Yun Ye very much wanted to run far away, but Li Er, seething with fury, watched him—he couldn’t escape. Li Er had never dreamed that Master Yuanzhang’s answer would be so unrestrained. Li Er was so angry he began to tremble. Zhangsun, however, was quite calm. As if remembering something, she led Li Er directly to the academy’s archives room.

After carefully examining several files with familiar names, only then did Li Er breathe a sigh of relief. Tapping the dossiers in his hand, he said: “Look at this, look at this. Although these people are very useful, each one has an eccentric personality. Where is there even one upright gentleman?”

“Everyone says I shouldn’t have established the Directorate of Waterways. The court has never had a single day of peace. Without the Directorate of Waterways monitoring the realm, who knows what kind of state those scoundrels would reduce local areas to—probably inevitable that the people would be unable to make a living.”

When Li Er reached this point, he seemed to remember something and looked at Yun Ye, saying: “I recall that among those who submitted memorials in opposition at the time, there was you as well, wasn’t there?”

Yun Ye smiled awkwardly and said: “Indeed, this humble minister was among them. Without supervision, ministers all have it easy. This humble minister had to submit such a memorial. After all, in this matter, any minister would oppose it.”

Li Er nodded to show his approval, gazing at the setting sun as if talking to himself: “When the empire was first established, everyone exerted themselves to the utmost, fearing they might do things inadequately. That was the empire’s golden age. Once the empire began to stabilize its hold on the realm, the previous situation of united purpose immediately scattered like birds and beasts.”

“A single emperor facing tens of thousands of ministers simply cannot cope no matter what. They say an empire collapses because of foolish rulers, but no one knows that an empire’s decay always begins rotting from the foundation.”

“The emperor is like the treetop—if it rots, you can remove it and that’s that. But if the foundation rots, with just the slightest wind, the entire great tree will topple. When the great tree falls, the monkeys in the tree will have no place to roost. Don’t those parasites who damage the empire’s foundation know that damaging the empire’s foundation is actually seeking their own death?”

“I have toiled for an entire lifetime, and only in my final years have I understood one principle: supervision must continue perpetually, without relaxing for a moment. In the past, I still cared about my posthumous title, worrying whether I’d be called the Civil Emperor or the Martial Emperor. Now it’s different. As long as I can establish a foundation for ten thousand generations for the Great Tang, so what if I’m spoken of as being like the tyrants Jie and Zhou? In the end, it’s nothing more than death.”

“Yuanzhang’s words were correct. Cultivating talent is his responsibility, selecting talent is mine. But I have only one pair of eyes, one pair of ears. I cannot see clearly all the people under Heaven, cannot hear all the voices under Heaven.”

“So I plan to set aside everything and prepare to establish legal codes, just as we established the Commercial Law last time, pooling ideas and consulting widely with worthies. I can only hope Heaven grants me a few more years, giving me the opportunity to remedy this deficiency.”

Zhangsun supported Li Er as they slowly departed. For a moment, Yun Ye didn’t know what to say. For someone in such a lofty position to suddenly awaken in his twilight years—this was absolutely a kind of sorrow.

Yun Ye knew the Emperor had sought out Sun Simiao, requesting that his lifespan be extended as much as possible. He knew Li Er wasn’t afraid of death. A lone wolf like him simply didn’t care about his own life—what he cared more about was his empire.

The country was too vast. In earlier years he had wished he could conquer all the lands under Heaven. Now that it was time to govern, he discovered just how difficult this matter was. From south to north, from east to west, such vast territory—relying on messages carried by wild geese was simply a joke.

Electromagnetism was still completely blank in the Great Tang. People’s understanding of electricity was still at the stage of viewing it as divine and terrifying authority. Yun Ye wasn’t omnipotent. Although he still had a broken mobile phone, a broken thing that by now could only emit a bit of static, aside from Xinyue who still treated it as a treasure, Yun Ye’s suggestion was to throw it away as soon as possible.

Wireless telegraphy would appear sooner or later. It was precisely because there was a need that efforts would be made to develop in that direction. The earliest naval signals and beacon fire signals all belonged to this category. Someone would research and develop it. Yun Ye looked back at the brightly lit Yushan Academy and was full of confidence in them.

The glorious past had already fallen asleep in the history books and could be turned past. The new future would begin with every sunrise. Every hour, every moment was a new world. Yun Ye firmly believed this world would not perish.

Standing on the hillside looking at the academy would naturally make one feel like bathing in spring breeze, full of hope everywhere. But what was this great fire in Chang’an City about? Thick smoke rose from within the city, almost blotting out the sky and sun. The direction was actually the palace location—this was too terrifying. Yun Ye cried out strangely and loudly summoned Liu Jinbao, having him take his command tablet and close Yushan City at the first opportunity. This was the first thing he could do when the situation was unclear.

Ever since becoming the garrison commander of Yushan City, Yun Ye at this moment couldn’t worry about the Yun family estate outside the city. He could only dispatch Liu Jinbao to tell the family to all prepare to enter the tunnels. Damn it, the fire in Chang’an City looked quite substantial. This didn’t seem like an ordinary fire, but more like someone deliberately setting fires. Because of Dou Yanshan’s precedent, Yun Ye didn’t dare be the slightest bit careless.

More than ten scouts raced desperately toward Chang’an. Whatever had happened there needed to be thoroughly investigated. Li Er remained as steady as ever, but Zhangsun was restless and anxious.

Yun Ye stood at the city wall already dressed in armor. Liu Jinbao reported that the Yun family members had already entered the tunnels. His mind at ease, Yun Ye had already issued first-level combat readiness orders to Yushan City’s garrison forces.

“Don’t panic! It should just be a simple fire!” Li Er sat in his wheelchair, using binoculars to gaze into the distance at Chang’an City. The banners of the Sixteen Guards hadn’t moved, the city gates remained open, pedestrians on the roads were still coming and going in an endless stream—nothing would happen.

Yun Ye continued directing the army to prepare defenses. Ballista artillery and crossbow arrows had long since had their covering tarpaulins removed, all reaching a hair-trigger state of readiness. Regardless of what Li Er said, as a general, first preparing well for war had no errors whatsoever.

Before long, a great general with more than ten attendants knocked at the gate, announced himself, and requested entry. Although this person was Yuchi Gong, Yun Ye still turned his gaze to Li Er, awaiting his command.

“Yuchi! Let him enter. Nothing will happen.” Li Er, sitting in his wheelchair with eyes half-closed, gave the order. Yun Ye ordered men to open the small gate. He saw Yuchi Gong alone hurrying through the pass. Upon seeing Li Er, he dropped to one knee and reported: “Your Majesty, the Taiji Palace was struck by dry lightning and caught fire. The Wude Hall was also affected. They are now making every effort to fight the fire. The Crown Prince asks Your Majesty to be at ease. After the great fire is extinguished, the Crown Prince will personally come to pay his respects!”

Li Er sighed and said: “My iron spear has finally exhausted its spiritual energy and can no longer protect the Taiji Palace comprehensively.” After saying this, he extremely sorrowfully had Duan Hong push him back to the temporary palace, simultaneously issuing Yun Ye the order to stand down from alert status.

“Dry lightning? Why didn’t we hear any sound?” Yun Ye hurriedly asked Yuchi Gong.

Yuchi Gong shook his head and said: “This old man didn’t hear anything even within Chang’an City. This is what the Crown Prince said. This old man could only report as such, but the great fire at Taiji Palace and Wude Hall is absolutely true.”

Yun Ye glanced in the direction the Emperor had departed, always feeling this matter was extremely strange. Wude Hall was one thing—that place was now completely empty. Li Tai had long since moved the gunpowder workshop away from there. Even if the entire hall was burned down by fire, the underground sections there would still remain unharmed. What was lost would be nothing more than the pavilions above.

Regarding Taiji Palace, Yun Ye didn’t dare be certain. Taiji Palace was actually a collective name for a large complex of buildings. Buildings extended continuously there—it was the location of the Great Tang’s earliest court. Li Er had countless arrangements there. Now destroyed in one moment—what exactly was the reason? Why did Zhangsun’s expression look so terrible? And why was Li Er so sorrowful?

When he himself had tested gunpowder years ago and destroyed the Liangyi Hall, Li Er hadn’t cared in the slightest. How was it that today he was so grief-stricken over that old palace complex? There must be something strange about this.

The Yun family’s scouts also returned, bringing Yun Ye information no different from what Yuchi Gong had said. It appeared this was a unified story, but after Yun Ye made a trip to Chang’an and returned, his entire person also became gloomy and unhappy.

By midnight, after Yun Ye read a letter in his study, he sighed deeply and felt sorrowful for quite a while. Xinyue carried in a bowl of wontons. Yun Ye took it and ate all the wontons in one breath. Wiping his mouth, he held up the letter on the desk and said to Xinyue: “Do you know what news Xiao Wu discovered?”

Xinyue knew her husband at this time only wanted to find someone to listen to him talk, and immediately obediently shook her head.

“Do you know how many charred corpses were burned in today’s fire? A full four hundred and sixty bodies. What a Li Chengqian! We’re all exercising restraint to avoid killing people, but he’s done well for himself—when it comes to killing his own people, he’s not the slightest bit polite. With one order, over four hundred heads fell. Those were all ministers of the Great Tang! How could he bring himself to do it?”

“Whether they’re spies or informants, they’re still people! If you don’t like them, just dismiss them. How can you order them killed? Hei Chi Changzhi’s blade is very swift indeed!”

“Tomorrow why not send him more people to kill? When he’s killed everyone under Heaven clean, he can be his solitary, powerless emperor by himself. Dugu Mou speaks so nicely here with me, mutually agreeing not to kill people, yet he himself is fanning sinister winds and lighting ghostly fires at the Emperor’s place, wishing the Crown Prince would kill all the Emperor’s old subordinates completely. Li Chengqian isn’t even Emperor yet!”

“Wu She! Go and see—your former brothers-in-arms and subordinates have all been killed by others. Only you remain as a fish that slipped through the net. Do you want to turn yourself in? Tomorrow come with me to attend court! I still hold the position of Colonel of the Five Skills. Let’s see if the Crown Prince plans to have us all beheaded together. Get ready—at the fourth watch we go to court!”

Xinyue’s face had turned white. She tugged at Yun Ye’s sleeve, hoping he would calm his anger. Wu She’s ghostly figure appeared behind Yun Ye, laughing coldly and saying: “This old man has lived long enough. Tomorrow I’ll accompany the Duke of Chu on a trip to the court to ask clearly!”

Liu Fang followed and walked in, tapping the table and saying: “Getting angry is getting angry, but the Crown Prince is dealing with his own household servants. Don’t make things too strained, lest it be difficult to face each other in the future.”

Yun Ye threw the teacup in his hand far away and said bitterly: “The evil habit of killing cannot be changed—sooner or later he’ll do it again. Just how many secrets does Li Chengqian have that he fears others knowing? Tomorrow I plan to ask him thoroughly. The Emperor doesn’t hide even matters of killing elder brothers, killing younger brothers, and taking in sisters-in-law and younger brothers’ wives. What is he worried about?”