The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 1267: Hou Junji is questioned

The next morning, after the court was dismissed, Li Chengqian came to Li Shimin's study in the Zichen Hall of the Daming Palace. He was accompanied by important ministers such as Fang Xuanling, Xiao Yu, and Cen Wenben.

After Li Shimin woke up, the highest power center of the Tang Dynasty was basically moved here.

Since no decision could be made anyway, it was better to take a step back than to have the ministers running back and forth, being in a dilemma and delaying efficiency. Li Chengqian simply ordered the important officials in the court to come here to report important matters to Li Shimin, and he himself often stayed here.

After communicating with Fang Xuanling, Zhangsun Wuji and others, Li Shimin also knew his son's lazy character, but he did not reject this kindness. He just added a table to his study and placed it next to his desk.

It was even euphemistically called making up for the emperor lesson that was not taught in time.

Li Chengqian was helpless about this. As an emperor, he did lack a lot. Although he was a little clever and good at internal fighting, governing a country was not just about fighting. There were many other things that had to be dealt with.

It is absolutely not possible to be bad at fighting; but being good at fighting alone is not enough.

Back in the imperial study, Li Shimin handled several urgent matters with ease and familiarity. Xiao Yu, Cen Wenben, Chu Suiliang and others reported on the various errands of the three provinces and six ministries. After answering Li Shimin's inquiries, they took the government affairs of their respective departments back home.

After Li Shimin returned, he decisively took back the power that Li Chengqian had given up, and concentrated the power of the seven ministers in the central government into one person, and turned them into his secretaries again. Several people dared not say a word and returned to their respective posts obediently.

After everyone dispersed, Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling began to discuss some important matters without avoiding him.

Li Chengqian was bored and held a brush, occasionally writing and drawing on the memorials, as if he had returned to the classroom in his previous life. Most of the time, he sat aside and quietly watched Li Shimin and his ministers discuss politics.

If you want to participate, you can express your opinions freely; if you don’t want to participate, it doesn’t matter, just be aloof.

The purpose of the West Factory is to manage what the East Factory dares to manage, and also to manage what the East Factory dares not to manage.

Li Chengqian was even more amazing, he could manage everything and ignore everything, he was the kind of person who was indispensable and completely useless. Li Shimin didn't seem to care about this, as long as Li Chengqian didn't cause him any trouble.

Li Chengqian could understand that people like Changsun Wuji were also very satisfied with his position.

After a while, someone outside came to report that Hou Junji came to see the emperor. Li Shimin's face suddenly brightened. In the morning, he received the news that the operation went smoothly and 50,000 people of the Turkic Khan were completely wiped out. It just took some time to clean up the battlefield and collect property.

He and Fang Xuanling stayed here waiting for Hou Junji to come and report, so he immediately summoned him.

"Greetings to the Emperor, Your Majesty, I am your servant."

Before Hou Junji finished his greetings, Li Shimin interrupted him: "No need to be polite, Junji, how much money did you seize?"

"Your Majesty, a rough estimate is about 400 million strings of cash."

Seeing that three pairs of eyes were staring at him, Hou Junji did not delay and directly reported the final number, and said excitedly: "Grand Emperor, Your Majesty, Lord Fang, you didn't see that the Turkic camp was almost full of scattered silver, jewelry, jade and other valuables."

"These people looted half of the country's wealth. Fortunately, we didn't let them return to the grassland, otherwise we would have suffered a great loss."

"Only 40 million strings of cash?"

Upon hearing this, Li Shimin's eyes first lit up, then he frowned and said, "As far as I know, the Turks have taken away nearly 100,000,000 strings of cash. Jun Ji, do you think some soldiers may have secretly taken some of it?"

After saying this, he looked at the other party with a serious face, and an imperial majesty silently pressed down on Hou Junji.

"Your Majesty, how dare I?"

Hou Junji's heart trembled, and he fell to his knees with a thud, pointing to the sky and swearing: "I have issued a strict order. If the soldiers complete the mission, the emperor and the emperor will reward them. If anyone dares to hide the money, he will be punished by military law, and at the very least, both hands will be chopped off."

"Besides, the weather is still hot, and the soldiers are all wearing thin clothes. The Turks don't have any silver bills, they only have physical objects. If the people below secretly put money and jewelry in, they will be easily discovered."

"Now the 200,000 men are still stationed there. The emperor can send people to investigate and make sure there is no hidden possession."

Li Shimin was stunned, and after a little thought, he believed Hou Junji's assurance.

After all, such a large sum of money, if some of it was hidden randomly, it would not be a small amount. Under the mutual supervision of the soldiers, it was difficult for anyone to mess up. Even if there was, it was a very small amount, which could be ignored compared to the 400 million wealth. It was impossible to hide 600 million.

Although 400 million was not a small amount, with the anchor of 100 million, Li Shimin still wanted more, so he turned to look at Li Chengqian in confusion. He believed that as an emperor, Li Chengqian's spies must be efficient, and this number was also based on facts and would not be groundless.

That means there are only 400 million people in the Turkic camp, and more than half of them are hidden.

Li Chengqian looked at Li Shimin's inquiring eyes and complained in his heart, thinking that people are indeed greedy.

Even though you are the Khan of Heaven, have you ever seen money?
The national treasury has the most money, but at most it is only 50 million strings of cash, while your own treasury only has a few million strings of cash.

Now that I suddenly have 400 million and I’m still not satisfied, I can’t just work for nothing!

"Ahem." Li Chengqian coughed twice and then said, "Father, the news I received is indeed true. It may not be so accurate, but it is almost right. It won't be that far off."

"As far as I know, the Lu family of Fanyang alone has nearly three million taels of gold accumulated by their ancestors. They were presented to Shi Luodie in exchange for their safe escape. Otherwise, why would the Turks let him return to Chang'an?"

"Humph, these damn noble families are aiding the enemy."

When Li Shimin thought about how such a fortune was almost taken by the enemy, he was furious: "I didn't expect that the Lu family has plundered so much of the people's wealth over the years. Even if I am the richest man in the world, I don't have so much money, right?"

The fire of jealousy was burning fiercely, and Li Shimin's face was distorted.

The corners of the other three people's mouths twitched slightly, and then Fang Xuanling was the first to react and said quickly: "Grand Emperor, a dynasty of a hundred years and a clan of a thousand years are not just talk. What they have accumulated over generations is as much as a mountain of gold and a sea of ​​silver."

"The Lu family alone can come up with so much gold, what about other noble families?"

"The Qinghe Cui family, the Boling Cui family, the Zhaojun Li family, the Xingyang Zheng family, the Bohai Gao family, etc. These families are not weaker than the Lu family, and they were all plundered by Shi Luodie, so the amount they got must be no less than this."

"According to this calculation, nearly half of the wealth is still lost, and it is all in the form of gold. I'm afraid it was hidden by the Turkic Khan."

"It seems that Shi Luodie is also very cautious and does not put all his eggs in one basket. The Yanshan and Liaozhou defense lines are in our hands, and they cannot transport the gold out. I guess they are hiding somewhere in Shandong. Please ask the emperor to send someone to interrogate them immediately and make sure to find out the whereabouts of the gold."

"Yes, Jun Ji, I command you..."

Before Li Shimin finished speaking, Hou Junji's heart trembled. He suddenly remembered the emperor's order yesterday that he must not leave anyone alive. It turned out that the emperor's intention was here. I'm afraid that the gold worth an astronomical figure has already fallen into the hands of the emperor!

But at this moment, he did not dare to look at Li Chengqian, but gritted his teeth and said: "Your Majesty, I am guilty. I did not expect this link. In the battle last night, all the Turks were killed. Fifty thousand people, no one survived."

"what?"

Li Shimin's face changed, and he immediately said angrily: "Hou Junji, you are so brave, who told you to do this?"

"Your Majesty, your subject"

Hou Junji was sweating profusely and said tremblingly: "I thought these people were useless, so..."

"Jun Ji, I'm not saying anything about you."

Fang Xuanling also frowned and said, "You are too murderous. Even if you didn't want to take all the money, you couldn't kill them all. There are 50,000 people here. You should capture at least half of them. And the reinforcements will be brave soldiers."

"That's right, Jun Ji!"

Li Chengqian was also disappointed when he saw this: "You are already old, Xiang'er will soon be a father, and you will be a great-grandfather, but you are still so rash and not steady at all. I think I can't let you do this kind of thing next time."

"."

When Hou Junji heard Li Chengqian's reproach, he felt like crying but had no tears. The grievance in his heart was about to explode.

How shameless!

Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling were unaware of the situation, but you are pretending to be so. This is really too much.
However, Hou Junji knew that among these three people, only Fang Xuanling himself could be offended, and the other two were people he dared not to offend.

He could only bow his head and admit his guilt, not daring to argue.

"Father, I think it must be as Lord Fang expected. The other half should be gold. These valuables are large and difficult to carry. I think Shi Luodie is afraid of being remembered by others, so he must have hidden it somewhere, and only Shi Luodie knows it."

"It seems that we need to send someone to investigate this matter carefully. We all know the movements of the Turks in the past six months. If we conduct a carpet search, we will not be afraid of not being able to recover the huge amount of money that was lost."

Li Shimin immediately asked Hou Junji, "Where is Shi Luodie?"

"He has been beheaded by me."

"you"

Li Shimin sighed in exasperation: "Such an important person should be kept alive. Even if we want to kill him, we can hand him over to the Right Wise King and let him do it. Then the hatred of Ashina clan will fall on him."

"Aren't you just making wedding clothes for others by doing this?"

Hou Junji did such a great thing last night and seized a huge amount of wealth. He thought that even if he was not rewarded, he would at least be praised.

Who would have thought that he would be blamed for everything and have to take the blame for the emperor.

(End of this chapter)