Whether Lady Rong Hua was pleading or threatening, even if she wrote her essay all the way up to heaven, it could not change the Great Tang’s inherent rhythm of operation—just like these consecutive ten days of clear weather that had melted much of the snow on the ground. Actually there wasn’t much change; it had only transformed its form—the snow had become ice.
Becoming ice had one benefit—people could travel now. Although one could fall several hundred times a day, at least news from outside could get in. Yun Ye looked at the messenger before him with a bruised and swollen face and an arm in a sling, took the official dispatch from his hand, and after inspecting the wax seal, had a clerk take him down to rest and treat his injuries.
There was no good news. As soon as the door opened, there was no good news. Li Daozong’s army was defeated at Dragon King Ridge. Of the three thousand vanguard troops, only about one hundred escaped back. In his official dispatch, Li Daozong said that Meng Shezhao had giant elephants to assist him and caught the Tang army off guard. He was preparing to personally go to Dragon King Ridge—not killing all the natives there would not be enough to vent his anger.
“Foolish! When General Ma Yuan, the Tree General, pacified Nanzhao, he faced off against elephants. When Zhuge Liang entered Nanzhao, he also faced off against elephants. Why could they all fight and defeat them, yet only my Great Tang must lose troops and disgrace the nation? Before Li Daozong entered Nanzhao, did he not prepare against Nanzhao’s elephants?”
Chang’an had established contact with the outside, and Li Er immediately recovered his usual imposing manner. In the spacious great hall, he alone was roaring. What was originally thought to be an easily won campaign had now had their front teeth knocked out by the other side—all face was lost.
“Yun Ye, you are familiar with Nanzhao. Tell me, are elephants very difficult to deal with?” After Li Er roared for a while and calmed down, seeing that all the ministers remained silent, he personally called on someone by name.
“This subject has not directly faced off against elephants. I only played mountain god drumming once in Lingnan. Those elephants seemed extremely afraid of the thunderous sound produced by gunpowder explosions. As for whether war elephants are afraid, this subject does not know.”
Hearing Yun Ye’s words, Li Er became even more furious, slapping the dragon desk and saying loudly: “Possessing a powerful weapon yet not knowing how to use it—Li Daozong bears the name of famous general in vain. Heavy snow besieged Chang’an for most of half a month. The final drafted date of this battle report is from three months ago. Now the second battle at Dragon King Ridge has probably already ended. Victory or defeat aside, we must fully support him. The Ministry of War shall allocate gunpowder from the arsenal to support Li Daozong.”
Li Er was like this—when his own people made mistakes, he always scolded fiercely, but the actual punishment was light. When Li Daozong left, he had already taken all the gunpowder from the arsenal. Where was there gunpowder to give him now? With fifty thousand jin of gunpowder, even if Li Daozong ate it, he could eat for a while. Why give him more?
“Your Majesty, the arsenal only has five hundred jin of gunpowder. This was still what this subject forcibly withheld from the Lingnan Navy’s allocation. The main reason was that I wanted to look good. This subject still owes the Sixteen Guards military equipment. I truly have no capacity to provide support.”
Just tell the truth. The warehouse was so empty it could starve mice to death—this was the current situation of the Ministry of War’s Arsenal Clearance Bureau. There was nothing to hide. By rights, Li Er should be clear about this. How could he still issue such a brainless order?
Seeing Fang Xuanling’s mouth twitch, he immediately understood—the old fellow had suppressed the memorial he had given the emperor. Let’s see how he explains it to the emperor.
Li Er glanced at Yun Ye and Fang Xuanling, but actually no longer entangled with this matter. Instead, he ordered Li Tai to directly allocate gunpowder to Li Daozong’s army. This was the emperor giving Fang Xuanling face.
After court was dismissed, seeing the eunuchs distributing coal again—the weather these past few days had been unreasonably cold. If they didn’t give more, those clerks’ hands and feet would suffer. Robbing coal wasn’t the first time he’d done it. Under the burning gazes of the Ministry of War clerks, the imposing general once again kicked away the eunuchs and menial servants and even intercepted the coal cart.
He had just boiled water and hadn’t taken a single sip of tea when Duan Hong hurriedly rushed over. Yun Ye thought this fellow was dissatisfied with his way of distributing coal and was about to curse him out when he heard Duan Hong say: “His Majesty summons you.”
He went to Wanmin Palace. Li Er was eating lunch, with Yang Fei serving at the side. Li Er drank down the porridge in one gulp, wiped his mouth, and said to Yun Ye: “I hear you’ve been extremely arrogant as Minister of War! Ever since you took charge of the Ministry of War, the Ministry has become a bully—do you know that? The Left and Right Valiant Guards accuse you of being domineering. Fine if you won’t give them military equipment, but why did you have them beaten out with clubs?”
“The palace’s Firewood and Charcoal Bureau is also complaining, saying your Ministry of War is a bandit’s den. Every time they distribute firewood and charcoal, you people rob them? The Court of State Ceremonial says you’re arrogant and discourteous. When Tubo people went to you to exchange travel permits, what’s this about you drawing turtles on their documents? Ludongzan has already called you out by name demanding to fight you.”
“If it were just these things, that would be fine. I’ll consider it your youthful exuberance—when first wielding great power, being somewhat domineering is understandable.” Li Er paused at this point, revealed his white teeth, gave Yun Ye a ferocious grin, and said again: “What about robbing Zhaoyi Xu? Explain clearly to me.”
“It wasn’t me who robbed her, it was Xiao Zhi who robbed her. I originally planned to go to the lotus pond to pick some lotus pods to go back and simmer porridge. Who knew Zhaoyi Xu had already cut all the lotus pods. This subject was about to turn back and avoid her, but then Xiao Zhi rushed up and grabbed a handful of lotus pods. This subject swears I absolutely did not lift a hand.”
Without even thinking, Yun Ye sold out Li Zhi. The little bastard kept finding trouble for him—if not sell him out at this time, then who? Thinking of Li Zhi’s wretched face made him angry.
Li Er was immediately choked. He couldn’t have imagined that a dignified high official would rob his own young wife together with his own young son, all just for a handful of lotus pods. Yang Fei covered her mouth and laughed lightly, saying: “Marquis Yun still understands propriety. As for Xiao Zhi, he hasn’t come of age yet. It’s all just games between small children. Why must you get angry?”
He had originally thought Li Er would dismiss him from his Ministry of War position. Han Yuan, Lu Chengqing, and Yang Hongli had already been waiting impatiently, always beating around the bush asking when he would leave the Ministry of War.
Unexpectedly, Li Er waved his sleeve and just said one word—”Scram”—and continued eating. Even as Duan Hong dragged him out of Wanmin Palace, Yun Ye couldn’t understand why, after he had already made such a mess of things, Li Er still wouldn’t dismiss him. You should know that going to work every day was truly extremely painful.
Returning to the Ministry of War, the several directors quickly gathered around to ask if he had been punished by His Majesty. The chief official being punished meant they would also be implicated, so their nerves were stretched tight. As soon as they saw Yun Ye return, they hastily asked what punishment he had received.
“What punishment? Do you all really enjoy being punished? His Majesty just said our Ministry of War has now become a bandit’s den, then told me to scram, so here I am, I’ve scrammed out.”
The four directors looked at each other. They had no way to understand exactly what kind of relationship existed between the emperor and their superior. The emperor had always been very respectful toward high officials. Getting the emperor to say the word “scram” from his mouth was very difficult. Unable to judge, they stopped judging, cupped their hands, and returned to their own offices to continue pondering.
Those who wanted to be officials and bear great responsibilities were shut outside the palace unable to enter. The fellow who didn’t want to bear great responsibilities was firmly pressed into his chair unable to get up. This was Li Er’s way of employing people. The more you viewed an official position as greater than heaven, the less he would entrust the position to you. Just because Yun Ye didn’t care about official positions, that’s why he dared to withhold military equipment from the Sixteen Guards. Just because Yun Ye was single-mindedly thinking about running away, that’s why he would tell Li Er the true state of the Ministry of War’s arsenal being completely empty.
No concealment, and able to solve problems according to the manner most beneficial to the nation. Now he knew that the reason the standing armed forces in places like Longzhong and Huainan could conduct military exercises as usual was due to this decision of Yun Ye’s. Lu Chengqing and Yang Hongli might be more steady, but they absolutely wouldn’t dare touch the reverse scale of the Sixteen Guards. So Li Er believed that by keeping Yun Ye in that position to temper him for a few years, he might be put to great use.
Li Tai also went to the Yun Family, but Li Er wouldn’t grant Yun Ye leave. The hot air balloon was ready—he planned to go see it on site and specifically brought Xu Hui along. In Li Zhi’s view, this was Father Emperor guarding against Yun Ye.
Yun Ye didn’t like the bare Ministry of War great hall. He believed adding a bit of green could greatly ease people’s mood, so he used clear water to grow lots of garlic in huge plates. Now they had grown half a chi tall. When he had nothing to do, Yun Ye would arrange these garlic plants in various shapes. Today he arranged them into a huge peach-heart shape that looked extremely eye-catching.
Du Ruhui had been standing behind Yun Ye watching for a long time. Seeing Yun Ye put down the scissors, he said with a smile: “Marquis Yun has such fine spirit! The Ministry of War governs conquest. In the Five Elements it belongs to metal, emphasizing dignity and accumulating baleful energy. Now Marquis Yun uses the eastern green wood element to harmonize it—truly it’s much softer. The imperial court currently has too heavy an air of hostility. It should indeed be properly harmonized.”
Du Ruhui was the Ministry of War’s true master. Although Yun Ye had been an official for quite a long time, he was still very unaccustomed to these subtle implications. After cupping his hands in salute, he said: “Minister Du overpraises me. Compared to all the accomplished gentlemen in the court, Yun Ye is merely a frivolous youth. Where would I have Minister Du’s breadth of mind encompassing the four seas? I just felt the great hall’s colors were monotonous. Growing some green garlic is just to add one or two touches of bright color here. Since Minister Du likes it, that’s all the better.”
After Du Ruhui and Yun Ye were seated, he took out a document from his sleeve and handed it to Yun Ye, saying: “This is this year’s budget that the Ministry of Revenue has reallocated to the Ministry of War. A total of one million three hundred thousand silver coins. What does Marquis Yun think—where would using this money be most appropriate?”
“You are the Ministry’s chief official. Naturally it should be decided by you.” Yun Ye still understood the principle of not overstepping.
“That won’t do. This old man would indeed like to make the decisions, but this money burns the hands. Since you were the one who obtained the money, you should still decide. Old Fang’s face is as black as the bottom of a pot—he’s currently cursing people in the Central Secretariat. He worked so hard to scrape off a bit of the Ministry of War’s fat, but then you viciously slapped a layer of blubber back onto the Ministry of War. This slap left Old Fang dizzy and disoriented! So, you should make the decision yourself!” Du Ruhui chuckled gleefully, seeming extremely proud. Regardless of whether he was a civil official, as long as he sat in the position of Minister of War, he had to consider the military. This was integrity.