Tibet

The warmth of February has also reached Longyou. Although Longyou is still a snowy world, the snow has melted a lot, and pedestrians and carriages can now be used on the official road.

A team of horsemen in red clothes came galloping from a distance. This was the official postal service and generally did not accept private letters. Due to heavy snowfall, the official postal routes in Longyou and Hexi were interrupted for more than two months. , now restored, the first batch of official documents and letters were sent from Chang'an to Longyou.

Of course, eagle letters and dove letters are also supplementary, but they are generally only used for notifications of urgent and major events and in areas where there is no mail delivery system.

In fact, eagle letters and pigeon letters are not very reliable. On the one hand, they are limited by space and do not contain much content. On the other hand, they are easy to lose. For example, it is normal for pigeon letters to lose letters. Pigeons have too many natural enemies and can easily become natural enemies. Plate lunch.

It is difficult to train trust eagles. Basically, trust eagles are not seen in the mainland and are generally only used by the military.

Another important reason is that birds cannot fly at night unless owls are used to deliver messages.

Another important factor is that neither the eagle letter nor the dove letter has privacy. The person who receives the dove letter has to open it and read it carefully to identify whose letter it is. Of course, ordinary people are not willing to use it.

Therefore, when the postal system is complete and the eight-hundred-mile relay is expedited, people delivering letters will not be much slower than carrier pigeons and eagles. From Chang'an to Longyou, it takes at most three days to deliver.

Of course, this kind of urgent relay letter is very expensive, and it costs dozens to hundreds of guan to send it. It is only used to report urgent military situations and the emperor's imperial edict, and ordinary people cannot afford it.

The second is official mail, which can be delivered from Chang'an to Longyou in about seven days.

Finally, there are private letters. The delivery time is relatively long. It takes about a month or two to receive the letter from Chang'an to Longyou.

In fact, the journey is not slow. It only lasts ten days at most, mainly due to the slowness of various transfers.

For example, when writing a letter from Chang'an to Weiyuan County in Weizhou, there is no direct connection from Chang'an to Weizhou. You have to wait until a certain amount of letter documents are accumulated before sending it to Jincheng County, Lanzhou. It used to be sent to Huangshui, Shanzhou, but now it is sent to Jincheng County. .

It was finally delivered to Jincheng County, and then the postal system in Longyou delivered the letter. It is impossible to send you just this letter. I have to wait until forty or fifty letters have accumulated before sending them all together. This will cost at least half of the time. A month of twenty days.

Then it was finally sent to Weizhou Prefecture to govern Longxi County. They had to wait until a certain number of documents and letters were accumulated, and then they were sent from Longxi County to Weiyuan County.

So it takes at least a month or two for the other party to receive it after you write a letter. For this reason, the waiting time for transfer is too long.

Li Kui wrote a letter to his cousin Li Qiu. At the same time, Li Dai also wrote a letter to his son Li Ye. Both of them were high-ranking officials and both used official mail. However, due to heavy snow and road closures, they also Delayed for a month.

It was not until a month later that the official messenger delivered the letter to Jincheng County.

Li Dai got a grandson, which made him overjoyed.

Unexpectedly, there was also a happy event in Prince Qi's Mansion in Jincheng County. Princess Dugu Xinyue was pregnant again. The newly married Qingyu was not pregnant yet, but the princess took the lead.

This made Li Ye extremely happy. He had a strong feeling that this time he would have a son.

Of course Li Ye likes his precious daughter, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want a son. If he has a son, he will have an heir, and the empire he has built can continue.

Li Ye's house originally had more than thirty servants, including housekeepers, cooks, coachmen, servants, maids and maids, as well as special personnel such as doctors, wet nurses, and female guards.

Because his wife was pregnant for the third time, Li Ye increased the number of servants in the house to more than ninety, nearly three times. The number of cooks alone increased to twenty, and the number of servants in the house was further divided into pastry chefs and soup cooks. Tea master.

The number of maids in the inner house increased from six to eighteen, the number of wet nurses increased from three to six, with two wet nurses for each child, the number of housekeepers increased from one to three, and there was an additional housekeeper, that is, a female housekeeper.

Finally, it feels like a wealthy family. You must know that the Liu Mansion, which Li Ye severely punished before, has more than 300 servants, and the small Luo Mansion also has more than 50 servants.

The majestic Prince Qi's Mansion actually only has about thirty servants. No matter how frugal he is, it cannot be justified. The frugality must be consistent with his status.

For example, the Rongguo Mansion in Dream of Red Mansions is only a first-class noble house and has more than a thousand people. Just one maid and woman to welcome the spring has as many as twelve people.

In addition, the palace has also been expanded to 120 acres, which is also a very small prince's palace. Almost all the prince's palaces in Chang'an cover an area of ​​more than 300 acres, and Xingqing Palace covers an area of ​​2,000 acres.

After his wife became pregnant, Li Ye basically slept in Yang Yuhuan and Qing Yu's room, with Yang Yuhuan sleeping slightly more often.

Before dawn, the cry of the child next door suddenly woke Yang Yuhuan from her dream. She raised her body and listened carefully.

"What's wrong?" Li Ye opened his eyes in a daze, hugged her and asked.

"Xiaobao is crying!"

"Don't worry, the wet nurse will take care of the child. You are not wearing any clothes and half of your body is exposed. Be careful of catching a cold."

At this time, the nurse's voice was faintly heard next door coaxing the baby. The baby latched on to the breast, and the crying gradually disappeared.

Yang Yuhuan also felt a little cold, so she quickly got into the warm cup and into her husband's arms.

She nuzzled her husband's neck with her nose and said coquettishly: "When a husband marries a new man, he will no longer pity others!"

"No! She just had a little more in the first month. Today is February 5th. You are three days old and she is only two days old."

"She has a long life ahead of her! I only have these few years left, and my beauty will fade with age."

Li Ye smiled and said: "A woman like you will not be affected by age. Emperor Zetian is already over seventy years old, and the daily records record that she is still like a woman in her thirties. There is also Empress Xiao in the late Sui Dynasty, who is over sixty years old." Even now, you are favored by Emperor Taizong, and you are the same. When I am over forty years old, you will still be younger than me."

Yang Yuhuan hugged her husband's neck and asked with a sweet smile: "Will you still want me then?"

"Of course! There is morning prayer every day."

Li Ye turned over and started the morning ritual again.

"Keep your voice down, the wet nurse next door will hear you."

Yang Yuhuan bit her lip, her soul had flown to the clouds.

At 10:00 in the morning, Li Ye came to the official room as usual. As soon as he sat down, Ji Shouchun, a member of the army in the recording office, saluted and said, "Your Highness, the former Zongzheng Shaoqing Li Qiu has asked to see Your Highness. He has been waiting for a while."

Li Ye nodded, "Please wait a moment!"

Since the killing of Liu Shengdian and his son, the Li family has become extremely low-key in the past two months. There are no children of the Li family even on the registration list for the Helong Civil Service Examination.

Of course, it may also mean that they are more arrogant and not ashamed to be with themselves.

Li Ye didn't bother to care about them. Anyway, he warned them that if they dared to stab him in the back, don't blame him for not predicting what he said.

Li Ye tidied up a little, then got up and went to the guest room. Li Qiu was waiting for him. He came here early in the morning.

Seeing Li Ye come in, Li Qiu quickly stood up and saluted, "See you, Your Highness!"

Li Ye waved his hand and said with a smile: "I haven't seen the envoy for two months. What are you busy with?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, these two have been in Didao County and they just came back two days ago."

Li Ye asked him to sit down and asked, "Come here early in the morning. Is there anything urgent for you?"

Li Qiu nodded. He wanted to look both ways and whispered: "The Holy Emperor asked our Li family to monitor His Highness and submit a monitoring report every month."

"There is such a thing. Is the emperor addicted to spying on the ministers?"

As he said this, Li Ye suddenly remembered that he had added a lot of servants in the past few days. Could it be that the Li family also took the opportunity to install spies?

Li Qiu sighed, "The Li family is a famous family and would never do such despicable things. The emperor asked us to spy on His Highness. We really don't know what to do?"

Li Ye said lightly: "Then what does it mean to tell me now?"

"What my brother means is that if His Highness can give us a report every month, we can revise it and submit it directly to the emperor, which can be regarded as a report."

Li Ye understood that killing the Liu family and his son had indeed worked, otherwise the Li family would not have allowed him to write a surveillance report, and they were also afraid.

Li Ye thought for a while, stood up and waved at the door. After a while, Ji Shouchun and Wen Jingnian walked over together.

Li Ye introduced to Li Qiu: "These are my two reporters who have joined the army. Ji Shouchun and Wen Jingnian. One is in charge of politics and the other is in charge of the army. I will discuss it with you in detail. They can provide you with some information every month." , you can sort it out and report it."

Both of them knew Li Qiu, so no further introduction was needed. Li Ye said to them: "The emperor asked the Li family to monitor me and provide a monitoring report every month. The Li family is in a difficult situation. I hope we can help. From now on, you will report to me every month." The Li family provides some public information, which is of course true, for the Li family to hand over."

The two of them agreed together, "I will humbly obey my orders!"

"You can discuss the details! But before providing the information, it must be reviewed by the internal guard, Commander Li."

The two agreed and went outside to discuss with Li Qiu.

Li Ye returned to his room. He thought for a moment and then ordered an officer: "Go and find Commander Li of the inner guard!"