In the winter of the 24th year of Kaiyuan, Li Longji took a hundred officials from the central government to visit Zhongnan Mountain, more than a hundred miles away from Chang'an City. He ordered the prince to supervise the country, and his lieutenant Li Linfu to handle the general government affairs of the foreign dynasty. Zhang Jiuling, Pei Yaoqing and others all accompanied him.
Prince Shou Li Xuan, the son of Concubine Wu Hui who was favored by Li Longji, was also among the people accompanying him, which shocked many people. Many thoughtful people are wondering what the purpose of Li Longji's move is.
A few days after Li Longji and his entourage left Chang'an, rumors spread in the city that the saint would offer sacrifices to heaven at Mount Zhongnan, then depose the prince and install Li Xuan as the new prince. For a time, people in the elite circles were panicked and there was an undercurrent.
Of course, as for the New Year, we still have to celebrate the New Year, and we won't stop just because of the rumors of the deposed prince. Only high-ranking officials are affected. How can ordinary people care about who is the prince?
This incident had different impacts on different people and places in Chang'an City.
For example, Chang'an East Market mainly sells items belonging to the nobles, and the people living in the surrounding area are also dignitaries, so the items there are not affordable for ordinary people.
Due to the influence of the rumor of the deposed prince, the business in Dongshi has been greatly affected. Not only are there no crowds during the New Year, but the business is much quieter than usual.
However, Chang'an West City, where civilians and ordinary wealthy people are the main consumers, has not been affected at all by the rumors of the deposed prince. There is an endless stream of Chang'an residents buying New Year's goods in the West Market.
Even merchants from the Western Regions gathered from all directions and worked hard to get a share of the business during the peak business season.
Chang'an is highly commercialized. Things that other places, especially rural areas, need to prepare themselves, are sold here. For example, Tusu wine, five-spice plate, fake flowers and fruits, glue teeth and other necessary items needed for New Year celebrations are not only available in various varieties, but also divided into grades.
The rich have the luxury of the rich, and the poor have the luxury of the poor. The two are distinct, do not interfere with each other, and each enjoys his or her own pleasure.
If you don't look at other places in the Tang Dynasty and just focus on Chang'an, then it is indeed the prosperous age of the Tang Dynasty and there is nothing to be picky about.
A neat and magnificent city.
Solemn order.
A wide range of products.
Convenient and stable life.
And the memory of peace without war for many years.
Chang'an is the pearl of the Tang Dynasty and the symbol of the Tang Dynasty. It is a city that lives in the memory of history books, and even in the memory of the nation!
Of course, no matter how nice your home is, you will get tired of it after living there for a long time. Although Chang'an is good, for Li Longji, it has long lost its novelty. This time he took hundreds of officials to visit Zhongnan Mountain, which was regarded as the emperor's own annual leave.
There was no such thing as "Spring Festival" in the Tang Dynasty. The first day of the Lunar New Year was called "New Year's Day", "Yuan Day" or "Yuan Zheng" in the Tang Dynasty.
In the early days of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, Li Longji promulgated the "False Ning Order": "Yuan Zheng and Winter Solstice will each give seven days off." In other words, there are seven days off during the New Year, New Year's Eve and the three days before it, and the first day of the Lunar New Year (i.e. Yuan Day), The second and third days of the lunar month are similar to the Golden Week in Fang Chongyong's previous life.
Li Longji himself is a fun-loving person. It seems reasonable to go to the surrounding mountains to enjoy the snow and worship the sky during the New Year. There is nothing wrong with the emperor engaging in team building.
Just a few days before the New Year, there was heavy snowfall in Chang'an, and the Li Linfu family's house in Pingkangfang was being renovated and renovated in full swing in preparation for the New Year.
The area of Pingkangfang is not small, with a length of 1022 meters from east to west and about 500 meters from north to south. The total area is about 500,000 square meters, that is, nearly half the size of the Forbidden City (the Forbidden City covers an area of 720,000 square meters).
In the northwest corner of Pingkangfang is Princess Changning's Mansion. This house alone occupies a full quarter of the area of Pingkangfang, and there is also a Cuju court. However, after Emperor Ruizong of the Tang Dynasty came to power during the Jingyun period, Princess Changning had already lost power and left Chang'an. She packaged and sold the entire mansion and divided the land to build a new residence.
Now many houses here have been converted into brothels. In order to make it easier for officials to "pick up prostitutes" after going to court, these brothels were located next to the square gate. It is easy for guests to come in and it is also easy for them to leave.
In the southwest corner of Pingkangfang are the residences of many imperial officials, such as Chu Suiliang's residence, Pei Guangting's residence, etc. Moreover, the Jinzouyuan of the imperial court has always been located here without any change.
The residents in the northeast corner are more complex, and the houses are divided very finely. To the west is "Sanqu", and the others are small retail households, often rented to some down-and-out students who entered the imperial examination in Chang'an.
There is also a temple here called Yanghua Temple.
The "Three Songs" are where prostitutes live. The northernmost one is for poor and lowly prostitutes who can only engage in the flesh business and even dare not tell their names. Erqu and Sanqu were frequent guests in the mansions of dignitaries in Chang'an, and their lives were much more comfortable.
The southeast corner of Pingkangfang is where Li Linfu's residence is located. It and Bodhi Temple occupy a quarter of Pingkangfang.
In other words, Li Linfu's mansion is indeed not much smaller than Princess Changning's mansion back then.
It is impossible to expand. The size and scale of the houses that officials can own are customized. Besides, many of the people living in Pingkangfang are nobles. It is impossible for Li Linfu to offend these people in order to expand his own house.
He was promoted and built a house. This was an old rule in the officialdom and was understandable, but occupying someone else's house was obviously overstepping the bounds.
Not only did Li Linfu not show off, he even deliberately kept a low profile. His house, even the courtyard outside, including the courtyard walls, remained unchanged, but the furnishings inside changed a lot.
At Li Linfu's strong request, the craftsmen opened the walls between the wing rooms and built partitions between rooms, which could only accommodate two people and a table. I'd say it's for receiving guests, but the place is too small. He said he wanted to be quiet, but he was too closed off.
It's a bit like a place where big things are plotted.
The decoration of Zuo Xiang's house in the Tang Dynasty actually required so much trouble, which made the craftsmen find it unbelievable. It's just that Li Linfu spent a lot of money, was extremely powerful, and generously paid the project funds in one lump sum, so these craftsmen had no choice but to pretend that they were blind, deaf, and dumb.
Anyway, if you see it, pretend you didn't see it, if you hear it, pretend you didn't hear it, if you know it, pretend you have forgotten it, that's all right.
The yard was being renovated, but Li Linfu in the study was receiving guests.
The guest's name is Xiao Jiong, a member of Li Linfu's party, a former official in the Ministry of Household Affairs, and a former subordinate of Li Linfu.
Why add "before"?
Because he was demoted at this juncture of the New Year.
The reason for being demoted is also very strange.
Xiao Jiong, who is the Minister of Household Affairs, went to attend an official gathering with Yan Tingzhi, the Minister of Zhongshu. In the meantime, Xiao Jiong was probably bored, so he picked up a book of "Book of Rites" and flipped through it to pass the time.
In fact, this is also normal, because central officials in the Tang Dynasty spent a lot of time fishing and had a lot of boring chores.
But it shouldn't be the case. Xiao Jiong read it out when he saw it, and he even read it wrong!
Of course, there is a sentence in the book called "Steaming and Tasting Fu La". Xiao Jiong recognized the character "白" and pronounced "La" as the character "Hunt".
If Fang Chongyong did such a stupid thing when he was at school in his previous life, it would definitely be harmless. Who dares to say that he didn't miss any words when he was studying?
But at this juncture, especially in the eyes of court officials, mispronunciation is a big deal.
In fact, this is easy to understand. There is no trivial matter in officialdom, and no matter how small it is, it can be enough to kill someone at some point!
Because "Book of Rites" was one of the must-read books for scholars in the Tang Dynasty, it was a must-read when participating in school system study. Moreover, the character "La" is not a rare or variant character.
The fact that Xiao Jiong can pronounce it as "lurking" already shows that he has no idea what this word means. To put it simply, this person is a bastard, a fake scholar who sneaked into the court without knowing how!
The officialdom of the Tang Dynasty was dangerous, and the "good people" recorded in history books did not necessarily have noble personal ethics.
Yan Tingzhi was quite unkind. When he heard that Xiao Jiong had mispronounced the word, he deliberately burst into laughter and made everyone know about it.
What's even more insidious is that he didn't say it outright on the spot. Instead, he treated Xiao Jiong's embarrassing incident as a joke when he came back. He even directly went to Zhongshu Ling Zhang Jiuling and said this sentence: Province (Shang Shu Sheng) How can there be a "hunting servant" in the world!
Zhang Jiuling was a traditional scholar-bureaucrat, and he did not think highly of people without knowledge (the ability to manage money was not considered knowledge in the eyes of these people). Therefore, under Zhang Jiuling's operation, it didn't take long for the central government to transfer Xiao Jiong to Qizhou as the governor with a transfer order.
Now Xiu Mu, Xiao Jiong will definitely not be allowed to go to other places to take up his post, and if he wants to leave, it will definitely be after the Lantern Festival. So he spent a lot of money to buy two jars of red lotus spring, and brought the wine to Li Linfu to find a solution.
"Prime Minister Li, there is something big going on with Zhang Jiuling!"
Xiao Jiong approached Li Linfu and said in a deep voice.
"What's the big deal with Mr. Zhang?"
Li Linfu smiled, waved his hand nonchalantly, and poured a glass of Red Lotus Spring for Xiao Jiong. He was secretly angry in his heart, but his face was calm.
The power struggle between him and Zhang Jiuling has begun and has entered an endless and intense stage.
Li Linfu believed that Zhang Jiuling criticized Xiao Jiong not because Xiao Jiong mispronounced a word, but because... he was excluding dissidents! Xiao Jiong is Li Linfu's thug in the household department. Without Xiao Jiong, Li Linfu would lose control of the household department to a certain extent.
As for what Zhang Jiuling planned, it's actually not that important. Stones blocking the road must be moved away. If Zhang Jiuling doesn't come down, how can Li Linfu himself become the right prime minister? They are all going to fight to the death anyway, and there is no shortage of them.
Li Linfu got up by managing money. If he couldn't control the household department, how could he manage money?
"The phase is vacant, Zhang Jiuling wants to get Yan Tingzhi into the phase!"
Seeing that Li Linfu didn't care, Xiao Jiong gritted his teeth and said, and drank the wine in the glass in one gulp!
For those who ride horses, Hong Lianchun is really expensive. Unfortunately, people like this kind of style. They will look down on cheap things, no matter how good they are, because they think they will lose their status if they get them! Xiao Jiong secretly cursed the person who brewed Honglianchun as a black heart.
"Is it?"
Li Linfu nodded noncommittally, secretly calculating the gains and losses in his heart.
Of the three prime ministers, Zhang Jiuling is still the right prime minister. Pei Yaoqing was demoted because he "misappropriated" Li Longji's "pocket money", and the prime minister's position was vacated.
Zhang Jiuling wanted to help Yan Tingzhi, who had a close personal relationship with him, which was actually human nature.
How Li Longji will make a decision is difficult to predict now.
In Li Linfu's view, Zhang Jiuling's biggest problem was that he didn't understand what Li Longji was missing!
Times have changed, and what Li Longji lacks today is money!
If the Tang Empire wanted to run smoothly, it also needed money!
money! money! money!
Things other than money are nothing!
Now is the era of money. In the early years, those poets thought that by writing articles and memorials for the emperor, they would be able to achieve success. Haha, I can only say that reading is stupid! Times have changed a long time ago!
Can Zhang Jiuling get money for Li Longji? If so, how many can be done? Can you do more than yourself?
Thinking of this, Li Linfu felt confident that the key to solving the problem was in his own hands.
For Li Longji, a prime minister who cannot make money is a waste and can be removed at any time!
A prime minister who can make money is the person Li Longji needs in the future. This is true both for the country and for Li Longji himself.
"The truth about this matter is known. You go to Qizhou first to take up the post. Yan Tingzhi's matter will be handled by the truth."
Li Linfu said to Xiao Jiong with a smile on his face without commenting.
Xiao Jiong had no choice but to thank him profusely and then left.
After he left, Li Linfu shook his silver lotus wine glass while concentrating on his thoughts.
"What does the prince want to do?"
Li Linfu was talking to himself, stroking the long beard on his chin. In his eyes, Zhang Jiuling was just a withered bone in the grave. He was now troubled by another important matter.
…
The apes on both sides of the bank can't stop crying, and the boat has passed the Ten Thousand Mountains.
Starting from Kuizhou, the high-spirited Zheng Shuqing took the worried Fang Chongyong, and the group took an official boat and sailed down the Yangtze River to Hanyang City (Hanyang District, Wuhan) for a day of repairs. Then turn to the Han River and go north to Xiangyang. Here we are going to continue north along the Baihe River and enter Guanzhong via Wuguan Road.
However, when they arrived outside Xiangyang City, they were surprised to find that the Baihe River was frozen and the waterway could not continue!
So everyone had to disembark at Hanyin Station not far to the west of Xiangyang City. This station is both a water station and a land station. It is extremely large in scale. Not only does it have a ferry, but there are more than a hundred houses in the station. There is a constant stream of people coming and going. Continuously.
The scale of the stables alone is spectacular, including dozens of stagecoach horses!
Fang Chongyong stood outside Hanyin Post and observed carefully, he found that there were several halls, pavilions, pavilions and gardens inside the post. It's not as crowded as you would imagine a "youth hostel" to be. The whole building looks very elegant with white walls and black tiles.
He couldn't help but have a question in his mind: a post station of this size would probably have a lot of horses. Could it be that the central government of the Tang Dynasty was a wealthy businessman who was willing to spend money to maintain such a large inn?
It's not that he has many questions, but that there are more than 1,600 inns in the Tang Dynasty! If an inn consumes several hundred guan every year, it also costs hundreds of thousands of guan! The post station not only provides free food and lodging for officials coming and going, but is also responsible for delivering messages.
House maintenance, food and drinks, horse feeding, personnel salary, which one does not cost money? Can such a large-scale post station be able to sustain a few hundred visits a year? Datang is afraid that running these inns will lead to poverty!
Fang Chongyong couldn't understand it at all.
Zheng Shuqing seemed to have noticed his doubts, and came over and said in a low voice: "In various post stations, the central government does not allow them to receive wealthy businessmen and pedestrians. But look at the Qutang Post in Kuizhou. People are coming and going. Are all the people living there? Are they officials? How can there be so many officials going to Shu?"
Hearing this, Fang Zhongyong understood instantly.
When he first saw that Qutang Station in Kuizhou was overcrowded, he thought it was filled with officials. Only now do I know the answer. It turns out that most of the people living inside are not officials, but wealthy and well-connected businessmen.
Even poets who did not hold official positions also visited the inn and made a living.
In fact, this is also easy to understand.
In feudal society, people's pace of life was very slow. Even in a place like Kuizhou, the throat of the southwest, how many officials would live here a month? How many officials would frequently travel to and from Shu along the Yangtze River?
The answer is obvious.
Just like the Tang Dynasty officials did not allow the killing of cows and eating beef. A ban is a ban, and eating meat is eating meat. The two go hand in hand, and people who like to eat will still eat it!
The government does not allow inns in various places to receive traveling merchants, but apart from the inns around Chang'an and Luoyang, which inn does not rely on this kind of "extra money" to maintain its livelihood? The imperial court's death order was never as important as livelihood.
When people are extremely poor, they have nothing. What is the use of teaching the laws to these people?
If not many officials pass by the post station this year (this situation is very common), should all the people at the post station be fired? What should I do if an official passes by and needs accommodation and food? Should we recall those who were dismissed again?
This is of course unrealistic!
Therefore, the central government would turn a blind eye to matters such as "accepting private work" at various post stations, and would ignore it as long as no one reported it.
The inns below are also in full swing and are even "outsourced" to be run by large local companies!
All things are free, and people can always think of better ways to survive and live better.
Fang Chongyong and his party entered Hanyin Post and asked the postman to bring some local Xiangyang specialties, such as river eels, scallops, and crucian carp.
At this moment, they saw a young man dressed in a poor manner being pushed out of the post station by the post guards. Those postmen looked very rude, completely opposite to the courteous attitude they received Zheng Shuqing and the others!
"That man is an official. Ask him to come over and have a drink with us."
Fang Chongyong suggested to Zheng Shuqing in a low voice.
