Hearing Yun Ye’s words, Li Yifu was stunned for a moment and asked in puzzlement while scratching his head, “Teacher Yuanzhang himself is a great scholar. Revising the ‘History of Sui’ is precisely what he should do. Why would he hand over such a matter that will glorify the annals of history to this student?”
Yun Ye chuckled and said, “The old man is nearly eighty-six years old. Are you planning to work him to death? You’re his prized disciple—if not you, then who? Teacher Yushan is the chief compiler and needs you to assist. Broad knowledge and strong memory have always been your strengths. Organizing classical texts is your exclusive domain. This is the old man’s personal nomination. Don’t refuse such an honor.”
Li Yifu smiled, cupped his hands in salute, and said, “Since the old gentleman gives this honor, this student will naturally accept it. As for the singing courtesan matter, this student will definitely handle it in the shortest time. Rest assured, there will be no more rumors in the marketplace.”
“Enough, stop tormenting that courtesan. Don’t you yourself feel a chill? What do you mean by ‘shortest time’? Are you planning to have her receive countless clients in a single night? What kind of ‘shortest time’ is that?”
“Right now, first accompany Zhangsun Chong to inspect the Crown Prince’s Six Guards. If we don’t inspect them soon, those people will be completely ruined. ‘Fullness invites loss, humility receives benefit’—this idea was your advice to the Crown Prince? Now that people have caught you by the tail, finish handling it early. When military forces lose combat capability, that’s a general’s greatest sin. Those who should be executed, execute. Those who should be imprisoned, imprison. Spending all day idly managing their petty businesses without knowing restraint.”
Li Yifu smiled and nodded in agreement, then withdrew from Yun Ye’s hall. Knowing Zhangsun Chong wouldn’t come to Yun Ye’s hall asking for discomfort, he went directly to the Left Vice Minister’s office, calculating in his mind about those officers of the Crown Prince’s Six Guards. Now was the time to push out those scapegoats for beheading.
After Li Yifu left, Xiao Wu emerged from the back hall, holding a child in her arms and carrying a food box in her left hand. The child was only one year old, lying against his mother’s bosom with bright shining eyes curiously looking at this unfamiliar place.
Yun Ye took the child and casually picked up a command arrow from the desk to put in the child’s hands for him to play with. He himself looked up at Xiao Wu and said, “Baiyu Jing doesn’t need divine servants. Moreover, controlling a divine servant like Li Yifu is dangerous. This kind of person won’t believe such a laughable thing as gods exists.”
Xiao Wu giggled charmingly and placed the food box on a low table nearby, taking out some small dishes from inside. There weren’t many dishes, but they were exquisite—some small mountain vegetables. These were originally Yun Ye’s favorites.
“Master, you’ve carried the name of immortal disciple for a lifetime and gained countless benefits from it. Could it be you still want to tell the world there are fundamentally no immortals in this world? You just used the prostitute from Mingyue Pavilion to test whether Li Yifu has any faith at all. Did you discover anything? Do you think Li Yifu believes in immortals or not?”
Now was breakfast time. Yun Ye had stayed at the Ministry of War last night and hadn’t eaten a grain since last evening. He picked up the thin congee and began eating and drinking. Seeing the child opening his mouth toward him, he took a steamed bun and let the child hold it to eat slowly.
“He’s my student. Even if he had doubts before, he doesn’t now.”
Yun Ye’s words were spoken with great confidence. A person who had been thoroughly influenced by the Academy for over ten years—if he still believed this world was dominated by divine spirits, that would indicate the Academy’s educational system was incomplete, ineffective, and thoroughly failed.
“You and he are more like the relationship between wolf and jackal. One after another thinking you’ve discovered the secret between heaven and earth, wanting to control it, to manipulate it. I just didn’t expect that after I lifted the veil of the gods, you would have other thoughts, wanting to become immortals yourselves. Truly preposterous! Not being proper humans, insisting on being gods. Even if you can succeed temporarily, the divine images you construct will ultimately be shattered.”
Xiao Wu helped her master arrange the dishes. Seeing Master was somewhat angry, she covered her mouth and laughed lightly twice, saying, “Master, this world is very boring. Because Xiao Wu needs to raise children, I stopped working at the Academy. Now with nothing to do, I wanted to rebuild Baiyu Jing. Master, do you think Xiao Wu should place Baiyu Jing in the South Sea or at which famous mountain or great river?”
“The Daoist sect has already found the divine land of the Queen Mother of the West. Now they’re flourishing enviably. Two years ago, you, His Majesty, and the Empress together lost a large sum of gold to Old Man Yuan, which he used on the Snow Mountain Divine Palace. Now, countless Central Plains believers most enjoy trekking on foot to the divine palace to demonstrate their piety, wanting to obtain the gods’ protection. I hear the first batch of people have already obtained great joy.”
“Now Old Man Yuan is quite pleased with himself, putting out word that he can now rest assured and undergo military dissolution to ascend to heaven.”
“Don’t learn from that dying old man. He’s purely close to death, wanting to maximize his reputation and life’s value. Saying something about how his cultivation is just one step away from ascending bodily, now he can only barely survive in the mortal world. He doesn’t want to do this but can’t escape this physical body, so he’ll undergo military dissolution to ascend to heaven, wanting to start over. Just watch—in a while, the Daoist sect will produce a Yuan Shoucheng who has come back to life. I’ve already warned Yuan Shoucheng that if that young Yuan Shoucheng dares to act like an elder in front of me, I’ll slap him silly.”
“Your master has finally worked his way up to being highly virtuous. Who can stand those old fellows constantly coming back to life? If this continues, who can bear it? The biggest reason His Majesty, Empress Mother, and I lost money to him is that we three sorrowful people’s wounds can’t be healed. Only Yuan Shoucheng’s wound can still be healed. As long as he has money and rebuilds the divine palace, he won’t be sorrowful anymore. That’s why such a ridiculous thing as him alone winning money occurred.”
Having finished speaking these inauspicious words with a smile, Yun Ye picked up the child and wiped his mouth. The steamed bun from earlier only had an empty shell left—the filling inside had already been scooped out.
“Master, Xiao Mu really wants to become empress. Moreover, regardless of whether she likes it or not, she likes the empress’s honored glory but isn’t interested in who the emperor is. Don’t you plan to stop such foolish notions?”
“She wants to become empress because she hasn’t tasted what it’s like to like someone. She’s like her mother—both are people who live by their emotions. It’s just curiosity. Once she finds someone she likes, she’ll treat becoming empress as the funniest joke of her life. No need to mind it. Ultimately, it’s all trouble caused by loneliness.”
Yun Ye spoke casually and unconcernedly. How could his own child be someone who coveted power and position, especially in the eyes of Yun Mu who cherished freedom?
“This disciple thoroughly bewitched Xiao Mu, you know. I told her she could first find an imperial grandson who might become emperor. After His Majesty passes away, then become Crown Princess. Then endure for several decades before becoming mother of a nation. If possible, then control imperial power. I also told her Li Xiang was most suitable.”
Yun Ye laughed twice, held the child and let him urinate in his spittoon, flicked little Di Yong’s little penis, then handed him to his mother.
Xiao Wu held the child and said resentfully, “You just don’t care about us girls.”
“Care? How could I not care? A little girl had a dream—why should I forcibly shatter it? You’re naturally fond of dreaming. Taking advantage of girlhood to dream more isn’t wrong. Children are like this at this time—it’s also their nature. Better not to shatter it. Didn’t you also have the same dream back then? You think I don’t know you seemed to fall for me back then? In the end, didn’t you discover it was merely an illusion? Girls’ dreams shouldn’t be shattered. They’re naturally emotional and often can’t distinguish between dreams and reality. Whoever destroys their beautiful dreams becomes their enemy. I won’t be my own daughter’s enemy.”
Xiao Wu stormed off holding the child, presumably going to the Court of Judicial Review to give Di Renjie trouble. In Chang’an, the only women who dared hold children while charging around everywhere in the inner city full of officials were Hypatia and Xiao Wu, because they too were officials—one a junior fourth rank, a dignified Grand Master for Splendid Service, one a junior fifth rank Gentleman for Consultation. These were true female officials, not some kind of honorary Lady title.
Seeing Xiao Wu had left, only then did Yun Ye peacefully eat his breakfast. These children were truly becoming harder and harder to manage. Speaking too plainly wouldn’t work, not speaking plainly wouldn’t work either. Really!
The reason Yun Ye had been so busy these days was only one—the border armies had caused trouble. Those ambitious young militant officers, after obtaining their first batch of firearms supplies, didn’t use them for training but put them into actual combat. Thus, the surrounding countries very unfortunately became experimental sacrifices. From Tubo to Zhenla, none escaped. After they breached some fortresses and cities there and looted thoroughly, they returned home, since after all, the court hadn’t ordered the conquest of any country.
Envoys tearfully accused the Tang army of atrocities. When they reached emotional points, they wept uncontrollably. The Great Tang’s high officials all had iron-gray faces, telling them these people would definitely be severely punished. The Ministry of War would handle this matter. Absolutely such evil deeds would never appear again. They also gave these envoys tremendous comfort. The matter of compensation was also brought up on the agenda under the Censor’s supervision.
After the noble officials finished hearing the accusations, they went in groups to Xinghua Ward to watch song and dance. That general who attacked Tubo would probably be beheaded, not because he robbed the Tubo people, but because he was actually defeated—after robbing some things, he was chased back by their army like a dog. As for other places like Zhenla and such, who would manage it?
Others might not know, but how could Yun Ye not know? The king of Zhenla wanted to annex the Funan Kingdom and conducted very vigorous public relations toward the Tang army, thus obtaining victory. The Tang army also took advantage to seize vast areas of plains. The Kshatriya King of Funan fled to distant islands and was taken in by Hou Jie. In the future, if Zhenla began opposing the empire, they could use the Kshatriya King’s name to attack Zhenla once again.
Yun Ye was a person who greatly valued order and didn’t like such sudden incidents at all, especially that general at Tubo. Knowing full well that when Lu Dongzan was attacking Tianzhu, he left behind a large army opposite Songzhou, and moreover that Lu Dongzan’s eldest son Ling Qin was commanding it, he still attacked recklessly. This led to over six hundred Great Tang soldiers who were preparing to secretly set fires suffering heavy casualties in the dense forest, getting burned to charcoal after being preempted. Such matters must be dealt with. Changing commanders had already become settled…