The abdication was a grand ceremony of the dynasty and must not be taken lightly.
The Emperor of the Great Tang declared: “Heaven and Earth are resplendent, and I am the chief. When I speak, the law follows. Skyscraping towers and nine-ringed staffs are not as good as my golden promise. Building pavilions and creating staffs merely wastes the national treasury and benefits not the people. Now I abdicate to Chengqian. Are there any objections?”
All the officials and ministers prostrated themselves on the ground in complete silence. At this moment, only Li Er’s voice echoed between heaven and earth. Wild geese cried in the sky—crossbow arrows pierced their throats. Fierce tigers roared in the mountains—steel blades loomed over their heads…
Teacher Yuanzhang was dressed formally and properly. His black lapel robe indicated that he was today’s ritual official. Step by step, he ascended the Hall of Ten Thousand People. After performing three bows and nine kowtows to Li Er in the great hall, he finally spoke: “Since Yao and Shun, we have never heard of abdication. Even when it occurred, it was due to fear of military might. Since Yao and Shun, Your Majesty opens a new path. This old minister congratulates Your Majesty!”
Li Er laughed heartily and said: “Also congratulate the Great Tang. I set a precedent, which shall naturally become a permanent example. Future emperors, when they feel their energy insufficient, should emulate me—abdicate to the new emperor, help him mount the horse, see him off for a stretch, and protect our Great Tang for a thousand autumns!”
Yuanzhang bowed again and said: “Yes!”
Li Chengqian bowed and said: “Yes!”
All the officials before the Hall of Ten Thousand People bowed together and said: “Yes!”
Zhangsun, together with the imperial concubines, princesses, princess consorts, and all noblewomen of various ranks, bowed and said: “Yes!”
The ritual officials presented the three sacrificial animals. Li Er removed his Tongtian Crown and slowly walked to the offering table, inserted three thick incense sticks, bowed to Heaven, bowed to Earth, and bowed to the ancestors. Then he swept his sleeves and departed. Having removed the yellow robe, Li Er’s back remained ramrod straight.
Yuanzhang, as one of the only remaining Three Dukes of the Great Tang, came before the offering table and bowed again. He took from the table the imperial edict resting on a sandalwood frame and slowly unfurled it. After carefully reading it, he turned around to face the Crown Prince kneeling below the cinnabar steps, as well as the civil and military officials. He unfurled the edict, cleared his throat lightly, and read aloud:
“The Five Phases revolve anew, the Three Rectifications alternate in succession. Shepherding the black-haired people properly belongs to sages and worthies. Thus able to weave heaven and earth together, encompass all regions, greatly shelter the common people, and propagate great achievements. Replacing darkness with light, successive generations have followed the same path. A hundred kings followed in succession, all according to this principle. I am already advanced in years and lack the strength to control the situation. At the beginning of Taiqing, I was troubled by the long serpent. At the end of Chengsheng, I again suffered from the sealed boar. By the time of Tiancheng, the divine vessel was again usurped. The three luminaries frequently sank, the seven ancestral temples lacked offerings. Sentient beings were already extinguished, the mandate of Heaven had fallen. The fortunes of our Li and Yuan houses hung by a thread. Quietly contemplating these calamities and setbacks, I carry anxiety evening and morning…”
Li Er held Zhangsun’s hand and listened attentively for a moment, chuckled, then mounted his imperial palanquin, preparing to depart and return to Yushan City. Today, this place belonged to the new emperor’s realm.
Lifting his eyes to look at the robust figure before the carriage frame, he smiled and said: “Yuchi, today is the new emperor’s enthronement. Why aren’t you going to pay homage instead of serving as my driver?”
Yuchi Gong turned his head and said to Li Er with a smile: “This old minister is old and can no longer serve the new emperor. It’s better to hand over my duties and follow Your Majesty together to Yushan City to live out my old age.”
“Your Majesty doesn’t know—all the veteran ministers of the Zhenguan era share this sentiment. You’ll understand when you look around.”
Duan Hong smiled and pulled back the curtain. Li Er discovered that the veteran ministers who had fought alongside him to conquer the realm now surrounded the carriage on both sides—civil officials on the left, military generals on the right.
Yuwen Shiji, already so old he was near death, sat unsteadily on his horse and cupped his hands, saying: “Don’t look at this old minister’s advanced age—I can still ride a war horse now and can still tell Your Majesty a few jokes. Since Your Majesty intends to retire to the countryside, how could this old minister be absent?”
Li Er chuckled and said: “You should still dismount and ride in a carriage. I’m worried that before reaching Yushan, you’ll be jolted to death by the horse.” After speaking, he pointed at several other ministers who were terribly old and said: “Same for all of you.”
Li Jing laughed heartily and said: “We military generals need not worry. The road to Yushan is smooth all the way. We might as well gallop our horses wildly.”
Li Er looked at the white-haired and white-bearded Li Jing and said irritably: “Save your energy. If one or two fall off and get trampled to death by horses, the loss outweighs the gain.” As he spoke, he spotted Yun Ye in helmet and armor among the military generals. He beckoned him over and pointed at the group of white-haired veteran ministers around them, saying to Yun Ye: “I can agree to them becoming idle mountain folk, but why are you mixing in at such a young age?”
Yun Ye said with a smile: “You and all these uncles have completely retired. If this junior isn’t here, what meaning would your lives have? Surely not just drinking wine and eating meat all day?”
“Setting aside mahjong for now, can you play bridge? Can you play croquet? Can you fight crickets? What is a health tonic soup? What are peerless delicacies? As for wine-making, which of you uncles knows how?”
“Actually, my greatest skill is playing. Eating, drinking, and making merry is my true nature. So if you elders don’t want your future days to be boring, you absolutely cannot do without me.”
“Moreover, the memoirs of all you elders still need to be compiled. These will be placed in the Yushan Academy library. Especially Your Majesty’s and Her Majesty’s memoirs—these are invaluable historical materials. Duke Wei’s reflections on modern warfare are also of paramount importance. When the Academy compiles the history of our Great Tang in the future, they need only cross-reference the memoirs of all you uncles, and a vivid history book will emerge. These matters are far more important than me attending court as an official.”
Seeing his old subordinates, Li Er was clearly in very good spirits. After all those veteran ministers had switched to carriages, only then did he stamp his foot on the carriage floor. Yuchi Gong shook the reins, and the carriage drawn by eight horses slowly drove out of the palace. This time, Li Er took away everything that belonged to him, leaving an exceptionally clean palace for Li Chengqian. He hoped Li Chengqian could display his own talents without any constraints whatsoever.
From the moment the Emperor’s carriage drove out of the palace, the Zhenguan Court came to an abrupt end in the twenty-ninth year of Zhenguan. Li Shimin had reigned for a full twenty-nine years—eight years longer than his historical reign.
Just as Li Er’s carriage drove out of Chang’an City, the Bell Tower and Drum Tower simultaneously rang one hundred and eight times. The memorials burned before the Hall of Ten Thousand People turned into blue smoke, sending the news of the realm’s change of era up to the Nine Heavens. On this very day, the first year of Taixing began.
Warriors clad in brilliant armor, bearing the new emperor’s edicts, carried the news of the era change to the nine provinces of China. Countless congratulatory memorials came flooding in. The generals of the Sixteen Guards also began entering the palace one by one to pledge their loyalty to Li Chengqian.
The turmoil of the abdication lasted only three months. The Great Tang had already formed its own inherent mode of operation and did not change because of a change of emperor. The realm quickly quieted down. The common people also began using the new coins minted in the first year of Taixing. Li Chengqian was very filial—the era name changed, but the portrait on the coins remained unchanged, still Li Er’s profile. In other words, regardless of who would be emperor of the Great Tang in the future, the profile on the coins would only be Li Er’s.
Chang’an City had the tallest equestrian statue of Li Er. Li Chengqian believed Yushan City should also have a statue of his father. So he forcibly carved a stone mountain beside Eagle’s Beak Cliff into Li Er’s likeness.
Li Tai preferred his mother, so Zhangsun’s likeness also appeared beside Li Er’s likeness. Now, as soon as one approached Yushan, one would see two enormous heads standing there.
This trend spread, and these things appeared in every major city. Thus the common people throughout the Great Tang all knew what Li Er and his wife looked like.
Understanding Li Chengqian’s intention—the ancestors of the Li family were all installed in tombs, and now it wouldn’t do to bury his own parents alive—so he enshrined them high up, placing them in shrines. Once you’ve become a deity, it would be embarrassing to compete with your son to be emperor, wouldn’t it?
Very strangely, Li Chengqian established an empress but did not establish a crown prince. Li Xiang instigated a group of civil officials to memorialize, urging the Emperor to establish an heir. The result was that the furious Li Chengqian, with a single edict, drove Li Xiang back to his Hengshan fiefdom, strictly ordering him not to leave Hengshan without receiving an edict, or else he would be dealt with according to family law.
At midnight in Yushan, Yun Ye carried a lantern and furtively searched for things on the hillside, constantly lifting stones. Xinyue also carried a lantern. Whenever an owl hooted, Xinyue would huddle closer to her husband.
“Husband, let’s go back. If you want to catch crickets, let’s wait until daylight to catch them, all right? What if you trip and get injured at night?” Xinyue trembled as she hugged her arms, very much wanting to leave this land that made her uneasy.
“I told you not to come. If either Na Rimu or Xiao Miao had come out, they wouldn’t nag like you. Uncle Cheng’s Blue-Flowered General’s wings were bitten off by someone’s Great Power Demon King. He’s been going crazy these past few days, wanting His Majesty’s Blue Lion, but His Majesty won’t give it to him. He sent an urgent letter to his old home in Shandong, having his family get him some fierce crickets no matter what. They should arrive in these next few days. You don’t know that the fiercest crickets under heaven come from Shandong. Some that have eaten corpses are the most ferocious—they’re called Coffin Heads and are extremely rare. Our family’s crickets are very shameful. I plan to catch some and secretly swap them from Uncle Cheng’s cricket cage. If you’re afraid, go back first. Once I’ve planted the grass markers, I’ll return.”
Yun Ye once again inserted a dried white wax grass stalk beside a stone, then cocked his ear to listen for a while. Very satisfied—there must be a robust cricket inside.
Although Xinyue was afraid, she didn’t want to leave her husband. Though this was already a military restricted area where unauthorized people couldn’t pass, what if one or two wild beasts suddenly appeared? That would be very frightening.
Her foot stepped on something soft and squishy. Xinyue let out a startled cry, threw down the lantern, and clung tightly to Yun Ye, trembling. The lantern, thrown on the ground, caught fire. Yun Ye looked carefully and saw that Xinyue had stepped on a snake—a very plump cauliflower snake. Possibly frightened by the fire, it coiled into a snake formation without moving. Yun Ye held Xinyue with one arm while using the forked stick in his hand to press down firmly on the snake’s head, stuffing it into the fish basket at his waist. This thing was originally for holding white wax grass, but now there was a snake to hold—the white wax grass could be discarded.
After securing the snake, Yun Ye finally had a chance to look at Xinyue. This woman had already fainted from fright—no wonder she felt so heavy. Holding his wife, he found a large stone and placed her on it. He removed her socks and shone the lantern—sure enough, she had been bitten by the snake. There was a fine, dense small circle of bite marks. Fortunately, it was a non-venomous snake. If it had been venomous, that would be troublesome…