Li Youyu’s entry into the military camp was settled.
Li Youyu had fair skin and rosy lips, a bright and lovely countenance, and her physique didn’t resemble Li Tai’s at all. She looked more like Li Yuanying’s daughter when standing next to him. Oh, no, they actually looked like siblings. Li Yuanying had a youthful face, seemingly in his early twenties, not looking a day over thirty.
Despite her delicate appearance, Li Youyu had trained in martial arts since childhood, and her natural strength surpassed others. On the training ground, she wasn’t intimidated at all, leading her female soldiers to rout the new recruits who had just been assigned to her command.
Li Yuanying watched his spirited great-niece for a while, growing increasingly proud. He couldn’t wait to boast about her to everyone. Talent didn’t discriminate based on gender. If his great-niece possessed such extraordinary abilities, why couldn’t she serve the country in the military?
Li Yuanying would often sneak out of his work to observe Li Youyu training her soldiers.
Happy days always flew by. Li Youyu finished training her troops and no longer felt content staying in Chang’an. Every time the court engaged in a large or small battle, she actively requested to join the expedition, but unfortunately, she never got the chance. As a consolation, she requested to attend the strategic discussions.
Li Yuanying suggested that she start with logistics and learn the art of marching. As the saying goes, “An army marches on its stomach.” Securing logistics was the foundation of victory. For example, during Zhuge Liang’s Northern Expeditions, a major contributing factor to his failure was the lack of sufficient food supply.
Li Youyu had been unable to secure the opportunity to accompany the army, but after listening to Li Yuanying’s advice, she requested to take charge of logistics and finally got her wish to join the expedition.
Li Tai was worried sick at the thought of Li Youyu leading troops away from Chang’an. “A mother worries when her child goes a thousand miles,” as the saying goes, and a father’s anxieties are no different. It would have been easier if it were a son, but she was his daughter!
The mastermind behind all this, Li Yuanying, had no clue what it was like to be a father. He cheerfully sent his great-niece off on her journey and then secretly went to play with Emperor Li, who had abdicated and become the Taishang Huang (Retired Emperor). Although Wei Zheng had retired with Emperor Li, he couldn’t stand seeing him idle all the time. Whenever Emperor Li tried to have some fun, Wei Zheng would visit him to offer advice.
Emperor Li was suffering. When he was the Emperor, he never cared how the Taishang Huang spent his time. The Taishang Huang was already old, yet he kept having more children. He even had Li Yuanying at the age of sixty-four, essentially forcing Emperor Li to raise his younger brother like a son. Now it was his turn, and suddenly he couldn’t do anything without getting scolded! He considered himself quite well-behaved and had been practicing self-cultivation and maintaining peace of mind.
That’s how Emperor Li got addicted to cockfighting, and he wanted to secretly challenge Li Yuanying.
Li Yuanying was also afraid of being nagged by Wei Zheng, so he snuck his fighting cock into the Cuiwei Palace.
The two brothers, who could have been father and son, quickly got into the game. They stood by their cocks, cheering them on. Li Yuanying’s cock quickly gained the upper hand, flapping its wings and taking to the air, pecking at Emperor Li’s cock until it cried out in pain.
Li Yuanying was incredibly pleased and scorned the poor fighting ability of Emperor Li’s cock. Seeing his smugness, Emperor Li was furious and immediately ordered someone to slaughter Li Yuanying’s cock and feed it to Wei Zheng.
Li Yuanying’s eyes widened in disbelief. He couldn’t believe that Emperor Li, despite his age, was so shameless and resorted to such underhanded tactics. He immediately grabbed his beloved cock and ran. It was outrageous. If he couldn’t take a loss, then he shouldn’t have played! Why was he trying to kill his carefully chosen fighting cock?
After securing his precious cock, Li Yuanying wanted to complain to Li Chengqian, but he was busy. He seemed to be discussing something about criminal law and taxes, which made Li Yuanying’s head spin. He was afraid that Li Chengqian would ask him to listen in and then throw in a casual “What do you think, Yu Shu?” so he quickly scurried to the East Palace to find his great-nephew, Li Xiang, to ask him to rein in the shameless Emperor Li, who was becoming more and more audacious with age.
Li Xiang sighed with helplessness. As a grandson, he couldn’t criticize his grandfather’s behavior. Moreover, everyone was busy these days, even he, the Crown Prince, was assigned many tasks. How could Li Yuanying still be relaxing and cockfighting with the Taishang Huang?
Li Xiang said, “Father has been looking for you these past few days, but he can’t find you. You have time to play cockfighting, but you don’t go see Father when he’s looking for you. Maybe he has something important?”
Li Yuanying would rather hide than show himself, why would he jump into the fire? He found Li Xiang unbearable for even thinking about pushing him into the pit. He said, “I understand that those who are able should work harder, but I’m already working very hard. Your father even wants me to get promoted, is that appropriate? It took me so much effort to train these people, and I’m not going to get promoted.” Li Yuanying also shared his secret to laziness with Li Xiang, “I tell you, don’t be silly and do everything yourself. You can hand things over to the right people. This way, you’ll have one less task and give others an opportunity, isn’t that a win-win?”
Li Xiang had already been indoctrinated by Li Yuanying with this great idea of “knowing and utilizing people’s talents to achieve lazy success,” but he still felt that there was something wrong with Li Yuanying’s behavior of leaving everything to others while he disappeared for days. He tried to reason with Li Yuanying, leaving him feeling awkward and finding an excuse to slip away.
Unable to find anyone to share his criticism of Emperor Li’s shamelessness, Li Yuanying could only wander to the Imperial Academy to wait for Wei Jiu to finish work.
Wei Jiu had been hired by Kong Yingda to be a Doctor of Literature, becoming the first female Doctor at the Imperial Academy. Only in recent years had a few other women followed in her footsteps. Li Yuanying was idly strolling outside the dormitory when he bumped into Kong Yingda, who was still going strong. He cheerfully greeted him, “Old Kong, long time no see!”
Kong Yingda’s temples twitched. “Indeed, long time no see. Your Highness has been absent from court for so long due to illness. Has your health recovered?”
Ever since discovering the secret of faking illness, Li Yuanying had become more and more shameless. He would fall ill on the first and fifteenth of every month, rain or shine. He would fake his illness on schedule, refusing to attend court. He would also use his position as the head of the department to avoid coming to work. If not for the capable people Li Yuanying had trained under him, who were equally skilled in both literature and martial arts, many people would have submitted petitions to Li Chengqian to remove Li Yuanying from his post.
Even now, there were still many memorials impeaching Li Yuanying at every court session. Li Yuanying would either be fined or suspended, but he never really cared. For example, the last time he was suspended, he took a group of princes and grandsons to play in Luoyang. He would write an ode to their happy adventures in the morning and gather intellectuals from Jiangnan to discuss poetry and philosophy in the afternoon. What was the difference between suspension and vacation?
If he were to be dismissed, he could travel all over the country without a care in the world, disappearing for a whole year!
Others could only hold their noses and accept this, allowing Li Yuanying to slack off every day and go wherever he pleased.
Kong Yingda really didn’t want to admit that he had taught Li Yuanying, this shameless fellow.
Li Yuanying didn’t mind Kong Yingda’s scowling face. After all, Kong Yingda had always had that expression ever since they met, from childhood to adulthood. He dragged Kong Yingda to the dormitory to drink tea. While sipping his tea, he sighed, “There’s nothing I can do about it. You don’t know, ever since my three sons were born, I’ve been holding them and comforting them all day, it’s so tiring. Now, whenever it’s the first or fifteenth of the month, my back aches and my legs hurt.”
Kong Yingda had a “You’re full of it, just keep talking” expression.
Li Yuanying thought he was a good student. Even after leaving school for so many years, he still respected his principal deeply and couldn’t bear to see him with a grumpy face. He talked to Kong Yingda about his future plans for the Imperial Academy and discussed with him how to cultivate students who were well-rounded in morality, intellect, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor.
Kong Yingda found merit in his ideas, gradually softening his face as he listened to Li Yuanying’s passionate discussion about his experiences in running academies over the years.
Li Yuanying had traveled to many places over the years. Wherever he went, if there was no library, he would spend money to build one. If there was no academy, he would spend money to build one. He would visit hermits and talents with his wife and children, trying to persuade them to come out of hiding. If they refused, he would simply stay at their houses until they gave in. He would eat and drink at their expense, even try to lure their grandchildren, taking them out to climb trees and steal dates, making everyone dread his arrival and causing them to reluctantly agree to work for the academies he established.
Although Li Yuanying loved to shirk his responsibilities, his judgment of people was top-notch. He had been living an increasingly carefree life precisely because he had delegated all his work to others. Kong Yingda listened to him elaborate on how to identify and utilize people, and although he still thought he was too lazy, he couldn’t help but acknowledge that many of his methods were commendable.
The two, master and disciple, chatted until the sun began to set. Li Yuanying realized it was getting late. He had come to pick up his wife, so how come he had been chatting with this old geezer, Kong Yingda, for so long? Li Yuanying quickly stood up and said, “It’s so late, I should go!” He didn’t give Kong Yingda a chance to stop him, and he left in a flurry.
He didn’t manage to pick up his wife, but he returned to his residence. Wei Jiu had been looking for him, and she asked where he had been.
Li Yuanying recounted his day’s adventures to Wei Jiu, focusing on Emperor Li’s shamelessness, how Li Xiang had become insufferable, and how Kong Yingda was always so mean to him.
Their three sons returned home one after another and heard the whole story. They each had their own opinions. The eldest thought that Li Yuanying shouldn’t have been cockfighting with the Taishang Huang. The second thought that cockfighting was boring, and he was beyond the age of enjoying it. The youngest didn’t think much about it, and simply asked Li Yuanying, “Did you win, Yu Shu?”
Li Yuanying puffed up his chest with pride. “Of course, I won. It made your uncle so angry that he wanted to kill the chicken, he’s so petty!”
The youngest felt that his father was right and nodded in agreement. “Yes, he’s so petty!”
Li Yuanying was overjoyed. Finally, he had someone to join him in criticizing Emperor Li. He began to recount Emperor Li’s shameless deeds over the years with great gusto.
The youngest listened with rapt attention, occasionally asking for more details.
The eldest felt that it wasn’t appropriate for Li Yuanying to criticize the Taishang Huang, but he also wanted to hear more, so he simply listened attentively, pretending that Li Yuanying wasn’t slandering the Taishang Huang.
The second was more direct. He eagerly warmed wine and poured it for Li Yuanying, encouraging him to talk more, clapping and cheering from time to time.
Naturally, Li Yuanying’s words were embellished. He emphasized Emperor Li’s shamelessness, and he would forget about the lies he told as soon as he was done. He didn’t even remember what he had said.
Years later, a book called “Secret History of the Taishang Huang” quietly surfaced, and Emperor Li chased after him, threatening to beat him to death. Only then did Li Yuanying realize he had screwed up.
“Sigh, I didn’t even write the book. Why is my brother chasing after me to beat me?” “People really become more unreasonable as they get older!”
**Author’s Note:**
Little King: Brother is still so shameless (pointing and gesticulating)
Updated early!
I’m begging for some nutrient solution again!
Although Little King has been on the Cultivation List for months, its effectiveness has diminished! But! I still need to actively beg for irrigation!
The main reason is that I’ve noticed that some people on the list are constantly accumulating points every hour, while I stay stagnant. When Little King is about to climb the list, they suddenly surge ahead by thousands and then settle back down. I’ve taken screenshots several times, and it’s always the same pattern. It’s really embarrassing to see not even a single bottle increasing the count. It’s hard to imagine how a novel that didn’t receive any reader irrigation for a whole day could suddenly increase so much. This kind of operation is so familiar! If I hadn’t encountered this in “Playing Song Dynasty,” Sweet Spring wouldn’t have started this shameless campaign to beg for votes! I always thought that no one would pay attention to my historical romance novels!
I won’t delve too deeply into the reasons. Let’s all work together to increase the cost of being on the list!
If you have unused nutrient solution, you can irrigate Little King, or you can irrigate the novel you really like. I hope that this list, which motivates Sweet Spring to diligently update, won’t be discarded by everyone. I still want Cao Xiaochong and Fu Xiaosu to enjoy the benefits of the list in the future =3=
Click the “Irrigate with Nutrient Solution” at the end of the chapter or in the summary to irrigate Little King!
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