Chapter 34 Gift Giving

Of course, complaining is useless, and Prince Mu has absolutely no ability to change the personal dependence of this era. So after being stunned for a long time, he could only accept the helpless reality of the three redundancies and deeply empathized with Wang Anshi's sorrow at that time.

What's even more sad is that Mu Qi doesn't even have room to cut spending. The other expenses in the Duke's Mansion are fine, but the cost of giving gifts to the old Taoist priest cannot be saved. Feixuan Zhenjun Wanshou Emperor is frugal and loves his people. He only wears eight sets of clothes in all four seasons. Therefore, he always issues edicts to restrict the inside and outside, and repeatedly states that there is no need to be extravagant when celebrating the emperor's birthday, and that he only needs the sincerity of the people of the world. But the noble circle has been dealing with Lao Deng for such a long time, how could they not know Lao Deng’s true intentions behind his sarcastic tone?

The so-called "no need for extravagance in celebrating the emperor's birthday" means that the palace will never waste a single penny on vain and extravagant ceremonies, and even the usual rewards and promotions will be exempted; the so-called "a sincere heart" means that the gifts given to meritorious officials, important ministers, royal family members, governors and governors must not be less in the slightest, and must be unique and unexpected to show their loyalty to the fullest.

In a nutshell, the old Taoist priest can receive gifts without having to spend money to return them, and he can also further strengthen his image as a person who only wears eight sets of clothes throughout the four seasons and cares about the people instead of being obsessed with the prosperity. With these three approaches, he can win both inside and outside.

However, no matter how much Lao Deng wins, his subordinates dare not get angry or say anything, and even have to repeatedly submit petitions, asking Lao Deng to "reward" them - Lao Deng accepts your gifts to give you face, and ordinary people do not have this honor, so it is recommended that you do not be shameless.

And in view of the fact that Lao Deng was recently forced to cut losses, and just allocated an annual expenditure of one million taels of silver from the inner treasury; this year he must of course seize the opportunity to make a big comeback, and he must reward his subordinates with a lot of face on his birthday and give them as much gold coins as possible to make Rich Brother explode.

As the core of the noble circle, Duke Mu's Mansion could not only not dodge such ferocious and sharp swordsmanship, but also had to stand up and show their sincere loyalty and love, and their sincere willingness to lick the emperor's boots. Mu Qi was emo for a long time, thinking over the use of the mere two thousand taels of silver in his mind, and finally found out sadly that he might not be able to lick it anymore.

Who understands, my friends, how can there be such outrageous and despicable people in the world?

Perhaps because he saw that his master was really worried, the butler who was serving beside him hesitated for a moment, and then spoke carefully:

"I dare to say that the gift does not have to be worth a fortune. As long as the intention is there, His Majesty will surely be pleased..."

Mu Qi turned his head slowly, but there was no joy on his face. He sighed deeply:

"Yeah, it depends on how you feel..."

Licking the emperor is a very sophisticated technical job, and it is by no means effective simply by spending large sums of money - of course, this is not to say that the True Lord does not like money; but one cannot really use vulgar and cheap silver notes to blaspheme the True Lord Wanshou Feixuan, who governs the country frugally and wears only eight sets of uniforms throughout the four seasons. Therefore, when giving gifts, not only must the budget be sufficient, but one must also carefully consider the subtle shifts in the emperor's orientation and interests, and show one's sincere loyalty and love attentively. The energy spent may not even be less than when raising money.

...In general, the past ten years or so of dealing with the superiors and subordinates in the court was like a never-ending and bizarre love affair in which all efforts were made without any reward. Under Lao Deng's constant tests of his sincerity, both the superiors and the subordinates were exhausted both physically and mentally, and they really felt overwhelmed.

The key point is, although being in love is tiring, there are still irrational hormones to deal with. As the saying goes, only you know the sweetness and bitterness, and outsiders can't say anything. But although Lao Deng is over fifty years old and still has charm, the ministers below him have a lot of beards and wrinkles, and they really can't get any physiological excitement...

Mu Qi sighed deeply and covered his face with the account book.

·

After being silent for several days, True Lord Feixuan, Emperor Qingmiao, Emperor Wanshou carefully studied the Heavenly Book and finally analyzed significant progress from the gossip.

This piece of gossip is very simple, and seems to be just a complaint from an exiled immortal in his spare time:

[I have to prepare a gift for Lao Deng again, feeling irritated]

Just with this one sentence, Zhenjun's heart suddenly lifted up - among all the important civil and military officials in the court, there are definitely not many who are qualified to give him gifts; just by using this sentence to screen, he can narrow down the scope of suspicion to... within a hundred people!

...Well, Master Feixuan is an emperor after all, and an emperor who doesn't give up and always gets things done. As long as one does things frequently, one has to have repeated contacts with the upper circles. This means that the flow of information and resources is extremely frequent, and of course it is difficult to identify the suspect.

Therefore, being diligent in work also has its disadvantages. If it was Zhenjun's good grandson Baizong who came to power, it would not take long to lock down the key figures.

Of course, even if the character is so complicated, as long as the master is determined to investigate, there may be some clues. It's just that the True Lord was indeed a little afraid of the resentment of the banished immortal who seemed to be about to turn evil and kill everyone, so he never dared to let his subordinates investigate too closely, for fear of touching an unknown minefield and causing the banished immortal to transform into an evil sword immortal or something like that.

But now that the banished immortal had exposed himself, the True Lord would not be polite at all - he thought carefully for half a day, and immediately asked several confidants of the Imperial Household Department to spread the news of the longevity gift in the capital. At the same time, he strictly monitored the Heavenly Book and did not even let go of the masked audio of the swearing.

This trick of luring the snake out of its hole really worked immediately. But within a few days, the Heavenly Book came out in anger:

[What a damn scroll king!] As soon as Lao Deng released a little bit of information, everyone rushed to lick it! Can you have a little moral integrity and conscience? I heard that the bottom line for gift-giving has been raised to five thousand taels. How can people survive like this? 】

Indeed, watching other people having fun is a joy to the body and mind. Master Feixuan has been tempered by the Heavenly Book for so long that his temper and humanity have grown. He has actually learned to be reasonable and no longer cares about the slightest rude words that offend the majesty of heaven. He even leaned comfortably on the couch, freely appreciating the embarrassment of the banished immortal.

Of course, the "five thousand taels" was also news that made Master Feixuan particularly happy. He secretly calculated that if this number was stable and reliable, he could receive at least 300,000 silver coins in gifts for his birthday. If we could try harder to cut down on the prices of banquets and rewards, it would be no problem to make a net profit of more than 200,000 taels.

It should be said that although Lao Deng valued money very much and was cunning and sinister, he still cared too much about the reputation of a sage and benevolent ruler. He was not creative enough in making money and even had to reluctantly pay out of his own pocket to entertain important officials who came to present him with gifts. However, Lao Deng's grandson Baizong was very open-minded in this regard and never suffered any mental fatigue because of his status as emperor. He also accepted lavish gifts when celebrating his birthday, but he outsourced the task of entertaining guests to his eunuchs. He was stingy and never gave a penny to the treasury. He went further than Lao Deng and made more money. He was born to be a businessman.

And now, the True Lord, who was still unable to lose face, was only satisfied with the small harvest of several hundred thousand taels of silver. He turned the page contentedly and read the following text with ease:

[It would be fine if it was just the money, but these damned traitors are coming up with new tricks, asking for all kinds of auspicious signs. It's simply unreasonable! The year before last, Nanzhili sent "white deer" and "white horse" to Lao Deng, which greatly pleased him. But in fact, they were just some poor albino sika deer and wild horses. This year, the governor re-introduced the old custom to wish Lao Deng "good fortune and luck". In addition to catching albino sika deer, he also got a dozen snow-white bats from somewhere and sent them to the capital.

...To be honest, if the governor of Southern Zhili had not always been submissive, I would have suspected that he was a remnant of Jianwen, and would have taken advantage of the day when all the royal family members gathered in the capital to wipe out all the evil descendants of Zhu Laosi. Why not give something else instead of giving bats, which are the natural virus saints and incubators for all kinds of infectious diseases! Biological surprise attack, sudden attack with disease, nothing is more vicious than this! 】

As the illegitimate offspring of Zhu Laosi, Feixuan Zhenjun Wanshou Emperor frowned. He didn't care much about the "bad seed", but after thinking hard for a moment, he remembered that the governor of Southern Zhili had indeed submitted a secret memorial to present a "auspicious beast".

It was common for local governors to present auspicious animals, and the procedure was much simpler. Because of the painful lessons of having to wash their faces in public after being forced to kneel down and remonstrate with civil officials in the past, officials sent from other places to celebrate the emperor's birthday were strictly searched, and their ancestors were checked from top to bottom, for fear that some literary youth who had read too much might sneak in and say something earth-shattering in front of Master Feixuan in a fit of indignation. But perhaps because they all understand human nature, Zhenjun and his animal friends have always been in tune with each other and treat them with kindness. Now, the raccoon slave "Shuangmei" that he carefully raises is treated better than many of his confidants.

After all, the animals won't criticize Lao Deng for his alchemy and extravagance and corruption that harm the country; nor will they strangle Lao Deng's neck in the middle of the night so that he kicks his legs. Aren't they much more considerate than servants?

But such a thoughtful gift of auspicious beasts was inexplicably associated with some strange words like "biochemical attack"... Master Feixuan felt something was wrong:

Being affected by something as yin and yang as the Heavenly Book usually doesn't have good results.

[Of course, you can't expect the ancients to know anything about infectious diseases, but they did have basic common sense. After Lao Deng’s birthday, a strange disease immediately broke out in the capital, and the center of the disease happened to be Xiyuan where the white bats were placed. Next to it is the Central Cabinet Duty Room and the Imperial Household Department - a surprise attack from a thousand miles away, the center explodes, from top to bottom, everything is caught in one fell swoop; who dares to say that I, the Governor of Da'an, don't understand the art of war? ! Such a masterful use of troops, even if Lan Yu and Xu Da were resurrected and Emperor Taizong rose from the underground, they would be dumbfounded and amazed at this method of biological and chemical warfare.

However, it is strange that according to historical records, Lao Deng had personally enjoyed these dozen Bioshocks after his birthday party; but as a close contact with the high-intensity virus, the old Taoist priest only coughed for a few days and was absent from government affairs, and there was nothing wrong with him otherwise. On the contrary, the eunuchs from the Imperial Household Department and the Eastern Depot accompanied him and served him. Some died, some were injured, and several died of high fever alone...

Judging from the symptoms, it was obvious that the virus spread by the white bats was some kind of high-intensity respiratory virus; even if transportation was restricted in ancient times and transmission was difficult, it would not be a problem to kill seven people in and out of the capital city and have everyone pay their respects. But it is a miracle that no major plague broke out during Lao Deng’s administration.

According to subsequent analysis of archaeological data, it should be that alchemy was practiced in Xiyuan all year round, and the volatile sulfur tribute vapor and lead dioxide smoke permeated the soil and organisms, leaving considerable concentrations in the soil and living things. The poor virus probably never thought that its parasites would be such a group of heavy metal giants. It might not even have the chance to spread beyond Xiyuan before it died in a fierce fight with lead, mercury and sulfur.

This may be one of the old Taoist priest’s destiny. If you don't find the right method, it will be difficult to kill Lao Deng. 】

The corners of the mouth of the hard-to-kill Lao Deng twitched, but his heart was turbulent and fluctuating. Perhaps it was because the dozen or so white bats that were denounced by the Heavenly Book as the source of all evil, the Biohazard, had not yet entered the capital, or perhaps it was because there was nothing serious wrong with him in the Heavenly Book, Master Fei Xuan was still able to maintain basic composure and not shout or act too out of control.

But under the intense anger, his mind was exceptionally clear and sharp. He vaguely recalled the white deer and white horse presented by the governor of Southern Zhili last time - there was no plague that time; but Zhenjun clearly remembered that after watching this auspicious sign from heaven, tuberculosis broke out in the Imperial Household Department, and several eunuchs died as well...

With the weak medical science of this era, there is certainly no awareness of tracing the root cause of the disease, but after being mentioned by the Heavenly Book, this originally insignificant past event became extremely glaring!

Every time a good omen is sent, a major incident occurs. Is this a good omen or a demon? ! Damn it, could the people in Southern Zhili really be the remnants of Emperor Jianwen?

Master Fei Xuan's expression became extremely mysterious. He pondered for a moment, took out the memorial file sent by the Imperial Household Department, and pinched a mark under the name of the Governor of Southern Zhili with his fingernail. This was a sign agreed upon between him and his trusted eunuchs, which probably meant "such and such villain will never be employed again"; the scribes in the Imperial Household Department would understand when they saw the sign, and would try their best to embarrass the ignorant officials of Nanzhili in the future, and prepare a pair of small shoes for them that were neither too big nor too small, and just the right size. As the True Lord is detached from the world and pure and flawless, he certainly does not have to bear the bad reputation of scheming against his subjects.

...As for the bats, they are still on their way to Beijing anyway. Ask the East Factory to find someone to stop the car halfway and burn it.

Master Fei Xuan let out a long breath, and his heart was surprisingly calm. Therefore, people's mentality also needs to be tempered. After his defense was broken by the Heavenly Book several times, Lao Deng finally cultivated to a very high state where the clouds are in the blue sky and the water is in the bottle, and they forget each other and are not moved. As the saying goes, "opening and falling without intention", let the clouds in front of the courtyard roll and unroll. Lao Deng can now face the ever-changing situation calmly and will no longer be troubled by the trivial matters of the mortal world.

Lao Deng, you are so virtuous!

·

However, Master Fei Xuan's calm and profound cultivation soon encountered another test; it seemed that the rising cost of gifts really made the exiled immortal break his defense, so the Heavenly Book quickly updated the content of the complaints, and this time it was rubbing its hands, viciously attacking the Governor of Ji Liao:

[…This bitch doesn’t pay attention to the border threats in the Northeast, but actually sends people to dig ginseng every day! The gift every year is ginseng, and I am not afraid of killing the old wall lamp. Now the technology for large-scale mining of wild ginseng is not yet mature, and the price is extremely high. One or two taels of old wild ginseng can be worth fifty taels of gold. This bitch gave away seven or eight taels of century-old ginseng. Once this precedent is set, how can others follow suit! 】

[But the bitch deserved it. In order to show his loyalty to Lao Deng, the Governor of Ji-Liao actually went into battle personally to fumigate ginseng and prepare dried goods for Lao Deng. Moreover, he did everything himself and never slacked off. You may say that this man is brainless, but he actually summed up a new set of preservation technology from the skills of the mountain people, which can preserve the ginseng for a long time, with bright color and never decay. It was a dimensionality reduction attack at the time, no wonder he was favored by Lao Deng; but if you say that this man is smart, the preservation technology he used is sulfur fumigation plus saltpeter application - sulfur dioxide plus sodium nitrite, and occasionally a little □□. If the preservation effect is not good, it would be unforgivable!

No wonder Lao Deng likes him. The Governor of Jilin and Liaoning was promoted five times within ten years, and rose rapidly from a mere county magistrate to the position of a frontier official. If he had not died early, Lao Deng would have kept him by his side and placed him at the top of the government. This obsession, constant care and concern for him, is probably the mutual sympathy between biochemical monsters. Let me take a bite of the candy first. 】

After reading this long string of inexplicable venting, the biochemical monster Fei Xuan Zhenjun felt a little confused. No matter how smart he was and how good he was at observing people's hearts, he really couldn't understand that long string of bizarre and incomprehensible words; he just felt that something was wrong, and a kind of subtle... chill.

What is "nitric acid"? What is "arsenic"? Where did this banished immortal get the candy? No matter how well he and the Governor of Ji-Liao get along, what does it have to do with "sugar"?

Although the wording in the heavenly book was incomprehensible, there was one sentence that really hit the mark of Master Fei Xuan's feelings. The Governor-General of Ji and Liao was a minister who made his fortune in Qiandi, Hubei, and was promoted by Zhenjun. He was also a highly valued confidant of the emperor's party. Of course, Zhenjun likes such a loyal and flattering person very much. It is precisely because of this love that the True Lord is always willing to give the Governor of Ji Liao one more chance, at least to understand his fumigation process first.

Fortunately, the Heavenly Book immediately explained:

[Use sulfur internally and apply arsenic externally; sulfur treats the symptoms, arsenic treats the root cause; treat both internal and external conditions to cure both the symptoms and the root cause. This is roughly the embalming technique used by the Governor of Ji-Liao. Simply put, before the full development of organic synthetic preservatives, this was indeed the most effective technical route in human history... except that it was not very friendly to the parties involved. The Governor of Jilin and Liaoning died suddenly after several years of fumigation, paying a bloody price for the new route. However, the technology he pioneered was inherited by later generations and was widely used in the processing of precious dried goods such as tremella, ganoderma lucidum, and bird's nest, greatly improving the trade level of Northeast China.

This innovative technological innovation finally produced unexpected consequences. The expansion of preservation technology has brought about the prevalence of the consumption culture, and the consequences it has caused are extremely subtle. Later, according to the statistical data of the birth and death dates of upper-class officials, there was a very obvious negative correlation between the amount of ginseng and bird's nest consumed and the average life expectancy; just taking a bowl of bird's nest or half a cup of ginseng soup a day can shorten the life expectancy by more than five years - the medicinal effect is significant and the effect is obvious, and it really works without a word.

Taking into account the class that consumes bird's nests and ginseng, and considering the heavy support pressure in feudal society, what the Governor of Ji-Liao did was simply the most successful anti-feudal fighter in hundreds of years. At the cost of his own life and health, he launched a desperate charge against the entire dark and corrupt feudal upper class, and dealt an unparalleled powerful blow to the autocratic society!

Damn it, now I have to pay tribute to the legendary chemist, the Governor-General of Ji-Liao!

However, could the Governor-General's work be more efficient? If I can increase the dosage and take Old Deng away before I die, I will definitely send a wreath to the Governor in the future! 】

Master Fei Xuan: …………

Zhenjun's fingers trembled, and he immediately remembered the two bowls of ginseng soup he drank this morning!

He didn't understand other words, but he understood the word arsenic!

Suddenly my stomach started churning, my throat twitched, and I could hardly hold back and had to induce vomiting. At the same time, there surged up the long-suppressed anger in his heart, as well as inexplicable suspicions - intentionally using arsenic in the emperor and father's medicine, what else could this be but an attempt to usurp the throne?

Lao Deng was very accomplished in political politics; once he was sure that there was indeed a suspicion of treason and rebellion to poison the emperor and his father, he quickly calmed down. He no longer had the previous hot-blooded restlessness and shouted that he was deceiving the heaven, but only an unspeakable fierce murderous aura. The corners of his mouth twitched for a moment, and he pulled out the red brush from the pen holder, pulled out a piece of rice paper and wrote hastily, with a secret order to mobilize the factory guards to attack Ji and Liao directly. It would be best if this person was imprisoned and sent to the imperial prison on the charge of stepping into the gate with his left foot first, and then the East Factory would be ordered to carefully interrogate the details of the so-called anti-corrosion "fumigation", and they must find out the intention behind this sinister technology!

But after just one stroke of cinnabar, Master Feixuan instinctively hesitated - the governor was an important figure after all, and the governor of Ji-Liao was a member of the emperor's party known to everyone; the charges in the Heavenly Book could not be announced to the public, and if the emperor's party was accused of treason without sufficient evidence, it would inevitably give outsiders the impression that the emperor was mean and ungrateful.

It would be fine if it happened in an ordinary dynasty. But among the emperors of the Zhu family in this dynasty, the one most closely associated with the words "mean and ungrateful" and "demolishing bridges after crossing them" is the Emperor Yingzong, the fortress leader who studied in Mobei...

How should I put it, Master Feixuan might be a bit of anthropomorphic, but it is still too insulting to compare him with Emperor Yingzong!

Master Feixuan is mean, sarcastic, selfish and vicious, but he never behaves foolishly. He understood very well what a serious and terrifying stimulus it would be for the civil and military officials below that "the emperor's governing style is like that of Yingzong". The re-enactment of the past that is too painful to recall can frighten everyone from the cabinet to the nine ministers into insanity and make them just give up.

Therefore, he would never settle accounts with his own people unless it was absolutely necessary and the evidence was solid... In this regard, he was much smarter than his eldest grandson.

Besides, what good would it be if a confidant betrayed him? Am I so hated by everyone that even the ministers I promoted myself are against me?

After thinking for a while, the emperor tore up the piece of rice paper, replaced it with a new one, and began to write slowly. This time, there was no anger in his writing. Instead, he wrote eloquently, praising the loyalty of the Governor of Ji and Liao. He said that he was also moved, "I really don't know how to love him", "My feelings for the governor are the same as his sincerity to me, and everyone should understand."

After expressing his feelings to the fullest about the industrial sweetener that could allow the Heavenly Book to indulge in it for decades, the True Lord suddenly changed his tone and ordered the Imperial Household Department to return the mountain ginseng that the Governor of Ji and Liao had offered over the years. He also asked the governor to "be considerate of my love for his subjects as if they were your own children and do not refuse." It would be best if he could be given two bowls of ginseng soup every morning when he wakes up and every night when he goes to bed, so that he could fully appreciate the Lord's kindness.

Of course, once the governor drinks two bowls of ginseng soup every day for a year, the True Lord will grant him special grace and order him to come to Beijing to meet the Emperor. If the governor can go to the capital to do his work smoothly and be in good health, then the various predictions in the heavenly book about sulfur, saltpeter and even the golden elixir will naturally come to nothing, and the emperor will not have to bear the pain of being betrayed by his confidant; if he encounters any misfortune... that doesn't matter, the emperor loves his subject so much that he has already chosen a posthumous title for him, so he doesn't have to worry about anything.

This was a method that had been repeatedly emphasized in the reports submitted by Prince Mu. It seemed to be called "testing truth with practice." Zhenjun was knowledgeable and had never forgotten it. But it was strange, how could such a crazy character say such sensible words?