Chapter 988: Zetian

Chapter 988: Zetian

  Chapter 988 Zetian

  Luoyang.

  Luoyang Palace is twelve miles around, with twelve gates on all sides. The entire palace city is in an inverted convex shape, located in the northwest corner of Luoyang City. In the north of the imperial city, there is another Jiacheng in the west, and the east city is protected by the barrier in the east.

  The city wall is four feet eight feet high and more than five feet wide, with rammed earth inside and bricks inside and out.

  Brilliant style, both in terms of architectural style and rigorous defense, have surpassed Luoyang in the Sui Dynasty.

  Due south of the palace city, on the tower of the Tianmen Palace, Emperor Li Shimin, with his hands behind his back, looks into the distance with a sad expression on his face.

Zetianmen is the main gate of the palace city, also known as Wufeng Tower, with a luxurious and magnificent building. The flying view on the gate is sandwiched between each other. Thinking that this Tianmen was too extravagant, he ordered it to be demolished. Unexpectedly, ten years later, he himself ordered Qin Lang to rebuild Luoyang.

  Qin Lang also rebuilt Zetianmen.

The rebuilt Zetian Gate has become the facade of the entire palace city. It is magnificent and magnificent. It is shaped as a gate with three buildings. Ten zhang, the city gate is also nine zhang deep.

   On such a platform, a 12-foot-high city gate tower was built. Its majesty made Li Shimin, who came back to Luoyang again, amazed when he saw it for the first time.

  Ziwei Palace in the quelou is a Taoist temple specially reserved by the royal family, where Lao Tzu, who is revered as an ancestor by the royal family, is enshrined in it. However, there are no Taoist priests in this temple.

  If Li Shimin encounters problems, he will often come to this Ziwei Palace on the Tianmen Gate, pay respects to Lao Tzu, and temporarily put aside those troublesome things.

   Standing on the 12-foot-high tower, you can still look far away, and you can have a panoramic view of the entire Luoyang City to the south.

At the beginning, Qin Lang rebuilt Zetian Gate to be more majestic than that of the Sui Dynasty, mainly because this gate was not just a gate. It was a very important building in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, a symbol and symbol of imperial power, and Tiananmen in later generations. The reason why it is so important is because of this.

There will be several kinds of Tang Dynasty, among which the most important one is the Zhengdan Great Court Meeting, the founding of the country, the enthronement, the change of the Yuan Dynasty, the amnesty, the canonization of the queen and prince, the offering of captives and surrender, and the reception of foreign envoys. Then Tianmen.

The three main halls of Luoyang Palace, Qianyuan Hall, Zhenguan Hall, and Huiyou Hall are respectively the Outer Dynasty, Middle Dynasty and Inner Dynasty of the Tang Dynasty. The most important ceremony was still held in the palace of Zetianmen.

  Recently, the queen's condition has worsened again, and Li Shimin is also worried about it, but many imperial doctors are helpless, and now they can only take care of them slowly, but seeing the queen lose weight day by day and her condition worsens, Li Shimin's heart feels like a knife is twisted.

   But at this juncture, Cheng Qian is getting more and more disobedient.

I prayed for the queen before, but it turned out to be so chaotic. Thinking of his respect for his mother and filial piety, Li Shimin didn't punish him too much. He just cut some of his powers and asked him to reflect on himself. Who would have thought that he would sneak away to Longyou in a blink of an eye? .

Li Shimin was really angry this time, and even kicked over the royal case in the palace. The queen came to persuade Li Shimin regardless of his illness for a long time, and suppressed Li Shimin's anger. Originally, Li Shimin was going to send Baiqi to Qinghai to tie Chengqian back to Luoyang.

  Although he saved face for Cheng Qian again, Li Shimin became more and more dissatisfied with the prince. He specially sent Baiqi to Longyou to keep an eye on Cheng Qian for him and report to him every move he did in Qinghai.

  Now Chengqian in Qinghai is surrounded by both the obvious Baiqi officials and the lurking Baiqi hidden stakes. They monitor the prince's every move and report his every word and deed to the emperor truthfully.

  Li Shimin read these detailed memorials every day, just like reading the daily life notes of those emperors in history.

  Looking at the records of the prince's words and deeds sent back from Helong, Li Shimin seemed to be looking at the historical materials of those ruined and stupid kings in history.

  He thought of people like Chen Shubao and Yang Guang, he thought of Yang Guang's king of Qi, Yang Jun, and he thought of Yang Jun, the son of Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty, Yang Liang and others.

  The more you look at it, the more angry you become.

  During Gao’s motherland’s funeral, Chengqian, as a grandson, was devoted to filial piety and had the duty to stay in Xijing, but in the end he left everything behind and ran to Longyou with the left behind ministers on his back.

   What was even more extreme was that when he arrived at Hou Junji, he also showed him face, but Cheng Qian still didn't stop. Regardless of his order to Chengqian, he refused to stay in Shanzhou, snatched the command of Hou Junji and set off with the army.

  If you just want to fight, you can understand it. Guan Long is a man who is a martial artist, ambitious, and passionate. But he stopped and stopped along the way, rode horses to hunt, walked around, and even asked Hou Junji to collect more than a dozen beauties for him along the way. Sleeping together, Hu Tianfei.

   They searched for hawks and dogs everywhere again, and it was as if they were going on a safari.

  He was famous as Li Shimin I, and now Chengqian will lose his face. Now Tuyuhun, Dangxiang, etc. also know that the prince of Datang is so virtuous.

  The queen persuaded her again and again.

  Li Shimin doesn't care about the relationship between father and son, but he also has to care about the relationship between husband and wife with the queen, especially now that the queen is in such a serious condition, she can't stand the excitement anymore.

   Otherwise, he would have ordered Baiqi to tie Chengqian back to Luoyang.

  Although this decree has not been issued for a long time, Chengqian's deeds in Longyou have indeed disappointed the emperor to the extreme.

  He used to be very proud and proud, thinking that emperors such as Sui Wendi and Taishanghuang had failed in the cultivation of heirs and in handling the relationship between their sons.

He felt that he had cultivated a very good prince, known as a virtuous prince in the court and the public, capable of literary and martial arts, young and mature, and Li Tai and Li Ke were also very virtuous. Although there were such ignorant princes as Li You and Li Yin, they were still young after all. , can also be changed.

  He couldn't figure it out, why did Cheng Qian become what he is now in just a few years?

  Even there is a deep gap between father and son.

For many nights, Li Shimin also couldn't sleep. He asked himself that he was good enough for Chengqian. Ben Jun also asked Chengqian to listen to politics and study early, and even let him take charge of Yongzhou affairs in person to cultivate his abilities.

   As for the East Palace properties that Qin Lang helped Chengqian build up, and the rich inner workshops accumulated for Chengqian, Li Shimin has always only silently supported him, and he tried his best to give Chengqian the opportunity to let him go and do things.

  Even in terms of Chengqian's marriage, etc., he also put in great effort.

  But in the end, what did you get in exchange?

  Footsteps came.

   Li Shimin didn't turn his head back, he knew that it was Xu Luoren, the commander of Baiqi Division, who came.

  “Chen··”

   "Okay, I know it's you, Xu, who's here. Is there any news today? Let's hear it."

  Xu Luoren was led by General Zuo Yulin and Baiqi Division, with the military rank of General Yunhui, and was named Duke of Yongning County. This is Li Shimin's confidant, known as one of the Four Olds of the Mo Mansion, and the Four Olds of the Mo Mansion are also called the Four Olds of the Shogunate, referring to the four generals who were his old friends after Li Shimin joined forces with Li Yuan in Taiyuan.

  These four people are Hou Junji, Duan Zhixuan, Xu Luoren and Qiao Gui.

  When Li Shimin was young in the Sui Dynasty, he spent time in the Li Family Villa in Wugong County in the west of Beijing. At that time, many nobles in Chang'an had villas and manors outside Beijing. The young Li Shimin met a group of descendants of the same family in Li's Biezhuang in martial arts, Hou Junji, Duan Zhixuan and Xu Luoren, etc., had the best relationship with Hou Duan and Xu Qiao. Also immediate response.

Xu Luoren and his elder brother Xu Shixu are both from Taiyuan, Bingzhou, and they were also in the martial arts villa when they were young, so they have a good relationship with Li Shimin, especially Xu Luoren, who is Li Shimin's loyal younger brother. When Taiyuan raised troops, he was also the captain of Li Shimin's internal guard .

  It was just before the Xuanwu Gate Incident in the ninth year of Zhenguan that Li Jiancheng and Yuan Ji were transferred out of the Prince Qin’s Mansion to command troops in other places, and missed this crucial achievement of Conglong. However, Li Shimin immediately transferred Xu Luoren back to the capital afterward and let him serve as the general of the Imperial Guard.

  Now he is commanding the Baiqi Division, the Baiqi Battalion, and the Flying Cavalry Battalion with the title of General Zuo Yubayashi.

  His elder brother Xu Shixu changed his name to Xu Xu to avoid the taboo, and now he is Zhending County Duke and Secretary of Agriculture, and Xu Luoren is also named Yongning County Duke.

  Compared to his brother Xu Shixu, although Xu Luoren is less capable in fighting, he has never had the opportunity to go out to lead the army. He has always played the role of Li Shimin's guard captain, but he has won the emperor's trust.

   And Lao Xu also knew his ability, so he never wanted to lead the army to fight like Hou Junji, Duan Zhixuan, and Qiao Gui, the three old guys. He just followed the emperor's guard with peace of mind. Usually, he seldom deliberately learns the art of war, Xu Luoren learns to play the pipa.

Because Li Shimin, like the great ancestor Li Yuan, is not only a master of archery, but also a master of playing the pipa, so Xu Luoren practiced the pipa hard, learned to compose and make music, and was a very clever master. Some small-scale banquets of Li Shimin, They were all handed over to Xu Luoren, and even the dance and music parts were often handled by Xu Luoren himself.

  In addition to being good at playing the pipa, Xu Luoren has another skill that no one can compare to, that is, looking after horses. Xu Luoren knows that Li Shimin likes horses, so he has studied horses very well. Among Li Shimin's six steeds, Xu Luoren bought and presented one of them.

  The Xu family also runs a well-known high-end horse business because of this, and is a representative of Datang's high-end horse merchants.

  This Yongning County didn’t seem to have much presence in the court when he was fair, and he seldom competed with the meritorious officials and relatives outside, but with the emperor, his trust was extremely high.

  The emperor is entrusting Xu Luoren to monitor the movements of the crown prince Chengqian.

  In order to avoid affecting the queen, Li Shimin has come to this Tianmen Ziwei Palace every day to meet with Xu Luoren and listen to his private report on Chengqian's recent situation.

   "His Royal Highness has led the army out of Chiling and entered Qinghai. He has not yet encountered the Tuyuhun rebels, and has now entered the Haiyan Castle of the eldest grandson..."

  The emperor let out a long sigh, and he didn't know if he felt relieved after hearing the news, or what.

   "Have you met the Tuyuhun Army yet?"

   "Where's the Shenwei Army, haven't they seen the Tuyuhun Army yet?"

   "It's still the previous news. The Qingqi of the Tuyuhun people appeared before the Shenwei army city before, but they disappeared soon. Until now, they haven't shown up again."

   Li Shimin frowned even tighter.

"Hurry up and send a message to Hou Junji, telling him to be careful of the Tuyuhun people. Maybe they are lying in ambush on the way from Haiyan Castle to Shenwei Military City. Be careful not to be ambushed and attacked halfway. Make sure to let Chengqian stay in Haiyan Castle temporarily. One step further west!"

  (end of this chapter)