Chapter 43 Chang'an
"Brother Zhao, you are drunk."

Li Yuanhui was silent for a while before he smiled and said.

Zhao Erze smiled with a clear expression, and did not emphasize anything. Instead, he followed the other party's words and said, "It is true that I am a little drunk. I am drunk. I was just joking."

"Come, Brother Zhao, let's have a drink together and wish the Great Yan a long and prosperous nation and the sage a long life."

"What Silang said, I wish Dayan a long and prosperous nation and the saint a long life, hahahaha"

When getting off the boat, Li Yuanhui rejected Zhao Er's suggestion to let him rest on the boat, after all, the commander still had to stay in the camp. Zhao Er didn't force him, but insisted on sending him four girls, and whispered: "Silang, guess how much I spent on buying these four people for eight dou of rice."

Li Yuanhui declined politely, "Second brother, I appreciate your kindness, but I still have to go back to the camp. It's not appropriate to bring a woman into the camp."

Zhao Eryi slapped his head and said, "Look at my memory, Silang, don't worry. I will ask someone to train these people and send them to Luoyang Prefecture. When you get married, I will give you some generous gifts. But I guess I won't be able to attend in person. I'll have a glass of wedding wine with you, Silang."

Li Si said: "Then I will wait for my second brother to accomplish his mission, and we will meet again when he returns to Luoyang."

Zhao Er chatted and laughed as he saw Li Si off the boat, and the two agreed to meet again next time.

But after they separated, the smile on his face gradually turned cold.

What he said just now was half true and half false. His brother really wanted Zhao Er to contact Li Yuanhui so as to make friends with Duke Tang Li Yuan.

Zhao Er himself wanted to give it a test.

He still remembered what his brother had said to him, that Lord Tang had the spirit of a hero and a broad mind. Now that the world was in chaos, if Lord Tang went out to govern a region, he would surely make friends with heroes and recruit fugitives, and perhaps he would be able to accomplish something. He could make friends with him and wait for the future.

Li Yuanhui's performance today was actually very smooth. He was so ruthless that he didn't leave him any excuses.

And Zhao Er has almost opened his heart to this.

After returning, Li Yuanhui lay in the tent, recalling his conversation with Zhao Er today.

At first, he really didn't believe that Zhao Dahui would have high hopes for his father.

After all, Zhao Da himself was ranked on the same level as his second brother, although he was a little exaggerated. But if we were to rank the emperors, he would be in the top ten.

The father's reputation in later generations was very bad. He was ridiculed by later generations for relying on his son to conquer the world and for failing to balance power.

But if you think about it carefully, Emperor Gaozu was not that bad and he had some ability in political strategy.

As of now, Li Yuan's reputation and popularity are really very good, and although Zhao Yi is a general in the army, he has no foundation, and the Zhao family is not on the same level as the Longxi Li family.

Could it be that Zhao Da doesn't have the ambition to become Jackie Chan yet? So he is more optimistic about his father's success?
This is really possible. After all, it was largely accidental that Zhao Da was able to wear the yellow robe in history, thanks to Guo Rong's early death.

That’s right, it’s Guo Rong.

It was not Chai Rong. He was Guo Wei's adopted son, who was adopted very early on. He was Guo Rong all along before and after he became emperor.

Only the literati in the Song Dynasty who compiled history books were shameless enough to change people's surnames. They were really dirty.

Having said that, if Guo Rong hadn’t died so early, it would be hard to say whether the Zhao family could have made a breakthrough.

So now Zhao Da is optimistic about Li Yuan and wants to place a bet in advance, which is also possible. But the two families did not have much contact, and suddenly writing a letter would easily attract other people's attention.

On the contrary, if two younger generations have a meal together and express their feelings through such a channel, there will be no risk.

After all, although Dayan was filled with smoke of war, the emperor still had a million troops at his disposal and still had prestige among the officials.

So of course, some things should be kept secret as much as possible. Li Yuanhui thought about it and decided to talk to his father about this matter after returning.

Dad is not Guo Rong. He is in very good health and can still have children at his old age. Besides, there is a ceiling in the family, so there is nothing to be afraid of.

If you want to use Li Tang's chicken to lay Zhao Song's eggs, you must have the ability to do so.

But then again, we still have to build a good relationship with the Zhao brothers. Just in case something happens and the Zhao family gets the destiny, we still have to have a way out and be able to live a stable and wealthy life.

I stayed in Junyi for a few more days, keeping in touch with Zhao Er every day, drinking some wine and watching some singing and dancing, but both of them tacitly avoided mentioning those sensitive topics.

After the fleet arrived, Li Yuanhui's troops boarded the ships, including their horses and men, said goodbye to Zhao Er, and returned with the army.

The army's return was not as urgent as when it set out, but it still arrived back at the eastern capital Luoyang in early December.

However, the army did not stop in Luoyang, but went directly to Chang'an.

Because the emperor was in Chang'an, and most of the soldiers of the Xiaoguo Army were from Guanzhong, they definitely wanted to go home for the New Year.

As for Li Yuanhui, none of the Li family members are in Luoyang anymore. His father has also gone to Chang'an with his family. After his wedding is done after the New Year, he will probably go to Bingzhou to take up his post.

After traveling all the way through the Qiao-Han Road, they finally arrived in Chang'an on the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month.

The original owner had very few memories of Chang'an, and they were all extremely vague. The only thing that left a deep impression on him was the candied haws in West Market.

After passing Tongguan, Li Yuanhui finally felt the importance of Guanzhong in ancient times. It is indeed a place of great geographical advantage.

And Chang'an was the most powerful city in the world before Murong Ying built the Eastern Capital.

After unifying the country, Dayan found a new site and rebuilt the New Chang'an outside the Chang'an City of the Han and Wei Dynasties.

The city is in the shape of a horizontally long rectangle with thirteen gates. There are three main roads running vertically and horizontally in the city, called the "Six Streets".

The palace city was built at the north end of the central axis in the city, and the imperial city for central government offices was built in front of the palace city. On the central axis, there is a main street that is 16 li long and 50 zhang wide, passing through the outer city and the imperial city, and directly leading to the main gate of the palace city. It points to the main hall in the palace in the north, with unprecedented grandeur.

The main street was divided into 108 wards and two markets by vertical and horizontal streets. The city was neat and orderly, the streets were square and wide, the palaces and government offices were concentrated, and the functional divisions were clear, all of which were better than the previous capitals.

The design drawings of Chang'an had already been drawn up during the reign of Emperor Xuan of Wei, Cao Mao, and were planned with the personal participation of Emperor Xuan of Wei.

However, due to various reasons, this design has never been implemented.

After all, Cao Wei's foundation was in Luoyang, and Guanzhong had already been desolate due to the war at the end of the Han Dynasty, so Chang'an was no longer suitable to be built as the capital.

Therefore, this map was kept aside until Taizu of Great Yan came to rule the Central Plains. After seeing this map, he decided to build Chang'an with such a neat design.

After two hundred years of recuperation and the strategy of "planting trees extensively to consolidate water and soil" left by Emperor Xuan of Wei, Guanzhong's vitality was finally restored a lot.

In addition, with the opening of the Silk Road, a large number of Hu merchants also brought huge wealth. In fact, the prosperity of Chang'an was not much worse than that of Luoyang.

It’s just because the emperor has been in Luoyang often in recent years and has brought all the officials to Luoyang, so Chang'an seems a little deserted.

But now, with the emperor returning to the throne, Chang'an has returned to its former bustle during this New Year.

Liu Xuanji, who had already seen the prosperity of Luoyang, did not say like a country bumpkin that a real man should live here. Instead, he said something that made Li Si ponder for a long time.

"Is this Chang'an the Chang'an of the Han Dynasty three hundred years ago?"

(End of this chapter)