The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 314: The twelfth month
After tearing up the copybook, little Yutu became interested in other objects. He looked around with clear and curious eyes, picked up the pen holder, and looked inside it curiously.

Then he put the pen holder aside, crawled on the table, kicked the pen holder and it fell to the ground, and the brushes were scattered on the ground.

There were a few more noises, and someone didn't know what fell to the ground.

When Little Sizi took Little Yutu away from Ganlu Palace, the eunuch who had fainted on the spot woke up in a daze. He opened his eyes and saw the messy scene in front of him. He rubbed his eyes hard. The originally tidy desk of His Majesty was now in a mess.

There were broken things on the ground, but I didn't know what they were.

Papers were scattered all over the floor; some of the memorials and files were torn, while others seemed to have been stepped on.

Some of the memorials also looked like they had been bitten.

The eunuch's legs went weak, and he stammered, "Go and tell His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, quickly..."

The eunuch was shouting outside the palace, but there was no need for him to shout, as another eunuch had already gone to report to the prince.

Li Chengqian was resting quietly by the Taiye Lake with his eyes closed, hearing the eunuch's words in his ears.

These eunuchs almost swore to heaven that they would never tell His Majesty about this matter and would never implicate the Eastern Palace.

Li Chengqian still had his eyes closed, and nodded slightly, saying, "Go and clean it up, and record anything that's damaged."

"Yes." The eunuchs replied, and then asked: "Your Highness, after the record is completed, what should we do..."

Li Chengqian whispered, "Since they are all my father's possessions, I must tell him."

Several eunuchs looked embarrassed, but they still went about doing it with bitter faces.

Not far away, several sisters were discussing some new clothes.

Gao Yang was wearing bright red clothes and was very happy. He said, "I like red the most."

Linchuan said: "It's better to be plain."

Qinghe said: "My sister likes black."

Gao Yang said unhappily: "What girl likes black?"

Qinghe said stubbornly: "I like black."

……

The sound of their voices faded away. Li Chengqian took a short nap and then saw his grandfather eating soup and rice.

While Li Yuan was eating, he picked up a small bowl beside him and fed the little magpie.

Li Chengqian sat up and took off his hat.

Another eunuch said, "Your Highness, Prince Jiang and Prince Guo have also been brought here."

"Well, let the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple investigate it carefully."

"Here."

Grandpa was still feeding the little magpie. The child chewed very hard and while eating, his eyes were looking at the ducks swimming on the surface of Taiye Lake.

"Grandpa, Duck..." She pointed at the distance with a sweet childish voice.

"Hmm." Li Yuan blew on the porridge and said, "Que'er, drink the porridge first."

She opened her mouth obediently again, took a mouthful of porridge, smacking her lips twice.

In fact, my grandfather knew about the affairs of the royal family, but he just didn't want to care or ask about it.

Grandpa is old, and it’s good for him to live the rest of his years in peace.

Li Chengqian walked to his daughter, took out a cloth and wiped her mouth, and said, "Grandpa, it's time to rest today."

Li Yuan nodded slowly and said, "Wait until the child has finished his meal."

"Ah."

After feeding the little magpie, grandpa ate his own slightly cold meal.

Grandpa can no longer chew meat now. In order to give him some nutrition, Dongyang specially asked someone to prepare soup and rice for him.

In the afternoon, Grandpa and the little magpie fell asleep on the recliner.

Having the palace maids standing by to serve him, Li Chengqian looked at his mother who was scolding Xiao Yutu.

The family lives here peacefully, planning to spend the winter peacefully. Even if there is a flood outside, it will not disturb them.

Li Chengqian called out, "Linchuan."

"Brother." She walked over quickly, holding a book in her hand, and asked, "What do you want me to do?"

"Have you sent the winter clothes for Father to Mount Tai?"

"My mother sent someone to deliver it yesterday." After saying this, she was still a little hesitant, but still said, "Grandpa heard about the four uncles, he just sighed and didn't say anything."

Not far away, Li Lizhi and Dongyang also came back, followed by two disciples, Xiaowu and Xiaohui.

After a slight greeting, Linchuan went up to them and chatted with them.

Li Lizhi was wearing a light blue dress with her wide sleeves swaying as she walked. This eldest princess was already twenty years old, but she still had no plans to get married.

For this princess, twenty years old is the best age in her life to seek progress and work hard for her career. It is also the best period of her mental and physical strength.

Therefore, even the queen never mentioned the princess's marriage again.

She instructed her younger sisters: "Sisters, make dumplings together tonight, and let Zhinu and Shendi come to eat together."

The maid replied, "I will go and give the order right away."

When Li Zhi and Li Shen also arrived here, a group of sisters were making buns by the Taiye Lake.

A group of children were playing together and laughing.

Hearing the laughter, the son beside him also started laughing, and no one knew what he was laughing at.

Li Zhi asked: "Brother, how do we get a vacuum environment?"

"What do you ask for this?"

"My brother has mentioned this knowledge before, and I want to prove the existence of vacuum."

Li Chengqian said: "Water can expel air."

Li Zhi seemed to be thinking about something.

I don't know why this younger brother asks these questions. He seldom takes the initiative to learn and would rather play than think for too long.

The buns in the steamer were almost cooked, and the fragrance filled the waterfront. Even the deer came over and kept sniffing the air.

It was not until nightfall that the family had dinner and sat down separately.

Li Lizhi, Su Wan, and Ning'er were talking.

There were several bonfires on the ground. Li Zhi, Li Shen, and Xiao Sizi sat by the bonfires, roasting meat.

Little Sizi sat on a rock by the lake, his hands resting on his chin, looking at the skewers of meat that were being roasted.

"Sizi, do you still look at the stars every night?"

"You don't have to look at the stars every day. You can just look at them on special holidays." Little Sizi replied casually.

Li Shen whispered, "I heard that some uncles got into trouble."

Li Zhi said seriously, "If you get into trouble, you must bear the consequences." "Your Highness, Prince Jin, you are right."

Hearing this, the two brothers looked back and saw Xiao Wu standing behind them.

Xiao Wu smiled and took out the pepper and salt, saying, "This is for His Highness."

Li Zhi took the pepper and salt and said, "That's enough."

After so many years in the Eastern Palace, Li Zhi learned how to barbecue except for learning how to grill meat.

After the meat was cooked, Li Zhi distributed it to his brothers and sisters.

It was not until late at night that the Taiye Lake became quiet.

The next day, Jiang and Teng were detained in the Ministry of Justice.

Jiang and Guo were temporarily placed under house arrest in the Zongzheng Temple.

In the past few days, many people have been arrested and brought to Chang'an. Just as the prince said, this matter needs to be investigated slowly, and the court has plenty of patience.

The patience that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince mentioned means that the evidence must be solid, both human and material evidence must be complete, and one must not only focus on the big things but ignore the small ones.

Di Zhixun asked, "Has the file of Tengwang Pavilion not been delivered yet?"

Liu Dewei, the Minister of Justice, said, "Minister Di, don't worry. The Shandong side is still investigating. Just wait."

Di Zhixun put down the file in his hand and said, "It seems that we will have to wait until next year to find out."

Liu Dewei handed over a bowl of tea and said, "Drink some hot tea to warm yourself up. The weather is getting colder."

Di Zhixun took a sip of tea and asked, "I will go to the Ministry of Civil Affairs to ask about the past files of Teng County."

"The Ministry of Civil Affairs is on holiday, there is no one here right now."

"Too……"

After Di Zhixun finished drinking the tea in the bowl, he walked outside the Ministry of Justice and first looked at the snow piled on the corner of the wall. In fact, there was snow on the roofs of many government offices as well. The weather now was the coldest.

Occasionally someone would pass by in a hurry, unwilling to stay outside in the cold winter.

Di Zhixun added: "The Dali Temple sent 70 people, the Ministry of Justice sent 20 people, the Censorate sent 15 people, and I heard that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince also sent a lot of bad people."

After listening to Di Zhixun's story, he had a clear understanding of the current investigation links and steps.

In his daily life, Dickson was careless, but in his official duties, he was a very meticulous person.

The Ministry of Justice needs people who are meticulous in their work. When Di Zhixun was working in Jingzhao Prefecture, he was very capable when he traveled to various counties. This is why Liu Dewei valued him. After all, not everyone can judge what a person does for a living based on his appearance and habits.

Whether it was a thief, a bandit, or a craftsman, he could confirm it with just a little observation.

They didn't know when the case would be investigated, and the two people in the Ministry of Justice were very distressed because the scope of the investigation this time was very large and there were many things that needed to be investigated.

In Jingzhao Prefecture, Xu Jingzong was looking at the accounts. Today, he sold another 5,000 pieces of cotton cloth and 3,000 cotton coats.

Yan Qinli said: "Although it is in short supply, there are still not many people wearing cotton-padded clothes in the counties and villages of Guanzhong. It is still too expensive."

Whether from the perspective of cotton transportation or the weaving process, the high cost of cotton cloth is inevitable, and this is not just because there is a shortage of cotton cloth.

Not to mention how much manpower was consumed in transporting the cotton from the Western Regions, the process of turning the cotton into thread and cloth also consumes a huge amount of manpower. It would be unreasonable for it not to be expensive.

If you want cheaper cotton cloth, you can look at Guo Luotuo, who is now in the Western Regions, to see if the cotton harvest next year can be better, and also look at the production level in Guanzhong.

This is also the reason why His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has always emphasized production technology.

Xu Jingzong said: "The cotton clothes have been sold out, and there is still a backlog of 60% of the cotton in the county warehouses."

Even Yan Qinli realized that the output of cotton cloth could not keep up with the demand, let alone the consumption of cotton. He had originally planned to consume all the cotton by the spring of next year, but now it seems that even by the spring of next year, there will still be at least 30% of the cotton in the warehouse.

All the counties were rushing to make the products, so Xu Jingzong said, "I will write a memorial to inform His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

After saying this, Xu Jingzong rubbed his hands first to let them feel the warmth, then picked up the pen and began to write.

Yan Qinli watched Xu Shaoyin writing a memorial, in which he mentioned the plight of the cotton cloth workshop. The problem needed to be solved, and the Jingzhao Prefecture's way of doing things was to discover problems, analyze them, and solve them.

When you encounter a problem, you must solve it instead of letting it exist.

Yan Qinli said, "Shao Yin, Guanzhong should not add more workshops. The counties are under so much pressure now. Adding more workshops will not only cause a shortage of manpower, but we can't stop all the people in other workshops from weaving cotton cloth."

Xu Jingzong stopped writing and wrote another one. This time, both of them confirmed that there was no problem before submitting it.

Some people in the court were taking a break, while others were busy. When the crown prince was supervising government affairs, he would often handle government affairs in the Secretariat, especially when something like this happened to the royal family.

In the Secretariat, some people also lowered their voices when talking.

Li Chengqian was sitting here, looking at the documents sent from various places.

News came from Mount Tai that my father has been staying in Mount Tai these days. He has neither set up an altar to offer sacrifices to the gods nor has he any intention of coming back. He also does not want to take care of the affairs of the royal family. Instead, he is enjoying himself by traveling and sightseeing with everyone else.

When the emperor goes on a trip, as a son he cannot just sit there and take care of things. He has to prepare food, clothing and various daily necessities for the emperor's accompanying army.

The emperor's travel was very expensive, and the expenses were particularly high. Li Chengqian frowned and wrote a note, asking that the food and fodder remain unchanged and the expenses be appropriately reduced.

After the trip, the court no longer received any memorials advising the emperor to perform the Fengshan ceremony. Perhaps those who wanted the emperor to perform the Fengshan ceremony went to Mount Tai.

However, it was Ke's younger brother who brought news that Li Yuanchang had also gone to Mount Tai and was waiting at the foot of the mountain every day. He hoped that his father would be lenient with those brothers.

Noticing the person standing in front of him, Li Chengqian looked up and saw Yan Qinli, and asked, "What's the matter?"

"Xu Shaoyin asked me to deliver some memorials to you."

Li Chengqian took the memorial, looked at what was written on it, and whispered, "Someone told me about this a month ago."

"Ok?"

"The Hexi Corridor will share the production pressure in the future. You don't have to worry. The production steps will be adjusted later. We will make plans next year."

"Hmm...yes."

Yan Qinli was surprised, extremely surprised that the prince had known about it a long time ago and had made plans before the Jingzhao Prefecture noticed.

Yes... Yan Qinli thought, if the Hexi Corridor could spin the cotton into thread first, and then the cotton thread could be directly made into cloth after being sent to Guanzhong, the production pressure would be greatly reduced.

In the twelfth month of the fifteenth year of Zhenguan, Xuanzang rode on a war horse, with Tibetan warriors on both sides of him.

Songtsen Gampo said: "If you go back now, you will arrive in Chang'an in the spring of next year."

Xuanzang chanted the Buddha's name and said, "Thank you, Zampo, for seeing me off."

Songtsen Gampo shook his head and said, "Now that you have completed the construction of the Buddhist cave, it is time for you to leave. There is no reason for Tubo to keep you unless you are willing to stay."

Feng Dexia waited impatiently on the side, feeling very bad, and didn't know how much more Songtsen Gampo would say to Xuanzang.

At the beginning, Songtsen Gampo once wanted to imprison him in Tubo, but he didn't expect that Xuanzang really helped him repair the Buddhist cave. So Songtsen Gampo should keep his promise and release Xuanzang.

Xuanzang valued Songtsen Gampo as a man who would keep his promises.
"I'll ask you again, are you really unwilling to stay in Tubo?"

"Thank you for your care over the past six months."

Songtsen Gampo made way and let Feng Dexia take him towards the east.

On the way back, Feng Dexia looked back from time to time with a vigilant expression. Now the Tang army had not yet reached the Tubo territory, and it would take at least ten days to escort the monk. The Tubo troops in the rear were following closely and it seemed that they would take action at any time.

"Master Xuanzang, it seems that Songtsen Gampo is not so magnanimous!"

(End of this chapter)