[Lightscreen]
[In times of chaos, human lives become cheaper than grass—and the flow of information becomes painfully unreliable.
When Hebei fell into rebel hands, Yan Zhenqing was trapped in Ping'an Commandery. He had no idea what had happened in Changshan Commandery.
By the time he raised a volunteer force and rushed toward Changshan, what greeted him was only his nephew Yan Jimin's corpse—and the news that his cousin Yan Gaoqing and the entire household had been shackled and taken to Luoyang by the rebels.
Yan Jimin was Yan Gaoqing's son.
The rebels had captured him, hoping to use the boy to force Yan Gaoqing into surrender.
Yan Gaoqing refused.
So his son was executed on the spot.
At that moment, Yan Zhenqing had no time to grieve.
He gathered his nephew's remains, conducted the bare minimum rites, and immediately led his volunteer army onward. His goal was Wei Commandery—to sever the rebels' northern retreat routes, to pin them down step by step, and to wrench the country back from rebellion.
Yan Zhenqing once fought with great momentum in Wei Commandery. At the time, he truly believed the rebellion would soon be over.
But reality struck quickly and mercilessly.
News arrived one after another:
his elder cousin's death,
the fall of Chang'an,
Emperor Suzong's ascension,
Guo Ziyi being forced to abandon Hebei and rush to Lingwu to pay court.
What Yan Zhenqing had thought would soon end now stretched endlessly into the distance.
The one piece of good news—if it could even be called that—was that Yan Zhenqing personally investigated the case of Wang Chengye falsely claiming Yan Gaoqing's achievements. The villain Zhang Tongyou was beaten to death with rods.
Later, when Tang forces recaptured the Eastern Capital Luoyang, Yan Gaoqing's eldest son Yan Quanming went there to recover his father's remains. He escorted the coffin to Chang'an and reburied him with honor at Fengqi Plain.
Yan Zhenqing returned to Chang'an for one reason only—to offer sacrifices to his fallen elder cousin.
Once again, he had little time to mourn.
Chang'an had only just been recovered. The court needed him. And he still held onto a fragile hope that the rebellion might soon end.
But reality proved cruel.
The following year, the rebellion did not end.
Instead, Yan Zhenqing received notice of his demotion.
Yan Zhenqing was a man of unbending integrity. Over fifty-one years in officialdom, his titles changed forty-nine times—testimony enough to his character.
The year 758 was a prime example.
Disliked by the chancellor, he was transferred from Censor-in-Chief to Prefect of Fengyi, then reassigned as Prefect of Pu Prefecture, and finally framed and demoted to Prefect of Rao Prefecture.
That October, while passing through Luoyang, Yan Zhenqing visited the tomb of his grand-uncle Yan Yuansun—Yan Gaoqing's father—and paid respects to the entire family.
He composed "Memorial for My Grand-Uncle", carved it into stone, and commemorated the loyal sacrifice of his cousin's household.
Afterward, he wrote "Draft Memorial for My Nephew" for Yan Jimin—the nephew he had personally buried, whose grave still lay in Hebei.
The loyal Yan clan seemed destined to reach its final chapter through Yan Zhenqing himself.
By the reign of Emperor Dezong, the infamous treacherous chancellor Lu Qi was running rampant, committing every manner of abuse. Yan Zhenqing repeatedly rebuked him to his face. Lu Qi never forgot the humiliation.
At the time, the warlord Li Xilie rebelled and took Ruzhou, Lu Qi suggested sending a "respected elder" to rebuke the rebel and deliver the imperial decree.
And in Lu Qi's view, no one fit that description better than Yan Zhenqing.
Another chancellor, Li Mian, objected immediately:
"If we lose a national elder this way, it is the court that will lose face!"
What no one expected was that Emperor Dezong agreed.
Almost every civil official tried to dissuade Yan Zhenqing from going.
Yan Zhenqing, however, replied simply:
"The emperor's command cannot be disobeyed."
After settling his family affairs, he set out without hesitation.
Before departing, he looked directly at Lu Qi and said:
"When your father's head was delivered to Pingyuan Commandery, his face was covered in the blood of loyalty. I could not bear to wipe it away with cloth—I cleaned it with my own tongue. And now you cannot tolerate even a fraction of others' integrity?"
Lu Qi's father was Lu Yi, who died seated upright at the Censorate, executed by rebels. His severed head was sent through Hebei along with those of Li Cheng and Jiang Qing.
It was Yan Zhenqing who killed Duan Ziguang and personally buried all three loyal ministers.
No one could have imagined that twenty-eight years later, matters would turn out this way.
After entering Li Xilie's camp, Yan Zhenqing was imprisoned for a year and a half. They tried every method to force him to submit.
They failed.
In August of 784, Yan Zhenqing was strangled to death.
He was seventy-six years old.]
Ganlu Hall
"Three generations of the Yan clan," Li Shimin murmured softly,
"two or three loyal martyrs."
"This," he said, "is the backbone of the Tang."
As for Emperor Dezong—
Li Shimin didn't even want to look.
Whether he ruled well or not was beside the point. One thing was certain: he had an uncanny talent for picking treacherous chancellors.
The moment someone spoke unpleasant truths—'the emperor will not listen.'
Later generations called this the "family tradition" of the Li Tang.
If it truly inherited Li Shimin's legacy, then why not learn from him—and keep a Wei Zheng as a mirror?
Thinking this, Li Shimin glanced at Wei Zheng.
Their eyes met.
Wei Zheng clasped his hands and said:
"Has Your Majesty heard of the Yan family instructions?"
Li Shimin shook his head.
"I suspect Yan Zhenqing belonged to the Yan clan of Linyi in Langya," Wei Zheng continued.
"His ancestor Yan Zhitui was a great scholar, said to have written Family Instructions."
"They covered the education of children, household governance, moral conduct, admiration of the worthy, diligence in learning, and restraint in affairs."
Education of children.
That caught Li Shimin's attention.
He suddenly recalled something:
"Yan Zhou and Yan Shigu—I promoted them as Vice Directors of the Secretariat, granting Yan Zhou the title Baron of Langya. Shortly afterward, he resigned to observe mourning. By now, that period should be over."
Li Shimin remembered the matter clearly.
He had just promoted Yan Zhou, only for the man to resign immediately on grounds of mourning. It left Li Shimin feeling vaguely uncomfortable, as though the man were deliberately avoiding favor.
Later, pressing affairs pushed the thought aside.
Now it seemed he had misjudged him.
I should summon him and ask in detail, Li Shimin decided.
It might not help—but doing something was better than doing nothing.
"That Lu Qi is truly a beast," Du Ruhui said bluntly.
"Someone like him still managed to become chancellor?" Fang Xuanling said, shaken.
Then again—after seeing Fang Guan rise from idle official to Supreme Commander of All Armies in under half a year, perhaps Lu Qi was not so surprising after all.
In the end, Fang Xuanling could only sigh:
"When treacherous ministers control the court, loyal men are inevitably excluded."
"Barely twenty years after the An–Shi Rebellion—and the old disasters are already forgotten."
Chengdu.
Zhang Fei couldn't wrap his head around it.
"Xuanzong was senile in his later years. Suzong never looked like a real ruler. Li Yu—Emperor Daizong—seems dull enough. And this Dezong lets treacherous ministers run wild."
"Generation after generation of muddle-headed emperors—how did the Tang even survive?"
Fa Zheng chuckled.
"On the residual fortune of the Great Tang, of course."
"Men like Yan Zhenqing were still shedding blood for the court in Dezong's time because they had received the blessings of a prosperous age."
"That's why they dared speak straight—and die without fear."
Zhang Fei had nothing to say.
He could only marvel at how terrifying that residual fortune was, unable to imagine what the Tang looked like at its absolute peak.
Liu Bei didn't dare speak.
He was afraid that if he opened his mouth, he'd laugh.
He had once been deeply dissatisfied with A'dou. Now, it seemed he had wronged the boy.
And at this moment, Liu Bei finally understood why later generations sighed:
"To have a son—one should have Sun Zhongmou."
Forget distant history.
Just among the emperors of the An–Shi Rebellion—replace any one of them with Sun Quan's nephew, and things would never have collapsed so badly.
As for replacing them with A'dou?
Liu Bei almost wanted to ask whether Li Bi—the so-called true Zhuge praised by the light-screen—ever missed Shu's A'dou when facing "the emperor will not listen."
Struggling to keep his expression neutral, Liu Bei lifted his head—
And saw a piece of calligraphy, heavily revised and overwritten.