xymnovel Chapter 52 A Picture of a Woman and Her Husband
Chapter 52 A Picture of a Woman and Her Husband
Unlike Wen Wuyin's flattery, Shen Ce's memorial was like a realistic painting, stripping the severely wounded beauty of Hebei Province naked and displaying her bare before Li Er.
Wen Wuyin had just described Hebei Province as a budding maiden, and then this is what happens next. Who wouldn't be angry?
Fortunately, Yuwen Shiji stepped back two steps, otherwise many of those scrolls would have fallen on him.
Li Er sat down on the couch in a huff, pointed at Yuwen Shiji and said, "Look at your subordinates, why do they always treat me like I'm in these poor and desolate places? Is my Great Tang Dynasty full of impoverished places?"
Yuwen Shiji's face darkened. You clearly knew Shen Ce's temperament, yet you still sent him on this mission. This was obviously something you expected.
He stood up with a helpless expression, bowed and explained, "Perhaps Wei Zheng and others did indeed encounter difficulties in Hebei, and it is only natural for them to express their feelings."
"Human nature?" Li Er snorted coldly, tapping the table occasionally with the scroll in his hand. Suddenly, he spoke up, "What do you all think of transferring him to a county like this to govern it?"
Cheng Zhijie, who was sitting at the back watching the play, became anxious when he heard this. If the official he had worked so hard to promote was sent to a lower county, wouldn't all his efforts be wasted? As a military officer, he shouldn't interfere in the affairs of civil officials, so he quickly took his tablet and poked Changsun Wuji next to him.
Changsun Wuji initially didn't want to pay attention, but seeing Cheng Zhijie's threatening gaze, he sighed, stood up, and stepped forward, saying, "I hereby report to the Crown Prince."
"speak."
"In my humble opinion, Shen Ce is capable and quick-witted. It seems a bit of a waste of his talents to send him to govern a lower county." Changsun Wuji's voice was quite calm, as if he were stating a trivial family matter.
"A waste of talent? He simply wants the people of the world to no longer suffer from famine. What's wrong with that?"
Seeing that his subordinates were about to meet a bad end, Yuwen Shiji shook his head and stepped forward again, saying, "Your Highness, Shen Ce and the others have made great contributions on this trip. In less than a month, they have suppressed the suspicions of many officials in Hebei."
He's already a low-ranking seventh-grade official. If he were to be transferred from the position of Registrar of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices to a county magistrate—no, even a mid-ranking county magistrate—it would be considered a demotion by others.
Yuwen Shiji stopped there, but his meaning was clear: you can't demote someone who has rendered meritorious service just because they submitted two memorials to Li Er, memorials that were written with the well-being of the nation in mind. If you do that, who will dare to offer advice in the future?
Li Er took two deep breaths to calm himself down, then nodded and ordered the eunuch to pick up the scrolls on the ground, spread them on the table, and begin to look through them one by one.
The scenery along Hebei Road is quite touching. The land is flat, but no one is cultivating it, which is a bit of a pity. But there's no rush. After more than ten years, once things settle down, the population will naturally grow like wild grass.
After looking at several landscape paintings, Li Er finally came across a portrait painting. Knowing Yan Liben's skill in portraiture, he was immediately drawn to the figure in the painting.
A peasant family dressed in tattered clothes, surrounded by a dozen or so beautiful women. Upon seeing this, Li Er frowned, not understanding the significance for a moment, until the scroll was fully unrolled, revealing the title of the painting.
Li Er's face began to distort, and the scroll itself began to twist as well.
Nothing more than Shen Ce having Yan Liben paint the "Ten Women and One Husband" picture on the wall.
Near Xiangzhou, Yeyi
Yeyi was a medium-sized post station with thirty horses, each equipped with forty mu of farmland. The alfalfa, which was half a person tall and had tiny purple flowers, was harvested by the post station workers who came to serve, who took advantage of the time when the sun was hiding behind the clouds. They then spread the cut alfalfa on the side of the pipes to dry in the sun. The more than a thousand mu of land was enough to keep them busy for a long time.
The only thing Shen Ce and Wen Wuyin could do was send an old man who looked to be nearly fifty years old to serve them.
In this way, he wouldn't have to do any of the hard work today; his job would simply be to fill the wine bowls in their hands.
Sometimes, being served by someone isn't about enjoying yourself; it's also a form of respecting the elderly and caring for the young. Shen Ce at least believed this, so he didn't feel uncomfortable at all when ordering the old man to serve tea and wine.
The two sat under an old tree beside the post station, enjoying the shade and drinking grape wine. They clinked their cups together, and Wen Wuyin playfully asked, "If we submit this petition together, won't the Crown Prince get furious and drag one of us out to vent his anger?"
Shen Ce downed the wine in his glass in one gulp, then turned and said, "No, we have different statuses, so naturally we see things from different perspectives."
Seeing that Wen Wuyin seemed to be deep in thought, Shen Ce continued:
"If our memorials are exactly the same, then one of us must be superfluous. You can't be superfluous, so I must be the superfluous one."
"So you're putting on this patriotic and concerned attitude?" Wen Wuyin asked, raising his eyebrows.
Shen Ce spat out the unknown weeds in his mouth, used the grape wine to wash away the astringent taste, and then said, "Not entirely, but this method is very suitable for my current identity as a naive farm boy."
Wen Wuyin shook his head. He was very simple and didn't need to think about so many things.
The two men didn't think of Wei Zheng until all the couriers had gone back to the post station to rest.
Since they had successfully appeased the officials of the former crown prince and the Prince of Qi through practical experience, the members of the delegation felt relieved. As for appeasing the common people of Hebei Province, that was the crown prince's job and had little to do with them. They only needed to wait for the imperial decree, which would then be read aloud to the officials of the prefectures along the way.
The remaining families were the prominent clans of Shandong. Faced with such a behemoth, they dared not act on their own initiative, so they submitted memorials and awaited the Crown Prince's instructions.
Without the two of them having to search for him, Wei Zheng found him himself. Looking at the nearly empty wine jar under the tree, he was about to kick it over, but then he couldn't bear to, so he picked up the jar and drank it all in one gulp.
He found a rock and sat down, then said indifferently to the two of them, "If you two have nothing to do, you can harvest alfalfa here together tomorrow. Don't try to stop others from working while you do none of your own."
The two men exchanged a glance; it seemed they were so idle that their superior couldn't stand it anymore.
Shen Ce knew exactly what was going on. Tomorrow he would use the same tricks he used to slack off at work in his previous life to show him what it meant to work all day and get nothing done.
Fortunately, the order came in time, preventing the two from being oppressed by Wei Zheng for too long.
It is unclear whether the officials of Hebei Province misunderstood the edict, as it was written entirely in plain language.
The story begins by instructing Wei Zheng to select a woman from the Cui family of Boling and send her to the palace.
Upon hearing this, Wei Zheng immediately praised the method highly.
Shen Ce listened and thought, "Hmm? How come this is different from what I advised? I clearly told Yuwen Shiji two things. Could it be that Changsun didn't agree?"