I am Li Shen and Li Shimin, the free kings of the Tang Dynasty

A moment later, after Wang De reminded him that it was cold outside, Li Shimin returned to the Li Zheng Hall with his two sons.

Li Shimin was happy. Since the concubines were all there, Li Shimin asked people to hold a banquet in the Li Zheng Hall, and everyone present came.

Li Shen and Li Chengqian drank fruit wine with Li Shimin. At the banquet, some concubines danced to the music of the court musicians with Li Shimin's permission in order to show off themselves.

But to be honest, Li Chengqian and Li Shen didn't dare to look at each other. These were titled concubines.

You know which one is favored by Li Shimin. The two brothers can only drink with their heads down or chat with Li Shimin.

The queen was sitting at the fourth concubine's table, talking to Concubine Wei as if she were a sister.

Empress Changsun knew Li Shimin too well. She must be so happy because Li Shen shared Li Shimin's worries, or she had some ideas.

And she also saw Li Chengqian kneeling on one knee with a look of joy on his face. This matter must be related to Li Chengqian.

Taken together, it is not difficult to guess that Li Shen came up with an idea that would help Li Chengqian and make Li Shimin happy.

The other three concubines also flattered Concubine Wei, especially Concubine Yin. Her son was saved by Li Shen, and she was not implicated. Although her brother died, she was very grateful to Li Shen.

Because tomorrow is Yuanzheng, the banquet did not last long. Li Shen followed Concubine Wei to the Daji Hall to sit for a while.

Concubine Wei was very satisfied with the current situation and understood why Li Shen did not fight for the throne.

Li Shen reported the incident of taking in Wu Mei, and after reassuring his mother, he talked about the conversation and got up to go home to prepare for Yuan Zheng.

----Point by point-----

Yuanzheng will be celebrating tomorrow. The atmosphere in Cui Inzhi's house should be joyful, but it is very depressing in the study.

Representatives from the eight families of the five surnames, Qi Wang and Guan, except for the two Lis, all arrived.

"Bang!" Lu Chengqing, as the representative, slammed the table,

"It must be King Ji Li Shen who did it, otherwise no one would intercept us."

It turned out that three consecutive batches of smuggled goods disappeared inexplicably, and all they found were some corpses. Because the wind and snow buried them quickly, they could not find any clues.

The first time it was only 30 dan, it was nothing, but later on, [-] dan were given continuously, and the [-] bushels of food were gone.

If it weren't for the fact that they realized that the first batch of teams that were supposed to come back didn't come back, they would have continued to send out.

Then they sent people to investigate and found the bodies buried under the snow. Only then did they know that their people had been attacked.

"Have the injured people been rescued?" the Xiao family asked.

"Only four were rescued. The others were not revived because they had been in such a cold place for a long time and were injured." Cui Inzhi replied.

This time they found about twenty people who were seriously injured and were pretending to be dead, and they were brought back for treatment.

"Oh? Is there anyone alive?" Several people who didn't know about it were a little surprised.

"There are a few alive. Not all of them were attacked during the day. Some of them were attacked at night, so maybe the other party didn't see clearly, so they didn't find it. But it wasn't much better. Only four were barely saved. The others are all dead." Cui Renzhi felt a little regretful.

"Then who did they say did it?" Someone asked immediately. If there is a survivor, wouldn't there be information?

"Only one person woke up. Because it was night, he only saw that the other person was wearing leather clothes and a hat. He was wrapped tightly. From the appearance, it looked a bit like Hufu, but it was definitely not from our Central Plains. Clothing." Cui Renzhi said simply.

"Hu Fu? Isn't it Prince Ji's Mansion? I heard that there are many sand bandits in the desert area. They will also come to the grassland to rob things for their supplies." Zheng Jingsi, as Secretary Lang, knew more information than them.

Everyone was silent after hearing this, thinking about who it was.

"I think this matter has something to do with Prince Ji's Mansion. The spies reported that there were no clues. They even pulled out the arrow feathers and didn't leave them behind. They were afraid of exposing their identity." Cui Renzhi hated Li Shen deeply. He always felt that Li Shen did everything.

"In this case, then send someone to the military camp in Dongshan to check the number of people. Then we will know whether it is true or not." Zheng Jingsi suggested.

"agree"

"agree"

"In that case, let's each send spies to investigate. But as you all know, we have sent spies before, but they either returned without success or heard nothing more." Cui Renzhi said, he did not want all of his Cui family members to go there. Die.

"Then give it a try"

"Okay, then prepare as soon as possible."

"it is good"

"it is good"

"it is good"

After everyone agreed, they left the Cui Mansion one after another. Cui Renzhi couldn't help but sneered when he saw everyone leaving.

"Hmph, it was Prince Ji's Mansion that sent people to die." He decided that it must be Prince Ji's Mansion that did it, so he would not send people to die.

On the second day of Yuanzheng, the whole of Chang'an was very lively. As usual, Li Shimin hosted a banquet for the ministers at noon, and then had a holiday in the afternoon.

Li Shen did not go to the palace when he was in Prince Ji's Mansion. Li Shen was not willing to participate in such a formalistic banquet.

All the good food and drinks in the house have to be mixed with these old gangsters.

At this moment, Li Shen was taking his young daughter-in-law Lu Dingniang to distribute money to the servants in the house. This time, he was not talking with his mouth.

Instead, she actually handed out the money with her own hands. The feeling made Lu Dingniang's heart bleed. But Li Shen felt extremely comfortable.

The yard was piled with money, and the servants came to collect it one by one. According to what Li Shen and Lu Dingniang said, each of the old people had five guan, and the newlyweds had three guan each.

The newlyweds were the maids and eunuchs that Lu Dingniang recruited from the palace after she came over. There were 80 of them. This was prepared by Li Shen for the future expansion of the palace.

As for the stewards, they all have twenty guan, and the housekeepers have [-] guan. In fact, it is equivalent to one year's salary.

But it's not the usual reward money. And it’s not just money, but also rice, noodles and meat.

"Your Majesty, the rice seed transporters from Fuzhou are back." Wang Xuance came over to report.

"When they come back, let them be transported to the big warehouse behind Huangzhuang. Then let them go home to spend time with Yuan Zheng,

Tell them that I will personally summon them after Yuan Zheng passes. I will keep my word and will be rewarded heavily. "

Li Shen was very happy. It was even better to hear good news on the occasion of the Spring Festival.

A stone finally fell to the ground, and promotion will begin next year. This will play a key role in Li Shen's subsequent dealings with the family.

If the grain output increases without being affected by the family, then Li Shen's next step is to target the family's important industries.

That is, salt and iron.

(In the past few days, the author has searched for information and read Tongjian and old and new Tang books, and discovered something. From the late Sui Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty,

Just like the plot in the novel, everyone was attracted by Li Tang's overlord spirit and surrendered one after another, even if they raised troops at the beginning.

Also, these civil servants and generals had no integrity at all. If they failed or were captured, they would immediately surrender and be put to great use.

For example, this is the case with the Thirteen Taibao, many of whom have rebelled several times. Finally, it fell on Li Tang's side.

I don’t know whether history omitted some persuasion or tactics in order to show the fate of destiny, or whether it was just cheating and had the aura of the protagonist. )