bastard seizes tang

Chapter 212
"The old minister came here for His Royal Highness's festival."

Li Ke was a little surprised when he heard Wen Yanbo's words.

Wen Yanbo has a down-to-earth temperament. In the ninth year of Wude, Li Ke went north as a hostage and exchanged him from Jieli. Therefore, he has saved his life. Wen Yanbo has always remembered it in his heart. Although he is not Li Ke's party member, But the relationship between him and Li Ke can definitely be regarded as goodwill, and even Wen Yanbo once helped Li Ke a lot.

In today's letter, most of the courtiers who advised Li Ke to retire were those courtiers who were not familiar with Li Ke. Li Ke was a little surprised when Wen Yanbo said the same thing.

"Prime Minister Wen also came to persuade me to disobey orders and retreat?" Li Ke looked at Wen Yanbo in front of him and asked with a frown.

Wen Yanbo replied: "The veteran came here precisely for this purpose."

"Why is this?" Li Ke's relationship with Wen Yanbo is different from that of Changsun Wuji, Chu Liang and others. Li Ke listened to Wen Yanbo's words and asked in puzzlement.

Wen Yanbo replied: "Your Highness is holding a festival axe, which looks mighty, but in fact it is of no benefit to His Highness. Instead of holding it to make people jealous, His Highness might as well retreat to His Majesty, and you can also be called a virtuous king."

Li Ke then asked: "This king holds the festival and can control the power of life and death. How can it be useless?"

Wen Yanbo said: "Yangzhou is where His Royal Highness fiefs. According to the old officials, His Highness should conduct a lenient government when he first goes to Huainan. If His Highness goes south on the festival, even though he holds the power of life and death, it will make Huainan people afraid. If it is not handled properly , the subjects of Huainan may be at odds with His Highness, isn't the gain outweigh the loss?"

Today's Prince Li Ke is the governor of Yangzhou, the ambassador of Huainan Road, Huainan Road, even without the Jieyue given by Li Shimin, the entire Huainan Road respects him, and no one dares to despise him.

For Li Ke, having a Jieyue is just an extra power of life and death, which makes people fear him. In this regard, Wen Yanbo's words are somewhat reasonable.

What's more, Li Shimin gave Li Ke the Jieyue, of course, not to ask him to kill people, and even Li Shimin once explained to Li Ke that the Jieyue used by Li Ke can be used for criminal convictions, and he is not allowed to kill without authorization.

However, although Li Ke understood Wen Yanbo's meaning, Li Ke still shook his head and said: "The king has been in Beijing for a long time, Huainan and Yangzhou are not convinced by the king, or there are many people around, but if the king holds a festival axe, it can be a shock. Xiaoxiao, do things with half the effort."

Li Ke was young, and it was the first time for him to go abroad. He had no experience in controlling the state department before. It is inevitable that there will be people who dissatisfy him in the government. Dare to show it to the public, and save a lot of trouble.

But after hearing Li Ke's words, Wen Yanbo said: "However, your highness is benevolent, and he is not a person who is good at killing. Even if you hold a festival axe, you will not use it lightly, and it will just be put on the shelf."

From Wen Yanbo's point of view, Li Ke was not bloodthirsty, and would not use it easily. Instead of traveling all the way to Yangzhou with a festival axe, which would be feared for no reason, it would be better to politely refuse the gift of festivals to Li Shimin.

But Li Ke thought for a while and said: "The sword is a gentleman's weapon, and a gentleman wearing a sword is killing people?"

As soon as Li Kezhi's words came out, Wen Yanbo was dumbfounded.

The Great Tang established the country with martial arts, and the monarchs and ministers respected martial arts. Not to mention military generals, there were even civil servants with swords, but some of these civil servants wore swords for killing people. Apart from deterring Xiaoxiao, it was more of a hobby and symbol.

In Li Ke's view, the fact that a civic official wears a sword but does not kill is no different from the fact that he holds a festival ax and does not kill.

Seeing that Wen Yanbo hadn't said anything, Li Ke went on to say: "The order to hold the festival is bestowed by the emperor. It is not only power, but also the favor of the emperor. How can this king resist it?"

Since the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, only Li Shimin was able to bestow festivals in the name of the King of Qin, Li Shimin, and since Li Shimin ascended the throne as emperor, Li Ke was the first one to bestow festivals.

For Li Ke, this festival is not only power, but also a kind of honor. It is Li Shimin's favor for him, so why should he resist the festival.

After hearing Li Ke's words, Wen Yanbo knew that Li Ke had made up his mind, and he probably couldn't talk to him anymore.

Wen Yanbo sighed: "Your Highness is still so willful in his actions. It seems that His Highness didn't listen to a word of what the old minister said back then."

When Li Ke first returned to Chang'an from Turkic, Wen Yanbo once said to Li Ke, who was quite ostentatious: "A tree that is beautiful in the forest will destroy it, and its behavior is higher than that of others." He wanted to make others jealous, but just looking at Li Ke's actions, he naturally didn't listen to Wen Yanbo's words.

Li Ke said to Wen Yanbo: "Since the emperor gave the Jieyue, this king should keep it. I don't care what other people do."

Wen Yanbo shook his head and said: "Your Highness is so unwise to cause resentment to all the officials in the court for no reason."

Li Ke knew Wen Yanbo's intentions, and Wen Yanbo was different from those who wrote to Li Ke to resist the festival, he was thinking for Li Ke out of his heart.

Wen Yanbo was old and frail, and he was already very tired after he came to court. Under such circumstances, he made a special trip to the Chu Palace, just because he was worried that Li Ke would accept the Jieyue given by Li Shimin because of his gambling. He offended many courtiers, but the gain outweighed the loss.

If other people talked to Li Ke like this, Li Ke would have been angry long ago, but Li Ke looked at the stubborn old man who cared about him, smiled, and did not comment, but said: "Wen I have worried too much, this king has thought about it for himself."

Li Ke is not a person who is obsessed with power, this festival was given by Li Shimin, and Li Ke will not ask to retire until Li Shimin orders to take it back.

As far as Li Ke is concerned, he must never retreat from this ritual, because what he wants to do is not a virtuous king from the beginning to the end.

Withdrawing the axe, of course, can win the title of the so-called virtuous king, but it is helping the officials to fight against Li Shimin, which may make Li Shimin dissatisfied.

Li Ke clearly distinguishes between Li Shimin's attitude and the attitude of those ministers who are already at odds with him.

This is what Li Ke said, but it is inconvenient for Li Ke to explain it to Wen Yanbo.

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The fact that Li Ke is about to be released from the capital is not a secret of the court, but within half a day, the news of Chang'an City has begun to spread quietly and unknowingly.

And the most well-informed place in Chang'an City, apart from the palace, is Pingkangfang in the north of the city.

In Pingkang Square, from the dignitaries in the capital to the traffickers and pawns, all kinds of people gather, and there are many people, so it is also the place where the news spreads the fastest.

"The King of Chu, Li Ke, is about to go south to Yangzhou in a few days. Please order someone to bring the news back to the master." In the backyard of the Xieyu Building in Pingkangfang, a beautifully dressed and beautiful woman was hiding in an inconspicuous corner. Noticing that others were not prepared, he spoke in a proficient Yangzhou accent to the wine shop footman who came to deliver the wine.

There was nothing wrong with the wine walker after hearing what this woman said. Obviously, these two seemingly incompatible people were actually acquaintances.

The news that Li Ke is about to release this matter has not been widely spread, and there are still a small number of people who know about it.

Hearing this, he was surprised and said: "This matter has a lot to do with it, but there can be no mistake."

The woman said: "Xu Rui told me this personally when he was drunk. How could it be false? The king of Chu left Beijing only two days ago. There should be no delay in sending the letter."

Xu Rui is a member of the Ministry of Officials, Wailang, and this woman's regular customer. Although Xu Rui is not a high official in the court, he is also a well-informed person. Naturally, he can't lie when he is drunk.

Upon hearing the words, the footman of the wine shop immediately replied: "Don't worry, girl, I'll go back and arrange for someone to send a message to Yangzhou, so as not to delay the master's business."

(End of this chapter)