Chapter 709 Asking for something but not getting it

Chapter 709 Asking for something but not getting it

In the evening, the banquet was held in the side hall of Zhongwaifu. Although it was called a side hall, it was a bit larger than the main hall. Seeing everyone enter the hall one by one and find their seats, it was estimated that such team-building activities had been held many times.

In Li Tai's impression, the Taifu rarely held such large-scale banquets. Even if there were such activities occasionally during the New Year, most of the people who could attend the banquet were military generals. As for the assistants of the Taifu, they had to pay for meals in the Taifu. Li Tai went to work with food expenses in the Taifu.

Looking at the current situation, the power of the Daxingtai is developing, and the welfare of the Zhongwaifu staff has also improved, and they are no longer as unpretentious as before.

Before the banquet began, the Daxingtai went back to the inner palace to change his robes and asked Li Tai and others to wait in the side hall first. It's not that Yuwen Tai has become pretentious and conceited, but he deliberately left some time for Li Tai and the officials of Zhongwaifu to greet and communicate.

Many people in the mansion also knew the news of Li Tai's return to the mansion, and they were not surprised to see him in the hall. Those who had not had time to greet him before came forward to say hello. Whether you know him or not, this kind of favor is not meaningful, but if you don't do it, it will be a bit problematic.

Li Tai greeted everyone one by one, saying a few more words to those he knew, and nodding to those he didn't know. He was busy for more than half a quarter of an hour. When the Grand Executive returned from the inner mansion, everyone returned to their seats and sat down after meeting the Grand Executive.

At the beginning of the banquet, Yuwen Tai first gave Li Tai wine. Li Tai hurriedly left the table to thank him, and then pointed out the theme of today's banquet, which was to appreciate the remains of Hou Jing, a disloyal and unrighteous man.

After hearing this, everyone couldn't help sighing for a while. From a moral perspective, they certainly despised Hou Jing. But if we only talk about his deeds, we have to admit that Hou Jing is really a man who can make trouble. The Northern Wei Dynasty and the Southern Dynasty had been in confrontation for many years and had used large-scale troops for several times, but none of them could compare to the results achieved by Hou Jing with only a few hundred remnants.

Just as everyone was discussing, various drinks and meals were served one after another. Looking at the full dishes on the dining table in front of him, Li Tai couldn't help but sigh that the food standards of the Bafu had indeed improved. Looking at the food of other people in the hall, although it was not as rich as on his own table, at least there was wine and meat, and there were no boxes of cold vegetables.

A mansion official with a loud voice stood up and read aloud with a fu in his hand. The fu briefly introduced Hou Jing's life and his deeds of rebelling against various parties, and finally he was abandoned by everyone and abandoned by heaven and man. The main theme of the whole article emphasized loyalty. If there were disloyal and unrighteous people who betrayed the organization, they might not be as serious as Hou Jing, but their end would definitely be worse than Hou Jing!

This fu was also one of the means to strengthen the ideological construction of the team, but it was not written by officials from the Chinese and foreign mansions. Let's not talk about whether there are such great writers in the Zhongwai Mansion now. Even if there are, I'm afraid they can't write a fu with exquisite words and touching heart in a short time. Just look at the people present who can understand the fu, all nod and chant in a low voice, which shows that they agree with and like this fu.

The author of this fu is Yu Xin, the first writer of the Southern Dynasty. After Hou Jing's rebellion was quelled, Yu Xin also joined the team of Jiangling Shiliu returning home to worship their ancestors. Although Li Tai did not come out to entertain them in person, he still entrusted the officials to ask Yu Xin to write such a fu, in order to apply it to the current occasion in the country.

Yu Xin also attached great importance to this request. Perhaps he himself had a similar creation plan long ago, so after thinking about it for ten days, he delivered this fu to the General Administration Mansion.

Compared with the famous "Lament for Jiangnan" that was passed down to later generations, although this fu also denounced Hou Jing and described in great detail the damage caused by Hou Jing's rebellion to Jiangnan, the overall tone was still positive. After all, the big bandits had been eliminated and the Southern Liang Dynasty was in ruins.

Yu Xin even named this fu "Tian Dao Fu". In his mind, in addition to believing that Hou Jing was punished by heaven, he probably also said that the fate of the Southern Liang Dynasty was still protected by heaven, so the emotional color of the writing was much more positive than that of "Lament for Jiangnan Fu", which made people feel quite excited.

Yu Xin had a certain level of humanities. After Li Tai got this fu, he saw that it was heroic and talented, and he couldn't help but sigh that he couldn't look down on people just because they couldn't hold sugarcane. It was still very heroic.

The food in the Chinese and foreign palaces was not only about food, but also the cultural quality of the palace officials was also improving. A fu was thousands of words long. If it was replaced by the previous palace officials and those military leaders, I'm afraid they would yawn and have no patience to listen. But after reading a fu today, the hall was still filled with the sound of reciting chapters and sentences, which shows that there is still some appreciation ability.

Yuwen Tai also praised this fu a few words. When he asked and learned that it was written by Yu Xin, he said with a smile: "If the envoy of Jiangling sends this person to see the emperor next year, the officials must treat such a talented person with care!"

After appreciating the literary works, the next step is to do the real thing. The remains of Hou Jing's hands and feet were placed on a lacquer tray and passed around in the hall at the order of the Grand Secretariat.

As the person who presented the tribute, Li Tai did not need to enjoy this treatment at this time, so he observed the expressions of the people with interest. He dared to guarantee that no matter whether everyone hated Hou Jing or not, this was definitely not a good experience.

It should be noted that Hou Jing was crowned in April, it was already May when Wang Sengbian sent his siblings to the Jingzhou Governor's Office, and now it is June when Li Tai returns to Huazhou. Even if the remains of these siblings have been processed to a certain extent, you can imagine what state they are in.

Therefore, the expressions of everyone who had admired it became a little unnatural, and some even raised their hands to cover their mouths and noses and made a slight sound of retching.

At the following banquet, many people's performance was a little out of shape, and even some of their diets were affected.

Li Tai was mentally prepared for it, and he was indeed a little hungry after traveling long distances. His diet was not greatly affected, so he enjoyed eating and drinking.

The banquet lasted for about an hour. After everyone finished eating, they all stood up and left. However, Yu Wentai left Li Tai behind and invited him to go to the inner palace with him. It seemed that he wanted to talk to Li Tai about some private matters. .

The layout of the inner palace has also undergone some changes compared to what Li Tai saw before, with some more sentries and decorative things added. Li Tai did not look around to observe carefully. After a brief look, he lowered his head and followed Yu Wentai all the way to the inner hall.

After entering the hall and sitting down, Yu Wentai first smiled apologetically at Li Tai and then said, "I need to ask Boshan to do something for me."

After hearing this, Li Tai quickly lowered his head and said, "It is a minister's duty to share the Lord's worries."

"Well, the more respectful you are, Boshan, the more ashamed I feel. You were sent by me to go out to the southeast of the town and spread the country's prestige in Jianghan. I should protect your family and keep it peaceful and free from harassment. But things didn't go as planned. It is still unavoidable to disturb the household, so that your father, a virtuous scholar who retreats from the world to study, even expresses his anger. "

After Yuwentai said this, he sighed deeply, then raised his hand and said, "Boshan has expanded the land for me thousands of miles, but I can't give Renlue peace within a few feet. I feel more ashamed every time I think about it. Please come home, Boshan." You must apologize to your father on my behalf."

After Li Tai heard this, the smile on his face faded and turned into a serious expression.

At the beginning of the year, Emperor Yuan Qin hosted a banquet for his clan relatives in Chang'an Palace. Li Tai's second brother Li Chao had to attend the banquet because he married the daughter of Huai'an Wang Yuanyu, who was also among the twelfth general.

The emperor in the meeting didn't know what kind of evil spirit he had, but he said that Li Chao looked like a relative of his mother's clan, and he wanted to give Li Chao the surname Yifu. This incident happened a bit suddenly, and Li Chao, who was attending the banquet, was also a bit confused. He said that he wanted to go home and ask his father for instructions, but he did not directly accept the matter and ended up having an unhappy meeting.

Those who are truly capable should understand that things cannot be forced upon them at this stage. But His Majesty the Emperor is certainly not an ordinary person. After waiting for several days without receiving a reply, he actually sent an envoy to the house to inquire.

Li Tai was so angry that he became ill. He knew that he was just a country idler. He had no merit in the country and was not guilty. It was neither a distinguished family that needed a surname to show nor a criminal family that needed to change his surname to cover up his ugliness. The only thing he could be called was Yu. There is an heir in the family, but if he is destined to be childless, there is nothing to say.

What you said is more serious. Even if others want to persuade you, they can't say it. They can't say why you will never succeed? You can still take your son’s last name!

Li Tai is already quite sensitive about the matter of giving a surname. It’s not that he thinks the surname Li is very honorable, it’s just that changing his surname to another name is not very honorable! If you really want me to change my surname, then I might as well be Yu Wentai. I will be Sa Bao's brother-in-law. What do you mean by arranging to be Zhao Gui's second uncle?

But having said that, although the emperor's approach was a bit vulgar, his target selection was still quite accurate.

Nowadays, in the entire Western Wei Kingdom, even if there are people who are close to and support the Yuan family's rule, they simply do not have enough motivation and strength to directly oppose Yuwentai.

When the late emperor Yuan Baoju was still alive, he worked hard to marry his daughter to Yu Jin's son, but when it came time to compete with each other, could this old fox be trusted?

Dugu Xin also had close contacts with the royal family and expressed good intentions, but in fact he was using this to respect himself and had absolutely no intention of risking his life to defend Wei Tong.

The Zhuguo people are all old and cunning, not to mention the soldiers, even the elder of the clan, Wang Yuanxin of Guangling, is also a good master of ambiguity and pretending to be confused.

If the emperor wants to reverse the current bad situation, he urgently needs someone who is absolutely powerful and needs to make progress to support him. Looking at the junior high schools, the only one who satisfies this requirement is Li Tai.

The emperor should also know that no matter what small tricks he does in other areas, it is nothing more than adding trouble to his father-in-law. Only by bringing Li Tai and even the entire Longxi Li family to his side can it be considered a real breakthrough. And this was also the fundamental reason why he tried again and again to no avail but still refused to give up.

Therefore, it is really unlucky to be an official in the Western Dynasty. If you dare to fight hard in the Eastern Dynasty, it will be fine if you are an old cousin from Jinyang. But in the West, no matter how good you are, if you don't change your surname and ancestors, you will not fit in.

To be honest, Li Tai does not object to having a deeper connection with the Yuan family. After all, to be honest, the higher his position, the more he feels that the replacement of the Western Wei Dynasty by the Northern Zhou Dynasty is not as logical and smooth as it seems on the surface. Otherwise, why not just proclaim the emperor in one step and add a transition to a king in the middle? Could it be because of an accidental attack of Chuunibyou?

But the problem is that even if you fall in love with a wild horse, you still need a piece of grassland at home, let alone a horse like me! But what does the current emperor have? A little piece of trash that doesn't even have an era name, what can I possibly do with you?

Leaving aside the conflict between the emperor and the emperor, the key reason why Li Tai is unwilling to go against the Bafu now is that the external interests are now greater than the internal ones, and they are much easier to obtain. .

Every time Yuwentai sees him, he screams "kiss, baby, baby". Is it really just because of his looks? Especially in recent years, even the kind of friendly laughter and scolding in the past years have become less and less, simply because Li Tai's strength is growing rapidly.

Especially when he knew that the two most rebellious uncles and nephews in the Yuwen family were at odds with each other, it was really exciting for Li Tai to glare at them and escalate the conflict.

But not having this plan does not mean that you have to tolerate it blindly and dare not express your attitude in any way. At least in Yuwentai's case, Li Tai needs to set his bottom line higher, so that Yuwentai will have some scruples and not dare to interfere at will and infringe on his right to speak in the southeast.

So when he heard Yu Wentai take the initiative to mention this matter, Li Tai's face suddenly dropped. After a moment of silence, he became a little aggrieved. After several changes in his expression, he said in a solemn voice: "The Lord's words are serious. Because of the misfortune of Heyin, my father often had thoughts of seclusion and did not care about power. He was open-minded and had few taboos in his speech. His words were inevitably inappropriate and inappropriate. "

Yu Wentai was about to speak after hearing this, but Li Tai soon raised his eyebrows again, and his tone became firm: "But my father has a son, and the son is strong! Since my father speaks his mind directly, my brother should keep it to himself." If someone says this is disrespectful, you can talk to my brother. There must always be room for a straight voice!"

After hearing this, Yu Wentai pondered for a moment, then nodded and said, "What Boshan said is so upright. With such a young man protecting your father, why should you fear criticism?"

The trend of granting and changing surnames in the Western Wei Dynasty will continue for some time. Li Xiao's words also directly showed his attitude of not allowing his sons to accept the gift of surnames, which was undoubtedly against the trend of the times.

But now that I have said what I said, Li Tai of course has to follow: I am a country idler, he can say whatever he likes, if any of you dare to make nonsense like this, it will be over if I don’t mess with you!