The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 353: The Long Dialectic

The hall was very quiet and a little warmer than outside.

Zhang Daan said: "More than 3,600 people were relocated from Jingzhao Prefecture, and now they have all been resettled. The flood submerged more than 500 hectares of farmland, destroyed more than ten villages, and three counties were affected."

Li Chengqian asked: "Is everyone okay?"

"Your Highness, everyone is fine."

Jingzhao Prefecture has done its best to achieve this result.

At a time when governance capacity is limited, we have done our best to achieve this. Some things cannot be changed by human power.

No one can stop the arrival of autumn rain in Kansai.

The carrying capacity of the Luoshui River can only be dealt with by this limited method in this era.

“Even the silt dam in the upper reaches of Guanzhong cannot play a miraculous role in just a few years.” Li Chengqian sighed helplessly as he stood in the hall.

All the ministers in the hall lowered their heads, listening to the sigh of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

Li Chengqian added: "We cannot change the weather and geographical conditions, but humans can always control floods time and time again. Flood control is never successful overnight. Even if manpower is limited, we must not give up and must persevere."

Zhang Daan bowed and said, "Yes."

"Okay, go back and change your clothes, warm up your body, and have a good rest. You will still be responsible for the affairs of the counties in Luoyang."

"I accept your order."

Li Chengqian looked at Cen Benwen who was standing beside him and said, "Go on."

"Here."

Cen Wenben said: "Hebei has a population of more than 2.6 million, including more than 700,000 strong laborers. If we can cultivate the land next year, and each household pays the land tax after farming, the court will be able to harvest a million dan of grain tax."

Zhang Sun Wuji said: "I think that all parts of Hebei need to be well cultivated and not build workshops."

The court began to discuss how to revitalize Hebei and restore its vitality.

Moreover, my father is now away at the battlefield, and there is no news of withdrawal. I guess my father plans to spend the winter in Liaodong this year.

No military reports have been received yet, so it is unknown whether my father intends to temporarily cease fire or has other plans.

Luoyang was too far away from Liaodong, and it took two months for the news to arrive and go back.

Many things can only be arranged by my father.

Li Chengqian listened to the discussions of the ministers in the court. Hebei is located at the rear of Youzhou and is the closest to Liaodong.

If Hebei is stable, it will be a great help to my father's eastern expedition.

In fact, if the support for the Eastern Expedition could be properly dispatched, the food and manpower in Hebei alone would be enough, which could save huge manpower costs.

Everyone talked about this year's winter plans and next year's spring ploughing.

Hebei is not Guanzhong, nor does it have as good an environment as Guanzhong for developing workshop industry. Li Chengqian allowed his ministers to discuss the arrangements for Hebei.

The grain confiscated from various parts of Hebei can be used again for the people, the money confiscated can be used for state affairs, and the population of various places can be re-planned.

With so many people arrested, great order is bound to come after the chaos. Even if the population is reorganized and increased by hundreds of thousands, the total population of Hebei is close to three million.

But even so, after clearing out the local evildoers and officials who had connections with the Cui family of Boling.

What followed was a problem that had to be faced, which, if expressed in later language, was the Hebei Depression.

After the morning court session, the affairs of Hebei were handed over to my uncle to arrange.

When Li Chengqian left Qianyuan Hall, it was still raining heavily and no one knew when the rain would end.

After the eunuch put the pot in place, he started to cook the tea eggs.

Li Chengqian looked at the scroll in his hand and said, "Remember to clean it up."

"Yes." The three eunuchs nodded in agreement.

After sitting quietly for a while, Li Chengqian looked at the scroll sent by Mr. Gu Nalu, which talked about many ideas in Confucianism.

After reading too much, I feel that Confucianism is complicated.

"Your Highness, Minister Yu is here."

Hearing the voice, Li Chengqian nodded slightly.

Yu Zhining walked into the hall, bowed and said, "Your Highness."

"I just finished my court session and asked you to come. I was worried that I would delay your work."

"Your Highness, please don't say that." Yu Zhining bowed and said, "I am the Minister of the Eastern Palace, so I will naturally follow your orders."

Li Chengqian put down the scroll in his hand and asked, "What do you think of Mr. Gu Nalu?"

After thinking for a moment, Yu Zhining replied: "It is said that this old gentleman is well versed in Zhouli, Yili, Gongyang Zhuan, Zuo Zhuan, and Guliang Zhuan. He is knowledgeable and ranks first in the world."

Li Chengqian peeled the shell of a tea egg and said, "How about asking this old gentleman to write a book and use it to teach?"

Yu Zhining asked: "Your Highness, are you going to create a new classic to educate the world?"

Li Chengqian shook his head and said, "You are joking. They are just some books related to teaching. But I am very curious why this old gentleman never commented on the knowledge of Hongwenguan."

Yu Zhining was silent for a moment and said nothing.

To be a wise king, besides having ministers who are capable of governing the country, he also needs knowledgeable people and people with a certain authority to write books.

Yu Zhining said, "Your Highness, I will go to see Mr. Gu."

"it is good."

Li Chengqian nodded while peeling the shell of a tea egg.

After everyone left, Li Chengqian sat alone in the hall, eating tea eggs and reading books.

Su Wan came with a food box, sat aside, put the food on the table, and said, "Your Highness, it's time to eat."

Li Chengqian put down the book in his hand.

Su Wan said: "I heard that Mr. Gu Nalu was very happy after meeting His Highness."

"Well, he is naturally happy. He wants people to follow the rules of propriety again. Chongwenguan and the old man have the same aspirations."

Su Wan sat aside and nodded, then served food to His Highness.

Li Chengqian said: "My uncle told me about this old gentleman. If I just talk to him for a while and do nothing afterwards, I would be wasting my uncle's kindness. Now that I think about it... I should make good use of this great scholar of the time."

Su Wan sat silently aside and poured a bowl of tea.

In the past, Chongwenguan looked like a temporary official residence. It had been like this for seven years since its establishment.

Although there are many people, there is still no formal job.

Most of the time, we were hosting teaching activities while assisting Jingzhao Prefecture. If this continued for a long time, it would be a waste of Chongwenguan’s resources.

Hebei is a good breakthrough point for Chongwenguan. Chongwenguan can become the place for printing and distributing books in the Tang Dynasty, and it will be presided over by authoritative scholars, so as to train a group of people who can concentrate on the unique knowledge of Chongwenguan.

At least the empire needs such a person.

There is no shortage of paper in the court, but there is a shortage of books that will be useful for the future.

The heavy rain in Luoyang continued for another three days before it stopped. After the water receded, Luoyang Jingzhao Prefecture began to work with the villagers to tidy up the houses, clean the roads, and carry out epidemic prevention and post-flood management.

After that, his uncle, who was in charge of all affairs in Hebei, arranged two hundred officials to go to Hebei to govern. Luoyang was sunny for a few days, and the flood finally calmed down. Li Chengqian walked outside the city of Luoyang, looking at the scrolls sent by Chu Suiliang.

"Your Highness, this is the first volume compiled by Mr. Gu Nalu."

Li Chengqian asked: "Have you arranged everything for the teaching mission?"

"Your Highness, each prefecture in Hebei has arranged for teachers from Chongwenguan to teach."

Li Chengqian sighed: "Another huge expense."

Chu Suiliang sighed without comment.

In the past, I didn’t think that the expenses of teaching in remote areas were a huge burden, but the scale of teaching in remote areas was not large at that time.

But now the teaching scope of Chongwenguan has expanded to all parts of Hebei, and the burden has suddenly increased a lot.

Guanzhong is located in the west of China, Hebei is located in the north of China, it borders the Bohai Sea to the east, Shandong and Henan to the south, and has eleven prefectures. The former Hebei was also called Jizhou, and later it became an important place for Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.

Hebei is not only the rear base for my father's eastern expedition, but also an important place for stabilizing the situation in the Central Plains.

There is still a lack of talents in this era. Now Li Chengqian has a little understanding of what his father said: "All the talented people in the world are within my reach."

To be a wise emperor, you need too many people to devote their efforts to the country.

Just like the files from various parts of Hebei that Li Lizhi has reviewed recently, if the war mobilization capacity is regarded as productivity.

Then the currently depressed Hebei will be able to improve in a short time.

After the flood, there were still many officials walking around Luoyang. They were organizing the villagers and maintaining order so that Luoyang could resume production more quickly after the heavy rain.

Chai Zhewei, who was guarding in front, walked over quickly. He handed over two pears and said, "Your Highness, these are pears presented by the villagers."

Li Chengqian took the two and looked up to see several villagers bowing to him.

Chai Zhewei said: "These villagers are grateful to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince for governing Luoyang, and they presented this pear to him, saying that this pear must be better than the ones in Guanzhong."

Li Chengqian took a bite of the pear and chewed it, smiling and saying, "It is indeed better than the pears in Guanzhong."

After saying this, the villagers left.

Li Chengqian walked to a fruit forest and saw Guo Luotuo there.

"Guo Siqing, when did you come to Luoyang?"

Guo Luotuo turned around and saluted, saying, "It has been raining these days, so I wanted to come to Luoyang to take a look. Prime Minister Fang said he didn't know how the pears will be this year, so he asked me to come."

This orchard is planted with pear trees.

Guo Luotuo explained: "This was a silted land before. The Yellow River came from the upper reaches and washed away the land for a long time, turning it into a fruit forest. The soil is very deep and fertile."

He sighed again, "The rain this year was too heavy, so I had the pears picked away."

Li Chengqian said: "Fortunately, the heavy rain is over."

Guo Luotuo stood up and said, "I hope this year will be a good year for both weather and harvest."

Winter, the eighteenth year of Zhenguan.

The emperor still did not return and stayed in Liaodong County, planning to attack the heartland of Goguryeo again next year.

With food, fodder and cotton clothes, my father would be able to station in Liaodong and confront the Goguryeo army in the freezing cold, and even make the Tang army live better than the Goguryeo people.

The military report from Liaodong was sent to Luoyang, and General Zhang Liang also returned with it.

Perhaps the emperor really looked down upon this great general's ability to lead a military force, and that's why he let him come back.

After reading the military report, Li Chengqian frowned and looked at the other party and said, "General, why are you so embarrassed?"

There were still some bruises on the corners of Zhang Liang's mouth. He said, "I was beaten by Hou Junji when I came back."

Li Chengqian asked with a look of hindsight, "Why?"

Zhang Liang's mouth twitched in pain, and he said, "Hou Junji heard that I was ineffective in crossing the sea to attack Beisha City, so he made fun of me and said that he should have been the one to go on the Eastern Expedition."

Li Chengqian said with emotion: "Now that the general is back, he should rest for a while."

"Here."

"Wait a minute." Li Chengqian sat by the stove with his hands in his pockets and asked, "I heard that the general has contact with a sorcerer?"

"I do have a few sorcerers in my family."

Li Chengqian nodded and said, "People should be self-reliant. Even Taoists like Taoist Priest Li are extremely repulsive to sorcerers."

"The last general..."

Li Chengqian said with a smile: "The army has been on a long expedition and now we have just returned. General, go and have a rest first."

"I will retire at the end."

Li Chengqian put away his smile and continued to look at the military newspaper in his hand. With food and cotton clothes to keep warm, the Tang army had the capital to take root in Liaodong.

Li Lizhi came with a letter and said, "Brother, the letter from my father has arrived."

"Well, what did Father say?"

Li Lizhi said helplessly: "It's nothing serious. I just asked about my father's health and the affairs of the court. Someone actually reported to my father and talked about the Hebei incident."

Naturally, someone rushed to Liaodong to inform the emperor, hoping that the prince would stop.

But what does it matter? All the people have been arrested and those who should be killed have been killed.

When they went to Liaodong to see their father, what could they do? They couldn't change anything.

In Luoyang, from spring to winter, a year passed unknowingly and the child was one year older.

Little Yutu and Little Lingque were sitting on the benches outside the hall. The two children were looking forward to Xiaofu making noodles and to today's delicious food.

"It's snowing!" the little magpie pointed to the sky.

Li Lizhi walked out of the hall. She looked up and saw snowflakes all over the sky.

Dongyang came out of the snow wearing a bamboo hat. She said lazily, "I don't know where Divine Doctor Sun has gone. It's been a year and he hasn't come back."

Li Lizhi said: "He has been practicing medicine all his life, and he is probably treating patients and saving lives somewhere else."

"This time he really won't come back."

Li Lizhi patted Dongyang on the back, looked at her lost sister, and comforted her: "If we keep Doctor Sun in Chang'an forever, he won't be at ease. He is a doctor who wants to travel all over the world. We can't keep him forever, and we can't keep him."

"It's better to let him go so that he can do what he wants to do with all his heart."

Little Lingque asked, "Aunt, who is Dr. Sun?"

Seeing the child, Dongyang suddenly smiled and explained: "That is a very powerful old man."

Two bowls of noodles were placed in front of the child. Little Yu Tu held the bowls in both hands, looked at the heavy snow, and drank the soup mouthful after mouthful.

The little magpie suddenly asked, "Aunt, when will grandpa come back?"

Dongyang sat next to them and said, "Maybe next year."

Little Yutu also missed his grandfather a little, and his movements when eating noodles became much slower.

The court was still digesting the results of the cleanup in Hebei since this autumn. The cartloads of silver and money that were escorted from the aristocratic families in Hebei had arrived in Luoyang.

(End of this chapter)