51-60

Chapter 51- Reception

In the evening, it was a palace banquet held to receive the arrival of foreign envoys. Hundreds of officials from the DPRK and the Central Government were present.

The maid served fine wine. Sitting at the head were the emperor and the queen, and the nobles and concubines in the harem sat below. The civil servants and military generals sat on each side, and their positions were arranged in descending order according to their official positions. Avala, as the arriving envoy, was a distinguished guest, sitting in the first row in front.

Originally, according to Li Wen's official rank, he was not qualified to attend the palace banquet, but recently he was a popular person around the emperor and was assigned to assist His Royal Highness in receiving foreign envoys, so he was happy to mix in. His position was also moved from the back to the middle, and the officials sitting on the left and right were higher than him, which made him a little flattered.

Opposite were his master and Zhao Xiangyi, and they could see each other when they raised their heads.

"Your Majesty, on behalf of the King of Tarim, I would like to propose a toast to you. May the friendship between Tarim and Dacheng last forever." Avala seemed to have forgotten the earlier humiliation, and took up the wine to toast the emperor of Dacheng. On the surface, he seemed to really intend to Like Dacheng being a good brother.

In fact, it is not difficult to guess what Tarim is planning. It just depends on when they will show their claws on Dacheng.

"Okay, I hope the friendship between Dacheng and Tarim will last forever." Emperor Zhaozong picked up the wine on the table.

The officials below all picked up their wine glasses, and the officials on the left and right next to each other toasted to each other, talking and laughing, showing a harmonious scene. Everyone raised their heads and drank the wine in the glasses.

Li Wen took a sip of the wine in the cup and found it tasted a bit bland. He thought that the wine in the palace was not that good and was not as good as the wine he brewed himself. No wonder Zhao Xiangyi said last time that he would know later.

After the opening ceremony, the singing and dancing performances began.

"Dingling bells——"

A foreign woman wearing a gauze skirt danced in the center of the hall. As she danced, the jewelry she wore made a jingling sound. The woman had a pair of dark and charming eyes, and a graceful figure. The posture attracts everyone's attention.

Even Emperor Zhaozong's eyes were attracted by the dancing beauty, and he stared at the dancing beauty closely.

Avala noticed the way the emperor looked at the beauty, and the smile on his face grew two points.

After the beauty finished her dance, Emperor Zhaozong clapped his hands and said, "Thank you."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." The beauty took off her veil, gave the emperor a seductive look, and returned to kneel down quietly beside their prince. . Avala smiled and asked the Dacheng emperor, "Your Majesty, how do you think our Alizhen dances?"

"She is beautiful, and she is a good dancer." Emperor Zhaozong was not stingy in praising the beauty.

"Haha..." Avala toasted the emperor again.

The queen noticed the emperor's look at the woman below. Although she was jealous in her heart, it didn't show any trace of jealousy on her face. She was just a foreign woman, and she, the queen, didn't take it seriously. No matter how favored Concubine Dong is, her position will always be below that of the Queen, so this is also the reason why she hates the Queen.

The nobles and concubines below had different expressions, and they didn't know what they were feeling.

The singing and dancing are still going on, and the dancers of Dacheng are not inferior to the women of foreign races. If the women of foreign races are passionate, the women of Dacheng are noble. No wonder the ancestors said that Dacheng is good. Dacheng has fertile land that can grow food, countless gold and silver treasures, beautiful women and good wine. This is why foreigners have not given up and thought about capturing Dacheng for so many years.

While Avala was drinking wine and looking at the dancing beauties, he was thinking about how he could take possession of all of Dacheng for himself.

But with such a good opportunity, how could Avala just drink and look at beauties in peace. After suffering such a big loss in the morning, after returning to the hotel, Avala asked someone to find out the identity of the young official and found out that he was the number one scholar in Dacheng. Since he was the number one scholar, his literary talent must be great?

"Your Majesty." As the dancers retreated, Avala seized the opportunity to stand up, glanced at the young official sitting among the veterans of Dacheng, and said, "I heard that Li Zhuangyuan was outstanding in literary talent, so he must be good at playing music, chess, calligraphy and painting. So proficient, why not let Li Zhuangyuan play a piece of music to cheer up?"

When Avala looked at him, Li Wen knew that this man wanted to be a monster.

"Haha, that's a good idea." After hearing this, Emperor Zhaozong looked at Li Liuyuan and asked, "Li Liuyuan, I have only seen the articles you wrote and have never heard you play a piece of music. Are you willing to play a piece of music? "

The emperor wants to hear me play music, so I'd rather be respectful than obey. But if I don't play well, don't blame me." The emperor has already said that he wants to hear him play music. How can he still do it? Are you saying that you can't play if you don't want to? Li Wen was the first to make the ugly remarks. His level of playing the piano is really only average, definitely not at the level where the lingering sound of one song can make people listen to it.

"Haha, if you don't play well, you will definitely be punished." Emperor Zhaozong said half-jokingly, "Play well. If you play well, I will reward you."

Did the emperor think of him asking for a reward?

"Yes." Li Wen could only touch his nose and ask someone to get a piano.

He glanced at Avala, and the two people's eyes met. Li Wen knew that this person wanted him to make a fool of himself in public, but he didn't get what he wanted!

Ms. Song in their family is a classical music teacher at the university. She specializes in teaching people to play the guzheng and pipa. She is very good at playing the guzheng and pipa. I heard that his grandma was a student of classical instruments. Unfortunately, his grandma was gone after he was born. He has never met his grandma. He only heard about the deceased elder from Ms. Song's words. Ms. Song followed him since he was a child. A classical instrument learned by his grandmother.

Since he was four years old, Ms. Song has been trying to teach him classical instruments, presumably to train his son to inherit the mantle. It's just that he has been naughty and active since he was a child, and he couldn't sit still on the stool. For this reason, Ms. Song often slapped him with a ruler. His grandma was still there at that time, and the old man loved his grandson. When he saw Ms. Song beating him, he had a strong opinion of Ms. Song. This is why he followed his grandma for a while and Ms. Song didn't care about him much.

However, he grew up listening to Ms. Song play the guzheng and pipa before he was born. He has lived in a family with such an atmosphere since he was a child. He does not need to pay too much attention to learn some things. He will naturally understand some things after listening more, so more or less Still learned a little bit. It's just that because he didn't pay attention, he only learned a little bit.

I picked up playing the piano again in this life. When I went to Nanyang to study, Dean Fu got good at playing the piano. He followed him for several years and was often beaten by Dean Fu. He is not a very talented person in this area, and he is not willing to work hard, so in his two lifetimes, he has only learned half a bucket of water in this talent.

Li Wen brought the guqin over, put on the finger cots, and sat down.

After trying out the notes on the piano, Li Wen began to play with the strings. The sound flowed from his fingertips and filled the hall.

He played the song "Swordsman", and a loud laugh swept across the sea, and the tide surged across the Taiwan Strait. He only remembered the present moment when he was ups and downs...

When he was a child, he especially liked movies about Jianghu knights. Probably everyone has a sense of Jianghu pride in their hearts. He has too. This piece is not very difficult and it is one of the few pieces he can play.

Playing this familiar piece of music, it is inevitable that he will think of some people and events in his previous life. He will remember that Ms. Song forced him to learn the piano with a ruler, and that Ms. Song wanted to whip him, so Professor Li handed Ms. Song the board. He thought of his relatives who had left him one by one in his previous life, and how many years had passed since he came to this world.

The deceased is gone. Rebirth is not easy. People still have to cherish the present...

If at the beginning Li Wen still had a sense of restraint that he couldn't let go of, later on, once his heart was freed from restraint, and the piano under his hand was flying on his fingertips, his whole temperament became different.

This was the first time that Zhao Xiangyi saw a young man playing the piano. Normally, he had never heard a young man play the piano. Although he didn't know how to appreciate these things, he still felt that the music played by the young man was very nice and made people feel suddenly enlightened.

At this time, everyone in the hall was listening to Li Liuyuan playing the piano, even the generals who didn't understand the music. I think this song is good.

When Zhao Si saw his apprentice sitting there visiting relatives, he felt as if the apprentice had grown up.

When the last note fell, Li Wen pressed the strings with his hand, stood up, saluted the emperor, and said, "Your Majesty, a humble minister has shown his embarrassment."

"Okay, Li Liuyuan played this piece well." Emperor Zhaozong was obviously interested. Xiao Liuyuan was very satisfied with the piece he played and asked, "What piece of music are you playing? Why have I never heard it before?"

"The name of this piece is "Swordsman", which was written by Wei Chen in a book I saw it on the ancient music score. "Li Wen thought to himself, of course you have never heard it. This is a piece made by people of later generations. But of course he couldn't say that. He could only read it from an ancient book. This was a good excuse.

There are so many ancient books, who knows which ancient book he read it from.

"Li Liuyuan not only wrote a good article but was also proficient in music, chess, calligraphy and painting. He plays this piece well and is rewarded." Emperor Zhaozong was in a good mood, and he waved his hand and was rewarded.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." After Li Wen thanked the Emperor, he returned to his seat and sat down.

Avala's plan to make Li Wen look embarrassed was doomed to fail. His Highness the Prince looked at Li Liuyuan with hatred,

you have the ability to eat me with your eyes!

Li Wen didn't even spare a glance to the prince. He raised his eyes and met Zhao Xiangyi's gaze, which was looking at him. The two of them exchanged a look and continued to watch the show pretending not to be familiar with each other.

They didn't come out of the palace until the banquet in the palace was over.

Avala gave the beauties he brought to the emperor, and the emperor did not refuse. He also rewarded the envoy with two beauties to accompany him

. Avala took the two beauties back to his hotel.

Chapter 52: It

was already late when it was too late to get home from the palace. After returning home and taking a bath, he had just put on his obscene clothes when Li Wen heard footsteps coming from behind him. He knew that this person was doing it on purpose. Walking harder? He turned around and saw the man who appeared in his room. He joked, "If I were a woman, would it be time to shout indecent assault?"

"Can you shout?" Zhao Xiangyi's eyes looked at He asked with a smile.

"Haha, no." Li Wen leaned over, leaned against the man, looked at the man with bright eyes, and said, "I wish you could do something to me. Master, do you want to indecency?" Then he opened a little of his clothes, put on a flirtatious pose, and gave Zhao Xiangyi a wink, looking like he was eager for others to molest him.

"Don't make trouble, it's cold at night, put on your clothes quickly." Zhao Xiangyi couldn't help but laugh. He took his coat and put it on the young man. He wanted to do something to the young man, but now was not the time.

Li Wen put on his clothes obediently. It was already late autumn and the night was cold. He had just gotten up from the shower. It would be easy to catch a cold if he was cold. "Why are you here so late?"

"I just got back from the shower." Your Highness is coming back and I want to come see you." Zhao Xiangyi thought of the young man and came over to him without even returning home.

"Oh." Li Wen nodded, but he didn't ask about

what the man had discussed with the prince when he went to the prince's place in the middle of the night.

Just before he took a bath, he asked Li Tong to go to bed, so no one knew that there was an extra person in his room.

Li Wen asked people to come over and sit down, and poured a cup of tea for Zhao Xiangyi. He remembered that his sword was cut off today. He still remembers that scene in his mind. Li Wen asked, "You broke it today." Is that sword still there? "

"Yes, take it back." Zhao Xiangyi nodded, picked it up and put it away.

"Has your sword been used for a long time?" Li asked. He knew that every swordsman would have his own sword, and he should have feelings for the weapon he used day and night. From the first day he met Zhao Xiangyi, he had seen the sword in his hand. Now that it was destroyed, the owner of the sword would be sad.

"Twelve years." Zhao Xiangyi nodded and said.

"Well, it's a pity. You bring the sword to me, and I can help you find a master to help you put the sword back?" If the sword is broken, it can be put back again. Fortunately, everyone is okay. Li Wen didn't dare to think about what would happen if Zhao Xiangyi didn't have another soft sword in his hand today. He would definitely be injured.

"No need to trouble you, I will just find the original master to repair it myself." Although the emperor gave him the Longquan Sword, the sword he originally used was also a good sword. The most important thing is that he used it so Zhao Xiangyi had feelings for that sword for many years, and he didn't even think about throwing it away.

"Okay, I'll go with you then." Li Wen wanted to follow him and have a look.

Zhao Xiangyi said yes and did not rush to ask the boy why he wanted to go with him.

With today's events in mind, Li Wen thought of a question. He asked, "I want to ask you a question. Are the weapons used by foreigners better than those of our Dacheng soldiers? When you were at the border, did you Did you find this problem?"

"Weapons are under the control of the Ministry of War and are not in our hands." That's all Zhao Xiangyi said.

It goes without saying that the weapons used by their soldiers are inferior to those of foreigners. There hasn't been much money spent on military supplies in recent years, and the military's weapons and equipment are all obsolete. In addition, these problems are under the control of the top and are not in their hands.

Even if military supplies are allocated and passed through the hands of layers of people, there is not much left, so if the weapons made at low prices are used in their hands, the quality will not be much better. They are far away from the border and cannot reach things in the capital. Many things are beyond their control.

Li Wen was obviously stunned when he heard Zhao Xiangyi's words. At the same time, he also thought of the possible twists and turns in the process. It's not like officials don't know who is not greedy, but being greedy for even this small amount of money can no longer be described as greedy, it can only be said to be completely unconscionable.

Li Wen really laughed out of anger and said speechlessly, "Your Majesty is really big-hearted." Even the military supplies were tampered with by the people below.

It had only been a few months since he became an official in the court, and he could already feel the atmosphere of the court. Now that he was authorized by the emperor to go to the morning court, he had a deeper understanding of some things in the court. The most terrifying thing was that the ministers in the court were unable to support the emperor and died to benefit the people.

There is also the fact that the officials below will swarm when they see a small profit like a fly, and will not do anything without profit. If this continues, this country will soon perish.

"Don't talk nonsense." Zhao Xiangyi heard the disrespect for the emperor in the young man's words.

For some reason, he always felt that the young man didn't respect the emperor as much as they did in his heart. The young man

respected , but not in his heart. This could be known from the young man's tone when he occasionally mentioned the emperor. If someone heard this outside, It's bound to cause trouble.

But regarding this problem, he didn't know how to correct the boy.

"Hey..." Li Wen sighed, looked at the man in front of him, and reached out to grab his hand. They all knew that these things in the court were terrible. Zhao Xiangyi held the young man's hand with his backhand and felt that the young man's hand was a little cold. He said, "Go to bed and sleep. It's cold sitting here."

"I haven't said anything yet. I'm done telling you." Li Wen grabbed Zhao Xiangyi's hand, thinking that this man was leaving.

"Sit on the bed and talk." Zhao Xiangyi didn't mean to leave, he just wanted the boy to feel warmer if he sat on the bed.

The two of them went to the bed, and Li Wen sat on the bed, half covered with a quilt. It was cold now, and he had to cover himself with a quilt at night. He asked the man if he wanted to come under the covers. When the man shook his head, he said no more. The weather in the capital is getting colder day by day. "It's already so cold in the capital at this time. It won't be long before it snows."

"When winter comes, will it be colder over the border?" Li asked, thinking of snow. Thinking of the soldiers at the border, he began to pay attention to these things since he was with Zhao Xiangyi.

On the plane again, he found out that the master he had worshiped since childhood was also from General Zhao's mansion, and he was still Mr. Zhao from General Zhao's mansion. After this time the foreign envoy's affairs were over, he might follow him back to the border, and he felt a little vague in his heart. Feeling anxious.

Although he knew that these things had to be done step by step and slowly, each of these things was urgent and had to be dealt with quickly. He even began to think in his heart that it would be better if the emperor would give way to others.

"Well, it's cold." It starts to snow in Bianguan at this time of year. Zhao Xiangyi nodded.

"This time, we must not take advantage of these foreigners." Li Wen said fiercely. Li Wen felt very angry when he thought that these foreigners came to the capital at this time of year to fight against the autumn wind and take away a large amount of their silver and food. This time, with him here, he promised that he would never let these people go. By taking away a single cent

,

he wants these people to see what it means to take away a single cent!

"When the time comes, we will find a way to get some silver from the Ministry of Household Affairs to pay the soldiers at the border." It has been another year, and the food and salary has been delayed year by year. I don't know when it will be paid again.

"This matter can't be rushed." Zhao Xiangyi reached out and smoothed the young man's hair and said.

"I know, it's just annoying." Li Wen thought of Nanyang. His teacher would definitely have a batch of supplies, and Dean Fu would give them to them if he wanted them. But they can't always think of ways to subsidize the border areas. This is something they shouldn't do.

And if they did this, not only would they get no credit, but the emperor would be suspicious if he knew about it, so only the emperor could do this. But the problem is that the emperor is not focused on these things now.

Li Wen couldn't help but think maliciously in his heart, the weather is getting colder, it's time for the emperor to pass away...

Oh, that's right, I haven't finished telling you what happened just now. Let's continue talking about this weapon. "Li Wen was also thinking about a question in his mind. If a knife collides with a sword, and the sword will be cut off, it has something to do with the material density, hardness, etc. of the sword itself. In fact, a very important one is the sword practice. Heat, this is a very critical point.

Li Wen was a little doubtful about the current level of craftsmanship in making weapons, so he talked about this matter, "Have you ever thought about the heat used to make weapons in addition to the material itself? Importantly, the higher the temperature of the fire, the harder the weapon will be. "

Zhao Xiangyi listened to the young man carefully. He understood a little, but he didn't seem to understand it completely.

"Let me tell you this. "Li Wen changed his approach. When it comes to these material issues, one of the main things is that they must have good iron ore. The imperial government has strict control over iron pipes. This is to prevent civilians from making weapons privately.

As As a modern person, Li Wen knows a little about all kinds of steel. He learned these things in physics and chemistry classes in high school. He now tries his best to use simple language to make others understand.

But apart from iron ore, There are also coal mines. Li Wen said, "There is also this smelting fire. I have read in an ancient book. The book mentioned that there is a burning stone that can be used to smelt iron and make stronger weapons

." Burning stones? "Zhao Xiangyi has never seen any burning stones.

"Well, yes, it's a burning stone. It's black. Have you ever seen it?" Li Wen saw Zhao Xiangyi's appearance and knew that this man didn't know. Even if he had seen it, he wouldn't understand. What is it, he said, "Send a few trustworthy people to look for it. It's a burning stone, black. If you find it, bring back a piece." What

he was talking about was coal. Modern adults don't care about coal. As you may know, coal is a combustible energy substance. In modern times, it is mainly used to produce electricity, and is also used for industrial purposes, such as refining metals, etc.

As for issues related to physical chemistry such as the composition and synthesis of coal, Li Wen was not going to talk to Zhao Xiangyi, lest he waste a long time talking and the person would not understand what he was talking about. But he still had to tell him the approximate color and appearance, as well as where it was easier to find it, and let Zhao Xiangyi arrange for someone to find it.

For example, coal mines are not yet well-known to people and people know how to use them, so they should be easy to find. You can see them in open-pit mines that are exposed on the surface. Take a few pieces back to test them first. If there is no problem, then transport them back in large quantities. "Okay, I'll arrange for someone to look for him when we get back." Zhao Xiangyi was obviously concerned about this matter.

"Well, that's pretty much all I have to say. You can go back, it's getting late." Seeing that it was getting late, Li Wen asked the man to go back first. If there were any problems, they would discuss them another day, and they were not in a hurry.

Zhao Xiangyi hummed, kissed the young man on the forehead, stood up and left.

Seeing the man's leaving figure, Li Wen lay on the bed and stared at the roof for a long time before closing his eyes and sleeping.

Chapter 53: Seeking Death

"Miss, what do you want to buy? Just ask the slave to come out and buy it, so as not to have to go out and run it yourself." A little girl dressed as a maid followed the beautiful young lady, talking nonstop. .

Hearing what the little maid said, the woman pursed her lips and smiled, and said, "I didn't want to buy anything. I just stayed in the house all day long and felt very bored, so I just wanted to go outside for a walk. "

My mother likes to eat pastries from Chen's shop on South Street. Let's stop by and buy some."

"Okay, miss, my wife will be very happy to see the pastries you bought for her."

Second Master and Servant . As he was walking on the street with people coming and going, he happened to be spotted by Avala who was going out with his escort. The beautiful woman had a smile on her face. Avala just took one look and couldn't take his eyes away.

These foreigners are used to grabbing the woman they like. If the son has the ability, he can also steal the woman from the father. He can get the woman he likes based on his ability. So when he saw such a beautiful woman on the street, Avala immediately gave the order. He asked his men to stop the woman, and when they saw her resistance, they kidnapped her on the street.

When the people on the street saw this happening, no one dared to stand up and stop it. They, ordinary people, couldn't afford to offend these people.

"Master, master, it's not good, something happened..."

The little girl ran back home in a hurry and told the people at home that their lady was snatched away on the street.

Under the emperor's feet, in the clear world, there was someone. He dared to rob a commoner's daughter, and even snatched her away from the Master Zhan's Mansion in the capital. The person who was abducted by the foreigners was the third lady of the Zhan Mansion, Zhan Shangxiang, the granddaughter of Master Zhan. Academician Zhan has only one legitimate son and two concubines. His legitimate son Zhan Weiyi is a fourth-rank Taichang City Shaoqing. He has two sons and one daughter. Therefore, this Miss Zhan is the only granddaughter of Academician Zhan and the legitimate daughter of the Zhan family. Third lady.

As soon as the people in the Zhan family received the news, there were only a few female family members at home at the time. Mrs. Zhan fainted when she heard that something had happened to her daughter. Mrs. Zhan made a decisive decision and asked the housekeeper to send someone to notify the master of his return, send someone to complain to the officials, and asked the housekeeper to take the guards of the house to the Sifang Pavilion to demand the person.

It's just that the people from Zhan's family arrived a step late.

This Miss Zhan has a strong personality. In this era when a woman's reputation is more important than her life, once her reputation is gone, she will have no shame in living in this world. Miss Zhan was brought to the hotel, and at that time she was He hit a pillar and died soon after.

So when the housekeeper of the Zhan family rushed to the hotel with his people, the government officials also arrived. The two parties clashed with the foreigners outside the door. When the housekeeper of the Zhan family and his people broke through the obstruction and entered, they saw All that arrived was the still-warm body of their young lady, who was already lifeless.

"Ah... my poor son, why did you leave like this..."

"Ah... when you left like this, you cost your mother's life... your mother's darling..."

Wait until Sometimes when Zhan hurried back to his residence from the palace, he saw white silk hanging on the residence, the body of his dead granddaughter placed in the lobby, covered with white cloth, and the people in the residence were crying. On the way back, University Scholar Zhan already knew what happened at his house, but he didn't expect that when he came back, his granddaughter would be gone.

When he knew the cause and effect of this matter, Zhan Shi was so angry that he spat out a mouthful of blood, "I

, Zhan Shi, will definitely not let you go. I am simply bullying others too much." "Master, master, go and call the doctor quickly."

At this time, Zhan's house was in chaos.

"What?" Li Wenchu ​​didn't believe it when he heard this.

"Master, it's true. Everyone outside is talking about this." Li Tong also heard what others said. He thought his young master didn't believe it, so he said, "Many people saw it on the street today. There are other things happening. Is it false?"

"It's not that I don't believe it, it's just that..." Li Wen was a little confused. He didn't expect such a thing to happen.

A good life was lost like this, and something like this happened in the house of Master Zhan. He also visited Master Zhan several times in private, a wise old gentleman. When Master Zhan knew that his granddaughter was gone like this, he would probably be very sad and sad. He was not a person involved, so it was difficult for him to empathize, but he could understand that feeling.

Whether such a thing happens in an ordinary family or a powerful family, it is something that is unacceptable and sad to the relatives at home.

He knew that Avala was a brainless person, but he didn't expect that person's brain to be so stupid. How big of a heart did he have to dare to do such a thing in broad daylight in the capital city. The person who was kidnapped was the granddaughter of a hired bachelor. If it were in an ordinary family, there might not be anything that could be done to Avala, but Avala is now in trouble with Grandmaster Zhan, and he knows that Grandmaster Zhan will definitely not let Ahwala go. Wala.

He saw that Avala was sure that he would come to the capital as a foreign envoy, and that he would cause a big trouble. They, Chengdu, could not do anything to him, so they dared to do such a thing in the capital.

What Li Wen is worried about now is that they really have nothing to do with Avala...

Miss Zhan's death was not directly related to Avala, but was indirectly caused by him. It seemed that women in this era valued honor and integrity more seriously than he had imagined. When he returned home, he would teach the girls at home that no matter what happened, nothing was more important than living.

But how this matter will be handled will be known tomorrow morning.

"Let's go, let's go back first." Li Wen took Li Tong back home.

No matter when he comes back, there will be hot meals waiting for him at home. In the more than half a year since he arrived in the capital, Li Wen has gradually become accustomed to the life here. He also has his younger brother and younger sister here with him, and he has to take care of his younger brother and younger sister when he has time.

They were all busy with their own affairs during the day, and only saw each other again when everyone came back at night.

Li Jinwan feels that her life now is more comfortable than when she was in her hometown. While helping her brother with things, she would ask her brother if she encountered something she didn't understand. She was very busy every day.

She felt that her current life could not be more fulfilling, and she had not thought about getting married at all. She is busy making calculations every day, thinking about how much she will earn today, how much she will earn tomorrow, how much she will earn this month, and whether it will be more than last month. Her mind is now full of business knowledge, so how can she have time to think about it? Something else.

"Brother, you should eat first." When her brother came back, Li Jinwan asked someone to go to the kitchen to bring the food.

"Yeah." After a busy day outside, he was hungry when he came back, so Li Wen sat down to eat first.

At this time, both Li Jinwan and Li Haopeng had already eaten, and they were waiting for their brother to eat.

By the time he finished eating, it was already dark outside.

The oil lamp was lit in the room. Li Wen had the dishes removed from the table and made a pot of tea. He had a lot of things to do recently and was busy until late every day. He came back a little early today. , Li Wen randomly checked the kid's homework, and the kid he asked could answer the questions. If he wanted to give a score, he could barely get a seventy percent score.

"Yes, it seems that brother hasn't paid much attention to you recently, and your homework has not fallen behind." Li Wen patted the boy's head and said, "Keep it up, don't be arrogant and complacent. There are people who are not as good as you and better than you." There are many people out there. If you don't work hard, you will soon be surpassed by those who work hard behind you. "

"Well, don't worry, brother, I will study hard and I will not embarrass you. ." Li Haopeng said seriously.

"You don't make my brother feel at ease by studying. If you study well, it will be your own if you are successful in the future. It is not your brother's face that you are embarrassing, but your own face." Li Wen tapped the boy's forehead. , said.

"I don't want to embarrass my brother, and I don't want to embarrass my brother either."

Li Haopeng rolled in his brother's arms, giggling. Li Wen almost drove the brat off, but in the end he indulged the brat.

Although he paid close attention to the children's homework, he did not blindly let the children only know how to study and nothing else. In addition to reading, Li Wen also teaches children other things.

He thought of Zhao Xiangyi's younger brother, who looked younger than his boy. He still owes the family a meeting gift. When he looks back to see if there is anything delicious or fun, he asks Zhao Xiangyi to take it to the child.

"Brother, when will you publish the second book? I can't wait to get it." "Read it." Li Haopeng is his brother's number one book fan. After reading his brother's first book "Drawing on the Three Kingdoms", Li Haopeng fell in love with reading this kind of short story. But it was a pity that there was only one copy. He read it back and forth three or four times, and even lent it to his close classmates to read together.

Li Wen gave the book to his younger brother. He did not restrict children from reading villain books, and besides, this book It can also be used as an enlightenment book for children, so he gave the book to the children to read.

"Thank you for being so complimentary to my brother. However, my brother has not had time to draw pictures recently. He will have to wait for some time before he can continue drawing." This was a reminder from the number one fan of the book, and Li Wen suddenly felt a little bit dumbfounded.

Because of the arrival of the foreign envoy, he has been busy recently. The half-drawn pictures he had previously painted are now sitting there and he has not continued to draw them. At least I have to wait until this period of time is over before I have time to continue painting later.

There was also the bookstore that Zhao Xiangyi bought. He said he would go and take a look, but he forgot about it when he got busy. He didn't even know what the situation was like in that bookstore. When I look back, I have to go over there and have a look to see how they can make a profit by integrating it. Otherwise, these thousands of taels of money will be wasted. They are short of money now.

"Okay, brother, I understand." Although he was a little disappointed, Li Haopeng could still understand the fact that his brother was busy, but the child did not give up and said, "How about, brother, you can continue to tell me the following story, you are all It's been a long time since I told you a story."

"It's okay if you want my brother to tell you a story. You go back and take a shower first, then go to bed and wait for your brother. He'll say a few words to your fourth sister and he'll come over to you in a moment. ." Li Wen coaxed the child away first.

"Brother, remember to come. I'll wait for you." Seeing that his brother was willing to tell him stories, the child happily went back to

take a bath.

"Okay." Li Wen smiled somewhat.

"Brother, do you have something to say to me?" Li Jinwan was smart. As soon as she saw her brother coaxing her younger brother away, she knew that her brother should have something to say to her.

She picked up the teapot and poured a little tea into her brother's cup.

"Okay, that's enough. No need to add more tea." It was not easy to drink so much tea at night. Li Wen was worried that he would not be able to sleep after drinking too much tea, and would get up and run to the toilet several times in the middle of the night after drinking too much water. "That's true. It's not something important, let's just chat."

Li Jinwan had a look on her face that said, "If you have anything to say, just say it, I'll listen."

"Brother just wants to tell you that no matter now or in the future, no matter what happens to you, he will always be there. He is your most solid support. Brother is very happy that you came to see him when you encountered trouble. Although The way you did things was a bit reckless, but fortunately nothing happened on the way." His girl was so courageous. She had never traveled far since she was a child, and she dared to go to Nanyang to look for him alone for the first time. At that time. There are still refugees everywhere outside. Fortunately, although this girl acted a little recklessly, she was quite lucky.

When Li Wen thought of this incident now, he felt only lucky. Fortunately, this girl knew to come to him as a brother when something happened to her since she was a child. Moreover, this girl had always had good luck and was able to find him easily.

So the same thing will be handled differently by different people.

Thinking of this, Li Wen felt that his worries were unnecessary. This girl in his family seemed to be a master who refused to suffer losses. It was good that she would not let others suffer losses.

"Of course, you are my brother. Who should I turn to if I don't have anything to do with you?" Li Jinwan said to her brother with a smile on her face.

"Well, just remember that I'm your brother. Okay, nothing's going to happen. You can go back to sleep." Li Wen was worried and warned him not to run outside if nothing happened. Li Jinwan said, "Brother, I understand."

However, she had to go to the store every now and then, and she still had to go out.

Li asked and asked the boy to tell him a story. After the people left, he went to the yard next door. The boy had already taken a bath and got under the quilt on the bed to wait for him. Seeing his brother coming, Li Haopeng moved to his seat inside, leaving the outside seat for his brother. He opened the quilt and said, "Brother, come in too."

Li Wen took off his shoes and got under the quilt . Go and tell the children the stories in Journey to the West.

"Brother, why don't you go back tonight and sleep with me."

"Brother won't sleep with you, so go to bed quickly."

After telling a story, the child also fell asleep, and Li Wen got out of the warm quilt. He came out, covered the child with a quilt, blew out the lights in the room, and went out. After giving instructions outside, he took the child back to the yard where he lived.

Chapter 54: Second update

This night in the capital is destined to be an unstable night.

Someone died in the Sifang Pavilion, and the person who died was the granddaughter of the current minister Zhan Da Shi. Several foreigners kidnapped people on the streets of the capital. Many people witnessed it with their own eyes at that time. Now the people died in the hotel. Needless to say, this was inseparable from Avala, the foreign envoy.

Jingzhao Prefecture Yin Jiapeng received the case. One was the third prince of Tarim, and the other was the granddaughter of Master Zhan. He could not afford to offend either of them. Jia Peng could not make a decision on this case, so he had to go to the palace. Please ask the Holy Spirit how to deal with it.

"Your Majesty, you must make the decision for me. My granddaughter died unjustly..." Academician Zhan knelt in front of the emperor with tears streaming down his face. He appealed for the injustice of his dead granddaughter and begged the emperor to make the decision for him. "...We can't The granddaughter of Rang Chen died in such an unexplained manner. I beg the Emperor to seek justice for me."

When Emperor Zhaozong came to see this matter, he immediately became angry and said, "This is simply unreasonable." The tribe simply did not take him as the emperor seriously, and they dared to do such things on the street in broad daylight, challenging his authority as the emperor again and again.

"My son, please see your father." The prince knew something had happened and hurried into the palace with his people.

"We have met the emperor." Li Wen and Zhao Xiangyi followed His Royal Highness the Crown Prince into the palace. When they arrived, the emperor's study room was brightly lit. Several ministers were here, presumably because of what happened in the palace today

. The great scholar knelt on the ground and refused to get up, begging the emperor to make the decision for him.

"Prince, you are here just in time. I believe you also know what is going on. In your opinion, how should this matter be handled?" The emperor waved his hand to let people get up and asked the prince.

Yang Shaomu was the person in charge of receiving the foreign envoys this time. Now that something like this happened, he, the prince, could not escape the blame. It is a fact that the third lady of the Zhan family is dead, and Avala is an envoy of a foreign nation. Once this matter is not handled well, it will cause conflicts between the two countries.

As a veteran of the imperial court, Academician Zhan has tens of millions of students all over the world standing behind him. If he really lets Avala go like this, it will only chill the hearts of Academician Zhan and the scholars all over the world. On the way here, Yang Shaomu thought that his father would definitely ask him this question, so he came prepared, "Going back to my father, in my opinion, the death of Zhan Shangxiang, the granddaughter of Zhan University, is related to the death of the Tarim Three Prince Avala can't get away with it. But before the truth of the matter is found out and Avala confesses in person, Erchen suggested that someone should be sent to imprison Avala and wait for interrogation before making a decision.

"Li Liuyuan, you tell me." Emperor Zhaozong nodded and looked at Li Liuyuan.

Seeing the emperor looking at him, Li Wen took a step forward and said, "Wei Chen agrees with His Highness's statement."

Even now that the evidence is conclusive, the review of this case should still follow normal procedures. In the meantime, they There is still time to discuss how to deal with the foreign envoy Avala.

"In this case, send Zhang Kun over." Emperor Zhaozong looked stern.

After calming down, the emperor knew in his heart that he could not kill this foreign envoy casually. If this matter was not handled well, it would easily lead to war between the two races. But at the same time, he couldn't ignore the veteran kneeling on the ground, and he had to give an explanation.

"I see the Emperor." Zhang Kun is the commander of the Yulin Army and is responsible for the emperor's safety and the protection of the imperial city.

"I order you to take people to arrest the foreign envoy Avala. The case will be handed over to Dali Temple for personal trial." Emperor Zhaozong said

, "Yes, I obey the order."

Zhang Kun, commander of the Yulin Army, accepted the emperor's order and went there that night. I took people to the tavern to get them. At this time, the outside of the tavern was surrounded by officers and soldiers, and no one inside could escape. Avala was not a man who could be easily captured. People from both sides started to fight. The guards brought by Avala were all highly skilled in martial arts. The Yulin Army lost a lot of their masters before they captured this foreign prince. The people were imprisoned. "Zhan Aiqing , please go back first. We will discuss this matter tomorrow." Emperor Zhaozong was in a very irritable mood. "Li Liuyuan, you stay here .

If there is nothing wrong with the others, please go back.

" With the help of others, he tremblingly went out. Before leaving, the prince glanced at Li Liuyuan, and Zhao Xiangyi followed the prince out. That night, Li Wen did not leave the palace until late at night. Passing the young father-in-law who was escorting him out, Li Wen took two steps outside and saw the familiar carriage waiting for him in front of the palace gate. He didn't even need to think about it, and he knew who was coming to pick him up. His face. Shang couldn't help but smile. "Come up." "Zhao Xiangyi lifted the car curtain and stretched out his hand to the young man standing by the carriage. "Why did you come to pick me up? You have been waiting for so long? ''Li Wen got on the carriage and exhaled. "I didn't wait for long. I just came out from His Highness. I thought you were still in the palace, so I waited for you here." Zhao Xiangyi put his arm around the young man's waist and held him in his arms. He didn't even ask the emperor to leave. What did the young man say when he came down? "It's quite tiring to talk to the emperor." Li Wen said. He was very sleepy now. If he hadn't gone to the palace in the middle of the night, he would have been sleeping in bed now. Thinking of going to court tomorrow morning, Li Wen stretched out his hand and rubbed the center of his brow, remembering the conversation he had just had with the emperor in the imperial study room. The emperor asked him what he thought about this matter. He knew that the emperor must have known about it, but he just let it go. It's definitely not possible to cross Avala, but it's definitely not possible to cut people down. It just depends on whether the emperor is ready to deal with foreigners. In fact, this war with foreigners may be a matter of time, but now for them, if you can avoid a war, try to avoid it, but blindly giving in will only make others think you are weak and can be bullied. After Li Wen figured out what the emperor was thinking, he boldly expressed his opinion. However, the emperor did not respond later, so Li Wen was not sure what the emperor was thinking. The capital seemed to be extraordinarily quiet tonight. The carriages ran onto the road and the wheels made a rattling sound. The carriage returned to the gate of Liuyuan Mansion. Li Wen got off the carriage and asked the person who sent him back to go back and rest early. "Okay." Zhao Xiangyi wanted to reach out and touch the young man's face, but because there were outsiders, he didn't do that. He just looked at his young man intently, with a hint of tenderness in him. Li Wen smiled at the man and watched him get on the carriage before he took Li Tong back to the mansion. This night, after not sleeping for two hours, he had to get up to go to the morning court. Li Wen cursed in his heart, but he could only get up resignedly. In the morning court the next day, all the officials knelt on the ground and shouted: Long live the emperor, long live the emperor. "Everyone loves you." The emperor sat on the dragon chair above, looking down at the officials below. "Thank you, Your Majesty." The officials below stood up one after another. Li Wen stood at the end of the queue. After the last time he went back, he asked Yingchun to sew several "kneeling shoes" for him. He wears them every day when he goes out. Anyway, it is covered with the hem of his clothes, so others can't see what he wears on his knees. Holding something. Otherwise, when you enter the palace, you will kneel down when meeting people, and when you return, your knees will be swollen. He couldn't help but complain in his heart, this is how the Chinese people's thousands of years of servility came out. "If you have something to do, go back to court -" the eunuch shouted. "Your Majesty, I have something to report."

Early in the morning, a minister from the court reported that the third prince of Tarim, Hanur Awala, raped civilian girls in the streets of the capital and killed people. He showed no respect for the king's law, despised the king's power, etc. "Such evil deeds must be punished." Punishment, otherwise these foreigners will really think that we, Dacheng, are easy to bully."

"Please, the emperor, make the decision for me and give me justice." The father and son of the Zhan family knelt in the Jinluan Hall and begged the emperor to make the decision for them.

At the same time, there is another faction in the court that does not support the punishment of foreign envoys. They believe that if Avala comes to Dacheng as a foreign envoy, if something happens in Dacheng, it will be difficult for Dacheng to explain to the King of Tarim, which will affect Dacheng and Tarim. Friendship between the two races.

The two factions each held their own opinions, and the court was noisy.

If it were just a commoner woman who died today, this incident would not cause any trouble, and she would definitely let it go gently and pretend it never happened. Under the emperor's feet, all kinds of unfair things happen every day, but not everyone has the ability to seek justice for themselves. Many times, the ordinary people outside have grievances and nowhere to redress them, and they may even seek justice for themselves. This resulted in the destruction of the family.

The entire hall was as noisy as a vegetable market. Emperor Zhaozong's ears were buzzing, and finally he couldn't bear it and said, "Shut up, everyone. Do you even know where this place is?

" The ministers all shut up, and no one dared to speak.

At this time, there was a foreign envoy outside the palace asking to see him. It was the gentleman next to Prince Avara.

Emperor Zhaozong asked the imperial guards to let people in.

"I have met Your Majesty. I am here today for the sake of our Third Prince." Their Prince was taken away last night. Needless to say, Mr. Gao's arrival is for their Prince. Emperor Zhaozong asked,

"Do you know what your Prince did in Dacheng?"

"Your Majesty, there is a misunderstanding about this matter." The man said calmly.

"Misunderstanding?" Emperor Zhaozong laughed angrily and asked, "Then tell me, what is the misunderstanding?"

"Your Majesty, our Prince invited that young lady here with no ill intentions, he just wanted to communicate with her. " That lady is a friend. It's just that what happened next was not what we expected. We are sorry that such a thing happened, and we are very sorry for this. "Gaos did not go out with their prince yesterday. If he went out with their prince, he would never let their prince do such a thing.

But now that things have happened, he can only try to save it. No matter what, he They must bring their prince back safely.

Chapter 55 Punishment

This is obviously a piece of sophistry.

What happened on the street yesterday was witnessed by all the people in the capital. No one outside the family knows what happened in the hotel, but Zhan Shangxiang, the granddaughter of the great scholar Zhan, died in the hotel. This matter of life and death cannot be denied by the other party.

Academician Zhan jumped out on the spot and pointed at the opponent's nose and cursed, "How can a regret or apology be enough to offset one life? Killing requires a life. Today, even if I have to sacrifice my own life, I won't let you go

." Please believe that your majesty, our prince, has no intention of murdering Miss Zhan. "Mr. Gao tried his best to argue for their prince.

Discussions broke out in the court.

Emperor Zhaozong looked at the ministers below and asked, "Li Liuyuan, tell me, what do you think about this matter? "Your Majesty, the foreign envoy Hanur Avara is one of the parties involved in this case. I suggest that it is better to send Avara to the palace for questioning, so that the whole story and process can be known." "Li Liuyuan stepped forward, knelt on the ground and said.

"Xuan. " Emperor Zhaozong nodded and said.

Not long after, Avala was shackled on his hands and feet and was escorted to the main hall by the guards. When the prince saw the Dacheng emperor in the main hall, he refused to kneel down. He didn't wait. When the emperor spoke, the ministers of the court jumped out and said, "Be brave and don't kneel down when you see the emperor. "

The two guards holding him on the left and right forced him to kneel down.

Avala was forced to kneel on the ground, struggling constantly, talking nonsense in their mouths, "...let me go, I am Third Prince of Tarim, you dare to be disrespectful to me. When I return to Tarim, I will definitely ask my father to send cavalry to crush your Dacheng Kingdom. "

The ministers in the court who understood Hu language translated Avala's words to the emperor. When Emperor Zhaozong heard this, his face suddenly turned ugly, "At this time, if you are still so unrepentant, come and drag him out and beat him thirty times!

"Your Majesty, please spare us, Your Highness the Prince. We, The Prince, have no intention of offending Your Majesty. " "Mr. Gao could only watch helplessly as their prince was escorted out.

Until this time, Mr. Gao also realized that they were alone in Dacheng. The one sitting on them was the emperor of Dacheng. They only brought more than five hundred people with them this time. When people came to Dacheng, they only brought a few dozen warriors into the capital. The rest were waiting outside the city. At this time, they simply did not have enough strength to compete with the emperor of Dacheng...

Bang bang bang...

sticks were heard outside . The sound of hitting the human body was also accompanied by the yelling of the prince.

"Your Majesty, the way our prince invited Miss Zhan was wrong. Now that such an accident has occurred, we cannot escape responsibility. I will definitely report this matter to our king truthfully when I get back. Please allow me to take our prince back to Tarim and hand him over to our king. I will definitely give your majesty a satisfactory answer. "

Your Majesty, our Prince is the envoy to Dacheng on behalf of our king. If something happens to our Highness in Dacheng, it will definitely affect the friendship between Dacheng and Tarim." For the sake of the friendship between Dacheng and Tarim, please forgive us, Your Highness the Prince, for our mistakes. "Seeing that the Emperor of Dacheng really asked people to beat their prince, Mr. Gao suppressed the panic in his heart and said to the Emperor of Dacheng.

Li Wen heard that the other party's way of speaking was very clever, and he said "forcibly abducted people" "Invitation", they refused to admit that it was their fault. Although Miss Zhan San died in the hotel, she was not killed by Avala himself. Avala should bear the greatest responsibility, but the crime is not enough. Death.

It is a clear rule in the diplomacy between the two countries not to kill the envoy. Once the envoy is killed, it will inevitably cause bad relations between the two countries.

"Your Majesty, what the envoy said is right. It is better for us to hand over the person." Let the king of Tarim deal with it and let the other party give us an explanation. If something happens to His Royal Highness in Dacheng, it will definitely cause conflicts between the two countries. "Your Majesty, please think twice." "Some officials in the court persuaded the emperor to give in.

If today they caused Dacheng to fall into the flames of war for a woman and ignored the lives of the people, it would be a loss more than the gain.

Over the years, some officials of Dacheng have responded to these The reason why the foreigners are afraid is because the foreigners have strong soldiers and horses. Every time Dacheng starts a war with the foreigners, Dacheng suffers heavy losses and countless casualties. The war with the foreigners sixteen years ago is still vivid in his mind, if not for Zhao. The old general fought tooth and nail against the enemy and held on until the reinforcements arrived. The foreigners had already broken through the gate and entered the pass. However, although Dacheng lost that battle, they also paid a heavy price. General Zhao and Zhao Dalang paid a heavy price for this. He paid his life and died on the battlefield.

After thirty spankings, Avala, whose butt was bruised and bruised, was dragged back to the main hall,

"In our place, the prince breaks the law and the common people are guilty. You are from Tarim. Prince, if you are not one of my great masters, I

will only let you be beaten thirty times. We, Dacheng, are determined to establish diplomatic relations with Tarim and be good brothers. I don't want to see Dacheng and Tarim go to war with each other. "After all, Emperor Zhaozong was concerned about the other party's identity and couldn't really kill the person. He just had someone beat him thirty times and handed the person back to the foreign envoy. At the same time, he issued an order prohibiting Hanur A. If Wala sets foot in the capital in his lifetime, he will be severely punished if found out.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. May you be safe. "Mr. Gao asked someone to pick up their prince, thanked the emperor of Dacheng, and had his things packed up that day. He took their prince out of the city and met up with hundreds of warriors waiting outside the city.

This time, instead of asking for money, food and other supplies from Dacheng, Avala still lay in the carriage and left the capital. The group walked away in dejection with their tails between their

legs . Academician Zhan was the most unwilling. They all knew that once he let the other party go back to the grassland, it would be impossible for the King of Tarim to punish his son, which would mean that nothing would happen to him once he became successful.

But for this result, Zhan didn't. No matter how unwilling the family members were, they all knew that they could not kill each other. The deceased was already dead, and they could not ignore the future of the Zhan family and the lives of the people in the world for the sake of a woman in the family.

It was a pity for Miss Zhan San . , that talented and beautiful woman passed away like this.

At the Sanliting Pavilion outside the city gate, Li Wen and Zhao Xiangyi were here to see his master off.

"You will be a good official in the capital and wait until the next time the master comes back to the capital. Come back to see you. I'll keep Dahei with you, and I won't take him away." Zhao Si was responsible for escorting the foreign envoys to Beijing this time. Now that these foreigners have left the capital, they have to leave too. They have to keep an eye on these people along the way. They were relieved when the foreigners left the border.

This time, Zhao Si did not take the dog with him. The dog had been with him for more than ten years and was quite old. There were many dangers at the border. It happened that his little apprentice was here in the capital. So he sent the dog to his little apprentice and asked him to take care of it

. "Well, I will take good care of Dahei." "Li Wen nodded and said.

The Hu people outside the pass are always ready to make trouble, and the battle between Dacheng and the Hu people is probably unavoidable.

After leaving this time, he didn't know when he would be able to return to the capital, but he knew that his little apprentice Here in the capital, this official has a decent job. Zhao Si knows better than anyone what kind of person his young apprentice is, so he is not worried that this young apprentice will suffer a loss if he mixes among the old foxes in the capital. . But after all, he was still not worried about his little apprentice being alone in the capital. Zhao Si told his nephew to help him take care of his little apprentice.

"Fourth uncle, I will do it. "Zhao Xiangyi will take good care of his boy without his fourth uncle's orders. This is his boy and he will not hand it over to anyone else.

"Master, I have nothing to prepare for you. Here are some wine, dry food, and a few bottles of anti-hemorrhage medicine. Master, take it with you on the way." Li Wen gave the package he had prepared in advance to his master. He thought he The master can stay in the capital for a few more days, but now people are leaving in a hurry, so there are still some things that he wants to prepare for his master, but he has no time to prepare them.

But it doesn't matter. When it's ready next time, Zhao Xiangyi will be here. Just ask him to send someone to send it there.

"Good disciple, you are so kind to the master." I picked up such a young disciple for nothing, but I didn't expect to be so filial to his master.

Knowing that this was what the young apprentice wanted, Zhao Si did not delay, took it, and handed it to the person following him.

"Master, I will prepare lots and lots of good wine for you to drink next time you come back." Li Wen still remembered the days that master and apprentice spent in the thatched hut at the foot of the mountain. More than ten years passed in the blink of an eye. They had been separated for several years, and the master and apprentice finally reunited, but they didn't have much time to get together. Time was always too rushed, and he couldn't help but feel a little emotional in his heart.

"Haha, okay, it's settled." Zhao Si laughed.

"I'm leaving."

"Master, take care."

"Uncle Fourth, take care."

Behind him was the team waiting for him. Zhao Si took his horse from the people behind him, turned over and sat on the horse. He waved to his young apprentice and nephew on his back, turned his horse's head, and drove the horse over to join his people. The group of people rode away from the capital.

Li Wen stood with Zhao Xiangyi, looking at the leaving team. Only when the team could no longer be seen, did he look away and said to the people around him, "Let's go back."

The two of them walked towards the city gate, behind them It's the people who follow them.

"Yes, I haven't asked you yet, how did you meet my fourth uncle?" Zhao Xiangyi asked.

"Huh? Didn't I tell you about this?" Li Wen smiled when Zhao Xiangyi shook his head and said no, and talked about meeting his master that year, and how he later became his master and followed him The master learned martial arts and hunted in the mountains. "But when I practiced martial arts with the master, I spent three days fishing and two days drying nets, so I didn't learn well."

After he started studying in the academy at the age of five, most of his thoughts were focused on studying . , practicing martial arts is just a way to relax after studying, and it can also strengthen the body, so although he practices martial arts with his master, his martial arts is still half-assed.

Thinking about it now, the time he spent with his master when he was young was probably the most relaxing and enjoyable time he had ever had in his childhood.

"If you had to concentrate on practicing martial arts instead of studying, there would be no Li Liuyuan today, don't you think?" No wonder he looked a little familiar with the young man's martial arts method. It turned out that his fourth uncle had brought it out personally, but this was his fourth uncle. Zhao Xiangyi will not comment on the martial arts skills taught by his apprentices.

"Haha, you are right." Li Wen felt the same way and couldn't help but laugh.

Chapter 56

The generals guarding the city at the bookstore knew Zhao Xiangyi. When they saw that they didn't even need to check, they just let them into the city.

"Are you going to be busy with anything soon? I want to check out the bookstore you bought. If you want to be busy, just go and do yours. I will just take the child there." Li Wen thought of Zhao Xiangyi at this moment He spent several thousand taels of silver to buy the bookstore. He just had some time at this time and wanted to go there and have a look.

"I'm not busy. I'll go with you." Even if Zhao Xiangyi is busy at this time, he can't say he's busy anymore.

"Okay, let's go over there and have a look." Li Wen didn't have to rush back to the Hanlin Academy at this time. Foreign envoys came to the capital and left behind a lot of mess. However, precisely because of what happened this time, they left without getting anything at all. Otherwise, those people might still be in the capital and waiting for help. Money requires food.

The emperor just asked Avala to be beaten thirty times, which really gave him an advantage!

The result of this disposal is naturally extremely unfair to the Zhan family, but so what if it is unfair? This result had been expected by Li Wen. The emperor could let people beat Avala thirty times, but the emperor had to be tough in front of these foreigners.

I heard that Academician Zhan had taken sick leave and fell ill in bed. The emperor sent the imperial physician to him and gave him many precious medicinal materials. At this time, even if he went from a sixth-grade official to Zhan's house, he might not be able to enter Zhan's house, so Li Wen just asked someone to send something to Zhan's house, but did not go to Zhan's house in person.

Li Wen thought of Wang Hao and asked the man next to him, "How is Wang Hao's injury? Is he getting better?" In the competition that day, Wang Hao's injury must have been quite serious. If his master hadn't taken action at that time, Wang Hao might have died. The bald man drew his sword.

"He is still lying on the bed. The emperor sent the imperial doctor to check on him." Zhao Xiangyi visited Wang Hao the day before yesterday. They are both children of aristocratic families in the capital. They have met frequently since they were young, so they naturally know each other. His private relationship with Wang Hao was okay, and the two even drank together.

Li Wen guessed that the relationship between the Zhao family and the Wang family should be good. The military generals in the court were more united than the civil servants. The military generals were not so frivolous. They were all rough guys with straightforward personalities. If there was any conflict, they would fight. Well, I won't put it in my mind and look back and calculate it slowly. This is the biggest difference between civil servants and military generals.

Civil servants are good at strategies, and to put it bluntly, they like to do things behind their backs.

Of course, this is only true for some people, not all people. At least Li Wen felt that he was quite an aboveboard person and didn't like to do things behind the scenes.

The main roads in the capital are distributed in the shape of a "well", with roads crisscrossing and extending in all directions.

Pedestrians and carriages are coming and going on the road. This is the political, economic and cultural center of the entire Dacheng Kingdom. There are carriages and horses pulling goods on the road. Businessmen from all over the country gather here to sell their goods to Da Cheng at high prices. Officials and nobles bought goods from here and shipped them to other places to sell them, earning the price difference and profits from the process.

These businessmen are like fish in a big river. They can travel to all parts of the country along the current. Wherever there is money to be made, these businessmen can be found.

Li Wen and Zhao Xiangyi were walking on the street with pedestrians coming and going with the sounds of vendors hawking in their ears.

Seeing a car and horse coming from behind, Zhao Xiangyi subconsciously protected the boy with his hands to prevent the car, horse and passers-by from behind from hitting him. Li Wen noticed Zhao Xiangyi's protective actions and leaned closer to the man, with a pleasant smile on his lips.

"Master, this is it." Zhao Kui, who was leading the way, said.

This is a two-story bookstore facing the street. Looking in from the outside, the store is quite large. There are people buying things inside, and people coming in and out of the door from time to time. Li Wen stood at the door. His first impression was that the location of this shop was good and the shop was spacious. No wonder this shop was not cheap.

"Let's go inside and take a look." Li Wen took the lead and walked in, followed by Zhao Xiangyi.

Zhao Kui and Li Tong followed their master and walked in together.

As soon as he entered the door, Li Wen looked at the little book displayed in a prominent place in the store. Isn't this his own "Drawing on the Three Kingdoms"? He immediately laughed, picked up a book and took a look.

"Sir, do you want to buy any books?" The shopkeeper saw a customer coming and asked.

Seeing the picture album in the young master's hand, the shopkeeper said, "What the young master is holding is the best-selling picture album in our store. The first three editions have been sold out. This is the first one we have printed." It's the fourth edition, and there are only a few copies left. If you come here tomorrow, sir

, I won't be able to boast. My bookstore is the only one in the whole capital that has this book. You can't find it anywhere else, sir. If so, why not buy a copy and read it slowly?" It is precisely because of this that many people come to them just to buy this picture album, so their book has been selling very well recently.

Li Wen naturally knew what was in it. He didn't come here just to buy books. He put the book in his hand back to its original place, looked at the shopkeeper and asked with a smile, "Shopkeeper, I don't know whether more adults or children come to buy this book

." I really haven't calculated this carefully. There are both adults and children. "This is the first time that Shopkeeper Zhang has seen this kind of book. It contains pictures and text explanations. It is easy to understand and can be understood by a three-year-old child. Adults also like to read it, so this book has been printed in several batches and has been sold out. The story of this book is still being printed.

Many people came to ask if there was any more. Shopkeeper Zhang was worried about this matter. They did not find someone to draw this book, but the owner took it. He came here to ask them to print it, so he had never contacted the author of this book, and now he didn't know where to find someone to tell him to finish the rest of the story.

Li Wen nodded and glanced behind Zhao Kui. "

Shopkeeper Zhang, do you still remember me? "Zhao Kui took a step forward and asked.

"Oh, remember. "Shopkeeper Zhang took a look. He obviously remembered the visitor and was quite happy to see him.

Zhao Kui was the one who bought the bookstore. He had met shopkeeper Zhang once and shopkeeper Zhang knew him.

He He introduced to shopkeeper Zhang, "This is the new boss. The book you just mentioned was written by the boss." The new boss in Zhao Kui's mouth does not refer to his master, but to Li Liuyuan.

Outsiders do not know his master and Li Liuyuan. Zhao Kui knew the relationship, and naturally knew that Li Liuyuan was a special being to his master. As a servant, in addition to doing his job well and completing the tasks ordered by his master, he also knew that there were things that were not his responsibility. He can't take care of it.

"The young man has eyesight but doesn't know Taishan. He doesn't even know that his boss is coming. "Shopkeeper Zhang didn't know that the new boss was still so young. After knowing that this book "Painting the Three Kingdoms" was written by the new boss, shopkeeper Zhang was in awe of the new boss, and his attitude immediately became respectful and said, "Please, please , go inside and have a cup of tea. "

Li Wen nodded, glanced at Zhao Xiangyi, and followed the shopkeeper inside.

"My surname is Zhang and my first name is Jinyuan. I used to be the shopkeeper of the store. Some of the former clerks also stayed. But the boss wants to Meet everyone? Shopkeeper Zhang asked someone to pour tea and handed it over politely. Li Wen took it, put it on the table, and said, "It's not urgent to meet the guys. I came here on an impromptu basis today." Take a look here. Shopkeeper Zhang, you're welcome. Please sit down. I'll ask you a few questions.

"Yes. " "Shopkeeper Zhang sat down on the chair below. He didn't know what his boss wanted to ask him, and he felt very

nervous.

"It's nothing important, just a casual chat. Shopkeeper Zhang, please relax and don't be nervous." Li Wen saw the other party's nervousness and said with a smile.

He asked, "Are all the books in the bookstore printed by yourself?"

Li Wen had never opened a bookstore before, so he didn't know much about some things, but he probably knew a little. There is no such thing as copyright in Dacheng. As long as a bookstore can get the book, its own master can print it and sell it. So to put it bluntly, most of the books outside are pirated and there is no such thing as copyright.

However, piracy is rampant even in modern times, so these things are difficult to eradicate.

"Most of them are printed by the masters in our shop, and some are collected from outside, or hand-copied by others at low prices." Shopkeeper Zhang said.

Li Wen nodded, roughly understanding, and continued to ask, "Are there many people buying books every day? Who are they most of them, what books do they buy, and which books are better sold in the store?" Shopkeeper Zhang is the store owner. The old shopkeeper here, he knows all these things in the store, so he can answer all the questions asked by the boss.

"I wonder how the store's monthly business is?" In Li Wen's impression, opening a bookstore is not a profitable business. But now he has other ideas in his mind, so that's why he came to the bookstore today.

"This is the store's account book. You can take a look at it, boss." When the new owner asked about the account, shopkeeper Zhang hurriedly asked someone to get the store's account book.

Li Wen took the account book that shopkeeper Zhang had brought over, flipped through a few pages, and found that the business of this bookstore was actually quite good. At least it was not losing money all the time, and could still make some money. However, compared with the two stores he currently owns, this profit is not even a fraction of the monthly income of those two stores.

So in comparison, bookstores are indeed an unprofitable industry.

This reminded him of Zhao who spent so much silver to buy a bookstore without blinking an eye, and he suddenly felt heartbroken.

You say what you buy is not good, why are you buying a bookstore? Brain pain!

Then Li asked about printing, wood carving, coloring and other issues in the bookstore. Since it involved craftsmanship and technical issues, shopkeeper Zhang didn't know much about them, so he asked a few masters to come over.

Chapter 57: Second update.

After several masters came over and introduced themselves one by one and said which link they were responsible for, Li Wen invited several masters to sit down, had them serve tea, and chatted with them. The words came.

If outsiders asked them these things, they would not necessarily tell others, but because it was the new owner who asked the questions, the masters would answer whatever they asked. Li Wen didn't know what others were thinking. He talked to several masters about the printing method, "...For example, we can carve out commonly used characters, and engrav the characters on both sides of the fired embryo, and wait for the next time we need it." When printing a book, lay out the words in order and print them out with just one swipe of ink.

You see, wouldn't the printing speed be much faster and save a lot of effort? "

This is what he gave to His Royal Highness. The prince did not hide the method of movable type printing, but it would still take a certain amount of time for movable type printing to fully spread. The printing method in the store was still using the old method, which was not bad, but relatively expensive and inefficient, so he thought they could improve it a little bit.

Thinking of modern printers, you don't know how many pages can be printed in one minute. Printing a book only takes a few minutes. However, this era is different. The conditions here are not met, and manual printing is still required. The speed is many times slower, so this is also an important reason why books are expensive. The main reason is the high cost.

When the printing master heard this, he thought for a while, and the more he thought about it, he felt it made sense. He nodded and said, "Yes, the method the boss said is good. I will try the method the boss said later. Is it okay?"

"Okay. Master Cao, you can try different methods to see which one works better." Li Wen smiled and nodded. He is a flexible thinker. Most bosses like this kind of employees, who are more efficient in doing things. .

Li Wen exchanged a few words with several masters and encouraged everyone to do their jobs well. It was considered as a meeting between his new boss and the workers.

Shopkeeper Zhang acted based on his boss's expression. When he saw that his boss meant that he had finished what he wanted to say, he asked someone to leave first.

Several masters came over and heard that the new owner wanted to see them, so they all felt very nervous. But after meeting with the new owner, I found that the new owner is a pleasant person, and he also has a good attitude when asking questions.

They did not expect that the new owner also knew about printing, and even exchanged some printing skills with them. They are all used to working in the old way, but they heard the new boss mentioned some points that they had never thought of before. But after the new boss mentioned it, they all thought it was a feasible method, because they all I want to go back and try the method the new owner said.

After these masters returned, the guys below asked how the new owner was. They all said that the new owner was a good new owner, which made everyone feel relieved.

"Oh, yes, there is one more thing I almost forgot to ask Shopkeeper Zhang." Li asked, "I wonder how the monthly wages of the masters and clerks in the store are calculated? And Shopkeeper Zhang, your monthly salary Tell me how much the monthly payment is."

Shopkeeper Zhang did not hide anything from his boss. These are things that the boss should know clearly. Shopkeeper Zhang explained these things clearly to his boss.

"Oh, I probably understand." Li Wen calculated in his mind. According to the wages and consumption levels in the capital, the shopkeeper's salary is not low, but it is not high here in the capital. There are also the monthly wages of the masters. Barely enough to support the family. Not to mention the wages of the handymen in the store. Some apprentices still have no monthly salary and have to pay for it themselves.

"Well, now I am the new owner of this bookstore. I may not have that much time to come here in the future. It just so happens that I will come here today. Let's re-establish the rules in the store. From now on, we will follow the new rules. Follow the rules," Li Wen suggested.

"We all listen to the boss." Shopkeeper Zhang folded his hands on his knees. He didn't know how the new boss would set the rules, and he felt a little uneasy.

"First of all, I must explain that I am not a harsh and stingy boss. I keep you here to work because I hope you can work seriously. So in other words, as long as you work seriously, I will never treat you badly here. "Li Wen glanced at Shopkeeper Zhang. He had a smile on his face, but it would not make people think that he was young and easy to bully. Li Wen's words were knocking Shopkeeper Zhang.

If shopkeeper Zhang doesn't do his job well, he can just replace it with someone else. But who knows if the next person he replaces will be someone who works sincerely, so if these old employees can use it smoothly, he doesn't want to change the staff in the store, and he will save himself a lot of unnecessary trouble.

"Yes." Shopkeeper Zhang understood what the boss meant.

"Don't worry, Shopkeeper Zhang. I am a boss with clear rewards and punishments. If you do well, we will reward you. If you do not do well, we will punish you. Do you think this is correct?" I don't know how the employees are behaved underneath. In this situation

, if Li Wen wants these employees to work for him seriously, it is necessary to establish a rule first.

He asked someone to get paper and pen.

The most indispensable thing in the store was the four treasures of the study, and shopkeeper Zhang quickly had people bring them over.

"Let's talk about the rules in the store first." Li Wen asked shopkeeper Zhang to write down the important ones. He started with the basic requirements for employees in the store, "First of all, the first point is that the store does not support idlers and works seriously. Yes, you are welcome, and those who are lazy will be asked to leave."

He didn't ask for much, and basically mentioned three important things.

"I only have these few requests. Shopkeeper Zhang, you are the shopkeeper of the store. You must know more about the things in the store than me. Usually I am not in the store, so I will give shopkeeper Zhang more trouble." Li Wen was polite to shopkeeper Zhang. As for respect, to put it bluntly, they are just superiors and subordinates with a labor relationship, and it is fate that they can work together.

Shopkeeper Zhang nodded and said something to thank his employer for his trust.

Now that we have established the rules, the next step is to talk about the treatment of employees in the store.

From shopkeeper Zhang to the masters working in the backyard, these are all technical and key personnel. Li Wen raised their monthly wages, as well as the clerks in the store, whose monthly wages were also slightly raised. . Even apprentices who had no wages before were given at least a lunch fee a day, so that they would not be forced to work and still go hungry.

Li Wen also discovered a problem. This month, it was probably because of his book that the sales volume in the store was boosted. Not only "Drawing the Three Kingdoms" sold well, but other books also increased sales. If he follows this trend, he will continue to publish the following books, and there will be no need to worry about bookstore sales in the next few months.

Of course, this is not his goal. His goal is to make this bookstore the largest bookstore in Beijing.

"I just said that if you do well, you will be rewarded, and if you do poorly, you will be punished. Now we I'll reward you first." Li Wen smiled slightly and continued. Here, he has always implemented the principle of "work more and get more, work less and get less, and if you don't work, you get nothing". So naturally, if you do more, you will be rewarded if you do well. As for those who do not do well, first The first penalty, the second penalty, and the third penalty will make people pack up and leave.

Shopkeeper Zhang's fingers trembling while holding the pen, and he finally said "yes". He felt happy and worried at the same time. He was happy because their monthly wages had increased, but he was worried because they were not doing well. Even he, the shopkeeper, was worried. You have to take the prison and leave by yourself.

"From now on, Shopkeeper Zhang will calculate the wages of the masters and workers in the store according to what I said above. From now on, on the third day of every month, I will have people come over to get the account books and wages slips. Shopkeeper Zhang, please prepare these things. Give it to me, and after confirming that there are no problems, the monthly wages will be paid on the 10th. "The reason why this time is chosen is because the stores he opened before will check the accounts and pay wages at this time.

The account books and salary slips must go through his hands as the boss to ensure that the people below will have no problem doing the accounting.

"That's all I have to say. If there is anything you don't understand later, Shopkeeper Zhang, you can use a piece of paper at that time." Write it down and attach it to me. "Li Wen is a generous boss. As long as the employees below work hard and create higher value for him, he will also pay the employees corresponding benefits.

Because he knows the truth that wealth is created by others for you, not by you alone. So when he understood this truth, he thought of how to let others create higher levels to the greatest extent. The labor force and value come from this.

In this era, the status of the working people at the bottom is very low, so the treatment is naturally not very good. Li Wen is a young man who grew up under the red flag, so even though he has some capitalist brains, he will not exploit his employees endlessly, because he understands that if he wants the donkey to work for him, he must feed the donkey full. Those who want the donkey to work but don't feed the donkey will have two final consequences. One is that the donkey doesn't work well, and the other is that the donkey runs away.

So in the same way, if you want your employees to work with your boss wholeheartedly, you must ensure that they can have enough food and live a good life by working with him. On this premise, others will be willing to work with you.

Shopkeeper Zhang wrote everything down on paper. After spending a short time with the new owner, the shopkeeper knew that the new owner was better than the previous one.

"That's all I have to say, nothing else for now." Li Wen picked up the tea and took a sip. He found that the tea in his mouth was still warm and the temperature was just right. Zhao Xiangyi sat here and waited quietly, listening to the young man listing the rules one by one. He thought that if Li Liuyuan was not an official, he would definitely know how to do business as a businessman.

Facts have proved that even if Li Liuyuan is an official, he can still do good business.

"Yes, yes." Shopkeeper Zhang saw that he had filled several large sheets of paper with his notes, and the ink on the last one was not even dry yet. Seeing that the boss wanted to leave, shopkeeper Zhang hesitated and said, "Many people in the shop came and asked when the follow-up to "Painting the Three Kingdoms" would be released. I, I would like to ask the boss

by the way." The shopkeeper urged me to write in person . Li Dongjia said, "...Half of the painting is already done. I'll have it delivered later when I finish it.",,

"Okay." "Shopkeeper Zhang was all smiles when he heard his boss said he had a manuscript.

Shopkeeper Zhang personally escorted his boss to the door, "My boss, go slowly. "

It was already noon by the time they came out of the bookstore, and they happened to find a place to have lunch.

Chapter 58: Asking for Money

In the afternoon, Li Wen went back to the Hanlin Academy to work, and Zhao Xiangyi went to the camp on the outskirts of Beijing. They separated, and they were busy with their own affairs. One of them is a civil official and the other is a military general. They hold different positions and are busy with different things.

But both of them live here in the capital, so as long as they are not too busy, they will meet each other.

Li Wen thought it was good for the two of them to get along like this. He was not a very clingy person, and neither was Zhao Xiangyi, so if they knew the other person was busy, they would just do their own thing, and they didn't have to be glued to each other. good.

A few days ago, he was assigned by the emperor to follow His Royal Highness the Prince to receive foreign envoys, so he has not been here much in the Hanlin Academy in the past few days, and he did not come back until today. As soon as he came back, he caught up with the old Hanlin people who were organizing a group to go to the Ministry of Household Affairs to ask for their monthly salary. They left before the monthly salary arrears were paid, and the director of the hospital did not care much about these matters, so they had to find a way on their own.

"Let's go together. Let's go to the Ministry of Household Affairs to ask when our monthly salary will be paid.

Li Wen was dragged by Cao Laohanlin to gather the number of people, and he followed to watch the fun.

Unexpectedly, it was not just the Hanlin Academy. People came over to ask for salary. When they arrived, a large group of people from the military attaché were already blocking the door of the household department to ask for salary from the household department. The entire door of the household department was like a vegetable market, and it was full of people. "

...It's not that we want to default on your monthly salary, it's because the Ministry of Accounts really doesn't have the money. "The Ministry of Household Affairs sent an official to come forward to appease everyone, but his words were obviously very unconvincing.

"Fuck you, that's what you said last month, and what you said last month, you have no money for several months. Come on down, are you going to let so many people under me chew the dust? "The generals are a group of bad-tempered people. Every time they come to ask for money, these officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs say they have no money. They all get very angry.

This time the foreigners came to the capital empty-handed . They are leaving, unlike previous years when they came here and brought back a lot of things. The Ministry of Household Affairs has saved such a large sum of money. No matter what, the monthly salary owed to them should be paid. Many of their subordinates are from the top. The old and the young are waiting for support. How can we live this life without money? "

Everyone

, please be patient and don't be impatient." "

Taxes from various places have not just been collected. How come your Ministry of Household Affairs has no money? I think you are deliberately delaying our monthly salary arrears."

"I just want to ask, when will the arrears of monthly salary be paid? Your Ministry of Household Affairs will give you a specific time. Don't delay every time and treat us like monkeys. " "They come to ask for money. They just want money. Every time they come, they hear people from the Ministry of Accounts say wait, wait, how long will it take to get it!

If the Ministry of Accounts really doesn't have the money to issue monthly stipends, how can other departments They all have it, but they don't. It's not obvious that they are illiterate and easy to bully!

The more I think about it, the more outrageous it becomes!

"Everyone, please be quiet and listen to what I have to say. In the end, it was Zhu Guangquan, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, who came forward to speak, "I can understand everyone's mood at the moment. It's not that our Ministry of Revenue does not want to pay everyone's monthly salary, but it is that the Ministry of Revenue also has difficulties.

This year, there was a drought in Puzhou, Xiangzhou and other places, and there was no harvest. The local government issued a letter asking the court for disaster relief. Our Ministry of Household Affairs really did not mean to default on everyone's monthly salary. The situation is urgent, and I hope everyone can understand each other.

"As for the monthly salary owed to all of you, the Ministry of Accounts will not fail to pay it to you, as long as it is slightly delayed. " I, the Minister of Household Affairs, would like to make a message here. I will try my best to pay you the monthly salary owed to you before the end of the year. "

Okay, let's trust your household department once more. If you don't do it by then, we will take this matter to the emperor." "

With these words from the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, the people below who were begging for salary could only disperse.

"Bah, I know I can't get a monthly salary here. "

"Well, I don't know if I'll get my monthly salary this month. "On the way back, everyone was discussing the monthly salary.

Li Wen followed Cao Laohanlin and the others back to the Hanlin Academy.

Everyone did not ask for the monthly salary, and everyone came back a little dejected and not in a high mood.

Before going to the Ministry of Household Affairs, Li Wen I expected that they would not get any money for this trip. If the Ministry of Revenue had money, they would not have to go to the Ministry of Revenue to make trouble, and the money would be given to them. But now that the Ministry of Accounts has no money, they will definitely go to make trouble. They can't get enough money.

Although they may appear to be prosperous on the surface, their lives are actually not as good as those of local officials. However, if they only rely on the monthly salary from the court, their lives will definitely be tight. There are two more people to eat in

the house, and they may not be able to eat enough. Not to mention that many officials have three wives, four concubines, ten or eight children, and many servants. This monthly salary is not even enough to maintain the daily expenses of the family. It's not enough, so if we don't collect the filial piety sent from below, most of our acquaintances will not live a good life.

And if local officials, wealthy businessmen, etc. want to seek asylum, they will spend money to find people in the capital. Along the way, there are big trees behind to enjoy the shade. This is why officials protect each other and officials and businessmen collude. In fact

, everything is just for profit. The bustle in the world is for profit, and the hustle and bustle in the world is for profit. After people passed the Jinshi exam and became an official in the court, they discovered that being an official was different from what they had imagined. This caused a huge psychological gap. Most people saw that the benefits were right in front of them. It's hard not to be tempted, but that doesn't mean there are no more

honest officials. They are just a minority. Throughout history, there are still more corrupt officials in all dynasties, and there are only a few officials who can leave a mark in history.

Li Wen doesn't care about it now . Whether he himself will leave his name in history, he is more concerned about what Zhu Guangquan just said about the drought in Puzhou, Xiangzhou and other places. It

has been September since spring started in March, and it has been here for more than half a year. It's not raining

at all. Li Wen noticed earlier that it hasn't rained much this year, and there may be less rain in some places to the north. So I don't know what the extent of the disaster is in Xiangzhou and other places. I think it will come tomorrow morning at the latest. Everyone will talk about it.

The atmosphere in the Hanlin Academy was a bit low throughout the afternoon, and everyone was in a low mood.

Li Wen had always had a good relationship with Cao Hanlin in the Hanlin Academy, so Cao Zhenqing invited him to come. When they went home for a drink, Li Wen did not refuse and agreed.

After Hanlin Academy left the office in the afternoon, he followed Cao Zhenqing to his home.

Knowing the situation at Cao Hanlin's home, he could not go there empty-handed. I was going to have a meal, so I asked Li Tong to go to a restaurant to buy two meat dishes and bring them over.

"Grandpa, you're back. "

When the two children saw their grandfather coming back, they ran out of the house.

"Bully. "Cao Zhenqing touched his eldest grandson's head, and then his little grandson's head. His eyes showed love and affection for the two little grandsons, "Look who came to our house, do you still recognize him? "

The two children looked over to him. The eldest Cao Jiexuan nodded, said he remembered, and called him "Brother Li."

The little one bit his fingers and looked at him curiously, obviously not remembering.

"Xuanxuan is so awesome. I still remember my brother." This was not the first time Li Wen came to Cao Laohanlin's home. He had gone to Cao Laohanlin's home to give gifts before and had seen his married woman, so he knew Cao Zhenqing's home. There are two grandsons here. The older one is about six or seven years old, and the younger one is only two or three years old.

He only found out about this after listening to Cao Lao Hanlin. It turned out that he was devoted to studying and becoming an official, so he didn't marry his wife Gao until he was 30 years old. They only had one son, and Cao Zhenqing did not marry him. Concubine. Their son, Cao Bin, was transferred to another place to serve as an official two years ago. At that time, considering that the two children were still young, he stayed at home to look after the Gao family. Cao Bin went to other places with only his wife and two servants. Went to office.

Seeing Mrs. Gao standing behind the two children, Li Wen said hello to the woman.

"Sir, Mr. Li, come and sit inside." Mrs. Gao smiled and invited people to sit inside.

The two grandchildren in Cao Hanlin's family are both good-looking and very cute.

Li Wen also has a little brother. When he sees this cute little creature, he feels soft-hearted inexplicably. He happens to have candy with him. The candy on him is actually used to coax his little brother. Unexpectedly, it will come in handy right now. . He took out a small bag of candies from his pocket, took out two from the bag, and coaxed the child who was biting his fingers and looking at him to call him brother, "You call me brother, and I will give you a candy."

The child looked at it. I glanced at my grandpa and saw him smiling but saying nothing. He wanted to eat sweets, so he called out "brother".

"Haha, that's great." Li Wen gave the candy to the child and said, "Next time, remember your brother, and he will give you the candy again, okay?"

"Okay." The child ate the sweet candy in his mouth. , nodding faster than anything else.

There was still some candy left in the bag. Li Wen brought the bag to his brother and asked, "Can you keep this candy? I can only eat one with my brother every day. Can you do it?" Cao Jiexuan glanced at his grandfather and said, Seeing that his grandfather did not forbid him from taking other people's things, Li Wen nodded and gave the small bag to his brother.

When he got up and saw Cao Laohanlin looking at him, Li Wen smiled and said, "I also have a younger brother at home who is studying here in the capital with me. He is one or two years older than Xuanxuan."

Cao Laohanlin nodded and asked about Li Asked where his younger brother was studying, Li Wen said he was studying in a small academy.

The old servant brought wine and food and placed them on the table one by one. Today, because there were guests, he even fried an extra bowl of

pork.

Cao Zhenqing has been an official in the Hanlin Academy for more than ten years, but he is not a person who crashes into the camp, otherwise he would not stay in the Hanlin Academy all the time. In Cao Hanlin's family, he was the only one who received a little monthly salary from the court. Therefore, his family lived in poverty. He could only eat three meals a day, so his life was not considered wealthy.

It happened that Li Tong fried two meat dishes from the restaurant and added two more dishes.

Mr. Gao and his two grandsons did not come to their table to eat. Li Wen guessed that they had left the only bowl of meat here. He picked up a bowl of meat with unused chopsticks and asked Li Tong to give it to him. Gao sent it to Mrs. Gao, and said to Cao Laohanlin with a smile, "We have so many dishes here that we can't finish them all. Send some to Auntie and Xuanxuan, otherwise it will be wasted if they can't finish them."

With his words, others You won't feel embarrassed either.

"Haha, that's okay." Cao Zhenqing didn't stop him. He saw that Li Wen, at such a young age, knew more about people and the world than his senior. Li Wen's understanding of people and the world is not due to official slickness, but makes people feel his sincerity and reality.

There are many number one scholars in the entire Hanlin Academy, but there is only one Liu Yuan scholar.

Although Li Wen had the title of Liuyuan, he respected the seniors like them in the Hanlin Academy, and he was open-minded to learn, and he would ask them questions when he encountered something he didn't understand. This was also the old Hanlin in the Hanlin Academy. People talk about Li Liuyuan behind his back. The reason why everyone praises him more is because it is really impossible to find anything wrong with this child.

Although the age difference between the two of them is several rounds, they can sit down and drink and chat about many topics.

Chapter 59: Promotion

It wasn't until the sun set and twilight dawned that Li Wen came out of Cao Lao Hanlin's home, and Lao Hanlin walked him to the door of the courtyard.

Li Wen stood at the door and said to his master, "Senior, please stay. I will go back with my servant."

"Okay, the manuscripts in the study are a bit messy. I will sort them out for you later." Cao Zhenqing laughed happily. said.

"Okay, don't rush this matter. Senior, you can just sort it out for me whenever you have free time." Li Wen said.

"Okay, okay." Cao Zhenqing nodded.

After bidding farewell to his master, Li Wen took Li Tong away, and the master and servant were walking back.

The matter of this manuscript started when they were drinking just now. Li Wen knew that Cao Zhenqing was the second-ranked scholar in the tenth year of Emperor Zhaozong's reign. Talent and learning were of course important. Non-Jinshi scholars could not enter the Hanlin Academy. Those who could enter the Hanlin Academy were those who ranked first and second in the Imperial Examination, so they could enter the Hanlin Academy. All of them are top academics among top academics.

The day before yesterday, he went to the bookstore. When he came back, Li Wen thought about publishing some new books for sale, so he thought that he could go back to the seniors in the Hanlin Academy to ask for manuscripts, and organize them according to his personal poems. 's anthology. With so many Hanlin bachelors in the entire Hanlin Academy, they can at least publish a series of books that can be sold in stores.

It happened that Cao Zhenqing invited him to drink today, so Li Wen mentioned the idea of ​​a collection of his essays and asked him for the manuscript. Originally, he had a lot of manuscripts in mind on how to persuade Cao Laohanlin to agree. Unexpectedly, he asked for manuscripts from the other party, and Cao Zhenqing agreed without saying a word. Even he himself couldn't believe how smoothly things went.

But when he thought about it, Li Wen quickly understood why Cao Laohanlin agreed so readily. This matter starts with the fact that these ancients liked to compose poetry. They wanted to compose poems when they were happy, and they wanted to compose poems when they were unhappy. Poems were indispensable for gatherings. Often one person composed a good poem, and it was quickly passed on by others. According to legend, these people had no sense of copyright, and they never thought about sorting out their poems and publishing them. This is also the reason why in the long history, many poets and writers did not leave any works, because few people collected and organized these things, and some works were gradually lost during the subsequent circulation.

Scholars are indifferent and ignorant of worldly things. The average scholar would never think of publishing his own collection of poems to make money. It seems that when money is mentioned, they feel that money is dirty to their hands. Little do they know that people make money every day. There is no word "money" left in eating, drinking or sleeping.

Li Wen himself was considered half a businessman. He could not say that his purpose in doing this was simple. His starting point was actually to make money for his bookstore, so he came up with the idea of ​​collecting the works of seniors in the Hanlin Academy for publication. Of course, this matter requires the author's consent, and it is best to get as much of the poems he wrote from the author himself.

When the anthology is published, he will pay other people's manuscript fees according to the situation. Li Wen doesn't want to make money from other people's works in vain. If the collected works sold well, he can ask other scholars in the Imperial Academy for manuscripts later, and after that, he can also give others some manuscript fees and copyright fees, which can be regarded as helping everyone in the Imperial Academy to increase their income. Otherwise, if the Ministry of Household Affairs has been unable to pay their monthly salary arrears, the life of some families must not be very easy.

Walking all the way back home, it was already dark.

The next day, I went to the morning court. As expected, the emperor mentioned the drought in Xiangzhou and other places. When it comes to disaster relief, it means that the court has to provide money. The problem is that if the treasury is empty, it can be used to run away. The Ministry of Household Affairs has no money, and the emperor cannot come up with silver to relieve the disaster.

Therefore, the emperor had no money to provide disaster relief, so he naturally asked his ministers to find a way.

The officials in the DPRK would quarrel every day over trivial matters, but when something really happened, none of them would say anything.

The Minister of Hubu was named by the emperor. He cried with runny nose and tears and said that the Hubu had no money. Anyway, that meant that as long as you didn't ask the Hubu for money, you could do whatever you wanted with the Hubu.

The emperor was upset after hearing this, and asked the prince to come out, "Prince, please tell me how to deal with this matter."

The prince took a step forward, thought for a moment, and said, "Back to my father, I thought that I should send someone to speed up this matter as soon as possible." Go to Xiangzhou and other places to learn about the situation and the extent of the disaster in Xiangzhou and other places, and the court will respond accordingly. "

"Father, I have something to say."" The eldest prince was afraid that the prince would steal the limelight. He stood up and said, "The drought in Xiangzhou and other places is a fact. I think we should find ways to raise money now and send people to local areas to provide disaster relief." It would be best to send him there. He is willing to take on this job.

He glanced at the prince next to him from the corner of his eye, thinking that this time he could not let the prince take away the disaster relief work. His father was paying more and more attention to the prince, so he, the eldest prince, would have no chance at all.

Emperor Zhaozong's heart ached when he heard this. He naturally understood this truth. The question is where did the silver come from? Please tell me!

"Third, Fourth, tell me your opinions."

The third and fourth princes both stood up and expressed their opinions on the disaster, but it was obvious that the emperor was not very satisfied with this

.

Li Wen stood in the team. In the back, the emperor didn't call him out to ask questions, so he just stood back and didn't come out to steal the limelight. This matter was unclear because the local government had no money for disaster relief, so they asked the emperor for money. The problem was that the emperor now had no money and was still waiting for others to provide him with relief.

It seems that in Dacheng, not only the central government's finances are unable to make ends meet, but local finances also have big problems. As soon as a local deal comes up, the emperor will ask people to allocate funds. Is it too easy for the local government to get this money? Did the court give money too easily? Every year, the imperial court allocates not only tens of millions of taels but also millions of taels of silver to various places for disaster relief. He didn't understand this matter, where all the money was spent, whether it was really spent, or whether most of it went into the pockets of some people. The latter was probably more likely.

If this is the case, what is the purpose of the court's so many disaster relief efforts every year? Is it to fatten up so many corrupt officials?

It's a pity that every time the emperor mentioned asking for money, Zhu Guangquan would kneel there and cry so hard. If this person were placed in the modern entertainment industry, he might be able to become an old actor. There is no need to brew these tears. If thunder is needed, thunder will be made. , If it rains, it rains, even better than the movie king.

Li Wen guessed that the Ministry of Revenue must still have some money, but it was not easy to ask Zhu Guangquan for money. After all, the emperor above him only asked for money. If Zhu Guangquan, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, was stingy, the Ministry of Revenue was really There is not a single word left, so it is really not easy for the Minister of Household Affairs. He can only express his deep sympathy for Zhu Guangquan in his heart.

All the officials could not come up with a solution, and the emperor declared with a straight face: "We will discuss this matter tomorrow and withdraw from the court."

"If there is something to do, we will withdraw from the court if there is no matter -"

And the emperor Then he left with a dark face.

No one stood up to speak, and the eunuch shouted, "Retreat from the court -"

"Farewell to the emperor, long live the emperor."

After the court was dismissed, the officials in the court walked together in twos and threes, all talking about the matter.

Li Wen greeted the officials nearby and saw Zhao Xiangyi and His Highness the Crown Prince together from a distance. He stopped joining in the fun and was ready to leave.

"Li Liuyuan, please stay."

After walking a few steps, he was stopped by little Eunuch Su. Li Wen called out "little Eunuch Su." When he heard little Eunuch Su said that the emperor had invited him, he knew that the emperor had not ordered him in the morning. His name is waiting for him here.

"Please lead the way, Little Eunuch Su."

"Please lead the way, Li Liuyuan."

Li Wen followed Eunuch Su to the door of the Royal Study. When he saw Eunuch Sun waiting at the door, he gave Eunuch Sun a smile and stuffed a little more into Eunuch Sun. thing.

"Li Liuyuan, please, the emperor is waiting for you inside." Eunuch Sun accepted it with a smile on his face. After stuffing him with perfume for the first time, Li Liuyuan would bring him some gadgets from outside the palace every time he came. Whether the thing is expensive or not is secondary, the important thing is the intention.

Li Wen went into the imperial study and saw that the prince, the eldest prince, the third prince, and Prime Minister Dong were already waiting here.

Lifting up the hem of his official robe, Li Wen knelt on the ground and shouted, "I am here to see you, Your Majesty. Long live Your Majesty

." "Get back on your feet." Emperor Zhaozong put down the pen in his hand, and Eunuch Sun, who was waiting next to him, stepped forward to take the pen from the emperor's hand and put it aside. Li Wen stood up from the ground, his eyelids were half drooped, and his eyes were always looking at the ground. The emperor looked at Xiao Liuyuan, who was standing in front of him, said, "Li Liuyuan, do you remember last time that I said I would reward you when I get back? "

Li Wen naturally remembered it, but he was too embarrassed to say this. He raised his head and gave the emperor a reserved smile. So the emperor thought of giving him something?

Emperor Zhaozong waved his hand, and Eunuch Sun came forward with the imperial edict. , looked at Li Liuyuan with a smile on his face, and said, "Li Wen accepted the order. "

"Wei Chen accepts the order^" Li Wen knelt down to receive the order.

Eunuch Sun unfolded the imperial edict in his hand and read out: "By God's blessing, the emperor issued an edict: Li Wen, who was compiled by the Hanlin Academy, is talented, intelligent, and quick in thinking. I highly commend him. , was promoted to be a scholar in the Hanlin Academy, and was rewarded with a hundred taels of silver. I admire this.

"I thank you for your kindness. Long live your Majesty. Long live your Majesty. " "Li Wen didn't expect that the emperor was giving him a promotion. He

was promoted from a sixth-rank Hanlin Academy editor to a full-sixth-rank Hanlin Academy attendant. Don't look at it. It's just a small promotion. The official level is overwhelming. This promotion is a big one. Stepping up is a step up.

After saluting, Li Wen stood up and accepted the imperial edict, feeling a little moved in his heart. He was promoted, hahaha...

Eunuch Sun said, "Congratulations to Li Liuyuan. "

Yang Shaomu also expressed his congratulations, "Congratulations to Li Liuyuan 0"

"Thank you, Your Highness. "Li Wen gave His Highness the Crown Prince a nice smile and looked at the man standing next to His Highness. Zhao Xiangyi happened to be looking at him as well. The two of them exchanged a look that only they could understand each other. Li Wen said as if nothing had happened. He turned away his eyes.

The eldest prince failed to win over Li Wen. At this moment, he didn't like Li Wen very much. Unexpectedly, his father paid more and more attention to Li Wen, which made him want to punish him. It's easy to start.

Dong Xian was much calmer and didn't even look at Li Wen.

At this time, Prime Minister Dong didn't take Li Wen seriously, but he was just a small sixth-rank official, so the emperor promoted him. So what if he had reached the first level? A junior sixth-grade official was not worthy of carrying his shoes.

Li Wen stood aside holding the imperial edict, thinking happily that the emperor had promoted him, and others would only have the chance to be promoted in three to five years. First level, he has been promoted to the first level in the past three or two months, which shows the emperor's great love for him. Li Liuyuan is very happy at the moment, so he doesn't know what other people think of him, let alone doesn't care.

In the future, when Li Liuyuan jumps two or three times in a row, or when the emperor gives him a promotion soon, I wonder if people like Dong Xiang and the third prince will be as calm as now. Let's wait and see. .

Emperor Zhaozong called everyone to the Imperial Study Room to discuss disaster relief in Xiangzhou and other places.

"Li Liuyuan, do you have any suggestions on this matter. "Emperor Zhaozong now wants to hear his Xiao Liuyuan's opinion on this matter.

It turns out that the emperor is waiting for him here. Li Wen knows that the emperor will not miss him. After all, he has been in a lot of limelight recently. Before the emperor He looked familiar here, so it was not surprising that the emperor would remember him. He had heard from businessmen traveling between the north and the south about the drought in the north. Now the businessmen are not going to Xiangzhou and other places. From what these businessmen said, Li Wen's guess is that the disaster situation in Xiangzhou is not very optimistic.

"Back to the emperor, Wei Chen believes that disaster relief is urgent and the people are waiting for the imperial court's rescue. Wei Chen suggested that officials should first be sent to the local area to understand the local situation and discuss with the local prefect and local officials how to handle disaster relief. "After all, every day, people die in famine. This matter requires the court to send someone to intervene and provide guidance, Li Wen suggested.

Emperor Zhaozong nodded, but where did the food and silver for disaster relief come from?

Li Wen understood that the emperor What issue was he most concerned about? He looked up at the emperor and saw the emperor looking at him. He lowered his head and continued, "As for the money for disaster relief, Wei Chen believes that it can be raised through donations. Wei Chen is willing to donate all the hundred taels of silver rewarded by the emperor to the people of Xiangzhou, hoping that Wei Chen can use this meager power to help the suffering people. Your Majesty, Wei Chen believes that there must be many officials in the court who care about the people of Xiangzhou and other places. Like Wei Chen, they are willing to contribute their love to the people of Xiangzhou and other places.

According to Wei Chen's understanding, there will be a bumper harvest in the south and other places this year, so there should be enough food. At that time, the imperial court can use the collected silver to purchase grain according to the price of grain on the market for disaster relief in Puzhou, Xiangzhou and other places. "

Aren't these people thinking about plundering people's wealth and opinions all day long? He now wants to see if they are willing to contribute such a love when one day they need to use money to provide disaster relief!

Zhaozong Di nodded, obviously thinking this method was feasible.

Chapter 60: You take me, I take the silver.

"Father, in order to express your concern for the people in Xiangzhou, Puzhou and other places, I am willing to donate one thousand taels to purchase food and other items to help People in Xiangzhou and other places." The prince stood up to set an example and expressed his support for Li Wen's suggestion.

What a good Li Wen! He was actually thinking of letting them go out for disaster relief! When the eldest prince heard what Li Wen said, his heart was filled with hatred for Li Wen, but he couldn't object to Li Wen's words. After hearing the prince's words, Yang Shaoyong was not willing to lag behind others. He stood up and said, "Father, my son is willing to pay two thousand taels."

After saying this, Yang Shaoyong looked at Yang Shaomu proudly.

Are you comparing yourself to him? The prince just raised his eyebrows in his mind, but the expression on his face remained unchanged. He didn't mind if the other party offered 200,000 taels. It would be better to give out all the silver taels used for this disaster relief.

The third prince, fourth prince and others all expressed their willingness to donate money for disaster relief, but both of them were smart and had no intention of competing with the prince and eldest prince.

Did Li Wen think that the eldest prince had a trick in his mind, so he tricked him like this, and deliberately wanted to outdo His Highness in front of the emperor? Doesn't this mean that he, the eldest prince, covets the position of the crown prince and intends to take his place? He shook his head in his heart, not knowing whether the eldest prince was really stupid or pretending to be stupid. He didn't want to see such a person become the emperor. Someone who even cheated himself would definitely cheat all his ministers to death.

This suggestion was made by him. It would be best if everyone rushed to donate money. The more, the merrier! Please be sure to donate more!

"Okay, I'm very relieved that you care about the people of Xiangzhou." Emperor Zhaozong's expression softened a little and he nodded.

Everyone stayed in the imperial study room for a while before coming out.

Li Wen was the last one to go out, following the others.

Yang Shaomu, who was walking in front, had finished dealing with his brothers and was standing there waiting for Li Liuyuan. Li Wen looked up and saw the prince and Zhao Xiangyi standing there. He went over and saluted the prince. Yang Shaomu waved his hand to let him stand up. "You and Gu Gu should go for a walk together."

"Yes." Since His Highness the prince is here. Even though he was invited, he couldn't say no.

On the way, they talked about the drought in Xiangzhou, and the prince talked about fundraising.

This idea was proposed by Li Wen. It is not difficult to operate, but it is not difficult to handle. After all, the money is taken out of other people's pockets.

In fact, for future generations, fundraising is a very common thing, and there are various charitable organizations in later generations. Three hundred and sixty-six days out of the three hundred and sixty-five days a year, they carry out various public welfare undertakings and raise funds. . Of course, the era they live in cannot be compared with future generations. Once supervision is not strict, the charitable institutions established will become private banks in the hands of some people, using public funds for private use. This kind of thing will never happen even in future generations. few. A case of internal high-level corruption occurred in the once largest charity organization. The charity organization was disbanded because of this, and the relevant personnel were sentenced.

To say that the imperial court really cannot come up with any money for disaster relief, it is certainly not the case, and there must be some squeeze. It's just that there are many places where the court needs money. Every year, there are either droughts or floods in various places. There are many natural disasters. There are also river embankments to be built here and river embankments somewhere. If there is no money in the local area, they stretch out their hands and ask the central government for it. The central government's finances Income is far from enough to meet expenditures, resulting in a fiscal imbalance.

Another serious problem is that the funds allocated by the central government to local governments are not used where they should be used, such as building river embankments. If all the money is really used to build river embankments, how can there be another incident? When heavy rains come, river embankments collapse, causing floods; once floods occur, local officials ask the central government for money, but the money for disaster relief ends up in someone's pocket. It is the common people who suffer.

Secondly, throughout Dacheng, many places are in a state of poverty and backwardness. Why is this so? The reasons are, first, social problems, backward production methods and productivity, backward farming models and farming tools, and second, if corrupt local officials are not eliminated, it will be difficult for the people to live a good life. A lot of money goes into the pockets of these people.

Of course, it would be fine if Li Wen understood these questions in his own mind, and it was not suitable to talk to the emperor or the prince yet.

After leaving the palace gate, Li Wen watched His Royal Highness the Crown Prince leave. Zhao Xiangyi followed the Crown Prince and went back to the Hanlin Academy to go to work.

"Congratulations."

"Thank you., "

Colleagues in the Hanlin Academy learned about his promotion and congratulated him as soon as they met. Li Wen accepted the envious looks from others and thanked everyone with a smile.

He never The sixth-grade Xiuzhuan was promoted to the full sixth-grade bachelor's degree. The original position of the bachelor's degree was to

give lectures to the emperor and princes, and to serve as advisers to the emperor. It can be said that it is a promising official position. If you are not careful, you may become an emperor.

Mr. Taifu. But now that the princes are adults, the youngest seventh prince must already have a gentleman to give lectures to him, and it is not his turn as a young bachelor to give lectures to the seventh prince. He had met Concubine Dong and the Seventh Prince in the palace. Concubine Dong gave him the feeling that she was not someone he wanted to be with. The water in the palace was so deep that the ambitions of Prime Minister Dong and Concubine Dong should not be underestimated. Guess, now that he is on the prince's boat, it is also a good thing for him to avoid contact with the seventh prince as much as possible.

Therefore, even though he has been promoted, this official position is still a sinecure. It was also some work like writing and revising manuscripts and sorting out classics. He stayed in the Hanlin Academy for a few months and was promoted to an official. He had a lot of free time. Li Wen also adapted to the life in the Hanlin Academy

. Shopkeeper Zhang urged him to get the manuscript, and the half-finished pictures were left there. After finishing his work in the morning, Li Wen had some time in the afternoon and continued to draw his Three Kingdoms secretly

until he was released from the Hanlin Academy in the afternoon and packed up his things . He came out of the hospital.

On the road, he saw a carriage waiting here. The driver was someone he knew. Li Wen got on the carriage and saw the man sitting in the carriage. Zhao Xiangyi took the young man's hand and asked him to sit next to him. He came, but did not let go of the young man's hand.

"The emperor has promoted me to an official. "Li Wen smiled with crooked eyes and showed the imperial edict to his man.

"I know. "Because he was also in the Imperial Study Room at that time, Zhao Xiangyi took the imperial edict handed over by the young man, unfolded it, took a look at it, and put it away, "Put it away.

"I'll take it back, burn incense, and offer it as an offering. " "Seeing the imperial edict is like meeting the emperor. This imperial edict must be kept properly, otherwise it will be regarded as disrespecting the emperor. It is a troublesome thing to be caught by others. Li Wen would not be so stupid.

In the Hanlin Academy, he It's hard to show happiness. After all, he has been promoted so quickly after only two months in the Hanlin Academy. Others will definitely be jealous of him. If he is too arrogant, he will definitely attract people's jealousy. But in front of the people he likes. It's

different , he can be himself unscrupulously. "Zhao Xiangyi looked at the naughty boy and couldn't help but laugh.

"Hehe. "Li Liuyuan, who was promoted, had a silly smile on his face, bumped the man's chest with his elbow, and said, "I have been promoted today, let me treat you to dinner. "

"good. " Zhao Xiangyi naturally would not refuse. When he saw the young man's smiling face, he couldn't help but smile too and asked, "What do you want to treat me to?

"You can choose any of the major restaurants in the capital. You take me, and I'll take the silver. I'll treat you today. " "Master Li is very wealthy and has no shortage of money.

But after many choices, they finally decided to go to Shili Piaoxiang to eat hot pot.

In less than two months since its opening, Shili Piaoxiang's business is getting more and more prosperous. They use the freshest ingredients in their store. The hot pot soup base is cooked on the same day and uses the best ingredients. The aroma of a pot of thick soup can be smelled three miles away. The old gourmets in the capital follow the smell to find Come on, everyone has never eaten such a fresh food as hot pot. It feels fresh when you eat it for the first time. Moreover, the taste is really good, so everyone who has eaten it says it is delicious.

The reputation of making food is slowly established, and this cannot be faked.

When they arrived, it was the busiest time in the store. There were basically no seats in the store at this time, and those who still wanted to eat hot pot had to queue up outside. There is a private room upstairs specially reserved for their own people, which is not used to receive guests, so that they can have a seat whenever they come.

Li Wen asked, "Xiao Ji, is there still room up there?"

"Boss, you're here. If you have any, please come inside." When the waiters in the store saw their boss coming, they hurriedly invited people inside.

There happened to be a few young men outside the door who were planning to leave after hearing that there was no room in the store. Today, Shangguan Yu invited guests to dinner. He heard that a hot pot restaurant had opened in Beijing. With.

They didn't have to queue up to go to Yipinlou to eat. They had to queue up to eat in such a small place, so they planned to leave and go elsewhere.

But didn't this person just say he had no place? Now when he told others that he had, Shangguan Yu immediately became angry, pointed at the waiter's nose and said, "Didn't you just say that there is no place? Why did I just say that there is no place when I asked? They will have the place as soon as they come. You guys Are you deliberately not interested in doing my business? Do you think I can't afford the money for a meal in your store? "

This is simply unreasonable!

When he heard others protesting that they had jumped in line, Li Wen subconsciously turned around and looked at the people behind him.

"It's you!" Situ Yu pointed at the man's nose and said. He remembered this man, and the young master's eyes were

round .

"Excuse me, do we know each other?" Li Wen looked at the handsome young master, who didn't look very old. His first impression was that he was really good-looking. The way he dressed made him look like he came from a wealthy family. He probably doesn't know his son.

It was obvious that Li Wen no longer remembered the other party.