Chapter 719: Being Used (Two in One)
The Emperor, the Empress, and Concubine Tong have all tasted truffles. Does the Empress Dowager also have to try some?
The people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs were worrying about where to find a basket of truffles, and then someone came to recommend himself.
"Oh, you guys are well-informed. You came here so quickly. Could it be that you set up a trap?"
The man carrying the backpack carefully put it on the ground, lifted the cotton cloth covering it, and asked the people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to have a closer look. Then he said innocently, "How could we have such ability? Isn't this just a coincidence? Everyone in the Great Zhou knows that the capital is the richest, so we found some rare things in the mountains and came to the capital to try our luck."
The eunuch from the Imperial Household Department just said it casually. He didn't believe that these mountain people and traveling merchants in front of him had such great abilities.
He looked down and saw that the truffles in the basket were very fresh and plump. He wondered which one was better, the truffles from Lord Li's mansion or the ones from the eunuchs?
"What's the price?"
"One thousand five hundred strings of cash."
The eunuch raised his eyebrows. How dare you! The lion opens its mouth wide!
The man stretched out a trembling hand.
The eunuch understood that this meant that they wanted to split the money 50-50. Half of 1,500 strings of cash was more than 700 strings of cash, and the eunuch was very tempted.
"Why is the price higher than Li Ge's?"
"Hey, because it's bigger and fresher than theirs."
"Leave a basket for now. If it suits the masters' taste, I'll come back to you to decide."
"Okay! Thank you, sir!"
At noon that day, the Queen Mother's meal included truffle custard and truffle soup.
The Queen Mother lived a frugal life, so when she saw a few more mushroom dishes on the table, she just thought they were ordinary mushrooms.
I picked it up with chopsticks, uh...this taste.
The Queen Mother frowned and asked the maid, "Did you change the cook?"
Maid: "My lady, the cook has not been changed. These are the new truffles."
"Truffle?" The Queen Mother had heard of it. It was written in Mengxi Bitan.
The Queen Mother didn't take it to heart, but she just stopped eating the two new dishes.
In addition to the Empress Dowager, the Emperor, the Queen and the Imperial Concubine also shared some of the truffles, and the entire basket of truffles was divided up.
As the saying goes, what goes up must come down.
Lord Li held a truffle tasting conference, and the fact that the palace had bought a basket of truffles could not be concealed. For a time, truffles became a hot and rare commodity in the whole of Kyoto.
"Brother, we have sold most of our goods. How about selling the rest at a low price?" The man was shaking as he counted the money.
Oh my god, this money is so easy to make!
The mountain people don't like to eat this truffle. Even if they dig it up, they just feed it to pigs and chickens.
As a result, it can be sold at such a high price just after being shipped to Kyoto!
Although the price later was not as high as 1,500 guan, it was still around 700 to 800 guan.
However, the market seemed to be somewhat saturated. It was not selling at the price of seven or eight hundred strings of coins. Someone offered four hundred strings of coins, but my brother was reluctant to sell it.
The man slapped himself lightly. It all seemed like a dream. He was so arrogant that he even thought four hundred strings of cash was too little.
The leading man had rough palms. He swallowed and took out a small bag from his chest. When he opened it, there was a note inside.
The man read it seven or eight times in a row, and after making sure that he had not missed a single word, he put the note in his mouth, chewed it, took a big sip of water from the cup, and swallowed it all.
"Let's go, let's find someone to find a way!"
…
"What a luxury! A mushroom that is less than the size of a fist is worth more than thirty strings of cash, which is more valuable than a human life."
"What's this? I heard that truffles will be included in the tribute!"
There are endless sour remarks among the people.
Some censors wanted to use this opportunity to impeach the emperor so that their names would be recorded in history, but then they thought that court life had always been luxurious, and spending more than a thousand strings of cash to buy truffles was not a big crime.
Just when I was worrying, I heard children singing songs outside the teahouse.
The censor listened attentively, and it was just [The rich have wine and meat, while the poor have frozen to death on the road.]
This poem was written by a poet of the previous dynasty who was not well-known. However, after it was published in Yunzhou Weekly, the reviews were extremely polarized.
The noble families thought that this was just like saying the grapes were sour because they couldn't eat them.
Their wealth is accumulated over several generations, or even more than a dozen generations. It is the unremitting efforts of their ancestors that have brought them a good life.
That group of untouchables were all peasants eight generations ago. Since their ancestors did not work hard, their descendants will naturally suffer.
After reading this, ordinary people felt sad. They worked day after day and did not dare to rest even when they were sick. Throughout the year, they could not save a single ounce of silver.
Perhaps a natural disaster or a serious illness can plunge them into the abyss and turn them into the frozen corpse in the poem.
As for the poorer people, they didn't even have the chance to listen to this poem.
After listening to this, the censor did not have any thoughts, nor was he touched. He had been an official for too long and had too many things to worry about. It was just people freezing to death. It happened every year and was not uncommon.
The children sang ballads and walked through the streets. The censor continued to drink his wine and never glanced at the children again.
"Jiefu, you lost this bet."
The young man named Jiefu, with ox eyes and a tiger head, messy hair, and a strange smell on his body, said: "I may not lose! It's just that the censor is not doing his job and not fulfilling his duties!"
The man next to him covered his nose and said helplessly: "Okay, you can do whatever you want, but can you go to the bathhouse and take a bath first? There are fleas in your hair!"
"No." Jiefu answered neatly.
No one can make him take a bath, not even the Lord himself.
Jiefu wrote an article accusing the emperor of spending too much and living an extravagant life, and then found a printing house to print thousands of copies.
The entrance to the Censor's house, the entrance to the imperial city, the old entrance, the entrance to the ecological room, and Imperial Street were all covered with stickers under the cover of night.
The article is well-written, and the words used are vicious, as if the person who wrote it is standing in front of you, pointing at your nose and cursing you.
But the person who was scolded was in a very bad mood, a very bad mood.
The young emperor was just curious about truffles. He tasted them once at Li Ge's house and satisfied his curiosity. Plus, he couldn't get used to the taste of truffles, so he no longer thought about them.
Wang Ting bought truffles again later, but when he saw that the four bigwigs in the palace didn't particularly like them, he didn't buy them a second time.
As a result, just for this basket of truffles, the young emperor was scolded badly!
The emperor felt wronged and angry.
"How come everyone else is eating truffles, but I am being filial to my mother and letting her have a taste, but it is a sin?! It's only 1,500 strings of cash, is it expensive? You are so shortsighted, you have the energy to stare at the royal court, why don't you think of a way to deal with the north?!"
"Haha, come here! Buy me all the truffles on the market. I have plenty of money!"
The civil and military officials also found this matter inexplicable. The whole world belonged to the government, so it was normal for living expenses to be a little higher.
Which student has nothing to do and would focus on such a small matter?
The young emperor was a rebellious kid to begin with. After being scolded, he spent a huge amount of money to buy a lot of truffles that he didn't like to eat.
He pinched his nose and ate truffles for two days in a row, but he really didn't like the taste of truffles, so he gave the truffles as a reward to all the officials.
Civil and military officials...Okay, I was about to give some advice, but I was suddenly silenced.
Jiefu, who was watching the development of the situation, came to his senses and pulled his good friend Zeng Gong to knock on the back door of Yongchang Marquis' Mansion.
As soon as the door opened, he rushed in like a monkey and said loudly: "You are so good, Xuanming! I regarded you as a close friend, but you actually took advantage of me."
Su Xuanming was wearing a fox robe and painting in the yard.
On the drawing paper is a winter red plum blossom, with a poem inscribed on the side: "The plum blossom is three points less white than the snow, but the snow is less fragrant than the plum blossom."
Su Xuanming stood in the yard with a tall and slender figure, snowflakes falling on his shoulders, starry eyes, sword-like brows, stern facial features, and a peaceful and indifferent expression.
It looks like a strong bamboo in spring, but with the chill of winter.
He came over following the voice and saw Jiefu and Zeng Gong. His eyebrows curved and the coldness in his eyes faded away, replaced by a warm smile.
"Even if he is a criminal, he should be given a chance to defend himself. As soon as Jiefu came, he accused me and broke my heart."
"Hmph, you are good at turning the tables. They say a person's writing reflects his character, but you are completely different from what you write in the letters." Jiefu strode over, sat down on the stone bench, and gave instructions to the servant standing quietly beside him in a very familiar manner.
"Give me a cup of milk tea with sugar and pearls. Don't say you don't have it. I know you have it. I want the Yunzhou flavor!"
Zeng Gong smiled apologetically at Su Xuanming and said, "I want caramel milk tea, three-tenths sweet. Thank you for your help."
The servant glanced at Su Xuanming, and seeing that Su Xuanming did not stop him, he ran to the kitchen.
Jiefu was a strong young man of about sixteen or seventeen years old, full of energy. He didn't feel cold just sitting on the stone bench.
"The coldness of ice and snow is far less than the coldness of my heart. I treat you as a brother, but you treat me as a fool."
When Su Xuanming heard Jiefu's complaints, he put down his brush and looked at him straight in the eye: "When did I treat you as a fool?"
"You used a bet to trick me into doing something! Is the person selling truffles yours?"
Su Xuanming shook his head: "They are not my people, they are Lord Zhu of Nanjun's people."
Jiefu was a little surprised, but then he thought, Nanjun is mountainous and indeed rich in mushrooms, so it is normal for truffles to come from there.
Jiefu just didn't think about it in that direction. Once he found the direction, he would be able to unravel the whole thing.
"Lord Zhu of Nanjun and Duke Yun have teamed up! This is your plan. First, use the Yunzhou Weekly to hype up the popularity of truffles, then let the Li family take the lead, take the opportunity to get in touch with the royal family, and directly position truffles as a luxury product."
Jiefu's thoughts became more and more clear: "At the beginning, we shipped a little bit. Later, maybe because the quantity was too large, or maybe truffles were not easy to store, and you didn't want to dump them at a low price, so you wanted to sell the truffles to the royal family."
"You have a very accurate grasp of the emperor's personality and thoughts. You used the bet to make sure that I would write an article about the emperor. You used me to anger the emperor, so that he would spend a huge amount of money to buy all the truffles on the market."
"You are such a good guy, Su Xuanming! I am also part of your plan!"
Jiefu actually doesn't mind being used by others. He will only use others if he is valuable, and smart people will use him back.
However, he didn't seem as smart as he thought.
Jiefu held his head, as if he was in trouble and couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried: "What's the point? Going through so much trouble, what's the point?! Truffles can only make this much money, and no one will fall for this next year."
Jiefu held Zeng Gong's hand, his expression aggrieved and confused: "Lord Zhu and Duke Yun have teamed up to set up a trap, it must not be that simple. What do they want to do? Do they want to cause conflicts between the people and the royal family? What's the point?!"
Jiefu couldn't figure out the deeper meaning of this game, so he had to hang his head and said dejectedly: "Okay, I give up. Xuanming, can you tell us what Duke Yun's intention is?"
Su Xuanming was silent for a moment, then spoke with difficulty: "Is there a possibility that my mother and Lord Zhu teamed up to set up this scheme because they are poor?"
Jiefu had a dead fish face: "I feel like you are insulting my intelligence. I can believe that Lord Zhu is poor. But how can the Duke of Yun be poor? The Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, the Grassland, Yunzhou, Shuozhou, Hezhong County, Henan County, and now half of Guangde Prefecture, you tell me she would be poor?! Do you see the two big words [easy to cheat] written on my face?"
Su Xuanming sighed and said sincerely, "I know you won't believe it, but this is the truth. You don't know how expensive firewood and rice are until you run a household. My mother works very hard to run this poor household, and she urgently needs someone like you, Jiefu, to help her."
"Haha." Jiefu sneered.
Su Xuanming held Jiefu's hands, his eyes were watery like clear spring water, he could see through everything at a glance.
"I really didn't lie to you. If you go to Yunzhou, you will know where my mother spends her money and why she is so poor. People's livelihood construction, education, medical care, and the military, which one doesn't cost money?"
Su Xuanming had no intention of hiding the secret from Jiefu any longer, so he told Jiefu everything.
"You may not be aware of the situation in Nanjun, but it is far more serious than everyone imagines. Nanjun's granary is almost empty, and Lord Zhu has been relying on fundraising to subsidize it. The relief grain allocated by the court to Nanjun has been plundered layer by layer, and less than 50% of it has reached Lord Zhu."
"Lord Zhu knew that it was useless to ask the court for help, so he decided to give it a try and wrote to my mother for help. Thanks to the successful transformation of saline-alkali land in Huaishuo Town, and the fact that Yunzhou and Shuozhou were not severely affected by the disaster, my mother squeezed out some food from her teeth to send to Jinan County. That's why Nan County did not rebel."
"Jiefu, I know your talents very well. You must be aware of the shortcomings of the Great Zhou court. In your opinion, can you carry out reforms on your own? You said that reforms need the support of the imperial power. Do you think the current government can support your reforms?"
Su Xuanming said confidently, "Jiefu, the emperor of the Great Zhou is definitely not the wise ruler you want. He is narrow-minded, unwilling to listen to opinions, and has no talent or virtue. You can see it just from his attitude towards the Tartars. He was so determined to fight at the beginning, but in order to guard against my mother, he chose to collude with the Tartars and almost ruined the good situation! Jiefu, believe me, go to Yunzhou to take a look, and then make a decision."
Jiefu sighed, "I lost the bet. According to the bet, I should have gone to Yunzhou. I was just angry that you didn't tell me the truth."
Su Xuanming didn't explain. He pulled the two of them into the house and made tea around the stove.
It had been a long time since anyone had visited the mansion. With the arrival of Jiefu and Zenggong, the mansion became lively again.
"Try it, this is the meat sauce made by my mother. It tastes delicious when sandwiched between pancakes." Su Xuanming shared generously.
Jiefu grabbed the pancake and ate it. It was indeed delicious. "When should I leave?"
"The sooner the better."
"Zhou Bapi? He didn't even let me spend the New Year in Kyoto!"
"The New Year's Festival in Yunzhou is more lively."
"I made bad friends and left my hometown!"
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