The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 569: Zhaoling Mausoleum, a Burial Place of an Era
Seeing his five-year-old grandson handing over a memorial, Li Chengqian took it from his little hand and said to himself, "For the sake of my grandson, I will help them again."

Li Shizhi laughed and tried to catch the small fish in the glass water tank.

When the emperor retired, he became the emperor emeritus. When his career ended, he changed his job title.

Every autumn, Li Chengqian would leave the palace and find a secluded place to go fishing, always with his grandson Li Shizhi.

In the fourth year of Shangyuan, Duke Ying passed away. He was posthumously named Taiwei, Grand Commander of Yangzhou, and given the posthumous title of Zhenwu. He was buried in Zhaoling Mausoleum.

Li Shimin cried bitterly while looking at the hearse in the distance. The whole city of Chang'an was in grief. He was buried with the highest funeral of the Tang Dynasty, with all the rites similar to those of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing in the Han Dynasty.

The last person to be buried with such treatment was Duke of Wei Li Jing.

Li Chengqian met Li Zhen again. At this moment, Li Zhen had a head full of white hair and was an old general with great reputation in the army.

"My father said that I am not as strategic as Pei Xingjian, not as brave as Xue Rengui, and not as smart as Wang Xuance." Li Zhen sighed, "In fact, Liang Jianfang is not old at all, but my father did not give him too much military power. Then he retired and handed over most of the military power to Pei Xingjian, Xue Rengui, and Wang Xuance."

In Duke Ying's later years, the transfer of military power was not very smooth. Perhaps Duke Ying really looked down upon the talents of General Liang Jianfang. After he entered the Lingyan Pavilion, Duke Ying began to delegate power and intentionally undermined Liang Jianfang's military power.

This also led to Liang Jianfang's early retirement, as Ying Gong valued the talents of the younger generation more.

Li Zhen handed over a book and explained, "This is a book my father compiled many years ago."

Li Chengqian took the book and asked, "Medical book?"

Li Zhen nodded and said, "My father fought in wars for most of his life, saw many wounded soldiers, and had dealings with many doctors. When I was a child..."

Halfway through his words, Li Zhen's eyes were red again, and he continued, "I remember when I was a child, my father always personally gave medicine to some wounded soldiers to treat their injuries. At that time, many soldiers in the army supported my father very much."

"My father wanted to compile a book on medicine many years ago." Li Zhen changed his words and said, "Many years ago... In fact, my father wanted to hand it over to Your Majesty."

Li Chengqian looked at the scroll of medicine and said, "Mr. Ying is thoughtful."

Li Zhen saluted again, then got on his horse and caught up with Duke Ying's hearse.

As time goes by, some people will leave their names in history books, some people's names will leave a sentence in history books, and some people will be able to leave a few words in history books.

Some people can leave chapters in history books, and some people can record several volumes in history books.

When the current emperor was young, he learned from the great historian of the time, Lai Ji, so the emperor is best at history.

Li Chengqian felt that this was probably because Lai Jizhen treated the prince as his successor in history and taught him.

In the fifth year of Shangyuan, Empress Dowager Changsun passed away. Li Chengqian knelt beside his mother and personally combed her hair for the last time. His mother, who was eighty years old, was sent to Zhaoling Mausoleum and posthumously named Empress Wende.

The spring rain came very early this year. After the funeral, Li Chengqian had more white hair, not just on his temples. Even if he combed his hair, he couldn't hide these white hairs.

Li Chengqian and his father walked to the Lizheng Hall and stopped.

Li Lizhi, who was following behind, saw the Lizheng Hall which had been sealed for many years and started crying again with her face covered.

Li Shimin put his hand on the dusty door and pushed it hard, and the door opened. Many years had passed, and the Lizheng Hall remained the same, with even the original furniture still there.

Following my father into the Lizheng Hall, I saw the soap on the windowsill. This piece of soap was square and looked the same as it did many years ago. I didn't expect it to have survived until now.

The rain was dripping down in the palace. Li Chengqian asked his brothers and sisters to go back first. When he looked back, he saw that his father had already started to clean up the Lizheng Hall.

Li Chengqian stepped forward and helped his father tidy up.

No one from the palace was sent to clean up the situation. The father and son sat outside the palace until nightfall, staring at the night sky in silence.

The lights outside the hall were still on, and a group of people in the palace were watching, fearing that something might happen to the retired emperor and the old man.

But the father and son were surprisingly quiet, with only the occasional sound of the wind.

"Then I and the assistant are the only ones who haven't entered Zhaoling."

Li Chengqian said: "Father, this world is so beautiful, why rush it?"

There were slight sobbing sounds coming from outside the hall. The significance of Zhaoling is not just the burial of a few people. Zhaoling buried the people of an era, an era of brilliant glory, an era of heroic spirit and emergence of many heroes.

Zhaoling Mausoleum buried an era, and the last glimmer of light left from that era is also slowly fading away.

From now on, what will be left to the world is a new world, in which there will be new heroes and new righteousness.

In the seventh year of Shangyuan, Duke of Zhao, Zhangsun Wuji, passed away.

The very next month, the old man who was holding Li Shizhi closed his eyes and never woke up again.

Li Shizhi was a very sensible child. He knew that the old man had fallen asleep and would never wake up again, so he did not cry, but just stared blankly at the busy people.

The autumn rain always comes to Guanzhong on time according to the four seasons. In front of Tang Zhaoling Mausoleum, Li Tang’s brothers and sisters stand here.

Outside Zhaoling, the brothers and sisters only heard a loud noise, which was the sound of the Dragon-Breaking Stone weighing thousands of pounds falling.

Li Chengqian pulled down the Dragon-Breaking Stone and sealed the Zhaoling Mausoleum with his own hands, thus burying an era.

Everything about Zhaoling will be recorded in stone tablets and history books. Li Chengqian led his brothers and sisters to kowtow once again.

All those who should be buried in Zhaoling had been buried. When Li Chengqian led the Li Tang royal family members to leave here, they bid farewell to the Zhenguan era forever.

In July of the ninth year of Shangyuan, Li Chengqian, his wife, and two concubines lived in the palace in Mount Li and had no interest in state affairs for many years.

A letter was delivered to Mount Li today. This letter was delivered by Wang Xuance personally.

Li Chengqian sat under a jujube tree on the hillside, took the letter from Wang Xuance, and asked, "You are also an old general in the court, why did you go to Tubo in person?"

Wang Xuance replied: "Your Majesty, there is an old friend buried in the snowy mountains of Tubo. I go there every year to pay tribute to him."

The Tibetans liked to wrap their letters in cowhide covers, so they were not easy to peel open. Li Chengqian peeled them with great effort and finally opened the cowhide cover. He then opened the letter inside, and the letter said that the Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo had passed away.

Wang Xuance said again: "Your Majesty, the Tibetan envoys are on their way to Chang'an."

Li Chengqian put away the letter again, looked into the distance and said, "Leave it to the court to handle. I will not see the Tibetan envoy anymore."

"Here."

Because Songtsen Gampo's funeral caused controversy in the court, Wei Xuantong, the Minister of the Secretariat, said loudly: "I think Songtsen Gampo is the Tibetan king and should be buried by the Tibetans."

"Wait!" A discordant voice came from a group of clerks. A young man walked out in the eyes of everyone. He was wearing a thin robe. He looked thin and tired, probably because he had a hangover last night.

As soon as the young man came out, he declared: "Songtsen Gampo is a close friend of the current emperor, and he should be buried according to Tang rites."

"Tang etiquette?" Wei Xuantong asked again: "Don't forget that Songtsen Gampo is the king of Tubo. How will the Tubo people view the Tang people?"

"It is precisely for the sake of the long-term plan of Tubo and the Tang Dynasty that he should be buried according to Tang rituals!"

Wei Xuantong asked back: "Who are you?"

The young man straightened his clothes, neither servile nor overbearing, and raised his hand and said, "I am He Zhizhang from the Honglu Temple, and I am the Junior Minister."

He Zhizhang...this name soon spread in the Secretariat.

Someone said, "We should ask the emperor about this matter." Liu Rengui patted the table and said, "The emperor has lived in the palace in Mount Li for several years. It is inconvenient to disturb him."

Zhang Jianzhi left the noisy Secretariat. This place was always replaced by new people, but it was still noisy and had not changed for decades.

I walked past various official residences, walked out of the Suzaku Gate, left the imperial city and walked along Suzaku Street.

As usual, Zhang Jianzhi came to a restaurant he visited many times, took out a vinegar pot and put it on the table. Being hungry, he first asked the owner for a plate of mutton and then a bowl of noodles.

The mutton was served first, followed by a bowl of steaming mutton soup and a bowl of noodles.

Just as he was about to pick up his chopsticks, the bowl of noodles in front of him was snatched away. Then he saw that his vinegar pot was also snatched away.

Zhang Jianzhi looked up again and saw Prince of Jin, Di Renjie, and Pei Yan.

Pei Yan was holding a vinegar pot and pouring vinegar into a bowl.

The shop owner was very sensible and handed over another bowl of noodles. These were not ordinary customers, but regular customers, and he knew that these people had special identities.

Zhang Jianzhi took another bowl of noodles and asked, "Your Highness, Prince of Jin, haven't you been in Luoyang recently?"

Li Zhi ate his noodles and said, "Only in Chang'an can you find the best blacksmiths. The craftsmen who worked for my brother back then were very skilled."

As he spoke, Li Zhi took out a spring and a mortise and tenon with a thread, and explained, "These two things can only be made by the old craftsmen of the Shaofu Supervisor back then. I came back to Chang'an to find them."

Di Renjie said: "The craftsmanship of Chang'an has always been the best, and it has the most craftsmen. In the past, Jingzhao Prefecture vigorously opened workshops and trained many skilled craftsmen in Guanzhong."

Pei Yan asked: "Huaiying, have you been keeping an eye on Murong Shun recently?"

"He's missing, and we can't find where he went."

"Is he dead?"

Di Renjie said while eating noodles: "Maybe he is still alive, otherwise Murong Shun's children would tell me."

"Why?"

"His children are in contact with me, and they know that I am tracking down Murong Shun."

Zhang Jianzhi peeled a head of garlic and distributed it to several people.

The four people sitting around especially liked eating garlic, and they ate it with a mouthful of noodles and garlic.

"I heard that Princess Jin has been..."

Zhang Jianzhi was talking about something irrelevant. Before he could finish his words, Di Renjie kicked him under the table.

Zhang Jianzhi finally came back to his senses and cleared his throat.

Li Zhi smiled awkwardly.

In fact, everyone knows that the Prince of Jin was often beaten by his wife. I just heard that he was beaten very badly and was also controlled very strictly.

People say, what’s the point of King Jin building so many ships?

When he got home, he was beaten by the woman at home.

Li Zhi was also helpless. After all, Xiao Wu was the disciple of the imperial sister, and she had this backer... Li Zhi really couldn't afford to offend her.

Pei Yan asked, "How is the canal doing recently? The Ministry of War wants to inquire about it."

Li Zhi's shipbuilding business had a great and important influence on the court.

Even the current emperor relies heavily on this uncle.

Li Zhi took out a map, which showed the route of the canal.

The canal now has a new way of operating, and this way of operating... starts with the construction of new ships.

The new ships were powered by steam engine furnaces, and the place with the most coal was Liaodong.

Most ships arrived in Zhuozhou, loaded with coal and continued to sail south, transporting coal to various places back and forth.

In addition, many ships equipped with stoves went out to sea. They went to distant overseas. Only in the past two years did people begin to return safely after going out to sea.

But they all said there was no coal overseas and they didn't dare go too far out to sea.

"Hahaha! You're all here today!"

Suddenly, a loud laugh was heard. The people who were listening to Prince Jin's story turned around and saw Bai Fang holding a jar of wine.

He placed the wine jar heavily on the table and laughed loudly, "Drink up!"

"Okay!" Pei Yan laughed and said, "I won't go home until I'm drunk."

They were all good brothers who had eaten sand together in the Western Regions in the past. They spent this spring in laughter and joy.

Songtsen Gampo was eventually buried in Tubo according to Tang rites. According to regulations, this funeral was to bury Songtsen Gampo as a minister of the Tang Dynasty.

It is rumored that Lu Dongzan was crying in front of Songtsen Gampo's tomb.

Some people say that Songtsen Gampo should have died of illness many years ago, and he is still alive today only after being cured in the Tang Dynasty.

Lu Dongzan always thought that he would die before Zamp, but Lu Dongzan lived to be over ninety years old and was still alive and well.

According to later rumors, Lu Dongzan left Tubo and disappeared. No one knew where he went.

In the eleventh year of Shangyuan, Li Chengqian met a very talented young man at the foot of Mount Li. His name was Zhang Jiuling.

Datang still insists on teaching and imperial examinations, and this year's imperial examinations are particularly lively.

Zhang Jiuling didn't know the identity of the old man in front of him. The man's hair and beard were gray, with black and white hair mixed together.

The other person's eyes were very energetic, and his face and eyes looked like he was only about fifty years old.

Listening to Zhang Jiuling's talk about the current government affairs, the young man kept praising the Tang Dynasty's policy of equal taxation but not equal land distribution.

The sixteen-year-old Zhang Jiuling smiled and said, "If I could meet the emperor, I would have no regrets in my life."

Li Chengqian said: "You are not old enough to take the imperial examination yet. I am afraid you will need to teach for two years and train in the army for another two years."

Zhang Jiuling said: "It's okay, you can enter the government at the age of 20."

"Zhang Jiuling...Jiuling." Li Chengqian asked again: "Why is it named like this?"

Zhang Jiuling washed his hands by the stream and did not answer the question. He carried his bag and walked towards Chang'an City with a group of young people. After walking two steps, he suddenly looked back. The old man's conversation and insights were extraordinary, and he gained a lot from talking with him.

Zhang Jiuling walked back and bowed respectfully, saying, "I will come back to see you, old sir, when I pass the imperial examination and become an official."

(End of this chapter)