Traveling through Du He, Li Chengqian's rebellion begins

While Li Tai, Yin Yuhe and others were plotting something big, the city of Chang'an remained peaceful.

As more and more people had free time, more and more people talked about Li Tai and the poetry meeting.

Rich people went to teahouses, pubs and other places to drink, listen to books and chat, while poor people sat in groups of three or five under big trees and chatted about gossip.

Du He also lives a super regular life.

In addition to compiling poems every day, he would go to the East Palace to learn military tactics from Li Jing, and occasionally he would wear armor and practice riding.

It was his daughter-in-law Li Yi who strongly requested that Du He learn horse riding.

She said that if the army was defeated, good riding skills could help them escape from the battlefield.

Du He also felt that what his wife said made sense, so he practiced riding more seriously than learning military tactics.

Li Chengqian thought that Du He was also going to fight on horseback, so he persuaded Du He to stay in the central army for safety.

But when he found out the reason, he was petrified.

The number one military strategist practiced horse riding and actually thought about escaping after being defeated.

Can this be tolerated?

As a prince, he couldn't stand it at all.

So Li Chengqian also joined the ranks of those practicing horse riding, riding his carefully selected Arabian horse every day, and galloping back and forth with Du He in the open space of the East Palace.

He has difficulty walking to begin with, and if he doesn't improve his riding skills, he won't be able to escape defeat.

That day, after leaving court, Du He went to the Secretariat to work as usual.

Yan Shigu came to Du He's office with a list of selected poems and said with a puzzled look on his face.

"Du Shaojian, after several rounds of screening, 278 poems have been selected."

"But there are two poems that are quite controversial."

Du He stood up, took the list of poems handed over by Yan Shigu, and asked in confusion: "Master Yan, which two poems are controversial?"

As he spoke, he lowered his head and looked through the list of poems in his hand.

Yan Shigu said in a deep voice: "They are the two poems, "Recovering the Old Land for Your Majesty" written by the imperial son-in-law Fang Yiai, and "Visiting the Hibiscus Garden" written by the supervisory censor Cui Shenji."

"After discussion between officials from the Secretariat and scholars from the Chongwen Academy, they believed that there were no less than a thousand poems that were better than these two."

"Both of these poems are of Grade C quality. It would be ridiculous to rate them lower than Grade B."

Thinking of the poems written by Fang Yiai and Cui Shenji, Du He couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth.

He thought for a moment and said, "Master Yan, please put these two poems in. I will go to Fang Yiai to ask for some fees for the selection."

"Everyone has worked so hard for so long, I should treat everyone to a nice drink as a reward, this money will come in handy."

Yan Shigu's troubled face instantly turned into a smiling one.

"Master Du, thank you for your help."

"After nearly ten days of hard work, these people are almost tired of it."

"Everyone must be very happy to have a good drink."

Although this move is unworthy of the literary style, its impact is not great.

Because the remaining poems are all at Grade C level, and it would be difficult for them to choose two more poems.

Instead of this, it would be better to do the same as the Ministry of Rites and give these two young masters some face.

Now that Du Shaojian can get benefits for them, the whole family is very happy.

Du He smiled and said, "Sir Yan, now that the poems have been selected, please spend more time on the annotations of the subsequent poems."

Yan Shigu smiled and stroked his beard and said, "Don't worry, Du Shaojian, I have already made an agreement with my good friends Wang Ji, Hanshan, Chu Liang and Shangguan Yi. Now everyone is waiting to write annotations for the poems."

"It will take only a few days for the six of us to write annotations for 300 poems."

This group of literati likes to write annotations for ancient books and poems the most.

This is an important means of leaving a name for eternity.

Many great scholars themselves did not have any works handed down from generation to generation, but they are remembered by later generations because of their annotations.

Du He clasped his fists towards Yan Shigu and said, "I'll trouble you, Lord Yan, to annotate the poems. I'll go to Fang Yiai now to ask for the fees for the poems to be included in the anthology."

"Master Du, you have worked hard. Just come over tomorrow when you are done with your work."

Yan Shigu stood on tiptoe and shouted loudly towards Du He's back.

Only Yan Shigu would let his subordinates slack off openly.

And Du He did not look back, but raised his hands

When Du He walked into Taifu Temple, a group of fat and big-eared officials of Taifu Temple all looked at him curiously.

They all knew that Fang Yiai and Du He, the two princes-in-law, had conflicts, and they were curious about what Du He was doing here.

"The Taifu Temple is indeed a wealthy department. Everyone is so well-fed and well-fed. I don't know how much money they have embezzled!"

Du He complained in his heart.

The officials in the Secretariat are all skinny and skinny, and it seems that there is not much money to be made in the department.

"Prince Du."

"Master Du."

Some smart officials also greeted Du He respectfully when they met him.

Du He asked the middle-aged man with a big nose, "Which office is your Fang Shaoqing in?"

"Prince Consort Du, Lord Fang is in the innermost office. Just keep going straight ahead."

The middle-aged man with a big nose was flattered and pointed the way.

"Thank you."

Du He said with a smile, and followed the path he pointed to, and came to the largest office in Taifu Temple.

When I walked to the door, I saw Fang Yiai dozing off on the desk.

"Hey, Fang Lao Er, are you slacking off during your shift?"

Fang Yiai was having a tryst with Gunali in his sleep when he suddenly heard an extremely annoying voice and opened his eyes abruptly.

Du He, with a smile on his face, walked into his office in a familiar manner.

"Du He, what are you doing in my territory?"

"You are not welcome here, get out!"

Fang Yiai frowned and ordered them to leave.

He has been very uneasy these days, not knowing how Gao Yang would retaliate against him, which has made him unable to sleep well at night.

I finally caught up on some sleep and even saw Gunali in my dream, but I didn't expect Du He to ruin my dream.

My already depressed mood got even worse now.

Du He shook his head and said, "Fang Lao Er, I came here today because I wanted to have one of your poems selected into a poetry collection to make you famous."

"Since you are so rude, forget it."

After saying that, Du He turned around and was about to leave.

Fang Yiai raised his eyebrows, and he quickly stood up and shouted, "Du He, wait a minute!"

After saying that, he rushed out and blocked Du He.

"Du He, can my poem be selected into the poetry collection?"

There was a hint of anticipation on Fang Yiai's face.

Du He smiled and said, "There is still a chance. It depends on whether you are sincere."

Fang Yiai knew what Du He meant. He just wanted to get some benefits.

So he asked directly: "How much do you want?"

Du He glanced at him and said, "Fang Lao Er, it's not that I want any benefit from you. The selection of poems is up to the Secretariat and hundreds of scholars at the Chongwen Academy."

"They have worked so hard for so many days to select poems. Even if they have no credit, they have worked hard."

Fang Yiai felt unhappy when he heard that Du He wanted to ask for a huge amount of money, but it was also a great benefit for him that his poems could be selected into the collection of poems.

So he asked tentatively: "Du He, I personally donate 10 taels of silver to the Secretariat and Chongwenguan respectively, what do you think?"

puff...

Du He almost burst out laughing.

The second son of the Fang family is really a stingy person.

Du He waved his hand at him and said, "Fang Lao Er, goodbye. I'm going to go talk to the other princes-in-law."

Seeing Du He was about to leave, Fang Yiai gritted his teeth and said, "100 taels of silver for each department! Du He, this is my bottom line!"

If other princes-in-law had this opportunity, they would definitely pay without hesitation.

Du He pretended to be reluctant and said, "Okay, then it's decided."

After saying that, he left without looking back.

Fang Yiai looked at Du He's leaving figure and felt vaguely that something was wrong.

Du He would not come to him just for a mere two hundred taels of silver.

Could it be that he is still harboring bad intentions?