The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 44: The Prince's Karez
The autumn rain finally stopped the day after General Li Daozon was stripped of his military power, and the long-awaited sunshine came to the wet Guanzhong.

Although I don’t know when it will rain again, I can finally bask in the sun for a while.

At the Xuanwu Gate of the imperial palace, Li Shimin took the bow and arrow from Liang Jianfang, looked at the target in the distance, and calmly pulled the bow.

An arrow was shot and landed accurately in the center of the target, with the tail of the arrow still shaking slightly due to the residual force.

Picking up another bow and arrow, Li Shimin drew the bow and shot another arrow. This time it deviated a little, but was still close to the center of the target.

Yuchi Gong came hurriedly, handed over a memorial, and saluted, saying, "Your Majesty, everything has been investigated."

Li Shimin handed the bow to Liang Jianfang, took his memorial and read it, and whispered, "So this matter was not initiated by Chengfan?"

"Your Majesty, the person who delivered the soap fled Chang'an two days ago, and the Dali Temple is tracking him down."

Li Shimin said calmly: "No need to investigate, this matter ends here."

Yuchi Gong glanced at His Majesty in surprise and doubt, then quickly bowed his head and said, "Yes."

"What has Cheng Qian been doing these days?"

"Your Majesty, as usual, I went to Jingyang with the Prince of Hejian today, and Maogong escorted me again."

Li Shimin suddenly smiled and said, "After all, Maogong is younger than you veterans."

After saying this, seeing His Majesty's gaze turning to him again, Liang Jianfang hurriedly lowered his head.

Li Shimin put the memorial aside and read it, then said, "It would be good for Cheng Qian to go out for a walk, see the villagers in Guanzhong and see the farm work. He has always been a very sensible child."

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is indeed a sensible child, even though His Majesty has always been partial to Prince of Wei Li Tai.

It may also be because he was too partial to King Wei, so he opened a literary institute for the King of Wei, recruited scholars, and granted him the power over the military affairs of seven states.

Recently, all the ministers, both civil and military, feel that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince does not seem to be as studious as before and say that he is idle.

Playing cards and drinking tea both have a playful meaning.

Even though His Majesty said that the Crown Prince is sensible, he is implicitly saying that the Crown Prince is not ambitious enough?
No matter what he thought in his heart, Yuchi Gong had to swallow all his thoughts at the moment. He could not say a word to outsiders, and his Majesty's evaluation of the Crown Prince or the King of Wei could not be spread.

It would be best if you listen to what Your Majesty said today and then forget about it like a fart.

Li Shimin said with a smile: "Jingde, my archery skills are not so good anymore."

Yuchi Gong replied: "I am old now, and my archery skills are not as good as they used to be."

Li Shimin put down the arrow in his hand and said slowly: "This time, let Cheng Qian stay in Chang'an to supervise the government. The assistant minister said that the prince should learn more about state affairs."

The emperor and his minister smiled at each other. His Majesty picked out a few bows and asked Liang Jianfang to prepare them for the autumn hunt.

Outside the city of Chang'an, a group of people had just arrived in Jingyang.

Guanzhong is somewhat bleak in autumn, but Jingyang is still as peaceful as ever.

Li Xiaogong looked at Li Ji who was following behind him and whispered, "How could he be so cautious on weekdays and make such a mistake?"

Li Chengqian walked along with his hands in his pockets and said, "I don't know either."

Although Donggong asked Du He to provide the soap, the person who did the job was his uncle. His uncle was the one who did the job, so Donggong was not clear about it.

Besides, my uncle’s temper is really hard to guess, and he will not let the East Palace get involved too much.

Seeing that the emperor's uncle was still looking at him suspiciously, Li Chengqian whispered in a voice that only the two of them could hear: "Uncle, this matter was really not done by the East Palace."

Li Xiaogong also whispered in a way that only they could hear each other, "I can see that you, the East Palace, don't have such great ability."

Li Ji followed a few steps behind. In front of him, the Prince of Hejian and the prince and their nephew were whispering to each other, so he had to keep a straight face and remain silent.

After regaining his composure, Li Xiaogong continued, "Speaking of which, Cheng Fan is a teetotaler in the army and is a strict leader of the troops. The generals in the army would not believe that such a person would accept money and property."

Li Chengqian said: "The evidence is all there, it has been confirmed."

"Oh, it would be better to marry a few more beautiful concubines."

Sometimes, after spending too long with this imperial uncle, if it were someone else, they would have been led astray long ago, right?
Unlike before, this time the Crown Prince's visit to Jingyang was not announced in advance. Xu Jingzong only learned about it when the Crown Prince's carriage arrived in Jingyang.

Xu Jingzong and Shangguan Yi came running all the way in their official robes that were almost faded from washing.

Li Chengqian looked at the two people who were running towards him. When they got closer, fortunately... the two people did not slide to their knees on the spot.

As soon as the two men stood still, they saluted and said, "Your Highness the Crown Prince!"

Li Chengqian stood in the distance with his hands in his pockets and asked, "Old Xu, how are you these days?"

Xu Jingzong said quickly: "Everything is fine recently."

Li Chengqian asked again: "Brother Shangguan? How are you these days?"

Upon hearing this, Shangguan Yi's face brightened, and he quickly said, "Your Highness, because a large amount of wood that Jingyang needed to make chairs was seized by the county magistrate of Lantian County, Xu Jingzong led his men into Lantian County overnight and brought the wood back to Jingyang."

Li Chengqian nodded approvingly and said, "Old Xu is very capable in doing things."

Shangguan Yi added: "Because of this incident, the Lantian County Magistrate submitted several memorials to impeach Xu Jingzong, saying that he would fight to the death with Jingyang County. Now he will most likely continue to submit memorials to impeach him."

Xu Jingzong looked at Shangguan Yi in surprise, speechless for a long time, and lowered his head with a look of regret.

Li Chengqian sighed, "I still trust Old Xu very much."

"Your Majesty..." Xu Jingzong lowered his attitude and said, "I don't know how long Lantian County will detain my timber from Jingyang. I can only resort to this last resort and offend their government."

"Why are you withholding the timber from Jingyang?"

Shangguan Yi reported: "Because the timber needs to be cut from the vicinity of Lantian County, we had previously discussed with the local villagers and gave them money. However, their county magistrate pretended not to know anything beforehand and later changed his mind and asked for more money from Jingyang. That's why we turned against them. The matter was settled at that point and the timber was taken back, but the Lantian county magistrate was still pushing for more and wanted to continue to write a letter of impeachment."

Li Chengqian patted Xu Jingzong on the shoulder, then nodded to Shangguan Yi and said, "I'm sorry for putting you through this."

Xu Jingzong gnashed his teeth and said, "Don't worry, Your Highness. I am not afraid of the county magistrate. Even if he sues me in the Taiji Palace, I have my reasons and evidence."

Li Xiaogong said calmly, "Just because of this little thing? Although Chengfan has been stripped of his military power, His Majesty has instructed Zhangsun Wuji to put Chengfan in the position of Jingzhao Prefecture. The position of Jingzhao Prefecture Governor has been vacant for a long time, so don't worry about this little thing."

"Is there really such a thing?"

Even Li Chengqian didn't know that his father had made such an arrangement.

I was surprised, but soon I felt relieved.

This is also very simple. All the old ministers of the Wude Dynasty have retired, such as my uncle, Yu Shinan and others.

My father began to place Fang Xuanling, Zhangsun Wuji and others in important positions and began to centralize power.

Since power needs to be centralized, military power naturally needs to be replanned.

There is always some tacit understanding between the emperor and his subjects. When the emperor gets the military power, the generals of the past can enjoy wealth and honor. Just like the emperor's uncle Li Xiaogong, although he is no longer a general in the court and has no military power, he still manages the Zongzheng Temple and is now an important figure in the Li Tang royal family.

Then it is only natural that the emperor's uncle Li Daozon could enter Jingzhao Prefecture.

Xu Jingzong straightened his back immediately, and suddenly he felt as if the clouds had cleared and the moon appeared. It turned out that our Eastern Palace had such powerful connections.

Li Chengqian whispered, "In fact, I also know that when you encounter difficulties, you want to solve them by yourself, and you don't say anything when you are wronged. It was Shangguan Yi who told you the truth."

Xu Jingzong lowered his head and said in a difficult tone: "Your Majesty..."

"Okay." Li Chengqian interrupted him, patted his back again, slowed down his pace and walked side by side with him, and said, "Do you feel alienated from me?"

"Your Highness is the crown prince of the Eastern Palace. If I fail to do my job well, it is my fault."

Li Chengqian stood by the Wei River, watching the rapid flow of the water, and said, "I hope that you can report any difficulties you encounter to the East Palace in the future. First, I can learn your way of doing things, and second, I can also know the various difficulties you encounter in construction. If such a thing happens again in the future, I will be able to deal with it more calmly."

"Besides, I still admire Brother Shangguan's pragmatic attitude. I don't care how you behave outside, but I will trust you in the future, and you will trust me too. How about that?"

Xu Jingzong did not answer immediately.

Shangguan Yi bowed and said, "I will keep it in mind."

Hearing this, realizing the gaze of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Xu Jingzong bowed and said, "I will definitely live up to Your Highness' trust."

People are different.

The conversation and way of speaking of Xu Jingzong, a veteran, and Shangguan Yi, a new official, are different.

The group walked to the north of Jingyang County, where they dug a pond with a lot of water in it.

Xu Jingzong pointed to another outlet of the pond and said, "By then, we can plant crops on the east side of the pond. This year the autumn rain came earlier and lasted longer than usual, so we started storing water in advance."

Water is collected from the Jing River, upstream of the Wei River, and led into the karez.

Xu Jingzong opened a tunnel with steps leading down to the underground karez.

This kanerjing is two hundred feet long in total. Li Chengqian calculated that the entire ditch is about seven hundred meters long.

After walking into the short tunnel and going further underground, the interior is much more spacious. There is a ditch leading to a reservoir, and the water in the reservoir can be released to irrigate the fields.

Below the karez is a tunnel, and in the middle of the tunnel is a ditch. The water in the ditch flows from west to east, drawing water from the upper reaches of the Wei River into the ditch.

Li Ji frowned and looked up. Above the tunnel were vertical shafts. Buckets could be dropped down and would fall directly into the ditch, thus fetching water from above.

Li Chengqian felt the coolness here and said, "This can also be a good place to escape the summer heat."

This construction work lasted from the summer until late autumn now. Xu Jingzong gathered five hundred laborers and dug it out in this way.

Li Ji looked at the straight tunnel and asked in confusion: "How did it get so straight?"

Xu Jingzong explained, "It's actually very simple. Your Highness the Crown Prince learned this from the classics. As long as you hold an oil lamp and dig towards your own shadow, you will probably not make a big mistake. Then you can use a wooden pole to hang it and test the height."

"We can also hide our troops here."

Li Xiaogong immediately expressed his feelings.

Li Ji nodded and said, "Indeed, if this tunnel leads in all directions, we can set up an ambush and crawl out through the shaft."

If you look at it from the perspective of a general, you can see the usefulness of marching and fighting.

But for people's livelihood purposes, irrigation has great value.

Of course, the water system in Guanzhong is still well developed. As the saying goes, eight rivers surround Chang'an. This kind of karez cannot be applied to other places in Guanzhong.

In other words, specific geographical conditions are needed to irrigate wasteland. After the Zhengguo Canal was built, more land could be reclaimed.

Coming out from the other end of the tunnel is the riverbank of the upper reaches of the Wei River. The water here is more turbulent. The Jing River merges with the Wei River, but the river water is very turbid after the autumn rain.

Walking back to Jingyang County, Li Chengqian whispered, "Let's plant more trees next year, right by the river."

Shangguan Yi responded: "Yes."

After arriving at the river, everyone watched as His Royal Highness the Crown Prince took off his boots, pulled up his shirt hem and tucked it around his waistband, walked into the shallow water, and began catching fish.

Ning Er stood on the bank and said, "Your Highness, the river water is very cold in autumn."

"No problem." Li Chengqian grabbed a palm-sized grass carp and said with a smile, "Look, the fish in the Jing River are really stupid."

Seeing His Highness still having a childlike innocence and hearing His Highness' laughter, Li Ji also started laughing.

Li Xiaogong simply took off his boots and said, "I'll come too!"

Li Ji said with a straight face: "You old man, you are still acting like a child at your age."

Li Xiaogong turned a deaf ear to the other party's scolding, jumped into the water, and stepped on a splash of water.

Neither Xu Jingzong nor Shangguan Yi went to see the Crown Prince playing.

After all, the prince is only fifteen years old and has been living in the palace for a long time, so it’s nothing for him to come out to relax and play in the water.

However, in Xu Jingzong's opinion, the prince was a very mature young man, but now it seems that His Highness is still childish.

Li Chengqian skillfully strung the caught fish together with a straw rope and hung it around his waist.

When he walked back to the shore barefoot, he saw Ning'er still holding her boots and said, "I came out to relax and catch some fish and grill some fish. It's not a bad idea."

Ning'er held His Highness's boots, still frowning.

When they reached a place sheltered from the wind, Li Chengqian and his uncle made a fire and prepared to grill the fish.

Li Xiaogong killed the fish with a knife and said, "Fish in this season have a stronger earthy smell. It's better to take them home and keep them in clean water for two days before eating."

Li Chengqian didn't care about these things and said to Xu Jingzong: "Bring some garlic."

Xu Jingzong, who was still standing there, quickly responded, "Yes."

He threw a string of copper coins to Shangguan Yi and ordered, "Go buy some food and some wine."

Seeing the prince's dandy manner, Li Xiaogong grinned. The prince finally showed some dandy behavior. He said, "This is refreshing."

"Uncle, I'm almost vomiting from reading the sage books these days."

"What's so good about reading this?" Li Xiaogong, his uncle, also sneered at this.

"After reading too many books by saints, I want to curse the saints. I know it's not good, but I can't help it."

(End of this chapter)