The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 54: I am here to retire

Li Chengqian first cooked the millet rice, and then sat aside to cut the braised beef.

Xiaofu came back and saw the prince sitting in the palace eating a bowl of braised beef and a salted duck egg.

She lowered her head in shame, walked aside and said, "Sister Ning'er, I forgot again."

Ning Er took out a booklet and said, "This is given to you by His Highness."

Xiaofu blinked and said, "I didn't do my job well, why did Your Highness reward me?"

"Do you think this is a reward for you?" Ning Er continued, "I gave you this booklet so that you can write down what you need to do every day, so that you don't forget it next time."

Hearing Ning'er's harsh words, Xiaofu lowered his head and said, "Yeah."

Glancing at the prince who was eating in the palace, Ning'er comforted him, "You can learn slowly in the future. There is still rice in the pot. Eat and then take a rest."

"Here."

After dinner, Li Chengqian took Li Tai's outline back to the bedroom, lit the candlesticks, and began to revise it.

The outline of Li Tai's Comprehensive Geography still needs to be improved, and his original outline needs to be expanded. In addition to physical geography, regional analysis, geology, and geomorphology should also be included.

After finishing writing, I hesitated again. With so many subdivisions, the workload would be enormous. Would Qingque go crazy?

There is no time to care about so many things. The geography of the Tang Dynasty should be subdivided.

My brother is more tired than others.

Ning'er stood outside the palace and saw that the prince was writing attentively. She was worried that it would be cold if the night wind blew in, so she closed the door silently.

When the cold wind blew, her long hair fluttered in the wind.

Ning'er stood outside the hall for another half an hour, holding the lantern. Seeing that the candles in the hall were still on, she thought that His Highness would probably go to bed late again.

After the other palace maids had cleaned up the East Palace, she went back to rest.

The next day, when Li Chengqian woke up, the bedroom was in a mess. He sorted out the outline in front of him, put on his coat and opened the door.

There was still some frost on the ground and the morning wind was still a little cold.

My younger sister Li Lizhi came to the East Palace early to get breakfast. She carried the food box and said, "From now on, I will let you come to the East Palace to get my mother's three meals."

I can already smell the fragrance of the porridge. When it is served, it is stewed with chicken today, and some chopped green onions are sprinkled on the snow-white porridge.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince likes to eat onions, ginger and garlic, so the younger brothers and sisters in the East Palace can't live without them either.

"Brother, I'm going to look for mother first."

Li Chengqian nodded while brushing his teeth.

Li Lizhi took two steps and came back and said, "My uncle and Prime Minister Fang are waiting outside the East Palace."

After saying this, she left in a hurry.

After washing up, Li Chengqian took the porridge brought by Ning'er, drank it in one gulp and was about to go to the morning court.

Watching His Royal Highness the Crown Prince walk out of the East Palace, Xiao Fu said sadly, "Ever since His Royal Highness took charge of government affairs, he hasn't eaten well."

Ning'er sighed as she washed the dishes used by His Highness.

Li Chengqian hurried out of the East Palace, handed over the file in his hand, and said, "Uncle, this is the outline for Qingque. I have revised it, and I don't know if he will adopt it."

Changsun Wuji put the file into his sleeve silently.

Fang Xuanling bowed and said, "Your Highness, if you have any questions about state affairs in the future, you can come to me at any time."

The three of them walked towards the Taiji Hall, and Fang Xuanling added, "Your Majesty has repeatedly reminded me."

Li Chengqian said, "Okay, if I have anything I don't understand, I will come to you."

After getting used to supervising state affairs, the morning court sessions these past two days have become more relaxing.

After handing over the state affairs to Prime Minister Fang, Li Chengqian came to the emperor's place to practice archery early after the morning court session.

The target in front of the Wude Hall was still there. Li Chengqian took one step forward, leaned his whole body back, pulled the bowstring to its full extent, and shot an arrow.

The arrow landed precisely in the center of the target.

It takes a lot of effort to pull this longbow. After shooting five arrows in a row, my wrists started to ache.

Li Yuan sat in front of the hall drinking tea, looked at his grandson and smiled, "Is your arm numb?"

Li Chengqian moved his arms and said, "It's a little sore. I can't pull too hard at once, or I'll hurt my shoulders."

After saying that, Li Chengqian started doing warm-up exercises, bending over and shaking his arms so that his fingertips could touch his boots, and then he stretched his legs.

Li Yuan looked at them curiously and asked, "What are these postures?"

"Warm up and stretch your muscles."

Li Yuan frowned and asked, "Who taught you?"

Li Chengqian continued to draw the bow and said calmly, "My uncle taught me."

"Hyo-Gong?"

"Who else could it be?"

Li Yuan nodded and said to himself, "That's right, who else could it be but him?"

After trying the longbow, try the lighter horn bow.

Li Yuan added: "The Turks like to use horn bows the most. They are light, but they can't shoot as far as longbows."

The usage scenarios are different. The longbow is mainly used by infantry. Shooting arrows at high angles or from the top of the city wall prioritizes range and lethality.

The horn bow is light and is mostly used for horseback archery.

Speaking of the Turks, Li Yuan recalled the past and said slowly: "Back then, Li Jing and his men led troops to attack the Turks. I don't know how these brave men managed to capture Jie Li after traveling thousands of miles in the ice and snow. Once the Turks got on horseback, it would be difficult to chase them."

Li Chengqian tried another arrow and asked, "Grandpa, are the Turks very good at riding?"

Li Yuan shook his head and said, "The Uighurs are the best at riding."

Li Chengqian put the bow aside, sat beside his grandfather and frowned, "The Uighurs are on war horses, so it will be even harder to catch them?"

Li Yuan liked the chair sent by the Eastern Palace very much. He stroked his beard and smiled, "It is useless to compare personal bravery in war. Deploying troops, intercepting and ambushing are the skills of military strategists, which they don't have."

Li Yuan added: "The Uighurs have a skill. They can put their hands on the horse's back and jump onto the horse. This way they can seize the opportunity. With a whistle, they can jump onto the horse and run several miles away in a moment."

"Grandpa, you mean the vaulting horse?"

Li Yuan stroked his beard and smiled, saying, "You are right."

Putting Fang Xuanling's words behind his mind, Li Chengqian accompanied the emperor in practicing archery.

As for the crown prince being regent, that’s good enough.

It's not like some hunk dropped from the sky.

Li Yuan asked again: "How did you come up with this chair? It's very comfortable to sit on."

Li Chengqian threw a date into his mouth and said while chewing, "My uncle taught me."

"Or Hyo Gyou?"

"Of course."

It was not until noon that Li Chengqian returned to the East Palace. He planned to plant cabbages in the East Palace in autumn.

Xiao Fulai replied, "Your Highness, the Minister of Rites Li Baiyao sent a message saying that there are indeed spinach in Persia, and he will send the seeds to the Tang Dynasty."

Li Chengqian took out a piece of paper and said, "Give this to him."

"Here."

Li Baiyao stood outside the East Palace, received the words from His Highness, and got a piece of paper. He walked back to the imperial city. He looked at the paper carefully. There was a picture of a melon on the paper, and the word "pumpkin" was written next to it.

Back at the Ministry of Rites, Li Baiyao looked at the Persian envoy.

The Persian messenger stood straight, his feet together, his hands hanging down, as reserved as he could be. "Have you seen this thing?"

As if he was interrogating a prisoner, a piece of paper was spread out in front of him, and the Persian envoy seemed to be hesitant to speak.

Li Baiyao pointed at the picture and said impatiently: "This is called pumpkin, have you seen it?"

The Persian envoy did not dare to say that he had never seen it before. He replied timidly: "This is..."

Seeing the impatient look of the Tang official in front of him, he was afraid that he would be driven away by the Tang people, and he would probably starve to death outside.

He quickly said in broken Guanzhong dialect: "The Arabs."

"what?"

Seeing that the Tang people in front of him could not understand the language, the Persian envoy explained it in the language of the Western Regions.

Li Baiyao nodded and said, "Are you saying that the Arabs have pumpkins?"

The Persian envoy still shook his head.

"Do you know or not?" Although Li Baiyao is old, he still has the same momentum when he roars, which scares the Persian envoy so much that he trembles.

"The Arabs may have seen it. I heard that they like to carve history books on stone tablets. There are rumors in the Western Regions that some people have such things next to their mud houses, and there are also some men with round beards wearing round hats."

The Persian envoy quickly bowed and said, "It is a painting, a painting engraved on a stone slab. I just took a look at it."

The other party's language ability is very poor, and all envoys to the Tang Dynasty should speak fluent Guanzhong dialect.

Therefore, Li Baiyao preferred the Tibetans who were fluent in Guanzhong dialect.

One could vaguely understand a few words from the Persian messenger's words, which roughly meant that the Arabs were painting on a stone slab, and this pumpkin was in the painting.

Li Baiyao stroked his beard for a long time without saying anything. Arabs? That's too far away.

This envoy came all the way from Persia. He knew the main road from Persia to Gaochang, and had seen crops that the Tang people had never seen. This person was very useful.

Then he instructed the official beside him, "Arrange for him to stay at the post house. He is useful."

"Here!"

Li Chengqian was not sure whether spinach really originated in Persia, but at least it was not a bad thing to have more crops in the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty was still not rich enough. The Persians were too jealous of how much money they made from the Silk Road.

Li Chengqian now even has a feeling of mutual admiration with the Arabs on the other side of the continent. If he were in their place, he would also conquer Persia.

"Your Highness, Duke Xu sent a copy of Mr. Ouyang's calligraphy to thank you for your tea."

"Hang it up in the East Palace. From now on, my younger brothers and sisters will learn to write according to this calligraphy."

"Yes." Seeing that His Highness was still thinking about something, the palace maid who was about the same age as Ning'er moved closer.

Seeing that the prince did not find it strange, she bent down and asked, "Your Highness, do you have anything else to tell me?"

Seeing this maid getting so close to His Royal Highness, Xiaofu was so anxious that her eyes were about to turn red. She hurried forward and said, "Your Highness, there is one less person to plant the vegetables."

Li Chengqian said casually: "Then go grow vegetables."

"Here."

Then, Xiaofu took her away from the prince.

Ning'er watched this scene but didn't say anything.

As autumn approaches, the temperature in Guanzhong drops sharply. I don’t know when my father will return from his autumn hunting trip in Mount Li.

Du He's workshop was making a lot of money, and his chairs and soaps were selling better and better in Chang'an.

Xu Jingzong asked Wei Chang to recruit some more people, most of whom were veterans who had retired from the army.

As long as there are not tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, we can afford it.

Convert copper coins into long-term hired labor. If labor is also an asset, then exchanging these copper coins for labor is like leaving the assets in another form.

If labor can be transformed into technological productivity, then the assets have increased in value, which is a great deal.

It was very easy to make money in the Tang Dynasty, just like soap. Rich and powerful people would even buy hundreds of kilograms of soap at a time.

The way they bought soap was very crude. Li Chengqian could imagine that there were copper coins on one end of a scale and soap on the other. As long as the scale remained balanced, the transaction was completed.

Probably, maybe, it should be like this.

These wealthy and powerful people have no idea that soap is a necessity in life and there is no need to prepare too much. One or two bars of soap are enough for one person to use for a month.

Do they want to stay and pass it down from generation to generation?

Once these people find out that soap is not in short supply at all, the soap in the Tang Dynasty will become worthless.

When rare and useful things appeared in the market, the wealthy people in the Tang Dynasty would rush to grab them.

If they can’t snatch it away, they will buy it until no one else can afford it.

The reason why Du He was able to keep this property was entirely because he was from Jingzhao Duling, a famous family in Guanzhong, and that was Du Ruhui's family.

No one dared to bully Du He.

So, it is too easy to make money in the Tang Dynasty. Having too much money is also a trouble. Having too many copper coins and not being able to exchange them for silver is even more of a headache.

It is a very serious problem for such a powerful dynasty to not independently control export trade to gain wealth.

Too many problems can easily drive people crazy.

Li Chengqian tried not to think about these issues as much as possible, because if he thought too much about them he would start thinking about usurping the throne and rebelling.

But if you don't make money, your conscience will hurt.

Today, Guanzhong finally welcomed its first freezing rain.

Li Chengqian came out of the Taiji Hall wearing a cloak. Today's morning court session had just ended.

Xu Xiaode and Yu Zhining brought a guest to the Chongwen Hall outside the East Palace.

A stove was placed in the hall. Li Chengqian said to the three people, "Sit around the stove. It's very cold."

Seeing that the guest was still bowing, Li Chengqian's tone became more serious and he nodded, "Sit down."

He placed his hands by the stove to warm them and prepared some dates and persimmons to entertain the guests.

The guest was probably about fifty years old, wearing a dark blue robe and a silver fish charm on his waist, indicating that he was not an ordinary person.

It’s just that I’ve never seen him in the court or on ordinary days.

Li Chengqian also cooked tea eggs on the side.

This guest sat on the oddly shaped round stool for the first time, and watched the prince's every move with great familiarity, as if he always entertained guests in this way?
Li Chengqian handed the bowls to the three people in front of him one by one and asked, "In person?"

He stood up again and saluted, saying, "Your Majesty, I am Wu Shigui."

Xu Xiaode explained, "Your Highness, Duke Ying has been traveling abroad under the orders of His Majesty for many years, and he has only recently returned to Chang'an to report. I heard that Your Highness is in charge of government affairs, so I came to ask for an audience."

Li Chengqian chewed a date, and a lot of information flashed through his mind. He remained calm and asked, "Duke Ying?"

"I'm here!" He responded loudly again.

"You don't have to be so polite."

"Your Highness, the etiquette must not be discarded."

"Alright." Li Chengqian said helplessly with his hands in his pockets, "Do you have something to tell me?"

"I am here to retire."

Change the update time to midnight every day, and update at least two chapters every day.

If the condition is good, Xiao Zhang will try to update more.

Yeah.

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(End of this chapter)