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

It was April of the eighth year of the Zhenguan era.

Li Xiyu, the former Prefect of Shuzhou and Duke of Fangcheng, secretly trafficked in opium, poisoned the people, and abused his power over the military, causing chaos and unrest in the region. His crimes were discovered by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and he conspired with Zhang Zhenzhou of Hongzhou in Jiangnan Circuit to rebel. He was captured alive on the outskirts of Shouzhou.

The Crown Prince decreed that the Embroidered Uniform Guard should select the most severe punishments of antiquity to guard and imprison heinous criminals, and that they should not be allowed to die lightly.

All the men, women, and relatives of the Duke of Fangcheng were imprisoned.

The news reached all the officials in Huainan and Jiangnan provinces near Shouzhou who had committed offenses.

however.

What terrified them even more was the ruthless methods employed by Crown Prince Li Chengqian in Shouzhou City.

Those who were addicted to opium and suffered from its poison, including more than 3,000 ordinary people, were all beheaded in public by him without any room for negotiation.

In an instant, the officials and merchants in Shuzhou City, who had been leaderless since Li Xiyu's arrest and were still considering whether to surrender, no longer dared to have such thoughts.

Surrendering means certain death!

How can they surrender?

Many officials, who had been controlled by drug addiction but regained some of their rationality upon receiving the news, burst into tears.

"With the current strength of Shuzhou City, let alone rebelling, even self-preservation is as difficult as climbing to heaven... Ahhhhh!" The garrison commander of Shuzhou City went crazy. The opium pipe that Li Xiyu had once given him had long been cut in two by him with a single stroke.

Back then, that bastard Li Xiyu claimed that this thing could prolong life and even bring the joy of ascending to immortality.

He saw that the other person was using it, so he didn't think much of it and just touched it.

He never expected this thing to be such a mind-controlling poison. What was even more unacceptable to him was that the Crown Prince said that anyone caught touching this thing could have their family members participate in the imperial examinations for five generations.

The captain sat in the courtyard of his own mansion, looking at the shadows of his wife and children in the candlelight in a room on one side of the courtyard. Suddenly, a fierce glint flashed in his eyes, as if he had made a decision.

He gripped his sword.

"I may die, but I will not die bearing the guilt of causing chaos in the country; I may suffer the consequences of my crimes, but I will not let the calamity of my descendants be extended to them!"

He stood up, his face filled with a chilling aura, and walked out of the mansion.

On that day, the garrison of Shuzhou City mutinied, storming into various mansions and the homes of wealthy merchants involved in the opium trade, killing them all.

Then the leading captain removed his armor, left the city, knelt before the official road leading from Shouzhou to Shuzhou, and committed suicide on the spot.

When Li Chengqian arrived with his troops, the captain had been dead for more than two days.

In front of him were boxes of opium seized from within the city.

They were all neatly stacked.

"Your Highness, Commandant Chu said that he was a military officer who was granted an official position by Your Highness in Chang'an. Now he has fallen to this state and has no face to face Your Highness. He left behind a suicide note."

A centurion from the city guard stepped forward and presented a letter written in blood.

Li Chengqian unfolds.

There is only one line of text.

"This humble general has failed Your Highness's grace and dares not implicate Your Highness in punishment. In the next life, I will serve Your Highness once more."

Li Chengqian looked at the kneeling figure, shirtless, carrying thorns on his back, with a steel knife stuck in the ground in front of him—clearly a captain who had taken the initiative to raise funds.

"A lavish funeral is given. Commander Chu has repented and his wrongdoings have been balanced; his crimes will not be committed by his descendants..."

On the very day Li Chengqian entered Shuzhou, Liang King Li Yin, who had led the Silla-Tang allied forces and landed in Yangzhou, Huainan Road, and successively captured Hezhou and Luzhou, finally arrived in Shuzhou with his troops.

They met up with Li Chengqian.

"Brother! Brother! Yangzhou, Hezhou, and Luzhou have all been cleaned up. I spared not a single person who had been exposed to that stuff. They were all verified and executed!"

Upon meeting, Li Yin laughed heartily, as if seeking credit.

He hadn't seen his elder brother Li Chengqian for a long time, so despite the widespread devastation in Huainan, he was able to smile.

Li Chengqian nodded: "Well done!"

"I have already ordered the Seventh Prince to lead his personal guards to clear out the remaining prefectures and counties in Huainan Circuit. Next, we can head south and attack Hongzhou..."

As Li Chengqian spoke, Li Yin noticed the wistful look on his elder brother's face.

He couldn't help but comfort him: "Your Majesty, this kind of thing is all the fault of those people in the court. The censors aren't doing their jobs, the inspectors aren't doing their jobs, and officials are protecting each other..."

Li Tai tugged at his younger brother.

Now that my brother is in a bloodthirsty state, if you say this, he might order the execution of Fang Xiang and the others.

Li Tai coughed twice: "Your Majesty, this is actually a good thing. The reason why the collusion between officials and merchants in Jiangnan and Huainan is so serious is that the clan ties between the two regions are closer. When one person becomes an official, even the dogs of the clan can eat the imperial food."

Li Chengqian nodded, standing on the city wall, looking at the peaceful streets of Shuzhou City.

The ordinary people coming and going did not seem to be greatly affected by the killing of the city's officials.

Clan... It seems we'll have to get the Embroidered Uniform Guard to collect and record all the family genealogies in Jiangnan.

.......

Chen Congyun stared in disbelief at the message sent from Shuzhou by carrier pigeon in his hand.

He had never taken Li Tang and his son seriously, but at this moment, the hand holding the letter suddenly began to tremble uncontrollably.

"Killed them? They killed them all?!"

"How dare he? Doesn't he care about his reputation? He..."

The letter contained very little, but the few hastily written words startled Chen Congyun so much that he could barely sit still.

"Crown Prince Li Chengqian ordered that all those in Shouzhou who had been exposed to the drug, regardless of their rank or wealth, or whether they were commoners, be beheaded more than three thousand times."

"Shuzhou Commandant Chu Feng defected and massacred merchants and officials involved in the opium trade in the city. He killed everyone, from top to bottom, and then committed suicide."

"When the Crown Prince arrived in Shuzhou, he ordered the city guards, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and the six imperial guards to conduct a city-wide search. More than 700 civilians who had been exposed to the drug were all beheaded..."

Chen Congyun: "..."

He had originally thought that by using the coercion of those poisonous creatures, he could incite ordinary people and soldiers under his control to fight against Li Tang and his son. Considering their status and reputation, the other side would surely not launch a full-scale attack.

This would buy him time to wait for other places to respond and start uprisings.

However......

"My lord, my lord, something terrible has happened! Something terrible has happened..."

"President Chen!"

Outside, a chaotic commotion followed. Like Chen Congyun, the merchants and officials who had received the news all gathered at the Chen residence with expressions of fear.

"My lord, that Li Chengqian is truly inhuman. He killed thousands of civilians without a second thought. If our preparations were to encounter that scoundrel, wouldn't we be like lambs to the slaughter?"