Time Travel: I am the idle king Li Shen and Li Shimin in the Tang Dynasty

A family that is too large and has too many branches is sometimes a problem, as it can produce some rebellious individuals.

Therefore, the Li family could only issue warnings to each branch of the family, hoping that each branch or sub-branch would understand the situation and act accordingly.

Large families are simply interest groups formed by binding together countless smaller families; each party still has its own path of development.

The so-called clan leader is nothing more than the clan leader of the eldest branch.

Just like Li Chengqian now, Li Shen's family was originally a branch of the royal family, and only became powerful after becoming royalty.

Li Shimin was the clan leader of their branch of the family, and Li Chengqian will be the clan leader in the future.

However, if the family were to make demands on Li Shen's branch of the family in the future, they would certainly not comply, unless they were acting as the emperor.

"Hmph, it seems these four families aren't behaving themselves either," another elder from Zhao County sneered.

"Does my brother mean they are plotting something?" The old man from Longxi frowned.

"Brother, are you saying they're going to target the Prince Ji's mansion?" The two men from before also looked on with curiosity.

The old man from Zhao County gently shook his head:

"No, it's not surprising that they're targeting the Prince Ji's residence. What I'm saying is that they have other motives."

"Other schemes?" Everyone was taken aback.

"That's right, but I don't know if they're planning to target the major families or something else." The old man from Zhao County nodded slightly.

"Brother, why do you say that?" the old man from Longxi asked hurriedly.

The other four families were also ancient clans with a history of thousands of years, but even ancient clans might not be able to withstand the siege of so many powerful families.

"Please forgive me, elder brother," the other two quickly bowed and asked. They hadn't noticed anything unusual during the entire process.

"I can't say for sure, but they said there were many suspicious points in the purchase of the spices."

After the old man from Zhao County finished speaking, the others immediately perked up, as they were also curious about any suspicious points.

"They said they contacted merchants from the Western Regions and asked them to transport spices to the Tang Dynasty, which is not suspicious."

The suspicious part is the identity of the Western Regions merchants. What kind of merchants could have such abundant wealth to transport hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of strings of cash of spices to the Tang Dynasty?

Are spices from the Western Regions really that cheap? Worthless, like millet?

We also sent people to the Western Regions; everyone knows the price of spices.

What kind of merchant could spend hundreds of thousands of strings of cash to buy spices, or even more?

Leaving aside the Western Regions, even within our Great Tang Dynasty, there are only a handful of people with such strength and courage.

How many of those aristocratic families now have a fortune of millions?

Therefore, I believe that either the Western Region merchants deceived those four families, or those four families deceived everyone.

After the old man from Zhao County finished speaking, he took a few breaths, picked up his teacup and drank a few sips of tea, giving the others time to think.

The two elders of the Li family who attended the gathering only pondered for a moment before their expressions of sudden realization dawned on them:

“Brother is right, that’s exactly the point. We two didn’t even realize it.”

The old man from Zhao County put down his teacup and waved his hand:

"It's alright. You're too close to the situation to notice. You've been focused on whether it's related to the Prince Ji's residence, so it's normal that you didn't realize it."

This is merely my guess, but these four families must have other motives.

"Brother, do you mean they want to reap the benefits? That's certainly a possibility. Those four families have declined severely and lost much of their strength. If they don't use some means soon, they might not be able to keep their positions."

Given their past practices and methods, it's not surprising that they would do something like this.

After thinking for a moment, the old man from Longxi spoke.

The others immediately understood what the old man meant.

"Brother, could this be a misunderstanding? Would those four families be so crazy? They're not in such a desperate situation yet."

The clan elder from Longxi asked incredulously. He had a wild idea in mind.

"No, they've already reached that point. If they don't make plans soon, they'll probably disappear like other families in a few decades."

The wealth of the world is finite; there is only so much. The imperial court owns half of it, and the Prince Ji's mansion owns 30%.

Their attempt to seize the wealth of the Prince Ji's mansion is undoubtedly a risky gamble, an impossible task.

Therefore, they can only seize the wealth and glory of the world from other places.

Don't forget, our Li family has been doing the same thing for thousands of years.

This young prince from the royal family was blessed with good fortune and seized all the wealth in the world.

His Majesty once told the clan chief, "With Prince Ji around, wealth will come; those who oppose him will be plagued by misfortune. This is the will of Heaven."

The old man from Longxi's words revealed the ugliness of human nature.

Although the last few words were cryptic, upon closer examination, which of those who opposed Prince Ji over the years has ever benefited? None of them have had a good ending.

Isn't this just bad luck? Is this fate?

Prince Ji was just a young man, yet he achieved such success in just ten years. Apart from being blessed with good fortune, there is really no other reason.

Throughout history, among so many people, who has achieved great things with such smooth sailing as Prince Ji?

Even Qin Shi Huang, who unified the six kingdoms, suffered many misfortunes.

It seems that Prince Ji was truly an opportunity bestowed upon the royal family by Heaven, or rather, an opportunity granted to the Tang Dynasty by Heaven.

"Alright, let's not get involved in this anymore. The boutique has released several new products, and we have already discussed them with the head manager of Prince Ji's mansion."

It will still be exclusively handled by our two companies. The first batch of goods will be delivered to our warehouse a month later, and then distributed to each company.

We only need to focus on managing our family business; everything else is none of our business.

Oh, by the way, before we came, the clan chief instructed you to pass on a message to all the Li family officials in Chang'an: that all Li family officials must fully support His Majesty and the Crown Prince.

Even if it means a slight loss of family interests, it doesn't matter.

As long as we can keep Prince Ji in check, a little bit of benefit is nothing; it will be made up for quickly.

Remember, all members of the Li family must be informed.

"Yes, we obey." The two men bowed immediately upon hearing the old man's words.

The Li clans of Zhao County and Longxi were originally of the same lineage and were branches of the same family, always advancing and retreating together.

On matters of principle, we stand on the united front.

Meanwhile, at the Cui family mansion, the gathering had ended, with only the Wang family from Taiyuan, the Lu family from Fanyang, and the Zheng family from Xingyang remaining.

In a study, the four families sat together, but the atmosphere was not cheerful; rather, it was rather somber.

"Snapped!"

Choi In-ji slammed his hand on the tea table, his face grim, and said:

"I didn't expect the Li family to cause trouble. If we had known this would happen, we would have been better off not inviting them."

"Brother Cui, please calm down. We all know that the Li family has always had dealings with the Prince Ji's mansion."

"We just didn't expect the Lee family to stand up and refute us at the last minute." Zheng Jingsi comforted Cui Renzhi.

Lu Chengqing then spoke slowly:

"I just don't know if the Li family has figured out our plan."

(Humans are all greedy.)