Before Li Shimin finished speaking, Xu Fenglei walked up slowly.
"See Your Majesty."
"Is your Majesty looking for you?"
He saluted Li Shimin with a smile, and greeted Changsun Wuji, Ma Zhou and others.
There were quite a few ministers accompanying him.
"hehe."
Li Shimin smiled softly, hehehe said,
"I thought you wanted to come to Jiuwei Mountain to become a general and prime minister, and that you really wanted to build my imperial mausoleum here."
"As a result, you are just dawdling here, and I don't see how much you can contribute."
"If that's the case, then you might as well go back to Chang'an. At least it will be more comfortable to live in Chang'an."
Xu Fenglei shrugged.
"Don't you, Your Majesty, hear that 'He who is good at fighting has no great achievements'?"
He raised his head and said,
"You don't just stare here every day, you just work hard."
"Chen's hard work is to control the overall project progress. You can't see him anywhere, but his presence is actually everywhere."
Changsun Wuji and others all grinned when they heard this.
When it comes to blowing, Taishi still knows how to blow!
He can even derelict his duties and be dragged into this. With this ability, who in the DPRK can match it?
"Yeah?"
Li Shimin rolled his eyes and asked,
"Then let me ask you, how many craftsmen and workers are there in Jiuwei Mountain now? How is the progress? How many years will it take to complete the project?"
"Say it now!"
He stared at Xu Fenglei, preventing him from making eye contact with the supervisor on the side.
But Xu Fenglei didn't look at it at all, his expression was as usual, and he opened his mouth:
"There are more than 30,000 craftsmen and workers in Jiufeng Mountain. They have completed the construction of the outer mausoleum and the main body of the inner chamber, and the progress is about 60%."
"With the current progress, it will be completed and accepted in almost two years."
When Li Shimin heard this, he couldn't help but feel a little suspicious, and his eyes fell on the three supervisors.
"Is he right?"
The supervisors nodded like chickens pecking at rice.
"Yes, yes, exactly."
"Xu Gong is well aware of the progress of the project. He often comes to inspect and never neglects his duties."
"Yes, the officials can testify."
The three of them endorsed Xu Fenglei one after another.
Li Shimin nodded.
"Okay, let's believe you."
He waved his hand and said,
"You are now very familiar with this place. Take me for a walk and see the scenery here."
"There is not much scenery to see in this underground palace."
Although this imperial mausoleum is very luxuriously built, ordinary people will indeed be shocked when they come in and take a look.
But for Li Shimin, who lives in Tai Chi Palace all day long, this underground palace really has no characteristics and nothing interesting to see.
Xu Fenglei nodded.
"I discovered ten scenic spots in Jiuwei Mountain, among which there is a waterfall, which is very unique."
He said,
"Your Majesty, please."
With that said, he led the way.
"You all can rest here for a while. You can also take a stroll. I'll go see the waterfall."
Li Shimin gave an order and asked the entourage, including the imperial guards, to stay in the underground palace.
This move also showed absolute trust in Xu Fenglei.
"According to the order."
Changsun Wuji knew that the emperor wanted to ask questions about politics, so he naturally responded obediently and watched the two people leave.
"I thought Grand Master's life was very poor, but I didn't expect... the environment here is pretty good."
Ma Zhou leaned on the stone bridge and said with a smile,
"You can also command tens of thousands of people. This is no different from a general on the battlefield."
"Carefree, at ease."
Changsun Wuji responded:
"When he reaches his status, how can he not be free and at ease?"
"You can come and go freely even in the palace."
"Relatively speaking, it's already a miserable life in Jiuwei Mountain."
…
On the mountain range, Xu Fenglei and Li Shimin climbed the mountain one after another, but there was nothing to say on the way.
Unlike in the underground palace just now, the smile on Xu Fenglei's face was gone, and Li Shimin's aura was also a bit lower.
"You...just wait for me."
"My legs and feet are inconvenient now."
Li Shimin was slightly out of breath and raised his hand to greet him.
clatter.
Xu Fenglei stopped and turned his head to glance at him.
"Your Majesty is only forty years old, are you so useless?"
He said unceremoniously,
"In the palace, I'm afraid I have to be carried when I walk, and I'm hurt by drinking, sex, and wealth."
"If this continues, if you can live another ten years, it will be considered a blessing."
There were a lot of people outside just now, so of course he had to give Li Er some face.
Now that there are only two of them, he naturally doesn't need to be too polite and can just say whatever he has to say.
"You... can you hope that I will be better?"
Li Shimin glared and said,
"Just now Changsun Wuji said that I would live to be one hundred and twenty years old. I thought that one hundred and twenty years old was unlikely, but seventy or eighty years old might be possible."
"How about you just say that I only have ten years left? Can I only live to be fifty?"
"Will my life be so short?"
He touched his arm.
He's still quite strong, and doesn't look like he's suffering from premature aging.
"Fifty is not considered a short life. Qin Shihuang has never lived past fifty. It does not prevent him from being the emperor of the ages."
Xu Fenglei responded,
"With your current achievements, you can definitely leave a mark in history, and you will definitely be praised by future generations."
“In a sense, you can have eternal life.”
"The stronger the Tang Dynasty becomes in the future, the more dazzling your eternal life will be."
Li Shimin; "..."
"This sounds weird, but at least it's a little more pleasant to the ears."
He pouted and said,
"Okay, I asked Cheng Qian to interpret the Meng hexagram you gave me. I know you like to put on airs, so I'm already here."
"Now, can you talk?"
Xu Fenglei didn't reply and just continued to move forward.
Hua Hua Hua.
Ahead, there was a faint sound of water.
He stepped forward quickly and had gone a long way in the blink of an eye.
Li Shimin was stunned and his face darkened, but he could only grit his teeth and continue to follow.
This is undoubtedly a torment for a forty-year-old man who needs to be carried when he goes out.
…
Wow!
The waterfall is like a white horse, roaring in the valley.
Crystal water splashed onto Xu Fenglei's face, and streams of cool water vapor steamed onto his face, giving people a different kind of freshness.
"Flying down three thousand feet, it is suspected that the Milky Way has fallen into the sky."
Xu Fenglei murmured.
"Yo ho."
Li Shimin said in surprise,
"What a poem! Did you create it?"
"Copied." Xu Fenglei was very honest.
"I knew it."
Li Shimin muttered,
"Your cultural background has always been a mystery."
The two of them just stood under the waterfall, listening to the sound of rushing water, which did feel a bit cleansing for the soul.
"Your Majesty is going to Gaochang again?"
Xu Fenglei said suddenly.
When Li Shimin heard this, he couldn't help but touch his nose, feeling slightly guilty.
"Yes...yes."
Xu Fenglei sneered.
"His Majesty said before that he would give me an explanation, so is this your explanation?"
He said,
"That's really funny..."
Li Shimin: "￥......&*#￥"
The sarcasm in this tone made him a little unbearable!
"I have my own considerations!"
He argued somewhat unhappily,
"You don't know the situation at that time. Hou Junji made great achievements in Tuyuhun. In front of the civil and military officials of the court, how can I focus on his faults and ignore his merits?"
"he……"
"Okay, stop talking. I don't want to hear anymore." Xu Fenglei interrupted directly.
Li Shimin choked immediately, and his face turned red for a moment.
Apparently, he was choking a little bit.
"I don't care about the process, I only care about the results."
Xu Fenglei looked at Li Shimin and said seriously,
"I hope he died on the battlefield in Gaochang, but I know it will be difficult."
"Perhaps this person just shouldn't die. I'm not as persistent as before. Many things are fixed and may be forcibly changed, but I don't want to focus on these small things."
Li Shimin was startled.
"Your Majesty wants to ask how the Tuyuhun people will be resettled and the hidden dangers of the Turks."
Xu Fenglei said in a deep voice,
"To be honest, I have been thinking about this for a long time. I had this idea from the moment I conquered the Turks."
"All means of resettlement are only temporary measures."
"The so-called people who are not my race must have different minds. If the Tang Dynasty has always been strong, it will be okay. If something happens to the Tang Dynasty and it becomes weak, there is no doubt that they will bite back."
Li Shimin took a deep breath and nodded.
"That's right."
He said,
"I don't want to leave trouble for future generations."
"I don't want to go through all the trouble to conquer Tuyuhun, only for Murong to be replaced by someone else as the king."
"What can you do? Tell me!"
Since Xu Fenglei has laid so much groundwork, he naturally has his own ideas.
"From Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors to the present, I divide history into several stages."
Xu Fenglei looked at the waterfall and said,
"Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors came to the Shang Dynasty, which was slavery."
"From the Zhou Dynasty to the Warring States Period, it was a feudal system."
"Starting from the Qin State, there was a system of prefectures and counties."
"Each system is undoubtedly an improvement compared to the previous one, making the country more stable and governance more efficient."
Li Shimin nodded slightly.
He, who is familiar with history, naturally knows this.
The Tang Dynasty inherited the system of the Sui Dynasty, but it basically inherited the prefecture and county system of the Qin Dynasty.
"Both the feudal system and the county system have their advantages and disadvantages."
Xu Fenglei said,
"The reason why Qin Shihuang created the system of prefectures and counties was to centralize power and use the imperial court to control the nine states."
"This is naturally extremely special. It has also been practiced by kings of all dynasties. It is indeed easy to use."
"The current Tang Dynasty is also like this."
"But the county system has its limitations, that is - the world cannot be too big. If it is too big, it will not be able to control it."
"I wonder if your Majesty has ever heard of a saying - imperial power is only ten steps away and within a thousand miles.",
Li Shimin's eyes narrowed.
"never heard of that."
"What does this mean?"
When he heard this, he instinctively felt a little uncomfortable.
"Within ten steps, the emperor is just a mortal. If I get upset, I will kill you directly!"
Xu Fenglei patted Li Shimin on the shoulder and said with a sinister smile,
"Even if he is the emperor, what can he do?"
"This is what Tang Ju said, when a soldier is angry, blood will splash five steps, and the world will be pure!"
"Although this story is fictional, if the historical King of Qin really heard this, I'm afraid he would be afraid!"
Li Shimin: "!!!"
"You kid, stay away from me! Take your paws away!"
Li Er got goosebumps for a while.
Xu Fenglei shrugged.
"As for within a thousand miles, the meaning is even simpler. The emperor is far away, and it will take several months for your emperor to send an order to me. Then I will listen to you?"
He said again,
"If I were a local official thousands of miles away, I would definitely be a local emperor! Even the emperor can't control me! This is called a frontier official!"
"All local officials are like this, let alone barbarians."
"Even if they surrender, they may just call you Heavenly Khan verbally, but secretly they will recognize you as their boss? Most likely they will respect you as the local leader."
"And the leader may rebel one day and break up. What can you do? There is nothing you can do."
Li Shimin's face turned a little dark.
He was silent for a while and then said:
"The words are rough but the reasoning is not rough."
"I admit that what you said makes sense."
"In the final analysis, this is also my trouble. You have analyzed it so well, so how do you solve the problem?"
At this moment, Li Er's heart was scratching like a cat.
He desperately needs to know the answer!
Xu Fenglei smiled slightly.
"At this time, the advantages of feudalism are reflected."
He said,
"The Zhou Dynasty back then only controlled an area as big as a palm in the beginning. How did Emperor Zhou expand his territory?"
"It's enfeoffment! Let the meritorious ministers be enfeoffed to various unopened wild lands! Let them be the bosses there and let them open up wasteland and build a country!"
"After opening up wasteland, the king of the country will still respect the Emperor of Zhou. The territory of the Zhou Dynasty will suddenly become larger!"
Li Shimin frowned.
"Isn't this okay?"
"It's not like you don't know how the Zhou Dynasty perished."
"Those ennobled kings later turned away from each other. The king of Chu asked the emperor of Zhou about the importance of the cauldron, and the king of Qin directly destroyed Zuo, the king of the Zhou Dynasty."
"It is absolutely unfeasible to enfeoff. I will never take this old path."
When the Zhou Dynasty was at its lowest, the only area it really controlled was a palace as small as my mother's!
After leaving the palace, Emperor Zhou told him to forget about it.
What kind of emperor does this bitch want to be?
I'm so frustrated that I'm so depressed.
"That's right, so we can't become completely feudal! That would be reversing the course of history."
Xu Fenglei said seriously,
"But for those areas that cannot be actually controlled, I believe that implementing the enfeoffment system can expand the influence of the Tang Dynasty and enhance cohesion!"
"At the very least, the leaders of the Hu people have changed from Hu people to Tang people!"
"The Hu people went from being autonomous to being ruled by the Tang royal family! The Tang people are superior to others outside!"
Li Shimin frowned and stroked his beard.
"Wrap up."
Xu Fenglei said,
"My strategy is——"
"The Tang Dynasty implemented the policy of counties and counties within, and feudalism outside!"
"As the basic ten roads in the country, it is natural to use the county system to control them!"
"As for the Turkic regions in northern Xinjiang, the Tuyuhun region, and even other regions that will be conquered by the Tang Dynasty in the future, they can use the feudal system to enfeoff monarchs and establish their own countries!"
"If there must be a bunch of khans and khans and kings on the grassland, then I hope that those khans and kings are all of Han family blood, and the blood flowing in their bodies is the blood of Tang people!"
(End of chapter)
