In the first year of Qianfeng (666 AD), the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty and the Empress came to Luoyang, the eastern capital, and left Crown Prince Li Hong in Chang'an to supervise the country.
In the meeting hall of the Chongwen Pavilion of the Eastern Palace, Pei Yan and Cen Changqian frowned and looked at each other, then said, "Your Highness, this time you acted first and reported later. You can't do this every time. If you do this..."
"Oh, we have to take emergency measures. Look at the rain outside, it's like water pouring. If we wait for your two provinces to sign and the Secretariat to issue an order, I'm afraid the Daming Palace will be flooded." Li Hong, now fourteen years old, has grown into a handsome and handsome boy.
He looked full of vigor and vigor, with a bronze complexion, a stern face, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and a body that had become increasingly strong and sturdy due to years of exercise. He looked like a teenager of sixteen or seventeen years old.
But the smirk at the corner of his mouth is still so obvious after all these years.
It was this wicked smile that made Wu Mei's palms itch involuntarily every time she saw it over the past decade. And now, if she wanted to pull his ears again, she had to stretch out her arm.
Fortunately, my son was very cooperative. Every time his ear was pulled, he would bend down and hand it over to me without waiting for me to stretch out my hand.
"But what you're doing is against the rules. If the Censorate finds out, they will impeach you, and... the left and right ministers of the Secretariat don't know about it yet, right?" Cen Changqian said halfway when he suddenly asked suspiciously.
"I plan to tell them later. You two should sign this first." Li Hong calmly tapped the table and gestured.
...
...
The heads of the Zhongshu and Menxia provinces looked at each other helplessly and said, "Just sign it, what else can you do? Besides, this is not the first, second, or third time this has happened."
So the two of them smiled bitterly, shook their heads, picked up the pen and signed on it.
After seeing the two people sign, Li Hong immediately grabbed it, looked at the handwriting, flicked the two documents, and said to the Minister of War Ren Yaxiang: "The city guards will cooperate in the relocation and evacuation of the people in the three districts. By the way, Jinghui, which temples are you going to arrange for the people in the three districts?"
He was halfway through talking to the Minister of War Ren Yaxiang when he began to ask his left assistant minister Jinghui. His every move always made Pei Yan and Cen Changqian feel that His Highness must have some ulterior motive for being so anxious.
"Your Highness, the people in the three districts will be accommodated in Ci'en Temple, Daxingshan Temple, Dazhuangyan Temple, and Anguo Temple according to the emergency mechanism you established in the Ministry of Revenue. I visited these temples when it snowed last year and they are fully suitable for the resettlement of the people."
"Okay, that's good. Okay, that's fine. Do you have anything else to do?" Li Hong asked, patting the table casually.
The people present could only shake their heads helplessly. You say that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is autocratic, but he never asks about other matters. He is conscientious and does his job conscientiously. He only takes care of the affairs of his Ministry of Revenue and does not participate in any other affairs.
But if it came to, for example, the construction of the official road from Chang'an to Yumen Pass two years ago, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince almost sidelined the Minister of Works Yan Liben.
During those days, Yan Liben was sulking at home every day, so he decided to go to the Ministry of Industry. It seemed that he would have even less time to spare! So he wandered around Chang'an like a wandering ghost every day, but he had nowhere to go.
Then there is his arch-enemy Dai Zhide. The relationship between the two has deteriorated further in the past two years, and it seems like they will never have any further contact with each other again.
In anger, Japan drove all the envoys to the Tang Dynasty into the sea and made them wait for the ship to return to Japan. Because of this incident, Japan sent several waves of envoys to the Tang Dynasty to ask Your Majesty to allow the Japanese envoys to come to the Tang Dynasty to study, but they were all rejected by the Crown Prince who was in charge of the Ministry of Revenue and was meddling in other people's business.
Therefore, apart from government affairs, the Minister of Revenue, the Minister of Rites and the Honglu Temple were rarely seen smiling at each other when they met on foot. Most of the time, they would look down on people when they met.
Therefore, now in the Ministry of Revenue, no matter whether it is the left or right assistant ministers or the small officials in the branch offices, they all dislike others and wish to bite them when they meet them to vent their anger for their masters.
But this is only limited to the Ministry of Revenue, which is wealthy and has the protection of the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty.
The officials of the Ministry of Rites and the Honglu Temple were miserable. They lived in fear every day. They could not afford to offend their superiors; after all, they still had to work under them.
They couldn't afford to offend the Minister of Revenue, and they didn't dare to offend him. After all, he was the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty. To offend him would be to seek death! Therefore, the officials of the two ministries secretly cursed their superiors countless times in their hearts.
Every now and then, the Ministry of Revenue would extend their monthly salary to once every two months. Although they had some money, no one would feel good about not getting paid for a month's work.
Because of the matter of Japan sending envoys to the Tang Dynasty, the Zhongshu and Menxia did not dare to make random approvals and directly asked the Ministry of Rites and the Honglu Temple to handle it. Every time they met the Japanese envoys to the Tang Dynasty, or saw the memorials from the Ministry of Rites and the Honglu Temple, they would either keep it to themselves and not report them.
Either Li Zhi would approve it if he was happy, or they would keep it and not issue it. There was no reason, because even if they issued it, it would be white hair anyway.
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has said that if you send the document to them, I will exile you to Lingnan. If you don’t believe me, just try it!
But apart from the above, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is usually very reasonable. Regarding the flood today, even if His Majesty was in Chang'an, he would probably do the same.
Just as they were about to bow to Li Hong and leave with a wry smile, Hua Meng hurried in again and said, "Your Highness, the left and right servants of the Shangshu Province, Zhao Renben and Zhang Wenguan, want to see you."
"Oh? Speak of the devil and he will appear. Let them in. It's just right. You can wait a while before leaving." Li Hong said to Pei Yan and others.
One of the two powerful figures in the Secretariat was Yu Zhining, who chose to resign after he was found to be engaged in private business in Taiyi City. However, he died of illness the following year.
When Li Hong learned about this, he and Wu Mei were teasing their newly born little sister: Princess Taiping Li Lingyue.
As for this younger sister, she was the princess that the emperor and the queen mother finally got as they wished after their father and mother gave birth to several "illegitimate sons". They doted on her to the point of being lawless.
When Wu Mei heard the news that Yu Zhining had passed away due to illness, she was still stunned. Looking at Li Hong's calmness, she thought he had used some trick.
Who knows that Li Hong said innocently: "Why should I mess with him? It has nothing to do with me. I think he died of boredom. When he was the Minister of the Left, he had great power. Now he is idle at home, so he is naturally very uncomfortable, so he died."
Naturally, Wu Mei slapped him on the back of the head for his irresponsible words.
When I was lost in thought about the past, I vaguely heard Zhang Wenguan say that Yunzhong Protectorate was sending an urgent message of 800 miles away. Yunzhong suffered a natural disaster that was rare in a century. The prefectures of Langshan, Yunzhong, Sunong, Dingxiang, etc., lost a total of more than 4,000 horses, and the number of cattle and sheep was countless.
"What? How did it happen? Have you checked it out? Are you sure it was a natural disaster?" Li Hong almost jumped up from his chair.
"This is a handwritten letter from Xue Tai, the Grand Protector of Yunzhong. I think this matter cannot be false." Zhang Wenguan took out a secret letter and handed it to Li Hong who looked confused.
Li Hong took the secret letter, read it carefully, and asked, "The night before yesterday, we rushed 800 miles, and we also encountered heavy rain in Guanzhong. Hmm... if we calculate the time, it does match."
He scratched his head, waved his hand to signal Zhang Wenguan and Zhao Renben to sit down first, thought for a while and said: "Jinghui, you go first, settle the people in the three districts of Chang'an as soon as possible, activate the Qing-level alarm, and collect supplies. Zhongshu and Menxia issued an order to Jinyang and Mayi to mobilize their troops to prepare to take over the victims. Also, issue an order to Anbei Protectorate, remember to strictly prevent the Eastern Turks from entering Anbei and fleeing to Silla. At the same time, collect supplies and send them to Yunzhong as soon as possible."
After he finished speaking, he watched Jinghui leave. The two assistant ministers, Zhongshu and Menxia, also listened to the orders of their respective superiors, saluted him, and hurried out to prepare to draft the documents.
"Xue Tao didn't say he was going back to Chang'an, right?" Li Hong asked, stroking the scar on his left shoulder under his clothes.
"Xue Tao will not come back. He needs to stay in Yunzhong to guard the place. His deputy Li Jun will come to Chang'an with Ashina Teler. It will probably take two or three days for them to arrive." Zhao Renben said.
Li Hong nodded silently. "Ashina Tele! It's been four years. We have to settle this account. How can I kill you? Can this natural disaster and man-made disaster exempt you from punishment? If I exempt you from punishment, how can I turn you Khans into civilians? If you don't become civilians, you will still have influence in East Turkestan."
Taking a deep breath and shaking his head, Li Hong looked at the governors of the three provinces and asked, "Is the Chebi Khan Ashina Hubo dead?"
"He is seriously ill, but I haven't heard any news recently." Cen Changqian said slowly.
"If this old guy hadn't died, Yunzhong would always be a concern for us." Li Hong shook his head and sighed.
The year before last, my father wanted to change the name of Yunzhong Protectorate to Shanyu Protectorate. In the end, Li Hong persuaded him, did his homework eight hundred times, and even made a deal with the sixth son Li Xian, before Li Zhi gave up changing the name of Yunzhong Protectorate to Shanyu Protectorate.
In Li Hong's view, changing it to the Chanyu Protectorate would be equivalent to letting the Eastern Turks always remember their ancestors and making it impossible to destroy them from the root.
Moreover, just when Li Zhi was about to be convinced, the idiot Sixth Brother Li Xian came running over crying and shouting, saying that the Yunzhong Protectorate did not sound as big as the Shanyu Protectorate, and he knelt on the ground and insisted on changing it.
In the end, he had no choice but to promise Li Xian a perfume workshop, which was considered a reluctant agreement.
There was no other way. As a prince, Li Xian remotely ruled the Yunzhong Protectorate. Even though it was only a remote rule, as a prince, he still had to listen to other people's opinions.
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