The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 151 Cao Chengwu

The man was about thirty years old, dressed in fancy clothes, and holding a red-billed crow.

Whoever he approached and barked, the red-mouthed crow would give him money.

Li Heng looked for a moment, then walked to a jewelry store on the side of the road and asked the owner, "Who is that person?"

The shopkeeper took a look at the man walking his bird and said, "From your accent, you must be from another place, right? You may not know, but he is the mayor of our Nanshi, his surname is Cao and his given name is Lingyi. He holds a red-billed crow in his hand. When he walks around the market, as long as the red-billed crow calls, the merchants in front of him will give him three cents, so we all call him Cao Chengwu."

Li Ying asked, "What if you don't give it to me?"

"How can I not give it to him?" The shopkeeper shook his head. "He is the mayor. If he doesn't give it to me, you won't be able to do business in South City anymore."

Li Ying asked, "His surname is Cao, is he from Kut?"

"You know quite a lot, sir." The shopkeeper gave him an approving look. "He is a Kudetian. He has an uncle named Cao Yuan. Two years ago, he followed Prince Shou to Tubo to fight against Xiaoboluo. He made military achievements and became a fifth-rank general. Think about it, the Cao family is a big family, and some of them are popular with Prince Shou. Who would dare to offend him?"

"That's right." Li Ying smiled and asked Cen Shen, "Where is Cao Yuan?"

Cen Shen replied, "He followed General An to guard the border and cultivate the land in Shule, but his son Cao Lingzhong is in Anxi."

Li Heng was familiar with the name Cao Lingzhong because he had another name, Li Yuanzhong.

Historically, after Anxi Beiting was besieged, Cao Lingzhong was appointed as the Jiedushi of Beiting to resist Tubo. He was the first generation of the Northwest Isolated Army. Emperor Dezong of Tang was moved by his merits and loyalty and gave him the name Li Yuanzhong.

Li Ying said to Cen Shen, "Send someone to call Cao Lingzhong."

"Yes." Cen Shen took the order and left.

After listening to the conversation between Li Heng and Cen Shen, the shopkeeper knew that the young man in front of him was not a simple person. After carefully sizing up Li Heng's age and demeanor, he asked tentatively, "Could it be that you are His Royal Highness Prince Shou..."

Li Ying asked doubtfully: "Do you know me?"

The shopkeeper quickly bowed to Li Heng and said happily, "I have heard of His Royal Highness the Prince of Shou's great name every day, but unfortunately I have never had the chance to meet him. Today, my wish has finally come true."

After saying this, he quickly asked someone to bring a chair and invited Li Heng to sit down.

Li Heng thanked the shopkeeper and sat down with Yang Yuhuan. He then asked Liu Yan, "Shi An, do you think officials like Cao Lingyi are the exception or the norm in the management of the market?"

Liu Yan thought for a moment and hesitated to speak.

Li Ying said, "Shi'an, please feel free to speak."

"Yes." Liu Yan bowed to Li Heng and said, "It is common. The markets in our dynasty are all managed by the government. Therefore, although the mayor is a small official, he has great control over the markets. However, our dynasty lacks effective laws to constrain officials like mayors."

Li Heng asked, "Then do you know why the Taifu Temple did not consider the laws in this regard?"

"This..." Liu Yan was slightly startled, shook his head, and said, "I don't know."

The root cause of this is that although the business in the Tang Dynasty developed well, it was all dependent on politics, and the politics of feudal society was closely related to the preferences of the upper class, and the preferences of the upper class were not unchanging, so it was difficult to have sustainable policies.

Without sustainable policies, relevant constraint systems cannot be established.

Li Heng wasn't sure whether Liu Yan really didn't know or just didn't dare to say it, but he didn't care, because it was enough for Liu Yan to say this.

Therefore, Li Heng just smiled and changed the subject, saying, "Where were we talking about earlier?"

Liu Yan said, "Your Highness asked me whether we should eliminate the black market or intervene in its management." Li Heng said, "Go on."

Liu Yan said: "I think it is not advisable to eliminate it. It is inconvenient for the people to set up cities only in prefectures and counties, and it is not possible to eliminate them completely. Intervention is the best policy, but it is not necessary to intervene in all places. It is enough to control the centralized places. It is better to leave the other remote and scattered places to them for the time being."

Li Ying smiled and said, "But this is against Tang law."

Liu Yan was not going to say anything, but he looked up at Li Heng and saw that Li Heng was smiling and agreed with what he said. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "We don't need to call it a market. We can give it another name based on its main transactions. The court also knows that this cannot be stopped. Instead of letting it grow wildly, it is better to find a way to bring it under management."

This means that there are policies from above and countermeasures from below.

Li Heng roughly understood Liu Yan's current abilities, so he said nothing more. After a slight smile, he turned to pick out jewelry with Yang Yuhuan.

After the group stayed in the store for a while, Cao Lingzhong hurried over, bowed to Li Ying when he saw him, and said, "I greet your Highness."

Li Ying turned around and glanced at Cao Lingzhong. He looked to be less than 20 years old, with typical Sogdian looks, and his eyes were full of energy.

Li Heng said: "I remember you served in the army."

"Yes." Cao Lingzhong replied respectfully, "I have been in the army for two years. Last year, I had the honor to follow General Gao to conquer Suiye City. I was lucky enough to make a contribution and was promoted to the rank of captain."

According to the Tang system, each leader had 50 people.

"A young talent." Li Ying praised.

Cao Lingzhong said: "Your Highness, I am overly flattered. I do not deserve it."

Li Ying asked, "Is Cao Lingyi, the mayor of Nanshi, your cousin?"

"Yes." Cao Lingzhong had heard about Cao Lingyi's situation and knew that something was wrong.

Li Heng said, "Go and ask him what he did, and then bring him to me."

"Yes, sir." Cao Lingzhong hurriedly retreated.

After searching for a while in the market, Cao Lingzhong saw Cao Lingyi who was receiving a gift.

Cao Lingzhong hurried over, snatched the money Cao Lingyi was collecting, returned it to the merchant, and said to Cao Lingyi: "What are you doing? Under the rule of His Royal Highness Prince Shou, how dare you do such a thing? Do you want to die?"

Cao Lingyi smiled nonchalantly and said, "Your Highness Shou Wang has a lot of things to do, how can he care about these things? We brothers haven't seen each other for a long time. After I collect the money, I will take you to the wine shop tonight to have some fun. You don't know that there are several new girls in the Hu Family Wine Shop in the south of the city, all of them are as beautiful as flowers."

"You are quite righteous." Cao Lingzhong sighed, took out the rope, and said, "I didn't want to care whether you lived or died, but since you thought of me, I will save your life."

"What do you mean?" Cao Lingzhong's smile turned into anger. "You want to tie me up and take me to see His Royal Highness Prince Shou to win credit? I didn't expect you to be a..."

"His Royal Highness Prince Shou is in Nanshi. He saw everything you did. He asked me to come here." Cao Lingzhong interrupted.

"Really?" Cao Lingyi didn't believe it. "If His Royal Highness Prince Shou really saw me in South City, he would have arrested me long ago given his style of doing things."

Cao Lingzhong said, "His Highness the Prince of Shou asked me to arrest you because he wanted to give the Cao family some face and wanted to see how we would deal with you. We, the Cao family, have previously provided a lot of financial support to the deposed crown prince. How could His Highness the Prince of Shou not know this? If this matter is not handled well and His Highness the Prince of Shou loses his patience, he will bring up old scores and kill you. Not only will your life be in danger, but our entire Cao family will also be implicated."

"I..." Cao Lingyi wanted to argue, but he felt that what Cao Lingzhong said was very reasonable, so he gave up and stretched out his hand, saying: "Okay, then tie me up, and you must save my life."

(End of this chapter)