Du Wei had also returned to Chang’an. He found an inn in Xinghua Ward to settle down first, then lay in the bathtub considering what he needed to do tomorrow. Today he had seen that old man return to Chang’an, which meant all those idle rumors circulating outside had become baseless nonsense. As long as this old man remained visible to the world, the entire Great Tang would remain unsettled for another day.
The North-South dialogue now had quite a market. Those prosperous Southerners wanted more rights. Great Tang divided the realm into ten circuits, which naturally created distinctions of priority and inferiority. Lingnan and the Two Lakes regions had gradually grown wealthy in recent years, even surpassing critical areas like Hebei, Henan, and Shandong. Yet whether in policy favoritism or support intensity, the court fell far short of those three places.
Speaking of closeness, Yuezhou believed it deserved even more attention. Most people here had originally migrated from Chang’an—walk Yuezhou’s streets and listen, and every mouth spoke standard Guanzhong dialect. Why should Henan Circuit enjoy complete agricultural tax exemptions while the Two Lakes had to pay an additional ten percent on top of the original basis?
Officials from these two places spent their days submitting memorials crying injustice for the common people under their jurisdiction. Not long ago, troops from the Sixteen Guards had emerged from Hanzhong, eyeing Yuezhou with covetous intent.
Some self-important people loudly proclaimed their conclusions, believing North-South war had become inevitable. This time differed from any past rebellion—previous uprisings occurred because people had no food and rose in revolt, but this potential rebellion carried different implications. This was naked struggle for power, with Southern people reaching out to demand equal treatment from Northerners. Some speculated that once such a war erupted, everyone would have no room to retreat. This concerned not one or two individuals’ interests, but everyone’s interests. Once war began, it would be a fight to the death!
That old man had returned to Chang’an, which meant the outside talk was pure nonsense—meaning war wouldn’t break out. Thinking of his rivet business, Du Wei’s heart felt like it contained a ball of fire. As long as there was no war, North and South could only continue integrating and exchanging. That meant the great bridge would certainly be built. Only by transforming natural barriers into thoroughfares could this nation truly become solid as iron.
Du Wei believed that he, as chief manager, should have even brighter prospects. He never believed Great Tang would build only one great bridge across the Yangtze. Didn’t the Yellow River need one? Didn’t the Huai River need one?
Du Wei even believed bridges should be built across all the nation’s great rivers, with those damned trains running across them. Why couldn’t the workshops under his jurisdiction take on some railway spikes? Or other small items?
His heart burned intensely. The old man had returned to Chang’an—war wouldn’t break out, all was well! Great Tang’s great construction was about to begin. The massive wealth in Great Tang’s banks was about to be distributed…
When the red sun rose high, Wanmin Palace was crowded with people. After Zhangsun Chong finished reporting to the court on progress regarding land reform issues, Minister of Works Zhang Jianzhi could no longer contain himself and jumped forward, preparing to put the Yangtze Great Bridge at Hankou on the agenda. Simultaneously submitted were feasibility reports for three other bridges, urging the court to decide quickly on connecting North and South. Now, while North-South contradictions hadn’t yet reached irreconcilability, they should hasten the great North-South integration. Finally he said that people living on Great Tang soil should have no North-South division or hierarchical distinctions.
If Zhang Jianzhi’s memorial spoke to Li Chengqian’s heart, then Yun Shou’s memorial pleased Li Chengqian even more. Because Yun Shou analyzed the importance of bridge construction from military strategic perspectives as well—once great bridges connected through, railways could follow step by step, and elite troops from Guanzhong could reach any part of Great Tang in the shortest time. Speed and efficiency were what military men persistently pursued. If the court could build more than three bridges across the Yangtze, the Sixteen Guards and Xuanjia Army, Lingnan Navy, and East Sea Navy—these elite forces could increase their capability to control Great Tang’s territory by thirty percent.
Li Tai sat in a large chair, protruding his enormous belly without standing, and said quite casually, “Some time ago people said North and South would go to war. This prince originally wanted to go slap the mouths of these rumormongers. Great Tang is completely peaceful—nobody wants to rebel, nobody wishes to rebel. Duke Chu went out touring for a while and such rumors emerged. Don’t let this prince discover who spread them—if I find out, you’d better pray for your own blessings.”
Seeing his brother had already spoken, Li Chengqian said with a smile, “Mouths grow on other people’s faces—can you really seal them all? Let them talk while we do our own work. Since the Academy already has mature plans, let all ministers deliberate further on whether the national treasury can support such enormous expenditures.”
Li Tai smiled and said, “Actually, it won’t cost the treasury much. Your subject brother has an idea—why not give your brother the great bridge between Jingkou and Guazhou to construct? Not far from Jingkou is Gaozhou, which counts as entering Lingnan territory. Your subject brother plans to finance building this bridge, then collect fifty years of bridge tolls—of course, only from vehicles and merchants, not from pedestrians, and no charges to military forces. Finding a livelihood for descendants—Imperial Brother, what do you think?”
Li Tai had discussed this matter with Li Chengqian early this morning. To avoid excessively stimulating Feng Zhidai and Li Rong in Lingnan, this bridge should best be nominally constructed by Li Tai. This way, smooth project progress could be guaranteed. Nowadays, Prince Wei’s golden reputation worked very well—though some in the world might not give the Emperor face, few refused to give Prince Wei face.
Zhangsun Chong wanted to step forward and say his family could undertake construction of the Hankou Great Bridge. Seeing Li Chengqian apparently had no intention of contracting out all the bridges, he could only keep silent. Moreover, he smelled Yun Ye’s strong scent in this matter.
How could a person be selfless to such a degree? The fury in Zhangsun Chong’s heart had nowhere to express itself. Yun Ye didn’t care about Lingnan or Yuezhou, but he himself still had to care about Zhaozhou and Liaodong!
Could it be that Yun Ye no longer possessed ambition, no longer had long-term plans to replace the dynasty? Why was this?
“Why? I detest endless dynastic changes. Even if the Yun family won, after one or two hundred years, wouldn’t the Yun family still be replaced by others? Doing this has no meaning at all—I won’t do it! As long as the Yun family can have a voice in this nation called Tang, what does it matter whether we become emperor or not?”
“Being emperor is like sitting your ass on a volcano crater. If your ass is big enough, you can still suppress the volcano. If your ass isn’t big enough, just wait to be burned to ashes by the volcano. I can’t be emperor, and Shou’er can’t either. Since our two most promising generations can’t do it, don’t burden ourselves with this load.”
Yun Ye had a pipe in his mouth while massaging Xinyue’s legs through the quilt—just moments ago, Xinyue had started cramping again.
Xinyue spat at her husband without good humor. At several decades old, still making such vulgar jokes! Triumphantly, she took an ornately jeweled sandalwood box from the bedside, carefully opened it, pinched out a longan-sized medicine pill, and said with a smile, “These Life-Extending Pills you brought are so comfortable to take—this is what I should be eating. Since using this, I’ve rarely gotten cramps. That little beast Yun Shou actually wanted me to eat Wang Cai’s medicine pills—black and disgusting just to look at.”
“In the end, children are unreliable—only you know how to cherish me.”
Yun Ye chuckled and said, “Good that you know. I specifically stole this from the Shaolin Temple Scripture Repository. Now Shishi’s father, Master Jue Yuan, is the abbot. When I stole them, he pretended not to see. This old man helped him raise his daughter for decades—he still has to give me that much face.”
Xinyue swallowed the pill with warm water. The pill was rather large and somewhat difficult to swallow, but thinking this was Shaolin Temple’s secret transmission, Xinyue didn’t mind. Good things never completely satisfy people’s wishes.
After taking the medicine, she carefully hid the box away. There was only one box of this stuff—who knew if there would be more after finishing it.
“Eat boldly without worry. I didn’t just steal the pills—I stole the secret formula too. When we finish these, our family will make more. Later we’ll change to smaller packaging and sell it throughout Great Tang. Yun family products are definitely premium goods!”
Whether in her maiden years or now, Xinyue most loved seeing her husband’s spirited appearance. Her husband hadn’t looked this way for many years, but now it appeared again, which could only mean his mood was very good now.
Yun Ye’s joy didn’t last very long. A white-haired old widow came storming to his door. This couldn’t be helped—Zhangsun had thoroughly transformed into an ancestral matriarch. Though her back remained quite straight, she insisted on leaning on a dragon-headed cane, claiming it was a treasure for striking muddle-headed rulers above and slanderous ministers below. She said the Late Emperor had bestowed it when departing, telling her to discipline Li family descendants. Nonsense! Li Er was dying, and he himself was right there—never heard of such a thing. But he couldn’t afford to offend her!
Li Chengqian didn’t refute it, Li Tai even less so. Therefore, Yun Ye, as a son-in-law, had even less qualification to refute. If she said this thing existed, then it existed. Only, Zhangsun coming to the Yun residence every few days to demonstrate the dragon-headed cane’s power was killing him.
“This disciple is greedy for food, but not a greedy minister. Your cane that strikes muddle-headed rulers above and slanderous ministers below cannot strike this disciple. I haven’t attended court for many years, so this ‘greedy’ character can only be explained through the mouth, not from other angles.”
Zhangsun handed the cane to her personal maid and sighed, “Strike what? You few give this old woman face and keep utterly silent no matter how I scold—this is filial piety, I know! But you go out for long periods, and what if I die? You won’t even see me one last time. Just thinking about it makes me anxious.”
“It’s best you’ve returned. If you had stayed in the South and refused to return, I wouldn’t even know whether living or dying would be better!”