Chapter 3: Are Benevolence and Morality Worth Money?

  The next day, Du He led the "Yu Congjin Army" which had been formed into a flying cavalry and began training them.

  "Although the former imperial guard has been somewhat abandoned, it still has the title of the imperial guard and has some foundation. It may not be as good as the thousand people under its own command, but it won't be much worse. It's just that it has been neglected for a long time and hasn't practiced. As a result, its strength has declined somewhat, but with half a year of practice, it should be able to recover its original appearance."

  This time when he went out to battle, Du He repeatedly asked Li Ji for advice on training troops and had some epiphanies. He applied all his insights to this army, planning to quickly restore their strength and make them his trusted assistants.

  Du He had just distributed the training tasks when he was summoned by Li Shimin, and he handed over the training tasks to Luo Tong and Wang Dezheng, and came to Ganlu Temple!

  Li Shimin sat on his horse with a gloomy face, his eyebrows tightly knitted, worrying about something.

  "Uncle Li?" Du He called out, casually bowing slightly.

  Li Shimin looked at him and said: "Money, we overlooked this point. To hold such a large event, money is needed!"

  He explained the reason, and Du He finally understood.

  Today, early in the morning, Li Shimin publicly discussed the matter that was also discussed with Du He yesterday, and dropped a heavy bombshell on the court.

  This is no more remarkable than archery, horse racing, or wrestling matches, but the idea of gathering warriors from all nations to compete in such a way was unprecedented.

  The whole court of civil and military officials were attracted by Li Shimin's idea and showed great interest.

  Of course, there are pros and cons. Some officials thought that the project was too large in scale but would consume a lot of money and be detrimental to the people. Others believed that although the Tang Dynasty valued martial arts, it had always been inferior to other ethnic groups in archery and horseback riding, so not only would this project have no effect, but it would also lose face for the Tang Dynasty.

  But as soon as these words came out, they immediately enraged all the military generals in the court.

  Spleen Qi bursts forth like Chen Yaoguang, Wei Qijun almost has the intention of severely beating the remonstrating officials, other military generals also glare at the remonstrating officials one by one.

  Even Li Ji, who was known for his good temper, widened his eyes in anger. Wasn't the official's remark equivalent to saying that the brave warriors of the Great Tang were not as formidable as those of other tribes?

  Faced with this momentum, the remonstrating officials immediately became turtles, and no one dared to say another word.

  This is a good thing, and those who understand should agree, but the huge cost is also a fact.

  Although all the civil and military officials in the court agreed to hold the 'Brave Warrior Competition', they all expressed their hope to reduce the scale of the event.

  Li Shimin said with some annoyance, he was naturally somewhat of a perfectionist and had long since made up his mind that if they were going to do this, it would have to be done on a grand scale. But if everything went according to the plans in his head, the cost would be at least tens of millions of taels of silver.

  The prosperity of the Tang Dynasty is not that it cannot afford to spend, but this investment has only output and no income. Not to mention the Ministry of Revenue, which is in charge of money, even he feels some heartache.

  If he shrinks from the task, he is also somewhat displeased and feels humiliated.

  At this point, he thought of Du He who was full of clever ideas and asked for his opinion.

  Du He was taken aback, looking a bit amusing. "Are you afraid that there won't be enough money to cover the expenses for holding the sports meet?" Li asked. Du He immediately replied, "Uncle Li, this is not a problem at all! As long as we can collect entrance fees during the competition, everything will be solved." He had originally wanted to say sponsorship fees, but thinking that some of the Tang Dynasty's merchants were not very supportive, he kept it in his heart.

  "What's the admission fee?" Li Shimin vaguely understood the meaning of these four words.

  "Not bad!" Du He smiled and nodded, "The venue of the competition will be closed, and if you want to enter and watch the game, you need to pay a certain fee, just like watching a play!"

  "This is improper!" Li Shimin shook his head and resolutely refused, "Even if I don't hold this 'Brave Warrior Competition', I will absolutely not extort money from the common people!"

  Du He listened with reverence, and Li Shimin was indeed a good emperor who loved his people like sons, but he shook his head and smiled: "Li Shu misunderstood, I never thought of making money from the common people. It's like watching a play in a theater, there are good seats, bad seats, seated seats, and standing seats. Li Shu can divide the seats into first-class VIP seats, second-class VIP seats, third-class VIP seats, and then ordinary seats. When the common people enter, they pay one coin to watch from the ordinary seat. My great Tang is prosperous, and the common people still have a few coins that won't affect their livelihood. As for the VIP seats, we can use the psychology of merchants, officials, and nobles to compare with each other, let them offer high prices. One seat costs ten silver plates, one thousand seats will be ten thousand silver coins! How can there be no money in the account?

  "How reasonable!" Li Shimin slapped his thigh and exclaimed with a smile: "How come I didn't think of such simple truth?"

  "Besides, Uncle Li, what are you planning to do with those 30,000 Tubo people?" Du He sneered coldly!

  Li Shimin said: "This is also somewhat difficult for me, many ministers hope that I will uphold the wind of benevolence and virtue, and send them back to Tubo..."

  Before he could finish speaking, Du He was so angry that he jumped up and shouted: "Who said this? This man is either a fool or a Tibetan spy, his crime should be punished!"

  Those captives were all brave and good fighters, as soon as they put on armor, they became elite troops. Someone actually suggested releasing them back, are there really people stupid to this extent in the world?

  "Don't be agitated, don't be agitated!" Li Shimin said with a smile: "I am not one of those pedantic people. Those Tubo people are all brave and fierce, releasing them is no different from releasing tigers back to the mountains, and it will lead to endless troubles later on. I have not agreed to this, but for the time being, I don't know how to deal with them, so I can only lock them up."

  "Free food and accommodation, isn't that too cheap for them? Where can you find such labor that doesn't cost a penny?" Du He thought Li Shimin was being a bit silly, not knowing how to utilize such good manpower.

  Li Shimin was also moved, but his eyebrows furrowed and he muttered: "Is this not somewhat unrighteous and immoral?"

  "Benevolence and righteousness, morality?" Du He disdainfully curled his lip, secretly slandering Li Shimin for being hypocritical. If you really talked about benevolence and righteousness, you wouldn't have launched the Xuanwu Gate Incident, staging a play of fratricide and patricide, forcing your father to abdicate. On the other hand, if it weren't for the Xuanwu Gate Incident, the Tang Dynasty would not have reached such prosperity under Li Jiancheng's rule. Of course, he didn't dare say this even if he had ten times the courage; in the Tang Dynasty, especially in front of Li Shimin, the Xuanwu Gate Incident was an absolute taboo!

  He looked at him with disdain and said, "Benevolence, righteousness, morality, Uncle Li, you tell me, how much is this thing worth?"

  Li Shimin let Du He see that he was a bit embarrassed and annoyed, saying: "Is there anything in this thing that can be measured by price?"

  "Can't be measured, it's worthless! What's the point of something that's worthless? For a country, benefits are paramount, only benefits can make a nation strong, not some worthless morality and ethics! Mr. Li, you're not a foolish king, I'll speak plainly. Morality and ethics are for our own people, but what use are they against foreign tigers and wolves? Can morality and ethics make foreigners surrender to the Great Tang? Can morality and ethics bring tribute from all directions to the Great Tang? The Great Tang's prosperity relies on strength, on soldiers sacrificing their lives, not on some nonsense about morality and ethics!"

  "Uncle Li, let me tell you a story about Mr. Dongguo..."

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