Chapter 28: Once I told him it was the Empress Dowager's decree, he ceased all resistance.

Once he said it was the Empress Dowager’s decree, he stopped resisting.

The February weather in Bazhou was cold, damp, and gloomy. In that era, the region was considered a place of pestilence, and the yellow reeds and bitter bamboo growing around the courtyard added a sense of desolation to the small compound.

Cold rain drizzled down without any sign of stopping.

"Damn this rotten luck," Qiu Shenji spat a thick glob of phlegm as he stepped out of the room.

"General..." The eunuch behind him walked up and gestured toward his own throat with a questioning look.

"Rest easy, it was done cleanly." Qiu Shenji gave a cold snort. "Fortunately, it didn't take much effort; the commoner knew what was good for him."

"General, please watch your tongue," the eunuch reminded him.

"Watch my tongue? The man is dead; is he going to come back from the afterlife to seek my life?" Qiu Shenji wiped his nose. "Have the men haul the body out in a moment. Damn this cursed weather..."

A clap of thunder roared overhead, as if the heavens themselves were crying out against the injustice of Li Xian’s death.

"General."

His advisor approached at this moment, pulling him aside to whisper, "General, you are being foolish!"

"What folly is there? Is it not just compelling a commoner to commit suicide?" Qiu Shenji looked completely indifferent. In his eyes, the deposed Crown Prince was unwanted by his elders and kin alike; what did it matter if he was killed?

"Alas, General, have you forgotten the disaster that befell Cheng Ji?" the advisor warned again.

"Cheng Ji?" Qiu Shenji stroked his beard, reflecting. Naturally, he knew of Cheng Ji, who had assassinated the Emperor Cao Mao in the streets. He had been mercilessly abandoned by Sima Zhao, used as a scapegoat, and suffered the execution of his entire clan. It was a miserable end.

"Sir, you are overthinking it. Cao Mao was a sovereign, and Sima Zhao was a subject; naturally, there were concerns," Qiu Shenji thought for a moment before saying dismissively, "But Li Xian is merely a commoner, and the Empress Dowager is his mother. When a mother commands a son to die, how could the son refuse?"

His reasoning was not entirely wrong; Empress Wu did indeed shift the blame onto him afterward, but she did not take his life. She merely raised the rod high and let it fall gently, demoting him to Prefect of Diezhou. Years later, he was promoted to Grand General of the Qingping Road, and finally returned to the capital to serve as the Grand General of the Left Jinwu Guard.

As his voice faded, another thunderclap exploded.

"Qiu Shenji! You have a dog's courage indeed!"

A voice, at once familiar and strange, rang out. Qiu Shenji turned, cursing, "Who the hell is looking to die?"

Immediately, he locked eyes with a face he would never forget for the rest of his life.

"Yo... Your Majesty?" Qiu Shenji’s face turned deathly pale in an instant. He subconsciously assumed that the spirit of Li Zhi had manifested to hold him accountable for forcing Li Xian to his death.

The eunuch beside him had already fainted from fright.

The advisor, however, was bolder; he turned and ran outside to summon the troops.

"This has nothing to do with me! It was the Empress Dowager—yes, it was her will! How could I, a subject, dare to disobey?" Qiu Shenji felt his legs trembling uncontrollably.

The ancients were deeply superstitious, and compounded by the shadow of imperial authority represented by Li Zhi, Qiu Shenji felt as though his soul had left his body. Gone was his earlier arrogance.

"Qiu Shenji? Hah... Qiu Xinggong sired a fine son, indeed..."

Qiu Shenji looked up, shivering. The man before him possessed the majestic bearing of a dragon and the grace of a phoenix, his divine eyes sweeping over him with disdain.

He could not help but recall a childhood memory—he had been very young then, and had seen him once while with his father...

"Em... Emperor Taizong..."

Subconsciously, he collapsed with a thud onto the muddy ground.

The advisor had by now led soldiers to surround the area. Upon hearing Qiu Shenji’s words, a chorus of clattering sounds erupted as weapons dropped to the ground.

In an instant, all the surrounding soldiers fell to their knees, their legs shaking as they waited for judgment, completely unable to muster any desire to resist.

This was Li Shimin.

A name carries weight; a tree casts a shadow. Even in the era of the Huang Chao rebellion, the legacy of Li Shimin’s "Grand Music of the Prince of Qin Breaking the Ranks" had protected the crumbling late Tang. How much more so in this era, when he had not been dead for many years and his name was still celebrated throughout the Great Tang?

"Where is Li Xian?" Li Shimin asked.

"In... in the room. He is already dead..." Qiu Shenji stammered, not daring to harbor any thought of defiance.

"Xian'er..." Li Zhi let out a sob, stumbling as he ran into the room.

"How did you force him to die?" Li Shimin asked coldly.

"This... this was all the Empress Dowager’s will. It has nothing to do with me, nothing to do with me..." Qiu Shenji continued to plead.

Li Shimin’s voice grew colder, his tone sharp: "I asked you how you forced him to die!"

At this moment, the majesty of the Tang Emperor was fully displayed.

Qiu Shenji shuddered. Under the dragon’s might of Li Shimin, he dared not conceal anything and spilled the truth tremblingly: "At first, I went to persuade him to end his life with dignity. He refused, so I tried to help him find that dignity..."

"He was very strong, and I couldn't hold him down, so I said it was the Empress Dowager’s decree..." Qiu Shenji swallowed hard. "He had been struggling fiercely, but after I said it was the Empress Dowager’s decree, he stopped resisting."

"Vicious woman! Vicious woman!" Li Shimin’s eyes were bloodshot with rage. "Even a tiger does not devour its own cubs! How could her heart be so malicious!"

Li Zhi could not bear to imagine the despair Li Xian must have felt before he died—that the mother who bore and raised him would take his life for the sake of her own lust for power.

"What is that in your hand?" He noticed the object Qiu Shenji was clutching.

Qiu Shenji dared not hide it and immediately offered it with both hands: "It is... it is the... the handwritten note of the former Crown Prince..."

Li Shimin took the manuscript. The ink was clearly blurred by moisture, yet it remained legible.

"Planting melons under the yellow terrace, the melons ripen and the vines wither. One picking makes the melons sweet, the second picking makes them sparse. A third picking is still tolerable, but after the final picking, one returns with the empty vines..."

"A third picking is still tolerable, but after the final picking, one returns with the empty vines..."

Li Shimin muttered the last line repeatedly. At this moment, he felt an immense empathy for the pitiable Li Xian.

He thought back to how his own father, Emperor Gaozu, had treated him—when there was trouble, he was the Prince of Qin; when things were peaceful, he was merely the second son. In the end, his father even used celestial omens to coerce him. Had he not fought for his life at the Xuanwu Gate that day, he and this poor Li Xian would surely have met the same fate...

"Guards!" Li Shimin pointed his finger angrily at the kneeling Qiu Shenji, roaring with murderous intent: "Take this scoundrel for me!"

Only after he shouted did he remember that this was the first year of the Chong-sheng era, not his eleventh year of Zhenguan.

Yet, the moment he gave the order, the soldiers under Qiu Shenji immediately rose to their feet and pinned Qiu Shenji face-down into the mud.

All the soldiers looked with fanaticism at the fluttering robes of Emperor Taizong. That Heavenly Strategist, who had braved wind and rain to establish the foundations of the Tang, was their conviction and the soul of the Tang military.

In the Tang army, you might not know Li Jing, you might not know Qin Qiong, and you might not know Cheng Zhijie, but it was impossible not to know the Heavenly Strategist who commanded these heroes—the Great Tang Emperor Taizong, Li Shimin!

Li Shimin scanned the crowd and asked in a deep voice: "The demonic Empress is lawless and has brought chaos to the court. Are you all willing to follow me and seek justice for Crown Prince Li Xian?"

The response was a roar like a crashing sea.

"We obey!"