Sitting in Li Tai’s vehicle, Yun Ye felt like his entire body was about to fall apart. Li Tai’s layers of fat were being shaken by the steam car’s movement, rippling outward like water waves. Fat people really shouldn’t wear silk clothing—the slightest bump in the road beneath them could nauseate someone half to death, especially when the fat on his jowls jiggled up and down like a Shar-Pei dog.
Wang Cai ran behind them. The horse was actually filled with terror toward this smoke-belching monster, but since Yun Ye was sitting on it, Wang Cai kept trying to get close to Yun Ye, opening his mouth intending to bite Yun Ye and rescue his brother from the jaws of this smoking, thunderously roaring monster.
From the city gates of Chang’an to the Yun family estate—this was considered the Great Tang’s best highway, straight and wide. After multiple straightening and widening projects, the road was now only thirty li, and Li Tai’s broken-down vehicle had taken nearly a full incense stick’s burning time to traverse it. Calculating it out, traveling thirty li in one hour was actually quite decent. Although it wasn’t as fast as a horse, considering the era they lived in, Yun Ye still sincerely congratulated Li Tai.
With chest thrust out and belly protruding, Li Tai faced the mountain of onlookers with the pride of a rooster. When he had been enfeoffed as Prince Wei years ago, he didn’t seem nearly this proud.
Li Chengqian stood beneath the Yun family’s memorial archway, holding an hourglass in his hand to help his younger brother time the journey. Actually, he very much wanted to sit in the vehicle and let Yun Ye do the timing, but the group of people under his command absolutely refused to let him get on, with two old men even threatening to die in protest.
It was understandable—they were about to become officials who followed the dragon. If the dragon disappeared at this moment, what would they have left to depend on? Therefore, they valued Li Chengqian’s life even more than their own.
“Don’t ask me to ride in your vehicle again. That breakfast I ate this morning was wasted—your broken-down car jostled it all out of me.” Yun Ye took a towel from Old Qian’s hands to wipe his face, which was covered in black soot. After the snow-white towel was used, it was ruined.
“Don’t be ungrateful. You’re the second person to ride in this precious vehicle. Once I perfect it further, it won’t be so bumpy. Right now it’s just an empty frame. Future matters are nothing more than modifying the wheels—wheels embedded with soft ox sinew are being made, soft springs beneath the frame are also being forged, and they can be used after quenching. As for the black smoke, just add a dust-collecting cover to the chimney and everything will be perfect. If it’s too cold in winter, just like a horse carriage, make a cabin and mount it on top. At most, inlay some gold and silver…”
“When you finish making this thing, remember to give me one first!” Yun Ye interrupted Li Tai’s fantasy. What he said was correct—as long as those things he mentioned were added, it would be a vehicle, a vehicle in the true sense, and it burned oil.
Although the current method was using oil to boil water, then converting thermal energy into kinetic energy with extremely low thermal efficiency, who cared when the Great Tang had abundant oil? The magnificent Prince Wei could afford to burn it.
“Qing Que, when can this thing be mass-produced? Big Brother is also extremely interested in this thing. When it’s made, give me one too. When there’s nothing to do, driving it around the Eastern Palace a few times would also be a form of recreation.”
Li Chengqian tossed the hourglass in his hand to an attendant. After walking over, he got straight to the heart of the matter just like Yun Ye—needless to say, getting one to play with himself was most important.
“Big Brother, I’ve discovered that we Li family members are always one step slower than Yun Ye, aren’t we? When younger brother first began researching this thing, the Yun family had already sent their second son to Liaodong to open an iron foundry. By the time younger brother’s vehicle had taken rudimentary shape, their iron foundry’s first furnace of molten iron came out. Now younger brother’s steam locomotive has just taken final form, and they’ve already begun laying railway tracks from Chang’an to Luoyang. When the railway is completed in the next year or two, younger brother’s locomotive should already be perfect. At that time, you’ll just watch as their wealth rolls in by the bushel. Yun Ye has already planned it out—this thing is an enterprise left for his youngest son. How can you still be thinking about driving it for fun?”
Li Chengqian had long grown accustomed to Li Tai’s extremely impolite way of speaking. Frowning, he looked at Yun Ye and said, “Weren’t you going to use horses to pull iron carts back and forth on the railway tracks? How did it change to steam vehicles?”
“Horses need to eat grass—too troublesome. This thing only needs coal and can run day and night, and it can pull more things. Why not use a good thing? Leave it there to display as a novelty?”
“Zhang Jianzhi, Lu Dunxin, you two quickly investigate and determine how much a railway from Luoyang to Jinyang would cost, and also determine how much a railway from Luoyang to Zhuozhou and Dengzhou would cost. If it’s within the Eastern Palace’s financial capacity, immediately transfer personnel from Yushan Academy to begin surveying the routes. It would be best to have results within two years.”
After the two Eastern Palace officials left, Li Chengqian smiled at Li Tai and said, “He’s only getting a few hundred li of railway from Luoyang to Chang’an—what does that amount to? In the future, I’m going to build railways throughout the entire Great Tang. That’s true ability. How dare mere firefly light compete with the brilliant moon’s radiance?”
This fellow’s speech increasingly had Li Er’s style, which was good. The most important thing for an emperor was confidence. As long as he had confidence, his heart would become immensely broad and capable of embracing this vast land.
“Nothing but crude imitation…” Yun Ye said disdainfully.
“Hmph hmph hmph, the entire realm will be mine, including you and your heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys. As long as your ideas are good, they’re also mine. The nonsense about crude imitation doesn’t apply to me.”
Li Tai and Yun Ye both let out dry laughs together and directly walked toward the Yun family estate. Li Chengqian laughingly cursed as he followed. Yesterday Yun Ye had taken away all the sea cucumbers from the Eastern Palace, and he knew it, so today there would definitely be good food waiting for him. After occupying a high position for a long time, Li Chengqian had actually become less concerned with worldly etiquette.
This precious delicacy of sea cucumber—in other people’s homes they either made soup or prepared just a tiny amount to chew slowly, but at the Yun family, it was stir-fried in huge woks. Scallion-braised sea cucumber was something Yun Ye had never tired of eating.
“This is how it should be eaten to have flavor. Don’t add anything else on top, don’t garnish it with radish flowers—putting it in a bowl and covering it with rice is the most authentic way to eat.”
The three men, full of food and wine, sat in chairs drinking tea and picking their teeth, listening to Yun Ye expound his views on fine cuisine.
“Five days ago you entered the palace and said some things. Why is the atmosphere in the imperial palace so tense it’s suffocating? Tell me, my father keeps beating servants to death—that’s not a good habit.”
Li Chengqian finally stated his reason for coming.
“I’m not telling. It’s better you don’t know. Knowing would do you no good at all. Being confused might actually bring you great gains. To be precise, this is a very private little secret between His Majesty and me.”
“Oh, if that’s the case, I won’t ask. But you should still pay attention to your methods. My father is getting old and can’t withstand turmoil. If he can peacefully spend a few more years, that would be my blessing.”
Yun Ye looked at Li Chengqian suspiciously for quite a while before saying, “If you truly don’t know what I said in the imperial palace, then just based on what you just said, your Li family’s realm can last at least two hundred more years!”
Yun Ye spoke very casually, as if joking, but Li Tai beside him didn’t think so. After decades of friendship, he believed that seemingly careless remark Yun Ye just made was actually said extremely seriously.
Li Chengqian laughed heartily and stopped mentioning the matter, instead discussing railway affairs with Yun Ye. After visiting the Yun family’s train model, he became increasingly concerned about this matter.
Railways would bring the Great Tang not merely a fast transportation method, but more importantly would transform this nation, causing it to plunge like an unbridled wild horse into a different development path. This was the most fundamental significance of why Yun Ye wanted to build railways.
Yushan Academy’s scholarship and research had finally entered a state of explosive growth. With the continuous injection of large amounts of royal funding, all kinds of strange and wonderful ideas constantly emerged. Yun Ye was even shocked to discover that someone at the academy had already begun the simplest electrical research.
Someone once said: Give me a lever and I can move the earth.
Yun Ye’s function was that lever. He rarely participated in actual research, never even conducting the most detailed practical operations. He merely used his vision far surpassing ordinary people to gently pull researchers back onto the correct research path when they wandered astray.
Yushan Academy was the essence of Yun Ye’s life’s achievements.
Yun Mu’s wedding date had already been set. The Yan family had already sent over the betrothal gifts—very simple, but extremely solemn. The exchange of horoscope documents was even conducted under Li Chunfeng’s witness. This Daoist who had entered middle age appeared even more transcendent and otherworldly, his every word and action seemingly carrying the supreme principles between heaven and earth.
“The Queen Mother of the West celebrates her millionth birthday. The Queen Mother’s Palace holds a great banquet for the realm, with countless precious delicacies and rare fruits at the feast, inviting heroes and outstanding men from the mortal world throughout. Duke Chu should be an honored guest.” Li Chunfeng sat in the guest room of the Yun family ancestral shrine, speaking these ridiculous words with solemn majesty.
Xinyue was so moved that tears nearly came out. Her husband actually had the fortune to be invited by immortals—this was a great honor for the Yun family. With profuse thanks, she accepted the invitation on behalf of her furious-faced husband and went to another room to show off to Na Rimu and the others.
“Didn’t your grand master’s teacher ascend through military dissolution? How is he still alive to send me an invitation?”
Li Chunfeng smiled and said, “Duke Chu is a peerless hero. How could you not know that life and death are but small matters? Military dissolution and beheading are merely finding an exit for one’s soul, lest it be trapped by that decaying old body. My grand master’s teacher’s magical powers penetrate the divine. After bitter cultivation at the Queen Mother of the West’s palace, returning from emptiness to restore yang is a small matter.”
Yun Ye painfully rubbed his temples and said to Li Chunfeng, “Where did you find another Yuan Shoucheng? Your master isn’t dead yet—how would he address that Yuan Shoucheng when he meets him? Still call him uncle?”
“This is natural. My grand master’s teacher’s lifespan is now twenty-seven years. What we honor is only the soul; the physical body is not worth concern.” Li Chunfeng spoke with solemn majesty and righteous conviction.
Yun Ye could see no flaw whatsoever on his face. Yuan Shoucheng was dead—this was beyond doubt. His head had been personally severed by Yuan Tiangang—this was also beyond doubt. When he died, there were no traces of blood in his neck cavity—this could also be confirmed. But for you to say Yuan Shoucheng had come back to life again—that was complete nonsense.