On the flat cement road, a team rushed to Chang'an in the setting sun. Li Su on the carriage quietly looked at the twilight scenery outside the window, and turned his head from time to time to look at Li Shimin with his eyes closed. Today they stayed in Xianling for a whole afternoon, and waited until dusk, and then left Xianling.

In this afternoon, Li Shimin's mood has been in violent fluctuations, until the last sacrifice to Li Jiancheng, slowly regained calm, now he is half lying in the carriage, his eyes are also closed, his face shows a little tired, it looks like he is asleep, but Li Su knows that Li Shimin is still very awake.

"Liulang, tell your father honestly, am I a good emperor?" Li Shimin suddenly asked, although he had repeatedly claimed that he was a good emperor in front of the tomb of his brother Li Jiancheng before, and the current prosperity of the Tang Dynasty also proved this, but in his heart, there was still a little bit of unconfidence, so now he wanted to hear what his son would say about himself?

When Li Su heard Li Shimin's question, he hesitated for a moment, then looked out the car window, and then replied solemnly: "Father, this question doesn't need to be answered by his sons, you look at the people on the road, these people are ordinary people who work or do small businesses in Chang'an, their clothes are clean and tidy, their complexion is also ruddy and healthy, and many people still carry the purchased goods in their hands, which shows that these people's lives are rich, and even beyond the level of food and clothing. ”

Hearing Li Su's words, Li Shimin was also suddenly interested, propped up his body to the window, and then looked out. As a result, it was just in time for a nearby school to finish school, and a group of students in Hufu were riding small bicycles. While playing and riding past the carriage, a little guy sitting in the back seat saw the old Li Shimin in the carriage. actually made a very naughty grimace at him, which made Li Shimin can't help but show a stunned smile.

Although these children are noisy, the clothes on their bodies, whether new or old, are all very clean and tidy, and most of them are chubby, looking particularly cute, as for the bicycles they ride, it has now been popularized in Datang and Daqi, whether it is adults or children. It's almost a bicycle for everyone, and the price is very cheap, even the poorest people can't even afford a bicycle. It's just that today's bicycles are mainly made of wood, and most of the parts are generally replaced after a period of time, and as for the more sturdy iron bicycles, because of the relatively expensive price, only some wealthy families will buy them.

Look at the noisy children, and then look at the people on the road who are also well-dressed. Most of them, like the children, rode their bicycles on concrete roads, and some wealthy people rode tall horses and followed the crowd unhurriedly. Although the price of horses has dropped a lot in recent years, it is easy to buy a horse, and it takes a lot of manpower and material resources to raise a horse. Even if the average person can afford it, it feels too troublesome. Only those wealthy people who needed to support themselves hired people to feed their horses for themselves.

Li Shimin picked up the window with both hands. Looking at the crowd outside for a long time, he finally showed a smile of relief on his face, as an emperor, watching the people in his country live so richly, this made him feel an unprecedented sense of satisfaction. As for whether he is a good emperor or not, just look at the smiles on the faces of those people.

That night, Li Shimin, who let go of the heaviest burden in his heart, was in a good mood, although he felt very tired, he was in good spirits, and even made an exception to drink an extra bowl of porridge, which made everyone very happy.

And it is worth mentioning that when Li Yu arranged for Li Shimin to rest, Li Zhi also deliberately found him and asked where they went today? Originally, Li Shimin told Li Su not to reveal this matter to anyone, but Li Su finally told Li Zhi the truth out of some considerations.

Of course, Li Su only said a rough idea of what happened this afternoon, and he didn't tell Li Zhi about Li Shimin holding Li Jiancheng's tombstone and crying, but only said that he went to sacrifice his grandfather, and by the way, he went to worship their uncle. And when Li Zhi heard that it affected the hidden prince who was competing with his father for the throne, he immediately didn't ask again.

In the following period, Li Su accompanied Li Shimin out every other day, mostly to sacrifice some dead people, some of whom were Li Shimin's friends and courtiers, and some of whom were his former enemies. Among them, there were four that impressed Li Su the most, two were his courtiers Fang Xuanling and Wei Zheng, and the other two were his enemies Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande.

Wei Zheng is well-known to the world for his direct advice. In fact, the real reason why Wei Zheng repeatedly violated Yan Zhi's admonitions, although Li Shimin was very annoyed, but he did not dare to deal with him, was that in addition to Wei Zheng being able to point out his mistakes and having great popularity in the court, it also had a lot to do with Li Jiancheng.

Wei Zheng was originally Li Jiancheng's person, but later Li Jiancheng was killed, so he had no choice but to serve Li Shimin. It is precisely because of this relationship that in Li Shimin's view, Wei Zheng is not an ordinary courtier, but a ruler to measure the merits of himself and his brother Li Jiancheng. He wanted to prove to others and himself that Wei Zheng could exert his talents with his brother Li Jiancheng, and he could also exert his greatest talents in his own hands, so no matter how Wei Zheng didn't give him face, Li Shimin would endure it.

However, after Wei Zheng's death, someone framed Wei Zheng's friends, and Wei Zheng copied the words of admonition to the historian Chu Suiliang at the time, which made Li Shimin mistakenly think that Wei Zheng was using this to make a name for himself, so he was very angry, not only dismissed the officials of several of Wei Zheng's disciples, but also smashed the tombstone written by himself for Wei Zheng, and even the marriage between Princess Hengshan and Wei Zheng's son had to be suspended.

Fortunately, some of Wei Zheng's former friends desperately admonished him, and they asked Li Su for help, but Li Su also advised him again and again, which finally reminded Li Shimin of Wei Zheng's various help to him before his death, and finally calmed the anger in his heart and avoided the last unhappiness of this ancient monarch and minister, and the marriage of Princess Hengshan was also held as usual.

Compared with Wei Zheng's direct advice, Fang Xuanling, the Tang Dynasty, was more helpful than Li Shimin, especially after Du Ruhan's early death, Fang Xuanling alone provoked half of the Tang Dynasty, and worked hard to assist Li Shimin in governing the government, helping him to create a famous Zhenguan rule in later generations, although Fang Xuanling was ranked below Wei Zheng in the Lingyan Pavilion, but in fact, in terms of contributions to the Tang Dynasty, Fang Xuanling was more than the eldest grandson Wuji, who ranked first.

It is precisely because of the above that Li Shimin dragged his seriously ill body to the tomb of the two in the last days of his life, babbled a lot of heartfelt words, and even raised some problems that Datang is encountering now, as if he wanted to discuss it again with the two confidants, but unfortunately the two who had passed away could no longer give Li Shimin a good suggestion.

As for Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande, these two were the two most difficult opponents that Li Shimin encountered when he unified the Central Plains, especially when the Tang army only occupied Chang'an in Guanzhong, while Wang Shichong was entrenched in Luoyang, echoing Dou Jiande north of the Yellow River.

So in this case, Li Shimin personally led the troops, and these two major opponents broke out the battle of the Tiger Prison, and that battle was also Li Shimin's most comfortable victory, because it was in the war that decided the rule of the Central Plains, Li Shimin and his generals Qin Qiong and Wei Chigong led 3,000 iron cavalry to break Dou Jiande's 100,000 army, and captured Dou Jiande alive, forcing Wang Shichong to surrender.

It was also that battle that made Li Shimin's invincible name spread all over the world, and the Xuanjia Army under his command became the strongest army in the world. With the help of the prestige of this battle, Li Shimin almost swept the world in the subsequent war, pacified all the candidates at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and laid the foundation for the rule of the Tang Dynasty in one fell swoop.

Although Li Shimin later waged wars against foreign countries repeatedly, destroying the Turks, Goguryeo, Xichang and other countries, and some of the wars were far larger than the Battle of Tiger Prison, most of those wars were commanded by his generals, so they were far less influential to him than the Battle of Tiger Prison, which he personally commanded and personally fought for. Therefore, in the last days of his life, Li Shimin also listed these two former enemies as sacrifices.

And it is worth mentioning that Li Shimin still admires Dou Jiande very much, although this reckless man is suspicious by nature, but he also has many advantages, such as a generous temperament, and he is also very kind to the people under his rule, after his death, there are people north of the Yellow River who build temples for him, which shows how he is loved by the people under his rule.

Even after sacrificing the two enemies, Li Shimin also took the train to the battlefield of the Battle of Tiger Prison with great interest, and personally pointed out the situation of the two armies for Li Su, as well as the process of defeating Dou Jiande's 100,000 army with 3,000 iron horsemen. Looking at Li Shimin's radiant appearance, people can't believe that his time is running out.

However, in the course of the sacrifice in these days, Li Su did not accompany Li Shimin throughout the whole process, one of which Li Shimin wanted to go out to worship, but just in time for Li Zhen and Li Yun to rush to Chang'an that day, Li Zhi was busy with mountains of government affairs, and he had no time to greet him, so he had to trouble Li Su.

It was also that time that Li Su failed to accompany Li Shimin out. And the strange thing is that Li Shimin only brought people from the shadow guard with him when he went out this time, and his itinerary was also very secretive. Afterwards, Li Su knocked on the side, wanting to ask Li Shimin where he went that day?

But Li Shimin smiled silently, which made Li Su very curious, but unfortunately no matter how he inquired, Li Shimin refused to say. It wasn't until a chance encounter later that Li Su finally knew where Li Shimin had gone that day. (To be continued......)