Of Zheng Shanguo's three documents, one was naturally given to Li Yuan, one to Lu Chen, and the last one was kept in his own hands.
Li Yuan looked at the two documents on his dragon's book case, and suddenly felt dumbfounded. He had done nothing in court today but only collected the documents for fun, and he, the dignified founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, actually acted as a middleman. Work really made Li Yuan feel inexplicably powerless. I guess Lu Chen was the only one who dared to let him do such a thing, right?
"It's better to choose a day than to hit it! I think there is probably nothing else going on in this court anyway. Why don't you go with us to see it? It's also a good way to be a witness, right?" Lu Chen saluted Li Yuan and said with a smile, "How boring is it to be stuck in this palace all day long?"
"Good guy!" Seeing Lu Chen's very casual look, all the civil and military ministers shouted "good guy" in their hearts. Emperor Li Yuan hadn't even mentioned the matter of resigning from the dynasty yet, this guy immediately announced the matter of resigning from the dynasty. After the decision was made, Li Yuan was invited to Lujiazhuang in front of the audience. I wonder who in the civil and military circles of the entire dynasty had the courage to talk to Li Yuan so casually.
Although Li Yuan, the emperor, seemed to be very easy-going and kind to these civil and military ministers, after all, he was also the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty. Liu Wenjing had just died a few years ago. Didn't Liu Wenjing have a bad relationship with Li Yuan? Is the official rank low? Liu Wenjing, Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Duke of Lu, is awesome enough, right? Didn't Li Yuan just kill him at his request? So it is not wrong to say that accompanying a king is like accompanying a tiger. Now seeing Lu Chen actually talking to Li Yuan so casually in the Tai Chi Hall, can everyone not feel a little "thumped" in their hearts?
Of course, there are those who are ready to watch the show. Those officials from the aristocratic families are just ready to see how Li Yuan deals with Lu Chen. Will they be able to sell it well and bring the things in Lu Chen's hands to their own homes? Among them, Wang Gui, Wei Ting and Zheng Shanguo are most looking forward to Li Yuan punishing Lu Chen. After all, these three people are worse than other officials from the aristocratic family. Wang Gui and Wei Ting have already lost to Lu Chen once, but Zheng Shanguo is still The documents for five mines have just been written, so these three people are the ones most looking forward to something happening to Lu Chen.
On the contrary, the generals who were friends with Lu Chen were worried about Lu Chen. Of course, Li Xiuning was the only one who didn't feel anything. She knew very well what kind of person Lu Chen was. As for the Li family's attitude towards Lu Chen, only the people in the Li family will know.
"What Lu Aiqing said makes sense! It's time for me to go out and walk around!" What no one expected was that Li Yuan actually agreed with Lu Chen's words and directly asked Chang Bao to announce his "retirement". All officials of third rank and above accompanied Li Yuan Go to Lujiazhuang to see how Lu Chen increased pig iron production.
The emperor was naturally very particular about the ceremony and ceremony when traveling, and it took a while just to prepare the ceremony.
"Your Majesty, it's too much trouble for you to travel this time!" While waiting for the ceremony, Lu Chen couldn't help but mention it to Li Yuan.
Hearing that Lu Chen actually raised objections to the emperor's honor guard, everyone immediately focused their attention on Lu Chen. They all wanted to see what the newly promoted Marquis of Chang'an County was going to do. They also wanted to see what Li Yuan was up to. Will they deal with this somewhat "out-of-touch" Lu County Marquis?
"Well! It's a bit troublesome! That's why I don't want to leave the palace!" Li Yuan nodded in agreement. Before he became the emperor, Li Yuan only brought guards with him when he went out. He should be the founder of the country. Emperor, no matter where he goes, there are all kinds of ceremonial guards. It takes several hours just to prepare these things. Therefore, the emperor does not leave the palace easily. This is also the reason.
"If you want me to tell you, it doesn't have to be so troublesome. It's not a long way and there are so many people! Besides, with me here, you won't be afraid of someone assassinating you, right?" Lu Chen said to Li Yuan with a smile, and said Pointing to the generals standing aside, "If there are people here who can assassinate Your Majesty, I'll kill them all!"
As soon as the ministers heard Lu Chen's speech, they secretly said in their hearts again: "Good fellow! This Lu County Marquis has reduced His Majesty's travel honors! This is incredible!"
"Your Majesty, you must not reduce the honor guard!" Just as Lu Chen finished speaking, Zheng Shanguo directly refuted Lu Chen, and at the same time glared at Lu Chen fiercely, "The honor guard is a symbol of His Majesty's status, how can we reduce it at will? !" Zheng Shanguo saluted directly to Li Yuan and said, after all, matters of ceremony are also managed by him, the Minister of Rites. If this is reduced, wouldn't he, the Minister of Rites, lose another management right?
"I don't want to hear what you are saying!" Lu Chen stared back at Zheng Shanguo, "Does your Majesty just rely on ceremonial guards to tell the world that your Majesty is the emperor?" Lu Chen directly gave Zheng Shanguo a look of contempt. , "Your Majesty is a saint who loves the people like a son. Respect for Your Majesty is in the heart, not on the lips all day long. I think that when the Tang Dynasty was just established, Your Majesty reduced the ceremony to refuse extravagance and waste, and to set an example of frugality to the world. When the people see your behavior, they will only respect and love Your Majesty even more!"
Lu Chen's words made Li Yuan feel happy, but he still had to give face to the Minister of Rites. Li Yuan stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Lu Aiqing's words are very reasonable, and Zheng Aiqing's words are also reasonable. After all, I am the king of a country, so I still need to have this guard of honor, so why not cut it in half! I won’t take the Royal Horse today, and just ride on horseback!”
The emperor had already spoken, and Zheng Shanguo could not say anything more. He could only order to go down and reduce the ceremonial guard by half, and at the same time brought Li Yuan's royal horse over.
At this time, many civil servants and generals also understood one thing. They could only make friends with Lu Chen and not offend him. This guy cut the emperor's travel honors in half with just one sentence. Moreover, this guy was definitely a trap. Wang Gui and Wei Ting has fallen into this trap. From the look on this guy's face, it seems that Zheng Shanguo is not much better. He just doesn't know if Lu Chen can make these aristocratic families fulfill their bets when the time comes.
After all, the aristocratic family is powerful. Even though Lu Chen has the title of Marquis of Chang'an County, there is only one Lujiazhuang. Compared with the aristocratic family, in the minds of these people, it is just a drop in the tree. Even though Lu Chen has the protection of Li Yuan, when the time comes , it is estimated that even if Li Yuan speaks, it will be good for Lu Chen to get half of the bet.
So all the civil and military officials were thinking about these things.
Half of the ceremony guards were prepared very quickly. It only took about an hour, and they were almost ready. Li Yuan got on his horse under the service of Chang Bao, and cleared the way for those in front of him. Li Yuan was naturally surrounded by civil and military officials in front and behind him. Of course, it was impossible for Li Yuan to ask all officials to follow him. Those who could follow Li Yuan were naturally officials of third rank or above. Of course, this was also Lu Chen's request.
The huge team left the palace and went straight to Lujiazhuang. As soon as the team of guides and drivers appeared in front of Li Yuan's trip, the people watching the excitement on both sides of the street all knelt down. In front of the people were Nanya Shi The soldiers of the Six Guards were maintaining order.
Soon the team left Chang'an City and headed straight for Lujiazhuang.
When they arrived outside Lujiazhuang, Liu Jing and four other people, who had come back to inform in advance, had already led the villagers in Lujiazhuang and the soldiers of Weiwei Guards to line up on both sides, waiting for the arrival of Emperor Li Yuan.
When Li Yuan rode into Lujiazhuang, the villagers standing on both sides of the road knelt down, and the soldiers with Wei soldiers on their backs stood at attention and saluted the military salute. These people all shouted long live.
Li Yuan felt very strange when he saw the salute of the soldiers in black clothes and armor from the Weiwei Guard, but he was not angry that they did not kneel down to him. "Lu Aiqing!" Li Yuan called directly from his horse. Lu Chen shouted.
"I'm here!" Lu Chen shook the reins of the white fox and came to the position half a horse behind Li Yuan.
"Why are you guards saluting like this?" Li Yuan asked curiously.
"Your Majesty!" Lu Chen said with a smile, "This is my back guard, given by Her Royal Highness Princess Pingyang. What they are doing is a military salute! I told them that when they put on this military uniform, , you must be in awe of this dress, which represents the image of the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty. You are not allowed to kneel to others at will. If you want to kneel, there are only five kinds of people, that is, the 'Lord of Heaven and Earth, Prince and Master'. As for other people, just perform this military salute!" Lu Chen explained to Li Yuan.
"Then why didn't they kneel down when they saw me?" Li Yuan nodded after hearing Lu Chen's explanation. What Lu Chen said was not unreasonable, and the military salute was indeed beautiful. Li Yuan was not angry and still asked curiously. .
"Back to your majesty, if your majesty comes, they will naturally kneel down, but there are still ministers and these ministers!" Before Lu Chen finished speaking, Li Yuan understood what he meant.
"You kid has so many thoughts!" Li Yuan scolded Lu Chen with a smile, "But you are very energetic and the military ceremony is pretty good. What's going on with their outfits?" Li Yuan looked at it. The equipment on the Beiwei Guards made my eyes light up. The armor and equipment of these Beiwei Guards were obviously different from other Tang troops. They were covered in pitch black armor from top to bottom, with Taotie patterns on the armor, and a fang mask on their face. Leave two eyes exposed.
Moreover, this kind of armor is not the standard armor of the Tang Army. It is particularly slim, especially the weapons on these Zibeiwei guards, and the equipment is also very strange.
Hanging from his waist was a slender Tang knife more than three feet long, also in a black scabbard, but on his right thigh, there was a short knife tied close to the thigh.
"This is the back armor designed and made for me!" Lu Chen explained to Li Yuan.
"Oh? Lu Aiqing can also design armor! But how good is the protective ability of this armor?" Li Yuan was also the emperor who was about to conquer the world, so he was very interested in this new type of armor.
