Tang Dynasty: Father, if you don't rebel, I will!

When Chang'an received news from Taiyuan Prefecture that His Highness the Crown Prince's entourage had already set off and would arrive in Chang'an soon.

Changan.

Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui, who had lost half their weight in the past six months, exchanged a glance.

It gave me the illusion that I had gone through many hardships and finally achieved enlightenment and ascended to heaven.

"Hahaha! Good, that's wonderful! It's good that His Highness the Crown Prince is back!"

Zheng Jiang, the Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial, laughed heartily, and immediately began to make arrangements to welcome His Highness the Crown Prince back to Chang'an. As for His Majesty...

Since His Majesty and his entourage didn't leave in a grand manner when they first departed, there's naturally no need to pay too much attention to their return to the capital.

Wude Hall.

"Your Majesty, good news! Great news! His Majesty and His Highness the Crown Prince have already departed from Taiyuan and will be back in Chang'an in seven or eight days at most!"

The eunuch delivered the message.

Upon hearing this, the first to breathe a sigh of relief were the two concubines who were accompanying Li Yuan as he processed documents and local reports.

Some of them were responsible for reading memorials to the emperor, while others were responsible for grinding ink.

When they were busy, they even had to feed the Emperor Emeritus.

"boom!"

Li Yuan's old, but now much sharper and more piercing eyes suddenly flashed with a fierce light.

He stood up angrily and kicked the table in front of him over with a bang.

"That unfilial son! How dare he come back to me?!"

"They said they'd only stay for half a month, no more than a month! Fine, they just dumped this mess on me for a full six months!"

"Half a year!!!"

Amidst Li Yuan's furious roar, all the eunuchs and palace maids in the Wude Hall trembled in fear.

"Bring me my bow!"

As soon as Li Yuan reached out, two eunuchs quickly brought over the hard horn bow stored on one side of the side hall of the Wude Hall.

Li Yuan drew his bow and nocked the string in one fluid motion.

"shhhhhh"

With three sharp whooshing sounds, three arrows were released from the bow.

In the blink of an eye, three arrows pierced through one side of the Wude Hall, piercing the straw doll with Li Shimin's portrait printed on its head.

Li Yuan grinned maliciously.

"If I don't teach this rebellious son a lesson this time, I won't deserve to be called Father by him!"

"Achoo! Achoo! Achoo..."

It is near Jiangzhou.

While resting at a post station, Li Shimin, who had just stepped down from his carriage, suddenly sneezed in succession, startling Fan Qi, who was standing nearby, who hurriedly went to summon the imperial physician.

But Li Shimin waved his hand, his face calm.

"No need, it must be the Emperor Emeritus who is reprimanding me right now!"

Upon hearing this, Li Chengqian, who had just alighted from another carriage and was talking to Prince Lu, Li Yuanchang, couldn't help but glance sideways at his father, the Emperor.

"Hehe... I'm really curious, will Grandfather use a horsewhip or a ruler... tsk tsk tsk."

Li Chengqian's gloating expression made Li Yuanchang, standing to the side, tremble with fear, not even glancing at his elder brother, Emperor Taizong (Li Shimin).

"Your Highness, everything in the surrounding area has been settled!"

A figure approached, dressed in a military overcoat in the style of the post-apocalyptic era, with a Tang Yi military saber at his waist and a flintlock pistol on his back. Xue Rengui came to report.

Li Chengqian nodded, then suddenly thought of something.

"Now that we're approaching Jiangzhou, Rengui, would you like me to grant you a day off so you can go home and visit your family?"

Upon hearing this, Xue Rengui felt a warmth in his heart, touched that His Highness still remembered that his home was on this side. At the same time, his expression turned solemn, and he straightened his back and gave a military salute.

"Thank you for your concern, Your Highness. I have already visited home during my holiday this year. My mother and the others are all well. Tell them to focus on serving Your Highness and not to worry about home!"

Li Chengqian smiled and didn't say anything more.

Li Yuanchang, seeing the Crown Prince heading towards the post station, hurriedly followed.

His face showed worry.

"Your Highness, although the Tibetan king has sent a letter saying he is willing to capture slaves for our Great Tang, can the people they capture truly be of use? What if some of them have ulterior motives..."

"Hidden motives? Ha!" Li Chengqian sneered.

"They're just a bunch of slaves. I wouldn't even care if they died. Why would I worry about them having ulterior motives? If Songtsen Gampo really dares to do something, I wouldn't mind if he sent me tens or hundreds of thousands of people with ulterior motives!"

"I only think the Yellow River water conservancy project is too slow!"

Li Yuanchang immediately fell silent.

This Crown Prince, when he gets ruthless, truly doesn't value human life.

The Yellow River water conservancy project alone, in just a few sections within the Bingzhou region, such as the Datong section and the Yanmen County section, has already imprisoned a terrifying number of criminals and foreign slaves, reaching nearly a million.

In addition, there were also people from the surrounding Tang Dynasty who worked there.

In total, the entire Bingzhou Circuit mobilized more than 1.5 million people for the Yellow River water conservancy project.

This would have been unthinkable during the reign of Emperor Wude.

However, even so, the Crown Prince still felt it was too slow.

They also needed to capture slaves from neighboring countries to cultivate wasteland for the Tang Dynasty, grow grain, or raise horses.

Just as Li Chengqian and his party were traveling back to Chang'an by carriage.

Tibet.

It was so simple that it was just a large house that looked like a bare shell, with some gold or gemstones hanging on it as decorations, and a few precious animal hides laid on the throne.

This is the palace of Songtsen Gampo, the Tibetan king.

In this era before Princess Wencheng's arrival in Tibet, the Tubo Kingdom, which adhered to the Bon religion, was infinitely close to a backward tribal and slave society.

If it weren't for the natural barrier of the plateau, it wouldn't be possible to rely on it.

Not to mention the Tang Dynasty, whenever a dynasty emerged in the Central Plains, this region could not escape disaster.

"Your Majesty, our cavalry have returned from their reconnaissance. Just as marked on the map, after passing through that forest and crossing two mountains, we will see a river valley and be able to detour into the Kingdom of Niva."

"This route is much easier than the one we used to contact the Mud Kingdom..."

A Tibetan military officer reported excitedly.

Songtsen Gampo, however, stared into deep thought at the long sword in his hand that Gar Tongtsen and his entourage had brought back from the Tang Dynasty.

"Our relationship with the Kingdom of Nepal has finally stabilized, and our king has only recently married the princess of Nepal. The Supi and Yangtong tribes are still restless; we cannot afford to attack the people of Nepal at this time..."

Songtsen Gampo's eyes flickered, and he suddenly looked at Gar Tongtsen beside him.

He was one of the few officials under his command who had a great understanding of the Tang people and the Central Plains.

Now, after several missions to the Tang Dynasty, Gar Tongtsen is clearly showing signs of being given important responsibilities by Songtsen Gampo.

"Dongzan, do you think the slave trade, as proposed by the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty, is a sustainable long-term strategy? I still worry that this is just a delaying tactic..."

Gardonzan nodded, but then shook his head.

His face was solemn, and as he thought of Li Chengqian, a hint of fear flickered in his eyes.

“Your Majesty, your concerns are not unfounded. However, given the current strength of the Tang Dynasty... it could simply do nothing and watch us continue our internal strife, and everything would be fine.”

"The Tang Dynasty is very busy right now. They are doing something terrible; they want to change the course of the Maqu River, to make that terrifying river submit to them..."

"Compared to Tibet, that Tang prince needs slaves more. Unless the only value Tibet has to him is our people to serve as labor slaves, it's not worth it for the Tang to take action against us!"

That sounds hurtful.

At least the few military officers present who had not accompanied the troops to the Tang Dynasty all had a look of resentment in their eyes.

On the contrary, those Tibetan military officers who followed Galdontsen and witnessed the power of the Tang Dynasty and the prosperity of Taiyuan Prefecture seemed like they belonged to another world.

They all sat quietly to the side.

Hear the words.

Instantly, Songtsen Gampo's last lingering concerns vanished.

He suddenly plunged the Tang army's long sword in his hand into the ground.

The voice was fierce.

"In that case, there's no need for us to refuse this deal! Even if we don't do it, the Supi tribe and those Yangtong fellows will definitely do it if they find out!"

His gaze shifted, and he looked at Gardonzan.

"Garden Tsen, you take a group of men and stay behind. I, the king, will personally lead another group to the Harsha Dynasty! With me here, it will be easier for Nepal to pass through!"

Songtsen Gampo was a decisive and efficient person.

Because Li Chengqian provided very detailed intelligence about the Harsha Dynasty, the supplies their army needed to carry were also quite clear.

In just two days, a cavalry force of three thousand men, which was the most elite force that Songtsen Gampo could muster at the time, set off directly from southern Tibet under his leadership.

Following the map, we soon found the gently sloping river valley.

Songtsen Gampo touched the chainmail armor he was wearing from the Tang Dynasty, and his gaze involuntarily drifted towards the sky in the direction of the Tang Dynasty.

"Hmph! Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty, my Tibet cannot remain weak forever, nor can your Tang Dynasty remain strong forever!"

Luoyang.

At the ferry crossing, boats with considerable drafts, clearly loaded with a lot of cargo, were docking.

Li Tai, the Prince of Wei and concurrently the Governor of Luoyang, was waiting here early.

As a ship bearing the Chinese character "Han" (汉) docked, Li Ke, the Prince of Han, concurrently the Governor of Dengzhou and the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in the Goguryeo region, stepped ashore.

"Hahaha! Third Brother, you've gotten quite tanned in the past year. Those pretty young ladies in Chang'an must be heartbroken!"

Li Tai was overjoyed and went forward to greet him.

Even so, how could he be completely innocent now?

He spent his days tinkering with gunpowder and firearms, and also oversaw land reforms in the Yi-Luo Plain area of ​​Luoyang, as well as commercial tax reforms in Luoyang.

He also got a bit tanned.

However, both brothers were noticeably stronger at this moment.

Li Ke gave a wry smile: "I'd like to stay out of the sun, but the only time I can avoid it is when I'm dealing with paperwork. The rest of the time, I'm either watching the shipyard or overseeing naval training... Qingque, you have no idea how disgusting it is on those big ships after they set sail..."

Li Ke sighed deeply, looked up at the sky, and said that all he could say was that he was in tears.

However, upon hearing this, Li Tai's expression changed.

"Third brother, you're wrong about that. Do you think it's easy here? Those merchants and powerful figures in Jiangnan are all a bunch of scoundrels. As the governor here, I have to send out the musketeers at least two or three times a month!"

"Some went up the mountain to become bandits, some secretly wanted to impersonate bandits to rob merchant caravans, and some colluded with officials and merchants... They've killed so many that my brother's musketeer squad has become a battle-hardened elite force!"