Man Tang Huacai

Chapter 633: Snowstorm and Old Friend

In the nearly 150 years since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, there has hardly been an emperor who has inherited the throne in a safe and smooth manner. Every change of power has been accompanied by bloody coups and purges.

Today's emperor has carried this tradition to its fullest extent.

It not only broke the restrictions of surname and bloodline, but also crossed the natural barriers between nobility and commonness.

The court officials learned from their mistakes and decided to train Crown Prince Li Zuo and ensure his smooth succession to the throne. This became the most important thing in the court. In this way, the atmosphere of factional strife that had been formed for a long time was calmed down.

After all, the prince is still young and the saint is young and strong, so there will be no trouble for decades.

The seventh year of Zhengxing was the Year of the Horse (Bingwu). The reign title of the Tang Dynasty did not change, and the country's name remained.

There is no trouble in the world and peace is everywhere.

As soon as the spring ploughing was over and state affairs were a little less busy, Prime Minister Du Youlin submitted his resignation. After being rejected three times by the emperor, he was still determined to retire and was appointed as a scholar of the Jixian Academy before retiring.

On that day, many people came to see him off at Du's house in Shengpingfang, and from time to time one could hear praises of "retiring after completing one's mission".

Du Youlin, however, stayed in his study room looking unhappy, claiming he was not feeling well.

Duobao put his purple robe neatly folded and placed together with the jade belt. It must be that he will never wear it again.

With a creaky sound, the door was pushed open and Du Wulang walked in.

Du Youlin quickly lowered his head, picked up the book and pretended to read calmly.

No matter how bustling the world is outside, he remains calm and never tires of studying.

"Grandpa, the guests have all left, let's pack up and set off tomorrow."

"Yeah." Du Youlin responded in a muffled voice, but he was unwilling in the end and couldn't help complaining: "I think the emperor's heart is not as unpredictable as you said. The court is stable, how can there be a disaster that can kill him? At this time when the Tang Dynasty is reviving, he can't serve the people wholeheartedly, but instead he is afraid of disaster. It's shameful."

"Grandpa, you haven't had enough of being the prime minister, have you? You are not good at playing both sides, but you are obsessed with power. You have forgotten what you always said in the past, that you should be cautious."

As Du Wulang spoke, he looked up at the words "Be careful in what you say and do" and "Tread carefully on thin ice" hanging on the wall in the study. Where his eyes fell, he was stunned.

At some point, Du Youlin had changed the hanging scroll to have the words "Be upright and lead your subordinates" and "Have clear ambitions and clear morals", which sounded quite like a prime minister.

"I say what I want to say at the time." Du Youlin said, "When Li Linfu was in power, I followed the principle of caution. Now that the emperor is wise and the ministers are wise, I should set an example myself..."

"I never get tired of talking about it in the government office, and I still talk about it when I get home. Think about my second sister, and let's go."

Speaking of Du Jin, Du Youlin sighed helplessly and had to leave even though he was reluctant.

He always felt that his second daughter had a strong personality and that he couldn't discipline her, but since she had been locked up in the palace for so long, he finally started to worry and couldn't sleep that night.

Lu Fengniang had never been a considerate person, but when she heard him turning over, she knew how to comfort him.

"Don't worry, I watched His Majesty grow up, and he is not a heartless person."

"I think you are confused, woman. How old was His Majesty when he came to our house?"

Du Youlin muttered to himself, and suddenly realized that more than ten years had passed in the blink of an eye.

Before dawn, the Du family was ready to set off.

The luggage had been loaded onto the carriage. Du Youlin reluctantly walked out of the yard wrapped in his cloak, and saw Du Yan bringing someone in.

The man was wearing a long robe and had a tall and thin figure. When he turned around, he showed a cold face. It was actually Du Jin.

"Second mother?"

Du Youlin was stunned for a moment, walked forward and took a closer look at Du Jin, and found that she was not as haggard as he had imagined. She was in good condition, but seemed a little unhappy.

"How did you get out of the palace?"

"Grandpa, keep your voice down." Du Yan whispered, "It was the Crown Prince who begged the Queen to secretly release Second Mother."

"Your Highness is such a good boy."

Du Youlin couldn't help feeling sad when mentioning Li Zuo.

In his opinion, Li Zuo is Du Jin's godson, which means he is also his godson. The Du family originally had such a close relationship with the prince, but now that they have moved away, they will become estranged in the future. Isn't that a pity?

He was sighing, but unexpectedly, Du Jin retorted.

"Does Grandpa need to tell Zuo'er that he is a good boy?"

"you……"

Du Youlin was annoyed that his children were becoming less and less respectful to him, but then he thought, it was a good thing that Du Jin still had the temper to talk back to him.

The family left Chang'an and walked for more than 20 miles that day and arrived at Shaolingyuan.

They had arrived at their destination.

"We're here already? Didn't we say we were going to avoid disaster?"

Lu Fengniang stood in front of the Du family's old house and looked at the spider web on the door beam, and was extremely surprised.

This place is less than a day's journey from Chang'an. It is a pity that he resigned from the position of prime minister in order to live in seclusion here.

The so-called "Wei Du in the south of the city" means that the ancestral home of the Jingzhao Du family is in the south of Chang'an city.

Du Youlin felt a little confused, looked around, and said, "Why do I feel that the old house is much closer? It used to take two or three days to travel with my belongings."

"Grandpa was talking about it on the way. The straight road newly built by the imperial court is flat and easy to walk on, so it will be fast." Du Yan said, "If we gallop on horseback, we can get there in less than half a day."

Lu Fengniang was still a little scared, and said to Du Wulang: "If Your Majesty wants to punish the Du family, isn't it too close?"

"Mother, if you are really punished, where can you escape to? To avoid disaster, the most important thing is to show a peaceful attitude. Besides, my sister has to go back to Chang'an from time to time."

"Why are you going back to Chang'an?"

This question is difficult to answer, and Du Wulang was stunned.

Du Yan stroked a strand of her hair and said, "Let's buy some things."

After she said that, she couldn't help but turn her head to look at Du Jin, only to see that she was still lost in thought, and no one knew what she was worried about.

After moving back to the Du family's old house, everyone felt uncomfortable.

Quan Rui quickly found Du Youlin and told him a lot of trivial things.

"Alang, all the slaves in the old house have been released from slavery. Only the elderly who don't want to leave are left. It's easy to arrange for them in the house. If we want to hire more people to farm the fields, we have to pay 20% more than in previous years. Now, those who have some strength are willing to rent the government's public land..."

"Don't tell me this." Du Youlin became impatient after hearing just two sentences and waved his hand, saying, "Go talk to my wife."

He lowered his head and fiddled with the couch, but always felt that it was far less comfortable than the chair in Chang'an.

The chair was a gift from the emperor, with a seat cushioned in cotton wrapped in fine linen and a padded backrest that was custom-made to fit the curve of his back.

Xue Bai said that this item could only be made when the cotton and weaving industries had made great progress, and it would take at least 20 years to make it in batches and deliver it to thousands of households. He gave it to Du Youlin so that he would always think about cotton and whether the people would be cold.

Du Youlin cherishes it very much and every time he sits down, he puts it down and stands up gently. He is not bringing it with him when he moves this time because he is afraid of damaging it.

"I don't see any cotton in my house. I am not an official, so I don't have to worry about whether the people are warm or cold."

He sighed and muttered to himself, and Lu Fengniang came running over, chattering all the way.

"Alang!"

"I didn't realize it before, but it turns out that this is the new policy of the court. Tenants have to pay 20% more. This is real money. Even I feel bad. No wonder those people are making trouble..."

"Hush, you dare to say anything." Du Youlin scolded, "What living money? Money is just a dead thing. If you lose this 20%, will you be short of money? If the farmers have this 20%, they can sell one less child."

Regardless of his abilities, he has been at the center for all these years and his awareness is still very high. Anyway, he doesn't care about the accounts at home and turns around to fiddle with his bed.

"The bed is hard and there's not even a cotton mattress. We still have to grow cotton."

Lu Fengniang stamped her feet and said angrily, "Then I'll change all your Du family's fields to grow cotton, and let you be soft as much as you want!"

There were many things he was not used to, for example, when he woke up the next day, Du Youlin walked around the yard with his hands behind his back, but no newspaper was delivered.

In Chang'an, he subscribed to thirteen newspapers, covering everything from state affairs to folk gossip, from poetry magazines to storytelling.

"What are you looking for, Alang?"

"I'm afraid Shaolingyuan won't be able to subscribe to newspapers anymore." Du Youlin sighed sadly.

"Yes!" Quan Rui replied, "There are post houses and newspaper offices in the market. They have everything except some tabloids. But they arrive one day later than Chang'an, so I didn't order it yesterday. I'll have it delivered tomorrow."

"How can it be called 'news' if it's one day late?" Du Youlin was still unhappy. "The so-called news is that it's new."

"How about...Alang go back to Chang'an?"

Quan Rui has been a servant of the Du family all his life. Seeing the growing trend of exile, although he has no other thoughts, he seems to have developed some character of his own.

Du Youlin was displeased and said, "It's still Wu Lang, the prodigal son!"

~~
Unlike other people in the Du family, Du Wulang was quite happy after returning to the old house.

Without social engagements and without being disturbed, he felt very free. Every day he took his children to look around the large garden, planning to decorate it in the style of a hermit.

He has always been interested in flowers, trees, fish, insects, birds and animals, and recently he has been studying fruit tree grafting.

Others are too lazy to listen, but he will share his experience in this regard with his daughter.

"Ah Jun, do you know that if you graft a persimmon tree onto a jujube tree, the persimmons will grow better. His Majesty said that the reason is that the 'genes' of different varieties can complement each other. I think he is talking nonsense, but I want to give it a try."

"Grandpa, I get it. We can graft the sugar candies onto the fruit trees and grow lots of sugar candies!"

"It's not like that." Du Wulang wanted to explain, but he didn't know how to say it. In the end, he could only smile helplessly and plant some wheat candies in the ground.

After that, Du Jing took her brother and they dug everywhere with a small shovel every day. Not only did they fail to grow anything, they also dug away many vines in the garden.

Du Wulang didn't scold her. He said that since Du Jing didn't like vines, let's plant bamboo instead.

But when he brought back a handful of bamboo shoots, he turned around and didn't know where his daughter had run off to...

Du Jing tiptoed to the outside of Du Jin's room, peeked inside, and saw Du Jin sitting at the table, staring blankly at a paper with a pen in her hand.

"Aunt, you are so studious."

Du Jin looked up and saw that it was Du Jing who came in. Her eyes softened a little, but her expression was still indifferent. She said, "I guess so."

Du Jing walked to the table and wanted to see what she had written, but she simply covered the manuscript with a book.

"What is Auntie writing?"

"Children don't have to deal with adults' matters."

After hearing this, Du Jing became even more curious and started to pay attention to her affairs.

In the past, Du Jin was too busy, so Du Jing didn’t really know this second aunt. She only knew that everyone was afraid of her.

"Grandma, what does Second Aunt do every day?"

"She is learning Taoism so that she can become a Taoist priest."

Lu Fengniang answered her granddaughter casually, then turned to talk to Du Youlin about Aunt Du, but she was very worried.

"Seeing her absent-minded every day, is she planning something big?"

"What big thing could it be?"

Du Youlin answered casually that he was preparing to write some books recently.

With his reputation as prime minister, it would be easy for his works to be passed down to future generations. However, if they were not well written, they would be laughed at and ridiculed for thousands of years. Therefore, he was very cautious. As a result, when he picked up the pen, he didn't know what to write.

"What do you think? Should I write a collection of your Majesty's poems or write about the disturbances during the Tianbao to Zhengxing years?"

"Write the annotated version. It won't cause trouble." Lu Fengniang said, "Second Niang is also a very capable person. What if she harbors hatred towards Your Majesty and is contacting her old subordinates?"

"Don't worry about it. If you dare to do this again, you will end up in trouble."

As Du Youlin spoke, he couldn't help but feel worried.

After all, with Du Jin's previous power, she still had some loyal old subordinates.

Lu Fengniang sighed, "I finally understand. The Du family is not destined to produce a queen. Every time we try to make a move on this matter, we end up falling flat on our face."

"What a wild idea! If she hadn't had such an unrealistic idea, my phase... Oh, forget it, go to sleep."

The next day, he began to prepare to write a collection of annotations on Xue Bai's poems. He was very confident about this matter and felt that he was the most familiar writer with the emperor today and could definitely do a better job than others.

But after a long time, a drop of ink condensed on the tip of the pen and fell on the paper with a "thump", but Du Youlin still didn't write a single word.

Which poem should I start with?

Cicadas and birds were chirping in the yard. Du Jing had run in without me noticing.

"Aunt, you look just like Second Aunt when you are at a loss for what to write."

"I'm not at a loss, I'm just thinking." Du Youlin took his granddaughter in his arms and said with a smile, "Did your grandfather teach you this idiom?"

"Grandpa doesn't use idioms. My aunt taught me."

"Your grandfather is an unlearned man." Du Youlin said, "This 'unlearned man' is also an idiom. Your grandfather never read books since he was young."

"Grandpa is also studying."

When talking about his son, Du Youlin sneered and said, "What kind of books can he read?"

"Grandpa is reading the Book of the Benefits and Disadvantages of a King's Country."

"Humph, what kind of book is that? It's not doing your job properly." Du Youlin said, "This 'not doing your job properly' is also an idiom."

"I know another one!" Du Jing raised her hand and said, "An uninvited guest."

“Yes, that’s an idiom too.”

Du Youlin nodded repeatedly, showing a satisfied smile, and asked, "Was it also your aunt who taught Ah Ju?"

"No, someone came to see my second aunt just now, and I heard them say... Oh, there is also an idiom, which is 'come uninvited'." Du Youlin's expression froze for a moment before he reacted and said, "But I didn't hear anyone visiting."

Although Du Jing was young, she was very smart. She knew that she had let the cat out of the bag, so she stopped talking, stuck out her tongue, and ran away.

Du Youlin quickly stood up and strode towards the courtyard where Du Jin was. When he arrived, he found that there was no one inside.

He immediately thought of what Lu Fengniang had said about the possible trouble caused by Aunt Du, and he couldn't help but become very anxious. He hurriedly looked for her everywhere. When he went out of the small door in the backyard, he saw a few horses tied outside the door. When he looked up again, he saw a bamboo forest in front of him, so he hurried towards the bamboo forest.

After walking for a while, I heard voices. When I got closer, I saw three men sitting in the woods and talking.

"Who are you?!" Du Youlin shouted.

Unexpectedly, after hearing the question, the other party ignored it and instead stood up and ran deeper into the bamboo forest, as if he did not want to meet Du Youlin.

"Go away!"

Du Youlin hurriedly chased after him.

He was not a weak scholar when he was young, but now he is old after all, and it is obviously impossible for him to catch up with the other party.

Not only could he not catch up, but his foot twisted and, with a cry of "ouch", he rolled down the small slope and got stuck between some bamboos.

"Are you OK?"

After a while, the three men came back and stood on top and asked.

Du Youlin seemed to have fainted and was silent.

"Du Gong?"

"Du Gong?"

"Go down and have a look."

Then someone came closer to help, but Du Youlin suddenly woke up and grabbed the other person's clothes.

"You thief! Don't run away!"

Du Youlin shouted and looked carefully. He recognized the man in front of him. It was the imperial guard general Zhang Xiaojing.

When Du Youlin saw that Du Yan was in contact with this person who held important military power, he was suddenly frightened, his eyes widened, and his scalp went numb.

"Zhang Xiaojing, you can't commit treason."

"What did Mr. Du say? You can't defame my innocence for no reason."

Du Youlin also realized that he couldn't say that. Otherwise, it would be tantamount to admitting that Du Jin might be plotting a rebellion before anything happened.

But if this matter is not stopped, she will be allowed to fly into the flame and not only destroy herself, but also bring harm to the whole family.

He then asked, "You are a good general of the Imperial Guards with a promising future. Why are you here?"

Zhang Xiaojing seemed to know what he was worried about, so he said, "I am now the general of the Crown Prince's left guard."

Since the matter involved the crown prince, Du Youlin was even more frightened when he heard it.

"You...you guys don't want to..."

Zhang Xiaojing shook his head, thinking that he was too much like a frightened bird. No wonder he had to go to Shaoyuan Mausoleum to live in seclusion.

"Mr. Du, please follow me."

~~
The brook gurgles, and the peach blossoms by the brook are blown by the wind, and the petals fall and float away with the water.

The birds were singing crisply in the mountains, and suddenly an equally crisp call was heard.

"Second aunt, I'm here."

Du Jin turned her head and saw Du Jing standing on the other side of the stream, with his trouser legs rolled up and wading towards this side.

"Don't go in, the water is cold."

Before she finished her words, the little girl had already waded to the middle of the water and said with a smile, "It's better if the water is cooler. It's so hot in the summer."

Du Jin rushed over and pulled her out of the stream, saying unhappily, "Look at you, you've become so tanned. You've only been back for a short time, but you've really become a country girl."

"Second aunt, let me tell you that Grandpa is here to see you."

As Du Jing was speaking, she turned around and saw that the person who had just spoken to Du Jin was a little boy. She couldn't help but smile and went over to pat him on the head.

"Why are you here? Let me tell you, Shaolingyuan is really fun."

"Sister A-ju."

Li Zuo was brought up in a strict manner since childhood. He acted like a little adult in front of others, but when he was in front of Du Jing, his childishness was revealed.

Du Jing has a naive and lively personality. She asks questions here and there, as if she has never grown up. But once she returns to her children's world, she plays with everything and naturally has the demeanor of an older sister.

"Oh, Aung is here."

Du Jing turned around and saw Du Youlin coming, so she ran away.

Li Zuo wanted to go over and play, but he stopped after taking two steps. He stood obediently beside Du Jin and saluted Du Youlin.

"I have met Duaon."

"I have met His Highness."

Du Youlin had a bitter old face, which was extremely wrinkled.

This is because of worry.

There were many things he didn't want to say in front of Li Zuo, so he shouted, "Ah Ju, come here!"

"Coming!"

Du Jing ran back again.

"Take His Highness to the lobby to rest for a while. I have something to say to your second aunt."

"Okay, let's go."

Soon, the two children walked away.

Du Youlin sighed and said earnestly: "Your father knows that you have the ability to win over Zhang Xiaojing and bring the prince here, but going against His Majesty is courting death. His Majesty has forgiven you once..."

"His Highness came here on his own. He missed me."

"Ridiculous!" Du Youlin said, "Can he come whenever he wants? How old is he? The adults have ulterior motives, what do children know?"

Du Jin was a little impatient and asked, "What do you think I'm doing, Grandpa?"

"You are distracted day by day, what else can you think about?!"

"Ah."

Du Jin ignored her, snorted lightly, and turned away.

If you ask her what she is thinking about, she is indeed troubled recently.

That matter was also a difficult problem for her, and she couldn't solve it no matter how hard she thought.

She walked along the stream for a while and gradually heard laughter coming from the front.

It was an outing camp with several tents pitched. Several maids were watching the scenery by the stream. When they saw her coming, they turned to look at her, which made her feel very uncomfortable.

"Please come this way, Du Erniang. My wife is waiting for you."

"it is good."

Du Jin responded indifferently and followed a maid to a pavilion under the shade of a tree.

Some people were playing dominoes in the pavilion.

"bump."

The smiling woman played her cards, looked up and saw it was Du Jin, and nodded slightly.

The charm in her eyes makes the surrounding mountain flowers pale in comparison.

Du Jin clenched her sleeves, inside which lay a piece of paper, an apology letter to Yang Yuhuan that she had written after much thought in recent days.

This is her biggest worry recently.

She was asked to apologize to Yang Yuhuan, but she really didn't know how to start...

~~
Autumn passed in the blink of an eye and the weather began to turn cooler.

The seventh year of Zhengxing was about to end, and the Du family, who had moved back to Shaoyuanling, lived a very ordinary year.

Du Wulang likes this kind of leisurely life very much. He can do whatever he wants without being urged by worldly desires.

People think that power and wealth are the best, but that is what people think after all.

Every day he took care of some flowers, plants and fruit trees, and also learned to farm and grow vegetables. He didn't plant much, only one or two acres, and it was enough to harvest some ingredients to study and eat. In his spare time, he read books and occasionally wrote down some thoughts.

These thoughts are very diverse, about farming, about fruit trees, about memories and insights about the past, and about opinions on books and newspapers.

He was recently reading a book called "The Book of the Advantages and Disadvantages of a State", which was published in a newspaper by a man named Gu Yanwu and then compiled into a book. It was not very good and difficult to understand, so he only read one or two pages a day, and sometimes went back to read it, but he never put it down.

Because he heard others say that the book was incomprehensible, but strangely, he felt that he could understand it.

But he thought the other party's views were too extreme, so he would write some different views and put forward more moderate proposals. Of course, he only wrote a few sentences when he was in the mood.

He was not a good writer and used plain language. He never thought of compiling his works into a book. He wrote them purely for his own amusement in the mountain life. It took him almost a year to write only a few dozen pages of essays.

However, there has been some progress in the collection of poems and lyrics written by Du Youlin, and most of the collection and comments have been done.

On this day, there was a light snow in Shaolingyuan. Du Wulang had nothing to do, so he casually flipped through Du Youlin's collection of notes and made a few comments.

"In recent years, there have been many people who have annotated your Majesty's poems. What's new about Grandpa following the trend?"

"I understand, Your Majesty."

"If Master understood Your Majesty, he would not have resigned."

Du Wulang flipped through it casually and read a few notes in the middle. He felt that they were quite different from the original meaning of the poems and shook his head.

Then, he accidentally turned to the first page, but was stunned.

"I have never heard of the opening poem that Grandpa chose. Was it written by Your Majesty?"

Du Youlin was pleased, stroking his beard and said, "Not bad."

Du Wulang narrowed his eyes and read the preface carefully first.

"On April 6, we encountered rain on the road to Fanchuan. All my fellow travelers were in a state of distress, but I alone did not notice it. It cleared up later, so I wrote this."

He couldn't help but wonder which July 6th it was. At least in the past five or six years, he remembered that Xue Bai had never been to Fanchuan.

Was it the time when Xiangji Temple subdued the rebels?

Judging from the meaning of the lyrics, it is similar...that is the song "Ding Fengbo".

"Don't listen to the sound of beating leaves in the forest, why not whistling and walking slowly. The bamboo stick and mango shoes are lighter than the horse, who is afraid? You can live your whole life in the misty rain."

Du Wulang repeated the words over and over again, and then looked at the collected notes below.

To be honest, Du Youlin's notes on the collection are very ordinary. He does not describe the background, but only says that he was accompanying the emperor at the time and how he felt.

"My Lord, when did His Majesty write this poem?"

"Do you want to know?" Du Youlin said, "You will know when my collection of annotations is complete."

He took back his book, snorted, and said to himself: "Don't read it if you say I'm just following the trend!"

~~
Du Wulang is a person who doesn't worry about anything and never has any worries.

But after that day, he started thinking about Xue Bai again.

He began to guess that maybe His Majesty did not blame Du Jin or the Du family?

Maybe I can return to Chang'an and meet His Majesty again?
Every time this thought came up, Du Wulang would suppress it.

He told himself that serving the emperor was like serving a tiger, and since he had retired, he should not be involved in the vortex of power again.

Because of thinking about these things, he sometimes couldn't sleep at night, thinking about the changes that power had brought to Xue Bai. Later, when he read "The Book of the Advantages and Disadvantages of a King's Country" again, his understanding was very different.

As winter approached, it suddenly snowed heavily that night.

In the first half of the night, snowflakes fell quietly, and in the second half, the wind made the windows rattle.

He put on his clothes, ground some ink, picked up his pen and wrote the word "imperial power" on the paper. Then he pondered for a while, not knowing how to start.

Suddenly, he seemed to hear something, pushed the door open, and looked towards the yard at the back. Sure enough, he saw lights on in the yard.

Du Wulang thought about it, walked over there, and first looked at the stable. He saw a horse inside that was particularly conspicuous.

He then stepped forward and patted the gate, asking, "Sister, are you asleep?"

When I pushed the door open, I saw a man enjoying the snow in the corridor. When he heard someone knocking on the door, he turned around and wanted to go into the house.

"Wait a minute." Du Wulang had already called out to the other party and asked, "Who are you?!"

As soon as he asked, he actually recognized the other person.

The scene before me seems familiar.

In the snow, the man in the corridor turned his head. Under the reflection of the snow, a face that Du Wulang had not seen for a long time appeared. He answered calmly:

"Xue Bai."

(End of this chapter)