Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 97 Let me test your ability to rule your subordinates

Yang and her sisters are all gone.

Only Li Ming was left, sitting quietly in a dark corner.

Mother, you have also been playing a big game of chess.

Her precious son left the beautiful Yangzhou and Xuzhou and ran all the way to the desolate Liaodong. If it were another concubine, she would have cried, made a fuss, or even hanged herself.

For example, Concubine Wei used her utmost charm and flattery to please Li Shimin, which resulted in her son Li Shen being granted the fiefdom of Ji State, which was a little closer, and also appointed as the governor of the important Qinzhou Military Governor's Office.

But Yang did not raise any objection to Li Ming's choice.

He also quickly cooperated with his son to make preliminary preparations for opening up a route from the Northeast to the south.

This shows that she saw through Li Ming's plot at a glance.

What they are asking for is not a fertile land with abundant production, but a strategic location with huge potential.

What is your son doing?

She didn't ask, but just offered to help silently.

In the forbidden area of ​​the palace, the mother and son never mentioned the word "rebellion" to each other's face.

But both of them were working towards the same direction in tacit understanding.

"My mother's mind is not at peace either."

Li Ming looked up and gazed at the stars outside the window.

Although Yang was now favored by the emperor, she was not as arrogant as other concubines.

Because she also experienced the Xuanwu Gate Incident.

Fourteen years ago, her husband and five sons were killed, and she herself was imprisoned in the palace until Li Ming was born.

She knew too well how illusory this so-called "favor" was, which completely depended on one's likes and dislikes and attracted countless jealous eyes in the harem.

Living with the emperor is like living with a tiger. If the emperor is unhappy, he can deprive her of everything at any time.

She also wants to leave a way out and take her destiny into her own hands.

"It's not easy for anyone in the palace..."

Urged by his mother, Li Ming felt that he had to act quickly.

Don't waste your time in vain, or be paralyzed by a false sense of security.

Before going to Liaodong, he had one more thing to deal with...

Li Ming walked along the dim corridor and skillfully came to the study in Lizheng Hall.

Sure enough, the light was on.

After the family dinner, Li Shimin left Concubine Wei aside and dealt with state affairs first.

"Come in." Li Shimin was dealing with memorials without raising his head.

Li Ming walked into the study room with a swagger, and without being polite, he started talking:
"Grandpa, I've thought about it, and what you said does make sense.

"The position of the parent official is related to the welfare of the local people in Yingzhou and Pingzhou, so the selection of the person must be thoroughly investigated."

Li Shimin just frowned half of his brows and said "Oh".

As he expected, the kid showed his true colors in a second:

“So, the underdeveloped agriculture and lack of resources in Ying and Ping states must be because the governors of those two states are not good enough.

"How can we build up the northeastern border of the Tang Dynasty if we appoint such insects as officials?
“So, I have to replace people from those two states.”

Li Shimin listened patiently to the naughty boy's overly jumpy speech and said slowly:

"First, Yingzhou was a vassal state and did not have a governor.

"Secondly, your mother mentioned this to me before she left."

"Oh?" Little Li Ming rubbed his hands excitedly.

Your mother is still your mother, and she will carry you all the way.

"Alas..." Li Shimin could only give in helplessly to this pair of mother and son with very distinct personalities.

He sighed and said:

"Don't you just want Wei Daijia?
"I'll let him be the governor of Pingzhou and help you. Is that okay?"

He felt that he had made a great concession.

Before the Jiucheng Palace incident, Li Shimin was deliberately weakening Li Ming's power in order to quell the suspicion of Li Chengqian and Zhangsun Wuji.

Sending Wei Daijiazhi to serve as a governor in another place was like cutting a blow to the main artery of the "Fourteen Emperors' Party".

However, everyone knows what happened next.

After the battle of Jiucheng Palace, Li Shimin's attitude towards Li Ming began to waver.

He found that he couldn't bear to continue suppressing his youngest son who had saved the entire royal family.

So, they just let Li Ming's little plan go his way and allowed him to continue to develop his power within a reasonable range.

Want people? Release them. Want money and land? Give them.

These are all the benefits that Li Ming earned for himself through his own strength.

Deep down in Li Shimin's heart, there was a rational voice telling him that this was not right.

As long as the system of primogeniture remains unchanged, no matter what great deeds Li Ming has done, he should continue to eliminate Li Ming's forces.

However, this decisive and ruthless emperor was hesitant and indecisive when it came to treating his own children, just like his old father Li Yuan.

"Wei Daijia has been returned to you, Hou Junji has also been given to you, and I also gave you Li Daozong as a gift. There are both civil and martial arts, and there are also civil and martial arts masters. Are you satisfied now?"

As Li Shimin spoke, he flipped open a memorial. After reading the contents, he closed his eyes slightly and threw the memorial aside.

Li Ming carefully observed the emperor's every move, but a fearless smile appeared on his face:

"I don't know what you are talking about, grandpa." "Whether it is Wei Daijia, Hou Junji or Li Daozon, I recruited them under my command with my sincerity and real ability.

"What does it have to do with Grandpa?"

He decisively said that he would not owe this favor.

"You..." Li Shimin was so angry at this little bastard that he laughed:

"Okay, okay, I will let the three of them join the East Palace and see how they gather under your command."

Li Ming's expression remained unchanged:

"I am in Cao's camp, but my heart is with Han. Even if they are in the East Palace, I can still use them.

"I believe in my men, just like you believed your men would not be bribed."

On the eve of the Xuanwu Gate Incident, Li Shimin's trusted and beloved general Yuchi Jingde was bribed by Li Yuanji with a large sum of money.

Li Shimin just smiled at the news, not believing that this dark-haired man would betray him.

In the end, just as Li Shimin had expected, Yuchi Jingde remained unmoved by the attempts of Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji to win him over, and on the day of the Xuanwu Gate Incident, he even killed Li Yuanji with his own hands.

However, when his glorious deeds were dug up by his son, Li Shimin was not happy at all.

If Your Majesty does not allow, please kill me! ... On that stormy night, Hou Junji's words are still fresh in my mind.

What Li Ming said was true. No matter whether they lived in the East Palace or were assigned to other places, these diehards of the Fourteen Parties would follow Li Ming till the end.

Li Shimin actually felt that he could no longer command these three men...

"Well, even if these three people were conquered by your charm, it has nothing to do with me."

Li Shimin was unwilling to delve into this issue and went straight to the point:
"Even if I still owe you. Tell me, what do you want me to give you?"

Li Ming still had that same sly smile on his face:

"I have said it many times before, I want complete power over personnel appointments and dismissals in Liaodong Military Town.

"From the provincial governor to the lowest-level clerk, I will personally arrange everything."

Li Shimin was somewhat impressed by this boy's stubbornness:

"I have told you many times that local officials are related to the local economy and people's livelihood. It is a serious matter that I have to forbid.

"How can I let the people of Pingzhou and Yingzhou suffer in vain because of the private affairs of the royal family?
"This is absolutely not allowed. Please change your request."

Li Ming immediately pouts and starts to rant:

"Why do you think I'm not good at selecting officials? You are biased, you are not objective, and you jump to conclusions without any investigation!"

Li Shimin was annoyed by his noise, so he picked up the memorial that he had just thrown aside and threw it in front of Li Mingyan.

"What is this?" Li Ming was stunned:
"Let me review memorials? You want me to be the crown prince?"

"Bullshit, wishful thinking." Li Shimin resisted the urge to beat him:
“Take a good look at this memorial. This is most likely how your subordinate officials deal with you.

"Can you see the trick?"

Li Ming unfolded it and saw that the memorial was signed by Xiao Yu, the Right Prime Minister of the Secretariat.

The title reads, please change Xizhou to Xichangzhou.

Li Ming was immediately filled with question marks.

Changing a name is not a big deal. Is it worth writing a special memorial to submit, or making the emperor work overtime in the middle of the night?
If you have nothing to do, you can bite a flint.

However, after reading the entire memorial, Li Ming discovered that there was something fishy going on in this memorial.

The general meaning is that it is a request to change the former Gaochang territory into the "Xichang Prefecture" of a vassal state, rather than the "Xi Prefecture" which is the same as the Han territory.

There are three reasons: First, the management cost of directly setting up a state is too high, while the income from land tax is too small; second, stationing the Tang army directly in the Western Regions is too far away from the Central Plains, and the rotation of the government army every two years takes too long on the road.

The third and most important reason is that the Tang Dynasty set up a directly-administered state in the former territory of Gaochang, which was tantamount to annexing the entire Gaochang Kingdom.

This would make other countries in the Western Regions fearful of the Tang Dynasty and push them towards the Western Turks.

Well, it seems reasonable and convincing.

"What do you think of this memorial?" Li Shimin asked in a testing tone.

Xiao Yu's memorial seems to be long and reasonable, and in fact it does make some sense.

But this is exactly the common routine used by lower-level officials to fool their superiors.

Only one-sided information is provided, inducing superiors to make decisions that are beneficial to subordinates but not necessarily to the overall situation.

This kind of misleading behavior of subordinates towards their superiors is very rampant, from the Taiji Temple to the villages.

A clerk who has worked in the fields for decades and perhaps cannot even read a few words can even make the newly appointed top scholar go around in circles.

This is also the reason why many talented people, despite their talents and lofty ambitions, quickly become lost in the crowd and remain silent for many years in grassroots governance.

They were cheated by their subordinate officials.

To become a qualified leader, one must be able to grasp the overall situation and not be deliberately led astray by subordinates.

This requires not only talent, but also rich administrative experience.

Li Shimin intended to use the dispute between "Xizhou" and "Xichangzhou" that gave him a headache to teach Li Ming a lesson:
You are too inexperienced to deal with the cunning bureaucracy. Don't appoint officials on your own initiative. Just listen to your grandfather's arrangements.

"The art of commanding subordinates is very complex and sophisticated. If you can't even understand the reports given to you by your subordinates, how can you select officials? How can you know people and assign them to the right positions?"

Li Shimin stroked his mustache meaningfully:

"What do you think of Minister Xiao's advice?"

"That's it?"

Li Ming clapped Xiao Yu's memorial in his hands twice and threw it to the ground.

"Rubbish."

(End of this chapter)