Su Mingzhe rarely took a day off to cook hot pot with his woman at home.
Because there is a fire cage under the floor tiles, the heat in the room blocks the cold wind outside.
More than a dozen young and beautiful maids, wearing cool thin waist skirts designed by men, surround the men, either hanging their shoulders and pinching their legs, pouring tea and wine, or playing and singing, making the men very happy.
"Husband, your greenhouse is so well designed. Finally, you no longer have to worry about not being able to eat vegetables and fruits during the twelfth lunar month."
Wang Yanzhi, who is fifteen years old, is a full thirteen years younger than Xie Daoyun. He is at a lively and cute age.
Since she entered the Su Mansion, Su Mingzhe and Xie Daoyun have doted on her, and the girl has gradually returned to her girlish nature, keeping them busy eating, drinking and having fun for her all day long.
"This heating technology is really good."
Xie Daoyun looked at the man with eyes as gentle as water:
"Husband, next year, let's expand the greenhouse a little more. It's not rude to give the extra vegetables and fruits as gifts!"
It's more than disrespectful.
In this day and age, being able to eat a handful of green vegetables in the middle of winter is definitely a supreme pleasure. Who can despise this?
Not only that, Su Mingzhe’s seasonal fruit storage technology is also of epoch-making significance.
In winter, the stored melons and fruits were given to the emperor, and the emperor was overjoyed.
Unfortunately, Su Mingzhe took charge of the family for the first time this year and had no time to build more greenhouses or store more fruits.
If he really has extra, he won't be so stingy and hide at home every day to enjoy these things alone.
…
Su Mingzhe thanked Daoyun and Wang Yanzhi cooked a hot pot. Qingyin, Yu Wuxia, Gu Xinlian and more than a dozen maids were all so greedy that they swallowed their saliva.
It's a pity that their status is not even considered as concubines. When there is a wife, they are not even qualified to serve at the table and can only stand aside and wait.
If they want to enjoy it, either the main wife, Xie Daoyun, is not here, or the male host, Su Mingzhe, is not here.
…
Su Mingzhe and the two women had eaten and drank enough and were about to go to the bedroom to rest. Ming Yan, who had been promoted to housekeeper, ran in from outside and said:
"Sir, Master Taishou, please come to the house!"
Su Mingzhe's residence is next to the Prefect's Mansion.
When Su Mingzhe walked to the carriage and arrived at the prefect's mansion, he saw Wang Yun, drunk and hazy-eyed, drinking sobering soup with Amber waiting on him.
Amber saw it and quickly reminded:
"Sir, Mr. Su is here."
"Mr. Su...oh, my brother-in-law is here."
Wang Yun was an alcoholic and couldn't live without wine. When he heard Su Mingzhe coming, he subconsciously said:
"Amber, go prepare a banquet. I want to have a good drink with my brother-in-law..."
After hearing this, Amber smiled apologetically at Su Mingzhe, quickly took a wet towel, wiped his master's face, and reminded:
"Sir, you came to Mr. Su for official business."
"There is official business? Yes, yes, there is official business..."
Wang Yun was aroused by the cold towel and his mind cleared up. He finally remembered the purpose of calling Su Mingzhe:
"Sister-in-law, I just received a message from the prince (King Sima Pi of Langya). Murong Jun has sent a large army to be active on the border. Fu Jian is also preparing for war in Chang'an. Next year, the two families may go south together to invade. The court is preparing Issue a conscription order, and all counties in the south of the Yangtze River will send out 30,000 troops and garrison soldiers..."
"Thirty thousand? That much?"
Su Mingzhe felt a headache after hearing this.
You must know that there are ten counties in Wuxing County, with a registered population of only more than 300,000 (not including servants of wealthy families).
Nowadays, 30,000 people have to be recruited, which is almost one-tenth of the population.
Once this order is issued, it will definitely be nerve-wracking for Wuxing County.
However, if the Yan and Qin people wanted to go south, they had to resist.
After a moment of silence, Su Mingzhe slowly asked:
"Brother, when will the imperial court issue an edict?"
"Such an edict is an indiscriminate order. All the ministers in the court are trying to persuade Your Majesty. Even if the court really issues such an edict, all the powerful families will resist and are unwilling to obey it!"
Wang Yun directly refuted the edict as chaos, obviously expressing his dissatisfaction with the young emperor who came to power this year.
…
Wang Yun was born in the Wang family of Taiyuan.
The Wang family in Taiyuan is at the head of a wealthy family, with thousands of registered children.
If the imperial court were to issue such a "chaotic order", the Taiyuan Wang family would have to send at least several thousand troops.
Therefore, even the Wang family of Taiyuan cannot accept such a 'chaotic order', and other aristocratic families are even less willing to obey the order.
…
"The prince said in his heart that something big will happen in the south of the Yangtze River recently, so let's collect as many medicinal materials as possible!"
Wang Yun said and handed over a prescription.
Su Mingzhe took a look and immediately recognized that the medicinal materials on it were not that big of a deal individually, but when combined casually, they were a recipe for treating epidemics.
…
Su Mingzhe never imagined that Fang Zi from a wealthy family would be so ruthless in opposing the imperial decree.
Just when Wang Yun gave Su Mingzhe the prescription, winter plague had quietly appeared in counties south of the Yangtze River.
When the epidemic began to spread in Wuxing, Su Mingzhe, who was working from home, couldn't help but sigh:
"This group of aristocratic families are so ruthless that they used the epidemic to fight against the imperial edicts! The cycle of heaven, once someone can't stand it anymore, these aristocratic families will probably not survive!"
"Husband, you can't say such nonsense!"
When Xie Daoyun heard that Su Mingzhe had 'cursed' the wealthy family, she was so frightened that she quickly used her hands to read the man's mouth.
The old saying circulated in the Eastern Jin Dynasty was "the king and his horse share the world", but now it has become "the king and Xie share the world".
This does not mean that the power of the Xie family is comparable to that of the Wang family, but that the power of the royal Sima family is even smaller, and even the change of imperial power is controlled by the family.
Under such a rolling historical trend, anyone who dares to stand in the way will be crushed into pieces.
…
Winter passes and spring comes.
The imperial court originally planned to recruit 30,000 people in each county, but it was changed to 10,000.
The powerful family has won again.
The cost was that tens of thousands of poor people died of the winter plague in the counties south of the Yangtze River.
But these common people still regard the wealthy and aristocratic families who opened free clinics and medicine sheds as living Bodhisattvas and Buddhas.
Seeing the powerful family fooling the people in this way, Su Mingzhe silently made a decision in his heart to push history forward.
…
It's February.
Just after finishing the spring plowing, Su Mingzhe received a letter from Liang Shanbo.
Among the several pages of the eloquent letter, two pages talked about the winter epidemic in Hangzhou last year, and Gu Kaizhi's departure from the academy. Today's guest professor is Tao Yuanming.
The other pages are all Liang Shanbo's own water control strategies, and Su Mingzhe is invited to comment.
"Tao Yuanming has already entered the academy. By this time, Zhu Yingtai should have discovered that she has fallen in love with Liang Shanbo, right?"
As Su Mingzhe spoke, he sighed and decided to go back to the academy.
…
One and a half years after awakening to Su Hui, Su Mingzhe's cultivation level has broken through to Daluo Jinxian.
Under Daluo Jinxian's discernment, all evil tricks will have nowhere to hide.
He just wanted to see whether Zhu Yingtai and Liang Shanbo really fell in love at first sight, or whether they were cursed by Yue Lao.