When Li Ze saw that Zhang Zhongwu was neither in the prison of the Ministry of Justice nor in his own office, he chose a tea room. When Zhang Zhongwu, who was replaced with a regular dress, was taken to this place, and saw Li Ze, who was also in casual clothes on the opposite side, sitting cross-legged in front of him, boiling water and making tea with a calm expression, he was stunned for a while.

He has always existed as Li Ze's opponent. He said without any pride that he also believed that he had always been Li Ze's strongest opponent, and once made Li Ze face a dilemma of life and death.

I originally thought that as a defeated general, he would have a humiliation waiting for him today, so he was mentally prepared to face it calmly. After all, the winners have reason to be proud of the success, the king and the bandits. However, I didn't expect that it would be such a scene. This made his feelings for Li Ze rise several levels in an instant.

This person's aura is neither arrogant nor dull. Sure enough, a person who always wins has his own uniqueness. When he is in a place, Zhang Zhongwu doesn't think he can do this. If he defeats the most powerful enemy, he will be ecstatic.

"Please sit down!" Li Ze raised his head, his face calmly, and pointed to a cushion opposite him.

Zhang Zhongwu looked back at the guards who were escorting him. The people gently covered the door and stepped out. He raised his eyebrows, strode to the opposite side of Li Ze, and sat cross-legged.

"Aren't you afraid that I will suddenly attack you?" He asked Gongsun Changming the same thing, but today he asked Li Ze again.

Li Ze smiled and said, "I am not a weak person like Gongsun. Since I was a child, I have been practicing martial arts hard. Even though I can't compare to you, a few battles, it's okay to resist it."

Speaking of this, he pointed to the screen behind him, "There are several hundred enemies sitting behind him. Where can you have a chance?"

Regarding Li Ze's calmness, Zhang Zhongwu laughed: "I didn't expect that Li Xiang, who is powerful all over the world, is he so afraid of death?"

"I don't want to die if my great cause has not yet competed. I agree with it. So if you make preparations, you will never be wrong." Li Ze picked up the teapot, poured the six small cups in front of him one by one, and then pushed three to the other party.

Zhang Zhongwu picked up the teacup, poured it into his mouth, whipped it a few times, swallowed it with a gulp, sucked it a few times, picked up another one, but put it in his nose and sniffed it for a while, then drank it, put it down, and sighed, "I heard that you invented the way to brew tea. Compared to Lu Yu's set, I prefer this kind of tea that is bitter and sweet. You also made an iron pot and made a set of novel dishes. I'm very surprised, how could a person like you have time to waste on this?"

Li Ze slowly savored the tea and smiled, "Because I am delicious and delicious, I never want to suffer a little grievance. Just talk about tea, there are not so many rituals and complicated rituals. What I like most is to rinse with boiling boiled water. As for the tea scriptures you said, I just want some idle people to find something to do when they are idle, and also make some people think they are more elegant and upright than cow drinkers. There is a saying that life always has a sense of ritual."

Zhang Zhongwu laughed: "This is the same as my opinion. After your tea scriptures became popular in the world, whenever I saw those so-called literati and scholars making serious troubles there, I wanted to laugh. I didn't think it was more fragrant than what I brewed randomly."

"The important thing is tea, water quality." Li Ze said: "These techniques are just to make you look pleasing to the eye."

Zhang Zhongwu nodded, and the simple conversation gave him a newer understanding of Li Ze.

"Speak unworthily, I should be your biggest enemy. You must be very happy to defeat and capture me alive, right?" Zhang Zhongwu asked, staring at the other party.

Li Ze shook his head: "Happy is naturally happy. After all, this vast land of Liaodong has finally been within the territory of the Tang Dynasty. This is a great thing. It is much better to fall into my hands than to fall into your hands. But to be honest, you are not my biggest enemy."

Zhang Zhongwu snorted coldly: "I am not, is it Xiang Xun from the south?"

"He is not as good as you!" Li Ze smiled and said, "If he was a flies, he would not have treated you like this if he fell into my hands. I would not have seen him at all, let alone let me make tea myself."

This made Zhang Zhongwu feel much more comfortable.

"So, I'm still a special one!" He stroked his beard and said proudly.

"You have this treatment because I want to reward you for fighting the Khitan for more than ten years on the border." Li Ze said: "The Tang Dynasty declined, but the Khitan was on the rise. If you hadn't fought hard for more than ten years on the border, interrupting the Khitans' resurgence and completely stifled the hope of the rise of this race, what would the Tang Dynasty look like now?"

Zhang Zhongwu was silent for a while: "After you founded your country, you must also write history. People like me will at least occupy a little space. Will you record my achievements?"

"Of course, it should be yours, and even yours, whether it is yours, whether it is yours, your contributions or sins will be objectively recorded. The right and wrong, merits and demerits will naturally be evaluated by future generations." Li Ze said: "In fact, it is not just this. The contributions you have made in Liaodong in the past six or seven years will not erase you."

"I went to Liaodong, you forced me to go!" Zhang Zhongwu sighed, "At that time, you were so angry that you asked me to reclaim this barren land for you, right?"

"Natural!" Li Ze said: "The Liaodong area is vast, but there are many races. The city has changed its flag. After you sing and I will appear. In name, it is the territory of the Tang Dynasty, but the Tang Dynasty has never really carried out actual and effective rule in this place. In history, it has been occupied by people with ulterior motives, such as Goryeo. These six or seven years ago, you not only drove away the Goryeo people, but also implemented effective rule here. This will save a lot of effort after taking over and allow us to truly integrate this area into the mainstream of the Tang Dynasty in a shorter time."

"Make wedding clothes for others!" Zhang Zhongwu sighed to the sky: "Gongsun Changming was not wrong. From the moment you drove me to Liaodong, you have already calculated today, right?"

"Not necessarily!" Li Ze said frankly: "At that time, this was just a kind of calculation and a plan. As for what kind of ending it would be, there was actually no idea. If you were deeply loved by the people in Liaodong and had a prosperous business there, if your exploitation of Goryeo could make them bear it, so that they would not completely turn to us but be with you, then we would have to spend more time and effort to defeat you."

"If that's the case, will you allow me to break the ground and enclose the border?"

"Of course not!" Li Ze smiled and said, "If you can do that, I will only attack you after unifying the world, after the Tang Dynasty's strength can easily crush you. I will not allow such a gap to appear on the territory of the Tang Dynasty. No matter how much land there is in the Tang Dynasty, no inch is unnecessary, and any separatist is not allowed."

Zhang Zhongwu nodded: "I think this should be the case. I'm very curious. If I'm not your strongest opponent, nor Xiang Xun, then who is your strongest opponent?"

Li Ze stood up, took the globe that was rarely shown to others from the big case behind him, and placed it in front of Zhang Zhongwu. After turning it gently, the globe rotated drippingly in front of Zhang Zhongwu.

"Look, this is the world we live in." Li Ze said: "Is the Tang Dynasty very big? It's big, but compared to the whole world, it's very small. What you see is just the area of ​​our Tang Dynasty, and what I see is the whole world. There is never a shortage of amazing people in this world. In these places we have never been involved in, there are overlords who dominate one side and an extremely powerful empire."

Zhang Zhongwu widened his eyes and looked at this thing he had never seen before. He had never thought that there was such a vast world beside the land where he was staying.

"This is too far from us, right?"

He is a smart man. He can roughly understand the distance between other places and the Tang Dynasty by just taking a look at the territory of the Tang Dynasty.

"Far away? Not far away!" Li Ze shook his head and said, "It seems far away now, but the future may not be. The world is big and small. If you take a little more, others say less, others take a little more, and if others take a lot more, you will naturally lose less. Therefore, we must fight and grab it. This is not for myself, but for our entire Tang Dynasty and for all the Tang people. If we want to live better than others, we have to make others live worse. To achieve this, we must first be stronger than others. In this world, it depends on whose fists are bigger. Only when the fists are bigger and stronger than others can you try to reason with others."

Zhang Zhongwu was silent.

He suddenly realized that Li Ze's vision was not on the same line as him. Compared with Li Ze, he was like a frog loudly in the bottom of a well. Although he screamed loudly, he could only see the sky at the entrance of the well.

It's really not unfair to lose yourself.

"Listen to Gongsun Changming, you want to build an empire that has been passed down forever. For this reason, you will give up the power of the emperor. Doing so will help you achieve such a goal, right?" Zhang Zhongwu asked.

"Compared with building an unparalleled empire, it is much harder to let us Tang people have a sense of family and country, and let them be proud of their identity as Tang people wherever they go. And to do this, the first thing I have to do is to change this pattern of family and world. The Tang Dynasty is not my Tang Dynasty, but the Tang Dynasty of all Tang people. Every man is responsible for the rise and fall of family and country." Li Ze stood up again, brought two books and placed them in front of Zhang Zhongwu.

"On the Country" and "On the Ethnic"
Chapter completed!