Early the next morning, the sun rose in the east, and its warm rays shone on the residence of Shangshu of the Ministry of Finance.
Muchuan stood in the courtyard and was slowly doing stretching exercises.
The household work is almost completed, the water conservancy project is being carried out in an orderly manner, everything is going smoothly, and Muchuan is planning to complete his personal matters at this time.
Yes, that is to go to Fang's mansion to propose marriage!
Muchuan and Xin'er had expressed their feelings for each other before and became a couple.
Although Xin'er wanted to "secretly" fall in love with Muchuan, he finally felt that doing so would wrong her. After all, Xin'er was a delicate young lady and had to take her reputation into consideration, so he decided to propose marriage.
The question is, how to propose marriage in ancient times?
Muchuan did not have this knowledge in his knowledge base, so he had to ask people he knew well around him.
"By the way, just ask Mo Zhu!"
Mo Zhu is the Minister of Household Affairs. Although he looks silly and silly, a typical scholar from the imperial examination system, he is very knowledgeable about traditional etiquette.
The most important thing is that Mo Zhu is already married!
Looking at the corona time in the courtyard, Mo Zhu should be working in the Hubu official residence at this time, and Muchuan was ready to go after washing up.
"Lord Muchuan! Where are you, Lord Muchuan!"
There was a lot of noise in the main hall of Shangshu's residence. When you hear this familiar voice, you can recognize the person. It's Ouyang Bufan!
Muchuan walked out of the side hall and asked coldly: "Is this your boy?
What are you doing here so early in the morning? Is it just for breakfast?"
"Lord Muchuan, how can you think of me as such a person?
Could it be that I came here early in the morning just to get some food?"
"Isn't it?
When did you come here in the morning and didn’t just have a meal?”
Muchuan began to curse, Ouyang Bufan, a boy who comes here every day to eat and drink, and the most important thing is not to pay for food, which is really resentful.
Ouyang Bufan touched the back of his head with his hand: "Haha, Master Muchuan, don't be so angry?
Isn’t it just a matter of money?
It’s simple, I can just pay the money later, right?”
"Okay, you have to pay five taels of gold every month."
"Five taels of gold?
This is too much!”
You must know that as a minister of household affairs and a fourth-rank official of the imperial court, Ouyang Bufan's monthly salary is only five taels of gold and three dans of flour. As a result, all the monthly money from the imperial court was handed over to Muchuan. This is too evil.
Alright.
Ouyang Bufan then waved his fist and shouted that it was unfair. If he handed over all his salary, what would he eat and drink in the future?
Muchuan chuckled: "Will a merchant like you be short of money?
Do you think I’m a fool?”
Others don’t know the details of Ouyang Bufan, but Muchuan knows it very well!
Ouyang Bufan was born as a merchant, and his family's chamber of commerce operated on a large scale. The profits alone were tens of thousands of taels of gold. Would he care about that mere 5 taels of gold?
After being exposed by Muchuan at this time, Ouyang Bufan was too embarrassed to make excuses anymore, so he agreed to pay the monthly fee of five taels of gold.
After all, there was nothing we could do about it. The dishes at Shangshu's Mansion were unique, but Ouyang Bufan fell in love with the dishes here. He was willing to pay even 20 taels of gold, let alone five taels of gold.
But at this time, Ouyang Bufan slapped his head and said suddenly: "It's true... you forgot the business while talking with Mr. Muchuan."
"Business?
Can your boy still be able to do something serious?"
"Of course! I'm here to tell you that the envoy from Goguryeo is about to die!"
When Muchuan returned from the border ten days ago, he brought many prisoners of war from the Goguryeo Kingdom back to Chang'an City.
In addition to continuing to interrogate what they knew, they were brought back to use them as bargaining chips! According to Muchuan's judgment, after one-fifth of the territory of Goguryeo was occupied, people must be panicked and fearful.
.
Under the premise that Goguryeo did not have enough power to compete with the Tang Dynasty, the first thing they thought of was peace talks.
If peace talks were held, the Tang Dynasty would definitely have to use Goguryeo as a chopping block and slaughter it.
Among them, Kim and Hyun Bin are a powerful bargaining chip. When the Goguryeo Kingdom comes, they will be asked to pay for the hostages to return.
High-ranking officials like Jin Hexuan Bin were worth a lot of money. They would definitely be able to steal a lot of gold and silver treasures from Goguryeo. By then, they would be able to greatly fill the national treasury and help the development of the Tang Dynasty.
At this time, listening to Ouyang Bufan's account, Li Chengqian seemed to want to kill Jin and Xuan Bin out of revenge.
After hearing this, Muchuan's face turned as black as coal. This crown prince really can't live without causing trouble for a day. Doesn't he know the value of Jin and Xuan Bin?
If you kill him like this, you will lose a lot of gold.
"I already know it, let's go to the government office quickly now!"
Half an hour later, Muchuan and Ouyang Bufan rode a carriage to the government office in Chang'an City.
The government office is grand, with red bricks and black tiles. There are two stone statues of Xie Zhi standing in front of the door.
The person who came out to greet Muchuan and the others was a stooped Jingxian Cheng, who rose to official rank from the seventh rank and was famously known as "Zhang Jiujiu".
As soon as he saw Muchuan and the two, Zhang Jiujiu rubbed his hands and came over to greet him, and said flatteringly, "I heard that these two adults are coming over, which makes the government office look brighter! Please invite me, two adults. I have already prepared some high-quality tea!"
"
It can be seen that this Jiujiu is a well-rounded person who has both sides. At least his ability to flatter others is not weak.
Muchuan was not in the mood to greet the other party, so he refused with a wave of his hand and said instead: "Where are Jin and Xuan Bin?"
"Is Lord Shangshu here to find the Goguryeo thief?
Your Majesty, I will lead the way now."
After half a cup of tea, the group arrived at the underground prison.
In the cell, Muchuan successfully saw Jin and Xuan Bin.
It's just that Jin and Hyun Bin didn't look good. They were covered in blood, their fingernails were pulled out, and their hair was torn off. They looked "neither human nor ghost", which was very scary.
There were two big men next to Jin and Hyun Bin. These two big men were using knives to cut off the flesh of Jin and Hyun Bin's arms. This must be the "Ling Chi" punishment in the rumors.
Muchuan naturally understood what was going on. After all, he had already heard from Ouyang Bufan that Li Chengqian wanted to deal with Jin and Xuan Bin.
"stop!"
At this time, Muchuan had drunk the two big men.
The two big men did not recognize Muchuan. After all, Muchuan was wearing ordinary clothes instead of official robes.
Zhang Jiujiu became smart and immediately introduced to the two big men: "This is Mr. Muchuanmu, the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs. You two dog slaves are still not polite when you see the adults?"
The two big men finally got smart and knelt on the ground in a panic to salute.
"It has nothing to do with you two now, get out of here!"
Muchuan waved his hand and let the two big men leave.
Later, Muchuan walked into the cell and saw clearly the appearance of Jin Hexuan Bin. He was covered in blood and was dying, but he was still conscious.
