Traveling through Du He, Li Chengqian's rebellion begins

After Li Shimin sat on the high seat, he first looked at the courtiers in the hall with satisfaction, and then asked Shangshu Zuo Pushe Fang Xuanling with a solemn face.

"Zuo Pushe, are you all ready?"

Fang Xuanling stood up and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, I am ready."

Responsible for grand court meetings and grand furnishings, which was mainly the work of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Rites.

The Shangshu Zuo Pushe Fang Xuanling was in charge of the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Rites.

Therefore, Fang Xuanling was the actual person in charge of the two major events.

"it is good."

Li Shimin nodded slightly, and then said loudly: "Let's get started."

"promise!"

Fang Xuanling responded and then nodded to the old Shangshu Langzhong.

After receiving the signal, Shangshu Langzhong walked to the bottom of the high steps with a serious face and faced all the officials.

The job was originally supposed to be done by Shangshu Zuocheng Du Gou, but because Du Gou had just been promoted, he had no prior contact.

Therefore Fang Xuanling asked a fifth-rank Shangshu Langzhong to take over the presidency.

The Shangshu Langzhong said in a loud voice: "The first item of the grand court meeting is to invite the Crown Prince and the three dukes to congratulate Your Majesty on behalf of all officials and people."

The Three Dukes refer to Situ, Sikong and Taiwei. Situ was held by Zhangsun Wuji, Sikong was held by Fang Xuanling, and the position of Taiwei was left vacant.

Li Chengqian, Zhangsun Wuji and Fang Xuanling walked to the center of the hall and spoke to Li Shimin with the congratulatory messages they had prepared in advance.

After the congratulations, the Shangshu Langzhong continued to shout.

"The second item of the grand court meeting is to invite the Minister of the Central Secretariat Yang Shidao to read out the congratulatory messages submitted by the provincial governors."

Yang Shidao stood up tremblingly, holding up a thick stack of congratulatory messages in his hand, and began to recite them with pauses and rich emotions.

These congratulatory messages are a small number of well-written ones selected after screening.

Listening to the congratulatory messages written by the governors of various states, Li Shimin, who was in a high position, looked very happy.

"These sycophants have used up all their literary talent in writing congratulatory messages."

Du He couldn't help but get goose bumps as he listened to the congratulations, which were more exaggerated than the last.

There were people who wrote about the greatest emperor of all time, the wisest ruler of all times, and all kinds of words that could be thought of and those that could not be thought of.

It took Yang Shidao more than half an hour to finish reading the stack of congratulatory messages in his hand.

"It's well written, and the Zhongshu Ling's reading is also good. Thank you for your hard work."

"Hurry up and sit down and rest."

Li Shimin said thank you in a gentle voice to the old and frail Yang Shidao.

Yang Shidao was born into the Guanwang branch of the Hongnong Yang clan. His elder brother Yang Gongren also served as the Minister of the Central Secretariat during the Zhenguan period, but he died a few years ago.

The two brothers' paths to promotion were very similar. They both served as Minister of Personnel and Minister of the Central Secretariat during the Zhenguan period.

Moreover, the two have similar personalities, both are purely kind people.

When they served as the Minister of Personnel, they suppressed the powerful and did not appoint their relatives and friends as officials.

This made Li Shimin feel very relieved and appreciative of them.

It’s just that although the two brothers are talented, their vision of people is really average.

Although the officials they appointed were not related to their relatives, most of them were mediocre. Many officials in the court ridiculed them behind their backs.

The Shangshu Langzhong stood up and said, "The third item of the grand court meeting is to invite the Minister Liu Ji to read out the auspicious signs from various places!"

Liu Li held up the memorial and read it with a serious face: "Liu Yishou, the magistrate of Chang'an County, submitted a memorial that in March of the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, the people found double ears of wheat, which means that a noble person will be born in my Tang Dynasty..."

"Yingzhou Governor Jia Dunyi submitted a memorial stating that in June of the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, colorful auspicious clouds appeared in the sky, implying that the emperor's aura was becoming more and more prosperous..."

"Cangzhou Governor Xue Dading submitted a memorial stating that in August of the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, a sweet spring appeared on the ground..."

Although it took a lot of time to promote the auspicious signs, these auspicious signs with a mysterious color made people enjoy listening to them.

Most of these auspicious signs include the appearance of colorful clouds, double ears of wheat, five stars in a row, sweet springs emerging from the ground, and rare birds and beasts.

There are many kinds of auspicious signs, but without exception, they all tacitly avoid the auspicious signs that only appear when an emperor is born.

For example, there are dragons appearing, divine light shining in the room, and so on.

"My goodness, when did so many auspicious signs appear in the Tang Dynasty?"

"Moreover, Chang'an County reported that people had discovered double ears of wheat. Is it such a great auspicious sign that has only just been revealed now?"

The corners of Du He's mouth couldn't help but twitch.

One has to admire that these officials can really lie with their eyes open, but the auspicious signs they reported in the book are both believable and untraceable.

Experts, they are all experts!

After reciting the auspicious signs, the highlight of today's grand court meeting came next.

Pay tribute!

The old Shangshu Langzhong's voice also became louder: "The fourth item of the grand court meeting is to read out the list of tribute items."

"Please invite the Minister of Revenue Tang Jian to read out the tribute items from each state."

Tang Jian took a few pieces of rice paper and started reading.

Each state basically only pays tribute to some local specialties, which is just a metaphor and blessing, and the tribute is not particularly valuable.

For example, Huainan Road is rich in silk, Jiangnan West Road is rich in porcelain, and Shannan Road is rich in food products.

When Tang Jian was reading, the court officials were all dozing off and few of them listened seriously.

It’s the same three things every year, nothing new at all.

"Please invite Chu Suiliang, the Minister of Rites, to read out the tribute items from the vassal states."

Hearing these words, all the civil and military officials in the hall opened their eyes.

Reading out the tribute from vassal states was supposed to be the job of Li Daozon, the Minister of Rites, because he was currently out commanding troops for training and had not returned during the New Year's Day.

Therefore, this task fell on Chu Suiliang.

"Cough cough."

Chu Suiliang cleared his throat and began to read aloud.

"Eastern Turks, pay tribute of 1000 horses, 3000 cattle and sheep, and wild ginseng..."

"Tibet, pay tribute of 1000 yaks, 3000 cattle and sheep, and leather..."

"..."

The tributes paid by some of the larger vassal states were basically local livestock, leather and spices.

And the quantities seem to have been agreed upon, so they are not much different.

But the next tribute items were somewhat intriguing.

"Kucha, tribute of 50 dancing girls..."

When Li Shimin and other ministers in the court heard about the beauties being offered as tribute, they all showed expectant expressions on their faces.

If there wasn't a grand court meeting being held now, they would definitely be eager to go and see these beauties.

In previous years, the beauties that were offered as tribute by vassal states were either arranged to serve as palace maids or servants in the imperial palace, or the rest were given as rewards to meritorious ministers.

There was an exception among this group of ministers. Fang Xuanling did not accept the reward from the beautiful woman.

Because there was a jealous wife, Lu, at home.

Lu was also from the northern branch of the Fanyang Lu family and was a cousin of Lu Chengqing, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

Because his wife had such a strong desire for control, Fang Xuanling had not even a few young maids in the house, let alone concubines.

After Chu Suiliang finished reading, Li Shimin and his court officials all showed expressions of surprise.

"Finished reading?"

"Why is there no news of tribute from Goguryeo and Silla?"

"Could it be that Yeon Gaesomun didn't send anyone to deliver tribute?"

A group of civil and military officials began to whisper to each other.

Li Shimin asked in a deep voice: "Chu Suiliang, didn't Goguryeo pay tribute?"

According to the military report sent by Zhang Jian, the governor of Yingzhou, Silla had been defeated by Goguryeo and only a few cities were left. They were besieged by the Goguryeo army, so it was understandable that they could not send envoys to pay tribute.

But Goguryeo did not pay tribute, which is a bit hard to understand.

Chu Suiliang replied solemnly, "Your Majesty, Goguryeo did not send an envoy. I guess they are refusing to pay tribute!"

wow~

The court officials were instantly excited.

"Yeon Gaesomun is so arrogant that he dares not pay tribute!"

"This clearly shows that they don't take our Tang Dynasty seriously!"

"I don't think we need to just recover the Han and Jin territories, we should also take over the territory of Goguryeo!"

"You're right. We must kill one to warn the rest."

Hearing the indignant words of the civil and military ministers, Li Shimin gripped the armrests of his chair tightly with both hands, turned his head and spoke to Li Chengqian who was sitting below him.

"Prince, during this expedition to Goguryeo, you must punish them severely!"

"Conquer Goguryeo for me!"

After hearing what Li Shimin said, all the ministers in the hall fell silent.

Li Chengqian stood up with a serious expression and replied in a sonorous and powerful voice.

"My son, I obey!"