Chapter 171
Soon it was February and the weather still chilly. His Majesty call for Zhangsun Wuji and others to talk about Li Yuanying’s plan to build a port.
Originally, the ministers were shocked when they saw the letter in His Majesty’s hand, thinking that Li Yuanying had written another disgusting letter of flattery. After reading it, they prefers his disgusting flattery over this!
Fang Xuanling spoke first: “Even if Prince Teng’s people brought back goods from Goryeo, it would not be enough to build a new seaport.” He briefly explain the cost of building a port and shared that spring is for growing crops and Prince Teng should not be allowed to act so recklessly. Henan Road is an important grain base, Li Yuanying cannot be allowed to delay harvesting!
“It is indeed not enough, but Yuanying said that it will not affect argriculture work, so it is okay to let him try.” (Li Er)
The reason for His Majesty’s agreement is because of Li Yuanying’s praises saying that he will build a large seaport, set up a customs office, and control maritime trade. This seaport must be large and magnificent, and it must show Tang Dynasty to the world!
Let’s choose a good area on Henan Road and try it out. If it works, places such as Jiang Zhe, Fu Guang, Yazhou, and Annan Protectorate will be next to form a maritime trade chain with the ports supporting, so that everyone can go to sea with confidence.
Li Yuanying named this plan the “Pearl of the Orient”.
Yuanying thinks that since Tang is located in the East when the sun rises, their coasts would mostly be on the east side of the continent. He wants to build these seaports into dazzling oriental pearls, so that they can transport countless materials and wealth into Tang.
In order to protect these ports, they had to train a team of strong navy who will patrol the sea. That way everyone who stepped onto the port will feel the strength and bravery of Tang!
This blueprint is beautiful and Li Er is reluctant to give it up, so he wanted Yuanying to try it out. Anyway, Yuanying vowed that there will be no losses, and the Court wouldn’t have to spend a single penny!
Fang Xuanling and the others looked at each other. Knowing that His Majesty had made up his mind, they just allowed him to write a reply to Yuanying: “Go ahead and build the Port but there will be no monetary support. Do not delay agriculture harvesting and all money earned must be handed over.
Wei Zheng’s face twitched.
No wonder Li Yuanying talks about “leading people toward goodness”, this shamelessness runs in the family like tradition. His Majesty’s words were so shameless that they didn’t stop him from indulging Li Yuanying’s nonsense!
Although the Court neither gave him manpower nor paid him money, the Emperor still agreed to send Li Chunfeng to help choose an auspicious date to start the port construction. This way, all of Yuanying’s requirements were met!
As for his exaggeration about Dai Ting, the Emperor ignored it.
Dai Ting has both skills and knowledge but it is not suitable to support him so obviously. After all he’s an eunuch belonging to the rear palace, so he’s at a disadvantage. Secondly, his tasks are not things that can be done openly, if they publicly acknowledge him, his future will be much more difficult to execute.
His Majesty send his reply and Li Chunfeng.
Doctor Sun Simiao also followed along. He didn’t like to be associated with the Imperial Court and had repeatedly refused to work at the Imperial Hospital. The only reason he stayed so long in Chang’an was to work on <>.
At the beginning of this year, Sun Simiao presented his work to the Imperial Court and asked the Imperial doctors to review and publish it as per Yuanying’s promised. After the book was done, Sun Simiao didn’t want to stay and followed on the trip towards Henan Road with Li Chunfeng with the aim to help Li Yuanying open a medical school.
Although His Majesty was reluctant to let him go, he couldn’t keep the old doctor by force.
It’s now mid-February and everything is now revived. There are now more vegetables and fruits and the birds and beasts are fat. Everything that grew on the mountain or flies in the sky or swims in the sea seems edible. Feng Thai Restaurant which already had booming business, made a bold move. They opened dozens of branches at the same time and launch a new cuisine: stir-fry style!
The chefs of each branch were busy practicing stir-frying. After getting the hang of it, they quickly use seasonal ingredients and developed local delicacies according to local preferences.
When Li Yuanying initially asked them to return to their hometown to run the business independently, they thought he was just coaxing them to work had labor. But now the vision has really came true!
This makes them motivated!
Compared to going rouge and starting from scratch, it’s much more comfortable relying on a well-known brand. They now share profits, the more they rake in the more they are compensated. And with Li Yuanying being the big boss, no one would dare bother them and they only needed to devote themselves to developing new dishes and improving their skills. Anyone with a brain can see their future getting better!
So everyone was waiting for their branch’s grand opening.
Put hot oil into a pan and stir-fry it over high heat. Although the dishes are not as good-looking as those being stewed, they are cooked faster, is more fragrant, and more importantly not found in other places!
The branches opened at the same time, and caused a wave of enthusiasm in various places. When new things are introduced, everyone becomes curious. Moreover, Feng Thai restaurant rarely disappoints, so diners naturally flock to it to taste the stir-fried dishes.
Perhaps because of the low price where most can afford it, egg fried rice became the most popular new dish!
The egg fried rice craze spread from Chang’an to Tengzhou, and then to other places by merchants and tourists from all over the country. Soon, everyone wanted to order a plate to try!
Wei Zheng and other ministers generally do not eat out, so they learned about this trend much later. The youngsters in the family were the first to get news.
When Wei Zheng heard, his brows furrowed, and he was dissatisfied. Others earn big money quietly but this guy makes money loudly and now everyone is discussing it!
Within a few days, many heard more news: it turns out that this dish needs to be served with a special frying pan to make it conveniently!
Now the real question. Feng Thai restaurant opened so many branches at once and this new stir-fry dish is enjoyed by so many diners. How many iron pots did Li Yuanying build?!
More importantly, where did the iron come from? Could it be he discovered an iron mine and kept it for personal use?
Wei Zheng couldn’t sit back and watch Yuanying make such a big mistake. He immediately send people to Taiyuan to investigate, and by the way, look through Yuanying’s businesses all over the country to see if there were any unreported mine deposits. It’s okay for Li Yuanying to fool around but iron mining must not be touched!
As a result, he found His Majesty’s involvement and traced the brothers’ joint conspiracy!
These brothers are so shameless!
The only pair in history!
Wei Zheng was so angry that he just sat in the meeting hall and refused to leave or curse at anyone. He just sat there and looked at His Majesty , as if looking at a heartless man, which was strange.
Seeing that the cat is out of the bad, Li Er push the blame onto Li Yuanying’s head, sighing that he had no money to offer Yuanying, and could not give him special treatment on the size of his fiefdom. After all the boy found the iron mine so he needed to compensate him in some ways right?
Li Chengqian also helped to persuade the crowd, saying that uncle needed a little bit of iron, not much, just a few pots? Not much at all. If there hadn’t been too much noise about the branches opening, no one would have noticed this!
Wei Zheng really wants to retire and return to his hometown.
Since they love giving the boy exception and spoiling him rotten, let them do it and get into trouble. Let’s see how they end up!
…..
When Li Chunfeng and Sun Simiao arrived, the Academy was almost completed.
March has arrive and it’s a good time for spring flowers to bloom. Li Chunfeng looked at the busy springtime and thought the scenery was nice. He and Sun Simiao had just arrived outside the city when Yuanying came and led them into the city enthusiastically.
”Master Sun, Xiao Li, I have been waiting for you! So happen that the academy is almost built and we can start recruiting students. Master Sun, please see if the medical school is big enough. If not, I will expand it!”
Sun Simiao stroked his beard : “If you want to cultivate good doctors, students should be of high quality rather than quantity.” If there are too many students, it will be difficult to teach them personally; secondly, it will also be difficult to judge their character. If you accept students with bad intentions, who knows whether they will use their skills to save or harm people?
Yuanying nodded and took him directly to the medical school to see if there’s anything that needed improvement.
Sun Simiao was direct. After seeing the place, he said that he’s not leaving and wants to stay in the school. This place is spacious, bright and quiet with a large garden where various medicinal herbs found in abundance in Henan Province are planted. Further back is the back mountain, which is lush and green. There are many wild trees and weeds growing on it and you can definitely find wild medicinal herbs.
Sun Simiao is old and likes this semi-outdoor residence very much. Yuanying has found everything he wanted so what else is there to worry about? As for making a name for himself and showing off, Sun Simiao had no interest!
Seeing that Sun Simiao is very satisfied with his arrangements, Yuanying happily led Li Chunfeng away.
Dai Ting has been busy exchanging all the good things he brought back for cash. Everything has been prepared, we’re just waiting for the busy Spring season to end before starting Yuanying’s “Pearl of the Orient” plan.
Li Chunfeng is only here to choose an auspicious date, and wasn’t aware about the things Yuanying had been bragging to his older brother about. Hearing that Yuanying will be building seaports along the coast of Tang Empire so that the winding coastline would string together into the “Pearls of the Orient”, Chunfeng couldn’t help but mentally calculate how much it would cost.
“Did you opened so many restaurant branches just to build this seaport?”
“Nope, it’s from something else. I’ve already thought about how to use the money earned from the restaurant.” Yuanying shared about his other grand plan: to build a wide and easy-to-walk road from Mount Tai to Chang’an, equipped with post stations and all the needed utilities along the way. The elder brother can visit Mount Tai as many times as he wants, without wasting money and labor!
Li Chunfeng finally understood why His Majesty indulged Li Yuanying this much.
“Where are you going to get the money to build the harbor?”
Li Yuanying kept it a secret, “You’ll find out soon.”
Seeing that Yuanying is keeping it a secret, Chunfeng stopped asking and settled down in Tengzhou.
Since Manpower is not sufficient yet, Yuanying only asked for materials and money for the expansion to be prepared but did not rush Li Chunfeng to pick a date to start construction.
Yuanying devoted himself to the preparation of the Academy. The people recommended by Xiao Deyan arrived to town one after another, but their numbers were not enough to meet the requirements of his Academy. Even if he isn’t recruiting students yet, he need to secure enough good teachers!
Yuanying issued a recruitment order, allowing people to freely recommend talents from all over the country to him. Even if they were from neighboring states, as long as they were willing, he will accept them.
The salary offered is very generous and many applied after New Year. Yuanying asked Wu Mei and his friends to take turns selecting people, and they picked many good ones. This group need not have amazing talents, as long as they have decent knowledge and good character, it is enough to be a teacher.
Yuanying also sent people to promote his school in various counties and prefectures within Henan Province and brought back children from poor families to the academy. Although this group is getting some relief they are not at the level to think about education yet. But the many dormitories built in the academy offers shelter from wind and rain and provides warm meals. This is tempting to the group as it protects them from wind and rain; and they will not go hungry.
Yuanying allowed the group to study in Tengzhou without having to change their residency to Tengzhou. If they have a promising future and can afford the cost, the Academy welcomes them to pay it forward, otherwiss everything will be provided and paid for by the Academy!
Education is not a business. Yuanying never thought about making money from the Academy but is able to afford funding it fully.
With the Academy ready, many from various places flocked to Tengzhou. In the following days, Yuanying would meet with his teacher candidates and speak to them in depth,clarify the educational philosophy of the academy. He is resolved to not let his own people drag his feet.
This day, Yuanying had just finished meeting with a group when he saw Gao Yang running over with a smile saying that they had discovered an interesting talent. Even Lu Zhaolin said that he was quick-witted and wrote good poems. Gao Yang said: “I listened to the poems he wrote when he was seven. They’re really catchy and I could still remember it.”
Yuanying found it very strange: “Then recite it to me.”
Gao Yang is not happy that she’s being doubted. She loves reading and poetry now!
“Don’t look down on people. I remembered it after listening to it only once!” She recited the <> she had just memorized spontaneously.
When Yuanying heard “Geese, geese, geese”, he thought Gao Yang was just fooling around. But when he heard “White hair floats on green water, red palms stir the clear waves”, he felt that this person was indeed very talented. If he really wrote this at seven, then he is indeed very talented!
“He wrote this poem at seven. How old is he now?”
“How do I know?! But he doesn’t look much older than us, so maybe fourteen or fifteen.”
Yuanying nodded. He is done with work for the day and its boring to stay put so he follwed Gao Yang to the Academy to meet his friends and this genius who can write poetry as a child.
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Little Prince: When it comes to bragging and making big promises, I am the best!
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Update!
A full four thousand words!
Yesterday was the first day of a single update!
Tiantianchun is in a stable mood!
She even watched a concise Chinese history course before going to bed! Study hard and make progress every day! In the long run, Tiantianchun will become a cultured Tiantianchun! (Dreaming)