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

Chapter 116: Secret Life Story

Du Shiniang held the painting and cried all the way back to Chang'an City.

She did not return to Du Qu, but returned to Du Ruhui's house in Anminfang, Chang'an City, with her eyes swollen from crying.

Du Ruhui heard it and hurried over.

"what happened?"

Du Shiniang just cried, and Shuying was filled with righteous indignation. She told the whole story and even recited the poem at the end.

"Don't worry about having no friends on the road ahead, everyone in the world knows you," Du Ruhui was surprised, this poem is very good.

The line “The willow fluff on the branches is blown away, and there is always beautiful grass everywhere in the world” is also very good.

But the rejection he expressed was indeed resolute. Could it be that it made his cousin so sad?

The sentence "I am the three-inch snow on the eaves, and you are a stunning guest in the world" seems to explain the reason for the rejection very clearly. They are people from two different worlds.

Shuying scolded Li Yi for being a heartless man. If he had no intention of marrying her, why did he provoke Shi Niang in the first place, and then abandon her now?

"Brother, I don't blame Li Lang." Du Shiniang sobbed, "He didn't deny our feelings. It was only because of his family background and his life experience that he backed off. Brother, I want to ask you for a favor."

"What's there to beg for between brothers and sisters? If you have something to say, just say it."

Du Shiniang turned to Shuying and said, "Shuying, go out for a while."

Shuying knew that he had something private to say, so he had to leave.

"Brother, I'd like you to help me find out which nobleman surnamed Li in Chang'an abandoned a baby in the second year of Renshou. The mother's surname was Zhang."

Du Ruhui frowned, "Li Yi's father's surname is Li and his mother's surname is Zhang?"

"Well, he said that when his master found him at the gate of Xuandu Temple in Chang'an, he had a jade pendant with the word 'Li' engraved on it. Later, his master also found out that his biological mother's surname was Zhang, and he was abandoned by the Li family."

"What other information do you know?"

"That's all I know. Can you help me find out which Li family Li Yi belongs to?"

"It's hard to find out. It's been sixteen years, and there are many noble families with the surname Li in Chang'an. For example, among the Eight Pillars of the Western Wei Dynasty, there are two with the surname Li. The current Emperor's family and the Li Mi family in Henan are all prosperous and famous families from the Western Wei Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
In addition, the three brothers of the Yuanzhou Li family, Li Mu, Li Xian and Li Yuan, were all Yuwen Tai's confidants, and were the most powerful among the Li family during the Sui Dynasty.

There are also the Li Duan and Li Jing families of the Longxi Li Danyang family, and the Li Jing and Li Yuantong families of the Longxi Tianshui family, all of which are prominent families among the Chang'an Li family.

This does not include the two Lis from Guandong.

The Two Lis of Guandong are the two Lis in the Five Surnames and Seven Clans. Among them, the Longxi Li is the descendant of Li Bao who lived in Zhengzhou, and the Zhaojun Li is the Li family who lived in Zhaojun, Hebei for generations.

Although the families of Li Yuan, Li Jing, Li Jing and others are also called Longxi Li, they are not among the five surnames and seven clans.

However, during the Sui Dynasty, many people from Shandong's five surnames and seven clans also lived and served as officials in Chang'an.

So if we really count, in the second year of Renshou in the Sui Dynasty, there must have been more than ten Li families in Chang'an who could be considered famous and prominent families, and there must have been many Li families at the prefecture and county level living in the capital.

"If the surname is Li, marrying Zhang should make it easier to find someone, right?"

"But Zhang is only Li Yi's biological mother, not necessarily the wife of Li Yi's father. If she is just a concubine, or even a maid, or a concubine from outside the palace, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack." Du Ruhui said, there was too little information to know where to start.

Du Shiniang proposed a method of elimination, first checking the three major Li families in Guanzhong, Li Hu, Li Bi, and Li Mu, as well as the two major families of Longxi Li and Zhaojun Li in Guandong, to see if there were any who married Zhang, and then check Zhang's concubines and maids.
After checking these five major families, check other families, such as Li Jing and Li Yuantong, Li Quan and Li Jing, Li Taozhi and Li Zixiong.

As long as you check carefully, you will always find it.

"Since Master Li Yi brought him to the Taoist temple back then, but they refused to acknowledge him, would they acknowledge him even if they found him again after sixteen years? I think what Li Yi said is somewhat possible. He must be an illegitimate child of a concubine, a maid, or a noble family. Otherwise, a newborn child would not be abandoned at the gate of a Taoist temple."

"It's more likely that he's an illegitimate child of a foreign woman."

Many aristocratic families had children with concubines or maids. Even if they were of low status, they were not thrown away.

If you just throw it away and don't want it even if someone picks it up and brings it to your door, that's a big problem.

Back in the day, when Li Jing, a high-ranking general of the Sui Dynasty, was serving as a soldier in the household of Yang Zhong, he had an affair with his slave, Hei Nu, and fathered a son, Li Yuantong. However, Li Jing disowned this son. Li Yuantong was raised by his mother as a slave, a son of a higher-ranking official in Yang Zhong's household, and remained a slave there. Later, he served Yang Jian and earned his admiration. Later, Yang Jian usurped the Zhou Dynasty and established the Sui Dynasty, where he rose through the ranks, rising to the rank of Pillar of the State, Duke of Wan'an County, and Minister of Punishment.

Even Li Yuan took the initiative to establish a close relationship with Li Yuantong and called him his uncle.

"I don't care if he's the son of a noble family, a concubine, a maidservant, or even an illegitimate child. I don't care if he's a Taoist priest who has returned to secular life. I don't care about those things.

I like him as a person.”

"What do you like about him?" Du Ruhui asked. "I like his coolness, his humor, his generosity, and his talent."

Du Ruhui was helpless. This cousin was really completely fascinated by Li Yi.

"Okay, I'll help you check, but there may be no results for a while."

"Li Yi's current attitude is to keep you at a distance. What are you going to do?"

"I won't give up. Even if Grandpa doesn't agree, even if my father doesn't agree, I will make my own decision just like Zhuo Wenjun."

"But the most important thing now is that Li Yi refused."

"He just said that he doesn't want to get married and have children within ten years, so I will wait for him for ten years. We can wait for a while before getting married or having children..."

Du Ru sighed secretly that this girl was finished, she was too deeply poisoned.

"I'll have a good chat with Li Yi when I'm free. You should also think carefully at home during this period of time about whether it's worth doing this."

"Erlang, there's a letter from Luoyang."

Du Shiniang took her leave and left.

Du Ruhui unfolded the letter, but his face turned pale after reading a few lines.

The letter was written by his third brother Chu Ke. He was very familiar with the handwriting, but he was shocked and couldn't believe the content.

Du Yan, his uncle and his father's half brother, actually attacked his relative.

Du Ruhui's elder brother, who was from the same mother as him, was hanged by Du Yan for colluding with foreign enemies and plotting treason. His third brother, Chu Ke, was also arrested and imprisoned.

Du Ruhui, a mere scholar, was so angry that his eyes turned red and he gritted his teeth.

Du Yan, it was just that the two families had been at odds for many years.
What's up with this?

Du Yan was so cruel that he actually accused him of disobeying Guo, saying that he had taken Shi Niang away, and that he acted on his own and had evil intentions to marry Shi Niang to a peasant and destroy the Fengxiang Marquisate and him, Du Yan.

Du Yan ordered him to send Du Shiniang to Luoyang immediately, otherwise he would kill Du Chuke again.

My lungs almost exploded.

Uncontrollable anger,
The last mouthful of blood was spit out.

For a long time, Du Ruhui couldn't calm down.

He gasped over and over again, his hands shaking, and he tried hard to calm himself down.

After a long time, I finally felt better.

He picked up his pen and wrote back to Du Yan.

But I wrote and tore it up, tore it up and wrote again,

Finally, he wrote a short letter, in which he accused Du Yan of being inhumane and asked Du Yan to send Du Chuke back to Chang'an immediately, and he would take good care of Du Shiniang.

This also tells Du Yan that he cannot send Shi Niang to exchange for Du Chuke.

He believed that as long as Du Shiniang was sent to Luoyang, Du Yan would kill his third brother. Even if he didn't kill him on the surface, he would use other means.

Looking at this short letter,
Du Ruhui thought about it, then picked up his pen and added another paragraph.

Since his uncle was in Luoyang, he could neither be loyal to the country nor be filial to his mother. So he decided to bring his grandmother Guo to his home in Chang'an and take care of her personally to fulfill his filial piety.

Send the letter.

Du Ruhui wept bitterly for his brother.

Just now he thought that no father would abandon his son like this in the case of Li Yi, but now seeing the internal strife and slaughter in the Du family, he felt that everything was possible.

"Du Yan, since you really don't want Shi Niang to marry Li Yi, then I will help her marry Li Yi. Not only that, when the Tang army captures Luoyang in the future, I, Du Ruhui, will ask for your permission to kill you."

"Du Yan, you beast, worse than pigs and dogs!"

(End of this chapter)