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

"Great grandfather, great grandfather, the rebels have captured Chang'an, and the saint has escaped!"

The girl's voice lingered in the underground palace of Luoyang.

Mr. Qi didn't know why, but he felt particularly sleepy these days and couldn't wake up no matter how hard he tried.

In this underground palace, he doesn't need to disguise himself because everyone knows that there is an immortal here.

Qi Taishi of the Qianwu Dynasty and Li Chengqian's right-hand man.

"Grandpa, they're all saying that our Tang Dynasty is going to be destroyed. Is that true?"

Mr. Qi glanced at the little girl in front of him and smiled.

"Don't worry, the Tang Dynasty will not perish."

Mr. Qi had just finished speaking.

A man wearing a black mask slowly walked in.

"Grandmaster, as per your instructions, I have taken over the Southern Five Paths."

"General Zhang asked, when are we heading north?"

Mr. Qi was silent for a moment.

"Pass the order and have the army march north. Also, the world is in chaos now, and the surrounding barbarians are eyeing our Tang Dynasty covetously. Have the arsenal speed up the production of fire guns and Qianwu cannons."

"Remember, this trip north is not for war, but for mediation. There has never been any rebellion. Remember that."

Li Jingming was a little confused when he heard what Mr. Qi said.

He was the great-great-grandson of Li Ji and the son of Li Jingye.

"Mr. Qi, do you mean that we are powerless to mediate this time?"

"I'm afraid it won't be up to us to decide then."

Listening to Li Jingming's words, Mr. Qi shook his head.

"In the final analysis, you still haven't figured out the source of this rebellion."

"Hebei is not under the control of An Lushan, a single Laker. An Lushan was simply swept along by the general trend. The reason for this is that people's hearts are in chaos."

"Do you know how many years it took from the fall of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the founding of the Tang Dynasty?"

Li Jingming couldn't answer Mr. Qi's question.

He did know the exact number of years.

"From the moment Dong Zhuo was killed, the Eastern Han Dynasty lost its power and could be considered a complete corpse walking."

"It took exactly four hundred and twenty-six years until the founding of the Tang Dynasty."

"For the past 426 years, China has been in a long period of division. During these 426 years, unification has occurred twice."

"One was the unification of the Western Jin Dynasty, which lasted a short thirty-seven years. During this period, only ten years could be considered effective rule."

"The second time was when the Sui Dynasty unified the north and the south. Until the fall of the Sui Dynasty, the unification lasted only 29 years."

"Even if you add up the time it took to unify the world, it's only a mere sixty-six years."

"If you count the actual time he ruled, it was only thirty-nine years."

"There has never been such a chaotic era. It has lasted for over four hundred years. There must be a reason for the division."

"So the most difficult part of founding my Tang Dynasty wasn't expanding the territory, nor was it Emperor Taizong conquering the whole world, but rather finding out why the world hadn't been unified for over four hundred years."

"I can't find the reason. The Tang Dynasty is no different from the Sui Dynasty. This is why Emperor Taizong is Emperor Taizong, and even Emperor Wu cannot compare to him."

"Over the years, only Emperor Taizong has found the reason."

Mr. Qi did not continue speaking, but looked at Li Jingming.

Li Jingming knew that Mr. Qi was testing him and could only shake his head helplessly.

"Mr. Qi, you know, I'm a warrior and don't know much about this kind of thing."

Mr. Qi shook his head.

"You really don't look like a descendant of Li Ji, but that's fine too, young man. Be more creative."

"The rise and fall of a dynasty cannot be simply viewed as a cycle. Each era has its own characteristics."

"At that time, Emperor Taizong asked many people and received many answers, but many of them were superficial. Later, Emperor Taizong found the three real reasons."

“The first is a crisis of trust.”

"The Eastern Han Dynasty began with the Party and Faction Persecution, when the court cracked down on officials who fought corruption. This led to the people losing their trust in the court. They viewed the Confucian ethics and morals previously promoted by the court as hypocritical."

"This has caused people to abandon their old ideas, but they haven't got any new ones."

"This is called destroying without building. The consequences of destroying without building are very serious. Everyone's faith has collapsed. They are at a loss, a vast loss, and don't know what to do."

“Once you reach a point where you’re lost and don’t believe in anything, all sorts of weird and absurd things will happen.”

When Mr. Qi said this, his eyebrows and eyes looked unusually depressed.

"The famous scholars of the Wei and Jin Dynasties drank all day long. They used drinking to wash away the melancholy in their hearts."

"A large group of celebrities gathered together, drank, and imitated the bray of donkeys and horses to vent their inner depression."

"He advocates nature and opposes old morals. He can take off all his clothes and meet guests naked."

"The world is their room, and the house is their clothes. So it's not that he is naked in front of others, but that the guests have entered his crotch."

"This was the confusion and loss of the time. Even the famous scholars felt this way, let alone the common people."

"This confusion has led to a loss of cohesion among us Han people. Without cohesion, how can we have a country? How can we have stability?"

"The second reason is the deep blood feud forged by ethnic struggles."

"When the Five Barbarians and Sixteen Kingdoms entered the Central Plains, their numbers were far less than our Han people."

"There's no need to elaborate on the methods a minority can use to rule the majority."

“That led to mutual slaughter.”

"Almost every family in the north harbors hatred for what happened, and this hatred is almost impossible to wash away."

"The third reason is that in the midst of this faithless war, the entire Divine Land has become divided."

"Especially for the lower classes, since the Qin and Han dynasties, the rural areas have adopted the township system, which is the most important foundation of a country."

"If the country is weak, it cannot protect the countryside. When barbarians come in, the first thing they do is burn, kill, and plunder the countryside."

“Without the protection of the state, the people can only gather themselves, run to dangerous places, and arm themselves.”

"This has formed a new population base, which is what our Tang Dynasty once called Wubi."

"Wubi was independent of the imperial court. It was not the foundation of the imperial court and was even opposed to it."

"So if we want the Tang Dynasty to prosper, we must incorporate these organizations that are independent of the imperial court. If we don't, the imperial court will have no roots. If it only has superstructures, how can it last long?"

"That's why the Sui Dynasty was short-lived."