The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 124 Successful Results

Yu Zhining looked at the gold and silver cakes that had just been sorted. Most of them were irregular in shape, and they were weighed during transactions.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said that they had to be of the same shape and stacked neatly, which made Yu Zhining feel very embarrassed.

Li Chengqian had no choice but to turn his head away from the gold and silver, and sat down in the Secretariat to continue looking at the accounts.

After a long while, the prince put down the account book in his hand, smiled and said to everyone: "Notify all counties and tell them that the trade route is open."

After the words were spoken, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"This time we received 70,000 strings of cash. I don't like the fact that salt and iron are still the mainstay of the court. The export trade of the Tang Dynasty needs to be more diversified."

Everyone secretly took note of the prince's words.

In the quiet Secretariat, everyone had a relaxed smile on their face.

"Now the ministers and assistant ministers of the various departments in the court are not here. I will explain what will happen next in the morning court, and it can be more formal."

"Here."

Everyone responded in unison.

Changsun Wuji stood at the gate of the Secretariat, with his back to everyone, looking at the imperial city with a gratified smile on his face.

As people came out from the central province one after another, everyone had a tea egg in their hands.

After the prince came out, Changsun Wuji said, "Have you given all the instructions?"

Li Chengqian said: "I have given all the instructions, but I still have some concerns."

"What worries you?"

"Uncle, you don't know that no matter how much goods the Tang Dynasty traded with Gaochang, Gaochang could sell the goods to the Western Regions, even to the Persians, and the price would be several times higher than the transaction price with the Tang Dynasty."

Changsun Wuji put one hand behind his back and stroked his beard with the other, and whispered, "What do you think, Your Highness?"

Li Chengqian nodded and said, "Let's keep them. It's not a bad idea to fatten up Gaochang first."

Then the prince walked towards Chengtian Gate, with Yu Zhining following him.

Seeing his solemn expression, Li Chengqian asked, "Minister Yu, do you have anything else to say?"

"I just think that Your Highness the Crown Prince is too obsessed with trivial matters."

"Why? A prince who is obsessed with details makes Minister Yu worried?" Li Chengqian sighed, "Or do I have obsessive-compulsive disorder in these matters, which will also affect the country?"

Yu Zhining, who didn't know what obsessive-compulsive disorder meant, quickly said, "I have absolutely no such intention."

Li Chengqian added: "I like order and neatness, and I don't like unclear boundaries or a mess of small things. It's best if everything is in order."

Seeing the prince walking into Chengtian Gate while talking, Yu Zhining bowed and walked towards Suzaku Gate.

After Li Chengqian returned to the Eastern Palace, Changsun Wuji walked alone in the dusk all the way to Xingqing Palace to meet His Majesty.

Inside the Xingqing Hall, Li Shimin was still struggling to turn the Rubik's Cube. This thing had been in His Majesty's hands for more than half a year, but all six sides had not yet been put together.

"Your Majesty, Duke Zhao is here."

"Let him in." Li Shimin said, put the Rubik's Cube in his hand on the table, and said slowly: "After all, it's just a child's toy."

The eunuch took a look at the still messy Rubik's Cube, bowed and stepped back to invite Duke Zhao into the hall.

Changsun Wuji walked into the hall, bowed and said, "Your Majesty."

Li Shimin nodded and said: "Is everything arranged?"

"His Royal Highness said that he will talk with the various departments in the court at the morning court tomorrow."

"Okay." Li Shimin took a sip of tea, trying not to look at the Rubik's Cube on the table, and asked, "How is Lu Dongzan's matter?"

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will not have any correspondence with Lu Dongzan in the future."

Li Shimin nodded and said, "The relationship between the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace and the Prime Minister of Tubo should be clear."

The friendship between the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace and the Prime Minister of Tubo was completely shattered because of a poem written by the Crown Prince that had an inconsistent mood.

Li Shimin laughed and said, "I will illuminate the moon with my heart, but the moon only illuminates the ditch. When will he be able to write poetry?"

Zhang Sun Wuji added: "Your Highness the Crown Prince was inspired by this. After all, no one expected Lu Dongzan to be so perfunctory. It was Lu Dongzan who thought he was smart that became his stumbling block."

His Majesty laughed heartily. It had been a long time since he had laughed so heartily.

There have been changes in the court, but the changes are not obvious. The concept of having principles in doing things has had an impact on Jingzhao Prefecture, the Secretariat, and the Censorate since some point.

The principle of Jingzhao Prefecture was that no matter how Guanzhong was developed, arable land must be preserved.

The principle of the Censorate is that it can only monitor, but does not have the power to arrest.

The Ministry of Justice holds the power to arrest people, but it must be reviewed by the Secretariat, which is also a principle.

Jingzhao Prefecture is still the same Jingzhao Prefecture, and the Censorate is still the same Censorate, but the changes are subtle.

Most of the time, it is only mentioned briefly in the documents annotated by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

The Tang Dynasty was not rich. Li Chengqian would argue with anyone who dared to say that the Tang Dynasty was rich. Now that there is finally some surplus, the money must be spent wisely.

In the Eastern Palace, Li Lizhi sat in the hall, listening to her brother's story, with Sister Ning'er standing beside her.

"So no matter how pious people are in the temple, they will still be living in the world of feasting and revelry outside the temple. Therefore, the world has always been centered around people and will not change because of Buddha or gods..."

Li Lizhi asked doubtfully, "My royal brother said before that humans are insignificant."

"Humans are of course insignificant in front of nature. In billions of years of history, humans have dominated world civilization for only a few thousand years."

Li Chengqian continued, "But in the past few thousand years, humans have always been fighting against nature, such as Dayu's flood control and Suiren's cooking with fire, which greatly extended human life and allowed human civilization to be passed down from generation to generation. Humans have always been fighting against the sky and the earth, even though we are still very small now."

Li Lizhi nodded continuously as she listened to these words.

Li Chengqian added: "It's getting late, go to bed early."

"Here."

Li Lizhi packed up her books, hugged the pile of books and went to wash up and rest.

It was late at night, and Li Chengqian was sitting at his desk, still writing.

Ning Er ground some ink for His Highness and whispered, "Your Highness, the weather is getting colder. I will close the window."

Li Chengqian wrote on a piece of paper and said, "No need, just open the window."

"Here."

The night wind blew into the bedroom, feeling a little cool, making her hair flutter. Ning'er stood beside His Highness, watching him write each word.

The next day, just after dawn, Li Chengqian did weight-bearing exercises as he did the day before.

It was still a little chilly in the early morning of autumn, but there was already a lot of sweat on the forehead of the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace.

Seeing that the prince's arms began to tremble, Li Ji hurriedly said, "Your Highness, let's stop here for today."

Li Chengqian lowered his arms, and the two stones fell to the ground, relaxing his wrists. Li Ji said, "Your Highness's ability to bear weight is limited. Although it can exercise strength, it should be done in moderation."

"I understand." Li Chengqian slowed down his breathing, bent over and stretched out his arms, making sure his arms touched his toes every time he swung them.

After doing a few rounds, I felt my tense arms finally relax a little.

Li Chengqian sat aside and said, "I didn't see Li Ke come here to practice archery today. He was probably just talking."

Li Ji said: "Your Highness the King of Wu is serving in the army, so he dare not delay his duty."

Originally, the younger brother just wanted to get closer to his elder brother, the emperor, but brothers have different areas of expertise after all.

The current emperor also woke up at this time. Li Shimin asked the queen to tidy up her clothes and read the articles sent from the East Palace.

This is a work report submitted by the crown prince to the emperor, and also the first work report submitted by the crown prince to the emperor.

After reading it, Li Shimin said in a deep voice: "Guanyin maid?"

The queen was fixing her husband's hair and smiled when she heard this: "What's wrong?"

Li Shimin frowned and asked, "What do you think happened to Cheng Qian?"

Empress Changsun whispered, "Neither of you father and son will follow the other's wishes. I have nothing to say."

Li Shimin was embarrassed and said, "Forget it, I will ask him after the morning court."

Empress Chang Sun put down the comb and went to clean the palace.

Li Shimin stood up, straightened his clothes and said, "It's getting late. I should go to the morning court."

Empress Changsun took care of the little Sizi who had just woken up and dressed herself. She nodded and said, "Send lunch to Ganlu Palace for your majesty later."

Inside the Tai Chi Hall, it was quite noisy at the moment, with people standing in groups of three or four and talking.

Li Chengqian could feel that since he wrote the poem that day, many civil officials looked at him differently, and the military generals also looked at him strangely.

It seems abnormal that a prince who has always been a martial artist suddenly writes poetry.

I also feel that Li Xiaogong's poem "I won't teach the Hu horses" has no other reasonable explanation except that his family is filled with gods and Buddhas with brilliant light.

As for the poem written by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, the sentences are indeed good, but the artistic conception seems a bit forced no matter how you read it.

Li Chengqian stood in front of the court with his two younger brothers.

The culture and books of the Central Plains are the accumulation of the soft power of the Central Plains dynasties. However, this kind of cultural soft power is difficult to influence the Turks or Uighurs.

For them, paper books are not comfortable to use even when going to the toilet.

It is rumored that Songtsen Gampo liked to read books from the Central Plains. The story of the Dream of the Red Chamber had long gone beyond the Western Regions, and Songtsen Gampo was also very obsessed with it.

With the eunuch's loud shout, the Taiji Hall finally became quiet.

My father sat on the throne again, and all the ministers stood in an orderly manner in the court, and began to report matters one by one.

Li Chengqian stood with his hands in his pockets and listened to Ma Zhou and his uncle reporting on the trade.

After everyone finished reporting, Li Chengqian stood out from the court and said loudly: "Father, I have something to say."

Li Shimin said in a deep voice: "Speak."

Li Chengqian bowed to his father first, then turned to the court and said loudly: "I have been co-hosting the trade with you in recent days. Now the treasury has earned about 60,000 strings of cash from the trade. Excluding the salt and iron exported to Gaochang, the remaining taxes are only about 30,000 strings of cash."

In the quiet Taiji Hall, only the prince spoke.

"Strengthening the collection of customs duties is still the top priority. The goods traded for the 30,000 guan tax amount to 100,000 guan. It can be seen that the promotion of tea is still not enough, and the people of the Western Regions are still not aware of tea. Therefore, I plan to organize another trade fair in the winter, which will still be hosted by Jingzhao Prefecture."

Outside the Taiji Hall, Xu Jingzong, standing in front of Chengtian Gate, looked at the Taiji Hall in the distance.

Shangguan Yi had just come out of the Secretariat, holding a pile of files in his hands, and said, "You are only a junior official in Jingzhao Prefecture now, not qualified to stand in the court."

Xu Jingzong retracted his gaze, followed Shangguan Yi out of the Suzaku Gate, and whispered: "From now on, you and I will stand in the Taiji Hall."

Shangguan Yi suddenly said: "You don't have to think about it in the next three years."

Xu Jingzong still spoke with pride, "It's only been three years."

Inside the Taiji Hall, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince continued speaking.

"Is the Jingzhao prefect available?"

"I'm here!" Li Daozon stood out from the court and saluted.

"Jingzhao Prefecture notified all counties that the trade route to the Western Regions has been restored. From now on, if any counties have large-volume goods to trade, they can hand them over to Jingzhao Prefecture to help the Guanzhong villagers export them to the Western Regions. If there are small-volume goods to follow, they can also be brought along. If anyone is willing to follow me to the Hexi Corridor for trade, they can also follow behind the team."

"Your Highness, it is autumn now and the harvest of persimmons and dates is very good."

Li Chengqian smiled and nodded, "That's good."

Li Dao Zong bowed again and said, "I obey your command!"

"The Minister of War is here!"

Hou Junji stood out from the court and said in a loud voice, "I am here."

Today's morning court was very strange. Li Tai and Li Ke stood together, watching their brother giving orders in the Taiji Hall, and they were somewhat envious.

Li Tai secretly glanced at his father who was silent at the moment, and when he saw his father looking at him, he quickly retracted his gaze and stood up straight.

Li Shimin sat on the throne, looking at his son, and gave instructions and arrangements to the officials in the court one by one.

Was this kid like this when he was supervising government affairs in the past?
Now, wherever he looked, there were only a few discussions among the civil and military officials in the court, but they still held their tablets in their hands with a look of respect on their faces.

Li Chengqian bowed and said, "I would like to congratulate Jingzhao Prefecture, the Secretariat, the Ministry of War, the Censorate, the Ministry of Rites, and all the imperial guards in the court for their joint efforts in hosting the trade fair and making it a complete success."

The entire court also bowed to the prince and said, "Thank you, Your Highness!"

Li Shimin took a deep breath and sat up straighter.

In front of the entire court, Li Chengqian said, "There will be another trade fair this winter. This time the target is still the Western Regions. Thank you all for your help."

"I will take your orders!"

There was another loud shout in the Tai Chi Hall.

Changsun Wuji stood in front of the court, silently. He didn't even realize that he was smiling at the moment.

Two years ago, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said that people in the Western Regions could make a lot of money by selling grapes. The Crown Prince felt that this was not possible in the world. But the following year, grapes were grown in Jingyang.

The current Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace, armed with soap and tea leaves, began to counterattack towards the Western Regions.

Some wars and plunders are accompanied by the smoke of gunpowder, but wars involving trade are silent.

The Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace is a man of his words. It’s not that he won’t do some things, but the time is not right.

The honor of the team is higher than that of the individual. When everyone has a sense of honor, the team will be more united.

The court works as a team rather than based on individual achievements or personal opinions.

(End of this chapter)