Chapter 85: Political Views of Zhang Jiuling and Li Linfu
At Wang Wei's introduction, Wang Zhihuan, Meng Haoran and Cen Shen stood up one by one and saluted Li Heng.

Li Ying stood up to return the greeting, showing his respect for the wise and humble.

After another round of pleasantries, Wang Zhihuan and the other two each presented a congratulatory poem they had written for Li Heng and asked Li Heng to review it.

Li Ying took it, read it carefully, and then said with a smile: "Three great sages have written poems to celebrate. I am afraid that the news of my opening of the government today will be widely circulated."

As he said this, he handed the poem to the servant beside him and asked the servant to give it to the band to sing.

When Wang Zhihuan and the other two saw that Li Ying accepted their congratulatory poem, they all showed joy and said, "Your Highness, your praise is too great. We are ashamed."

Li Ying spoke a few more words to Wang Zhihuan and the others, then went to watch the show with them.

At this time, the music and dance of Kucha was being performed in the center of the stage.

In addition to the mainstream instruments of the Tang Dynasty, the instruments played also include local ethnic instruments of Qiuci, such as the 筚篥.

As for dances, there are folk dances performed by women and lion dances performed by men.

As the saying goes, the Kucha xiao, the Suiye pipa, the fake-faced foreigners and fake lions, the carved wood heads and silk tails, the gold eyes and silver teeth, when the Anxi Protectorate came in.

Yang Yuhuan sat on the attic, watching the performance below with a happy smile and clapping from time to time.

Li Ying came to Yang Yuhuan and asked with a smile: "What do you think of the music and dance of Qiuci?"

"Very good." Yang Yuhuan replied, "Kucha is indeed a land of music and dance. Many things there are that you may not be able to see in Chang'an."

Li Heng nodded, thinking of Gai Jiayun's unfinished business.

Gai Jiayun had previously wanted to compose the music and dance of Qiuci and present it to Li Longji in order to please him, but before he could complete it, he was thrown into prison by the emperor.

Li Ying thought about it and decided to inherit Gai Jiayun's career, so he said to Yang Yuhuan: "Madam, you are proficient in music and good at dancing. I would like to ask you to take the lead in compiling the music and dance of Qiuci, and we will present it to the palace."

"Okay." Yang Yuhuan was already very interested in music and dance, so she agreed immediately.

Li Ying said, "Thank you for your hard work, madam."

Yang Yuhuan smiled and said, "It's not hard to share my husband's worries. And Hongyue's dance is also unique. She can help me, right? Hongyue."

Yang Yuhuan asked Hongyue who was standing beside her.

Hong Yue said respectfully: "It is my great pleasure to be able to choreograph music and dance with the princess."

Li Ying nodded, and when he found that Zhang Mujin was not there, he asked, "Where is Zhang Mujin?"

Yang Yuhuan said, "She seems to have gone to get the letter."

As soon as Yang Yuhuan finished speaking, Zhang Mujin walked up to the attic, bowed to Yang Yuhuan and Li Ying, and said to Li Ying: "Your Highness, Grandpa Mujin said he has a few words for you to pass on to Your Highness."

"Oh?" Li Heng was slightly surprised.

This was the first time in more than two years that Imperial Doctor Zhang and his colleagues took the initiative to talk to Li Heng.

Li Heng asked, "What?"

Zhang Mujin said respectfully, "Grandpa Mujin said that there are two ways to treat illness. One is to treat slowly, first drink porridge and take medicine to harmonize the internal organs and gradually calm the body. The other is to attack with strong medicine, not hesitating to damage the internal organs, and gather the whole body's strength to treat the disease. Grandpa has always sought slow treatment when treating illness, but this method seems to be not very popular nowadays. Your Highness has been ill for a long time, and he must have a deep understanding of these two methods. Grandpa would like to ask Your Highness for advice."

After Zhang Mujin finished speaking, she felt that these words were all about medical theory, and it was a bit strange to ask Li Heng about medical theory, which made her feel a little embarrassed.

After listening to this, Li Ying fell into silence and thought.

After thinking for a while, he finally understood what Doctor Zhang meant. Doctor Zhang was talking about medical principles, but in fact he was talking about national affairs.

The so-called slow governance refers to the foreign policy pursued by Zhang Jiuling - "maintaining border security and being cautious", that is, try not to expand, focus on defense, and then weaken the military power of the vassal states and resolve internal conflicts first.

The use of drastic measures refers to Li Linfu's foreign policy - "opening up borders", which was intended to demonstrate the strength of the Tang Dynasty and divert domestic conflicts.

Both policies have their starting points, but Li Longji prefers to expand the borders.

Not only that, Zhang Jiuling's methods of internal governance were relatively gentle, while Li Linfu had a tough attitude and used endless ways to make money for the central government.

For this reason, Li Longji liked Li Linfu more.

Therefore, Zhang Jiuling has now realized that the conflict between his and Li Longji's governing philosophies is becoming increasingly intense. Under this conflict, he has already sensed that his resignation is not far away.

There are two purposes for asking Zhang Mujin to convey this message.

The first was to tell Li Heng about this trend, and the second was to send someone, namely Meng Haoran, to Li Heng's place.

In fact, with Zhang Jiuling's current power, he could justifiably send people to Anxi. However, if he did so justifiably, these people would be his followers. Once he stepped down, Li Linfu would not let them off easily.

So he had to take this secret approach, hoping that Li Heng could protect them.

Li Heng understood Zhang Jiuling's meaning in an instant, and said to Zhang Mujin, "Miss Mujin, please reply to Imperial Doctor Zhang for me. The destiny is called nature, following nature is called the Way, and cultivating the Way is called teaching."

This is the opening of The Doctrine of the Mean. Li Heng wanted to use this to tell Zhang Jiuling that he could not control their fight and he could only follow the words of the sages, pursue the doctrine of the mean, and do what he should do.

If the person Zhang Jiuling sent could be used, he would use him; if not, he would not force him to use him.

"Yes." Although Zhang Mujin didn't understand, she still replied respectfully.

With Zhang Jiuling's hint, Li Ying roughly knew where Meng Haoran came from.

As for Wang Zhihuan, he must have been recommended by Gao Shi. Now there is only Cen Shen whose origin is unknown.

Li Heng planned to investigate Cen Shen's affairs after the competition.

At this time, the music and dance performance in the audience had ended, and the next item was the performance of the poem "Three People's Fu" by Wang Zhihuan.

From music and dance to poetry, the prosperous culture of the Tang Dynasty was performed on the small stage of Qiuci, drawing continuous applause from the audience.

After that, it was the competition that Li Ying mentioned.

Since they had been notified in advance, the craftsmen brought the agricultural and water conservancy models they had made directly to the stage for demonstration.

Some are exquisitely crafted and inlaid with gold and silver, some are imaginative and have poems written on them, and some even have hoes and water wheels carved into the shapes of beauties.

But no matter how exquisite they are, most of the tools here are less advanced than those in the Central Plains. Some tools, such as the long straight-beam plow, were even popular during the Han Dynasty.

Li Heng looked around and finally found several relatively advanced molds, which are also popular in the Central Plains region. The most representative one is the long curved plow.

The mold of the long curved plow was not well made, and was even a little crude, but Li Heng picked it up and asked, "Who made this?"

Wang Zhihuan stood up after hearing this and said with an awkward smile, "Your Highness, I made this. I just heard about your Highness's proposal for this competition on the way here. I was in a hurry to prepare it, so it's a little crude. I'm sorry to have embarrassed you."

Wang Zhihuan thought that Li Heng thought his work was too simple.

(End of this chapter)