People in the early Tang Dynasty: I compete with Wu Zhao for the throne

Chapter 1813: The Great Etiquette Dispute

In the Chengxiang Hall in the harem, Li Xuan and Liu Jinyu had just walked in when the crisp cry of a baby was heard in the hall.

Ouyang was already sitting in the hall, looking at the baby boy held by the wet nurse, her face full of joy.

Li Xuan and Liu Jinyu bowed together and said, "Meet the Queen Mother."

"Stand up." Ouyang looked at Li Xuan with a smile and said, "Da Lang, this is your tenth child. What name should you give him?"

"The sun is shining and the sky is bright. The rivers and seas are peaceful and tranquil. Carriages and books are mixed together." Li Xuan bowed lightly, looked at Ouyang and said, "Mother, let's call him Li Zhihai."

"What about the title?" Ouyang asked.

Li Xuan hesitated for a moment and said, "Just call him Prince Qin. Qinzhou is south of Jinzhong. After all, calling him Prince Jin or Prince Lu is not a good name."

"Prince Qin is Prince Qin, I don't mind." Ouyang lowered her head, looked at Li Zhihai and said, "If I can see you give birth to a few more sons every year, I can live a hundred years."

Li Xuan looked at Liu Jinyu helplessly. Liu Jinyu rolled her eyes at Li Xuan, then leaned over to Ouyang and said, "Mother, your daughter-in-law will help the emperor give birth to a few more daughters. In addition, the emperor will marry a few more concubines."

"Sanniang is still the best." Ouyang immediately held Liu Jinyu's hand with joy on her face. To be specific, Liu Jinyu was already the mother of four children.

Li Xuan quickly bowed and said, "Mother, I will go and see Jian'er now."

"Go ahead." Ouyang didn't care much and looked at Li Zhihai with a smile.

Li Xuan glanced at Liu Jinyu, then walked into the inner room.

……

On the bed, Wang Jianniang, who was wearing a yellow silk undershirt, with sweat all over her face and messy hair, stood up quickly when she saw Li Xuan: "Your Majesty!"

Li Xuan simply waved his hand and said, "No need to salute."

Li Xuan walked to the side of the bed and sat down. He held Wang Jianniang's wrist and asked in a low voice, "How do you feel?"

"I'm fine." Wang Jianniang raised her head, looked toward the outer room, and whispered, "Child."

"My mother is helping to watch over him." Li Xuan smiled softly, and then said, "I have already given him a name, Li Zhihai, and conferred him the title of Prince of Qin. Other titles and rewards are as per the regulations."

"Prince Qin Li Zhihai." Wang Jianniang muttered the name in a low voice.

"Qinzhou is not far from Taiyuan. I will have someone select a piece of fertile land in Qinzhou near Taiyuan as a fiefdom, and then you can ask your family to take care of it." Li Xuan looked at Wang Jianniang's cheek gently, and Wang Jianniang nodded vigorously.

"Okay, you must be tired, take a rest." Li Xuan glanced outside, then said, "I will have someone bring my mother-in-law to the palace in a while. Let her help you look after you in the palace during this period. I will also come to see you every day."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." A smile appeared on Wang Jianniang's pale face.

Li Xuan sat beside the bed and watched Wang Jian's mother sleeping, then got up.

When they reached the door of the inner room, Li Xuan glanced at Xu Lu and said, "You heard everything, go and do it quickly."

"Yes!" Xu Lu immediately bowed, then turned around and left quickly.

Li Xuan walked in front of Ouyang, then bowed and said, "Mother, I have something else to do."

"Go ahead." Ouyang waved her hand indifferently.

"Sanniang, please come with your son. People from the Wang family will be here soon. I'll trouble your mother to take care of them." Li Xuan bowed slightly.

"I understand." Ouyang nodded with a smile. She knew that Li Xuan was not very close to the Wang family and she didn't want to be distracted by some things.

"My son, I'm leaving." Li Xuan and Liu Jinyu bowed slightly before leaving Chengxiang Hall.

……

Entering the Ganlu Palace, Liu Jinyu walked to the imperial couch and sat down, then looked at Li Xuan and said, "My mother's intention is that Your Majesty should give birth to twenty-three sons."

"My royal grandfather had 22 sons. My mother wants me to surpass him so that when people mention me, they will always think of him." Li Xuan sighed and said, "When the time comes, people will inevitably say that my royal grandfather had 22 sons and I have 23 sons, which makes me better than my royal grandfather. In this way, the Taizong lineage will be ignored, and no one will mention the flaws in my succession to the throne."

"That's true." Liu Jinyu nodded and said, "What you're thinking, mother, makes sense, but my husband already has ten sons. Does that mean he's going to marry thirteen more concubines in the future?"

Li Xuan couldn't help laughing immediately. This was what Liu Jinyu cared about the most.

Li Xuan held Liu Jinyu's hand and said, "In the future, the matter of my taking concubines will all be decided by the Empress... In fact, these are not that important. If I were not worried that the Fengshan ceremony was fake, I might have been the second emperor in the Tang Dynasty to perform the Fengshan ceremony. In this way, when people mention Emperor Taizong and me, they will just refer to Emperor Wen of Han and Emperor Hui of Han, brothers."

Li Xuan is no longer worried about the stability of the throne.

Even if there were some flaws, it didn't matter, the whole world was firmly in his hands. As long as he made the world more prosperous, he could surpass Emperor Taizong in history. It was because Emperor Taizong himself came to power illegitimately. Li Xuan seized on this point and wrote about it in history books. After three generations, all the blame would be attributed to Emperor Taizong himself.

"It's good that Your Majesty knows what's going on." Liu Jinyu casually flipped through a memorial, and after taking a look at it, her expression suddenly became solemn.

"What's wrong?" Li Xuan looked at Liu Jinyu in surprise.

"Your Majesty, please read it yourself." Liu Jinyu handed the memorial to Li Xuan with a serious expression.

Li Xuan took a look and said casually, "Well, the memorial submitted by Minister Lin... please change the prince's name for the convenience of the world..."

Li Xuan's brows immediately furrowed tightly.

This memorial was written by Lin Renji, the Minister of Taichang Temple.

The meaning of this memorial is to request that the Crown Prince Li Zhizhao's name be changed to make things more convenient for people all over the world.

"How is it?" Liu Jinyu looked at Li Xuan with some concern.

Li Xuan sighed and said, "Sanniang, you should know that my grandfather's eldest son is Li Jiancheng, the Prince of Hengshan, and his second son is Emperor Taizong, Li Shimin. His third son is Li Xuanba, the Prince of Wei, and his fourth son is Li Yuanji, the Prince of Qi... and Uncle Han, Uncle Huo, and even my father are all from the Yuan generation."

The King of Han was Li Yuanjia, the King of Huo was Li Yuangui, and the King of Peng was Li Yuanze.

Liu Jinyu nodded slightly.

"So according to the order, the Prince of Hengshan should be called Li Yuancheng, while Emperor Taizong should be called Li Yuanmin, the Prince of Wei is Li Yuanba, and the Prince of Qi is Li Yuanji." Li Xuan shook his head and continued, "When it comes to Li Chengqian's lineage, the Prince of Wei Li Tai should actually be called Li Chengtai, and Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi should be called Li Chengzhi. Isn't this much better?"

Liu Jinyu raised his eyebrows and nodded, "Your Majesty is right."

Li Xuan continued, "Because of taboos, the first thing that happened was that the Prince of Hengshan was changed to Li Jiancheng, and then Emperor Taizong changed his name to Li Shimin, while the other descendants kept the character Yuan. In the next generation, it was the Crown Prince Li Chengqian who kept the character Cheng, and finally the other sons removed the character Cheng, in order to avoid taboos."

"Now all this has fallen on us." Liu Jinyu's face suddenly turned ugly.

Li Xuan nodded and said, "Either Zhao'er keeps the character Zhi, and the others remove it. For example, Erlang, Li Zhiming, will be called Li Ming in the future, and Jiulang, Li Zhihe, will be called Li He in the future. The others will be Li You, Li Chang, Li Gao, Li Lang..."

"No, that doesn't sound good." Liu Jinyu finally couldn't help but interrupt Li Xuan.

"So, Zhao'er dropped the character Zhi." Li Xuan sighed and said, "Then in the future, the crown prince Li Zhizhao will be renamed Li Zhao, and when he is crowned emperor, he will be Emperor Li Zhao."

"It sounds better." Liu Jinyu couldn't help shaking her head and said, "I still think he is not as stable as Li Zhizhao."

"So, let's just return this memorial." Li Xuan pushed the memorial forward and said, "Emperor Gaozu's crown prince Li Jiancheng changed his name for the betterment of the world; Emperor Taizong's crown prince Li Chengqian remained unchanged while his sons changed their names, probably to show the crown prince's importance. However, in these two dynasties, the crown princes did not succeed to the throne smoothly."

Liu Jinyu nodded heavily, even with a hint of ferocity on his face.

Her son, her eldest son, must succeed to the throne smoothly in the future.

"On the contrary, during Emperor Gaozong's reign, there were Li Zhong, Li Hong, Li Xian, Li Xian, and Li Dan." After a brief pause, Li Xuan waved his hand and said, "Although they also had problems with their succession to the throne, the relationship between the brothers was very good, and there was no real quarrel over the fight for the throne."

Liu Jinyu nodded slowly. If there had been no Empress Wu, Li Zhong might have already succeeded to the throne.

If Empress Wu had not plotted recklessly, both Li Hong and Li Xian might have succeeded to the throne smoothly.

"Let's not talk about other things. I still hope that my sons can live in harmony and not fight for the throne." Li Xuan looked at Liu Jinyu and said, "Madam, please draft a name and reply to Lin's proposal. As for the taboo, wait until Zhao'er ascends the throne and he can change his name himself."

There are many emperors who changed their names in history. The most famous one is Emperor Xuan of Han. His original name was Liu Bingyi, and he changed his name to Liu Xun after he ascended the throne.

"Yes!" Liu Jinyu nodded seriously.

Li Xuan breathed a sigh of relief, and then said, "From tomorrow on, your husband will be in charge of the Taiji Hall, and you can let Zhao'er watch from the side. In a few years, when I conquer Silla, your wife will be in charge of Luoyang, and Zhao'er will be in charge of Chang'an. At least, he must learn how to trust people, who to trust, and who not to trust."

"As long as my husband teaches Zhao'er the same way he taught Emperor Zhongzong, I have no objection." Liu Jinyu looked at Li Xuan with a smile.

In order to gain the trust of Li Zhi and Empress Wu, Li Xuan really put in an effort to teach Li Xian.

"Don't worry, some of the things that were not given to Sanlang back then, your husband will also give to Zhaoer." Li Xuan couldn't help but shook her head with a wry smile.

Liu Jinyu also laughed.

But she didn't notice that when Li Xuan's gaze fell on Lin Renji's memorial, a hint of gloom flashed in his eyes.

Lin Renji's memorial seemed to be about the Crown Prince's affairs, but in fact it was paving the way for something more sensitive.

Li Xuan sneered in his heart. He didn't want any big etiquette disputes this time.

(End of this chapter)