The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 1153: The Twists and Turns of the Situation

Zhang Xuansu was stunned for a moment before he understood.

It turned out that just now in the palace, the emperor agreed to his proposal on the surface. In fact, he had already known about this matter, but he was just using this method to make him give up.

Well, if that’s the case, then I won’t fight this time.

"It's God's will. If that's the case, Jun Ji, don't worry too much. Just focus on recuperating!"

Thinking of this, Zhang Xuansu sighed regretfully and said, "There is no sign that the Right Wise King will send troops. Hebei has become a cage. Even though the Turks are making great trouble now, they are just grasshoppers in autumn and will not be able to jump for long."

"There are countless civil and military officials in the court, and we will surely be able to deal with it with ease. However, this peerless feat is beyond the reach of you and me."

"Uh, cough, cough."

Hou Junji coughed again, feeling secretly bitter in his heart.

The chaos in Hebei is not a military achievement at all. It is clearly a hell with a bloody mouth that devours lives. No matter who you are, there is no return.

He was well aware of the situation and had discovered long ago that the emperor wanted to use the Turks to attack the aristocratic families.

Hou Junji had a simple idea about the emergence of a Right Wise King in the Irtysh River Royal Court. Since His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was going to come back to be the Emperor, he would definitely find a puppet to continue to play the role of himself on the stage to stabilize the situation.

The situation in Chang'an was unclear at that time, so they first found a puppet to provide support.

If he could return to the Tang Dynasty and succeed to the throne peacefully, that would be great; if the resistance was too great, he could retreat back to the grasslands and retain his position as overlord.

This is a strategy of advancing and retreating calmly, and Hou Junji also agreed with it wholeheartedly.

Later, he ascended the throne smoothly, and then the Right Wise King was assassinated on the grassland. Hou Junji subconsciously thought that the emperor wanted to use this to make the "puppet" disappear legitimately, and then let several trusted generals support several "young heirs" to take over power.

He also launched an invasion to the south to support his "plan to eliminate the vassal states."

However, the situation did not develop as he had expected. The 'puppet' was sick but not dead. Then the Shiluodie resurgence broke out in Mobei, and the Hengling Battle resulted in countless casualties.

At that time, Hou Junji was very nervous for a while, thinking that the emperor had made trouble and Shi Luodie took the opportunity to rise to power.

But when he was worrying about it, Shi Luodie turned south and rushed into Hebei Province, attacking the nobles and distributing land to the people. Hou Junji was relieved, thinking that he had underestimated the emperor.

This series of events was just the emperor's way of concealing the truth from the world and paving the way for luring the Turks south!
Hou Junji was unable to discern the truth, and he did not dare to ask the emperor, let alone consult others about such a huge secret. He had to hide in the mansion, relying on his limited life experience and some events that occurred on the surface to secretly speculate the emperor's intentions and the development of the situation.

However, the situation was full of twists and turns, often unexpected, but it was stubbornly moving in a direction that was beneficial to the emperor.

This made him sigh several times, the emperor was indeed unfathomable and extremely wise.
Although Hou Junji didn't know how Li Chengqian avoided the control of the civil and military officials and the major families in the court, and how he controlled the "puppet" from afar in Chang'an City thousands of miles away, how did he control Shi Luodie and make him compromise?
However, all the actions of the Turks were extremely in line with the interests of the emperor and dealt a heavy blow to the foundations of the aristocratic families.

What the Turks were doing was something that Li Shimin dared not even think about, but the emperor used the Turks' tyrannical military force to cut off the source of the problem in one step and directly used violence to confiscate property and divide the land. It was simply too satisfying.

Hou Junji now understood why the emperor would go through so much trouble.
The struggle between imperial power and the aristocrats was extremely sensitive. They were wary of the emperor and as long as the interests of the aristocrats were damaged, the first person they would suspect was the emperor.

Therefore, the evolution of the whole situation must be extremely logical and reasonable, and the motive must be flawless in order to conceal the truth. As long as the nobles get a glimpse of the emperor's actions, they will immediately take action.

After realizing this, Hou Junji felt his scalp tingling and his spine chilled.

The game between the masters at the core of power, that kind of subtle competition that is so subtle and wonderful, is really too terrifying. How smart does one have to be to avoid revealing anything?

A dynasty of a hundred years, a clan of a thousand years.

There are many old monsters in those aristocratic families that have been passed down for hundreds or thousands of years who have seen the world clearly and understood people's hearts. They have experienced many storms and have far-sighted vision. They can easily change dynasties and play with the emperor and the world in the palm of their hands.

What is even more terrifying is that the emperor, although young, has the courage and wisdom to be no less than the nobles and dares to take action against a group of old bones left over from the previous dynasty or even earlier dynasties.

Just to deceive the nobles about their motives, a great war broke out deep in the grassland, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries.

Only with this battle can Shi Luodie be pushed forward reasonably and let him take all the blame.

While the people in the court were not sure why Shiluodi did not leave a way out, Hou Junji knew that it was a dead chess piece. These 300,000 Turks came here to die with the nobles.

Hou Junji was completely shocked by Li Chengqian's ruthless methods and unfathomable scheming. On the grassland, he could make two gangs of "their own people" kill each other, killing hundreds of thousands of people. How much more bloodshed would they commit when they came to the Central Plains? As expected, emperors are inhumane characters. For the sake of power, they can sacrifice everything and send hundreds of thousands of people to hell without blinking an eyelid.

Over the past few decades, the number of casualties on both our side and the enemy in the battles he commanded, added together, was not as high as the number of casualties in the two major battles that the emperor commanded from afar.

Hou Junji had fought hundreds of battles in his life and had never been afraid, but now he was really a little scared. He could face the bloody storm on the battlefield calmly, but he didn't want to see the sinister and cruel human heart.

Thanks to Li Chengqian being the Right Wise King, Hou Junji was no longer so hostile to the Turks.

After living on the grasslands for several times as an envoy, he also knew that most of the nomadic soldiers were also passionate men. When there was no war or survival crisis, they were simple-minded, upright people who lived with their parents, wives and children.

There is not much difference between them and ordinary people in the Central Plains.

But these people were sent to the battlefield by their loyal king and lost their lives in vain. This is hundreds of thousands of families! Just for a reasonable excuse to invade the Central Plains, even Hou Junji couldn't bear it.

But he could also understand that Li Chengqian had no choice but to be extremely careful when fighting against those aristocratic families.

On the other hand, at the end of his life, Hou Junji was able to "give up martial arts and pursue literature" and enjoy such a wonderful game of chess. He died without regrets.

But the degree of danger involved is terrifying.

Hou Junji stayed in his mansion, quietly watching his young son-in-law in the court, who acted like a weak scholar who was powerless, giving in step by step to the officials and aristocratic families, and even handed over the power of the court to the central government officials.

Everyone praised the emperor for his gentleness, elegance, and humility, saying that he was truly a wise, holy, and benevolent ruler rarely seen in history.

At this time, Hou Junji secretly despised that all the officials in the court were kept in the dark by the emperor. The emperor today must be a wise and holy emperor, but he can never be a benevolent emperor. Behind him, he was like a cold-blooded ancient beast.

He treated human life as worthless and played the world like a chess game. With a slight change of his mind, mountains of bones appeared, corpses filled the fields, and countless heads fell to the ground.

In this whole world, apart from the emperor himself, he was probably the only one who could understand what kind of murderous intentions and treacherous situations were hidden under the seemingly chaotic situation. The current situation seemed calm, but in fact it was even more dangerous than when he was the emperor.

Once the emperor's intentions are exposed, the world will immediately fall into chaos.

As the only person who could see the "secrets of heaven" besides the emperor, Hou Junji was shocked and frightened, and was extremely cautious. The emperor obviously had not forgotten him, and every once in a while, the emperor sent people to deliver more medicinal herbs than the previous time.

Hou Junji knew that his condition must become more and more serious, and he had to completely leave the court and fade out of people's sight.

Originally Hou Junji was just pretending to be weak, and later he only pretended to be sick when someone came to visit him.

Now, to be on the safe side, he pretends to be seriously ill and bedridden, both in front of and behind others. Now even the servants around him don’t know the condition of his health.

Even the new trusted butler Hou Wan only knew that his master was really ill, but not as serious as he showed outside.

Hou Junji hid in his mansion, quietly watching the evolution of the world situation.

Crown Prince Li Xiang would come every other day, so Hou Junji could find out what was happening in the court through no other means.

The chaos in Hebei became increasingly serious, and the nobles finally revealed their trump card and summoned the Longxi Flying Cavalry.

Hou Junji knew that this was the last strength that the Guanlong clans could rely on.

After the emperor racked his brains to plan, he finally found out his hiding place and revealed his true face. The emperor would definitely not miss this opportunity.

Hou Junji now understood that the Turks in Hebei Road were prepared for this cavalry. Three hundred thousand northern barbarians who had come but never returned and were ready to die at any time, facing the well-trained and powerful 200,000 Longxi flying cavalry, it was bound to be a battle of equal strength and mutual destruction.

The day before yesterday, Zhangsun Wuji came to visit the patient, although he said he wanted to invite Hou Junji to be the chief general.

But Hou Junji knew that they would never give him their trump card. Changsun Wuji came here just to check on his situation. After all, he was the emperor's most trusted father-in-law and the army's biggest support.

The weaker they are, the weaker the emperor is, and the more at ease they can be.

Hou Junji also had some of Li Yan's ideas at this time. It was much more tiring for scholars to fight with each other than for military generals to go to the battlefield to fight. However, after fighting with the emperor beforehand, Hou Junji's performance was enough to deceive the world.

(End of this chapter)