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

On the tenth day after the fall of Chang'an, autumn fog enveloped the imperial city, dyeing the glazed tiles of Taiming Palace a gray hue.

The candlelight flickered in the draft, illuminating the tense faces of the civil and military officials on the steps - the black-armored soldiers on both sides of the palace door stood with swords in hand, the blood scabs on their armor not yet scraped off gleaming coldly in the light, silently announcing the change of power.

Guo Ziyi stood in the shadow of the corner of the hall, leaning on a long spear wrapped in cloth.

The bandage on the arrow wound on his left shoulder had just been removed, but the exposed skin was still red and swollen, and every breath was accompanied by piercing pain.

He looked at the bright yellow figure in the hall. Li Heng, who used to sit on the dragon throne, now had disheveled hair.

"Your Majesty has been quite patient. In the past ten days since the city fell, he's even been served tea by eunuchs in the side hall. Yet, he has completely forgotten the blood debt of Luoyang."

Mr. Qi, dressed in black court robes, walked slowly up the steps.

He stopped in front of Li Heng.

The face that was once full of majesty was now covered with traces of tears and fear, only in those eyes still hid a trace of unwilling resentment.

"Blood debt?" Li Heng's voice was hoarse as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper, but he still struggled stubbornly. "Back then, An Lushan's rebels occupied Chang'an and destroyed our ancestral temples. Without the help of the Uighurs and Khitans, how could we have recovered the lost territory? That was a temporary measure, for the survival of the Tang Dynasty!"

"A stopgap measure?" Mr. Qi suddenly let go of his hand, and Li Heng's head hit the golden bricks of the Danbi heavily, making a dull sound.

He turned around, took a yellowed imperial edict from the eunuch's hand, and threw it in front of the officials. "Everyone, take a look! This is what His Majesty called a 'stopgap measure'!"

The imperial edict unfolded, its dripping ink words glaring in the candlelight: "After the Uighur and Khitan coalition forces help me recapture Chang'an, they may enter Luoyang and plunder for ten days. They may take all the city's property, women, and provisions at will. Imperial officials may not interfere. Those who violate this will be charged with treason."

At the end of the book is Li Heng's personal signature, stamped with the bright red imperial seal, and even the lines of the ink are clearly visible.

"Boom——" All the officials were in an uproar.

When Chang'an was recovered, people from all walks of life praised Li Heng for "taking on the task in a time of crisis and restoring the Tang Dynasty." No one expected that behind this "achievement" lay such a humiliating transaction.

Minister of Revenue Su Zhen trembled as he picked up the imperial edict. He ran his fingers over the words "take it at will" and burst into tears. "Your Majesty! Luoyang is the Eastern Capital. Since the Sui Dynasty, it has been a prosperous place. Hundreds of thousands of people have settled here!"

"Your imperial decree has caused the foreign cavalry to break through the city gates, slaughtering men and abducting women. The treasury has been looted, leaving corpses strewn across the streets, and even the Luo River has been dyed red with blood. This is no mere temporary measure; it's an order to massacre the entire city!"

"An order to massacre the city?" Mr. Qi's voice suddenly rose, his gaze like a knife sweeping across the officials below. "Do you know, ever since the Luoyang disaster, how have the people of Guandong viewed the Tang Dynasty? They say, 'I'd rather be a slave to the barbarians than a citizen of the Tang Dynasty!' Last year, when I led my troops through Bianzhou, I saw children on the street singing the nursery rhyme 'The Emperor sells Luoyang, and the people suffer.' Those childish voices pierced my heart more than a knife!"

He suddenly turned to Li Heng, and every word was like tears in his eyes: "Your Majesty keeps saying that this is for the Tang Dynasty, but in your eyes, the Tang Dynasty has always been just the throne under your buttocks, not the children who starved to death in the streets of Luoyang, not the women who were abducted, not the soldiers who died fighting to defend the land!"

Li Heng lay on the ground, trembling all over, but he still insisted: "I... I am helpless! The rebels are powerful, and the court is short of troops. If we don't borrow the help of the foreign tribes, Chang'an will never be recaptured, and the Tang Dynasty will have perished long ago!"

"Dead?" Mr. Qi sneered and signaled his personal guards to bring in a eunuch who was tied up.

The eunuch had a pale face. He was none other than Yu Chaoen, Li Heng's confidant. In the Battle of Yecheng, it was he who, as a military supervisor, had given reckless commands, leading to the defeat of the Tang army and the deaths of 100,000 soldiers.

"Eunuch Yu, tell me, why did you forcibly order a withdrawal when the two armies were confronting each other during the Battle of Yecheng?" Mr. Qi's voice was cold and emotionless.

Yu Chaoen was terrified and kowtowed profusely, "Yes... Your Majesty ordered me to do this! Your Majesty said that General Guo Ziyi's achievements were too great for the emperor. If he were allowed to crush the rebels, he would be difficult to control in the future. So... So he ordered me to restrain him on the battlefield. Even if we lose, he will be stripped of his military power!"

"You're talking nonsense!" Li Heng struggled violently, the iron chains rubbing against his flesh, drawing blood. "I didn't do that! You're the one who cowardly withdrew the troops without authorization, and you even dared to slander me!"

"Slander?" Mr. Qi raised his hand and had his personal guard present a secret letter. "This was found in the secret compartment of your bedroom. It reads, 'If Ziyi wins, he will become a threat to us. Chao En can be ordered to prevent his success.' Your Majesty's handwriting, do you all recognize it?"

The secret letter was opened and the handwriting was exactly the same as the imperial edict of that year.

When Guo Ziyi read the words in the letter, he felt a chill running from his feet to his head - he fought bloody battles in Yecheng, but the emperor's cold arrows were hidden behind him, and the blood of 100,000 soldiers was shed because of the emperor's suspicion.

"Your Majesty has not only imitated the late emperor's suspicion of loyal officials, but has also adopted his habit of favoring eunuchs to a 100% degree!"

Mr. Qi's voice was filled with anger. "You sent Yu Chaoen to supervise Guo Ziyi, and Cheng Yuanzhen to monitor Li Guangbi. All military affairs, big or small, had to be reported through the eunuchs. If a general disobeyed, you would accuse him of 'collaborating with the enemy'!"

He pointed outside the hall, his voice suddenly becoming hoarse. "Last winter, the Tibetans invaded Jingzhou. The defending general, Ma Lin, could have attacked while the enemy was still unstable, but the eunuch Cheng Yuanzhen, fearing his meritorious service, ordered his troops to remain stationary. This led to the fall of Jingzhou and the abduction of thousands of civilians! Should this blood debt also be attributed to a 'stopgap measure'?"

All the officials could no longer hold back and began to rebuke him, "Your Majesty, you are foolish! Eunuchs are prisoners of punishment. How can we allow them to interfere in military affairs?"

"Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi are both pillars of the country. To be suspicious of them is to destroy one's own Great Wall!"

"The disaster in Luoyang has already caused the people to lose their hearts, and now the eunuchs are causing the country to suffer. Sooner or later, the foundation of the Tang Dynasty will be destroyed in your hands!"

Li Heng was terrified by the scene. He looked at the angry eyes of the officials and Guo Ziyi, who was full of disappointment. He suddenly collapsed to the ground. Tears mixed with blood on his forehead, leaving hideous marks on his face. "I was wrong... I shouldn't have allowed the foreigners to plunder Luoyang, shouldn't have allowed eunuchs to supervise the army, and shouldn't have been suspicious of General Guo... Please, forgive me, I won't dare to do it again..."

"Forgive you?" Mr. Qi squatted down, grabbed Li Heng by the collar, and dragged him to the edge of the imperial steps, facing the officials below. "Ask Minister Su. After the fall of Luoyang, his wife and children were abducted by the Uighurs. Their fate remains unknown. Will he forgive you?"

"Ask General Guo. In the Battle of Yecheng, 100,000 of his men died, leaving no trace. Will he spare you?"

"Ask the people on the streets of Chang'an again. When you abandoned the city and fled, they were slaughtered by the rebels. Now, when they mention you, they only spit and curse. Will they forgive you?"

Every word was like a heavy hammer, hitting Li Heng's heart.

He looked at Su Zhen's red eyes, Guo Ziyi's trembling fingers, and the contempt in the eyes of the officials, and finally understood that he had long been deserted by his friends and relatives, and that the Tang Dynasty could no longer accommodate an emperor like him.

"Your Majesty may have forgotten," Mr. Qi's voice suddenly became calm, yet it carried a chilling chill. "When you ascended the throne in Lingwu, you relied on the support of generals like Guo Ziyi and the people's last vestiges of hope for the Tang Dynasty."

"But after you ascended the throne, everything you did was destroy this support and this desire. You traded the blood of the people of Luoyang for military power, the lives of loyal officials for peace of mind, and the hearts of the people of the Tang Dynasty for the throne. What's the point of keeping an emperor like you?"

He stood up, turned around and addressed all the officials, announcing, "I've summoned you today to announce to the world—Li Heng is deposed from the throne, demoted to a 'commoner,' and imprisoned in the cold palace of Taiji Palace, forbidden from leaving the palace for life! From this day forward, the system of eunuchs supervising the army is abolished, and any eunuchs found interfering in government will be executed without mercy!"

"In addition," Mr. Qi said firmly, his eyes sweeping across the autumn mist outside the hall, "a million coins will be allocated to provide relief to the suffering people in Luoyang, Jingzhou, and other places."

"Posthumously confer the title of 'Loyal and Brave Marquis' upon the 100,000 soldiers who died in the Battle of Yecheng, bury them with honor and erect a monument. Order General Guo Ziyi to reinstate his post, command all the troops, and immediately prepare to wipe out the rebels!"

"No! You can't depose me! I am the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and it is the destiny of heaven!"

Li Heng roared madly, but was dragged out of the hall by two personal soldiers.

His cries gradually faded away, echoing in the empty Golden Palace, like the wails of the collapse of the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

Upon seeing this, all the officials knelt and kowtowed: "We obey your order! We are willing to follow you, sir, and rebuild the Tang Dynasty!"

Guo Ziyi looked at Mr. Qi's back with mixed feelings.

He stepped forward, bowed, and said, "Sir, this move may be heavy-handed, but it saved the Tang Dynasty from disaster."

"It's just that the people's hearts have been lost, and it will take a long time to appease them before we can consolidate our foundation."

Mr. Qi nodded, his gaze fixed on the gradually dispersing autumn mist outside the hall. His voice was a little tired, yet still firm: "Luoyang's debt must be repaid, the rebels must be eliminated, and the people must live in peace. This mess of the Tang Dynasty cannot be cleaned up in a day or two."

"But as long as we adhere to the principle of 'putting the people first,' we will one day regain the trust of the people of the world in the Tang Dynasty."

"If your majesty can't do something, let the prince do it."

But this time, he wants to be a powerful official.

There is no longer anyone second only to him.

That person was looking at him.