Living leisurely in Tang Dynasty

Chapter 116:

The Emperor had heard tons of nonsense like this before from his younger brother.

“I only remembered you saying that you will treat daughters like gems while sons will be sent out to carve a path from themselves. Why do they need to help you now?”

“To carve a bright future is one thing, but if the father is being bullied, the son must stand up for him. Otherwise why do we want children?”

“I’ve only heard about parents standing up for their children, never the other way around.”

“Of course not, when I was younger I did the same for mother. Whoever wants to bully my mom I’ll beat them. If I can’t win in a fist fight then I’ll bite them.” Yuanying is quite proud of his past feat. “When I was younger, mother cannot read and so I taught her how. Parents are not perfect so responsible kids will help them out.”

Li Er took one glance at his younger brother and then for the first time thought highly of concubine Liu of his late father. For her to be able to train such a little devil she must not be as weak as she appeared to be, she knew how to make her son study.

Li Er told him the truth without mercy: “Already so big but you need your mum to coax you to study?”

Yuanying burned in anger.

He sat beside Li Er and thought long and hard. Actually brother makes sense, when he was younger mother had to coax him to study.

He figured it out and sighed: “Brother, why do you need to tell me this, I was quite proud of my achievements!”

Li Er thought in his heart, it’s because I don’t like you feeling good. But of course, Li Er answered differently. “If I don’t say anything, how would you know your mother’s hard work? Even the heavens pity a parents’ hard work.”

“You’re right.”

Yuanying was already frighten by the incident at Wei Zheng’s residence and he came here to complain to his older brother. Now that he has done that and the Emperor had not joined in to criticize Wei Zheng, he decided that he should go home to mother and act obedient.

The next day when Wei Zheng went to court the Emperor brought up the incident. What did he do that frighten his younger brother so much?

This is a rare occasion where the Emperor could find fault with Wei and he was super happy questioning him.

Hearing this, Wei Zheng’s face darken.  

Yesterday, that kid ran over to his house wildly and said things that will arose scandal. How can the child’s father not stare at him? How can the uncles not perceive him as just another bratty rich kid? Furthermore you have Wei Ying at the side adding oil to fire; sharing all about how Li Yuanying behaves in the Academy where he can almost walk sideways and could get anyone in trouble. Fang Jun, Du He and the rest of the spoilt brats didn’t get along with him and after Autumn they were all instructed to move to the Tibetan Empire by the Emperor!

Just listen to this, isn’t this the action of a lawless uncontrollable little demon king?

When Wei Zheng sent his granddaughter to the Imperial Academy, it was already scandalous and his son and daughter-in-law already had some opinions about it. With yesterday’s episode, they have even more things to say!

Who else would behave like Li Yuanying? If you had nothing to hide, once you are here just come in, why did you turn around and run away?

Fine that you ran away but then you turn around and report this to the Emperor?!

Wei Zheng answered with a hard tone: “My home is humble and Prince Teng is not used to it therefore he turned around to leave. Now that I think about it, it is this humble servant’s fault. I did not make preparations to know that Prince Teng was coming and to welcome him in person at the door. It is all my fault!”

With Wei Zheng putting things like this, the Emperor felt that his younger brother might have blew things out of proportion. He kept a poker face and consoled his minister saying that he will have a proper word with his younger brother.

It’s already year end and everyone is prioritizing “peace and getting along” so Wei Zheng did not find much fault with the two Li brothers. As for the rubbish things that the 2 brother do, he chose to turn a blind eye to it as long as it doesn’t interfere with the well-being of the country.

Wei Zheng choose peace but it was not peaceful at the Imperial Court.

The year end is not peaceful. It started off with an incident at Goryeo due to a powerful and influential official called Gai Shuwen. The ruler of Goryeo and his men schemed for Gai’s downfall but failed. Gai Shuwen found out about the plan and marched into the palace to murder the ruler of Goryeo. His actions were brutal as he chopped his victim into pieces and then appointed another person as the new ruler.  

Goryeo is a vassal state of Tang Empire and now that their ruler is killed in a brutal way, very quickly news reached the Tang Emperor asking for his help to send troops to avenge the death of the late Goryeo ruler and bring justice back to the land!

Does Li Er want to do that? Yes because this is a vassal state where its ruler had to be acknowledge by the Tang Emperor. How can you just change ruler like that, this is disrespecting the Tang Emperor.

But he is actually now broke and cannot afford a big war. The previous Sui dynasty had multiple times more riches than Tang and they fought themselves into extinction due to war at Goryeo! Now WenCheng had only just moved to the Tibetan Empire in the West and the peace between both regions is still shaky, it is not the right time to start a war in the East.

The Emperor could only mention that although he would love to start a war, Goryeo is in a period of mourning and it is morally wrong to start a war.

Li Er didn’t feel good about his decision. And then something even more frustrating happened. Someone wrote in to accuse Dang RenHong of bribery in Guangzhou and that he should be severely punished with death.

Dang RenHong had been on Li Er’s side since he was still a prince and they shared a good relationship. Over the years Li Er had seen all his friends die or become old and frail and he couldn’t harden his heart to punish his friend with death although he rightfully deserved it based on the laws of the country.

When the Justice Department sent 5 verdict recommending the death of Dang RenHong, Li Er gathered all his men and inform them that he will personally travel South to ask the heavens for forgiveness and to let Dang RenHong off the hook for this one incident.

The Emperor is extremely stubborn, if he’s made up his mind to do something even 10 cows will not be able to stop him. The ministers close to him were not able convince the Emperor and so they made arrangements to travel South.

Since they were not able to convince the Emperor, a number of court officials decided to block the palace entrances by kneeling in court as a sign of protest. How can they allow the Emperor to do as he wishes and to ask the heavens for forgiveness on behalf of a mere citizen?

The officials knelt from sunrise to sunset and a few of them fainted in this process.

Only now did the Emperor soften a little. He sighed and expressed that the trip South will be canceled, go home and rest.

Li  Yuanying was practicing calligraphy in his room and heard about this commotion with excitement. So many men kneeling together, such drama. Luckily the ministers in poor health did not join the protest otherwise there will be even more drama.

He was excited about all the drama and ask his servants to prepare medication for people like Old Wei and Old Kong. They are normally nice to him so how can he not reciprocate in times like this?

After that, he remembered the main culprit who caused the commotion, Dang RenHong by taking a million dollars as bribery. Isn’t it just a million bucks? Why would he steal? Can’t he just earn it? Now he’s in trouble and about to lose his life!

Notes from the author:

Little Prince: Isn’t it just a million bucks? Why did he resort to bribery? Don’t know how to earn money, So stupid!