Once power is in hand, orders can be issued. While other government offices were cold as ice cellars, the Ministry of War office was warm as spring. The eunuchs from the palace responsible for charcoal had just delivered cartloads of coal when Yun Ye tyrannically intercepted a large amount. One day’s supply was enough for the Ministry of War office to burn for several days. As for whether other offices had coal to burn for warmth, Yun Ye believed this was none of his business.
He also brought over good tea from home and distributed some to each office room. Roasting potatoes, drinking tea—the entire Ministry of War was harmonious. While chatting leisurely, they easily handled official business. Jiang Xuan of the Military Selection Bureau couldn’t stand Yun Ye’s lax Ministry of War style and left with a flick of his sleeves. For upright people, Yun Ye had always been respectful and never forced anyone unwilling.
He didn’t expect to buy people’s hearts with a bit of coal and a jar of tea—this fellow’s thoughts were too heavy. When Fang Xuanling came to inspect the Ministry of War, he sat down smiling and drank some hot tea and warmed himself by the fire. Although his room never had anything to do with cold, Old Fang still made a show of being close to the people.
The snow fell without restraint. Having just worried about drought when spring came, now everyone was worried that after the weather cleared, whether all this snow melting under the spring wind’s caress would cause floods.
Early in the morning upon opening the door, a two-chi thick snow wall appeared at the entrance. The servants busied themselves for half the day before clearing the snow from the house. Morning court was impossible to attend. The snow in the wards and markets had all been swept clean, but the snow on Vermillion Bird Avenue was piled half a person high. After Wang Cai frolicked in the snow for a while, Yun Ye had no choice but to order the servants to rescue Wang Cai, who was stuck in the snow and couldn’t get out…
Xinghua Ward had the best heating facilities. Many bigwigs liked to live in Xinghua Ward during winter. Wei Zheng, Du Ruhui, and Yun Ye all frowned as they looked at the snow wall, worried.
“Lord Wei, Lord Du, a month’s salary and grain is gone—what a pity. Originally, I was counting on that bit of money and grain to buy my son spring clothes. Now it’s all gone down the drain.”
Wei Zheng glared at Yun Ye. He treated Yun Ye’s sarcastic remarks like wind passing by his ears. Strengthening official discipline was a requirement Wei Zheng had proposed. He believed officials were becoming lax and needed stronger management. Missing morning court even once would result in deducted salary and grain. This had already become the most famous joke among officials. Which family’s officials lived on that bit of salary?
Yun Ye planned to go home, close the door, and continue sleeping. Wei Zheng, however, planned to solve the snow accumulation problem on Vermillion Bird Avenue. After more than ten days of being unable to leave their homes, poorer families might end up starving.
The Censor-in-Chief’s prestige was still very high. With one command, the Yun Family was left with only the family head wandering around aimlessly with Wang Cai. All the other servants, male and female, were borrowed by Old Wei. They weren’t doing anything else—just planning to open a road on Vermillion Bird Avenue.
Tang people really liked doing this kind of public service work. As long as one person started, all of Chang’an began working. The road-clearing speed was much faster than Yun Ye had anticipated. He had just taken a nap when Liu Jinbao reported that the road had been dug through. The tone of his voice seemed to contain a bit of contempt.
After stomping on Liu Jinbao twice, he thought: this master hasn’t even felt embarrassed yet—what are you, a servant, feeling awkward about? So what if Old Wei and the others fought on the frontlines of digging the road while our marquis went home to sleep? What’s awkward about that?
When he saw Wei Zheng again, the old fellow’s boots were covered in muddy water, without the slightest appearance of an official. Unlike Yun Ye, whose entire body was neat without half a speck of mud or water. Seeing Yun Ye coming over, the old fellow said with a smile, “Good, good—we didn’t delay Marquis Yun from attending morning court. What tremendous good fortune. Let’s set out now!”
The old codger was wearing muddy boots to court precisely to claim credit before the Emperor. The muddy boots could prove how hard he had worked. Yun Ye maliciously speculated about Old Wei’s thoughts.
However, walking through snow walls was also a novel experience, very much like tunnel warfare. Mischievous children even randomly carved various strange shapes on the snow walls. Everyone had seen the Academy’s ice lanterns—carving things on snow walls wasn’t unusual.
Walking all this way, he learned that Wei Zheng and the others had actually dug through all the roads within just over an hour. Wei Zheng wasn’t the only one who did this spontaneously—the palace army also participated in the digging. If Yun Ye stood in a hot air balloon looking down at this moment, he would definitely discover that all of Chang’an resembled a spider web.
Today’s court topic was disaster relief. This heavy snow’s sweeping coverage wasn’t limited to just Chang’an City—perhaps all of Guanzhong would be affected. Now the roads were blocked, and the court knew nothing of the disaster situation outside.
The court was as silent as death. This disaster would not be small. Tang people liked living in wooden houses, and many families had grass sheds. Houses collapsing under snow was a common occurrence.
Yun Ye wasn’t too concerned. All the Yun Family estates were brick and tile houses, newly built in recent years. The more particular households had even used cement. This bit of disaster wouldn’t cause calamity for the Yun Family estates. Perhaps the tenant farmers saw this disaster as a rest day given by heaven. This time was very suitable for sitting on a warm kang eating hotpot.
“Yun Ye, the common people suffer disaster and you feel joyful?” Li Er squeezed these words through his teeth. He had seen Yun Ye’s smug expression just now and was greatly angered.
Normally, Li Er wouldn’t pay attention to low-ranking officials like Yun Ye in court. What was wrong today? Xue Wanche looked at Yun Ye as if looking at an idiot. At this moment, everyone wore expressions as if their parents had died—only you were happy. It would be strange if you weren’t conspicuous. He involuntarily shifted his body outward, hoping Li Er wouldn’t think he was also happy.
Li Er most hated when others were happy while he was grieving. Back then, his brother Prince Zhao, Li Yuanjing, had accidentally laughed during Li Yuan’s funeral. His perfectly good positions of Governor of Yongzhou and General of the Right Valiant Guard were gone, and he became Governor of Anzhou. He was still suffering to this day. It was said even the prince’s salary had been stopped. He must find a suitable pretext!
“Your Majesty, Guanzhong has suffered a snow disaster—naturally this humble subject feels heartache. But just now, I thought of a method to investigate the disaster situation, and couldn’t help but be overjoyed, so I lost my composure. I beg Your Majesty’s forgiveness.”
Hearing Yun Ye’s words, Xue Wanche immediately shifted his body outward again. This was nonsense. Even if a sled went on the snow surface, there was nothing to pull it. The heavy snow had trapped Chang’an tightly.
But Li Er’s eyes immediately brightened. Yun Ye could always come up with methods others couldn’t think of. He urgently asked, “What excellent strategy does Minister Yun have? Speak quickly! The disaster situation changes three times a day—not a moment can be delayed.”
Yun Ye said with a smile, “Reporting to Your Majesty, if we can’t travel on the ground, we might as well fly into the sky and travel from above. Even if we can’t fly far, climbing high to look far is also a good method. Standing in the sky with a telescope, the situation around Chang’an will be completely visible. Wherever the disaster is severe, we’ll prioritize opening roads there. This way, disaster relief will have proper sequence, and losses can be minimized.”
“Fly into the sky?” Fang Xuanling couldn’t help crying out loudly. Not only was he astonished—the entire civil and military court fell silent. They had dreamed of flying into the sky quite a bit, but had never seen anyone truly fly.
“Is this truly possible?” Before Li Er could speak, Wei Zheng asked first. Li Er withdrew his intention to ask, half-squinting his eyes to see how Yun Ye would respond. He now believed people could indeed fly. Li Tai had already proven this point definitively. Proven or not, Li Tai’s method was still very far from sending people into the sky. Currently, it could only send people to the Western Heaven.
When Fang Xuanling saw Yun Ye’s face display a familiar smile, alarm bells immediately rang in his heart. He remembered very clearly—when Yun Ye extorted the Ministry of Revenue, he wore this expression. When blackmailing the hundred officials, he also wore this expression. When selling four iron rods for several tens of thousands of strings of cash, he also wore this expression. The most recent time he’d seen this expression was when he prepared to buy that island at the mouth of the Yangtze River.
Sure enough, Yun Ye stretched out one hand toward the entire civil and military court and said loudly, “A wager! One thousand silver coins as the base. If I can’t fly, I’ll pay out this money. If I do fly, Yun will gladly accept this money.”
Seeing Yun Ye use his old trick again, Li Er immediately relaxed, leaning back in his chair to watch him perform. Whenever Yun Ye proposed a wager, Li Er knew Yun Ye already had victory firmly in hand. Although flying into the sky was a bit exaggerated and a bit strange, he still believed this kid would definitely win.
“Impossible!” Unexpectedly, the first to jump out was Li Tai. This fellow was already somewhat crazed. He had heard that Yun Ye was also researching flying into the sky but had never taken it seriously, believing that Yun Ye couldn’t possibly surpass him in progress. He possessed the world’s most massive resource group. Working day and night until now, he had only just gained some leads, and there was still a very long road before sending people into the sky.
Yun Ye spent his days playing around everywhere. Recently, he’d heard he was even presiding over the Ministry of War. By what right could he easily surpass himself? Impossible.
“I’ll wager with you. Considering we’re friends, I’ll bet less—just ten thousand silver coins. Let’s make the contract right now!” Seeing Li Tai say this, Li Er became somewhat worried. What if he couldn’t ascend to the sky? Because if you asked who in court was most familiar with Yun Ye, it was definitely Li Tai. Li Er discovered his son was truly anxious—this wasn’t acting with Yun Ye.
Yun Ye was somewhat frantic with rage. He pointed his court tablet at Li Tai for a long time, unable to speak. Li Tai said gleefully, “Who told you to boast? That you can send people into the sky—this I believe, I completely believe it. But at this moment, you speak wildly. That’s asking for trouble. Anyway, the Yun Family has lots of money. Pay a bit more and consider it a donation to disaster victims.”
The court always had some fellows who hated Yun Ye unto death. For instance, Master Linghu Defen. These years, he had finally accumulated some family property with difficulty, preparing to live a good life. As for attacking Yun Ye, he no longer held any hope. Who would have thought that finally, after keeping the clouds away, one sees the bright moon—Yun Ye also had a moment when his bragging was exposed.
“This old man wagers that Marquis Yun cannot fly into the sky when this snow stops—five thousand silver coins!” The old fellow was very vicious, deliberately nailing down the time in his words to prevent Yun Ye from playing word games.