The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 65: Silly World
Li Yuan whispered, "Your son Chongyi is already this old, what worries can you have? He is sleeping in Zongzheng Temple all day long."

Li Xiaogong scratched his head and squatted beside the retired emperor with his hands in his pockets. Sometimes he had nothing good to say to this old man, because everyone was a relative when they started the rebellion and knew each other too well.

It is also boring to talk with the old man. I know what kind of old man the emperor is, and the old man also knows what kind of person he is.

Just as the old man said, the Zongzheng Temple does nothing all day long. Whenever the royal family members encounter any problems, in the end they are not as reliable as their own son Li Chongyi, the Shaoqing of the Zongzheng Temple.

Li Yuan whispered, "You said you were a smart kid when you were young, how did you become like this now?"

Li Xiaogong put his hands in his pockets and looked at Li Chengqian who had just shot another arrow. He whispered, "You are not as elegant as you used to be."

Li Yuan said worriedly, "I have heard recently that your family is blessed by gods and Buddhas, and it is so glorious?"

Li Xiaogong's mouth twitched, and he gritted his teeth and said, "It was that Changsun Wuji who was talking nonsense. Sooner or later, I will compete with him. I pulled out his teeth."

After saying this, the two of them pursed their lips and looked at the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace who was still practicing archery.

Li Xiaogong squatted with his hands in his pockets, turned his head and looked at Li Yuan, saying, "Don't embarrass me, old man. Quickly remove these bows and arrows and targets."

Li Yuan nodded and said, "If anyone dares to withdraw, I will burn down the Wude Hall."

"The older I get, the more stubborn I become." Li Xiaogong scratched his head in annoyance again.

"Did it embarrass you?"

"Please don't say that you are making things difficult for your nephew. Instead, think about how to fool His Majesty." Li Xiaogong sighed. Most of the things here could not be done. He would think about how to report back after returning.

Soon, Li Shen and Li Zhi came over, each carrying a food box.

Li Xiaogong sniffed carefully and felt hungry.

Li Yuan whispered, "Why are you two here?"

Li Zhi replied first, "My sister said that my brother was practicing archery in the Wude Hall and must not have eaten since the court session, so I asked my grandson to bring it to me."

Li Shen also bowed obediently and said, "Grandson greets Grandpa Huang."

Li Yuan stroked his beard as he looked at his two little grandsons and smiled, "No need for such a big gift, hahahaha..."

The dishes were placed on the table, each one was very exquisite, making the dishes originally prepared by the Wude Hall look very dull in front of the dishes from the East Palace.

Especially the braised beef, it looks delicious.

Li Chengqian put down his longbow, washed his hands and prepared to eat.

Li Zhi and Li Shen stood beside Li Yuan. Each of them spoke a word. Li Yuan laughed non-stop and indulged his two little grandsons in everything.

"Grandpa Emperor, you must wash your hands before eating, Uncle Emperor! You should wash your hands too!"

Li Xiaogong had just picked up a piece of braised beef when he was stopped by Li Zhi's words.

Seeing the old man washing his hands, he had no choice but to use the wooden basin beside him to wash his hands.

Li Shen added: "We need to put these tables together. The family should eat together in harmony."

The two boys began to arrange the meal and directed the eunuchs in the Wude Hall to do their work.

Not to mention the other meat and vegetable combinations, the pot of braised beef in soy sauce attracted Li Yuan and Li Xiaogong the most.

The two men drank their wine and ate a large piece of braised beef in soy sauce in one gulp.

Then he stared at the remaining two pieces of braised beef. It was such a good meal, but it was being eaten by the emperor grandfather and the emperor uncle in a way that made it seem like they were playing tricks on each other.

Li Zhi and Li Shen each held a bowl with a cake in it, which they could eat with the dishes.

But the situation before them made it difficult for the two to pick up their chopsticks. The emperor's grandfather and uncle were eating in a very wild manner, and the dishes were originally placed neatly on the plates.

Then the emperor's grandfather and uncle each used a pair of chopsticks, and a lot of dishes fell on the table as they picked up and put down the food.

Seeing the food being wasted, Li Zhi and Li Shen's faces fell.

Li Chengqian ate his meal quietly, taking bites of bread and vegetables at a time.

A eunuch came hurriedly, walked to the side of the prince and said, "His Majesty has ordered that the prince go to Ganlu Palace."

Li Chengqian chewed the biscuit and asked, "Did he say what it was about?"

"His Majesty didn't say anything, but he asked Your Highness to take a walk after dinner."

Li Yuan and Li Xiaogong continued to fight over the remaining three slices of braised beef.

Li Chengqian finished the cake in his hand and said to his two younger brothers, "Remember to clean up after dinner."

Li Shen swallowed the food in his mouth with great effort, nodded obediently and said, "Don't worry, my brother."

Following the eunuch out of the Wude Hall, the sky was overcast at noon, and it was likely that it was going to rain again.

The palace is very large, and it is impossible to reach every corner of the palace at once. The most familiar roads now are those leading to Ganlu Palace or the East Palace.

I haven't seen what other places in the palace look like. Most of them are old and have not been renovated for many years.

The eunuch led His Royal Highness the Crown Prince into the Ganlu Palace and said, "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has arrived."

Li Shimin, who was reviewing the memorials with his head down, responded, "Yes."

Li Chengqian stepped forward and saluted, "Father."

Li Shimin raised his head slightly from a pile of files and said, "Sit down."

"Here."

I sat aside and didn't see my father summoning other people.

Inside the Ganlu Palace, the father and son sat quietly, neither of them spoke. It was so quiet that it was abnormal, and from time to time one could hear His Majesty's heavy breathing.

I saw that my father was holding a memorial and he had to get closer to the oil lamp to see its contents.

Li Chengqian suddenly stood up.

The eunuchs on the other side looked nervous and didn't know what the prince was going to do.

Li Chengqian walked to the window and heard the sound of rain outside. He pushed open the window and a cold wind blew towards him. It had started raining outside, and the rain mixed with snowflakes was falling.

After the window was opened, light shone into the hall, making the originally dim Ganlu Hall brighter.

Li Shimin was refreshed by the cold wind and stood up and said, "I heard that when you were supervising government affairs, you only took half a day to review and approve several days of accumulated memorials?"

Li Chengqian frowned and looked at the sleet outside the window. Slowly, the snow outside the palace became more than the rain. He replied, "That was all because of the guidance of Prime Minister Fang and my uncle."

Li Shimin put down the pen in his hand, relaxed his back, and said, "Prepare a table, chair, pen and ink for the prince, and then take these memorials for approval."

I watched as three or two eunuchs carried a long table and placed it in front of my father's desk, which was slightly lower than my father's seat.

Li Shimin poured a bowl of tea and took a sip, saying, "Take a look at these memorials."

Li Chengqian sat down and looked at the memorials piled up in front of him. He opened one of them and saw that it was a memorial regarding the construction of river fortifications in Tongguan.

This summer, I heard Xu Xiaode talk about the drop in the water level of the Yellow River in Tongguan.

He also participated in part in the construction of the official road.

Looking at this memorial again, Tongguan was originally an important gateway between Guanzhong and Xiaoshan. The drop in the water level of the Yellow River caused the original river beach to become a new road, and this new road also caused the original geographical advantage of Tongguan to change. In the memorial, the county magistrates of the three counties of Tongguan and the current local guards, guards and military commanders asked questions from the court.

The Secretariat proposed three strategies, which were nothing more than adding an outer city, or building a river embankment, and then building a city wall along the official road.

In fact, these methods are all feasible, but they are not suitable from the perspective of cost.

Li Chengqian asked the eunuch beside him: "Is there a map of Tongguan now?"

The eunuch at the side looked up at His Majesty, and after His Majesty nodded, the old eunuch handed over a picture.

Li Chengqian looked at the map and saw that the current appearance of Tongguan was formed by the migration from the original Tongguan to the south during the Sui Dynasty. It is now located on the bank of the Yellow River and has become the throat of Guanzhong leading to Hangu Pass and out of Mount Xiao.

Legend has it that the person who built Tongguan was Cao Cao, and it was in Tongguan that Cao Cao almost died from Ma Chao's arrow.

I still vaguely remember these interesting stories.

Du Fu once wrote about Tongguan, saying that the old man looked at the key point and found it narrow enough to accommodate only a bicycle. This also explains the strategic importance of Tongguan City, and that if one defends the city, one will be like one man guarding the pass.

To deal with this kind of memorial is...too easy for me, the auspicious sign of the Tang Dynasty.

Based on various allusions and changes in geographical locations, this is essentially an open-book test.

Build city walls and passes at the entrance of the Huangxiang Road to cut off the main road.

This pass does not need to be very big. As long as a small pass about three meters high is built, it can control the important road.

In this way, the cost will be greatly reduced, and there will be no need to worry about large-scale construction caused by the relocation of the city.

The second reconstruction of Tongguan in the Tang Dynasty was during the period of Du Fu.

So much so that now, Li Chengqian has a feeling that he is participating in the construction of history, but this construction is just brought forward a little.

Tongguan is very important to the Li Tang Dynasty, and matters involving Tongguan are no trivial matters.

Li Shimin was drinking tea from a bowl while looking at his son who had just reviewed a memorial, and it was the memorial from Tongguan that gave him a headache.

The old eunuch beside the emperor knew what Your Majesty was looking at, so he showed Your Majesty the memorial in which the prince had reviewed memorials.

The hall was very quiet. The emperor and his son sat one in front of the other, each reviewing memorials.

What others say may just be hearsay. Only by seeing it with your own eyes can you know how fast the prince is in reviewing memorials and how capable he is.

The child handled the memorial to Tongguan very well. The Huangxiang Trail, also known as Huangxiangban, was indeed not considered at first, but after some annotations and re-reading it, I felt as if I had suddenly realized something.

Now observing Cheng Qian's back as he concentrated on reading the memorials, Li Shimin's expression was still stern, but there was a hint of smile in his eyes.

When his son was about to turn around, Li Shimin immediately stopped smiling.

"Father, I am not in a position to approve this memorial."

Li Shimin regained his serious expression, stroked his beard and nodded, and asked with a slightly accusatory tone: "Why can't you approve it?"

"The Jinwu Guard needs to make 1,000 pieces of armor and 2,000 weapons and longbows, which will cost 265 strings of cash. I don't think this is the right way to calculate it."

"How do you think it should be calculated?"

Hearing his father's question, Li Chengqian frowned a little more and said, "We should take out various past expenditures as a reference, and make a budget before allocating expenses, rather than paying expenses first and then making a budget for expenditures."

Li Shimin put down the tea bowl in his hand and ordered: "Ask the Secretary General to bring all kinds of files on the construction of military weapons."

"Yes." The eunuch at the side hurried to pass on the message.

Li Chengqian added: "There are also the number of Jinwu Guards and the details required."

Li Shimin nodded, the eunuch saluted again, and another eunuch left.

A few snowflakes fell from the window into the hall. Li Chengqian whispered, "Father, I found a lot of files of accounts. Li Zhi is quite good at math now. She is very skilled in accounting. I would like to ask her to help."

"Can't anyone else?"

Hearing this, the father asked again.

Li Chengqian said discouragedly: "Father, Li Zhi has an object called an abacus in her hand, and she is more skilled in using it."

Li Shimin nodded and asked a eunuch to pass on the message.

Just as his son sat down again, before he had sat for a moment, he stood up again.

He made demands one after another before he had even approved a few memorials.

Before his son could speak, Li Shimin asked, "What's wrong with you?"

Li Chengqian sighed, "Father, in the future, it would be more appropriate to ask the various departments in the court to prepare budgets and various expenses for this type of account files. Don't send them here before the work is completed."

Li Shimin nodded, picked up the tea bowl and prepared to drink water.

Seeing that the son had just sat down, he felt that everything was fine.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he drank the tea, he stood up again.

Li Shimin put down the tea bowl heavily with an unhappy look on his face.

Li Chengqian said: "We must ask them to make a budget first, otherwise I will be very tired."

Li Shimin closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and nodded.

I continued to look at the next memorial, which was about the karez in Jingyang. Several counties in Longxi wanted to open karez for irrigation.

The reclamation of the karez in Jingyang was adapted to local conditions and was also presided over by Xu Jingzong.

Li Chengqian wrote down the experience of learning from the construction of karez in Jingyang, and slowly started the design from hypothesis to demonstration. He advocated that the county magistrates of each county go to Jingyang to actively learn from the experience, plan and design, and proceed step by step with their feet on the ground.

After writing this work opinion, I was ready to send this memorial back so that they can plan it before submitting it.

The governance and cultural levels of county officials in different places vary greatly.

So God still favors the Tang Dynasty, even if it is not well governed, even if it remains the same...

Li Chengqian clicked his tongue and was puzzled. How did the Tang Dynasty become a prosperous era?
The world was so silly, and the Tang Dynasty was so silly, but it just kept striding forward and gradually became the pinnacle of the world at that time.

If we count the dynasties throughout history, we can see how partial God is.

After half an hour, Li Lizhi walked into the hall wearing a bright red cloak and said, "Father, brother."

As she spoke, she took off her cloak, shook off the snowflakes on it, and placed it on the table beside her.

Li Shimin was still looking down at the memorial his son had just approved.

Seeing that her father didn't say anything, Li Lizhi came over with a small abacus and whispered, "Brother? What's wrong?"

Li Chengqian pushed a thick stack of memorials in front of her and said, "I have sorted out these memorials related to the accounts and have also made annotations. Please calculate the accounts and keep a number."

"Okay." Li Lizhi held the stack of memorials with difficulty and placed them on another low table, then pushed the table to merge it with her brother's table.

After the two tables were merged, the brother and sister sat face to face.

(End of this chapter)