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

Chapter 717 Li Ke is about to nail it down

At the court meeting on the second day, Wei Zheng reported the details of the investigation into the Flying Tiger Army case in front of all the civil and military officials in the court.

"Your Majesty, according to my investigation, when the Flying Tiger Army was being trained, the national treasury was unable to allocate enough military funds, so His Royal Highness the Crown Prince followed the emperor's wishes and privately raised funds for the required military funds."

"Therefore, some people who obviously did not meet the requirements sneaked into the Flying Tiger Army under the guise of donations, such as Lord Cen's nephew Hu Lixian, Lord Du's nephew Zhou Yande, the Prince of Qi's brother-in-law Liang Sijin, and Xue Guogong's eldest grandson Shunde's son-in-law Luo Ensheng. This is the case."

Wei Zheng's clear voice echoed in the hall: "Because of their enthusiastic donations, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has temporarily appointed them as General Inspector Zhonglang in the name of General Flying Tiger. This will be used to select soldiers for the Flying Tiger Army and to see if they are capable of doing the job."

"Later, facts proved that although they contributed to the establishment of the Flying Tiger Army, they were unable to fulfill their duties. Before I received the order to enter the Flying Tiger Army, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had already planned to withdraw them all."

"Of course, due to their unqualified status, some Beijing playboys did sneak into the Flying Tiger Army. After screening, they have all been cleared out."

"Some officials and common people did not know the details and regarded the act of donating military funds as corruption, which led to a huge misunderstanding. Moreover, they did not know that the Flying Tiger Army was not established, and the officers and even ordinary soldiers in the army were not recognized by the court."

"So, even if there are some bad phenomena within the organization, they are not within the jurisdiction of the Tang Dynasty Law and are not enough to constitute a crime."

At this time, Li Ge and Li Tai, who were standing in front of the civil officials, looked gloomy and looked at Wei Zheng with great resentment, obviously with a doubtful look. However, Li Shimin, who was sitting high on the dragon throne, was very satisfied, and his eyes swept over the two from time to time, making them dare not cause trouble.

When the other ministers knew that the matter had been taken over by the emperor, they did not dare to provoke again. Although everyone knew what was going on, they did not dare to bring up the matter.

Li Shimin nodded with satisfaction: "Wei Zheng, after your investigation, how much funds has the Flying Tiger Army raised in the past half month?"

"Your Majesty, after verification by this old minister, a total of more than 1.9 million strings of cash have been raised for military funds."

As soon as these words came out, except for Li Yan who was standing in the first position, Li Ge and Li Tai's faces turned red. How could it be possible? The two families alone contributed two million strings of cash, and Wei Zheng only found out 1.9 million strings of cash. It was obvious that someone was playing tricks.

The two men immediately turned to look at Li Shimin, as if they wanted to report something to Li Shimin.

Who would have thought that what they were greeted with was an extremely sharp warning look. The two men's expressions froze, and a panicking thought jumped into their minds. Someone was indeed up to something, but it was not Wei Zheng, nor the prince, but Li Shimin, who was sitting on the dragon throne.

Thinking of this, the two of them hurriedly lowered their heads and dared not question it anymore.

Wei Zheng said calmly, "Your Majesty, facts have proven that this kind of military fund-raising is not conducive to supervision and is prone to corruption. The old ministers and the Imperial Clerk agree that this trend should not be allowed to grow and this precedent should not be set. Please issue an order that no one will be allowed to raise military funds in the name of donations."

"Well, my dear, what you said makes sense."

Li Shimin, who had made a fortune, was very happy: "I really thought this matter was simple before, but I didn't expect there would be such a big hidden danger. This is also because I had no experience before. In this case, this kind of thing should not be carried out in the future."

"Prince, did you hear clearly what Wei Zheng said?" Li Shimin said to Li Yan.

Li Yan stood up and answered honestly: "It was father, it was all my fault for being reckless. Not only did I almost hurt myself, I also nearly implicated my third, fourth, and fifth brothers. Please punish me, father."

"Forget it, you are still young. It is normal for young people to make mistakes and take detours. I have gone through this myself."

Li Shimin generously tolerated the young prince: "However, this incident also proves that you are still too inexperienced in military affairs. As the crown prince of a great country, you are not good enough if you don't know how to command the army. The Flying Tiger Army will continue to be handed over to you."

"You must work diligently and conscientiously to train the Flying Tiger Army into a strong army. Its combat effectiveness must be at least as good as that in the ninth year of Wude."

"Yes, Father, I obey your order!"

Li Ke and Li Tai watched Li Shimin and Li Yan acting in front of all the civil and military officials in the court. They felt hatred and heartache for their own money. This time, the two princes lost more than one million strings of cash, especially the Prince of Qi, who had spent all the money he had collected outside for many years.

Fortunately, the King of Qi was not in the court, otherwise he would have rebelled immediately.
Wei Zheng reported less than two million strings of cash, but although the two did not participate in it personally, they both knew that Li Shimin's gains this time would probably be ten times more.

But no one dared to expose it. Who would have known that Li Shimin actually stepped forward to take on this matter for the prince? With the emperor's endorsement, who would dare to rush forward without fear of death? And those ordinary ministers did not dare to cause trouble. As his sons, how could Li Ke and Li Tai dare to cause trouble?

They were even afraid that Li Shimin would investigate why they spent so much money to buy official positions for their cronies. They knew that Wei Zheng had thoroughly investigated everything in the Flying Tiger Army, and now he didn't hold them accountable, probably because of their contributions to the Northern Expedition.

Who would have thought that the prince really didn't take a penny?

This time, he was doomed to fail. If he continued to be unyielding, he would probably suffer in the end! The reason why Li Shimin could suppress the officials so easily was not only because of his power as an emperor, but also because of the general trend.

With military funds, the largest foreign war since the founding of the Tang Dynasty can be launched immediately.

The military generals were excited and ready to fight, knowing that the biggest obstacle that had troubled the emperor no longer existed. The important military generals including Li Jing, Li Ji, Chai Shao and Li Daozon did not want the power struggles among the princes to affect their own achievements.

This was a feast for the generals. After this battle, many goals could be achieved, such as promotion, title, fief, spoils of war, and even supporting younger generations and attacking political enemies.

Who has the energy to care about the fights between the emperor's children?
So they came forward to put pressure on the case, and with the joint efforts of the generals in the army, a case involving hundreds of officials, including several princes of the Crown Prince and the Empress Dowager, and involving a huge amount of wealth of nearly 20 million strings of cash, was settled.

Generally speaking, the struggles within the court are matters of the civil service system, and the military does not get involved.

But as long as the generals in the army were of the same opinion, there was basically no need to argue, and even the emperor did not dare to take it lightly. It was obvious that the military had their eyes on this money, and everyone was grateful to the prince for raising the money.

Of course, the princes who made contributions would not be blamed anymore, so let it be! Anyway, no one was punished, and the core interests of the civil service system were not affected. It was just a loss of money. The Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice did not imprison anyone, so what else can you say?
Go home quickly, take a shower and go to bed, so as not to delay us from dividing the cake.

Next, Li Shimin, who was not short of money, put all his energy into the planning of the Battle of Dingxiang. Within a few days, he set up marching roads one after another along the thousands of kilometers of border between the north and the Turkic line and along important border towns.

For five consecutive days, Li Shimin met with an important military general every day and issued an imperial edict.

Among them, Bingzhou governor Li Ji was appointed as the marching commander-in-chief of Tongmo Road, Zuowuwei general Chai Shao was appointed as the marching commander-in-chief of Jinhe Road, Lingzhou governor Rencheng King Li Daozon was appointed as the marching commander-in-chief of Datong Road, Youzhou governor Wei Xiaojie was appointed as the marching commander-in-chief of Heng'an Road, Yingzhou governor Xue Wanshu was appointed as the marching commander-in-chief of Changwu Road.

Together with Cheng Zhijie, the commander-in-chief of the Dingxiang Road, a total of six important generals lined up from northwest to east, making organizational preparations for the upcoming Dingxiang Battle.

Fang Xuanling, Changsun Wuji, Cen Wenben and other ministers of the Prime Minister's Office either stayed in Chengqing Hall every day, or arranged various preparatory matters in Hongwen Hall with Li Shimin. They were busy all day long.

Under such circumstances, Li Shimin still did not forget Li Yan's marriage, and ordered the Prince's tutor Zhang Xuansu to propose marriage to Hou Junji's mansion.

Li Yan knew that Li Shimin was using his actions to show the court that the crown prince's position was unbreakable and that neither the King of Shu nor the King of Wei could replace him. All ministers should put aside their inappropriate thoughts and focus their energy on the upcoming decisive battle for the fate of the Tang Dynasty.

But Li Shimin did not expect that under such circumstances, Hou Junji, who was the least likely to get into trouble, would cause trouble.

It is not known what Zhang Xuansu and Hou Junji talked about, but shortly after Zhang Xuansu proposed marriage on behalf of the royal family, Chi Deli, Hou Junji's confidant who had followed him for more than 20 years, suddenly betrayed Hou Junji and threw himself into the arms of Li Ke, King of Shu.

He reported to the King of Shu that Hou Junji had embezzled one million strings of cash. However, Li Ke could not help but take action again. He repeated his old trick and killed someone with a borrowed knife, and reported the matter to Wei Zheng.

Wei Zheng would not tolerate any grain of sand in his eyes, and at the instigation of Li Ke, he led his troops to surround Hou Junji's mansion.

Although a silver note worth one million strings of cash was finally found, it also alarmed Li Shimin.

Li Shimin stood up and personally testified for Hou Junji, reprimanded Wei Zheng, and stripped Li Ke of his princely title.

When Hou Junji was plotting against Li Ke, Li Yan stayed in the East Palace and watched coldly without interfering.

First of all, the daily political ecology of the power core is a struggle. Getting things done is the job of the grassroots, and the job of the top leaders is to fight for power and profit. In the extremely cruel competition, the players with the strongest comprehensive strength are selected, and then they lead the team to expand the national living space.

Therefore, in the circles of all classes, intrigues are everywhere, and deception is the norm. Everyone can play chess, or be a chess piece, and they are all trying to increase their own power. Li Yan cannot intervene in everything, and has no right to interfere;
Secondly, Li Yan's biggest advantage as a time traveler is that he can know the plot in advance. If he were to take care of everything and the plot was completely changed, he would be in trouble and could only rely on his own political wisdom to deal with it, and he would inevitably lose the initiative.

However, when Wang Xuance reported to Li Yan that Hou Haitang went to Huichang Temple outside the city to burn incense, and the King of Shu followed him into Huichang Temple.

Li Yan knew that he couldn't wait any longer.

If he waited any longer, he would have to wear a hat, which Li Yan could not tolerate.
When Li Yan brought Wang Xuance and several guards to Huichang Temple in the east of the city, Li Ke had also discussed the matter with Haitang.

The two of them walked out of the temple gate one after the other and prepared to go to Li Ke's villa.

(End of this chapter)