Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 531: Desolate Spring Breeze
With Xia Lin's departure, the entire Jinling City breathed a sigh of relief. The struggle between them seemed not so intense anymore, and the atmosphere in the court became lively.

Logically speaking, he absolutely could not leave Jinling City during the period of mourning for the late emperor, but everyone tacitly pretended not to see it. Someone wanted to report him, but before the report was submitted to the central government, that person was transferred to Lingnan to control sandstorms.

Lingnan’s sandstorm control...

Even the name Xia Lin is regarded as a secretive thing, as if one cannot mention the name of a person during the day and a ghost at night.

People might discuss privately why he was sent to Li Yuan, but in public everyone tacitly kept silent.

As for why he went to Li Yuan, many people guessed that it was because he had made the entire Jinling city a mess in just one year, and it was difficult for Emperor Jingtai to deal with it openly after he came back, so he used this trick to send him away.

No need to worry about it. After he left, everyone put aside the trivial matters and felt much better.

Meanwhile, Xia Lin in Chang'an City was leaning on the wall and chatting with the soldiers who were guarding him outside. The soldiers didn't dare to speak nor to remain silent, so they just kept on talking. But Xia Lin was so bored that he didn't care whether the soldiers were happy or not, and he just kept on talking.

"Hey, military officer, how much military pay do you get every year? Is it enough to support your family? I heard that it is quite common in the north to withhold military pay."

The soldier lowered his head and said nothing.

At this moment, Xia Lin continued to ask, "Where do you usually go to have fun on your days off? Which brothel in Chang'an is better? I'll go there when I have time. Don't be silent, you're just sitting around anyway."

Just as Xia Lin was provoking trouble with this person, a carriage stopped steadily here, and then the curtain was lifted, revealing Li Jiancheng's face.

"Hey, Prince." Xia Lin waved at Li Jiancheng: "Are you going out to play? Have you eaten? If not, come over and have a drink together?"

Li Jiancheng lowered the curtain and got off the carriage. He walked to the low wall with his hands behind his back and looked up at Xia Lin: "You are so easygoing that you can be so calm even in the current situation."

"What else can I do?" Xia Lin pushed himself up with both hands and jumped onto the top of the wall and sat down. "I have 400 soldiers surrounding me. When Xiang Yu invited Liu Bang to a banquet, he only had 300 soldiers ambushed. I have 100 more than Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty."

"You remembered it wrong. It was five hundred at the Hongmen Banquet."

"Oh, then I am only one hundred less than Emperor Gaozu of Han."

Li Jiancheng was actually amused by him. This state of mind was quite good. He wanted to gain some advantage anyway and would never suffer any loss.

"I won't argue with you about this. Father said that as long as you can put your strategy for governing the country on paper, he will let you go at his discretion."

Li Jiancheng said this just for fun, no one in the world would agree to it. After all, everyone would question Xia Daosheng's mental state, but no one would doubt his ability.

But this is someone else's job, and as a minister of Wei, how could he easily take out his most precious thing?

"Okay." Xia Lin showed no resistance at all. "Tomorrow, more of you can come. I will teach the class in one go. By the way, Your Highness, please take a letter to Wang Zhuoheng in the Green Forest Army and ask him to come to Chang'an to look for me."

Li Jiancheng was stunned for a moment, his eyes gradually focused, he looked up at Xia Lin: "You agreed?"

"Yes, I agreed. What else? Call more people and I'll just open a small class."

This surprised Li Jiancheng. He asked in astonishment, "Why are you willing to teach?"

"Of course I will. It's not a bad thing. I have no grudge against your Li family, nor do I have any grudge against the people of Li Tang. It's a good thing that you can live a better life." Xia Lin adjusted his posture and lay on the wall: "I am a generous person."

"Then why don't you teach in Jinling?"

"I taught them, why wouldn't I? Even if I taught them, they wouldn't be able to take it." Xia Lin sighed, "I wanted to pry open their mouths and pour the water in, why didn't I teach them? I even taught the grasslands, tell me yourself, how many years has the grassland not disturbed the border."

After he said that, Li Jiancheng really realized the problem. The grassland had not violated the border for many years. If they were afraid of Wei or Tang, that was definitely not the case. How much fear could compare to not having enough food? Not to mention the affection for Xia Lin. No matter how great the affection was, it couldn't stop people from starving to death.

So Li Jiancheng actually still believed what Xia Lin said, but he was still quite curious about what Xia Lin was up to.

"Oh, by the way. I brought you some Northwest pastries. Take some and try them."

Li Jiancheng took out some cakes from the carriage and handed them to Xia Lin, who was lying there asking curiously, "Any news about Er Feng San Hu recently?"

"They..." Li Jiancheng laughed helplessly, "There is some news about Erfeng now and then. He is busy traveling through Jianmen Pass to manage Shu. There is really no news about Sanhu. If you know anything about Sanhu, you can tell me. By the way, are you used to living here? Father said that if you are not comfortable, he will ask me to arrange a new house for you."

"It's a habit. Last night, I had a long talk with the head of the Dugu family and fell asleep together." Xia Lin waved his hand and said, "It's okay, brother." "Then..." Li Jiancheng looked at Xia Lin strangely: "Then... that's good."

"Master Dugu is so kind to you and me... hey hey hey!"

Xia Lin was dragged down from the wall halfway through his speech, and then Dugu Han's angry roar could be heard: "Who are you talking nonsense to again!? You feel uncomfortable if you don't make up rumors about me all day, right?"

After a while, Dugu Han's head popped out from the low wall. When she saw Li Jiancheng, the corners of her mouth twitched. She pointed behind her and said, "Your Highness, don't listen to this bastard's nonsense. He has gone crazy in prison and has been talking nonsense all day long."

Li Jiancheng bowed to Dugu Han, got on the carriage and ran away...

When he returned to the palace and reported the matter to Li Yuan, Li Yuan was also confused at the time. He was silent for a long time, just pacing back and forth and then turned back to ask: "Did he really say that?"

"really."

"Then why did he agree so readily?"

"Ah, this..." Li Jiancheng didn't know how to answer for a moment. He just scratched his head and looked a little funny: "Maybe he really went crazy because of being locked up."

"You." Li Yuan patted his eldest son's shoulder and said, "Tomorrow you will take your ministers and advisers with you to listen to what he has to say."

"Yes, Father. I will take my leave now."

Xia Lin started to decorate the yard. He whistled as he placed the stools one by one. He also asked someone to nail a large board in front and paint it black.

The key point is that he did everything himself, without any help from the servants in the mansion. He spent an entire afternoon just setting up the venue, and even asked people to use the unused red silk to hang a banner with the words - Welcome the Tang Dynasty Study Supervision Group to come and provide guidance.

Then there was a small table in front of each chair with tea cups on it.

"I said if you have more energy than you can use, come over and pick up the child and walk around in the yard. Don't do these useless things. There are only a few people here. Just do this."

Xia Lin glanced at Dugu Han and said, "Bean sprout, I'm not bragging to you. There are not many people in the world who can teach as well as I do. As long as Li Yuan is not stupid, all the officials above the fourth rank in the Tang Dynasty will be here tomorrow. You can count how many people there are."

"About sixty."

Xia Lin gestured with his hand: "Sixty-two chairs. Now there is a problem in their hands. These sixty-two chairs are placed here, and they can be divided into five categories. The first category is that they are just full, which is the same as what I guessed, all officials above the fourth rank are here. The second category is that they are full, but there are a few more, but not too many more, which means Li Jiancheng also came with his son and son-in-law. The third category is that the seats are full, but there are many more, which means that Li Jiancheng has brought all the people who follow him, regardless of their official positions."

"Are there two other types that are not full?"

"Yes, if it's not full but there aren't many empty seats, it means there are people in the Li Tang Dynasty who are against Li Jiancheng instead of me. If there are many empty seats, it means that Li Jiancheng is a mysterious prince. At this time, there will definitely be a bloody storm among them."

"Then they wouldn't be so obvious, right?"

"There are five possibilities, right? We can judge the power structure within the Tang Dynasty from the seating arrangement and the number of seats."

Dugu Han raised his head, his face full of disbelief: "You even need to be a spy for something like this?"

Xia Lin flicked her hair and said, "Old habits die hard."

On the second morning, the entrance to the princess's mansion became bustling with activity. Many high-ranking officials of the Li Tang Dynasty arrived one after another. Li Jiancheng had naturally already gone in. He was now sitting on the small table and chairs, looking around and finding his surroundings funny. In a trance, he returned to the scene of his morning reading class in the garden.

Xia Lin was leaning aside at the moment, holding his "teaching plan" in his hand and sorting it out. People came one after another, but until the start, the attendance rate was only about 90%.

That is to say, there are eight people who did not come. Xia Lin quickly glanced at the registration list and found that those who did not come included the Minister of War and the Minister of Revenue.

Oh no, the people in charge of money and the soldiers don't support Li Jiancheng. Xia Lin guessed that it was probably because he was very strict with these two departments, trying to keep the military and financial power tightly in his hands.

The logic is definitely correct, but after these days of understanding, he found out that the General Huotou who is now on the front line is the one who is pro-Li Shimin. This is a secret that Sanniang told him.

In other words, the two important functional departments of finance and military affairs actually prefer Li Shimin or Princess Pingyang.

"Well, it's almost time, Your Highness, my Lords, shall we begin?"

(End of this chapter)