A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 584 Ru was made Crown Prince
Li Yi, led by an attendant, arrived at the Wude Hall.

They removed their boots outside the hall and entered the hall after their names were called.

There weren't many people in the main hall; everyone was dressed in purple robes.

Li Yi was led to a prayer mat, where he found Prince Qi and Minister of Works Li Yuanji standing beside him. Prince Qin, Li Shimin, was seated at the very front, highlighting his special status as General of the Heavenly Strategy, a rank above princes and second only to the Crown Prince.

Li Yi's position was also quite high; he was second only to Li Shimin, Li Yuanji, and Pei Ji, the Minister of Works and Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel.

After Du Fuwei's sudden death in Chang'an, Li Yi ranked fifth among the officials of the Tang Dynasty.

The first one is naturally Crown Prince Li Jiancheng, who is the heir apparent and the most powerful person after the emperor.

The second was Li Shimin, the Prince of Qin, who held the titles of Grand General of the Heavenly Strategy, Grand Commandant and Minister of Works, Minister of the Imperial Secretariat and Chancellor, General of the Twelve Guards, Minister of the Imperial Secretariat of Shaanxi East Circuit, and Governor of Yongzhou. His position was above that of princes and dukes, and only below that of the Crown Prince.

The third was Li Yuanji, who held the titles of Grand Minister of Works, Grand General of Bingzhou, Attendant-in-Ordinary, and Prince of Qi, and was also a prince with the title of one of the Three Dukes.

Pei Ji was ranked fourth because he also held the title of Minister of Works, one of the Three Dukes.

Li Yi also held the title of one of the Three Dukes, hence he was ranked fifth.

While officials such as Xiao Yu, the Right Vice Minister; Yang Gongren, the Grand Secretary; Feng Deyi; and Chen Shuda, the Attendant-in-Ordinary, were all prime ministers and held the title of Duke, they did not hold the titles of one of the Three Dukes or one of the Three Tutors or Three Junior Tutors of the Crown Prince.

His rank as prime minister was only third grade, naturally placing him after the few who held the title of one of the Three Dukes.

The Crown Prince is not here.

Li Shimin, Li Yuanji, Pei Ji, and Li Yi, who held the titles of three dukes, were the Four Heavenly Kings.

As one of the top officials, Li Yi looked down on Li Yuanji and Pei Ji. Li Yuanji, needless to say, was not only ugly, capable of frightening children, with a pointed mouth and monkey-like face, but also incompetent.

Not only is he incompetent, but he also likes to mess around. When he was stationed in Taiyuan, he did nothing but pointless things. To be honest, this kind of person should be imprisoned. Letting him out will only lead to chaos.

Li Yuan, however, quite favored his fourth son, who was born of the principal wife. To this day, the son still holds the titles of Grand General of Bingzhou, Grand General, and Chancellor.

Li Yi could only say that Li Yuan was indeed at ease with his own son, especially since his son was incompetent, which made Li Yuan even more at ease. Li Shimin, who was too capable, made Li Yuan very uneasy.

As for Pei Ji

Besides knowing how to please Li Yuan and frequently playing the pipa, dancing, and drinking with the emperor, what other skills did he have?
Among the prime ministers, any one of them—Xiao Yu, Chen Shuda, Feng Deyi, Yang Gongren—was better than him. Even when Li Yuan appointed two members of his wife's family, the Dou family, as prime ministers, they were still better than Pei Ji.

Pei Ji is more suited to be a palace supervisor.
The Four Heavenly Kings sat in front of the ministers.
However, neither of them greeted each other. Li Shimin even lowered his head as if he were dozing off, while Li Yuanji looked around and glanced at Li Yi several times.

Li Yi ignored him.

The other prime ministers were also waiting quietly.

at last,

The emperor arrived.

"My lords,"
I just received an urgent message from an official.
The Tuyuhun people of the northwest have invaded the border again, this time with the old traitor Fuyun personally leading troops to attack Minzhou. General Li Changqing suffered a crushing defeat, and Minzhou is currently under siege and in imminent danger of falling.

Li Yuanji chimed in, "That damned Tuyuhun, willingly serving as the Turks' lackeys. Every time the Turks invade, the Tuyuhun also harasses Longyou."

"We shouldn't have released Prince Murong Shun of Tuyuhun in the first place."

Li Yuan ignored the ugly fourth son, "Gentlemen, the Tuyuhun not only invade repeatedly, but also want to ask our Great Tang for a marriage alliance."

"They invaded our territory and then requested marriage and peace. How do you think we should respond?"

Pei Ji replied, "War will only deepen resentment; peace is preferable. The most urgent task now is to appease the Turks."

We currently lack the resources to deal with the Tuyuhun.

"It would be better to select a woman from the imperial clan, bestow upon her the title of princess, and send her to Tuyuhun for a marriage alliance. This way, the crisis in Longyou can be resolved without losing a single soldier."

Li Shimin directly refuted Pei Ji.

"Does Prime Minister Pei think the Turks can be appeased? Jieli is untrustworthy and there is no way to make peace. The court should abandon any illusions and fight Jieli."

Only by defeating the Turks on the battlefield can peace be negotiated.

Pei Ji held up his official tablet.

"Your Majesty, the court reached a peace agreement with the Turks last time, and Jieli withdrew his troops as agreed. It was someone who deliberately disregarded the overall situation of the court, arbitrarily provoked border conflicts, and undermined the peace agreement, which led to Jieli launching another large-scale invasion."
Your Majesty, I believe that the person responsible should be held accountable, and the culprit who disrupted the peace agreement should be handed over to the Turks for punishment. Princess Changping should also be sent to the Khan's court as soon as possible to restore good relations between the two countries and force the Turks to withdraw their troops again.

Li Yuan remained silent.

Feng Deyi secretly observed the emperor's expression and noticed that he had been frowning when Pei Ji proposed the compromise.

The emperor clearly did not approve of Pei Ji's compromise.
So he raised the ivory tablet.

"Your Majesty, I believe that the Turks, relying on their large army and well-equipped horses, look down on our Great Tang. Especially during their last invasion, they plundered a great deal and received many rewards from our Great Tang."

Now that autumn is here and the horses are fat, they will use the Battle of Huanghualing as an excuse to invade again. Their true intention is still to plunder, and they may even take this opportunity to extort money and silk from our Great Tang again.

Regardless of their pretext for invading, the Turks are now in power, and the court cannot immediately negotiate peace with them; otherwise, they will only become more arrogant.

We must fight first, win, and then negotiate peace; that's a balanced approach that combines force and reward.

Li Yuan asked, "What about the Tuyuhun?"

"Your Majesty, the Tuyuhun are taking advantage of our misfortune and cannot be let off lightly. If we easily grant their unreasonable requests, it will only fuel their greed and make the Turkic leader Jieli despise our Central Plains even more."

Troops can be immediately transferred from Longyou and Bashu to rescue Li Changqing and launch a counterattack against Tuyuhun.

Li Yuan agreed to this proposal.

Even the Tuyuhun were taking advantage of the chaos; if we were to be completely subservient to them, things would get out of hand.

"An imperial edict was issued to Dou Gui, Right Vice Minister of the Yizhou Administrative Office, Qie Luosheng, Governor of Weizhou, and Chai Shao, Governor of Qizhou, to send troops to rescue Minzhou."

Li Yi knelt on the prayer mat.

It's already clear that the emperor set the tone right from the start.
We must fight.

How could Pei Ji, the emperor's confidant, not have known about it beforehand?

"His Majesty!"

Just then, Li Shimin raised his tablet and spoke.

"Your subject is willing to go to Longyou, lead troops to rescue Minzhou, and attack Tuyuhun!"

A shocking statement.

The ministers in the hall were all surprised, and even Li Yi was initially taken aback. Was the King of Qin using a strategy of retreat as a means of advancement?

Li Yi glanced at the emperor on the imperial couch and saw that Li Yuan frowned slightly.

"The Tuyuhun are nothing to us; Dou Gui and his men are sufficient," Li Yuan said. "The most urgent task now is to repel the Turks. Does Your Highness have any good strategies to defeat them?"

"Your Majesty, if Khagan Jieli wants war, then our Great Tang will fight him to the bitter end. We will meet force with force and defend against any challenge," Li Shimin said decisively.

Li Yuan then asked, "But the Turks are powerful. This time, both the eastern and western routes are guarded by Turkic border passes, allowing them to advance unimpeded. The situation is very unfavorable."

"Your Majesty, the deeper the Turks penetrate, the easier they are to defeat."

"If I were to put you in command of troops, how many soldiers would you need, and what would your chances of victory be?" Li Yuan finally spoke frankly.

"The troops in Hedong and Hebei are sufficient. Your Majesty, I do not need to add any more troops. I only wish to ask Your Majesty to send a few generals."

Li Yuan stood up and said, "You may deploy the troops as you see fit, and choose the generals as you see fit. I have only one request: you must defeat Jieli."

At the very least, we should try to force a peace and bring Jieli back to the negotiating table.

Li Shimin didn't stand on ceremony either.
"Your subject recommends Prince Wu'an, Wu Yi, as the deputy commander of the expeditionary force, the general commander of the Bingzhou Road army, and the grand general commander of Bingzhou."

"We recommend Prince Huaiyang, Daoxuan, as the General Commander of the Youzhou Road Army and the Grand Commander of Youzhou."

···
Li Shimin immediately recommended Li Yi and Li Daoxuan, who had just been dismissed from their posts and recalled to the capital, in the palace.

Then came the generals from the Shaanxi East Circuit Grand Secretariat and the Prince of Qin's Mansion.
They recommended Luo Shixin as the governor of Jinzhou and Qin Shubao as the governor of Daizhou.

He recommended Yuchi Gong as the governor of Shuozhou.

Cheng Yaojin, Duan Zhixuan, and others served as the general managers of the expeditionary force.

Seeing that Li Yuan was hesitant, Li Yi, who had just returned, actually preferred to stay in Chang'an. However, if Li Shimin could take command of Hedong, he was willing to lend him a hand and drive the Turkic wolves back as soon as possible.

Li Yuan paced back and forth in the hall.
After a long pause, he said, "Brothers hunt together, fathers and sons go to war together. This time, Jieli is coming with great force, so we cannot underestimate him and must go all out."

Erlang, this time the three of you brothers will go together. The eldest brother will be the marshal and stationed in Puzhou, while you and the fourth brother will be the deputy marshals and go to Taiyuan to command.

Wu Yi was appointed as the Chief Clerk of the Army and concurrently the General Commander of the Bingzhou Road Army, while Qu Tutong was appointed as the Military Advisor.

Prince Li Yi of Yan was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Youzhou Road Army, and Prince Daoxuan of Huaiyang was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Yanmen Road Army...

Li Shimin suddenly looked up at his father.

I never expected that they would agree so readily, saying that you could command any number of soldiers and choose any generals, but then they changed their minds so quickly.
Should the Crown Prince remain the commander-in-chief, while he serves as an assistant commander alongside Yuanji as deputy commander?

Even at this critical moment, the emperor still didn't forget to continue supporting the crown prince.

Li Shimin's face turned red.

It's incredibly uncomfortable to have a breath stuck in your chest.

"Your Majesty, I suddenly feel unwell. Please allow me to take my leave."

Li Yuan stood there, stunned.

The King of Qin did not expect such a strong reaction.

"Erlang,"

"Your Majesty, I need to see a doctor,"

After speaking, Li Shimin rose and left the Wude Hall.

The prime ministers and high-ranking officials in purple robes all watched this scene in astonishment.

Even Li Yuan was stunned.

"Erlang!" Li Yuan called out as he came to his senses.

But Li Shimin had already left the Wude Hall and walked away without looking back.

This sudden scene,
This resulted in a deathly silence in the hall.

Li Yi was also somewhat surprised. Li Shimin's tough stance this time was probably both a sign of disappointment and a strategic retreat. After all, given the current situation, Li Yuan had no other options and no one else to rely on.

This was precisely the time when Li Shimin could put pressure on the emperor.

The main characters have all left.
The play couldn't be performed.

Li Yuan waved his hand helplessly, and the court meeting ended early.

"No leisure,"

Li Yuan stopped him, "Come with me to Hongyi Palace to see Erlang."

Li Shimin claimed to be ill, so Li Yuan went to see him.

The father and son really put on an acting show.

The two left Taiji Palace, passed through the west gate of Xiyuan, and arrived at the Qin Prince's residence in Hongyi Palace, where Li Shimin actually lay down on the bed.

He was so angry that his liver ached and his whole body trembled.

When Li Yuan entered, he was surprised to see Li Shimin lying there, pale-faced and covered in cold sweat.

After asking a few questions, Li Yuan told Li Yi to go out first.

Only the father and son remained inside.

"I have decided to send the Crown Prince to Binzhou to oversee the Turkic army that has invaded Yuanzhou and Longzhou. Hedong will be entirely under your command."

Li Shimin lay there and said, "Your Majesty, I may not be able to lead troops into battle for the time being."

Li Yuan sat down beside him and took Li Shimin's hand. "Second son," he said, "this time the Turks have invaded, advancing from both the east and west, heading straight for Chang'an."
The Tang Dynasty was already in grave danger.

I know that I, Erlang, am not capable of shouldering this heavy responsibility. Now, only you, Erlang, can save the Tang Dynasty.

If you can lead the army to repel the Turks, the Li Tang dynasty will be preserved because of you. When you return in triumph, you will be made crown prince!

As soon as this word comes out,
Li Shimin's pupils contracted sharply.

(End of this chapter)