During Emperor Taizong's Reign
Early in the reign of Emperor Gaozu's son and successor Emperor Taizong, Lu Chengqing was serving as the census officer for the commandant at Qin Prefecture (秦州, roughly modern Tianshui, Gansu), when he had an opportunity to report to Emperor Taizong the status of military affairs west of the Yellow River (i.e., in modern central Gansu). Emperor Taizong was impressed by the clarity of his report, and promoted him to be a low-level official at the ministry of civil service. He was later promoted to by the deputy minister of census. On one occasion, when Emperor Taizong asked about historical population counts, Lu discussed historical population counts all the way from Xia Dynasty and Shang Dynasty, down to Tang's immediate predecessors Northern Zhou and Sui. Emperor Taizong was impressed, and soon made him the deputy minister of defense but further also made him in charge of civil service matters. Lu initially declined, stating, "Civil service matters should be in the hands of the minister of civil service, and for me to handle them would be to exceed my authorities." Emperor Taizong insisted, stating, "I trust you. Why do you not trust yourself?" He later also served as deputy secretary general of the capital prefecture, Yong Prefecture (雍州, roughly modern Xi'an, Shaanxi), and secretary general of the executive bureau of government (尚書省, Shangshu Sheng).
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