Chapter 5: The Longmu Envoy brought Ziyue down the mountain...
The messenger brought Zi Yue down the mountain and asked him to get on the carriage and sit upright. He drove the carriage himself, with armored soldiers guarding in front and behind, and they returned to Daiyi in a grand manner.
Dai Boqing had been waiting for a long time, and when he heard that the envoy wanted to see him, he hurriedly ordered someone to bring him in.
However, when he saw Ziyue coming in, his face suddenly darkened and he blurted out, "Why, she won't even teach her own niece?"
Without waiting for the messenger to reply, he sneered, "I know she still harbors resentment towards my father and me because of what happened back then. It's understandable that she's unwilling to contribute more money to my father's funeral."
Now, she is only asked to help teach her niece, but she refuses. Has she forgotten that she is the daughter of the Dai Kingdom? If the Dai Kingdom is not doing well, how can she be doing well?
Ziyue couldn't help but say, "Father, it's because my aunt is concerned about the Dai Kingdom that she doesn't want to leave her daughter behind."
Although she was born in a place of exile, she had been studying and learning etiquette with her mother since she was a child, and she understood all the principles she should know.
Because of her difficult childhood, her self-esteem was even stronger. She refused her father's request for her to be a concubine to the princess from the beginning, but it was difficult for her to obey her father's order.
Although she felt embarrassed that her aunt didn't want to keep her, she was also relieved in her heart.
After hearing his daughter's words, Dai Bo's expression changed. He suddenly looked at the messenger with a dangerous look and said through gritted teeth, "Have you told her everything?"
The envoy remained calm and undaunted, bowing his hands and saying, "I have spoken. I would like to advise Your Majesty once more. This matter is extremely inappropriate. Not only do I disagree, but Your Majesty also disagrees, and neither will the elders of the royal family. Please reconsider this matter and refrain from causing great disaster and tarnishing the reputation of your ancestors."
"You...you..." Dai Bo pointed at him, too angry to speak.
After a while, he threw his sleeves, paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, and muttered: "You only care about face, face. Our Dai State has been emptied of its substance, what face do we have left to speak of?
Besides, Xue is a great country, highly valued by the king. Furthermore, the prince holds an important position in the capital. If we can marry the crown prince of Xue, even as a concubine, it will be of great benefit to our Dai Kingdom."
For the sake of Dai State, he devoted all his energy and worried about it to pieces.
However, no one in the country, from the elders in the royal family to the important ministers, could understand him. Now, even his sister, who had worshipped the ancestors in the ancestral temple for many years and had considerable influence, did not understand him.
On the one hand, he blamed his sister for being cruel, and on the other hand, he blamed the messenger for not telling the truth.
According to her original plan, she would first send her daughter to Huanghua Temple to be taught by her younger sister for a few years. When she reached the age of marriage, the king's daughter, who was the same age as the crown prince of Xue State, would come of age.
By then, he would personally bring his daughter back, and in front of the elders in the office, he would use her name as his younger sister, and the voices of opposition would surely be much smaller.
After all, my sister has been worshipping our ancestors alone over the years, and her contributions are truly remarkable.
Now, everything has been messed up by the messenger.
The messenger earnestly advised, "Your Majesty, have you ever considered how you would explain to your ancestors in the afterlife if you truly did this?"
"Do you think I want to?" Dai Bo roared, breathing heavily. "If my second and third daughters hadn't died young, how could I bear to let Ziyue be someone else's concubine?"
He had five daughters in total, but apart from the eldest daughter Yue, the eldest and second daughters born out of wedlock died young due to illness, and the fourth and fifth daughters he adopted were too young. By the time they grew up, the king had already married the princess to them.
There were suitable women in the royal family, but when choosing a concubine for the king's daughter, they would always choose the king's concubines. The daughters of the royal family of the vassal states were only suitable to be concubines to the king's daughter.
He then said to Ziyue, "You know our family's situation. Even if we marry you off in a proper manner, we can't afford a large dowry. Your aunt has two dowries in her hands. If she can give you a little, we can save face."
Zi Yue thought of the little girl following behind her aunt. She was about the same age as herself, but with a rosy complexion and half a head taller than herself. Although she was not wearing silk, she was wearing fine hemp cloth.
She only had two sets of fine gauze clothes.
As far as she knew, she was just an abandoned orphan with an ugly appearance. She was just lucky enough to be picked up by her aunt, and she actually lived a better life than her.
Thinking of this, she sneered jealously and said, "Father, you'd better give up on this idea. Aunt has raised a disciple and protected her like her own daughter all these years. I'm afraid all the good things are reserved for her."
"Oh? Have you seen it?" Dai Bo asked.
He knew that his sister had accepted a disciple, a little girl, who was said to have facial flaws and was of no value to Dai Guo, so he never took it to heart.
But from what my daughter said, I'm afraid she values this disciple very much.
"Yes, she has. Today she is following my aunt's side. She wears gold ornaments on her head and fine gauze on her body."
In fact, the so-called gold ornaments are just two strings of gold bells adorning the double buns. Gold is heavy, and the soul of a child is light, so wearing gold ornaments is to suppress life.
Originally, there were gold lockets in the Hua Jing sisters' dowries, but they had been sold long ago to supplement the ancestral temple.
After picking up Fuli, Hua Jing sold another piece of jade. The gold he got was not enough to make a gold lock, but it was barely enough to make six small bells, so he made them into hair accessories for her.
Ziyue is jealous of Fuli and thinks that Fuli has taken away the resources that originally belonged to her. She deliberately makes things vague and exaggerated to cause Dai Bo to misunderstand.
The traveling envoy frowned slightly and turned his head to look at Ziyue, but met his niece's stubborn eyes.
Thinking of his sister who had suffered a lot in the past ten years, and his niece who had never enjoyed happiness since she was born, the messenger sighed secretly and chose to remain silent.
It is always easy for people to convince themselves, and he quickly convinced himself: although the young lady was a little vague, she did not lie.
Dai Bo's face darkened again. After a moment of silence, he said to Ziyue, "Go back to see your mother. She's worried about you."
After sending Ziyue away, Dai Bo said to the messenger, "Go and invite Lord Yangshan here. I have something important to discuss with you."
The messenger was startled: "Your Majesty..."
Dai Bo raised his hand to stop him from speaking, frowning and saying, "Don't worry, since my sister has refused, I won't send Ziyue to Boyi anymore. But I must take back the things that belong to Ziyue."
The envoy paused, then bowed his head and said, "Yes."
=====After sending the messenger and Ziyue away, Hua Jing sneered twice and turned to Fu Li, saying, "Just wait and see. They won't give up."
Dai Bo sent people over again and again. She didn't know whether the master was annoyed or not, but Fu Li herself was extremely annoyed.
"Master, can't you think of a way to cure him? It's not a solution to keep doing this."
Hua Jing sighed and shook his head. "Unless I can accomplish great deeds worthy of presenting them to the king. Otherwise, the entire Huanghua Temple is dependent on the Dai Kingdom, and we, the master and the disciple, cannot break off relations with them."
However, although she had been studying since childhood, she had never learned how to be an official. She had spent many years of peaceful and stable life in Huanghua Temple and lacked the ability to expand outward.
Fu Li's heart moved, and she seemed to be thinking about something.
——Although this world is fictional, the original work clearly states that it took place during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and the productivity of the derived world is also consistent with the Shang and Zhou dynasties in official history.
It has been just over ten years since Cheng Tang, the founding emperor of the Shang Dynasty, passed away. The incumbent Taijia has just experienced the suffering of exile and realized his past absurdity. After returning to the court, he has learned from his mistakes and is about to make a career.
As a time traveler from later generations, even if Fu Li took out something developed during the Qin and Han dynasties... or even the Western Zhou dynasty, it would be a remarkable innovation today.
As for whether it would disrupt the historical process and delay the establishment of the Zhou State, Fu Li couldn't care less.
Now she just wanted to help her master get rid of the vampire-like Dai Bo.
"Master, maybe I have a way."
Hua Jing thought she was just talking like a child. He caressed her buns lovingly and said with a soothing smile, "I can handle these things. You don't have to worry about them. The right thing to do is to study hard, raise silkworms, and weave."
This is no wonder. After all, Fu Li was raised by her since she was a child, and all her life experiences were under her nose.
In Hua Jing's opinion, everything in Fu Li's mind was taught by her bit by bit. How could Fu Li know something that she herself didn't know?
Fu Li felt helpless as she was being coaxed like a child by her master. She grabbed her master's sleeve and refused to let him go. She put on a stern face and tried to appear serious.
"Master, whether you believe it or not, you have to give me a chance to speak. How do you know that your disciple is not a genius?"
Hua Jing glanced at her, not wanting to discourage her, so he patiently pretended to listen: "Okay, go ahead."
Fu Li took her to the yard and begged her to break off a branch of the litchi tree and write the three ancient seal characters "Long Mu Fa" on the ground.
"Master, I've been studying agriculture with you for so long, and I've come up with some ideas. This Longmu method is one of them."
The Longmu method originated in the Zhou Dynasty and was the most advanced land use method before the Han Dynasty's Daitian method. Europe didn't learn the Longmu method until the Middle Ages, nearly 1,800 years later than China.
She was aware of the more advanced Daitian method, but she didn't think it was necessary. She didn't have deep feelings for the Shang Dynasty. The monarch she was most familiar with and loved, Cheng Tang, had passed away, and even the wise minister Yi Yin, who was famous in history, had died.
She only knew about people like Taijia, Taiwu, and Wuding.
In comparison, the Zhou Dynasty was much more friendly.
Between her own master and the Zhou Dynasty, she naturally chose her own master. But between the Shang Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty, she chose the Zhou Dynasty.
"Longmu Law?" Hua Jing stared at the three words for a moment, puzzled, "What is Longmu Law?"
"Master, wait a moment." Fu Li instructed without raising his head, and used a branch to loosen up the solid ground under his feet and made three miniature ridges.
She pointed to the well-made ridges and said, "Master, look, this raised area of soil is a ridge, and the sunken area is an acre.
When farming, seeds are planted on ridges. This makes it easier to water them, and there are spaces between the plants, which allows for more sunlight and helps the crops grow better.
The most important thing is that by the second year, the areas where the ridges were made are leveled and the areas where the ridges were made are piled up as ridges. Alternating between ridges and ridges saves soil fertility and eliminates the need to leave the land fallow after only two years of cultivation.
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