The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 79 Family Banquet
In Ganlu Palace, Li Lizhi held Xiao Sizi in her arms and tried to get her to eat a few bites of dumplings.

Although this little princess can only learn to walk and babbles indistinctly, her hands are very strong and she tries hard to grab the chopsticks in her sister's hands.

Li Lizhi said, "Okay, you can't eat more."

Little Sizi: “Ahhhh…”

Empress Changsun, who was standing by, held her waist and laughed, but the little sister still reached out to grab her sister's chopsticks, and finally hung on her sister's neck and refused to let go.

The wind and snow were still blowing outside the hall, and the hall had become quiet from the laughter and joy.

Only after the little Sizi, who had been hanging on her neck and refused to come down, fell asleep did Li Lizhi put her into her mother's arms.

"It's cold at night, do you still want to go back to the East Palace?"

Li Lizhi relit the candle in the lantern and said, "My daughter and my brother will come to visit our father, the emperor and our mother tomorrow."

Li Shimin looked at the palace maids outside the palace and said, "You escort them."

"Here."

The maids responded in unison.

Empress Changsun comforted the little Sizi who had just fallen asleep, and called out lovingly, "Mingda?"

This is the name of the little princess, her name is Li Mingda.

Li Shimin drank tea and opened the window a little bit. The wind blew in through the gap. When he opened it a little more, he could see two lanterns in the snowy night, which were getting farther and farther away from the Lizheng Hall.

Only when the light of the lantern disappeared did Li Shimin withdraw his gaze, close the window again, and whispered, "I heard that these children listen to Cheng Qian's lectures every day."

Empress Changsun replied, "It's not all Chengqian who teaches them. They still have to go to the Imperial College, and then they have to listen to Lizhi's lectures. When Lizhi was a little older, she took the children to lecture. Lizhi's knowledge was not only taught by the Imperial College, but also by Chengqian."

"It's strange." Empress Changsun whispered, "The Eastern Palace divides a month into four seven-day periods. The first three days of each period are spent in the Imperial Academy, and the next two days are spent in the Eastern Palace. The children don't have to attend classes on the last two days, and so on. This seven-day cycle repeats."

"Seven days?" Li Shimin frowned and thought to himself, "How can a month be divided into four seven-day periods?"

Empress Changsun smiled and said, "This brings us to the Rubik's Cube."

"rubik's cube?"

Empress Changsun looked at His Majesty with displeasure.

Li Shimin was confused, and noticing the look in his wife's eyes, he said with some shame: "I really neglected them. I have to ask you everything."

Empress Changsun continued patiently, "It was because of the magic cube that Taoist Li Chunfeng learned that the East Palace had made it. Cheng Qian discussed with Taoist Li Chunfeng and divided a month into several seven-day periods according to the Taoist Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, and thus the current seven-day period came into being."

"Yes." Li Shimin nodded and said, "When can he ask Li Chunfeng for help?"

"This magic cube can help the Dao sect to take a step forward."

"Haha..." Li Shimin laughed softly and said, "It's just some tricks."

Empress Chang Sun sighed and wondered when would the emperor, as his father, recognize Cheng Qian's progress or give him some praise.

In this regard, as a queen mother, she could only support the family, pay attention to the children, and help her husband manage so many things in the harem.

In the Eastern Palace, Li Chengqian was still writing the outline for his future lectures.

Li Lizhi came over and said, "Brother, we have already made an agreement with our father."

Li Chengqian said: "Ask Xiaofu to prepare some more rice and flour, and you go and help her."

Thinking of Xiaofu's inability to do two things at the same time, Li Lizhi suppressed her smile and said, "Sister, go now, or they will laugh at Xiaofu again."

"Yeah, they made fun of Xiaofu, and this girl will probably start another quarrel."

"Well, Xiaofu is really fierce when he quarrels."

After saying this, Li Lizhi hurried out of the bedroom.

The wind and snow continued to fall all night. In this era where the concept of time is not so important, sometimes I don’t know what time I went to bed or what time I woke up.

When I woke up, it was not yet fully light, but I woke up consciously.

The biological clock has become accustomed to this pattern.

Li Chengqian put on his clothes and walked out of the bedroom. His younger brother and sister were still asleep, and he could vaguely see stars still twinkling in the sky.

When I walked out of the Eastern Palace, General Li Ji had just arrived.

After running around the East Palace a few times, Li Chengqian asked, "General, do you have obstacle courses in the army?"

Li Ji also ran and replied: "Your Highness, most of the sword formations practiced in the army are aimed at defeating the enemy with one sword, and this is what they practice."

Inferring the way to train troops based on the general's past experience, this is exactly the way.

How to improve the team's combat capability intuitively and effectively depends on the situation.

If you think about it carefully, you can be sure that obstacle running is not necessarily necessary.

We can draw conclusions from the experiences of various historical wars in the Central Plains.

Generals are always good at summarizing experience.

For example, when we go to war outside the Great Wall and in the northern desert, and fight with nomadic tribes, many times the fighting is mobile warfare.

This kind of mobile warfare requires overnight raids and encirclements.

Therefore, the training of horse riding and archery is more important.

As usual, after practicing archery, the general left.

When Li Yuan woke up, he saw Cheng Qian and his brothers and sisters carrying a stove and some noodles, and said, "Aren't we going to the Secretariat today?"

"There's nothing to do these days, so I won't go today." Li Chengqian put the stove on the cart and said, "My grandson has nothing to do in the Secretariat, and it's boring to sit there all day."

Li Yuan frowned and asked, "They don't let you do anything?"

"What else can they ask their grandson to do? Maybe they think their grandson is not capable enough."

There is nothing wrong with saying this. After all, he was able to talk about annexing Tuyuhun. When the new Khan of Tuyuhun was still alive, he brutally took Tuyuhun away and let his father make Tian Khan a bandit?
Being able to say such things meant that in the eyes of his teacher and uncle, the prince was still a child with immature means.

On the surface, he was defeated, but from another perspective, his father became a bandit, which was a lose-lose situation. Even if it was a one-sided loss, it was unacceptable.

As for what the mature method is, it is to make people willingly offer everything to the emperor and be grateful, to convince everyone, and to allow the emperor to continue to be worshipped.

This is the mature approach.

There are also some more subtle manipulations involved.

Li Yuan asked, "What are you going to do?"

"Let's go to Lizheng Palace. It's just the beginning of winter. Grandpa Huang should come with us. Our family hasn't had a meal together for a long time."

Li Yuan nodded, put on a simple and more decent piece of clothing, and followed the prince.

After packing all these things, Li Chengqian took his brothers and pushed a small cart towards the Lizheng Hall.

There were already palace maids waiting outside the palace. When they saw the princes coming, they went into the palace to report.

When the children arrived in front of the Lizheng Hall, the place immediately became lively.

Li Shimin said: "Father."

Li Yuan asked, "Well, how are you these days?"

"My son is doing well lately."

The Emperor put on a majestic attitude again, at least this attitude suppressed the aura of my father.

The younger brothers and sisters also had to make dumplings and light the fire, so the palace maids went to help.

Li Lizhi said: "Let them do it themselves, don't interfere."

Seeing this, the palace maids had no choice but to withdraw their hands.

Listening to the chat between the father and grandfather, the younger brother and sister were also making dumplings and preparing hot pot. The hot pot was just replaced with a clay pot. The mutton had been frozen overnight, so it was easier to cut now. Li Shen and Li Zhi were cutting the meat.

Li Chengqian's eyes fell on a little guy.

The little guy was holding onto his trouser legs, standing at the door, looking at the scene outside the hall with curiosity and timidity.

Seeing this, Li Chengqian picked her up.

This little girl is not afraid of strangers. She stares at the face in front of her with curious and bright eyes. Her bright big eyes seem to be confirming where the eyes are and where the nose is.

Li Chengqian whispered: "What's your name?"

"Sizi." She opened her mouth and said.

"What should you call me?"

"Yeah yeah yeah..." The girl replied, and no one knew what she was saying.

Li Chengqian frowned at her, held her in his arms and said, "When you grow up, will you come to the East Palace?"

"Yeah ah..."

Little Sizi is still talking like this.

Empress Changsun whispered, "This child can recognize people, but he can only say a few words."

Li Chengqian put Xiao Sizi back into the palace and asked the palace maid to look after her.

She ran over quickly with her short legs, and when she was about to fall, she grabbed the prince's trouser leg again. For the little princess, it seemed like she had experienced another great adventure.

Her bright eyes blinked and she continued to look outside the hall curiously.

Dongyang came over and said, "Father, Queen Mother can have her meal now."

The tables in Lizheng Hall were put together, and the family sat together, with the younger brothers and sisters sitting in order from tallest to shortest.

Li Chengqian put some mutton into the pottery pot and said, "My brothers and sisters also sit like this in the East Palace."

Li Shimin nodded slightly.

Li Lizhi was checking and making sure that each pair of little hands were washed before giving them chopsticks.

Li Yuan stroked his beard and said, "Children grow up fast. In the blink of an eye, they have all grown up like this."

Empress Changsun nodded and said, "Yes, they have grown a lot taller."

Li Chengqian picked up some mutton and ate it by himself. There was no alcohol in this meal, only noodles and hot pot.

Li Yuan ate the blanched celery and asked, "I heard that Cheng Qian advised you about the Jiucheng Palace incident?"

Li Shimin nodded but did not respond.

Li Chengqian sat next to his mother, his father sat opposite him, and his grandfather sat in the seat of honor.

The Emperor Father and the Empress Mother were on both sides of the Emperor Grandfather.

Li Chengqian picked up another piece of the mutton, blew it cool and fed it to Xiao Sizi. She happily leaned towards her royal brother.

Li Yuan added: "I was the one who renovated the Jiucheng Palace. You don't have to worry about it. If it gets flooded, it's flooded. We can repair it later."

Li Shimin nodded and said, "Father is right."

It is very quiet when eating in the palace. This is the rule of the Eastern Palace. You are not allowed to talk while eating and you have to concentrate on eating.

Therefore, only Grandpa Emperor and Father Emperor were talking in the hall.

Li Yuan said: "It is not good to let Cheng Qian participate in government affairs so early. Now that he is close to the court officials, he will naturally act according to their ideas."

Li Chengqian was eating the food and his chopsticks paused noticeably.

Noticing his father's gaze, Li Chengqian continued eating without saying a word.

When little Sizi was in the arms of the emperor's grandfather, Li Yuan stroked his beard and laughed at his little granddaughter.

"How are they learning?"

Hearing his mother's question, Li Chengqian replied, "Li Zhi has a great talent for mathematics, and I don't plan to let her learn from Li Chunfeng of the Taoist sect."

Li Lizhi replied: "My royal brother is worried that my sister will become a Taoist priest after learning from Taoist Priest Li Chunfeng."

Empress Changsun nodded, very satisfied with her son's decision.

Li Chengqian added: "Dongyang is very talented in explaining Chinese characters. She can already write an excellent article. As for the others..."

"Alas..." At this point, Li Chengqian sighed, "It's hard to put it into words."

Not all brothers and sisters are gifted, and as the eldest brother, they can only give them a higher starting point than other children in the Tang Dynasty.

After dinner, my father, my mother, my grandfather, and myself, the Crown Prince Li Chengqian, sat together to play cards.

The younger brothers and sisters were all playing in Lizheng Palace, and some of them were going to visit their mother.

It has been a long time since I last played cards, and it seemed like I was not good at it. My father lost three games in a row.

Li Chengqian was in a good mood as he counted the copper coins he won.

The card game continued, and His Majesty's expression was not very good. He was probably thinking that the court had no money to repair the Jiucheng Palace, and now he lost the card game again, which made him even more unhappy.

Li Yuan played cards with his son and grandson without holding back at all.

Empress Changsun left the card table first to take care of the children.

At this moment, there were only three people left at the table: grandfather, grandson, father and son, fighting each other.

Li Chengqian looked at the cards in his hand and took a sip of tea. His father and grandfather were both very good at this game. Feeling the pressure, he played two cards carefully.

"Hahaha!" Li Yuan laughed heartily and played all the cards in his hand.

Li Shimin sighed in boredom, feeling annoyed and helpless at the loss.

A palace maid came over and said, "Your Majesty, the Prince of Wei has come. He said he would come to see Your Majesty and the Queen after the beginning of winter."

Li Shimin just nodded, still looking at the cards.

The three of them were fighting fiercely. Even though they were three generations apart, they all showed their true skills at the card table.

Li Tai stood aside, greeted his grandfather, father, and brother, and then stood aside for a while.

Seeing that no one paid attention to him, he had no choice but to leave.

The palace maids kept refilling the tea, but the three men continued to fight, with the outcome of the battle going back and forth at the card table.

By the evening, when dinner was ready in Lizheng Hall, the three men were still confronting each other, holding the cards in their hands as if they were facing a formidable enemy.

Empress Chang Sun had no choice but to let the children eat first, and after eating they had to go back to the East Palace to rest.

My younger brothers and sisters are one year older, and they are old enough for people like Li Lizhi and Dongyang to have their own rooms. So I plan to clean up the empty house in the north of the East Palace and give it to them.

I waited until nightfall, but still didn't know when Li Tai left.

Li Chengqian was calculating the outcome of his victory or defeat.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Li Yuan stretched his back and said, "I'm tired, let's go back."

Leaving his father still sitting in the hall, Li Chengqian followed his grandfather out of the Lizheng Hall.

"Cheng Qian, how much did you win?"

“I win less and lose more.”

Li Yuan smiled and said, "I won three hundred coins. I will buy you some zongzi."

(End of this chapter)