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

Chapter 59 The Prince is Interested in Li Yi but is Ruthless

Li Yi came to the East Palace again.

Li Jiancheng summoned him to the Xiande Hall, which was also called the Spring Palace and the Jiade Hall in the Sui Dynasty.

It is the first main hall of the East Palace.

The prince summoned him here, which seemed quite solemn and formal. If it were an ordinary person, he might have been moved by this courtesy by now, but unfortunately Li Yi was not an ordinary person.

I always have preconceived notions about Jiancheng, and they cannot be changed in a short time.

In his eyes, Li Jiancheng was not a noble crown prince, but just a loser.

Li Yi followed Cui Fu to the most important hall in the Eastern Palace, but what came to his mind was that in history, Li Shimin ascended the throne in this hall and even lived in the Eastern Palace for three years after becoming emperor before moving to the Taiji Palace.

All he could think about was Li Shimin, and he had no idea where to start.

"Li Yi, the founding father of Qianshui County, comes to see you!" Cui Fu sang loudly outside the hall.

Li Yi had not learned the etiquette and rules of an audience with the crown prince. Cui Fu asked him to take off his shoes outside the hall, so he did. It was a hot day, and he had been running around for a long time, so his feet were sweaty and smelled a bit.

Enter the hall.

"Please sit down."

A voice came from the palace,
Li Yi looked over and saw a tall young man sitting there. He was wearing a black soft-soled cap and a purple round-necked robe, looking very homely and approachable.

"The last time you came to the East Palace, I was out of the capital and missed you. Today we finally meet."

As he spoke, Jiancheng stood up and walked towards Li Yi.

Li Yi felt that he looked somewhat similar to Li Shimin. He was more mature than Li Shimin. After all, the two brothers were nine years apart in age.

Li Yi had the impression that Li Shimin was more approachable, while Jiancheng always seemed a bit arrogant, or had a bit of aristocratic air.

Frankly speaking, Li Jiancheng is very graceful and elegant. He can hold Li Yi's hand and chat with him. His words are meant to attract him.
What about appreciating his talent and saying that his Three Character Classic is very good?

For a prince, it is indeed enough to be so respectful and humble.

However, Li Yi has someone in his heart.

Faced with Jiancheng's invitation to enter the Eastern Palace again, he still refused. The reason was naturally that he was young, had just returned to secular life, was not capable of serving as an official, and had a newly established school at home with more than 130 students.

His direct refusal froze the smile on Li Jiancheng's face.
"Hahaha, I never thought you could refuse again and again."

"This morning at the court, I recommended you to the emperor as the Imperial Censor, saying that although you are young, you possess a sense of pride and that this position would suit you perfectly. Unfortunately, several ministers objected. I had originally proposed inviting you to the Eastern Palace to serve as a temporary seventh-rank attendant to the Crown Prince, but I didn't expect you to refuse again."

Built a smile,

The seventh-rank Prince's Secretary was indeed a good position, but Li Yi's last refusal to take the position was not mainly because he thought the position was too low.

As for the recommendation of him to be the Imperial Censor in Jiancheng Palace, he could only listen.

Becoming a prince's wife at the age of sixteen was an exception, so how could it be possible to appoint an inexperienced commoner as a Censor?

He is an important official.

Li Yi talked about Wuji Academy and how it teaches and educates people. Anyway, he didn't respond to the prince's solicitation, so he just assumed that he was young and didn't understand.

After chatting for a while, Jiancheng lost his patience. He had tried to win over the young man with such courtesy, but the young man just didn't understand, or pretended not to understand and didn't respond.

He praised Li Yi's righteous act of running a school, and then gave Li Yi a hundred acres of land, a hundred pieces of silk, and a lot of paper, ink, brushes, and books, as a support for Li Yi's Wuji Academy.

Li Yi didn't expect there would be such a benefit, so he quickly thanked him. He was really grateful, after all, Jiancheng paid out real money.

I still feel a little bit unwilling after building it.

"I request Your Majesty to build a school for the Crown Prince in the Eastern Palace, named Chongxian Hall, to be in charge of the Eastern Palace's classics and books, to teach students, and to send them to the Hongwen Hall for examinations. It will have Chongxian Hall academicians, direct academicians, proofreaders, and calligraphers.

I would like to hire you as a direct scholar at Chongxian Academy, and have you come here to teach the Three Character Classic."

Chongxian Hall is both the Eastern Palace Library and the Eastern Palace Academy. However, the students here, like those in the Hongwen Hall of the Menxia Province, are all royal relatives and children of prime ministers and ministers. The lowest is the child of a third-rank official, and there are only twenty or thirty people admitted.

Bachelor and Direct Bachelor are both part-time positions held by other officials and have no rank themselves.

He still wanted to bring Li Yi into the Eastern Palace. If you don't want to be an official, then he will give you a part-time position. A direct scholar is not considered an official.

Li Yi still refused, on the grounds that the students of the Prince's Academy were all children of royal relatives and prime ministers. He said that his level was only enough to teach children from the countryside and he did not dare to miss the opportunity to teach these children of noble families.

Jiancheng was also helpless,

Finally, Li Yi was given a belt with seven gold belt buckles, and the seven things of Tihe: a syringe, a knife, a saber, a whetstone, a flint bag, and a Qibizhen.

"I'll bring it to you."

A 蹀躞带 is actually a belt, but this belt is not used to tie pants, but to hang some small daily items. It has many small rings on it, and later gradually evolved into a symbol of status.

For example, the emperor used a thirteen-ring jade belt.

Only civil and military officials of the third rank and above could use gold and jade belt plaques, those of the fourth and fifth ranks used gold plaques, and those of the sixth and seventh ranks used silver plaques. Common people could only use copper and iron plaques.

The number of plaques was also determined by social status; common people were not allowed to have more than seven.

In itself, it is a belt made of leather with a square buckle. It has decorative and grading functions, and is also practical.

In addition to the traditional seven items, anything from kettles to musical instruments, purses, and even paper, ink, and brushes can be hung, making them very convenient to carry around. Li Yi currently wears one: a yellow cowhide belt with seven short leather straps fastened to it, decorated with copper fittings.

Li Yi couldn't stop Jiancheng, so he had to let him untie his copper-buckled belt and replace it with the seven-gold-buckled belt.

"Thank you, Your Highness."

When Li Yi walked out of the Eastern Palace, he felt a little guilty for some reason. Regardless of whether Jiancheng was sincere or not, he felt embarrassed that the Crown Prince was trying to win him over, but he refused.

sometimes,
Knowing the future is not always a good thing.
For example, now, he couldn't accept Jiancheng's kindness and board his doomed ship.

Although officials of the Jiancheng Eastern Palace such as Wang Gui, Wei Zheng, Wei Ting, Xue Wanche, and Xie Shuwen later surrendered to Li Shimin and did well, Wei Zheng and Wang Gui both became prime ministers, and Wei Zheng became a famous official in the Zhenguan period.

Li Yi still had a hurdle in his heart.

Outside the East Palace Gate,

Sanniang waited anxiously, and hurried over when she saw Li Yi coming out.

"Are you okay?"

"It's all right. The prince also gave me a gold-plated sash, a hundred acres of land, a hundred rolls of silk, and plenty of paper, ink, and writing brushes for the school."

After packing the items rewarded by the prince, Li Yi went to the nearby Daningfang to visit Sun Fujia.

The two brothers drank tea and chatted.

Sun Fujia told Li Yi that the prince had actually recommended him as the Imperial Censor in the palace today, but many people opposed it, so the emperor did not agree.

"The prince's intention is to buy a horse's bones for a huge sum of gold, just to gain a reputation as a man who loves talents." Sun Fujia saw through it at a glance.

Although the recommendation failed this time, the prince achieved his goal.

"I am also one of the officials who opposed your appointment as Imperial Censor in the palace today." Sun Fujia said directly.

"My senior brother is right to object. How can I be qualified to be the Imperial Censor? I have no right to treat public affairs of the imperial court as a joke." Li Yi did not care.

"You are not suitable for the position of Imperial Censor, but the position of Direct Scholar of Chongxian Academy is quite suitable."

"That's not my ambition." Li Yi didn't explain.

He gave Sun Fujia a complete calligraphy of the "Three Character Classic of Thin Muscles" and said, "It took me a long time to finish it."

Sun Fujia unfolded it and savored it carefully, and liked it more and more.

"How is the war going in Jingzhou now?" Li Yi asked.

"The situation is still at a stalemate. Xue Ju retreated to Zhecheng, near Jingzhou City, and is still surrounding Jingzhou City. The situation in Jingzhou is not good.

The good news was that Xue Ju sent his son Xue Rengao to lead troops to attack Ningzhou, but Huzhou Governor Ning Yan successfully repelled his offensive.

Xue Ju and his son's ambition to bypass Binzhou and directly capture Chang'an failed."

"Has His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin really been summoned back to Chang'an?"

"Well, I guess I'll be back in Beijing in the next two days."

"Isn't it bad to change the coach at the last minute?"

Sun Fujia was not that worried. "After the battle of Changwu and the battle of Ningzhou, Xue Ju's army has lost its fighting spirit and can no longer fight. Your Majesty summoned the King of Qin back to the capital to let him recuperate and to discuss strategic adjustments.

In Binzhou, there's Prince Consort Chai Shao temporarily taking over, so there's no need to worry."

After all, although there was a great victory at Changwu, there was a great defeat at Qianshuiyuan before that. As the marshal, Li Shimin must have returned to Beijing to report on his work in person.

As for how to defeat Xue Ju later, we must also listen to the opinions of the King of Qin who had just defeated Xue Ju.

"I heard that His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin was able to recover thanks to the elixir you offered. What kind of elixir was that that was so powerful?"

"It just happened that I came across this. My master left behind some elixirs that he used to keep while traveling around the world. Among them was one for treating malaria. I happened to need it this time."

"I heard that the medicine used by the imperial physician had no effect and even caused the King of Qin to vomit violently. But your medicine cured the problem after just two days. Do you have a prescription for it?"

Li Yi shook his head.

The medicine does come with instructions, but the problem is that it is not traditional Chinese medicine, so you can't just take it according to the prescription.

"It's such a pity. Although there are many prescriptions for treating malaria now, most of them use lacquer or safflower, which are not only slow to work but also cause severe vomiting."

Malaria was still a relatively scary disease at that time. It was quickly contagious and had a high mortality rate, especially in the southern region, where malaria was even more terrifying.

You should know that even in the 1940s, there were at least 30 million malaria patients in China every year, with a mortality rate of about 1%.

Under the medical conditions of this era, it is conceivable that the mortality rate of malaria is actually higher.

If Li Yi had a recipe for his elixir for curing malaria, that would be amazing.

Unfortunately, there was no recipe. Sun Fujia had to sigh that Taoist Li died too unexpectedly and too early. Taoist Li, such a peerless master of refining weapons and elixirs, was buried underground with those secret recipes.

Li Yi thought for a moment and said, "I remember that the main ingredient of the antimalarial pill that my master refined was Artemisia annua. Perhaps I can tell the doctors to use this as a starting point to research a good antimalarial prescription?" He said this because he remembered that there was an expert in China named Tu Youyou who extracted artemisinin from Artemisia annua based on ancient Chinese medical prescriptions, opened up a new direction for antimalarial drugs, saved millions of lives, and later won the Nobel Prize and was awarded the Medal of the Republic.

"Artemisia annua?" Sun Fujia said seriously, "Okay, I'll report this to His Majesty and ask the imperial physician to investigate. If I can make your master's medicine again, it will be a great honor."

(End of this chapter)