People in the early Tang Dynasty: I compete with Wu Zhao for the throne

Chapter 538 Teach Li Xian, the foundation of the world

After walking through Yanxi Gate and Jiafu Gate, Li Xuan has arrived at the gate of the East Palace.

Red walls and blue tiles, solemn and solemn.

The guards inside and outside the palace gate had changed, Li Xuan glanced at them, but there was not a single familiar face.

In front of the east gate, more than a dozen court officials in scarlet and green robes stood solemnly, waiting for the prince to summon them.

Li Xuan ignored anyone, walked directly to the palace gate, and handed over the greeting card on her body.

The servant at the door immediately took it, and after just a glance, he led Li Xuan into the East Palace in a panic.

The crown prince had already ordered him to introduce him as soon as the king of Nanchang arrived.

……

Chang'an Crown Prince's Palace is even bigger than Luoyang Crown Prince's Palace, surrounded by tall green trees, giving people a faint sense of heaviness.

Li Xuan calmly followed the servants on the long street of the East Palace, and the court and Chinese officials who were coming and going in and out of the various official houses passed by quickly.

Li Xian's crown prince has now quickly taken charge of some government affairs in the court, just like the filial emperor Li Hong back then.

Li Xuan's expression was calm and solemn.

It was the emperor's will for the crown prince to rule, but the conflict between Li Xuan and Empress Wu had quietly lurked.

Passing through a group of bureaucrats, Li Xuan walked into the spacious and magnificent main hall of the East Palace.

The main hall is five rooms wide, with a Xieshan-style roof covered with yellow glazed tiles, corridors with eaves and teeth, and five animals lying on the cornices.

Under the eaves, there is a single warped, single raised and five stepped Dougong, decorated with dragon, phoenix and seal paintings.

The indoor floor is made of square bricks, and the ceiling is painted with double phoenixes.

Li Xuan's footsteps fell, and there was an echo immediately.

In the main hall, there is a small brown table on a long table, and various low tables are lined up on both sides.

This is the place where the prince received foreigners.

"My lord, please come inside." The servant led Li Xuan towards the inner room, with a hint of surprise in his eyes.

This is a courtesy that only a few people can get. The King of Nanchang, who has never been to the East Palace, is extremely trusted by the crown prince.

Li Xuan looked calm, and then walked into the prince's inner room.

Inside, several pretty maids stood silently in the corner, bowing their heads in silence.

Li Xian, who was dressed in a gold silk nine python and nine chapters suit with a yellow background, sat behind the table, frowning, and carefully reviewed the memorial in front of him.

The crown prince Xima Liu Nayan on the side stood with his hands tied, and a stack of memorials was placed on the table in front of him.

The prince Zhan Shi Huangfu Zhengyi and the prince Zuo Shuzi Zhang Daan that Li Xuan had met before were not here at the moment.

Later, when Li Xuan left Luoyang, Wang Bo's old friend Xue Yao, who came to see him off instead of the prince, was nowhere to be seen.

On the contrary, there were some young officials whom Li Xuan had never seen before, sitting at one side of the desk, writing something at the desk.

Li Xuan stood still three meters in front of Li Xian, bowed his hands, and said solemnly: "My minister Nanchang County King Li Xuan, I pay my respects to His Royal Highness, Your Highness will be safe forever."

Li Xian came back to his senses immediately, heaved a long sigh of relief, and looked up at Liu Nayan beside him, who immediately reached out to pick up the memorial on the table and put it aside.

Li Xian then stood up, stretched his waist, and then said to Li Xuan: "Uncle Wang, please get up."

Seeing the increasingly thick beard under Li Xian's nose, Li Xuan cupped his hands slightly, and said with emotion: "I haven't seen you for several months, Your Highness has become more and more dignified."

"Majesty?" Li Xian was slightly taken aback, then stroked his beard, and said with a smile: "Uncle Wang was joking, Xian is just too busy to clean up."

"Come here, serve tea in the back pavilion. I want to have a chat with Uncle Wang about Jiangnan Fengyue." Li Xian glanced around, then cupped his hands at Li Xuan and said, "Uncle Wang, please come to the back pavilion!"

"Your Highness, please!" Li Xuan stepped aside slightly, Li Xian walked past him, and Li Xuan quickly followed.

……

Walking among the jade pillars on the carved railings, Li Xian said casually: "Uncle Wang sent several kinds of tea yesterday, the finely embroidered Huzhou silk, and pearl spices. Gong Duoduo thanked Uncle Wang."

Li Xuan cupped her hands slightly: "Your Highness, you are polite. Some small things are just a labor cost, and they are not worth anything. If His Royal Highness and Princess like it, I will send more in the future."

After Li Xuan arrived in Chang'an, he quickly sent people to send the gifts brought back from Wuzhou to various palaces, palaces, and even presented them to the emperor and empress Wu.

The things are not worth anything, but they can quickly remind people of him, knowing that he has returned to Chang'an.

"Then thank you Uncle Wang, please sit down, Uncle Wang." Li Xian asked Li Xuan to sit down in the back pavilion.

In front of you is a blue lake with two lotus flowers floating gently on it.

The breeze blows, which makes people feel cool.

With a secluded look, Li Xian also relaxed a lot.

The waiter brought two cups of warm tea, and Li Xian took the first cup, took a long sip, looked up at Li Xuan and said, "Uncle Wang has made outstanding military exploits during his trip to the southeast. , there were a lot of quarrels, and finally it was decided to record merits three times and be awarded the title of Captain Qingche."

"The sage and His Highness love you so much." Li Xuan stood up and cupped his hands slightly, and then sat down again under Li Xian's gesture, and said with some emotion: "In fact, there are many things in this line of business that His Highness does not know. I am really ashamed, after all, what I am facing is actually just a group of ordinary people."

The bitterness on Li Xuan's face made Li Xian feel a little curious, and he couldn't help asking: "Uncle Wang, didn't you say that there are more than ten thousand rebels who are brave enough to break through the Meiling Pass and were killed by Uncle Wang?" A handful of sky fires burned it clean; also, Shezhou is a county that has been breached, if it wasn't for the rebels who took the initiative to retreat..."

Qiu Shenji's incidents can be easily fooled by officials of prefectures and counties who don't know anything about it, but in the center of well-informed people, I don't know how many people know the inside story.

It's just that for the sake of the court's face, no one uncovered the muddled accounts inside.

"Your Highness sees only appearances." Li Xuan pushed the green tea in front of him forward, then looked at Li Xian, and said seriously: "Although Tianyin believers look crazy, they are nothing more than a group of ordinary people. It’s nothing more than ordinary people, even if there are a few elites, there are very few who have received formal training.”

"Those black pawns were mentioned in Uncle Wang's playbook." Li Xian nodded and said in admiration: "Before the war, Uncle Wang had completely strangled all the black pawns in the sky in Wuzhou."

"Hmm!" Li Xuan looked at Li Xian seriously, and said, "This is the biggest mistake made by the Tianyin Sect. Those black pawns were originally used to serve as the most basic low-level officers in the entire army. With them, The Tianyin catechists can barely follow the orders and prohibitions. Once they are gone, those Tianyin catechists will only know how to advance but not retreat. It's like a headless chicken, grasping this point..."

"If you grasp this point, Uncle Wang will be completely defeated with a sky fire, a sky wind, and a sky water." Li Xian vaguely understood something, and said softly: "There is an old saying that Tan Gong's 36 strategies, Capture the thief first and capture the king, I will write it down today."

"Although the strategy of Tan Daoji is useful, Your Highness must remember that if it cannot be used indiscriminately, and what the minister uses is not the strategy of capturing the thief first, but the strategy of cutting off the branches, then destroying the branches and leaves, and finally hitting the yellow dragon directly. "Li Xuan quickly stopped Li Xian.

I don't know if he is thinking too much, but I always feel that Li Xian has other intentions.

……

"Can we also use this method to deal with Tubo?" Li Xian raised his head suddenly and looked at Li Xuan with a half-smile.

"Your Highness is also paying attention to the situation in Tubo?" Li Xuan was a little surprised, why one or two of them are asking him about Tubo today.

However, after pondering for a while, Li Xuan said: "I am not optimistic about a quick solution to Tubo. The situation in Tubo is different from that of the Eastern and Western Turks. On the contrary, it is somewhat similar to Silla. The Turkic clan who own the hometown of Silla, Baekje and the old Goguryeo... "

Li Xian's face suddenly became heavy. The first battle in Dongdao started from the beginning of the war against Goguryeo during the Taizong Dynasty until 15 years ago, when Silla asked for help from the Tang Dynasty. At that time, it also took three years to lose Goguryeo, and then Datang and Silla turned against each other.

Nearly seven years later, although Datang still has an advantage in the East Island, Silla has gradually gained a foothold.

If the Three Kingdoms of the East Island are replaced by Turkic forces, the result can already be predicted.

"Xian remembered what Uncle Wang said." Li Xian nodded seriously.

Regarding the war in Tubo, he had heard many arguments, but what Li Xuan said today still shocked him a little.

……

On the stone table, there were simple side dishes, and Li Xuan was left by Li Xian for lunch.

Li Xian raised his wine glass and said sincerely: "I would like to thank Uncle Wang. If Uncle Wang hadn't reported the details of the trip to the southeast in every detail, this palace would not be able to know the hardships of the people's lives."

"This is the job of the minister." After a slight pause, Li Xuan quickly raised his wine glass and said, "I met the saint just now, and the saint has something to say, let me write a memorial to your highness every seven days in the future... "

Before Li Xuan finished speaking, Li Xian couldn't help laughing: "Then I will trouble Uncle Wang."

Five days later, Li Xuan was going to get married. On the seventh day, wouldn't it be necessary to write about the big wedding?

"The sage said... Forget it, I will obey the order." Li Xuan nodded with a wry smile.

Li Xian drank the wine in the glass, put down the glass with a slightly solemn expression, and then said: "Looking at Uncle Wang's memorabilia, I found that Uncle Wang prefers to pay attention to the price of goods in one place?"

"That's right." Li Xuan nodded, put down the empty wine glass in his hand, and then looked at Li Xian seriously: "Among the minister's memorials, most of them are the price of a place, and there is also a year's harvest of the people, so it can be counted as How did the people live in a year..."

After a slight pause, Li Xuan followed up and said: "I have a Changping warehouse in Tang Dynasty, but the annual income of this Changping warehouse needs to be adjusted every year. When the income of the people is low, the income of the Changping warehouse is less. When there is more, just as much, so as not to hurt the peasants due to low grain prices.”

"I used to remember this truth, but after the guidance of Uncle Wang and his party, I realized that this statement is even the foundation of governing the country."

"That's right, as long as the kings of the world can take these four words, the cheapness of the valley and the peasants into their hearts, the world will be a prosperous world."

"What Uncle Wang said is even true, I remember it." Li Xian nodded, and then sighed: "No wonder Uncle Wang has the reputation of 'King of Three Autumns', and he always thinks about it, so how can it not be peaceful."

"Your Highness is too famous." After a short pause, Li Xuan continued: "I have been in Wuzhou for several months. Although the focus is on Tianyin Sect, I never dare to neglect the affairs of the common people. But even so, the surplus food in the common people's family is only It’s enough for next year’s summer harvest, if there is any natural disaster, I am afraid that the people will immediately borrow money, and once they borrow money, it will be the mortgage of the land..."

"These are the means by which the aristocratic families annexed the people's land. Uncle Wang mentioned it in the memorial." Li Xian nodded seriously. What he couldn't understand in the past finally appeared clearly in front of his eyes.

"Therefore, after the autumn harvest, I plan to renovate the wharves on the Wujiang River. Instead of issuing conscripts, the state government will hire people to distribute food, silk, and money." After a slight pause, Li Xuan continued: "In the state government's grain depot, Every year, there is a batch of grain that needs to be sold at a low price, and I plan not to sell it, but to distribute the grain directly to the people."

Li Xian nodded: "Is it the reselling of grain from the official warehouse that Uncle Wang encountered?"

"That's the matter." Li Xuan looked at Li Xian seriously, and said in a deep voice: "Your Highness, don't believe the numbers on paper. Sometimes, the Ministry of Households tells His Highness how much grain is stored in the warehouses of the world. The real situation must not be like this, [-]% off and [-]% off is common, even cut off at the waist is not uncommon, the sage has not only been preparing for the war in Tubo for one or two years, why he refuses to move lightly is the reason for this."

"Oh!" Li Xian understood completely now.

This is exactly why the Tang Dynasty, with an annual income of [-], was able to prepare for a war against Tubo, but failed to complete it after exhausting several years of effort.

(End of this chapter)