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

Chapter 1057 Eye-opening
Once this kind of game begins, the big guys will sit on the sidelines and watch the younger ones below use all their tricks, show their abilities, plot and scheme, and fight against each other.

Finally, the winners and losers are selected, the winners are entrusted with important tasks, and the losers are punished. Of course, there will be some cannon fodder among them, who will completely fade out of officialdom. Even worse, some will die at the least, or their entire family will suffer.

The talents that the noble families really valued might not necessarily hold high positions. In many cases, they would just be insignificant roles. After all, the truth that a tree that stands out in the forest will be destroyed by the wind is something that these masters who grew up in a culture of struggle know better.

In order to allow real core talents to grow, these forces would sometimes deliberately select some fake dragons to divert everyone's attention and serve as the vanguard for the king.

Protect the real target object and make it hard to guard against.

When you find out who is the main figure promoted by the big forces behind the scenes, he has often grown into a towering tree and you have lost the best opportunity to attack him.

The reason why Changsun Wuji was so polite to Cui Renshi was that he thought Cui Renshi would be the future leader of the Cui family. However, after a series of changes, he found that Cui Renshi was just an ordinary character used to confuse people.

Li Yan was very excited and interested. He didn't expect that these powerful forces that came out of the chaotic times were more powerful than the country. The internal survival mechanism and competition environment were so advanced and clever. Li Yan had never thought of this before.

It was really eye-opening, he had never seen this kind of play before.
But think about it, the entire Tang Empire is such a big plate, and it has its own rules of operation. If you beat the little one and attract the big one, the situation will continue to escalate, and the entire force will be put on the table at any time, and in the end no one will end up well.

Deliberately leaving some space, or even creating some harsh environments, can both serve to train the younger generation and resolve conflicts.

Everyone plays the game and places some extra bets. Through this arena-like method, disputes between major forces can be peacefully resolved and the situation can be controlled within a reasonable range. It is an absolutely wise way of handling things!
Changsun Wuji's narration gave Li Yan a deeper understanding of the operation of power at a higher level, and also gave him different ideas about some of his own plans.

Finally, Zhangsun Wuji hinted that the previous court battles were also of this nature, and they were just some tests of the emperor, but only this time. From then on, Li Yan was the well-deserved emperor of the Tang Dynasty and the top meat eater in this circle.

If you need to train some officials or princes, you can also use this method.

After Li Yan learned all the inside story, he no longer had much emotion towards those opponents whom he hated so much in the past.

At this time, seeing the Minister of Personnel Liu Shi calling out and the Imperial Censor Wei Ting responding from behind, Cui Renshi was dismissed. Li Yan looked at Changsun Wuji in front of him on the left, and the other party nodded silently, so Li Yan said, "Approved!"

"Your Majesty is wise." The ministers sang the title loudly, and the matter was settled.

Afterwards, the Ministry of Personnel came forward and proposed several more candidates, such as Cui Hongzhi, the Minister of Rites, Zheng Yanzu, the Minister of Works, and some other sons of noble families who had been at the forefront the day before, were sent out or transferred.

It is still these children from aristocratic families, but they are a different group of people.

Li Yan just watched coldly. As long as the ministers of the three provinces and six ministries did not oppose it, he would just go with the flow.

Of course, some people were promoted.

Li Yan also saw clearly that the candidates adjusted by these noble families were not all for their own face. They were more about pushing up those who had been tested and performed well, and making room for those who performed poorly.

The things involved are too complicated, and Li Yan alone cannot figure it all out.

However, with so many people in the court, which faction's territory is in which department and how to adjust it are all clearly understood with the participation of many court officials. There is a thread to be traced and there will be no confusion.

In the end, Li Yan was also very unceremonious. He mixed in the adjustments and transferred Xu Jinzhong, whom he valued, to the Menxia Province to serve. His rank was promoted by one level, and he was promoted to the Inspector of the Yellow Gate Minister with the position of Jieshi Zhong, thus entering the high-level position.

After retiring from court, Li Yan rested for a while, then called Wang Xuance and Heng Lian, took a team of guards, and went to Fang Mansion with light equipment.

Gao Yang was not a good person, but his debts were settled after his death, and what happened next had nothing to do with her. Whether it was to comfort Fang Xuanling or to give face to the royal family, Li Yan had to go through this journey.

When they arrived at Fang's mansion in Yongxingfang, the gate with flying eaves and pointed corners was open and hung with widow flowers and white banners. The atmosphere was particularly solemn and dignified, and the street in front of the gate was filled with carriages and horses coming to pay their respects.

As soon as Li Yan's carriage arrived, Fang Xuanling, who had been notified by the servants, led all the people in the mansion, young and old, to welcome him into the palace.

At this time, everyone in the courtyard was wearing linen mourning clothes and mourning hats and was performing a memorial ceremony.

Accompanied by Fang Xuanling, Li Yan came to the main hall silently. At this moment, Li Yan did not feel sad at all, but had a strange feeling of absurdity.

He suddenly remembered that he had also paid a visit to pay respects to the Duke of Lu before he went to the grassland. That time, he went to the Duke of Lu's mansion not far from here and mourned for Cheng Huailiang, the second son of the Duke of Lu's mansion, as the crown prince on behalf of Li Shimin.

This Cheng Huailiang was killed by me using Chang Sheng and Wu Qing.

This time, he had just returned to Chang'an, and asked Wang Xuance to kill Princess Gaoyang. Li Yan looked at Fang Xuanling, who was accompanying him, with some embarrassment. He felt a little guilty. Last time, he killed someone else's son, and he was the cat crying over the rat. Fortunately, Cheng Yaojin didn't know about it, and he didn't guess it was him.

Today, he killed Fang Xuanling's daughter-in-law, although his method was still secretive and no one found evidence. But from the motives and various aspects of the situation, it seemed that these people who had been in the power field for a long time could guess that it was his intention.

Li Yan felt a little depressed. Why did he always express condolences to the people he killed?

Doesn't God want them to die in obscurity, nor does he want me, the culprit, to go unpunished, so he wants me to personally send off those who died at his hands?

Originally, Li Yan wanted to let his son Li Xiang take the journey on his behalf, but later he thought that it was inappropriate.

In the past, Cheng Huailiang was a nobody and naturally could not afford for Emperor Li Shimin to come to him in person. If it was Cheng Yaojin who died, it would be almost the same, and Li Shimin would naturally come forward.

Now Gao Yang was nominally his sister, and of the same generation as him, so it was not considered as lowering his status to come here.

Of course, this was not the most important thing. The key point was that Gao Yang's death had an unclear relationship with himself, which many people knew. If he did not come to see him off in person, he would be criticized by many people.

He felt that he, as an emperor, was heartless and ungrateful.

In order to maintain the dignity of the royal family and the need for power struggle, it is not excessive to sacrifice anyone, and everyone can understand it. If you really deceive yourself and think that no one in the world knows about it, you can have a clear conscience, it is a bit too much.

In addition, since Fang Xuanling is such a respected old minister, Li Yan has to make this trip both for public and private reasons.

It not only gives outsiders an image of a loyal and righteous person, but also gives Fang Xuanling an explanation.

Li Yan came to Gao Yang's mourning hall with a heavy face, and Fang Xuanling quickly lit three incense sticks and handed them to him. Li Yan held them in his hands, silently expressed a trace of apology in his heart, and then raised his head. Fang Xuanling quickly took them and inserted them into the incense burner.

The expression of gratitude was just a respect for the deceased, but Li Yan did not regret his decision.

In the original history, Princess Gaoyang encouraged Fang Yiai to use the second house to continuously attack Fang Yizhi, the first house who inherited Fang Xuanling's title, causing chaos in Fang's mansion. In the end, he was implicated in a treason case, and all the people in Fang's mansion were exiled to Lingbiao.

Fang Yizheng was stripped of his title and all official positions and demoted to a commoner, and the Fang family fell into decline from then on.

Compared to that outcome, Li Yan dealt with Gao Yang, not only washing away the humiliation that her affair brought to the Fang family, but also avoiding a series of disastrous consequences later. Fang Xuanling should thank him for removing a scourge from the Fang family.

After burning incense, Li Yan dismissed everyone and took a walk in the garden of Fang Mansion with Fang Xuanling.

Seeing the hemp belt tied around Fang Xuanling's waist, Li Yan frowned and said, "Prime Minister Fang, Gao Yang is a junior, how can she be worthy of you to be her..."

"Your Majesty, the Emperor Emeritus has been very kind to me, and married his most beloved daughter to the Fang family."

Fang Xuanling burst into tears, fell to his knees on the ground, and said with a guilty look: "But my Fang family failed to take good care of the princess, causing her to be bullied by villains and even used by others to be involved in such a storm."

"In the end, he hanged himself in the Imperial Ancestral Temple. This is all my fault!"

"If the Emperor wakes up one day and learns of this outcome, how can I face him?"

Li Yan felt bad when he saw this, and helped Fang Xuanling up: "Prime Minister Fang, I am also responsible for this matter. It's all because I didn't take good care of my sister. If you want to blame someone, just blame me."

"How dare I?"

Fang Xuanling waved his hands quickly: "Your Majesty has been very kind to me, and Your Majesty has also been very caring towards me. As long as Your Majesty does not blame me for not taking good care of the princess, I will be grateful to you. How can I blame Your Majesty?"

Fang Xuanling originally had three sons, named "Yizhi", "Yiai" and "Yize" respectively, hoping that his descendants would learn to be a good teacher, behave as a role model for the world, and pass on benevolence and love. Fang Xuanling was very diligent in teaching and speaking, and his family precepts and rules were also very strict.

But ever since Princess Gaoyang got married, she had an impetuous personality and acted flamboyantly, causing chaos in the Fang Mansion.

The originally close sibling relationship between the three sons of the Fang family became increasingly tense and gradually became tit-for-tat. Fang Xuanling did not dare to say anything or teach this precious jewel in the palm of Li Shimin, and could only watch her make trouble in the Fang Mansion.

(End of this chapter)