan Ling and Fu Ji...

Am I really wrong?

After a long time...

"Do you know what your grandmother left for your brother?" When His Majesty Li II's voice sounded again, anyone could hear the fatigue in his tone: "In Taihang Mountain alone, there are at least 70,000 to 80,000 bandits who will obey Dou's orders - then do you know why your grandmother can afford so many people?

Since the Jin Dynasty, the Dou family has been planning the world's water transport and caravan escorts. When your royal grandmother took charge of the Dou family, the world's number one family was never the Qinghe Cui family, which was regarded as a giant in the north, nor the Xingyang Zheng family, which was a wealthy family in the south. Even these two families combined were not good enough in front of your royal grandmother! When Wang Qunyue, the head of the Taiyuan Wang family, was still the young head of the family, his father had offended your royal grandmother and personally brought a generous gift to your royal grandmother and served tea to apologize! This scene was witnessed by me when I was young!"

His Majesty Li II said this with an expression that was inexplicable: "So many years have passed... Even though I am the emperor now, the pressure I bring to those heads of the five surnames and seven families may not be as great as the pressure your grandmother brought to them when she picked up the abacus without saying a word and fiddled with it in front of them - Cheng Qian, the Dou family before the separation was a behemoth that you cannot understand now, and the Dou family after the separation..." His Majesty Li II said this and suddenly sighed: "In your brother's hands... it may be even more terrifying than before..."

"So, Father, you contacted the Dou family in Hebei Province and learned from them the true identity of the Taihang Mountain bandits, and then -"

"——No," His Majesty Li II interrupted Li Chengqian, "I knew long ago that the bandits in Taihang Mountain were from the Dou family."

"Because Brother Kuan has become so powerful now, you are worried that he will rebel in the future?" Li Chengqian was stunned at first, and then said coldly: "Father, sometimes you want to take precautions before it happens, but you don't know that it is precisely because of your precautions that you hurt Brother Kuan's heart, and finally let the speculation that should not have been made come true..."

"I just hope that you brothers won't follow my old path. How have I done anything wrong?" Seeing his son being so ignorant, Emperor Li II was furious and said, "I haven't taken any responsibility for you taking the initiative to execute Gu Lianzhi, and you're actually blaming me?"

"If I don't kill Gu Lianzhi, there will be thousands of 'Gu Lianzhi's' here soon!" Li Chengqian, who had always been an honest child, finally exploded in the face of his furious and unreasonable father: "I am not killing Gu Lianzhi today because I am the crown prince! I am killing Gu Lianzhi today because I am Kuandi's eldest brother! How can I, as the eldest brother, sit back and watch someone trying to harm my own brother?!"

"You mean I want to harm him?!" Emperor Li II looked at his son with such a determined expression, and he didn't know what he felt in his heart.

Is it sour? More than that.

Are you disappointed? It seems unworthy.

"At this point, I no longer have the heart to distinguish right from wrong." His Royal Highness the Crown Prince shook his head slightly when he heard this: "I only know that as the eldest brother, I should do whatever I can for my younger brother Kuan.

Because Kuandi has always treated his son like this - others might say that Kuandi never took his son, the prince, seriously, but his son knew that if one day he was offended or plotted against by others, the first person to draw a knife and chop would definitely be Kuandi.

Apart from him, my son has no other thoughts in his mind." When His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said this, he suddenly looked up at his father who was sitting alone on the high platform. At this moment, most of his body was hidden in the dark. Li Chengqian could not see the expression on his face clearly, but he did not care, because at this moment, his heart was extremely open: "When the younger brother is in trouble, the older brother must stand up. This is the truth that my son learned from Brother Kuan in this Taiji Hall. He was able to draw the sword to seek justice for Brother Ke, and today my son can also hold a sharp blade to kill for him. As for the result...

"I, your son Li Chengqian, know that killing the imperial official Gu Lianzhi is a serious crime, so I humbly ask your father to make a judgment!"

"..." On the high platform, His Majesty Li II looked at his son who was kneeling on the ground below. Suddenly, he felt a more complicated emotion than when Emperor Li Yuan was young: the previous generation of Li family had a quarrel among brothers, which led to the bloody incident later. Now... the brothers of this generation of Li family have such a good relationship... For His Majesty Li II... it seems that this has pushed His Majesty Li II, who originally thought that "the situation was under control", into another dangerous situation of "riding a tiger and being unable to get off".