The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 324: Persuasion and Questioning

Li Chengqian put down the longbow in his hand, looking somewhat frustrated, and said, "I had originally planned to have the Censorate, the Dali Temple, and the Jingzhao Prefecture jointly prepare personnel to investigate various places, but someone immediately wrote a memorial overnight to oppose my high-profile behavior."

Ying Gong stood aside without saying a word.

"I still have to listen to the advice of the court officials. It is indeed wrong to do things in such a high-profile manner. Now they should be very happy that the Crown Prince of the East Palace has begun to listen to the advice."

"This is not like your usual style."

"Yes, whether you are an emperor or a crown prince, you cannot get everything done with just one word. To say that you can get things done with just one word is just empty talk."

"Things in this world are far more complicated than expected. Take the matter between Prince Teng and Prince Jiang for example. It was good to cut it off quickly, but it was still my uncle who helped me to sort out the rest afterwards."

Li Ji said again: "I don't understand these."

Li Chengqian stretched his muscles and relaxed his arms. "Before Lord Ying came back, I met Li Siwen."

Li Ji said: "Siwen loves reading."

"What are your plans for him in the future?"

"I intend to let him live a peaceful and leisurely life."

Li Chengqian nodded, probably understanding what Duke Ying meant, and would not interfere in Duke Ying's family affairs in the future.

After all, there is already a Li Zhen working for the Eastern Palace.

Li Chengqian picked up a wooden box from the side and handed it over, saying, "Today is Mid-Autumn Festival, and the court is on holiday. This box of mooncakes is for Lord Ying."

"Thank you, Your Highness."

There is actually no need to say much about what happened on the battlefield. Li Chengqian only asked about a few details, and what Ying Gong said was more detailed than what was said in the military report.

During this battle, the troops were marching in heavy snow and were freezing cold. Their hands were so cold that they couldn't even draw the bow.

Although the Tang army was also unable to draw the bow, the same was true for the people of Mobei.

However, in addition to shooting bows, the Tang people are more adept at charging into battle. It was very important to seize the opportunity in this battle. What counted was the weather. It was with the help of the weather that the Tang army was able to achieve such a great victory.

Li Chengqian personally escorted Duke Ying out of the Suzaku Gate, then looked back towards the imperial city.

Even during the Mid-Autumn Festival, there were still some people in the court who were busy.

Although he was in power in the past, his control over the six ministries in the court was not strong, even now.

However, as the Minister of the Chancellery and in charge of the Secretariat, he could slowly become familiar with the six ministries and slowly take over the affairs of the six ministries in the court.

Li Chengqian went straight to the Ministry of Justice.

Among the memorials opposing the investigation, one was from Liu Dewei.

It is naturally abnormal for a person who has always advocated strict laws in governing the country to give such advice.

Inside the Ministry of Justice, everyone was checking files when suddenly a figure walked into the Ministry, and the figure walked very quickly until he reached the top seat, which was next to the Minister of Justice, Liu Dewei.

Everyone also confirmed the identity of the person who walked into the Ministry of Justice. He was none other than the current Crown Prince who was in charge of the Secretariat and oversaw all government officials.

Realizing the seriousness of the matter, they stopped what they were doing and bowed.

Liu Dewei naturally knew that he had advised the prince, but matters such as advice depended on whether the emperor or the person being advised would accept the advice.

But I have never seen the other party come to my door after I gave advice.

Why is this?

Liu Dewei was both frightened and confused. Was the prince going to lose his temper?
But no matter what, he, the Minister of Justice, should bow first and ask respectfully: "Your Highness, why do you come to the Ministry of Justice?"

Li Chengqian stood aside with his hands in his pockets and said, "Hmm? Don't you know why I'm here?"

"This..." Liu Dewei took a breath and became alert. He said, "As a subject, I should advise you. If Your Highness wants to..."

"Hey!" Li Chengqian interrupted him and said, "It's okay, you guys go ahead and do your work. I'll wait for you to finish."

The Crown Prince had a smile on his face, but this made the officials from the Ministry of Justice even more nervous.

After exchanging glances, everyone left the official residence, leaving the Minister of Justice and the Crown Prince here, while they were outside blowing in the cold wind.

The Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Di Zhixun, was also standing outside the door. It was rare for the prince to come to the Ministry of Justice in person.

In the Ministry of Justice, the prince stood aside. Liu Dewei naturally had no intention of handling official business anymore. He stood up again and said, "Your Highness, just speak frankly."

Li Chengqian took out a memorial from his sleeve and asked, "Is this written by Minister Liu?"

Liu Dewei took a look and nodded, "That's right."

"You don't have to be nervous. I'm not here to threaten you or settle accounts with you."

"I am not nervous."

"Really?" Li Chengqian smiled knowingly.

"I also heard that many people submitted memorials to advise Your Highness last night."

"It's okay. You're not the only one. I'll ask you first before asking others."

"Your Highness..." Liu Dewei organized his words several times, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Is it because of my advice that Your Highness is angry and unwilling?"

Then he continued, "Your Highness is young, so it is inevitable that he may be hot-tempered or conceited. This is why I am here to advise you. You cannot investigate the world in this way. If you do, there will be chaos, and chaos will lead to changes. Even if Your Highness is angry, I will still advise you."

So being an emperor is really not an easy thing.

The Tang Dynasty was in a state of disrepair and so many people died in the chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty. It was truly a miracle that my father was able to summon such a group of wise men to govern the country.

"Minister Liu has misunderstood."

"Did your minister misunderstand?"

"I came here to ask for your advice. Your memorial of persuasion is too general. I only understand half of it. Don't write like that in the future. Can you write it in more detail?"

"minister……"

Before he could finish his words, Li Chengqian said, "Also, you said that governing the country should be done gradually. Then let me ask, how should we do it gradually? Where should we start and where should we end? And how many years will it take? Five years, ten years? Twenty years?"

Liu Dewei was speechless. At that time, he was just thinking about giving advice and advice, and didn't think so much.

Li Chengqian had a satisfied smile on his face and asked, "Minister Liu?"

Liu Dewei quickly came back to his senses and replied: "I didn't think so carefully. I am ashamed."

"That's fine. Governing the country means accepting people's opinions and criticisms. I am not someone who cannot tolerate criticism. Please ask Minister Liu to rewrite a plan when you have time. We can discuss it in the morning court."

"Your Majesty..." Liu Dewei took a deep breath and replied, "Your Majesty obeys your order."

After His Royal Highness the Crown Prince left the Ministry of Justice, everyone in the Ministry came back and asked what the Crown Prince had said.

Liu Dewei waved his hand and told them to go about their business. He closed his eyes and thought without saying a word.

After leaving the Ministry of Justice, Li Chengqian came to the Ministry of Personnel. Now that his uncle was not here, the affairs of the Ministry of Personnel were arranged by the newly appointed Minister of Personnel Zhang Xuansu. The prince usually moved around in the Secretariat and rarely came to the Ministry of Personnel.

Due to the holiday, not many people are in the Ministry of Personnel. When they see the prince coming in person, they are stunned and curious.

Zhang Xuansu was looking at the list of officials to be transferred this year when he suddenly saw the prince coming and hurriedly stood up to salute.

After returning to Chang'an from Luoyang, this man served as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel.

Unexpectedly, when he returned, the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace came to give advice just when he was about to make his first major move as a new official.

He had no gratitude at all for arranging him to go to Luoyang for cultivation.

"Your Highness, minister..."

Li Chengqian glanced around the official residence of the Ministry of Personnel and said, "This Ministry of Personnel is indeed more spacious than other official residences. Hmm... it also has more staff. It is said that the Ministry of Personnel is the busiest in the court. I will not stay here for long on this trip."

Zhang Xuansu is over forty years old, and his energy is no longer what it used to be. He doesn't know how many more years he can fight for this empire. Now that the prince is here, he naturally has to treat him with all his heart.

Li Chengqian took out a memorial from his sleeve, and when he saw that it was not the one from the Ministry of Personnel, he took out all the memorials in the stack.

Among them, I found the one in which Zhang Xuansu gave advice.

This scene left everyone in the Ministry of Personnel speechless.

They also heard that many people advised His Royal Highness the Crown Prince not to act impulsively last night, but they didn't expect that the Crown Prince would come to them just after they gave the advice.

Is this the way the prince, who is so close to the throne, behaves?
Zhang Xuansu looked at his own memorial of remonstrance and said, "Your Highness, is there anything wrong with what I said?"

"Yes." Li Chengqian put away the other memorials and said, "You said that if a large-scale investigation is carried out, I'm afraid no one will want to be an official in the future. People take the imperial examination to become officials in order to escape from their current situation and enter a new life."

Although the memorial was more obscure, it only mentioned the ways of being an official and the difficulty of establishing the imperial examination system, and listed all the difficulties from the Han Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty.

But the prince's explanation makes sense, and that's exactly what he meant.

If being an official makes one's life worse, then why bother taking the imperial examinations?

Li Chengqian said: "I can generally understand that if officials are treated harshly, it will affect people's enthusiasm for participating in the imperial examinations in the future."

Zhang Xuansu bowed and said, "That's right."

"Many times, Jingzhao Prefecture advocates that problems should be discovered and solved once they are discovered. We cannot just turn a blind eye to them."

Zhang Xuansu replied: "I have heard something."

Inside the Ministry of Personnel, a group of officials pretended to be busy with the matters at hand and listened with their ears pricked up.

Li Chengqian pushed the memorial on the table in front of him, raised his head and gestured, "Look at this memorial. You only raised questions but did not mention solutions. Is this being lazy? Or are you trying to embarrass me?"

"I have absolutely no such intention!"

"I like people to raise objections, but it's not enough to just have an opinion. We also need a solution. How about I bring out Minister Zhang's opinion and let everyone discuss it in the court?"

Zhang Xuansu understood clearly and said, "I really am..."

"Then let's do this." Li Chengqian said, "There is an issue at the moment. How can we ensure people's enthusiasm for participating in the imperial examinations while investigating officials and local officials? How about that?"

"Since the Crown Prince is in charge of all government offices, what the Crown Prince says is the will." Zhang Xuansu bowed and said, "I obey your orders."

Li Chengqian collected the rest of the memorials with satisfaction and said, "Thank you for your help."

"I send you to Your Highness."

"No, I have to go to the next one."

Zhang Xuansu escorted the prince out of the Ministry of Personnel and saw the young and energetic crown prince heading towards the Secretariat.

Among the ministers who advised the prince, there was Su Tan, the Secretary General, who was the father-in-law of the current prince and the father of the crown princess.

Last night, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was remonstrated by his ministers because of a word he said. The next day, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince rushed to various departments in the court, asking one after another about the reasons for the remonstrance.

This matter spread throughout the government and the country at an extremely fast speed.

In fact, most of the court officials knew about the prince's style of doing things. Even those who were newly appointed or young people who had just entered the Tang Dynasty officialdom had heard of it.

But he didn't expect that because of a few words of advice, the prince would come to him personally to inquire.

Every minister who was questioned by the prince looked embarrassed and dared not say much, or looked ashamed and embarrassed.

Even the prince's father-in-law, Su Tan, blushed with shame after hearing the prince's words and writing a memorial of advice.

This matter was like a gust of wind that reached the ears of the emperor and the emperor emeritus.

Li Yuan was lying on his side on a large clean rock, watching his middle-aged son, who was nearly fifty years old, fishing.

Li Shimin was holding a fishing rod and listening to the eunuch's story.

"Did he really do that?"

"Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is talking to several censors at the Censorate."

There had been no fish taken for half an hour, and Li Shimin looked at the calm lake in annoyance.

On weekdays, when Cheng Qian came here to fish, the fish were so stupid that they took the hook one after another. But when it was his turn as the emperor to fish, the fish here became like spirits.

Fishing is a very mentally exhausting activity. Li Shimin became angry and wanted to drain the water from Taiye Lake and kill all the fish there.

But soon, as the emperor, he suppressed this impulse for the time being and asked, "What is the reaction of the officials of various departments?"

The eunuch replied, "Your Majesty, most of them ended quietly without quarrels."

Li Yuan looked at his son with a smile and said, "Cheng Qian has always been a child who faces challenges head-on. He will not give up on something because of the advice of court officials. This is truly the style of a son of my Li family."

It seemed from his words that the retired emperor was very satisfied with the prince, and he even hinted at your majesty's intentions deliberately. The eunuch sensed the strange atmosphere and did not dare to speak out loudly.

Li Shimin snorted coldly: "Oh, who else is like him as a crown prince?"

The two emperors were quite surprised by the prince's current behavior. It turned out that there was such a way to deal with advice and remonstrance.

Li Shimin said: "This kid has not learned how to control his subjects. He did not listen to what I said to him. He still regards the court officials as his opponents."

As he was talking, he lost interest in fishing, so he put away his fishing rod and picked up the tea bowl and drank it in big gulps.

Another eunuch came in a hurry to report, "Your Majesty, a fight broke out in the Censorate."

Li Shimin said with a straight face: "Who did you fight with?"

"Two groups of imperial censors who were at odds with each other started fighting. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has summoned the Jinwu Guards to stop them."

Li Shimin looked unhappy and said, "This kid's methods are getting more and more aggressive. I don't know who taught him these skills. I have never taught him this."

Noticing his father's expression, Li Shimin said again: "I handed over the power to him in the hope that he could become familiar with the government and take charge of the six ministries in the future."

Empress Chang Sun was watching her grandchildren eating with small wooden spoons in their hands. When she heard her husband's words, she sighed again.

(End of this chapter)