Living leisurely in Tang Dynasty

Didn’t I just replied to his letter? Why is there another letter? I’m so busy. Just taking care of one county is such hard work, how can brother who take care of the whole country be so free? (Yuanying thought to himself)

Although he thought so, he still quickly invited the men in. Yuanying read through the Emperor’s letter and was happy. He then shared the letter with the rest of his friends.

The servant who was tasked with sending this letter found the young prince wild. He asked others to come read the Emperor’s letter in broad daylight with no fear of the Emperor finding out! Of course, everyone knows about the peculiar relationship between these brothers so the best thing to do is to pretend to be ignorant.

The content of the letter is Li Er’s warning to his younger brother about the consequences of his actions. Next time, take caution about your action. If you find something fishy, report it upwards so that the right department can action on it; do not go around snooping for evidence. Now everyone thinks that both brothers are tricking the world. The main message in the letter is – you might be shameless, but I still want dignity.

Yuanying passed the letter around for all his friends to read while he wrote a reply to it. His initial letter has already sung so much praises that he can’t think of any more now. Let’s just ignore the rumors outside, if they avoid us let it be, it’s not like I want to be friends with them. At the end of his letter Yuanying subtly asked – I’m so busy taking care of 1 county, why are you so free? Is it because you are familiar after working for so long?

Yuanying finished up his letter and told the men to send it back to the Emperor.

After reading the Emperor’s reply the group had a meeting behind closed doors. The topic centered around the Emperor’s words. Although they only wanted justice for Wu Zhiyuan, the consequences affected all 24 heroes and even wipeout the entire county’s officials. The posts at a county were normally held by experience workers that is 5^th rank and above through recommendation.  

The recommender will also get into trouble if the candidate is not good enough. Moreover, the imperial court is closely connected, if you punish 1 person, it will offend many. This matter looks like it had a happy ending but in reality brought much trouble to Li Yuanying and his future.

“I’m not afraid. If I do not have the intention to stage a coup, what can people do?” Yuanying confidently expressed his thoughts. It’s not like they can hide the Emperor’s cape under my bed and put weapons in my warehouse and accuse me of rebelling. Even if they do that, my brother wouldn’t believe it. It’s just a waste of time!

Wu Mei and Di Renjie looked at each other and think that Li Yuanying trust his brother way too much. It’s just that both couldn’t decipher the Emperor’s intention behind the letter. It can’t be just 2 brothers talking casually?

Yuanying had a bold guess. “Will brother now follow the trend and throw me overseas? If he really does so it’ll be great, I can travel all around and visit many places in Tang!”  

“Even if his Majesty intends to do so, you need to show results here first.” (Wei Shu)

“Then let’s sleep late tonight. Let’s figure out what can be improved in this County. After our recruitment drive tomorrow, we can delegate out the assignments.” (Li Yuanying)

Everyone the got busy preparing as there would be a big meeting tonight to discuss improvement plan for Hu County.

While Li Yuanying and his team was busy, the Emperor received his reply. 2 letters within the same day, it’s a little too frequent for others but not for Li Er. After dinner, he instructed that the letter be brought to him.

Li Yuanying’s initial reply was to the Emperor’s expectation. That’s right, when have my little brother been afraid of gossip? He was the little demon king since young, now that he is older the most we can do is remove “little” and make him a real demon king! When Li Er saw the 2^nd part of the letter, he turned gloomy.

How dare this brat find him annoying and ask if he’s too free?!

He is the ruler of a country, how can he be free? It’s just that the incident in Hu County created a mess and he needed to send instructions to deal with it. How did that become “too free”? Li Er immediately told someone to take the letter away, such an eyesore.

Since he was now in a bad mood, he did not visit his harem but instead summon for his ministers. He wants to have a meeting until dawn, if he doesn’t then he will be the loser!

And so, both brothers had meeting until late at night. One takes care of a county and the other the whole country.

Dai Ting’s trip to the Tibetan Empire did not follow official route but he took his group and open up a new route and visited many foreign tribes along the way. He returned to Chang’an with much success. At the very least he brought back enough manpower for Hu County! He also invited back horse breeding experts who were oppressed by Lu Dongzan and willingly followed Dai Ting back to Tang in hopes that the Tang Emperor will attack their enemy in the future and win back their lands!

Li Yuanying left the administration of the County to Wu Mei while he happily listen to Dai Ting’s stories. Hearing the unfortunate circumstances of these foreign tribes, he felt pity and wanted to meet them.

As he went to where the foreign tribes were residing, he was approachable and told them not to worry about salutation. He spoke with an old man with Dai Ting’s help in translating. Firstly he sympathizes with their oppression and the need to be displaced at such an old age. Then he sighed about the cruelty of this world, only when you are strong would others not dare to bully you. Lastly he told them to rear horses in Tang. It doesn’t matter that they have lost their grasslands, for every 10 get horses they rear for Tang, he will gift 1 horse to them. This way, their warriors will have horses to win their homeland back!

Li Yuanying spoke with much sincerity, although Dai Ting’s translation had not much emotions in it, the foreign tribe were touched to tears by his words and thank him and the Tang Empire for their help and generosity.

After that, Yuanying spoke to Dai Ting about their harvest. Dai Ting travelled north and found a new type of gourd that is big and round. Unfortunately, it was not harvesting time and so he brought back seeds and a few plants and it seems that they have survived the journey.

Yuanying had not tried this gourd so he asked: “Is it sweet? Is it delicious?”

“I heard that it is red and juicy. Once you slice it open you can eat the whole thing and is sweeter than sweet melon.”

Yuanying managed to taste sweet melon at Wu family village and it was delicious.

“We have already cultivated medicinal herbs at Sunflower Garden, we should grow these gourds at Hu County.”

Dai Ting nodded.

Yuanying went looking for his friends to show them his new plant. None of them had seen anything like this and so everyone was excited. The plants had a long journey and looked dull but after Dong Xiaoyi’s care they are starting to look healthy again and its roots started growing outwards.

Yuanying carefully inspected the plant and found some buds! This gourd is a tough one, even the long hazardous journey did not stop it from growing fruits.

Seeing his friends fascinated by the plant, Yuanying thinks that the world is so big and exciting with many things!

“Dai Ting said that the gourd can grow to this big.”

Wei Shu and the girls did not believe him. After all, now the fruit was only as big as their tiny thumb, how can it grow so much bigger?!”

“You’ll find out after it is fully grown.” (Li Yuanying)

He told Dong Xiaoyi to look for a farm to grow these seedlings. If they could be successfully planted and had good taste then they would be of great use. As for the farm let’s pick somewhere between Wu family village and Taihe Palace. Since money is never an issue, let’s just buy the land. If they were able to plant delicious melons previously, our melons should be delicious too!

As for horse raising, Yuanying wrote to the Emperor and requested to loan an empty pasture in Taihe Palace. If he manage to bred high quality horses he would gift them all to the country. If his older brother wants to go hunting, he can also help to refurbish the palace. Yuanying then focus on writing convincingly about how worn out Taihe palace is, it has not been up-kept for so long that even the tiles have been stolen. It’s in such a sorry state!  

As soon as the letter reached his Majesty, he was glaring at it with anger. Wei Zheng has been on his tail lately, ready to criticize him over everything. He even stopped him from building a small pavilion. How is he going to get money to fund the restoration of Taihe palace? He wrote an angry letter back, telling his younger brother to do it himself if he has that much money!

Yuanying ponder upon the reply for a long time and finally understood that brother is consenting to his request. Thinking back, brother had only a few palaces that he visit in rotation. When he got a new Xiangcheng Palace, it was built on a den of poisonous snakes and had to be abandoned. Yuanying felt that it was necessary to prepare a summer resort with fresh air and pleasant scenery for his older brother.

Yuanying immediately wrote to request for talented people. He asked for Yan Lide to help him with the design and to advise if he can make the place more interesting.

Li Er was also straightforward and didn’t give anything. He only requested for Yan Lide to visit Li Yuanying on his own. After all he has neither money nor manpower. If his younger brother is so capable, then let him do it as long as no one criticize them for wasting government funds!

Notes from the author:

The Emperor Li Er: I have no money. If you have money, you can do it!

Little Prince: Shameless!