Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors

Clearly, Emperor Gaozu of Liang was also likely pondering that if he didn't agree, what might come next wouldn't be Lord Qin, but rather a cup of poisoned wine or a rope.

So, the Xuanwu Gate Incident ended just like that.

The following episodes involved Lord Qin visiting Emperor Gaozu of Liang, who was holding his head and weeping bitterly. Shortly thereafter, Emperor Gaozu of Liang issued two edicts in one day, the "Edict to Appoint Lord Qin as Crown Prince" and the "Divine Yao's Mandate to the Crown Prince to Decide on the Affairs of the Realm," handing over all affairs of the state to Lord Qin.

After that, Lord Qin did three things.

The first was to reward his valiant vassals, boosting a few of Emperor Gaozu of Liang's old officials symbolically to sideline them from real power. He filled the entire court with civil and military officials from the Lord Qin Mansion, thus the pattern of the court during the era of the Zhenguan rule began to take shape.

The second was to eliminate the roots of future trouble by killing all the descendants of the Crown Prince and Prince Qi.

The third was to pacify the country; after treating Wei Zheng with grand honor, he sent him to various places to accept the surrender of the remaining forces of the Crown Prince, quickly restoring the country to stability.

Of course, rewarding the valiant vassals and pacifying the country was beyond question, but the act of eliminating the roots of trouble, killing all ten of his own nephews, seemed excessively cruel and left Lord Qin with a significant amount of infamy for generations to come.

But if one were to consider it from Lord Qin's perspective, such actions were absolutely necessary.

This was not only for the sake of Lord Qin himself but also for the valiant vassals who had launched the Xuanwu Gate Incident with him.

Lord Qin was now at the height of his power, but who could guarantee the future?

After Emperor Taizong's demise, should some people wish to seize the opportunity to stir up trouble, the remaining descendants of the Crown Prince and Prince Qi would become the ideal tools.

What's more, without killing these people, many old retainers of the Crown Prince and Prince Qi wouldn't give up hope and would be difficult to win over, posing a great hidden danger.

The most critical issue, though, was that valiant vassals of the Xuanwu Gate Incident, such as Yuchi Jingde and Hou Junji, needed Lord Qin to kill these people.

The descendants of Lord Qin would still be emperors in the future, so even if something went wrong, it might not impact them. However, "As the emperor changes, so do his retainers"—Yuchi Jingde, Hou Junji, and others held high positions and great power in this dynasty, but their descendants might not be able to protect this family fortune.

Should their power wane in the future, and the descendants of the Crown Prince and Prince Qi seek revenge, they could easily use plots and schemes to eradicate their descendants.

After all, the descendants of the Crown Prince and Prince Qi, no matter what, were still imperial kin and could readily find ways to eliminate descendants of people like Yuchi Jingde or Cheng Zhijie.

Thus, Lord Qin bearing these infamies himself was not only for his own sake but even more so for the sake of his subordinates.

This was not the only time Lord Qin took the blame for his subordinates.

For instance, historical records mention that Lord Qin shot down the Crown Prince, but it was not until he was entangled in combat with Prince Qi that Yuchi Jingde arrived at a gallop; what was Yuchi Jingde doing before that? It is very likely he was delivering the coup de grace to the Crown Prince.

Throughout the Xuanwu Gate Incident, the valiant vassals under Lord Qin indeed gave their utmost for him, and in later times when talking about the incident, all the blame had been decisively shouldered by Lord Qin alone, leaving no valiant vassal implicated or cursed for "beguiling Lord Qin."

Perhaps it was like when Lord Qin once personally covered the retreat for his soldiers on the battlefield.

With such a leader, who was willing to take all the blame on himself, capable and unwilling to pass the buck, it's no wonder that all the valiant vassal groups were unwaveringly loyal to Lord Qin.

As all settled into dust, a line of text appeared before Li Hongyun.

[Current event completion rate: 74%]

[You can repeat this segment to unlock more details and further raise completion rate.]

[Confirm to proceed to the next segment.]

"I've worked so hard, yet only got a 74% completion rate?"

Li Hongyun was somewhat surprised.

Clearly, there were many more details in the entire Xuanwu Gate Incident waiting for him to unearth.

This time, "Dark Sand" didn't directly reveal the entire truth to the players but let them continuously explore and unearth it themselves.

"Just to artificially extend the game's lifespan, huh?"

Li Hongyun even anticipated that the Xuanwu Gate Incident in "Dark Sand" would be fiercely researched by countless players, who would experiment with different choices and discuss the details over and over again.

However, he didn't plan to waste any more time on this segment.

With a completion rate of over 70%, he considered it passed and was ready to move on to the next phase.

In his view, the third layer of darkness had also been broken through, exposing the fourth layer.

Li Hongyun couldn't help but be curious, "What is the fourth layer of darkness? The extermination of the Turkic or the campaign against Goguryeo?"

In Li Hongyun's opinion, the most perilous and difficult part of Lord Qin's life was the Xuanwu Gate Incident.

The other battles, whether it was capturing the two kings at Hulao Pass, single-handedly repelling the Turkic at Wulong Slope and Wei River, or sending Li Jing to annihilate the Turkic and personally leading the campaign against Goguryeo, were nowhere near as dangerous as the Xuanwu Gate Incident.

The campaign against Goguryeo was the last battle led by Emperor Taizong of Liang in his later years. Although he couldn't completely wipe out Goguryeo in one battle, he achieved the greatest victory with the least losses—a significant triumph.

It was just that, among many wars that could easily lead to the destruction of nations, the achievements of the campaign against Goguryeo didn't seem as conspicuous.

For Emperor Taizong of Liang, these great battles were of sufficient scale and splendid results, but none tested him as much as the Xuanwu Gate Incident.

Following the Xuanwu Gate Incident, Emperor Taizong of Liang committed himself to governance, initiating the flourishing Zhenguan era. Not only did the nation's power rapidly recover, but foreign wars did not falter, with each battle achieving maximum results with minimal effort.

Similarly, with coups, some emperors became complacent and reckless after their success, while others used their success to motivate themselves, never daring to slack off.

Perhaps that was the biggest difference.

Li Hongyun lightly touched the fourth layer of darkness, but to his surprise, it didn't initiate the war against the Turkic nor the campaign against Goguryeo.

Instead, a familiar figure appeared in his vision.

Prince Qi.

Only this time, Prince Qi was clearly quite young, around sixteen or seventeen years old.

Based on the timeline, Prince Qi should be in Jinyang, which was when Emperor Gaozu of Liang had just started his rebellion.

Emperor Gaozu of Liang took the Crown Prince and Lord Qin to Chang'an for grand endeavors, but the youngest, Prince Qi, stayed in Jinyang.

However, in actual history, Prince Qi was rather disappointing, spending his days hunting in Jinyang, even taking pleasure in shooting at the townspeople for sport, resulting in the complete loss of public support.

By the time Liu Wuzhou attacked, Prince Qi fled back to Chang'an in a sorry state and directly lost the crucial stronghold of River East.

In Li Hongyun's vision, a prompt appeared.

"Role-play as Prince Qi, and win the Xuanwu Gate Incident."

Li Hongyun's mouth fell slightly open, speechless for a moment.

"Huh?"

At this point, "Dark Sand" seemed to be saying: You've already seen Lord Qin fight at Hulao Pass, repel the Turkic, and shed blood at the Xuanwu Gate. You couldn't be clearer about Lord Qin's background.

Now, it's your turn to take action.

Take out Lord Qin, please!