Man Tang Huacai

Chapter 583 Temple Name
"After I die, what will my temple name be?"

When asking this question, Li Longji felt very sad.

He had always been above everything in his life, claiming to be the closest thing to God in the world. But in the end, not only did he lose his power, he couldn't even decide his own posthumous title, which had to be decided by others.

"If you hadn't usurped the throne, I would have abolished this bad habit of 'sons criticizing their fathers, and ministers criticizing their rulers.'"

"Maybe." Xue Bai said, "Perhaps it is because of me that you have been given a bad posthumous title."

"Cough cough cough cough."

Li Longji got so angry that the wound was pulled, and blood started to flow out of the bandage.

What kind of posthumous title to give is the officials' business, Xue Bai is too lazy to think about it. This matter expresses an attitude, likes and dislikes towards Li Longji. And what Li Longji wants to confirm is whether Xue Bai can inherit his will after he inherits the throne.

What was his legacy?
——I am the only one.

He was high above when he was alive, and he could not fall after his death.

Xue Bai did not step forward to help press on Li Longji's wound. Instead, he watched indifferently as the blood clot spread, gradually soaking the bandage and starting to drip down.

"despair."

The sound of blood dripping pulled Li Longji back from his dream of immortality. He murmured, "Looking back on these years, I haven't treated you badly, have I?"

"Yes." Xue Bai admitted this.

"I have many descendants, and you are the one who looks most like me. I had long thought that I would lose this time, but it doesn't matter if I lose. In the Xiantian Change, I eliminated Princess Taiping and truly took control of the power, which led to the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty. You really look like me... This is my last reward to you."

Li Longji became the crown prince through the Tanglong coup, and then the Xiantian coup changed the power structure between him and the emperor, just like Xue Bai's process of ascending the throne step by step.

Back then, he was as young and heroic as Xue Bai is today.

It really looks like he is inheriting it.

"That's enough." Xue Bai was fed up with Li Longji's arrogance. "This was never your reward. You just lost everything because of your stupidity and laziness. There's no need to whitewash your incompetence."

"I am incompetent?"

Li Longji laughed out of anger.

He struggled to sit up with his last bit of strength, which made his already aged face even more pale.

"How dare you deny that everything you have is a gift from me."

"Your blood comes from me. You are alive because of my forgiveness. Your parents committed such an unforgivable crime, but I still raised you from a slave to the regent step by step."

"You were a piece of fish on the chopping board, but you forgot how you survived. You forgot how you tried your best to please me and begged me to grant you a lowly official position."

"All these graces and rewards come from my stupidity and laziness? How ungrateful and conscienceless are you to say this?!"

After these words, Li Longji's face flushed as if he had a last burst of energy. He raised his finger and pointed at Xue Bai, once again exerting the majesty of the emperor that he had maintained for decades.

During the years when he stood at the pinnacle of power, state affairs were entrusted to Li Linfu, and the people of the world offered him their blood and flesh. The most beautiful woman in the world, Yang Yuhuan, was by his side. At that time, wasn't Xue Bai just fawning on him like those treacherous ministers?
He really could never get over that time.

Xue Bai still disagreed and said, "That's not a reward. Treasures and official titles are all paid by the people. You are just distributing them on their behalf. But you are unfair. You regard the world as your private property and use the blood and flesh of the people to satisfy your own selfish desires. You deserve it."

Li Longji was stunned for a moment, looked at Xue Bai and burst out laughing.

"Isn't that what an emperor is like? The world is the emperor's private property! My unfilial descendants, including you, what you are fighting for is my private property, isn't it? I am the emperor, I own the world, I am rich, everything in this vast territory, every person, every piece of gold and silver, all belong to me!"

It was a matter of course, but he didn't expect that he would have to teach Xue Bai.

"You don't even understand this, how dare you fight for my throne?"

"I only know that the world belongs to the public." Xue Bai said: "The people are the most important, the emperor is the least important, and the one who wins the hearts of the people will become the emperor."

"That's enough. I don't want to hear these useless words. You can wait until I die and chat with those pedantic scholars about your political tactics to win people's hearts." Li Longji said, "But you must remember that you can become the emperor not because you have won the hearts of the people, but because you are my grandson."

"I'm not."

"You dare to deny it?"

Li Longji was so surprised that he even forgot that he was dying.

After staring at Xue Bai with wide eyes for a while, he sneered and said, "You said that just to piss me off."

Xue Bai said: "There is no point in being angry with you. On the contrary, it is because you are about to die that I tell you honestly that I am not your grandson."

"It's useless for you to deny it. It can't change the blood flowing in your body, nor can it change the fact that you had an affair with your grandfather's woman... Hahaha, look, even your actions are so similar to mine."

As he spoke, Li Longji laughed like crazy and didn't stop until he ran out of breath.

After saying so many words, he no longer had the strength to support his body and collapsed on the couch.

If he died now, it would be a small release of anger.

Xue Bai said: "You and I both know that I am not Li Qian. I am just an outsider who wants to usurp the Tang Dynasty by any means necessary."

"So you didn't even know you were Li Qian." Li Longji lay there, muttering, "Although I don't want to admit it, this is the fact."

"You did think that the restoration would fail, and you insisted that I was Li Qian. This was your way out when you failed. You even made a move to make me believe that you deliberately told Zhang Ting and Gao Lishi in private that you already knew I was Li Qian, and you even pretended to protect my son."

"Giggle cluck."

Li Longji laughed strangely and said, "It seems that you know everything about the plan between me and Zhang Ting."

But he was not ashamed of it and seemed even very proud of it.

"They are all traitors. They confessed to you so quickly."

"Unfortunately, I don't believe a word you said." Xue Bai said, "If you really wanted to protect my son, you wouldn't have sent Li Yu to the Forbidden Garden. You are too selfish to hand over power to Li Heng, and too cowardly to risk everything. You want to deceive yourself to cover up your pathetic situation."

"Cough cough cough cough."

Li Longji's emotions fluctuated, and his wounds were also affected. He gasped and groaned in pain.

A white-haired, seriously injured old man lying there struggling is a rather pitiful image.

But in Xue Bai's eyes, this old age was not worthy of his respect and sympathy.

All the beautiful and pure qualities of Li Longji when he was young, such as his passion, wisdom, bravery, generosity and righteousness, were gradually soaked and corroded by the material desires in the process of aging, and finally disappeared. In the end, only selfishness and arrogance were left.

He was lost in his lust for power, and became worse and worse as he grew older.

"I have always known that I am not Li Qian, even those around me believe it. But that is just driven by power. Power can change too many things in the world. It can not only make people grandsons, but also make people pigs and dogs. But I have come to this day to gain power, not to be controlled by power."

Xue Bai said as he walked closer, looking at Li Longji's struggle, and said, "After fifty years of being an emperor, you were finally controlled by power."

"If you have the guts, tell the world that you are not Li Qian."

"it is good."

Li Longji's eyes were filled with sneer. He shook his head while enduring the pain and said with a smile, "You are so stubborn. You dare not. No matter how presumptuous you are in front of me today, once you leave this door, you will still be my grandson."

"Don't worry. One day I will tell everyone in the world my name and let them know that I am not your descendant. Then, the world will find that my power comes from my contributions."

"Contribution? Bullshit." Li Longji spat, "You don't have to scare me. I won't believe a word of your nonsense."

"You know I would do that."

"Who are you offering sacrifices to? Tell me, what are the names of your ancestors? Xue Ling? Xue Xiu? Do you want to posthumously confer the title of emperor on them, enshrine them in the Imperial Ancestral Temple, and let people from generation to generation praise their achievements?"

Speaking of this, Li Longji even became a little excited.

Sure enough, Xue Bai couldn't say who he could commemorate. Living in this world, he was an orphan without a father or a mother.

In this world where family background is the most important thing, every "scholar" starts by introducing himself by saying who he is the descendant of. Orphans are nothing and have nothing.

This is exactly the reason why Li Longji believed that everything Xue Bai had was his reward.

"You are my grandson, and the one who looks most like me. Even your taste in choosing women is the same as mine. Accept your fate. You can't change it."

"I am different from you." Xue Bai said, "The so-called achievements you are proud of are nothing more than relying on the merits of your ancestors and following the advice of famous ministers. The most remarkable thing about your life is that you were born into the royal family and are the most outstanding among your brothers, that's all. And what I am most proud of is that I came to this point step by step from a humble background. I can't wait to tell the world... Are kings, princes, generals, and ministers of different species different?"

This last sentence inexplicably angered Li Longji.

Perhaps it was his innate stance that caused him to hate this sentence. Before Xue Bai finished speaking, Li Longji wanted to reach out and strangle him.

"Beast!"

Xue Bai calmly took two steps back.

Li Longji's upper body fell under the couch.

Xue Bai did not help him, but said to himself: "You just think I'm crazy. But after I got rid of you all, this wish suddenly came to my mind. I don't want to live under someone else's name. Even if I don't have parents or relatives in the world, I still want to be myself. For the sake of power, I have done everything and made many compromises, but I really want to try to make power compromise for me once. Like I said just now, I want to control power, not be controlled by it."

He said this with extraordinary sincerity.

Damn it, Li Longji felt his sincerity and knew that he would really do it, or at least carry it out with this goal in mind.

Li Longji couldn't imagine how he would be evaluated if the Li family's country was destroyed by outsiders in his hands.

Wouldn’t that mean he would become a king who lost his country?

If Xue Bai was no longer his grandson, I'm afraid he would no longer hide his affair with Yang Yuhuan.

Wouldn’t that mean he would become a king whose country was destroyed and even his women were taken away?
From a wise ruler in a prosperous era, he fell in one step to become Emperor Aizong of Tang?
"You can't do that, and you won't do that."

It was the first time that Li Longji showed a pitiful look of begging.

"Li Qian, don't say that just to piss me off. Over the years, you gave me dominoes and opera, and I always sided with you. That was our family happiness."

"It's not to piss you off." Xue Bai said, "It's just that, what is the probability of being born into a noble person like Li Qian? One in a hundred thousand? One in a million? I'm not that lucky."

"But you already are. You are already Li Qian."

"If we are on different paths, we cannot work together. The time is almost up, I will serve you here today."

Li Longji was stunned.

He refused to listen to Xue Bai's meaningless remarks and thought that the other party was really crazy.

Seeing Xue Bai getting up and about to leave, he desperately wanted to step forward to stop him, but ended up falling off the couch, crawling a few steps, leaving a trail of blood.

Even so, Xue Bai still left the hall without looking back.

The palace door opened, and the bright sunshine dispelled the smell of decay.

Gao Lishi was standing outside the palace, requesting to visit the retired emperor. When he saw the palace door open, he was about to salute Xue Bai, but then he found Li Longji crawling on the ground. He rushed forward to support him regardless of everything.

"Sanlang, get up quickly."

"You have to stop him." Li Longji said, "Tell him that he is Li Qian."

"I know that His Highness's background has long been known to the world. He..."

"I am Xue Bai." Standing in the sun, Xue Bai turned his head and said loudly without any taboo.

This is his name, the only thing he brought into this world that proves who he is.

After saying this, he seemed much more relaxed.

Li Longji and Gao Lishi were both a little stunned. In the end, Gao Lishi said awkwardly, "Your Highness is joking."

I don’t know who I was explaining this to.

As the light from outside the hall shone in, Li Longji's energy and blood dimmed instead.

After his last burst of vitality, his vitality is rapidly fading away.

The next day.

When Xue Bai went to visit Li Longji again, he was already dying.

"Your Highness, the Emperor has been holding on and wants to see you again."

Gao Lishi didn't cry, but his whole body exuded an air of decadence.

It's like a dying tree. You can't see it from the outside, but the trunk is already hollow.

"Li...Qian..."

Li Longji's face lying on the couch looked even uglier, giving people the feeling that he had begun to develop corpse spots.

He tried hard to raise his hand, but in the end he only managed to raise it a little.

"Promise me... don't do that..."

Xue Bai did not agree, but asked: "Besides this, does the emperor have any last wishes?"

Li Longji was no longer able to speak and could only look at Xue Bai.

"Let's listen to some music." Xue Bai said, waving his hand and making arrangements.

After a while, Ms. Fan came.

She kowtowed to Li Longji with tears in her eyes, without saying a word, waving her long sleeves and dancing in the hall.

Li Longji lay there on his back, without turning his head to look, silently waiting for death to come.

Afterwards, Li Guinian arrived with a group of musicians, set out their instruments and started playing.

The music is floating in the air, but the atmosphere of the past is no longer there.

Gao Lishi sensed something and bent down to listen to Li Longji's final instructions.

"I...want to see Taizhen again..."

Gao Lishi understood Li Longji best and knew that what he wanted to see was not only Yang Yuhuan, but also to return to that prosperous and glorious era.

This wish was not something Gao Lishi could decide, so he turned around and looked at Xue Bai.

Before he could speak, he followed Xue Bai's gaze and looked at Li Longji again, only to see that the retired emperor had passed away suddenly.

"Saburo."

"The Great Emperor."

"The Emperor has passed away!"

The musicians were all very sad. For them, this was the end of an era.

They would never meet another emperor who was as obsessed with music as Li Longji and treated them with great kindness.

But for Xue Bai and many more people, a new era will begin from now on.

~~
On this day, the Daming Palace was particularly deserted.

After the emperor and the retired emperor passed away, the palace became increasingly empty.

Under the veranda, Xue Bai personally supported Gao Lishi as they walked past.

To be able to have the crown prince who is about to ascend the throne personally support him is an honor that few people after Gao Lishi can enjoy.

The old man and the young man walked for a while, and Gao Lishi slowly spoke.

"I want to be buried with the Emperor, Your Highness, please grant my permission."

"Why bother?" Xue Bai said, "It's so good to be alive."

"I have made up my mind," Gao Lishi said, "and I have already taken the poison."

Xue Bai paused for a moment, and said, "I still remember the Lantern Festival in the sixth year of Tianbao. It was General Gao who protected me, but I haven't had the chance to repay General Gao yet."

"It is my duty to work for Your Highness. As long as Your Highness governs the Tang Dynasty well and stops saying those stupid things, I will rest in peace."

"It was you who arranged Guo Suo, right?" Xue Bai said.

"No."

"Even if you're lying, I can't tell."

Gao Lishi said, "If this old servant arranged it, I'm sure Du Erniang, with her talent, would have found it out long ago."

He sighed and said slowly, "At first, Your Highness did want to impersonate Li Qian, and deliberately led me to speculate in this direction. But after I investigated, I found that this matter was indeed true. Perhaps it was God's will."

Xue Bai didn't say anything else. He just thought of it as a way to repay Gao Lishi's previous kindness. There was no need for him to make Gao Lishi unable to close his eyes before his death.

That matter is not simple, and now is not the right time. We should do it later.

"I know that Your Highness will be a good emperor after he ascends the throne. That is enough. Thinking back to the Lantern Festival that year when I tried to protect Your Highness, I never thought that this day would come. We old guys are almost dead. It is better to die. If we die, the court will be safe..."

Gao Lishi kept talking all the way. He was an old man who had accompanied the Tang Dynasty for more than seventy years. If he really wanted to speak, he would have a lot to say.

Unfortunately, he had spent most of his life serving Li Longji and was no longer able to adapt to his new life.

When the two men arrived at the Hanxiang Hall, Gao Lishi's face had turned a strange dark blue color.

When Xue Bai helped him sit down, he found that his hands were shaking badly.

"Your Highness, I cannot bear to see Your Highness ascend the throne."

"Ah."

Gao Lishi then closed his eyes, and soon passed away with Li Longji.

Xue Bai stretched out his hand, but could not detect Gao Lishi's breath, so he turned and walked out of the Hanxiang Hall.

~~
In the following days, the ministers agreed on various rituals and submitted petitions to invite Xue Bai to ascend the throne.

The temple names for Li Longji and Li Cong were also decided.

Taking into account that Li Longji eventually seized power through a coup, some officials guessed that Xue Bai must be dissatisfied and proposed the character "Kang".

In this regard, Xue Bai privately asked Yan Zhenqing whether the character "Kang" or "Xuan" was better.

Yan Zhenqing said: "The source of the flow is Kang, the harvest is stable and peaceful is Kang, the indulgence in pleasure is Kang, the pursuit of virtue is Kang. As for Xuan, the light at the beginning and the darkness at the end is Xuan, and the response to the Lord is Xuan..."

Seeing that Xue Bai didn't quite understand, he simply said, "The word 'Xuan' means that it is difficult to evaluate and it is up to God to evaluate."

Xue Bai said: "Then let God judge."

He did think about giving Li Longji a beautiful posthumous title, such as Daizong, but in the end, he found that he did not want to evaluate Li Longji.

I guess Li Longji didn't want to be judged by the world.

To fulfill their wishes, there is no need for sons to discuss their fathers or ministers to discuss their kings; it is decided by God.

As for Li Cong, because he was in power for a short time, the ministers proposed the character "Mu".

This was also the result of trying to please Xue Bai. That is to say, they all knew that the achievement of suppressing the rebellion and stabilizing the country was made by Xue Bai.

What Xue Bai was thinking in his heart was, if he told them today that he was not a descendant of the Li family, would they still be so loyal to him?

Of course, he was still the Xue Bai who would do anything for power. He said nothing and walked silently towards the throne.

This was the seventh day of the fifth month of the third year of Shangyuan.

Twelve years have passed since Xue Bai came to Chang'an.

After twelve years of using countless conspiracies and tricks and killing countless people, he finally secured the throne.

Before daybreak, he put on his imperial robes and once again offered sacrifices to the heaven and the ancestors of the Li Tang Dynasty. He then issued an edict to the world and granted amnesty to the entire nation.

When the imperial carriage returned to Chang'an from the Temple of Heaven and passed through Zhuque Street, he heard the cheers of the people.

I have to admit that Xue Bai felt extremely excited.

But he also told himself in his heart that the people were not cheering for him, but were welcoming a new life.

As he thought of this, he saw the Suzaku Gate in front of him, and thought of Wang Han who had caused chaos at the Suzaku Gate, and thought of An Lushan, Shi Siming, Li Heng, Li Chu, Li Lin... and all those who had the same ambition as him.

It was a game of many heroes competing for supremacy, and he won.

But in fact, those people also once thought that they had won and were the only ones who had the final say.

Xue Bai will remember them.

After passing through the imperial city, turning into the Daming Palace and climbing up to the Danfeng Gate, Xue Bai accepted the worship of officials and people.

Then he slowly returned to the Xuanzheng Hall to reward the meritorious officials.

It is worth mentioning that Yan Zhenqing insisted that Xue Bai determine the crown prince on the day of his accession to the throne, and he formally submitted a memorial, writing down word by word the request to establish "Li Zuo" as the crown prince.

This incident made many people think that the grandfather was selfish. Even though he was from a Confucian family and a gentleman, he could not restrain himself in the face of power.

In the Tang Dynasty officialdom, many people have begun to guard against the excessive power of external relatives.

But Xue Bai still agreed to Yan Zhenqing's request, and said with a smile: "No matter what others say, I know that my father-in-law is acting out of public interest."

At that time, Yan Zhenqing said: "Your Majesty can change your self-proclaimed name."

In the main hall, the long imperial edict was read.

Xue Bai sat upright on the dragon throne, glancing at the ministers. He was a little uncomfortable, but he spoke slowly and forcefully.

"I……"

(End of this chapter)