Chapter 86 Three Books
The emperor lived a very comfortable life under Qimin Khan's service, especially with the respect paid by many envoys from vassal states. It happened that Goguryeo sent envoys to pay a visit to Qimin Khan.

The emperor summoned the envoy and ordered him to return to tell the king of Goguryeo: "Order him to come to the court as soon as possible. If he fails, I will lead the Turks to kill him immediately."

None of the ministers took this matter to heart, but Li Jiancheng's heart was beating fast, and finally it was almost over.

Goguryeo was originally just a minority regime active in the Changbai Mountain area. After the Central Plains regime moved south, Goguryeo took the opportunity to move south and not only occupied the original three counties in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, but also invaded a lot of territory on the Liaodong Peninsula.

Moreover, he has now turned the Shiwei and Mohe tribes in the north into his vassals, and is constantly putting pressure on Baekje and Silla in the south, like a small hegemony.

After the banquet, the emperor continued to play here for a few days. Finally, under the persuasion of his ministers, he returned to the capital. However, he refused to take the spacious official road back to the capital and insisted on seeing the beauties of the border areas.

So hundreds of thousands of troops followed him, climbing mountains and crossing ridges to build bridges and roads. The emperor naturally enjoyed the scenery, but the soldiers and ministers suffered.

Moreover, after the emperor left the Turkic area, he suddenly issued an edict to mobilize more than one million men to build the Great Wall, which blocked Yulin in the west and reached Zihe in the east.

Another million people, and who knows how many will die of exhaustion, freezing, or disease. Especially since the Turks have been successfully intimidated, the court officials ignored the emperor's past threats and wrote letters to the emperor to advise the emperor.

But the emperor was already indulging in his heroic deeds that intimidated the world.

When a person acts as a hero for a long time, he will increasingly feel that he is omnipotent. He will only see his own strength and believe in his own wisdom. He will become more and more contemptuous of others, not to mention the courtiers whom he has always regarded as just tools.

Yang Guang was very angry that these tools were not working properly and suddenly started talking, so he decided to use the trick of killing the chicken to scare the monkey.

Li Jiancheng and his ilk are obviously not enough, we have to pick the ones with the biggest names.

Therefore, several old ministers left over from the previous emperor became the best choices, including Gao Jiong, He Ruobi and Yuwen Bi.

It just so happened that the three of them had complained a lot along the way. After the Turkic banquet, Gao Zuo once said, "The court has no rules and regulations recently."

He Ruobi once said, "Isn't it too much to compare the extravagance of Tianyuan with today's comparison?" because the emperor built a large tent for 10,000 people.

We all couldn't stand the extravagance of Emperor Tianyuan back then, and now look at the current emperor, isn't he even worse than before?

A few days ago, Yuwen Bi also complained that the emperor had conscripted millions of civilians to build the Great Wall, saying, "Fortunately, the Great Wall project is not an urgent matter."

In fact, many people have said these words recently, and some have even gone too far. However, the emperor was in high spirits at the time and did not pay too much attention to these foolish opinions.

Now the emperor wanted to make a fuss, so he issued an edict: "Gao Jiong, Yuwen Bi, and He Ruobi, who slandered the government, shall be sentenced to death, and their children and grandchildren shall be exiled to the frontier or taken into the harem as slaves."

Three old ministers who had been prominent for decades died just like sheep being slaughtered every day. When their heads were brought up, the ministers accompanying the emperor were afraid and kept their mouths shut.

The Emperor was victorious once again, as always.

.........

In the fourth year of Daye, Li Jiancheng and a group of friends hunted six wild geese outside the capital city. After carefully tying them up, he thanked everyone.

The etiquette of three letters and six betrothal gifts cannot be abolished. After returning to the city, Li Jiancheng handed the two wild geese to the most famous matchmaker in the capital. In addition, the Li family servants led sheep, fragrant herbs, deer, glue, lacquer, acacia bells, mandarin ducks and other auspicious things behind them and went straight to the Liangguogong Mansion. The Xiao Mansion was naturally prepared and welcomed them in. The matchmaker saluted respectfully: "Mr. Li has a gift for your family. I dare to ask for your marriage proposal."

Duke Xiao Cong of Liang reached out to take the wild goose, and then asked about the man's situation as usual. The matchmaker's eyes opened wide and he spoke eloquently, and he elaborated on the situation of the Li family and Li Jiancheng.

With the matchmaker's ability, even Yu Wenzhi could be praised to great heights, not to mention the world-famous Li Jiancheng. After hearing this, many of the Xiao family's relatives were very satisfied, as they knew the family had another outstanding son-in-law.

The marriage was settled as long as the gift was accepted. The next day, the matchmaker came again, presented a wild goose, and successfully retrieved the Geng Tie with Xiao's name and birth date written on it.

After bringing it back to the Duke of Tang's mansion, Li Yuan and Dou placed the engagement letter in front of their ancestral tablets. After a night, they took it back and said to the matchmaker, "Good luck!"

The matchmaker went to the Duke of Liang's mansion again and handed the letter with Li Jiancheng's name and birth date to Xiao Cong, saying, "Duke Xiao has given it to me, and Duke Li has consulted the divination. The divination says it is auspicious, so I dare to tell you."

Xiao Cong handed the letter to an uncle, who took it and went to the back hall to sit down and drink a cup of tea, then came out and said, "This couple is made in heaven, and I wish you the best of luck!"

Xiao Cong smiled and said, "If I don't teach my son, I'm afraid he won't be able to handle it. Since it's auspicious and I'm here, I dare not refuse."

So a day later, Li Xiaogong and Li Shimin, as the messenger and deputy messenger, arrived at the Duke of Liang's mansion with a nanmu box that was one foot and two inches long, one inch and two fen wide, with a wooden board two fen thick, a lid three fen thick, and an inner width of eight fen.

The box was tied with colorful threads and the cover clearly read "Marriage Certificate". Behind it, servants used dozens of large carriages to pull colorful satin, large bundles of brocade, piles of copper coins, pigs, sheep, livestock, rice, flour, grain, oil, game, snacks, fruits, cheese, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, onion and ginger.

Of course, the most precious thing is the golden plate held in the arms of Li Shimin, the deputy envoy. The people on the roadside wanted to pop their eyes out, because this was a family heirloom given to Li Langjun by the late emperor when he was dying.

In the main hall of the Xiao Mansion, a wooden couch had been set up with a desk on it, and on the desk were an incense burner, a water bowl, and a knife.

Li Xiaogong and Li Jiancheng entered, bowed and presented a nanmu gift box to Xiao Cong who was sitting on the couch. Xiao Cong took it, touched the box with his hand dipped in clean water, then took a dagger, cut open the seal and took out the letter inside.

"My eldest son is already of age but has not yet married. My eldest daughter Lingshu is well-known for her virtues and is willing to make a match with a noble friend. I would like to invite her with courtesy. If you refuse to let me go, I will wait for your good will.

Li Yuan

After reading it aloud in public, he asked everyone to come closer and watch, then gave it to his wife to keep, and then took out the marriage proposal he had already written.

"My eldest daughter is still young and has not yet completed the formalities of marriage. My eldest son, Chengxian, has no wife yet. In order to maintain a good marriage relationship, I would like to ask for your help and serve as a matchmaker. I dare not disobey you.

Xiao Cong."

He sealed it in a nanmu gift box and handed it to the messenger in public. Li Xiaogong also handed the gift book in his arms to Xiao Cong, which detailed the gifts sent by the Li family.

The two families held banquets almost at the same time, and the marriage was finally settled. Even if the Xiao family rebelled now, Xiao Chanyan would not be implicated. Of course, if the Li family rebelled, she would not be able to escape even if she had not yet married.

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

(End of this chapter)