Soon, Changsun Wuji hurried over. He walked into the study and saw Li Shimin sitting on the table pondering and silently, so he stepped forward and bowed, "See Your Highness!"

"Please sit down!"

Changsun Wuji sat down and waited for Li Shimin's orders. Li Shimin pondered for a moment and asked, "How about Xuanwu Fire Phoenix?"

Xuanwu Fire Phoenix was an assassin organization in the Wuchuan Association in the past, and was later disbanded by Yuan Min. However, last year, under the instruction of his father, Li Shimin also established a special warrior organization, which followed the name "Xuanwu Fire Phoenix". There were thirty people, including twenty Xuanwu and ten fire Phoenixes. They were adopted with a lot of money, and they were all very skilled in martial arts.

They are not only assassins, but also surveillance, intelligence inquiry, etc. However, this Xuanwu Fire Phoenix is ​​not external, but only internal to the Tang Dynasty. The Foreign Intelligence Agency is in the hands of Prince Li Jiancheng.

This Xuanwu Fire Phoenix is ​​managed by Changsun Wuji and directly obeys Li Shimin's orders, but Li Shimin has no right to use them. Only the emperor Li Yuan can call them. They are actually Li Yuan's secret organization, but Li Yuan did it very cleverly and asked his son to control it for him, so that he has nothing to do with this assassin organization.

Changsun Wuji bowed and said, "Report to Your Highness, they are very good and are on standby at any time."

Li Shimin nodded and sighed again, "Today, the palace sent the beast head order."

The Xuanwu Fire Phoenix has been used many times before, and it is basically a surveillance minister. There is no precedent for assassination so far, and the Beast Head Order means that the first assassination mission has come.

However, Changsun Wuji was not surprised. Xuanwu Fire Phoenix itself was an assassin organization, so of course he knew that the assassination order would arrive sooner or later.

Li Shimin took the note on the table and handed it to him, "You can take a look!"

Changsun Wuji opened the note and was shocked. He looked up at Li Shimin in surprise. Li Shimin knew that he would react like this, so he smiled bitterly and said, "I was as shocked as you at first, but I could not refuse the words of my father."

"Is it because of Song Jingang's incident?" Changsun Wuji asked in confusion.

"It's not that simple!"

Li Shimin shook his head and said, "The ice is not cold for a day. The incident of Song King Kong is just the last straw that crushed the camel."

"Then why do you do this? Your Highness, it's not the time!"

"You are wrong. Now the imperial court is full of dangers. Many people have secretly communicated with the Northern Sui Dynasty. The Guanlong nobles are no exception. The secret assistance to Song Jingang incident was just a part of the stone exposed on the water. We happened to find it. But we don't know how big the part under the water is. The father has no idea, so he simply attacked Dugu Shun to shock the betrayal of other Guanlong nobles."

Changsun Wuji pondered for a moment, and asked in confusion: "Since the evidence of the affair with Song Jingang is conclusive, why did the emperor not publicly order him to commit suicide, but instead use Xuanwu Fire Phoenix to attack?"

Li Shimin said lightly: "I believe that my father made this decision after careful consideration. I personally think it was because of the Guanlong nobles. In the early years of Daye, Yang Guang publicly executed Yuan Zhou and Yuan Yan, and later forced Yuan Min to death. The Guanlong nobles broke with him from then on. The father did not want to break with the Guanlong nobles, so he did not want to deal with it publicly, but he also needed to shock the Guanlong nobles and let them understand the consequences of betrayal. Therefore, he used this method to warn, Wuji, you and I are both members, and we should understand the painstaking efforts of the emperor to do this."

Changsun Wuji sighed secretly for a while. If someone among the Guanlong nobles had already developed a sense of treason, he might have attacked Dugu Shun to make the heart of betrayal grow even more. This is an unsolvable death ring. When Yang Jian abdicated to Northern Zhou, the seeds of today's disaster were planted.

Changsun Wuji nodded silently and held the note tightly in the palm of his hand.

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Li Xiaoji's palace is located in Guanglufang. It is a large mansion covering an area of ​​nearly 100 acres. Li Xiaoji is the cousin of Emperor Li Yuan. In addition, he is quite capable, so he has always been highly valued by Emperor Li Yuan. He was successively named the Minister of the Honglu Temple and the General Manager of Tongzhou, and has the military power in the eastern part of Guanzhong.

A few months ago, Li Yuan ordered his son Li Yuanji to be the commander and led 30,000 Guanzhong troops to attack the rebellious bandit Song Jingang. Li Yuan also knew that his son was simple-minded and had an impatient temper, so he appointed Li Xiaoji, who was cautious, as his deputy general and went north to suppress the bandits with Li Yuanji. Li Yuan was also worried that ordinary people would not be able to control Li Yuanji, so he asked his cousin to follow him to fight.

As soon as the Tang army entered Yan'an County, they had an encounter with Song Jingang's army. As a result, the Tang army won three battles and killed Song Jingang. At this time, Li Xiaoji had already seen that Song Jingang had a problem, but Li Yuanji was furious and refused to listen to advice. He directly led his army to pursue the enemy. As a result, he was trapped in Fushi County by Song Jingang's army. The food was cut off, all the war horses were slaughtered, and the soldiers dug up rats to live.

Li Xiaoji was afraid that Li Yuanji would die in Kushi County, so he had to bite the bullet and go north to provide assistance. In the end, he was ambushed by the 80,000 Song King Kong army and the 20,000 Tang army was destroyed. Li Xiaoji was shot in three consecutive arrows, one of which was shot in the head. If he had not been rescued by his personal soldiers, he would have died in Yan'an County on the spot.

However, in the Sui and Tang dynasties, once an arrow was shot in the head, the chances of survival were extremely slim. The difference was just death early and late. Li Xiaoji survived for a month in Chang'an, but he was eventually killed.

That night, a spiritual shed was set up in front of the royal palace. There was a burst of crying in the mansion. All the servants and several wives and concubines were wearing mourning clothes and knelt in front of the spiritual shed and cried bitterly.

The next morning, the princes and ministers rushed to praise Li Xiaoji for his filial piety. Since Li Xiaoji had no descendants, only a few nephews of the Li clan could serve as filial sons for him.

At noon, the princely officials who came to cheer for filial piety were standing in front of the prince's mansion. At this time, a carriage slowly came to the front of the prince's mansion. Two sword-wielding warriors helped out the trembling Dugu Shun from the carriage. Since Dugu Shun was questioned by the emperor for the Song King Kong incident, he seemed to have grown ten years old overnight and basically stopped going out and hid deep in the house.

If you look closely, you will find that Dugu Shun's old attitude is a bit strange. He just staggers and needs support to walk. However, his gray-white silver hair is still a lot, and his eyes are still as sharp as before.

However, no one would notice Dugu Shun's strangeness at this time. Since there were too many people coming to mourn the filial piety, everyone could only simply burn incense to comfort their families. Greeting in front of the mourning hall was a disrespect of the deceased. Therefore, even if the colleagues met, they just nodded and left.

Dugu Shun left his name on the signature book at the door. This was the purpose of his trip and showed his sincerity. As the head of the Dugu family, he came to personally praise Li Xiaoji despite his age and weakness. I believe that Li Yuan would see it and dilute the adverse effects of Song Jingang.

Dugu Shun put on a veil dress and wrapped her head in white cloth. He comforted Li Xiaoji's wife a few words, then kowtowed Li Xiaoji in front of the spiritual throne. Several Li children next to him quickly helped him up.

Dugu Shun said in tears: "I remember that Xiaoji was taught by me when he was a child. Now, although he unfortunately died early, he sacrificed his life for the country. What awesome!"

Several Li's children were very moved and shed tears together, saying, "After the master of my hometown, my uncle can rest in peace."

Dugu Shun encouraged them a few more words, inheriting their elders' unfulfilled will, continuing to serve the country, etc., and then staggered away with a cane.

Two warriors helped him onto the carriage, and eighteen escort warriors got on the horse one after another. The coachman asked, "Master, are you going home directly?"

"Go home!"

Dugu Shun, who got on the carriage, had straightened his waist and his aging aura was wiped out. Although he was over 70 years old, he was very well maintained, without any blurry eyes, deaf ears, full of silver hair, and was in good spirits. He pretended to be very weak and aged when going out or when receiving guests.

Dugu Shun did not regret helping Song Jingang. Perhaps he was revenge for Li Yuan's appointment of Dou Lu Kuan as prime minister, but just a few days ago he received important news that the Northern Sui army had captured Yulin County. He immediately realized that the Sui army was about to take action against the northern part of the pass, and Song Jingang might be a chess piece set up by Zhang Xuan. Otherwise, with the sharpness of the Sui cavalry, how could Song Jingang escape the Yellow River?

Moreover, there are many Gaonu Oil Wells in Yan'an County of Dugu family. Dugu Shun also learned that the Sui army had a deal with Song Jingang and used military armor to exchange Gaonu Oil. Dugu Shun was even more certain that the Northern Sui army supported Song Jingang behind their backs.

As the head of the Dugu family, Dugu Shun certainly had to consider the future of the family. Once the Tang Dynasty was defeated by the Northern Sui Dynasty, where should his family go?

Moreover, when Dou Qing valued Zhang Xuan, he offended Zhang Xuan. This incident made Dugu Shun regret it all the time. He had to admire Dou Qing's unique vision. If he could win over Zhang Xuan back then, the Dugu family would have a completely different fate.

Thinking of this, Dugu Shun couldn't help but sigh secretly, just to see if he could make up for the loss and get some room from the Northern Sui Dynasty.

At this moment, the carriage stopped with a 'ga!', Dugu Shun was caught off guard and almost fell from his seat. This made him angry and asked, "What's going on?"

"Master, there are dead people blocking the road ahead, and the clothes seem to be from our mansion."

Dugu Shun was stunned, opened the curtain and looked out, and saw two corpses lying on the ground in front of them, indeed wearing the uniforms of servants in their mansion. At this time, the warriors rushed forward to check.
Chapter completed!