Tang Dynasty: Father, if you don't rebel, I will!

"Hahaha! Your Highness... come and see what I brought back for you!"

Upon seeing Li Chengqian appear, Cheng Yaojin waved excitedly at him.

"That beast almost wiped out the guards of a small ranch; dozens of men were chased by him, he was incredibly fierce..."

Cheng Yaojin said.

Meanwhile, his fan-like hand was slapping loudly on the brown bear's round head.

however.

The brown bear he described as extremely fierce, however, lowered its head and obediently lay on the ground in the face of such behavior.

Don't dare to move.

Beside Li Chengqian, the two eunuchs, Wang De and Sun Yi, who had followed him, were trembling.

Their already pale faces were now completely bloodless. Despite being terrified, they still spread their arms to shield Li Chengqian.

"Your Highness, Your Highness, you...you should step back a bit, in case..."

Wang De hadn't even finished speaking his trembling words.

Suddenly, a figure appeared before them, and it was none other than the back of the current Crown Prince, Li Chengqian.

"Your Highness!!!" Sun Yi cried out in a sharp, panicked voice, as if his mother had died.

The sudden commotion seemed to startle the large man in front of Li Chengqian.

The body, which was originally lying on the ground, suddenly tried to stand up.

As one of the world's top predators, the Siberian brown bear, even when not standing upright, is almost as tall as an adult human.

however.

"boom!"

A golden dragon-patterned boot suddenly exploded, making a sound like a watermelon being crushed.

Suddenly, in the instant before the latter's body had fully stood up.

He stomped hard on the guy's head.

It felt like Mount Tai was pressing down on you.

With just one foot, the power that Li Chengqian unleashed caused the brown bear, whose head had just been raised a moment ago, to fall as if it had been struck by a meteorite.

Hit the ground hard.

"Ouch!"

The brown bear howled, struggling to move its body and raise its claws in retaliation.

However, a cold glint flashed in Li Chengqian's eyes.

Since the Xuanwu Gate Incident and the destruction of the Eastern Turks, he has hardly fought, but he has never stopped his daily medicinal baths and rigorous training. Suddenly, the foot he had just stomped down on suddenly lifted up again.

"boom!"

Another powerful smash.

"Bang bang bang..."

The mournful cries of brown bears echoed from the gates of Yangcheng Palace.

However......

"Bang bang bang..."

Cheng Yaojin was initially startled by the sudden outburst of this beast who attempted to attack Crown Prince Li Chengqian.

Now look at that brown bear, which looks like it's eaten a dragon fruit.

Then look at His Highness raising his foot as if chopping dumpling filling, and smashing it hard on the beast's head.

One side of his face showed an excited, perverted grin.

Cheng Yaojin: "......."

I hope His Highness the Crown Prince wasn't frightened just now.

He sent over something like this today; hopefully His Highness the Crown Prince won't hold a grudge.

His two sons, who are still officers in the Dengzhou Navy, probably didn't fall into the sea and become fish food because of some storm at sea...

For a moment, the only sound at the palace gate was the resounding thud of Li Chengqian's kicks repeatedly striking the brown bear's head.

Gradually, even the brown bear stopped howling.

Blood stained the hair on his head, and he lay limply on the ground.

like a statue.

"Not bad, he's tough and resilient..."

Watching Li Chengqian gently rub his blood-stained boots on the ground.

He offered a fair assessment with a calm and collected demeanor.

The initially astonished crowd quickly came to their senses.

"Thump, thump..."

"Your Highness! This servant deserves to die!" Sun Yi kowtowed in terror.

If it weren't for his loud shout, this beast wouldn't have been startled.

however.

Cheng Yaojin, who had been all excited just moments before, now had a dark face covered in cold sweat.

He was about to kneel down and beg for forgiveness when Li Chengqian helped him up.

"Alright, although Duke Lu's actions today were indeed somewhat rash, it's nothing serious. This beast is indeed not in any danger."

Everyone: "..."

Li Chengqian waved his hand, signaling the people kneeling on the ground to stand up.

He glanced at the big guy lying on the ground, who had been given a dragon fruit meal by the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty.

"Take him down and see if he can be saved. If he can't be saved, then inform the imperial kitchen to come up with a new way to cook bear paws..." He suddenly seemed to have thought of something.

He turned to look at Duke Lu, Cheng Yaojin, who was standing to the side.

"Duke Lu must have brought more than just this one back with him, right? If there are any extras, it would be good for my mother and the others to taste the flavor of Siberian bear paws."

Cheng Yaojin did not understand what the prince meant by "Siberia".

But when asked the question, he quickly nodded.

"I brought back quite a lot of wild game from the Beihai area this time, including three of these kinds of animals."

Li Chengqian nodded: "Three heads, that's perfect. Send one to the Imperial Kitchen at Yangcheng Palace, another to Chang'an, and as for the one left behind..."

Li Chengqian thought about it and realized that he no longer had a suitable opponent for his morning exercises.

Xue Wanche is now terrified of being beaten. Unless he comes back to report on his duties, he stays in the Tuyuhun concession area to train the stationed troops.

"The remaining one, I will send it to my training ground and raise it there."

Cheng Yaojin opened his mouth as he watched "Erhan" being chained up, bound hand and foot, and pushed into a cage to be carried away.

I originally intended to give this more obedient one to His Highness as a pet.

Unexpectedly... this wild and untamed fellow turned into game on the spot...

Fortunately, it did not alarm His Highness the Crown Prince.

Even after Cheng Yaojin sat down in the Shougong Hall, he still looked shaken.

He looked anxious and wanted to get up and apologize.

Li Chengqian simply waved his hand, avoiding the topic.

"Tell me about what's happening in Baikal. You must have already met Wei Zheng, who has taken up his post, right?"

Cheng Yaojin bowed gratefully, then took a deep breath and returned to his usual animated expression.

"Your Highness, you're simply amazing! You have no idea, we were all guessing over there who you would send to govern the area, and after all that guessing, no one expected you to send that stinking stone, Wei Zheng, to the latrine..."

Li Chengqian frowned slightly: "What? Is Wei Zheng incompetent in governing?"

Cheng Yaojin shook his head and waved his hands repeatedly, his eyes filled with surprise and admiration.

He gave Li Chengqian a thumbs up.

"Your Highness, you don't know, when we first saw Wei Zheng, we all thought he was going to cause some trouble. After all, that old man has always been the one who causes us the most trouble."

"And guess what happened?"

"That old rascal is like a completely different person. Despite his advanced age, he's as energetic as a young soldier..."

"Lord Wei, how about we call it a day... Ha~"

In Baikal County, Chai Shao stared with dead fish eyes.

Taiyuan Prefecture, with the year-end approaching, was still frighteningly cold.

The land of Beihai can only be described as a place where you can freeze to death as soon as you step outside.

Outside the door was a howling blizzard.

Chai Shao yawned wearily, only to be greeted by a small bottle casually handed to him by Wei Zheng.

"Here, some medicated oil. Apply it to refresh yourself. I specifically asked for a lot of it from the medical school when I came from Taiyuan Prefecture this time..."

Chai Shao: "......."

While speaking and handing things over, Wei Zheng didn't even glance up at his dark circles under his eyes, continuing to look down at the city's recent inventory of supplies.

At this moment, Chai Shao almost gritted his teeth to pieces.

He took a deep breath.

"Lord Wei, what I mean is, we should rest now. Let's deal with whatever else needs to be done tomorrow."

This time.

Wei Zheng did indeed raise his head; however, his gaze, filled with shock, incomprehension, doubt, suspicion, and disdain, made Chai Shao and the several exhausted officials around him afraid to meet his eyes.

"Duke Huo, you're already complaining of being tired after handling so little official business. Do you know how much His Highness the Crown Prince has to deal with every day?"

Wei Zheng stood up, draped a bearskin coat over his shoulders, and wore a deerskin hat on his head.

He didn't look like an official of the Tang Dynasty.

He looked more like a bandit leader who had fallen from grace.

He glared at Chai Shao with eyes that seemed to doubt his loyalty to the Tang Dynasty, and walked up to him.

He reached out and patted the document that was already half a meter tall in front of the other person.

"We are only dealing with the affairs of one city now. The Crown Prince has to deal with hundreds and thousands of cities, as well as countless villages and towns, encompassed by the new reforms every day!"

"You're complaining about this little bit of work... Duke Huo, you dare call yourself a soldier?!"

Chai Shao: "......."

He gritted his teeth, looking at Wei Zheng who showed no signs of fatigue at all.

I wanted to refute such filthy insults, but then I looked at the other person's desk and the work at their feet that had already been completed—three or four times more work than he had done.

He opened his mouth, but in the end, he didn't know how to retort.

For a moment, he felt even more resentful towards Cheng Yaojin, who had gotten him drunk and taken him back to report on his duties.

Old man!

I'll be waiting for you to come back next time, and see how I deal with you!

On the Tang side, they listened to Cheng Yaojin's description of Baikal County.

I heard that a large and sizable industrial area has been built there, and meat processing plants and other industries have been officially and on a large scale.

The Baikal Production and Construction Corps is also operating smoothly in all aspects.

The local Uyghurs and Turks never dared to bare their teeth at the Tang Dynasty.

Li Chengqian nodded in satisfaction.

"Duke Lu, you've just returned and haven't seen the trains of our Great Tang yet. With trains, the logistical pressure in Baikal County will be greatly reduced. Although it's very difficult to build railways in the permafrost region, it will save a lot of time on the transportation lines of Hedong Road and Zhenbei Road."

"I know there are many difficulties over there, but I still hope that you, Duke, can exercise restraint..."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Yaojin's expression stiffened slightly.

To be honest, he really didn't want to go back to that awful place, but...

Just as he was about to consider speaking up to see if he could discuss staying in Taiyuan or going to Chang'an.

"Woo~ Awooo wooo wooo~ woo~"

A series of dense, wolf-like howls suddenly came from one direction within Yangcheng Palace.

Princess Gao Yang and the other little princesses stared blankly at the dozen or so creatures in front of them, black and white with a mix of handsome and comical features.

Hearing their howls echoing to the sky, he turned in astonishment to look at the retainers of the Duke of Lu's mansion standing to the side.

"Are you sure this is a dog? Not a wolf?"