In Chang'an, the eunuchs and maids in the Wude Palace were trembling with fear. From a distance, they could hear the roar of Emperor Li Yuan of the Tang Dynasty, "Is this my son? Is this the crown prince of the Tang Dynasty?"
In the imperial study, Pei Ji kept trying to persuade Li Yuan, "Your Majesty, please calm down. Your Majesty, please calm down. This matter has not yet been decided!"
"How do you ask me to calm down? How can I hand over the country to such a prince?"
Li Yuan was so angry that he kept banging his fists on the table. Pei Ji secretly told him something that almost made his lungs explode. The reason was that Yin Guiping, the father of Concubine Yin De, wanted to acquire a piece of fertile land in Chengdu.
The owners of the fertile land were more than a hundred farmers, and they refused to sell it. Afterwards, Yin Guiping asked Prince Li Jiancheng to put pressure on Gao Biaoren, the prefect of Shu County, and finally used the power of the government to take away the land at a very low price.
As a result, more than a hundred farmers came to Beijing collectively to complain, which alarmed Li Shimin. Under his attention, Tang Feng quickly found out the truth, and Li Shimin instructed Pei Ji to report the matter to his father.
Li Yuan was angered. He attached great importance to land annexation. He knew that the occurrence of land annexation was a sign of the country's subjugation. Therefore, Li Yuan would rather reward large amounts of unowned land to meritorious nobles than allow land annexation to occur.
At the beginning of the founding of the country, any dynasty was relatively clear politically and had a good reputation among the people. This was because the demise of the previous dynasty wiped out a large number of interest groups. The population was sparse but the resources were abundant. Therefore, although the emerging elite class obtained a large amount of
Benefits, but because there are many resources, the people can still get a share of the pie, and they can still tolerate exploitation by the powerful.
But as resources become less and less, the appetite of the powerful class does not shrink accordingly. On the contrary, it becomes larger and larger. When the interests become more and more greedy, the people cannot survive anymore, rebellion will break out, and there will be a change of dynasty.
This has been the case in all dynasties, and Li Yuan knew this very well. Therefore, he would never allow land annexation to occur.
More importantly, Yin Guiping obtained this land through pressure from the prince, which shows that the relationship between Yin Guiping and the prince is extraordinary. So what is the relationship between Concubine Yin De and the prince? The anger of the land annexation and Li Yuan's suspicion of the prince made him
Finally I couldn't control my anger and completely exploded.
Although Pei Ji persuaded Li Yuan to calm down, he was secretly happy in his heart. In his memory, he had never seen Li Yuan so angry. It was very likely that Li Yuan wanted to depose the crown prince.
He was extremely proud, but he said hypocritically: "Your Majesty, it's best to ask the Crown Prince what is going on? Don't accuse His Highness the Crown Prince unjustly."
"I want to ask him and let him give me an explanation."
Li Yuan was so angry that his chest heaved violently. He forcibly restrained the raging anger in his heart and shouted: "Publish my decree and order the prince to come to see me immediately... In the Xiande Hall of the East Palace. Prince Li Jiancheng is compiling an objection signed by hundreds of officials.
In the joint letter to start the war, King Qin Li Shimin tried his best to persuade his father to take advantage of the opportunity of the Turks to send troops to attack the Sui Dynasty, capture the six counties in northern Guan and recapture Huining County.
But Li Jiancheng firmly opposed adding insult to injury, which would not only plunge Tang Dynasty into injustice. It would also lead to fierce retaliation from the Sui Dynasty, which would ultimately seriously damage the interests of the Tang Dynasty. In order to prevent his father from being persuaded by King Qin, Li Jiancheng also used him
authority, mobilizing all officials of fifth rank and above to collectively boycott the war.
Li Jiancheng knew that this was the sharpest killing move. The last time he attacked Xiao Mian, he mobilized dozens of important ministers to collectively oppose it, so that his father finally gave up the idea of sending troops. This time, he wanted to use more force.
Put great pressure on him to suppress his father's desire to go to war.
Li Jiancheng was generous in his treatment of others and was pragmatic in his consideration of problems. He considered everything from the perspective of the interests of the Tang Dynasty. He did not realize that doing so would arouse his father's suspicion of his excessive power.
Although Li Jiancheng didn't realize it, his close ministers did. Prince Zhongyun Wang Gui was one of Li Jiancheng's close confidants. He heard that the prince wanted to mobilize officials of fifth rank and above to collectively oppose the war against the Sui Dynasty, which made him deeply worried.
.
At this time, Wang Gui was in Li Jiancheng's room, trying to persuade Li Jiancheng: "Your Highness, although doing this will be very effective and force the Holy One to cancel the war, has His Highness thought about it? What does the Holy One think of His Highness? He can actually use 80% of the troops.
The objections from officials above the fifth rank will make His Majesty feel threatened by Your Highness. Your Majesty, the reason why His Majesty allowed King Qin to intervene in government and allowed him to establish Tiance Mansion and appoint officials by himself is probably related to His Highness’s authority in the court being too high. Your Majesty’s heart
It’s unpredictable, Your Highness must be taboo about it!”
Li Jiancheng was deep in thought, perhaps called a fan of the authorities. He never realized the seriousness of this problem. He always considered mobilizing officials to oppose him as his last trump card. He had become very skilled in using it in the past two years and never thought that he would offend.
My father will make my father jealous.
Li Jiancheng was not stupid, nor was he stubborn. On the contrary, he was an extremely smart, extremely humble, and good at accepting advice. Wang Gui's words made him realize that his method of petitioning hundreds of officials was a bit too prominent.
His influence in the court would make his father jealous.
After thinking about this, he began to hesitate. It was indeed inappropriate to use a petition from hundreds of officials to oppose the war. However, he already felt that his father was becoming more and more inclined to go to war. How should he persuade his father?
At this time, a guard reported at the door: "Your Highness, Eunuch Zhang is here and said that the Holy One has a decree and orders His Highness to enter the palace immediately."
Li Jiancheng nodded, "I understand!"
At this moment, he finally made a decision. He would not take the petition from the officials to his father for the time being. He would check the situation first. He changed his clothes and walked out of the palace quickly.
The eunuch who came to announce the decree was an old eunuch named Zhang. He had been in the palace for many years and was now in charge of the imperial study. He had a very good relationship with Prince Jiancheng. He was waiting anxiously outside the palace when he saw Li Jiancheng coming out and Eunuch Zhang.
He quickly stepped forward and said: "Your Highness, something happened."
"What happened?" Li Jiancheng saw him looking frightened, and secretly felt something bad in his heart.
"Your Highness, Prime Minister Pei sent a secret report to His Majesty today. It seems that the land issue in Chengdu may be related to His Majesty. His Majesty was furious. He was furious in the imperial study and asked His Majesty to go see him immediately."
Li Jiancheng was so shocked that his scalp almost exploded. Could the Chengdu land incident be the Yin Guiping incident? How could Pei Ji know that the incident was indeed related to him, but it was not closely related to him. He was just giving Gao Biaoren
He said hello, but he didn't ask about the final outcome. Did something big happen?
Li Jiancheng was extremely nervous and confused. He didn't know what to do for a moment, but the old eunuch reminded him, "Your Highness, please go to the palace! The Holy One is waiting. If you keep the Holy One waiting for a long time, he will be even more angry."
Li Jiancheng nodded. No matter what, he wanted to correct his attitude and show his sincerity. Without thinking about it carefully, he immediately set off for Wude Hall.
After walking quickly, Li Jiancheng arrived at the door of the Imperial Study Room in a short time. At this time, a eunuch ran out and said, "Your Highness, come in quickly! Your Majesty is already waiting for you."
Li Jiancheng hurriedly walked into the imperial study. When he walked into the imperial study, he saw Li Yuan's blood-red eyes. Li Yuan slammed the table, "Nie Zhan, you still have the nerve to see me!"
Li Jiancheng could feel his father's anger. He hurriedly knelt down and said, "Father, please calm down and take care of your dragon body. I would like to confess everything."
Li Yuan snorted heavily and said to Pei Ji: "Tell him, I want to see how he explains it?"
The person Pei Ji hated most in the past was Liu Wenjing. He did not have any serious conflicts with Li Jiancheng. It was just because he supported the King of Qin that he had a bad relationship with the prince.
In particular, Pei Ji knew that if Li Jiancheng ascended the throne, his first priority would be to deal with himself, so Pei Ji had been doing everything possible to shake Li Jiancheng's foundation as the crown prince. This time Li Shimin gave him the opportunity, and he knew what to do without even teaching him.
Pei Ji laughed dryly and said, "Your Highness, your Highness will not say that you don't know about Yin Guiping's purchase of land!"
Li Jiancheng's heart skipped a beat. Sure enough, it was this matter. He didn't know what evidence Pei Ji had caught, but he couldn't deny it, so he nodded, "I know a thing or two about this matter, but it doesn't have much to do with me. Please continue.
what happened?"
"Okay! I'll just tell you."
Pei Ji was not polite and said in a slightly cold tone: "This is a typical land annexation case. Yin Guiping forcibly bought dozens of hectares of fertile land at a low price of ten coins per mu. Yushitai has sent people to investigate.
However, Gao Biaoren admitted that His Highness put pressure on him, so we don’t understand what is the relationship between His Highness and Yin Guiping?"
Sweat broke out on Li Jiancheng's forehead. He suddenly realized that this matter was not just about annexing land, but also involved his relationship with Concubine Yin. His father was probably more annoyed by the latter.
Li Yuan stared at Jiancheng with a cold gaze, "I also want to know why you are so enthusiastic about working for Yin Guiping?"
Li Jiancheng wiped the sweat from his forehead and quickly explained: "Father, that's not the case. Yin Guiping has nothing to do with my son. It's just because he is Concubine Yin De's father and a relative of the emperor that my son helped him.
There is absolutely no other meaning."
"That's strange. Why didn't he come to me? He could have asked Concubine Yin De to come to me. He is the head of the country, so it makes sense for me to help him. Could it be that my influence is not as good as that of the prince?"
Li Yuan's words were very harsh, and his tone was full of suspicion and dissatisfaction. Li Jiancheng was even more frightened, and explained again: "Father, Yin Guiping came to see your minister because he has a good personal relationship with Gao Biaoren, the prefect of Shu County. Gao Biaoren
Ren is the son of Gao Jiong, and he had a lot of contacts with Erchen back then, so Yin Guiping thought of asking Erchen for help."
Li Yuan stared at Li Jiancheng with eagle-like eyes. Although Li Jiancheng's explanation was a bit far-fetched, it was still a reason. The key was that with Pei Ji by his side, Li Yuan did not want to pursue Concubine Yin De's matter too much for the time being. He was afraid of causing some family scandal.
I'll investigate later.
"Okay! Let's not mention the relationship between Yin Guiping and you. Let me ask you, as the prince, don't you know the serious consequences of annexing land... To be continued. You are welcome to vote for recommendations, monthly votes, and your support.