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

Chapter 1060 Li Yan's Failure (Part )
"Haha, no defense, today is my home court."

Li Yan smiled with good intentions: "Just answer whatever I ask you later. You are all the best talents in the Tang Dynasty. You are familiar with classics and history, and you have learned everything from ancient times to the present. You have been in the central government for a long time and have rich experience."

"I am young and inexperienced, so I mainly want to ask you for some advice on governing a country."

After saying that, Li Yan waved his hand, and Wang De ordered the palace maids and eunuchs to serve a cup of tea to several important ministers, and then asked Wang De to bring out a painting.

As soon as the picture came out, Changsun Wuji, Xiao Yu, Cen Wenben, Liu Bo, and Ma Zhou were all stunned. They saw two long straight lines drawn horizontally and vertically on the picture, intersecting at the lower left corner. In the blank space in the middle, there were two curved arcs.

One red and one blue, with many evenly distributed dots on it, connected in series by these two arcs, forming two parabolas.

What is this thing? Everyone is surprised.

Li Yan stood up and introduced himself to the ministers: "Everyone, although I have not lived in the Central Plains for more than ten years and have been exiled to the West, I have also learned a lot. The customs and culture of the far west are completely different from those of the Central Plains."

"It's not all bad. There are some good ideas. I will share some with you today."

Li Yan smiled slightly. Actually, he was just talking nonsense. Although many people had not been to the West at that time, they could know from some information occasionally passed on by businessmen that the West was underdeveloped and far inferior to the Central Plains.

What Li Yan calls the West is still the West of later generations.

However, for this era, it doesn’t make much difference whether it is the other side of the world or the other side of time and space, because they are all new things anyway.

And most people will never be able to come into contact with it in their lifetime.

"Everyone, the way they govern the country there is completely different from how we govern here. The Tang Dynasty mainly governs the world through military and political means. And in the far west, the country and society are mainly influenced through economic and commercial means."

"This picture is a data chart that can intuitively show the relationship between the rise and fall of dynasties and economic development."

Li Yan first reassured several important officials: "What we are discussing today does not involve any official appointments or removals or local military deployments. It is just a pure look at national governance from an economic and commercial perspective."

The emperor set the tone, and several important ministers were obviously relieved. If that was the case, then there was nothing to worry about.

In their minds, so-called power means military power and personnel power, and these are what everyone is fighting for. If the emperor's plans have nothing to do with these two, they can obey everything else and it will not affect the overall situation.

Yes, when Li Yan put on this attitude of respecting the wise and humble, those who had been in the power field for their entire lives and were still in high positions knew that the emperor must be trying to achieve some purpose.

The so-called courtesy to others must require something.

The same goes for the emperor. The higher his position, the softer his attitude, the more things he asks for and the more valuable they are.

These old foxes are well versed in this, and are familiar with human relationships and the exchange of interests, knowing that no matter how things change, they remain essentially the same.

No matter how you go around, it all comes down to profit.

There are three core manifestations of power: financial power, military power and personnel power. Since the emperor has stated that he has nothing to do with the latter two, it means he wants money.

Among the three, money is the most basic, important, and also the least sensitive power. If the emperor wants money, it is the easiest to accept.

The five important officials at the central government looked at each other and smiled knowingly.

Li Yan smiled slightly when he saw the expressions of several people. At present, the military and personnel power of the Tang Dynasty were almost all divided up by the aristocratic families.

If you want to break the situation by yourself, it is almost impossible from the inside.

From the case of Princess Gaoyang some time ago, it can be seen that the personnel power of the court has been basically controlled by the major aristocratic families, and the rest has been divided up by the royal family and the old ministers of the Zhenguan period.

After a fierce game of bargaining, a large number of officials in the court were replaced.

But Emperor Li Yan only nominated Xu Jinzhong, who was the Inspector of the Imperial Household. From this point of view, Li Yan did not gain any advantage.

The replacements of most other relevant officials, whether it was Chu Heng's Jingzhao Yin, Cui Renshi's Zhishu Shiyushi and Zhijianyi Doctor, and those of the six ministries' attendants from the Lu, Zheng, and Wang families, were all in order and seemed to have nothing to do with Li Yan.

Xu Jinzhong himself has sufficient qualifications. Even if there had not been this victory, it would not be a big problem for Li Yan, as the emperor, to promote him.

This made Li Yan very frustrated. He had no say in personnel matters, let alone the core military power. The East Palace tutors like Chang Sheng, Xue Rengui, and Sun Renshi were still in the positions assigned by Li Shimin before.

Although these people were not of high rank, they were the backbone of the military, and each of them held actual military power. Li Yan did not dare to make any moves lightly. If he was transferred back and forth, his rank would be raised, but his actual power would be reduced. That would be the end of him. Li Shimin's arrangement was very safe, and Li Yan did not need to make any moves lightly.

Li Yan was concerned about another huge force, namely the royal family and the old ministers of the Zhenguan period. These were the basic forces that Li Shimin had brought up and managed for twenty years. If Li Yan could take over this group of forces, then he, the emperor, would not be too weak.

But after this game with the nobles, Li Yan finally discovered that after Li Shimin fell, his original forces did not gather around him.

Instead, it broke away and, with the connivance and support of the nobles, became somewhat independent.

For example, people like Li Daozon and Li Yuanjing, Yuchi Gong and Li Ji would rather be close to the Empress Dowager than fully side with her.

The most obvious representative is Cheng Yaojin, who was pushed by himself to be the commander-in-chief of the Dingxiang Road Army in the third year of Zhenguan. At that time, he made it clear that he would join his army and had a deep connection with him.

Logically speaking, after I returned to Beijing and ascended the throne, he should be the one who would be most active in leaning towards me.

In fact, Cheng Yaojin had visited him several times, and his words were very cordial and exciting. The feeling of being separated from him was still very obvious, and it could even be said that he was not much different from other ministers with whom he had no old relationship.

Li Yan knew that there were several reasons for this.

First, I have not been in Chang'an for many years. The world has changed dramatically. In order to survive in the center of power, these people must have their own positions. It is impossible for them to change the direction they have formed for a long time just because of some old feelings with me.

For any force, changes in positions in the power field are major policies that affect its power, life, and the rise and fall of its family, and they cannot be changed so easily.

The reason why the ministers and tutors in the Eastern Palace are still loyal to him is not because of Li Yan's charm. Can they guarantee their lifelong loyalty after just half a year of management?
Rather, in order to maintain the balance of power in the court, Li Shimin had always assigned these people to the Eastern Palace and prevented other forces from intervening in the past decade. This allowed these people to maintain their original positions for decades.

If not for this, Li Yan really had no foundation at all, and it would be difficult to guarantee a smooth succession to the throne just by relying on the title of eldest son or the old crown prince.

Of course, this is also the reason why Li Yan has been able to stay on the grassland with peace of mind.

If all his forces in Chang'an were cleared out, Li Yan would never ignore it. He would probably return to Chang'an very early and continue to develop his own power.

Second, even if someone invests in you, it will take a process and time. If it happens too quickly, the benefits you gain will be too little. If you take it easy, you can show your importance and wait and see what happens next, which is more secure.

If Li Yan were to choose himself, it would definitely be the same.

Deep water flows slowly; people speak slowly; this is an eternal truth and the essence of how to behave. Li Yan cannot be impatient, as being impatient will make people look down on him.

These people originally wanted to surrender to him as the emperor, but they turned to the Empress Dowager Zhangsun Wugou, which was very wise and clever.

You said they betrayed me, but they did not surrender to the nobles; you said they surrendered to me, but these people were all under the control of the Empress Dowager, and I could not command them directly.

The Empress Dowager was his biological mother and the most staunch supporter of his throne.

Their surrender to the Empress Dowager was actually equivalent to surrendering to the Emperor himself. As for why the Empress Dowager did not hand it over to him, that was a matter of consideration between his mother and himself. If he wanted to blame someone, he could only blame Zhangsun Wugou, and no one else.

In the eyes of others, mother and child are one, and the meat is rotten in the pot. Anyway, other people's attitude shows that the Queen Mother has other considerations, and we can't blame her.

In fact, there is a difference between the two.

This approach is undoubtedly like choking, making it impossible for Li Yan to eat or spit out, and he cannot get angry, and he won't be able to blame others in the future.

In the political environment where the aristocracy and the imperial power have long been in opposition and competition, this approach is not excessive. After all, compared with those who directly voted against, those neutral abstentions are far from being the primary targets of attack.

On the contrary, Li Yan has to put in a lot of effort to win them over. This is the advantageous situation these people have chosen now.

The third one is the most important and what Li Yan is most worried about, which is that it contains great risks.

Although Zhangsun Wugou was the Empress Dowager, she had no experience in long-term power and superb political skills, and she had no legitimate power to manage these ministers. These people turned to the Empress Dowager, and on the surface, they followed Zhangsun Wugou's lead.

In fact, they were just temporarily free, and Changsun Wugou could not completely control them. Instead, the initiative was in the hands of those people.

It's okay for a short time, but it will happen over a long period of time.

In order to survive in this uncertain environment, they will slowly form groups and elect new leaders.

(End of this chapter)