Chapter 83 Opening a Mansion

Li Heng received the decree and exchanged a few polite words with the eunuch who delivered it. Then he asked about Concubine Wu Huifei, saying, "Eunuch Shen, is my mother still in good health?"

The eunuch who delivered the decree saw that the first thing Li Ying did after receiving the decree was to care about his mother, and sighed: "Your Highness Shou is truly kind and filial. He is not moved by such an honor, but cares about my mother first. Your Highness Shou, please rest assured. Concubine Wu Hui is in good health. When I came, Concubine Wu Hui also asked me to give Your Highness Shou an oral message, asking you to take care of yourself."

In fact, Yang Yuhuan and Wu Huifei had been exchanging letters. Li Heng probably knew that Wu Huifei was in good health, but he still confirmed it again and again. This was not because he was so filial, but because this was a critical year.

Historically, in 737, Wu Huifei framed the crown prince in order to allow Li Heng to take charge of the Eastern Palace, causing Li Longji to kill three of his sons in one day.

A year later, in 738, Concubine Wu Huifei also "died of fright" because of Li Ying's death.

There are many different opinions about how Wu Huifei died, but in general, historians basically agree that Wu Huifei's death was related to Li Ying's death.

But these reasons are just speculations for history, but they are crucial for Li Heng. He needs to confirm whether Wu Huifei is really alive and well.
Now, it is 738 years.

Concubine Wu Huifei is still alive.

Li Ying knew that he had made the right bet again.

Since he was ill and away, he had no chance to compete for the position of crown prince, so Concubine Wu Huifei no longer had the need to frame the crown prince. In addition, due to his persuasion, Concubine Wu Huifei basically did not interfere in political affairs, so Li Ying was not framed and survived.

Li Ying survived, and Concubine Wu Huifei did not die of "shock from Li Ying's death". Instead, she stayed away from state affairs, listened to Li Ying's advice and began to maintain her health, thus becoming healthy.

Li Heng secretly breathed a sigh of relief, exchanged a few polite words with Shen Zhongjian, and stuffed some money into Shen Zhongjian's pocket as usual.

Shen Zhongjian had been taking advantage of Li Heng, so he felt that he should reveal something, so he said, "Your Highness, Prince Shou, I have to say something. Your Highness, Prince Shou was given the title of Anxi Jiedushi, which caused quite a stir, especially for the other princes."

Qiuci was too far away from Chang'an, so news arrived slowly, but the news that Li Heng had obtained the actual power of the Anxi Jiedushi had spread to other places.

This matter might be just a small topic of conversation for ordinary people, but for other princes, especially those who can hardly compete for the crown prince and do not want to be an idle prince, and have some ambitions, Li Heng can be said to have provided them with a template.

So, they began to analyze how Li Heng got to this point so that they could emulate him.

After some analysis, the princes came to a conclusion.

First, he had to be ill so as not to threaten the imperial power; secondly, he had to have a favored mother; then, after leaving the capital, he had to encounter a major case and solve it perfectly, affecting the forces in the court and letting Li Longji give him a deposed envoy for considerations of all parties; after that, when he arrived at the border, it happened that the governor of the border had problems, so he put the governor in jail. At the same time, there needed to be an invasion by bandits, and when the border was leaderless, he had to lead the troops temporarily and win a great victory.

This conclusion is a bit rough.

But even this rough conclusion made some princes feel despair.

Because from this conclusion we can see that every step Li Ying takes is full of coincidences and Li Ying's powerful abilities. These coincidences and Li Ying's powerful abilities are superimposed step by step, and the probability of successfully replicating them is extremely small.

So some princes gave up, but some princes wanted to learn the secret, such as Prince Yong Li Lin.

Shen Zhongjian didn't want to say too much, so he just made a few remarks.

But Li Heng already understood what he meant, and said sincerely, "Thank you, Shen Zhongjian."

After saying this, he stuffed more money into Shen Zhongjian's pocket and sent him away.

After Shen Zhongjian left, Yang Yuhuan said, "My dear, you are the only one who has been sent out. If the other princes fail to follow suit, they may do something bad in secret. I'm afraid we have to be more careful in the future."

"Yes." Li Heng nodded, thought for a while, and said, "But it doesn't matter. I will play with them slowly. Our top priority now is to open a government."

Since Li Heng was only a deposed official, he lived in the imperial inn. Yang Yuhuan had lived with him in the inn for nearly two years.

Establishing a government is an important private matter, because only when the matter of establishing a government is settled, will the conditions for "branching out" as soon as possible be met, and those who follow him will feel at ease.

Now that Li Heng has taken real power, he can establish a government in Qiuci according to regulations.

Li Heng had the status of a prince and also held the honorary title of Kaifu Yitong Sansi, so he had to establish a government according to the corresponding level and ceremonial guards.

This is a very troublesome matter.

But Li Heng didn't want to bother with this matter.

So when Li Heng mentioned opening a mansion, he took Yang Yuhuan to the inner room and said, "I told you before that we would open a mansion in Qiuci, and now this promise has been fulfilled."

"Yeah." Yang Yuhuan nodded happily, "We have our own home now."

"Yes." Li Heng smiled and said, "But I'm not very good at opening a government office. When I mentioned it to you before, you seemed to have some plans. How about I let you handle this matter?"

"This..." Yang Yuhuan was stunned. She originally wanted to discuss with Li Heng and build their new home together, but now it seems that Li Heng seems to be a hands-off boss.

However, she was relieved soon after.

Because she knew that Li Heng must be thinking about official business again.

As a wife, it is understandable that she focuses on the home.

So Yang Yuhuan said with a smile: "My dear, aren't you afraid that I might mess around?"

"Can you?" Li Ying smiled.

Hearing this, Yang Yuhuan took Li Heng's hand and said with a smile, "Don't worry, my dear, I will take it seriously."

"Yes." Li Heng nodded, "But I have two requests."

"What's the request?" Yang Yuhuan asked.

Li Heng said: "The first request is that I hope it won't be too extravagant while meeting the regulations. The second request is that I want to organize a few competitions to celebrate the opening of the government."

"Okay." Yang Yuhuan nodded in agreement. "When we open the palace, the officials and local clans of Anxi will come to celebrate. It would be nice to prepare a few competitions and have fun with the people."

"That makes sense." Li Heng thought for a moment and said with a smile, "It's a good idea to share happiness with the people. In addition to poetry, singing and dancing, the competition I want to prepare is really related to the people."

Yang Yuhuan asked: "What exactly is it?"

Li Heng said: "I want to prepare some competitions related to agriculture and water conservancy, such as a competition for models of agricultural and water conservancy tools."

"Hmm?" Yang Yuhuan chuckled upon hearing this and said, "This is quite unique. There are only poems, songs and dances, and ordinary people can't participate. My lord, this is truly sharing the joy with the people. My lord is really thoughtful."

In fact, in addition to the so-called sharing of joy with the people, Li Heng’s move was also to select some useful people.

(End of this chapter)