Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors

After getting this result, Li Hongyun silently sighed.

As expected, the nature of this damned game was consistent; his guess had been correct!

Which meant, even if he had helped the Crown Prince eliminate Lord Qin in the first phase, it wouldn't have counted as clearing the level, because that would have been the Crown Prince's victory, not Prince Qi's.

The game was still ongoing.

Even if Li Hongyun had helped the Crown Prince kill Lord Qin, or helped Lord Qin kill the Crown Prince, he would have had to continue and eliminate both the Crown Prince and Lord Qin to succeed.

This was going to be difficult.

To kill Lord Qin after helping him win the Xuanwu Gate Incident?

The difficulty just skyrocketed, it was better not to help Lord Qin from the start.

Therefore, at the first opportunity after completing the Xuanwu Gate Incident, as Lord Qin and the merit-holders celebrated their great accomplishment, Prince Qi, who had played a leading role in the incident, silently drew his sword and took his own life.

"Little brother! Little brother!"

Lord Qin was horrified, he rushed forward and held Prince Qi's corpse, only to find blood pumping from the major artery in the neck; the person was already thoroughly devoid of life.

Lord Qin cried inconsolably.

He clearly couldn't fathom why, after facing difficulties together as brothers, at the time when they should have been enjoying their fortunes, Prince Qi had chosen to take his own life...

...

Returning again to the starting point, Li Hongyun completely overturned his previous methods and decided to fundamentally change his strategy.

"I've figured it out, 'winning the Xuanwu Gate Incident' means to become the ultimate victor of this political coup.

"Relying on the Crown Prince or Lord Qin doesn't count as winning, I have to play Prince Qi, eliminate everyone, and seize absolute power.

"The difficulty just went up again..."

Li Hongyun naturally thought of standing independently from the Crown Prince and Lord Qin, becoming the third force and profiting while the others fought.

But after a few simple attempts, he found that this was completely impractical.

"Dark Sand" was rather humane in this regard; if the content played before didn't need changing, it could be directly skipped to key nodes. Thus, Li Hongyun had tried several times, always starting directly from the Xuanwu Gate Incident, without wasting too much time.

The reason this method didn't work was simple: Not aiding either side meant that he would be guarded against by both, and as the weakest Prince Qi, he naturally would be the first to be taken out.

It was like the oldest and second oldest brothers fighting and killing the third brother in the process.

Historically, the phenomenon of dividing territory into three parts was rare because the weak third party actually found it very hard to find a good strategic opportunity to develop their power.

As soon as a third power showed potential and seemed likely to become a strong force, the other two powers would notice and immediately cease their conflict to snuff out the third, not foolish enough to let it benefit as the bystander.

Of course, "being taken out" didn't necessarily mean physical annihilation for Prince Qi, but rather that under the combined suppression of the Crown Prince and Lord Qin, his force was reduced to a point where it couldn't threaten either of them.

And then, the Crown Prince and Lord Qin would continue to fight.

The outcome was undoubtedly Lord Qin's victory.

So, after much thought, Li Hongyun reached a conclusion.

His original approach had not fundamentally altered the dynamics of the Xuanwu Gate Incident. Lord Qin was still holding the upper hand; he and the Crown Prince appeared powerful but were hollow inside, ready to shatter upon the first blow.

The root cause was that during the conquest, the operations were still primarily led by Lord Qin.

Although the Prince Qi that Li Hongyun played also played an important role, in the end, he was just a right-hand man following Lord Qin.

Then, the talents under his command, or the will of the world, naturally still sided with Lord Qin.

The Prince Qi he played would always live in Lord Qin's shadow.

"So to win the Xuanwu Gate Incident, the most fundamental method is to replace Lord Qin and become the true founder of the Liang Dynasty?"

Li Hongyun felt overwhelmed, the difficulty had just increased by several levels.

But after a full analysis, that seemed to be the only option.

With that in mind, Li Hongyun decided to start from the beginning.

The first problem he needed to solve was: age.

Prince Qi was a full four years younger than Lord Qin.

So, when Prince Qi got his first opportunity to establish military merit in Jinyang, Lord Qin was already twenty years old.

Lord Qin started leading troops at eighteen and had been fighting for two full years, with achievements including but not limited to "Yanmen Rescue Drive," "Rescuing Emperor Gaozu of Liang from the midst of a thousand troops," "Planning the uprising in Jinyang," "Defeating Song Laoseng," and "Victory at Qianshui against Xue Rengao."

What followed were the pacification of Liu Wuzhou, the campaign against Wang Shichong, and the battle at Hulaoguan Pass where he captured both kings.

During those earlier actions, Prince Qi was too young to participate and had no chance to make a name for himself.

During the latter actions, Prince Qi could join the army, but Lord Qin had already established great merit, and they were battles that decided the nation's fate. Emperor Gaozu of Liang had no reason to divide his forces.

Thus, due to the issue of age, Prince Qi was destined to always be overshadowed by Lord Qin and never have a day in the sun.