Taiji Hall
Li Shimin and Zhang Ananda had just arrived when Fang Xuanling and Ma Zhou also arrived.
"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you!" Fang Xuanling and Ma Zhou saluted hurriedly.
Even the notification is unnecessary.
"No need to be so polite. It's cold outside. Let's talk inside!" Li Shimin led a few people into the Taiji Hall.
Li Shimin sat down on the dragon chair and said, "Don't stand there, sit down and talk!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Zhang Ananda moved the stove next to him to the middle of Li Shimin and his companions.
Taiji Hall was where Li Shimin worked and met with civil and military officials. The stoves and braziers inside were also burning all day long.
"How is the resettlement of disaster victims near Chang'an City now?" Li Shimin was still worried about this issue.
It’s too cold and many people cannot bear it due to poor conditions.
"Your Majesty, we're already counting the numbers, and the court has begun allocating supplies, but... they're very limited. We can only help those most in need, and the treasury isn't very rich..."
Fang Xuanling was also helpless.
As the saying goes, a good cook cannot cook without rice. Fang Xuanling wanted to help the people, but it was of no avail if the court could not provide money and food.
"Do your best!" Li Shimin had no choice but to grit his teeth and persevere.
The Tang Dynasty had only been established for a dozen years, and the productive population had not yet recovered.
At the end of the Sui Dynasty, the world was in chaos and too many people died.
Several people felt a deep sense of powerlessness.
Li Shimin worked hard to govern the country, and the Tang Dynasty prospered in recent years, but it was still far from enough.
"A very strange thing happened in the palace recently!" Li Shimin wanted to talk about it with Fang Xuanling and Ma Zhou.
Knowing what Li Shimin was going to say, Zhang Ananda signaled the palace maids and eunuchs beside him to step back.
Li Shimin didn't want too many people to know about this.
"Strange things?" Fang Xuanling was a little confused. He was just talking about helping the disaster victims, how did it suddenly get to this point?
Li Shimin picked up the lychee that the little princess had given him earlier and asked, "Do you recognize this?"
Fang Xuanling and Ma Zhou stared at the litchi.
Ma Zhou had never seen it, but Fang Xuanling had.
Fang Xuanling followed Li Shimin early on.
"This... doesn't... look like lychee?" Fang Xuanling himself was not confident.
"Mr. Fang is such a joke. Where do we get lychees in the cold winter?" Ma Zhou disagreed. Although Ma Zhou had never seen lychees, he knew that lychees were in summer.
Absolutely not in the middle of winter.
"There really shouldn't be lychees in this season," Fang Xuanling also said.
It is normal if there are no lychees, but it is wrong if there are lychees.
In this era, it is impossible to preserve lychees until winter.
"But in fact, what I have in my hand are lychees!" Li Shimin said slowly.
Fang Xuanling and Ma Zhou were also shocked.
"No, although I haven't seen it, I know that lychees are a summer fruit and are not easy to preserve. How could there be lychees now?"
Ma Zhou has never seen lychees, but he has heard a little about the characteristics of lychees.
"That's why I said something strange happened. I ate the lychees, so there's nothing wrong with them. There must be something wrong with the lychees."
"Your Majesty, who gave this to me? This method of preserving lychees is not simple. Perhaps it can be used in other ways to benefit the people of the world."
Fang Xuanling thought of this first.
Li Shimin was very satisfied with this, as he liked such ministers.
Li Shimin also wanted to know, but now he didn’t know how lychees appeared.
"To be honest, I still don't know the answer to this question, so I can't answer you!" Li Shimin was quite helpless.
"Your Majesty, this shouldn't be difficult to investigate. Lychees are not ordinary things."
Ninety-nine percent of the people in Chang'an City were excluded at once based on the price.
There are not many people who can eat and transport lychees, so Fang Xuanling quickly narrowed the scope of his investigation.
"This is an existence comparable to gold, and it should not be difficult to find." Ma Zhou also echoed.
"Do you believe me when I say that he appeared in the harem inexplicably?"
"Your Majesty, how is that possible?" Fang Xuanling shook his head. "Not to mention the tight security in the harem, just look at the price of lychees. Who would do that? It's illogical and unacceptable!"
"This morning, when Li Zhi returned, she brought over a dozen lychees to the Lizheng Palace. These lychees mysteriously appeared in the inner palace of Sizi."
Fang Xuanling and Ma Zhou were both stunned.
Li Shimin was the emperor, he couldn't say such nonsense to fool Fang Xuanling and Ma Zhou.
Li Shimin spoke very seriously and it didn't seem like he was joking.
Neither Fang Xuanling nor Ma Zhou could deal with this.
The two people frowned, unable to figure it out.
"Your Majesty, can you tell me in detail?" Ma Zhou also became interested. He was definitely curious about such an abnormal thing.
"I don't know what that thing that appeared before was. It doesn't exist in the Tang Dynasty. I have never seen it. It is very sweet, crispy and delicious..."
"Then something similar to bananas appeared, but different. Bananas are not tasty and have seeds. I have eaten them."
"And today, lychees appeared again, appearing on the ground of Sizi's inner hall for no apparent reason."
"These lychees were picked up by Lizhi and Sizi from the ground. It may sound unbelievable, but that's the truth. It was Sizi who picked them up from the ground."
"You heard me right. I didn't spend any money on the lychees. I just picked them up from the ground."
Fang Xuanling and Ma Zhou were already stunned. If it wasn't Li Shimin who said it, the two of them would definitely not believe it.
Li Shimin was the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and he said it so seriously that Fang Xuanling knew it was true.
Fang Xuanling understood Li Shimin's character.
"What's the difference between this and pie falling from the sky?" Ma Zhou was also extremely shocked.
"No, no, no, this is much scarier than pie falling from the sky. Pies are only a few dollars, but they can't be compared with lychees. The price can't be compared. Plus, the timing is wrong, which makes it even rarer and more unbelievable."
Fang Xuanling realized the seriousness of the matter.
"Mr. Fang is right. Your Majesty, it is not okay to be so unclear!" Ma Zhou looked at Li Shimin.
"Ananda sent several waves of people to investigate, but they didn't find anything wrong with Sizi's inner hall. Lizhi also checked several times, but she also found nothing wrong. She even slept in Sizi's inner hall last night. She has no idea how Litchi appeared."
Li Shimin continued, "We've investigated and found no one has approached Sizi's inner hall. This rules out the possibility that someone put something in there."
The more Fang Xuanling and Ma Zhou listened, the more mysterious it seemed to them.
"I asked Li Chunfeng to check it out before, and he didn't find any problems. Li Chunfeng even said that the location of the Sizi Inner Hall is a good place for Feng Shui."
Fang Xuanling and Ma Zhou both knew who Li Chunfeng was.
Fang Xuanling and Li Chunfeng were both old men in the Prince of Qin's Mansion. They followed Li Shimin when Li Shimin was still the Prince of Qin.
Therefore, Fang Xuanling knew about Li Chunfeng's abilities.
"So what do you think about this matter?" Li Shimin wanted to hear their opinions.
Both of these people are truly talented and knowledgeable, and are rare talents in governing the country.
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