The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 1012: Court Situation

As the eldest son who legally inherited the throne and the elder brother of all the princes, Li Yan's words were very appropriate. It not only showed the elder brother's tolerance for his younger brothers, but also showed the emperor's broad mind towards his subjects.

"I left Chang'an when I was young. No matter what happened in the past, it is all in the past. I will never pursue it."

Li Yan turned around and said to Cen Wenben: "I only look at the future. I hope that Lord Cen will not carry the burden of the past, and continue to work hard for me and contribute to the people. As long as you have made contributions, I will not hesitate to promote you and use you. This is the same for all my ministers."

Li Yan's voice became louder and louder as he finished speaking. These words were not only addressed to Cen Wenben, but also to the ministers from other princely factions.

"Your Majesty, from now on I will devote my heart and soul to the service and will not let Your Majesty down." Cen Wenben said his words of loyalty excitedly.

"Your Majesty is wise, and we, your subjects, bow down to you. Long live the Majesty!"

Sure enough, after Li Yan's high-sounding statement, many ministers relaxed and knelt down to shout "Long live the emperor". Their voices were obviously more powerful than when they were in court just now.

Li Yan smiled slightly. In his opinion, Cen Wenben was indeed a man of great talent. His scheming and strategy were not inferior to Changsun Wuji's. His ability to govern the country was far superior to Xiao Yu, Changsun Wuji and others. He was a figure comparable to Fang Xuanling in the court.

Compared with Fang Xuanling who is nearly seventy years old, Cen Benwen is only fifty years old this year and is in the prime of his life.

His tragedy was that he was born into a Jiangnan aristocratic family, and was not in the same circle as the Guanlong nobles behind Li Tang. He was always guarded against and excluded in the court. Cen Wenben's weakness in the court was a continuation of the defeat of the Southern Liang and Southern Chen by the Northern Zhou and Northern Sui.

In addition, from the very beginning, Li Shimin placed him in the Li Ke faction to balance Li Chengqian and the Guanlong nobles. This meant that Cen Wenben was just an object of use and would definitely be ruthlessly abandoned in the end.

In the original drama, Li Shimin promoted Cen Wenben after Li Zhi came to power, as compensation for his lifelong hard work. However, he excluded Cen Wenben from Li Zhi's Eastern Palace assistants, and anyone with a discerning eye could see it.

Cen Wenben was finished and there was no place for him in the Xin Dynasty.

Li Zhi was the future emperor. Without the position of an official in the Eastern Palace, the Minister of the Secretariat would only enjoy a higher level of pension benefits.

Cen Wenben himself was well aware of this, and he felt both sad and helpless. Not long after, he died of depression.

Li Yan felt very sorry about this. Although Cen Wenben had always been Li Ke's man, he was far-sighted, strategic, and had a good overall view. He could always safeguard the interests of the monarch and was also in the circle of struggle. He was a character that people could not hate.

Therefore, after Li Yan ascended the throne, what he cared most about was the appointment of Cen Wenben.

Fang Xuanling and Xiao Yu are old and will not be able to work for long, and it is impossible for Changsun Wuji and himself to be of the same mind for a long time. Once he takes action against the aristocratic families, Changsun Wuji will definitely stand against him.

Hou Junji is a relative by marriage, so he needs to avoid suspicion.

Cen Wenben, who has always been steady and prudent, is the important assistant candidate in Li Yan's mind to take charge of the court, but he must not be allowed to die young.

From the perspective of personnel strategy, it is better to use people with past achievements than to use them. Whether it is Hou Junji or Zhang Sun Wuji, their status is already high enough. They do not need special favors themselves. They can enjoy a lifetime of use based on their past achievements and confidence.

Cen Wenben started from a lower point, and was hit to the bottom because of the fight among the kings for the throne.

Reusing Cen Wenben at this time is like providing timely help. With his own forgiveness, how could Cen Wenben not be grateful and repay him with his death?

There will no longer be the depression and melancholy as in the original drama. With a bright future and an excited mood, it will not be a problem to work for another 10 or 20 years.

Moreover, I was afraid that Cen Wenben would feel uneasy.

In this life, Li Yan learned his lesson and let him serve as the Prince's tutor, which was Zhang Xuansu's position before. The Prince's tutor is the most important position among the officials of the Eastern Palace. He is directly responsible for the prince's studies and can only be held by a trusted person.

After he ascended the throne, the original officials of the Eastern Palace were rewarded according to their merits and entered the court to take up positions.

When Li Xiang entered the Eastern Palace, he naturally could not use his former teachers, but needed to set up a new system.

Li Yan had been thinking about who would be the best person to take on the most important post of the Crown Prince's tutor. If nothing unexpected happened, he would choose one of his former officials, but that would make the Eastern Palace even more powerful, which made him worried.

It just so happened that Fang Xuanling and others brought up the issue in the court today, and Li Yan immediately thought of Cen Wenben.

Cen Wenben himself is extremely talented and has a strong sense of the overall situation. No matter what situation he is in, he can always consider the interests of the emperor. Even when fighting, the means he adopts are relatively gentle and tend to be open, unlike Hou Junji who is so rough and direct.

Li Yan had another reason that he couldn't present. Due to various historical reasons, Cen Wenben and Hou Junji didn't get along well.

Now that he has ascended the throne, the original prince party will naturally disperse. Hou Junji will also shift all his attention to Li Xiang. Li Xiang has the blood of the Hou family. Protecting Li Xiang's position as the crown prince and assisting Li Xiang to succeed to the throne smoothly will become Hou Junji's new goal. Therefore, they will soon reunite into a small group with Li Xiang as the core.

In this context, Hou Junji became Li Xiang's most important assistant minister. If there was a conflict between him and Li Xiang, Hou Junji would undoubtedly stand on Li Xiang's side. Therefore, Hou Junji, as an arm, was, in some cases, gone.

If Cen Benwen were allowed to serve as the prince's tutor, it would be equivalent to placing a spy next to Li Xiang to check and balance Hou Junji and prevent Li Xiang from being led into trouble by him.

With Cen Wenben watching over him, Hou Junji could no longer cause any big trouble.

In addition, it can also allow Li Xiang to experience some of the operating characteristics of power and focus on reconciling the two people closest to him.

Fang Xuanling was an experienced and wise man who was good at planning for the country. After some thought, a look of realization appeared on his face. He glanced at Hou Junji and Zhangsun Wuji, who were obviously unhappy but did not dare to express any opinions. He also understood Li Yan's deeper intentions.

Moreover, Fang Xuanling thought even more deeply. After Li Shimin abdicated and Li Chengqian ascended the throne, Zhangsun Wuji vowed to change his previous state of avoidance and re-enter the court to assist the new emperor. As the Zuo Pushe, he would also have to step down in no time.

The next left prime minister will undoubtedly be Zhangsun Wuji.

This was decided during Li Shimin's reign, and was tacitly approved by all the court officials. It was an irresistible trend that even Li Chengqian could not change. Zhangsun Wuji would become the core representative of the Guanlong nobles in the court, and his power would be even greater.

Although Xiao Yu was born into a Jiangnan aristocratic family, he was older than himself. Moreover, Xiao Yu had been in charge of the Censorate for a long time. He was a minister to the prime minister who was a censor. He was not an all-round talent who could shoulder important responsibilities, and was destined to be unable to restrain Changsun Wuji.

Fang Xuanling had been worried about this before, but due to the relationship between Zhangsun Wuji and Li Shimin, he did not dare to speak up, for fear of being branded as a person who was causing discord.

He is old and doesn't want to offend Changsun Wuji anymore.

Unexpectedly, Li Chengqian also saw through this and decisively exposed the previous matter of the fight for the throne among the princes, thus preventing Zhangsun Wuji from using this as an excuse to attack other factions and seize power alone after he came to power.

He also promoted Cen Wenben to the positions of Zhongshu Ling and Taizi Tutor. This was not just Cen Wenben's personal matter. With this clear signal, Cen Wenben could use it as a basis for confidence, raise a banner, and reunite the officials from the Jiangnan aristocratic families in the court.

It's really smart to compete with the Guanlong clan represented by Zhangsun Wuji!

Fang Xuanling looked at Li Yan with satisfaction and joy, raised his hand and stroked his beard with contentment, glanced at Li Chengqian who was still comforting the ministers, and was a little confused for a moment. Was this Li Chengqian's own intention, or an act of 'favor' left to him by Li Shimin?
If this is really Li Chengqian's own idea, it is a blessing for the Tang Dynasty!

The new emperor's performance exceeded his expectations. His far-sightedness, keen view of the overall situation and smooth methods all made Fang Xuanling satisfied. At the same time, he also realized that the emperor's mind, scheming and strategy were no less than those of Prince Zou.

When Fang Xuanling looked at Cen Wenben, who was so excited that he wished he could die for Li Yan immediately, he knew that Li Yan's action had an extraordinary effect.

For the officials in the court, Cen Wenben's promotion to the Prince's Tutor was an official of the Eastern Palace and had nothing to do with the distribution of power in the court.

The Zhongshu Ling was the head of the Zhongshu Province, a second-rank official. If someone else was promoted, the ministers would be dissatisfied, but Cen Wenben was different. He was promoted to Zhongshu Sheren in the third year of Zhenguan, and then he was promoted to Zhongshu Shilang.

Having held this position for more than ten years, he has extensive experience and is unmatched in the Secretariat.

Previously, Fang Xuanling's official position was Zuo Pushe, but he actually managed the Shangshu Province and the six ministries. He was very busy with his own government affairs and had no energy to take care of the Zhongshu Province. He was only the Zhongshu Ling because Li Shimin didn't want to give this important position to others, so he just took up the title.

To put it bluntly, Cen Wenben has always been in charge of the affairs of the Secretariat.

Li Shimin should have promoted him to the position of Zhongshu Ling long ago, but for some reason, Li Shimin neither promoted Cen Wenben nor appointed anyone else. He let Fang Xuanling occupy the position while keeping Cen Wenben hanging. To be honest, it was really not very fair.

Now that Li Chengqian has ascended the throne, the first thing he did was to promote Cen Wenben to the position of Zhongshu Ling, a title he truly deserved and everyone was convinced.

The only problem was that he was not from the Eastern Palace. He was first from the Wu Wang faction, and later went to the Wei Wang party as an undercover agent, which affected his reputation.

The former will make the new emperor feel uneasy, while everyone knows the latter, but there is no evidence.

If the emperor himself did not care and used him, no one would say anything. Forget about the Zhongshu Ling, there was also a Prince's Tutor, and Cen Wenben was appointed to teach the crown prince. This appointment showed that the emperor really appreciated his talent and did not care about his past.

Not only officials from other factions, but also brothers such as Li Ke, Li You, and Li Zhi breathed a sigh of relief at this point.

It can be seen that Li Yan's move was extremely correct.

(End of this chapter)