A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1289 Princess Taiping
An Lushan followed the butler to the martial arts arena.
He was jogging from a distance. With a weight of 400 pounds, it felt like an earth-shaking movement. This guy was not just strong, but also had gained a lot of weight.

"I, Lushan, greet you, sir."

His Majesty the King, in front of Wu Huaiyu, was even more respectful than before, and he knelt down and kowtowed.
"Your Majesty, please stand up. I don't deserve it." Wu Huaiyu stepped aside and offered his hand to help Fatty An.

But Fatty An knelt down and even shed tears. "You are Lushan's adoptive father, closer than my own flesh and blood. Once a father, always a father."

"Father, please call me Lushan Pig. I feel more intimate with him. If you call me King again, I will be so ashamed."

Wu Huaiyu listened to the 400-pound An Lushan kneeling on the ground wiping his eyes and calling him "child" all the time, and he inexplicably found it somewhat funny.

"All right, get up now, pig."

This call of "pig" finally made An Lushan burst into laughter, "Father, help me up."

"You must weigh about 400 kilograms, right?"

"Four hundred and two."

Wu Huaiyu smiled and shook his head. "I've been telling you to be more moderate. You're still so young. It's not good for your health to keep getting fat like this."

Pei Xingjian teased Lushan, "Pig, you are so fat. Those beauties you married won't be able to bear it."

Lushan laughed and said, "I always let them come up and do it themselves."

Just one sentence made everyone laugh.

An Lushan did not take it seriously. Instead, he proudly introduced various new postures to everyone, which was an eye-opener.

"I heard that Senior Brother Pei was promoted to the magistrate of Chang'an County. Congratulations, Senior Brother. You have finally left the remote and wild places like Nanzhong and the Western Regions and returned to the prosperous world of Chang'an. Unlike me, I can only stay in the river land thousands of miles away in this life."

Pei Xingjian is much younger than An Lushan, but he started studying with his sworn brother Wu Huaiyu at a very young age, and had the title of direct disciple. An Lushan was older and came later, so An Lushan, Huaiyu's adopted son, had to call Pei Xingjian uncle. But at that time he felt that Pei was too younger than him and did not want to call him uncle, so he called him senior brother.

Wu Huaiyi's adopted sons actually respect Huaiyu's students very much.

The identities of these two groups of people are quite different.

Huaiyu's adopted sons were either some Hu children or orphans he adopted, such as An Lushan, Shi Shouxin, and Yuwen Chengdu, or the sons of barbarian leaders, such as Li Keyong and Pang Yanzhang.

Wu Huaiyu's students were all children of famous families, some were even princes, such as Crown Prince Chengqian, Xu Jingzong's son, Wei Zheng's son, as well as Pei Xingjian, Shangguan Yi, Xu Yushi, Hao Chujun and so on.

Naturally, Huaiyu's adopted sons feel inferior to Huaiyu's disciples, so they always respect them.

Now that An Zhu'er has become King An, he is still respectful when facing Pei Xingjian, the fifth-rank magistrate of Chang'an County.

"Just arrived in Chang'an?"

"Well, let's go to see Aye first when we enter the city."

"How many people did you bring?"

"Three thousand, stationed in Weibei, and only brought one team into the city."

"These three thousand are all your Yeluohe?"

"Yes."

An Lushan was honest in front of Wu Huaiyu, and he was not surprised that his teacher knew about his fall from the river.

The eight thousand elite cavalrymen who had fled to the river were all adopted by An Lushan as his sons.
"Can you remember these eight thousand adopted sons?" Huaiyu said with a smile.

"I really can't remember." An Lushan smiled. His adoptive father Wu Huaiyu adopted thirteen adopted sons, and he, An Lushan, adopted eight thousand in one go. "If you think it's not good, I'll change it when I get back."

"You are a vassal king, not a minister of the Tang Dynasty. The court will not care whether you adopt 8,000 or 800 adopted sons. But you must remember one thing. Even if you have 80,000 brave men from Yeluohe, all of them are your adopted sons, you must always be loyal to the court and to His Majesty. If you ever dare to have any disloyal thoughts,
Even if you have 800,000 adopted sons, it won't save your life. When the time comes, your 400-pound weight will burn him for days and nights."

Fatty An shuddered at these words, and he quickly pointed to the sky and swore, "I, An Lushan, swear to the heavens that I will be loyal to the Tang Dynasty for generations to come and will always be its vassal. If you have any other intentions, you will not die a good death."

"Well, keep your word."

"Please rest assured, Father. I will accompany you to the Liaodong expedition this time. Although I only bring 3,000 Yeluhe soldiers, I will definitely capture one or two of his strong cities for Your Majesty."

"Your Yeluohe are all elite cavalry, it would be a waste to attack the city," Huaiyu pointed at Xue Rengui and his men who were defending the arena, "what do you think of them?"

An Lushan watched their competition carefully.
"These people are all talented generals, especially those three. They are even more amazing. Their aura is very good."

“The others are good, but not as good.”

Pei Xingjian said from the side, "Those in the arena are the team officers among the 400 disciples that the teacher brought with him to the Liao expedition this time. The battalion chiefs, captains, and captains will be determined based on their abilities."

"Shall I go and check for Aye?" the fat man said with a smile.

"Okay, go warm up."

Although An Lushan was as fat as a ball, his abilities were not weakened much. Although he was not as good at charging on horseback, he was more stable in foot combat. He was extremely strong and had thick skin and flesh, so it was really impossible to get close to him from where he was standing.

Finally, a scene was staged.
Three heroes fight against Lushan.

An Lushan fought alone against Xue Rengui, Wang Fangyi and Zhao Chiman, and the fight was very exciting.

Pei Xingjian calmly commented, "An Lushan has served in the army for 18 years. Not only did he learn the art of war from his teacher, but he is also very skilled in martial arts. Unfortunately, he is too fat. He weighs only 400 pounds and cannot charge on horseback. What a pity for such a cavalry general. When he was in the northern frontier, he was a powerful figure among the Khitan and Xi people."

"Teacher, these three young captains of the guards are excellent in martial arts, but they are still a little lacking in skills. They are better at riding and shooting, but now their performance is limited by fighting on foot."

"Teacher, you can accept these three as students and teach them military strategies. After eighteen years, their achievements will definitely not be lower than An Zhuer's." Wu Huaiyu thought to himself that you are really right. Among these three people in history, one served as the Protector General of Andong, one served as the Protector General of Anxi, and another served as the Governor of Liangzhou. They were all powerful generals at the time.

"I really want to go to Liaodong with the teacher."

Looking at the exciting fight on the field, Pei Xingjian looked a little lonely.

Although he had been learning literature since childhood and was a Jinshi, he also learned military tactics from Su Dingfang when he was a warehouse officer in Zuotunwei. His teacher Wu Huaiyu was an undefeated general himself, so naturally he asked his teacher a lot about military tactics.

Later, he went to the Yaozhou Military Governor's Office in Nanzhong to train for many years. It can be said that he, a Jinshi from Chongxian Hall, had long since become a Confucian general with a sword.

He really wanted to take part in such a big event as the expedition against Liao.

After receiving the imperial edict to recall him to Chang'an, Pei Xingjian hurried back from Gaochang. He thought he was going to join the expedition to Liaodong, but he was actually appointed as the magistrate of Chang'an County.

"The Chang'an magistrate is an important position with great power, but it is not easy to be one. Your ability is very important. You can be the magistrate of Chang'an County for five years. As long as you can make achievements, you will have the opportunity to be promoted to Zhongshu Sheren or Jieshi Zhong, and then become a governor of a state or a governor-general, and then enter the provincial government. In the future, you will have the opportunity to enter the Political Affairs Hall."

This road is a golden avenue. Pei has a backer in the court and is capable. He is also a classmate of Crown Prince Chengqian, a Jinshi, has military merits, and is from a famous family. It can be said that he is blessed with all kinds of halos. In twenty years, he may really have the opportunity to become the prime minister.

"In the future, my Wu family will also need you to take care of it."

Pei Xingjian said quickly, "Teacher, why do you have to be so polite to me? I have been your disciple since I was young, and I have been able to get to where I am today because of your care. I will do my best to help your children and grandchildren."

He knew that the position of Chang'an Magistrate was actually arranged for him by Wu Huaiyu, who put in a lot of effort, and on the surface it was the prince who chose him.

"Just focus on your training in Chang'an. It's not easy to be the Chang'an magistrate. Don't let someone slam you down after working for only a year or two, or even three to five months."

It is said that it is unfortunate to be a county magistrate in a certain life. The position of Chang'an County Magistrate is even more difficult. Not only does he have to share the management of Chang'an City with Wannian County, but he also has to work in the same city as the Yongzhou government. What's more, this is the capital city, and all the government offices are in Chang'an.
There are hundreds of thousands of people here, and there are also many nobles, officials, soldiers, and merchants. The public security issue alone is very difficult to deal with.

Many county magistrates who served in Chang'an and Wannian did not serve for more than a year because it was easy to make mistakes. Under the emperor's nose, with so many eyes watching, no one could cover up if they made a mistake.

It is especially easy to offend the powerful.

Even the two high-ranking officials in charge of the affairs of the capital, Yongzhou Beijia and Zhizhong, were replaced like a revolving lantern. It really took a lot of ability to be a good local official in the capital.

The term of office of Chang'an Ling is generally five years, but basically no one can hold the position for five years.

Wu Huaiyu had done his best to pave the way for Pei Xingjian. He was made the magistrate of Chang'an, then the secretary, then sent out as a provincial governor, then returned to the court to be a vice minister, then sent out as a governor, and came back to be a minister. Basically, he had the qualifications to be appointed prime minister.

Pei Xingjian did not ask the emperor why he appointed Li Ji as the Grand Administrator of Liaodong Road and Li Daozon as the Grand Administrator of Pyongyang Road, but did not appoint Wu Huaiyu as the Grand Administrator. In fact, he knew the reason very well.

Li Ji's performance in the Northern Expedition last year was mediocre, and his cooperation with Wu Huaiyi was not as outstanding. But in the end, Li Ji was still ranked first in terms of merit and rewards. Although Wu Huaiyi was promoted to Duke and was granted 300 households, he was ultimately ranked second.

During this expedition to Liao, Wu Huaiyi still served as Li Ji's deputy general manager.

"Now that you are back in Chang'an, I will ask Cheng Lu to visit you more often to learn from you."

"Well, okay." Pei Xingjian agreed immediately. Wu Ershilang Cheng Lu was his future son-in-law. This marriage had been arranged for many years, and he was willing to teach his son-in-law personally.

"If you have a chance, let Cheng Lu get in touch with your wife and cultivate their relationship in advance." Huaiyu said with a smile.

"Teacher, there is a rumor going around in Chang'an today. I wonder if you have heard about it."

"What kind of rumors are these?"

Pei Xingjian lowered his voice cheerfully, "It is rumored that His Majesty wants to marry Princess Yongjia to Yuchi Jingde as his second wife."

"Yes, it happened. I was there at the time, but Jingde didn't agree."

"I've heard about it, too. The most interesting part is not this, but the second half. Rumor has it that after Princess Yongjia found out, she went to see His Majesty and made a scene. Then she said she would rather be Huaiyu's concubine than Yuchi's wife."

Wu Huaiyu was stunned. This Princess Yongjia was indeed very bold. She was willing, but Wu Huaiyu was not willing, and the emperor would be even less willing.

"Your Majesty was very angry and said that Princess Yongjia was not worthy of being your concubine. The princess was so angry that she said she would rather become a nun and practice Taoism. So Your Majesty really issued an order, ordering Princess Yongjia to go to the Louguan Terrace in Zhongnan Mountain to become a nun and give her the Taoist name Taiping. He also built a Taiping Temple for her on the tower."

"I heard that His Majesty sent a hundred cavalrymen to escort the princess out of Chang'an early this morning and went to Zhongnan Tower to observe the view."

Princess Yongjia became a nun and took the Taoist name Taiping?

So will she be called Taoist Taiping or Princess Taiping from now on?

He was in a daze, but Pei Xingjian was still talking, "Now the whole of Chang'an is spreading the Princess's words, I would rather be Huaiyu's concubine."

Wu Huaiyu could only smile helplessly.

In fact, the fact that he was regarded as the dream lover of many girls and women did not just start now. After all, Wu Huaiyu not only held a high position, he had long been famous for his poetry, calligraphy, medicine and painting. He was also handsome, so he was naturally loved.

"Yuchi Jingde has lost the chance to become the eldest princess's consort." Huaiyu laughed.

In fact, when Wu Huaiyu heard that Li Shimin was going to marry his sister, Princess Yongjia, to Yuchi Jingde, the scene of the princess continuing to be wild as usual and being beaten up by Lao Hei with punches left and right appeared in his mind.

Sadly, we don’t see this happening anymore.

I don’t know whether it is the luck of the Yuchi family or the luck of Princess Yongjia.

"Teacher, if His Majesty really agrees to let Princess Yongjia be your concubine, would you be willing?" Pei Xingjian asked with a gossipy look on his face.

Wu Huaiyu glared at him unhappily. It would be unlucky to be associated with a woman like this, even if she was called a princess.

(End of this chapter)