“Your Majesty, there are just the four of us in this room. This humble subject also counts as Her Majesty’s disciple. Adding the matter of Anlan, saying we’re one family isn’t excessive. Whatever you have to say, just say it clearly and plainly. Guessing back and forth easily causes misunderstandings. Communication between people is very important. This youngster isn’t good at using court language to speak with You. Your needs are the first priority—this youngster understands very clearly in his heart. Whatever purpose You want to achieve, to what degree You want things done, please just instruct this youngster and I’ll execute it. I know these words are very improper. If You want to punish me, please be gentle—I was just beaten and truly can’t endure more.”

Under his irritation, Yun Ye simply spoke the truth. The two of them testing back and forth like two fools—things that could clearly be explained in one sentence, they had to make a big circle around.

Li Er’s tense face immediately relaxed. Zhangsun laughed so hard she swayed back and forth. Li Chengqian gave Yun Ye a thumbs up—Yun Ye was the only person who dared speak to his father like this.

“Who knows how your teacher taught you—slippery and also shameless. Speak plainly? Fine. Did you discover Us listening to your conversation outside the wall? How did you discover it? You even said a whole bunch of high-sounding nonsense. I really want to have someone beat you thirty more strikes with the board.” The behavior of lurking by the wall became an upright and honorable matter in Li Er’s mouth.

“Your Majesty, You clearly have no experience with this sort of thing. You stood under the tree and frightened the cicadas so they didn’t dare call. If this humble subject still didn’t know there was a group of people outside the wall eavesdropping, that would be too unworthy of my teacher’s instruction.”

As soon as the words fell, Zhangsun burst into laughter again. This time she even covered her mouth with a handkerchief, not afraid of suffocating to death. Li Er’s face turned the color of liver. A commander who had led armies for many years actually made this kind of mistake—it truly made him lose face.

Li Chengqian had never seen his father like this before. He wanted to laugh but didn’t dare, so he could only grimace while rubbing his belly. His stomach had probably long cramped up from laughing.

“Hmph, this time counts as Our miscalculation. Boy, how will you handle Anlan? From the imperial family’s standpoint, the land of Lingnan absolutely won’t allow another feudal king to appear—whether in name or in actuality, neither is permitted. As for making a little fortune, We don’t care about that.”

Perhaps Lingnan had always been Li Er’s concern. As an emperor, his commands not reaching all nine provinces was something Li Er absolutely could not tolerate. Moreover, after hearing Yun Ye’s words, discovering that Lingnan wasn’t a useless bone but rather a treasure land—how could he bear to give it up?

“Your Majesty, please don’t underestimate Lingnan’s profits. If managed well, to speak grandly, Your treasury’s several million strings of cash might not be as much as Lingnan’s profits. South of Annan there’s a country called Champa. There’s a type of rice there that can be planted three times a year. Each time takes less than a hundred days to mature. It’s most suitable for planting in Lingnan. If it gets promoted, the north has potatoes, corn, wheat, sorghum, soybeans, and millet—these crops. The south has rice that can be planted three times a year. If the Great Tang still has worries about famine, this humble subject will give You my head.”

Li Er was greedy. His desire for land could be called ravenously hungry. Luring him with benefits was very suitable for him.

“There’s truly such grain in the world?” Li Er stared fixedly at Yun Ye’s eyes, wanting to see through to the truth.

“You’ve already seen potatoes. What’s wrong with rice that has three crops? The world is vast. The Central Plains is absolutely not the center of the world. Cross over Tubo and there will be a large expanse of rich plains. The cultivated land there is over five times that of our Great Tang. The climate is warm and humid. It’s the so-called Buddha Kingdom—the place Monk Xuanzang wants to go is there.”

“We know of Xuanzang’s matter. You gave him a map but made him go around the distant Nine Kingdoms of Zhaowu. What’s the reason for making him trek thousands of miles?”

“He wants to seek those useless Buddhist doctrines, which bring harm but no benefit to our Great Tang. But the geographical features, scenery, customs and climate along the way are what our Great Tang greatly needs. This humble subject told him this journey could be called nine deaths for one life, yet his will remained unchanged. Such a good scout—how could this humble subject refuse his request?”

The Li family all looked at Yun Ye strangely. He’d originally thought they’d laugh hearing this sentence. Now their appearance was bizarre. Not one of the family of three was laughing, which made Yun Ye uneasy.

“Boy, treating a devout high monk like this—aren’t you afraid of an uneasy conscience?” Li Er didn’t speak. Zhangsun began verbal attacks. Looking at her appearance, she wished she could drag Yun Ye out to beat him again before being satisfied.

“This humble subject has long said to the Crown Prince—our Great Tang’s common people are the best common people under heaven. They’re hardworking and kind, loyal and simple. Why must they suffer a severe blow every few hundred years? Why can’t they just live peacefully? Every time there’s a dynastic change, our civilization suffers a severe blow. Then we rebuild new civilization from the ruins. The seed drill was lost, steel refining was lost, glass was lost. Even the wooden bird Lu Ban made that flew in the sky for three days and three nights was lost. We’ve lost too many good things. I asked Gongshu Mu—the wooden bird originally existed. It disappeared when the Eastern Jin crossed the river. If that thing still existed, this humble subject could build something to carry people flying in the sky. Unfortunately, there’s no actual object.”

“Right there not far from Chang’an, in Xianyang, there’s a piece of land. My academy’s Master Jin Zhu spent over three months investigating before confirming that place was the famous Epang Palace. We hired villagers to dig open the surface and still saw scorched earth and black mud. Back then, Chu’s Xiang Yu’s great fire swept away the people’s painstaking efforts clean. If I’d been in that era, I definitely would have had him torn apart by five horses.”

“My teacher once composed a rhapsody specifically about Epang Palace. This humble subject will recite it for Your Majesty now: The six kingdoms ended, the realm unified. Shu’s mountains were bare, Epang emerged. Covering over three hundred li, blocking out the sun for days. North of Mount Li it extended then turned west, running straight to Xianyang. Two rivers flowed gently into the palace walls… Alas! Those who destroyed the six kingdoms were the six kingdoms themselves, not Qin. Those who punished Qin were Qin itself, not the realm. Alack! Had the six kingdoms each loved their people, it would have been enough to resist Qin. Had Qin also loved the people of the six kingdoms, then through three generations it could have reached ten thousand generations as ruler—who could have exterminated the clan? The Qin people had no time to lament themselves, so later people lamented them. Later people lament them but don’t take warning—this also causes later people to lament still later people.”

Li Er and Zhangsun were both immersed in Master Du Mu’s magnificent prose and couldn’t extricate themselves. Zhangsun even took up a brush to write. This grand composition of over five hundred words exhausted the sorrows and joys of prosperity and decline. Destruction was so easy, yet construction was so arduous. Although this article was written by Du Mu for Li Er’s descendant, Emperor Jingzong of Tang, to read, how could that arrogant, extravagant and debauched fool understand the subtlety of this text? Better to give it to Li Er to read.

“Yun Ye, We finally believe you have a teacher like an immortal. Previously We always doubted whether there truly was such a person of high moral character as you described. Now with this composition emerging, We believe it. No matter how clever you are, you couldn’t say: ‘The Qin people had no time to lament themselves, so later people lamented them. Later people lament them but don’t take warning—this also causes later people to lament still later people.’ Only one who grieves for heaven and pities people can speak such words. Guanyin Maid, prepare brush and ink for Us. We must transcribe the full text and engrave it on a screen to observe day and night as a warning.”

Li Er, infected by the article and moved to sorrowful sympathy, seemed to forget about Lingnan’s matter. Using his beautiful clerical script, he began writing on a large piece of paper. Not knowing why, their memory was very good. An article that Yun Ye had memorized for a full week under his teacher’s supervision before remembering, the Li Er couple had heard only once and transcribed without a single error. They even corrected several places where Yun Ye had misrecited.

After finishing writing, Li Er had Yun Ye check it once more. Only after confirming there were no errors did he say: “You’re just a scoundrel. The treasures your teacher left behind have all been wasted by you. You haven’t even fully recognized all the variant characters, yet you dare be a teacher at the academy. Fortunately there’s Li Gang and the others. Otherwise We would immediately have Qing Que and them return. How extreme is this misleading of students!”

“Your Majesty, the day is already late. This humble subject’s body is very uncomfortable. Could You release this humble subject to go home? After the injuries improve, we can discuss Lingnan’s matter again?” Seeing Li Er’s mood had improved somewhat, Yun Ye planned to slip away.

“Body uncomfortable? You just took twenty bamboo strikes. What’s so uncomfortable about that? Moreover, Shouyang already applied medicine for you. There’s no serious problem. Back in the day We served as a subordinate general under someone surnamed Yun. We took plenty of board strikes too. Who told you to be surnamed Yun? I heard that fellow is related to your family? He was a despicable petty person. For glory and wealth, he’d do anything. Fortunately, you boy aren’t like him. Otherwise We would behead you first.”

You took board strikes under Yun Dingxing’s command—why should I repay that debt? Originally already thoroughly disgusted with Yun Dingxing, now mentioning him, Yun Ye felt nauseated.

“Your Majesty, if You find this humble subject displeasing, just beat me again. Don’t use Yun Dingxing to disgust my Yun family. I can’t find him now, but if I knew where he was, I’d tear him apart with my own hands. My Yun family’s disaster arose because of him. Without the brains for it, he still had great ambition. He caused the death of all the men in my family. If Your Majesty discovers his whereabouts, please tell this humble subject. Even if it’s thousands of miles away, I’ll dismember him.”

“Mm, quite the appearance of righteous indignation. Can’t find him, boy. Back when We battled Xue Ju, Yun Dingxing was a subordinate general in Xue Ju’s army. We set a great fire that sent them fleeing in panic. In the chaos of battle, countless were trampled to death. He’s probably long dead. If you want revenge, there’s probably no chance. Yun Dingxing was also fortunate to die early. Otherwise, falling into your hands, boy—tsk tsk—We don’t even want to imagine his fate.”

“Yun Ye, you’ll stay in the Eastern Palace and live together with the Crown Prince. This Empress will have someone send He Shao back. Today’s matters are complicated. This Empress needs to carefully weigh things. Tomorrow when His Majesty is free, we’ll continue discussing Lingnan. You also prepare tonight. You spoke correctly—we’re one family. You can’t give Shouyang status, and the imperial family doesn’t allow princesses to be concubines. This state of affairs is best—no one owes anyone. In the matter of Lingnan, His Majesty still needs you to give your opinion.”

Zhangsun spoke clearly and plainly. Shouyang’s matter was settled like this. Yun Ye obtained a child. Shouyang had someone to rely on. The Emperor had a reliable person to manage remote territory. All the meritorious nobles had a new place to make fortunes. Everyone was happy—no need to complicate matters further.

Indeed there was no need. Using “The Rhapsody of Epang Palace” to shift Li Er’s attention was a topic Yun Ye had prepared long ago. Otherwise, constantly scheming about Li Anlan would make Yun Ye extremely uneasy. Adults were one thing, but the child couldn’t withstand turmoil. The sooner things were settled, the sooner he could feel at ease.