The righteous path punishes Heaven

Chapter 108 The An Lushan Rebellion 2

Li Lin was the second son of Li Longji. Logically, after the deaths of his father, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, and his elder brother, Crown Prince Li Heng, he should have inherited the throne.

However, the information brought to Li Lin by his spies in the palace was that Princess Yuzhen, Li Xuanxuan, had seized the Emperor's Banner. Although she did not ascend the throne, she had effectively seized the power of the emperor.

Now that the capital has been captured by An Lushan, it is an excellent opportunity. If Li Lin were to fight against the rebels now and make an unparalleled contribution, then he, as a prince with direct blood of Li Longji, would be the rightful heir to the throne.

At this moment, inside the Yongwang Mansion, Li Lin was sitting upright in the main seat of the hall, waiting for someone to arrive.

Before long, the gates opened, and two soldiers led an old man into the mansion. Li Lin smiled slightly, and upon closer inspection, recognized the man as Zhang Yunling.

He rose and stepped forward, greeting him with a smile: "It is a great honor for me to have you grace us with your presence, sir."

Zhang Yunling nodded, and instead of bowing respectfully as other court officials would when meeting a prince, he naturally walked to the table, pulled out a chair, and sat down, smiling slightly. "The world is in chaos now, what brings Your Highness Prince Yong to me?"

Li Lin was not angry at his rudeness, but rather found it amusing. He said in a deep voice, "Sir, your literary talent is already famous throughout the land, and you can look down on the court officials. I invited you here today to seek your guidance on how to save the crumbling edifice in this chaotic world."

Zhang Yunling naturally knew what Li Lin meant. He could still recall the scene of Li Xuanxuan snatching the Emperor's Banner from Li Longji.

The throne of the Emperor has now been occupied by a woman. It is only natural that Li Lin, as the rightful heir, would be dissatisfied. However, this war has already developed to a certain scale. If he wants to intervene at this time, he will face all kinds of risks and emergencies.

Li Lin returned to the main seat and was about to ask about the next steps when Zhang Yunling interrupted him:

"By the way, I have a few friends who came with me. If Prince Yong doesn't mind, they can also lend you a hand."

Zhang Yunling pointed to the outside of the palace gate, where Dong Wan and her two protectors were walking towards them.

“Since you are friends of the master, you must all be outstanding individuals. Please come in and have a seat.” Li Lin gestured for Dong Wan and the others to take their seats, and the discussion officially began.

......

"Stop! You bunch of bastards! You're not qualified..."

Before Yang Guozhong could finish speaking, his head was chopped off by a soldier.

Because he was a cultivator, Li Xuanxuan feared that he might use his cultivation to escape out of fear of death, so she specially arranged for someone to use a specially made handcuff to suppress his cultivation.

These handcuffs are made from a treasure called Kunlun Black Iron. If one's cultivation level is below that of an immortal, all of their cultivation will be suppressed by this object.

However, Kunlun Black Iron is extremely rare, and if you want to achieve the effect of suppressing any cultivation level below the Immortal, you would need to use at least several hundred kilograms of pure Kunlun Black Iron.

The black iron handcuffs used to suppress Yang Guozhong this time only contained less than half a pound of Kunlun black iron, but it was still enough to suppress a Golden Core cultivator like him.

As for Yang Yuhuan, she said little. As a mere mortal, she was naturally powerless to resist, and her head had already been cut off.

After Li Xuanxuan inspected and confirmed that there were no problems with the two heads of the Yang siblings, the soldiers packed them into a wooden box and sent them to Guo Ziyi, who then handed them over to the An Lushan coalition.

Half an hour later, another report came from the palace:

"Report! — An Lushan says Yang Guozhong's head is fake! He demands to personally search the palace to see if Yang Guozhong is alive!"

"Bang!" Li Xuanxuan slammed his fist on the armrest of the dragon throne, smashing the entire armrest to pieces.

Anyone who hears this doesn't understand: An Lushan clearly had no intention of retreating; he just wanted to find a legitimate reason to storm the palace!

"This is outrageous! Let's go! Take me to Guo Ziyi! The rest of you, go back to what you were doing!"

Li Xuanxuan's neck turned red with anger. She leaped off the dragon throne and landed beside the soldier. The messenger was trembling with fear, but he quickly recovered and led Li Xuanxuan out of the palace.

The ministers dared not utter a sound until Li Xuanxuan's figure had completely disappeared from sight, at which point they breathed a sigh of relief and their tense nerves relaxed slightly.

“What to do... I’m already in my seventies or eighties, and I was just about to retire and return to my hometown, but I have to suffer this hardship before I leave…” complained an old official of the third rank.

“Who says otherwise? I never expected that His Majesty was a cultivator, and that Yang Guozhong and the others were also cultivators. It’s terrifying…” another minister chimed in.

At the front lines of Chang'an, Guo Ziyi was discussing with Gao Lishi how to launch an attack when Li Xuanxuan arrived.

Even a seasoned general like Guo Ziyi would bow to Princess Li Xuanxuan upon her arrival, let alone now that this woman truly wields great power.

"General Guo, how is the situation at the front?" Li Xuanxuan asked with a gloomy face.

"The current situation is somewhat unfavorable to us, but it will soon be able to turn around. I was just discussing with General Gao how to launch a surprise attack on the enemy's logistics supply route behind the city."

At this point, Gao Lishi chimed in, "General, do not worry, just look at this picture."

On the table was a map showing the power of the Tang army and the An Lushan allied forces. According to news from all over the kingdom, An Lushan had already captured half of the kingdom, and now most of Chang'an was also occupied. With his army at the gates, the situation was extremely critical.

Even so, the Tang army still had the strength to fight back, because they still had the Emperor's Banner.

It is because of the existence of this banner that other cultivators on the continent dare not harm ordinary people, and since ancient times there has been a rule that indiscriminate killing of mortals will be punished by heaven.

Even if these cultivators defy the heavens, they wouldn't dare gamble on whether they would suffer divine punishment for something that offers no benefit.

But An Lushan was also well aware of this. The reason she was able to launch a rebellion with overwhelming force was that she had infiltrated the court more than a decade in advance and seduced Emperor Li Longji into becoming obsessed with alchemy, so that he had no interest in having children.

He also plotted to assassinate Crown Prince Li Heng, creating the illusion that the prince had died young.

Ultimately, Li Longji died from poisoning caused by long-term consumption of elixirs refined by An Lushan. The Human Emperor Banner then lost the Human Emperor's control and was transformed from a peerless immortal artifact into an ordinary magic weapon with mediocre effects.

Now that An Lushan is being aggressive, Li Xuanxuan has decided to no longer compromise and instead discuss with Guo Ziyi and Gao Lishi how to lead the Tang army to fight back. This time, she will personally lead the army to the battlefield with the Emperor's Banner.

No matter how much resentment she felt or how much fear she had of death, she could not allow An Lushan to storm the palace.