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

Chapter 414 Trouble Starts in the Harem
Li Yuan looked at the booklet presented by Lu Kuan.
After Lu Kuan inventoried the treasures that Consorts Yin and Zhang brought back from Luoyang Palace in the Eastern Capital, the count did not match the number reported by Li Yi; quite a few items were missing.

"Ah."

The emperor nodded, indicating that he understood.

Consorts Yin and Zhang secretly took a lot of precious items and valuables; let them take them.

Li Yuan also had the Ministry of Personnel formally appoint Yin Defei and Zhang Jieyu's father as fifth-rank chief secretaries of the Cao and Yan General Administration Offices, as Li Yi had arranged for them to do so.

"Tonight, I summon Consort Yin to my bedchamber," the emperor said to the eunuch, turning over Consort Yin's scroll.

Consort Yin was playing with her son, Prince Feng Yuanheng, in the palace. The eighth prince was chubby and very cute, and he looked more like his mother. He was very handsome.

When the eunuch came to deliver the imperial decree, Consort Yin was overjoyed. She handed her son to her wet nurse and hurried off to take a bath.

"The Sixth Prince's tutor, Lady Xu, is Li Yi's sworn sister. Although she lost her mother early, she is now the Emperor's favorite among all the young princes. Do you think this is because of Lady Xu and Li Yi?"

Queen Dowager Yin sat in the bath, her maidservants washing her.
Her skin was like solidified cream, her complexion like snow, both white and delicate.

The sixth prince, Prince Zhao, Li Yuanjing, was born to Mo Lifang, the daughter of Mo Xiaogong, the prefect of Gaotang during the Sui Dynasty. Mo Lifang was a woman from Jiangnan, beautiful and gentle, skilled in needlework and fond of calligraphy. Unfortunately, she died shortly after giving birth to the prince in the first year of the Wude era. The emperor posthumously conferred upon her the title of Consort Gui, leaving behind the young Yuanjing.

The emperor did not entrust the sixth prince to other concubines for upbringing, but instead continued to raise him under the care of Lady Xu, the wife of the tutor Chongyi.

This motherless child, ironically, received a special kind of favor from the emperor.

Consort Yin felt that this must be because of Xu Xiuzhi. Xu Xiuzhi was originally just a female slave in Li Yi’s household. Later, she was captured when the Qiang soldiers rebelled. As a result, she killed the Qiang leader and was granted the title of Lady Chongyi. She was also selected as the tutor of the sixth prince.

After Mo Lifang's death, the emperor entrusted the sixth prince to Lady Xu for upbringing.

During this trip to Luoyang, Consort Yin gained a clearer understanding of Li Yi: he had a great reputation, strong abilities, and most importantly, he was a flexible and adaptable person.

It would be excellent to cultivate a closer relationship with Li Yi, as it would provide support for his son Yuanheng in the future. However, directly abducting Xu Shi to be Yuanheng's bodyguard was unlikely. "I wonder if Li Yi has any other women like Xu Shi in his household?"

A palace maid said, "I heard that Consort Teng, a concubine of Minister Li, was given to him by His Majesty after she was taken into the inner palace. She was favored by Minister Li and gave birth to twins. The son was granted the title of Duke of Rongguo and the daughter was granted the title of County Princess."

Consort Yin had also met that Lady Ji. The Ji family of Luoyang was once very prominent in the previous dynasty. Lady Ji's status would be good enough to be the tutor of the Eighth Prince, but it is estimated that Li Yi would not agree, after all, she had given birth to a son and a daughter for Li Yi, and the son was the eldest son.

Another palace maid offered a suggestion: "Previously, Dugu Huaien was executed for treason, and his family was also implicated. All the women in his family were given to Li Yi as a reward."
Perhaps one or two of the women from the Dugu family could be chosen to serve as tutors to the Eighth Prince.

The women of the Dugu family are naturally of extraordinary background and must have been educated. Now that they are in Li Yi's household, if they can become tutors to the Eighth Prince, Consort Yin and her son will have multiple connections with Li Yi.

night,
After bathing and infusing herself with incense, Consort Yin, dressed meticulously, went to the Emperor's bedchamber to serve him.

After a lot of hard work,

Li Yuan lay there contentedly, panting heavily. After all, he was getting old, and his health was deteriorating due to his daily toil for the country.

However, Li Yuan was pleased with Consort Yin's reaction, which made him feel that she was still young.

"Your Majesty is so valiant, I am almost broken."

"Haha, things aren't what they used to be."

Back in the day, Li Yuan could have two wives, Consort Yin and Consort Zhang, but now he can barely handle even one-on-one.

Consort Yin lowered her head and gently cleaned the emperor.

The emperor became increasingly satisfied.

"Your Majesty, this trip to Luoyang has truly broadened my horizons,"

Taking advantage of the emperor's good mood, Consort Yin nestled in his arms and began to talk about her trip to Luoyang. She praised Li Yi's governance, saying that Luoyang was very stable and everything was recovering in an orderly manner.

Li Yimei said a lot.

"However, the hundred acres of land that His Majesty ordered to be bestowed upon me and Consort Zhang's father and brothers could not be fulfilled this time."

Li Yuan stroked that smooth back, "What's going on? Li Yi won't do it for you."

"No, but the land we wanted was snatched away by the Prince of Huai'an."

"Huh?" Li Yuan exclaimed in surprise, "Shen Tong has the guts to do that?"

“The Prince of Huai’an is very bold, he doesn’t take us seriously at all. We produced His Majesty’s edict, but Li Shentong used the Prince of Qin’s teachings and refused to give us the land.”

"Your Majesty, is an imperial edict less effective than a teaching from the Prince of Qin?" Consort Yin shook the emperor's arm.

One sentence made Li Yuan's expression change.

the next morning,
Li Yuan then summoned Li Shimin.

Li Shimin, who was preparing to set out on an expedition, rushed back from the military camp outside the city to the palace to meet the emperor.

Upon meeting the emperor, he was met with a severe scolding.

"Is my handwritten edict inferior to your instruction?"

Li Shimin had anticipated this turn of events. Li Shentong and Li Yi had both spoken to him about how Consorts Yin and Zhang were trying to seize land from meritorious officials in Luoyang.

"Your Majesty, there is a misunderstanding. After the pacification of Luoyang, Father Emperor urgently summoned the soldiers to the north to fight against the Turks. The soldiers complained quite a bit. In order to appease the army and boost morale, I used the special privileges granted to me by Your Majesty..."
The soldiers were granted land and rewards in Henan.
The Prince of Huai'an was also granted some land, and his family later purchased some more.

Consort Yin and Consort Zhang did not arrive in Luoyang until February. They coveted the lands belonging to meritorious officials such as Li Shentong, and presented an imperial edict. Li Yi, the governor of Luozhou, was also willing to grant them the lands they were entitled to.
But they want the land held by Shen Tong and the others; isn't that tantamount to seizing land granted to meritorious officials?

Li Yuan remained expressionless after hearing this.

"Li Shentong and his gang dare to disregard my imperial edict just because they have your Qin King Cult in their hands. My imperial edict is no longer as effective as your Qin King Cult?"

Li Shimin bowed his head.
"Your Majesty has misunderstood me. I would never dare to have such an intention, nor would the meritorious officials and soldiers. I am willing to take out one hundred hectares of the fertile land in Henan that Your Majesty has bestowed upon me and give them to the Yin and Zhang families respectively."

Li Yuan said coldly, "You mean you want to take back the land I bestowed upon you? I have no such intention. I will make my own arrangements for the land given to the Yin and Zhang families."

The emperor waved his hand, signaling Li Shimin to step down.

Li Shimin walked out of the palace, his face not looking too good. Today, the emperor said on the surface that the land grant dispute was the main issue, but the key issue was that Li Shentong had the Qin Prince's edict and was using the Qin Prince's edict as a pretext to ignore the matter of Consort Zhang's handwritten edict.

Although the imperial edict only mentioned granting land, it didn't specify that it was to Li Shentong.

However, in the emperor's eyes, this was still a loss of imperial authority, or rather, a loss of authority caused by his son, the Prince of Qin. This matter could be considered a big deal or a small one.

Nowadays,

This is a warning.

After dismissing Li Shimin, Li Yuan summoned his old friend Pei Ji and lamented to him, "This boy has been in command of the army for a long time and has been corrupted by scholars. He is no longer the same as before."

Li Yuan blamed all of this on the officials of the Prince of Qin's Mansion and the Shaanxi East Circuit, believing that they had corrupted Li Shimin.

Pei Ji added fuel to the fire.

"The King of Huai'an relies on the King of Qin. If the King of Huai'an does not take the two consorts Yin and Zhang seriously, then he is deceiving the emperor."

"After the Battle of Luoyang, the King of Qin lavishly rewarded his generals and soldiers in Luoyang with silk, money, grain, land, and slaves. The meritorious generals and soldiers only knew that the rewards were given by the King of Qin and did not know that they were from the state."

Li Yuan's expression grew increasingly grim.

"If the King of Qin achieves great merit in conquering Hebei, he will likely become even more difficult to control, and his subordinates and generals will become increasingly arrogant."

"Why not let the Crown Prince lead the army, with Li Yi as his deputy?" Pei Ji suggested.

Li Yuan simply sighed.

If the Crown Prince could truly shoulder this heavy responsibility, he wouldn't have used the Prince of Qin. Using the Crown Prince would be worse than using Li Yi. However, the Emperor couldn't trust his own son, the Prince of Qin, so he couldn't be completely unguarded against Li Yi either.

Li Yi is indeed loyal now, but as an emperor, one cannot allow only one person to achieve merit.

"Let's finish this battle first."

The emperor finally made up his mind that after this war, he would completely retire Erlang and no longer give him command of troops.

Sending Jiancheng to fight Liu Xiancheng this time was also giving him another chance to see if the Crown Prince could make progress in military affairs. He even had expectations for his fourth son, Yuanji, hoping that he could grow by fighting alongside Li Shimin.

The world cannot rely solely on Shimin.

However, this battle was too important, and Li Yuan did not trust anyone else. He had to be absolutely certain of success, and he had to act quickly.

···
Luoyang

The emperor's decree arrived.

Li Yuan agreed to Li Yi's request to merge the nine prefectures of Luozhou General Administration into six more prefectures: Gu, Xiong, Yi, Xiong, Song, and Guan. However, he rejected the proposal to also merge Huaizhou General Administration into Luozhou.

The Luozhou General Administration governed the three prefectures of Luo, Ru, and Zheng, and Luozhou itself comprised twenty counties.

Li Fengci, the Prince of Bohai, was transferred to serve as the Prefect of Ruzhou, and Li Boyi, the Prince of Longxi, was transferred to serve as the Prefect of Zhengzhou.

Li Yi was quite welcoming to the two royal brothers. They weren't particularly capable, but they were self-aware. Although they enjoyed luxury, they were already very wealthy and didn't bother with corruption. Since they didn't have much ability, they didn't make decisions on their own and left the specific tasks to their subordinates.

Such officials seem unqualified, but for Li Yi, it was still good that these two subordinate governors could completely follow his policies.

Huo Yu also returned from Chang'an.

"Why are you back again?"

"miss you."

Upon meeting, Huo Yu immediately dragged Li Yi to take a bath together, and then pushed him down in the bathroom.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and Li Yi never expected her to be so wild and passionate.

"Back in Chang'an, although there were luxurious mansions and gardens, I always felt something was missing. Drinking tea, arranging flowers, and burning incense with those noble ladies was too tiring and not interesting at all."
I've realized that I can't live without you now.

I missed you so much that I came back to Luoyang. This time, I won't be going back anytime soon; I've also bought a house and land in Luoyang.

Huo Yu has also become clingy.

Li Yi remained nonchalant, saying, "Fine, stay wherever you're comfortable."

"A lively event has recently occurred in Chang'an."

Consort Yin's younger brother beat up Li Shentong's son, and quite badly at that. Consort Yin's brother then approached Li Shentong's son and challenged him to a polo match.

As a result, the polo match turned into a fight. Both sides fought each other on the field instead of the ball. Yin Fei's brother came prepared, but Li Shentong's son really thought it was a polo match. As a result, Li Shentong's team was beaten black and blue, and Li Shentong's son almost had his leg broken.

But afterwards, everything was calm and there was no further disturbance.

Li Shentong did not pursue the matter, the Yin family did not say a word, and even the emperor did not speak, as if nothing had happened. Only the Prince of Jiaoxi, Li Xiaoyi, lay at home recuperating from his injuries, not daring to leave the house.

Li Yi was surprised by this matter; it seemed to be a follow-up to the previous land dispute. The Yin family was indeed quite arrogant; the younger brother of Consort De dared to attack the emperor's nephew, a prince. The subsequent reactions to this incident were also worth pondering.

Logically speaking, Li Shentong should have lost face this time, but he did not back down. When Consort Yin wanted his 5,000 mu of land, he did not give it up, neither giving it away nor selling it nor exchanging it, and he ignored her.

(End of this chapter)