The rain was still falling and the night wind was getting colder. Zhang Yang could actually warm himself up by drinking a sip of hot water.
The climate in Guanzhong is like this. When the autumn rain comes, the temperature drops quickly.
I didn’t put on any extra clothes when I went out.
Li Shimin said in a deep voice: "If I had a sharp weapon that could destroy cities and level mountains and rivers, why would I have to endure it until now?"
Everyone has a temper, and the emperor also has a temper.
When a person is pushed into a hurry, he will inevitably do something even more outrageous.
If a person has a highly lethal weapon in his hand, he is likely to do something outrageous when angry.
This kid has such a sharp weapon in his hands, yet he can still remain calm and composed.
Li Shimin thought highly of his courage and endurance.
Zhang Yang drank tea, "The application of this firearm has only been developed in the past two years. At the beginning, it was just like the demonstration I just demonstrated to His Majesty, it was just a firecracker."
The prince stood quietly aside, not daring to relax at all, especially since His Majesty just turned over the table.
The guards on the side were also very nervous.
The tea was put on the table again, and Li Shimin took a brief sip, "I asked Li Junxian to investigate the incident in the sky. Many clues point to Lishan Mountain, but there is no actual evidence. I think this matter is also related to Lishan Mountain."
Zhang Yang nodded slightly, "It was indeed me who did this."
"What else have you done?"
"The temple was not struck by lightning, it was blown up by me."
After the words fell, Li Shimin stared at his face without speaking for a long time, and the scene was quiet for a while.
Another cold wind carrying rain blew by. Li Shimin breathed heavily and suddenly overturned the table.
"You are so brave!"
With a roar, His Majesty blew his beard and stared, veins popped out on his forehead, and said angrily: "I should have..."
Halfway through the words, he choked again. Li Shimin stood up and walked back and forth, looking around as if he was looking for weapons.
"Your Majesty, I have a knife here."
A smart guard handed over the horizontal knife with both hands.
Seeing this, Li Shimin became even more furious. He raised his foot and kicked the knife-handling guard to the ground. "You will guard the border for me from now on. Go to the Hexi Corridor and don't let me see you again."
The guard felt that he had suffered an unreasonable disaster and fled in embarrassment, running wildly in the rainy night.
Zhang Yang took another sip of tea and looked at the man's back holding the torch as he walked out of Qujiang Pond, holding his hands and letting out another long sigh.
Li Shimin was breathing heavily, and his middle-aged belly was heaving slightly, which was too big to hide. He pointed at the person and shouted loudly: "Zhang Yang!"
"exist."
Zhang Yang replied expressionlessly.
"You are so brave! You even dared to blow up those temples, and you still blamed God and deceived God. You will be punished!"
Zhang Yang nodded and said: "Your Majesty is joking, I never believe in retribution. Besides, monks are cultivating the afterlife. With the nature of those monks, they don't care about what is going on in this world, nor how much suffering there is in this world, so I want to Blow them up.”
When I looked at His Majesty's eyes again, there were bloodshot eyes. Others didn't know His Majesty's thoughts, but the prince who had been serving His Majesty knew it clearly, and his eyes indicated that the place should be tidied up again.
The table was rearranged, tea was served, and tea leaves were sprinkled on the tea bowl again.
The prince arranged all this and stood aside quietly.
After being quiet for a long time, Li Shimin sat down again and drank tea, "You are plotting against me!"
Zhang Yang said in a low voice: "I have never asked Your Majesty to do anything. Everything is done by Your Majesty yourself. As for the benefits His Majesty has received, Your Majesty must know better than me, right?"
Li Shimin looked at the son-in-law in front of him and took another sip of tea. "You still plotted against me."
"Your Majesty, is there any other way to restrict them for the sake of Sheji? The growth of that group of people is not just sucking blood from Sheji. Population, food, and fields are the top priorities of Sheji."
Bang! Patting the table again, Li Shimin's eyes were fierce, "Even if these are members of the community, there is no excuse for you to hold me hostage."
"Oh, what an excuse." Zhang Yang said with a smile: "Your Majesty is joking again. The measures taken by the Central Government to restrict Buddhism are not something I can control alone, nor can it be decided by His Majesty's selfishness. Isn't that right? .”
Li Shimin nodded slightly.
"Since Your Majesty also thinks so, that's right. The people's will cannot be violated. All this is caused by the people's will. Your Majesty just stepped down a step, but gained the people's support, so that everyone can benefit."
Li Shimin pointed at Zhang Yang and his fingers trembled slightly, "You are playing with the ignorance of the people."
Zhang Yang put down the tea bowl in his hand, "The truth is not important. What is important is that all this is in the interests of the vast majority of people. When people think it is right, then it doesn't matter what the truth is. What do you think, Your Majesty?"
Li Shimin hesitated to speak.
Quietness returned to the waterside pavilion, and a guard on the side yawned.
Zhang Yang said again: "It's ironic to say that my heart is for justice and light, but this world is cruel. This world does not allow me to have so much justice and light, so I have begun to become ignorant. All this has It’s the choice of the times, not my choice.”
Li Shimin was silent for a moment and said no more words.
Zhang Yang continued: "The times are like this. History is vast. A few pieces of paper cannot describe an era, nor can we describe the lives of your Majesty and me."
"I don't want to live up to my life in the Tang Dynasty, otherwise I'm afraid that I won't be able to sleep well in the rest of my life. Since I live in the Tang Dynasty in this life, I will do my best for this land, even if my strength is in the Great Tang Dynasty." It seems so insignificant in the waves.”
"Who knows what will happen next? The Central Plains looks very big, but after dividing it into the southeast, northwest, and northwest, I feel that it is only so big."
"The words spoken from the bottom of my heart still made His Majesty laugh."
Li Shimin was silent for a long time, as if he had compromised. These words sounded like those of a traitor.
If such words were put in other people's mouth, they should be killed on the spot.
But in Zhang Yang's mouth, he felt that it was such an understatement. Li Shimin said slowly: "Yes, since the First Emperor unified the Central Plains, and then the Han Dynasty was established, or the Tang Dynasty was in chaos after my death, maybe you and I both passed away. Now that we are lying in the tomb, it does not matter whether the future generations will be bright or chaotic."
"I can only say that I have worked hard throughout my life to be worthy of this life, and worthy of the struggle and bloodshed back then. To reach this point, I have not failed anyone, except my father."
The words from the heart seemed to have opened Li Shimin's horizons. Human life is short, but history is long.
Who can see the world in the next thousand years?
Li Shimin couldn't see it.
Zhang Yang has seen it before.
"Besides these, you have nothing else to do with me?" Li Shimin put down his tea bowl and asked again.
"Yes, I have."
After hearing what he said, Li Shimin's expression perked up.
Zhang Yang said lightly: "I deceived the Japanese monk last time and asked him to give thousands of kilograms of silver mine to the Ministry of Rites. However, this matter lasted for two years and then ended. He died later."
After a pause, Zhang Yang continued: "Your Majesty knows how he died."
"How many kilograms of silver ore?" Li Shimin said coldly.
"Well, several thousand kilograms. It's just a pity that we lost contact with that place later. There should have been more." Zhang Yang clicked his tongue and sighed: "It doesn't matter, now Xu Jingzong is talking with the envoy over there again, There will be money sent in the future, but maybe not this much."
"What?" Hearing this, Li Shimin was unhappy, "No! They should be asked to send more silver mines. You don't want it, I want it!"
Zhang Yang paused for a moment, "Let's discuss it later."
"Several kilograms...how much money is that?" Li Shimin suddenly overturned the table table again. He suddenly discovered a very serious matter, a fact that had been ignored for a long time.
The prince looked numb when he saw the tea table being overturned again.
Zhang Yang shook his head and was speechless.
This is the third time, and the prince is very worried, as if his life will be shortened by several years every time he talks to the county prince.
Li Shimin shouted loudly and asked, "How many kilograms of silver mine?"
Zhang Yang raised his head and thought for a moment, "It's not ten thousand catties, it's eight or nine thousand!"
"Where's the money!" Li Shimin drew his sword again and said angrily: "Where has all this money gone?"
"Sent to the Ministry of Rites for the convenience of diplomatic relations between countries."
The emperor smiled contemptuously, "Oh, how is that possible? Does the Ministry of Rites need so much money? I heard that when the Ministry of Rites chose the site for the Diplomatic Academy, it was Li Xiaogong who selected it. You didn't spend so much money at all."
Zhang Yang folded his hands and explained: "Your Majesty doesn't know something. Doesn't it cost money to send Xue Yantuo's informants to the Western Regions, Tubo and Turks? If you don't understand the situation, can the Ministry of Rites have the upper hand in everything?"
"This information is all obtained by hiring spies and manpower. If necessary, I will also arrange manpower around other tribal leaders. For example, Jieli was captured by General Li Jing."
"But later on, His Majesty never mentioned the governance of the Turks. Later, Tuli Khan succeeded to the position of Turkic Khan. I had known for a long time that Tuli Khan was in poor health. I didn't expect that he died so early, so I The son of Li Khan, Heluo Falcon, this Ashina Heluo Falcon succeeded the Khan."
"I arranged someone next to him to watch every move of the little Khan, and also arranged a fun person next to him. In this way, the little Khan only focused on having fun and had no intention of anything else, so the Ministry of Rites was there. Opportunities for Turks to do so many things.”
"Of course, in order to ensure that the information sent by our hired agents is accurate, we will send out several independent agents to infer the current situation from multiple sources."
"Not only that, it costs money, but that little money is not enough, and we in Lishan have to pay back."
"Backlash?" Li Shimin's tone was a little higher.
Zhang Yang nodded, "From investigation to operation to buying and selling people's hearts, it costs about three thousand to five thousand coins throughout the year. If the matter is urgent and more manpower is needed, the cost will be even more. In short, it depends on the situation. If we maintain the status quo, two to three thousand guan will be enough for one year."
"Two or three thousand strings, you put it lightly."
Seeing that His Majesty had calmed down again, the prince quickly tidied up the place again, placed the tea table, and poured tea.
Smelling the fragrance of tea, he unconsciously felt much calmer. Li Shimin sat down again and asked, "Do you know how much flowers the imperial court uses in a year?"
Zhang Yang raised his head and thought for a moment, "I looked at the files in Shangshu Province and found out that the annual expenses of the imperial court were between 5,000 and 10,000 guan. However, there were not many manpower at that time, so we gave up the expenses of local officials. There is only so much that I can see. Of course, there are many accounts in Zhongshu Province that I can’t see.”
Li Shimin shouted and asked: "The expenses of the Ministry of Rites for one year can cover all the officials in Chang'an City for one year. Why does your Ministry of Rites use so much for one year? Even if you have six ministers, it won't be so much? Twenty guan is enough."
"I know Chaozhong doesn't have much money, so Lishan has always been attached to me in the past two years." Zhang Yang smiled again, "But now that the Ministry of Rites has been handed over to Chaozhong, Lishan doesn't have so much trouble."
Li Shimin took a sip of tea. The water had just been brewed. When Wang Gonggong wanted to remind him that it was just boiled water, he saw that His Majesty had already drank it.
It seemed that my mouth was burning. It was like the Ministry of Rites burning my mouth.
Despite Xu Jingzong's honesty, it seems that everyone in the Ministry of Rites is hiding a lot of things behind his back.
Thinking about the fact that the Ministry of Rites needs such a large expenditure, if the DPRK and China take over the Diplomatic Academy, there are many manpower, and many of them are external manpower. Even if each manpower is fifty or sixty yuan a month, three to five hundred people, a year is still a lot. For flowers.
At that time, I was eager to take back the Ministry of Etiquette.
Now think about it calmly, can the DPRK and China afford it?
There is also a paper mill in Lishan, which has not yet recovered its capital.
Li Shimin said in a deep voice: "Xu Jingzong..."
"It's good that he serves as the Minister of Etiquette."
"What about the flowers from the Ministry of Rites?"
"That's a matter for the imperial court. The Minister of Taifu Temple is also very good."
After Zhang Yang's efforts to increase revenue and reduce expenditure in the past two years, the tight monetary expenses in the imperial court have indeed eased a lot. In addition, Niu Jinda and others have specialized in the new actions of the Wei government. Now it is recommended that the officers and soldiers of the Wei government in the army supplement their education with written articles.
It does work.
And the imperial examination costs a lot of money every year.
Not to mention that the prince's money spent on building Chongde Square has not been recovered yet.
Li Shimin was very angry when he saw Zhang Yang drinking tea calmly. He didn't know why he felt a headache when he thought about money.
Holding his forehead, Li Shimin said in a deep voice: "Let me think about it carefully. Even if Xu Jingzong is appointed as the Minister of Rites, you will still be in charge of all matters in the Ministry of Rites before I am ready to take over."
"Your Majesty, is this inappropriate?"
Seeing his hesitation, His Majesty snorted coldly: "I said it is appropriate."
The sky is white, but the rain is still falling. It has been a long night, and now it is daybreak.
The rain had subsided a lot, and Li Shimin asked in a low voice: "The firearms you mentioned can be kept by Lishan first. What if the army wants to use them?"
Zhang Yang frowned and said: "The core formula of firearms is in my hands. If the army needs firearms in the future, Lishan can provide them for use, but the government cannot cast them privately."
