Li Shimin.
This name alone represented the child's utterly extraordinary future.
In the Dou Clan's arms, tiny Li Shimin neither cried nor fussed, only opened a pair of bright, dark eyes and gazed curiously at the world.
One saw that he had four pupils—each eye held two.
They looked piercing and lively, brimming with spirit.
Double pupils!
This was a trait possessed only by sages and worthies of ancient times!
The most typical example was Cangjie, progenitor of the Literary Dao; he was a man with double pupils.
The Ziwei Star stirred.
A born emperor.
From the time he was little, Li Shimin was different from everyone else.
He could speak at one, read all kinds of ancient books at two, and at four he studied martial arts, mounted archery, and military strategy, his courage and prowess surpassing others.
At an age when other children were still playing with mud, Li Shimin could already draw a twenty-stone hard bow.
But the realm today was, in the end, still the Yang clan's realm.
The Sin Dragon Yang Guang looked down over the Nine Provinces.
Even though Li Shimin was born extraordinary, he was ultimately still too young, and the timing was wrong; there was no stage on which he could display himself.
When Li Shimin was fifteen, he married a woman of the Zhangsun Clan, and her elder brother, Zhangsun Wuji, became Li Shimin's trusted confidant.
By this time, Li Shimin had already followed his father Li Yuan to serve in places such as Long Prefecture and Loufan, becoming familiar with the people's conditions and military affairs in the borderlands.
The forty-ninth year of the Daye Era.
Li Shimin was seventeen.
The Sin Dragon Yang Guang had grown old.
Three hundred thousand cavalry from the Turkic Khaganate surrounded Yanmen Pass. Li