roccoschili Chapter 884: Jingzhao Wei Family, 3 Feet from the Sky
Chapter 884: Jingzhao Wei Family, 3 Feet from the Sky
The restoration of the Tang Dynasty was naturally a happy event for the people.
The Tang Dynasty is back.
However, as two years passed, many people in the Tang Dynasty complained.
Li Xian was obviously not as good as the Empress Dowager in governing the country.
Many people even complained in their hearts that after the restoration of the Tang Dynasty, it was not as good as the previous Zhou Dynasty.
When it was almost dawn, Li Xian was still sitting by the window, thinking about his mother's death, but his heart was still heavy.
The ginseng soup brought by the reinstated old eunuch had gone cold, but he did not move. His fingertips repeatedly stroked the carvings on the window frame - that was the craftsmanship during the reign of Emperor Taizong. The dragon scale patterns were still embedded with the dust of the previous dynasty, but now it was permeated by the stench of money of the Wei family.
The noise from the West Shopping Mall could be heard faintly, a little louder than usual.
Li Xian put on an old robe and walked towards the palace wall on the thin frost. The old eunuch trotted after him, clutching a fox fur in his hand and muttering, "Your Majesty, be careful of the cold air invading your body."
He did not look back, but only looked at the outline of the city wall in the distance. The glory of the "Zhenguan Governance" was once engraved there, but now it seemed to be covered with a layer of grease that could not be washed off.
When they reached the corner tower, they ran into the Wei family's convoy heading out of the palace.
More than a dozen carriages were packed to the brim, with bits of silk and satin peeking out from the gaps in the curtains, and several boxes of jewels rolling on the carriage boards, making people dizzy.
Leading the group was Empress Wei's younger brother Wei Zhuo, who wore a peacock green brocade robe with a gold-embroidered python pattern on the collar. When he met Li Xian, he simply bowed perfunctorily and said he was going to "inspect" the estate outside the city.
"What's in the car?" Li Xian's voice drifted in the cold wind, but with a slight tremor.
Wei Zhuo smiled, revealing his two rows of white teeth: "Some ordinary items, prepared for the Queen to prepare for the winter."
Just as he finished speaking, a carriage suddenly jolted and rolled down a jade ruyi. It was emerald green and transparent, with the words "Imperial Gift" engraved on the handle. It was a tribute sent by Tubo last year and should have been displayed in the National History Museum.
Li Xian stared at the jade ruyi as it rolled several times on the ground, covered in mud. Wei Zhuo's men hurried to pick it up, but he stopped them, saying, "Just throw it away. There are three boxes left in the warehouse."
Li Xian watched Wei Zhuo climb onto his horse, the hem of his brocade robe sweeping the frost on the ground. He suddenly remembered that when he was exiled to Fangzhou, he didn't even have a decent cotton coat. Empress Wei always said to him at that time, "When you go back in the future, I will make sure you wear the best materials."
He didn't ask any more questions and turned back. The old eunuch picked up the muddy jade ruyi, wiped it again and again with his sleeve, and said, "Your Majesty, this is a rare treasure."
Li Xian didn't answer, but said, "Look at those beggars huddled at the foot of the city wall. The treasure they see is probably only half a steamed bun."
The drumbeats of the morning court are annoying.
Li Xian sat on the dragon throne and listened to Wei Wen's spit-filled request to levy a "palace market tax" in the two capitals and twelve states, saying that he wanted to build a "Yingxian Palace" for Empress Wei.
The officials below the stairs lowered their heads. A new official in a scarlet robe secretly raised his eyes. Li Xian recognized him. He was the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue whom Li Xian had bought for five thousand taels of gold last month. He was originally a silk merchant and didn't even know what "rent, labor service and tax" were.
"What do you think, Your Majesty?" Wei Wen suddenly stopped and his eyes cut over like a knife.
Li Xian looked at the bare branches outside the hall. Frost from last night was still hanging on the branches, which looked very much like the white hair on the temples of an old woman.
His Adam's apple moved, and he wanted to say, "Why don't Yingxian Palace repair the people's granary first?" But when the words came to his lips, he was interrupted by the silver bell-like laughter coming from behind the curtain.
It’s Princess Anle.
She had arrived without anyone noticing, wearing a pomegranate-red silk dress that trailed on the ground. It was embroidered with golden phoenixes, and every step she took emitted countless points of light.
"Father," she said, walking up to Li Xian, playing with a string of oriental pearls, each larger than the ones on Empress Wei's wrist. "I think this is a good idea. Now that Yingxian Palace is completed, I will hold a banquet there and invite all the civil and military officials in the court to enjoy it."
Li Xian looked at the golden hairpins on her temples. They were made of three hundred pearls, enough to support ten middle-class families for a year.
He recalled how when the child was born in Fangzhou, there wasn't even a piece of cotton cloth to wrap her. Empress Wei had held her in her arms, trembling with tears. But now, the anguish in the child's eyes was probably only concerned with whether the jewelry was bright enough or the banquet was grand enough.
"Where's your mother?" Li Xian's voice was a little hoarse. Princess Anle nodded behind the curtain and said, "My mother is looking at the newly made court robes. She said they are for the conferment of titles on the brothers of the Wei family."
Li Xian's heart suddenly sank. A title of king? When Wu Zetian was stripping away the power of the Wu kings, she once said to him, "When a foreign relative holds power, it's like raising a tiger by your side." He had nodded in agreement then, but now he had to watch helplessly as the tiger cubs of the Wei family grew their fangs one by one.
When he was leaving the court, he was blocked by Empress Wei in a side hall.
She was wearing a purple robe, which was made in the style of Wu Zetian in her time. She had a jade belt around her waist, which was inlaid with gems and jingled with every step she took.
"Your Majesty, why didn't you say anything just now?" She raised her hand and stroked his cheek, her nails painted red like blood. "Do you think the Wei family has taken too many benefits?"
Li Xian didn't dodge, letting her nails scratch his skin, which was a little painful.
"I just feel that," he looked at the greed in her eyes, as if she were a stranger, "back in Fangzhou, you said that as long as you could live, it would be fine." Empress Wei paused, then sneered: "Back then, that was back then. Now I am the Empress, so what I want is naturally different."
She turned and walked towards the dressing table, where dozens of boxes of rouge were placed, including rose cream from the Western Regions and rouge from the south of the Yangtze River. The most expensive box would cost half a year's food rations for ten households.
"Look at this rouge," she smeared a little on her lips with her fingertips, "isn't it more colorful than the wild flowers in Fangzhou back then?"
Li Xian did not answer, but only saw himself in the bronze mirror. There were more white hairs on his temples, like grass hit by frost.
The afternoon sun is rarely warm.
Li Xian changed into casual clothes and slipped out of the palace with the old eunuch. The West Market was busier than the last time he had been there, but also more desolate.
The line in front of the rice shop stretched to the corner of the street. Some people held up the copper coins in their hands and cried, saying that there were patients at home who were waiting for life-saving food, but they were pushed and driven away by the shop assistants.
The silk shop next door was bustling with activity. Several women in gorgeous clothes were selecting fabrics, saying they were preparing new clothes for the Wei family's banquet. Their voices were so loud that they could drown out the wailing in front of the rice shop.
"What would you like to order, sir?" A hawker selling Hu pancakes came over, his face covered in flour and red from the cold.
Li Xian bought two, handed one to the old eunuch, and took a bite himself. The cake was so dry and hard that it scratched his throat. "How much is this cake?"
He asked. The vendor rubbed his hands and smiled: "Not expensive, five copper coins." Li Xian calculated in his mind that a dou of rice cost two hundred coins, and a Hu pancake was equivalent to two liters of rice. Ordinary people probably couldn't earn five copper coins a day.
They walked to the slums in the south of the city, where low earthen houses were crowded together.
A woman was sitting on the doorstep, sewing clothes for her child with rags. The child was shivering with cold, holding a piece of frozen steamed bread in his hand, and his mouth was full of crumbs.
Li Xian stood at the entrance of the alley, looking at the child's chapped cheeks, and suddenly remembered that when he was a child, Li Zhi always held him on his knees.
The old eunuch quietly stuffed a handful of copper coins into the woman's hand. She was stunned for a moment, then knelt down, kowtowed in the direction of Li Xian, and said, "May the living Bodhisattva bless you."
Li Xian didn't dare to bear it, turned around and walked away quickly. His chest felt like something was blocking it and he couldn't breathe.
When he returned to the palace, he saw Wei Bo whipping a soldier of the imperial guards. The soldier knelt on the ground, his clothes soaked with blood. Wei Bo's whip was still falling, and he cursed, "Useless thing, you can't even shoot a rabbit."
It turned out that they had just returned from hunting outside the city. The Wei family members rode on fine horses with prey on their backs, but asked the imperial guards to carry their weapons. If they were slow in the slightest, they would be whipped.
"Stop." Li Xian's voice was soft, but it stopped Wei Bo. He turned around, his face still reeking of alcohol, and said, "Your Majesty, why are you here? This is just a trivial matter, not worth your concern."
Li Xian looked at the soldier's bloody back and thought of the imperial guards during the Wu Zetian period. They were all energetic and could fight ten men at a time when guarding the border. But now they had become grooms and punching bags for the Wei family's children.
"He is a soldier defending his country, not your slave." Li Xian's voice was trembling, and it was unclear whether he was angry or cold.
Wei Bo curled his lips and said nothing, but deliberately whipped the ground with the whip, splashing some mud that fell on the corner of Li Xian's robe.
The palace banquet lasted until very late at night.
Empress Wei hugged the young eunuchs and drank with them, and asked them to compete to see who could say more insults about the people. The winner would get a lucrative position.
The Wei family's sons got drunk and took off their boots to dance in the palace. They overturned the wine table, spilled the delicacies all over the floor, and attracted a group of palace rats to fight over them.
Li Xian sat in the main seat. There was still some wine left in the jade cup in front of him, but he didn't touch it. He just looked at the broken porcelain plates. The gold patterns on them were enough for a commoner's family to eat for half a year.
Princess Anle came over, holding a blank imperial edict in her hand, and said, "Father, please give me your seal. I want Cui Shi to be the prime minister."
Cui Shi was her lover. Apart from being able to write a few erotic poems, he couldn't even understand official documents.
Li Xian looked at the jade seal, which was heavy and engraved with the words "Emperor's Treasure", but it was like a branding iron, so hot that he dared not touch it.
"Where's your mother?" He avoided her question. Princess Anle nodded towards Empress Wei and said that she was discussing with Wei Wen about going to Mount Li Hot Spring tomorrow, and that they would bring 300 palace maids, 500 rolls of silk, and countless gold, silver and jewelry.
"Father, come with us," she shook his arm. "The hot springs there can cure all diseases."
Li Xian thought of the child shivering with cold in the slums. He was afraid that no hot spring could cure the illness in his heart.
After the banquet, he returned to his bedroom alone. The four characters "返于民民" (return to the people) on the wall had been painted over with whitewash, but not completely. Some strokes could still be seen, like a scar that would never heal.
He sat under the lamp, looking at the old sword. The gold on the scabbard had worn off, revealing the copper inside, which was mottled, just like his heart at the moment.
The old eunuch brought a bowl of hot soup and said, "Your Majesty, this is made with new rice. Please drink some to warm yourself up."
Li Xian took the bowl, the heat blurred his vision. He suddenly remembered the old woman crying while buying rice in the West Shopping Mall, the child eating steamed buns in the slums, and the countless pairs of eyes hoping to have enough food and warm clothes.
"Return it to the people..." He murmured to himself in the empty palace, swallowing his tears mixed with the soup, which was so salty that it tasted bitter.
The wind outside the window started to blow again, rolling up the fallen leaves and hitting the window paper, like countless hands knocking on the door.
Li Xian gripped the old sword tightly, his fingertips pressing against the cold scabbard, and suddenly realized that some debts must be repaid with blood.
Some words cannot just be written on the wall, they must also be engraved in the heart and practiced with the bones.
When it was almost dawn, he called the old eunuch to his side and took out a jade seal from under his pillow. It was given by Wu Zetian in the past and could mobilize the secret guards in the capital.
"Go," he said softly, but with unprecedented determination, "find all the evidence of the Wei family's corruption and abuse of power over the years."
The old eunuch was stunned for a moment, then kowtowed heavily: "I obey your command."
Watching the old eunuch disappear in the morning light, Li Xian walked to the window and opened it.
The cold wind blew in, making his hair fly, but it also blew away the depression in his heart.