Li Shimin faked his death? Then I will be powerful enough to conquer the world!

In February of the first year of the Shenlong era, the cold in Luoyang was like a net soaked in ice water, wrapping the entire city tightly.

The snow on Zhuque Street had not yet melted completely, and was crushed into black and brown ice mud by the passing horses' hooves. It splashed at the base of the vermilion palace wall like streaks of solidified blood.

Since the twelfth month of last year, officials have not seen Wu Zetian in the Purple Palace again. The woman who once wore the emperor's crown and accepted congratulations from all nations in the Wanxiang Temple is now imprisoned in the Changsheng Hall of Shangyang Palace. Even the morning court bell cannot be heard in her bedroom with pearl curtains.

The news spread like wildfire, between the streets and palace walls of Luoyang. Some said that His Majesty had contracted a cold and was paralyzed on one side.

Some people said that the brothers Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong guarded the emperor day and night, and even the prime minister could not see the emperor's face.

Some people even secretly wiped their tears and murmured that the incense offerings to Li Tang's Taimiao would probably stop.

In the Sizheng Hall of the Eastern Palace, the scent of ambergris was burning brightly, but it couldn't dispel the stuffiness that filled the room.

Li Xian sat on a couch covered with white fox fur, holding a green jade chess piece in his hand, which was hanging above the chessboard and had not fallen for a long time.

The "Chu River and Han River" on the chessboard had long been messed up by the chess pieces, just like his mood at the moment - when he was 27 years old, he sat on the dragon throne in the Taiji Hall and watched the civil and military officials shouting "Long live the emperor".

But now he is forty-five years old, his temples are already gray, but he is still the crown prince in the Eastern Palace, and he even has to think twice before placing a piece on the chessboard.

"Your Highness, Prime Minister Zhang has been waiting outside for almost an hour." The eunuch Pei Tan bowed and replied in a very low voice.

He was an old servant who had followed Li Xian since he was in Fangzhou. He was used to seeing his master go from being high-spirited to decadent and depressed. Now, looking at the hunched back on the couch, his eyes couldn't help but turn red.

Li Xian slammed his chess piece down on the board with a "hmm." The black piece landed among the white pieces, sending up a fine dust cloud.

"Let him in."

When Zhang Jianzhi pushed the door open and walked in, he brought in a gust of cold air.

The old prime minister was wearing a washed-out crimson court robe, the corners of which were stained with ice from condensed snow. It was obvious that he had braved the wind and snow to come from the imperial city.

As he stood at the bottom of the steps, he heard Li Xian's low laugh: "Prime Minister Zhang is more diligent than when he was the Chief Secretary in Jingzhou. On this snowy day, even the young officials are hiding in the warm room and drinking wine, but you are still thinking about the affairs of the Eastern Palace."

Zhang Jianzhi didn't respond, but knelt down on the cold blue bricks. The sound of his knees hitting the ground was particularly harsh in the empty hall.

"Your Highness, I implore you to act immediately, execute the two Zhangs, and restore Li Tang!"

The smile on Li Xian's face froze.

He looked at the old figure at the bottom of the stairs and suddenly remembered that morning fifteen years ago - it was also a cold day. The eunuchs broke into the bedroom with Wu Zetian's imperial edict, saying that he was "deficient in virtue and unfit to be a monarch" and wanted to depose him as Prince of Luling.

"At that time, he was so scared that he collapsed on the ground. It was Wei who held his hand tightly and whispered in his ear, "Good and bad things are interdependent, and they may not be bad things."

But how could the days of exile in Fangzhou later be considered "not necessarily a bad thing"?

"Take action?" Li Xian stood up and walked to the window.

The red plum blossoms outside the window are in full bloom, but the snow weighs down the branches, making them look like they are weeping blood. "Prime Minister Zhang, do you know how cold the winter in Fangzhou is?"

He suddenly turned his head, his eyes filled with the grievances he had suppressed for fifteen years. "I lived there for fourteen years. The thatched hut was drafty, and I was too cold to sleep at night. I would listen to Wei's stories about Emperor Taizong's conquest of the empire."

"She said that the descendants of our Li family should have bones harder than ice and snow."

"But look at you, Prime Minister Zhang," he pointed at his hands, "These hands have held hoes and carried firewood. They've long forgotten what it feels like to sit on the throne."

Zhang Jianzhi knelt half a step, resting his forehead on the blue bricks. "Your Highness, have you forgotten the secret letter from Fangzhou Post Station?"

"Five years ago, Your Majesty summoned you back to Luoyang. You cried at night, holding my letter and saying, 'If the Tang Dynasty can be restored, I am willing to spend the rest of my life offering sacrifices to the Imperial Ancestral Temple!'"

He suddenly looked up, veins popping out on his old face. "Now the two Zhangs have forged an imperial edict in front of the emperor, demoting Cui Xuanwei, the Minister of Personnel, to Baizhou and placing their henchman Wu Sansi in the Imperial Guard!"

"The other day, I went to Shangyang Palace to pay my respects. I saw with my own eyes Zhang Changzong using Your Majesty's imperial seal to affix his seal. The ink was as red as blood. They were going to dye the Li Tang dynasty into the colors of the Wu family!"

Li Xian's hands suddenly clenched the window frame, and his knuckles turned white.

He remembered that when Wei was combing his hair yesterday, the white hair on his temples was tangled on the teeth of the comb, like a tangled mess that could not be untied.

"My dear," Wei's voice trembled, "I received a secret letter the day before yesterday—'The two Zhangs want to use the Heavenly Sacrifice to remove the Crown Prince.' If you wait any longer, our whole family, young and old, won't even have the chance to become commoners!"

"Sacrifice to Heaven..." Li Xian muttered to himself.

The grand ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven in the first year of the Shenlong era is scheduled for February 15th, which is only three days away.

In previous years, he performed the ceremony on behalf of His Majesty, but yesterday Zhang Yizhi petitioned in the court, saying that "the prince is weak and should rest," and that he should perform the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven on his behalf.

At that time, the eyes of all the civil and military officials in the court were on him. There was sympathy and regret in those eyes, but no expectation - they had long since stopped believing that this man who had been the crown prince for fifteen years still had the courage to resist.

"Your Highness!" Zhang Jianzhi's voice was tinged with tears. "Look at the beams and pillars of the East Palace!" He pointed to the coiled dragon caisson ceiling. "There are the characters 'Mingde' written by Emperor Taizong himself! And feel the jade belt around your waist—it was given to you by the late emperor. The buckle is engraved with 'Li Shi Yongchang'! You carry the blood of the Zhenguan Reign and the pulse of the Yonghui Reign. Do you want to let this bloodline be severed by two concubines?"

Li Xian's fingertips stroked the jade belt around his waist.

The marks on the jade buckle had been rubbed for fifteen years and had long been smooth and warm, but the lines of the four words seemed to be carved on bones, making his heart ache.

He suddenly remembered a snowy night in Fangzhou when his youngest daughter, Princess Anle, had a high fever. He ran wildly in the snow holding the child, begging the local doctor for help.

At that time, he thought that if he could return to Luoyang one day, he would definitely let his children live a stable life and no longer suffer such hardships.

But now, both his children have been killed by his own hands.

No matter how cowardly the descendants of the Li family were, they would raise their chests with pride when they heard the name of Taizong.

Because, if it were embarrassing at this time, it would be a loss of face for Emperor Taizong.

"Prime Minister Zhang," Li Xian turned around, the candlelight flickering in his eyes, "Can the Imperial Guards really be trusted?"

Zhang Jianzhi kowtowed fiercely, his forehead thumping against the bricks. "Jing Hui and Huan Yanfan have already stationed five hundred elite soldiers at Xuanwu Gate! Yuan Shuji, the Junior Justice, is guarding the Eastern Palace with a thousand cavalrymen, just in case! I guarantee with my own head that if we act tonight, there will be no danger of failure!"

Li Xian looked at the copper clock on the table, which had already reached 3:30 PM. He took a deep breath and suddenly ripped open the collar of his brocade robe, revealing the dark-colored suit underneath—it had been sewn for him by Wei herself the previous night, with fine stitching and a small "Li" embroidered on the cuff.

"Prepare the car." His voice was not loud, but it was filled with unquestionable determination.

Pei Tan was stunned for a moment, then burst into tears, kowtowed and turned around and ran away.

Soon, the sound of carriages and horses moving could be heard outside the hall. Li Xian took a last look at the Sizheng Hall - every beam and pillar, every inch of floor tile here was soaked with his fifteen years of forbearance.

He suddenly grabbed the sword on the table. The dragon pattern on the hilt hurt his palm, but it also made his confused mind clearer.

As the carriage drove out of the side gate of the East Palace, the snow began to fall again. Snowflakes landed on the curtains, making a rustling sound, like countless pairs of eyes peering in from the dark.

Li Xian lifted a corner of the carriage curtain and saw Zhang Jianzhi riding an old horse beside the carriage. Snowflakes clung to his gray beard, but his back was straight. He suddenly remembered that when he was young, this old prime minister had risked his life to secretly give him a bag of dry food on the day he was deposed.

At that time, he thought that no one in this world would believe in him anymore.

The guards at the gate dropped to their knees upon seeing the carriage approach. The clashing of armor was particularly clear in the still night. Zhang Jianzhi reined in his horse and turned to Li Xian, saying, "Your Highness, General Jing and the others are waiting inside."

Li Xian pushed open the car door, and the cold wind instantly rushed into his collar, carrying the smell of iron and blood.

He looked up and saw five hundred Yulin Guards holding long spears on the tower of Zetian Gate. Their torches cast their shadows on the city wall, like rows of door gods guarding the Tang Dynasty.

Jing Hui and Huan Yanfan stood at the front, swords in hand. Seeing him approach, they knelt on one knee and said, "Your Highness, we are here to welcome you!"

"Get up." Li Xian grasped the hilt of the sword at his waist, "Enter the palace."

Five hundred cavalrymen stepped on the snow and headed towards the Ziwei Palace. The sound of their horses' hooves made the snow fall down.

When they reached Yingtian Gate, they heard a commotion ahead. Zhang Yizhi, accompanied by dozens of his servants, was blocking the road. He was wearing a purple dragon robe and his face was still stained with powder. Upon seeing Li Xian, he laughed shrilly and asked, "The Crown Prince has entered the palace so late at night. Are you plotting a rebellion?"

Before Li Xian could speak, Jing Hui rushed forward with a knife in hand.

The knife flashed, and Zhang Yizhi's laughter stopped abruptly. His head rolled on the snow, his hair was disheveled, and his makeup was mixed with blood, looking miserable.

The servants were so frightened that they fled in all directions, but were killed one by one by the Yulin Guards. Their blood dyed the white jade steps in front of the door red, and bloomed like sad flowers in the snow.

Li Xian held his sword and stepped onto the steps step by step.

The candlelight in the hall was swaying in the wind. He saw Zhang Changzong running towards the side hall holding the jade seal, so he threw the sword in his hand.

The sword pierced Zhang Changzong's back, and he staggered and fell. The jade seal rolled out of his arms and hit the gold brick with a dull sound.

The pearl curtain of the Changsheng Palace was suddenly pulled open, and Wu Zetian was standing inside the palace door wearing a phoenix robe. Her gray hair was disheveled, but her eyes were still as sharp as a knife.

"Li Xian," her voice was hoarse, but with her usual majesty, "are you going to kill the king?"

Li Xian tightly grasped the jade pendant around his waist - it was a relic given to Emperor Gaozong by Emperor Taizong, which could protect the descendants of the Li family.

"I dare not." He lowered the tip of his sword. "I have only come to ask Your Majesty to return power to Li Tang."

Wu Zetian stared at him for a long time, then suddenly laughed, her laughter full of fatigue.