My father, Li Shimin, please call me Crown Prince

Chapter 390: Changes in the Right Jinwu Guard
Distance is the biggest difficulty in information dissemination in this era.

Even at the fastest speed, it would take more than half a year for the changes in the situation in the Middle East to reach Chang'an.

Even if Li Chengqian had a powerful army, he would not be able to intervene in the situation in India at the first opportunity.

However, because of the foresight, Wang Xuance was arranged to go there early.

Fortunately, the inertia of history will not change, which is due to interests.

India was not a separate country. Even King Harsha only nominally ruled the land to the north of India. India itself was an aggregation of dozens of countries, large and small.

This has not changed much in later generations. It is equivalent to a federal system, except that there are caste restrictions on top of the federal system.

Nepal and Tubo had always wanted to invade India. India at this time had a lot of fertile soil, tropical monsoon climate, sufficient heat, abundant precipitation, and rain and heat at the same time, which was suitable for plant growth. With guaranteed water supply, rice could be harvested three times a year, which could give full play to the production potential of the land.

Naturally, it will attract the envy of neighboring countries.

The power of Nepal was very small and it was basically dependent on Tubo.

Tibet has only become powerful in recent times, and during this period it encountered King Harsha.

King Harsha ruled northern India, which was in the direction of Tubo.

King Harsha's army was very powerful as it was able to unify northern India. However, no matter how powerful a fortress is, there are usually internal problems.

Alonashun was originally an ambitious person, but he did not know his own position. He felt that he could replace King Harsha.

Because King Harsha was on good terms with the Tang Dynasty and sheltered the exiled Persian emperor, the spies from the Arab Empire soon hooked up with Alonashun.

With the support of the prestigious Arab Empire, Alona took direct action.

There shouldn't have been any big surprises, as Alonashun controlled a large number of King Harsha's officials, but unfortunately he ran into Wang Xuance.

Alona Shun, who had just rebelled, had no time to integrate his forces and was defeated by Wang Xuance's borrowed troops.

But now Northern India has become a mess.

Obviously, Tibet and Nepal will gain a lot of benefits.

Of course, these have little to do with Li Chengqian who is far away in Chang'an for the time being.

If he wants to intervene in the situation in the Middle East, he will have to wait until he ascends the throne.

For Li Chengqian now, the most important thing is how to gradually erode Li Shimin's power.

What Li Chengqian has to do now is to boil the frog in warm water.

He would expand his power step by step. As long as it reached a sufficient level, he could start the Xuanwu Gate Incident again and ascend to the throne through the traditional way of succession of the Li family.

"Your Highness, the Right Jinwu Guard is under our control. Prince Jin has gone to Puningfang."

Du He reported the news and was particularly concerned about the movements of Prince Jin.

In Du He's opinion, the King of Wei and the King of Jin were like Prince Yin and the King of Qi back then.

If His Royal Highness the Crown Prince does not succeed in passing through Xuanwu Gate, the lives of the King of Wei and the King of Jin will be at stake.

As long as the King of Wei and the King of Jin are eliminated, the only legitimate son left to Your Majesty will be the Crown Prince, just as Your Majesty did back then.

However, His Majesty is obviously more ruthless. Not only Crown Prince Yin and Prince Qi, but also their descendants were all eliminated, leaving no leeway for the late emperor.

Because according to traditional etiquette, the eldest son inheritance system is that the son inherits the father's inheritance, and the younger brother inherits the elder brother's inheritance.

To put it simply, the system of primogeniture requires that all the eldest brother's lineage must die out before it can be considered the end of the brother's line.

Therefore, in order to ensure the legitimacy of his succession and not give others the opportunity to raise objections, Li Shimin killed all the descendants of Prince Yin and King Qi, so that the throne would naturally be passed on to the younger brother.

This point does not apply to Li Chengqian because he is the eldest son and the crown prince.

Killing the King of Wei and the King of Jin would not make any difference in terms of etiquette and law, except that it would leave Li Shimin with no choice.

As long as it's not patricide.

Historically, when Du He felt that there was no chance, he actually wanted to persuade Li Chengqian to kill his father. He had the prince pretend to be sick so as to lure the emperor to visit him, thus achieving his goal in one fell swoop.

Unfortunately, the rebellion of the King of Qi implicated Hegan Chengji and exposed him. Hou Junji's son-in-law Helan Chushi also handed over the evidence, which made Li Chengqian's plan fail.

Unfortunately, there are no accidents in history.

Of course, Du He would not think so now, because the prince is now more powerful and can compete with His Majesty.

"Right Jinwu Guard, sort it out as soon as possible."

"According to the previously established rules."

Li Chengqian gave the order.

Du He bowed and said, "Yes, Your Highness."

Li Chengqian has rich experience in how to gain the loyalty of the army.

This approach has been put into practice in Liaodong earlier, with very good results.

The Military Academy is one aspect, but for a large number of soldiers, not everyone can enter the Military Academy, so the only option is to look at other aspects.

The method is not complicated.

When Lu Tong saw those Liaodong soldiers, he thought that they were loyal to the prince because of his military merits, titles and land.

This is not wrong, but it is not comprehensive.

Soon, the prince issued a reform plan for the Right Jinwu Guard.

After all, the Right Jinwu Guard had a complete system of military officers and its own soldiers, who were mainly from the soldiers of the Zhechongfu in various places, and took turns to serve in the capital through the "banshang" system. The soldiers had to provide their own weapons and food, train during the slack season, and go out to fight in wartime.

The real backbone are the various Zhonglang Jiang.

Practically speaking, the Jinwu Guards were also responsible for patrolling the Taiji Palace, Daming Palace and other palaces day and night to prevent threats, but this authority is no longer needed.

It was also impossible for Li Shimin to let the Jinwu Guards guard the Taiji Palace again.

Therefore, managing street patrols and gate opening and closing in Chang'an City became the main job of the Jinwu Guards.

During the Xuanwu Gate Incident, Li Shimin controlled the Wuhouwei and the palace guards, and eventually killed Crown Prince Li Jiancheng and Prince of Qi Li Yuanji, laying the foundation for his ascension to the throne.

In order to prevent future generations from following his example, Li Shimin established the position of General of the Right Guard and re-divided the imperial guard system inside and outside the palace.

And now Li Chengqian's reforms have suddenly caused unrest in the Right Jinwu Guard.

After all, there are 36,000 soldiers from Liaodong, so there are naturally not enough official positions on the Right Jinwu Guard side. There are only more than 10,000 permanent members of the Right Jinwu Guard.

This means that all the middle-level officers of the Right Jinwu Guard have to be replaced. How can the middle-level officers originally belonging to the Right Jinwu Guard be willing to accept this?

Pingkangfang wine shop.

The shop was already closed at this hour, but the candlelight was still flickering in the private room on the second floor.

Wang Chengye, the Lieutenant General of the Right Jinwu Guard, was holding the wine glass, his knuckles white from the force. Sitting opposite him was Li Hongjie, the Guoyi Commandant of the Yifu. The tassel of the sword on his waist was still stained with wine stains. "Three thousand Liaodong soldiers entered the Suzaku Gate yesterday." Wang Chengye spat a mouthful of wine on the ground, "The flags of our Right Jinwu Guard have all been replaced with Liaodong wolf heads! This morning, at the roll call, all five of my team leaders were replaced by guys with Liaodong accents, saying something like 'His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is trying to promote new talents'

"Fuck you!"

A calm voice came from the left: "Brother Chengye, please be patient."

The speaker was Lu Mingyuan, a military officer. On his desk were several bamboo slips of the "Guardian Prohibition Law". "I checked the classics last night. According to the first year of Zhenguan, the Jinwu Guard Lieutenant General must be promoted from the Guoyi Duwei of Zhechongfu, and must be examined by the Ministry of War. Now the prince bypassed the selection and directly replaced him with Liaodong's private soldiers, which is against etiquette and law."

"Etiquette?" Li Hongjie suddenly slammed the table and stood up, his wine cup jumping up and down. "Didn't your majesty break etiquette during the Xuanwu Gate Incident? Now the crown prince has learned from his father to use military remonstration tactics, and we, the upright children of Guanzhong, have become the fish on the chopping block!"

A sigh came from the corner of the private room. Zhang Ke, the military officer of the Cavalry Division, was fiddling with an abacus, the copper beads glowing coldly under the candlelight: "Hongjie, you and I both came from the Zhechong Mansion in Longyou. In terms of seniority, how can we compare with those people who crawled out of the pile of dead bodies in Liaodong? If the prince wants to place his confidants in a position, can we stop him?"

Li Hongjie turned and approached, his sword drawn three inches from its sheath: "Zhang Ke, are you going to give in?"

"The cavalry you led in Longyou won first place in the Cavalry Guards review! Now you want to give up your position to a group of savages who can only chop people off?"

Zhang Ke pushed the abacus aside: "It's not about admitting defeat, it's about recognizing the reality."

"The Crown Prince has 60,000 elite soldiers from Liaodong in his hands, and our Right Jinwu Guard only has 12,000 people at most. What can we use to fight?"

"For example, we cannot deal with the 30,000 Liaodong soldiers in Wannian County now, and even Prime Minister Fang has come forward, which also represents the intention of His Majesty."

"It's against the rules, but these rules were set by His Majesty."

"Besides, General Lu is also the prince's man. No matter how many people we can win over, even if we unite, we are still not enough for the prince to kill."

Wang Chengye suddenly pressed the handle of Li Hongjie's knife, his eyes burning: "Mingyuan, you said that this is not in accordance with etiquette, is there any solution?"

Lu Mingyuan flipped open the bamboo slips and ran his finger over the clause "Generals of the various guards are not allowed to privately appoint troops." "There is only one way, to jointly submit a petition to Your Majesty, to expose the fact that the Crown Prince has exceeded his authority. When Changsun Shunde privately accepted bribes from the palace soldiers, Your Majesty was still able to demote him to a commoner, not to mention that now the Crown Prince is openly undermining the official selection system."

"Looking for death!" Zhang Ke stood up suddenly, and the wooden chair scraped against the blue bricks, making a harsh sound. "Prince Yin joined forces with the three provinces to impeach Your Majesty, and what was the result? On the day of the Xuanwu Gate Incident, the Eastern Palace Guards were disarmed before they could even gather!"

"Now that Wannian County is completely under the control of the Crown Prince, our heads will be chopped off before we submit our joint petition to the Ministry of Public Administration!"

Li Hongjie suddenly drew out his sword, and the sword light made everyone's face pale. "We're going to die anyway! Why not contact the old members of the Zuo Jinwu Guard, and then connect with the Guanzhong generals of the Xiaowei and Wuwei, and take control of the South Gate of the Imperial City before the Crown Prince has completely taken control of the situation."

Everyone has heard about the conflict between His Majesty and the Crown Prince, but after all, they are not high-level officials.

Their understanding is still limited to the struggle between the Crown Prince and the King of Wei. In the hearts of many generals, Your Majesty is still the most powerful.

Besides, for a warrior, there are not so many concerns. The worst that can happen is that he will just make a fuss.

The private room fell into dead silence. The night watchman knocked on the gong outside the window, indicating that it was already the third watch.

Wang Chengye suddenly stood up and pushed open the carved wooden window. The cold wind blew in the locust leaves. In the distance, in the direction of Anhua Gate, the patrol torches of the Liaodong Army could be vaguely seen, like a winding red snake, entwining this thousand-year-old capital.

Everyone's minds became heated.

As the saying goes, the law does not hold everyone responsible. As long as they gather enough people and make such a fuss,

I think it did have some effect after all.

Besides, the King of Jin will not ignore them.

"What do you want to do?"

A sneer suddenly came from outside the door.

Everyone was startled to feel a chill on their waists. They didn't know when the carved wooden door of the private room had been pushed open. A captain in black was leaning against the door frame, playing with a Liaodong wolf-head waist badge in his hand.

Behind him stood two teams of armored soldiers, the cold light from their unsheathed swords making the candlelight in the room flicker.

"Xue An!"

Li Hongjie recognized the other party as a captain under Lu Tong, and immediately pointed his sword at his throat: "How dare you eavesdrop on us?"

The captain named Xue An was not flustered. He slowly took out a scroll of orders from his bosom: "General Lu has ordered Wang Chengye, the Lieutenant General of the Right Jinwu Guard, and Li Hongjie, the Commandant of Guoyi, to take over the post."

He spoke in a long voice, sweeping across the crowd: "All the Caos, go to the residence of the General of the Right Jinwu Guard immediately."

Zhang Ke's abacus beads suddenly rolled down, making a crisp sound in the silence.

"So what if you don't go?" The tip of Li Hongjie's knife emitted a sharp cold light.

Xue An smiled and knocked on the door frame with his knuckles: "There are three hundred swordsmen outside the door, all wearing heavy armor."

Three hundred swordsmen are not a big problem, but wearing armor is a completely different matter.

For the army, having armor or not is two completely different things.

It is naturally impossible for these officers gathered together to drink in armor.

No matter how powerful a general is, he cannot defeat ten armored soldiers.

One man is chasing hundreds of people. He is a general wearing heavy armor, fighting against hundreds of unarmored soldiers.

The importance of armor in the era of cold weapons is self-evident.

Wang Chengye put his hand on the hilt of the knife, but found that his palms were full of cold sweat.

They no longer have a choice.

"Look." Xue An spread his hands. "General Lu calculated that you would gather tonight, so he gave you enough face. If you wait until His Royal Highness the Crown Prince asks about this matter, you will not go to the General's Mansion, but to the craftsman workshop in Daming Palace."

When they heard about the Daming Palace craftsman workshop, everyone's faces turned unhappy.

This means that all these officers will be captured and forced to perform labor service.

Li Hongjie suddenly sheathed his sword with a loud clang. "Let's go! I want to ask General Lu why he took away the jobs of my fellow Guanzhong people!"

In fact, he should ask His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, but if he reports this to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, things will obviously not be that simple.

Unlike what I just said about Your Majesty and the Prince, now is not the time to talk nonsense.

"Hongjie, don't do that!" Zhang Ke hurriedly pulled him back: "Don't you see this is the Hongmen Banquet? That was when Han Xin was lured into the Changle Palace."

"Shut up!"

Wang Chengye suddenly shouted, "We're going to die anyway, why not go and hear what Lu Tong is up to!"

Xue An raised the corner of his mouth slightly, but did not answer. He just raised his hand and made a "please" gesture.

The news from the Right Jinwu Guard naturally reached Li Chengqian's ears.

He had already made arrangements for this and believed that Lu Tong could handle it.

After all, Li Chengqian had no intention of really replacing the officers of the Right Jinwu Guard.

Since there are not enough official positions, why not just add some?

As the crown prince, his vision is completely incomparable to those middle-level military officers.

(End of this chapter)