Chapter 98 National Stability and Interests
Du Qing died after exhausting her efforts, and when Li Yuanba brought back her corpse, which was as dry as a withered branch, grief filled the entire Wang Ye Fu! As one of the main mistresses, Du Qing was known for being extremely considerate of those below her and had excellent relationships.
"Yuán Bà, you've been guarding for five days! It's time to let Qíng'ér rest in peace......" Wáng Tíng and the others persuaded Lǐ Yuán Bà. Since returning, Lǐ Yuán Bà hadn't eaten or drunk, holding onto Dù Qíng's corpse without letting go! Although the legendary Dù Qíng's body had dissipated its spiritual energy, it wouldn't rot even under scorching sun for a hundred years......
"It's useless..." Li Yuanba responded negatively, and with a flash of flames, the corpse of Du Qing in his arms directly turned into ashes floating between his hands!
Then Li Yuanba ordered someone to make a small ash box and hung it on his chest.
Du Qing's death made Li Yuanba realize what it means to destroy one's own Great Wall! When he heard that Li Daoxuan had also dispersed his powers and died, his determination to rectify the Li family became even firmer! As Li Daoxuan was one of the earliest brothers to follow Li Yuanba, this time his death can be said to be caused by that scoundrel's own hand! But now that things have come to this point, what else can Li Yuanba do to that granddaughter? Kill her? She has already been imprisoned for life, is the death of his wife and brother not enough?!
Li Yuanba did not hold a funeral for Du Qing, which left people all over the world extremely perplexed.
"No need for a funeral! Not to mention the waste of manpower and money, what's the point of those empty rituals when people are already dead?! I don't care about others, but from now on, there will never be any funerals in my household! After death, cremation is the only option, and the ashes will be placed in the imperial ancestral temple!" Li Yuanba coldly put an end to everyone's idea of holding a state funeral for Du Qing, and set down this rule for his family.
"What about us then?" Aya glared at the small bone ash box on Li Yuanba's chest, asking unwillingly.
"You? Ah, if you die before me, I will be like this..." Li Yuanba held Aya in his arms and responded with a gentle voice.
"Hmm! Now I can rest assured, I don't want to leave you!" The Ayada in his arms smiled contentedly, along with several other women.
After nearly a hundred years of living together, Li Yuanba and his wives' feelings for each other have become extremely deep. However, seeing that Li Yuanba still looks the same as before makes Wang Ting and the others feel panicked, especially after Du Qing's death, which made them feel even more desperate inside. They were deeply afraid that Li Yuanba would change his feelings towards them, so they had been trying to figure out their husband's true thoughts for these past few days. Now that they know what Li Yuanba is thinking, the worries in their hearts have started to dissipate a little...
"I will definitely hang on your chest before I thoroughly grow old!" Several girls looked at each other and almost simultaneously made up their minds!
Women are happy with their own decisions, and this decision will inevitably intensify Li Yuanba's future pain and add to the heart-wrenching wounds! Any selfish decision is a weapon that hurts those closest to them, but such a decision also represents how wild their love for Li Yuanba is!
Li Yuanba can't read minds, otherwise he would have made some unpredictable moves by now!
It wasn't until a year later, after Du Qing's death, that Li Yuanba had the heart to make time to sort out the next generation of the Li family.
In 710, Li Yuanba and his son Li Xing sat in the former imperial palace waiting for the arrival of Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji. When Li Jiancheng arrived, Li Yuanba truly realized the power of a hundred years of flowing water!
White-haired Li Jiancheng has grown old, the legendary Li Jiancheng is now 121 years old, with less than 30 years left before his demise! The seemingly agile big brother's body has begun to show signs of aging, forming a stark contrast with the energetic Li Yuangui who followed after him. One step at a time, the hundred-year-old Li Yuangui, who appears to be in his thirties, is still full of vitality...
After some small talk, they began to carefully review the information on the table about all the second-generation descendants of the Li family! Since there were so many people from their generation onwards, they didn't know until they looked at these materials, and even Li Yuanba was a bit unsteady!
It's shocking! The Li family, as a royal family and the only noble family in the current Tang Dynasty, can imagine how arrogant they are! In front of Li Yuanba, his children are nothing, their arrogance is suppressed to the lowest level, and Li Yuanba dislikes the style of relying on power. But what about those who are far away from Li Yuanba's sight? The older generation are products of feudal society, looking down on people is normal, and the younger generation is even more arrogant! Some individuals even view human life as worthless...
The Tang Dynasty has developed to this day, and it can be said that there is not much difference with today's society. Everything that should exist exists, and everything that shouldn't also exists! People's lives are also rich, but the development is too fast, leaving their thoughts still spinning in place. This has resulted in spiritual civilization lagging behind material civilization, and it's already quite fortunate if no major chaos erupts! The descendants of the Li family have no restraint on power, with such consequences...
The older generation, under the pressure of Li Yuanba, did not dare to cause trouble. The younger generation, however, was unscrupulous and took advantage of their royal identity to bully men and women, plunder other people's property, and instruct officials to become their lackeys. They even secretly altered the system set by Li Yuanba that prohibited officials' children from holding office, using it to promote their own trusted people! The common people now have money, but having money does not mean happiness. They are being exploited by these incompetent descendants who use their power to brutally suppress anyone who dares to express dissenting opinions! Their actions have left a deep-seated resentment among the people, and once Li Yuanba passes away, the energy that erupts will immediately overthrow the Li family's rule!
They plunder everything they see, and most of the economic lifelines of the Tang Dynasty are under their control. They live in extreme luxury and corruption! They even organize people to smuggle all mid-to-low-end technological resources from the Tang Dynasty, occasionally smuggling half-finished high-tech products...
"Hahaha... I really didn't expect this! Our descendants are so colorful and talented, they say that a big forest has all kinds of birds, but it turns out that most of our descendants are making great contributions to the Great Tang by demolishing bricks and tiles! The system of my Great Tang can't even control its own children, do they think this world is really their own? Look, look! Li Xing, you scoundrel! How did you manage the world we entrusted to you? It's been messed up by these insects, don't you have any shame?! " Li Yuanba was furious and laughed sarcastically, staring at his sweaty son and scolding him severely.
"Father, this can't be blamed on me! It was your order to investigate that allowed me to obtain such information. I had sent people to investigate long ago, but these officials colluded with each other to deceive me. How could I have known about these matters? I also have a heart but no power!" Li Xing was sweating profusely, but his heart was extremely stifled! Every year at the Members' Congress, there were only good news and the systems established were very perfect, but when it came to things that their own family had done, which member dared to expose them?
Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji were also frightened by what they saw, for they knew the consequences of this uneven distribution! Since they came of age, they had been fighting battles in the south and north. If a superior took all the benefits for himself, it already showed that he had no chance of winning and would definitely lead to his subordinates becoming disheartened or even defecting to others. The current situation clearly revealed a serious consequence: all the systems of the Tang Dynasty were aimed at the people under heaven, but did not include the imperial family! The interests of the people under heaven were all concentrated in the imperial family. Now that it has not erupted, it shows that the people under heaven are waiting, either for someone to take charge for them or for the day when he dies!
Their eyes were filled with complex emotions as they looked at Li Yuanba, and the public's attention was focused on him. Now they all knew that Li Yuanba had become an object of cold observation by people from all over the world, and it was hard to imagine the immense pressure he was under! Moreover, this pressure was given to him by his own flesh and blood, which put Li Yuanba in a difficult position. What's more, those petition papers were filled with determination to die, every word was written with a firm resolve! Li Yuanba personally ordered an investigation, and unexpectedly received such a reaction from the people! These petitions had just been delivered, they were all from people who had been driven to desperation by the good sons and daughters of the imperial family, risking their lives to express their grievances. This also included ordinary people, even the families of legendary warriors who had followed them in battle. This showed that these people were reckless to what extent, and the mysterious disappearances of legendary figures were all their doing, which was more terrifying than destroying the Great Wall!
But as soon as they saw Li Yuanba's eyes full of murderous aura, the two of them immediately became vigilant!
"Li Yuanba! These people are all our close relatives, you can't be reckless!" Li Jiancheng panicked! He knew that the current Li Yuanba would absolutely do something unimaginable to them. These people were the backbone of the imperial family, and their future was at stake!
"Are they worthy of being the closest relatives?! Look! What have they done?! Once I'm gone, every single person in the Li family will be hunted down and killed by people from all over the world! The future of the Li family is nothing but a fart!" Li Yuanba loudly cursed on the imperial court where everyone's eyes were focused, his voice carrying far away.
Li Yuanba's angry scolding had already been heard by the guards waiting outside, and some of these loyal guards even showed a sad expression on their faces!
"The war god we have revered in our hearts has finally seen our suffering! Lord of War, do you know that you have always been our God? We suffered and believed that you would avenge us!"
"God of War! This time you must take charge for us, otherwise we can only stand guard for the last time..."
“。。。。。。。”
These are all born-to-die warriors! Now their inner thoughts are not mixed with any falsehood, those imperial descendants order them around, and if they're slightly displeased, they might disappear from the face of the earth! Among them are also the children of missing mythological figures, who firmly believe that the War God will one day see the ones who have taken charge for them. Li Yuanba has that kind of temperament, whoever has followed Li Yuanba is well aware of it!
This is not an exaggeration, under the sky, except for Li Yuanba, no one would look down on them. The rotten ideas left by feudal society have not changed at all! Not to mention these spoiled royal sons, what about the legendary masters? They are still just servants of my family...
The angry curses continue!
"The empire built by our ancestors will never be ruined by these trash! What's the use of having them? These descendants who don't even have a sense of national consciousness, I'd rather kill them all than tolerate their existence! If need be, we can find someone from another family to be the emperor. I truly believe that apart from those with the surname Li, no one else is capable of ruling this world! You good-for-nothing kid, do you think being an emperor means just doing whatever you want? Your right to know has been taken away, what's the point of even being on the throne?! Qing'er was driven to death by your self-reproach, are you going to drive me to death with anger too?! Li Yuanba scolded more and more furiously, finally becoming so enraged that he could hardly stand upright!"
"They are all my nephews and nieces, how can I bear to lay hands on them? I am also helpless!" Li Xing also strongly defended himself.
"Get out! Are you the emperor or are they the emperor? Anyone who dares to disrupt national stability, I'll have them killed! Kill them all and then give birth to more for me! With a lifespan of over 100 years, what's there to fear about not having descendants?! Bring it on!" Li Yuanba finally didn't want to drag things out anymore and directly shouted for someone to carry out the bloody order!
Everyone in the world knew that Li Yuanba would stir up a bloody storm because of the death of his loved ones, but this time it really exceeded their expectations. This time, the bloodshed did not occur elsewhere, but instead stirred up a huge wave within the imperial family itself!
Although the bloodshed this time has made people secretly oppose the war god's coldness and ruthlessness, it has filled the Li family, who currently rule the Great Tang, with confidence, firmly believing that the Great Tang will prosper. This storm is the first shot in the rapid development of spiritual civilization, and the core idea is - national stability above all! National interests are higher than everything!
