My father, Li Shimin, please call me Crown Prince

Chapter 262 Li Chengqian: Use my money to do my business?

Prince Wei's Mansion.

The Crown Prince of Baekje, dressed in the simple yet neat costume of his country, entered the Prince of Wei's palace led by his attendants.

As soon as he entered the main hall, Prince of Wei Li Tai stood up from the main seat with a smug and pretended friendly smile on his face.

Li Tai spoke first: "Master Buyeo, please take a seat."

After saying that, he raised his hand to signal.

Baekje Crown Prince Buyeo Long bowed and said, "King Wei, I came here with the gratitude of the people of Baekje. If it weren't for the mediation of King Wei, I don't know how many more twists and turns the surrender would have gone through."

His words were earnest and his eyes were full of sincerity.

Fu Yulong did not expect that things would turn out so quickly. What he saw and heard at the court meeting that day also made him deeply feel the influence of King Wei in the Tang Dynasty court.

He had wanted to meet the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty before but was unable to do so, but now he had succeeded.

Besides, now that he is on good terms with the King of Wei, he can be very useful in Chang'an.

After all, from now on, Buyeo Long would not be able to return to Baekje, but would have to serve as a hostage and live in Chang'an.

He would return to Baekje to inherit the title of king only after his father's death.

Therefore, it is very necessary to be on good terms with the King of Wei, which will make his life in Chang'an more comfortable and safe.

Li Tai smiled and gave him a false helping hand: "Master Buyeo, your words are too serious. I just can't bear to see the lives of the people suffer."

Fu Yulong shook his head slightly and said solemnly: "The King of Wei is too modest. Many voices of opposition in the court have been resolved one by one by Your Highness. Without the full support of the King of Wei, how could this surrender be so smooth?"

The King of Wei obviously felt very pleased with the flattery.

Li Tai looked at Chai Lingwu and nodded slightly.

This means that from now on, Fu Yulong is also one of us.

Chai Lingwu said at the right time: "I heard that Baekje has unique shipbuilding skills. There are few seagoing ships in the Tang Dynasty now. I wonder if Prince Buyeo can arrange for Baekje shipbuilders to come to the Tang Dynasty."

At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the social economy was still recovering and the scale of maritime trade was relatively limited. However, with the political stability and economic prosperity during the reign of Li Shimin, the scale of maritime trade gradually expanded. Coastal cities such as Guangzhou, Jiaozhou, Mingzhou, and Fuzhou gradually became important trade ports, attracting merchants from Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia and other places.

The Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Archipelago in East Asia have established relatively close maritime exchanges, and the Kamchatka Peninsula-Ortsk Sea route has been opened in the direction of Northeast Asia; in Southeast Asia and South Asia, there are frequent maritime trade exchanges with Linyi, Zhenla, Srivijaya, India and other countries; there is also a certain degree of maritime trade connection with Persia and other countries in West Asia.

Tang Dynasty's silk, porcelain, tea and other commodities were transported to these regions via the Maritime Silk Road, while foreign specialties such as spices, jewelry, and medicinal materials were also continuously imported into the Tang Dynasty.

However, due to previous wars and the early days of the Tang Dynasty, there were actually not many naval forces and relatively few warships capable of fighting at sea.

Historically, it was because Li Shimin was preparing to attack Goryeo for the third time that he, despite the opposition of his ministers, forcibly issued an edict to build 3,500 warships and train tens of thousands of naval forces, which further expanded the Tang Dynasty's navy.

The task of building warships was mainly assigned to Jiannan Dao. 1850 ships had been built so far, and another 1650 ships were to be built.

However, this shipbuilding mission triggered unrest in Jiannan. The large-scale construction of warships had a huge impact on the national strength and the burden on the people.

In the end, due to the death of Li Shimin, the third eastern expedition to Goryeo did not take place.

But these warships laid the foundation for the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty's maritime trade and laid the foundation for the opening of the Maritime Silk Road.

Now, since Crown Prince Li Chengqian directly destroyed Goryeo, Li Shimin naturally would not ignore the lives of the people and forcibly build a large number of warships.

But this does not mean that the Tang Dynasty does not need more warships.

With the continuous construction and development of coal plants, coal has begun to be used in more aspects of the Tang Dynasty, especially in iron wrought iron. Coal can forge higher-quality refined iron than firewood.

The huge profits brought by coal also shocked Li Shimin.

The transportation of coal was a big problem. Horse-drawn carriages could only transport a small portion of coal. Large-scale transportation could only rely on water transport.

The imperial court is currently short of grain transport vessels, and Li Shimin has ordered the opening of shipyards in various places. However, it is not easy to recruit suitable shipbuilders all at once.

For this reason, the King of Wei set his sights on the boatmen of Baekje.

After all, Baekje may have some gaps in sea navigation and shipbuilding technology compared to the Tang Dynasty. However, due to geographical reasons, Baekje is close to the sea and has a large number of regular ship workers.

This strategy was proposed by Chai Lingwu, and its second purpose was to strike at the prince's operations in Liaodong.

The news that the prince was vigorously setting up shipbuilding companies in Liaodong had now reached Chang'an.

If most of Baekje's boatmen were transferred to the Tang Dynasty, there would definitely be some obstacles on the Crown Prince's side.

After hearing this, Fu Yulong looked at the King of Wei who seemed to be drinking casually, thought for a while and said through gritted teeth: "I will write a letter to my father immediately and dispatch boatmen to Chang'an."

Now there is no time to develop Baekje. The first priority is to gain the trust of the King of Wei and express Baekje’s goodwill.

Li Tai put down the teacup with a smile and said with satisfaction: "This matter needs to be done as soon as possible."
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Chang'an, the imperial palace.

The king and his ministers discuss matters.

For the Tang Dynasty, how to settle Baekje was a very important issue.

However, at this meeting between the emperor and his ministers, Li Shimin did not mention Baekje.

The main topic of the conversation revolved around Yanqi in the Western Region.

Anxi Protector Guo Xiaoke has begun military operations against Yanqi in accordance with Li Shimin's orders.

Judging from all aspects, Yanqi was obviously unable to fight against the Tang Dynasty.

The military force of the Anxi Protectorate alone was enough to deal with Yanqi.

The only thing to worry about is the involvement of Western Turks.

"Your Majesty, there is news from the Anxi Protectorate that they have received an order from the Crown Prince, requiring that cotton from the former Gaochang Kingdom be transported on a large scale. Personnel should be arranged to collect large quantities of seeds and send them to Liaodong."

Fang Xuanling reported.

Li Shimin frowned slightly.

He knew something about cotton, it was a white flower.

What does the prince want this cotton for?

To look good.

"Some cotton. If the prince wants it, just send it over."

Li Shimin did not think much about it. The Tang Dynasty was now strong, and because he had taken the prince's coal income from the Tang Dynasty for himself, Li Shimin's inner treasury was almost full of money, so he was now expanding the inner treasury.

The prince likes to look at cotton, and it doesn't seem to be a big deal.

Fang Xuanling heard this and said with a wry smile: "Your Majesty, the cotton seeds that the prince wants are not a small amount, and there are also large requirements."

Go ahead and take out a document and hand it to Your Majesty.

Zhang Ananda took it and placed it in front of His Majesty's dragon case. Li Shimin curiously opened it. He wanted to see how much a few cotton seeds could do. It also made Fang Xuanling report so carefully. He felt that it was a bit of an exaggeration.

He also felt a little dissatisfied with Fang Xuanling. Although he knew that Fang Xuanling was currently leaning towards the King of Wei and was suspected of attacking the prince, he was a little disappointed in him for transporting some cotton to target the prince.

Faced with His Majesty's slightly scrutinizing gaze, Fang Xuanling was also helpless.

At one time, he had absolutely no intention of getting involved in the fight for the throne between the Crown Prince and the King of Wei. It was not for Your Majesty's various hints and instigations, otherwise why would he have come to this point today.

Besides, he didn't deliberately report the cotton matter against the prince.

As Li Shimin looked through the documents, his brows furrowed more and more.

After seeing the contents of the document, Li Shimin knew that he had misunderstood Fang Xuanling.

Prince, this is not just transporting a few cotton seeds.

This scale requirement is a huge problem for the Anxi Protectorate, and the manpower and material resources consumed are not a small amount.

"Nonsense, nonsense! Your Highness is being too ridiculous."

After reading it, even though Li Shimin had a good temper, he couldn't help but scold.

According to the requirements in the prince's document, the manpower and material resources consumed are not insignificant.

The first step is to arrange a large number of people to pick the cotton and then separate the seeds from the cotton.

The Western Regions are vast and sparsely populated, and labor is relatively scarce. The corvée system is obviously not very demanding. The prince's document requires the hiring of a large number of workers, and the cost incurred must be a considerable amount.

Picking cotton requires special tools, such as cotton bags and hooks, which cost a certain amount of money to purchase and maintain. In addition, in order to improve efficiency, some auxiliary tools may be needed, such as drying racks and sieves for screening seeds.

The document also required that in order to ensure that the cotton seeds would not get damp or deteriorate during long-distance transportation and be successfully transported to Liaodong, a large number of bamboo tubes should be prepared for processing and storage.

In addition, the transportation quantity is also extremely large. According to the requirements in the document, at least 500 carriages are needed for transportation.

Apart from anything else, the cost of transporting 500 horse-drawn carriages from the Western Regions to Liaodong is not a small amount.

It is no wonder that the Anxi Protectorate specially transmitted the prince's order to Chang'an for reporting.

The Anxi Protectorate alone does not have the financial resources to carry out the prince's orders.

"Your Majesty, do you want to reject the Crown Prince's decree?"

Seeing that His Majesty was furious, Chu Suiliang opened his mouth and asked.

Wei Zheng and Zhangsun Wuji kept silent.

Although they are members of the prince's party and support and protect the prince, how could they agree with the prince's extravagance just to enjoy the flowers?

However, after hearing this, Li Shimin hesitated.

If you look more carefully, you will see that with the prince's intelligence, he would not understand that the impoverished Anxi Protectorate simply did not have the financial resources to support it.

Then why did we send the Prince's Order to the Western Regions?

This is clearly directed at me.

Li Shimin couldn't help but think, is it because of the coal plant?
Ever since Li Shimin instructed Han Wang Li Yuanchang and Zhao Jie to transfer the coal profits that were originally intended to be sent to the Eastern Palace to the inner treasury after the crown prince left for the eastern expedition to Goryeo, Li Shimin still felt a little embarrassed towards the crown prince.

This is equivalent to the father directly taking away his son's property.

Li Shimin had been worried that the prince would come and question him and he didn't know how to answer.

Later, the prince did not react to this, and Li Shimin gradually felt relieved.

It was also because of the huge profits from the coal plant that Li Shimin's pocket became extremely rich.

Originally, Li Shimin was also quite extravagant.

Many luxurious gardens were built, such as the Daming Palace and the Xingqing Palace. These gardens were large in scale, exquisite in architecture, and had gorgeous interior decorations, consuming a large amount of manpower, material resources, and financial resources.

He was once advised against using money from the national treasury by Wei Zheng.

Now that Li Shimin was using the money from his own treasury, the other officials had nothing to say.

Recently, because Chang'an was feeling stuffy, Li Shimin was preparing to build Cuiwei Palace on the top of Mount Li in Lintong, and was also preparing to renovate Yuhua Palace.

The construction of Luoyang Palace in the Eastern Capital is still underway. It was once the place where Emperor Yang of Sui ate, drank and had fun.

In his later years, Li Shimin often went hunting and feasting, indulging in a life of debauchery. Every time he went out, he needed a large number of personnel and material supplies, which brought a heavy burden to the people along the way and caused dissatisfaction among the court and the public. In the 15th year of Zhenguan, there was even a mutiny in the Yulin Army. The soldiers hoped to use this to stop Li Shimin from continuing his travels.

There were no less than thirty ministers around Li Shimin who could speak frankly, especially Wei Zheng, who wrote letters of opinion worth more than 100,000 words, covering more than 200 matters.

Even so, he still couldn't avoid being rejected. Wei Zheng clearly realized that the emperor had changed and "gradually disliked speaking frankly."

In March of the 12th year of Zhenguan, Li Shimin personally went to Liangyi Hall. Wei Zheng bluntly said: "In the past one or two years, you have not been happy with people's advice. Although you have tried your best to listen to it, you are still dissatisfied and you are reluctant."

Li Shimin simply couldn't listen to these words.

However, because of the coal factory, Li Shimin's inner treasury became extremely full, so he did not touch the money in the national treasury and all the money was paid from the inner treasury.

When His Majesty goes out to play and disturbs the people, he also compensates them, which leads to the people in many places looking forward to Your Majesty coming to visit.

The reputation has actually reversed.

The censors were reluctant to reprimand His Majesty, after all, it was His Majesty who was spending his own money.

You should know that in history, in the 19th year of Zhenguan, Li Shimin suspected that Liu Li, the minister of remonstration who was appointed as the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, praised or criticized him behind his back, so he arrested Liu Li for the crime of "plotting to seize the throne" and forced him to commit suicide.

Later, even Li Shimin himself felt that these disgusting and terrible things were excessive.

One year before his death, Li Shimin personally wrote twelve chapters of "Emperor's Model" for Crown Prince Li Zhi, in which he clearly wrote: "Since I took office, I have done many bad things. I have been presented with brocade, pearls and jades without end, and I have built palaces and terraces many times. I have brought dogs, horses, hawks and falcons from far and wide, and I have traveled all over the country and been exhausted by their food and clothing. These are all my serious faults. Don't take them as your own."

Obviously, Li Shimin was "pretending to be ignorant while knowing the truth". He could do the opposite himself, but he had to tell the truth to his son. He hoped that Li Zhi would not follow his example and be a wise monarch, who must be restrained and disciplined.

As the old saying goes, when you drink water, remember the person who dug the well.

It was because of the relationship with the Prince's Coal Factory that Li Shimin had the capital to be so carefree.

Now the prince wants to indulge himself a little.

As the father, it seems difficult for him to object.

Seeing that His Majesty remained silent on the issue of Chu Suiliang, the ministers also guessed what His Majesty was thinking.

Seeing that Li Shimin remained silent, Changsun Wuji understood the emperor's dilemma. He cleared his throat and said slowly, "Your Majesty, I think that although the prince's actions seem a bit extravagant, they are not incomprehensible. The Tang Dynasty is now peaceful and prosperous, and the treasury is very full because of the coal plant. A small amount of expenses is nothing."

"Besides, the prince has made great contributions, but has not received much reward so far. Why not treat this as a reward for the prince?"

Li Shimin heard this and thought for a moment, then said, "What the Minister said makes sense, but since the cost is so high, there is no need to use the money from the national treasury. I will use it from my inner treasury."

(End of this chapter)