Chastity Layman

Chang'an.

Ganlu Hall of Tai Chi Palace.

"At home, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will see you!"

Li Shimin shook his head when he heard this, "Call!"

Cheng Qian entered the palace with a hint of excitement on his young face.

"I don't want to say more about Qin Lang." The emperor said first.

Chengqian worshiped, "I feel that Wei Gong is loyal to the dynasty, but the saint has been relegated repeatedly, which will inevitably chill the hearts of loyal ministers."

"Chengqian, don't you know how passive Qin Lang's actions in Liaodong have made the court now? The envoys of Goguryeo yelled everywhere that I, the Tang Dynasty, bullied them, that we bullied the small with the big, and invaded for no reason."

"Didn't the sages often teach their ministers that a great country should put interests first? Sooner or later the Tang Dynasty will fight Goguryeo, and sooner or later it will recover Liaodong and avenge the Chinese children's conquest of Liao. Now Duke Wei is on a tour, looking for an opportunity, first It is meritorious and not a crime to send people to take down the heavy city of Beisha without any damage."

Li Shimin got up and paced in the hall with his hands behind his back. His son has grown up and dared to argue with him. This is a good thing, but it also made the emperor sigh a little, how time flies.

His son is already almost as tall as him, Pei has even given birth to a daughter for Chengqian, and he, Li Shimin, has also become a grandfather.

"Da Lang, do you know why I use people like Qin Lang, Changsun Wuji, Hou Junji, and Zhang Liang?"

"Do you understand why I asked Xiao Yu to pay homage to him?"

"You don't know, you are still young, you need to read more and learn more about some things. Although the emperor is the son of heaven, power does not come out of thin air. The emperor depends on the power to rule the world. Where does the power come from? To put it bluntly, governing power is a matter of personnel.”

The emperor does not have power by relying on that title, otherwise why would the Supreme Emperor be kicked out of the imperial couch? Why was Yang Guang killed?

Li Shimin had won the throne by his own palace change, and he had sat on the imperial couch for six years, and he had a deeper understanding of the nature of the emperor's power.

The emperor appointed officials to manage hundreds of states and counties, to exercise governance power on behalf of the emperor, and to control the world.

The Taishanghuang was seized by Li Shimin back then, and the key to Li Shimin's ability to seize power was to first seize the key military power, and the other one was also Li Shimin's military achievements, and his prestige in the court and the public was extremely high. Among them, many people belonged to him, Li Shimin, and the emperor's ruling power had already been divided into half by him.

If the emperor loses his ruling power, he also loses the world.

"Saint, Duke Wei has always been loyal..."

"Of course I know. Otherwise, why do you think Qin Lang can dismiss the prime minister five times? My eyes are very bright, and I can see clearly. Qin Lang is talented and smart. Most importantly, I know that Qin Lang is one of my own. Both of his father and father are old people in the Qin Palace, and both are my confidantes, and Qin Lang is my son-in-law and your teacher, don't I know that he is loyal and useful?"

For the emperor, who is a loyal and available minister is very critical.

Li Shimin has been the emperor for six years, and he mainly does one thing, constantly adjusting personnel, selecting capable people to be promoted, and putting loyal people at the top.

The emperor kicked out the prime ministers of the Wude Dynasty step by step, and brought up the grandson Wuji, Qin Lang, Fang Xuanling and others. The operation here is very complicated, advancing and retreating. The young prince still couldn't understand it, but Li Shimin took great pains.

"Do you know why I sometimes put great emphasis on Changsun Wuji and Qin Lang? Even more unusually than Fang Du?" The emperor said this to his son in a rare way, "The first thing I have to do in the struggle for succession is It is to take back the ruling power. From where? From Pei Ji, Feng Deyi and other confidantes of the Supreme Emperor, but the handover of power is never smooth, and veterans such as Pei Ji will never give up willingly, so I let the eldest grandson Wuji and Qin Lang lead the front forward, and let Fang Du follow behind."

"It's not that they are stronger than Fang Du, but that the two of them are closer than Fang Du and I. If Fang Du is ahead, he might be Chao Cuo of Emperor Wen of Han. It's hard for me to protect him. But Wuji and Qin Lang is my confidant, one is my wife and brother, and the other is my son-in-law, even if they are wrong, no one dares to persecute them, at worst, I will relegate them and bring them up later."

The right to ascend the throne was the same as grabbing the class and seizing power, and it was the same when reforming the government later.

Li Shimin used Changsun Wuji and Qin Lang to lead the battle, and then used Fang Du and Dai Zhou to follow behind, kicking all the veterans out of the court step by step and regaining power. During the period, it was repeated again and again, both Changsun and Qin Lang were dismissed for a hundred days, and the old prime ministers also came in and out.

It was all to balance the situation, compromises and deals time and time again, and finally brought about the current situation.

"Although Qin Lang was serving the country in Liaodong, the impact of what he did was too bad. Too many people impeached him. When I dismissed him, I also made progress by retreating. Otherwise, if this matter continues, Qin Lang will not only be dismissed. It's simple, now he's just giving up and downgrading, which doesn't really have much impact."

Although the emperor is the lord of the world, he can't take the lead in everything, let alone stand on the opposite side of the officials and work hard.

What the emperor has to do is to maintain a detached position, let the people below do things, even fight, the emperor maintains a balance, so that the emperor will always stand in the position of referee, and he will always be detached.

Like Yang Guang, he went off in person, slamming the sky and the air, but in the end it was the emperor who lost.

To be an emperor, it is good to have a steelyard in your heart.

"Do you know why I want Qin Lang to patrol the southeast? Know why this happened, and still let him go on patrol?"

"The teacher is loyal and capable."

"Hahaha, indeed, Qin Lang is young, smart and capable. The key is that he can fight and dare to fight. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Guangnan are the four southeast coastal regions. The imperial court's control is very weak, and there are too many Liyuehao chiefs. At the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, they could only win over them, giving them various privileges, and even giving them the right to choose the southern officials. Fortunately, the imperial court has conquered foreign enemies such as Turks, Tuyuhun, and Dangxiang in recent years. The reform of the new dynasty has been completed, and now the soldiers are strong and the wealth is sufficient, and we can finally free up our hands to tidy up the southeast."

Qin Lang is the emperor's vanguard general, and letting Qin Lang go to the front line is not only because he believes in his ability, but also because Qin Lang is no better than others, he is a relative, so he doesn't have to worry about accidents.

"Do you know Dang Renhong?"

"The former governor of Guangzhou Metropolitan Government, the governor of Guangzhou, was punished for corruption." Chengqian replied.

"You only know one thing, but don't know the other. Dang Renhong is a rare talent in governing officials in the court. Whether it is the emperor or the emperor, he is highly praised. He is not only a general who can fight for officials, he is also very good at governing places. Talent, especially in the southwestern states, has always been tough on governing the barbarians."

"But in the end, he ended up being convicted of embezzling millions of dollars. I can't keep it even if I personally come forward."

"Why does the saint protect a corrupt official?"

"Hehe, corrupt officials." Li Shimin smiled.

"Dang Renhong is not a corrupt official. To be precise, he was murdered. It was Feng An from Lingnan and other local tyrants who framed him. To keep him, we can only take him back to court for punishment."

"Dang Renhong was only a low-level military officer in the previous dynasty, his family background was not noble, and he was not my confidant, so Feng An and others dared to do this to harm him. If Qin Lang was in Guangzhou, do you think Feng An would dare to do this? Even Qin Lang was also set up like Dang Renhong, but with his relationship with me, it's no problem for me to force him to protect him."

Chengqian didn't expect that there was such an inside story about this matter, and what he couldn't understand was why the emperor couldn't keep Dang Renhong since he knew about it.

"Under the whole world, is it the land of the king, and the officials who lead the land are the ministers of the king."

"Just listen to this. The imperial court's control over the southeast is still too weak. The ones who really control the southeast are Feng An and other tyrants. Although they have already belonged to the imperial court, they still have a strong influence. The local people I only know them but not the imperial court. The imperial court has been strengthening its control over the southeast in recent years, but it still needs a process. In this process, there may even be repetitions. The fall of court officials like Dang Renhong may continue. Happened until the imperial court's control over the southeast has broken the old balance and completely gained the upper hand..."

Qin Lang's tour to the southeast of the province this time was an attack on the southeast by the imperial court after taking advantage of the successive victories in the north and sweeping away the foreign aggression.

After defeating one of Dang Renhong's generals, Li Shimin dispatched Qin Lang, a higher-level and more capable prime minister.

Even if the attack is unfavorable, with Qin Lang's identity, he is not afraid of making mistakes. Even because of his identity, the southeast side will inevitably have scruples and dare not go too far.

This is a game.

And the most fruitless power struggle.

"Dali Temple reported five times that Dang Renhong was to be executed. Numerous officials in Lingnan filed a petition to impeach Dang Renhong and prosecute him for various crimes. But I know that Dang Renhong was framed by others. He was indeed greedy, but he was also murdered by others." , I tried my best to protect the court time and time again, but that force was very strong from the southeast to the court hall, and it kept approaching me to execute Dang Renhong to death. However, we still have no choice but to remove officials and nobles, and move to Wu'an Prefecture for the sake of the people."

"A lot of things are not what you see on the surface. You don't have to worry too much about Qin Lang. This kid is very smart. It's not a big deal for him to pay five respects. You can feel at ease. No one in China dares to continue to question him, so this matter will come to an end."

Chengqian was educated greatly, but he didn't expect things to be so complicated.

"You and the Su family should get married at the end of the year." Li Shimin said suddenly.

Cheng Qian was stunned. He had never been very satisfied with the Su family, especially after having the Pei family, he felt that the Su family was not to his liking.

But regarding this matter, he has no choice.

"Saint, my son wants to take Mrs. Pei back to the East Palace."

Li Shimin looked at Chengqian, "What identity do you want to give her?"

"Please ask the sage to bestow Pei's Liangdi!"

Li Shimin shook his head. The crown prince's wife is the crown prince concubine. There are two concubines named Liangdi, six from Liangyuan, ten from Chengwei, sixteen from Zhaoxun, twenty-four from Fengyi, third grade from Liangdi, and nine from Fengyi. Taste.

Compared with the concubine concubines of the crown prince in the Sui Dynasty, there were only Concubine Liang, Baolin, and Cairen, and there were many more.

"After all, Mrs. Pei is a prisoner, I will give him the title of Fengyi first, and it will not be too late to gradually increase the reward later!"

"You can take Pei back to the palace, but you can't delay the marriage with Su. The wedding will be fixed after the autumn harvest, and the marriage will be officially completed. After marriage, Su will give birth to an eldest son as soon as possible."