From that day on, Li Zhiyun walked out of the Tai Chi Palace at midnight every day and hung out with the young masters. He always boasted that he would be crowned king soon, and all the young masters believed him. Looking at the current situation, it is only a matter of time before Li Yuan ascends the throne and proclaims himself emperor. Li Yuan became emperor, shouldn't all his sons be crowned kings?
Being able to establish friendship with the future prince is something that the young masters want to do. So, they took turns being the banker and entertaining guests. In this way, Li Zhiyun cheated on food and drink outside the palace every day. After eating and drinking, we wandered the streets with this group of people, swaggering through the streets, and living a cool and happy life!
That afternoon, they came to a street next to Shanglin Garden and saw a large group of people gathered in front of them. When they walked over and took a look, it turned out that several people were tied to wooden stakes and being whipped.
The ones who beat them were the guards of Shanglin Garden. Li Zhiyun asked the people next to him, why were these common people beaten? The man said: "Because they cut down the trees in Shanglin Garden."
"Why do they cut down trees?" Li Zhiyun asked puzzledly.
"Little brother, you don't know." said an old man next to him. "The people in Chang'an usually burn firewood from nearby mountain people who bring it into the city. But now tens of thousands of rebels have suddenly settled in the city. There are more people and less firewood." , the price will naturally increase. Nowadays, firewood is more expensive than cloth. Some poor people cannot afford firewood and have to eat, so they can only steal firewood!"
Li Zhiyun now understood that people stole trees because they couldn't afford firewood. At this time, a young man next to him said angrily: "Those officials don't let the people cut it down, but they send people to cut it down themselves, sell it at a high price in the market, and enrich their own pockets!"
"Who is in charge of Shanglin Garden?" Li Zhiyun asked the brother beside him.
"Yao Silian." Wei Xiaobao said, "I heard that when the rebel army entered the city, all the people in Dai Wang's Mansion ran away, and he was the only one who stayed by Dai Wang Yang You's side. After Yang You ascended the throne, he trusted him very much, so he put this person on the throne. Let Lin Yuan be managed by him!"
Yao Silian? Li Zhiyun remembered that he was the guy with whom he had a poetry competition last time. Li Zhiyun decided to go find Yang You tomorrow, but now he had to rescue those people!
So, he walked over and asked the soldiers: "Who is the leader among you?" A short man glanced at him and said: "I am. What do you do?"
"I am Li Zhiyun, the son of Prince Tang!"
The officer was startled. Nowadays, in Chang'an City, the name "son of Prince Tang" is louder than any other name. He saw a group of young men gathered behind Li Zhiyun. These people were all dressed in luxurious clothes, with tender skin and tender flesh, and some were wearing swords. At first glance, they were young men from wealthy families.
It seems that these people can’t afford to offend! The officer quickly put on a smile, nodded and bowed: "Sir, what are your orders?"
Li Zhiyun pointed at the common people and said: "They are also forced to do nothing! You just don't let them illegally log wood, why are you whipping them? Let them go quickly!"
"this……"
Liu Shuyi on the side glared and shouted: "Let it go! Do you need the King of Tang to give you the order personally?"
"How dare you?" When the officer heard this, he shrank his neck and said, "Okay, okay, let it go! Just let it go!" After saying that, he turned around and asked the soldiers to stop whipping and untie the ropes on the civilians.
The next day, Li Zhiyun came to the palace gate and said he wanted to go in to find the emperor, but the two soldiers guarding the gate refused to let him in. During the dispute, Wei Yijie happened to come out of the palace and walked over quickly when he saw him.
Li Zhiyun raised his hands and saluted: "Master Wei, I want to see the emperor, but they won't let me in!" Wei Yijie returned the courtesy: "Master Li, the emperor was still saying that he wanted to see you again a few days ago! Wei will take you in. Bar!"
When the two guards saw this situation, how could they dare to stop him? So, Li Zhiyun walked into the palace swaggeringly. Wei Yijie led him into a palace, where he saw the young emperor Yang You sitting on a soft couch reading a book. Wei Yijie stepped forward and knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, Mr. Li wants to see you, so I brought him here!"
Li Zhiyun was not used to kneeling and kowtowing to others, so he stood there and bowed. Yang You was not surprised. He asked Wei Yijie to step aside first, and then said to him with a smile: "Master Li, come and sit down quickly! I just want to see you and talk about poetry and poetry with you!"
As soon as Li Zhiyun heard that Yang You was going to talk about poetry with him, he sat down and blew a lot, and then "composed" a poem "Early Spring": The light rain on the sky street is as moist as crisp, the grass is far away but not close; the most beautiful spring of the year The advantage is better than Yanliu Manchuangdu.
After Yang You finished reading, he let out waves of exclamation! After making Yang You happy, Li Zhiyun began to lure him out of the palace.
"Your Majesty, what do you do every day?"
"Read, write, talk to the eunuchs and maids, that's all!"
"Don't you feel depressed when you stay in this deep palace every day?"
"What can I do? I am the emperor and can only stay in the palace."
"You can visit privately incognito!"
"What is an incognito private visit?" Yang You asked curiously.
"Just put on the same clothes as me," Li Zhiyun said, "and then sneak out of the palace and go to the people to observe the sentiments of the people."
"Is this possible?" Yang Youdeng rounded his eyes. Li Zhiyun asked again: "Have you ever been to the streets of Chang'an?" Yang You nodded and said, "I passed by in a carriage several times."
"In this case, I will take you out of the palace today," Li Zhiyun said. "There are many young masters waiting for us outside. How about we go shopping on the streets of Chang'an together?" After hearing this, Yang You thought of the people on the streets of Chang'an. The bustling and lively atmosphere makes my heart beat. He said to the eunuch standing on the side: "Go, help me find a piece of clothing that is the same as Mr. Li!" Upon hearing this, the eunuch hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, you cannot leave the palace privately, in case the King of Tang..."
"Shut up! Why don't you go quickly?"
The eunuch thought to himself that the emperor had to leave the palace, and he might not be able to stop him! No matter what, it was Young Master Li who was the one who bewitched him. If the King of Tang came to investigate, he would be the one to blame. So, he turned around and walked away, and after a while he found a set of civilian clothes.
After Yang Yoo changed his clothes, Li Zhiyun took his hand and walked out of the palace, came to the palace gate, and sent a signal to the outside. Liu Shuyi, Lawyer Pei and others who had been hiding behind the corner came out and shot the two guards with slingshots. The two guards were so enraged that they forgot their duties and ran after the bad boys. Li Zhiyun took Yang You and took the opportunity to slip out of the palace.
They arrived at the designated place to meet. Yang You took a look, hey, they are all teenagers, they must be in love with him. It didn't take long for him to mingle with everyone. They first went to the West Market for a stroll, and Lawyer Pei spent money to buy a lot of food. Yang You didn't dare to eat it at first, but seeing that others enjoyed it, he took a few tentative bites. This meal felt more delicious than what the royal chef in the palace made, so he ate everything in his hands.
As we wandered around until noon, there were naturally people paying for treats. After having enough wine and food, Li Zhiyun led everyone to a house next to Shanglin Garden and walked into a family's home. The owner of this family was one of the people who was whipped by the guards last time. Seeing these young men coming again, he quickly invited them into the house with a smile on his face. When Yang You entered the door, he looked at it: "Hey, why is there no door in this house?"
"Back to the young master, my family was poor and I had no money to buy firewood, so I split the door and burned it!"
"What should we do if a thief comes at night?"
"Hey, there's nothing to steal from this little guy's house!..."
Yang You entered the house and took a look. Sure enough, his family was completely destitute and impoverished. After coming out of that house, Yang You sighed: "I didn't expect that the people were so poor!" Li Zhiyun said to him: "Your Majesty, let's go to Shanglin Garden again!"
When a group of people arrived at Shanglin Garden, the guards saw that it was this group of young men again and did not dare to stop them, allowing them to walk in without hesitation. Shanglinyuan covers an area so large that you can't even see the end of it. This royal forest garden was built by Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty. Trees were planted throughout the garden, and many wolves, tigers, and leopards were kept there so that Yang Jian could hunt here in his spare time. After Yang Guang ascended the throne, he built the eastern capital of Luoyang and moved many of the imperial yamen to Luoyang. No one cared about Shanglin Garden anymore. In addition, there have been wars in the past few years, and there is no one to manage it. The beasts in the garden have long starved to death, and the garden is overgrown and deserted.
They walked not far along the corridor, which was almost covered with weeds, when they heard the sound of trees being cut down. When I got closer, I saw a dozen soldiers cutting down trees there. They had already cut down a lot, and some soldiers were sawing off the trees and tying them into bundles. Li Zhiyun walked over and shouted: "Okay, you don't allow the people to cut down, but you are cutting down privately!" An officer in armor came over, glanced at him, and said, "What do you do?"
Yang You stepped forward and said: "I am the emperor! Tell me quickly, who sent you to cut down the wood? What is the use of the cut wood?" When the officer heard this, he laughed and said: "You little boy, how dare you pretend to be the emperor? , so interesting!" A soldier next to him walked up to him and whispered: "Sir, he is really the emperor! I have stayed in the Dai Wang Mansion before, and he is the former Dai Wang and the current emperor!"
When the officer heard this, he was so frightened that he knelt down with a plop and said tremblingly: "This villain does not recognize the holy face and deserves death! I beg the emperor to punish you!"
"Answer the question I just asked!"
"They were assigned by Master Yao and Master Zhang. The trees cut down will be sold in the market, and the money earned will be given to them!"
"Are you talking about Yao Silian and Zhang Xu?" Seeing the other party nodding, Yang You said bitterly: "I didn't expect these two people to be so greedy for money!" Then, he said: "Shanglin Garden is the private property of the royal family. I don't allow you to steal it anymore. , leave quickly!”
After the officer got up from the ground, he waved to his men, and the soldiers took their tools and left.
Returning to the palace, Yang You issued an imperial edict, stipulating that people were allowed to cut down the trees in Shanglin Garden freely, but each household was limited to cutting one load of firewood per day, and was not allowed to be sold on the market. Any violation would be punished as a crime! The imperial decree was copied on the imperial list, stamped with the imperial seal, and posted in the market. The people of Chang'an were all happy and encouraged when they saw it.
"Mr. Li, it was a pleasure to have a private visit incognito today. When will we come again?"
"Okay, I'll come see you someday!"...
