Tang Dynasty: Father, if you don't rebel, I will!

"Your subject pays respects to Your Majesty. It has been several months since we last met. Fortunately, Your Majesty is still in good health."

Ganlu Temple.

Feng Deyi, the Minister of Revenue, was still in Lingnan Road compiling statistics on the Tang Dynasty's profits from this voyage. Officials from the Six Ministries also accompanied him to coordinate the Kunlun slave trade, which saved a lot of reporting work.

Li Shimin looked at his son, who had become much thinner and darker, but whose eyes were noticeably more reserved and composed.

He couldn't help but stroke his beard and nod.

"Your mother and I are both well. Now that you have returned to the capital, you should spend more time with your mother. She has gone to the Taoist temple to pray for you quite a bit."

Beside her, Consort Yang's reddened eyes were filled with relief.

Li Ke respectfully accepted the order and then bowed to his elder brother, the Crown Prince, who was standing to the side.

"Your Majesty has lived up to your expectations. The maritime trade and the construction of the port of Jeddah in Arabia are all progressing smoothly. The Kingdom of Chalukya has also brought a letter from its court officials, acknowledging our Great Tang as its suzerain."

Li Chengqian nodded: "I have always trusted my third brother to do things."

The princes and princesses present, and even the retired emperor, all surrounded Li Ke with great curiosity, asking him about things overseas.

Li Ke was quite open with his conversation, recounting his experiences on this voyage.

When the natives of some island nations in Southeast Asia saw their ships, they revered them as gods and even offered them large sums of money. The natives there were so poorly clothed that they wore crude gold ornaments around their necks.

This caused all the princes and princesses to gasp in surprise.

Consort Yang and Empress Zhangsun watched this scene with smiles, without disturbing it, but they had clearly begun to whisper among themselves about which women from noble families in Chang'an could be suitable candidates for the position of Princess Consort of the Prince of Han.

It wasn't until the welcoming banquet that the princes and princesses finally gave Li Ke a break, as he was already quite tired.

however.

At this moment, Gao Yang rolled his eyes and moved closer to Li Ke's table.

"Third Brother~"

The exaggerated and affected address almost made Li Ke spit out the wine in his mouth.

He looked at his younger sister in surprise, completely bewildered.

"Gao Yang, is something the matter?"

Gao Yang let out a soft snort and asked casually, "Third brother, the Han Prince's Mansion must have gained quite a bit of benefit from leading the fleet out to sea this time, right?"

Li Ke was puzzled, but nodded nonetheless.

Between siblings, and with everyone present being family, there was naturally no need for them to hide anything.

"The Prince of Han's palace has four ships that have set sail with the fleet. They are all large ships. The profit from this trip should be several hundred thousand strings of cash."

Gao Yang's eyes immediately lit up.

Those present, including Li Chengqian and Li Tai, couldn't help but shake their heads and chuckle.

"Brother, how much do you think Gao Yang can squeeze out of Third Brother? I bet it's no less than 300,000 strings of cash. The Prince of Han's mansion may not have much else, but just in terms of money, it's definitely not lacking..."

Li Tai pretended to drink, muttering to himself with a quiet smile.

Li Chengqian glanced at him: "Besides me, which of your households can't come up with a hundred thousand strings of cash? Anyway, I've once again scrambled a group of people from the Six Guards of the Eastern Palace. As for Gao Yang's appetite, I'll leave it to you to satisfy it."

Li Chengqian watched the show silently.

Gao Yang has been going to great lengths lately to bring as much stuff as possible to Baikal County.

Every day after the court officials had left, he would seek out some ministers who came from families with good education.

They kept saying that young people should go out and gain more experience, and they praised Baikal County to the skies.

Li Chengqian had heard the saying "Where in Chang'an are there more opportunities than in Baikal County?" more than once from conversations among his ministers.

However, this matter is not so easy to handle.

At present, the Tang Dynasty's Tianzhu Provincial Administration Commission is also actively recruiting personnel. Compared with Princess Gaoyang's personal fiefdom, the Tianzhu Provincial Administration Commission represents a large number of external interests of the Tang Dynasty.

Gao Yang will have a lot of work to do if he wants to poach people from the future Indian Provincial Administration Commission.

However, this girl is clearly a sensible person.

In order to better develop her fiefdom, and also to repay Wei Zheng for his help, she spared no effort in attracting talented people.

Those who didn't care about money would take the initiative to act as matchmakers, using the beauty trap of female officials who were about to leave the palace.

Those who value their families will personally visit them and promise them benefits from Baikal County's real estate and landholdings in advance.

Those who simply crave fame are even simpler; the storytellers in the teahouses and the dancers in the taverns where they frequent have secretly received countless benefits from Gao Yang for this.

Forget about the soft tactics of visiting Zhuge Liang three times; Gao Yang could easily use hard tactics like putting a sack in the middle of the night.

In just a few days, Li Chengqian received countless impeachments against Princess Gaoyang.

Six departments impeached her for stealing people.

An imperial censor impeached her for being disrespectful to scholars...

However, in the end, she was someone who grew up alongside Li Chengqian in Taiyuan Prefecture.

The day after receiving the impeachment, when they went to court to confront the officials, the students and young officials who had been won over and manipulated by Gao Yang through various means all changed their stories.

They claimed they were willing to go to Baikal County to govern the northern border for the Tang Dynasty.

"Tsk... So you're even trying to take advantage of me? No way, this is absolutely unacceptable! If you want to do it, do it yourself!"

In the Imperial Garden of Xiande Hall, Li Chengqian held the daughter born to him by Consort Li Xueyan in his arms. Faced with Gao Yang, who had once again come to him like a beggar, he refused her request without hesitation.

Gao Yang was still unwilling to give up.

“Brother, they were all your secretaries back then. If you agree, they will definitely be willing.”

That brat, she actually set her sights on his secretariat.

"Many of those women are already married, and those who are still unmarried have their families arranging marriages for them. You want me to do it? What? Isn't everything already chaotic enough?"

Back then, out of all those girls in the secretariat, which one of them wasn't after Li Chengqian's harem?

Whenever Li Chengqian thought back to the time when he ordered the disbandment of the secretariat, and the girls looked so tearful, he couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.

Even now, several families still declare that they will not marry anyone but the Crown Prince.

Is it appropriate to ask him to persuade people to go to Baikal County at this time?

Isn't this ruining someone's life?

"Brother, please help me out! I'll take care of them for you, and when you go to Baikal County, they can accompany you..."

"Get out of here! This is getting more and more ridiculous!"

"Brother, please help me!"

"Hahahaha!" In the Lizheng Hall, Emperor Zhenguan laughed so hard he almost fell over.

Empress Zhangsun said helplessly, "Your Majesty, so it was you who advised Gaoyang to keep an eye on those female officials in the Secretariat?"

Li Shimin looked at the report from the Hundred Cavalry Commandery with a smug and gloating expression.

So much so that he didn't even notice the increasingly strange look in his empress's eyes when she looked at him.

"Is Your Majesty so certain that Chengqian will compromise? Is it because Your Majesty believes that Chengqian is like Your Majesty?"

"Huh? ⊙?6?6⊙!" Li Shimin's eyes widened.

Empress Zhangsun smiled faintly, her hand, which was knitting a scarf, paused, and the long needle seemed to gleam with a cold light.

"Your Majesty is certainly setting a good example. As the father, you kept a mistress in the Qing Shu Palace, and now you're thinking of having your own son, Chengqian, follow suit and have Gaoyang help Chengqian keep a mistress in Baikal County?"

"How could you even think of that!"

"Oh no! Don't, don't hit my face, Guanyinbi! I really didn't! Oh no! It's broken! My arm is going to break!"