Chapter 33: Shoe-shining for horses

After being bullied, Yun Ye planned to hide at home and not go out.

Unfortunately, the wind does not stop when the tree wants to be quiet. Li Er wants to find you, and even if you hide to the ends of the earth, he will find you.

A light decree fell on his head. The left-hand military commander and head of the Da Tang Ke Wu Academy, which was headed by Li Chengqian, was looking for the Da Tang state organization, but no one knew what the Ke Wu Academy was.

Finally, he asked Li Chengqian, who found a huge courtyard next to the Yanxi Gate in the imperial city. The entire courtyard was covered in trees and covered an area of five acres. It was one of the best courtyards in the imperial city, but of course it was not comparable to the Zhongshu and the Ministry of the Interior next door.

It is too old, and some of the doors and windows have fallen off. Standing in the room, you can see the blue sky. It has been a while since I came to the Tang Dynasty. I know that Li Er is very poor now, especially after being extorted by Xie Li. I heard that the Zichen Hall where he usually works is also stuffy in the summer and bitterly cold in the winter. The newly renovated palace is still a half-finished building, and it is very ugly in the imperial city.

But how can I work in a place like this? This is an institution, a scientific institution that I told Li Chengqian about. It needs a place to work steadily. What can you expect to research in a scientific research institution that doesn’t even have windows? This is not the time of Mao Zedong, when enthusiasm and dreams are enough to conquer everything.

Yun Ye is a thorough utilitarian. If he wants to achieve results, he has to be rewarded accordingly. The current situation is far from what he imagined the Ke Wu Academy to be.

There are only thirty-some people, and they are all experts in the field of Ke Wu from Guanzhong. There are grandfathers, uncles, and brothers, but no young Ke Wu talents, which is what Yun Ye needs urgently. Among these people, there are those who specialize in civil engineering and architecture, that is, architects. Fortunately, some of them are reliable. There are those who specialize in feng shui and tombs. How did feng shui masters also come? There are those who specialize in digging ditches. Okay, this one is a water conservancy engineer. Blacksmith? Mason? Carpenter? There was also a shameless man who said that he had “used up all his reason and nature, and that was his fate.” I don’t know what that means. Yun Ye’s forehead veins were throbbing. This is where his dream took off?

I asked the architect to calculate how much it would cost to renovate the entire courtyard, the geomancer to find the best location in the courtyard for my office, and the various craftsmen to find their apprentices and descendants to help with the renovation. I asked my uncle, who had exhausted his knowledge, to act as a secretary to record my orders and pass them on. I have to say that the obedience of the Tang people was just right. It took three days to renovate six rooms.

His Majesty Li Er was generous and approved a total of 2,000 sacks of grain as Yun Ye’s starting capital. Money? No. If there was money, what would you need me for? This was His Majesty Li Er’s answer.

Standing in the ranks, Yun Ye was full of thoughts about how to get a thousand copper coins from the Minister of the Ministry of Finance. At the very least, he needed 800 to deal with emergencies. If he couldn’t get the money, the Academy of Diligence would run out of food. It didn’t matter to him, but he couldn’t do it with the 30 or so people under him. He could only survive in Chang’an with food, but he didn’t dare to sell it. This was a major crime of private selling.

“Ten thousand? Minister Wen, the Department of War has tens of thousands of horses that are no longer fit for use. If we don’t replace them with new horses, how can we transform the cavalry of the Great Tang into infantry?” Li Ji glared at the Minister of Finance and loudly refuted his stinginess.

This one asked for ten thousand and still wasn’t satisfied. Yun Ye really hoped that his thousand wouldn’t be in the eyes of Wen Shangshu.

“The reason for the waste of war horses is that 56% of the time, it is due to the wear and tear of the hooves and the horses breaking down. This is also a major factor that has plagued the cavalry’s attacks. In the past two years, our soldiers have been waiting for the dawn, vowing to avenge the shame, so the training has been a little more arduous, and it is worth it to damage some of the horses.” Li Jing came forward to help Li Ji.

“Ten thousand strings is the Ministry of Finance’s maximum capacity. If you want more, you’ll have to wait until next year.” Wen Daya refused to budge.

The court in the early Tang Dynasty was relaxed. As long as you had a reason, you could speak your mind. Emperor Li Er sat on the high throne and watched his ministers argue. This was a scene he loved to see. Everyone’s reaction was his target of observation. He noticed that Yun Ye, who was hiding in the corner, seemed to have something to say, but he took a few steps forward and then retreated.

Isn’t he busy establishing the Institute of Things? How did he end up in the court? Looking at him whispering to the crown prince, he knew that Li Jing had just said something difficult, and he must have a solution. Thinking about the young man he had seen with the crown prince and Cheng Chumo reciting a few days ago, he felt a strange thought in his heart. “A tiger cub howling in the valley? A strange flower in its first stage of growth? A dragon lurking in the depths of the ocean? I will see what the Institute of Things, which you boast about, can do to solve the problem that has not been solved for a thousand years.

After Fang Xianling scolded the noisy ministers, Li Er began to speak. “Lantian Hou Yunye, I see that you seem to have something to say. You may speak boldly. As long as it is reasonable, you can say anything. Although the Ke Wu Yuan that you and the crown prince started is a bit simple, isn’t it more dashing for young people to walk their own path in blue clothes?”

There is no way to go. Yun Ye bit his teeth and stood up, sticking out his right hand and popping out three fingers: “Give me 3,000 strings, and I will solve the problem of worn-out horse hooves.” This was the first time he had taken the initiative to take things on himself.

Li Chengqian looked at him nervously, and he was sweating coldly for him. This was not a private joke among brothers. This was the court, where a single spit could make a hole. Once the words were said, there was no room for turning back.

Li Jing looked at Yun Ye for a moment, then said nothing. Li Ji was a little surprised. Wen Daya took a step forward and said to Yun Ye, “Do you know that once you say this, I will no longer treat you as a teenager, but as the Lantian Marquis of the Great Tang.”

Gratefully, he bowed to the Minister Wen: “You can take this as the words of the head of the Da Tang Ke Wu Academy. Three thousand strings of cash. I want it now. Six days. This is the deadline for solving the problem. This is the promise of the Ke Wu Academy.”

Wen Daya’s eyes flashed with excitement, and he clapped his hands together and said loudly, “Good, it is indeed a hero in his youth. The wear and tear of the horse’s hooves will not only cause a lot of waste, but also cause the loss of the war machine. As long as you solve the problem, I will bite the bullet and use the Ministry of Finance to help you solve the problem.

Yun Ye reached out and slapped Wen Daya’s hand. They each returned to their seats contentedly.

Li Er smiled and said, “Lord of Lantian, I am very curious. How do you plan to solve it? How successful will it be?”

Yun Ye had already thought it through and said with confidence, “The distance from Chang’an to Luoyang is 1,500 li. I plan to have two riders leave from Chang’an at the same time and return to Chang’an after reaching Luoyang. The rider who returns to Chang’an with his horse’s hooves intact wins, and the one who doesn’t loses. What do you think, Your Majesty?”

“Five hundred miles a day, that’s why you need six days? Is it just that you have the time to develop the necessary things?” Niu Jinda was a little worried.

“I don’t understand why such a simple matter has not been solved for a thousand years. We know that bare feet will hurt our feet, so we invented shoes. Why can’t we put shoes on horses?”