A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 407 Yin Ashu's Horsewhip
"Consort Yin and Consort Zhang's carriages are still ten miles away from Luoyang."

A knight galloped along the road along the Gushui River to report that Li Yi, dressed in a purple robe and jade belt, with a sable cloak over it, led a group of civil and military officials from Luoyang out of the city to greet him.

It was already late January. These two had said they would come before the New Year, but they didn't arrive until almost the end of the first month.

Li Yi wished they wouldn't come; the emperor's favorite concubines were not easy to deal with.

Li Yi was prepared that these two women were definitely looking for something. If it was just about right, that would be fine, but he was afraid that their appetites would be too big and their desires would be insatiable.

The setting sun casts its slanting rays.

The caravan appeared in the cold wind, and the gilded bronze bells on the carriages made a soft, crisp sound in the north wind.

Consort Zhang lifted the heavy curtain of the carriage and gazed at the towering city of Luoyang ahead.

Bright Tang Dynasty flags were displayed on the city walls.

Wearing a sable fur coat and holding a snow-white Fulin dog in her arms, Zhang Jieyu remarked, "This Luoyang city looks even grander than Chang'an!"

She was selected as a palace maid by the Sui Dynasty emperor, and originally thought she would be able to come to the prosperous Luoyang. However, she was not sent to Jinyang Palace in Bingzhou. Several years later, she still came to Luoyang.

This time, however, she returned as Consort Zhang, a favorite of the Tang Dynasty emperor.

Li Yi watched as the two consorts' entourage made a grand spectacle.
Step forward to greet them.

"Li Yi respectfully welcomes Consort De and Consort Jieyu."

The carriage stopped in front of Li Yi. A palace maid beside Consort Yin lifted the curtain, leaving a thin veil. Consort Yin spoke from inside the carriage.

"It's freezing cold, so please come out of the city to greet us. Let's go into the city first."

Even through the gauze curtain, Li Yi couldn't see clearly inside; he could only make out a blurry figure.

The two concubines' carriages continued onward, and Li Yi also turned around, mounted his horse, and led the officials back to the city.

After entering the city, the two consorts went directly into the Ziwei Palace.

In Hanzhang Hall,

Consort Yin, holding a raccoon dog, and Consort Zhang, holding a small dog, marveled at the splendor of the Luoyang palace.

The palace servants were summoned.
Li Yi handed the list of palace women to Consort Yin. This list included palace maids, concubines left over from the Sui and Zheng dynasties, and women from the Yang and Wang families.
Many others had previously been imprisoned in the Yeting Palace for crimes.

All of them were registered and recorded. Consort Yin casually flipped through the documents, while Li Yi stood to the side and noticed that the mother of the Eighth Prince, Prince Feng, Li Yuanheng, was still quite young, in her early twenties, in the prime of her youth and beauty.

Today, she is wearing a false hairpin with nine flowers on it, inlaid with serpentine stones, which are tributes from the Western Regions. These serpentine stones, which come from Persia, have become increasingly rare and precious in the Central Plains since the Silk Road was cut off during the Sui Dynasty.

Zhang Jieyu, who was holding a dog beside her, was also young, beautiful, and had a great presence. She wore a very smooth and lustrous jade bracelet on her wrist, which was clearly of exceptional quality.
“Could these twelve sandalwood screens be the Tribute Map of the Western Regions?” she asked Li Yi.

"Your Excellency has a keen eye. This is precisely the Western Regions Tribute Map that Emperor Yang of Sui commissioned Yan Pi to carve using Hetian jade."

“These twelve-panel screens are beautiful. I like them. Sikong, please pack them up for me. I plan to give them to my mother as a birthday gift.”

Li Yi stood there and said, “All the items in the Luoyang Palace have been registered and cataloged. Since Consort Jieyu is filial, she can ask the Emperor for them when she returns to Chang’an.”

Consort Zhang's face turned cold. "Why bother the Emperor with such a trivial matter? You can simply remove this screen from the register."

"Jieyu, a copy of the roster has been sent to Chang'an."

"Hmph!" Zhang Jieyu said discontentedly.

Li Yi accompanied them on a tour of the palace, and Consort Yin invited Li Yi to have tea.

"Before I came here, His Majesty issued an edict granting the Minister of Works another fifty qing of land in Henan, and also granting fifty qing of land each to my family and the Zhang family. The land will be selected from fertile fields in the Heluo region. This matter will still require the Minister of Works' help."

Li Yi was amazed by the two men's large appetites and also marveled at Li Yuan's generosity.

When his two favorite concubines asked for 5,000 mu of land, the emperor readily agreed and even gave them another 5,000 mu.

Did Li Yuan truly not care at all about the powerful and wealthy annexing land?
"I will make arrangements tomorrow," Li Yi replied.

Consort Yin summoned the palace lady-in-waiting and asked for the roster of palace servants. As she flipped through it, she said, "When I came, His Majesty instructed that ten palace servants be bestowed upon the Minister of Works."

Li Yi stood to the side, watching Consort Yin and Consort Zhang discuss the selection of people in front of him.

"Only those from prestigious families are worthy of the Minister of Works."

“Yuan Wendu’s granddaughter is acceptable; the Yuan family of Luoyang is also a member of the Northern Wei imperial family.”

"This eldest grandson Anshi's daughter is also acceptable,"

“I remember that Changsun Anshi is the son of the Qin Princess’s uncle?” Zhang Jieyu asked.

Li Yi replied from the side, "Changsun Anshi's father was Changsun Chi, the former Minister of Civil Affairs of the previous dynasty. Changsun Chi and Changsun Sheng, the father of the Princess of Qin, were brothers."

Consort Yin said, "That Prince Qin is really heartless. He didn't even protect his wife's cousin and just watched him be executed."

Changsun Anshi was Wang Shichong's Grand Secretary. After the city fell, he was taken to Chang'an and executed at the age of fifty-one.

Li Shimin did help, but An Shi was someone the emperor specifically wanted to kill. However, An Shi's sons, Changsun Jiaqing and Changsun Xiang, received Li Shimin's protection.

Li Yi had no idea that Changsun Anshi had a daughter in the Luoyang Palace.

The two of them were oblivious to everyone else as they were choosing their partners: Yuan, Changsun, Lu, Duan, and Yun. Then they picked Yang, Wang, Wei, Zheng, and Pei.

The ten palace maids all came from prestigious families.

These ten people were either originally members of the Sui imperial family or Wang Shichong's imperial family, or, like the Yuan, Lu, and Pei families, were implicated because their families' plot to assassinate Wang Shichong failed.

Some were from prestigious families and were selected by Wang Shichong to enter the palace.

In the Luoyang Palace, there were actually many women from noble families, both guilty and innocent.

The fact that Consorts Yin and Zhang specially selected ten women from prestigious families for Li Yi is clearly a deliberate attempt to curry favor.

"Bring these ten women to the Minister of Works for inspection. If the Minister of Works is not satisfied with any of them, they can be replaced immediately." When the ten young palace maids from noble families were brought up, looking at the row of women in pale yellow dresses, Li Yi suddenly felt a sense of disorientation, as if he had returned to another time and space, to a scene from a time when he went out for entertainment with his friends.

Both the slender and the plump are beautiful in their own way.

They were once daughters of prominent families, but now they have been reduced to being chosen by others.

"Is Sikong satisfied?"

Li Yi didn't choose; it was an imperial gift, so it wasn't appropriate to pick and choose. Besides, Yin Zhang had specifically chosen one for him.

"Since Sikong is satisfied, let's take him back directly."

Li Yi signed the document and brought the ten men back to the governor's office.

Seeing the uneasy and nervous women, Li Yi temporarily settled them in the back office, saying, "You can write a letter to your family first."

Several people wept upon hearing the sound, saying they had no family left. Upon inquiry, it was discovered that these people included the granddaughters of Yuan Wendu and Lu Chu, as well as the daughter of Pei Renji. All of them had lost their grandfathers, fathers, and brothers to Wang Shichong.

"You can also write letters to your relatives."

After settling in temporarily, Li Yi left.

the next morning,
Lu Chengqing reported, "Minister, the two consorts sent people to forcibly break into the sealed treasury and randomly pick out precious items."

Li Yi was having breakfast: boiled eggs with mutton soup, steamed buns, and spicy and sour shredded radish—it was quite appetizing.

"No need to rush. Everything has been registered and a copy has been sent to Chang'an. We can just count and record what they took later."

"Aren't you going to stop it?"

Li Yi smiled. They insisted on taking it; how could he stop them? After all, the other party was the emperor's favorite woman.

"Don't confront them directly. They can have whatever they want inside the palace, but they absolutely cannot take anything outside the Ziwei Palace, especially not their fathers and brothers who came with them."

The things in the palace belong to the emperor.
However, the items in the Luoyang treasury belong to the local area.

He ordered a bowl of mutton soup for Lu Chengqing and said, "Forget about those trivial matters for now. Go find Dai Zhou later and get the 5,000 mu of land for the two concubines settled first. Get things done as soon as possible so they can go back home sooner."

After finishing his mutton soup, Lu Chengqing wiped his mouth and went to take care of his business.

In the afternoon, Lu Chengqing returned, accompanied by an official in a green robe.

"Sikong, something has happened."

Li Yi looked up and asked, "Why does Military Advisor Liu still have injuries on his face? Did he fall off his horse?"

Liu Rengui, the military advisor of the Luozhou General Administration, said angrily, "This injury was inflicted by Consort Yin's father, Yin Ashu, with a horsewhip."

"Why?"

Lu Chengqing explained the whole story from the side. He asked Dai Zhou to allocate land to the two concubines' families, and Liu Rengui also went to help. As a result, the two concubines' fathers were very dissatisfied with the land allocated to them, especially Yin Ashu.

Liu Rengui argued a few words, and Yin Ashu then whipped him.

Seeing Liu Rengui's aggrieved and angry expression, Li Yi couldn't help but frown.

Liu Rengui was born into the Liu family of Weishi. His family was poor from a young age, but he loved to study. Even during the chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty, he would often write and draw on the ground to study diligently in his spare time.

Although he was only twenty years old at the time, he was already quite famous. He had previously been recruited as an official by Ren Gui, the governor of Guzhou. Later, he saw a draft of a memorial by Ren Gui discussing state affairs and helped revise it. Ren Gui was greatly surprised and appointed him as a military advisor.

After that, he often drafted memorials and official documents for Ren Gui. When Ren Gui was transferred to the position of Governor of Anzhou, Li Yi specially kept Liu Rengui and transferred him to the position of Granary Officer of the Governor of Luozhou.

He was a seventh-rank official, yet he was whipped.

"If it weren't for Dai Gong and me desperately stopping him and dragging him back, Liu Cangcao would have drawn his sword to kill Yin Ashu." Lu Chengqing still felt a chill when he thought about it. This Liu Rengui was really bold. Although he managed to stop Yin Ashu and didn't manage to kill him, he did injure his horse.

The father of Consort De, is he someone who can be killed indiscriminately?

Liu Rengui said, "Yin Ashu is so arrogant and domineering because his daughter is Consort De. It is not wrong for me to kill him."

"You have to be mindful of the methods and approaches when doing things; you can't just act recklessly."

Seeing his condition, Li Yi sent him to Xuzhou on official business to avoid further conflict with Yin Ashu. Li Yi admired his abilities and didn't want anything to happen to him.

After calming the two down,
Li Yi went to pay his respects to the two consorts.

Upon meeting, Consort Yin's father immediately launched a counterattack, "Minister Li, your men are so incompetent! You ordered them to measure and divide the land, and the result is fifty qing of land scattered across various prefectures in Henan. The largest plot is only five hundred mu, and the smallest is only one hundred mu. They're so fragmented, and none of them are near Luoyang!"

Is this deliberate bullying? Or are these damned guys trying to extort money from me?

Consort Yin, holding the cat, asked calmly, "Does the Minister have any complaints about me?"

"Consort De and Lord Yin misunderstood each other. They were both acting in accordance with the law. After the court captured Luoyang, it rewarded the meritorious officials and soldiers, distributing a lot of land. Then it implemented the equal land distribution system."

Most of the fields around Luoyang already had owners, leaving only some scattered plots and some less productive land.

When Dai Canjun and his men were allocating land, they chose plots from surrounding prefectures, prioritizing fertile and large tracts. Yin Gong also mentioned that the smallest plots were at least 100 mu (approximately 6.7 hectares), and the largest were 500 mu (approximately 33 hectares).

Yin Ashu was not satisfied with this explanation, and Consort Yin was also unhappy.

Yin Ashu took out a map and pointed to the banks of the Gu River to the west of Luoyang, saying, "I have my eye on the fields here. Li Sikong, just give me fifty hectares of land."

Li Yi glanced at the map and shook his head.

Yin Ashu sneered, "Is Sikong disrespecting me?"

"No, if I remember correctly, this land should be under the name of the Prince of Huai'an."

Yin Ashu angrily retorted, "Why can Li Shou own this land, but I can't?"

“This land was bestowed upon the Prince of Huai’an by the King of Qin,” Li Yi said.

(End of this chapter)