The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 31 Retreating to Advance
Although Li Heng now wants to recruit people, he cannot appoint anyone directly and can only lay the groundwork first.

Moreover, he had no idea about Gao Shi's current specific political and military abilities, so it would be a good idea to introduce him to Wang Zhongsi.

After receiving Li Heng's recommendation, Wang Zhongsi immediately took him seriously and said, "Sir, please let me rest for a while."

Wang Zhongsi rested for a long time before he started talking to Gao Shi.

The two chatted for a while and seemed to get along quite well.

Afterwards, Wang Zhongsi was in charge of the land return matter, and Gao Shi took this opportunity to help.

After returning the land, Wang Zhongsi interrogated Wu Sicang again and finally reported the result to the Ministry of Justice.

After review by the Ministry of Justice, it was presented to Li Longji.

When Li Longji saw the memorial, he was furious and immediately announced that all the people involved would be dismissed from their posts and taken back to the capital.

Afterwards, Li Longji arranged a banquet and summoned Zhang Jiuling and Pei Yaoqing.

The three of them were seated.

Li Longji asked, "I have known Mr. Zhang for more than twenty years, right?"

Zhang Jiuling replied, "Your Majesty, in the third year of Shenlong, I went to Beijing to take the examination of the Ministry of Personnel, and passed the examination of the Imperial Examination, and was appointed as the proofreader of the Ministry of Secretaries. In the first year of Xiantian, Your Majesty selected scholars of literature in the East Palace, and I was fortunate to be among the top. Your Majesty appointed me as the Left Picker of Relics. In this way, it has been more than 20 years."

"Time flies!" Li Longji sighed, and turned to Pei Yaoqing and said, "In the first year of Jingyun, Pei was appointed as the chief clerk of the Imperial College. In the first year of Kaiyuan, I personally appointed Pei Yao as the prefect of Chang'an. All in all, Pei and I have known each other for more than 20 years."

Pei Yaoqing was quite moved after hearing this and said, "The Saint is so busy with all kinds of affairs, but he still remembers these trivial matters of mine. I feel honored."

Li Longji nodded and said, "I am also a nostalgic person. Recently, I often think of the wise minister Yao Chong. I remember that when I first took power, Yao Chong proposed the "Ten Things to Say", advocating the implementation of the New Deal, promoting social reforms, promoting benefits and eliminating malpractices, and rectifying the administration of officials."

Li Longji said this lightly, but Zhang Jiuling had already realized that something was wrong.

Because Yao Chong and Zhang Jiuling had different political views.

Later, because of his "frank words in his seals and disagreement with the prime minister of the time", the rift between Zhang Jiuling and Yao Chong deepened, and Zhang Jiuling resigned and returned home.

Not only that, Li Longji also mentioned the rectification of official administration.

Today, the affairs of Lanzhou have become known to the whole government and the public, and the administration of officials has become a major problem in Lanzhou.

Zhang Jiuling thought for a moment and said, "Although I disagree with Prime Minister Yao on politics, I have always admired Prime Minister Yao and have always regarded him as a role model."

Li Longji said: "Although Prime Minister Yao is virtuous, he is not good at educating his children. His sons Yao Yi and Yao Yi are very fond of guests, seeking power and accepting bribes, just like the officials in Lanzhou today."

At this point, Li Longji took out the memorial from the Ministry of Justice reviewing the Lanzhou case and gave it to Zhang Jiuling and Pei Yaoqing.

After Zhang Jiuling and Pei Yaoqing took the book and read it, they looked at each other.

Zhang Jiuling said: "As court officials, these people do not know how to shepherd the people for the saint and repay the saint's grace. Instead, they collude with each other, take bribes and pervert the law, causing trouble for the people. Not only that, they also assassinated the prince of Shou and harmed the people under their rule. What they did is unforgivable."

After listening to Zhang Jiuling's words, Li Longji looked at Zhang Jiuling and Pei Yaoqing and said, "Yan Tingzhi is Zhang Qing's student, Pei Qing's son-in-law, and he was recommended by Zhang Qing and Pei Qing to become the Minister of the Central Secretariat, right?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Jiuling and Pei Yaoqing immediately stood up, bowed at the same time, and said in unison, "Yes."

Li Longji said: "Song Sitian and Wu Sicang were both recommended by Yan Tingzhi to Lanzhou. Last year and the year before, Lanzhou suffered a disaster. Yan Tingzhi inspected Lanzhou and reported that the officials in Lanzhou were honest and self-disciplined and actively provided disaster relief. Now it seems that this is not the case."

Pei Yaoqing was startled and said quickly, "Your Majesty, the Lanzhou officials were involved in this, and Yan Tingzhi might have been deceived." Li Longji said, "How come Prince Shou and Wang Zhongsi were not deceived? Last month, someone reported that Yan Tingzhi was abusing his power for personal gain and bending the law. I didn't believe it at first, but now it seems that I have to believe it. Wu Sicang is from the same hometown as Zhang Qing, and Song Sitian is from the same hometown as Pei Qing. What do you think should be done about this matter?"

Zhang Jiuling said: "I don't know how to judge people and I use people improperly. Please punish me, sage."

"If this matter is not punished, it may be difficult for the people of the world to be convinced. Pei Qing is the left prime minister, and Zhang Qing is the right prime minister. Both are exempted from government affairs. Do you think this arrangement is appropriate?"

Zhang Jiuling and Pei Yaoqing knelt down and said in unison: "We thank the Saint for his grace."

This banquet brought about a huge change in the court structure.

The next day, Zhang Jiuling and Pei Yaoqing were appointed as summonses. At the same time, the Minister of War Li Linfu was concurrently appointed as the Minister of the Secretariat. The Hexi Jiedushi Niu Xianke was transferred to Chang'an to serve as the Minister of War, a third-rank official in the Secretariat.

Li Linfu was promoted to the position of Zhongshu Ling because he reported Yan Tingzhi, and Niu Xianke was promoted because of his contribution in assisting in the investigation of the Lanzhou case.

But this was only what happened on the surface. In secret, Li Longji had his own considerations.

As for Wang Zhongsi and Li Heng, Li Longji ordered the Ministry of Personnel to evaluate their merits.

……

……

……

Lanzhou, Inn.

At this time, Li Heng was holding Li Longji's summons document.

He had expected these things, so he was not surprised.

Without Wu Huifei's help, Zhang Jiuling still went downhill, and Li Linfu finally rose to the top.

For Li Heng, this seemed to be a missed opportunity to win over Li Linfu. After all, Li Linfu wanted to support him as the crown prince.

However, every cloud has a silver lining.

Historically, the person who prevented the Tang Dynasty's border generals from becoming generals or prime ministers was Li Linfu. If Li Heng wanted to develop in Chang'an, this would definitely be a bad thing, but Li Heng did not want to go to Chang'an, which might be a good thing for him.

Yang Yuhuan, who was standing by, watched the whole thing and asked curiously, "My dear, why didn't the sage reward you and General Wang directly, but let the Ministry of Personnel decide on your merits?"

Yang Yuhuan already knew a lot about Li Heng, so Li Heng had nothing to hide and explained, "The reason why we didn't directly confer the title on General Wang was because Niu Xianke entered Chang'an, and the post of Hexi Jiedushi was vacant. Father wanted to appoint General Wang as Hexi Jiedushi, but considering that he had just appointed General Wang as the Interview Envoy, if we directly promote him to Hexi Jiedushi now, people would inevitably say that it was because General Wang was raised in the palace since he was a child that he got this post."

Yang Yuhuan nodded and asked, "What about my husband?"

"Me?" Li Heng smiled. "As for me, my father wouldn't know how to reward me. You know, all the other princes except me are in the capital. I was traveling because I was seriously ill, but now I have made a contribution inexplicably. If he rewards me, how will he explain to the other princes?"

Yang Yuhuan said: "I see, then what should we do?"

"That's easy." Li Heng stood up and found a pen and paper, saying, "I'll ask for his resignation now."

After that, he picked up the pen and wrote: "Grandpa, I, Li Heng, kowtow in front of you. I encountered the Lanzhou incident by chance while traveling to recuperate. I was able to complete this matter with the help of your majesty and the efforts of officials such as Wang Zhongsi. I just did my best. Now that the matter has been accomplished, I am seriously ill and often feel that it is difficult to get up. I would like to resign from the post of envoy of promotion and demotion. I hope that you will grant my approval."

The demotion and promotion envoys were of no use to Li Heng, so it was better to retreat in order to advance.

(End of this chapter)