"I have met your Majesty, Chang Sheng." Chang Sheng, Duke of Zheng, walked into a side hall of Qianqing Palace, knelt down and said to Yunxi.
"Uncle, get up." Yunxi came over, stretched out his hand to help him up and said.
Chang Sheng stood up and asked Yunxi in confusion: "Your Majesty, why have you called the generals here at this time?" He was appointed as the deputy general in charge of grain and grass, and was about to leave for Guangxi. He was very busy these days. Why did the emperor call him here?
Yunxi didn't speak, but took out a small bag, handed it to him and said, "Uncle, don't ask so many questions, just try this."
Chang Sheng looked at what looked like dried pickled radish in the bag and asked, "Your Majesty, what is this?"
"Uncle, try it first." Yunxi just said.
Chang Sheng then took the bag from Yunxi's hand, tied one with a toothpick, and ate it into his mouth.
After a moment, his expression changed. After swallowing the food in his mouth, he immediately said: "Your Majesty, this is pickled radish? But the taste is completely different from ordinary pickled radish. If it is served with rice, it is better than radish." eat."
"Now the army in Guangxi is having a little trouble due to lack of vegetables. This thing can just solve this little trouble." Chang Sheng immediately thought of this.
"My uncle is right. The reason why I came up with this special pickled radish, which I named mustard, is to solve the problem of no vegetables to go with the food when the army is marching." Yunxi said.
At the same time, he thought of other things: 'They say Chang Sheng can't succeed, isn't this possible? I can think of what use this can be when I take it out, it is a talent that can be developed! How about using him to take charge of the five armies in the future? The Governor's Mansion? No, the Chang family is too powerful. Unlike people like Xue Ning and Li Jian, we cannot let him take charge of the Governor's Mansion of the Fifth Army. So how to use him on weekdays...'
Yunxi immediately put his thoughts back and heard Chang Sheng ask again: "Your Majesty, please forgive me for being presumptuous, but how did your Majesty discover this special pickled mustard?"
"I discovered this by accident yesterday," Yunxi said.
Yunxi got this mustard from Li Zhiliang yesterday. The reason why he saw Li Zhiliang and forced him into the carriage yesterday was because he was interested in their secret recipe for pickling vegetables.
After Yunxi saw the memorial before going to the martial arts hall yesterday, although he approved the three words "I understand" at the time, he kept thinking about it in his heart. Just when he went out and saw Li Zhiliang, he remembered The first time I met him, he mentioned that his family sold dry food and had a secret recipe for pickled vegetables, so he called him into the car to ask.
After some questioning, Li Zhiliang took out a small bag containing homemade mustard mustard from his clothes and asked Yunxi to taste it. Of course, Yunxi couldn't eat it himself, so he asked a guard to taste it. The guard thought it was very good, and the words were agreeable. Same as Chang Sheng.
Yunxi immediately asked people to rush to Li Zhiliang's store outside the city and buy a lot. Yunxi tasted it himself, and immediately tasted it: 'Isn't this the pickled mustard of future generations! At this time, there will be pickled mustard of later generations!'
However, he tasted it carefully and found that it was different from later generations of pickled mustard, not exactly the same.
But no matter what, it was much better than the pickled vegetables that soldiers were eating now, so Yunxi decided to promote mustard.
After hearing Yunxi's words, Chang Sheng said: "Your Majesty, in this case, I will take this person to Guangxi to pickle this special mustard."
"That's not necessary. Their family members are not the only ones who can make their pickled mustard. As long as they know the secret recipe for seasoning, anyone who has pickled vegetables can make it."
"I have obtained the secret recipe from their family. You take it to Guangdong, give the secret recipe to the people in Guangdong, let the people in Guangdong know the secret recipe, and purchase mustard from the people. I already let the people know the secret recipe in the capital yesterday. , will also purchase mustard for the army to eat."
"Of course, I don't want his secret recipe for nothing. I have decreed to confer him a hereditary title of 100 households, give him gold and silver, and reward him." Yunxi said. He has no way to implement patent rights or anything like this now. The mustard produced by a small workshop was not enough to feed a hundred soldiers, so we could not let him produce it exclusively, so we could only reward him with national rewards.
"Your Majesty, this is a very good move." Chang Sheng said.
Yunxi smiled and said, "I have nothing else to do. Uncle, let's go back and prepare for going to Guangxi."
"In this case, I will retire." Chang Sheng bowed and bowed before retreating.
After he retreated, Yunxi sat on his seat and whispered: "We have solved another small problem for the Ming soldiers. We are more confident of defeating the Annan people cleanly."
"I have also been to the Martial Arts Hall. Now there is absolutely nothing to do in the capital. We can leave for Annan."
"But the Double Ninth Festival will be in two days, so we should wait until the Double Ninth Festival passes before going to Guangdong."
…
…
"According to the emperor's edict, in response to Li Zhiliang, a citizen of Tianfu,..., he was granted the title of Yulin Zuowei hereditary family of 100 households, and was rewarded with fifty taels of gold and one hundred taels of silver. I admire this."
"The common people thank you for your kindness. Long live your Majesty!" Li Zhiliang, his father and others knelt on the ground and said.
The young eunuch who delivered the edict then handed the imperial edict to Li Zhiliang and said with a smile: "Congratulations to Li Baihu."
"I don't dare to accept it, I don't dare to accept it." When Li Zhiliang took the imperial edict from him, he handed the young eunuch a small ingot of silver from his hand and whispered: "Thank you very much, father-in-law."
The young eunuch pinched the silver and said with a smile on his face: "Li Baihu is too polite."
The two exchanged a few words, and Li Zhiliang said again: "Eunuch, why don't you go into the humble residence and have a cup of tea before leaving."
"No need, we have something else to do, so I won't bother Li Baihu any more." The young eunuch said with a smile, and then led the people away. Li Zhiliang walked dozens of feet away before returning.
When he returned to his home, his parents immediately rushed over and asked: "Zhiliang, what is going on? How could there be an imperial edict issued to our family?" His father Li Dali said while looking at Li Zhiliang wanted to snatch the imperial edict in his hand and look at it, but he didn't do it as if he was afraid of something.
Li Zhiliang handed the imperial edict to them and said with a smile: "This sounds like storytelling." Then he recounted what happened yesterday.
"...When my son first met the emperor yesterday, he thought he had some evil intentions. He even thought of practicing evil arts and wanted to take me back to refine evil items."
"Later I heard that he was asking about our secret recipe for pickled vegetables, and my son was even more surprised. There were many people who coveted our secret recipe in the past, but they all had similar status and status to him, even from the police station in charge of the ferry outside the city. The county captain didn't even care when he found out that they had a secret recipe for pickling vegetables. How could such a noble man care about it? It's not a secret recipe for making priceless porcelain."
"It was only later that the emperor explained the reason. It was because the army in the Annan expedition had no food to eat that he paid attention to the secret recipe of our pickles. Only then did my son understand." Li Zhiliang expressed his feelings by the way.
"You're still meeting the emperor!" His mother, Yang, said with wide eyes.
"Yes, Zhiliang, you can still see the emperor!" His father Li Dali also said in surprise.
"Of course, otherwise how could our family have this imperial edict?" Li Zhiliang said in a show-off manner.
"That's the Emperor, the Son of Heaven. The stars in the sky have descended to earth and reincarnated. Smoke is coming out of our ancestral graves. I really can't believe it." Li Dali said very excitedly.
"Father, mother, not only can you not believe it, but my son also couldn't believe it yesterday. But this is what really happened. Yesterday, my son pinched his arm and it became swollen," Li Zhiliang said.
The family sighed with emotion for a while, and then Li Dali said: "Hurry up and frame the imperial edict. How do you look like holding it like this!" After saying that, he took the imperial edict from his son's hand, opened it and read it again, and took out his most precious edict.
An exquisite small wooden box, in which the imperial edict was placed.
"Zhiliang, go and invite Baitou over and let him frame it. No, he is just making a living outside the city, and his craftsmanship is not very good. Go to the city and invite the best framer."
"Tomorrow I will buy some pig heads, melons and fruits, and in two days I will go to pay homage to our ancestors' graves. We will also let other people in the clan see that our family is also prosperous."
"..." Li Dali happily gave many instructions. Li Zhiliang agreed one by one.
After all these instructions were given, Li Dali sat down on the chair to take a breath, and then thought of another thing and asked: "Zhiliang, since you have become a hereditary householder, even though it is just a false title, you should no longer take care of these boats in the family.
And the shop."
Li Zhiliang was quite reluctant to give up after hearing this. Ordinary people are like this, they are unwilling to let go of things they hold in their hands. But he also knew that it was really inappropriate for him to take care of these things after becoming a hundred households, and he knew that he had to let go. But
, "Dad, it's really not good to take care of my son anymore, but my second brother Zhirui is only thirteen years old, and my father still wants him to study, so it's not suitable to take care of him. Then who can take care of this business?"
"I will take care of your father personally. I am less than fifty years old and can still do my job. If your brother succeeds in studying and even becomes a scholar, this property will be handed over to your second son in the future; if your brother
If it doesn't work out in the future, even if you can't win a scholarship, just leave these to him."
"Father plans to let your brother take the imperial examination until he is thirty. If he still can't become a scholar at thirty, he should stop taking the examination and take charge of the family business." Li Dali said.
Li Zhiliang nodded. His father's handling was appropriate and he had no objections.
"In a few days, after you have paid homage to the ancestral graves, you will go on duty at the Habayashi Left Guard. Although you have a false title now, you must make friends with the people in the guard. No matter whether they are soldiers or generals, you must not offend. Make friends.
They will have a backer for our family in the future. Even if they are just a small soldier, they are much stronger than our family, so you must not offend them," Li Dali said again.
"Yes, dad. However, Yulin Zuowei has already gone to Annan, and my son can't go even if he wants to go on duty!" Li Zhiliang said.
"Confused! There are always people left behind, right? Even if all the generals and soldiers go to Annan, they still have families, so you should make good friends with their families!"
"The prosperity of our family in the future will depend on you. Although your brother took the imperial examination, how many of them were able to pass the imperial examination? Not to mention the Jinshi. He doesn't seem to be a material for studying. He can be a scholar and encounter trivial matters.
It’s fine without bothering you.”
"So you must strive for your best and work hard at Yulin Left Guard. If you can get a real job in the future, your work will not be in vain." Li Dali finally said.
Li Zhiliang nodded seriously. But he was thinking in his heart: 'A practical member of the 100th household? In the future, I will at least be a practical member of the 1000th household!'