The capital of the Tang Empire, inside the Imperial Palace of Jinling City, Chengtian Prefecture.
The huge floor-to-ceiling glass windows in the conference room were blocked by thick curtains, and the sunlight outside the window could only occasionally filter in through the gaps.
The conference room was full of shining stars. Generals from the army, navy, and Guards were sitting at the huge rectangular table. However, it was different from the previous military strategy meetings. This time, there were several other people in the meeting.
A soldier wearing a rather special military uniform.
The color of their military uniforms is not the dark blue of the Army or the dark blue of the Navy. Well, these two colors actually look the same.
The color of the military uniforms worn by these people is pure black. In addition, the style of the military uniforms is also different from the military uniforms of the army and navy. Their military uniforms are more in line with the professional attire that people in the business community like to wear.
These people are generals from the fleet of Datang Western Trading Company. No, they should be said to be senior managers of the company.
Although the Tang Dynasty Western Trading Company fleet is a legal armed force within the Tang Empire due to the existence of the Western Trade License, it is not an official armed force after all, so the armed personnel in their company fleet are not soldiers.
Rather, they belong to armed employees.
Although their ranks also follow the military rank system, the titles are naturally different, and the senior generals of the company's fleet are also senior managers of the company.
However, the senior armed managers in these companies' fleets are not much different from the other soldiers present except for their clothes. Their words, deeds, and even sitting postures are exactly the same as those of the army and navy soldiers.
This is because the armed employees in the fleet of Datang Western Trading Company are all retired military personnel, and some senior positions are naturally held by mid- to senior-level retired generals of the military. In fact, many times, the military directly
Reassign current generals to serve.
Just to avoid suspicion, before being transferred to serve, I will retire first and serve as a retired soldier.
But after the term is over, they are often transferred back to the military service, um, in the name of recruiting retired personnel to serve again!
Therefore, in the Datang Western Trading Company fleet, although ordinary soldiers and mid-level and low-level officers are all real retired soldiers, the senior generals are actually just active-duty soldiers wearing the skin of retired soldiers.
In other words, the fleet of the Datang Western Trading Company was actually under the control of the Tang Empire's military.
Otherwise, do you think the army and navy would really let a so-called trading company control such a huge armed force?
Impossible!
The company fleet is just the skin of the company fleet. More often, you can think of it as the fourth official armed force of the Tang Dynasty.
There are more than twenty senior generals sitting in this conference room, but it is still quite empty. This conference room is really too big.
At the same time, these people closed their eyes and rested their minds, not whispering to each other, but waiting for the arrival of the Holy Emperor!
According to the usual practice, the Holy Emperor will come in at any time at this time. This is why many generals are sitting upright with their eyes closed at this time. They don't want the Holy Emperor to see them when he comes in.
I'm chatting with my colleagues.
However, after a quarter of an hour, many generals couldn't bear it anymore, because the clock in the corner was already pointing to 10:20 in the morning, and according to the previous notice, the meeting should be at 10:00 sharp.
It started. For this reason, most of them actually entered the palace one after another at nine o'clock and began to wait for the meeting to be held.
And Li Xuan, the Holy Emperor, has always been a very punctual person, or simply a person who always sticks to the point. If he said the meeting would be held at ten o'clock, the meeting would be held at ten o'clock, and there would rarely be any advance or delay.
But now, the Holy Emperor Li Xuan has not arrived at the conference room yet!
Many people began to look around, but they did not get any answers from others.
About ten minutes later, when the hands on the clock pointed to ten-thirty, there was finally a sound of footsteps at the door, and then a second secretary from the Hanlin Academy walked in quickly and said:
"His Majesty is about to arrive. Sir, please take your places to pick him up!"
finally come!
This made many generals who thought that something unexpected had happened and the meeting might be canceled breathed a sigh of relief. They immediately stood up one by one and stood in lines at the door.
Everyone is sorted according to military rank and position, and there is no chaos at all!
About two more minutes passed like this, and then a loud voice sang: "Your Majesty is here!"
All the generals raised their heads and chests, stood with their legs side by side, put their hands down, fingers together, and at the same time looked at the door!
At this time, everyone saw Li Xuan, the Holy Emperor with a light beard at the corner of his mouth, walking in slowly!
Today, the Holy Emperor Li Xuan is not wearing casual clothes as usual. Instead, he is wearing a very special military uniform, a uniform with nine dragon patterns unique to Li Xuan.
Li Xuan dressed like this was very common more than ten years ago, especially during the Unification War. Li Xuan often went out to lead his troops on expeditions. Naturally, he wore military uniforms when he went on expeditions. At that time, he stayed in Jinling City. In order to show off
His horse has the attributes of an emperor, and Li Xuan often wears military uniforms.
But in the past ten years, Li Xuan rarely wears this kind of clothes. Whether in private occasions or formal public occasions, Li Xuan is either in casual clothes or a dragon robe. Pure military uniforms are rare.
Wear it again.
When everyone saw the military uniform of Holy Emperor Li Xuan, they felt that Holy Emperor Li Xuan attached great importance to today's imperial military strategy meeting, the Battle of Malacca and the Indian Ocean Strategy.
But what surprised them was that there was someone following Li Xuan!
As an emperor, Li Xuan was naturally followed by a large group of people wherever he went. When he was in the front hall, most of the people who often accompanied him were important ministers of the court, such as the minister on duty in the imperial study room and the minister on duty. In addition,
There are also the more special imperial secretaries in the Hanlin Academy Secretariat and the imperial guards in the Hanlin Academy Guards Office.
But today, the ministers of the DPRK and China did not see it, because today is a military strategy meeting, and those civil servants will naturally not interfere!
Except for the two special people, the imperial secretary and the imperial bodyguard, everyone still saw a familiar yet unfamiliar figure!
This figure is very young, no more than fifteen or sixteen years old. In addition, he is not too tall. He can only be said to be of medium build, even slightly thinner. His face is fifty-six times similar to that of Li Xuan in front of him. Moreover,
Looking closely, many veteran generals who have experienced the founding stage of the country feel that this man looks very much like where the Holy Emperor Li Xuan ascended the throne.
This man is also wearing a military uniform, but the military uniform he wears is not an ordinary military uniform. Instead, it is the same military uniform as Li Xuan's, with the same double-breasted military uniform. In the entire Tang Empire, Li Xuan was the only one with this style of military uniform. People wear it this way because it is a military uniform designed by Li Xuan himself and based on the modern military uniforms of later generations. It is very different from traditional clothing.
The military uniform on this person is exactly the same in style as the military uniform on Li Xuan, but there are differences in patterns and other details. The military uniform on Li Xuan has a nine-dragon pattern embroidered with gold thread, while the second son's uniform has a nine-dragon pattern embroidered with gold thread. It's a four-legged dragon, but it's still a five-clawed golden dragon.
Just by looking at this military uniform, especially the four five-clawed golden dragons on it, anyone who has a little knowledge of the costume etiquette of the Tang Dynasty can know that this is none other than His Royal Highness Li Hao (hao), the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty.
The reason why everyone feels strange and familiar at first glance is because although most of them have met Prince Li Hao, they have never seen him many times. Most people have seen him once, or two or three times at most. That's all, because Prince Li Hao has always lived in seclusion, and although he also attended the Royal School, since he was established as the Imperial Prince, he has been in a class by himself without any classmates!
Those aristocratic children who also studied in the royal school could hardly see him, let alone those foreign ministers.
But even though they have only met Li Hao once or twice, in view of Li Hao's importance, almost every courtier will try their best to imprint his appearance in their minds to avoid the situation where they can't recognize the prince when they see him. embarrassing things.
When these generals saw that Prince Li Hao was also following Li Xuan, and that he was wearing a special military uniform like Li Xuan, many of them were a little stunned.
The Holy Emperor actually brought the Prince to attend the imperial military strategy meeting. This was the first time in the world!
No, this is not just the imperial military strategy meeting, but any formal meeting such as the morning meeting held every day or the Umrah meeting held once every three or five days.
Prince Li Hao never appeared!
The only few public appearances he made on formal occasions were at the Spring Festival state banquet. On weekdays, it was difficult for courtiers, even Liu Bagou, to see Prince Li Hao.
But today, Prince Li Hao attended this imperial military strategy meeting with Li Xuan. The political implications of this are definitely not small.
Could it be that His Majesty plans to let the prince participate in government affairs?
This is the guess of many generals present!
However, Li Xuan naturally didn't know about these ministers' speculations and didn't care. He just brought Prince Li Hao to the meeting according to his established plan. This meeting was just the beginning. Li Xuan would also focus on Li Hao's training in the future. Make a series of special arrangements.
On the other hand, Li Hao, who was following Li Xuan, looked calm on the surface and only showed a very professional smile when facing the gazes of the courtiers, but he was still a little nervous inside.