Chapter 134: Holy Grandson Li Xiang (asking for monthly ticket)

"What are you looking at?"

Li Chengqian's voice sounded from behind him.

Li Xiang turned around and whispered, "We have just sent Hegan Chengji and Zhang Sizheng to the King of Qi to find out the truth."

"You mean...?" Li Chengqian immediately became alert.

Of course Li Chengqian understood the conflict between Yin Hongzhi and their family.

In fact, Li Chengqian has always disliked Yin Hongzhi, not only because of what his father Yin Shishi did in the past, but also because Yin Hongzhi's actions when he was in Chang'an were not very likable.

You say that the son of a convicted official is so high-profile in his daily life and makes friends with a group of children of nobles. What do you want to do?
"It's very likely." Li Xiang looked around and whispered, "That's why I asked Hegan Chengji to find out the truth. After all, he once worked in the Qi Wang Mansion."

Upon hearing this, Li Chengqian nodded in understanding.

"You do the work, ye ye rest assured."

Li Xiang and he had discussed this matter before. Before leaving for Shuozhou, he mentioned that he wanted to use Hegan Chengji and Zhang Sizheng, and Li Chengqian had allowed it.

Just as he was about to turn around and leave, he noticed that Li Xiang looked a little down, so Li Chengqian asked with concern, "What's wrong, Xiang'er?"

"Something's going on." Li Xiang coughed twice and whispered, "Aye, are you going to play football?"

"Yes, your second uncle and youngest uncle will be here soon." Li Chengqian smiled and started doing chest expansion exercises.

Li Xiang smacked his lips and said, "Actually, there is something that concerns my second uncle."

"What's the matter?" Li Chengqian suddenly became alert.

Although the relationship with Li Tai has eased a lot, the tone between the two is increasingly leaning towards mutual harm.

"Aye, do you still remember what I told you two months ago? That was... the first time I asked my second uncle to borrow money." Li Xiang asked.

Li Chengqian thought for a moment and said simply, "Forgot."

Li Xiang: …

Fine.

Is this a single-celled organism?
"It's the memoir I asked the teacher to write..." Li Xiang reminded again.

"Oh! Memoirs!" Li Chengqian suddenly realized, then shook his head and said, "I forgot."

"This is what happened." Li Xiang didn't intend to help him recall, so he said directly: "The teacher wrote a memoir from the ninth year of Wude to this year, recording in detail his experiences in the court over the past ten years."

"He didn't write about Xuanwu Gate, did he?" Li Chengqian suddenly asked.

"No." Li Xiang shook his head.

"That's good..." Li Chengqian put his hand on his chest. For a moment, he was really worried about his own Crown Prince and Grand Tutor.

"That's right. I just showed this memoir to Grandpa. There are several places that concern my second uncle..." Li Xiang said again.

"Oh?" Li Chengqian became interested: "Tell me quickly, what's going on?"

"It's just that the memoir didn't describe my second uncle very well. I only remember one sentence." Li Xiang looked around and whispered to Li Chengqian, "The King of Wei cares more about his reputation than his principles. He ran away as soon as he smelled something wrong."

Li Chengqian laughed out loud in a flash.

"He raised the average weight of the princes, but lowered their average health."

Upon hearing the last sentence, Li Chengqian let out a loud, earth-shaking cry.

After a while, he looked down at Li Xiang with a strange expression: "You added the last sentence yourself, right?"

"Father, you are wise." Li Xiang bowed his hands: "As expected, nothing can be hidden from Father."

"Nonsense, you are my son, if I don't understand you, who will understand you?" Li Chengqian snorted twice, "Tell me, why are you teasing your uncle like this?"

"My grandfather said that my second uncle was a little slack in losing weight, so I wanted to use this sentence to spur him on." Li Xiang grinned.

Li Chengqian nodded as if he had understood something, stretched out his hand to pinch his shoulder and said, "Just leave this matter to your father, you..."

Before he could finish his words, he saw a eunuch running over from a distance, reporting that the sage had summoned the prince to the Liangyi Palace.

"What's the matter?" Li Chengqian glanced at the sun. It was neither early nor late, so why was there a court meeting?
"I don't know either." replied the eunuch.

Li Chengqian waved his hand and asked him to leave.

The eunuch bowed and returned the same way.

"It's about Goguryeo. Yeon Gaesomun murdered Goguryeo King Go Geonmu." Li Xiang said on the side.

Li Chengqian sighed and said, "Alas, this is a troubled time."

"It's winter now, Aye." Li Xiang said to liven up the atmosphere. In fact, he knew what the word meant.

"You are uneducated! The autumn here does not mean a season!" Li Chengqian glared at him.

Since Li Shimin was going to hold a grand court meeting, Li Xiang did not go to Yan Lide's place. It would be bad if he came back empty-handed.

Since he had nothing to do anyway, he slipped back to Lizheng Hall and found Li Mingda to practice calligraphy together.

In the Liangyi Hall, most of the court officials have arrived.

The news in those days was not as developed as in later generations. For example, the situation in later generations where a teppo ashigaru attacked Taiko on horseback fifteen minutes ago and all the QQ groups were filled with related videos fifteen minutes later was still a fantasy in that era.

The distance between Goguryeo and Chang'an is so great that even if you take the K-series green train, it still takes 34 hours from Harbin to Xi'an. Moreover, the road conditions were not very good in that era, and the message had to be delivered on horseback.

Expedited documents are submitted to the emperor separately and no one else is aware of them.

The ministers looked at each other, wondering what had happened that the sage had suddenly convened a court meeting.

"On the 12th, Yeon Gaesomun, a senior official of Goguryeo, murdered King Go Geonmu and established himself as the 'Great Molizhi', in charge of all military and political affairs of Goguryeo." Li Shimin looked around and said again: "Today I summoned all the ministers here to discuss countermeasures."

"I want to comfort the people and punish the criminals by conquering Goguryeo. What do you think?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the ministers began to buzz and their emotions began to boil like water in a frying pan.

How could Goguryeo have done such a big thing for everyone without making any noise?
While being shocked, the ministers also grasped the key point.

With such a big thing happening in Goguryeo, the saint will certainly not miss the opportunity. From what he said, does he want to conquer Goguryeo?
But now is not the right time. Fang Xuanling immediately stood up and objected.

"Your Majesty, it is winter now, Liaodong is freezing cold, and it is also New Year's Day, so it is not appropriate to send troops to attack Goguryeo."

Minister of Rites Lu Kuan also stood up and objected, saying, "What Prime Minister Fang said is absolutely right. Goguryeo has occupied Liaodong for hundreds of years and its power is not small. Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty was defeated in three expeditions to Goguryeo, and he died and his country was destroyed, making the world laugh. This is truly a lesson for you. I hope Your Majesty will think deeply about it."

Lu Kuan, also known as Dou Lu Kuan.

He was not from the "Fan Yang Lu family", one of the five surnames and seven families, but from the Xianbei Dou Lu family.

The Doulu clan was originally a branch of the Murong clan of the Xianbei ethnic group. Murong Chang, the King of Beidi of the Later Yan Dynasty, surrendered to the Northern Wei Dynasty and was appointed as the governor of Changle County. He was given the surname "Doulu", which means "surrender" in the Xianbei language.

After entering the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan reiterated the Xianbei Sinicization edict and ordered the Xianbei nobles to change their surnames to Han surnames, so his surname is now Lu.

After Li Zhi ascended the throne, he reversed history and restored their family's old Xianbei surname, so later generations generally called them "Dou Lu Kuan".

When Lu Kuan mentioned Yang Guang, it was no exception.

After all, unlike later generations, people nowadays attach great importance to Goguryeo.

After all, Yang Guang had learned a lesson from the past. In order to fight against Goguryeo, he ruined an entire prosperous era.

Everyone present here, having come from the Sui Dynasty, naturally knew how rich the family fortune Yang Jian left behind was.

It is no exaggeration to say that Yang Guang was the number one prodigal in history.

As for what some street literature marketing accounts say about "the aristocratic family stabbed Yang Guang in the back", it is completely ridiculous nonsense.

In order to attract attention, they made some shocking remarks, simply attributing the cause of the demise of the Sui Dynasty to the "internal strife of the Guanlong Group", but deliberately downplayed the public resentment caused by Emperor Yang of Sui's vanity, and then ignored the power of the people in the materialist view of history.

In order to clean up this waste Yang Guang, he didn't care about his reputation at all.

Oh, that’s not the case. When it comes to squandering money, Yang Guang is indeed a genius.

Yang Guang's army of hundreds of thousands of people made Goguryeo rich and even built a Great Wall that stretched for thousands of miles. If we simply start from the reality, Lu Kuan's vision cannot be said to be wrong, it's just the limitations of the times.

If anyone really wanted to break the curse of Goguryeo, it had to be Li Shimin.

No one expected that Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty failed to win the battle even though hundreds of thousands of his troops were killed, but Li Shimin succeeded with the loss of only a few thousand soldiers and horses. He even had some strength left and went back to defeat the Xueyantuo the following year.

After Doulu Kuan, another group of officials stood up and sang a different tune from Li Shimin.

"I hope the saints will think twice. The lesson of Emperor Yang of Sui is not far away!"

Of course, Li Shimin also knew that they did not oppose just for the sake of opposing, but simply because Yang Guang’s precedent was too terrible.

"Of course I know what you said." Li Shimin said after a pause, "Yeon Gaesomun killed the king. In order to calm the anger in the country, he must have found a way to divert attention."

"Now among the three kingdoms in Liaodong, Baekje and Goguryeo are on good terms, and Goguryeo has always been eyeing Silla, wanting to annex it as soon as possible. If Baekje and Goguryeo unite, Silla will certainly be unable to resist. If we allow the two kingdoms to annex Silla, Liaodong will certainly become a unified and powerful country. If at this time, Goguryeo turns around and joins forces with a certain tribe on the grassland to attack the Tang Dynasty together, then... what should you do?"

"The question now is not whether the Tang Dynasty should fight, but that the Tang Dynasty must fight and how to fight." Li Shimin set the tone again.

Ah this...

After hearing this, Fang Xuanling felt a chill in his heart.

It's not that he didn't think of this, he just simply felt that the current situation was not suitable for sending troops.

"If this is true, then the Tang Dynasty is in danger!" Changsun Wuji understood what his brother-in-law meant and said quickly.

"The saint is right." As the Minister of Rites, Lu Kuan certainly knew the situation abroad. After careful consideration, he said, "Back then, when Goguryeo was powerful, Silla and Baekje united to resist Goguryeo. But Silla attacked Baekje from behind, just like Sun Quan did when he broke the alliance, and captured several cities. Since then, Baekje has been following Goguryeo wholeheartedly."

"If Goguryeo attacks Silla, Baekje will not only not help Silla, but will even help Goguryeo to fight against Silla. In this case, Silla will really be annexed by Goguryeo!"

"Your Majesty is wise!" At the end, Lu Kuan praised Li Shimin.

Li Shimin snorted and said, "This is not something I came up with, but something my grandson, the Prince of Hengshan, came up with through analysis!"

The implication is obvious, that is, you guys are not even as good as my grandson, a twelve-year-old child!

Another meaning is, my grandson is so smart, why don’t you praise him?
The ministers looked at each other in bewilderment. Prince of Hengshan? Your Majesty, are you really not flattering the Prince of Hengshan?
But considering what the Prince of Hengshan has done recently, you have to believe it even if you don't want to.

However, there are many stubborn conservatives in the court.

In their view, Li Shimin and Li Xiang were just exaggerating. Silla was a country that existed for hundreds of years, how could it be destroyed just like that? The three kingdoms in Liaodong were just rising and falling, so why send troops?
What's more, Goguryeo had just been destroyed and the country was empty and leaderless. How could the powerful people obey Yeon Gaesomun's order and attack Silla?

But their opposition was only in their hearts. They certainly wouldn't dare to oppose openly something that Li Shimin supported.

Any further opposition would be of no effect and would only make Li Shimin unhappy.

Anyway, the military report will be coming soon, so just wait and see the joke.

Zhang Sun Wuji, who had always been wearing Li Shimin's thick and fat warm down jacket, quickly stepped forward and said: "The prince has a keen eye, he is truly the saintly grandson of your majesty!"

When the ministers saw Zhangsun Wuji stand up, they also stood up and praised Li Xiang in unison: "The prince has a keen eye, he is truly the saintly grandson of your majesty!"

Li Shimin stroked his beard and smiled. He was happier when his ministers flattered Li Xiang than when they flattered him.

"Since we are going to punish the people and suppress the rebellion of Goguryeo, we must be prepared." Li Shimin looked at Li Ji and said, "Maogong, I order you to be the general manager of the Liaodong Road. You will temporarily take charge of the logistics. We will set out to Youzhou immediately after the New Year."

"Yes!" Li Ji said with his hands crossed.

"Yan Lide!" Li Shimin said again.

Yan Lide left the office immediately. He was in a very unlucky situation now. In the tenth year of Zhenguan, he was demoted to be a governor because of his laxity and laziness. Two years later, the palace was not repaired, and he lost his official position. Now he was just doing nothing in the court.

"Chen is here!"

"I order you to supervise the construction of warships together with the Prince of Hengshan, and ask him for advice on everything." Li Shimin said.

Yan Lide crossed his hands and said, "Yes!"

But he disagreed in his heart. The Prince of Hengshan was indeed a man of great talent and a very smart grandson - but shipbuilding was a technical job after all. It was like mathematics. If you couldn't do it, you couldn't do it no matter what. It was not something that could be solved by being smart.

Seeing Yan Lide's disapproval, Li Shimin didn't care but continued to pass the order down.

(Second update sent, please give me a monthly ticket)

(End of this chapter)