Li Chengqian held the jade plaque, turning it over and over, but couldn’t make heads or tails of it. He then gave the jade plaque to Li Tai. The surface was covered with dots and circles—no matter how one looked at it, it seemed like a child’s doodle, with not a trace of any pattern to be found.
“Ye Zi, you should keep this jade plaque. The two of us can’t figure it out. You already have two others—perhaps you can discover some earth-shattering secret from them.”
Hearing Li Chengqian’s words, Yun Ye laughed. He took the jade pendant and tossed it in his hand, saying, “What secret? White Jade Capital? Regarding knowledge of unknowable places, I should be the most erudite person in the world. There’s not the slightest possibility of going to the White Jade Capital. If it’s a treasure map, you and I already can’t gather up all the wealth in the mortal world—who has the spare time to look for them? Even if there were a million taels of gold here, so what? So much gold entering the Great Tang would only bring disaster. The market will naturally adjust supply and demand. No matter how much gold enters the market, in the end, the increased total amount of gold will buy about the same amount of things as before the increase. If we weren’t the rulers of the country, we could still profit from it. But now, the country is ours—who do you plan to swindle?”
“Chengqian, before you’re ready to issue new currency, we hate those who arbitrarily bury large amounts of copper coins in the ground, because we need copper coins for market circulation. Now there’s no need for that. The Great Tang will no longer have any currency shortage problem in the future. When necessary, the bank drafts from money houses are also money. Gold and silver are merely the capital you use to issue currency. You issue as many drafts as there is gold and silver—this is a principle that must be observed. If there’s too little money, it’s inconvenient for the common people, and they’ll revert to the habit of bartering. Too much money is also bad—grain that originally sold for six wen will rise to eight wen, ten wen.”
“So, Chengqian, Qing Que, when you’re idle and treat it as a hobby to search for the secrets within—that’s quite an amusing thing. But to put your main energy into this would be utterly foolish.”
These words completely deflated the excitement of the Li brothers, who had been thrilled just moments before. To them, the jade plaque was a useless thing, perhaps even a curse. Neither had any interest in looking at it again.
“Let’s give this thing to Mother. The three of us wandering all over the Imperial Palace need a suitable excuse. We can’t mention the poison. We finally got that woman settled properly—it wouldn’t be worth it to get her killed over poison.”
The jade pendant was tossed back to Li Chengqian. Yun Ye saw an ancient tree bark mask hanging by the dressing table. The craftsmanship was crude, but the face was ferocious, with two white fangs exposed on the outside. It looked very much like a Nuo opera mask. Since the Heavenly Demon Concubine had hung it here, it must be a cherished possession. Yun Ye took down the mask, blew off the dust, and the three of them left the courtyard listlessly, talking and laughing as they prepared to return to the Eastern Palace. Li Chengqian’s household had fresh sea cucumbers sent from Dengzhou, and they planned to make a large pot of them while the three of them drank some wine.
If the Imperial Palace was a giant spider web, Empress Zhangsun was undoubtedly the large spider in the center of the web. She appeared, seemingly by chance, on the path the three brothers were taking back to the Eastern Palace, followed by quite a few minions. Looking at the eunuch quietly making his report, one could tell this fellow was a gossipy informant.
Li Tai was most favored in front of his mother. Seeing someone betraying him, he couldn’t care less—without saying a word, he went up and kicked that eunuch several times, then pointed his nose to the sky to show he was very angry.
Acting spoiled had always been the exclusive privilege of the youngest son. The eldest didn’t have such qualifications. Li Chengqian said to his mother with a smile, “Mother, your son, along with Qing Que and Xiao Ye, had nothing to do, so we walked around the abandoned garden to clear our minds. We didn’t expect to actually have a harvest. Look at this thing. You’ve always said that all the good things were obtained by Xiao Ye. Now our family has good things too.”
Under Empress Zhangsun’s puzzled gaze, Li Chengqian took out the jade plaque from his sleeve and handed it to his mother. Empress Zhangsun’s brow immediately furrowed. Whether this thing was real or fake, she didn’t like it. Talk of immortals was too illusory—she’d never heard of anyone succeeding. Her husband had already reached the pinnacle of worldly power. The next step would be eternal life. How many emperors had failed at this, seeking immortals unsuccessfully only to become laughingstocks? The more brilliant the emperor, the more he believed in the existence of immortals. Her husband frequently revealed the sentiment that life was too short. She was very vigilant about this problem. To be an enlightened ruler, one must first not seek immortals. Once a person begins seeking the Way and immortality, they would disregard everything around them.
Empress Zhangsun’s mind worked rapidly like lightning. She casually glanced at the jade plaque twice, then gave it to Yun Ye, saying, “Not bad ancient jade, though the carving is a bit poor. It’s yours as a reward. From far away I heard you three saying you were going to eat sea cucumbers. If Yun Ye is cooking, adding one more person isn’t too many, right?”
Yun Ye helplessly gripped the jade plaque in his hand. Just as he was about to speak, he saw Li Er walking over from a distance and quickly hid the plaque. Empress Zhangsun didn’t care, but if Li Er saw it, he would explode. An expedition team would probably be formed immediately, and if he himself were the leader, that would be disastrous.
“Qing Que, you should rein in your petty temper. Why quibble with a eunuch? He reports to your mother as part of his duty. Don’t do this again next time. Yun Ye, show me what the Empress gave you. What, I can’t even look at something found in the Imperial Palace?”
Most unwillingly, he gave the jade pendant to Li Er. He watched as Li Er played with it curiously in his hand, looking it over front and back, even holding it up to the sun to see if there were any hidden layers in the jade. The sight of a dignified emperor holding up a jade pendant to look at the sun was very peculiar. Empress Zhangsun supported Li Er, worried he might get dizzy from looking and fall.
“Weren’t you going to eat sea cucumbers? I’ll go too.” Li Er gripped the jade pendant in his hand, looking like he had no intention of returning it.
Secretly stuffing the wooden box to Li Chengqian and telling him to hide it well, Yun Ye went to the kitchen himself to prepare the sea cucumbers. Ever since Yun Ye made sea cucumbers last time and Li Chengqian ate them, he couldn’t stop thinking about the dish. The Dengzhou Magistrate, Yuan Dake, wanted to help the people of Dengzhou sell marine products, so he had to cultivate a large group of people who enjoyed eating seafood. Hearing that His Highness the Crown Prince had this preference, a light boat traveled day and night without stopping to rush to Chang’an. Even so, by the time it reached Chang’an, barely one in ten of the live sea cucumbers survived.
They were large in size and plump in body, pleasing just to look at. They had long since expelled all the sand, and their innards had been purged. This ingredient didn’t require much effort. Braised sea cucumber with scallions was originally a grand dish.
Yun Ye was most impatient with making small plates of dishes. What he liked most was making a large basin, surrounded by gluttons—especially Empress Zhangsun. The scene of her eating pork belly at his home last time was vividly etched in Yun Ye’s memory.
Should this basin be enough for five people to eat? Yun Ye looked at the porcelain basin as large as a washbasin and murmured to himself. Paired with pearl rice, there was no reason it shouldn’t be enough.
The dish was brought to the table. Yun Ye picked up a small section of scallion white and had the food-tasting eunuch eat it. Seeing the eunuch about to reach for the sea cucumber, Li Tai, disregarding that his father had just reprimanded him, kicked the eunuch out with one foot.
He fished out several sea cucumbers from the basin himself and ate them all in one go. Only then did he ladle out a bowl each for his father and mother, saying incessantly, “Father Emperor, your son most loves the large pot dishes Ye Zi makes—full of flavor and generous in portion, nothing better. You should try it. Who knew things from the sea were this delicious?”
Li Er was still examining the jade pendant in his hand. Just now he had deliberately washed it with water, doing it himself, placing the jade pendant in a water basin. Looking left and right, he still couldn’t figure out anything. Hearing Li Tai speak, he set the jade pendant on the dining table, picked up a sea cucumber, took a bite, exclaimed in surprise, and the speed of his hands immediately became rapid.
“Your Majesty, Your Majesty has always enjoyed eating meat. Both of you suffer from rheumatism. Eating too much meat isn’t beneficial, but eating more sea cucumber indeed has benefits. It can even delay and treat rheumatism. The fishermen by the sea live in hardship. These sea cucumbers must be caught one by one from the shallow sea—time-consuming and labor-intensive. When this subject was in Dengzhou, in the cold days of early spring, those fishermen would go into the sea bare-bodied, searching everywhere on the seabed. What they obtained in a day was merely a dozen or so. Transporting them to Chang’an was even more difficult—if one in ten survived, that was considered lucky.”
Li Er seemed not to hear. Empress Zhangsun looked at the basin with regret and put down her chopsticks, saying, “Though this food is good, it’s difficult to obtain. It wastes the people’s resources and wealth. Better not to eat it.” Li Er stuffed the chopsticks back into Empress Zhangsun’s hands and told Yun Ye to continue speaking.
“Your Majesty’s compassion for the common people is naturally a mother’s benevolent heart. These sea cucumbers should still be eaten, and need to be eaten more. This subject doesn’t know about others, but the origin of Chengqian’s sea cucumbers is clear to this subject. The Dengzhou Magistrate, Yuan Dake, has always had great ambitions. Dengzhou is located by the sea. The land is eroded by seawater and severely salinized. The fields produce very little. To treat the salinization requires irrigation and flushing—the project is complex. After farming for two years, the land needs to be washed again.”
“Fortunately, Heaven is fair. Though it didn’t give them good soil, it gave them a bountiful ocean. Whale meat is no longer a rare commodity in Chang’an now. Kelp and sea vegetables—if Your Majesty goes to Chang’an restaurants in winter, every household has them. Salted fish and dried shrimp have also become everyday foods. This is all the merit of the ocean.”
“Chengqian buys sea cucumbers from the seaside and transports them back. No matter how much waste there is, the one paying is the Crown Prince’s household. In this, the fishermen profit, and the officials have taxes to collect. As long as there’s no extortion or plunder, the common people and the government will both benefit. Money is something that needs to keep moving, flowing from one person’s hands to another person’s hands to fulfill its original purpose.”
“You and the Crown Prince are good friends. Aren’t you worried that the censors will impeach you for extreme extravagance?”
“Money sitting motionless in the treasury year after year is the greatest waste. Every so often, my wife has to move out the silver and copper coins to sun them, and also soak the silver in medicinal water. Otherwise, the silver will turn black and the copper coins will rust—tiresome beyond measure. When money is spent, there are always those who benefit. What sits in the storehouse is called silver, not money.”
“Hehe, you mean frugality and thrift are wrong? Everyone should spend money while in debt? For example, I should now extensively build gardens and parks? What kind of logic is that?”
“If we reach the time when everyone spends money while in debt, this subject dares say that at that time Your Majesty won’t need to collect any agricultural taxes at all. Perhaps the common people farming will even receive subsidies issued by Your Majesty.”