Chapter 57 057 Family Letters - Part 2
As Yang Yanzhen had predicted, the peony banquet in the palace today brought together almost all the noble ladies and daughters of the imperial relatives, nobles, and high-ranking officials in the capital.
The three sisters-in-law, Luo Fu and her husband, followed the palace maids to the peony garden in the inner palace. Everywhere they saw elegant ladies and graceful young girls, already admiring the flowers in small groups. Empress Gao sat in the Wanchun Pavilion, which was covered with green glazed tiles. In addition to the Crown Princess, the three princesses, and Princess Kangping, there was a circle of wives of important officials, elderly ladies of dukes and marquises, and other ladies sitting in the pavilion.
Before the luncheon began, the other noble ladies and young women, apart from being able to enter Wanchun Pavilion to pay their respects to Empress Gao upon their arrival, would scatter throughout the garden during the flower viewing period, either admiring the flowers or chatting on benches. Only when specially summoned by Empress Gao would they have an extra opportunity to enter the pavilion.
Last autumn, Luo Fu had attended a grand chrysanthemum appreciation banquet at the palace. With this experience, and having become quite familiar with Empress Gao, Princess Shun, Princess Fu, and the princess, Luo Fu's demeanor and bearing were even more composed today. When some noble ladies who didn't recognize her were reminded by those around them that she was the wife of the former censor Xiao Yu, they all showed surprise, seemingly unable to understand how the wife of a banished official could be so relaxed and at ease as if nothing had happened.
Inside the Wanchun Pavilion, after the three sisters-in-law had paid their respects, Empress Gao asked Yang Yanzhen with concern, "How is your mother-in-law's health lately?"
In her early years, Empress Gao had invited Lady Deng to the palace to admire the flowers. However, she noticed that Lady Deng felt uncomfortable in the palace and heard that she did not like socializing outside. Therefore, Empress Gao stopped inviting Lady Deng. However, she would always ask Yang Yanzhen about it each time to avoid other officials' wives from having any doubts.
Yang Yanzhen curtsied and replied, "Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. My mother-in-law was not in good spirits for a while, but fortunately, the peonies Your Majesty bestowed upon her have all bloomed recently. She enjoys the flowers every day and seems much more cheerful now."
Empress Gao nodded and instructed the palace maid beside her to prepare two pots of peonies to be sent to the Marquis of Zhongyi's residence, thus bestowing upon Lady Deng an enviable honor.
"Go ahead, the peonies are blooming exceptionally well this year, and there are even a few new varieties. You three sisters-in-law, take a look and see if there are any you like."
"yes."
After the three sisters-in-law left, Empress Gao continued chatting with her favorites. Once all the noble ladies invited that day had arrived, and no more newcomers would be entering the pavilion to pay their respects, Empress Gao looked outside and saw Luo Fu sitting on a bench, chatting and laughing with someone. It seemed she had finished admiring the flowers. Empress Gao then sent a palace maid to invite her, explaining to the people in the pavilion, "The third daughter-in-law of the Marquis of Zhongyi is a wonderful person. Every time she comes to the palace, she tells me something amusing to make me happy."
Princess Qi glanced quickly at the Crown Princess, who had become noticeably thinner.
The Crown Prince was punished with confinement for his ineffective disaster relief efforts. The Crown Princess consciously stayed in the Eastern Palace and did not like to go out. However, Empress Gao missed her eldest daughter-in-law and often summoned her to keep her company.
Seemingly unaware of the watchful eyes of those with ulterior motives, the Crown Princess smiled serenely.
The wives of the Left Chancellor, Lady Xu, and the wife of the Duke of Dingguo, Lady Liao, echoed Empress Gao's praise of Luo Fu.
A moment later, Luo Fu stepped into the pavilion again. After bowing, Princess Kangping, who was sitting to the left of Empress Gao, beckoned Luo Fu to sit next to her.
This seat was very close to Empress Gao, so when Luo Fu sat down, Princess Kangping and Princess Shun were on either side of her, and opposite her were the Crown Princess, Princess Qi, and Princess Fu. The seats of the dukes and marquises' wives, such as Lady Liao, were not as high as hers.
Luo Fu dared not be arrogant, because she knew very well that others could sit in the pavilion because of the power of their husband's or mother's family, while she only had a mouth that pleased the nobles. If she said the wrong thing and offended the nobles, she would probably lose even the dignity of entering the palace to appreciate flowers.
After chatting about the recent fun that Luo Fu and Princess Kangping had gone on their spring outing, Empress Gao said, "The Ministry of Personnel received Xiao Yu's appointment notice a couple of days ago. It's more than 3,000 li away, and he actually traveled for almost two months. This shows how vast our Great Zhou is. This is the first time you two have been separated for so long. Did he write you a letter home? As a top scholar, his letters home must be very well-written and touching."
Luo Fu: "...There is a sentimental poem, but unfortunately I am not good at poetry. I read it to my elder sister-in-law and her two elder sister-in-law, and they both praised it."
Empress Gao: "Is that so? Quickly read it to us too."
Luo Fu paused for a moment, then lowered her head to recall for a moment before reciting the entire poem haltingly.
Princess Fu was a recognized talented woman among the royal family and noble ladies of the capital. When Empress Gao looked at her, Princess Fu nodded approvingly and gave everyone a detailed critique of Xiao Yu's poem, full of appreciation.
Princess Kangping broke the atmosphere of appreciating poetry by asking, "Besides writing poetry, what else did he say?"
Luo Fu said with a mix of sarcasm and headache, "Your Highness's words have stumped me. If he had only written one or two pages, I could have relayed them immediately. But he sent back thirty or forty pages at once. My arms were tired from holding the letter up while I was reading it. I really don't know where to begin."
The women, young and old, inside the pavilion all gasped upon hearing this. A letter of thirty or forty pages—even those reading it must be tiring. Wasn't Xiao Yu tired when he wrote it?
Even the usually composed and serene Princess Fu showed a hint of curiosity.
Princess Kangping: "...Tell me something interesting."
Luo Fu thought for a moment and then recounted a series of trivial matters, such as Xiao Yu wearing a straw hat to avoid the wind and sand, and complaining that the fish cooked by her Four Happiness Dumpling cook was not tasty. Each time she told a story, everyone laughed, further confirming Luo Fu's suspicion that outsiders liked to hear Xiao Yu's embarrassing stories.
"He's incredibly lucky. Once, he encountered more than twenty bandits. Anyone else would have fled for their lives, but he actually went up and negotiated with the bandit leader... I wanted to curse him when I read this. Twenty-three mountain people, even if each person only eats one jin of grain a day, that would amount to three or four hundred jin in half a month. On the way, he couldn't stand seeing that the mountain people's clothes were too thin and their shoes were too worn out, so he took out silver to replace them with new ones, spending nearly ten taels of silver in total. It's one thing to lose money, but what if those people changed their minds halfway and killed them under the cover of night to steal the silver?"
"It's true that fools are sometimes lucky. The first blessing was that he wasn't killed or robbed by these mountain people. Later, just before they reached Loujiang, they encountered a group of truly vicious bandits. They said they would first cut down trees to block the road, and then surround them from all sides while they were moving the trees. Fortunately, the merchants traveling with them and the more than twenty mountain people helped them. After the bandits lost a few men, they realized they couldn't beat them and ran away, saving his life. That was his second blessing."
As the content changed, Luo Fu's tone shifted from annoyance and disdain to relief that her wretched husband was finally alive.
The crowd felt as satisfied as if they were listening to a storyteller.
That evening, apart from the Crown Princess who didn't mention Xiao Yu to the Crown Prince, Empress Gao, Princess Qi, Princess Shun, and Princess Fu all told their husbands about the contents of the family letters that Luo Fu had recounted. Princess Fu hadn't originally intended to say anything, but it was because Prince Fu saw the poems about Xiao Yu that she had written and started asking more and more questions that she had no choice but to answer more and more.
Emperor Yongcheng was not interested in Xiao Yu's poems. He was more concerned about three things: first, whether the county magistrates of the twenty-three disaster-stricken mountain people had reported the disaster or whether they had actually carried out disaster relief after receiving the relief supplies; second, whether the bandits Xiao Yu had encountered a second time would continue to plunder and kill merchants after escaping; and third, that Xiao Yu, who looked like a banished immortal, was actually so talkative in private. While other people's letters home after being demoted were full of sorrow and bitterness, he actually had the mood to complain to his wife about trivial matters.
King Qi and King Shun took it all as a joke.
After lying down on the bed, Prince Fu first savored Xiao Yu's excellent poem in his mind. Then, he saw Xiao Yu's love for the people from his actions of taking in the mountain people, and he expected that Xiao Yu would also make some achievements after arriving in Loujiang County.
.
In late April, Luo Fu received a letter from Xiao Yu sent back at the end of March, which was still a dozen pages long, written intermittently over the past month:
March 8th: My lady, I have spent the last few days traversing mountains and valleys, surveying the entire Loujiang County. I have found that there are three towns and forty-two villages outside the county seat. These so-called towns are smaller than a village near the capital. Most villages have a dozen or so households, with the smallest having only three. Including the town, there are a total of 847 households and a population of less than 6,000. This is due to the remoteness, poverty, and years of war. The people in the town mostly speak the local dialect of western Guizhou, which I can barely understand now. However, almost every village in the mountains has its own unique customs, and understanding the dialects of each village is like listening to gibberish. Furthermore, there are barbarians who are unfamiliar with farming who often come down from the mountains to plunder the farmers… Therefore, I believe that the most urgent task this spring is to encourage and educate farmers. After the busy farming season, we should build schools and hire Han teachers to popularize Mandarin… Thinking of you, my lady.
March 19th: My dear wife, my life is so miserable. Today I went to a mountain village to persuade farmers to start farming. The villagers looked at me like I was a monkey, pointing and laughing but refusing to cultivate the land. Fortunately, I had Pang Xin, Qing Chuan, and fifteen mountain people from eastern Guizhou (eight of them have already married into local families and started a new life, and the fifteen have been hired by me as yamen runners. The original yamen runners were either old, weak, or cunning, and I have driven them all away) to help me... They are afraid of the hardship of spring plowing today, but when they see the bountiful harvest in summer, they will surely be happy to start farming... Thinking of my dear wife.
March 28th: Madam, through our efforts, whether through earnest persuasion, personal cultivation, or free distribution of seeds, all the villages and hamlets in this county now have arable land. This year there isn't much land, but I will continue to encourage farmers after the autumn harvest, and next year we will surely have even more arable land... The barbarian tribesmen still won't allow us to enter the mountains. Please allow me to think of another way... After nearly three months of wind and sun, I am now dark-skinned, rough-handed, and thin, with not a trace of my former glory. Fortunately, Madam is not here, otherwise I would have felt ashamed before her... I miss Madam.
Tucked inside the dozen or so pages of the letter was a dried red camellia, but unfortunately, due to the messenger's bumpy journey, the camellia's petals either fell off or broke, leaving only a lingering fragrance.
When Luo Fu replied, she prepared two extra sachets. One was filled with mosquito-repelling herbs, and the other was empty, which she kept for him to fill with new dried flowers next time.
At the end of May, Luo Fu received Xiao Yu's letter from April:
April 7th: Madam, I have spent fifty-seven taels to build several more schools and dormitories in the city. The desks, chairs, books, paper, and writing materials have all been prepared. Tomorrow, notices will be posted in all the villages and towns of the county. All boys and girls aged six to twelve can enroll in school. Those from poor families will be exempt from tuition fees once it is determined. Those who have difficulty getting around can stay in the dormitories once a month... Although girls may not have the opportunity to pursue official careers, they can teach their families after they have learned and understood the principles of life... Thinking of you, Madam.
April 12: My lady, today some boys were fighting in the school. The boys were too strong for the teacher to handle. I rushed over after hearing the news and subdued the fighting boys all by myself. It's a pity that you weren't there and couldn't witness my bravery. My lady, you can see from this that when you attacked me before, I just couldn't bear to fight back, not that I couldn't... I miss you, my lady.
April 21: My lady, today I took some men to the barbarian tribes again. A strong woman there admired my looks (although I have long lost my former charm in the capital, I am still considered a handsome man in the area). She said that if I were to marry her, she would persuade her people to obey the county government's orders. Although I am eager to govern the people, how could I sell myself and lose my integrity, and feel ashamed before my lady... Pang Xin fought with the barbarian chieftain, but they only managed a draw (I reminded him to avoid the chieftain becoming angry and resentful after his defeat). However, he won the chieftain's favor, so I let Pang Xin stay with the barbarian tribes for a while, using him to spread the teachings of the Great Zhou... Thinking of my lady.
April 29th: My lady, today I went to the school to teach. One student mocked me, saying that I, who had been the top scholar in the imperial examination, could only end up here, using this to argue that studying was useless. I replied, "The Great Zhou Dynasty has a vast territory, and His Majesty sent me alone to the southwestern frontier, not because he disliked my rudeness, but because he pitied the hardships of the border people and entrusted me with the important task of enriching the people. The higher my talent, the more sincere His Majesty's pity for the people of Loujiang will be. You have a good teacher like me, so you should study diligently and strive for excellence. If one day you go to the capital for the imperial examination and meet the Emperor, and His Majesty personally appoints you to official positions, it will be the day when Loujiang County becomes famous throughout the world." The children were silent for a long time, and then they all vowed to make Loujiang famous. It is clear that even if I cannot dominate the court, I can still educate people and have students all over the world... Thinking of my lady.
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Author's Note: I'm here! See you tonight for the second update!
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