Thief Emperor

Chapter 956 The Envoy
Half an hour later, Su's son-in-law Zhou Bi, who worked as the director of the Inspection Department of the Privy Council, and Su Zhan, the general who commanded the Yulin Army, hurried back to the Su family.

The two men saw each other only after they arrived at the Su family. When Su Zhan saw Zhou Bi, he knew something was wrong. He pulled Zhou Bi's sleeve and asked, "Brother-in-law, what happened?"

"Why are you here too?"

Zhou Bi smiled bitterly and said, "My elder brother invited me here. I don't know what happened, but I saw a carriage at the door just now."

He looked at Su Zhan and said, "It seems to be the carriage that His Majesty uses to go out of the palace incognito."

Su Zhan became even more nervous when he heard this. He pulled Zhou Bi along and came to the main hall of the Su family. When they arrived at the main hall, they saw the Emperor sitting calmly in the main seat, while General Su was sitting aside with a smile on his face.

Su Zhan first looked at Li Yun, and seeing that Li Yun had no expression on his face, he quickly stepped forward and, together with Zhou Bi, saluted Li Yun with a fist and said, "Greetings, Your Majesty."

Emperor Li turned his head to look at Su Sheng, then looked at Zhou Bi and Su Zhan, and snorted, "There is strength in numbers."

General Su first turned around and motioned for Su Zhan and Zhou Bi to sit down, then he turned to Li Yun and smiled, saying, "Your Majesty, I promise that I didn't know about Si Lang beforehand."

"but."

He changed the subject and said with a smile: "However, children should make their own decisions about their own affairs. I think it is not appropriate for us, as elders, to interfere."

Emperor Li patted the table and said, "I have asked in detail these days. It was during the Lantern Festival this year that your fourth son took the initiative to ask my daughter out to watch the Lantern Festival!"

"Later, I took her to visit temples."

Emperor Li said in a deep voice: "You still say it wasn't you who taught me?"

After hearing this, Su Zhan and Zhou Bi also understood what had happened. They looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief.

Su Sheng said quickly, "Your Majesty, my Privy Council is so busy that I really don't know what my children are doing."

“That’s definitely not what I taught you.”

Li Yun took a deep breath, groaned, and didn't say much.

Su Zhan forced a smile on his face and said, "Your Majesty, the eldest princess has indeed reached the age of marriage..."

Li Yun glared at him. Su Zhan was startled and lowered his head, not daring to speak.

Zhou Bi coughed and said nothing.

Emperor Li took a deep breath and said, "My daughter is still too young. This is definitely not possible for the time being."

He turned his head to look at Su Sheng and said, "For this Youyan battle, send your fourth son to the battlefield and let him see the world. He can come back at the end of this year."

"In that time, in half a year, let's see how much he can grow."

Su Sheng was about to speak when Li Yun interrupted him: "Even if he comes back next year, the marriage cannot be arranged. My daughter is still young and doesn't know anything. She can't get married until she is at least 18 or 19 years old."

Just as Su Sheng was about to speak, Su Zhan had already stood up and said to Li Yun with a smile, "Your Majesty, I also want to go to the Youyan battlefield and do my part for the country. Please allow me to take Silang with me to the Hebei Dao battlefield."

Emperor Li glanced at him.

"You can go if you want. I won't stop you."

Su Zhan took a deep breath.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Emperor Li ignored him, but turned back to look at Su Sheng, and snorted, "You guys, I asked you to marry a daughter to my sons, but you all avoided me like snakes and scorpions, and you are very happy to have the idea of ​​​​his daughter."

Su Sheng looked around, then said with a smile, "The title of Crown Prince has been decided. If His Majesty really wants to arrange a marriage, it would be fine for us to marry our daughters to the royal family."

"My opinion is that it depends on whether the children themselves are willing to do so. Otherwise, if we force them to do so, they will blame us elders in the future."

Li Yun's prince is already eighteen years old this year.

Queen Xue has been busy for two or three years selecting a Crown Princess for him.

His Crown Princess is a bit troublesome.

The Su family, the Du family, and even the Zhou family, the Zhuo family, and some families in the court that have made great contributions and occupied high positions in the court are actually not suitable.

After all, the Crown Princess must have these families immediately tied to the Crown Prince.

Although Li Yun was not afraid, he had to worry about the future relatives becoming too powerful. Therefore, two or three years ago, he had already set a rule that the crown princess of Crown Prince Li Yuan should be selected from the daughters of the old brothers in the anti-theft team.

The Crown Princess will no longer be born into the core families of the imperial court, so the wives of other princes will not be very attractive to them.

After all, the position of the crown prince is as stable as a rock, and with the emperor being so powerful, no one can cause too many troubles.

Emperor Li was silent for a while, then stood up and waved his hand, saying, "Forget it, forget it. I won't argue with you anymore. I'm going back to the palace."

"Whether your fourth child goes to the north or not is up to you."

After saying that, he left with his hands behind his back, took two steps, looked back at Zhou Bi, and groaned, "Will you come with me?"

Zhou Bi was startled, stood up quickly, and forced a smile: "I will go with your majesty."

After saying that, he followed behind Li Yun, turned his head to look at Su Sheng, made a gesture of bowing and begging for mercy to Su Sheng, and then followed Li Yun step by step.

It was not until they got on the carriage that Zhou Bi said cautiously, "Second brother, the Grand Duchess is going to marry the Zhou family's Silang, that's a good thing, why are you so angry, second brother?"

Emperor Li was thinking about something at the moment. He came back to his senses after hearing this. After a moment of silence, he shook his head slightly and said, "I don't know either."

"Maybe before I knew it, my children had grown up, and I suddenly felt old."

…………

A few days later, at the court meeting, His Majesty the Emperor recognized Li Feng as his elder brother in front of all the civil and military officials. He publicly named him King Xuan in the court and appointed him as the Chief of the Zongfu, in charge of the entire Li family clan.

Li Feng's second son also received the title of Prince.

King Xuan and his family will not move to their fiefdom for the time being.

In other words, among the entire Li Tang royal family, no prince has yet gone to establish a fiefdom elsewhere. It is still unknown whether and how the princes of the Li family will establish fiefdoms in the future.

The Ministry of Works received an order to build Prince Xuan's Palace in Luoyang City.

For a time, King Xuan's family became the hottest topic in Luoyang City.

After all, before this, no one knew that the Emperor had a brother.

However, Li Feng's family celebrated the New Year with the emperor's family all year round. Many high-ranking officials in the court knew about this, but they were unable to confirm Li Feng's identity.

This time, Li Feng's family was able to be crowned kings, which legitimately confirmed their status.

For a time, the Li family, which had been almost ignored, had its door almost broken down by people, and there was an endless stream of people visiting every day.

Just when Li Feng's family became popular in the capital, Emperor Li was still arranging his Northern Expedition in an orderly manner.

With the submission of the Privy Council's charter, various preparatory work is also progressing bit by bit.

At the same time, Duke of England Liu Bo also rushed to Hebei Province in person to preside over the affairs of the nine departments of Hebei Province.

General Meng Qingmeng, who was stationed in Hebei Province, also sent a document to Luoyang every day to report the situation in Youyan and the preparatory work in Hebei Province.

The war can be said to be on the verge of breaking out.

Just when the entire new dynasty was preparing to attack Youyan, in the Ganlu Palace of the imperial city, Princess Lujiang Li Shu, dressed in palace dress, stood in front of her father. She stared at Li Yun, gritted her teeth lightly, and tears welled up in her eyes.

"Father, why did you send Su Zhan to Hebei Road?"

Emperor Li looked up at his eldest daughter, pretending that she didn't hear him, and lowered his head to deal with things.

Li Shu took a step forward and was about to continue speaking when a palace servant stepped forward cautiously, bowed his head to Li Yun and Li Shu, and then said, "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Rites reported that the Khitan envoy has arrived in Luoyang."

"Also, the Japanese envoy has arrived in Luoyang."

"Your Majesty, please grant me an audience."

Upon hearing this, Emperor Li narrowed his eyes and said slowly: "I understand. Let them..."

"Waiting at the Ministry of Rites Hall."

(End of this chapter)