After hearing Yun Shou’s explanation, Li Yuanxiang pulled out a handkerchief from his bosom and stuffed it into his nostrils, speaking in a muffled voice to Yun Shou: “With your father away, you should be the one making decisions at home, right? There’s a matter I must discuss with you. I’ve already contacted six princes, and now it just depends on whether your Yun family will participate.”

“The Yun family will not rebel!” Yun Shou shook his head like a rattle drum.

Li Yuanxiang grabbed Yun Shou by the collar and lifted him up, saying viciously: “These tricks are things I’ve played out long ago. If you dare play dumb in front of me again, I’ll beat you to death. Let me tell you, those few moves of yours aren’t good enough.”

“Not rebelling, we’re just talking about making money. Here, take this. This is the plan. Take it back and study it carefully, and don’t show it to outsiders.” Li Yuanxiang stuffed a thick stack of papers into Yun Shou’s bosom.

Unable to refuse, Yun Shou looked at the oil-faced Li Yuanxiang and said: “I should have listened to my father’s words—after beating you up, I should have run away quickly. Now I was just one step too slow and got caught by you to be used.”

“Let’s make this clear first. I won’t read the plan. I’ll take it to Empress Mother according to your wishes. If Her Majesty doesn’t object, no matter how much benefit there is in this, my family will only take ten percent. If Her Majesty becomes angry, I’ll tell her that you tricked me into presenting it. How about that?”

Li Yuanxiang’s face was full of bitterness as he muttered to himself: “People nowadays have all become cunning. Where have all those kind and easily deceived people from before gone?”

Seeing that Li Yuanxiang didn’t object, Yun Shou knew he had agreed to these conditions. He took Helan and entered the imperial palace once again. Li Yuanxiang watched Yun Shou’s retreating figure eagerly, involuntarily clenching his teeth tightly—success or failure hinged on this one move.

Helan had now grown into a beauty. For her sake, Yun Shou had gotten into quite a few fights with others. Because of this, Li Yan Rong hadn’t spoken to Yun Shou for a full half month, since Yun Shou had never fought with others on her behalf.

Zhangsun always said the Yun family had dog shit luck—even an ugly girl could be raised into a great beauty in just half a year. Now those scoundrel boys didn’t study properly in class anymore, and they most enjoyed teasing Helan after class. They were all half-grown young pups who couldn’t yet do anything truly scandalous.

Zhangsun had an indescribable fondness for Yun Shou. She would feel happy whenever she saw the round-headed, honest-looking Yun Shou. Today, having nothing to do, she was enjoying the cool air at Bihe Pavilion. When she heard Yun Shou had arrived, she happily had a eunuch bring him in.

“Little monkey, in another half year you can go study at the academy. Are you planning not to come visit me at the palace anymore?” Seeing Yun Shou approaching from afar, Zhangsun teased him with a smile.

“That won’t happen. My father said our whole family must tightly hold onto Your Majesty’s legs and not let go. Only this way can we have good days.” Yun Shou answered honestly.

Zhangsun burst into laughter. She climbed up from the brocade couch and tapped Yun Shou heavily on the forehead, saying: “Your father still wants some face. Even if you beat him to death, he couldn’t say such words. Consider this your way of making this grandmother happy, you little monkey.”

Yun Shou took the yogurt handed over by a palace maid and drank it in small sips. Zhangsun’s gaze fell on the thick stack of plans, and she casually flipped through it a couple of times before saying to Yun Shou: “How is it that Prince Yuanxiang of Jiang still won’t give up? This time, promoting him to Prince of Yue was meant to make him abandon this idea. A fellow who has pretended to be stupid for many years wants to do such a big thing as soon as he makes his move. Who would feel comfortable letting him act recklessly? For such major affairs, we need someone who can shoulder the burden.”

As Zhangsun spoke, she noticed Yun Shou kept stealing glances at her, so she said irritably: “Your Yun family won’t do. How big a thing you do, that’s how much risk you must bear. It’s the same principle as your father now being surrounded by enemies to test the camel city. You’re gradually growing older. The first time I met your father, he was your age, charging out from the gate of Niu Jinda’s home, colliding with the imperial procession. The next time I saw him, I watched his thin little body wearing official robes and swaying about, standing in the Golden Chime Hall talking nonsense. Whenever I think of the day I first met your father, I feel happy for a whole day.”

“Alas, you don’t have that spiritual vitality your father has. Although you’re already considered outstanding among the children, you still have a gap compared to your father and Qing Que and the others. But this is also good—living a stable and steady life is fine.”

“Don’t learn from Li Yuanxiang and the others who want to run before learning to walk. If something really happens and the court sends troops to suppress your family, how would you have me deal with it?”

Hearing Zhangsun’s words, Yun Shou immediately threw the plan onto the ground without a word and stomped on it a few times, saying to Zhangsun: “We don’t want it anymore. Although there’s ten percent in dry shares, we don’t want it. My father said living peacefully and happily is a blessing.”

Zhangsun ordered a maid to pick up the plan and place it on her desk, saying: “There’s no right or wrong in matters, only people who do wrong things. Li Yuanxiang and the others have had enough of living domestically and want to divide the land and establish kingdoms. Nanzhao, the desert, the Gobi, Silla, Baekje, even Japan—they’re not picky. Ha ha, wanting to run a country like a business, although it’s somewhat fanciful, some of the arguments in it are quite moving to the heart.”

“Deliberately sending the plan to this palace, these people intend to turn this matter—which should originally require court deliberation to decide—into a family affair. Ha ha, since it’s a family affair, as the elder sister-in-law, I inevitably must put on some airs.”

Since the matter didn’t concern him, Yun Shou naturally adopted a strategy of staying aloof. After chatting with Zhangsun for a while, he left the Liangyi Hall. Helan was alone feeding melon seeds to the koi in the lotus pond.

Since Zhangsun hadn’t mentioned classes today, Yun Shou found a fishing hook and began to fish for fun. As for Li Yuanxiang standing outside the palace gate constantly swallowing his saliva, no one would care about him.

The Great Tang now conferred prince titles, but there were no actual fiefs anymore. You could use the money and grain from the treasury in your nominal fief, but you absolutely had no authority to increase or decrease taxes. And the money and grain in the treasury that the princes could use was not much—often they had to look at the provincial governor’s face.

Li Yuanxiang was a person with many ideas. He liked being his own master. Yue province was now very prosperous, but freedom was gradually being lost. He dreamed of having a piece of land where he had the final say, which is why there was such a plan.

The Great Tang was destined to achieve final victory in this war. Li Yuanxiang had no doubt about this. When everyone’s attention was fixed on the unsettling war situation, he was already considering how much he could profit from this great conflict.

After opening the map and covering up all the enemy names, before him appeared a map of an incomparably vast imperial territory. As a descendant of the Li clan, he naturally believed that there must be a small piece for himself in this vast land.

Becoming King of Guanzhong was something he didn’t even dare think about. As his gaze gradually expanded outward, Li Yuanxiang discovered there were still many places where no one had been sent to govern. For example, Beiting where Yun Ye was located—such a large area had fewer than fifty thousand Tang people. He considered this extremely unreasonable. That place needed a prince to govern it, or rather, that place needed many princes to govern it.

He didn’t care whether that place was barren or whether life would be difficult. He only wanted to preserve for himself a space where he could breathe freely.

Li Er remained silent for a long time. The plan was placed before him. When he finished reading through the plan for the third time, he said to Zhangsun: “It’s acceptable, but his title of Prince of Yue will be revoked. From now on, when entering the capital, he can only follow the protocol for vassal princes. Annual tribute must not be interrupted. Whenever there is warfare, they will still be under the jurisdiction of the Grand Commander.”

Zhangsun said softly: “Removing the prince title—the Clan Court won’t be easy to pass either. The text in the jade register is not allowed to be altered.”

“To do great things, one must show great courage. I don’t know if Yuanxiang has this guts. If he agrees, he can pick any land beyond the nine provinces, and I will also send his mother to him for him to support personally.”

“Just for this one condition, Yuanxiang will probably risk everything. What, do you very much want to send all the princes to remote and barren places?” Zhangsun asked Li Er with puzzlement.

“The imperial clan has always been trouble since ancient times. They can think of expanding territory themselves and not disappoint the Li clan blood in their bodies. We are walking a path that our predecessors have never walked, so for anything, I want to see what it can ultimately develop into, and then find a path that can be walked and slowly proceed.”

Zhangsun nodded. What the Emperor said was not wrong at all. Li Yuanxiang’s matter was just a new attempt. Although there was no such precedent in previous historical records, the historical records also had no accounts of hot air balloons flying about. It was more or less just an experiment.

The husband and wife stood before the hall watching the slowly drifting hot air balloons. Li Er frowned and said: “What is Wuji trying to do? Since hot air balloons now have no reliable way of flying, why is he still making so many hot air balloons?”

“You’re wronging Wuji here. Thirty percent of the hot air balloons flying in the sky now belong to that profiteer He Shao. His hot air balloons only fly five or six zhang high, with pack horses pulling them below.”

Li Er’s brows furrowed even more tightly as he said with resentment: “If that’s the case, it would be better to use carriages directly. Why bother with all that trouble? Is the fuel for hot air balloons very cheap?”

Zhangsun laughed. Seeing Li Er’s anger hadn’t subsided, she put away her smile and said softly: “Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Hot air balloons don’t land, so they don’t have high requirements for the road. It’s especially suitable and stable for transporting porcelain from the official kilns. However, I heard that He Shao wanted to use hot air balloons on the Shu Roads, but the results weren’t very good. The mountain valleys there always have wind. After trying several times, it almost cost lives…”

When the sun was setting to the west, Yun Shou and Helan walked out of the imperial palace. Li Yuanxiang, with cracked lips and a flushed face, quickly grabbed Yun Shou to ask about the result.

Seeing Li Yuanxiang, Yun Shou only then remembered this matter. He broke free from his chubby hand and got into his family’s carriage, urging the carriage to start quickly. Helan chased for two steps and climbed into the carriage from behind, leaving only Li Yuanxiang standing alone at the palace gate, calling out loudly to Yun Shou: “What did they say exactly!”