Qian Song

...

Time flies, the years are like a shuttle.

In the blink of an eye, Li Biao had passed away for more than three years, Li Cun was 61 years old, and the Daqian Dynasty came to Hongwu in the 39th year.

After three years of selection, a person that many people did not expect suddenly had the potential to defeat other candidates, and entered the field of vision of the royal family and clan of the Daqian Dynasty, as well as the civil and military officials of the Daqian Dynasty. The perspective of the common people.

This candidate is Li Xiang, the son of Li Cun, who originally served as the king of vassals in Central Asia.

Li Xiang is undoubtedly very good, and his resume is dazzling enough. Otherwise, he would not have been voted into the ranks of crown prince candidates by Li Cun's children and grandchildren.

Before Li Xiang became a candidate for the crown prince, his most eye-catching resume was that he was one of the princes who followed Li Cun to conquer the entire Central Asia.

Moreover, Li Xiang was able to persuade Li Cun's rebellious children and grandchildren to all obey him.

For example, when Li Cun's descendants went to attack Isfahan, the capital of the Seljuq Empire, Li Cun's descendants voted for Prime Minister Li to be their commander-in-chief. Then under the leadership of Prime Minister Li, Li Cun His descendants easily captured Isfahan.

After that, similar things happened, and Li Xiang served as the commander-in-chief of Li Cun's descendants.

The reason why Prime Minister Li was able to gain the trust of his brothers and nephews was mainly because he had participated in the War of Conquering Jin and the War of Conquering Japan before participating in the Western Expedition, and achieved the level of control by his own ability.

In other words, in the early years, even if Li Xiang was not as good as Li Chu in terms of military merit, he would not be far behind.

Later, Li Xiang's choice was different from Li Chu's.

Li Chu chose to continue joining the army, but Li Xiang chose to retire.

Li Xiang disappeared for several years after leaving the army. Many people did not know what Li Xiang was doing.

The answer was not revealed until the selection of the crown prince became intense.

In those years, Li Xiang had been serving as a senior intelligence officer in the Military Intelligence Department. Before Li Cun's Western Expedition, he disguised himself as a businessman and spent three years spying on intelligence in various Central Asian countries.

As for why Li Xiang went to the Military Intelligence Agency to gain experience unlike Li Cun's other children and grandchildren?
This is for a reason.

Now when it comes to Li Xiang's mother, many people may have forgotten her.

However, 40 years ago, when it came to the Southeast, especially among the maritime merchants in the Southeast, no one knew about her.

She is Shi Honggu, the head of the Dan family of thieves!
Yes.

She was the female pirate whom Li Cun personally captured when he went to the southeast to suppress pirates.

Within less than a year of following Li Cun, Shi Honggu gave birth to Li Xiang for Li Cun.

Later, Shi Honggu gave birth to three sons to Li Cun.

I don’t know if it’s because they have the blood of pirates in their bones, but the four sons Shi Honggu gave Li Cunsheng are all shrewd, ruthless, and even cunning. It can be said that they are not simple.

Now, except for Prime Minister Li, who is preparing to run for the crown prince, the other three have all become vassal kings.

And Shi Honggu is even more complicated.

The reason why there has been no news about Shi Honggu all these years is because Shi Honggu deliberately hid herself.

Why did Shi Honggu hide herself?Is it because of her former status as a pirate?
How can it be?

Li Shishi, Zhao Yuannu, Wang Zhongduan, Hua Xiangrong, and Yan Rui, who was later sent to Li Cun's harem, were born in brothels and did not hide themselves. What's more, Shi Honggu was just a pirate. What could she do? Big deal?
In fact, the reason why Shi Honggu hides herself and keeps a low profile is because she has a very special identity!
Shi Honggu is the actual head of the Military Intelligence Office, one of the four major intelligence agencies in Li Cun's hands!

All along, in addition to the newly established ninjas established by Li Cun a few years ago, Li Cun has always had three major intelligence agencies in his hands, namely the Wude Division, the Pro-Army Duweifu and the Military Intelligence Department.

As everyone knows, the heads of the Wude Department are Zhang Chao and Liu Baiqin, and the head of the Pro-Army Duwei Mansion is Hu Tu.

But the person in charge of the Military Intelligence Department, which is parallel to Wude Si and the pro-army Duweifu, has always been extremely mysterious. Even Zhang Chao, Liu Baiqin and Hu Tu didn't know who he was. They only vaguely touched this person. It may be a eunuch around Li Cun, because orders from the Military Intelligence Department are all transmitted through eunuchs, but there are many doubts about which eunuch it is, Zhang Chao, Liu Baiqin and Hu Tu, but who is it? I really can't find out.

It is precisely because of this that Zhang Chao, Liu Baiqin and Hu Tu have worked hard all their lives, because they know that only the enemies they do not understand at all are the most terrifying, especially when they are completely transparent in the eyes of the other party. .

In other words, this was also Li Cun's original intention to find someone among his concubines to serve as the intelligence chief of the Military Intelligence Department.

As for why Li Cun chose Shi Honggu as the intelligence leader?
That's too simple, because Shi Honggu is a cunning, ruthless, forbearing, meticulous, ruthless woman who even disowns her relatives. It can be said that she is born to do great things.

In the end, Shi Honggu did not disappoint Li Cun. In the past 40 years, the Military Intelligence Office under her leadership not only never lost to Wude Si and the Pro-Army Duwei Mansion, but she also perfectly restrained Wude Si and the pro-army Duwei Mansion. These two government intelligence agencies.

Moreover, this process will continue...

Li Xiang is the most outstanding son that Shi Honggu trained.

It was Shi Honggu who arranged for Li Xiang to enter the Military Intelligence Agency from behind.

In other words, when Shi Honggu trained Li Xiang, she originally planned for Li Xiang to inherit her intelligence empire.

Unexpectedly, Li Biao died young, and Li Xiang became one of the candidates for the crown prince.

To be honest, Shi Honggu didn't want Li Xiang to be the crown prince, and she didn't help Li Xiang at all when Li Xiang became a candidate for the crown prince.

Because Shi Honggu knows better than anyone else that one of Li Cun's biggest taboos is that intelligence personnel interfere in politics.

Moreover, Shi Honggu also wanted Li Xiang to inherit her military intelligence office.

However, things went against expectations. Although Shi Honggu did not help Li Xiang, Li Xiang still reached the finals and was expected to win the final victory. Shi Honggu could only train others to inherit her intelligence empire.

Some people may want to ask, since Shi Honggu didn't help Li Xiang, how did Li Xiang lead other candidates and become the most popular candidate for the crown prince?

This is first of all because of Li Xiang's outstanding ability, and secondly because of Li Xiang's team strength.

Not much to say about the former. Among the candidates for the crown prince who are all selected from the best, there is no one whose ability does not stand out.

As for the latter, everyone will know it with two examples.

Prime Minister Li's chief think tank was Prime Minister Shi Hao, who was as famous as Chen Kangbo in history.

And Li Xiang's other right-hand man is Li Ji, the son of Li Cunsheng from Anne (that is, the foreign female subordinate with blond hair and blue eyes who was unbelievably beautiful under Shi Honggu).

Shi Hao was a mature and loyal person, well versed in classics and history, made memorials, held steady opinions, and had outstanding abilities. He became the magistrate of Tingzhou (near Urumqi in the Western Region) at the age of less than 40, and his political achievements were extremely outstanding.

——Actually, this is also because Li Cun gave Shi Hao a chance. Otherwise, he would not have been able to break out of the siege and become a dazzling political star in the Daqian Dynasty before he was 40 years old.

Li Ji grew up with Li Xiang, and he always followed Li Xiang's lead.

Li Ji was born brave and good at fighting. When he was in the army, his military exploits were not inferior to those of Li Chu and Li Xiang.

But later, Li Ji insisted on giving up his promising future in the army, and instead went to Prime Minister Li's vassal state to become a general of the vassal state who could only command a few thousand troops, and was tied to Prime Minister Li.

With this Wen Yiwu platform for Li Xiang, one can imagine the strength of Li Xiang's team and his leadership ability.

And strong ability and a strong team are not the most critical factors for Li Xiang to break out of the siege.

The most important thing is that Li Xiang is smart and sincere.

In the year before the official election, all candidates will take their teams to visit various places in the Daqian Dynasty, and canvass votes with Li Cun's children and grandchildren who have been scattered around the world.During this process, all candidates will promise some conditions to the royal family and clan to canvass votes for themselves.

Some people, in order to be elected, will inevitably make unrealistic promises.

Li Cun, who had long expected that this would happen, asked the chief ministers of the Daqian Dynasty to form a council in order to prevent the crown prince candidate from betraying the interests of the Daqian Dynasty in order to win the election.

——They have no other power during the election process, but they can remove those who made arbitrary promises in order to become the crown prince based on the facts.

Of course, in order to limit the power of the ministers, Li Cun only gave them five places.

In other words, the governor of the Daqian Dynasty could depose up to five candidates who violated the rules with solid evidence.

Under such a premise, many candidates for the crown prince are inevitably a little timid, dare not make promises easily, and even stop eating due to choking.

But Li Xiang didn't. Every time he went to a place, he would first visit in person and look around privately, and then put forward constructive ideas and feasible support policies based on the specific local conditions, thereby winning the support of Li Cun's children and grandchildren.

The other candidates for the crown prince were not as meticulous and as daring to make promises as Li Xiang. As a result, they were considered to be insincere, incompetent, and courageous by Li Cun's descendants, and were abandoned.

What's rare is that none of the prime ministers in the Senate thought there was anything wrong with Prime Minister Li's promise, and they did not cancel Prime Minister Li's candidacy for the crown prince.

In this way, Li Xiang became the most likely person to become the crown prince.

Of course, if Prime Minister Li wants to become the real crown prince, he still has to pass two hurdles.

The first level is that Li Cun also wants to eliminate five candidates who he thinks are not suitable to be crown prince.

Another hurdle is that Prime Minister Lee will win the general election in a formal vote.

Soon, Li Cun redistributed fiefdoms to the five crown prince candidates and asked them to become vassal kings.

Li Xiang was very lucky. It could also be said that Li Cun was also optimistic about Li Xiang, so Li Xiang's name was not among these five people.

Excluding the three crown prince candidates who gave up their candidacy after Li Chu and seven others due to various reasons during the election.

There are still ten crown prince candidates who have entered the finals.

Li Cun called these ten candidates for the crown prince to Qianqing Palace and said to them:

"The armored general crossed the pass at night, and the courtiers were waiting for the cold weather. The eminent monks in the mountain temple have not yet risen, so it seems that fame and fortune are not as good as leisure."

"I got up before all the bureaucrats got up, and I didn't sleep when all the bureaucrats were asleep. It's not as good as the rich man in the south of the Yangtze River, who is still surrounded by five feet every day."

"When any of you sits in my position, you will know that you have to get up before dawn. When the five drums dawn, you will be in power, and when you are ugly, you have to get up. One night, you played too much with your concubine After a while, when I didn't want to get up in the morning, someone shouted at the door: 'Your Majesty, it's getting late, it's time to get up.', so it is not easy for the emperor to do it."

Having said this, Li Cun looked at his ten sons and saw that none of them showed fear or even hesitation because of his words.

Li Cun nodded secretly: "If any of these ten sons succeeds to my throne, I can rest assured."

At this time, Li Cuncai revealed his truest plan:

"Starting from tomorrow, I will hold elections within the clan. Each of your clan members will have one vote to elect the Crown Prince and the Crown Speaker."

As soon as they heard the words "Royal Speaker", these ten candidates for the crown prince knew that Li Cun was going to cause trouble again.

really!

Li Cun continued: "What I just said is not all to test you. Being the emperor is indeed not an easy job, and your brother died of exhaustion in office. Therefore, I have learned from the pain and feel that one person can do the job." Five years is the best time for the emperor. If he is still elected in the new election five years later, he can be re-elected for one term..."

To put it simply, Li Cun is planning to elect two crown princes at once in this election.

One is the crown prince, the first in line to the throne.

One is the Speaker of the Imperial Household, which is similar to the head of all Li Cun's children and grandchildren. He is equivalent to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of a certain country and the second in line to the throne.

In other words, Li Cun did not give subsequent emperors the opportunity to choose their own successors. The history of succession after the death of father and son ended here. Future emperors will be born among Li Cun's children and grandchildren, but they will be born by capable people. And live there.

Li Cun's idea is too avant-garde, and it will undoubtedly be difficult for Li Cun's sons who have reached the finals to accept it.

Li Cun also knew that this would be the case, so he added: "If any of you cannot accept the new national law I have formulated, you can give up your candidacy."

joke!

We’ve all fought here, who would give up now?
Besides, if he is chosen, he can be the emperor for at least five years.

Once you are done, you can still be the emperor for another five years, and you can be the emperor for a total of ten years, which is enough to show your political ambitions.

Of course, with the intelligence of Li Cun's ten sons, how could they not understand that Li Cun put a shackles on the later emperor.

in fact--

There is a reason why Li Cun did this.

In other words, although in feudal society, the imperial power was supreme, in fact, there were still some forces that restricted the imperial power.

The situation is different in each dynasty.

For example, relatives during the Eastern Han Dynasty and aristocratic families during the Northern and Southern Dynasties were all forces that restricted imperial power.

The most common force restricting imperial power in all dynasties is the power of the prime minister.

Regardless of whether it is a group prime minister or an independent prime minister, it has its own unique role in checking and balancing the imperial power.

However, on this basis, Li Cun also elevated the status of the royal family, making the royal family a restraining force on the imperial power.

In fact, the purpose of Li Cun's introduction of the royal family was not just to restrict the imperial power so that future emperors would not be able to do whatever they wanted and destroy the Daqian Dynasty, but to allow the royal family to check and balance the power of the prime minister and the civil servant group that would inevitably be born.

As long as the subsequent emperors can play the art of balancing well, there will definitely be no tragedy like the Ming Dynasty in history, where the emperor and the civil servants fought internally, and eventually even led to the demise of the Ming Empire.

Li Cun did this with good intentions.

Li Cun, who is familiar with history, knows very well what the final situation will be if those civil servants and their families dominate.

The key is that Li Cun abolished his relatives and did not pay attention to the eunuchs. The meritorious group gradually grew old, but the civil servant group could continue to grow and develop.

As long as Li is alive, he can still use his prestige to suppress these civil servant groups.

But what if Li Cun dies one day?
What did the subsequent emperors use to restrain the civil servant group?

Now it seems that only the royal family with extremely strong strength and power can shoulder this important task.

Therefore, this system, which Li Cun did not know the consequences of, was forcibly promoted under Li Cun's insistence.

And the selection of the crown prince is about to be finalized...

... (end of this chapter)