Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors

The most critical task should be to cooperate with Lord Qin himself to ambush the Crown Prince and Prince Qi, ensuring that these two must die. Otherwise, even if they control Emperor Gaozu of Liang, and the Changlin Army from the Crown Prince Mansion arrives, the situation would still be precarious.

Controlling Emperor Gaozu of Liang, on the other hand, was the second most important task.

The difficulty of this task was actually lower than ambushing the Crown Prince and Prince Qi, since the Crown Prince and Prince Qi were always on alert and had many private soldiers, whereas Emperor Gaozu of Liang had never imagined that his own sons would target him, hence was caught off guard.

Moreover, the majority of the manpower from Lord Qin Mansion was used to eliminate the imperial guards and take control of Emperor Gaozu of Liang.

Yuchi Jingde pursued the Crown Prince and Prince Qi with only a few dozen cavalry, so where were the other men assigned? Li Hongyun had been somewhat confused about this before, but now he was completely sure.

So, who specifically carried out this mission?

Li Hongyun suddenly recalled a person he had been overlooking.

"Hou Junji!"

In the aftermath of the Xuanwu Gate Incident, when summarizing the contributions, Yuchi Jingde undoubtedly ranked first.

Whether it was convincing Lord Qin to make up his mind beforehand, or personally leading the cavalry to rescue Lord Qin and shooting Prince Qi on the day of the incident, and then throwing the heads of the Crown Prince and Prince Qi at Xuanwu Gate causing the men from the Crown Prince Mansion to disperse, and finally confronting Emperor Gaozu of Liang himself, he had made his presence felt throughout the entire incident.

But the person who ranked second was Hou Junji.

The historical records do not detail what Hou Junji did during the Xuanwu Gate Incident, only mentioning that he was a central figure in the entire operation and offered many strategies.

But the question is, how did he "offer many strategies"? And Hou Junji was a military commander; his significant strategic contributions earning him second rank would surely make strategists like Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui wonder.

Being a military commander who contributed many strategies, yet not assigned any particularly important tasks during the final operation?

That didn't quite add up.

Despite the fact that Hou Junji later participated in the Crown Prince's rebellion case during Emperor Taizong's reign, resulting in a poor historical reputation, Emperor Taizong was a rather magnanimous person—despite not liking certain subjects, he would still record their merits.

Thus, the only explanation for Hou Junji's unrecorded deeds during the Xuanwu Gate Incident, where he was credited second, was that what he did during the incident was simply not recordable.

As Li Hongyun's understanding dawned, the scene before him started moving again.

"Hou Junji!

"You take five hundred brave soldiers to invite the emperor and the ministers… to go on a boat ride upstream of the Haichi."

Lord Qin looked toward Hou Junji, who excitedly accepted the command, "Yes! My Lord!"

Time shifted back to the day of the Xuanwu Gate Incident, only this time the scene Li Hongyun witnessed was significantly different.

Chang He, responsible for guarding Xuanwu Gate, opened the city gate, and Lord Qin's troops entered magnificently.

While Lord Qin and Yuchi Jingde began setting up an ambush near Linhudian, Hou Junji led the main force boldly into the imperial palace.

Along the way, any imperial guards who dared to block them were killed, ensuring the wide area from Xuanwu Gate to the vicinity of Linhudian was silent and without any disturbance.

Later, he charged into the deep palace, found Emperor Gaozu of Liang, who was discussing with the ministers, and "invited" them to go boating on Haichi.

Afterward, Hou Junji stayed there with his men, waiting until Yuchi Jingde had killed the Crown Prince and Prince Qi before coming over.

The historical records state that when Yuchi Jingde, blood-soaked and in armor, holding a spear, appeared before Emperor Gaozu, the emperor was "greatly startled" and asked, "Who is causing the chaos today, and why are you here?"

Yuchi Jingde replied, "The Crown Prince and Prince Qi led troops in rebellion, and Lord Qin and I have put them down. Lord Qin was worried about alarming Your Majesty, hence he sent me as a guard."

But under these circumstances, Emperor Gaozu being "greatly startled" was unreasonable, because he should have already been alarmed.

Then Emperor Gaozu asked those around him what they should do.

At that moment, there were not a few ministers with Emperor Gaozu on the boat, among them Yuwen Shiji and Yan Shigu were supportive of Lord Qin, Feng Lun and Dou Dan were fence-sitters, betting on both Lord Qin and the Crown Prince, while Xiao Yu and Chen Shuda typically spoke in defense of Lord Qin.

Among the people present, the only one truly opposed to Lord Qin and completely loyal to Emperor Gaozu was Pei Ji.

Pei Ji looked even paler than Emperor Gaozu at that moment.

That's because during the uprising in Jinyang, Pei Ji, Liu Wenjing, Lord Qin, and Emperor Gaozu were the four strategists, with Pei Ji and Liu Wenjing serving as Prime Ministers after Emperor Gaozu declared himself emperor.

However, Pei Ji staunchly supported Emperor Gaozu, while Liu Wenjing firmly supported Lord Qin.

Yet, Pei Ji and Emperor Gaozu ruthlessly killed Liu Wenjing, a fact that could make Lord Qin bear a grudge for a lifetime.

At this moment, if Emperor Gaozu did not agree to hand over power, there was only a fifty percent chance he would die, but Pei Ji was certain to die.

Driven by a strong will to survive, Pei Ji could only concur with the others.

Then, Xiao Yu and Chen Shuda suggested that Emperor Gaozu hand over power, Feng Lun and Dou Dan agreed that it was necessary, Yuwen Shiji stated that the emperor should have appointed Lord Qin as Crown Prince long ago, and Yan Shigu mentioned that he had already prepared the ink.

Everyone present unanimously agreed, asking Emperor Gaozu to transfer full control to Lord Qin.

And Emperor Gaozu could only sheepishly say that the suggestion was excellent and that he had actually been considering handing over full control to Lord Qin for a long time.