Chapter 71: The Sun's Watch
In the past, the late emperor once said to the public, "In previous generations, the emperors indulged in favorites, and the legitimate and illegitimate sons quarreled, which led to the dethronement of the emperor and the destruction of the country. I have no concubines by my side, and my five sons have the same mother. They can be called true brothers. Why should I worry about this?"

Now, Yang Yong and Yang Jun are both dead, and Yang Xiu and Yang Liang have been demoted to commoners and imprisoned in Beijing. They are indeed true brothers and there is no need to worry.

But there was also a problem, that is, without the royal family and princes sitting in the general administration offices in various places, the Yang family's control over the world weakened, especially in Shandong and Jiangnan regions.

The emperor thought he was perfect in every way except for his offspring, as he only had two sons to please Dugu's preferences, which was a great shortcoming.

No matter what, Crown Prince Yang Zhao can only serve as the head of state in the Eastern Palace. The remaining Yang Ling will not be enough no matter where he is placed.

Therefore, the emperor immediately decided to tour Luoyang, taking the empress and the crown prince with him, and leaving the prince of Qi to guard the capital.

Chang'an is still too far to the northwest, so he wants to personally investigate Luoyang to see if it has the potential to suppress the east and deter the south.

No matter when or where there is instability, building a capital and suppressing the rebellion nearby is the best way. In two or three generations, they can be transformed into the most loyal people.

Just like when the Zhou Dynasty was established, the remnants of the Shang Dynasty were concentrated in Luoyi and then made the capital. They all became people under the feet of the emperor and enjoyed prosperity. Who would still miss the previous dynasty?

……

Li Yuan and Li Jiancheng did not accompany him because there was a conflict between the left and right ministers in the court. The Li family did not dare to get involved this time, so the whole family simply left Beijing and returned to Wugong Villa to live temporarily.

Li Jiancheng also relaxed for a rare time and took his younger brothers and sisters to enjoy the leisure time in the countryside. One day when he came back from shooting rabbits, he saw Li Yuan in casual clothes talking with a man dressed as a Taoist priest.

After they came forward and bowed, Li Yuan introduced them, "This is Taoist Master Qingyue. He read my face and bones for me in my early years, and it was very accurate. It's a rare opportunity to meet you again, so I asked him to read your face for you."

Li Jiancheng and others were not surprised or resisted. This was a very common thing. Whenever you left the government office and walked alone in the South City, ten monks and Taoists would stop you and ask to read your fortune, and they would all praise it highly.

Generally, children of nobles will have this step when they reach a certain age. Most of them will exaggerate the situation to make the host family happy. If the child achieves some success when he grows up, it can be publicized and become a good story.

Li Jiancheng's nickname Bishamon came from this. It was an eminent monk who came from Mount Songshan, who said that Li Jiancheng would be a person who could hold the umbrella of wisdom to protect all living beings in the future.

Therefore, Taoist Master Qingyue just praised Li Jiancheng as usual, and then looked at Ah Ju and Dade in circles. After a long time, he said to Li Yuan: "You are a noble man, and your children are all noble sons."

He pointed at Ah Ju who was holding a small bow in one hand and a rabbit ear in the other and said, "Your Second Young Master has the talent of a dragon and a phoenix. Judging from his appearance, he will be able to benefit the people and bring peace to the world after he reaches the age of twenty. This is really rare."

Li Yuan nodded happily and said, "My Erlang is extremely intelligent. The Taoist priest is indeed a master of divination."

Li Jiancheng looked down and could not see any signs of a noble character or a noble character on this child's face.

Seeing that Li Jiancheng was a little confused, the Taoist priest smiled and gave him some pointers. It turned out that the appearance of a dragon and a phoenix was a jade-colored face with a delicate and beautiful appearance.

The sign of the sun and the sky is that the joint of the skull at the center of the forehead is relatively flat, forming a round mark, like the noon sun.

Li Yuan pushed Dade out again and said, "Please take a look at my Sanlang."

Taoist Qingfeng took a look and said, "This noble boy has been seen by eminent monks, so I can't say much." Upon hearing this, Li Yuan trusted him even more, and they talked about the Heavenly Sun Table for a long time. After clapping their hands, they decided that Aju's name would be Shimin, Li Shimin!
The newly-minted Li Shimin was obviously very arrogant. He raised his head and said to Li Jiancheng beside him: "Next time, I will be the general of the Northern Expedition and you will be the Khan of the Turks."

A slap from Li Jiancheng made Li Shimin's eyes clear again, even with a tear in them. Tianrizhibiao took the rabbit and ran to Dou to complain, wiping his tears.

Li Yuan took Qingfeng to see Silang, while Li Jiancheng left the others behind and rode to the most remote farm under the villa, where a guest had been waiting for him for a long time.

Li Jiancheng handed the horse to the Turkic slave who came over and asked him a few questions in Turkic. After getting a satisfactory answer, he entered the farm. Most of the people here were Li Jiancheng's confidants.

There were servants who had grown up with him, slaves he brought back from the northern expedition against the Turks, and righteous men who had been favored by him in recent years. There were not many people, only about two or three hundred.

Of course, Li Jiancheng still had seven or eight such farms in the Sui Dynasty, and this was already his limit. He could not afford to support more. These people could not just survive by starving to death.

He would stop and greet everyone he met. In the innermost room, a young man was boiling water and a middle-aged scholar was reading. If King Yang Liang of Han was there, he would surely recognize that this was his mastermind of the rebellion, Wang Hu.

Li Jiancheng had someone bring him here, so of course he knew him, but Wang Long knew nothing about him. Seeing that he had an extraordinary demeanor and realizing that the guards had great respect for him, he put down the book and stood up.

"I would like to thank you for saving my life."

Li Jiancheng smiled and said, "You're welcome. It's a pity that a great talent died before he could display his talent."

"I dare not talk about my great talent. When I was young, I loved to travel. At the age of 20, I still did not know how to read. My elder brother scolded me and I started to study hard. I studied diligently for many years and found out the meaning of my studies. Although I was praised by people at that time, now it seems nothing but a joke."

"Brother Wang, do you think the defeat of the King of Han is your fault?"

Wang Long hesitated for a moment and said, "I think my calculations are not inferior to Yang Su's, and my judgment of the situation at that time was not wrong. If the King of Han had followed my advice and not divided his troops, but had focused all his efforts on advancing into Guanzhong, he would have had a chance to surround the capital."

Li Jiancheng also nodded and said, "I really didn't expect the King of Han to raise an army so quickly. The troops that the court could mobilize at that time were inferior to those of the King of Han, and Jinyang was too close to Chang'an."

"It's just that my brother has misjudged Yang Liang. He is far from being a good ruler."

Wang Yu shook his head and smiled, "I am more optimistic about King Shu Yang Xiu, but it's a pity that he was imprisoned in the capital early on. Apart from the King of Han, we have no other choice. No matter how bad the King of Han is, he still has 300,000 soldiers and horses."

"I know everything you said, sir. Now I would like to ask who you are and why you risked your life to save me?"

Li Jiancheng answered truthfully: "I am Li Jiancheng."

"I have heard of Mr. Li's name, and I admire his poetry and prose very much. I have always wanted to meet him, but I have never been able to do so." Wang Lu was a little surprised: "But I never thought why Mr. Li would save me."

"There's no special reason. It just so happened that I was in charge of the hunt, and I happened to have read Brother Wang's book The Great Meaning of the Five Classics a few years ago. I was impressed by his talent, so I ordered my confidant to bring Brother Wang back and find another dead body as a replacement."

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

(End of this chapter)