Chapter 675 Crown Princess
Manna Hall.
The emperor returned from court meeting with an ugly expression on his face.
"Why is Your Majesty in a bad mood? Could it be that the Zhengshitang rejected His Majesty's plan to expand the Jiucheng Palace and rebuild the Luoyang Palace? In fact, the concubine thought that the Prime Minister of the Zhengshitang was just following the system set by His Majesty. The national system should not be changed overnight and destroyed at will, otherwise the system will become empty, and everything will be messed up by then."
Li Shimin picked up his teacup and took a big sip.
"I just didn't expect that both Wuji and your uncle would stand opposite me like this. Even if I did something wrong, they could give advice in private, but they insisted on rejecting it directly. Where is your face?"
"Your Majesty, don't be angry anymore, it's all for state affairs." Empress Changsun persuaded.
Li Shimin put down his teacup and sighed, "Unexpectedly, Chengqian will be thirteen years old in a blink of an eye, and he will be an adult after the coronation ceremony in ten days."
"Yeah, I've grown so tall in a blink of an eye." Empress Changsun couldn't help sighing that Cheng Qian, who was born in the year when Datang was founded, has grown so big with Datang.
"It's time to find a marriage for this kid." Li Shimin said.
He touched his chin, "Which one do you think is suitable? Do you know which one has the right daughter?"
In fact, Changsun Wuji's eldest daughter, regardless of age, status, character, talent, etc., is very suitable for Chengqian, and the two even know each other. It turned out that Li Shimin had also thought about this, and thought it would be good to get closer, but recently, Li Shimin had given up on this idea.
When Qin Lang told him about the history of the Wa Kingdom, the Suwo family married daughters to the Wawang for generations. Reached the point of arbitrarily abolishing and even killing the Japanese king.
This is even more powerful than the later Qi Dou family in the Han Dynasty.
Coupled with the example of Yang Jian in the former Sui Dynasty where his grandfather usurped the imperial power of his daughter's grandson's family in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, now Li Shimin has already given up his mind about marrying the eldest grandson's family.
Empress Changsun is very virtuous, and he is very satisfied. She married him at the age of twelve, gave birth to several children for him, and kept the harem in order.
For the same reason, it turns out that Gao Shilian's family has a few granddaughters, but I don't want to mention it now.
"The concubine thinks that you can find everyone's daughter from the five surnames of the Kanto, or the Jingzhao Weidu, or the Peiliu of the Hedong, the Hongnong Yang family, or the Xiaolangya Wang family of Lanling."
At this time, the famous families of the gentry, in terms of their status and reputation, of course the five surnames and seven families are the first to be recommended, and then besides the five surnames and seven families in Shandong, of course there are also the Guanlong gentry and the gentry from Daibei, such as Jingzhao Du, Jingzhao Webster, Hedong Liu, Hedong Pei, Hedong Xue and Hongnong Yang.
In addition, there are Henan Lu clan, Henan Yuan clan, Henan Yuwen clan, Fufeng Dou clan, Henan Yu clan, Henan Yuan clan, and Henan Changsun clan.
These families, together with the five surnames and seven families, are known as the top 20 great powers in the Tang Dynasty at this time.
Under these twenty major families, there are also the original Southern Dynasties such as the Lanling Xiao family, the Chen Jun Xie family, the Langya Wang family, the Chen Jun Yuan family, the Wu Jun Zhu family, the Wu Jun Lu family, the Wu Jun Zhang family, and the Wu Jun Gu family. The gentry are relatively weaker now.
Even the eldest grandson queen, when considering her son's marriage, these families are the first things that come to mind.
Li Shimin shook his head, "Let's not mention the five surnames and seven families in Shandong."
The five surnames and the seven families are the highest, but these five families were mainly on the east side when the north and the east were confronted in the past. This is not the real family of the Li family and the Li Tang regime that came out of the Guanlong Group in the west. Now the world is unified, and the five surnames and seven families have all joined their ranks, but Li Shimin, like the helmsmen of several dynasties since the Western Wei Dynasty, has always discriminated against them a little bit regionally.
This kind of discrimination is more of a precautionary measure. Back then, the five surnames and the seven families were high-ranking clans looked up to and looked up to by the Guanlong Group, which was dominated by the head of the Daibei Army. They looked down on them. Be vigilant against these Shandong aristocrats who are famous, economically strong, and academically mastered.
Especially for Li Shimin, the five surnames in Shandong basically supported the construction, which made him even more upset. Now he is starting to revise the clan chronicles, in order to knock down the famous families that have been passed down from generation to generation in the past, so that those in the new dynasty will fight against him, and those true confidantes will reset their families with official titles.
After all, in order to strengthen the imperial power, what Li Shimin wants to do is to be the emperor and the courtiers, not the iron-clad aristocratic family of the flowing dynasty. The five surnames in Shandong above did not get their status from Li Shimin or Li Tang. They have been inherited for hundreds of thousands of years. This kind of power is what worries Li Shimin the most.
Although he has been suppressing secretly, he can't go too far, he has to win over, but Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng and other upstart prime ministers are all eager to marry each other, which makes him very annoyed.
This situation annoyed Li Shimin, and he became more vigilant against these elites.
Now that his prince is looking for a wife, Li Shimin immediately ruled out the five surnames and seven families in his heart. Li Shimin was worried that his powerful relatives, especially the top aristocrats like the five surnames and seven families, would become the princes of the Han Dynasty in the future. The Dou family is as authoritarian, if it is the same as the Su'er family of the Japanese country in the future, wouldn't it be too big to lose, and it will be a disaster for the country?
He had always thought of ways to suppress the five surnames. If instead he let the prince marry a woman of the five surnames, wouldn't it give more money to the five surnames? At that time, they will gain more and more power.
"I think that to marry Da Lang, you should choose one of the nobles from Guanlong, preferably from a noble family."
Li Shimin stated one of his own standards, not looking for the five surnames and seven families, nor the Jiangnan gentry, but the Guanlong noble family, and the gentry among them.
Guanlong aristocrats were the fundamental core of the ruling class of Li and Tang after all, and looking for gentry instead of generals was to worry about the repeat of the story of Sui Yangjian usurping the Northern Zhou Yuwen family.
Originally, the Changsun family or the Gao family were both good choices. The Changsun family was also a famous family since the Northern Wei Dynasty. It itself came from the Northern Wei clan. Of course the princess is more suitable, she is naturally close.
As the queen’s uncle’s family, the Gao family is also from the Northern Qi Gao family, and their status is also very noble. The Bohai Gao family has a great reputation.
But Li Shimin was worried that this kind of pro-in-law would lead to the monopoly of foreign relatives.
As for the top aristocratic clans like the five surnames and seven families in Shandong, he was afraid that accepting the concubine would boost the reputation of these families, making them more difficult to lose and unable to control.
The general of the Guanlong nobles is also worried about military power.
The gentry in the south of the Yangtze River were worried that they would not be able to provide any help to the prince. The Daibei clan were all military leaders and barbarians.
So this doesn’t work and that doesn’t work either. After setting up a bunch of screening conditions, there are not many suitable ones.
Hongnong Yang, Jingzhao Weidu, or Xue Liupei from Hedong, these six families are the top gentry.
Li Shimin thinks about it, and thinks that the name is too big and the strength is too strong. These six families are all families that have been prime ministers after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty. For example, the Pei family has Pei Ji and Pei Ju, and the Hongnong Yang family has Yang Gongren and Yang Shidao brothers. Webster has Wei Ting, and Du has Du Ruhui and Du Yan.
"The female prime minister is not suitable!" Li Shimin added another filter condition.
Immediately, the upstart prime ministers such as Li Jing, Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng, etc. were also excluded.
Li Shimin also found it difficult to choose. Thinking about the generation of their brothers, his father chose Jiancheng as the prefect in Xingyang. He chose Guanyin's maidservant from Changsun's family in Henan, and his younger brother Yuanji chose Hongnong Yang's family, all of whom were famous.
The wives Yang Jian selected for his sons in the previous dynasty were also famous. For example, the prince Yang Yong married the daughter of Yuan Xiaoju, the great-great-grandson of Emperor Jingmu of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and his concubine Gao Liangdi was also the daughter of the prime minister Gao Jiong. The second son, Yang Guang, married the daughter of Emperor Ming of Xiliang.
The third son, Qin Jun, married the daughter of the Cui family of Boling, who was also the daughter of the great general of the dynasty, and his concubine was also Princess Nanchen.
The fourth son, Yang Xiu, married the daughter of the Changsun family in Henan, and the fifth son, Yang Liang, married the daughter of the famous Doulu family in Daibei.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, Yang Jian and Li Yuan gave their sons the characteristics of marrying wives, and they all married into well-known families in the world. But now Li Shimin wants to avoid this, avoid that, there are not many choices left.
The Guanzhong gentry is headed by the six families of Yang Wei, Du, Xue, Pei and Liu. These six families are the first level. Below them are the five major families of Fufeng Dou, Wugong Su, Xiliang Duan, Longxi Xin and Longxi Yan. The family is worse than Weidu and other six families.
Similarly, under the seven families of the five east and five surnames, there are also the Liu family of Pengcheng, the Wang family of Langya, the Han family of Changli, the Sun family of Le'an, the Guo family of Taiyuan, the Zhang family of Fanyang, the Song family of Guangping, the Wen family of Taiyuan, and the Nanyang family Shandong gentry such as the Zhang family, the Gaoping Xu family, the Bohai Gao family, and the Julu Wei family.
But Li Shimin still wanted to choose among the Guanzhong gentry.
"Guanyin servant, look at the Wugong Su family, the Xiliang Duan family, the Longxi Xin family, and the Longxi Yan family. Are there any suitable women?" Li Shimin also removed the Fufeng Dou family first, because the Fufeng Dou family was exactly his family. My uncle's family, the Fufeng Dou family was also quite remarkable during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, especially in the Wude Dynasty, they also served as prime ministers.
Li Shimin simply excluded the Dou family first, like the Changsun family in Henan and the Gao family in Bohai.
"Concubine, please inquire carefully about these points!" Empress Changsun replied, "Your Majesty does not consider other noble families, especially the five surnames and seven families. For marriages between families, the five surnames and seven families have always been the first choice."
"It is precisely because of this that I didn't choose the five surnames and seven families. First, I will choose from the four families in Guanzhong, Su, Duan, Xinyan. If there is no one, I will choose from the Henan gentry, and I will not choose from the Shandong gentry and the Jiangnan gentry. , I don't believe that there is no suitable princess!"
(end of this chapter)