(Some readers have pointed out that the Tang Dynasty did not have a Court of Imperial Clan Affairs, but rather the Court of Imperial Family – this is correct. The Court of Imperial Family governed the imperial clan and was essentially the institution managing all clan matters. “Court of Imperial Clan Affairs” is a colloquial term, and the author strives to simplify these complex matters for clarity. This explanation is provided here for reference.)
“In the summer of the twentieth year of Zhenguan, black-clad men leaped and bounded through the Imperial Palace, causing disturbance beside the Emperor’s residence. The Emperor flew into a great rage and had all the black-clad men executed in the public marketplace. He seized Crown Prince Chengqian, Prince Wei Tai, and Marquis Lantian Yun Ye and imprisoned them in the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs. The capital region was in an uproar.”
“At that time, an imperial relative of the Zhangsun clan acted furtively. Later, when selecting palace women, there was one woman whose radiance was dazzling and whose beauty was beyond compare. When the Crown Prince, Prince Wei, and Marquis Lantian were strolling through the imperial gardens, they happened upon her. Startled by her heavenly appearance, their hearts stirred with desire to pursue this beauty.”
“Unable to yield to one another, they resolved to determine the victor through the martial prowess of their attendants. Beauty bewitches people – pitiably, two hundred innocent attendants lost their lives and descended into the yellow springs of the underworld. The beauty turned and hanged herself from a beam. Under the bright light of day, such evil deeds occurred. As the Master said: Shameful!”
Yan Shigu had questioned all the nobles of Chang’an regarding the matter of the two hundred-plus corpses, but not one person dared tell him the truth. Finally, after great difficulty learning the facts from Zhangsun Wuji’s own mouth, he was filled with uncontrollable fury. With iron brush, he recorded the matter faithfully, vowing to nail these three lust-crazed scoundrels firmly to history’s pillar of shame. He prepared himself to face their retaliation, deliberately carving the account on bamboo slips to send into the palace as a backup record. He remained at home all day, waiting for the villains to come to his door so that after denouncing them fiercely, he would take his own life, thus completely extinguishing any thoughts they might have of altering the record.
After Li Er read the bamboo slips, he merely chuckled and ordered someone to file them away, offering not the slightest explanation. The shameful incidents on his own head were already too numerous to count – he didn’t care about this one more. As for those three scoundrels, they purely brought it upon themselves. Li Er felt there was nothing that required explanation. Rather than saying the Crown Prince was preparing rebellion, it was better to say the three of them were scoundrels – this was fine. However, when his eyes fell upon a resurrection plant on the desk, his gaze immediately dimmed. Was immortality truly just a joke, as Yun Ye had said?
The night at Wanmin Palace was bright as day. Jade tablets on all four sides emitted white light, illuminating the entire great hall with brilliant radiance. Looking up from Chang’an Street, one could see this magnificent palace. Now, few people called it Wanmin Palace anymore. The palace name that originally didn’t even avoid the Emperor’s personal name had gradually been forgotten by the world, replaced by the name “Hall of Light.”
“History books are full of people with bad reputations – adding us three doesn’t amount to anything. Anyway, I’ve never hoped to be praised by history books. People who get praised generally live rather miserable lives. On the contrary, notorious killers live vigorous and lively lives causing havoc in the world, so I don’t care at all.”
Yun Ye’s face was covered with paper slips. Whenever he spoke, those paper slips flew about in all directions. He threw down his cards in frustration.
Li Tai’s mouth tasted a bit bitter. He couldn’t bring himself to speak so boldly about not minding leaving a stinking name for ten thousand years, because he was wholeheartedly determined to become a sage on the path of learning – his character could not have flaws.
Li Chengqian had long been trained by the art of emperorship to have thick skin and a dark heart. Upon hearing about his bad reputation, he didn’t even show an expression. As long as he could become Emperor, he didn’t care how badly he was spoken of.
“Actually it’s simple. Among you three, two are thick-skinned and one is thin-skinned. You just need to reinterpret this story. For example, the ones who truly fought over the beauty were Chengqian and Yun Ye. Qing Que was completely different from those two – he only wanted to protect that woman from harm and also wanted to prevent their two groups of attendants from attacking each other. The result…”
Zhangsun Chong’s face also had many paper slips. As for Cheng Chumo, one could only see a vast expanse of white – his eyebrows and eyes were long since invisible.
Li Huairen smacked his lips twice and said: “Being in jail actually isn’t bad. If there are two cups of wine to drink and you all to keep me company, spending a lifetime without going out wouldn’t be such a big deal.”
Li Tai curled his lips dismissively and said: “Why does that petty older brother of yours still target you? You’re not the heir to the princedom. The one who will inherit your father’s title in the future is him. Why does he keep guarding against you? That Earl title of yours is quite good – you earned it yourself. Over these years, among us, aside from Yun Ye, you’re the one who’s shed blood in battle the most. The banner of Earl Wu’an is quite resounding. We all recognize you as Earl Wu’an. Why do you stay at Prince Hejian’s mansion? It’s not as if there are no houses to live in outside. If you want to move out, any of us could prepare a household for you with just a word. Why suffer that misery so dejected?”
“I’ve already moved out, left with nothing but the clothes on my back. I didn’t take a single thing from home. Now I’m just getting by on my meager salary, living a miserable life. From now on, when drinking at flower houses or opening establishments, I’ll leave the bill-paying to you all.”
“The descendants of Prince Hejian living worse than Butcher Wang – you deserve it. Your wife is capable too. Whatever she wants to do, just have her discuss it with Xinyue. Such trivial matters don’t even deserve to be brought up at our brothers’ table.”
“From now on, keep drinking at the flower houses we should drink at, keep opening the establishments we should open. Missing even one drinking session would be a disgrace to us brothers.”
Zhangsun Chong put down his cards and also pulled off the paper slips on his face. He said mysteriously to the others: “When you all were locked up, I heard from my father that the court plans to sell some islands in the South Sea. Do you think this is aimed at the Distant Island? Ye Zi, you’re most familiar with the South Sea situation – tell us about the conditions there.”
Since they were discussing serious matters, several people put down their cards, ready to hear what Yun Ye had to say. Even Li Chengqian pricked up his ears. After all, before actually becoming Emperor, anything could happen – there was nothing wrong with leaving a backup plan.
“Selling islands in the South Sea? Who would dare buy? That place is truly where the heavens are high and the Emperor is far away. For His Majesty’s edicts to reach the Distant Island would take at least a year.”
“Do you know how many islands there are in the South Sea? That’s a land of ten thousand islands – could they possibly sell them all? Even if you relocated all of Great Tang’s current population there, you still couldn’t fill all those islands. In the nineteenth year of Zhenguan, our total population hadn’t even reached one hundred million. And that’s after these years of people not worrying about food and drink and having children like mad.”
“The reason I chose the Distant Island back then was precisely because I valued that place’s advantageous nature. If you advance several thousand more li into the deep sea, there are even more islands. The largest piece of land is no smaller than the Central Plains. Selling islands – even selling for a hundred years wouldn’t reach the Distant Island. You can all rest easy.”
Cheng Chumo asked dumbly: “Is it really that large?”
Li Tai took a dried steamed bun from the windowsill and slowly chewed it, saying: “It might be even more than that. People who haven’t been to that place simply have no way to imagine it. The islands I saw were countless. Big brother, after you become Emperor, you should properly develop that place. Now the Great Lakes region has become increasingly prosperous. Yuezhou has already become a major metropolis – they say its population has already surpassed the Eastern Capital Luoyang.”
“When further development comes, it should be Lingnan, slowly pushing southward. This is work for several hundred years. Actually, Father Emperor’s heart is not set on the lands north of Khotan. That place is bitterly cold and simply cannot compare to the wealth of the south.”
“Not to mention anything else, just the rice varieties brought back from Annan can ensure two harvests a year. What does the north have besides sand, cattle, and sheep? Who cares about those few broken camels?”
“Land doesn’t matter in size but in quality. We cannot occupy every place entirely, and ultimately we cannot drive away all other peoples. Doing so would truly make enemies of the entire world. If warfare continues year after year, that is not the normal state of a nation. Enfeoffed princes will only be allocated to wilderness areas – they cannot possibly be enfeoffed in the Central Plains again.”
For the first time, Li Chengqian publicly stated his political position before everyone. If nothing unexpected happened, these few people in front of him would be his most core ruling team. By speaking out his position early and letting each person consider it, when the time came to implement these policies, it wouldn’t be too sudden.
Li Er was naturally grand in vision and strategy. Under his rule, the empire had engaged in unlimited expansion. The territory had long ago surpassed that of the Two Han dynasties, reaching the limits of what he could control. But such control was fragile and could not last long. Listening to the meaning in Li Chengqian’s words, what he wanted to do was selectively develop wealthy lands and enfeoff the princes with barbarous lands as barriers for the nation.
Such enfeoffment had been done by Zhu Yuanzhang. Yun Ye was clear about this – Prince of Yan Zhu Di still overthrew the legitimate dynasty. The variables in doing this were too great. The power of enfeoffed princes would far exceed that of provincial governors – this was a disadvantage.
Since ancient times, China’s unifications had always been from north to south. It was always northerners ruling southerners. This was related to military matters and had nothing to do with wealth. No matter how brilliant a civilization the southern people created, they could not withstand the iron cavalry from the north. The brilliant civilizations created over several generations, over a dozen generations, would all be trampled to pieces by barbarous iron hooves.
“Military power! Military power absolutely cannot be granted to the same person as governance power, unless that person is the Emperor. I even believe that criminal law should be an independent department and should not be constrained by the Three Departments! In this way, military power, governance power, and judicial power – these three powers should be an emperor’s most powerful pillars, indispensable. Otherwise, it is courting self-destruction.”
Zhangsun Chong used a tree branch to sketch out the empire’s territory map on the ground with just a few strokes. Pointing at the three places of Jinyang, Luoyang, and Chang’an, he said: “The pattern of the Three Capitals is too limited. I believe the empire’s Eastern Capital should be in Zhuojun, the Southern Capital should be in Guangzhou, and with the Western Capital Chang’an, these would constitute the true Three Capitals. These three places should be connected by Qin-era highways. If we could use steel as rails, establish post stations every thirty li, and have fine horses pull carriages, in this way, one could travel a thousand li in a day and night. The Emperor’s inspections would naturally be very swift. If there were changes in the localities, central armies suppressing them could also arrive quickly and control situations in their budding stages.”
“Day and night I am tormented by my vision, unable to sleep peacefully. If in this life I could achieve this goal, I would die without regrets!”