Traveling through Du He, Li Chengqian's rebellion begins

At the court meeting today, his father suddenly issued several orders, which caught him, the crown prince, off guard.

Not only did my father promote Yu Zhining and Zhang Xuansu, two loyal ministers who were at odds with him, to the positions of Secretariat Assistant Minister and Personnel Assistant Minister, he also restored the full staffing system of the three provinces and six ministries.

This kind of change involving core official positions can be said to have a huge impact.

Du He said with a serious face: "Your Highness, in the past, there was only one assistant minister in the Secretariat, the Ministry of Personnel, and the Ministry of Personnel, so the assistant minister had great power."

"Now that Your Majesty has added two assistant ministers, the most direct impact will be the division of the assistant ministers' power."

"Besides, His Majesty is now intending to promote the old man in the Qin Palace, and I'm afraid he also has the intention of checks and balances."

Some time ago, Li Shimin quickly promoted Xu Jingzong to the position of Huangmen Shilang, and now he promoted Yu Zhining to the position of Zhongshu Shilang, and Zhang Xuansu to the position of Libu Shilang.

These three people are not only old people in the Qin Palace, but also a generation younger than Fang Xuanling, Gao Shilian and others, and are about the same age as Li Ji, Hou Junji and Zhang Liang.

Moreover, Xu Jingzong's age is not much different from Changsun Wuji and Li Daozon.

Li Chengqian nodded: "Father promoted my uncle to the position of Zuo Pushe, but he was afraid that my uncle, a relative of the emperor, would have too much power, so it makes sense to promote others to check and balance him."

When he was made the crown prince, he began to receive ideological education on imperial power, and as he grew older, what he learned became more profound.

The most important point in being a king is the way of balance.

The power of ministers must be balanced, the distribution of interests within the royal family must be balanced, the people's livelihood issues must be balanced, and there must be an even greater balance between the emperor and the crown prince.

As he spoke, Li Chengqian stood up by supporting himself on the table, and walked around the hall with the help of a cane, thinking with his head down.

A few breaths passed.

Li Chengqian suddenly asked, "Du He, is it that the emperor promoted Yu Zhining and Zhang Xuansu to check and balance me?"

"Father is worried that I will affect his throne in the future, so he is suppressing and guarding against me now?"

Currently, the Minister of the Central Secretariat Cen Wenben and the Minister of the Court Liu Li are both staunch supporters of the Eastern Palace, while the Qinghe Cui family behind the Minister of Personnel Cui Xu also secretly supports him.

Now my father has arranged for the elders from the Prince of Qin's Mansion to go in ahead of time in order to curb and weaken the support of the Eastern Palace.

After all, Su Dingfang, Xi Junmai and Wang Jun'e will be sent to remote places to take up posts later.

Xue Rengui, who was guarding the Xuanwu Gate, was also arranged by his father to be monitored by General Li Mengchang of the Right Guard.

Li Chengqian then said with a grim expression: "If my father also follows the example of the emperors of the powerful Han Dynasty, I am afraid that I, the crown prince, may not be able to sit on the throne in the end!"

"In another decade or two, my father might choose to attack me in order to consolidate his position!"

The reason why Li Chengqian had the idea of being suppressed by his father was that he was more familiar with the historical events of the succession of the throne of the powerful Han Dynasty and felt sorry for what happened to Emperor Wu of Han and Crown Prince Liu Ju.

Liu Ju was a kind and capable man who had been an honest and dutiful crown prince for decades. When his father was about to abdicate, he was falsely accused of treason and was killed.

Who could have thought that such a wise emperor as Emperor Wu of Han would do such a foolish thing as killing the crown prince when he was about to abdicate?

Moreover, he believed the slander and gave the order to take action without recalling Liu Ju back to the palace for confrontation?

From Li Chengqian's perspective, Emperor Wu of Han was only a few years away from his death, and he was still suspicious of Liu Ju, who was kind and generous.

If we consider the personalities of his father and Emperor Wu of Han, as well as his and Liu Ju's situations, how similar are they?

During the Xuanwu Gate Incident, my father personally killed my eldest uncle, my fourth uncle and their families.

It is not impossible that he will take action against the fully-fledged prince in order to consolidate the throne in the future.

Thinking of this, Li Chengqian's face turned pale.

His original idea that he would be able to ascend the throne as long as he followed the procedures became uncertain because of his own speculation.

Du He saw that Li Chengqian's face looked strange, so he quickly put down the pastry in his hand, then stood up, walked to Li Chengqian and said.

"Your Highness, you worry too much!"

"Although I am not sure whether Your Majesty will follow the example of Emperor Wu of Han, but you, Prince, are not Liu Ju!"

"Besides, you have the counsel of the East Palace staff, the support of a group of neutral ministers, and the help of the aristocratic families such as Cui Shenji and Xiao Kai. What else do you have to worry about?"

"Besides, don't you still believe in my strategic ability?"

In fact, Du He believes that Li Shimin is different from Emperor Wu of Han. One of the most important reasons is that Li Shimin died shorter than Emperor Wu of Han.

If Li Shimin's fate had developed according to the original historical trajectory, he would have died of illness in another five years.

As long as Li Chengqian behaves himself in these few years, is filial to Li Shimin, and unites with and cares for his brothers and sisters, Li Shimin will pass the throne to him.

However, Li Shimin's health did not show any serious illness at the moment, and he still looked strong and healthy, so Du He did not dare to say these words out loud.

Even if Li Shimin fell ill a few years later, Du He could not speculate about the emperor's health and tell Li Chengqian, the future crown prince.

Because Li Chengqian also wanted to be the emperor, it was not a good thing for him to speculate too much about the emperor.

Li Chengqian shook his head slightly: "Du He, our strength is still too far behind that of our father!"

"When the time comes, Father will only need to issue a few imperial decrees to disintegrate all the forces supporting the Eastern Palace, and you will be the first to be targeted."

"Unless I take a risky move and imitate the Xuanwu Gate Incident before my father takes action against us, I will have the best chance of ascending the throne."

Although Du He was smart, as the crown prince, he thought he could see much further than Du He in the struggle for imperial power.

The emperor has already begun to be wary of him, not to mention that as he gets older, his temperament will become more suspicious.

Moreover, Li Chengqian suddenly came to his senses. He had always thought that his only opponent was Li Tai, and he could rest assured as long as he could deal with him.

But according to his current analysis, the biggest source of the problem lies with his father!"

Du He looked at Li Chengqian with a serious expression and did not immediately stand up to refute his words.

Because from Li Chengqian's current personal perspective, there is nothing wrong with his analysis.

After thinking for a moment, Du He said comfortingly.

"Your Highness, your analysis makes perfect sense!"

"It's just that His Majesty is very fond of you at the moment, and the civil and military officials in the court also support your ascension to the throne, so we might as well keep it that way!"

"If His Majesty attacks us later, we will think of a countermeasure then!"

In order to prevent Li Chengqian from scaring himself and causing chaos, Du He could only resort to the tactic of procrastination.

In addition, there is still a long time before the succession of imperial power. If we worry too much now, it will cause problems in the end.

"Hey!"

Li Chengqian sighed heavily.

He frowned tightly and said, "Du He, let's just take it one step at a time!"