With the New Year approaching, Li Po took some time off and went out of the palace for several days.
I went around and looked around.
First, I went to the residence of He Chou, Duke of Pi State. He Chou was over eighty years old. He had been busy writing and taking on some chores.
Now that the writing was completed, he couldn't care less about the chores and had no energy to take care of them anymore, so most of them were left in the hands of his disciples.
The old man was like this. Before, he had a breath of energy to hold him up, and his energy and spirit were all there. But when that breath of energy was released, his whole person declined.
In just over two months, He Chou seemed to have suddenly aged ten years. Although he was not yet confused, his speech was obviously much slower.
However, he still liked the emperor's compliments on him, and Li Po's greetings made the old man very happy, and the smile never broke on his face.
…………
After coming out of He Chou's mansion, Li Po sighed to himself. No matter how successful a person is, he still cannot escape being an old man.
We can only hope that the waves behind the Yangtze River will push the waves ahead.
A country is just like life, metabolism, from small to large, there may be twists and turns in the middle, but those who live long will gradually decline. I wonder what the Tang Dynasty will be like when he is old?
…………
Li Po took people to visit various warehouses in Chang'an.
He heard from Shangshu Provincial News that some warehouses were damaged this year and needed to be demolished or repaired next year.
The big warehouse system of the former Sui Dynasty left a mark in history. Naturally, the Tang Dynasty would not follow the old path of the former Sui Dynasty and dispersed the warehouses.
The losses in this period were higher than those in the previous Sui Dynasty, and the expenses were not as easy to manage as those in the previous Sui Dynasty.
But that's how things are, there are always pros and cons. It just depends on whether the pros outweigh the cons or the cons outweigh the pros. The lessons of the war in the late Sui Dynasty are too profound. No matter how convenient the Okura system is, it will definitely be abandoned.
…………
After an inspection, Changan Warehouse is generally running well.
What is a little bit amusing is that most of the warehouses in Chang'an today were built in the former Sui Dynasty. During Li Yuan's time, in addition to strengthening and repairing the old granaries, he also built two more. After all, due to the war in Kansai at that time, Chang'an's population
With the sharp increase, efforts must be made to increase grain storage.
And Li Po, the founding king of the country, is relatively crotchless, and has not made any contribution to this so far.
However, the food prices in Chang'an have become more stable this year. In winter, when the food prices started to rise a little, the old grains in the granaries appeared on the market, and the food prices suddenly dropped a bit compared to before the autumn harvest.
When this matter is discussed in later economics, it becomes complicated.
But in fact, the current situation was very simple. The people in the city benefited more, while the big landowners suffered some losses. They had little relationship with the farmers, and there was no such thing as cheap grain hurting the farmers.
In many cases, the cheaper the price of food, the better the world. On the contrary, the interests of farmers do not need to be considered too much, because the food traded on the market is sold by aristocrats and landowners, and the government will decide according to the actual situation.
It’s not about supplying grain to stabilize prices.
Farmers do not buy and sell grain at will. In addition to paying field taxes, the remaining grain is used by the family for a year. Even if there is a surplus, it must be used for emergency purposes. Where will it be sold to others?
Only really big landowners will use food to make profits.
The farmers' extra income is actually from the hemp fields, part of which is handed over to the government, and the rest will be given to the workshops, thereby getting some money.
In addition, they will plant some cash crops on private fields...
Generally speaking, as long as the world is peaceful, farmers at this time can survive even if they are poor.
Later, people always said that the rise and fall of dynasties all revolved around the land. This is true. As the largest group in the feudal dynasty, if farmers could not survive, the dynasty would come to an end.
…………
Li Po also wanted to visit Jingzhao Mansion, but the weather was too cold and the road was blocked by heavy snow, so he was persuaded by his ministers to stop him. So Li Po pulled Yuen Long over and questioned him, knocking him all over his head.
He followed Yuen Long to his home and had dinner there, which made Yuen Long very nervous. He was afraid that the emperor's brother-in-law would be dissatisfied and drive him back to his original small courtyard to live.
The food at home in Yuen Long tastes bad.
The Yuen Long couple didn't seem to care much about this, or maybe it was intentional so that he would visit less often...
Li Po thought carefully, and without hesitation opened the account book and made a note for Yuen Long.
He has been really angry recently. People from the Military Intelligence Department reported a rumor, saying that someone behind his back said that the queen had given birth to two sons, and that the other concubines had given birth to daughters. Maybe the emperor had done this deliberately.
This made Li Po feel a little angry, but he did not get angry immediately. Instead, he secretly warned that the information obtained by the Military Intelligence Department was questionable. Maybe someone had offended them, so he was fabricating charges against them.
This is the biggest drawback of the spy agency. Once you have your own ideas, it can cause endless harm.
Their solo journey usually started by excluding dissidents, passing small talk to the emperor, and fanning the wind to light the will-o'-the-wisp. There are some signs of this.
The Military Intelligence Department is now headed by Zhang Liang, the Minister of War, and assisted by Xie Zheng and Liu Chaozong.
Liu Chaozong was not in the capital, but went to Youzhou to work for Yu Wenxin, mainly to explore various news in the direction of Liaodong.
It's hard to say what Xie Zheng is, because I haven't been around him, and he is actually in charge of the Turkic side. After all, this person has spent some time in the Turks and is very familiar with it.
Zhang Liang took care of the rest of the affairs personally, which was what Li Po was most worried about. There was no need to doubt Zhang Liang's loyalty, but this man tended to be vicious and vicious in his actions.
In troubled times, especially when the troubled times are coming to an end, this is an advantage, but with the arrival of the peaceful season, it becomes somewhat inappropriate.
But having said that, as the emperor, Li Po needs such a person to stay in the court to serve as his eyes and ears. At a small level, he can eliminate Xiaoxiao at any time. At a large level, he can also scare the officials and make them feel at ease.
Be scrupulous and dare not act recklessly.
So, this is a paradox. Otherwise, there would be such a spy agency in every dynasty, not for any other reason, but because it is really useful.
As for its disadvantages...it just depends on what kind of person the reigning emperor is.
…………
Naturally, Li Po would not call Zhang Liang and others over for questioning over such a trivial matter. He wanted to see if this was a test by the Military Intelligence Department...
It's just that this gossip is a bit tricky, and it still affects his mood.
When women's stomachs are not moving, everyone will worry about the inheritance of the throne. If there are fewer sons, they will say that the branches of the royal family are not very lush and the emperor still needs to work hard.
Waiting for his mother to have a few more daughters, and saying that she did it on purpose. If these words reached Li Bi's ears, she would probably be even more annoyed than him.
No matter how you co-write, it’s wrong, right? I don’t know who is so arrogant? I’m really impatient...
If he hadn't thought about it, he would have really wanted to pick him up and ask his mother-in-law what color her underwear was.
…………
He was in a bad mood, so instead of going to his mother-in-law, he came to Yuen Long.
Yuen Long has been in charge of Jing Zhaoyin for two years. He has a lot of pigtails, but they are just trivial matters. Li Po has never had time to pay attention to him.
Now we have to grab him by the tail and give him a good tug. Yuen Long was a man who had not been on the road for three days, and he was suddenly in great pain. He kept begging for mercy, relying on his kindness to differentiate himself from others.
Yuen Long also wanted his wife to give him some relief, as he did not want Ashina Yun to be really tortured by his sister.
Ashina Rongzhen came here to visit before, and we all had some contacts, but Ashina Rongzhen didn't like those of the same race. Now he looked at his sister and said, "Don't you still want to go back to the Western Turks? Then
It’s easy to handle, I’ll send you away right away, and it doesn’t take much effort.”
"It's nothing, seeing them is just a thought..."
"What do you want from a bunch of wolf-hearted things? Stop bothering me with these things in the future, or you'll send them to meet the gods."
Well, the couple were not settled. In order to divert her sister's attention, Ashina Yun really filed a lawsuit against Yuen Long, saying that Yuen Long had raised two more women outside and asked her sister to make the decision for her.
At the same time, in order to avoid being criticized, Yuen Long also complained to his brother-in-law, saying that his wife was in charge of too much, and how could a good man only drink from it when he was alive?
The couple worked so hard to undermine each other that Li Po felt refreshed when he left the Yuan Mansion. The only regret was that the elder Yuan was not there, otherwise he would surely have witnessed a fight.
Seeing that her husband was in a good mood, Ashnarong became happy and decided to pay more attention to her sister's family in the future. Maybe she would be able to use it some time.
…………
Li Po went to Li Xiuning's house again to have a look. The two daughters were growing well and had grown in appearance. The genes of the old Li family were relatively strong. The two little ones had red and phoenix eyes at first glance. There was not much trace of Li Po in their doughy faces.
.
Now they can spread their calves and run around unsteadily. They look quite lively, but they can't speak clearly. They were held in Li Po's arms and babbling, but no grandpa popped out of them at the end.
Li Xiuning asked him to give him a name, so he said it was still early and fooled him. In fact, he had to think about it carefully. He was not good at naming. The names of several children in the family were rather illegible, including the twins.
The name is even more difficult for an old father like him.
…………
"I still want to have a son..."
After the exercise, Li Xiuning snuggled into Li Po's arms and muttered something.
Li Po smacked his lips with a bit of toothache, and Li Xiuning raised his head sensitively, "Brother is so cruel, don't you want me to give birth to an heir?"
Li Poxin said, I'm just afraid of trouble. It would be fine if all of you are stupid, but how can you make people feel at ease when you are so smart?
But he was used to coaxing people, so he hugged the other person tightly and said with a smile: "Am I worried about you? You don't have to worry about giving birth to a son..."
Please remember the first domain name of this book: ._