During winter nights, the cold wind howls and the ground freezes.
Li Po didn't even get on the chariot, so he wrapped himself in a thick mink fur and strolled toward the Qingning Palace.
Pei Shiqing seemed to have thought about it and seemed to have made up his mind. Li Po did not push too hard. He just asked Pei Shiqing to wait a little longer before submitting a letter to resign...
Obviously Pei Shiqing has thought carefully and is not thinking that if he says something today, he will submit a letter to beg for his life tomorrow, and he will allow some time for transition.
It would also allow the imperial court to easily select a new Minister of Civil Affairs.
Of course, the imperial court has already prepared for this. For an official position like Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, as long as someone is qualified, who wouldn’t want to compete for it?
No one is indispensable...
Pei Shiqing was in charge of the Ministry of Civil Affairs for two or three years, which was barely a term. Before that, he was Huang Pu Wuyi. From this point of view, the position of Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs was changed a bit frequently.
But from another perspective, this should be considered a good thing. Pei Shiqing can retreat bravely, which is better than falling ill in office. His age is indeed a problem.
In Li Po's opinion, Pei Shiqing chose to retire at this time because of his personality, and he had long wanted to return home.
You must know that Pei Shiqing had already lived in seclusion in the countryside and did not care about foreign affairs. If Li Yuan had not sent troops to the capital before, and later he sent his army to the north, and the Pei family's ancestral home was on the march, Pei Shiqing probably would not have re-entered the official position.
The purpose is not for the world, let alone the people of Li. The purpose is very simple, just to let the princes let the Pei family go.
Now that the world has finally calmed down, it is reasonable for Pei Shiqing to want to go home and retire. Unlike Pei Ju, He Chou and others, he is an official fan...
Furthermore, it is estimated that Pei Shiqing was greatly touched by Feng Deyi's death from illness. He did not want to lie down and be sent back like Feng Deyi, without even leaving a decent last word.
…………
As he walked, Li Po analyzed the pros and cons in his mind.
The position of Minister of the Ministry of Personnel was vacant, and it was time to decide on a backup candidate. Fang Xuanling and Yan Shigu were transferred to the position of Minister of the Ministry of Personnel not long ago, but their qualifications were still relatively young and their prestige was insufficient to take over.
They were indeed on the candidate list before. Li Po planned to wait another two or three years to bring Fang Qiao up, but now it is too early.
There were actually many people with sufficient qualifications and talents to serve as officials in the court, but after Li Po thought about it, he was excluded from the list and decided to select from outsiders this time.
The position of a minister is enough to reward ministers who have made meritorious service.
One by one, the names passed through Li Po's mind: Wang Ze, the general manager of Yangzhou, Xue Wanjun, the general manager of Lingzhou, Fan Wenjin, the general manager of Liangzhou, Li Wu, the general manager of Liangzhou, Yu Wenhuo, the general manager of Kuizhou, Yu Wenxin, the general manager of Youzhou, and Qu, the general manager of Daizhou. Tutong, Bingzhou Governor Wang Qing...
These are all meritorious ministers, and most of them are old people from Jinyang, and they have the merit of following the dragon.
They are also guests of Lingyan Pavilion, and their contribution is not small.
After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, these people were distributed everywhere, and they were in charge of the country and the country for Li Po. As long as they were there, Li Po's throne would be stable, and no one could even think about shaking it.
Although Li Po intends to transfer people back one after another in the past two years, he has not yet figured out how to arrange them, so it is estimated that he will have to wait a few more years.
What are you waiting for? It is naturally different from before. Before, it was because Li Po needed his confidants to take charge of power everywhere to consolidate the foundation for his rule.
It's different now. We have to wait for the court to become vacant, otherwise we won't be able to accommodate everyone when they come back. Meritorious officials always face this kind of problem, which is not unusual. The problem of not being rewarded for high merit has been the case since ancient times.
The emperor always has a headache when facing a large number of meritorious officials, and Li Po is no exception.
The only difference is that because of his age, he doesn't have to worry about his children and grandchildren being able to suppress him. It's estimated that only a few of these heroes and generals will survive him, so he doesn't need to take any drastic measures to pave the way for his children and grandchildren.
For example, when Pei Shiqing resigned, he was leaving one person behind, so that he could make arrangements for his confidants. This was actually one of the reasons why he did not want to select someone from the court to succeed him as Minister of Civil Affairs.
It's just that there are a lot of candidates, so we have to discuss it with the ministers.
…………
Unlike Feng Deyi, who died of illness while in office, Pei Shiqing had no choice but to surrender halfway. He rarely saw him, and was far less close to him than Feng Deyi. He also resigned from office, so Li Po didn't think anything of it and just regarded him as an official.
Just a normal metabolism.
As we approached Qingning Palace, more and more people showed up.
Most of them knew that the emperor had entered the palace and sent people over to find out where the emperor would stay.
Li Po ignored this and went straight to the queen's palace.
The palace was very lively. Not only Queen Li Bi was there, but also Ashina Tianxiang, Wang Zhen, and Gao Baoer. Wang Qi, Duguhua and others were waiting on the side.
The imperial concubine Ashina Rongzhen was twisting her daughter's little arms, teaching her the art of grabbing, rubbing them again and again, and soon her daughter was balled up into a ball. Her daughter screamed, and she couldn't help but laugh.
stand up.
It was almost the end of the New Year, and Li Bi called all the people in front of him, hoping that they would calm down and help take care of the palace, and stop running around all over the place.
Moreover, there are a few more people in the palace this year, including the newly admitted Silla Queen Jin Shengman, the Silla Queen Kinderman who came to meet the Tang Dynasty, and the newly arrived Turkic Western Khan Ashi.
The daughter of Qiuluo, Ashina and Su.
In addition, the little queen of the Supi people, Subimara, came to Chang'an and lived in the palace.
Various tribes from the plateau came to the Tang Dynasty to see the emperor, and they also brought more than a hundred plateau girls. Now they are all receiving etiquette training at Taichang Temple. Later, some of them will be recruited into the palace, and some of them will be rewarded to the ministers.
Therefore, the races in the Tang Dynasty Palace are now relatively mixed.
There are Turks, and there are beauties from the Western Regions presented by Turks. I can’t say what ethnic group they are. There are some from Eastern Europe, some from the Middle East, and I haven’t seen any from North Africa. Everyone in the East has similar aesthetics, and people who are dark cannot appreciate it.
Come.
The Funan people in Southeast Asia also sent several beauties, and the Zhenla people followed the Funan envoys to come to see him, and also sent some gold, silver, gems, and beauties.
Needless to say, there are not so many mixed-race people in Southeast Asia. They are all dark-skinned, short in stature, and do not understand Chinese, so they are not very popular.
The Silla people and Baekje people from East Asia all appeared in the capital of the Tang Dynasty. This is the race closest to the Tang people, otherwise they would not feel that everything belonged to them.
The captured Goguryeo people were escorted all the way to Chang'an, but many died on the way.
Goguryeo was an old enemy of the Central Plains, and their treatment was slightly higher than that of the Japanese, but not much higher.
Li Po did not intend to give any way of life to the Goguryeo royal family and those ministers. These people were all about to die. Li Po was waiting for next year's spring festival, where he would use the heads of Goguryeo people to sacrifice the expedition soldiers who died in Goguryeo that year.
The race of people in the palace became chaotic, but it showed that the Tang Dynasty was strong and prosperous, and that all nations came to court, but that was all.
It is a pity that Li Jing let Ashina Duowen go in Goguryeo. If he had captured him and sent him to the Turks, the faces of the Turkic nobles in the Turkic royal court would have been very interesting.
…………
After entering the palace, he immediately felt as if he had entered the Kingdom of Fragrances. The women gathered around him. Ashnarongzhen held his daughter in his arms and pushed the others aside arrogantly. He came up to take off his outer cloak and stuffed his daughter into his bed.
In your arms, keep him warm.
Li Po smiled and rubbed his daughter's face. Li Zhen hugged his neck with a sad face, but did not dare to sue his mother or imperial brother like he usually did.
The crowd dispersed, and Li Bi walked over. His eldest son, Li Yuan, and his second son, Li An, were by his side. The sight of them made people jealous.
Li An is three years old this year. The couple chose the name very casually, but there is a hint of wanting their son to be safe and sound, because it is always difficult to have a second son. When he grows up, he will be rich and prosperous for a lifetime. Just don't compete with his elder brother for it.
As the saying goes, Li An is very different from his elder brother at the age of three. He doesn't cry or fuss, and appears to be very quiet. It's time for him to start studying next year, and he doesn't know how good he will be. The couple is not sure.
…………
"It's quite lively tonight..." Li Po looked around and saw his two sons greeting each other. He waved his hands and sat down on the collapse with his wife.
Li Bi said: "This year is different from previous years. There are great victories outside, so the palace must have something to say. I will invite them to discuss and see what can be done."
Wang Zhen and Ashin Tianxiang came over and agreed, "Yes, Your Majesty, there are many happy events this year, so it is necessary to make it lively and let the people in the palace feel a little happy, right?"
"Your Majesty always has many ideas, why don't you think about how you can do it better than in previous years?"
"That's not easy, right? It was very good last year... Why don't Your Majesty write more poems and let the palace people come and worship them?"
The two half-grown guys looked very excited. You and I were talking about bad ideas, but the rest of the people could only watch and listen, but they didn't dare to be as presumptuous as them.
Li Po was not in a hurry to speak. Although there were many women in the palace, the ones who could chatter around him were actually those from the Han Palace. When they met, they would show off their status in front of others intentionally or unintentionally.
It wasn't a big deal, so Li Po just followed them.
It is common for emperors to like the new and dislike the old, but it is also a taboo. Everyone competes for favor, which will cause a mess in the harem, so Li Po thought it was better to separate them on a first-come, first-served basis.
After drinking a few sips of tea soup to warm up his body, he said slowly: "Don't worry, wait, we'll talk next year. When everyone comes back, after the merits are finished, we invite the families of the heroes to the palace to have a drink."
It’s done, why bother putting so much thought into it?”
Both Wang Zhen and Ashina Tianxiang like to be lively, so they couldn't help but feel a little disappointed when they heard this.
Li Bi smiled and said: "I thought it was wrong. The war will stop this year. I have to wait until the victory is declared before celebrating the victory... So this year's Shangyuan Festival, should we follow the old practice?"
Li Po nodded, changed the subject and said: "The Ministry of Industry has submitted a letter that they want to build a new palace in the palace next year to entertain the heroes. It will be built higher. Can you give it a decent name?
I have also left it to you to send someone to supervise the construction...
Just don’t build a platform for jade girls.”
This chapter has been completed!