Chapter 25 Ah Ku
Li Jiancheng led his sisters back home and asked them to go and pay their respects to their mother first. He then changed his clothes before going over.

I heard crying sounds just outside the courtyard gate. When I walked inside, I saw the sisters surrounding the bed and coaxing the baby. Their eyes were shining and they insisted that he call them sisters, but Li Xiaoer didn't know how to speak.

Li Jiancheng stepped forward and said with a smile: "I bought a parrot for Xiaoer. It can talk. You might as well teach it to call me sister first."

The younger ones scattered when they heard this, chattering about teaching the parrot what to say first. Only the eldest and second sisters stayed to look after their younger brother. They were one year younger than Li Jiancheng and as concubines' daughters, they were naturally more sensible.

Seeing this, Dou said, "You two should go too. The nurse is here to look after the sisters."

"Yes, mother, the daughters will go right away."

Li Jiancheng stepped forward and picked up his brother and said, "You've gotten a little fatter, mother. Didn't father give you a name in the letter?"

Dou shook her head and said, "Let's follow the rules and give her a nickname first. It won't be too late to give her a real name in a few years."

"Have you picked a nickname yet?"

"My name is Ah Ju."

Li Jiancheng looked at the little man in his arms and for some reason couldn't help laughing. His waist was bent with laughter. It took him a long time to recover and asked, "Why do you call him Ah Ju?"

"This year is the Year of the Wuwu."

“Oh~.”

If you think about it carefully, it sounds nice and not a bad name. But Li Jiancheng originally thought that he would give him a Buddhist name like him, which is at least better than the future nickname of Li Yuanji, Sanhu.

While the mother and son were talking, a maid came to report: "The chief steward said that the Duke of Yue's mansion has sent three carts of gold and silver objects and silk cloth, as well as ten fine horses, and asked whether Madam should accept them."

Li Jiancheng frowned. He looked down upon this gesture of goodwill, but he also didn't want to embarrass the Yang family at this time, so he nodded slightly.

Seeing this, Dou ordered, "Take it, and count the list of good gifts and send it to me."

After handing Ah Ju over to the nurse to be fed, Li Jiancheng said to his mother, "I met Yang Yue in private, and he must be interested."

Dou nodded: "Yang Su's strategist is only his brother Yue. If he is moved, he will be able to persuade his brother."

"I just discussed this with my uncle."

"The Dou family is not doing well recently, so I think they will agree. But they can't do much, and the King of Jin may not think highly of them. Son, don't talk to other families, just wait for the King of Jin's order."

"Yeah, that's what I think too."

…………

The next morning, Li Jiancheng wrote a letter and asked his servant to deliver it to Prince Jin's mansion. Then he rushed to the palace as there was a court meeting today.

She entered the palace, changed into embroidered clothes with flower ornaments, and followed the emperor and empress to court. I don't know what happened yesterday, but the emperor and empress started to go in and out together again.

Li Jiancheng fell behind and told the female official beside the queen that Yang Yue wanted to pay a visit to the queen, and asked her to help convey his message later.

Then he accompanied the emperor to court, where the main topics discussed were the Turkic affairs and the return of Changsun Sheng to the capital. He was promoted to General of the Left Guard and given a fief of 500 households, as well as grain, silk, slaves, and miscellaneous livestock.

Changsun Sheng was really handsome, not in appearance, but in his bearing. He might not be an invincible commander, nor a prime minister who could rule the country and keep the people safe, but he was definitely a key figure in the reunification of the world. Without his strategy of making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby ones, separating the strong and uniting the weak, and splitting the Turks, the Sui Dynasty would not have had the opportunity to go south to destroy the Chen Dynasty and unify the world.

The Turks are not fools. They know very well what impact the unification of the Central Plains will bring. If the Turks had not been divided and not fallen into civil war, they would never sit idly by and watch the Southern Chen Dynasty perish.

Even though they knew what he had done, the Turks still respected Changsun very much. When they heard the sound of his bow, they called it thunder, and when they saw him riding a horse, they called it lightning.

Many Turkic nobles were proud to have known Changsun Sheng, something that neither Gao Zuo nor Yang Su had done.

After the court was dismissed, Yang Jian took Changsun Sheng to meet Dugu Qieluo. The three talked for a long time, and then Changsun Sheng had to leave Beijing again to resettle more than 10,000 Turks who had surrendered to Tuli Khan.

After escorting the emperor and empress back to the palace, several people returned to the classroom to chat. After a while, Yang Yue arrived. After a brief search, he was led into the palace by a female official.

In Yong'an Palace, Yang Yue bowed to meet the empress, and Dugu Qieluo asked her to sit down. He first reported to the empress on some recent government affairs of the Dali Temple, and received a few words of advice from the empress, which he gladly accepted.

Then, as if inadvertently referring to Yang Guang, he said, "The Prince of Jin is filial, respectful, and frugal, like the Supreme Lord."

No matter what, it’s not wrong to say that a son looks like his father.

Dugu Jialuo nodded and smiled happily, "You are right. My son is very filial. Whenever he heard that Your Majesty and I were sending eunuchs and palace maids to go, he would wait in front of the palace gate early."

"At this age, when you talk about leaving Beijing, you will definitely cry because you can't bear to leave us. My daughter-in-law is also very filial. I sent a maid to go with her and she often sleeps and eats with her."

Yang Yue quickly agreed, "I've never heard of anything like this. This is all thanks to your Majesty and your Majesty's teaching by example."

The two of them talked for two full cups of tea about how filial the Prince of Jin and his wife were.

Yang Yue bowed and left with satisfaction. After he left, Dugu Jialuo slowly stopped smiling, and loneliness spread from inside out. Although they went in and out together again, Naluo Yan was no longer willing to stay with her while she handled state affairs.

After finishing his shift that day, Li Jiancheng just walked out of the palace gate when he saw a servant leading another person forward. The man came forward and saluted, saying, "My lord, His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin has ordered me to invite you to his palace."

The people who resigned together were a little surprised, but they didn't say anything. They said goodbye and left.

Li Jiancheng was also a little surprised. After all, he was a Qianniu Beishen. Although such dealings would not cause any major problems, they would easily make the emperor displeased.

Of course, this displeasure was not directed at Li Jiancheng. Yang Jian already hated him. Instead, he was considering Yang Guang. If he wanted to seize the throne, the emperor's favor was still very important.

Yang Guang was so smart that this shouldn't have happened. But since it was Yang Guang's order, there was no need for him to think too much about it. He must have considered it.

After accepting the offer, he mounted his horse and headed straight for Prince Jin's mansion. The Prince of Jin and his wife were not seen in front of the mansion gate, but the servants of Prince Jin's mansion came forward to greet them, holding the reins, helping the horse and moving the footstool as if they were their own husbands.

He even handed Li Jiancheng a towel to wipe his hands, and then let him go straight in.

After entering the main hall, he found that there were quite a few people sitting inside. When Yang Guang saw Li Jiancheng arriving, he smiled and pointed to the seats on the side, then continued speaking.

This familiarity made those who were familiar with Yang Guang's style of treating the wise and humble with respect feel surprised, and then envious. They also hoped that the King of Jin would treat them in the same way.

Li Jiancheng sat down and listened quietly for a while. They talked about the affairs of the court, but more about the government affairs in Jiangdu. Judging from their accents, there were many people from Jiangnan, and they were obviously the team recruited by Yang Guang when he was the governor of Yangzhou.

...............

(End of this chapter)