"Oh, your Majesty..."
Changsun Wuji finally couldn't help but shed tears, looking sad.
Xu Fenglei also looked at the unconscious Li Shimin on the bed. Although he didn't cry, he felt sad.
In these years, Li Shimin has not seen anyone in the court, but he has only been in contact with him.
Therefore, they have a close relationship, and Xu Fenglei often comes to play and chat and spank.
At the earliest time, Li Shimin stayed in the palace in Luoyang.
After a few years of staying in Luoyang, he got tired of staying in Luoyang, so he went to Jiangdu and Jiangning to recuperate for a while. He even went abroad several times to visit Li Chengqian's Tang Qin and Li Tai's Tang and Wei feudal states.
He originally wanted to go to Li Ke's place, but before he could go, he suddenly fell seriously ill. Thanks to Xu Fenglei's contact, Sun Simiao hurriedly came for treatment and managed to pull him back and save his life.
After that, Changsun Wugou did not allow Li Shimin to go out and wander around anymore. He could only rest in one place, and not too far away from Chang'an!
Li Shimin naturally understood what his wife meant, so he chose Cuiwei Palace to stay and rest.
In the next few years, my body was not as good as before. The root causes of diseases that I had suffered when I was young broke out in a concentrated manner. Everywhere was broken. If I fixed it here, it would break again there. Press the gourd and the gourd will float.
When Qi and blood are depleted, the only option is to forcefully rely on medicine to replenish it. However, Chinese medicine is not a panacea. If the dose is increased to a certain level, it is not a supplement, but a poison!
How to treat it?
There was no way to cure it. Sun Simiao shook his head when he saw it, and he even concluded with Xu Fenglei in private——
Your Majesty's life span is at most three years.
When I said this, it was the twenty-seventh year of Zhenguan. Looking back now, I have to lament that Sun Simiao's medical skills were so precise that he could predict a person's death date...
"Father, wake up, wake up!"
"My son is unfilial. I have come to see you. Please open your eyes and look at me..."
"Woo woo, woo woo..."
Li Zhi cried bitterly and leaned on the edge of the bed, unable to straighten his waist.
A sad atmosphere filled the hall.
Ta-ta, tap-ta.
A burst of footsteps came from outside, and Sun Simiao was seen holding a bowl of medicinal soup in his hand and said in a deep voice:
"Your Majesty, it's hard to wake up on your own. Would you like some ginseng soup?"
"This bowl of medicinal soup can help you hang yourself for the last time. This ginseng has a hundred-year medicinal power, which is enough to support your majesty's funeral arrangements."
Changsun Wugu tightened his lips.
She knew that this bowl of medicinal soup could wake her husband up, but what she knew even more was that after this bowl of medicinal soup, her husband would never wake up again.
How to make this choice?
The hall fell into silence, except for the sound of sobbing and crying.
Xu Fenglei's lips twitched and he was about to speak when he saw Li Shimin on the couch slowly opening his eyes, revealing a gap.
He tried very hard to open his eyes, but after trying for a long time, he could only open a crack.
"Ho--"
Li Shimin seemed to have a mouthful of old phlegm stuck in his throat. He didn't have the strength to spit it out, so he could only say hoarsely with a phlegm sound,
"Everyone...is here."
"Master Sun, give me...the ginseng soup."
Upon hearing this, the eldest grandson Wugu turned his head, covered his face and cried.
Everyone in the hall felt sad in their hearts.
No one could make this decision. In the end... His Majesty made the decision himself.
"Um."
After all, Sun Simiao was used to seeing life and death, so his mood did not fluctuate. He just put the ginseng soup into Li Shimin's mouth with a solemn expression.
Gu... Gu.
After drinking a bowl of ginseng soup, the medicinal power of century-old ginseng flows to the limbs and bones, urging the body to show its final dignity.
Li Shimin closed his eyes and seemed to be asleep.
The palace fell into a deathly silence, no one spoke, everyone was waiting silently, waiting for the emperor's final instructions.
Uh-huh.
After a moment, Li Shimin's eyes suddenly opened and became extremely bright.
His posture also changed from slow to light. He gently lifted the quilt off his body, lowered his feet to the ground, supported his body with both hands, and straightened his back.
"They say ginseng can kill people. I didn't believe it before, but now I really believe it."
Li Shimin looked at everyone and said with a smile,
"My whole body was weak just now, but now I feel full of energy, as if I'm twenty-nine years old again."
"It's a pity that he can only use it at the last moment...but it's enough. It allows me to leave with no regrets and to leave with dignity."
"Father!! Wuwuwu..." When Li Zhi heard this, his tears poured down like a bursting dam.
He knelt forward and hugged his father's thigh tightly, crying bitterly.
"Okay, okay, little slave."
Li Shimin patted his head and said softly,
"After ten years in power, you should have developed an imperial aura in you. Why are you still so benevolent and weak?"
"If you act like this, my father will worry about you..."
"Cheer up and stop crying."
Li Zhi cried and shook his head:
"The father is leaving the child, and the child is so sad that he can't control himself..."
"My child has learned to be strong over the years and can cheer up at any time, but now... my child can't do it!"
"Woooooooo..."
Li Shimin's nose felt sore after hearing these words.
"Good boy, good boy...Father knows that you have filial piety."
He changed patting to touching, gently stroked Li Zhi's head, and said softly,
"Father, our time is running out."
"There are some things I need to tell you. Please stop crying and listen carefully."
Li Zhi quickly wiped away his tears with his sleeves, stopped crying forcibly, and looked at his father with red eyes.
"I have never believed in fate in my life."
Li Shimin chuckled and said,
"Your master once said that I have no control over my fate. Here, there is absolute confidence! I like it very much!"
"As an emperor, you shoulder the responsibility of the world and act decisively. Without such absolute self-confidence, you cannot be the co-owner of the world."
"So, the first thing I hope for you is that you are confident. If something is what you think you should do and it is the right thing, then even if countless people oppose it, you must do it against everyone's opinions. Never be indecisive or lose your opinion.”
Li Zhi nodded repeatedly.
"My child has remembered it!"
His tone was firm.
"The second thing is to treat your subjects well."
Li Shimin said again,
"You once told me that your favorite sentence of mine is, 'The people are the water, the king is the boat. Water can carry the boat, but it can also capsize it.' I was very surprised and pleased at the time."
"My young slave, if you can understand the meaning of this sentence and practice it, why worry about not being a wise king?"
"Child slave, you must remember that these words of the father contain the principles of governing the country. You must always ponder and understand it. The most important thing is to practice it personally. You must not run counter to it."
"Understand?"
Li Zhi nodded vigorously.
"My child, please remember your father's teachings!"
The bright light in Li Shimin's eyes dimmed slightly.
The potency of the medicine is passing away.
"The third thing is, you have to be kind to your brothers."
Li Shimin said softly,
"Cheng Qian, Qing Que and Ke'er are all your brothers. I am dividing them up. I am not splitting the earth to make you king, nor am I asking you to separate your families, but to enable each of you to display your own ambitions and talents, and then Unite and guard together to form a prosperous Tang Dynasty!"
"The Tang Dynasty is uniquely powerful in terms of national power and territory!"
"I am under Jiuquan. What I want to see is that the Tang Dynasty becomes stronger and stronger, and its territory becomes larger and larger. It is definitely not mutual suspicion and secret internal fighting, which will eventually bring trouble to Xiao Qiang."
"You must communicate more with each other and avoid conflicts. If there is any friction in the future, as the master of the world, you should tolerate them a little and suffer some losses."
Li Zhi's expression condensed and he nodded solemnly.
"Yes, Father."
"The child must obey his father's will."
Li Shimin closed his eyes and smiled slightly.
"Actually, I know that I shouldn't imagine it to be so beautiful...it's not like children playing house, but I still want to give you a few words. It can be regarded as a good wish."
He said,
"Your master told me that the world is very big, and the Tang Dynasty only occupies a very small part of it."
"With such a huge territory outside, if you want to own all the data, no policy can do it. Only your master's policy of 'feudality outside and counties within' can do it."
"So, I adopted it. I knew the hidden dangers and shortcomings. However, I never thought that the Tang Dynasty could be unified for eternity. I just wanted to see how high the sky was and how big the country could be."
"It's up to you to continue implementing this national policy."
Feudalism on the outside and counties on the inside will eventually lead to division and separation.
It would be the same even if the person being enfeoffed was from the Li family and his direct son, Li Shimin.
But Li Shimin didn't care about this.
He wanted to see the fireworks.
He wanted to see how brilliant the fireworks of the Tang Dynasty would be when they bloomed, and how dazzling they would be in the sky of history.
Since you can't decide the length, let's make the height higher!
And as Xu Fenglei said, a skinny camel is bigger than a horse. If the Tang Dynasty is destined to perish, then it can survive for a few more years if it has a stronger foundation.
"My child obeys the order."
"My father and master's national policy will be implemented unswervingly to make the Tang Dynasty the most powerful dynasty in history!"
Li Zhi knelt down and saluted, his expression firm.
"Um."
Li Shimin closed his eyes slightly and said happily,
"I have nothing else to tell you about anything else. What is the way to be a king and the way to govern? In the past ten years, you may have become stronger than me. I don't need to tell you."
"Right now, the only thing that needs to be considered is that after my death, there may be some waves, and you need someone to protect you."
"Your master has said before that the Ziwei Emperor Star must be guarded by the left and the right, otherwise it will be a lonely star. It is not the destiny of the emperor, but the destiny of the monk."
"These four are the ministers chosen by your father to take care of your fate. They can help you calm the wind and waves and enjoy peace in your country."
"You guys - come forward."
He smiled and waved to Xu Fenglei, Changsun Wuji, Chu Suiliang and Li Ji.
