Chapter 25 Lingzhuzi: You really have to endure the hardship! ...
Fu Li had previously wondered: during Taijia's reign, the Shang Dynasty was flourishing in all areas, so there should have been a lack of officials to manage them. Why did Taijia continue to expel officials who came from the demon tribe?
Is it really just because “those who are not of my race must have different hearts”?
This doubt has always been vague in her mind. Although she has never thought about it specifically, she has never let it go.
Just when her advice failed and she was standing at the palace gate to express her feelings, she suddenly understood in a flash.
— Taijia wasn't the only Shang king who expelled the demon officials. In fact, from Taijia all the way back to Shang Tang, they were all doing the same thing. It's just that some did it covertly, while others did it overtly.
Expelling the demon officials was just a means to an end; the ultimate goal was only one: to eliminate the influence of the gods worshipped by the Xia Dynasty and to establish a new sacrificial system unique to the Shang Dynasty.
In this barbaric era of material scarcity, sacrifice is a very important matter for the entire world, important enough to shake the rule of the world's common ruler.
When Shang Tang overthrew King Jie of Xia, he wanted to change the sacrifices left over from the Xia Dynasty, and he immediately encountered a severe drought.
From the princes and queens to the common people, and even the slaves in the world, they all said that this was a punishment from heaven, and asked Shang Tang to kill living people as a sacrifice to heaven in order to appease the wrath of heaven.
But Shang Tang refused. He shaved his head, tied himself up, and walked to the altar, willing to be sacrificed.
Heavy rain poured down, and the drought was suddenly relieved.
The later generations said that this incident was like this: God was moved by King Tang’s benevolence and sent down sweet rain to relieve the suffering of the people.
But any discerning person can see that this is a clever use of the Spring and Autumn style of writing.
In this world where real gods exist, Shang Tang's behavior clearly used his great merit of pacifying the world to force the gods to send rain without any sacrifices.
To put it more bluntly, they just didn't want to offer sacrifices to the gods revered at that time.
Among the sacrifices in the Xia Dynasty, who was the most popular?
Nuwa, who created human beings.
Nuwa, a saint from the demon race, became the anchor of faith for all demons in the world to make pilgrimages after the death of the Demon Emperor.
As long as the ruler of the world is willing to offer sacrifices to Nuwa, the knowledgeable people among the demon clan will be willing to restrain their demon form and nature and serve the human king.
After Cheng Tang succeeded in forcing God to do what he wanted, he wanted to take advantage of the situation to replace the Xia Dynasty's sacrifices to the land and grain with sacrifices to "God".
But the belief in Nuwa was too profound, and all the princes and queens in the world were her believers. Cheng Tang's move was opposed by a large number of princes.
For the sake of the stability of the Shang Dynasty, the matter had to be dropped. Tang announced to the world that he would inherit the Xia Dynasty's altar sacrifices and rebuilt a temple for Nuwa, making the sacrifice to Nuwa the state sacrifice of the Shang Dynasty, placing it on the same level as the sacrifices to the previous kings.
But in fact, the kings of the Shang Dynasty never gave up the idea of replacing the altar sacrifices, but they changed the grand plan to a subtle one.
Of course, the above are all Fuli’s speculations.
But if her speculation is close to the truth, it is not difficult to understand why King Di Xin, the last generation of the Shang Dynasty, could write poems blaspheming Nuwa on the white wall of the Nuwa Temple without any psychological burden.
In her previous life, she had read many ancient novels. In order to justify their stories, the authors made up various excuses. The most widely used one was that the Western leader Zhunti secretly cast a spell to confuse Emperor Xin's mind.
But Emperor Xin was the human king after all. Even when Nuwa wanted to take revenge on him, she only dared to use the harem route. She first sent a fox demon to confuse his mind, causing him to lose his composure and destroy his own kingdom.
Even if Zhunti really used a mind-confusing spell on Emperor Xin, Emperor Xin would be easily tricked, which shows that he did not have much respect for Nuwa in his heart.
If his family had been thinking about how to kick Nuwa down from the position of the highest god since their ancestors, then it would be easy to understand why he disrespected Nuwa.
When Fu Li said these words to Gongzibian today, she also meant to test whether her guess was correct.
Judging from Gongzi Bian's reaction, it is somewhat accurate.
Because Fu Li's words triggered a key issue, Gongzi Bian quickly took his leave. He left in such a hurry that he naturally didn't have time to take the few slaves Fu Li recommended to him.
Fu Li was very understanding and told him to leave first if he had anything to do. Then the others asked the elders to send them home.
Prince Bian also promised again that he would first pardon them and make them civilians, and then ask them to work under the agricultural officials of their fiefdoms and estates.
Gongzi Bian was different from Wen Zhong. All the officials under him were appointed from among his family servants. One move could affect the entire body, so it was not easy to appoint or dismiss them at will.
Fu Li expressed understanding of this.
After all, for slaves, becoming a civilian could avoid the fate of dying at the age of thirty, and whether or not they could become officials was an added value.
Fu Li personally escorted Master Bian out of the house. When passing by the main hall, he saw a corner of a red garment faintly visible behind the peach tree in front of the wing room.
She seemed to glance over there unintentionally, and her clothes flashed and she disappeared immediately, as if everything was her illusion.
After she and Gongzi Bian exchanged polite words and left, Lingzhuzi took a wrong step and came out from behind the peach tree that was so thick that it took two people to hug it. She watched Gongzi Bian's back as he left, with an angry look on her face.
He was angry that the young master was forcing himself to argue, and even more angry that Fu Li didn't know what was good for him.
With him as her protector, who could force her to do anything she didn't want to do? Who could force her to be with someone she didn't want?
You really have to endure the hardship!
He stood there for a while, and guessing that Fu Li was about to turn back, he used his escape technique and returned to the east wing where he was staying without anyone noticing.
=====
After Fu Li sent Gongzi Bian away, he went to the front yard to find the family elder who was handling the internal affairs and asked him to go to Gongzi Bian's house tomorrow to send over the slaves who helped Fu Li record the weather.
"This is not a big deal. Once I have finished calculating these accounts, I will go to the fiefdom and fetch those slaves. I will then send them to Master Bian's residence tomorrow."
"Thank you, Mr. Mu." Fu Li thanked him with a smile, then asked with some confusion, "Have you had a lot of family matters lately? How did you plan for this time?"
The patriarch smiled and said, "There's nothing else to it, it's all based on the old rules. But there's something I wanted to ask the young lady, and since you're here, it saves me an extra trip."
Fu Li asked, "But is it the rice for the slaves in the fiefdom?"
This was the only thing that could make the patriarch so undecided that he had to ask her for advice.
This season's corn was harvested half a month ago. Fu Li once promised that if the crops were cultivated according to her new method and the grain production increased, she would apply to the Grand Tutor to increase the slaves' grain quota.
However, since the slaves were unfamiliar with the new technology, they could not guarantee whether following her advice would increase grain production or cause the land to become salinized prematurely.
Therefore, out of the 8,000 acres of land, only 500 acres were under her arrangement, and the other 7,500 acres were still divided into two halves for rotation, but with the addition of planting techniques such as tilling the soil, weeding, composting, and drought and flood prevention.
In this way, for this season alone, if she were to cultivate the 500 acres, the yield would naturally be twice that of the other 7,000 acres.
At this time, two problems arise.
First, the harvest only lasts for one season, and no one can guarantee that the land will not be depleted after two or three seasons, leading to the need to abandon the land prematurely.
Second, the output obtained by the two sides is different. If we want to increase their share of rice, how can we increase it appropriately?
The elder nodded and said with a smile, "It seems that the young lady has already made plans."
Fu Li also smiled and said, "Let's start by giving it according to the proportion. The more you work, the more you get. As for whether the land will be overdeveloped, it won't be clear for a while. We'll make a decision around this time next year."
She was anxious to go back and appease Ling Zhuzi, and had no intention of dwelling on this matter any longer, so she said, "Don't worry about this matter, Mr. Mu. Wait until I go back and make a booklet. You can help me see if it works. If it does, follow my plan. If not, you can make adjustments as you see fit."
The patriarch nodded with a smile, a hint of teasing in his expression, "Just do as the young lady says. I see that the young lady has urgent matters, so I won't stay any longer."
Knowing that he had seen through her, Fu Li did not try to hide it. She smiled shyly and said goodbye.
Returning to her own courtyard, she asked a female slave who was sweeping the floor, "Where is the Immortal Lingzhuzi?"
The slave girl pointed to the peach tree and said, "It was there just now, but it disappeared in the blink of an eye."
She didn't dare to comment much on the magical methods.
Fu Li looked in the direction of her finger and saw that it was indeed the same peach tree. She hadn't been mistaken; the person in red was Ling Zhuzi.
"Okay, I got it. You go ahead and do your thing." Fu Li waved her hand, quickly walked to the east wing and stood still. She suppressed her smile before raising her hand and knocking three times in a row.
Inside the room, Ling Zhuzi was sulking as he played with the Qiankun Circle, using the Hun Tian Ling. When he heard the knock on the door, his ears perked up subconsciously. He hurriedly put away the things in his hands, walked over to the desk, and sat down, pretending not to hear.
It wasn't until the door was knocked three more times that he cleared his throat and said reservedly, "The door is not locked, come in."
Fu Li pushed the door open and walked in against the light. The morning sunlight was warm but not glaring, casting a soft halo around her.
She has fair skin and a healthy blush on her cheeks. Her delicate features are almost transparent in the sunlight, exuding a lively youthful aura.
The irregular red birthmark under the left eye was also coated with a layer of gold by the sunlight, as if a gorgeous crabapple flower was painted on the face with bright colors.
Although Fu Li has emphasized more than once that her birthmark is not ugly at all, it is her characteristic.
But it was not until this moment that Lingzhuzi suddenly realized: she was absolutely right, the birthmark was indeed not ugly at all.
Lingzhuzi was in a daze for only a moment before he suddenly came to his senses. He immediately tightened his expression, not wanting to reveal a single thought in his mind.
——She is already cocky enough. If she knew I was praising her, wouldn’t she be so proud?
She looked no different from any other noble lady in the mortal world, but Lingzhuzi knew that this girl was very thoughtful and he was always fooled by her without realizing it.
The cunning girl didn't even close the door. She stood in front of him with light steps. Suddenly, she bent over and came closer, with a delicate smile in her tone: "Lingzhuzi, are you still angry with me?"
Ling Zhuzi held the celadon cup and pretended to drink water, trying to calm himself. However, he couldn't hide the sarcasm in his voice when he spoke: "How dare I be angry with you? I'm angry at myself for meddling in other people's business."
After he finished speaking, he wished he could bite off his disobedient tongue.
——This is too unimpressive, it seems like I care about him a lot.
Fu Li didn't hesitate at all, sitting down beside him and even reaching out to grab the cup from his hand. Ling Zhuzi still had a stern face, but he didn't dare to use any force, fearing that he might hurt her, so he let her succeed immediately.
"Good Lingzhuzi, don't be angry." Fu Li touched his shoulder. Lingzhuzi silently moved to the other side and patted his shoulder to show his disgust.
To be honest, it looks a bit like the big white cat she had at home in her previous life.
It’s strange that there are so many people in the news who were scratched by cats and dogs, but she was so unlucky in her previous life, but the big white cat at home never hurt her once.
Her mother said that cats are psychic creatures and the bad luck on her would not affect her.
But Fuli felt that the cat was her lucky star, and the same went for the spirit bead in front of her.
Fu Li didn't care at all about being looked down upon by Lucky Star. She ran after him and before Ling Zhuzi could get away again, she grabbed his arm and said coquettishly, "You know me. Am I the kind of person who doesn't know what's good for me?"
Lingzhuzi glanced at her and sneered: "I think so."
Fu Li: "Am I the kind of person who is willing to suffer losses obediently?"
Lingzhuzi: "Maybe."
Fu Li: "...If you're always like this, it's easy for the conversation to get lost."
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