In fact, political struggles are so cruel. Although Qian Ping helped Li Xiang do a lot of things in the past, he chose the wrong side, and his previous contributions may not be of much use. So in this case, the people around him have also learned a lesson and must not miss certain information in the future.
The sun rose on time the next day. No matter what happened in the East Palace, everyone had to move forward.
Unlike yesterday, Qian Ping did not come to the gate of Li Xiang's yard to serve. Eunuch Xia changed into a brand new brocade robe and stood next to Li Xiang.
Li Xiang did not say anything else, but immediately got into his sedan chair. It was already time for the morning court session, and after Li Xiang came back, he would also go to the morning court session with others. Moreover, Wang De had sent someone to say yesterday that many people might talk about the Western Regions in the court today.
Li Chengqian's sedan chair was in front, with Qian Ping on the right; Li Xiang's sedan chair was in the back, with Xiao Xia Zi on the right.
This is probably the layout of the East Palace in the future. There may be some fine-tuning, but the changes will definitely not be too big.
Yesterday's incident had spread throughout the palace, so no one in the palace cared about it. Everyone just stood by and saluted the two of them. But it was different for the ministers from outside the palace. They had a good relationship with Qian Ping in the past, and they had tried their best to get him on board. Now that Eunuch Xia had taken over, everything had to start over again.
When Qian Ping saw these people, he smiled and nodded, but unfortunately, they didn't respond. Eunuch Xia was following behind. Aren't you trying to fool us? Although you are still close to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, everyone knows that the protagonist of your palace is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is just a facade. If you still maintain this kind of relationship with you, then we will not stand on your side.
In this imperial city, abilities and such can be put aside, but if you don’t have a clear understanding of the situation in front of you, then your outcome will be our outcome, so these people slowed down their pace and gathered around Li Xiang.
Li Xiang was neither arrogant nor impatient at this moment. When he arrived at the place where he should get off the sedan chair, Li Xiang followed Li Chengqian obediently. Although Li Chengqian wanted to speak several times, he didn't know how to start. Although this incident did not fundamentally destroy the relationship between father and son, Li Xiang had done what he should do.
Since you have brought the person back, Li Xiang cannot let him leave. I have also shown my magnanimity, but this matter has a price. If there is no price for this matter, then such things will happen again in the future. So in this case, Li Xiang must let Li Chengqian feel it.
"All ministers will come to court in the morning."
When Wang De's voice came over, everyone stopped their greetings and stood in line honestly. Li Xiang stood in front of Li Chengqian. The seat next to him was empty. This was the seat of Wei Wang Li Tai.
Li Xiang stared at this position for a while and soon knew what to do. Li Chengqian had nothing to do during this period and had no enemies within the court, so this guy was a little arrogant. Li Xiang was also worried about his father. After all, he had done a lot of nonsense in the past. It seemed that he had to create some trouble for him artificially. Only by making this guy nervous would those stupid things not happen, so that his son would not have to work hard on the front line while his father worked hard to tear down the wall behind.
"Long live our emperor, long live our emperor."
After everyone entered the hall, Li Shimin had already sat on the throne. Listening to the cheers of "Long live the emperor" from below, Li Shimin nodded with satisfaction.
Now it has been changed. The grand court meeting is held every three days. If there is nothing important, it may be delayed. As Li Xiang said, such a rule is completely unnecessary.
Originally, Li Shimin thought it was necessary, but after some thought, he realized that gathering so many people here would indeed be very time-consuming. It would be enough to come once every three days, unless there was something important. Today's court meeting was supposed to be held less than once every three days, but the reason why everyone was called here was because Li Xiang had returned to Beijing, and it was also a kind of respect for the crown prince.
"At today's court meeting, I and all the ministers would like to hear about the situation in the Western Regions. Although the memorials have already explained it clearly, why don't you tell everyone in person? Yesterday, the Ministry of Revenue received the four million strings of cash you brought back from the Western Regions. This money is specifically used to repair the Yellow River dike. It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
The comprehensive repair of the Yellow River embankment can be said to be something worthy of praise. Among the dozen emperors in the past, except for one construction during the reign of Emperor Yang of Sui, the rest of the time it was just patchwork, which can be said to have caused considerable trouble to the people. Now the money that Li Xiang brought back is very important. If the entire county can be repaired, this can also be written into epics, which can be regarded as a face-lift for Li Shimin.
Historical books will only record during which emperor's reign the building was built, and at most the name of the official who carried out the repairs. As for who got the money, there is probably no such record.
Li Xiang certainly didn't care about such false reputation, but he did need to report on the situation in the Western Regions to the court. This was the first time these people had seen the return of money from the Western Regions, and many of them were puzzled. Isn't it said that even birds don't shit in that place? How could they possibly get so much money back?
After Li Shimin finished speaking, he signaled Li Xiang to come out and report on his work. It was not the first time for Li Xiang to report in front of so many people, so he had nothing to be afraid of.
Li Xiang was also very well prepared for the affairs of the Western Regions. He first talked about the Turkic rebellion. We had no intention of entering the Western Regions. Later, when we were suppressing the Turkic rebellion, Xueyantuo was involved. We were already very passive at that time, but for the interests of the Tang Dynasty, even though we were short of troops, we gritted our teeth and destroyed Xueyantuo.
The military generals of the court all knew about these things, and when they were talked about, they listened very carefully, but the civil officials of the court did not think so. They heard a great crisis in it. Now we are winning, but what if we lose?