Tiantang

Chapter 73
Chapter 079

Li Heng is tall, with a heavy and heroic appearance, a broad forehead and a square face, and an extraordinary bearing. In fact, he has inherited many excellent genes from Li Longji. Among Li Longji's many children, Li Heng is considered the most outstanding talent.

It's just that Li Heng's character is weak, and under the strength of Emperor Li Longji, he seems to be submissive and very unbearable.

Of course, having said that, if Li Heng was as strong as his father, he might have been abolished long ago.This weakness and incompetence may also be the coat that Li Heng relies on to protect himself.

In the gap between Li Longji's constant "beating" and Li Linfu's constant "framing", he behaved in a low-key manner with fear and fear, which constituted the epitome of Prince Li Heng's life in the past many years.Especially after the Zhang Huan case, Li Heng was even more frightened, fearing that he would be abolished one day, so he stayed behind closed doors, never communicated with the outside world, and almost faded out of the Tang court's sight.

The current situation is that the emperor is too powerful and domineering, and the powerful ministers are too authoritarian. As soon as Li Linfu dies, another Yang Guozhong will rise up again, and the East Palace lineage has become dispensable.So much so that in many cases, the world intentionally or unintentionally ignores the existence of Li Heng, the future prince.

Or, most of the Tang dignitaries and members of the royal family believed that Li Heng's position as crown prince was not stable and he might be expelled at any time.

But today, Li Heng appeared majestically. This was the first time in the past year that he appeared publicly in a high society occasion. Everyone stared at Li Heng in amazement, and the atmosphere at the scene suddenly became weird and dull.

Ordinarily, Li Heng, as the prince of the East Palace, the prince of the Tang Dynasty under the emperor alone, when he appeared, he was the number one person in Tianzi when there was no emperor.Seeing Li Heng, everyone should immediately stand up and salute, but at this moment, Li Heng really does not have such deterrent power, and many people did not react.

Li Heng strode up to Princess Yuzhen, bowed slightly, "Li Heng has seen Aunt Yuzhen."

Princess Yuzhen was also a little surprised. She hesitated for a moment, then got up and saluted, "His Royal Highness is here, and Yuzhen is at a loss to welcome me. I hope the prince will forgive me."

It was only when Yu Zhen stood up that he "awakened" the crowd, and they quickly got up and bowed to salute, shouting in unison, "The ministers (concubines) pay respects to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

"Excuse me, everyone." Li Heng smiled very humbly, waved his hands and said, "Aunt Yuzhen, my father heard that the aunt was hosting a banquet in Yuzhen Temple, so I asked Li Heng to come over to join in the fun ,hehe."

While Li Heng was speaking, two complicated gazes slowly fell on Zhang Xuan's body while searching, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly, hesitant to speak.

Li Heng looked at Zhang Xuan, and Zhang Xuan was actually secretly looking at this "long-admired" prince Li Heng, later Emperor Suzong of Tang.

From Zhang Xuan's point of view, Li Heng in history was really a pitiful person. He finally ascended the throne and became emperor, but died in a palace coup after five years in power. His life can be described as extremely miserable.

But on the spot, Zhang Xuan intuitively felt that Li Heng was not as unbearable as recorded in the history books.His demeanor is humble, but there is a faint gleam of light in his eyes, and the weakness and incompetence revealed are more like a kind of helpless concealment.

Presumably, under Li Longji's incomparable dominance, under the pressure of the power ministers of the Tang Dynasty, there is not much room for Li Heng. If he does not keep a humble and low profile, the position of the crown prince will definitely not be maintained.After that, if the Anshi Rebellion did not cause the national strength of the Tang Dynasty to weaken, and the emperor's control over the court and the national situation weakened, his tragedy might not have happened.

Thinking of this, Zhang Xuan's mind also settled down.There is still a long way to go in his life, and the road has to be walked step by step, and he cannot be too ambitious.Under the current situation, it is relatively a good choice to choose the third-party East Palace as an official.As for Li Heng, if he can be trained, he can be trained. If it is really unbearable to be trained, it will be a stepping stone after all.

Li Heng laughed suddenly, and glanced back at the eunuch Li Jingzhong.

Li Jingzhong quickly took the emperor's imperial edict, raised his hands high, and his shrill voice echoed in the empty field: "The emperor has an order, and Zhang Xuan accepts it."

Zhang Xuan was well aware that the imperial edict entrusting him to the Eastern Palace had arrived.And the emperor chose to announce at this time, and at the same time let the prince "introduce", which clearly has ulterior motives.

In the final analysis, this old and cunning emperor still treats everyone as pawns on his chessboard and manipulates him arbitrarily... Does he know that he himself is the biggest and most tragic pawn in this chaotic chess game.Zhang Xuan smiled secretly, but bowed to the ground respectfully and darkly, "Zhang Xuan accepts the order."

Except for Prince Li Heng, everyone including Princess Yuzhen was taken aback.Why did the emperor issue another imperial decree to Zhang Xuan, could it be...

"...Zhang Xuan is quick-witted, has a good character, and can be a model for the world's scholars... I personally recommended him, and ordered Zhang Xuan to be the Secretary of the Eastern Palace, and the prince's pro-Xun Yiwei Wei Zhaowu, to assist the Eastern Palace to study the government. State affairs..."

After Li Jingzhong announced the imperial decree, Zhang Xuan kowtowed to thank him somewhat unexpectedly.

Si Yilang of the East Palace is a position in the civil service system of the East Palace, while the prince's pro-Xun Yiwei is the guard of the prince and belongs to the military officer system. Li Longji made him "both civil and military".
What was even more surprising was the group of dignitaries present.Zhang Xuan actually became an official in the East Palace...not only in the East Palace, but also in civil and military positions, which seems to mean...that the emperor seems to want to cultivate Zhang Xuan as the head of the assistant ministers in the East Palace.

But none of that matters anymore.The important thing is—is Donggong going to make a comeback?Most of Chang'an dignitaries and members of the royal family, who were seasoned and skilled in power, were startled, and there was something more in their eyes when they looked at Li Heng again.

The younger generation's scheming is not so deep, limited by vision and experience, they will not see so long.

It turned out that Zhang Xuan actually got on the line of Donggong... No wonder he was so unscrupulous, but so what?The Prince of the Eastern Palace—huh, it's just a weak and incompetent vase, is it really a tall branch?joke!Yang Xun sneered in his heart. Although Zhang Xuan was appointed as the assistant minister of the East Palace, he was surprised but didn't care.

……

……

"Minister Zhang Xuan, pay homage to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

In the Tang Dynasty, officials above the fifth rank were called titles, and officials below the fifth rank were called imperial seals.Zhang Xuan accepted the imperial seal and the green robe and crown belt. After going to change clothes and dressed neatly, he appeared again to formally meet Li Heng as a courtier. This is the minimum etiquette and cannot be discarded.

Li Heng stared at Zhang Xuan with complicated eyes, smiled and stood up to help Zhang Xuan, "Zi Zhan doesn't need to be too polite. I have heard that Zi Zhan is knowledgeable and talented. I have Zi Zhan in the East Palace. I have a gentleman to study the books of sages." .”

Different from everyone's feelings, Li Heng had doubts and fears about Li Longji arranging Zhang Xuan to serve in the East Palace.Faintly felt that this was a nail placed by the emperor around him, but in fact, he was a little repulsive and wary of Zhang Xuan in his heart.

Zhang Xuan smiled, he knew Li Heng's state of mind at the moment.In fact, Li Longji may not have such deep considerations.However, whether Zhang Xuan will really be the emperor's pawn honestly is another story.

(End of this chapter)