Xia Hongsheng and Li Chengqian played table tennis there for a while, and made an appointment with them to wait for Li Chengqian and Li Tai to go to the military academy to have a look. was about to say goodbye and leave, but was approached by a janitarian guard, saying that the emperor wanted to see Xia Hongsheng.

Xia Hongsheng had to go with the guard, Li Shimin was in the imperial garden, and after the guards took Xia Hongsheng there, he left by himself. Xia Hongsheng walked in, and saw from a distance that in the pavilion when Xia Hongsheng first met Li Shimin alone, Li Lao Er was sitting there, but the desk in the middle had become a small round table, and the cushion used for kneeling at that time was now replaced by two chairs.

approached the past, met Li Shimin, and then sat down opposite him at Li Shimin's instructions.

There are a few plates of small stir-fry on the small round table, this is the era before Xia Hongsheng came, there was no wok, but a year has passed, and the chef has all the pots. Half a bowl of porridge is held in a transparent glass bowl, and some grape wine is placed in the goblet next to it, and a few square ice cubes are placed in it, reflecting the purple-red luster of the grape wine.

In the end, it still brought changes to Datang! Xia Hongsheng looked at the things placed in the pavilion, and his heart was full of emotion for a while.

"Xia Qing?" Li Shimin looked at Xia Hongsheng and asked, "Why are you distracted?" ”

Xia Hongsheng woke up in shock, saluted Li Shimin, and replied: "The minister saw the things placed in this pavilion now, which has changed a lot from a year ago, when His Majesty first summoned Wei Chen. Therefore, he sighed in his heart for a while, so that he lost his mind, but it was a rude disrespect. ”

Li Shimin glanced at the changes in the gazebo. Then he smiled. asked, "Then come and see according to Xia Qing." Is this change good or bad? ”

"Nature is good." Xia Hongsheng nodded: "Your Majesty is wise and loves the people, and he is not complacent, so Datang is getting better and better." ”

Li Shimin smiled again and asked, "How can Xia Qing see it?" ”

"Your Majesty, the new is destined to replace the old, and the good is destined to replace the bad. Let's say farming, hundreds of years ago, the earliest times. People planted the fields, did not plough the ground, did not weed, directly sprinkled seeds into the field, and later people found that if the field was loosened and the seeds were buried, the crops would grow better, so the fields were cultivated in this way. In the beginning, people could only dig the ground with stones by hand, and later. Some people found it easier to tie stones to wooden sticks so that they could dig the ground. This gave rise to the prototype of the hoe, and no one ever held a stone in his hand to plow the ground. Later, there was something harder than stone, so the stone tied to the stick was replaced. For example, the weapon in the hand. In the earliest days, where people had any weapons, they picked up a stone in their hands, which was harder than a fist, and it was a weapon. Later, people found that the existing stone was very sharp, with sharp edges, and could be more powerful, so they did not use other stones, and chose this kind of stone for use, and later, people found that bronze swords were much sharper than stones, and bronze replaced stone. Later, it was discovered that iron weapons were much harder than bronze, so iron tools replaced bronze. Now in our dynasty, we find that 100 steel is harder than iron, so 100 steel is replacing iron. Xia Hongsheng explained to Li Shimin: "So, Your Majesty, only by always being new can we be invincible and replace those old, backward, and bad things, instead of being replaced by newer and better things." And Your Majesty is one of the few emperors who can always be new. Your Majesty has a broad heart and dares to tolerate new and unknown things, rather than resting on your laurels and being conservative and closed, so under the leadership of Your Majesty, new things will emerge in an endless stream, and our Datang will also be updated, and there will be more and more new changes, so it will get better and better. From wooden houses to masonry, from loess to cement, isn't that the case? ”

"Not bad." Li Shimin nodded and said: "From the method of making salt, to today's cement and new buildings, the things brought by Xia Qing are all new, and they are so new that I have never known about them, and these things have made my Datang look new, and in my opinion, they have also led me to become a better Datang." This glass of grape wine, and I can be regarded as a token of gratitude! ”

Xia Hongsheng hurriedly picked up the goblet in front of him, saluted, and then took a sip with Li Shimin.

"Hehe, it's this ice, it's also ......" Li Shimin shook his head with emotion, put down the goblet, and said: "Before, since I was a child, I knew that this ice could only be dug out of the river in the winter and hidden in the ice cellar, so that a little bit could be left for use in the next summer. But after Xia Qing appeared, this ice became something that could be made at any time regardless of the four seasons. ”

Xia Hongsheng smiled and asked, "I don't know why Your Majesty asked your ministers to come today?" ”

Li Shimin nodded and said: "There is nothing wrong with it, but after reading Xia Qing's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" today, I had some doubts in my heart, so I specially invited Xia Qing, the author of the book, to come and solve my doubts." ”

"In that case, please show it to Your Majesty." Xia Hongsheng bowed his hand: "Weichen should try his best to answer for His Majesty." ”

"After reading Xia Qing's book of the Three Kingdoms, I love it very much, and the strategy pattern in it is really fascinating. The characters in the book are also deeply memorable. Li Shimin said to Xia Hongsheng: "That Zhuge Kong is wise and scheming, whether it is the pattern of vision or the strategy in his chest, there is no one in the world who is unsurpassed, but he is too cautious and not good at delegating power." Zhou Gongjin's clever plan is comparable to Kong Ming, but it is a pity that he has superhuman talent, but he has no room for others, and finally died young. Not to mention those brave and loyal, brave and brave generals of the Three Kingdoms, all of them have vivid images, and they look as if they are in front of my eyes. And the king of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Xuande knows people and is good at his duties, and accepts advice with an open mind. Cao Mengde is thoughtful, resolute and decisive. Sun Zhongmou is good at judging the situation and being able to endure it. These three sons are all people who have no two people at a time. However, Liu Chan, the son of Liu Xuande, was greedy for pleasure, and he couldn't think about it, Cao Pi after Cao Mengde, compared to Mengde, that Jiangdong Sun Wu also had no successor, and he no longer had the majesty of the Sun family. The Three Kingdoms, none of them can have a successor who continues the strength of their fathers, and finally the Three Kingdoms have returned to Jin! There is also that Sima Yi, insidious and vicious, good at disguise, and finally usurped the unification, but the latter is difficult to continue the world for a long time. Every time I think about it, I am deeply confused. Why?! ”

Xia Hongsheng was at ease and said, "Your Majesty's doubts are, why are the heroes of Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan so difficult to cultivate even a successor who can take on heavy responsibilities? ”

"Not bad. The three of them are all heroes of the moment, but they can swallow the world's figures, but why are their successors all incompetent, they are not incompetent, but they are also farther than their parents? ! Li Shimin nodded: "I can't think about his sister, so I want to ask Xia Qing, why not?!" ”

"This ......" Xia Hongsheng felt a pang in his heart, Li Shimin must have thought of himself when he asked this. Now that his sons are still young, Li Shimin has begun to worry about whether his sons can have their own abilities and abilities to inherit his world, to complete his legacy, and to protect his desire for eternal prosperity in the Tang Dynasty.

Li Shimin saw Xia Hongsheng's concerns, so he said: "Today, here today, you and I are just chatting after dinner, unless the monarch and the minister ask the right question, Xia Qing should not be restrained." Today's talk is only about the rise and fall of history, and there is no royal replacement, Xia Qing can speak freely. ”

Hearing what Li Shimin said, Xia Hongsheng bowed and bowed, and then replied: "Since Your Majesty said so, then Weichen has the courage to say a few foolish words." Your Majesty, I don't know if you have noticed, since ancient times, no matter what dynasty or generation, there has been a strange phenomenon. ”

"What?" Li Shimin personally filled Xia Hongsheng's cup with grape wine and asked.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Xia Hongsheng hurriedly thanked, and then replied: "Xia Qi opened the country, but he died; The king of Tang established a business, but he died; King Wen Xingzhou, and chaos. Even in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and then the first emperor ruled the world, but the second died. Han is so powerful, but after all, the world is divided into three. Has Your Majesty discovered that among these dynasties, no matter which country or dynasty, the founding emperor is the unparalleled hero in the world, and he can follow the advice and work diligently, so that every country and one dynasty, when the country was founded, the politics were clear, the people were simple, the court and the people trusted each other, and the world was peaceful. In the future, there may be several generations of masters, and then one generation is not as good as the next, and eventually it will inevitably be deaf and immoral, the people's hearts will be scattered, and the world will be disputed again, and then there will be people who stand out from it, dominate the world again, and pass it on from generation to generation, but it is still such a strange circle. And so on and so forth? ”

Li Shimin was silent for a while, then nodded and said, "Xia Qing's words, how can I not know?" With the ancient as a mirror, we can know the rise and fall. I have read countless history books, and the rise and fall of them abound. Most of the previous generations were able to deny themselves and love the people, but in the future, they became more and more dim, and finally led to the ruin of the country and the family, without exception! Hehe, this eternity is eternal, which one has really reached eternity? But I don't believe it! My Datang is to make it eternal and eternal! I don't believe that my descendants will be so ordinary, so I want to be like a method, I want this kind of thing not to happen to my descendants! But I don't have a clue now, and Xia Qing thinks about it, but I can always find another way to bring people into a new world. Therefore, today I want to hear what Xia Qing has to say. ”

"Your Majesty, this is not just an individual problem of the emperor, but a comprehensive outbreak of a series of problems. Whenever the country is about to perish, it is not the monarch who has a problem, but all of them, the society, the people, the system, and the officials...... It's when all the problems come together that the most terrible outbursts can take place. Xia Hongsheng said to Li Shimin: "Since Your Majesty wants to hear it, then Wechen will tell Your Majesty about some of Wechen's immature views, naturally, Wechen doesn't know whether these ideas are right or not, just say it, and let Your Majesty refer to it." (To be continued......)