My father, Li Shimin, requests Your Majesty to become the Retired Emperor.

Li Shimin understood that weak countries have no diplomacy, and that treaties and rules are always set by powerful countries, no matter when.

Just then, Li Chenggan walked in from outside and knelt on the ground: "Your son pays respects to Your Majesty."

Recently, Li Shimin was not very satisfied with Li Chengqian's performance.

Because something happened at the Bureau of Clothing and Apparel, he took his anger out on Li Chenggan.

Get up!

"Thank you, Father Emperor!"

After Li Chengan stood up, he bowed to Wei Zheng with the respect due to a teacher, and Wei Zheng returned the courtesy.

Li Shimin asked coldly, "Have the Tibetan tribute items lost by the Bureau of Imperial Clothing been recovered?"

"Reporting to Father Emperor, it has been found."

"Oh, you found it?"

"Yes."

This surprised Li Shimin: "How did you find it?"

Li Chengan then recounted the general process of recovering the Tibetan tribute.

Li Shimin was also taken aback and asked, "What did you just say? These tributes were found in a Grand Slam gambling game?"

"Yes, Father."

When Li Shimin heard that the tribute items had been recovered, half of his anger subsided.

"So, according to you, these tributes were stolen by Fang Yi'ai and Changsun Chong."

"They were just trying to play a joke on Su Wan and Su Gui," Li Chengan said, trying to defend Fang Yi'ai and Changsun Chong.

"This is absolutely despicable."

Upon hearing this, Li Shimin was so angry that he didn't know what to say.

"Dai Zhou, summon Dai Zhou here and arrest them all for me. Lock them up in the Dali Temple prison and punish them according to the laws of the Tang Dynasty."

Li Chenggan knew that the Tang Code was still very harsh; crimes like this were capital offenses!

He quickly tried to persuade him from the side: "Father."

Although Fang Yi'ai and Changsun Chong went a bit too far with this joke.

Fortunately, the tribute items were not damaged and were all recovered. In my opinion, let's just let this matter go.

They're both too young; give them a chance to change their ways.

"What? You're kidding?"

Are you kidding me? Does anyone drive like this? It's utterly lawless.

What are their achievements?

Li Chengan could only shake his head, because Fang Yi'ai and Changsun Chong had not shown any outstanding performance during the march and battle.

"Normally, neither of them likes to study or practice martial arts; they're not good at academics."

When they get to the battlefield, if they can't beat others, all they know is to run away.

They can be considered generals who fled; do they think I didn't know?

This is truly disappointing to me.

Wei Zheng thought to himself, "There's a saying that goes, 'Those who are distant should not interfere with those who are close.

He cleared his throat and advised from the side, "Your Majesty,"

If we take this too seriously, Fang Yi'ai and Changsun Chong are no longer children.

They actually set a trap to lure Su Gui away from the Shangfu Bureau.

Then, after obtaining Su Gui's token, they switched the Tibetan tribute items.

This is enough to warrant a death sentence for them.

However, both Fang Yi'ai and Changsun Chong are your sons-in-law.

How different can a son-in-law and a son be?

Besides, Fang Yi'ai's father was the Grand Secretary Fang Xuanling.

Changsun Chong's father was Changsun Wuji.

If Your Majesty were to reprimand them severely, it would likely hurt the feelings of the two gentlemen.

Now that the tribute from Tibet has been recovered, Your Majesty, please give them a chance to reform, for they are young and ignorant.

Li Shimin, still furious, asked, "Where are those two lads?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the two of them went to the Shanghu Bureau to apologize to Su Wan."

Li Shimin put his hands behind his back and said, "Although this time it was a close call, there are still some loopholes in the management of the Shangfu Bureau."

First, the imperial seal was stolen, and then, with a little trick, the tribute from the Western Regions was switched.

You need to talk to Su Wan and tell her to pay more attention.

"What Father says is absolutely right."

Li Chenggan said this, but in his heart he thought, how could this be Su Wan's fault?

The Su and Wan regions were originally in charge of the Bureau of Imperial Clothing.

Who could have imagined that Fang Yi'ai and Changsun Chong were so despicable as to do such a thing?

Li Shimin, with his hands behind his back, paced back and forth in the hall, and slowly said, "Recently, things have not been peaceful in our palace."

Xiao'er died not long ago, and then Ming'er fell ill.

The Lizheng Hall caught fire, the imperial seal was lost, and the tribute from Tibet was switched.

What on earth happened?

Upon hearing this, Li Chenggan thought to himself that many things had indeed happened in the palace recently, and there were many things that his father had not mentioned.

For example, after Cai Xiang was poisoned, Xu Hui was forced to move to the south of the city, and has now returned to her hometown.

When Consort Yang heard about the crisis in Chang'an, she actually wrote a letter to her son Li Ke, telling him not to return to rescue Chang'an.

In fact, Li Chenggan sensed that although his father had many women around him, there were probably very few who truly loved him.

Those women were only thinking about their own and their family's gains and losses.

I really can't understand why my father would do this.

If there were fewer women in this harem, it would probably be much quieter.

"Has the person who stole the imperial seal been caught yet?"

"I haven't answered Father's question yet."

"In truth, the root cause lies with Chang He."

As the commander of the Imperial Guards, he failed to maintain order in Chang'an, and thieves frequently appeared.

"I'm removing Chang He from his post right now and replacing him with someone else. Let him go back and spend his days cuddling with Bai Mudan."

Li Chenggan quickly advised, "Father, although Chang He was a little careless, he made great contributions in the Xuanwu Gate Incident."

Moreover, he was extremely loyal to his father, the emperor.

Therefore, I feel that he should not be dismissed from his post easily.

Besides, he can't be entirely blamed; the thief was just too cunning.

Li Shimin was even more furious after hearing Li Chengqian's words.

Because Li Shimin was most opposed to the crown prince having overly close relationships with generals and ministers.

Moreover, recently, Li Chenggan has overstepped his authority on several occasions.

For example, Li Chengan wanted to seal the city gates, but went directly to Chang He without obtaining Li Shimin's consent.

In Li Shimin's view, this was also a provocative act.

Although Li Chengqian was the crown prince, the Tang dynasty would eventually be handed over to him.

However, he was still the emperor, and the Imperial Guards were directly under his command. How could he allow others to interfere with such power?

Thinking of this, Li Shimin's face darkened, and he looked at Li Chengan and asked, "Have you been in close contact with Chang He lately?"

Someone told me that Chang He's concubine, Bai Mudan, frequently visits supermarkets in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces.

What is she going there for?

Is it just about buying goods?

However, some people say, where did Bai Mudan get all those precious gold and silver jewelry and leather goods? She didn't pay for them.

What do you mean by doing this?

What kind of tricks are you playing?

Upon hearing this, Li Chengan broke out in a sweat.

He wondered how his father could know about something like this.