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

Chapter 678 Hou Junji Returns to Beijing

"It's okay, take your time. Now my father is in his prime and the princes are still young, so the struggle is not that intense. But in the later period, when my father is old, the contradictions will become more intense, and that will be the most critical time. The Xuanwu Gate Incident also happened when the emperor was old."

When Li Yan said this, his eyes became unfathomable: "You have plenty of time to grow up now. The responsibility of the Jinyiwei is the external forces, and your duty as the Zhenfusi is to supervise the Jinyiwei and the internal supervision. You must never forget this."

"Also, I am temporarily serving as the commander of the Imperial Guards, but the Pacification Division is not under the jurisdiction of the commander and is directly responsible to me. Even if another commander is appointed in the future, you don't have to listen to him, understand?"

Wang Xuance replied solemnly: "Don't worry, Your Highness. I know."

"By the way, is there any movement from the King of Shu recently?"

Wang Xuance smiled and said, "My insider has been arranged in Quan Wanji's mansion. According to the news from Quan Wanji, the King of Shu was frightened by Yuchi Gong and plans to advise the emperor to send Yuchi Gong to a post in a remote place to keep him out of the spotlight for the time being."

"In addition, Quan Wanji has persuaded the King of Shu to ask the Emperor for permission to participate in the transportation of grain and grass. It is estimated that action will be taken soon."

Li Yan nodded in satisfaction: "It's different with an insider. Not only will we know every move of the Shu Palace, but we can also guide the Shu King to take some actions that are beneficial to us."

"You should also step up your efforts on the Wei and Qi princes, as well as those young princes, especially the legitimate prince of Jin. It will be easy to place him now since he is still young. In a dozen years, when he grows up, our people will be able to get important positions beside him."

"For these people, we must follow a principle: only monitor, not interfere. When the war comes, we will see the miraculous effect!"

At this point, Li Yan suddenly had a brilliant idea and smiled strangely: "Xuan Ce, can we help the King of Shu build an information network?"

Wang Xuance was stunned for a moment, and after a brief thought, his face suddenly lit up with excitement. He said excitedly, "Your Highness, what you mean is to let Quan Wanji come forward and build an internal network for the King of Shu, and then send our people in, using the King of Shu's connections and power to infiltrate the forces of those princes and aristocratic families."

"In this way, the King of Shu will become a puppet of ours. We will hide behind the scenes. If those people are exposed, only the King of Shu will be implicated, while we can be safe and sound and move forward and backward calmly."

Li Yan smiled and nodded: "Don't you think this will be more interesting?"

"Your Highness is really smart and wise. Such a brilliant idea, I am really jealous of your talent."

Wang Xuance flattered him, then smiled cunningly, "Not only the King of Shu, but we can also use this method on the King of Wei and the King of Qi in the future. These two princes are not much younger than the King of Shu, and they are also ambitious people."

"As long as they have the intention of seizing the throne, they will take this step sooner or later. If we make arrangements in advance, we can secretly take this piece. Especially the King of Qi, he is far away in Shandong and acts even more unscrupulously. We can use his resources and power to do many things."

"Moreover, at the last critical moment, we can also detonate these information networks and destroy their ambitions to seize the throne. This can be said to kill two birds with one stone."

Li Yan was full of admiration: "Xuan Ce, you can draw inferences from one example and think more long-term than I do. It seems that I was right about you. You are born to do this job."

Wang Xuance was stunned and immediately gave a bitter smile. He didn't know whether His Highness was making fun of him or praising him. Just as he was about to speak.

Suddenly, the door of the study was pushed open with a bang, startling Li Yan and Wang Xuance.

The two turned around and saw a girl jumping in like a fairy, with a happy face: "Brother Crown Prince, you are here. I have been looking for you in the palace for a long time."

"Why are you coming to me instead of staying in the palace to accompany your mother?" Li Yan looked helpless.

Wang Xuance bowed quickly and said, "Greetings to Your Highness, Princess, and Crown Prince. I will take my leave now."

Li Yan nodded. Ankang's face was red from running, and sweat was oozing out from his forehead. He smiled mischievously, and waited until Wang Xuance left. Then he panted, holding the peach blossom in his hand and said excitedly, "Brother, she's back."

"Who?"

Li Yan was stunned. He saw Ankang smiling mysteriously and shaking the peach blossoms in his hand. "I'm curious. Where did you pick these peach blossoms? They're pretty."

Ankang immediately rolled his eyes at Li Yan and said coquettishly, "You idiot, this is not a peach blossom, it's a crabapple blossom, okay?"

Well.
Li Yan was stunned. Damn, Haitang, isn’t it?
I had really forgotten everything, I almost forgot that I had a wife who I had been engaged to since childhood.

After the Bianqiao Alliance in the ninth year of Wude, Li Shimin temporarily stabilized the northern Turks, and then sent his trusted general Hou Junji to the southern strategic Xiangyang to quell the rebellion. Following Li Shimin's strategy of pacifying the north and suppressing the south, Hou Junji was ruthless and tough on the rebellion in the south. However, the south is densely networked with rivers and the situation is complicated. It took three years for him to calm down the situation, and only a few remnants of bandits remained.

Li Shimin was relieved and recalled the general to prepare to deal with the Turks.

Li Yan imagined that around this time, Hou Junji would also return to Beijing to help Lao Li train the Flying Tigers, and his wife-to-be would also come back with him.

Perhaps because Li Yan was still young, he had never thought about getting married. Now that Ankang mentioned it, he realized that he might not be single for much longer. Once married, it would not be so convenient for him to do things.

After all, there is only one master in the East Palace now. If she gets married, there will be two masters. The Crown Princess can also be exposed to many things. Even if she won't interfere, she still needs to understand, right? After being under the eyes for a long time, some secrets can no longer be kept.

To be honest, Li Yan really doesn't want to get married so early, but there are some things that are beyond his control.

Seeing Li Yan standing there for a long time without saying anything, Xiao Ankang frowned and said, "Brother, you don't look very happy?"

"Nonsense, I was so happy that I was dumbfounded."

Ankang's pretty eyes turned white, and the corners of his mouth curled up: "You are not stupid because of happiness, you are stupid to begin with."

"Okay, if you dare to say that to your brother, I will punish you."

"Oh, brother, you again..."

Li Yan instantly regained his boyish liveliness and stretched his hand to tickle Ankang's armpit. Ankang immediately squirmed and said, "Hehehe, stop it. It's itchy."

"Brother, you're pregnant. I won't play with you anymore." Little Ankang was like an elf, hiding and running outside.

On this day, in a house in Anxingfang, Li Shimin personally welcomed Hou Junji and his daughter who returned to Chang'an from Xiangyang, and appointed Hou Junji as the General of the Right Guard on the spot, replacing Yuchi Gong. During the meeting in Chengqing Hall a few days ago, Cen Wenben suggested that Yuchi Gong be appointed as the governor of Xiangzhou and garrison the Jingxiang area, and several important ministers agreed.

So this matter was quickly implemented, and the positions of Yuchi Gong and Hou Junji were changed.

Later, Li Shimin talked about letting Hou Junji train the Flying Tiger Army, but Hou Junji declined.

Li Shimin returned to Chengqing Hall of Taiji Palace in depression. After much thought and discussion with Fang Xuanling, he decided to appoint the crown prince to train the Flying Tiger Army, and Li Kexiang to train the Zuo Wuwei Army and take charge of the Zuo Tunwei Army.

After Li Yan received the imperial edict in the Eastern Palace, he was immediately furious. He knew that this was not an easy task and it would be obviously embarrassing.

But even so, he could not not only embarrass himself, but also be secretly tricked by Li Shimin. At least he had to tell the truth and not be reappointed and appointed by Li Shimin afterwards.

He secretly despised Li Shimin in his heart. He thought he was already very low-key now. Who asked you to bring Hou Junji back and give him half of the imperial guards? What did it have to do with him?
Now you think you are too strong?
If you want me to be a decoration to influence Hou Junji, you can just tell me clearly, right? We are together to trick the old Hou, but you hide it from me, the prince. It is obvious that you want to kill rabbits by robbing straw, and you even plotted against yourself.

Li Yan came to Chengqing Hall with an indignant mood and met Li Shimin who was discussing military affairs with Fang Xuanling.

After paying respect to Li Shimin, Li Yan said bluntly: "Father, you know, it's not that I don't want to share your worries, but I know myself. Everyone in the court knows that I have been kind and benevolent since I was a child. I can't bear to kill even a chicken. As the saying goes, kindness cannot lead the army. Third brother is resolute and decisive, why not let third brother train the Flying Tiger Army?"

"What, you."

When Li Shimin heard Li Yan's frank words, he glanced at Fang Xuanling unconsciously. Fang Xuanling had just said these words to him. He didn't expect to hear such an evaluation again after a while, and it was said by the person involved himself.

But after Fang Xuanling finished drafting the edict, he stayed in Chengqing Hall and never left. It was obvious that he could not say these words to the prince, which meant that this was the prince's true opinion of him.

Li Shimin looked at Li Yan holding the imperial edict that had just been issued and was still warm in his hand, and his face suddenly turned gloomy and he became furious.

He stood up, walked in front of Li Yan, pointed his finger at Li Yan and said "you" for a long time, then said angrily: "How dare you say these words? In front of me and Lord Fang, it's so shameless."

"Last time I asked you to build a canal, you pushed it to the King of Shu. This time I asked you to train troops, you pushed it to the King of Shu again. Why don't you give him the position of Crown Prince as well?"

(End of this chapter)