Chapter 138
Li Yuanyings letter stirred up a thousand waves with just one stone.
It didnt matter how good the painting was. Whats more important is that it featured a list of investors attached. This is equivalent to giving them airti with the Emperor in advance. This can never happen if youre a proper but ordinary county magistrate but Li Yuanying is different because he is the Emperors favourite younger brother. Even if his spew nonsense, His Majesty will still read his letters.
It is indeed proven that he wrote nonsense because everyone in court had already heard rumors prior to his letter reaching. All that is left in it is about how Your Majesty is so aweso. Why do the people love you so much?.
Flattery done naturally.
Everyone who ca pass this matter is disgusted by how shaless Li Yuanying is. Words that would make an ordinary person blush in sha the boy wrote it all in his letters. And then he even send nas and excepts from the people who spew flattery about how great the Emperor is. And then to make sure the letter shows authenticity, he kept the local dialects intact to show the simple and honest tone of the common peoples praise.
It is fine that Li Yuanying is shaless but the scary thing is that the Emperor loves it. This realization ca to Zhangsun Wuji and so ministers. Not only was the Emperor loving it, his imagination went further.
The Emperor once accidentally told Zhangsun: I wonder if my brother had this idea when he ntion he wanted to build a route to Mount Tai.
This really shocked him. Its alright to give Li Yuanying the benefit of doubt due to his young age and the possible assumption that he didnt know the value of money and so did not feel guilty spending other peoples money.
But His Majesty is the King of a country, how can he take advantage of other? He can he ask his citizens to pay for the cost of building roads and bridges all the way to Mount Tai? How many County will need to fork out money? Not all counties are wealthy, how can you expect people to spend huge sum of money without blinking an eye?
Seeing the flaw in this matter, Zhangsun Wuji quickly decided to have a word with the Emperor. He cannot risk polluting the image of a wise king that ca with much hard work over money.
Li Er didnt reply much but simply ntion that he has his own thoughts about this matter.
Zhangsun Wuji seriously thinks that the Emperors thoughts were a bluff.
So he simply found a reason to look for Wei Zheng and conveniently told him about the Emperors scary thoughts.
Wei Zheng slowly replied:
I have been sick since the beginning of the year.
Arent you already better?
Sotis good, sotis bad. It cos with old age, its easy to fall sick but hard to fully recover.
Zhangsun Wuji was seething in anger silently.
Ever since he had a new future grandson in law, the things Wei Zheng does pisses people off.
I also had a daughter that married into Royalty, you dont see
defending them blindly like this?!
Wei Zheng slowly walked away, leaving an angry Zhangsun Wuji alone. This is not a matter that Wei Zheng wants to get involved with. Li Yuanying is aiming at wealthy households and not ordinary citizen, it is alright in his books. Whether Li Yuanying will take a aim at people like Zhangsun is not Wei Zhengs concern.
While all this was going on, Li Yuanying forgot about everything once he was done writing his letter. He also didnt know that his older brother has thoughts about Mount Tai because of his actions.
Yuanying instead spend ti observing the peoples customs and sentints. After the big case at Wu Family Village, the werent anymore scandals so he was instead invited by the enthusiastic villages to eat good food everyday until his belly is round.
In the blink of an eye, it was sumr. It was extrely hot so he moved the county office to iBei Lake where he works by the cooling water every day. If he was in the mood, he would get n to row him out into the lake on a boat.
The renovation work of the Taihe Palace was in full swing. Li Yuanying only recruited people to work on Prince Teng Pavilion for him. The manpower needed for the other buildings will be the responsibility of the investors. While Prince Tengs Pavilion started renovation first as it was suppose to be a show unit, it fell behind in tiline. While other pavilions were almost done, his was only built till the third floor.
Since Prince Tengs Pavilion is not completed yet, the other investors were naturally too embarrassed to stop work early. Therefore, workers ca up with many new ideas to improve on the pavilions design to make them more distinctive and eye-catching.
And so the craftsn worked hard, renovating and changing, making improvents to every part ticulously making them exquisite. This was t with no objections, after all money has been spent, lets try to have the best one? Since investors had already spent big bucks, an additional day or two on manpower were no concern. More importantly they must not let others steal the lilight and make them look like they are not dedicated!
By the end of sumr, both species of waterlons are ready for harvesting. Initial type grew bigger while the latter ones were smaller. No one dared to cut it them but the growers observed the fruit carefully using Dai Tings instruction. Once they were sure it was fully ripe, the waterlon was brought to Prince Teng.
Yuanying was
happy that both lons ripen at the sa ti. He invited all his friends to cut them together.
Officials working at the county office had spent much ti with Prince Teng and were no longer afraid of this rumored little devil. They sent a representative to him with a shy face to ask: Your Highness, can we watch too?
Why not? Join us!
Since Li Yuanying now lives in a house by the lake and works in a pavilion by the lake, this is the chosen place to also cut his lons. Governnt servant and normal citizens all surrounded his pavilion and stretched their necks to look inside. They want to see what the lon from the West called waterlon looks like!
Yuanying didnt expect such a big commotion but he was always happy to see many people. He enthusiastically shared that the lon ca from the Western Regions and is juicy and cools your body down. People in the west also call it cold lon! Although its no longer super hot now, but since we have successfully harvested this year, we can repeat the sa next year. By then, everyone will be able to eat waterlon in the sumr and feel comfortable!
Li Yuanying was beaming as he spoke, while the others listened with gusto. As they looked at the two big, round lons, they were drooling!
Li Yuanying didnt hesitate and cut one of the big round waterlons under everyones attention. He applied a little more force and the lon was divided into two halves.
Disappointingly, the lon was not very red, and there were only a few red pieces in the middle. But it was juicy and didnt look bad!
Li Yuanying knew instantly that these were the lon seeds brought back by Dai Ting. The initial few plants he brought back didnt grow well and were gone before they managed to ripen. These were later grown from the seeds Dai Ting brought back.Yuanying was not in a hurry to taste it and just smiled to Wei Shu and the others: This is less red, so lets call it little red.
After naming the first one, Yuanying cut the other lon. Although the first lon was big, it lacks visual impact. Everyone just thought that it was a relatively large lon but they didnt feel like eating it. But this ti, everyone held their breath!
This lon is beautiful!
The flesh
is so red that people fall in love at the first sight. Red flesh, black seed and white and green skin! Not only is the color vibrant, it looks so sweet. Dont let them flow in vain, lets give it a try!
Even if they have never tasted it, everyone already likes it. If there is a chance in the future, they must try it!
The only person who wasnt envious was Li Yuanying. He was satisfied and nad it fully red. He cut it into pieces and distributed it to his friends. The extras were given to the governnt officials standing around.
Little Red was also distributed out. To be fair, if there were no comparison, the lon seeds brought back by Dai Ting tasted great. It was juicy and good for relieving sumr heat.
Yuanying instructed Dong Xiaoyi to get his planting team to hone their selective breeding skills with Little Red and to set the direction for future planting.
Dong Xiaoyi took his order seriously.
Yuanyings actions quickly spread throughout the county and the next day,
several large waterlons were sent back to Changan. Although the journey was not a long one, Yuanying made sure to send the lons back with their vines intact to ensure freshness!
While the lons were on the way to the Emperor, Yuanying kept his promise and hosted a banquet at his restaurant to entertain the wealthy households who had invested in his palace renovation project.
Everyone had heard that the waterlons were delicious and were all looking forward to it. This is the only waterlon in the whole of Tang; or at least traveller from north and south have not heard of this waterlon. Plus Li Yuanying ntioned sothing about teaching them the planting technique, wouldnt that an that Hu County is the only region to is able to master this unique business? !
The young prince entertained his guests with performances and great food. When everyone was moving their butts from being impatient, Yuanying clapped his hands. Bring in the waterlons
A small piece for everyone
The little black dots on the lon are the seeds. Be careful when eating them and spit the seeds out.
Bring them ho and try to plant them. (Yuanying)
Everyone was a little confused.
The little devil prince cant be so shaless as to send them away with such a small piece of lon, can he? Although admittedly this piece of lon looks delicious but they have donated a whole building! A whole building for this piece of lon?!
Seeing his guest all carrying a face that said: How dare you be so shaless; Yuanying smilingly added: Next sumr, Ill teach everyone how to grow so.
Notes from the author:
Little Prince: Im just joking, why so serious!
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