The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 209 Harsh Rules

According to my uncle, the prince cannot be without his own personal guards.

Li Chengqian left the pond at Changsun Wuji's house, walked from the water pavilion to the front yard again, and met Changsun Chong again.

Still thinking about the Eastern Palace guards, Li Chengqian stopped.

"I heard that Your Highness is using Tuyuhun people for corvée labor in the Hexi Corridor?"

"Some people say so." Li Chengqian nodded.

"Chong believes that since the Tang Dynasty conquered Tuyuhun, they were defeated and they were the ones who violated the Tang Dynasty, so they should be conscripted for labor service."

Li Chengqian nodded without saying anything.

"Chong has always believed that it is the best move for His Royal Highness to recruit Tuyuhun people for corvée labor."

His Highness said nothing but walked out of the mansion.

Chang Sun Chong looked at the prince's back with a smile on his face.

Changsun Wuji came out and saw his son standing there, and whispered, "The prince has gone far away."

"Father, does His Royal Highness always act alone like this?"

Chang Sun Wuji said: "It has always been like this."

Chang Sun Chong smiled and whispered, "The prince is a very powerful man."

Li Chengqian sat on Zhuque Street again, with Xue Wanbei beside him. There were many pedestrians passing by on the street.

Xue Wanbei asked, "Your Highness, are you going to the General's Mansion?"

"Ah."

The Mansion of the General of the Zhenjun Army was also on Zhuque Street. As soon as we reached the door, a doorman came to greet us.

The prince had been to his uncle's house and learned that he had to visit his uncle as well, so he delivered the news first.

This saves the trouble of reporting and asking questions.

Walking into my uncle's mansion, the layout is similar to that of my uncle's mansion, and it is also very large.

Chai Shao sat beside a dead tree that had just sprouted new buds. His temples were still gray, with white strands mixed in his hair. He was wearing a long green shirt and still looked a little weak.

"The general has met His Highness."

Seeing his uncle bowing, Li Chengqian also bowed and said, "Uncle, there is no need to be so polite."

The man is in the prime of middle age, but already has many white hairs.

But looking at my uncle, he looks like a hermit.

Li Chengqian looked at the courtyard and asked, "Is the aunt's spirit tablet here?"

Hearing this, Chai Shao was stunned for a moment, then quickly said, "It's inside the hall."

In the inner hall of Chai Shao's house, incense was burning. In fact, there was also a tablet of my aunt in the ancestral temple. Because my aunt was the only relative who was buried according to the rites for a soldier, her tablet in the ancestral temple was placed together with those of the clan generals.

Li Chengqian bowed silently towards his aunt's spirit tablet.

When I walked outside the hall, I saw my uncle looking at the tablet with a smile. It was the tablet of his first wife, Princess Pingyang Zhao.

"When she was still alive, Your Highness was still an ignorant child, and he would often chase after her and call her aunt."

Chai Shao smiled in relief again, led the prince to the courtyard, and said, "This happened many years ago, Your Highness may have forgotten it."

Li Chengqian sighed: "Actually, Grandpa said that he hopes Uncle can come out of this."

The servant stood aside. In fact, the general of the Zhenjun Army seldom dressed like this. Someone from the Duke of Zhao's mansion brought news that the prince was coming.

The general then ordered his men to prepare clothes and to welcome the prince in the best possible manner.

This is even more solemn than when Your Majesty came.

This shows how much the general values ​​the prince.

Chai Shao smiled and said, "There's no need to talk about the past."

The more lightly my uncle said that there was no need to talk about the past, the more it showed that he still hadn't let it go in his heart.

"I heard that His Majesty asked Your Highness to rebuild the East Palace Right Army."

Li Chengqian also nodded and sat down at the table beside him. His uncle's furniture was not the new tables and chairs used in Chang'an City, but the old ones.

"Well, the position of Right Guard of the Eastern Palace has been vacant for a long time. My uncle said that the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace cannot be without his personal guards forever."

Chai Shao smiled and said, "Actually, what he said is right."

Li Chengqian took out a roll of paper and handed it over, saying, "Please take a look, uncle."

Taking the book, Chai Shao spread out the papers. There was an article written on the light yellow paper. Although the prince's handwriting was not beautiful, it was also neat and could only be considered average.

He looked at his nephew in front of him again and read the content carefully.

Li Chengqian looked at the dead tree next to him that had begun to sprout new buds. This should be another ginkgo tree.

There are many ginkgo trees in Chang'an, but most of them are planted in wealthy families.

After a long silence, a few birds landed on the branches.

There are actually quite a few birds in the imperial city because there are few living people in the imperial city. There are also some dilapidated palaces in the imperial palace, where many birds live.

But there are not many birds in Chang'an City.

The weather is gradually warming up, and Guanzhong is beginning to become full of vitality again.

After reading a few pages, Chai Shao asked, "The prince wants to train troops?"

Li Chengqian asked, "I wonder what you think of this method of training soldiers?"

"As Your Highness said, the training, weighted running, and teamwork are rare in the past."

After saying this, Chai Shao had some doubts, but he said slowly: "There is no harm in practicing like this."

My uncle gave a very pertinent answer. He said there was no harm in training the troops in this way, but he did not say what the benefits were.

"If Your Highness is still worried, I can help Your Highness train the troops."

"Uncle, just continue to recuperate. The Right Commander of the Eastern Palace will be trained by the Imperial Uncle Hejian."

"Really?" Chai Shao felt helpless for his own overthinking. The prince had no shortage of people who could train soldiers around him. He nodded and said, "That's fine. Although Li Xiaogong seems to be sloppy on weekdays, he will never be sloppy at critical moments. It would be best if someone from the royal family could help His Highness."

Li Chengqian looked at his uncle's expression and felt that his uncle was not like his uncle.

My uncle is still at the center of power in the court, and he knows many things better than my uncle.

Especially when he saw the white hair on his temples, Li Chengqian thought of the white-haired soldiers all over the city. How could he dare to forget the Tang Dynasty?

The Tang Dynasty needs to be strong, and I hope that all the elderly people can live out their lives in peace.

Seeing his uncle handing the article back, Li Chengqian nodded and said, "With your guidance, I feel relieved."

Chai Shao asked, "I heard that there is talk about Your Highness again in the court because of the Hexi incident."

"I've long been used to it."

Chai Shao smiled and nodded.

After taking a look at the sky, Li Chengqian said, "My nephew will take his leave now."

"I will escort your highness."

"No, uncle, just take good care of yourself."

Despite what he said, Chai Shao still escorted him to the door of his house, until he saw him walk into the downtown area, his figure also submerged in the pedestrians. As Li Chengqian was walking, he saw a familiar figure, this person was outside a wine shop along the street of Zhenjun General's Mansion.

From here you can see the gate of my uncle's mansion at a glance.

You can also know who is coming in and out.

Li Chengqian walked forward quickly.

Du Zhenglun withdrew his gaze and continued to sit upright, concentrating on drinking the mutton noodle soup.

"Minister Du is in a very elegant mood."

Hearing this, Du Zhenglun turned around and saw the person who was speaking. He immediately bowed and said, "Your Highness the Crown Prince."

Li Chengqian looked around and asked, "How many of these people are your spies?"

Du Zhenglun smiled reluctantly and innocently, and asked, "Why do you say that, Your Highness?"

"Aren't you here to spy?"

"Your Highness has misunderstood me."

Li Chengqian looked at his bowl of noodle soup, and then tested the temperature of the noodles with his hand, and said, "Your noodle soup is not fresh out of the pot, it's a little cold."

"This……"

Du Zhenglun's smile became a little more forced.

"If you're here to eat the soup noodles, you should eat them while they're hot. Look at the noodles, they've become mushy after being soaked. Is it because the soup noodles don't suit your taste, or are you not paying attention while eating?"

Du Zhenglun lowered his head and remained silent. After being exposed, he could only keep up his dignity and continue standing.

Li Chengqian patted his shoulder and made a gesture to leave, whispering: "Guanzhong Construction is in need of people right now. It would be great if you could help Jingzhao Prefecture in your spare time."

After leaving these words, the prince left.

Du Zhenglun stood there in a daze, swallowed his saliva, and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

It felt bad to be seen through, especially when I was following the Crown Prince and was exposed by him. I was thinking about how to explain it to His Majesty.

After the prince walked away, a man dressed as a civilian came forward and asked, "Minister Du, do we still need to follow?"

Du Zhenglun said with a straight face, "Still following? Are you waiting to be captured by the Crown Prince and brought before His Majesty? How do you expect His Majesty to deal with this?"

"This……"

"From now on, we will have a new batch of staff every day."

"Here."

Things still had to go on. Du Zhenglun looked at the bowl of soup noodle on the table again. As for the other things, they could be explained away, but this bowl of soup noodle became a flaw that was seen through by the prince.

Du Zhenglun drank the soup noodle in one gulp, put a few slices of mutton into his mouth and chewed them, then paid the shop owner and left.

An army is most easily changed by the will of one person. If the owner of this army wants it to become the Flying Tigers, it will easily deviate from the appearance of an ordinary military guard.

When Li Chengqian arrived in Qujiang, he saw Cheng Chumo and his men cleaning up the dilapidated houses in Qujiang.

"Uncle, clean up the streets and demolish all these old houses that no one lives in and rebuild them."

Li Xiaogong hesitated and asked, "Do you have any documents from the Ministry of Works?"

The construction of a market town requires written documents, and it seems that the construction of Donggong Youliu also requires regulations.

Li Chengqian sighed and said, "Just let Xu Xiaode draft one. It's not a difficult task."

Seeing Cheng Chumo and his men busy, a team of three hundred people was not a lot, so there was no need to worry too much about the money and food, as the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace could take care of it.

At the camp where the martial arts performance was held before, which is now the temporary camp of Donggong Youshu, there is a lot of wheat, a bag full of copper coins, and even a box of soap and mutton, and even a piglet is being roasted.

Du He's moves are always so exaggerated, so exaggerated that people dare not look for him a second time.

Li Xiaogong explained: "Du He was very happy when he learned that it was to send money and food to the Crown Prince's Donggong Youlu. He almost sent all his family's assets over, but fortunately I stopped him."

Li Chengqian took out a booklet from his bosom and handed it to his uncle, saying, "This is the training strategy that I came up with in the East Palace. It takes into account the details of whether it will conflict with the military system. I asked my uncle to take a look at it first. He said that there won't be any major problems with this training."

Li Xiaogong smiled and said, "Actually, you don't need to let others see it, just leave it to me."

He started reading as he spoke. The prince seldom read military books, and this was the first time a book on training soldiers was written, so naturally he had to read it.

The first thing I saw was enough to shock me: "The troops must be kept clean, and the living quarters must contain only the necessary utensils for daily life, and nothing else."

Let's look at the second article: "While on duty, the right commander shall not leave his post without permission, nor bring outsiders into the army."

"No vulgar language is allowed, and everyone must read for an hour every day."

"You are not allowed to quit midway. Except for health reasons, once you quit midway, you will never be recruited again. The Ministry of War will make a record of it."

……

At first glance, I didn’t see any training methods, but rather a series of rules.

The prince is a person who likes rules, so there is nothing wrong with this. Li Xiaogong understands this and thinks this is as it should be.

As the Right Officer of the Eastern Palace, naturally he had to do everything according to the Crown Prince's requirements, and these were not very strict rules.

Looking at it again, I thought the next thing would be the method of training soldiers, but unexpectedly it was the rules again.

"The maintenance of military discipline and appearance is a daily necessity on duty."

"When eating, you must save food and practice the frugal spirit of the court. You are not allowed to bring any foreign objects or food into the army."

Li Xiaogong took a deep breath, stared at the contents page by page with his big eyes, and finally saw the method of training soldiers in the last few pages.

The method of training soldiers was very simple. In addition to the necessary training in the army, they also had to march every three days. They had to run around Chang'an City before dawn and run ten miles with a weight every half a month. The weight would be gradually increased according to the results.

There are also some methods of training soldiers that can be imagined using words.

He looked through it carefully for a while. It was a booklet with more than thirty pages, twenty-five of which were all about rules and military discipline, and only the last five pages talked about how to train soldiers.

Li Chengqian said: "If you feel it is not perfect enough, you can improve it after you go back."

Li Xiaogong slowly raised his eyes and looked at the young boys who were still laughing and chatting in the distance. They didn't know yet how harsh the military discipline they would face in the future.

"No need, I think it's perfect."

Li Chengqian nodded in agreement and said, "Uncle Huang is right. This is just an attempt. If we find any problems later, we can fix them."

Li Xiaogong wanted to say something but stopped himself, and had to nod his head without saying anything.

"Jing Heng!" Li Chengqian called out.

Li Jingheng, the son of Jiangxia County Prince Li Dao Zong, ran over quickly and clasped his fists, saying, "I am here."

Li Chengqian pointed at the carts of things Du He had brought and said, "We'll arrange the Flying Tigers' meals later."

"Here."

Li Jingheng continued to arrange personnel and carry out the prince's orders, and only then did he feel more at ease.

Li Chengqian warned, "Uncle, I know there are many noble children from Chang'an among these people, but the Right Leader of the Eastern Palace is not a place for them to joke around. What do you think, uncle?"

Hearing this, Li Xiaogong walked forward with a serious expression, kicked a young man who was slacking off, and scolded a few young men who were playing with sticks.

Not until the originally loose scene was restored to a tense construction did Li Chengqian nod with satisfaction and called Chu Mo again.

Cheng Chumo bowed and said, "Your Highness, I am here."

Li Chengqian said to him: "Many of these noble children may not be able to endure hardships. If anyone cannot adapt to the rules of the Right Leader..."

Cheng Chumo nodded and said, "General, I will definitely deal with him according to military law."

(End of this chapter)