Li Xiaogong returned to his mansion and was still anxious. As a person who had experienced the storm and shock, his nerves were much more sensitive than what he showed. He keenly sensed that a storm was already brewing.

When he was upset, he walked to the martial arts venue. A long way away, he heard the shouting sound. Li Xiaogong walked in and saw a young man walking around and knocking on the wooden man. It was Li Chongyi. Li Chongyi was going to give Li Chongyi armor, but he was stopped by Li Xiaogong on the way and tied up his house and was directly confined. He had not left the house for more than ten days.

Li Chongyi couldn't resist and had to find something for himself. It was impossible to study. Practicing martial arts became the only way for him to consume his energy. He didn't talk to Li Xiaogong every day. He started practicing after eating and started eating when he was tired. He went back and forth until he went to bed, which looked like he was a bit like a gym in later generations. It was also a bit effective. His muscles could gradually see some shape.

Li Xiaogong did not disturb Li Chongyi, did not make a sound, and stood by the edge of the martial arts field and watched. He was from a general, not a corrupt scholar. He was actually happy to see his son so heroic.

Li Shimin wanted him to come out this time, but the reason why Li Xiaogong hesitated was because of Li Chongyi. Personally, he had experienced the ups and downs of life. He had also held hundreds of thousands of soldiers in his hand, and had also rushed his army south to conquer thousands of miles of land. It can be said that he had experienced and enjoyed everything except being an emperor in his life. He could not beat Li Shimin and dared not think about it. Therefore, now his life is over. It is better to be more sensual and happy for the rest of his life.

But if so, what can he leave for his son?

According to the existing system of the Tang Dynasty, the royal family inherited the title and surrendered. In other words, when Li Chongyi inherited it, he could only be a duke. If Li Chongyi wanted to inherit the position of the prince, he would need to make great contributions. He would naturally have no contributions to his successors in Chang'an. Only by accepting Li Shimin's will and becoming the magistrate of Dingxiang would he have such an opportunity.

But

Li Xiaogong dared not take this step easily, not only from Li Shimin's concerns, but also from Li Mu's concerns.

There is no airtight wall in the world. The matter between Li Mu and Wang Ou is now well known in Chang'an City. Whether it is the huge age difference between Li Mu and Wang Ou, or the little things that Wang Ou and Li Shimin cannot explain clearly, they are all topics of talk that the people are talking about.

Countless people are wondering how Li Shimin will deal with Li Mu. Will he kill him or not care about these things at all.

All forces are also watching. After all, Li Mu’s previous actions are full of enemies. There are far more people who want to see him in trouble than those who want to see him.

"Prince."

A person came from behind Li Xiaogong, the housekeeper of the royal palace. Li Xiaogong looked back at him, and the housekeeper stopped and hid behind the screen wall.

Li Xiaogong also turned around and went out. The two hid behind the wall and started talking in a low voice.

Li Chongyi had actually seen Li Xiaogong for a long time, but he was angry and didn't want to pay attention to him, so he deliberately pretended not to see him. But at this time, he felt very strange when he saw Li Xiaogong and the housekeeper were mysterious, so he tiptoed over, leaned against the wall, and listened with his ears.

"... The prince, my subordinates have already inquired. In the past few days, His Majesty has met with the main leaders of various bureaus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and issued an order to promote them. All the main responsible persons have been promoted at least one level. People like Changsun Chong and others have been legitimate directors. Officials at all levels of the Ministry of Works also have rewards. It seems that His Majesty is interested in giving kindness to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Works."

"I understand."

The housekeeper didn't answer the words, he knew what he couldn't answer.

Li Xiaogong sighed and said, "It turns out that the dragon has a reverse scale, and it will die if it touches it. It seems that Your Majesty is going to attack Li Mu, but Your Majesty wants to be a wise ruler for all ages. Li Mu has made great contributions, so how could he kill the meritorious officials in vain? Aren't he afraid that the historian will record a record and defam his great achievements? Or is Your Majesty have another trick?"

The housekeeper whispered: "Prince, my subordinates think that if the king wants his minister to die, his minister must die. If Your Majesty wants to punish someone, do you have few excuses? The Prince should make a decision early, so don't make His Majesty unhappy."

"I know. You, don't talk about it. You are now a housekeeper, not a counselor under my tent. What are your ideas? Let's go!"

"Subordinates obey the order."

When the housekeeper left, Li Xiaogong was in a state of distraction and walked back to the martial arts field. Seeing Li Chongyi still practicing martial arts, he thought of Li Shimin's words and left with a sigh.

Li Chongyi glanced at Li Xiaogong and walked away. He immediately threw the weapon in his hand to the ground. He went out from another door of the martial arts court, and walked around and came to a secluded corner where there was an abandoned well. Li Chongyi lifted the manhole cover and jumped directly in.

There was a secret passage that was nearly twenty meters inside the well leading to outside the wall. This was something Li Chongyi had spent a lot of effort to dig before, just to sneak out when he was confined. He was afraid that Li Xiaogong would find out that it would rarely use it, and this time he could not catch up.

Take it out of the mansion, Li Chongyi ran wildly to the Sihai Gambling House, found Ergou, told Ergou what he heard, and then ran back. Ergou learned the news, but did not dare to delay for a moment, so he went to the valley to find Dugu Jiu and told him the news.

Dugu Jiu immediately passed on a letter from Fei Ge. Li Mu, who was three days away from Chang'an, received the news.

As for the same time as this news, Li Shimin's Fei Ge's letter was sent.

Li Shimin told him that because the Turkic crisis was lifted, Tuyuhun, Tubo, Xueyantuo, Goguryeo and other countries who had been waiting for an opportunity to make an apology, and sent envoys to Chang'an with a heavy gift to apologize. In addition, Li Mu brought more than 30 envoys from small Western countries this time, more than 50 envoys from Chang'an will gather at that time. This momentum will catch up with the prosperous times of Kaihuang in the previous dynasty. So he wanted to take this opportunity to force the four barbarians to write a letter to officially honor him as the Khan of the Heavenly Khan. The message was to ask Li Mu's meaning and whether this matter was feasible.

This is the first thing written on the front of the note, and the second thing written on the back is to ask Li Mu about the reward. Li Shimin said that Li Mu solved the Turkic crisis and the subsequent crisis without bloodshed this time, and made great contributions. He had decided to confer the title of Li Mu's founding county duke. Where is the ban? It has not been decided yet, and the Ministry of Rites is discussing.

Judging from Li Shimin's note, his trust in Li Mu still has no reduction in slightest, but is even better than before. He has definitely reached the level of knowing everything and saying everything.

But Li Mu felt cold, and the reason why he felt awkward was that between Li Shimin's lines, he could no longer find any intimacy. Such words as "stinky brat" and "will I kick you?" could never be seen again. Although the favor on the surface is still the same, favor can also be a knife for killing people and funerals. Today's kindness may not be the sword of the future.

"Brother, why don't we run away?"

Li Chongyi watched by the side for a long time and said something.

Li Mu burned the note in the candlelight and said, "Escape? Where can I escape? Is there a king's land under the world? Is it the king's ministers in the shores of the earth? Should we escape to the place where the wild monkeys live without shit? Besides, your sister-in-law is still in the valley, and I escaped. If I don't have any guilt, what should they do?"

"But you're back this time, too."

"Put your heart in your stomach." Li Mu patted Li Chongyi on the shoulder and said, "There are some people who want to kill your elder brother. Isn't your elder brother still alive? It's not that easy to die."

"Oh." Li Chongyi responded and did not speak again, but he was still unsure. He had experienced several life and deaths with Li Mu. When Li Mu was imprisoned, he was also with him. At that time, he was not worried because he knew that the emperor valued Li Mu and would not let him die. But now, his opponent is the emperor, can he still get away with it like before?

Li Mu blew out the lamp, lay down, and turned his back to Li Chongyi. His expression was no longer so confident. He was not sure. After all, he stole the emperor's woman. Is the hatred of snatching his wife so easy to swallow? When he was in a different place, Li Mu thought that if he was Li Shimin, he would definitely not be able to swallow his tone. No matter who the woman likes, I am the emperor, and the whole world is mine, let alone a woman?

"Go to sleep, I'll have to hurry tomorrow."

Li Mu said, closed his eyes. Li Chongyi responded, hugged the axe in his arms, and his body like an iron tower blocked the wind in the door, allowing the cold wind that came in to blow out Li Mu's body.

...

Chang'an City has not been lively for a long time. Since the news of the alliance between the Turks and the Tang Dynasty came, there have been many people of all kinds in Chang'an City. Most of them are envoys from various countries. They took advantage of the lack of waiting for the emperor to summon them and made a lot of money in Chang'an City.

But in fact, they are not really stupid and have a lot of money. The reason why they don’t consider the cost is that their profits are too high. Chang'an City is the most advanced and developed city in the world. Everything here can attract these small countries. As long as they bring these things back to their own country, it will be ten times or twenty times the profit. Therefore, for these small countries, being envoys is not something they can do casually, they must be the most powerful people in their own country.

After learning that the Turkic danger was lifted, all countries sent envoys. But strength was the most important between countries. The strength of the country also determined how much face the envoy could have in the Tang Dynasty.

In the ranking list of the Tang Dynasty, the Turks have always been the main enemy of the Tang Dynasty, because the Turks have always been the main enemy of the Tang Dynasty since Jie Li. After the demise of the Eastern Turks, this quota fell on the Western Turks. Now the Western Turks have formed an alliance with the Tang Dynasty, and the two sides have entered a period of friendly peace. The diplomatic relations between the Western Turks became more important. Li Shimin even issued an order to build a building for the envoys of the Western Turks to serve as permanent residence in Honglu Temple.

Under the Western Turks, there are two countries that are also worthy of face. They are ranked second, one is Tubo and the other is Goguryeo. One is in the southwest and the other is in the northeast, both of which are the main enemies on the border of the Tang Dynasty. The envoys of these two countries are specially received by the Ministry of Rites.

Among the third-ranked ones are Tuyuhun, Xueyantuo, etc. They are one of the only ones, either one of the officials is responsible for two countries, or the head is responsible for the responsibility, depending on the situation.

The last ones are small countries such as Wa, Zhenla, Shiwei, etc. Their status in the eyes of the Tang Dynasty is similar to the 36 countries in the Western Regions. When they were busy in the Honglu Temple, they sometimes couldn't even see the head.

After the Turkic crisis was lifted, Tubo, Goguryeo and Tuguryeo all sent envoys. Tuyuhun angered Li Shimin due to the incident of King Tianzhu attacking Li Mu and was left alone. The envoys of Tubo and Goguryeo were treated very favorably. Regardless of whether they were hostile countries, the strength of Tubo and Goguryeo was enough to make the Tang Dynasty look higher.

During this trip to Tubo, a prince and a national teacher were low-key. Since meeting Li Shimin, he has been staying in the small courtyard of Honglu Temple and not going out. He asked the people from the Ministry of Rites to help buy the things he needed.

The person who came to Goguryeo on this trip was a prince. The system of Goguryeo was similar to that of the Central Plains. Their prince was the son of the brothers of the King of Goguryeo, similar to the son of the Duke of the Tang Dynasty. Although his status was not as good as that of the prince in Tubo, he was not much different. The person who came with him was a shaman in Goguryeo.

In contrast to the low-key Tubo, the Goguryeo Crown Prince was very high-profile. He went out early every day and came back very late, as if he was looking for something. Seeing the envoys of Baekje and Silla, the Goguryeo Crown Prince also looked domineering, as if these two countries were their slaves. Although the envoys of the two countries were very angry, they did not dare to turn against each other. The Tang Dynasty naturally did not care about their affairs. After a few days, the envoys of the two countries could not stand it, so they moved out of the Honglu Temple to find a place to live.

When people later talk about Goguryeo, many people will automatically think of Goguryeo and the two countries on the peninsula. They will also be puzzled by the two empires in the east that were the strongest period of the Central Plains' military power. Why did a "small country" have such great force to drag down the Sui Dynasty and consume the life of a generation of heroes Li Shimin.

In fact, Goguryeo is an extremely powerful country with a very long history. As early as 37 BC, the Fuyu people Zhumeng established the Goguryeo Kingdom until the fall of Goguryeo during the reign of Emperor Gaozong, which was seven hundred years ago. Unlike the popular subconscious Goguryeo, Goguryeo and Goryeo are not the same thing. Goguryeo people were mainly the northern 风 and Fuyu people, not the Koreans, while Goryeo was established after the uprising of the people who could not bear the oppression of the Silla aristocrats. They are mainly descendants of the "Three Koreans", which cannot be said to have nothing to do with Goguryeo, but they are not very important.
Chapter completed!