Li Ke set down the scallions in his hand and said to Li Tai: “What do you do? You’ve researched so many schemes and intelligence—can’t you find a method that’s completely undetectable? Even if the whole world knows you did it, without evidence, what can they do? It’s not like you’re going to kill him. Everyone knows the ants are from the academy, but the wasps were just recently bred and no one knows about them yet. If you sprinkle him with royal jelly, even if there are ten thousand people on site, the wasps will only bite him alone. You’re not using good methods—it seems hatred has clouded your judgment.”
Yun Ye looked back at Li Ke in astonishment. The academy’s wasps were painstakingly found by Huang Shu in the Qinling Mountains. They were large and substantial, with stingers a full fen long on their tails, black and chilling to behold. Sun Simiao extracted wasp venom once every five days. When Huang Shu was catching the queen wasp, his hand was stung twice. His entire palm swelled up shiny like a bear’s paw, taking eight days to return to normal—and that was after promptly removing the stingers and using Sun Simiao’s medicine. Otherwise, it would have been even more troublesome.
Li Tai slapped himself on the face, gave Li Ke a hug, pulled out the small bottle from his chest, poured the giant ants into the charcoal fire, his face brimming with a happy smile.
A bowl of noodle soup contained only one noodle strand with a poached egg nestled on top—very beautiful. Li Tai wouldn’t let the servants handle it and personally carried this bowl of noodles to the Princess Consort. When he was young, the person who doted on him most was the Princess Consort of Heijian. Yun Ye and Li Ke carried the charcoal stove while servants brought the sliced whale meat, sauce, and other items through the door together.
The Princess Consort happily received that bowl of noodles, showing it off to Li Xiaogong and Li Daozong. Amid everyone’s praise, she prepared to eat this bowl of noodles.
“Auntie may not know—there are particular rules for eating these longevity noodles! This bowl has only one noodle strand. For blessings to extend long and far, you absolutely must not bite it in half.”
To add a bit of festive atmosphere, Yun Ye deliberately announced the rules loudly. The guest hall immediately filled with laughter, especially Li Xiaogong’s several sons who laughed the loudest. It was a pity Li Huairen wasn’t there, or it would have been even livelier.
The Princess Consort laughingly scolded Yun Ye a few times, then indeed ate the entire bowl of noodles without biting the strand in half. Everyone naturally cheered in unison again. Li Xiaogong picked up skewered whale meat and placed it on the charcoal fire to grill. When the outer skin became slightly crispy, he brushed on sauce and gave his old wife a skewer with chili oil first, then gave Li Daozong a skewer, and only then did he pick up a skewer for himself to smell before chewing on it with large bites.
After one round of eating, Li Xiaogong drank a mouthful of wine, stroked his beard, and said: “There’s a saying about eating big fish. The Book of Han records: ‘When giant fish die, princes and marquises take heed.’ It refers to this kind of fish.”
After these words, the entire hall fell silent. Everyone stared blankly at Li Xiaogong, then at Yun Ye, not knowing what to say. After all, everyone present except Yun Ye was a prince. Just moments ago, everyone only knew they were eating whale meat without knowing what it was. Now that they knew, they all found it incredible.
Li Xiaogong laughed heartily, putting one foot on a round stool and said: “Don’t be surprised! It was this old man who taught young Yun to eat whale meat, so he’s not being impolite. What nonsense about ‘giant fish die, princes and marquises take heed’? If this were true, all the princes and marquises of the Great Tang should have died long ago. You should know that when this old man was in Mingzhou back then, I killed plenty of giant fish. At that time, the entire army had no provisions. Killing one fish could feed an entire division of soldiers. For this, the Prince of Qin specially rewarded this old man handsomely. You should know that at that time, this old man wasn’t yet a prince or marquis, yet His Majesty is still living well to this day, isn’t he? Young Yun, how many big fish did you kill in Dengzhou?”
“Not many—thirty-some. Hebei suffered a great drought. Without catching some big fish, there really wasn’t enough to eat.” Yun Ye didn’t care about this point at all. The palace had also received plenty of whale meat.
Li Daozong nonchalantly picked up another skewer of fish meat and put it in his mouth to chew. Only after chewing did he reveal his gleaming white teeth in a fierce smile and say: “When the great army has no provisions, when disaster victims have no food—never mind eating big fish meat, what’s wrong with eating human flesh? History records countless cases of using humans as military provisions. Eating a big fish will make princes and marquises die? Would our Li Tang be so pathetically fragile? Boy, remember to send a cartload of fish meat to the family—the fattest kind.”
The Princess Consort chanted a Buddhist prayer and covered her chest, saying: “Back when the great army was at war, when the Prince led the army in battle against the previous Sui, Jinyang experienced war repeatedly. There was nothing to eat. Even the Grand Emperor only had thin gruel left. With many people in the family, I led several of the older concubines into the forest to catch frogs. Didn’t Huairen and the others eat them with relish just the same? So I say, everything under heaven is prepared for people. As long as it’s for survival, where are all these restrictions? They’re all nonsense thought up by those scholars when they’ve eaten their fill and have nothing better to do. If we followed what they said, everyone under heaven might as well starve to death.”
Once the old Princess Consort spoke these words, there were no more taboos. Those from military families had none of those pointless restrictions to begin with. Hearing everyone speak this way, they lost all inhibitions. Besides, the fish meat was indeed delicious. One after another, they started grilling whale meat themselves.
“Boy, you never do anything without purpose. Tell this old man—what’s the purpose of taking such risks?” Li Tai, Li Ke, and Li Daozong also curiously gathered around. They wanted to know too.
“Boy, the family’s earnings in Lingnan were confiscated by you at sixty percent. But it was for the Great Tang’s foundation, so this old man wouldn’t fart a word of complaint. Point out a new way to make money. Didn’t you hear your aunt say? The family was so poor we had to eat frogs.”
Li Daozong, Li Tai, and Li Ke all nodded in unison, meaning don’t exclude them either.
“Your nephew recently received a new title—Lingnan Naval Commander. You know about that, right?”
“Nonsense! Of course this old man knows—I was the one who recommended you. A beggar-like fleet became a luxurious fleet in a blink after being handed to you. This old man’s bit of foresight was even praised by His Majesty. Quickly tell us the truth.”
Yun Ye asked Old Li to take him to the sand table, preparing to explain properly to them using the map. Ever since the academy standardized this thing and established strict proportions, any military family without one of these would be laughed at. It was said that Li Er specially invited master craftsmen from the Gongshu family, cleared out an entire palace hall, and had them create a comprehensive geographical map of all the mountains and rivers under heaven, requiring even rivers to be included. The Gongshu family planned to use mercury as water in the rivers, but Yun Ye blocked their door and cursed them for an entire day, finally stopping this. They were still working on it now—this was painstaking work that couldn’t be completed in less than several years.
Li Tai was working on dividing latitudes and longitudes. The origin point was the imperial seat under Li Er’s bottom in Taiji Palace. Only it could serve as the origin point. The extremely narcissistic Li Er took this point very seriously. The current divisions were still very primitive. No one acknowledged that they lived on a round sphere that kept spinning. If they spun to the bottom, wouldn’t they fall into nothingness?
There was no reasoning to be done. When establishing new length measurements, the distance from Li Er’s fingertip to his armpit became one meter. Once this statement came out, the entire court’s civil and military officials flooded with flattery, deeming it very feasible. The tragic Yun Ye could only destroy the meter rulers he had already made and remake them. Common folk still used the old chi measurement, but the Ministry of Works had already begun using the meter unit for construction.
Li Xiaogong’s sand table was very large, filling an entire room with space left around the edges for people to discuss strategies and point out features.
Standing beside the sand table, Li Xiaogong and Li Daozong began emanating cold air all around. The younger generation surrounding them all looked like castrated roosters, hanging their heads low and not daring to look at the several elders standing in front. Yun Ye had long been tempered and found the chilly atmosphere quite comfortable. He picked up a long bamboo pole and pointed at several locations: Yangzhou, Mingzhou, Quanzhou, Guangzhou, Dengzhou, and Jiaozhou, then began speaking:
“Your Highnesses, look—these are the most suitable positions for maritime transport in our Great Tang. Cargo that requires very long transport times over land becomes simple when ships serve as the carriers. Our Great Tang’s largest mulan boats are thousand-liao capacity vessels. This time, Yun Ye used one fleet to transport a million dan of grain, extinguishing Hebei’s famine in its germinal state. To speak frankly, without this maritime transport, the court would have been powerless to reach Hebei’s disaster situation in time. By the time provisions from distant places arrived, Hebei would long have been littered with starved corpses.”
“Your nephew is extremely puzzled—the ocean’s produce exceeds land produce by tenfold. Why do people by the sea still go hungry? The Prefect of Youzhou told me: ‘Giant fish die, princes and marquises take heed’—they cannot be killed! Though your nephew’s official position is lowly, he barely qualifies as a prince or marquis. After killing one big fish, your nephew was fine. After eating whale meat for three meals, my stomach showed no problems. There’s also the claim that octopus cannot be eaten—utterly absurd! After I grilled octopus on an iron plate and invited the prefect to eat, he consumed two full plates. The next day, he asked if I had more! He didn’t die—he kept saying how crispy and delicious it was.”
“The kelp your nephew brought back—everyone says it’s useless waste. But after your nephew soaked it and mixed a plate of cold salad, it was tender and delicious. Eating this can even prevent goiter. There’s a black seaweed that clings to reefs that no one dares eat. Your nephew gathered and dried it, lightly roasted it, and made soup with an extremely fresh and delicious flavor. In a few days, when you Highnesses have leisure, your nephew will make it for you to taste—guaranteed to excel in color, aroma, and taste.”
“The reason for saying all this is to tell you Highnesses that the ocean’s output is extremely abundant. After killing some big fish, they’ll come again next year. After harvesting kelp, it’ll grow back next year. Don’t keep your eyes fixed only on this yellow earth. This land has nurtured us for thousands of years and has long been barren and exhausted.”
“Also, regarding those several seaports I mentioned—traveling south, one can reach as far as the Black Continent, which abounds with ivory, rhinoceros horn, gold, and gemstones. Traveling north, one can reach the Bohai Kingdom, where pearls, furs, and goshawks aren’t each sky-high prices in our Great Tang? You’ve long coveted female slaves from Dashi and Persia, haven’t you? Then doesn’t the silver from the Wa Kingdom make your eyes red with envy? According to what I know, the silver mine reserves there exceed those of all our Great Tang combined. This world is far larger than we imagine. The Great Tang is not the center of the world. During the Han Dynasty, there was a powerful country in the west called the Roman Empire. Its territorial size was staggeringly vast—the ocean itself was that country’s inland lake. You Highnesses can imagine how powerful it was. Now that country still has remnants, with territorial area not much smaller than the Great Tang. Another newly born powerful country has emerged—that is Dashi. Now they’re expanding in all directions across oceans and land, spreading their doctrine. In Lingnan, I captured one of their fleets. All the people were nailed to death on wooden stakes and erected on a deserted island as a deterrent.”
“Boy, why don’t you speak these words to the assembled ministers in the imperial palace instead of running here to peddle your kelp?”