Li Chengqian of the Tang Dynasty: Please say long live His Majesty

Chapter 603: Li Shimin's Third Anniversary Sacrifice (Part )
In late February, spring is everywhere.

In the Liangyi Hall, a group of five people including Changsun Wuji, Yu Zhining, Zhang Xingcheng, Li Qianyou, and Wang Shidan walked into the hall.

Li Chengqian, sitting on the imperial couch, put down the thin bamboo gold pen in his hand, looked at the five people in front of him, and sighed: "Look at me, I'm so busy that I even forgot to become famous in the imperial examination."

"Greetings, Your Majesty!" All the ministers bowed in unison.

"Stand up." Li Chengqian breathed a sigh of relief and raised his hand calmly.

Wang Shidan stepped forward and placed the twenty-three test papers in his hand into Zhang Ananda's hand.

Zhang Ananda took it, turned around, walked up to the Danbi, and placed it in front of Li Chengqian.

Li Chengqian opened the test papers and began to look at them one by one.

He mainly reads the content of the policy essay part. If there are outstanding insights, he will read it carefully several times.

After a moment, he sighed and said, "I am still too demanding. After all, there are not many people like Zhang Jianzhi!"

Zhang Sun Wuji bowed and said, "Your Majesty, the Tang Dynasty recruits officials every year, and the talents are either selected before or have not yet arrived. These people, although not the best talents, are of above-average quality, and are sufficient for Your Majesty to use."

Li Chengqian nodded, then glanced at Cui Wenjing, who was chosen as the first place. He sighed and said, "The Cui family is indeed a rare literary family. Last year, Cui Wenyuan won the first place in the Ministry of Personnel Imperial Examination, and now it's Cui Wenjing."

"Your Majesty, why not move Cui Wenjing to second place?" Changsun Wuji bowed.

Yu Zhining, Zhang Xingcheng, Li Qianyou, Wang Shidan and others had different expressions.

Li Chengqian took a look at the expressions on everyone's faces and knew that they had already argued about this matter, but the result of the argument was that Cui Wenjing was still ranked first.

"Forget it, it's still Cui Wenjing." Li Chengqian shook his head and said, "The Cui family is talented and elegant, there is no need to suppress them. As for the other families, and the poor families in the common people, if they are dissatisfied, they can fight for it in the future imperial examinations. If they don't have the ability, then whoever owns it will keep it."

"Your Majesty is fair and benevolent." Changsun Wuji and others bowed in unison.

Li Chengqian nodded and looked at the second person selected, Liu Che.

Just by looking at the name, you can tell that he is from the Jingzhao Liu family.

What really concerned Li Chengqian was the third place.

Liu Yizhi.

Bachelor of the North Gate.

Yuan Wanqing, Liu Yizhi, Fan Lubing...

For that, there is also Ming Chongyan.

Most of these people are still young, come from humble backgrounds, and have excellent literary talent, but now is not the time for them to be born.

Zhang Daxiang, Dai Zhide, Li Yiyan, Liu Rengui, and Li Yifu were a group of young backbones who came on stage three to five years later.

Pei Yan was a step late.

After them came Cen Changqian, Zhang Da'an, Lou Shide, Zhang Jianzhi, Lu Zhaolin, Wei Xuantong and others, who were the group that came ten to fifteen years later.

Liu Yizhi might be able to catch up, but the other scholars from the North Gate would have to wait much longer.

Li Chengqian shook his head. He did not move Liu Yizhi's position. He looked at Zhangsun Wuji and said, "Let's do this. Copy the list and the essays of the successful candidates and post them on both sides of the Suzaku Gate and the Imperial College. Let the scholars study them carefully in preparation for next year."

"We obey your order." The ministers bowed.

"Uncle, please stay for a moment." Li Chengqian looked up and said, "The Duke of Weiguo just sent back the battle report on Western Tuyuhun. Uncle, please discuss this with me."

"Yes!" Changsun Wuji lowered his head and stood aside.

The others bowed and said, "We will take our leave."

……

Watching everyone leave, Li Chengqian handed a memorial to Zhangsun Wuji and asked, "Uncle, have you read it?"

"I've read it." Changsun Wuji took the memorial and looked at Li Chengqian curiously. "Years ago, there was a conflict between Eastern and Western Tuyuhun. Eastern Tuyuhun, with the support of Duke Weiguo, launched a full-scale attack on Western Tuyuhun. They reached the city of Mangya. Western Tuyuhun King Dayan Mangbojie came out of the city to surrender. Murong Nuohebo wanted to kill Dayan Mangbojie, but the soldiers in his army completely disobeyed his orders."

Li Chengqian nodded lightly.

Starting from a few years ago, Li Jing recruited soldiers from the Eastern Tuyuhun people in the name of the Left and Right Guards.

Murong Nuohebo was powerless to stop it.

Afterwards, the Tang Dynasty began to gradually take over the military power of Eastern Tuyuhun.

However, in order to avoid provoking the Murong clan too much, Li Jing recruited 8,000 cavalrymen and stopped.

After all, the official number of Left and Right Guards is only 60,000, and most of them are distributed in various corners of the Tang Dynasty.

If it weren't for the support of the salt mines in Eastern Tuyuhun, the court would never have allowed him to recruit so many Tuyuhun cavalry.

Of course, there are benefits to doing this.

The treatment of the Tang Dynasty's soldiers was not comparable to that of the Tuyuhun cavalry.

Over time, people naturally turned to the Tang Dynasty. In the end, except for the 20,000 loyal cavalrymen under the Murong clan, all the others fell into the hands of the Tang Dynasty.

"Now that the Duke of Wei has conquered Western Tuyuhun, he's emulating the Eastern Tuyuhun system, retaining the Dayan Mangbojie royal family. With the exception of a few soldiers directly under the royal family, all the rest have been incorporated into the Left and Right Leading Army Guards." After a brief pause, Li Chengqian looked at Zhangsun Wuji and said, "We now need to disrupt the Eastern and Western Tuyuhun soldiers and gradually reorganize them. However, Western Tuyuhun is only just beginning..."

"Food and grass." Changsun Wuji nodded.

"Western Tuyuhun is rich in jade, and the jade mines in Kunlun Mountain are extremely valuable. The key is how to convert them into cash." Li Chengqian looked at Zhangsun Wuji and said, "I plan to use a batch of high-quality jade during my father's sacrifice. I will also bestow a batch of jade plaques on the princes and princesses. After that, it will be up to my uncle to convert the jade from the Imperial Household into gold, silver, copper coins, silk, and even grain."

Food, the key is food.

It is easy to say that jade can be transformed into food, but it is not easy to do it.

How to make people accept jade, maintain its high price, and exchange it for food to the greatest extent possible, this is the responsibility of Changsun Wuji, the Shangshu Zuo Pushe.

The food obtained must not only be used to ensure the military needs of Western Tuyuhun, but also, if possible, try to leave some for Goguryeo.

"I understand!" Changsun Wuji nodded seriously.

"The western front shouldn't be a problem." After a brief pause, Li Chengqian said, "Duke Ying will be able to arrive in Chang'an in early April. I plan to have Duke Weiguo return in May to rest up, attend my father's third anniversary funeral, and at the same time, review and address any shortcomings in the Goguryeo campaign."

"Yes!" Changsun Wuji nodded in agreement.

Li Chengqian took a deep breath and said, "This time, we mobilized a total of 100,000 troops to fight against Goguryeo. If it weren't for the gold sent by Tubo, and the heavy rains in the past two years, this battle would have to be postponed."

"Yes!" Changsun Wuji breathed a sigh of relief.

"A battle against an army of 100,000." Li Chengqian looked at Zhangsun Wuji, sighed softly, and said, "Uncle, I am really afraid of failure!"

Li Chengqian was emperor for only four years. Although he was the commander of the initial battle in which Eastern Tuyuhun defeated Tubo, Li Shimin was still alive at that time.

Now that Li Shimin is gone, this is Li Chengqian's first war against foreign enemies alone.

Once we lose, we will be in trouble.

"In a large-scale military operation, any inattention to detail can lead to a devastating defeat." Changsun Wuji looked at Li Chengqian and shook his head, saying, "Your Majesty, we have done our best. We have even endured the Yang family's affairs, striving to ensure the supply of military rations and doing everything we can to increase the power of our weapons. Most importantly, we have Li Ji at the forefront of the army."

Li Chengqian nodded slightly. He had tried his best to be careful for this battle.

Otherwise, he would have carried out drastic reforms long ago.

"Your Majesty, although the battle is dangerous, the Tang Dynasty is the Tang Dynasty, and Goguryeo is just Goguryeo. As long as we don't become arrogant and ignore Gaisuwen, we will definitely win this battle." Changsun Wuji suddenly smiled and said, "Besides, Your Majesty, it is Li Ji who is in front of the army. He is a man who is extremely cautious and would never be arrogant or careless."

……

"Yes!" Li Chengqian took a deep breath and said, "The army can rest assured for the time being. The hidden dangers in the court should also be eliminated."

Changsun Wuji was stunned. He instantly understood that Li Chengqian had left him alone because he actually only wanted to say this.

"I understand. I'll make arrangements when I get back." After a brief pause, Changsun Wuji asked in a low voice, "What about the Hundred Cavalry Division?"

"Last summer in Luoyang, I had already arranged for people to go to Guizhou." Li Chengqian raised his head indifferently.

Changsun Wuji suddenly felt his scalp tingling.

Transferring Yang Siyi to Guizhou for secret execution was a decision they made in October of the previous year.

Changsun Wuji never expected that the emperor had already sent people to Guizhou last summer to kill people.

Li Chengqian glanced at Changsun Wuji lightly, but there was something he didn't say. In fact, the deployment of personnel to Guizhou was an event in October of the previous year.

That is, he had just discussed with Changsun Wuji the secret execution of Yang Siyi, and he immediately made arrangements.

Of course, what is more important is that Changsun Wuji now needs to transfer Yang Siyi to Guizhou.

The secret guards were able to kill people in Guizhou.

"Also," Li Chengqian looked at Zhangsun Wuji and said, "Uncle, is Yong Wei Lu almost finished with his manuscript?"

"Yes!" Zhang Sun Wuji gathered his thoughts and nodded, "It will be done in the next few months."

"Hmm!" Li Chengqian sighed softly and said, "Please prepare it on the third anniversary of my father's death. I will use it to offer sacrifice to my father and tell him what I have done in the past three years."

The Yongwei Law not only revised many inappropriate laws, but also incorporated the changes made to the laws by Li Chengqian in recent years.

For example, severely punish those who wantonly tortured and killed slaves, prohibit human sacrifice, tighten the assessment of officials' descendants, and strengthen the review of the "Eight Discussions" system...

This series of events put together clearly shows that Li Chengqian was using some means to covertly clean up hidden households and increase the registered population.

After all, it was all for the purpose of increasing the population of the Tang Dynasty and strengthening the national strength, so that one day in the future, he, Li Chengqian, would also be qualified to be on the altar.

"I obey your order." Changsun Wuji bowed with a serious expression.

"Time is running out." Li Chengqian sighed softly and said, "While I'm in Chang'an, I'll do as much as I can. Once I'm gone, Chang'an will be handed over to my uncle."

Changsun Wuji bowed and said, "Your Majesty, rest assured. May the Great Tang and Chang'an be safe."

"May the Tang Dynasty be safe and sound, and may Chang'an be safe and sound."

(End of this chapter)