Thief Emperor

Chapter 1121 The Emergence of the Various Schools of Thought
Tao Hongli's face turned deathly pale. He stepped forward and knelt before the Crown Prince, bowing his head and kowtowing: "Your Highness, my father has been loyal to the court for many years..."

"Over the years, even if he has not made any great contributions, he has certainly worked hard. The fact that His Majesty bestowed this mansion upon my father shows that His Majesty also believed that my father had made contributions."

“Now, the descendants of the Tao family are unfilial and have tarnished my father’s reputation, but my father himself has done nothing wrong. Even if there are unfilial descendants of the Tao family, not all of them have broken the law.”

He knelt down, touching his forehead to the ground, his voice already trembling with sobs: "Your Highness, if any of the unfilial descendants arrested by the Jingzhao Prefecture today have committed any crimes, the entire Tao family will cooperate with the Jingzhao Prefecture and Prince Jin to severely punish these wicked children."

"However, Your Highness, please allow the descendants of the Tao family to continue living in the mansion left by my father..."

Tears streamed down his face as he kowtowed repeatedly, pleading, "Your Highness..."

"My father once taught Your Highness to read, and Your Highness, out of consideration for our past relationship..."

At this moment, the current head of the Tao family was behaving extremely out of control, completely lacking any composure whatsoever.

But this cannot be blamed on him, because the Crown Prince's judgment was unacceptable to the Tao family.

Today, Tao Xiangong served as Minister of Rites in Jiangdong for more than ten years and as Prime Minister for eight years. No matter how incorruptible he was, the Tao family has prospered.

Because of their high positions, they sometimes don't need to directly embezzle money.

Take the Tao family as an example.

If Tao Xiangong's grandson "accidentally" enters Tao Xiangong's study or visits his grandfather at the Imperial Secretariat and "accidentally" sees one or two documents, he can sell them for a good price.

Moreover, people flocked to buy it.

A pure seller's market.

In fact, there are still many sons of high-ranking officials in Luoyang who are doing this.

In the past, when the economy was still based on small-scale farming, this business mainly involved trading information about the political climate, such as who the three judicial departments were going to investigate, or what His Majesty the Emperor had recently done.

However, in recent years, some new things have emerged in this business, such as when the imperial court wants to undertake certain projects or repair official roads.

These messages all have buyers.

Or rather, this is an advantage of being in a high position. As long as you are in this position, even if you do nothing, as long as you have the ability to do these things, people will naturally respect and fear you, and try every means to curry favor with you.

Many officials who are unknown in Luoyang may have already started building large houses and acquiring land in their hometowns.

If other officials are like this, then the Tao family, even now, naturally wouldn't lack a residence.

But this Tao family mansion is different.

The residences for the fifty founding heroes were not finalized in the early years of the founding of the dynasty. It was not until around the fifth year of the Zhangwu era that the residences were fully occupied and the specific number of these fifty people was determined.

Du Qian, Yao Zhong, Zhuo Guangrui, Xu Ang, and others each have one.

Back then, Zhuo Guangrui was implicated in the imperial examination fraud case in the seventh year of Zhangwu and almost got punished and executed, but the imperial court did not take back the Zhuo family's mansion.

These fifty residences, on the surface, are just fifty slightly larger houses in slightly better locations, which are now inferior to some of the mansions in Luoyang. But in reality, these fifty places are the list of founding heroes recognized by the imperial court and the Li family.

In other words, these fifty people were the "original shares" of the founding of the Tang Dynasty.

It's just a matter of how much they take.

Driving the Tao family out meant that the imperial court had expelled them from the "original shares" (i.e., the initial investment).

From then on, the imperial court no longer regarded the Tao family as founding heroes.

At first glance, there seems to be no significant difference, since not many members of the Tao family have entered officialdom. However, behind this lies the difference between family members and outsiders.

Once they move out of this mansion, they are no longer considered part of the Li family.

It's hard to avoid offending people when you're an official in the imperial court. In the past, the Tao family lived in this mansion. Even though there weren't many officials in the family, living here provided them with a natural talisman.

But once you move out, it's gone.

In the past, if Master Tao offended anyone, they would come knocking on his door.

In fact, even Prince Li Zheng of Jin would find it difficult to make the decision to "remove" founding heroes from their residences; he was unlikely to expel anyone from their homes.

But the crown prince can.

As the crown prince and the eldest son of Emperor Li, when the emperor did not appear, there was little difference between him speaking and speaking to his father.

The Crown Prince stood with his hands behind his back, looking at Tao Hongli kneeling before him and pleading. He first frowned, then turned to look at Prince Jin, who remained calm and made no comment.

The Crown Prince narrowed his eyes and said in a deep voice, "If you don't move out within three days, I will come again. At that time, it won't be as easy to talk to you as it is now."

Having said that, the crown prince turned his head and left in a huff.

Prince Jin followed the Crown Prince away, then ordered the servants of the Jingzhao Prefecture to take all the criminals involved in the Tao family case into the Jingzhao Prefecture prison. After walking a distance, the Crown Prince stopped, looked back at Prince Jin, and sighed: "When I was young, I often saw Mr. Tao. He did indeed teach me to read."

Prince Jin stood with his hands behind his back, following behind the Crown Prince. He glanced back at the Tao residence behind him, then looked up at the Crown Prince and said calmly, "This is all their own doing, eldest son, you don't need to take it to heart."

"Mr. Tao is a man of refined taste and noble character."

Prince Jin sneered: "I guess he's long since stopped wanting to stand with His Majesty."

"They might even regret joining Jiangdong."

The crown prince was somewhat surprised.

Prince Jin tucked his hands into his sleeves and said calmly, "This old man was involved in the cheating scandal in the seventh year of Zhangwu. Since then, he has openly and secretly been of the same mind as His Majesty."

"Otherwise, His Majesty, being so sentimental, wouldn't have treated the Tao family this way,"

At this point, Prince Jin lowered his voice.

"Your Highness, you must always be of one mind with His Majesty."

The Crown Prince nodded first, then looked at the Prince of Jin: "Third Uncle, what do you think?"

"What are you looking at?"

Prince Jin asked with a smile, "New policies?"

"Your Majesty and I will always be of one mind."

Prince Jin smiled calmly: "Otherwise, I would probably still be on Qingyang Cangshan Mountain, scheming against those beasts there."

………………

At the end of March, the imperial edict conferring titles upon the fourth prince, Li Tong, was finally issued, officially bestowing upon him the title of Prince Su of the Tang Dynasty.

Once this title was announced, many people knew pretty much where the Fourth Prince would end up.

Most people lost interest in him.

However, there were still some insightful people who saw through the court's, or rather, His Majesty the Emperor's, desire to vigorously develop the Northwest.

Therefore, after Prince Su was enfeoffed as a king, many merchants thought of this Prince Su and wanted to get to know this future king of the Northwest.

However, after His Highness Prince Su was granted the title of Prince and established his own residence, he did not see anyone for a period of time. On the third day after being granted the title of Prince, he came to the residence of the Duke of Han and paid his respects to the newly appointed Duke of Han, Chen Bozhong.

When the prince personally visited, the main gate of the Duke of Han's residence was quickly opened wide. General Chen, the Duke of Han, who was temporarily resting at home, also personally went to the gate to welcome the Fourth Prince.

"Greetings, Fourth Prince."

Prince Su quickly clasped his hands in greeting and bowed his head, saying with a smile, "Uncle Chen is too kind."

The two entered the Duke of Han's residence one after the other, and soon took their seats in the main hall. After tea was served, before Chen Da could ask the Fourth Prince's purpose, Prince Su spoke first: "When will Uncle Chen return to the Northwest?"

General Chen thought for a moment and then smiled and said, "It should be within the next half month. Most of the Northwest army is still in the Northwest, and they are spending a lot every day. Some of them will return to Guanzhong, and others will depend on His Majesty's arrangements."

Prince Su thought for a moment and then said, "Uncle Chen, could you take your nephew with you on a trip to the Northwest?"

He offered Chen Da a cup of tea, and then continued, "When the time comes, I will conceal my identity and act as Uncle Chen's bodyguard."

General Chen was not surprised when he heard this.

After all, the name "Prince Su" says it all.

He first took a sip of tea, then asked, "If His Majesty agrees, I have no objection, but Your Highness..."

Chen Da reminded him, "Going to the Northwest will be tough, and I may not stay there forever. I might have to return to Chang'an eventually."

“My father has agreed.”

Prince Su smiled and said, "In the past year or two, wherever Uncle Chen goes, I, as his bodyguard, follow him. I want to observe and learn from him."

"If you really go to Guanzhong, that would be good too."

He said seriously, "I can still go and visit my second brother."

Chen Da readily nodded, then asked with a smile, "Your Highness is not getting married?"

Prince Su said quietly, "Let's go to the northwest and take a look first."

"So as not to disappoint my father's high expectations."

(End of this chapter)