PFC Chapter 722 You don’t trust your son, do you?
Chapter 722 You don’t trust your son, do you?
Li Chengqian stood on the steps of the palace, his robe fluttering slightly, his eyes fell on Zhang Xianhuai who was hurried over.
The moment he saw Zhang Xianhuai, Li Chengqian's eyes showed a hint of complicated emotions.
He slowly raised his hand and nodded slightly.
"Xian Huai," Li Chengqian said, "Why did you come here? You are so confused."
"Nanjing is such a peaceful place, with good weather and good harvests, and the people live and work in peace and contentment. Wouldn't it be nice for you to just stay there?"
"Why do you have to come to Chang'an? It's a dangerous place full of troubles."
Zhang Xianhuai stopped a few steps away from Li Chengqian, leaning forward slightly.
He kept his lips tightly closed and just looked at Li Chengqian quietly.
Li Chengqian said softly, "You should know what I'm thinking."
At the same time, in another corner of the square, Li Jingyou was staggering and looking very embarrassed.
His hair was messy and stuck to his face covered in sweat and dust. Every step he took was extremely difficult.
He stumbled towards Zhai Huo who was lying in a pool of blood. The glaring pool of blood looked even more shocking in the dim light.
Zhai Huo's eyes were wide open, with a lingering sense of unwillingness before death in them. Li Jingyou slowly squatted beside him, raised his trembling hands slightly, as if afraid of disturbing the deceased, and gently closed Zhai Huo's wide-open eyes.
"General Zhai, have a safe journey."
Li Jingyou muttered to himself.
Li Jingyou slowly stood up and looked at Li Chengqian who was still standing on the steps.
A wry smile appeared on his face.
He won, in the end, Father won. It was a pity that everything ended so quickly, in such a short time, that he didn't have time to replace all the soldiers in the three camps with his loyal confidants.
Even though he held the military command tightly in his hand, the soldiers did not completely obey his orders.
The human heart is truly the most terrifying thing in this world.
Li Jingyou took a deep breath, raised his hand to tidy up his messy clothes, brushed off the dust on them, tidied his appearance, and then walked towards Li Chengqian.
"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you." Li Jingyou walked up to Li Chengqian, bowed, and said calmly, "I lost, but I believe that everything I did was not wrong."
His voice was firm.
"You shouldn't be here."
"I could have created an era far more prosperous than Qianwu's."
There was regret in Li Jingyou's tone.
Li Chengqian looked at his son, who was both familiar and unfamiliar to him, his eyes full of confusion. His lips trembled slightly as he asked, "Why, do you have to do this? You'er? Why do you have to..."
"Patricide?"
Li Jingyou took over Li Chengqian's unfinished words, and a sarcastic smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
That smile concealed years of grievance and resentment.
"Why did you attack your uncle Qin and the others?" Li Chengqian threw out all the questions in his mind, "Why, You'er?" There was a tremor in his voice, which was a father's confusion about his son's actions.
Hearing Li Chengqian's question, Li Jingyou showed an expression of disbelief on his face, and then he raised his head and laughed, and the laughter was full of sadness and resentment.
His laughter echoed in the empty square for a long time, as if it was an expression of his anger at the injustice in the world.
"Your Majesty, you ask me why I killed my father? Why did I attack Uncle Qin and the others?"
Li Jingyou stared at Li Chengqian, his eyes flashing with complex thoughts. "When my grandfather was alive, he once told me solemnly that the Tang Dynasty's surname is Li."
"This is our Li Tang's world, and I am the only crown prince."
His voice was high and passionate, stating an indisputable fact.
"I killed my father and attacked Uncle Qin and the others for the throne, but not entirely."
Li Jingyou paused, his expression growing heavier. "I was trying to save myself, Your Majesty."
"Self-rescue will inevitably offend the source.?"
"Over the years, I have diligently supervised the country, and I think I have done a pretty good job. I am determined to make the Tang Dynasty even stronger."
"But what about you? You never really gave me power."
Li Jingyou's voice gradually rose, carrying a hint of long-suppressed anger, "You don't trust me, and you always think that what I do will harm the Tang Dynasty."
"You believe I will sell muskets to the Arabs and make Five Stones Powder to make money. In your eyes, I am a fool."
"You didn't even ask me a single question to find out the truth of the matter, and then you just wiped out all my people without any explanation."
His words were like sharp blades, piercing Li Chengqian's heart.
"But how can you be sure that what you see is real?"
Li Jingyou stared at Li Chengqian with a burning gaze and continued, "Can't we sell the Five Stones Powder abroad to earn money and use it to enrich the national treasury?"
"Just because I asked someone to make a musket to sell to the Arabs, does that mean it must be real?"
"The oil in the muskets I had made has been reduced by more than half, and they're also missing parts. Those Arabs will only be able to use them for a month at most, and then all of them will be scrapped."
"How could I not know that the Arabs had ill intentions towards our Tang Dynasty?"
"You let Wang Wen be the regent. You are well aware of what he did when he was the regent."
"You actually understand everything,"
Li Jingyou's eyes welled up with tears. "But, the only thing you don't understand is your child. You never trust your child."
"Isn't that right, Father?"
His voice was choked with sobs.
"Father, have you forgotten what Mother told you before she died? We should be the closest family."
Li Jingyou's voice choked, "Hahahahahaha, we're a family..."
His laughter was full of self-deprecation.
"Originally, I planned to send troops to Arabia next year and destroy it in one fell swoop."
Li Jingyou raised his head and looked into the distance, his eyes revealing a trace of loneliness. "You be the emperor, you be the emperor."
"After I'm done, let's let an ordinary citizen become the emperor, ahahahahahahahaha."
There was madness in his laugh.
"Father, Grandpa is right. You would rather give advantage to outsiders than give your own family a chance."
Li Jingyou turned his head and looked at Li Chengqian, his eyes full of disappointment. "Could it be that in your heart, your son is not as good as an ordinary citizen?"
"Is it really so difficult to be an emperor?"
Li Jingyou muttered to himself, "In my life, the thing I hate most is you saying 'the world belongs to the public.'"
His voice was full of disgust, which was a disdain for his father's so-called "the world belongs to all" concept.
After saying that, Li Jingyou slowly turned around and walked towards the Taiji Hall with heavy steps.
Seeing this, Wang Can followed him directly, fearing that Li Jingyou would do something else.