Chapter 50: Save the Great Tang, Your Majesty Taizong!

Hearing Sixth Brother Wei’s words, Li Shimin was at a loss for how to respond.

The person in question was standing right here, yet someone was discussing with him whether his coffin lid could still be kept firmly shut.

In fact, all the subjects of the Great Tang nowadays shared this exact sentiment, every single one of them hoping that Emperor Taizong would return like a flash of lightning.

"Now that Empress Wu has returned power to the Emperor, life should be much easier, shouldn't it?" Li Zhi attempted to change the subject.

He couldn't keep dwelling on himself and Empress Wu; if this conversation continued, his Imperial Father might end up giving him another severe thrashing.

He had already noticed that the look his Imperial Father was giving him was rather strange. Whether it was just his imagination or not, he always felt as though a red glare was radiating from his Imperial Father’s eyes.

Therefore, he had to divert his Imperial Father's attention and redirect the disaster elsewhere.

Li Zhi's calculations were crystal clear. Better a dead fellow Daoist than a living friend; if he managed to infuriate his Imperial Father later, the one getting beaten would be Li Xian, not him.

Thinking about physical beatings, Li Zhi couldn't help feeling a bit restless himself. Having constantly suffered beatings from his Imperial Father, it was only fair that it was his turn to beat others. Among all the later emperors of the Great Tang, he, Li Zhi, was also an ancestral figure. If Taizong could beat people, why couldn't he, Gaozong, do the same?

However, he overlooked one thing: Li Xian had indeed committed quite a few unfilial acts worthy of a thorough thrashing. But that raised a question—whose son was Li Xian?

And since Li Xian wasn't around right now, whom would Li Shimin take his anger out on after hearing about those deeds? It was hard to say.

Sixth Brother Wei sneered at Li Zhi's remark: "Easier? Let me tell you, while those days of constant anxiety and fright are gone, life is actually getting harder and harder."

"Ever since we lost our land, the other brothers and I have had to till the fields for the influential Cui clan who seized it. After a whole year of backbreaking labor, what we get is only a three-seven split, and on top of that, we still have to deal with the government's grain and labor taxes. What's left in our hands is barely enough to keep ourselves alive."

"How can it be only seven-tenths for them?" Li Shimin asked, frowning. "Is snatching away land not enough, and yet they still want to sit back and reap the profits without doing any work?"

"That seven-tenths belongs to them!" Sixth Brother Wei laughed bitterly. "Could it be that you gentlemen are nobles traveling in disguise? How can you be unaware of such matters?"

"If you ask me, this realm may look prosperous on the surface, but in reality, it is bought with the lives of us ordinary folks!"

"Outrageous! Simply preposterous!" Li Shimin's expression changed drastically. "What poetry and books passed down through generations—have all those teachings been swallowed by dogs?!"

For a long time, Li Shimin had held no affection for the aristocratic clans. In his view, the mindset of these great families was that "there are thousand-year clans, but no thousand-year dynasties." Changing the dynasty merely meant replacing the group of people sitting on the throne; as long as it didn't interfere with their continued glory and wealth, they wouldn't care even if the Turks ruled the empire.

Indeed, his assessment was spot on. The head of the gentry, the Duke Yansheng, had surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty when they came, and to the Qing Dynasty when they arrived. If not for the resourceful transportation commander moving them to Chongqing, who knew how utterly humiliating their display would have been.

"The so-called gentry families are nothing more than parasites sucking the blood of the impoverished masses," Li Qing said with disdain. "Does Brother Li truly believe that while they chant benevolence and righteousness on their lips, they actually hold those four words in their hearts? In truth, if you slice open their bellies, you will find they are filled with nothing but whoring and banditry!"

"The so-called benevolence and righteousness are, in reality, a form of cannibalism... Right now, they are consuming impoverished folk like Brother Wei here. When chaotic times arrive, what they will consume is the entire nation."

Li Shimin was startled. Under Li Qing's vivid description, he seemed to foresee peasants, driven past their limits by layer upon layer of exploitation, rising up in a massive rebellion and turning his Great Tang dynasty completely upside down.

Li Qing was not sounding false alarms; the cyclical rise and fall of dynasties occurred precisely because these greedy aristocratic clans latched onto the people and the nation, sucking the marrow from their bones.

"The young master's words hit the nail right on the head. He must be a well-read scholar," Sixth Brother Wei praised involuntarily. "With just a few brief sentences, he has expressed everything I wanted to say."

"This sworn brother of mine possesses boundless erudition," Li Shimin boasted with a sense of reflected glory. Yet inwardly, he muttered to himself: *My sworn brother is an immortal after all. How could the abilities of an immortal be something you can imagine?*

Unfortunately, he was wrong about this too; what Li Qing had spoken was simply a summary derived by others down the generations.

The group sat there and chatted casually for a moment longer, just as Li Shimin was about to inquire about the state of the imperial court when a furious outcry erupted nearby.

"Those damned members of the Wu clan! Daring to bully even orphans and widows! Are they even human?!"

"What is going on?"

Li Shimin, whose heart was always tied to the common people, missed the mention of the Wu clan and only caught the words "bullying orphans and widows," prompting him to ask with deep concern.

The man stomped his foot in bitter resentment: "Ah, three years ago, the eldest son of the Qian family went on the military expedition against Tibet and died in battle. His wife had been married for only a few years before she was left a widow, raising the posthumous child left behind by Qian's eldest son all by herself."

"As for those orphans and widows, with the relief provided by relatives, their days were just barely manageable. But it was hateful that Wu Chonglie took a fancy to her looks and attempted to force himself upon her. When he was driven away, he held a grudge, sent his vicious servants to beat her entire family to death, and tried to coerce her by threatening the child's life. That woman was staunchly unyielding to the very end and furiously dashed her head against a wall to commit suicide..."

"Beasts! Damn beasts!" The man hammered his fist against the table, producing a heavy thud. "Utterly devoid of conscience! Pity that child, not even three years old, was thrown into the river by Wu Chonglie and drowned alive! Pitiful! How pitiful!"

"What?!" Li Shimin stood up, blazing with fury. "Such atrocious evil exists? Who is this Wu Chonglie? Do the authorities simply turn a blind eye and do nothing?!"

"Old brother, you don't even know who Wu Chonglie is?" Sixth Brother Wei looked at Li Shimin as if he were an alien from another planet. "Wu Chonglie is the grandnephew of Empress Wu and the son of Wu Sansi. His elder brother Wu Chongxun is none other than the husband of Her Royal Highness the Princess Anle. Their power and influence shake the court. The authorities? Ha! Would the authorities ever dare to discipline him?"

Indeed, this was a classic case of *who stands before the court dares to accuse the magistrate*.

"Could it be that there is no longer any imperial law in this realm?" Li Shimin raged. "Is there no justice left? Are there no laws anymore?!"

"As the kinsmen of Empress Wu, they *are* the law." Li Qing patted Li Shimin, gesturing for him to sit down and not get overly excited.

Li Shimin slammed his fist hard onto the table. This Li Xian was truly the most incompetent ruler under heaven, an utterly disgraceful sovereign without parallel in past or present!

Nearby, a middle-aged man wearing a scholar's robe said bitterly, "Talk is cheap, what use are the authorities? Those members of the Wu clan rely on their towering influence to run amok and commit every imaginable evil. How could mere local officials ever manage to restrain them?"

"Mark my words, if this continues any longer, this Great Tang is completely finished!"

At this point, the scholar actually turned toward the direction of the Zhaoling Mausoleum, knelt on the ground, and cried out in heart-wrenching agony.
"Emperor Taizong! If you have a spirit in heaven, please look down upon us! Save this Great Tang!"

This single prostration set off a chain reaction; the people all around followed suit, kneeling and crying out in unison along with the scholar. Even Sixth Brother Wei was no exception, joining the crowd to kowtow toward the direction of the Zhaoling Mausoleum.

"Emperor Taizong! If you have a spirit in heaven, please look down upon us! Save our Great Tang!"