While enjoying the rice dumplings, the manager of the Zhang family came to the door and said that something from the ship had been delivered.
Zhang Xuling ran out to pick up these things again, thinking that the people in this room, including his father, were his magic stars, and their legs were almost slipping away.
King Yan came here just for this thing. He immediately put down his chopsticks and waited with stern eyes for Zhang Xuling to bring the thing.
Soon, Zhang Xuling asked someone to carry a camphor wood box outside the study. Two servants carefully put the box down. Zhang Xuling waved them away, bent down and opened the box, and took out two white porcelain urns from inside.
The urn is about one foot high and is sealed with a layer of yellow mud just like the wine urn.
"Wine?" King Yan came over with confusion on his face, "Two jars of wine for Tianning Festival?"
Zhang Rui also got up and walked over, but Zhang Xutang was the only one still sitting there, eating slowly.
Zhang Rui signaled Zhang Xuling to open one of the urns, and told King Yan that they had not only prepared these two urns just in case, but only one urn was really needed.
Zhang Xuling moved the white porcelain urn to the small table, pried open the mud seal on the top, and a layer of wax paper on the bottom. After peeling off this layer, he took a clean tea cup and put the contents inside
Something was poured into the tea cup.
"It's not wine?" King Yan looked at the teacup suspiciously. The teacup seemed to be filled with water. It had neither the smell of wine nor any special aroma.
"How does it look like water?"
At this time, Zhang Xutang finally finished eating the rice dumplings and sat motionless as if he was still in a state of decay. His eyes passed over King Yan and landed on the tea cup: "This is water."
King Yan didn't believe the Zhang family, so he asked him to send a jar of water to Jin Shang: "What can this jar of water say?"
Zhang Rui smiled and said: "This is a vat of Yellow River water."
King Yan was still puzzled. Could giving a vat of Yellow River water make the emperor think that he cared about the people?
On the contrary, it has the same effect as the King of Yan sending rice ears.
But the water in this vat was too light. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that he had missed something. But before he could think of it, Zhang Rui whispered: "Your Majesty, the water in the Yellow River is clear."
King Yan was stunned, looking at the smiling faces of Zhang Rui and Zhang Xuling, and suddenly realized how precious this vat of water was. His expression was ecstatic at first, and then he suppressed the excitement in his heart and became solemn.
The Yellow River has not been cleared for decades!
He was very excited to hold the tea cup, put the tea cup in front of his eyes and looked carefully. The small tea cup seemed to contain the universe. It was slightly turbid inside, but it did not affect its clarity.
After looking at it for a long time, he carefully put the tea cup back on the table with a warm smile: "This is great auspiciousness!"
Then he wondered: "The clear water of the Yellow River is a great achievement. Why doesn't anyone report it?"
Zhang Xuling looked at the silent Zhang Xutang and said with a smile: "Wu Baozhi found it in Chanzhou, Hebei East Road. He kept it secret, saying that he had failed to control the river and could not afford such auspiciousness. His son
Wu Hao didn't want to miss such a great achievement, so he quietly wrote a letter to his second son,
The second child kept Tianning Festival in mind and asked the prince to suppress the king of Jin. He immediately wrote back to Wu Hao and asked him to keep quiet. He also took a few jars of water and put them at the Chanzhou wharf, and took them to Guangdong on a merchant ship.
The road is concealed from others and transported back to Beijing."
Zhang Xutang went to great lengths to hide this from the eyes and ears of the King of Jin, and prevent such a huge auspicious omen as the "clearing of the Yellow River" from being disturbed by the King of Jin.
King Yan couldn't sit still anymore, looked at Zhang Xutang excitedly, and said regardless of his previous suspicion: "Thank you for your hard work, Xutang."
Zhang Xutang twitched the corners of his mouth and smiled, not sure whether it was ridicule or sarcasm.
King Yan was so focused on "clearing the Yellow River" that he never noticed Zhang Xutang's half-smiling expression: "Wu Baozhi has done great work in controlling the river and is very open-minded. I must reward him well after the Tianning Festival."
After receiving the "Yellow River Qing", he was filled with joy. When he returned to Prince Yan's Mansion from the Zhang family, the corners of his mouth had not turned down.
Until the Dragon Boat Festival, things are in order, people are harmonious and beautiful, everything is peaceful up and down.
The Dragon Boat Festival had just passed, and the fragrance of the rice dumpling leaves was still lingering. After the meeting on the sixth day of May, I summoned Dong Tongying to inquire about the annual tax. Dong Tongying requested an order to take Yuan Shaopei with me. I agreed and met with them at the Wende Hall.
Dong Tongying of Wende Hall used to come here often, together with Zhang Rui and Yue Zhongtai, to receive inquiries from Jinshang. Later, Jinshang summoned him less and less, and almost all political affairs were in the hands of the Zhang family. He came here.
There are even fewer. After that, the three divisions are all members of the Zhang family. His plan is not worthy of the name, and he has no chance to set foot in Wende Hall.
Unexpectedly, everything started to take a turn for the better when King Jin came to Beijing.
The north and south windows in the Hall of Wende were all wide open, and the warm wind slowly flowed in from both sides, which made people feel comfortable all over. Yuan Shaopei knelt in the warm wind and looked at the gold bricks on the ground with no expression on his face.
The excitement and confusion in front of the saint turned out to be very cold.
From the time he entered Beijing until the end of the Dragon Boat Festival, he almost never left the Sansidu branch office. After finishing last year's accounts, he then looked at the accounts of the previous year. Looking forward year by year, he knew in his heart that the current situation was not clear.
.
Sitting in the sandalwood royal chair today, I did not feel the gentle breeze. Instead, my mind was buzzing due to the wind. I motioned to the chamberlain to close the window.
The clay sculpture-like chamberlain in the hall suddenly moved, walking lightly to the north and south sides respectively, and closed the sill windows.
As soon as the windows were closed, Wende Hall became increasingly quiet.
This was still not enough, so he ordered people to close all the outside partitions.
As soon as the partition door is closed, the whole hall becomes quiet and you can hear your own breathing. A line of incense rises slowly from the incense burner. What is burning inside is "cloud incense". The fragrant fragrance spreads silently in the hall and touches the belt of your clothes.
As a result, I now feel that my heart is barely calm, and I am not as upset and angry as before.
He first looked at Yuan Shaopei carefully and saw that there was no cunning or weird look on Yuan Shaopei's face, so he asked him to stand up and answer while standing.
"Prime Minister Dong Ji," he looked at Dong Tongying, "I won't ask you about your annual tax today. I have another question. You have to answer me politely."
Dong Tongying cupped her hands and said, "I know everything I know."
Jinshang laughed incomprehensibly and lowered his head to look at the case. There was a piece of white paper covered with gold and white flowers on the paperweight. Only he could see what was written on the paper.
He looked at the paper, but his eyes wandered a bit, as if he didn't want to look at it any more. He said slowly: "In the 22nd year of Zhang De's reign, how much was the salt tax?"
Dong Tongying suddenly remembered what happened more than ten years ago. Just when he was about to plead guilty and go back to look it up, Yuan Shaopei lowered his head and whispered: "It's two million taels."
Jinshang nodded and asked again: "In the 23rd year of Zhang De's reign, how much was the salt tax?"
"Two million four hundred thousand taels."
"So how long is Zhang De's twenty-one years?"
"Two million three hundred and thirty thousand taels."
After listening to this, his eyes darkened a bit, but he still held a glimmer of hope in his heart: "Will there be any disasters in the past three years? Will there be any big changes in the household registration?"
Yuan Shaopei didn't know much about what happened in Hudu, so he kept silent. However, Dong Tongying remembered it very clearly.
Whenever there is a major disaster and there are many casualties among the people, there will be major changes in the household registration. Every major change is very heavy, and countless names disappear from the yellow book, so he remembers them very clearly.
"In the past three years, there have been no major changes in the Yellow Book."