The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 141 Chencang County Magistrate
Li Shimin nodded with satisfaction and whispered to his son beside him: "Those boys used to be in front of me. I watched them grow up."

Li Chengqian also whispered back: "I will take good care of them."

"Well, go ahead."

"Here."

Li Chengqian looked at the generals again and walked towards the side hall.

In the side hall, the palace maids were still dancing with their long sleeves waving.

Li Chengqian walked into the hall. The young men here were still sitting upright. Some closed their eyes and said nothing, while others just watched the palace maids dancing without saying a word.

After sitting down, Li Chengqian asked the palace maid beside him, "What kind of dance is this?"

The maid replied, "Your Highness, it is the Duo dance from the Han Dynasty, which is often performed at palace banquets."

“This dance takes so long.”

"Your Highness, they have danced three times already."

Li Chengqian frowned and asked, "Do you think I'm dissatisfied?"

The maid said in panic: "I dare not think so."

They would keep dancing unless the prince told them to step back.

Li Chengqian let out a long breath and said slowly: "Alright, you can leave now."

"Yes." The leading female official stopped what she was doing and replied softly, then she led the palace maids to retreat.

Looking at the people present, there was a man wearing coarse cloth clothes and a fu hat.

However, Xue Wanbei followed General Xue Wanjun to fight when he was a teenager, so among the young generals, there should be a young general comparable to Li Daoyan.

Seeing that the atmosphere had returned to silence, the palace maids all left and everyone remained seated.

Noticing the prince's gaze, Li Chongyi followed his gaze and bowed, saying, "Your Highness, this is General Xue Wanbei. Wanbei has been serving in the army. He has been guarding Jiannan Road and stationed in Shuzhong for many years. Now he wants to move back to Guanzhong to serve."

As soon as he finished speaking, the young people present all looked at him.

There was silence for a moment, with Li Chengqian holding a tea bowl in his hand.

Xue Wanbei quickly stood up and saluted, "Your Highness, please forgive me for making fun of you. Actually..."

"Please sit down. I've told you not to be so polite." Li Chengqian interrupted what he was about to say.

"Yes." Xue Wanbei sat down again, put his hands on his knees, sat up straight, and said, "Your Highness, my brother is old and has an old illness. I can't bear to see him suffer from the pain, so I want to come back to take care of him."

Speaking of Xue Wanjun's health, he is now being taken care of by Doctor Sun. In fact, Doctor Sun is taking care of many people, not only General Xue Wanjun, but also General Qin Qiong.

In addition to compiling the Medical Classics, Doctor Sun also treated people everywhere in Chang'an, from the Queen Mother and grandfather to peddlers and servants.

As for the money for the medicinal materials, it was Du He, a great philanthropist in Chang'an City, who had been paying it.

Dr. Sun doesn’t charge for his treatment.

Xue Wanbei continued, "I have always wanted to return to Guanzhong and be transferred to a post in Guanzhong, even if it is not in Chang'an, just a guard post will do, but I have asked you many times, but you have never agreed."

Li Chengqian put down his tea bowl and looked at him. He was in his thirties and looked very similar to General Xue Wanjun, but he was a lot stronger and had a rough look.

"I will arrange this matter."

Hearing this, Xue Wanbei stood up and saluted again, "Thank you, Your Highness!"

Li Chengqian frowned and said, "The military has just been restructured recently, and there are many vacancies. Okay, take a seat."

"Here!"

The man sat down again with a straight face.

In the main hall next door, a shout was suddenly heard, "How dare you."

Hearing this, Li Chengqian stood up and walked to the main hall, quietly observing the situation there.

Upon seeing this, several young men also stood up and followed the prince's example by moving closer to take a closer look. Some of them poked their heads out of the door, while others put their ears against the wall.

Li Chengqian stood openly in the corridor between the main hall and the side hall, and saw his father pointing at an urgent report and angrily saying, "Liu Rengui is so bold! I personally appointed him as a captain, but he beat him to death!"

When I heard the name Liu Rengui, I had a general impression of him. In fact, I saw this name when I was reading the files of the Secretariat recently. At that time, my grandfather was in power. This person was valued by my grandfather because of his outstanding talent and learning.

Later, I saw from the documents of the Ministry of Personnel that two years ago Liu Rengui was transferred to Chencang to serve as a county lieutenant.

Liu Rengui, a descendant of Emperor Zhang of Han, Liu Zhuang, was poor and orphaned when he was young, but he was humble and studious.

A banquet was disrupted by an urgent report, and all the generals withdrew one after another.

Li Chengqian looked at his father drinking in depression, probably because he was angry again, so he walked back to the side hall and said, "Let everyone go back."

Li Chongyi nodded and asked everyone to follow their fathers home.

After everyone left, Li Chengqian poured wine for his father and said, "Don't be angry."

Li Shimin took a sip of wine and said, "How dare a county lieutenant kill the commander of the Zhechoufu appointed by me personally!"

“It’s actually pretty good.”

"Good?"

Li Chengqian took the wine pot and poured more wine into his father's wine bottle, whispering: "This is what happens when a military commander is out of control."

After saying this, Li Chengqian naturally picked up the memorial from his father's desk and looked at it carefully.

Everyone else had left, but Li Tai and Li Ke were still standing in the hall, because their royal brother hadn't left either. But now they saw their royal brother sitting in the seat of honor, opposite their father, with his back to them.

The emperor's brother looked indifferent. Something that made the emperor angry seemed not a big deal to him. He even picked up the urgent report from the emperor and just looked at it.

If it were me, I would never dare to do this when my father is angry.

After reading the urgent report, Li Chengqian looked relaxed and whispered, "Liu Rengui is only 34 years old."

Li Shimin said: "I didn't think he was so arrogant back then, I wanted to let him go to Chencang to hone his skills for a few years."

"Father, please don't be angry about this urgent report. This is an urgent report sent by the army, and Liu Rengui has also been captured, but this county lieutenant did not choose to run away. Instead, he killed the commander Lu Ning and then continued to handle official business in his government office."

"so what?"

"As I just said, if the generals in the army don't exercise restraint, there will probably be more incidents like this."

"You mean I didn't manage them well."

Li Chengqian smiled lightly. In front of the emperor, the sixteen-year-old boy smiled easily. He advised: "What if Liu Rengui committed the crime for another reason?"

"Do you have any news?"

"There are only a few counties in Guanzhong. I have seen the name Liu Rengui. Besides, this matter has both good and bad sides. If Lu Ning really did something outrageous, it would be a good idea to kill him. This will let the army know that their leaders cannot ignore the law."

"Anyway, the officials of the counties in Guanzhong have long lived on thin ice in the hands of my son. They are as obedient as they want to be now. Even if Liu Rengui really killed Lu Ning, it was just a moment of arrogance. On the contrary, killing him would appease the army."

After a pause, Li Chengqian continued, "To put it another way, if Lu Ning was guilty of heinous crimes, why didn't your Majesty reward Liu Rengui? Therefore, I think he must have had a reason for beating Lu Ning to death."

"Okay!" Li Shimin's expression changed from anger at the beginning to a smile, "I'll make this bet with you."

"I would like to ask the Emperor for a military post on behalf of someone else."

"who?"

"Xue Wanbei who guards Jiannan Road."

Li Shimin thought about it and asked suspiciously, "You are still interfering in these matters?"

"Father, I don't have many friends, so I want to do him a favor."

"Xue Wanjun told me about his family affairs." It was rare for his son to make requests to him. The last time was when he asked for documents for the caravan last year.

Li Shimin stroked his beard and said, "Even if you didn't tell me, I would have arranged it. Then move him back and keep him in the Zuowuwei under Li Ji's command." "Thank you, father. After the beginning of autumn, we can build the Lingyan Pavilion."

Li Shimin felt much better and was no longer angry. He stood up and said, "I'm going to rest now."

The father and his sons walked out of Xingqing Hall together, and the three brothers watched their father go to the back hall to rest.

Li Ke said quickly: "My brother shouldn't have made this bet with my father."

Li Chengqian walked along with his hands in his pockets and asked, "Are you familiar with Xue Wanbei?"

Li Ke replied: "I saw it when I was a child, but I haven't seen it since then."

Seeing his brother looking at him, Li Tai replied, "I'm not familiar with him."

Standing between his two younger brothers, Li Chengqian turned around and looked at Xingqing Palace again, then retracted his gaze and said, "Qingque, you should be more cheerful."

Hearing this, Li Tai forced a smile, but soon felt that his smile was a little forced, and quickly put his face away.

Li Chengqian suddenly said, "The court is free these days, let's go fishing together some other day."

Li Ke quickly responded, "Okay, I'll follow your instructions, brother."

In fact, Li Tai didn't want to go, but Li Ke agreed so quickly that he was thinking about how to refuse.

Li Chengqian suddenly said, "Then it's decided. You guys wait for me here at this time tomorrow."

Li Tai was hesitant to speak, so he had to nod reluctantly. His brother the emperor did not give him a chance to refuse.

The next day, with the urgent report from Chen Cang, the troops escorting Liu Rengui were also about to arrive the next day.

Li Chengqian, Li Tai and Li Ke were sitting by the Wei River fishing.

Li Ji and Xue Wanbei were guarding on the side, and a team of officers and soldiers were standing behind.

From here you can see from afar a group of people escorting a prisoner van passing by. Chencang is just to the west of Chang'an, which is the place where Liu Bang secretly crossed Chencang to seize Guanzhong.

Li Chengqian was eating a piece of cake and watching this scene from afar. They were walking along the official road by the river, and from here they could see a man sitting in a prison car.

The man sat cross-legged in the prison car, seemingly meditating. The prison car did not seem to affect his mood.

Li Tai was absent-minded while fishing. He crushed the dead leaves in his hand and scattered them near the fishing line.

Li Ke looked at him and asked, "Is that Liu Rengui?"

Li Ji replied: "That's him."

Li Chengqian smiled and handed a cake to Xue Wanbei, who was standing beside him, and said, "Just tell him that I'm treating him to a cake. Don't let him go hungry. This will give you more confidence when you argue with your father."

"Here."

Xue Wanbei mounted his horse, crossed the bridge and stopped the team of officers and soldiers. He explained a few words to the escorting officers and soldiers, and they saluted respectfully.

Then he walked straight to the prison van, and Xue Wanbei handed him a cake and said a few words.

Liu Rengui sat in the prison car, looking at the three young men sitting by the river not far away. He didn't know which one was the Crown Prince, so he just lowered his body and saluted in the prison car.

When Xue Wanbei came back, the escorting officers and soldiers left.

"Your Highness, Liu Rengui said he thanked Your Highness for the cake, but he refused to eat it."

Li Chengqian put his weight on the small chair, leaned back and put his hands in his pockets, "Why?"

"Liu Rengui said he had a grievance and was afraid that Your Highness would silence him. He would eat the cake after he told Your Majesty the reason. So I just thanked you first."

Li Tai said, "He took the cake but didn't eat it. My brother's good intentions are being suspected. This Liu Rengui is really interesting."

Li Chengqian caught a fish the size of a palm and put it into a bamboo basket beside him.

Then Xue Wanbei watched the prince hang the earthworm back on the fishhook and listened to the gurgling sound of the river flowing.

Noticing the gaze behind him, Li Chengqian asked again: "General Xue, is there something on your mind?"

He stepped back and lowered his head, "No worries."

"They all say that I am a loner and strict person, but that's not the case. I am just like most of you."

Hearing this, Li Tai glanced at his brother, then quickly looked away.

Li Chengqian added: "Tell me what's on your mind. The court is quite busy lately, so it's hard for me to go fishing."

Xue Wanbei said, "I was not in Chang'an before, but when I came back this time, I heard that Xu Jingzong, the cruel official, was a disciple of the Crown Prince and was very close to His Royal Highness."

"is it?"

Hearing the prince's question, Xue Wanbei replied, "It was Yuchi Baolinlin and the others who were discussing it."

"Is Xu Jingzong famous now?"

"Famous in Chang'an."

Li Chengqian washed his hands, rubbed his brows, and said in surprise: "Actually, I am not very familiar with Xu Jingzong."

Only then did Xue Wanbei nod with relief.

Life is full of coincidences. What a coincidence, Xu Jingzong was leading a few soldiers and walking towards here.

Li Ji stepped forward to stop them, allowing only Xu Jingzong to approach the prince.

"Your Highness, news from Weinan."

After hearing Xu Jingzong speak, Li Chengqian said, "Speak."

"The county magistrate of Weinan County has retired."

"again?"

"Unlike before, the county magistrate of Weinan County is indeed old and can no longer handle county affairs. I mentioned this last year."

Li Chengqian ordered: "Has the Ministry of Personnel agreed?"

"It has been agreed. Duke Zhao personally approved it. He is ready to return home."

"Until a suitable replacement for the county magistrate is found, let Pei Xingjian take over as the county magistrate temporarily."

"Here."

"Wait." Li Chengqian stopped him again and warned him, "Old Xu, don't always put pressure on them. The county magistrate of Weinan County has retired and is returning to his hometown. You should personally see him off. It doesn't have to be too far, just a few miles will be fine."

Xu Jingzong said quickly: "Let's arrange it right away."

Li Chengqian looked at the sky and said, "Go quickly, while it's still light and people haven't gone far. You can just do something for others to see, be more approachable, and get closer to the thousands of villagers. Do you understand?"

"Here."

Then he mounted his horse, and walked away with his men, raising a cloud of dust.

Hearing His Highness calling that man Lao Xu, Xue Wanbei walked back and forth a few steps and whispered to the soldier beside him, "Who was that just now?"

The soldier whispered back, "Xu Jingzong, the Junior Yin of Jingzhao Prefecture."

Xue Wanbei looked at the Crown Prince with a puzzled expression.

Li Tai put away his fishing rod and said, "Brother, when County Magistrate Liu arrives in Chang'an, it must be very lively. We came here just to see him, why don't we go and see him?"

Li Chengqian smiled and said, "Qingque is as smart as ever."

I am sleep deprived again, so I will add another chapter...

I have been suffering from insomnia recently and I don’t know what’s going on. I even suspect that I have lost the ability to sleep.

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(End of this chapter)