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

In June of the fourth year of Jinglong's reign in Chang'an, the heat was like an airtight net, wrapping the entire imperial city tightly.

The bronze crane in the Hanyuan Hall shone dazzlingly under the scorching sun, but the interior of the hall was as gloomy as deep winter. Empress Wei, wearing a purple robe and jade belt, was sitting next to Li Xian's former throne, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the gilded paperweight on the table.

"Your Majesty's body has not yet been entombed. It's time for the Jinwu Guards to quell the rumors."

She didn't even raise her head, her voice was hoarse from crying, but it couldn't hide the sharpness in her eyes.

Wei Wen, standing at the bottom of the stairs, bowed quickly and said, "I will do it right away. However... the Prince of Xiang has sent people to ask three times if he should be allowed to come in and mourn."

Empress Wei suddenly raised her eyes, the bright pearls on her phoenix hairpin dazzling her eyes. "Let him wait! When the Great Saint Empress Wu Zetian was on the throne, which of the Li princes dared to be so presumptuous?"

"Pass on my order. From now on, the keys to the gates of the capital will be in the hands of the Wei family's descendants. Military deployment orders for the northern and southern yamen must pass through my hands."

She paused, then added, "Guard the gates of the Imperial Guards tightly. If Wei Bo and Gao Song can't control the situation, have them beheaded."

As Wei Wen retreated, his sleeve was caught on the threshold, nearly causing him to trip. He looked at the eunuchs standing at attention in the corridor, their heads bowed, and suddenly recalled the scene of Li Xian's death three days earlier—the emperor lying in a pool of blood in the Liangyi Hall, a half-eaten piece of bread still clinging to the corner of his mouth, while Empress Wei was standing by the window, gazing at the pomegranate blossoms in the courtyard, as if nothing had happened.

At this time in Longqingfang, Li Longji was standing under an old locust tree, staring at the falcon circling in the sky in a trance.

Ge Fushun had just returned from the Imperial Guards camp, his armor still caked with dust. He ripped off his helmet, the bruise on his forehead particularly conspicuous in the sunlight. "Your Highness, that bastard Wei Bo has been beating people up in the camp again! Seven of our brothers have had their faces broken by his whip today alone."

Li Longji clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white. "Be patient. Move around the camp more often these days and take good care of the injured brothers. Remember, don't leave any traces."

He turned to look at Chen Xuanli behind him, "How's the Right Feathered Guard doing? Have the Wei family's people noticed anything unusual?"

Chen Xuanli was dressed in cyan casual clothes, but with a short sword at his waist, he said in a deep voice, "Most of the soldiers in Guoyi Prefecture are from Guanzhong. Thirty percent of their land taxes have been taken away by the Wei family, and they've long been resentful."

"The other day I had the brothers sing the song 'Huangtai Melon Song' in the camp. When they sang 'One pick makes the melons good, another pick makes them sparse,' everyone's eyes were red."

Li Longji was about to say something when he heard the tapping of wooden clogs outside the courtyard. He quickly signaled Ge Fushun and the other man to retreat behind the screen, straightened his clothes, and said loudly to the door, "Is it my mentor?"

The door curtain was gently lifted, and Mr. Qi walked in with the help of a purple bamboo cane. There was some dust on the sleeves of his wide linen robe, and it was obvious that he had come in a hurry.

He put the old wicker box on his back on the ground, and there was a slight "clang" sound from inside, like the sound of iron colliding.

"The well water in Chang'an has turned muddy these past few days," Mr. Qi said, his cane pausing as he sat down. "Yesterday, I went to the West Market to buy salt and overheard two vendors selling Hu pancakes saying that Empress Wei had secretly melted down all the gilded bronze tripods in the Imperial Ancestral Temple to make gold jewelry for her precious niece."

Li Longji's brows knitted even tighter: "She is so perverse, isn't she afraid of being attacked by the whole world?"

"Everyone in the world?" Mr. Qi sneered, took out a piece of black charcoal from his sleeve, and drew a circle on the table. "The military power in Chang'an City today is like the chessboard in this circle."

"Empress Wei placed Wei Jie and Wei Zhuo in the left and right guards, seemingly holding the throats of the east and west cities, but she forgot the soldiers of the sixteen guards of the Southern Court. Three generations of her family had been military households, and their ancestral graves were all at the foot of Mount Zhongnan."

He used a charcoal pencil to make a dot outside the circle. "Those palace soldiers you met in Luzhou sneaked into Chang'an in batches last month and are now waiting in the warehouse in the West Market."

Ge Fushun couldn't help but stick his head out from behind the screen: "Sir, the armors carried by those brothers are hidden in the firewood carts. We are afraid that they will be exposed when the Jinwu Guards investigate."

Mr. Qi looked at him and said, "Tomorrow at three o'clock in the afternoon, a manure truck will leave from Anhua Gate. The driver has a black mole behind his left ear."

"Let the brothers blend in with the dung men. When they reach the willow forest beside Kunming Lake, someone will bring them weapons."

As he spoke, he opened the rattan box, and inside were more than a dozen sets of oil-tempered leather armor, with knife marks still on the armor plates from the conquest of Tubo.

Li Longji stroked the cold armor plates and suddenly remembered the time when he was banished from Chang'an. He was wearing thin prison clothes and standing outside Tonghua Gate. It was this old man he had never met before who caught up with him, stuffed a sheepskin coat into his hand, and said, "When a dragon swims in shallow water, it must protect its internal organs."

"Teacher," he said, his voice trembling, "Why are you helping me like this?"

Mr. Qi just shook his head and said, "I'm helping the Tang Dynasty, not you."

When the sound of the third watch clapper came from the street, Mr. Qi suddenly stood up and poured everything in the wicker box onto the ground - there were more than a dozen new-style muskets.

"This is the musket that Qiu Shenji used when he pacified Xu Jingye," he picked up one and handed it to Li Longji. "Tomorrow at 11:00 AM, Wei Bo will be training in the Yulin Guard camp. At that time, General Ge only needs to..."

Before he could finish his words, the sound of horse hooves suddenly rang out from outside the courtyard. Chen Xuanli instantly drew his sword, and Ge Fushun had already extinguished the oil lamp. Mr. Qi, however, held their hands and pointed at the shadow on the window paper. "It's one of us. Look at the horse's gait. It's a spy from the Eastern Palace."

Sure enough, a moment later, a dark figure climbed over the courtyard wall, rolled on the ground, and whispered, "There's news from Prince Xiang that Empress Wei will discuss the appointment of a queen in the court tomorrow, saying that she wants her sister Wei Xiurong to take over the imperial harem."

Li Longji stood up suddenly, and the jade pendant on his waist hit the table with a crisp sound: "She wants to turn the Tang Dynasty into the back garden of the Wei family!"

Mr. Qi, however, remained remarkably calm. He pulled a roll of yellowed cloth from the bottom of a rattan box. Unfolding it, he could see densely marked markings in cinnabar. "This is a map of the defenses of Xuanwu Gate," he said, pointing to the arrow towers. "When Emperor Taizong launched his rebellion here, the defending commander, Chang He, was originally a member of the Crown Prince's army, yet he ultimately opened the gate. Do you know why?"

Without waiting for Li Longji to answer, he continued, "Because Chang He's mother was the sister of Emperor Taizong's wet nurse."

"Every brick and tile of Chang'an City is connected to the complex web of human relationships."

"Empress Wei thought she could buy people's hearts with gold and silver, but she didn't know that the captains of the Imperial Guards went to Xingshan Temple on the first day of every month to burn incense for their deceased comrades. Most of those deceased comrades died of starvation in the desert during the campaign against the Turks, when the Wei family withheld their military rations."

At dawn, Mr. Qi placed a bronze token in Li Longji's hand, on which were engraved the words "Key to the North Gate".

"Tomorrow at noon, take this to the camp gate of the Left Winged Guard." He rubbed the lines on the token with his fingers. "Ge Fushun will be inspecting the troops at the martial arts training ground. When the time comes, you only need to raise this token, and the soldiers will know who they will fight for."

Li Longji gripped the token tightly, and a cool metallic touch came from the palm of his hand, as if a force was spreading along his arm to his whole body.

He suddenly remembered what the old man had said when he said goodbye to Mr. Qi at Baqiao last year: "The principles of the world are like the Wei River. They seem to be winding, but in fact they all flow into the Yellow River in the end."

The sky outside the window gradually turned white, the night watchman's clapper struck five times, and in the distance came the sound of armor plates colliding as the Yulin Guards changed shifts.

Mr. Qi carried the wicker box on his back and paused his cane on the threshold. "I'll go to the blacksmith shop in the West Market and have them remove those half-forged iron spears overnight."

"Remember, tomorrow at noon, the drums on Suzaku Street will sound a quarter of an hour earlier than usual."

When Li Longji sent the old man to the door, he saw the old man's back gradually disappearing in the morning mist. The copper lock on the rattan box swayed gently with his steps, making a crackling sound.

He turned and went back into the house. The defense map was still spread out on the table. The circle drawn by Mr. Qi with charcoal was already filled with dense red dots, like countless pairs of eyes waiting for orders.

Ge Fushun came out from behind the screen, clutching a piece of dry food he had just brought from the camp. "Just now, when I went to the toilet, I heard the patrol soldiers say that Empress Wei summoned all the palace musicians last night, saying that she wanted to celebrate her birthday in advance."

Li Longji picked up the musket and said, "She wants to celebrate her birthday, so let's give her a big gift."

When she turned around, the jade pendant on her waist hit the table again. This time the sound was particularly crisp, as if it was beating the first drumbeat for the coming storm.

In the distant palace, Empress Wei was trying on her newly made court dress in front of a bronze mirror. The pearls on her collar were taken from Li Xian's court beads.

The palace maid behind her was holding a brocade box containing a night-shining pearl that had just been taken out of the national treasury and was to be embedded in her phoenix crown.