Chapter 158 A man's ambition should be like the Yangtze River flowing eastward to the sea
"Then tell me about it." Li Shimin said with a smile.

Old Li likes his grandson more and more.

The more I look at Li Xiang, the more I feel that he has the style of my past.

"Like oneself", in the eyes of promising emperors like Li Shimin, that is the road to success.

For example, Emperor Xiaohui Liu Ying and Crown Prince Liu Ju, their biggest fault was that they were "not like themselves" in the eyes of their fathers.

Li Xiang was not polite, but directly said to Old Li: "Please ask Grandfather to let your grandson go to Dengzhou to supervise the construction of the navy."

Li Shimin pondered for a while, and still felt a little reluctant to part with little Li Xiang.

After all, this grandson...

"Dengzhou is a long and winding mountain, and you are still young. What if you can't adapt to the local climate? No way." Li Shimin said with a fierce face, "Besides, if your aunt Jinyang knew that I asked you to go to Dengzhou, she would definitely blame me!"

After all, Old Li was a person who cared about his reputation and refused to admit that he couldn't bear to part with Li Xiang. Instead, he used Li Mingda as a shield.

Is there any father like this? Using his daughter as a cover...

Li Xiang also complained in his heart, but still said: "Grandpa, what you said is wrong. I can't live under your wings forever. I have to go out and explore. What's more, you promised me that you would let me supervise the navy?"

Hearing this, Li Shimin thought to himself, I was just letting you lead from a distance, who would have thought you took it seriously?
But now that things have come to this, as the saying goes, a gentleman never jokes, and it is not easy for Lao Li to withdraw a message.

So he could only hum and groan and say: "I have no objection, but if you can convince your aunt Jinyang, then you can go to Dengzhou; if not, then you should stay in Luoyang honestly!"

"Ah?" Li Xiang felt his scalp tingling. Let me go and persuade my aunt?
My aunt almost cried to death when my brother went to court, let alone me going to Dengzhou to make a living?
Seeing Li Xiang's lifeless eyes, Li Shimin was secretly happy.

Ahaha, you are allowed to use chicken feathers as a token of authority? I have my own way to control you!

Old Li then ordered Li You to return to Chang'an first and be temporarily imprisoned in the Taiji Palace to meet Concubine Yin first, and then let him commit suicide.

Of course, they did not forget to complete a procedure and demote Concubine Yin to Concubine Yin.

All of this continues according to the inertia of history.

But the difference is that this time Li You cannot involve Li Chengqian. After all, Li Chengqian is living a good life now and there is no way he can rebel.

His son is so favored now, and his own position is also very stable. The threat posed by Fat Green Bird to him is no longer that great. He is only thinking of rebelling because he has nothing better to do.

Besides, who would they win over in the rebellion? Hou Junji had already let his son take care of the situation.

Li Shimin also rewarded Hegan Chengji and Zhang Sizheng.

After asking Li Chengqian's opinion, the two of them followed Li Xiang and were promoted to deputy commander of the Prince's Right Internal Affairs Office, a rank of fourth grade.

Li Chengqian certainly had no objection. In the eyes of the elder Li, his was his son's. After he ascended the throne, wouldn't the crown prince still be Li Xiang? It was okay to let him build a good relationship with the people in the East Palace in advance.

The two generals Heng and Ha had no objection, after all, Li Xiang was the most popular candidate for the crown prince.

Compared to always being a death warrior beside Li Chengqian, although he has been promoted to a regular employee, it is still better to follow the future crown prince and do some cold work.

But Li Xiang didn't care about these. His mind was now full of how to convince Li Mingda so that he could go to Dengzhou to train the navy.

Inside the hall, Li Xiang sat with his chin in his hand, looking worried.

Suddenly, someone covered my eyes from behind.

"Guess who I am?"

"Aunt." Li Xiang turned around and it was indeed Li Mingda.

"Hey." Li Mingda waved the letter in his hand with a smile: "Guess who wrote this, little elephant?"

"Ah?" Li Xiang was originally thinking about how to talk about Dengzhou, but he didn't expect Li Mingda to suddenly ask this question. After thinking about it, he realized that his aunt's best friends were Li Lizhi and Li Su, so he asked, "Could it be Aunt Changle?"

"Well, no." Li Mingda smiled cleverly.

"Is that Aunt Gao Yang?" Li Xiang asked again.

"Not really." Li Mingda said with a smile.

"Who is that?" This time Li Xiang really couldn't figure out who it was.

Li Mingda unfolded the letter and showed Li Xiang the signature.

"Xueqing... Is this a letter from Sister Pei?" Li Xiang looked at Li Mingda in astonishment: "When did you first meet her?"

"Huhu, I won't tell you." Li Mingda put away the letter with a smile: "Xiang'er, do you want to know what Xueqing said to me in the letter?"

"Aunt, Sister Pei is three years older than you." Li Xiang said hesitantly.

Li Mingda snorted in his heart. Since she will be your wife in the future anyway, she will have to follow you and call me aunt, no matter how old she is.

"What were you thinking about just now?" she asked again.

Li Xiang's eyes rolled and a plan came to his mind.

"I wanted Grandfather to let me go to Dengzhou, but Grandfather said that he would not let me go until I got your consent, Auntie." He sighed and looked aggrieved. "I'm just worried about how to convince you."

"If Xiang'er wants to go, then go." Li Mingda smiled at Li Xiang.

Li Xiang was stunned, and then overwhelmed by ecstasy.

"Aunt, do you allow me?"

"Why wouldn't I allow you to do that?" Li Mingda said with a faint smile, "At Xiang'er's age, it's time for him to accomplish something. Don't worry, if your grandfather doesn't allow you to do that, I, your aunt, will go and convince him myself!"

"Aunt is the best!" Li Xiang jumped for joy: "Long live Aunt!"

"You little naughty monkey." Li Mingda chuckled with his hands covering his mouth.

"What's the matter? Why are you jumping so happily?" Old Li walked in from outside: "I heard you jumping at the gate and shouting long live aunt."

In those days, "Wansui" was not exclusive to the emperor. Many common people also named themselves "Wansui", such as Wang Wansui, Shi Wansui, etc. Therefore, it was not considered an usurpation for Li Xiang to shout "Longsui, aunt" to them.

Besides, even if it is a taboo, it doesn't matter if you shout it out. After all, the person who is shouting is Lao Li's favorite grandson, and the person being shouted out is his most beloved daughter.

"Xiang'er just asked my daughter for her opinion and wanted to go to Dengzhou." Li Mingda said with a smile: "Seeing that he was very anxious, my daughter agreed to let him go."

"Did you promise him?" Li Shimin's voice rose eight octaves.

"A man's ambition should be like the Yangtze River rushing eastward to the sea. How can he always lie dormant under the wings of his father and grandfather?" Li Mingda glanced at Li Xiang with shining eyes.

After saying this, Li Shimin choked.

Li Mingda said again: "Besides, when Aye was young, didn't he save the former Emperor Yang of Sui at Yanmen? Xiang'er is just imitating his grandfather's story."

"Alas." Li Shimin rubbed his head. He felt dizzy. What else could he say?
Now that things have come to this, it would be rude to refuse.

"Go ahead, go ahead. I will appoint you as the governor of Dengzhou and in charge of all military and political affairs in Dengzhou." Old Li thought for a moment and said, "If you can't stand the climate and soil in Dengzhou, don't ask me to come back! Don't even think about returning to Luoyang until you return from the expedition against Goguryeo!"

"Then I'll go back to Chang'an." Li Xiang spread his hands.

"Even Chang'an is not possible!" Li Shimin said angrily.

Li Mingda covered his mouth and chuckled softly. This elephant is always so naughty.

After Old Li agreed, Li Xiang asked people to pack their luggage and prepare to go to Dengzhou.

The army was basically led by Lao Li himself. They were either soldiers led by Lao Li or soldiers who had been led by soldiers led by Lao Li.

As the successor to the empire, Li Xiang felt that he had to lead a group of troops, so he started with the navy.

He has great ambitions. What he wants is a powerful navy with ocean-going capabilities and capable of transport and delivery operations.

Rather than just being satisfied with fighting near the coast, that would be too limited.

Before I came to the Tang Dynasty, the navy was so arrogant; after I came to the Tang Dynasty, the navy is still so arrogant, then my trip to the Tang Dynasty was a waste, right?

One has to eat one bite at a time. Li Xiang felt that he needed to ask Yan Lide to study sailing technology - of course, he wouldn't do it, he would just come up with an idea and let others implement it.

After the defeat of Goguryeo is over, we can let them study how to deal with the Japanese.

Beating up the Japanese devils is the factory setting of every Chinese person in later generations - anyone who doesn't want to fight is a defective product.

While Li Xiang was preparing, the legend of Li Shimin single-handedly quelling the rebellion in Qizhou also spread to all directions with the spring breeze.

The people of the Tang Dynasty couldn't help but talk about it after dinner, but it didn't cause much commotion. After all, it was common for this kind of novel-like plot to happen to their own emperor.

It’s not that they feel it’s false. If it happened to any other emperor, it might sound a bit boastful, but they believe Li Shimin’s words!

Precisely because it is commonplace, it does not cause much fluctuation.

But it was different on the grassland. After hearing about this incident, all the tribes had a further understanding of Li Shimin's prestige in the Tang Dynasty.

If the leaders of each tribe were to ask themselves honestly and put themselves in their shoes, they would realize that if a rebellion broke out in their own tribe, it might not be something they could solve alone.

If I go there alone, I'm afraid I'll be shot like a Tom spray pot on the spot.

Naturally, the various tribes became more loyal to Li Shimin.

The biggest gain, naturally, was the treatment of the Shandong gentry.

After Li Shimin officially announced that the five surnames and seven families would be included in the same examination area, the emperor's prestige officially reached its peak.

This was like lifting the last fig leaf of the nobles, and it turned out that they were just a bunch of paper tigers, lambs to be slaughtered in front of the imperial power.

The so-called thousand-year-old families and the five surnames and seven famous families that have been in power for generations are simply a joke compared to the royal family.

In terms of reputation, the royal family and the aristocratic family completed a reversal.

The "Clan Records", which had been resisted by the gentry and failed to become popular, was finally accepted by people all over the world.

Before leaving, Li Xiang mysteriously handed a booklet to Li Shimin.

"What is this?" Li Shimin took the booklet with great interest, took a quick look at it, and found three big words "Hundred Family Surnames" written on the title page.

He recognized the font; it was obviously written by Li Mingda.

He glanced at Li Mingda, who was making rabbit ears behind Li Xiang, and almost laughed out loud.

"Hundred Family Names?" Old Li looked up at Li Xiang, flipped open the booklet, and murmured, "Li, Pei, Wei, Du, Cui, Lu, Zheng, Wang, Feng, Chen, Chu, Wei, Jiang, Shen, Han, Yang?"

Then he glared at Li Xiang and said, "Why isn't the eldest grandson the second one?"

Li Xiang scratched his head and suddenly remembered why Lao Li was unhappy.

When the "Clan Records" was originally arranged, the second branch of the Cui family of Boling was ranked first. Old Li was very unhappy, so he ordered a re-compilation, ranking the royal family first and the eldest grandson of the later clan second.

"Don't worry, grandpa. Grandma's surname is the first of the double surnames. Look." Li Xiang turned the next two pages: "Changsun Yuchi, Shangguan Ouyang..."

"In fact, my grandson has his reasons for doing this. After all, this is a primer. If students mistake Chang Sun's surname for a single character, it would not be pretty..."

When Old Li saw this, he hummed to express his satisfaction.

In fact, when the "Hundred Family Surnames" was first compiled, the first four characters were also very particular.

"Hundred Family Surnames" was compiled in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty. It is an elementary school textbook written by a scholar from Qiantang.

He compiled common surnames into rhymed verses with four characters in each sentence, which is very similar to a four-character poem. Although its content has no literary logic, it is smooth to read and easy to learn and remember.

Since the content is related to surnames, the arrangement of the first few surnames in "Hundred Family Surnames" is particular. For example, Zhao refers to the royal Zhao surname of the Song Dynasty. Since it is the surname of the monarch, it should be the first; the second is Qian, which is the surname of the king of Wuyue Kingdom in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. Since the compiler of "Hundred Family Surnames" was a scholar of Wuyue Kingdom, Qian ranked second - as for why it was not the first, after all, the Song Dynasty was already the main one at that time.

Sun was the surname of the wife of the then King Qian Chu, and Li was the surname of the Li clan, the ruler of Southern Tang.

Old Li looked up at Li Xiang, pointed at the second character "Pei", looked at Li Xiang suspiciously and asked, "Why is the second character Pei?"

"Ah... this is just what I thought of." Li Xiang said, scratching his head.

However, Li Mingda suddenly asked: "Did Aye forget?"

"Forgot what?" Li Shimin asked.

"Do you remember the girl from the Pei family who gave Xiang'er twenty pairs of wool socks?" Li Mingda's eyes sparkled.

Hearing this, Li Shimin suddenly realized.

Ha, no wonder, really no wonder!

"No wonder you put Pei as the second one. Are you so impatient?" Li Shimin stroked his beard and laughed happily: "It seems that Xiang'er has reached the age and should find a concubine."

"Who said it wasn't?" Li Mingda was also teasing Li Xiang.

Li Xiang scratched his head. In fact, he had not thought of this level when he was writing. He just suddenly thought of Pei Xingjian and the Pei family of Hedong, so he wrote it down.

If you ask if it’s because of Pei Xueqing, then there is definitely some connection; but if you ask if it’s because of her, then it’s really... hard to say.

"It's actually too early to think about it now." This is all Li Xiang could say.

"It's getting late. When I return from Goguryeo, I will issue an edict to select a concubine for you." Li Shimin said with a smile, "When I was your age, I married your grandmother. You are not young anymore, so it's time to get ready!"

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(End of this chapter)