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

"Your Majesty, the Tang Dynasty has sent far too many people this time. We have already investigated, and the cavalry alone number as many as five thousand, all of them well-equipped elite cavalry... Given the temperament of that Prince Liang, I'm afraid he will soon take action against us."

"Hmph! Take action? Don't they have any shame? No matter what, Silla has been paying tribute to the Tang Dynasty every year..."

"Lord Huang, the Tang Dynasty has only been established for ten years. It is true that we, Silla, have paid tribute to them, but it is only a handful of times, and the things we send are obviously things that they don't even want."

"Bang! Park Ji-sun! What exactly do you mean? Are you trying to force us to hand over military power?! Would Silla still be Silla then?!"

"General Xin, you're misinterpreting me. Of course, I hope we can retain military power, but the Tang Dynasty is currently very powerful, if..."

"There are no ifs! If that Prince Liang really wants to break off relations, then I refuse to believe that we can't defeat those damned Tang people on our own land!"

"Enough! You're not allowed to say things like that again!"

Silla Royal Palace.

Like Goguryeo, the main hall retains some architectural styles from the Sui Dynasty.

The heated argument seemed to threaten to rip the roof off the entire hall.

The two sides at the scene were basically divided into three camps: civil officials, military officials, and a middle ground like Minister Eulji and Queen Kim Deoksun.

The Tang Dynasty's plan to strip Silla of its military power would undoubtedly target Silla's generals.

These people are deeply entrenched and are a group composed of local strongmen in Silla.

How could anyone be so willing to give up everything they have?

As for the civil officials who usually dislike these people, their interests will certainly suffer as well when the Tang people come, but... it's still better than these brutes actually fighting the Tang Dynasty.

At least they still have the opportunity to maintain their current wealth...

Kim Deok-sun's eyebrows furrowed deeply, and the "川" (river) character between her brows deepened with the arrival of the Tang Dynasty's subsequent fleet and army.

"Yiji, do you have any ideas?"

Minister Yi sighed, his aged face filled with helplessness and frustration.

Suddenly, a voice rang out in the hall, silencing everyone's discussion.

"The Tang Dynasty covets us, Baekje covets us, and Goguryeo covets us as well. The latter two also have a grudge against the Tang Dynasty, so why can't we unite with them to fight against the Tang Dynasty together?"

A man with a thick beard, slightly short but strong, suddenly spoke.

Kim Deok-sun's expression froze.

This person is none other than one of the pillars of the Silla army.

Unlike the current Silla general Kim Yu-shin, who supports Queen Kim Deok-sun and has certain ties with the Silla royal family.

The general in front of them, Echonlang, was not exactly a respectful fellow to Kim Deoksun.

Moreover, he held absolute power in Hwarang Province of Silla.

Yi Ji's eyes widened.

"What nonsense is this?! Do you really think that King Baekje and that old codger Yeon Taejo are easy to deal with?! Forget about any alliance; if they find out that we are at odds with the Tang army, they will definitely launch an even more ferocious attack on us first!"

"What an incredibly stupid person to think that is!"

Echuan Lang's face immediately darkened.

Suddenly stood up.

"Hmph! You dare not fight, and you cannot retreat. Since you want to waste your time arguing here, then continue. This general has no mood to entertain you!"

As he spoke, disregarding the unpleasant expressions of those around him, he led two of his attendants out of the Silla palace.

The Silla royal palace could not compare to the Tang Dynasty's Chang'an imperial palace, which exuded the majesty of a great nation, or the Yangcheng Palace in Taiyuan.

Even the palace of Goguryeo looked more grand than that of Silla.

Echuan Lang was accompanied by two attendants.

His face was full of impatience.

Two attendants also muttered complaints in low voices: "General, these people in the capital are far too cowardly. When the King of Baekje attacked, they were afraid; when Goguryeo attacked, they were still afraid..."

"Hmph! Even so, our general led the army to resist Baekje's attack, but not only did he not receive any reward, he was also the subject of all sorts of gossip. If you ask me... it would have been better to agree to the Baekje king's conditions!"

Echuan Lang's fierce eyes suddenly flashed.

Suddenly, a large hand slapped the other person hard across the face with a loud "smack".

Within the low palace walls, Echuan Lang let out an angry snort.

"Is this something you can comment on? If the King of Baekje wanted me to be his dog, would he just throw me a few bones and expect me to happily fawn over him?!"

Still not satisfied, he suddenly raised his foot and kicked the fallen attendant hard again.

He beat the other person until their face was covered in blood and they begged for mercy repeatedly.

Only then did they finally stop.

"Hmph! From now on, whether it's the King of Baekje, or Yeon Taejo of Goguryeo, or even the Tang Dynasty, if they want to win over this general, they'll have to see if this general will give them the face they deserve!"

Echuan Lang snorted angrily.

Just as the attendants helped their companion up from the ground, and the group prepared to walk towards the palace gates,

Suddenly, a burst of light appeared in the darkness, rising from all directions around the palace.

In the firelight, the pupils of the group suddenly contracted.

Immediately afterwards, a chaotic cacophony of shouts filled the Silla royal palace.

"It's on fire! Put it out!"

"There's a fire here too! Quick, water! Find water!"

"Ahhh! Help us, help us..."

Echuan Lang felt a jolt and instinctively wanted to rush towards the fire. However, after taking only two steps, the sight of flames all around him made his face turn horrified.

There's still a possibility of a fire breaking out in one area.

But so many places suddenly caught fire...

"Oh no! Someone is setting fire to the palace!"

With a loud shout, Echuan Lang hurriedly called to his two attendants and turned to run back into the main hall they had just come out of.

However, shouts of killing came from the palace gate behind them.

This made his face turn completely gloomy.

Palace coup!

Almost instinctively, he immediately attributed the fire at the Silla palace and the attack outside to the Liang King of the Tang Dynasty.

however.

When Queen Kim Deok-sun, who had also heard the commotion, came out of the palace with a group of ministers and generals.

The Silla royal palace guards surrounding the main hall also became alert.

"Boom!"

A large banner suddenly burst in from the direction of this palace gate.

"I will serve the new ruler and will not be granted military power!"

"Charge! Kill the cowardly traitor Kim Deok-sun! Silla needs a new king like General Alcheon-rang!"

"For Silla!"

Ekcheon Lang's face instantly turned extremely ugly. He turned his head and was met with Kim Deok-sun and the others, who were equally horrified and furious.

"It wasn't me! None of them are my people! He..."

He had only spoken halfway when he saw the leader of the guards rushing towards the palace guards, and the words he was about to say suddenly stopped.

He roared in despair, looking as if he had seen a ghost.

"Damn it! Li Suqiang, you bastard, what are you doing?! Didn't I tell you to stay and guard the camp outside the city? Why are you here?!"

The deputy general, named Li Suqiang, had his face covered in blood from a killing spree.

He was breathing heavily, but his face was full of excitement.

"General! We've heard that those cowardly traitors of the Kim family want to accept the Tang Dynasty's demands and hand over their military power. They must have coerced you, right? If we kill them and make you king, Silla will surely be able to..."

"Damn it! Shut the hell up, you little brat! Are you out of your mind?!"

Echuan Lang was furious as he looked at the more than one hundred people who had rushed in front of him.

He was then taken aback to discover that the military uniforms these people were wearing belonged to Hwarangdo, which was under his jurisdiction.

An invisible chill suddenly spread around him.

Behind.

Minister Yiji's cold voice rang out.

"Queen's Guard! Suppress the rebels!"

"Wait! Wait! Something's not right!" Echuan Lang tried to say something.

however.

How could these rebels, who were clearly bloodthirsty, maintain restraint in the face of their mission objective?

Another fierce battle unfolded in the open space within the main hall.

at the same time.

On the simple official road connecting Dongbaicheng of the Tang Dynasty to Busan in Silla, a caravan of carriages, seemingly transporting urgent supplies, passed through a mountain forest.

Suddenly, hundreds of figures rushed out from within.

"kill!"

......

The next day.

The city gates of Dongbai, which had just fallen silent, suddenly opened wide.

Thousands of iron cavalry charged out with an earth-shaking force, heading straight for the Silla capital.

The actions of the Embroidered Uniform Guard were undeniably professional.

Not long after the palace coup was quelled and the general Echuan Lang was imprisoned,

Even the Silla high command couldn't find any trace or evidence of the Embroidered Uniform Guard's activities within the Silla army.

The Tang Dynasty's iron cavalry was already at the city gates.

Inside the palace, Di Rengui wore an angry expression.

Despite being younger than some of the children of Silla kings and ministers present, the aura emanating from him was so powerful that none of them dared to underestimate him in the slightest.

"Our Great Tang Dynasty came with good intentions to help your Silla Kingdom stabilize its dynasty and resist invasion. We have only been in Silla for less than five days, and our supply train has already been ambushed like this!"

"What's even more hateful is that the murderer who killed our people was a general from your Silla Kingdom!"

"Your Majesty, today you must give my Great Tang an explanation! Otherwise... the iron cavalry outside the city can storm into the city today!"

The atmosphere inside the main hall was solemn.

The civil officials all looked worried, but remained silent, none daring to speak at this moment.

On the other hand, the Silla military...

General Kim Yu-shin strode to the entrance of the palace, before the corpses covered with white cloth.

The bodies were uncovered one by one.

With just one glance, his eyes sharpened instantly, and the aura of a general who had walked through mountains of corpses and seas of blood was unleashed as he stared intently at Di Rengui, who was only a fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy at the time.

"As far as I know, your country's soldiers must all be incredibly strong, right?"

He pointed at the emaciated corpses on the ground and snorted coldly.

"If you're going to frame us, you should at least be more thorough. These people are clearly not from the Tang Dynasty; they look more like Japanese!"

Di Rengui, however, remained expressionless.

Even if the argument is flawed, the spirit remains strong.

"These people were originally from my Great Tang Dynasty. Hearing of the hardships you Silla suffered, they were filled with compassion and volunteered to come with my Great Tang army. They are my Great Tang's supply train!"

He didn't even glance at Kim Yu-shin, his eyes fixed on Kim Deok-man, who was sitting on the throne.

He bowed rather impolitely.

"Your Majesty, our Prince Liang has a message: if you cannot give our Great Tang a reasonable explanation today, then we can only assume that you have been kidnapped and held hostage by these generals within our country... In order to ensure the peaceful life of the people of Silla."

"Our Great Tang Dynasty will have no choice but to forcibly take over the defense of Silla!"