My older brother said I'm invincible.

Chapter 83 Officially Taking Office
Although Zhao Yuanshu despised Li Yuan's idea, he could understand it.

Being a Qianniu Beishen is a very good job. Serving as a bodyguard by the emperor's side, after a few years, one can be transferred to a prefecture in a remote area, or stay in the capital to become a Gentleman of the Palace. Even the most powerful and noble families would try every means to get their own sons into this position.

So far, only sons of noble families from the Guanzhong Plain have been appointed to these positions; outsiders shouldn't even dream of it.

Moreover, Li Yuan had indeed given her a considerable amount of money, so Zhao Yuanshu readily agreed.

"Since you are so valiant and have made such great contributions, I will certainly inform you."

Zhao Yuanshu is a person of good reputation; he really does things once he's paid.

Li Yuan drank with him again until night, when both of them were completely drunk. Only then did Li Yuan send someone to arrange for Zhao Yuanshu to rest. This time, he finally didn't kick her out.

After Zhao Yuanshu left, Li Yuan washed his face, ate some hot soup, and sobered up.

With his two sons serving him on either side, Li Yuan looked at them, slightly tipsy, and sat on the throne, suddenly bursting into laughter.

"Manager Liu! Get some money!"

Manager Liu was not surprised by this and quickly did as he was told. Li Yuan gave each of them a bag of money, which was quite heavy. Li Xuanba had no idea how much money was inside.

"Take it and spend it. Don't let people look down on you. You've all grown up now, and there are many things you need to spend money on."

When I was your age...

When Li Yuan started talking about the past, Li Xuanba and Li Jiancheng were not surprised, as this was their father's usual practice.

Whenever he got drunk, he liked to lecture his sons and give them money, and he always gave them a lot. As a result, the children were willing to listen to his lectures.

Li Yuan held his two sons' hands, enjoying the cool evening breeze, and spoke of many principles.

He reminisced about his youth, and even said things he shouldn't have said.

"Back then, your maternal grandfather was very fond of martial arts. He painted two peacocks on the screen and said that if he stood a hundred paces away and shot two arrows into the eyes of one peacock, he could marry your mother. When I heard about this, I went to see."

"Many noblemen shot many arrows, probably several hundred in total, but not a single one hit the target!"

"I couldn't stand it anymore. Confident in my archery skills, I yelled at everyone to disperse, grabbed my bow and arrow, and fired two shots. Hey, both hit! They both went right into the peacock's eyes!"

"Your maternal grandfather sent people to stop me, telling me to marry your mother, but I refused. At that time, I was so handsome that countless men in the world wanted to marry me. Later, when I met your mother, she took a liking to me at first sight. She cried and begged to marry me, saying that if I didn't marry her, she would jump into a river. I thought I couldn't take someone's life, so I simply married her."

Li Xuanba was dumbfounded, while Li Jiancheng looked helpless.

Fortunately, before he could say anything more outrageous, Li Yuan fell asleep and slept soundly.

Li Jiancheng had someone bring his grandfather into the bedroom, while he himself came out with Xuanba.

"Brother, what Father just said..."

"Just listen to him and don't believe him. He only said that because his mother isn't here."

"I was referring to the Qianniu personal guard."

"Oh, you mean that matter? Don't worry, it was just something Zhao Yuanshu mentioned casually. There might be opportunities in the future, but you're still too young now. Just focus on practicing martial arts."

As Li Jiancheng spoke, he suddenly laughed again, "In retrospect, you've done a truly great thing."

"what?"

Li Jiancheng led Li Xuanba back to their residence. In the dim light, the two brothers walked slowly. Li Jiancheng felt comfortable and looked up, smiling as he said, "Look, Grandpa is in a very good mood today. He usually pretends to be drunk when drinking with outsiders and doesn't drink much, but he drank so much today."

"Your grandfather was also feeling aggrieved before."

"There are so many messy things in Xingyang, but he can't manage any of them, and he doesn't dare to do anything."

"I'm afraid something might go wrong with the Sage."

"That's good, now we can focus on our work." "Also, I'm going to listen to you and present the blueprints for those farm tools to the Sage."

Li Jiancheng hesitated for a moment before saying, "I wanted to promote it earlier, but my father said he was afraid it would arouse suspicion. It's just a newly made thing, and there's no sign of who made it. I was still angry, but thinking about it, the sage is unreasonable, and my father's caution is justified."

“After you said that you would present it to the sage that day, I thought about it, consulted a few of my retainers, and finally talked to my father as well.”

"The things I made are quite useful. If we keep them to ourselves, they might come in very handy someday, to win over the people and to widen the gap with others. But you are right, the people of the world suffer so much."

"It's always a good thing if we can save more lives."

"However, this matter can no longer be handled through Zhao Yuanshu. I plan to have Wei Ting help with it; his family has connections in the court, so it will be easier for them to get things done."

The two brothers chatted all the way, and Li Jiancheng finally escorted Li Xuanba to the gate of his courtyard.

Li Jiancheng patted his younger brother's head and said, "Starting tomorrow, you can go about your business with peace of mind and do what you want to do. Don't be afraid of causing trouble. Your grandfather and I are here and will be watching. Just go ahead and do it."

Looking at his elder brother's face, Li Xuanba lowered his head. He was extremely conflicted. He really wanted to tell his elder brother about what happened in Qingzao Village.

But he didn't know how to say it.

Before Li Xuanba could make a decision, Li Jiancheng had already turned and left.

The next day.

The Li residence became noisy again, with everyone busy with their own tasks.

Li Xuanba also left home early in the morning.

Liu Chounu drove the carriage, while Sanshi sat inside. Li Xuanba didn't want to bring her along, but Duan Niang insisted that she come along. This was probably because Li Xuanba had been going out more and more often recently, and each time he would get his clothes dirty and messy. Last time he came back, his clothes were covered in blood, which scared Duan Niang so much that she turned pale and cried for a long time while holding Li Xuanba.

Duan Niang was arranged by Li Xuanba's mother. Li Yuan and Lady Dou had a clear division of labor: Li Yuan was in charge of external affairs, and Lady Dou was in charge of internal affairs.

With Madam Dou not present at the moment, she had instructed Duan Niang to take care of Li Xuanba before leaving. Therefore, if Li Xuanba disobeyed, Duan Niang could even lock him in the room, and Li Yuan would probably find it difficult to intervene.

Duan Niang then instructed San Shi to follow Li Xuanba and keep an eye on him. Upon their return, San Shi was to report back to Li Xuanba, which was a form of surveillance to prevent Li Xuanba from doing anything too outrageous.

Even while sitting in the car, Li Xuanba was always reading a book.

After entering the manor, this was the first time that San Shi had gone out with Li Xuanba. She seemed quite happy, pointing and talking about her great achievements.

“I’ve been to several of those prefectures to steal their trash. They have so many good things there. The trash they throw away at once is enough for us to eat for three days. But then they started keeping dogs. Whenever we got close, they would set the dogs on us and bite us. They wouldn’t let us pick it up. Even though they didn’t want it anymore, they still wouldn’t give it to us.”

"You know there's a well over there? They charge you three hundred coins to get water from it!"

Once outside the city, she started shouting again, as she was very familiar with the area outside.

Although Li Xuanba had read many books, he was not very knowledgeable about some folk affairs, so he asked Sanshi for advice.

"The village chief is nothing. I've even robbed from his house. They're all very poor, there's nothing to take from them. Rich people don't live in the countryside; the rich people in the countryside have all moved to the city. You can't steal anything in the countryside, there's nothing to eat."

San Shi's views are quite one-sided. Her judgment of many people in the public is divided into those who are rich and those who are poor, those who dare not kill and those who dare to kill, and those who can steal and those who cannot steal.

For Li Xuanba, this was a fresh perspective on the world.

The two of them strolled leisurely to the large farm, where Zhang Du and the others hurriedly came out to greet them.

Li Xuanba got out of the car and was surprised to see Zhang Du and the others who came to greet him.

These people had all changed into uniform clothing, and the knights now had real weapons, no longer using hunting bows and machetes as substitutes.

"Master, we've changed into the clothes you sent!"

"I've already distributed the weapons and horses temporarily. I've kept the account books, and the military pay hasn't been touched. I'm just waiting for the regimental commander to come."

(End of this chapter)