Chapter 307 Shocking Change
At the end of the first year of Yining, King Li Yuan of Tang and his sons celebrated the New Year in Luoyang.

After the New Year, Li Yuan led most of the central army back to Guanzhong. Almost all of the 100,000 Jianghuai troops returned to Jianghuai and Xuzhou. Li Yuanhui himself only brought 300 cavalrymen with him. In addition, Zhu Deyu and the five generals Liu Yuanqing, Zhang Gonglie, Xiao Shizhi, and Chang Yanheng accompanied him to Guanzhong, which was also a grace. After all, not everyone was qualified to witness such a major event as abdication.

At this time, Chang'an was still celebrating the festival. From the New Year's Eve until the 14th, 15th and 16th of the first lunar month, the whole of Chang'an was in a festive atmosphere.

Li Xiaoyan, the Shangshu Ling, Xijing Liebulige, and Fujun General who stayed in Chang'an, was the actual controller of Chang'an after Li Yuan left, and he was busy all day long.

Firstly, he had to be busy with the affairs of the entire court. As the Shangshu Ling, he was one of the prime ministers and the highest ranking one. Li Yuan was not in Chang'an, so many things required him to make decisions.

Secondly, Li Yuan had already sent someone to inform us that he would return to Chang'an in early February. In addition to holding a grand welcoming ceremony, he also had to prepare the procedures required for abdication.

In the eyes of the Li family, the little emperor had already accepted his fate and had always been very cooperative, without showing any ambition.

Therefore, many times, even the few Palace Attendants, Imperial Court Assistants, and Secretariat Assistants, whom Li Yuan specially arranged to keep an eye on the emperor, relaxed their vigilance and spoke in a rather disrespectful manner.

After all, they were all Li family confidants and in-laws, otherwise they would not have been chosen by Li Yuan to do this. Naturally, they could not say how much respect they had for this puppet emperor.

On the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, people inside and outside the palace were preparing to celebrate the Lantern Festival, and colorful lanterns were being decorated in various markets in Chang'an.

At noon, Li Xiaoyan, who was handling government affairs in the Secretariat, was summoned to the palace along with several prime ministers with a piece of good news.

The queen gave birth to a child.

Queen Li Rong was Li Xiaoyan's sister. Although she was born out of wedlock, she was still a family member after all. When the emperor summoned him into the palace with this news, Li Xiaoyan did not think much about it.

The commander of the palace guards and the close ministers around the emperor are all members of the Li family, so he never feels that he needs to worry about any security issues.

All the way into the palace, nothing seemed to be wrong.

Several generals in charge of the palace guards saluted when they saw Li Dalang coming in, and Li Dalang also greeted them with a smile.

Everything was normal until we entered the Taiji Palace.

Li Dalang, Shangshu You Pushe Sima Xiuye, and Zhongshu Ling Xu Shijiang entered the hall and congratulated the puppet emperor very politely. After all, the queen gave birth to a son, which meant that the emperor had a legitimate eldest son.

Although the emperor was a puppet, he had to do his job properly and keep his face.

Emperor Murong Chang looked flattered and personally walked down the steps to chat with several prime ministers.

The distance between the several people was very close. The emperor came down the steps to respond, and the ministers naturally had to bow and salute to show their respect.

But at this moment, something strange happened.

Just as several prime ministers bowed their heads, Murong Chang suddenly stepped forward, pulled out a dagger from his sleeve, and stabbed Li Xiaoyan in the back of the neck. Originally, the three of them had their heads down, but Murong Chang's movements were reflected in the light, and the three of them could see their shadows on the ground. Li Xiaoyan saw the shadow and hurriedly dodged, but was still stabbed in the shoulder. Sima Xiuye ​​also reacted quickly. He stepped forward and pushed Murong Chang away, then helped Li Xiaoyan up and immediately prepared to take him out of the hall. The Minister of the Central Secretariat Xu Shijiang was already stunned by this sudden change.

At this time, more than a dozen eunuchs suddenly rushed into the side halls on both sides, all holding wooden sticks for washing clothes. They ran straight to Li Xiaoyan and Sima Xiuye, shouting "Obey the imperial edict and kill the traitors."

After all, Li Xiaoyan was born into a family of military honors and had practiced martial arts since childhood. He also showed some bloodiness at the critical moment. He directly pulled out the knife from his shoulder. When he saw the eunuchs outside the hall, his first reaction was to capture the little emperor as a hostage, but when he turned around, the little emperor had already disappeared.

But the eunuchs had already rushed forward, and Li Xiaoyan shouted, "What do you want to do? Do you want to die?"

After saying that, he walked forward with a knife and glared at me.

Seeing this, the group of eunuchs were immediately stopped by Li Xiaoyan. At this time, the imperial guards outside the palace finally arrived.

Seeing this, they hurried forward and captured all the eunuchs. Li Xiaoyan didn't care about the knife wound on his shoulder, and followed the imperial guards and said, "Your Majesty is crazy, come with me to invite His Majesty back."

"Yes." The imperial guards outside the palace were all Li Yuan's personal troops in Shu, and they only recognized the Li family.

Afterwards, Li Xiaoyan ran directly to the passage behind the hall.

After asking along the way, we learned that the emperor went to the Xuanwu Gate in the north, and it seemed that he was going to the Western Inner Courtyard.

Because of the pain from the knife wound on his shoulder, Li Xiaoyan sneered, and his whole face looked particularly ferocious. He immediately led the hundreds of soldiers to the north, and at the same time ordered people to notify Gao Zheng, who was in charge of the palace guards, to come to Xuanwu Gate.

When they arrived at Xuanwu Gate, the entire gate was wide open, which made Li Xiaoyan a little suspicious, because under normal circumstances, the little emperor should be blocked outside Xuanwu Gate.

After all, He Chang, the captain in charge of the Xuanwu Gate, was a close confidant of the Li family and had also served as Li Yuan's bodyguard. Under the current circumstances, would he dare to open the door without permission and let the little emperor go?
At this time, Li Xiaoyan had a bad premonition in his heart, and then he looked towards the city wall of Xuanwu Gate, only to see Captain He Chang standing with the little emperor, surrounded by a dozen armored soldiers, who seemed to be guarding him.

Chang He saw Li Xiaoyan and said, "Lord, your Majesty is lost here. We are worried about your safety, so we are protecting your Majesty here."

When Li Xiaoyan saw this, he felt relieved and walked forward with big strides.

Just as he was about to reach the city gate, the ominous sign came to his mind again. Then Li Xiaoyan stopped moving forward and shouted to He Chang: "Captain He, please bring His Majesty over. I will take His Majesty back to the palace."

Chang He heard this, but did not act immediately. Instead, he looked at the little emperor next to him hesitantly.

At this time Li Xiaoyan realized that something was wrong, so he turned around and hid among the soldiers, but the little emperor shouted loudly, "Shoot."

Then a group of men armed with bows and crossbows appeared from behind the city gate and shot dozens of arrows in an instant, heading straight for the team led by Li Xiaoyan.

Because Li Xiaoyan moved quickly and the soldiers pushed forward intentionally, the dozens of arrows did not hurt him.

But at this time, there was a man on the city wall who drew his bow and shot an arrow through the battlement, hitting Li Xiaoyan in the back. This man was named Murong Yanqing, a member of the Great Yan royal family and a key member of the conspiracy involving the young emperor.

Li Xiaoyan was not wearing armor, but the arrow was so accurate and powerful that it pierced his body directly.

The guards desperately protected him behind them, then lifted him up and retreated.

At this time, the young emperor was a little annoyed because he didn't know whether Li Xiaoyan was alive or dead, and the next thing would be difficult to deal with.

As long as Li Xiaoyan was alive, the forces belonging to the Li family in the city would have a backbone.

If he had followed the original plan and taken his head directly, things would have been different. He had planned today's events for a long time.

Because he knew that once Li Yuan came back, he would have no chance at all.

He was the commander of Xuanwu Gate. He contacted Murong Yanqing through the eunuch and asked Murong Yanqing to bribe him with a large sum of money and promise him an official position, which successfully made He Chang defect.

Li Yuan was a very cautious and suspicious person. The only chance for him to regain power was if Li Yuan was not in Chang'an. Then he would find a chance to kill Li Xiaoyan, the prince of Tang who stayed behind, so that the Li forces in the city would be leaderless. Then he would use the emperor's edict to call on the military and civilians in Chang'an to help him resist the Li family.

At the same time, the most important thing is to rely on external forces. Without a strong external aid, neither Murong Yanqing nor He Chang dared to bet on his skills.

At this moment, tens of thousands of Turkic cavalry were stationed north of the Wei River.

(End of this chapter)