“Within four to eight hours after a person’s death, their consciousness gradually leaves the body. At this time, the deceased’s sensation is like an old ox being skinned—exceptionally painful. The slightest touch will cause the deceased to feel as if being sliced by a thousand knives, generating great anger. Generally, after eight hours, the consciousness completely departs. Only then can one wipe, change clothes, apply makeup, and so on. There are also a few people who don’t completely leave until after twelve hours.”
“This is why Old Lady Dugu wouldn’t allow you to touch the Grand Emperor, and why His Majesty also didn’t lay the Grand Emperor’s body down flat. There’s great significance in this. This old Daoist is currently waiting for His Majesty’s summons, preparing to go to Zhaoyang Palace to pray for blessings for the Grand Emperor.”
Meeting Yuan Tiangang on the left side of the road, the two conversed while leaning against the carriage window. Discussing ghost matters in the autumn rain was quite fitting. Having finished discussing ghost matters, they cupped their hands in farewell—one only wanted to stay far from the place of death, while the other rushed toward it eagerly.
Yun Ye felt his own household should also hold a great Buddhist ceremony. These days, people were constantly dying, all related to him—extremely inauspicious. When Hou Junji died, there was no falling of a general’s star in the wilderness. When Li Yuan died, who knew whether the Purple Tenuity Imperial Star had fallen or not? Blocked by thick layers of dark clouds, it couldn’t be seen. This left Yuan Tiangang with much less capital and conversational material.
Not sleeping for a day and night left him frighteningly vigorous in spirit, only with weak and sore limbs. Swaying and wobbling, he rushed home. Along the way, he encountered forty or fifty groups of riders in heavy mourning rushing by on fast horses. Needless to say, they were spreading the news of the Grand Emperor’s great demise in all directions. Li Er had to let everyone in the world know that his old man died naturally and wasn’t killed by him.
Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, Zhangsun Wuji, Wei Zheng—these important ministers all needed to go to Zhaoyang Palace to testify for Li Er. When they met, it was merely a hasty bow before brushing past each other. Royal clan members rushed by on fast horses, their heads and bodies haphazardly wrapped in heavy mourning. No one chose to take a carriage—all chose to ride horses, excitedly galloping toward Zhaoyang Palace. Beneath that layer of sorrowful façade, who knew what kind of excited hearts beat?
When a person dies, it’s like a lamp going out. Yet the Yun household’s lanterns hung high—the usual bright red lanterns had turned a ghastly white. A soul-summoning banner was also raised high on the rooftop. When an emperor dies, the realm dons plain white!
Xinyue helped her husband, who had overindulged in mahjong, down from the carriage. In the warm bathhouse, while testing the water temperature, she quietly asked: “How did the Grand Emperor die? Husband, you were gambling with the Grand Emperor the whole time—do you know?”
“I get angry just talking about it. Your husband lost everything. He didn’t die early, but deliberately died after drawing a Grand Three Dragons hand. This leaves me with no chance to win it back in the future.”
Xinyue quickly covered Yun Ye’s mouth. Such disrespectful words, if heard by the censors, would result in demotion and stripping of noble rank without question. Yun Ye pushed Xinyue away and undressed, saying: “No matter how capable the censors are, they can’t reach our household’s bathhouse. If someone else asks you how the Grand Emperor died, be sure to say he laughed himself to death after drawing a Grand Three Dragons hand. There’s no other reason.”
Xinyue nodded thoughtfully. The fire of gossip was probably burning fiercely. For such a legendary emperor as Li Yuan, the cause of death should be earth-shattering. Dying while playing mahjong was much better than dying under conspiracy and intrigue.
While Yun Ye slept deeply, everyone in all of Chang’an already knew the Grand Emperor had died. Officially, it was said the Grand Emperor, advanced in age and virtuous in character, died without illness, his face bearing a smile at the time of death, without fear or regret. But everyone was more inclined to believe news released by a certain well-informed person: after gambling with three other enormously wealthy people, the Grand Emperor, about to lose everything clean, relied on a single gold coin left in the carpet cracks to slaughter in all directions. In the end, he actually drew the rarely seen heavenly hand in mahjong—Grand Three Dragons. In his wild joy, his heart couldn’t take it, and unable to catch his breath, he passed away.
No one believed the official explanation. Dying beneath a Grand Three Dragons hand was what the people of Chang’an loved to hear and see. The officials didn’t come out to refute the rumor. Even when the court historians recorded the final deeds of the late emperor, what they wrote was: Vast gambling, victorious, wild joy, died!
Madam Cheng forbade Cheng Yaojin from playing mahjong anymore. She believed that with the Grand Emperor’s precedent, Old Cheng, who always loved great joy and great anger, simply wasn’t suited to playing mahjong. If one day he met the same end, what would be done? Cheng Yaojin disagreed, believing that as long as he could slaughter in all directions and win until heaven and earth darkened before dying, even dying of laughter would be worth it. Thus, the gambling culture greatly changed, becoming bold, unrestrained, and willful, until he was refused entry by Chang’an’s mahjong circles. Only then did things settle down.
The Grand Emperor died. Banquets, singing, and dancing entertainment all stopped. Only mahjong was not prohibited. Vassal states, tributary states, jimi prefectures, and various prefectures and counties from all directions offered their final respects to the late emperor. This was also the last time Li Yuan’s honorific title appeared in documents. From then on, Yun Ye never again saw Emperor Taiwu’s honorific title in bulletins or documents. Xianling Mausoleum in Sanyuan County buried all his merits and demerits, rights and wrongs, clean and complete.
“The Grand Emperor’s tomb is almost impossible to rob. However many people go will die. Within a radius of one li are flowing sand and giant rocks. Unless the Great Tang falls, it’s completely impossible for private individuals to excavate it. In the future, the tombs of Great Tang emperors should follow this format.”
Xu Jingzong, as the academy’s representative, had participated in the design of Xianling Mausoleum back then. An emperor’s tomb must be prepared in advance. It had already been excavated for seven years. Everything was ready—all that was missing was the emperor’s corpse. Li Yuan also happened to laugh himself to death just when the tomb was prepared properly. The master craftsman taking over the emperor’s tomb felt everything was extremely perfect.
When Xu Jingzong was initially selected as one of the tomb designers, he specifically went to ask Huang Shu what kind of tomb was his most terrifying nightmare. Huang Shu said the most terrifying was naturally a flowing sand tomb. If giant rocks were mixed in with the flowing sand, upon seeing such a tomb, he would leave immediately, unwilling to stay even a quarter hour. No matter how luxurious the burial goods in the tomb, they couldn’t be obtained. Forcing entry would only result in becoming new burial goods.
Thus, Xu Jingzong strongly suggested building a flowing sand tomb. All the sand used to fill the tomb was exposed to the sun—not half a bit of moisture was permitted. As long as grave robbers dug out a bit of sand, the remaining flowing sand would flow over to bury the robber’s tunnel. This design was ultimately adopted by Li Er.
Out of professional habit, Huang Shu still went to observe the emperor’s burial situation. Seeing the sand piled like mountains, he turned and returned to the academy, continuing to run his shop.
The Grand Emperor died. Li Er needed to mourn in full for one hundred days. During these one hundred days, the Great Tang would be quiet as death. The border troops on the grasslands would make no movements. Even the customary sweeps wouldn’t be conducted. The Liaodong border troops would obediently stay in their camps for winter. To pray for blessings for the Grand Emperor, the emperor ordered the exemption of all taxes from three places: Jinyang, Hedong, and Shanxi.
As long as the Great Tang didn’t cause trouble, the world was extremely dull. Not raising troops during the great mourning period was ritual propriety. Of course, if necessary, Li Er wouldn’t care about such matters. Right now, only fools would actively challenge the Great Tang, this giant beast.
Yun Ye overestimated the intelligence of this era’s power holders. The prefectural governors of Yaozhou and Rongzhou reported that Meng Shelong, the Wu Man king of Meng Shezhao, was attacking Rongzhou day and night. Of the thirty-two jimi prefectures, twenty-six had already rebelled. They requested the court send aid at once; otherwise, the slight advantage the Great Tang had gained in Nanzhao at the beginning of the Zhenguan era would completely vanish. The furious Li Er mercilessly rejected the mediation request of Tubo’s Great Minister Ludongzan, also forcefully commanding that Tubo must dispatch troops from Songzhou to assist the Great Tang in exterminating Meng Shelong. Otherwise, the Great Tang would send its own troops through Tubo’s territory to attack Nanzhao from both sides. He appointed Li Daozong as the Grand Commander of the Yaozhou Campaign, overseeing all military and national affairs of Nanzhao. The war’s objective pointed directly at Meng Shelong himself. In other words, either Meng Shelong’s person was to be delivered bound, or Meng Shelong’s head was to be delivered in a box. Otherwise, the war would absolutely not stop.
Standing in the court hall, Yun Ye said nothing. As the general most familiar with Nanzhao, he was very clear that the Wu Man and Bai Man also had differences. The Wu Man had many cattle and sheep but no cloth or silk. Both men and women used cattle and sheep hides for clothing. They had no rituals of bowing or kneeling.
Some languages required four translations before connecting with Chinese. The Wu Man were a backward tribe whose business was livestock herding, who knew neither plowing nor weaving, and who had very little contact with Han people. The major Bai Man clan was the Cuan clan. Since the Shu Han dynasty, successive dynasties had people serving as local officials. The Bai Man writing was the same as the Han people’s, their language was similar, they plowed fields and raised silkworms, also like Han people.
At this time, they should contact the Bai Man to replace the Wu Man king—there was no need to dispatch troops into Nanzhao. Nanzhao simply wasn’t a good place for fighting. The land wasn’t level for three feet, the sky wasn’t clear for three days. The Great Tang’s most elite cavalry couldn’t be put to use. The southern provincial troops also completely couldn’t compare with the Guanzhong provincial troops. Guanzhong provincial troops going to Nanzhao would get foot rot, just like yellow oxen going into rice paddies get hoof rot—the same principle. To exterminate Nanzhao still required relying on local provincial troops. Spending enormous costs to destroy Nanzhao people’s bamboo houses and rob a few pigs to bring back was completely not worth the loss.
Only Heaven would know what Li Er wanted to do. Back when Queen Tango’s land was already quite wealthy—this wealth meant she had twenty to thirty pigs raised under her bamboo house. These years, out of guilt toward Tango, Yun Ye had continuously dispatched merchant caravans in and out of Nanzhao. The trade profits were meager, but the Yun household’s caravans had never ceased trading. In a place where doing business yielded no profit, did he expect the army to rob out flowers?
It would be strange if Li Daozong didn’t suffer a huge fall. The Wu Man who had nothing had a style very similar to Tubo people—fighting without fearing death. So the wealthy Bai Man could only let the most powerful Wu Man king be their leader while they occupied supporting positions. Yun Ye dared guarantee that it would be strange indeed if that damned Meng Shelong could know of events three hundred li away.
Fang Xuanling had already explained Nanzhao’s situation to the emperor. Li Er wouldn’t listen. Yun Ye had completely no need to invite boredom for himself. The persimmons at home had just experienced the first frost and were at their sweetest. Several children were still waiting for Father to come home so they could use bamboo poles fitted with gauze nets to pick persimmons one by one.
Picking persimmons was the Yun household’s festival. On seven or eight large trees, the tenant farmers had deliberately not picked the persimmons—they were left for the master’s family to enjoy themselves. The imperial household forbade banquets, forbade watching songs and dances, forbade large-scale entertainment. Officials weren’t permitted to visit brothels. Noble families weren’t permitted marital relations within one hundred days. If a censor discovered that a noble family’s child was conceived during the great mourning period, hehe, this would become a major incident. However, autumn harvest clearly wouldn’t be prohibited. The Yun household’s persimmon picking was also a type of autumn harvest.