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

Chapter 1041 Gao Yang's Death
On the surface, the real core of power in the Tang Dynasty consisted of only seven people: the left and right ministers of the Shangshu Province, the two Zhongshu Lings of the Zhongshu Province, the two Shizhong of the Menxia Province, and the core of the emperor. This was the highest decision-making circle in the Tang Dynasty.

Li Shimin was a man of great authority. During the Zhenguan reign, he streamlined the military and political affairs. In order to centralize power and increase efficiency, the two highest officials of the Zhongshu Province and the Menxia Province were only one person for a long time.

Previously, Xiao Yu was the Shizhong of the Menxia Province, and Fang Xuanling concurrently served as the Zhongshu Ling of the Zhongshu Province. One person was in charge of two major departments. This move further established Fang Xuanling's transcendent position in the court. It can be seen that Li Shimin trusted and valued Fang Xuanling.

The left and right prime ministers were held by Fang Xuanling and Gao Shilian respectively. Gao Shilian was old and had resigned after the new emperor's enthronement ceremony.

The position of Right Prime Minister he held was taken over by Zhangsun Wuji, and this exchange actually had no meaning.

Gao Shilian was the uncle of Zhangsun Wuji, who raised Zhangsun Wuji and his siblings. To Zhangsun Wuji, Gao Shilian was like an uncle and a father. When Zhangsun Wuji resigned as You Pushe, Li Shimin gave this position to Gao Shilian.

This means that the Right Pushe has always been under the control of the Changsun family, and it also shows Li Shimin's trust in the Changsun family and grants them the power of supervision.

Now, Zhangsun Wuji has returned to the court and entered the Shangshu Province. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Zhangsun Wuji is here to protect Li Chengqian and take over Fang Xuanling's post as Zuo Pushe and shoulder the responsibility of the new Tang Dynasty.

Taking advantage of the events in the court, Li Yan simply gave the entire Secretariat to Zhangsun Wuji. This was a one-step move that showed trust and reuse, as well as a heavy responsibility.

In addition to Cen Wenben, the Secretariat also promoted another Secretary Ma Zhou to take over as the Secretary of the Secretariat, while the Palace Assistant Liu Bo was promoted to the position of Palace Attendant, and took charge of the Palace together with Xiao Yu. The heads of the three provinces were basically all appointed at the previous coronation ceremony.

The position of Zhongshu Ling, which was originally held by Fang Xuanling, was vacant, and Li Shimin's intention was to promote another Huangmen Shilang, Zhu Suiliang, to take over after Fang Xuanling stepped down.

But Li Yan thought that Ma Zhou was fine, because he would not live long, not even as long as Li Shimin, and would die in three years at most. It would not matter if he succeeded as the Minister of the Central Secretariat, because after three years, the position could be vacated for him to appoint new ministers.

Zhu Suiliang was different. He was already in his sixties or seventies, so he still had plenty of time. It was not a bad thing for him to exercise more at the lower level. These ministers with long life spans should be suppressed and promoted slowly. Otherwise, if there was no more room for promotion, they would have to be driven out.

These actual configurations greatly weakened the power of the new monarch. Li Yan did not have such a strong desire to be emperor, and his main purpose was to complete the system's tasks.

Without the strong desire for power blinding your eyes, you can look at reality objectively and calmly.

He also understood that this was because Li Shimin had doubts about his ability to control the Tang Dynasty, so he began to weaken the highly centralized authority he had when he was emperor, readjust the power structure, and disperse the imperial power among his subjects.

In a sense, this is not a deliberate restriction, but a well-intentioned protective measure.

It is well known that with less power comes less responsibility.

In the eyes of the public, Li Chengqian is not Li Shimin, and does not have such high prestige and achievements. If he takes all the power into his own hands, it will undoubtedly mean that all the responsibility will also be concentrated on himself, which is definitely not a good thing.

The weak cannot bear the weight.

For Li Chengqian, securing his throne is the first priority; as for going further, he has to rely on himself.

At the same time, this also seemed like a test for the new emperor.

If Li Chengqian had the same skills and abilities as Li Shimin, he would naturally be able to centralize the scattered power again; if he did not have such abilities, he should just be a quiet and honest ruler, so as to minimize the damage to the country.

The next day, Li Yan had just returned from court. The left and right ministers Zhangsun Wuji, the Zhongshu Ling Cen Wenben and Ma Zhou, the Shizhong Xiao Yu and Liu Li, went to the imperial study in Chengqing Hall to discuss government affairs.

Li Yan watched several people reporting and handling various matters in an orderly manner in front of the emperor, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart, this is the highest power core of his new dynasty. These five people are collectively called prime ministers, responsible for the normal operation of the three provinces and six ministries.

Theoretically, if the emperor can control them, he can manage the entire court.

Generally speaking, these are his regents, but if you look at them in detail, they can be divided into three factions. Zhangsun Wuji is close to Liu Bo, while Xiao Yu and Cen Wenben are from Jiangnan noble families and are naturally close to each other, and Ma Zhou is his sister Princess Ankang's man.

In terms of his background, he is considered a representative of the common people.

In fact, Ma Zhou was also a representative of aristocratic family, but by chance, he became the representative of the royal Li family, and could not be considered a pure poor family.

It can be seen from the composition of these members that the court of the Tang Dynasty was dominated by the Guanlong nobles. Only the combination of the Jiangnan clans and the common people could barely play a restraining role, and only with the help of the emperor himself could it be suppressed.

It managed to maintain the balance of power core.

Li Yan knew that the source of this balance was not his own lack of skill and vision, nor was it that there were no other people in the court. It was more of a manifestation of the distribution of power in the world at the core of the court.

If the situation of the Guanlong aristocratic family's dominance is not resolved, even if one Changsun Wuji is eliminated, there will be another Changsun Wuji; if the foundation of aristocratic politics cannot be resolved, even if these officials with aristocratic backgrounds are eliminated, the people who replace them will still be the same.

It is already August, and the autumn harvest is coming soon. Food is the first necessity of the people, and grain is the foundation of the country. No matter how people fight for power and profit, when it comes to harvesting grain, everyone has the same interests: they cannot go without food.

Only when we have food and are well fed and watered can we have the energy to fight.

The five prime ministers had a heated discussion on the issue of autumn harvest. Now that the territory of the Tang Dynasty was larger, there were more places to manage. Before the autumn harvest, the court would send envoys to various places to urge the prefectures, states and counties to collect taxes and grain.

As the new emperor, Li Yan was very unfamiliar with all this and did not express much opinion. He just watched them discuss it.

The officials sent down were all lucrative positions, involving a lot of benefits. The five people fought overtly and covertly, haggling over every penny, fighting with each other, and in a fierce exchange, they struggled to divide the areas of responsibility for each other, and finally asked the emperor Li Yan for instructions.

After the benefits are distributed, the specific things become simple. Everyone does it every year and is very familiar with it.

In the past, the three provincial officials would discuss this matter in the Hongwen Hall and then report it to the emperor. Considering that Li Yan was the new emperor, he had not assisted Li Shimin in handling government affairs for a long time before, so he did not understand many things.

Cen Wen had just suggested that these matters could be handled in front of the emperor, so that the emperor could learn from them and become familiar with the operation of the court as quickly as possible.

The Celestial Empire is so huge, with hundreds of states and tens of millions of people. Being the emperor of such a great country requires more than just power struggles. There are countless specific government affairs to deal with.

Li Yan also knew that Cen Wenben was doing this for his own good and was repaying him for his support.

Therefore, even though he was lazy and didn't want to worry, he had to bite the bullet and study. After all, he could ignore it, but he had to understand that if he wanted to let go of power in a grand manner, he had to first have a thorough understanding and absolute control.

Otherwise, he, the emperor, would be sidelined sooner or later.

When the day comes when you completely lose power, what awaits you is not happiness, but death or the destruction of your country.

When everyone was chatting excitedly, Wang Xuance suddenly rushed in and said in panic: "Your Majesty, something bad has happened."

The five important officials were immediately panicked when they saw this. The Jinyiwei was a secret agency directly under the emperor, and its main task was to investigate the internal situation of other countries. Its secondary function was to monitor the internal affairs. They had offices in various places in the Tang Dynasty and were the emperor's eyes and ears.

From the very beginning, the ministers were not very happy about the establishment of this department. This was equivalent to adding an additional layer of surveillance in disguise.

However, the Jinyiwei was only responsible for gathering information and had no other powers. Whether they were happy or not, the emperor would set it up for the sake of consolidating his power. If they were opposed, the only option would be to let the agency sink, rather than not establish it.

At least it's on the surface and everyone can watch it, so it doesn't get completely out of control.

In addition, it did not require direct funding from the court, and the funds used were all from the profits earned by the Dongmao team, which was equivalent to spending from the emperor's treasury, so the ministers acquiesced.

Seeing that Wang Xuance's face was pale at this time, everyone was afraid that something might have happened in the area they were responsible for.

Li Yan knew what was going on, but he still pretended to be ignorant and said with a stern face: "How can you be so flustered? With me as the emperor and the prime ministers here, the Tang Dynasty can't be overthrown. What happened? Tell me!"

Compared with other ministers, Li Yan was relatively calm.

Xiao Yu nodded with satisfaction. Although the emperor had little experience in governing the country, his calm demeanor in the face of adversities still showed some imperial majesty.

Wang Xuance then said, "Your Majesty, didn't you order Princess Gaoyang to go to the Imperial Ancestral Temple yesterday to reflect on her mistakes? But this morning, when the maids went in to deliver food, they found the princess hanging from the beam. When the guards let her down, she was already dead."

"what?"

Li Yan's eyes suddenly widened, and he stood up angrily, saying angrily: "What on earth is going on? Those eunuchs and guards who serve the princess are just eating for nothing, and they actually let the princess get into trouble right under their noses. Have you found out who did it?"

With a "swish", the five prime ministers breathed a sigh of relief, but their faces suddenly changed and they looked at Wang Xuance with hawk-like eyes.

Under this kind of pressure, Wang Xuance's face turned pale and his body trembled uncontrollably. After all, he personally led people to hang Princess Gaoyang last night. As a thief, he must be guilty.

He knew that at this moment, he had to remain calm. If he showed any sign of weakness and was discovered, even the emperor would not forgive him.

(End of this chapter)