News about the banquet spread and soon countless people flocked to the restaurant. Some came to congratulate, some to share the good fortune, and some just for the free food.

Yuanying was generous and fed everyone with plenty of good wine and food. The group also made an appearance in light blue court attire to show off their newly attained  Jinshi title.

Most people look pay attention to physical appearances. Seeing that the group was good looking with extraordinary demeanor, the crowd believes that they deserve their ranks and congratulated them sincerely.

While Li Yuanying and his friends were showing off outside, His Majesty was bombarded by court officials in the Palace.

Okay, fine that you choose your brother as the Jinshi, fine too that your daughter is taking the exam. But why did you choose a woman to top the list? Who else will be willing to take the Jinshi exam in the future?!

Those who get promoted halfway are unreliable. It’s fine to mess in private, but how can you treat court affairs as a joke! Numerous old ministers with big tempers even handed in their resignations angrily, saying that they couldn’t stay in this court any longer!

Fang Xuanling received many letters from people begging for their bones to be buried. He became overwhelmed and hurried to the Emperor.

Li Er was holding his breath. Seeing the group blackmailing him with resignation, he became angry: “If they want to retire, let them go home. Just the right timing to make room for capable young people!”

Fang Xuanling was silent but he conveyed the Emperor’s message to the group.  The Emperor has already selected several batches of talents through the imperial examinations. There is really no shortage of manpower. His majesty is no longer desperate like when he first took the throne where many had to do the work of two people!

What more, this batch got their results from sheer hard work.

….……

Yuanying played for half a day and then visited Xiao Deyan in the afternoon. He wanted to let teacher know that he has passed the  imperial examination.

Xiao Deyan found out long ago. With the commotion Li Yunaying had created, anyone in Chang’an who is not blind or deaf will already know. The old man just smiled and congratulated the boy.

They chatted for a while, before Yuanying was told that His Majesty was attacked the whole day and was feeling miserable. He hurriedly said goodbye, intending to send warmth to his royal brother! Alas, he was happy, but his royal brother suffered!

Yuanying ran to His Majesty to show concern. He told him to ignore the nonsense and if they had better ability, they could proof it by writing an article better than Mei Niang! After attempting to comfort the Emperor, he asked tentatively: “Brother, when I return from Taiyuan, will you let me go to my fiefdom?”

Li Er had been listening to Yuanying’s chatter without paying much attention. Hearing the question, he looked at him.

Li Er’s expression showed no joy or anger, and Li Yuanying was nervous.

“When I go to the fiefdom, I will write to my brother from time to time! If you allow me to visit, I will do so every year!” Yuanying tried his best to persuade Li Er, “Didn’t I promise to build you a road to Mount Tai? I will explore first, and I will definitely find a way to do it!”

“Okay.”

Yuanying was happy and took the opportunity to ask a more aggressive question: “Then when can I visit Wencheng?”

 “Wait until Tang Empire has achieved good relations with its neighbors like what you predicted?”

You must have awareness when taking action behind the scenes. Not everyone is a fool and is blinded to your intentions. Previously, Emperor Yang of Sui also did something similar but was too clumsy and was killed.

The Emperor was confident that others would be well received by the Tibetan Empire but not Li Yuanying. Since he has already planned something and took much action in the dark, what if Songtsen Gampo and Lu Dongzan find something fishy and kills his younger brother?

Seeing that there was no room for negotiation, Yuanying kept his silence about the topic. He took a few more jabs at people who offended the Emperor before running away.

Yuanying was overjoyed that 2 out of 3 items were approved. He will be visiting Taiyuan and then moving to his own vassal state.

It was a pity Chengyang could not follow him.

Chengyang’s wedding was already scheduled to be after the announcement of Spring Examination result.

Many would returned home in glory after passing their exam and find good marriage prospects. The court was humane and purposely keep some time gap for candidates to enjoy these major joys in life.

Chengyang’s wedding will happen during this time.

It is easy for Royalty to get married and everything will be taken care off. All they had to do was turn up at the wedding, this was exactly how Li Zhi got married to Wang. Chengyang had no worry and instead focused her attention to studying.

If Li Yuanying is the first Jinshi prince then Chengyang  is the first Jinshi princess in Tang.

Compared with the complicated feelings towards Wu Mei,  people admired Cheng Yang and was envious of Du He, the future consort. Not every princess is as gentle and  as talented as Cheng Yang.

On her wedding day, Li Yuanying the youngest uncle served as escort and personally sent her to the groom.

At the Princess’s mansion, Yuanying found an opportunity to convince Du He to follow him to visit his fiefdom.

Du He works at the East Palace and since he is now the Crown Prince’s brother-in-law, he has a bright future ahead. However, Yuanying thinks that man should have more ambition and that it was meaningless to stay put at the East Palace.  

Although he can’t compare with the Crown Prince but the world is big and they can act freely and happily outside. That way, Cheng Yang’s Jinshi title will not go to waste!

Let me get permission from big brother to build a big ship, then we can all go to sea together!

Du He is young and was naturally influenced by Yuanying’s speech. He seeks Chengqian’s opinion and the Crown Prince told him to follow Li Yuanying because he isn’t able to anything more for young uncle.

Chengqian assured Du He that if he wants to come back in the future, the East Palace will always welcome him.

That is how Li Yuanying successfully lured Du He onto his pirate ship.

Yuanying has been secretly recruiting people and his list kept getting longer to the point that he had to cross out several candidates with difficulty. He resisted the urge to recruit  more talents and shamelessly went to big brother to help with the formal procedures.

When the Emperor saw the list, veins on his forehead jumped.

“I’ve asked for their opinions before writing this. Everyone has agreed.”

He came close to Li Er and whispered: “Brother, aren’t you arguing with Old Wei about whether to conquer Goryeo? I will go East, build big ships and train a group of skillful seamen. When you give the order, the ships will whiz across the sea towards Goryeo and scare them to death!”

Li Er thinks it’s all daydreaming: “By the time you train seamen, the ware at Goryeo will be over.”

The Emperor has made up his mind to fight Goryeo.

“We need to build a big ships. I heard that the sea is huge and boundless. If we keep going East, we can reach Japan. Outside Japan, it’s still the sea and we can’t see the end of it. I don’t know what’s farther away. I want to see it for myself!”

Li Er saw that Yuanying was eager and warned him with a stern face: “If you dare to go to sea,I will ban your fiefdom from building ships.”

Encountering danger at sea is no joke. Even if you are a noble and blessed, you are helpless when encountering strong winds and huge waves. Li Er will not allow Yuanying to take that kind of risk.

Yuanying was not discouraged but continued to put forward ideas: “Then I will not go out into the deep sea, but I will take my big shop and sail following the shores and see where I end up. When we have more experience in building big ships, we can explore how big the sea is.”

This time, the Emperor did not reject his idea: “Just build it if you can.”

Yuanying made a mental note on how he wants to construct his own fiefdom. First, build a big academy to recruit talents, then build a road from Chang’an to Mount Tai. Finally, big ships to encourage people to go out for adventure.

Yuanying thinks it’s perfect. He then ask big brother for confirmation,  that he could really do these things. If  it’s a NO, let him know now so that no one will accuse him of starting a rebellion!

“The court will not give you more money or food, nor will it give you more people. Figure it out on your own.”

The Emperor made things very clear: you can build roads, but the court has no money, figure it out. You can build ships, but the court has no money, figure it out. IDo whatever cultural or educational stuff, build infrastructure and go out to sea, but the court will not give you people, figure it out yourself!

As for whether he’s a threat that will rebel, the Emperor thinks it’s not worth even considering. Li Yuanying is still physically here but his mind has flown outside somewhere. You can tell by how much he dislike being bored in Chang’an.

It’s more likely that the kid will not be able to control himself and run off to sail the deep seas.

Yuanying was actually not hoping for monetary support from his brother. He thinks the Emperor is dirt poor anyway. As long as he has permission, it’s good enough already.

The two brothers discussed about Yuanying’s plan to move away and the Emperor even asked someone to send a pot of wine. They will drink before leaving.

Yuanying’s face turned red from drinking. Lady Liu looked at him worriedly and made tea for him to sober up.

“The Emperor asked me to drink, so I drank two small cups.” Yuanying shared the good news. “I ask for a group of talents and the Emperor agreed. When we return from Taiyuan, we will leave together.”

Li Yuanying listed out the people following them.

Wu Mei must go with him.

Wu Mei and the others were all Jinshi now and the Court should arrange official positions for them. However, there were not many positions available. Even with the prestige of being Jinshi, one still had to be recommended by officials of the fifth rank or above at Court.

Looking at current situation, no one will be willing to recommend them.

Besides, even with a recommendation, they will be just a small local official or given idle jobs. If so, why  not follow him to the fiefdom? There were many things she could do in the fiefdom!

The group is also willing to follow him.

Master Xiao has recommended a group of students, some officials and some civilians. He had met them and they got along well. He is ready to take them with him.

His eldest nephew also assigned a group to follow Du He to take with him. Chengqian is worried that young uncle will send everyone out for mission and will have no one to protect him.

The Emperor promised to let Wang Yifang be his chief secretary, and that Lu Zhaolin will follow them.

Gao Yang will come too, as he had promised to take her earlier.

Sizi and Hengshan cannot come because of their young age. He could not take everyone away from the Emperor, otherwise brother will be alone!

Yuanying listed them one by one and became excited.

Even though the day is still far, Lady Liu can already imagine their lively future. She was filled with smiles and is looking forward to that day. However, Lady Liu sees a problem: “Sister Shu?”

Yuanying was startled and realized he had forgotten this important question.

He is not married to Sister Shu yet. What if Old Wei does not allow him to bring Sister Shu along?!

Notes from the Author;

Little Prince: What? My wife is not my wife? ! Rolling on the ground.jpg Shocked!