A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1248 Watching the Flowers Bloom and Fall in the Courtyard
Wu Huaiyu was appointed You Pushe.

But he never went to the Shangshu Province or the Zhengshi Hall, but still received his salary at home. He was now a first-rank Taiwei, with an annual salary of 700 dan of rice, a monthly salary of 8,000 coins, 1,800 yuan for food, and 1,200 yuan for miscellaneous expenses. And Wu Huaiyu's status also gave him a bonus of one year's rice at the end of the year, which was equivalent to double salary.

He also enjoyed the rent of 1,200 mu of official land, with one mu receiving six dou of rent, which was another 720 dan. This was thirty times better than the ordinary officials who could not rent out official land and could only receive two liters of millet per mu in Taicang.

He also has 5,000 acres of permanent farmland.

He was also able to enjoy the service of ninety-six garrison officers sent by the imperial court.

This is not the end. Starting from the middle of the Zhenguan period, the imperial court became rich, and the salaries and benefits of all officials were improved. Important officials in the capital city received additional pay, and important part-time jobs also received part-time pay.

As one of the Three Dukes and the Grand Marshal, Wu Huaiyu received 1.6 million coins every year.

In addition, as prime minister, he was granted 40 pieces of silk, 30 pieces of satin, and 100 taels of cotton for clothing every spring and winter, a subsidy of 100 shi of grain every month, and even a meal subsidy of 50,000 coins per month, which was called kitchen money.

In addition, as prime minister, he also had a large amount of public funds. Although it was called public funds, it was actually different from office expenses. It was like a salary and could be privately received, up to 200 strings of cash a month.

In fact, the subsidies are quite a lot, including money for tea, wine, coal, horse feed, food and clothing, and meals for the servants. The amount is quite a lot.

The court not only provided rice as an stipend, but also salt, tea, sauce, vinegar, firewood and charcoal. It also gave Prime Minister Wu Huaiyu twenty sheep and sixty kilograms of pork every month.

As the three highest officials of the first rank, the prime minister, and the duke, the salaries and benefits are indeed good.

As the Duke of Song, who was actually granted 2,800 households, he could also enjoy a large income from his fiefdom.

The court was rich, and Li Shimin was generous.
The treatment of the Three Dukes, the Three Masters and Three Young Masters of the Eastern Palace, the Prime Minister, the Shangshu of the third rank, the General, and the local governors and protector generals, etc., increased several times compared to the beginning of the Wude period. Although it cannot be compared with the Song Dynasty, it is indeed very generous.

Wu Huaiyu stayed at home every day, drinking tea and basking in the sun, then sorted out the books and poems he had written over the years, finalized them and published new editions. He was so relaxed and happy that he felt a little embarrassed sometimes.

I feel like a parasite on the country.

But on second thought, the value he created for the Tang Dynasty and the merits he made made him fully qualified to enjoy these. Besides, Wu Huaiyu was the one who was short of a few hundred or a few thousand strings of money now?

Whether he was leading the reform of the Two Tax System, or leading the conquests in the east and west over the years to destroy the Eastern and Western Turks, to suppress Youyan in the north, and to pacify Lingnan in the south, these achievements were enough to divide the land.

Li Sanniang walked into the sun room,

"Alang's Journey to the West, twelve volumes, has been published and printed. It is very popular and hard to find. Now the first batch of books in Chang'an, Luoyang, Jingyang, Bingyiliang, Guangyou, Qingjiao and other bookstores have all sold out.

Shopkeepers from all over the country requested a reprint, and many other booksellers also brought cash in horse-drawn carriages to buy books, queuing up and refusing to leave.

Wu Huaiyu poured her a cup of tea.

He was not surprised that Journey to the West was so popular. After all, his Journey to the West was different from the dry and informative Records of the Western Regions by Tang Monk Bian Ji.
Although this seems like Wu Huaiyu's Western Expedition Chronicle, it is written in the form of a novel, and even has a bit of the rhythm of a historical novel, connecting the cultural landscapes of the countries in the Western Regions.

Coupled with Wu Huaiyu's fame and popularity, this book has become very popular since he started writing and publishing it.

You can view this book as both a geography book and a history book of the Western Regions. Of course, the story is even more exciting. The Tang army's expedition to the west is full of ups and downs, exciting and thrilling.

Following the perspective of the protagonist Wu Xianggong, you can also feel the excitement of commanding thousands of troops, marching thousands of miles, capturing kings and destroying countries. At the same time, you can also feel the exotic beauty of the Western Regions from the beautiful text, poems and even illustrations.

Beautiful scenery, beautiful Hu Ji, various beautiful legends,
Li Qing picked up the teacup, drank the tea in it, and asked Huaiyu with some curiosity, "Ah Lang, your Journey to the West is really well written. I can't put it down. I have read every chapter many times.
I especially like the story of Princess Kepandahan. Is that story true? Please tell me about it in detail.

Huaiyu smiled,
The story of the Han princess Kepantu is that during the Han Dynasty, the Persian Kingdom in the Western Regions sent envoys to the Han Dynasty to make peace and request a marriage. In order to fight against the Xiongnu, the Han Dynasty agreed to the marriage, but was unwilling to marry the princess to such a faraway place. Finally, a palace maid was selected, canonized as a princess, and soldiers were sent to escort the princess to Persia.

The journey was thousands of miles long and the delegation encountered all kinds of difficulties and dangers. When they finally reached the Pamir Mountains and were about to reach Persia, they encountered robbers.

In order to protect the princess's safety, the envoys and guards had to build a fortress for her on a nearby extremely steep mountain and set up tight defenses around it.

The food and drink for the princess and her maids were suspended from the bottom of the mountain by a rope.

The rebellion lasted for three months before it was quelled.

When the Persian envoy came to the castle and respectfully greeted the princess to continue her journey, he received shocking news: the princess was pregnant.

The messenger could hardly believe his ears. He asked the princess the reason and vowed to kill the man.

But for more than three months, the princess and her maids lived in the castle on the mountain and had no contact with other men. Later, the maids told the messenger,
It turned out that when the princess was taking refuge in the castle on the mountain, a prince riding a golden horse would descend from the sun to the top of the mountain every day to have a tryst with the princess. After that, the princess became pregnant.

This was a ridiculous explanation and the messenger refused to believe it.

But he also knew that if he brought the princess to Persia, the king would be furious and his life would be in danger.

And if he returned the same way and sent the princess back to Middle-earth, he would probably be punished by the Han emperor.

Without any choice,

The envoy finally discussed with the guards that since they could not advance or retreat, they might as well establish a country there and welcome the son of the Golden Horse God as king.

Everyone felt that there was no other choice, so the messengers and guards used the mountaintop fortress as their base camp, married the maids in the team, and reclaimed land nearby to grow crops and graze horses.

The following year, the princess gave birth to a handsome baby boy, who was elected king by everyone and founded her own country, Chekepantuo, which means mountain road.

His mother was from Han territory, and his father was of the race of Ritian, so they called themselves the race of Han and Ritian.

After that, Kepantu continued to develop, contacted with surrounding tribes, intermarried, merged, and multiplied from generation to generation, forming a famous country on the Pamir Plateau. However, its royal family always looked like Chinese, wearing square crowns and wearing Hu clothes.

"The Princess Castle of Kepantu still stands outside its capital, and the story of the Han-Japanese Celestial Race has been passed down from generation to generation. After Kepantu was conquered by our army, its king was captured. The royal family does look like Han people, and is quite different from the local Sai people."

Li Qing was deeply fascinated by this story and believed it without a doubt.

Wu Huaiyu was the man who wrote Zizhi Tongjian, but he could not find any record in history books that the Han Dynasty had a marriage alliance with Persia, nor did he find any record that a princess became pregnant and gave birth to a child during the marriage and established a country halfway.

But the legend of the Han-Japanese Tianzhong and the Princess Castle have always existed, and even their king does look quite like a Han Chinese, which amazed Wu Huaiyu, so in his Journey to the West, in the chapter about conquering Kepantu, he wrote about this legendary story.

"Alang, do you know who this Han princess is?" Li Qing asked curiously.

Wu Huaiyu smiled and said, "There is no record in history books. Maybe it's just a legend. Maybe there was such a person in history, but because the marriage failed and she became pregnant and gave birth to a child, the Han Dynasty felt ashamed and deleted it and left no record."

After all, even according to the legend, she was not a real princess, but just a palace maid who was canonized as a princess.

Li Qing couldn't help but think of the court's current policy of marriage alliances, which was to confer titles of princess, county lady, and county princess on the daughters of royal family members, ministers, and even some palace maids, and then marry them to the kings, khans, protectorates, governors, jijins, and chiefs of the surrounding vassal states.

Similarly, every year the Tang Dynasty required the khans, kings, chiefs, and other leaders of the surrounding barbarians to send their daughters to the Tang Dynasty. The emperor would select them into the palace or give them to the crown prince, kings, meritorious officials, and relatives of honor.

Marriage between Han and Hu people is an important foreign policy of the court today. Together with the court's control policy, it has played a significant role in maintaining stability on the border.

"I always feel that this is a national affair, but it requires weak women to travel thousands of miles to marry far away. They are quite pitiful." Li Qing said.

"So now the court is mainly based on voluntary participation,"

Originally a humble palace maid, if she volunteered to marry, she would be chosen and given titles such as county lady, princess lady or even princess, marry far away and become a queen or princess.

As for living in a foreign country from now on and adapting to a completely different environment and customs, it depends on personal adaptation. After all, it is your own choice.

Should she be a humble palace maid, be released from the palace to marry when she is old, or take a chance and go out of the border to marry, become a queen or princess, or at least become the wife of a governor or general? It all depends on herself.

For the imperial court, this large-scale marriage between Han and Hu vassal states does have many benefits for the Tang Dynasty. Moreover, this marriage is initiated by the Tang Dynasty, which is very different from the humiliating forced marriage of princesses. Moreover, this marriage is two-way.

The Tang Dynasty married off a large number of its daughters to the various Hu peoples, and the various Hu people also sent their princesses and noble ladies to the Tang Dynasty. The upper class of the Hu people later married Han women, and even sent their sons to Chang'an and Luoyang to study and serve as guards, and their daughters were sent to the Central Plains for marriage alliances.

In this way, the relationship between Han and Hu will definitely become closer and closer in the future.

The men who fought on the frontiers had their robes stained with blood, and the women who married barbarians to promote friendship, all made contributions.

When the border is stable and the country is stable, everyone's life will be better.

While talking,
Fan Xuanfu came in a hurry.

"Sir, have you heard that the brothers Xue Wanche and Xue Wanjun have been arrested and imprisoned? Also, the General of the Left Garrison Guard Li Anyan, the Minister of Personnel Zheng Renji, and the Governor of Huzhou Zheng Xuanxu have all been arrested. Uncle Changsun is arresting people everywhere.

Do you know why they were arrested?"

"Why?" Wu Huaiyu asked knowingly.

"The news from the government office is that they colluded with Goguryeo and Xueyantuo to assassinate you, and the assassins in Luoyang were sent by them." Fan Xuanfu cursed angrily, "These dog slaves."

Wu Huaiyu was very calm.

It was Wu Huaiyu who found out that Xue Wanche and his gang were planning to assassinate him. It was he who released the clues and led to the case.

In other words, Prince Liu Li You was not reported for treason by others, but by people arranged by Wu Huaiyu. Hegan Chengji was also arrested and imprisoned in the Dali Temple by Wu Huaiyu.

It was Xu Jingzong who reminded Hegan Chengji how to save himself and induced him to report that Li Anyan and Hou Junji had conspired to coup, which led to the assassination of Wu in Luoyang.

After the incident,

The prince came to the mansion in person and had a long talk with him in the study. He told Huaiyu about the three major cases and revealed the emperor's attitude towards dealing with them.

Wu Huaiyu expressed his support for the court to Cheng Qian, saying that he would let the court handle the matter and he would not interfere. He believed that the court would handle the matter impartially.

Wu Huaiyu was not surprised that the emperor combined the three major cases into one and handed it over to the returning Changsun Wuji to preside over the trial.

Chang Sun Wuji has been holding back for so long, and he has to come up with three tricks before he makes his comeback.
Moreover, this case involved two princes, many important officials, and powerful families like the Zheng family of Xingyang and the Li family of Dunqiu. If Changsun Wuji was asked to try the case, he would be the one who offended people.

For the emperor, Zhangsun Wuji was a banner of the Guanlong Group. The first thing he would do after his return was to fight against the Shandong gentry, killing two birds with one stone.

Zheng Xuanxu, the son of Zheng Shanguo, Li Anyan and Li Jiancheng both married women from the Zheng family of Xingyang.

Zheng Renji, his father was Zheng Dashi, and his grandmother was from the Dongqiu Li family.

Let Changsun Wuji do it, and he will continue to sit at home and relax.

Everything was going according to his plan, which was great.

(End of this chapter)