LFHYB -Chapter 213 A Positive Cycle of Capital Flow

It was perfectly normal for affairs to be hectic in the early days of founding a state.

After Li Xuanba stopped handling documents due to illness, he distributed all the work he wanted to push forward.

“I’m just arranging things first. You don’t have to finish everything. When I’m back, we’ll do it together.”

It sounded nice, but everyone knew his mischievous nature.

Fang, Ruhui and the others were all very proud of their talents. Since he had already assigned the tasks, how could they possibly leave them untouched and wait for him to return? If they left him anything unfinished, that would already be considerate.

Li Xuanba also had a very “sweet” mouth. While recuperating, he praised whoever came to visit him.

“Even though government affairs are busy, you’re all so capable that it’s fine for me to rest.”

“They’re just trivial matters. The ministers will handle them. I’m not worried.”

“Haha, by the time I recover, I might have nothing left to do.”

That was what he said in front of the court officials.

But in private, when meeting friends, he completely changed his tune.

Seriously? Seriously? You’re this weak? What happened to ‘Fang plans and Du decides’? What happened to the ‘Eighteen Scholars of Prince Qin’? You can’t handle this? Oh, you don’t seem to be recorded much in history… Hey, I’m not mocking you, don’t be angry. You just had bad luck following Wang Shichong… Yes, that Wang Shichong!

Xue Deyin, who always valued his refined image, almost turned into the modern “deconstructed” version of a “gentle scholar.” He even raised his teacup.

But smashing it at Prince Jin was impossible. He could only gulp down the tea and stop talking about taking leave.

Xue Yuanjing, who had originally been good only at paperwork, now buried himself in counting rods every day. He was also learning the “abacus beads” and “double-entry bookkeeping” that Li Xuanba had suddenly promoted while ill, meticulously calculating every bit of the treasury.

Xue Deyin took charge of water conservancy. To avoid being angered to death by Li Xuanba, he had already left the capital and was personally inspecting the rivers and canals of Guanzhong.

Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui, besides their already heavy duties, also took over epidemic prevention and disaster relief.

The frontline logistics that Li Xuanba had originally handled alone were now taken over by his mother and Li Zhiyun.

Li Xuanba had thought that after he fell ill, Li Yuan would try to reclaim power. Unexpectedly, his mother still ate with Li Yuan once every day. Knowing she was busy, Li Yuan never asked about state affairs.

Dou Huiming was puzzled. Why did Li Yuan look so disheartened, as if his heart were already dead?

Li Xuanba clicked his tongue. He hadn’t expected his “spoilers” to hit Li Yuan so hard.

Wasn’t it just that after nine years of ruling, he still wouldn’t be recognized by later generations as a founding emperor?

He said to his mother, “It’s just an empty reputation. To suffer so much over it—Father’s stress tolerance is really poor.”

After learning that Li Xuanba could foresee destiny, Dou Huiming no longer dared ask about the “original timeline.”

Without his foresight, things at home would surely have been more brutal. Perhaps father and sons would truly have faced each other with weapons.

Knowing that his mother liked to silently digest her worries, Li Xuanba used this opportunity to tell her about events in another timeline.

The one who became emperor was still Second Brother.

One more person died in the Xuanwu Gate Incident—the troublemaker Li Yuanji.

He and his mother both died of illness in quick succession.

Xiao Wu was the most pitiful: abandoned by Li Jiancheng in Hedong and killed at fourteen. Their father dismissed it with, “He was too young to keep up on the road, so we had to leave him.”

As for Father, he lived out his old age peacefully. He was merely removed from the imperial temple after death. What was there to be sad about?

After hearing of that world’s tragedy, Dou Huiming felt less sorrow than she had imagined.

Li Yuanji deserved to die. She only hated that he had died too early.

Her love for Li Jiancheng had also mostly faded, leaving only a sigh.

She and Third Son had both died early and never witnessed the chaos. Perhaps that was also a kind of fortune. Only Xiao Wu’s fate broke her heart.

“Be nicer to Xiao Wu,” Dou Huiming said to Li Xuanba.

“He looks miserable every day. Aren’t you being too strict?”

Li Xuanba said seriously, “After becoming Prince of Chu, he refused to read or practice writing anymore.”

Dou Huiming changed her tone. “I’ll have Lady Wan talk to him properly. He’s about to get married—how can he still be so childish and mischievous? When he was young, he loved reading and practicing calligraphy. Now his temperament has gone completely wild.”

Li Xuanba nodded repeatedly. Mother was right.

After cheering his mother up, Li Xuanba went to visit Li Yuan. Once again, he was promptly chased out.

Seeing that his father was in good health—far more energetic than himself, the sickly one—aside from having completely white hair, Li Xuanba felt quite pleased.

He still had feelings for his father. He didn’t want Li Yuan to actually be angered to death by him. If that happened, he’d still have to observe mourning rites.

While Li Xuanba was idling about, Du Ruhui and the others presented their emergency plan for the October earthquake.

“An excess of yin causing abnormality leads to earthquakes.”

“It signals invading enemies and rebellious ministers.”

This was clearly because Li Shimin was originally supposed to ascend the throne last December, but his accession had been delayed until now. Heaven was urging the True Son of Heaven to hurry up and take his rightful place, to stabilize the fate of the realm.

It was all Li Jiancheng’s and the Turks’ fault!

Li Xuanba asked, “What about disaster relief?”

Xue Yuanjing replied, “The state treasury is truly out of money.”

Fang Qiao and the others all looked dejected.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to treat the common people better—using work-for-relief programs to soothe them and repair Chang’an at the same time. But with wars still ongoing, the court was genuinely stretched thin.

If they directly imposed corvée labor, the people—still traumatized by Yang Guang’s forced labor policies—would surely resent it. Moreover, the people of the former Sui had grown used to bearing natural disasters on their own. The less the government intervened, the fewer mistakes it made.

“Waive one year of corvée labor and taxes for the affected regions,” Fang Qiao said. “That’s the limit of what we can do.”

After learning the court’s bottom line, Li Xuanba said, “Chang’an’s drainage system needs to be repaired. Otherwise, in two or three generations it will end up like the old Chang’an. I’ve brought over descendants of Yuwen Kai, the original city’s architect, from Shuofang Commandery. They’ll handle the repairs. I’ll find a way to fund the work-for-relief program.”

Du Ruhui asked, “Are you going back into business again?”

Li Xuanba laughed. “I put on a big show for them in winter, then attended several poetry gatherings despite being busy. They’re still drooling over tea and glass, and the soap shop is reopening too. I’ll do business in my sisters’ names. Then I, Fifth Brother, and my sisters will donate our family assets for relief. If we donate first, the noble and aristocratic families won’t dare contribute nothing.”

First, he would use rare goods to earn money from the powerful families.

Then he would donate that money, forcing them to donate as well.

That was Li Xuanba’s plan.

Xue Yuanjing muttered, “In the end, it still falls to Prince of Jin to step in.”

Li Xuanba said, “I’m the regent prince. If I don’t step in for something this big, my second brother will come back and scold me.”

Xue Yuanjing laughed. “True enough.”

With Li Xuanba backing them up, everyone felt much more at ease.

Li Xuanba sent several large boxes of “treasures” to Li Shimin, Changsun Kangning, and Yuwen Zhu, asking them to help promote his upcoming limited-edition artificial curios.

He even specially decorated a ceremonial robe with cloud patterns using multi-faceted glass and sent it to his second brother.

The art of polishing gemstones had existed in China since the Stone Age. But due to cultural preferences—“roundness” being a traditional philosophical ideal—people preferred shaping gems into beads.

Li Xuanba didn’t make beads. He ground glass into faceted shapes instead. Technically, there was no problem. Both bead-turning and faceting were manual crafts. Once skilled, the workload wasn’t much heavier. It was just that angular gems didn’t fit traditional jewelers’ aesthetic tastes.

Changsun Kangning and Yuwen Zhu also disliked overly flashy and luxurious jewelry, let alone wearing such glittering things. So Li Xuanba only gave them glass beads.

Under Empress Dou’s leadership, the palace consorts were also quite frugal. The glass beads Li Xuanba gave his mother were all used as rewards for others. Consort Wan preferred seasonal fresh flowers in her hair and disdained gemstones.

However, to support Li Xuanba, Dou Huiming and Consort Wan planned to replace the palace’s gemstone expenses with glass, helping him make money.

Li Xuanba was racking his brains trying to refuse.

When Li Shimin arrived at Luoyang, the clothes Li Xuanba had sent happened to arrive as well.

As for Liu Wuzhou, Li Shimin did not personally take action this time. He sent Pei Xingyan and Changsun Wuji to attack with Liu Wuzhou’s surrendered generals and the captured Xieli Khagan, while he himself headed for Luoyang first.

Liu Wuzhou was merely a bandit occupying one commandery. There was no need for Li Shimin to go personally.

Gao Jiong had already written urging him to hurry. If Li Shimin didn’t come soon, Gao wouldn’t be able to hold back those in Luoyang who wanted to surrender.

Dozens of miles outside Luoyang, Li Shimin deliberately bathed and washed his hair, changed into the sparkling clothes Li Xuanba had sent, and only then went to meet Gao Jiong.

This time, he chose a dark bluish-black horse, so that he himself would look even more dazzling on horseback.

When the scouts reported that Li Shimin’s army was approaching, Gao Jiong, who had been dozing in his carriage, finally got down to greet them.

Then he saw a glittering figure galloping toward him, shouting loudly:

“Teacher Gao, sorry to keep you waiting! Look, do my clothes look good? A-Xuan specially made them for me!”

“Lord Gao! Stop! That’s the Crown Prince!” the guards cried, grabbing Gao Jiong as he reached for his sword.

“Second Young Master Li is always like this. Haven’t you gotten used to it yet?” Pei Renji said with a headache.

“And what strange things has Dade prepared for him this time? Don’t tell me Shoujing has been corrupted too?”

Pei Renji did not want a glittering son. It was bad for the eyes.

Before the horse had fully stopped, Li Shimin, confident in his skills, leaped down, rushed up to Gao Jiong, and said: “Teacher Gao, my clothes look good, right?”

Gao Jiong examined Li Shimin’s outfit, and his expression eased slightly.

Fortunately, Dade hadn’t gone too far this time. Up close, the clothes looked fairly normal.

Li Xuanba wasn’t trying to make his brother look ridiculous. The scattered glass pieces formed cloud-and-radiance patterns, and from nearby they even seemed somewhat elegant. It was only under strong sunlight, from afar, that they were a bit blinding.

“Not bad.” As soon as Gao Jiong saw Li Shimin’s clothes, he knew that Li Xuanba was about to start selling glass again.

Li Xuanba had once told him about glass. Glass was a kind of semi-transparent, crystal-like ceramic. Taking advantage of the fact that others didn’t understand it, Li Xuanba sold these unfinished “ceramic fragments” as gemstones, gently extracting money and supplies from powerful nobles and wealthy families to make up for the economic decline in the early days of the Tang Dynasty.

Making money was only the first step. Li Xuanba then kept making high-profile “donations” of the money he earned, forcing the nobles and powerful families to donate as well. This was what this “good disciple” called a “virtuous cycle.”