When the news of Li Mi's murder reached Li Shimin's ears, a feeling of grief and anger arose spontaneously.
Of course, he was not sad for Li Mi, but he believed that his father and brother regarded him as an outsider and concealed the plan from the beginning.
This grief and anger soon turned into doubt and fear.
Li Shimin knew that Li Yuan was unlikely to do anything to him.
But he believed that once Li Jiancheng ascended the throne one day, it would be very possible to eliminate his most threatening and disliked brother.
He was deeply afraid that he would suffer the same fate as Yang Yong, the deposed prince of the Sui Dynasty.
In the next six months, he was constantly stimulated by various news from public and secret channels.
The public channel is the official documents and orders coming directly from the Tang Palace in Jinyang.
The secret channel was the several spies he set up in Jinyang, but he didn't know that two of these spies were actually taking orders from Dongdu.
In the fifteenth year of the great cause, the leaves are falling in late autumn.
An order personally issued by Tang Wang Li Yuan came from Jinyang, ordering him to return to Jinyang alone to take charge of the affairs.
The Daiming General Palace and the troops of the headquarters were all handed over to Li Yuanji.
Li Shimin's heart sank.
Not long ago, he learned about Li Yuan's illness.
According to his informant who spent a lot of money to find out, although the disease is chronic and will not kill him immediately, it is a terminal illness.
Li Yuan's longevity is only six or seven years, and he may return to the West within two or three years.
At this juncture, he was suddenly given such a transfer order, which was obviously to deprive him of his military power.
Could it be that Li Jiancheng was up to something?
When Li Shimin recalled how Li Mi died, cold sweat broke out on his back, soaking his underwear.
He immediately ordered his soldiers to summon all the trusted generals under his account for discussion.
After everyone discussed it, his chief adviser Fang Xuanling raised his hands and said: "Now is the time for the Duke of the country to make a decision.
Whether he will return to the capital as ordered, or whether he will wait for death, we don't know.
We can only resign ourselves to fate.
No, we must listen."
It's up to you to decide."
All the generals echoed.
Li Shimin shook his head and said: "No, if I support my own troops in Hebei, the Tang Kingdom will be divided into two.
In this way, my Li family will fight against each other, but Yang Guang will take advantage.
If the two sides in Hebei, Hedong and Jinzhou fight, the vitality of the two sides will be different."
If he is seriously injured, wouldn't Yang Guang be able to easily destroy our country, Tang Dynasty?"
Fang Xuanling smiled slightly and said: "My lord, what I mean by self-reliance is not to separate Hebei and stand on the throne of the Tang Dynasty.
It means that the lord should replace him, ascend to the throne of the Tang king, and finally stand on his own in the Sui Dynasty."
Everyone was shocked when they heard this.
Li Shimin's general Zhang Sun Wuji immediately responded: "Then the two sides of Hebei and Hedong will fight?"
Fang Xuanling shook his head and continued: "It is not necessary to send out a large army to attack the city and plunder the land.
Don't forget that Qin Guogong is also the biological son of the Tang Dynasty King, and he is also qualified to inherit the throne of the Tang Dynasty King."
Yu Chigong, another fierce general under Li Shimin, shook his head like a rattle and said with a teasing expression on his face: "Mr.
Fang, you want to persuade the King of Tang to let the Duke inherit the throne.
Isn't that a daydream?
Even a rough guy like me can see this."
You have to understand, why can’t you, a scholar, see it?”
Li Shimin understood at this time and said blankly: "You want me to launch a mutiny."
Fang Xuanling did not speak, but nodded heavily.
There was silence in the entire hall.
A few days later, Li Yuanji came to the daimyo with his personal guards.
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Li Shimin warmly welcomed him into the palace and talked for half a day.
A few days later, Li Shimin and Li Yuanji changed the handover procedures.
Give him all the seals and ribbons of the famous soldiers and horses.
During this period, a group of capable ministers and generals under Li Shimin's government, including Yuchi Gong and Fang Xuanling, submitted their resignations, saying that they were reluctant to separate from Li Shimin and would rather become Li Shimin's retainers.
Of course, Li Yuanji knew that these people were Li Shimin's confidants.
Hearing this was a good idea and saved him the trouble of having to find excuses and excuses to drive them away or get rid of them one by one.
He thought this was a sign of the other party's interest, so he readily agreed.
While looking through the list of people who submitted their resignations, he discovered some clues.
Changsun Wuji, a veteran who had followed Li Shimin for a long time, had no intention of following Li Shimin.
In the following days, he discovered the reason through his inquiring.
It turned out that not long ago, a relative of Changsun Wuji who served in the military was investigated and sentenced for embezzling military funds.
Changsun Wuji appealed to Li Shimin, but was rejected.
He was punished in public with fifty military sticks.
Li Yuanji thought that Changsun Wuji and Li Shimin were not of the same mind because of this.
Li Shimin finally left the Tang Dynasty's famous general's palace where he had been stationed for two years.
Here he had 150,000 soldiers and horses, accounting for nearly half of the entire Tang Dynasty's troops.
But now, he only has less than three thousand soldiers around him, as well as his trusted generals.
However, these less than 3,000 soldiers were brave men selected from hundreds of miles away from the Xuanjia Army, the most elite army in the entire Tang Army.
He will make a huge gamble with the lives of these three thousand people and his own life.
Ten days later, Li Shimin entered Jinyang City.
After three thousand soldiers were arranged by the local defenders in a vacant barracks in the city, he immediately went to visit his father, Li Yuan.
On the second day, it was just dawn, and it was time for the early morning court session at the Tang Palace.
The alleys on both sides of the street leading to the palace were filled with soldiers and horses of the Xuanjia Army, while more than two thousand Xuanjia Army secretly gathered near the Prince's Mansion.
Although three thousand soldiers and horses are not many, it is impossible for the movements in Jinyang City, a small city less than three miles long and wide, to be detected by the defenders.
However, the general in charge of the Jinyang garrison happened to be from Li Shimin's faction, but his identity was not made public.
Li Shimin, fully armored, walked straight towards the palace gate.
He was followed by Yuchi Gong, Hou Junji, Zhang Gongjin and other generals who were also fully armored.
Behind him were dozens of Xuantie armored men.
At this time, the Imperial Guards in front of the Tang Palace ordered them to stop.
A captain stepped forward and loudly said: "Soldiers are not allowed to enter the palace."
Hou Junji, who was next to Li Shimin, scolded him: "You bastard, you didn't even look at who you were blocking."
The captain gave a stiff neck and retorted: "This is the imperial palace of the Tang Dynasty.
Except for the prince of the Tang Dynasty, anyone including the Duke of Tang will also go to Bingjia."
Before he could finish his words, his eyes suddenly widened.
He looked at Hou Junji in a dazed manner, with blood foam already coming out of his mouth.
A steel knife had been inserted into his abdomen.
The guards behind him didn't have time to shout.
The Xuanjia army behind them had already rushed forward and chopped them to the ground one by one.
The bloody corpses in front of the door were quickly cleaned up, and the door guards were replaced by soldiers of the Xuanjia Army.
They were all wearing the uniforms and armor of the palace guards.
Following a few whistles, nearly a thousand Xuanjia troops emerged from several alleys a hundred meters away, joined forces with the one hundred soldiers and broke into the palace following Li Shimin and others
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