A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 233
early morning.

The drums at the gate of Taiji Palace sounded first, followed by the Santiao Streets running through Chang'an from east to west and Santiao Avenue from north to south, and the street drums on the newly established Drum Tower also sounded in turn.

The drums on Sixth Street Street awakened the entire city of Chang'an.

In the cold, wind, rain and snow, Xiaowei's patrol knights no longer need to tell the time in Chang'an every morning to open the door.

The gates of Zhucheng slowly opened to the sound of drums, and the gates of Chang'an [-] Square gradually opened.

Many court officials who were about to go to court early left the workshop as soon as possible, and some people who were looking for a living didn't care about the warmth of their quilts, and they waited for the door to open early in the cold wind.

It was so cold that Huaiyu stopped riding a horse and took a carriage instead.

As the prince Xima, he is now a fifth-rank official and this rank. He needs to go to court every morning. In such a cold day, to be honest, he really doesn’t want to leave the warm kang. It’s a pity that he is young and strong, and it is impossible for him to be with Pei Ji, Li Gang and the others. Also enjoy the treatment of not having to go to court early.

After leaving the square gate, Huaiyu saw the Sixth Street Drum Tower. The new Sixth Street Drum Tower was set up by Huaiyu and her brother-in-law Ma Zhou. Speaking of how hard it is for Xiaowei to pass the decree to open the door and run every morning, Huaiyu said that street drums can be set up.

There are many drums in Chang’an. There are market drums in the eastern and western cities. Every afternoon, before the opening of the city, there are three hundred drums. There are Dengwen drums in front of the Taiji Palace, which are used to feedback people’s sentiments and clear up injustice cases. The Ministry of War also has military drums to boost morale. The Advocacy Department has music drums that match the temple music, and the Taishi Bureau has leaky drums with missing time.

Ma Yiyi felt that it made sense, and talked with Huaiyu in detail for a long time, and then wrote a memorial to submit, please set up a drum tower on Chang'an Sixth Avenue, and set up watchtowers at important positions in Chang'an streets.

Report the time in the morning and evening, and strictly prevent the night ban.

Between the Bell and Drum Tower and the Watchtower, a set of semaphore can also be used to transmit information remotely, so that the huge Chang'an City can communicate as quickly as possible, especially helpful in preventing spies and catching thieves.

He also specially signed Huaiyu's name at the end of this memorial. His own name was ranked behind Huaiyu, and he did not monopolize the credit. Li Shimin was very satisfied after reading it. After discussing with the ministers, he quickly arranged it. .

So now there are not only Wuhou street shops at the city gates, square gates, and street corners in Chang'an City, but also many bell and drum towers and watchtowers.

Every morning, the street drums sound for the first time, and thousands of doors are opened, and every evening, when the drums sound again, it means that the city gates and square gates are closed and the night ban begins.

In the early morning, the drums of Chengtian Gate of the Imperial Palace sounded first.

The gates of the outer city of Chang'an open at four o'clock, while the gates of the imperial palace open at five o'clock.

In the freezing cold and snowy morning, going to court is very hard. The streets are muddy due to the rain and snow, and the horseshoes are wading in the mud.

Speaking of which, although Chang'an City is very large, its infrastructure is really average.

Although Chang'an Imperial Street is a hundred paces wide, it is all dirt roads, not even paved with sand, and the sky is usually full of dust, not to mention this rainy and snowy season, when the snow and mud become rivers of slurry.

Officials can still ride horses and carts, but ordinary people can only wade.

Huaiyu felt that he could make a suggestion to the Yongzhou Yamen, dig sand from the Chan River and transport it, and pave a sand embankment on Chang'an Sixth Street.

In addition, there are too many horses and mules in Chang'an City, and the city management is not in place. The livestock excrement everywhere, and cannot be cleaned in time, causing excrement and sewage everywhere. It has affected the image of the Tang Dynasty.

The Chinese New Year is coming soon, Huaiyu is looking forward to sealing Sanya early for the annual holiday.

The cold wind howled outside the carriage, and rivers of mud formed on the street.

Huaiyu was very comfortable sitting in the carriage. This carriage was custom-made for him by Fan Xuanfu. The carriage was very large, with two horses. The interior was spacious, and it was designed to keep warm. A layer of insulation, the car seat is also shockproof, there is even a heater in the car, you can drink tea and eat snacks, there is even a bookshelf, and you can read books.

If leisure time comes, you can also write calligraphy, draw pictures, make poems and so on.

Xuanfu was considerate of him, and every morning he went to court, and specially arranged for four sword maids to sit in the carriage to serve him, drinking tea, playing chess, even writing, and chatting.

Datang officials have a long Spring Festival holiday, with seven days off for New Year, from two days before the first day to the fifth day of the new year, and seven days off for the Lantern Festival.

However, Beijing officials are actually very busy and hard during the New Year. Senior officials have to accompany the emperor to celebrate the new year on New Year's Eve, and all Beijing officials have to attend the Grand Court Meeting on the first day of the new year.

The curtains of the car were drawn, and it was still dark outside and there was nothing to see, but the cold wind was blowing straight in.

Huaiyu held a stove in one hand, and a chess piece in the other, playing backgammon with Jian Yi and the others.

The four sword maids are all sturdy women who have trained their vest lines and can fly over walls with their horses. They are more vigorous when they are playing polo, but when it comes to playing chess, they are very good even in backgammon. Average.

The highest chess player in the martial arts family must be Runniang. She used to be called Shiqi in Li's residence, and it was not for nothing that she played elementary school chess. Even Huaiyu's go and chess improved by leaps and bounds after her guidance.

Even with him, the current backgammon level has improved a lot, and none of the four girls can beat him.

"Oh, A Lang won't let us order it, it's boring." Jian San has a devil figure, but he has a baby face, which is as different as Vajra Barbie. After getting along for a long time, they also like to act coquettishly with Huaiyu now.

The carriage stopped.

The coachman said outside, "Erlang, there is a traffic jam ahead."

"There is a carriage stuck in the mud, and it will recover soon."

Huaiyu was speechless, Yongxingfang is just beside the imperial city, the roads here are so bad, it can be seen that other streets farther away are even worse.

Several sword servants were inferior to Huaiyu at chess, and refused to be abused, so they were bored sitting in the carriage.

"Erlang draw a portrait for this slave, the little portrait you drew for sister Jianyi last time is so beautiful, just like a real person." Jiansan begged.

As soon as the little girl acted like a baby, Huaiyu smiled and agreed.

As far as Wu Huaiyu's current level of portrait painting is concerned, I dare not say that Chang'an dares to be higher, but it is definitely the most realistic and most likeable, although Yan Lide, Yan Liben and even Yan Xiaomei and his family's portrait painting level is very high.

But there are two door god statues of Qin Qiong and Yu Chi Gong pasted in the palace, whoever sees them should say hello.

Especially those princes and princes, they don't want to pursue such pursuits as the Yan family brothers, they just want to have such a vivid and lifelike portrait.

It would be best if it could be the same as those two, it must be a full-length portrait of the same height, and it must be painted more powerfully.

There are too many people who want to find Huaiyu's portrait.

Anyway, he did the math, and he really did a lot of paintings. He painted for the emperor Li Shimin, the empress Changsun, and the prince Chengqian, as well as Li Tai, the king of Wei, Li Ke, the king of Han, and Li Sheng, the king of Chu. Well, Li Shimin still wants to paint a picture of the whole family, including Concubine Wei and other concubines, as well as other princes and princesses, but this project is too big, and it hasn't started yet.

In addition to painting for the royal family, Cheng Yaojin asked Huaiyu to make several copies for him alone. The ones in purple robes and jade belts, the ones in official uniforms, and the ones in armor and riding horses. All made him very satisfied. The gift of money and silk was paid by several carts and carts.

Huaiyu also painted for Qin Qiong, Fan Xing, Zhang Chuchen, and even Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui's eldest grandson, Wuji, and Gao Shilian.

All the princes and nobles who wanted to find Huaiyu's portrait lined up.

The steward of Hou Junji's family directly brought three carts of Qianjuan to jump in the queue, but Huaiyu didn't agree, and Hou Junji was very dissatisfied with him because of this matter.

The portrait is not difficult for Huaiyu, but he is not a painter, so to be honest, he doesn't like to paint every day.

But no matter who it is, they are all full of praise after finishing the painting.

For those who have painted portraits, it is absolutely necessary to frame the painting well, then hang it up, and even hold a reception to invite relatives and friends to watch it together.

"Draw a simple pen, I don't have time."

There are pens, inks and paints on the Huaiyu car, but it doesn’t need to be very complicated to draw a small portrait with a simple pen. Pick up the pen and quickly outline, and the characters will suddenly appear on the paper, lifelike and very vivid.

Although it was only a few strokes, it still surprised Jian San and cheered.

"Ah Lang's pen is really amazing."

"That's not true. We, Alang, are now in Chang'an. People call him the Three Wonders. Frontier Poems, Miracle Medicine Pills, and Portrait Paintings are the Three Wonders."

"It's more than that. Some people say that Alang is one of the four masters, as well as calligraphy. Our Alang's thin gold body and martial arts are said to have established a school of its own in the calligraphy world."

Huaiyu laughed.

No matter whether it is three unique or four unique, he is indeed becoming famous in Chang'an now. Of course, there is also that he is still more appreciated in front of the emperor, and a martial arts family is indeed very powerful among the new nobles. Whether the relationship is good, the icing on the cake, everyone will carry the sedan chair.

Many people have obtained Wu Huaiyu's elixir to recuperate their bodies, some have obtained Huaiyu's portrait, and some scholars have read his poems, and some have learned his calligraphy. In short, Wu Huaiyu, the young owner of the Chongwen Museum, is indeed The name is very prosperous.

In fact, poetry, calligraphy, painting, and medicine are all heretics. Unless Huaiyu only wants to be a craftsman and a close servant, otherwise, if he wants to stand higher in the court, he will not go far by relying on these.

Although Yan Liben also became prime minister in the Gaozong Dynasty in history, Yan Liben and Jiang Ke were both prime ministers at that time. The prime minister who became the portrait, he is a powerful person, and he is also good at engineering construction and painting.

Now Wu Huaiyu regards these skills more as a stepping stone to improve living conditions, and even to socialize.At the beginning, he used medical pills to contact Li Jing's family, Cheng Yaojin, Qin Qiong's family, and even Li Shimin.

Now this portrait of Danqing is actually only used to get to know more nobles.

But he didn't want to be a painter, so Hou Junji pulled a few carts of money silk and wanted to jump in the queue, and asked Huaiyu to go to the portrait right away, but Huaiyu directly refused.

Yu Chigong also wanted Huaiyu to come for a portrait several times, but Wu Huaiyu never went.

Li Xiaogong, king of Hejian, and Li Youliang, king of Changle, were looking for a portrait of Huaiyu, but Huaiyu was also procrastinating.

Befriending also has to be selective.

What's more, Wu Huaiyu's worth is worthless if he doesn't refuse anyone who comes. If he paints too much, won't he really become a painter?
Even when Taishang Huang Li Yuan summoned Huaiyu to take a portrait, Huaiyu never agreed.

The samurai Xun used to be Li Yuan's confidant Yuan Cong, he didn't dare to enter the Taiji Palace to meet Li Yuan easily, if the emperor Li Shimin became suspicious, he would be so confused.

For the next 30 years, Wu Huaiyu will only recognize Li Shimin.

(End of this chapter)