Chapter 561: Reorganization of Cui

"It turned out to be Cui Xiangguo. I didn't expect to meet him here. It's really a place where we meet in life!"

Li Qingan bowed and smiled, his smile seemed to be filled with the joy of reunion after a long separation.

"Where is someone in Chang'an, how dare you talk about the prime minister? Your Highness is ridiculing me."

Cui Yuan smiled a little embarrassedly. He didn't expect that Li Qing'an was so smooth and did not admit that he was coming to find him. Cui Yu next to him made a smooth move and explained to Li Qing'an with a smile: "Your Highness has something to do. Your Highness is here to attend the Cui clan festival. He is a private identity and rarely shows up. He was caught by Your Highness today. This is a coincidence."

"Haha! What a coincidence."

Li Qingan also laughed twice, and the three of them looked at each other and laughed together. It was not necessary to say it thoroughly. Everyone knew it clearly. The atmosphere in the room immediately became relaxed. The three of them sat down and a maid served them tea. Li Qingan picked up the tea cup and took a sip of tea, and asked Cui Yuan: "Cui Xiangguo, don't you know what the people's livelihood is in Chengdu?"

Li Qing'an did not mention military affairs or the people's affairs of the court, but only talked about people's livelihood. This made the topic much easier. As the right prime minister of the Southern Tang Dynasty, Cui Yuan was exactly his scope of responsibility. He sighed slightly and said, "The land in the south is rich and the climate is pleasant. They were all very good, especially the country of Tianfu, which has always been in peace and contentment, but in recent years... hey!"

Cui Yuan shook his head. Although Li Qing'an's question was easy, the answer was very heavy. Since Li Longji moved south, a large number of Chang'an royal nobles went to Chengdu. They lost their land in Chang'an, but they had to recover it from Bashu. In addition, Li Longji's acquiescence and support, in the past two years, the trend of land annexation in prefectures and counties near Chengdu has become increasingly fierce, and the public is resentful, and Cui Yuan, the prime minister, is becoming increasingly difficult to be a major.

Cui Yu next to him observed the words and expressions. Seeing that the topic was a little sensitive, he smiled and changed the topic and said, "We won't talk about these things. I heard that the princess is pregnant again. Congratulations to your highness!"

The issue of Li Qing'an's offspring has always been a hot topic among Chang'an people. As long as someone mentions the descendants of King Zhao in the streets and alleys, a large group of people will immediately gather around to listen. The court ministers also care about Li Qing'an's offspring, which will affect a certain political pattern in the future of the Tang Dynasty. News these days has been heard, and Princess Zhao is pregnant again, which is quite eye-catching. Li Qing'an smiled and did not deny this incident, saying: "The rare descendants have always been my heart disease. I really hope to have another son, one day, like the Cui family, with prosperous descendants and prosperous family."

Speaking of this, Li Qing'an looked at the Cui brothers with a smile. One of them was intentional and the other understood, and the topic was slowly guided to the Cui family. Cui Yuan and Cui Yu looked at each other. At this time, they already vaguely understood Li Qing'an's true intention to visit, just for the Cui family. Is it really necessary to use the Cui family to curb the strength of the Pei family? It is very possible.

Cui Yuan didn't say anything. After all, he was the prime minister of the Southern Tang Dynasty. He was inconvenient to interfere with the power structure of the Northern Tang Dynasty. He just lowered his head to drink tea without saying anything. Cui Yu pondered for a moment, and then he simply pointed out: "Do you have any good suggestions?"

"Is it to the Choi family?"

"Yes! Please give me advice."

"Haha, the Cui family has been famous for hundreds of years. What suggestions do I need to give, but......"

However, Li Qing'an stopped talking dramatically and looked at them with a smile. Now, even Cui Yuan couldn't help it and hurriedly said, "Your Highness, please continue."

"Well!" Li Qing'an nodded and continued with a smile: "Actually, what I want to say is a true saying for every family. There are talented people in the country. If a family wants to continue to prosper, the most important thing is to cultivate young children and let young talents take over the family's power as soon as possible. In this way, the family will have vitality and vigorous vitality. However, I found that no matter whether it is the Pei family, Cui family, Lu family, etc., young people rarely stand out, at least rarely stand out in the family. This is not conducive to the inheritance of the family. Cui Huan is already sixty-five years old, and he is also the prime minister and the patriarch. How can he be busy? Haha! This is just my humble opinion. The family naturally has its own system. You can laugh it off."

Speaking of this, Li Qing'an stood up and bowed and smiled, "I'm just passing by here and visiting Pei's envoy. There are important matters in the army, so I'll leave first."

Cui Yuan and Cui Yu quickly stood up and said, "I dare not delay your highness's major affairs. Your Highness can come to the mansion in the future."

"Sure! Sure! Then say goodbye."

Li Qing'an looked at Cui Yuan meaningfully again and said slowly: "I hope that Prime Minister Cui can do his best to appease the people's livelihood. No matter how the court changes, those who serve the country and the people will surely be remembered for the ages."

Cui Yuan understood Li Qing'an's intentions, and he politely said deeply: "Choi Yuan will remember His Highness's words of gold and jade."

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Li Qing'an said goodbye and left, and the Cui brothers sat down again. Both of them remained silent for a while. Cui Yuan said, "Do you understand what he means?"

Cui Yu nodded and sighed slightly, "He is referring to Cui Ping."

"Cui Ping?" Cui Yuan then reacted and said in surprise: "You are talking about Cui Mian's second son Cui Ping? I thought he was referring to Cui Guangyuan."

"Cui Guangyuan should be the same, but he has no talent for governance. Li Qing'an can only use him as a general, not as prime minister. Cui Ping is different. He was a Jinshi in the early years of Tianbao. He first served as a minister of the Ministry of Rites in the court for five or six years, and then was released as a prefecture and county. He went from county magistrate and prefect to the Sima of the Hexi Jiedushi. He served as an official in prefecture and county for eight years. This time he was transferred to Beijing to serve as a minister of the subordinates. This shows how Li Qing'an valued him, and more importantly, he was Li Qing'an's confidant. I guess Li Qing'an wanted to use him to replace Cui Huan and become the leader of our Cui family in the court."

Cui Yu knew very well that the last Guo Ziyi incident had a very far-reaching impact. The Political Affairs Hall wanted to use Guo Ziyi to fight against Li Qing'an, but was finally completely defeated by Li Qing'an. Pei Min was dismissed and Pei Zunqing replaced Pei Min. At that time, Cui Huan also supported Pei Min for a while. Although Li Qing'an did not deal with Cui Huan in order to calm the influence as soon as possible, it did not mean that Li Qing'an would not attack him. At that time, Li Qing'an immediately transferred Cui Ping to Beijing, which laid the groundwork for the removal of Cui Huan. More than two months have passed, and that matter has almost been forgotten, and the situation in Hebei has been temporarily calm. So now is the time for Li Qing'an to start liquidating Cui Huan.

The overall interests of the Cui family were not affected by the deposed Cui Huan and supported Cui Ping. However, after Cui Ping came to power, the Cui family would become a firm supporter of Li Qing'an. Therefore, improving Cui Ping's status in the family is a necessary condition for Li Qing'an to vigorously support the Cui family. Cui Yu knew this very well.

Both of them have been in the officialdom for many years. Li Qing'an doesn't need to be clearly understood. They all understand that Cui Yuan also knows that although he cannot interfere in the officialdom of the Northern Tang Dynasty, he has the right to speak for the affairs of the Cui family.

"Others can do it, but Cui Ping is a little difficult."

Cui Yuan sighed and said, Cui Ping is the son of Choi Mian, and Choi Mian and Choi Huan have a bad relationship, and they even have personal grudges, son's stepfather's grudges, so Choi Ping and Choi Huan's relationship is also very bad. Cui Huan even refused to allow Choi Ping to worship his ancestors for two years. It was a bit too much to say that Choi Huan did.

It is because of their bad relationship. If Cui Ping replaces Cui Huan as the patriarch, what will happen? Although Li Qing'an's intervention in Cui's family affairs is a bit offensive, he can bring the greatest family benefits to the Cui family. Which one is more important makes Cui Yuan and Cui Yu silent.

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At noon, in front of a middle house in Kaimingfang, hundreds of cavalry guarding Li Qing'an's carriage quickly approached from a distance and stopped at the door of the mansion. Cui Ping, who was looking at the door, immediately met him, followed by a woman in a dress in a long skirt, who was Cui Ping's wife Pei.

The follower opened the carriage door, Li Qing'an came out of the carriage, and Cui Ping immediately stepped forward and bowed and said, "I'm not good at ease, see the general!"

Cui Ping was a Sima of the Hexi marching army a few months ago, and he was also a member of Li Qing'an's military system. Therefore, he also called Li Qing'an the general like the soldiers of the Anxi Army. In this way, it can also bring him closer to Li Qing'an.

Cui Ping and Li Qing'an were old friends. As early as when Li Qing'an was the General of the Central Army, Cui Ping heard that Li Qing'an had a close relationship with Gao Lishi. At that time, he was eager to find a way to become an official, so he found Li Qing'an's path. Unexpectedly, when he was ill and rushed to seek medical treatment, he changed Cui Ping's life path. From then on, he relied on Li Qing'an, the thickest tree in the Tang Dynasty, and became Li Qing'an's confidant. Cui Ping, from the magistrate of Xuyi County to the prefect of Sizhou, then to the prefect of Yuzhou, Sima, and until today's minister of the disciples, had Li Qing'an's influence.

Moreover, he had a very good personal relationship with Li Qing'an. Wuyi was forced to escape by the Cui family, but Cui Ping secretly reported the news in private. Because of this, Li Qing'an has always been very grateful to him.

Cui Ping was born in a Jinshi, very talented and very smart and capable. His father Cui Mian once became a guest of the prince, and his brother Cui Han is now the prefect of Qingzhou, and he can also be said to have a prominent family background.

However, Cui Ping had a bad relationship with the patriarch Cui Huan. On the one hand, it was because Cui Huan had a personal grudge with his father Choi Mian. On the other hand, Cui Ping had always been grateful to Cui Qiao because he lived in his uncle Choi Qiao's mansion for a long time. However, Cui Qiao's character was not good and was hated by the Cui family. However, Cui Ping always spoke for Cui Qiao. In this way, Cui Huan became even more disgusted with him, so that Cui Ping could not participate in the clan festival two years ago and last year. This was a very severe punishment in a family.

Because of this incident, the relationship between Cui Ping and the patriarch Cui Huan became quite bad. The two almost didn't speak when they met, and the people in the clan looked down on Cui Ping very much. However, this time Cui Ping was promoted to the subordinate minister, which was a third-rank position, which made him a senior executive of the Tang Dynasty, stunned the Cui family and completely changed their prejudice against him.

Cui Ping was full of gratitude to Li Qing'an and was also loyal to Li Qing'an. He had long seen that the Tang Dynasty was sooner or later Li Qing'an's possession, so of course he had to lean closely against the towering tree behind him.

Yesterday he received a message from Li Qing'an's personal soldiers. At noon today, Li Qing'an came to his house to visit him, so he naturally came to his house for lunch. For this reason, Cui Ping's wife personally cooked and packed a table of hearty wine and food.

Speaking of which, Cui Ping's wife has something to do with Mingyue. His wife Pei is the daughter of Pei Ming, the former minister of the Ministry of Justice, and Pei Ming is the nephew of Mingyue's grandfather Pei Yaoqing. Therefore, his wife can be said to be Mingyue's clan sister. With this relationship, it will be conducive to Cui Ping and Li Qing'an's development of personal relationship. However, today Mingyue went to Ci'en Temple to burn incense, and Gao Wu's Bao'en Temple incident occurred, so Mingyue was unable to come with Li Qing'an.

Li Qingan replied with a bow and said with a smile: "It's abrupt and disturbing my brother and sister-in-law."

Cui Ping is the same age as Li Qing'an and two months older than Li Qing'an. However, in order to reduce his identity, he tried his best to push his birth back several months. In this way, Li Qing'an was three months older than him, and he can just call him brother legitimately. From this small matter, we can see Cui Ping's extraordinary wisdom.

He quickly smiled and said, "Others can't even invite a general, but the general can be condescended to a small residence. This is my great honor!"

When Li Qingan heard him talk about the 'snail residence', he looked at Cui Ping's mansion. Seeing that the mansion covers about twenty acres of land, although it is not very large, as a private residence, most people cannot afford to live in. He couldn't help but smile and said, "When I first met you, you were worried about buying a house all day long. Now you finally bought a big mansion. How about it? It feels good!"

Cui Ping couldn't help but remember that he lived in his uncle's house ten years ago and was frowning all day long to buy a house. Now, he thought about it, it seemed like a different life. He also sighed: "Life is impermanent. When I think of it for ten years, it was as if yesterday, when the general was just promoted to General of the Central Army. Now my eldest son is fourteen years old."

He turned around and summoned a young man to come forward and introduced to Li Qing'an: "This is my eldest son Yuanju. The general also met him back then. He was only five years old at that time, and now he is as tall as me."

Cui Ping's son was very well-behaved, so he stepped forward and kowtowed to Li Qing'an, "My nephew, Yuanju, kowtowed to Uncle Shi!"

Seeing that the young man was handsome and smart, Li Qingan couldn't help but liked him, so he quickly helped him up and said, "Get up quickly, nephew!"

He helped the boy up, and he asked again with a smile: "Where are you studying now? Do you have any plans in the future?"

"Reported to the uncle, my nephew is studying at home and will go to Chongwenguan next year to study. My nephew plans to study hard in Chongwenguan for five years, and participate in the imperial examinations when he was young, inherit his father's ambition and continue to serve for the uncle."

When Cui Ping saw that his son was very strong and good at speaking, he was immediately overjoyed, but he scolded him: "How come you, a child, don't know how high the world is? Do you think it's so easy to pass the Jinshi exam?"

Li Qingan quickly persuaded him, "This is a good brother. If a young man has no ambition, wouldn't he live for a hundred years? It's a good thing to have ambition, but he can't rely on his father's family, but he has to rely on his own efforts. Do you understand?"

Cui Yuanju bowed to the ground, "The nephew will remember the best of the uncle."

The three of them exchanged greetings at the door, and Cui Ping's wife finally whispered to her husband: "Jirou, the food is going to be cold."

Cui Ping suddenly woke up and said quickly: "General, I am rude to come to the mansion."

Li Qingan smiled, smiled and nodded at Pei, and followed their family into the mansion. Although Cui Ping's mansion was not big from the outside, it was exquisitely arranged inside, with pavilions, towers, long corridors and flowerbeds, and scenery in quiet places. There was also a pond covering an area of ​​one acre. There was a group of goldfish in the pond, and there was an exquisite fish-viewing pavilion beside it. Today's lunch was set up in the fish-viewing pavilion, and the four maids had already stood in the middle and waited.

Li Qing'an sat down and smiled, "This is my brother's private residence! How much did it cost in total?"

Private houses are relative to official houses. Official houses are for people with certain positions. If they are demoted or retired, they must return the house to the court. Private houses are their own private property and can be inherited by their descendants. Generally, high-ranking officials will have their own private houses even if they live in official houses.

Cui Ping blushed at this question. He spent more than 6,000 guan in this private house. With his salary, he could not afford it for his whole life. Naturally, there was the money he collected when he was an official in the local area. Li Qing'an's question made him a little embarrassed and I don't know how to answer it.

But his wife smiled and said, "This house is not owned by Jiro, but the property of his second uncle. He went to Chengdu the year before yesterday and sold the old house to replace it with this new house. He was afraid that the court would blame him, so he put it in Jiro's name. Otherwise, with Jiro's salary, how could he afford such a expensive house?"

"Yes! It's actually my second uncle's property, hey! I don't dare to say it explicitly, I just have to take the blame myself."

The second uncle refers to Cui Qiao. He went to Chengdu two years ago and was not valued in Chengdu. He had only a minister of the Ministry of Works. Cui Ping couldn't help but admire his wife's urgent wisdom, but Li Qing'an smiled slightly. How could he hide such excuses from him? Cui Ping knew very well. When he was an official in Sizhou, he had received bribes. At that time, the censor investigated him and the amount of bribes was about 3,000 guan. Later, he invested the money in the tea business and used his position to transport more than a dozen ships of Jianghuai tea to Beijing for sale, making a profit of nearly 15,000 guan. Later, after he was transferred to Yuzhou as the prefect, he stopped washing his hands, no longer accepted bribes, nor did he go to business, and gained a good reputation of integrity.

Li Qing'an also knew the truth that water was clear and there was no fish. He did not require his subordinates to be as honest and honest as Wang Changling. The key was to grasp a certain degree and not be greedy for bribes without restraint. Cui Ping could stop when he saw it, which showed that he was very rational and able to control his desires. This was why Li Qing'an was very satisfied.

Just now, he was just asking casually, mainly to find out about the current housing prices, but Cui Ping was guilty and suddenly showed his strength. It seemed that Cui Ping was not yet experienced enough, but his wife was good and could make up for Cui Ping's shortcomings to a certain extent.

Li Qing'an stopped asking about this and ate and drank with their family. The atmosphere was very harmonious. After the meal, Cui Ping's wife took her son away tactfully. She knew that Li Qing'an was not as simple as having a meal to find her husband, and she had to give them time to spend alone.

Li Qing'an talked to Cui Ping, no longer being as implicit as Cui Yuan and Cui Yu, but being open and honest, only focusing on the topic. He picked up the wine glass and pondered for a moment, and asked directly: "I want you to become the new patriarch of the Cui family. Do you have any ideas?"

Cui Ping sighed and said, "To be honest, this matter is very difficult. The key is that most people don't support me."
Chapter completed!