Super Hero Monk: Hormones Journey to the West

Chapter 45 South-to-North Water Diversion
Li Shimin, holding a knife, walked through the numerous palaces and pavilions, and only slowed down his pace when he reached the more private daily office in the inner palace.

"Where is Tang Xuanci?" he asked.

Gao Huitong, who was standing by a palace wall, replied:
"In the hall with the 'steam train track' and the 'South-to-North Water Diversion Project Sand Table'."

Li Shimin stopped, looked back at the two people following him, threw the knife with his backhand, and with the cooperation of the commander of the imperial guards, he returned it to the sheath accurately.

The chief eunuch followed his instructions, took out a "He Tian Xia" incense stick specially presented as tribute to the royal family, and handed it to him, lighting it with a fire stick he carried with him.

Li Shimin stood in the shade of the wall and smoked a cigarette silently, then walked towards the hall that Gao Huitong mentioned.

There was a "clang clang" sound coming from the hall, and before he stepped over the threshold, he smelled a smell of coal smoke.

When I went in, I saw a miniature steam locomotive that had already started moving, circling the spacious hall at a snail's pace on the rails.

Tang Xuanci sat on the only half row of seats up there, like a child inserting coins to ride a Thomas the Tank Engine.

When he turned towards Li Shimin, he smiled heartily, patted the chair next to him, and invited Li Shimin to come up and sit with him.

Seeing this, the eunuch next to him laughed, not knowing whether he really couldn't hold it back or was deliberately trying to ease the atmosphere.

Li Shimin glared at the eunuch, then said to Tang Xuanci:
"Get off me! How dare you assault the Junior Master in front of all the officials and me? Are you planning a rebellion?"

Tang Xuanci jumped off the train and came over and said:

"Didn't you pass on the message outside Taiji Hall, asking me to get more emotional? That's not your man?"

Li Shimin was speechless.

He was the one who arranged for the eunuch to make Tang Xuanci a little emotional, hoping to take the opportunity to take him out for a private talk and then make a big deal out of a small matter.

All the groups still underestimated Li Shimin.

First, he greatly underestimated the treasure he had unearthed from his younger brother.

In fact, he kept many things secret, such as trains, railways, salt refining, water conservancy technology... The measures to keep them confidential were very strict.

With these powerful weapons in hand, dealing with various interest groups is simply a dimensionality reduction attack.

Therefore, the weight of that thousand-year-old family in his heart was actually greatly reduced, while Tang Xuanci's weight was a million times heavier than outsiders imagined.

Second, they underestimated Li Shimin's ability to play political games.

The degree to which Li Shimin feared Tang Xuanci was far beyond what outsiders imagined.

Because of this, he began to take precautions from the first day he met Tang Xuanci.

There are only three types of things that can threaten imperial power: external invasion, peasant uprising, and rebellion by powerful people.

External invasion is not a problem for the current Tang Dynasty at all, as long as Tang Xuanci is not allowed to go abroad.

Peasant uprisings usually only occur in times of dire straits. As long as the people can have enough food and clothing, there will be no soil for uprisings to grow.

Tang Xuanci's science and technology helped Li Shimin reduce the uncontrollable risk of natural disasters causing mobs.

In such an environment, no matter how high his reputation among the people is, it is impossible for him to get everyone to respond and rise up.

Therefore, the focus of Li Shimin's prevention was to prevent Tang Xuanci from colluding with the powerful groups.

So, he took advantage of Tang Xuanci's eccentric and violent temperament and secretly carried out many outrageous operations, causing Tang Xuanci to offend the aristocratic families, the prince's party, the Qingliu party, and even the foreign relatives group headed by Empress Zhangsun.

I have to say, seeing that these groups were eager to kill Tang Xuanci, and even the prince's party and Cui family, who had always been at odds with each other, could join forces to deal with the emperor's younger brother, Li Shimin, as an elder brother, was very pleased.

The only drawback is that your younger brother was a little too reckless. The trouble he caused this time was beyond his ability to bear, which gave him a headache.

"I only told you to get emotional, not to hit anyone! Now all the officials in the court must punish you severely according to the law. Can you bear these charges?"

Li Shimin said in a bad mood, and when he heard the noise of the train, he frowned and said:

"Turn off the steam engine and get everyone else out."

The chief eunuch agreed and hurried off to give orders.

Tang Xuanci said indifferently:

"Well, I just slapped him, but he didn't die."

"You've been mad at that young master for a long time, and you even cursed him while smoking once. I'm just here to help you vent your anger.

"And those damned aristocratic families don't even take our Longxi Li family seriously.

"I think we should just kill them, and get rid of those whining scholars too. Then we should include math, physics, and chemistry in the imperial examinations, with a full score of 750, and admit the best candidates.

"Believe it or not, the people of the world will absolutely applaud and approve, praising your wisdom and bravery."

Li Shimin frowned, stepped over the railroad sleepers, and came to a huge sand table. He looked at the territory of the Tang Dynasty on it and said:
"You must know that it is not the people but them who rule the world with me, you and me." Governing a big country is like cooking a small fish. It is better to simmer it slowly over low heat than to boil it over high heat.

"It is impossible to abolish Confucianism, so don't mention it again.

"Now, let's talk about your business first~"

Turning around and looking at him, he said:

"Since you have caused such a great disaster, I must remove you from your post.

"Hand over the affairs of the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War, and return home to recuperate for a while. I will have the imperial physician declare that you have contracted a disease called hyperactivity of yang."

When Tang Xuanci heard this, he immediately said unhappily:

"Second brother, are you dismissing me from my position because of such a small matter? Wouldn't that be very embarrassing for me?"

"Is your offense a minor one?"

Li Shimin said angrily:

"Just dismissing you from your post is already protecting you. I don't know how to calm the public anger now.

"By the way, those evil slaves from last night must be handed over to the Jinwu Guards for punishment. The eight who committed murder will be sentenced to death, the fifty-six who injured others will be sentenced to prison, and the rest will be sentenced to imprisonment.

"There are also muskets, one hundred of them, hand them all over to me!"

Tang Xuanci understood the hint about the black slaves.

The number of people has been decided, so all we have to do is get enough of them.

Anyway, in the eyes of the Tang people, all black people look basically the same, so it’s no big deal to pay a lot of money to find some old, weak, sick and disabled slaves to take the blame.

But with a hundred guns, he couldn't help but quibble about them.

"Why are there another hundred guns? I brought over seventy yesterday. I'd be a dog to lie to you."

"Hmph, in this past year or so, you've brought home at least a hundred or twenty or thirteen. Don't think I can't estimate. You must hand over a hundred by tonight, not a single one less."

"Okay, sure. You're the boss and you have the final say. Okay?"

Tang Xuanci angrily took off his official hat and purple robe, threw them on the ground, and said:

"Bye, I'm going home to recuperate."

Li Shimin felt helpless seeing him like this, so he softened his tone and said, "Wait a moment, smoke a cigarette with me before you leave."

As he said this, he called the chief eunuch and lit two more cigarettes of Hetianxia.

Li Shimin puffed out smoke and asked slowly:

"Last night's vision was truly astonishing. My dear brother, what do you think caused it?"

Tang Xuanci knew that although Li Shimin was an emperor, he was just an ant with very limited knowledge. It would be hard for him to believe that he could achieve immortality or become an immortal or a Buddha by obtaining scriptures and preaching.

Moreover, the representatives of the Buddhist and Taoist societies usually came to him in secret and it was impossible for them to admit this to the emperor.

So he pretended to be stupid and asked, "You don't really think I'm so heartless that I'm going to be struck by lightning, do you?"

Li Shimin chuckled and naturally would not believe this statement, otherwise he would have been struck by lightning long ago.

He turned his gaze to the sand table again, looking at the rivers and canals painted with multi-colored paint, and said:
"This South-to-North Water Diversion Project is truly a far-sighted and ambitious project."

"But there are Dragon Kings in the rivers and mountain gods in the mountains. Mountains and rivers are the energy veins of heaven and earth, and rain and dew are gifts from heaven. If we arbitrarily change them, I'm afraid we will anger the Heavenly Court.

"If you think about it carefully, the excavation of the Grand Canal by the previous emperor who lost his country might have been the root cause of his downfall."

Ah this?

Tang Xuanci was a little speechless, knowing that this guy had linked basketball and chicken together. He suspected that last night's vision was related to the sand table that had just been repaired in front of him.

However, according to his way of thinking, it does make sense.

With just one move, "rain", the Heavenly Court can control the mortal world for thousands of years, making countless people pray to the gods and burn incense.

Wouldn't solving the problem of uneven distribution of water resources be equivalent to destroying their jobs?
He knew that fighting against the gods now was like hitting a rock with an egg.

The South-to-North Water Diversion Project was just a replica of the "East-to-West Water Diversion" project on the mother planet when he asked AI to design the land transportation network. It would take decades to complete it with current technology.

So, he didn't think too much and said:
"What Second Brother said makes a lot of sense. Let's not bother with the water. Let's first focus our manpower and resources to build the most cost-effective railway."

(End of this chapter)