Chapter 247 Xiao Yu
Everyone soon knew that Li Daoyou was appointed as the Minister of Justice. Li Chengqian was not surprised at all. Everything was on track.
"My dear! Xiao Yu, Duke of Song, wants to see you!" Wang Quan reported to Li Chengqian!
"Xiao Yu, Duke of Song? Why did he come to see me?" Li Chengqian asked in confusion.
Xiao Yu was the Prince's Grand Tutor to his prince, and was ranked among the Three Dukes. Although he was an official of the Eastern Palace, he was indeed an official on a temporary basis.
On weekdays, he would only go to the Eastern Palace to teach the prince on specific days. He would not appear in the Eastern Palace at other times.
Xiao Yu was a member of the Southern Liang royal family, the brother-in-law of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty, the uncle of the emperor of the Sui Dynasty, and a cousin of the Li family.
Counting from the Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, Xiao Yu's wife Dugu was the niece of Empress Dugu's maternal family, and Xiao Yu was Li Yuan's cousin-in-law. In
terms of seniority, Xiao Yu was Li Chengqian's grandfather, and he had to call him his uncle in private.
Xiao Yu was strict and rigid in his dealings with things, upright and honest, but he had good literary talent. He would scold people if he disagreed with them, and he would make the other party furious.
To put it bluntly, this guy didn't know how to behave, had low emotional intelligence, and was a stubborn person, all because of his background.
When Xiao Yu was young, he was a prince of the Southern Liang Dynasty. He was well cared for by his parents. No one dared to disobey him. He said whatever he thought and never cared about other people's feelings.
Later, he became the uncle of the emperor of the Sui Dynasty. In terms of status, he really didn't take other people seriously. In addition, the current emperor was his wife's cousin.
At the beginning, he didn't even take his brother-in-law Yang Guang, who had a good relationship with him, seriously. He would argue with him whenever he wanted. Yang Guang was so angry that he demoted him to Chihe as a prefect.
Xiao Yu always spoke briefly and directly in the court. He repeatedly disobeyed the emperor's will and was at odds with his colleagues. As a result, he served as prime minister six times and was dismissed six times.
Xiao Yu was an outlier during the Sui and Tang dynasties. The last time he was dismissed from his position was because he told Li Er that Fang Xuanling might form a clique for personal gain.
This was originally Xiao Yu's heartfelt words. After all, he was a man who spoke his mind without targeting anyone in particular.
But Li Er didn't think so. Perhaps Li Er was tired of this cousin with low emotional intelligence, so he took the opportunity to dismiss him from his position as prime minister.
Compared with Wei Zheng, who was equally upright, Wei Zheng was much better at dealing with people than Xiao Yu!
Li Chengqian didn't dare to neglect him. He stood up and went directly to greet Xiao Yu. He didn't dare to put on airs in front of Xiao Yu, lest Xiao Yu would confront him right away and spit all over his face.
Xiao Yu dared to confront even the emperor, so confronting the prince was no more than a simple matter of eating and drinking water. It was simply a small matter of sprinkling water. When
Li Chengqian came outside, he saw an old man with white hair in his seventies with his back to him, looking up at the sky at a 45-degree angle, with a worried look on his face.
He was Xiao Yu, Duke of Song.
It seemed that this guy was stimulated by something. He had to act according to the situation, lest he be confronted by him and doubt his life, which would not be good!
"Grandfather, cousin!" Li Chengqian shouted.
Xiao Yu turned around, with a sad face, and said slowly: "This old minister has seen His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"
"No need to be polite! Grandfather, cousin, don't stand outside, please come in!" Li Chengqian said.
Xiao Yu and Li Chengqian walked in together. Li Chengqian returned to the main seat and sat down, and Xiao Yu sat in the first seat on the right.
Wang Quan immediately asked the maid to serve tea to Xiao Yu. After serving the tea, the maid stepped aside to serve, and when the prince and Xiao Yu finished drinking, she would add tea to Xiao Yu and the prince at any time.
"My cousin's grandfather is usually busy with official duties! How come he has time to come to my East Palace today?" Li Chengqian asked.
Although the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty had a high position, he did not have great power. In order to centralize power, the power of the prime minister was no longer concentrated in one person as in the Qin and Han dynasties.
After the evolution of successive dynasties, the power of the prime minister has long been divided.
But even so, there are still many things that the prime minister needs to do.
"This time, I am here to resign from Your Highness. Your Majesty has dismissed me from the position of the Prince's Grand Tutor." Xiao Yu said with a depressed look.
Today he went to see Li Er, but he never expected that Li Er would dismiss him from office again. Didn't he just tell him to be careful of Fang Xuanling's clique for personal gain? Why is
he so heartless? After all, Xiao Yu has contributed his whole life to the Tang Dynasty, and his contributions are countless.
But you can't be so heartless as to deprive Xiao Yu of his title and fiefdom! Even if you did, how could you banish him from the capital?
Li Chengqian obviously didn't change his mind. Even if Xiao Yu was dismissed from the post of the Crown Prince's Guardian, there was no need for him to be so disheartened.
You are still a special promotion, a third-rank official of the Secretariat, and still the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty. You are still in a high position of power. Why would a prince's guardian make you so sad?
Li Chengqian really couldn't understand.
"It's a pity that you can no longer listen to your cousin's advice and teachings in the future! But why should your cousin be so sad? He is just a prince's guardian!"
"Perhaps your father sympathizes with your cousin's old age and doesn't want you to work too hard, so he exempted you from the position of prince's guardian." Li Chengqian said comfortingly.
"Your Majesty, there is no need to comfort me. I don't even care about the title of the Prince's Grand Tutor."
"This time, Your Majesty not only dismissed me from the post of the Prince's Grand Tutor, but also dismissed me from all my official positions in the court, and dismissed my title. He demoted me from the capital to Shangzhou as a governor." Xiao Yu finished speaking in one breath.
Li Chengqian was completely stunned. It turned out to be like this. No wonder he was not happy at all. The problem turned out to be here.
"This... What on earth is the reason that my father punished you like this?" Li Chengqian said.
"Alas! Today, I gave advice to Your Majesty, but it angered Your Majesty, and I ended up in this situation now." Xiao Yu sighed.
After Xiao Yu said this, Li Chengqian knew why Xiao Yu was banished from Chang'an by Li Er.
"What did you say to your father?" Li Chengqian asked.
"I have advised your majesty that Fang Xuanling often forms cliques with ministers in the Secretariat and the Ministry of Personnel for personal gain. He may be disloyal to the emperor and is stubborn in his power. Your majesty has been kept in the dark, but he has not yet rebelled. I suggest your majesty be careful." Xiao Yu said.
"My father thinks you are too much! So he reprimands you, but he will not remove your title, so he will banish you from Chang'an!" Li Chengqian said.
If that were the case, Li Er would not be so petty as to banish Xiao Yu to another place.
It was mainly because of Xiao Yu's character that he ended up like this. Li Er had tolerated him for so many years, and finally he exploded at once, leading to this result.
Fang Xuanling's incident was just a fuse.
Li Chengqian understood all this in his heart, but Xiao Yu didn't understand it at all, and only felt that he was very wronged.