Chapter 414 He Wants to Live a Few Years Longer
It was the coldest time of the year, and Cen Lu was still kneeling outside the Palace of Tranquil Longevity. Although Xie Yao was angry, she also felt distressed.
After all, they were the first group of female officials she brought up personally, and she had a lot of contact with them.
Cen Lu wasn't wearing much, and her face looked a little pale at the moment, but when she came in, she was wearing an expensive-looking black fox fur coat.
You can tell it’s Sheng Ji’s at first glance.
"Your Highness, Madam." Sheng Ji knelt down as soon as he entered the room, and said sincerely, "I am guilty, and I have come here today to apologize."
Xie Yao was so angry that she laughed, "Oh? Young Master Sheng, please tell me, what crime have you committed?"
Seducing her female servant was indeed a serious crime.
Sheng Ji said: "The merchant ship of the Sheng family went out to sea last year and brought back some unfamiliar seeds from overseas, saying that they can be used as staple food."
"I did not report this to the court immediately, but asked Sheng's farm to plant the seeds for testing. I know my crime, please punish me, Your Majesty."
Xie Yao and Xiao Ji's attention was immediately diverted, and they both stared at Sheng Ji, "What are the test results?"
Sheng Ji said respectfully: "The test results are out, waiting for your Majesty and your Majesty to review them at any time."
As he said this, Sheng Ji took out a booklet from his sleeve and presented it respectfully with both hands.
Li Dajian immediately stepped forward, took the booklet from Sheng Ji, and respectfully presented it to the Emperor and Empress.
Xie Yao and Xiao Ji looked at each other, and they both understood what Sheng Ji meant, so they were not in a hurry to open the book.
Sheng Ji must know why he entered the palace today, and he even put his fox fur coat on Cen Lu, which shows Sheng Ji's decision.
At this moment, Sheng Ji said that he was making an apology, but in fact he was offering a gift. If the gift was right, he should be rewarded.
The reward Sheng Ji wanted was to spare Cen Lu's life.
It was because she saw it clearly that Xie Yao hesitated, but in just a moment, she opened the booklet.
Sheng Ji obviously came prepared.
This booklet clearly records the appearance and characteristics of the plants, as well as what is done between planting and maturity.
And there are differences between them. This piece of land is one choice, and that piece of land is another.
The fertility and moisture level of the soil...all made a difference.
Xie Yao and Xiao Ji only needed a quick glance to know that Sheng Ji had really put a lot of thought into this matter and invested countless manpower and resources.
Xie Yao and Xiao Ji each read a copy, both very carefully.
It was very quiet in the Yangxin Palace. Sheng Ji and Cen Lu were waiting for the emperor and empress to finish reading the records.
Xie Yao read till the end and said, "The record is not finished yet."
Sheng Ji said: "To reply to the Holy Queen, although the record is not complete, the harvest last year was already very impressive."
"And I have personally tested it and found that all three types of food are edible, give you a strong sense of fullness, and taste great."
"I dare not test this kind of thing again. I should hand it over to the imperial court."
With high-yield food, the population can develop, which is the most important thing for a country.
Although Sheng Ji wanted to make a contribution, he really didn't dare to try again unless he got the approval of the emperor and empress.
Even if the Emperor and Empress did not summon him today, he would have wanted to come to the palace to see them these days. Of course, it was just right to take these things out today.
Whether he continued to test these grains or the emperor and empress let Cen Lu go, he would not lose out.
It doesn’t matter what Sheng Ji thinks. What matters is that he speaks so beautifully, worthy of being a businessman.
Xie Yao and Xiao Ji looked at each other and simply threw the matter back to Sheng Ji.
"Young Master Sheng, there is no need to belittle yourself. This is an achievement that will be recorded in history and will benefit future generations. Young Master Sheng has made such a great contribution. What reward do you want?"
The choice is in Sheng Ji's hands.
Sheng Ji did not hesitate and said directly: "I would like to ask the Holy Queen to forgive my fiancée Cen Lu."
Sheng Ji's words finally got to the point of today.
Xie Yao sighed softly in her heart and said, "Yes, I can still grant you a marriage."
"But your children within three generations are not allowed to take the imperial examinations. Are you willing?" This is the price Cen Lu should pay.
Xie Yao said: "Not only her, but also you. The children you have with others will not be able to take the imperial examinations." This was the price she had to pay for marrying her first batch of female officials.
Sheng Ji's expression remained unchanged, but Cen Lu's face showed a hint of worry.
Sheng Ji lowered his eyes, "I am willing."
"Aji!" Cen Lu spoke out worriedly.
Sheng Ji gave Cen Lu a reassuring look, emphasized his tone, and replied again: "I am willing."
"Lord Cen, what about you?" Xie Yao looked at Cen Lu.
At this point, Cen Lu had no way out, so she immediately lowered her eyes and said respectfully, "I am willing."
Xie Yao nodded and ordered: "Draft an edict, and I will grant you marriage immediately."
"Also, regarding these three kinds of grains... Young Master Sheng will continue to experiment. I will ask the Ministry of Agriculture to send people to assist."
“These are good things to do, but they are still too few and need to be promoted further.”
Xie Yao was resolute and decisive, and this was a pleasant surprise to Sheng Ji. As Xie Yao said, this was a feat that would benefit future generations.
If you do it well, your name will go down in history.
So far, the results are excellent.
After a moment of shock, Sheng Ji immediately thanked her respectfully, "I obey your order. Thank you, Saint, and Holy Queen."
Xie Yao kept her word and asked someone to write an imperial decree to grant the marriage on the spot, and then sent the two away.
Xiao Ji said: "Yaoyao has a kind heart."
The third generation cannot take the imperial examinations, but this only applies to Sheng Ji and Cen Lu’s direct children; adopted children or side branches are not affected at all.
Just now, Xie Yao was almost furious. Xiao Ji thought she would scold Cen Lu severely, and then Sheng Ji would also be the one to take the blame.
Xie Yao said: "If someone can be as ambitious as Sheng Ji, I will have nothing to say."
Who made Sheng Ji strive for success?
After a pause, Xie Yao continued, "Besides, I'm pregnant now, so fighting and killing is not good."
Cen Lu's crime was not so serious.
It happened that today, Xiao Ji diagnosed that she was pregnant, which meant that it was destined by heaven, so she should not be punished too harshly.
Within three generations, it is not mainly aimed at Sheng Ji and Cen Lu, but mainly to prevent it from happening.
We are trying to guard against others, so we use severe punishments.
Xiao Ji said: "It seems that our child must have a good temper."
Xie Yao thought for a moment and said, "Husband, we have two boys and a daughter. I hope this baby will also be a daughter."
Xiao Ji agreed, "My daughter is good."
Now Zhao Zhao and Sui Sui are two years old and can communicate. Sui Sui calls him father in a baby voice, and Xiao Ji wishes he could give his heart to Sui Sui.
But Zhao Zhao always had a stern face and ignored him. She never listened to him and was a rebellious son. Xiao Ji felt a headache just looking at her.
Xie Yao saw that Xiao Ji's attitude had softened a lot, there was more expectation in her tone, and the corners of her lips rose slightly.
The emperor and empress's punishment of Cen Lu and Sheng Ji soon spread.
But the grain experiment was a state secret after all, so it had not been made public for the time being. Only people in the court knew about it. The emperor and empress asked the people in the Ministry of Agriculture to cooperate with the Sheng family as much as possible.
Therefore, although there were rumors in the court, they were not many.
More among the people.
Xie Yao has been in power for more than a year, and fewer and fewer people are scolding her. Now there are even some people who specifically praise her.
Nowadays, people are praising one and stepping on the other.
The one being stepped on was naturally Cen Lu, and Xie Yao was praised. It was said that there were not many women like the Holy Empress, and there was only one in the world, etc.
Xie Yao instructed Zhu Qing, "Such remarks are inappropriate. You should lead people to guide them secretly. The different choices made by women should not be compared."
She wasn't even competing with Cen Lu for anything, but there were rumors outside.
"Yes." Zhu Qing responded and quickly went to make arrangements.
Xie Yao promoted Xuan Yue and Xuan Shu and other female officials in the previous dynasty, and in the harem, Zhu Qing, Zhu Xin, Yu Yan and others are now her right-hand men, keeping accounts for her and managing the servants in the harem...
It’s just that Xuan Yue and others are responsible for external affairs, while Zhu Qing and others are responsible for internal affairs.
As for Lin Xia, she was like Gui Xia who was beside the eldest princess at the beginning, responsible for security protection, but the team led by Lin Xia was not composed entirely of women.
The news of Xie Yao's pregnancy spread quickly.
There was a lot of congratulations in the court, and no one mentioned expanding the harem, which Xie Yao was very satisfied with.
Seeing her like this, Xiao Ji smiled and said, "I heard that many court officials are worried now..."
Xie Yao looked at Xiao Ji, "What are you worried about?"
Xiao Ji said: "I'm worried that it will affect your handling of government affairs..." Xiao Ji's tone was gloomy. These remarks from the court officials did not mean that he was not a good emperor.
Compared with the Holy Queen Xie Yao, he is actually not that diligent.
This was indeed the common choice between Xiao Ji and Xie Yao.
Although Xiao Ji has recovered, the poison he had been suffering from for so many years is not completely harmless to his body.
He is young now and cannot notice anything, but his health was badly weakened before he was cured, so he dared not exercise too much.
Xie Yao is different. She is in great shape.
Therefore, these days, Xiao Ji has been intending to delegate power to Xie Yao and build up momentum.
Xie Yao is very capable and is no worse than him at doing this.
Xiao Ji was "lazy" in his heart. Rather than spending more time on government affairs and draining his body... he wanted to have a healthy body and spend more time with his wife and children.
Living a few more years is good.
Xie Yao couldn't help but laughed.
She knew her own body, but after thinking about it, she was still concerned about Xiao Ji, "Your Majesty, have you felt unwell recently?"
According to the practice of the previous two pregnancies, morning sickness started after more than a month and lasted until March.
She didn't feel any discomfort, she was more worried about Xiao Ji.
Xiao Ji was stunned for a moment and then quickly reacted, "Maybe our daughter feels sorry for her father, the emperor."
Xie Yao said: "That's the best."
She felt distressed when she saw Xiao Ji was in pain.
However, Xiao Ji soon discovered that he was too optimistic. Perhaps he didn't know about the pregnancy before and didn't react at all.
And the night I found out, I couldn’t help but vomit during dinner.
Xie Yao immediately stopped what she was doing, and hurriedly brought the water to Xiao Ji. She patted his back and told the palace servants, "Retreat, retreat, retreat quickly."
The three children are still young and do not eat at the same table with them, so it doesn’t matter if we leave.
Without waiting for the palace servants to remove the things, Xiao Ji had already walked out the door.
Fresh air blew in his face, and Xiao Ji felt comfortable. He exhaled, met Xie Yao's concerned eyes, and said, "I'm fine."
Xie Yao frowned, naturally not believing it.
Xiao Ji was a tall man, with red eyes due to morning sickness, looking inexplicably pitiful.
Xiao Ji rinsed his mouth with water, and then he felt a little better. "I'm fine, Yaoyao, don't worry. Go eat first."
"There are two of you now, you can't go hungry."
Even at this time, I'm still thinking about her.
Xie Yao nodded, "Okay."
She was not hungry now. Xiao Ji had vomited, so how could she have the mood to eat? Naturally, Xiao Ji came first.
Xiao Ji's discomfort came and went quickly. After he no longer smelled the smell that made him uncomfortable, he quickly returned to normal.
"It's okay." Xiao Ji gave Xie Yao a reassuring look, "Let's go eat."
Based on past experience, Xiao Ji could only eat some vegetarian food, but Xie Yao, for the sake of nutrition for herself and her child, could not be a completely vegetarian.
But today, Xie Yao just used some light vegetarian dishes like Xiao Ji.
Xie Yao looked at Xiao Ji, "Your Majesty, I will have to trouble you again for the next month or so."
She used to think it didn't matter whether she gave birth or not, but now seeing how miserable Xiao Ji was...it was better not to give birth.
Your Majesty has had a hard time too.
Xiao Ji shook his head, "It's not hard."
He just felt happy that he could do something instead of letting Xie Yao bear the cost of childbirth alone.
His vomiting is much better than Yaoyao's vomiting.
Moreover, he only had to suffer for more than a month, but Xie Yao's pregnancy and childbirth took ten months.
Because of the seed experiment, Sheng Ji and the Ministry of Agriculture often came to the palace, because Xie Yao made a new decision.
Open up more experimental fields.
It was still too little to allow the Sheng family and the Sinong Division to experiment alone, so Xie Yao decided to make the seeds public and recruit people to farm them.
As soon as Xie Yao expressed this idea, the official from the Ministry of Agriculture said, "Your Majesty, I'm afraid this is difficult to implement."
"Even if the imperial court says something wonderful about this new seed, the people have never actually seen it, so I'm afraid they won't believe it easily."
For the farmers, food and clothing all depend on the land at home. If something goes wrong... the whole family will have no choice but to wait for death.
Xie Yao understood.
She was not an idealist who knew nothing. She said, "We will find some counties and villages outside Beijing to participate in the experiment. The seeds will be distributed free of charge by the court."
"As for the planting methods, the Sheng family has already figured out some of them last year and had people spread the word. If there are any problems, the court will be fully responsible."
“Moreover, families who plant new seeds will be exempted from taxes according to the proportion of the land planted, up to a maximum of three years.”
"Those who receive these seeds can go to the nearest government office to get food on a monthly basis, and after the seeds are grown, the court will purchase them."
Xie Yao had already prepared a draft of these policies in her mind, and now they were announced one by one, with someone nearby remembering what they said.
"As for the seeds." Xie Yao looked at Sheng Ji, "Make statistics on the number of seeds and the area that can be planted, and the national treasury will fund the purchase."
Sheng Ji immediately said, "Holy Queen, the Sheng family is willing to donate these seeds to the national treasury."
With such an achievement, it would be good enough for Sheng Ji to have a share in it, but he didn't dare to dream that all the credit would belong to him.
That's not a credit.
It's a rebellion.
Xie Yao said: "How can the country always take advantage of the Sheng family? The Sheng family can just offer a more favorable price."
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