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

Chapter 669 Yao Jin's Show of Good Will
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Cheng Yaojin pulled a boy of about 11 or 12 years old beside him to Li Yan and said, "Your Highness, this is my youngest son Cheng Huaibi. He is 11 years old this year. Your Highness met him at my house the other day. Since your Highness left that day, this child has been begging me to follow the crown prince to study."

"Look, I brought him here today. If Your Highness the Crown Prince doesn't mind, I will let him accompany Your Highness, run errands, lead the horses, etc. This old minister is away from home all year round, and this child has been spoiled by his mother. Your Highness can educate him, spank him when necessary, scold him when necessary, and don't give me face!"

After Cheng Yaojin finished speaking, he quickly turned to his son and said, "Why are you standing there like an idiot? Why don't you kowtow to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?"

"Cheng Huaibi pays respect to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. May His Royal Highness live a thousand years." The young man quickly knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times respectfully to Li Yan.

Li Yan nodded with a smile, not being polite. Even Cheng Yaojin was his subject, so he could still bear the consequences of his son's death. Moreover, since he had nodded today, the status of monarch and subject had been determined. In the future, he would also have to worry about and be responsible for his son's future, so Li Yan accepted it calmly.

After the other party finished bowing, Li Yan said with a serious face: "Get up"

"Huai Bi, I have quite a few companions who are about your age. They come from all over the world, and their families are rich and poor. But once they enter my East Palace, their outside identities and family backgrounds are no longer important."

"In the East Palace, all tutors are equal, whether they are the grandsons of the dukes of the county or the sons of common people."

"Once you enter the East Palace, you will be mine. Even General Cheng cannot dictate your future. In this regard, he has to listen to me, and you servants can only rely on your own talents to achieve success."

Li Yan said confidently: "I am the heir to the throne of the Tang Dynasty. I am not afraid of others saying that I am appointing my personal friends. As long as you have talent and knowledge, I can always recommend you to the emperor and the important officials in the court. You don't have to worry about your position. It is extremely difficult for others to seek an official position, but I have plenty of vacancies."

"However talented you are, I will provide you with a platform as big as yours. One day, even becoming a noble or a prime minister won't be a difficult matter. But in the East Palace, there is no possibility of relying on nepotism or ancestral influence to rise to power. You can only rely on your own efforts."

"This is the rule of the Eastern Palace. Not all the people who come out of the Eastern Palace in the future will be honest officials, but there will be no mediocre people. What do you think about it? I will give you another chance to choose. Do you want to enter the Eastern Palace? You must think it over carefully."

"If you regret it now, I won't blame you, and I promise that General Cheng won't punish you either."

Cheng Yaojin sat beside them drinking tea with a smile on his face, watching the prince talking to his son without interfering.

Cheng Huaibi turned his head and looked at Cheng Yaojin, but the other's expression did not change at all, as if all this had nothing to do with him.

Cheng Huaibi thought for a moment and asked hesitantly, "Your Highness, if I enter the East Palace, can I still go out to see my mother?"

Well.
Li Yan was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Of course, the East Palace is not a den of dragons and tigers, so naturally I won't be as casual as you usually are at home, studying and practicing martial arts with a group of children of the same age."

"There are six days off a month for you to do whatever you want. You can go home or visit Chang'an City. If you have something to do at home, you can also ask for leave in advance to go home."

Cheng Huaibi breathed a sigh of relief, bowed with a firm face and said, "Your Highness, Huaibi is willing to enter the East Palace. I hope Your Highness agrees?"

"Yes, Not Bad!"

Li Yan nodded approvingly. In ancient times, family inheritance was very important to legitimate and illegitimate children. For example, the eldest legitimate son of a large aristocratic family could inherit the family business and the title of the head of the family, while the other second sons and illegitimate sons had to rely on their own efforts. If the mother was favored, perhaps they could ask the head of the family to use some favors to get him an official position.

If there are more people in the family, it may be difficult to even enter the officialdom. One has to rely on oneself to join the army and fight on the battlefield, or take the imperial examination held by the court to enter the officialdom. Or, if one has some talents, one can use some connections to get a job as a minor clerk for officials and work his way up bit by bit.

For example, in Cheng Yaojin's family, the eldest son Cheng Huaimo would definitely inherit the title of Duke Lu, while the second son Cheng Huailiang had some experience with Cheng Yaojin and was promoted because of his meritorious service on the battlefield. The most Cheng Yaojin could do was to give his son two more chances to try and fail, but he could not directly appoint him to a military position.

The position of General of the Left Tunwei Yifu was obtained by King Li Ke of Shu by using his own favors, and had nothing to do with Cheng Yaojin.

The youngest son Cheng Huaibi, who has just grown up, can only rely on himself. Everything in the Cheng family belongs to his eldest brother and has nothing to do with him.

Such people are common in wealthy families, and most of Li Yan's servants come from these backgrounds and look powerful.

In fact, they cannot represent the political stance of their own family at all, unless one day, with the support of Li Yan, they achieve more outstanding achievements than the eldest son who inherits the family business. Perhaps at that time, a separate branch can be demarcated, and it is even possible to suppress the main branch.

Therefore, although Li Yan's circle of tutors included a lot of noble bloodlines, even a nephew of Shu Wang's top confidant Cen Wenben and a nephew of Wei Wang Li Tai's top confidant Du Chuke, this did not change the attitude of these important officials. It was said that once when Li Yan was attending court, he met Cen Wenben and chatted with him. Cen Wenben joked that his nephew admired the prince very much and wanted to study in the East Palace.

Li Yan agreed immediately and readily, saying that he taught everyone and Lord Cen could send anyone over.

When Cen Wenben saw Li Yan's serious face, he smiled heartily and didn't dare to say that he was just joking, but just glossed over it. When he got home and told Li Yan about it, who knew that the nephew really ran to the East Palace the next day.

After Li Yan explained the rules, the other party readily agreed and then joined the Eastern Palace.

When Cen Wenben found out later, it was too late to regret. If he went forward to ask for the person back, it would be a bit too much. So far, his nephew has become the prince's tutor, and he has a lot of fun in the East Palace all day long!
Afterwards, Cen Wenben specifically apologized to the King of Shu, but Li Ke did not care. Every wealthy family has a lot of connections to take care of. If he stopped them, he would have to spend his own resources to make up for it. Anyway, this would not affect Cen Wenben's attitude, so he just let it go.

Li Ke secretly laughed at the prince for having so many young people who could not represent their elders. He didn't know how much resources would be consumed. It was really stupid.

Not long after Cen Wenben's nephew entered the Eastern Palace, the confidant of the King of Wei, Du Chuke, also came to the door with a shameless face and sent his nephew to the Eastern Palace. Li Yan naturally accepted everyone who came. Now most of the princes have just grown up and their relationships are not that bad, so Li Yan also recruited talents.

Li Yan did not expect their elders to support him when he recruited these people, but to leave a line, so that those forces would not fight to the death with him at the critical moment. Don't underestimate this line. With the younger generations in the East Palace, the family will lack the determination to go all out when they go against Li Yan.

Until you reach the end of your rope, your attack power will be weakened a lot.

Besides, all the major families have people in the Eastern Palace, so he has a channel to connect with them. Sometimes, when he wants to say hello or handle some small matters, he doesn't have to go there in person as the prince, but can let their illegitimate sons pass on the message.

In order to consolidate his child's position in front of the prince and leave a way out, if it is an unimportant matter, he will just do it.

A bastard who can speak in front of the prince is better than those bastards who are unemployed at home.
With the cover of these people and relationships, Li Yan could pick out some court officials who were not prominent in the early period of the Zhenguan Dynasty, but began to rise strongly after the transfer of old ministers in the later period, or those who shined during the Gaozong period, and focus on their strategies, recruit them into his pocket, and even develop them into insiders.

As for the younger ministers in the Eastern Palace, even if they followed the King of Shu and the King of Wei, their brothers did not dare to trust them completely. If they wanted to plot something secretly, they would feel uneasy. If they wanted to gather a group of people to carry out the Xuanwu Gate Incident, they would probably find out about it during the discussion stage.

With the cover of these relationships, Li Yan can continuously deploy Jinyiwei's inner line without leaving any trace.

In special circumstances, it can be used to great effect.

In short, there are many benefits!

Li Yan did not need too many resources to train these people. He divided them into two categories, civil and military. He then divided them into three levels according to their levels, similar to elementary school, middle school and high school, and offered courses of different difficulty levels.

There are many officials and teachers in the East Palace who are occupying positions but have nothing to do. Normally, Li Yan doesn't need so many people to teach him alone.

As the number of students increased, Li Yan would go to the Imperial College from time to time to recruit two teaching assistants and a doctoral student, and he managed to set up a Tang Dynasty version of a university in the East Palace.

As for martial arts training, there is no need to mention it. There are many officers in the Eastern Palace Ten Rates who can teach. This is a small version of the Huangpu Military Academy.

Regardless of their age, these people have to start from elementary school when entering the Eastern Palace. After a semester of study and passing the exams set by the teachers, they can move on to the next level. In this way, the talents finally selected are almost the same as those in the imperial examinations.

These serious teachers had little experience and all followed Li Yan's requirements and used the standards of the imperial examinations. At Li Yan's request, they also added some ideas about loving the Tang Dynasty, supporting Li Shimin, maintaining the rule of the court, and prohibiting local separatism.

After Henglian delivered the teaching content to Li Shimin's desk, Li Shimin was very happy and even discussed with Fang Xuanling and other ministers whether the court could also promote these positive things to strengthen the ideological education of students taking the imperial examinations.

In the end, although Li Shimin regretfully gave up temporarily because of the imminent court war and the seriousness of the incident, it was not easy to start a war. However, Li Shimin released the constraints on Li Yan and encouraged Li Yan to bring more second-generation people into the East Palace for secondary training.

(End of this chapter)