Tang Dynasty Xie Lu Lang

Chapter 502 A Precious Saddle and a Fine Steed

Wu Wenshen's home is located in the southeast corner of Liquanfang, north of the West Market. It is a grand mansion covering dozens of acres.

This place was originally part of Princess Taiping's residence. After Princess Taiping was executed, it was confiscated by the government and was bestowed upon the third son of the current emperor, Prince Zhong, who was initially enfeoffed as the Prince of Shan, in the early years of the Kaiyuan era.

After the Eastern Feng ceremony, the sage ordered the construction of the Ten Kings' Residences, where all the kings lived together. The original residences were then returned to the government, either sold or bestowed upon other ministers.

This original residence of the Prince of Shaanxi was purchased by Wu Wenshen for a huge sum of money. After demolishing some of the unauthorized buildings in the residence, he used it as his residence in the capital and settled down there.

Wu Wenshen originally planned to hold a grand banquet today to celebrate moving into his new residence, but a palace messenger suddenly entered the house to inform him that Consort Hui had summoned him. So he put aside his family affairs and hurriedly went to Xingqing Palace to pay his respects to Consort Hui.

After all, no matter what his past was like, or how many influential people he had met in the capital, the most reliable and awe-inspiring connection he had was still with Consort Wu Hui.

Wu Wenshen did not actually arrive in Chang'an recently; he had been in the capital for over a month. Moreover, this was not his first visit to the capital in recent years; he had come to Chang'an several times before, but he had always kept a low profile and had not made such a grand show of acquiring property and handing over connections with influential figures as he had this time.

The reason Wu Wenshen didn't proactively reveal his identity or contact old friends before was mainly because he felt guilty; he was still a criminal and convict in the Tang Dynasty. This wasn't just because he had previously escaped his place of exile and gone to a distant land, but also because he had committed many crimes in recent years.

As Zhang Dai had predicted, after Wu Wenshen was taken in by the Tuqiang tribe, his main means of making a living was plunder and robbery, especially in the mountainous areas along the Sichuan-Longnan line.

To avoid being targeted and besieged by local government troops, Wu Wenshen led his men on a nomadic journey, never staying in one place for long, from Longnan to Jiuqu.

He also took advantage of his Han Chinese identity and familiarity with the internal affairs of the Tang Dynasty, using aliases to travel between the Hexi and Longxi prefectures to do business and sell stolen goods, while gathering information on various merchant caravans, and then leading people to surround and intercept them, which is how he accumulated a huge amount of wealth.

Although he was quick-witted and cautious, his whereabouts were still exposed in some of the transactions involving stolen goods, which led to him being recorded as a bandit by the Hexi Corridor authorities. For the sake of his life, he had to reduce his activities within the Tang Dynasty and dared not return to Chang'an. Although he used an alias, some merchants who had escaped from his clutches recognized his identity and reported him to the authorities for arrest.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, Wu Wenshen will likely live out his life on the border and never be able to return home.

However, in the fifteenth year of the Kaiyuan era, Wang Jun, the governor of Liangzhou, was ambushed and killed by the four Uyghur tribes, which greatly changed the situation in the Hexi Corridor. Subsequently, the Tubo took advantage of the situation to invade the Hexi Corridor, which greatly disrupted the local order in the region.

This gave Wu Wenshen an opportunity to return to the Tang Dynasty. Taking advantage of the unstable situation in the Hexi Corridor and Longyou, he arrived in Longyou with a large amount of goods, befriended local powerful clans, and spent a considerable amount of money to use their influence in the government to have all the documents related to him erased. He then resumed his identity as Wu Wenshen and continued to operate in the Hexi Corridor and Longyou region.

After Prince Xin'an captured Shibao City, Wu Wenshen spent a large sum of money to purchase a batch of supplies to reward his army. He then asked local powerful figures to introduce these supplies to Prince Xin'an's army, thus gaining the prince's favor. Prince Xin'an later reported this matter to the court in his record of merits and requested that Wu Wenshen be removed from the list of exiles.

In this way, Wu Wenshen officially cleared his name and came ashore, and because he led the Qiang tribe to submit to the country, his identity gained a certain legendary status.

It was precisely because of their similar backgrounds that Wu Wenshen won the favor of Pei Zhouxian, the Prefect of Jingzhao, and was able to buy the Shaanxi Prince's residence from the Jingzhao Prefecture. Otherwise, no matter how much money he spent, he would not have been able to purchase such a luxurious mansion so soon after arriving in the capital.

When he was summoned by Consort Wu Hui, Wu Wenshen was overjoyed. In order to make his name known to Consort Wu Hui and to facilitate this meeting, Wu Wenshen spent at least tens of thousands of strings of cash. He gave gifts to Pei Guangting's wife, his cousin Wu, several times, which amounted to more than ten thousand strings of cash. He also spent a lot on the families of palace officials and relatives of the empress.

However, this long-awaited meeting did not seem to go very well. Although Consort Wu Hui reminisced about the past when she saw him, her attitude could only be described as polite, not enthusiastic.

Wu Wenshen had anticipated this. Although he was Wu Huifei's cousin by blood, they had no memory of each other. After his uncle Wu Youzhi passed away, Wu Huifei was adopted into the inner palace. He, on the other hand, had moved away with his father during the reign of Emperor Zhongzong. Although they were cousins, they were essentially strangers in name only.

Wu Wenshen was not discouraged by this. He always believed that he had survived a great calamity and was bound to have good fortune in the future. He also believed that with his shrewdness and hard work, he would be able to quickly improve his relationship with Consort Wu Hui. The successful establishment of various interpersonal relationships upon his return to the country filled Wu Wenshen with confidence.

However, Wu Wenshen felt quite jealous when Zhang Dai came to see him. Although he had heard of Zhang Dai's reputation before and even considered him a person worth befriending, he was still quite jealous.

However, upon witnessing the intimate and passionate interaction between Zhang Dai and Consort Hui, his thoughts shifted. He could see Consort Hui's dependence on Zhang Dai, and an intimacy far exceeding that of kinship. Because of Zhang Dai's presence, gaining Consort Hui's trust and reliance would inevitably be more difficult. This also fueled Wu Wenshen's dislike for Zhang Dai, leading him to want to drive him away from Consort Hui's side.

However, Wu Wenshen also understood that he had just returned to the country and many personnel relationships had only just been established, while Zhang Dai came from a prime minister's family and had become famous at a young age. If he wanted to push Zhang Dai out of Consort Hui's side, he could only plan for the long term.

So after leaving Xingqing Palace, Wu Wenshen put these unpleasant things aside for the time being and returned home to focus on socializing. He arranged for his nephews and nieces to greet him at the gate, while he himself led his powerful servants to wait at the gate of his house.

"Jiro has arrived! I've missed him terribly since we parted. Seeing him again is like drinking sweet rain!"

When he saw the guest riding up, Wu Wenshen hurriedly went forward to greet him, and from a distance he greeted Li Linfu on horseback with a smile and a clasp of his hands.

Li Linfu didn't particularly like associating with Wu Wenshen, a remnant of the former dynasty who had fallen to the status of a commoner. However, during a recent secret meeting with Lady Wu, she earnestly told him that Wu Wenshen was wealthy and generous, a person worth befriending. Furthermore, Lady Wu gave Li Linfu a valuable gift worth several thousand strings of cash, a gift from Wu Wenshen, to alleviate his immediate financial difficulties.

Li Linfu was short of money at the moment, so he temporarily gave the other party a perfunctory response.

When he saw Wu Wenshen hurrying forward, he gestured for his son Li Xiu to go forward, while he himself remained leisurely behind, still on horseback, and said to Wu Wenshen with a smile: "Knowing that Lord Wu is moving to a new residence today, I have nothing to give as a gift. However, I have a scroll of paintings passed down from my late uncle at home, which I have sent my son to bring to Lord Wu as a gift."

"It's actually General Li's calligraphy! I'm truly flattered. Shi Lang, please come in. This young man is just as elegant as you are, truly outstanding!"

Seeing that no new guests were arriving from the rear, Wu Wenshen accepted the scroll from Li Xiu with both hands, turned and gave a few instructions to his servants, and personally welcomed Li Linfu and his son into the hall.

He met Li Linfu through the introduction of Pei Guangting's wife. Wu told him that Li Linfu came from a noble family, was not only highly senior in the clan, but also very important in the political situation, and was a guest of the prime minister Yuwen Rong.

Although he was somewhat curious as to why Empress Wu valued the subordinates of her husband's political enemies so much, it wasn't really Wu Wenshen's concern. He also very much hoped to use Li Linfu's connections to get to know more members of the imperial family, especially to connect with the renowned prime minister Yuwen Rong, so he naturally dared not neglect him.

After Li Linfu took his seat, a servant of the Wu family hurriedly entered the hall carrying a brocade box. Wu Wenshen took the box and placed it neatly on the table. He then bowed and said with a smile, "I would be disrespectful to refuse such a generous gift from you, Shilang, but I also dare not accept such a favor without reason. So I return this humble gift with my own humble offering. It is not as valuable as General Li's exquisite calligraphy and paintings, but it is a token of my sincere and genuine heart. I hope you will accept it with a smile, Shilang!"

Upon hearing this, Li Linfu smiled slightly, raised his finger, and gently tapped the lid of the box to indicate that he had accepted it. At this moment, a servant outside reported that Pei Zhen, the son of Prime Minister Pei Guangting, had entered the ward. Wu Wenshen immediately apologized and then hurriedly withdrew to greet him.

After the master left, Li Linfu hurriedly lifted the brocade box to take a peek. A glimpse of jewels shone from the box and flashed before his eyes. Li Linfu immediately smiled with satisfaction.

As evening approached, more and more guests arrived. Wu Wenshen's social skills were indeed remarkable. He had made many acquaintances with the elites of the time not long after arriving in the capital, and their identities were all extraordinary. Even the Prince of Bin sent a son to congratulate him on moving to his new residence.

After parting ways with Zhang Dai, Li Xia arrived at Liquanfang and was warmly welcomed by the host. However, thinking about his conversation with Zhang Dai earlier, Li Xia's smile vanished, and he ignored Wu Wensheng with a gloomy expression.

Seeing Li Xia's expression, Wu Wenshen felt uneasy. Before he could get closer to Consort Wu Hui, Prince Xin'an was his biggest backer. This Ninth Prince was much more important than the Tenth Prince in the hall.

"There is another fine saddle at home, which is just right to match this famous steed. I will have it presented to you later. Please accept it, Ninth Master."

Seeing that Li Xia's horse and its saddle and bridle were rather simple, Wu Wenshen quickly bowed to Li Xia and said with a smile.

Huh? There's such a good thing?
Upon hearing this, Li Xia's eyebrows shot up, and he let out a muffled snort, his expression instantly becoming even more aloof and gloomy: "Am I, Old Li, a greedy person? Go ahead and throw money at me if you dare!"

(End of this chapter)