At the end of winter, Li Mai and his men received news that Yun Chang and the Crown Prince had conquered the Chen Kingdom and were returning to the capital in triumph.
It is said that the capital of Chen was captured in mid-September, and then the area was settled for a month. In mid-October, the Prince of Yun escorted the Crown Prince back to the capital, and Zhong Hui was left there to guard the territory of Chen and cooperate with the officials to reorganize and consolidate it.
They are expected to return to the capital by mid-December.
Li Mai also asked Xu Changhuan if she wanted to return to Beijing to reunite with her elder brother. If she did, she would ask Old Yang to send her and Fu Bao back.
Xu Changhuan shook his head and said he wouldn't go back. Going back and forth would only trouble the child. Besides, he had just returned to the capital, and the prince must be busy. Going back would only cause him trouble. He would come back once he was done with his work.
Since her sister-in-law had made this decision, Li Mai went along with it, saying that her family would spend the Spring Festival with her sister-in-law this year, and that they would also invite the head of the Xu family to come.
Xu Changhuan agreed. Li Mai asked Zhou Quan to go to Yongzhou City to check on the shops there. When he returned, he invited the Xu family head to come here to celebrate the New Year together.
Zhou Quan agreed and went out. This time, he took Zhuzhu and Li Dong with him so that they could also broaden their horizons.
This time, Li Dong was no longer accompanying him as a coachman; Zhou Quan now had a new coachman.
Zhuzhu went out with Zhou Quan, but didn't bring Xique. Xique stayed at home to help Limai take care of Yanbao and Yubao.
On the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhou Quan returned, bringing with him the head of the Xu family and a young man, Xu Changhuan's fifth senior brother, Xu Changhe.
In the past two years, since Xu Changhuan got married, Xu Changhe has been accompanying his master. He had to recuperate for more than a year because of his serious injuries.
Now things are much better, so I'll follow Patriarch Xu.
The head of the Xu family felt that Changhe wouldn't learn anything by following him around. Knowing that Xu Changhuan wanted to open a spice shop next year, he wanted Xu Changhe to work for Xu Changhuan.
This time, he brought him along to discuss things with Xu Changhuan. At the same time, he also wanted to formally recognize Xu Changhe as his godson, the kind who would be included in the family genealogy, and pass on the position of clan leader to him in the future.
However, he needs to discuss it with his daughter.
On New Year's Day, several fast horses entered the town and stopped in front of the Yun Mansion.
These six people were from the palace; they were there to deliver rewards to the people of the Yun and Li families on behalf of the Emperor.
It turned out that after receiving news of Yun Chang and his entourage's triumphant return, the emperor arranged for this reward to be sent to Qing Shi Town. Since the King of Yun would definitely not have time to go back for the New Year, the emperor first gave the Queen of Yun a reward to appease her.
Since Princess Yun was to be rewarded, Li Mai, the benefactor of the Song family, should also be rewarded. Therefore, three palace maids and three skilled secret guards from the emperor's side were sent to protect them.
Because of the long journey, the only rewards that could be brought back were some status-related items and some silver notes; the gold, silver, and jewelry could not be brought back and were all depreciated.
The person in charge was Eunuch Yu, who delivered two imperial edicts.
One of the gifts was from Princess Consort Fengyun, a first-rank imperial consort who enjoyed the imperial salary of a first-rank noblewoman. This shows that officials below the first rank were not required to kneel. In addition, there was a reward of ten thousand taels of silver, one thousand taels of gold, gold, silver, jewelry, and cloth. Since these could not be brought with them, they were converted into silver notes, totaling one hundred thousand taels.
The valuable items were the jewelry, ornaments, and fabrics.
Another measure was to appoint Li Mai as a female imperial physician in the Imperial Medical Academy, granting her the rank of second-grade official and the salary of a second-grade official, with the position of deputy head of the academy. However, given her status as a woman, she herself would not enter the Imperial Medical Academy. Therefore, at present, this appointment was just to give her an official title and a nominal position, and the emperor wanted to pay her a salary.
The Chief Physician of the Imperial Medical Academy, also known as Chief Physician Feng, was a second-rank official. The original Left and Right Deputy Chief Physicians were third-rank officials. Ordinary imperial physicians were fourth-rank officials, while ordinary members of the Imperial Medical Academy were either fifth-rank officials or lower-rank officials.
The imperial physicians of the Song Dynasty were of a slightly higher rank than those of some ancient dynasties in the information Li Mai had in his mind.
The position of deputy head of the Imperial Physician Li Mai, who was sent to serve outside the capital, was also added by the Emperor. This was the beginning of his plan to establish a female physician system in Shu, and he planned to gradually work towards it in the future.
The term "outside the capital" means that she doesn't have to work regular hours or go to the Imperial Hospital every day. This is a special arrangement because she is not from the capital. However, if she were to come to the capital, she would be responsible for taking the pulses of the palace women.
Li Mai understood that the emperor must know that he had saved the crown prince and that he could save lives. He gave her this official title so that when the nobles in the palace fell ill, they could summon her to the capital, and she would have no choice but to go.
In addition to granting her an official position, the Emperor also bestowed upon her five thousand taels of gold and fifty thousand taels of silver, totaling one hundred thousand taels. Furthermore, he paid her next year's salary, amounting to three thousand six hundred taels.
Li Mai was somewhat surprised. Was her salary really that high? Three hundred taels a month?
Anyway, since the emperor has already sent it to her, she might as well accept it!
Take the official seal!
Official robes, take them!
The silver note, here you go!
Zhou Quan happily took the things from his wife and put them in the warehouse. What a joyous occasion for the New Year! His wife had become an official.
Li Mai watched his cheerful figure disappear into the distance, chuckled, and began to entertain the six envoys with her sister-in-law, inviting them to celebrate the New Year with them at noon.
The six people, having received instructions from the Prince of Yun, agreed and even delivered two letters to Li Mai and Xu Changhuan, saying they were from the Prince.
The two men accepted the gifts and thanked them. Li Mai and Xu Changhuan each gave one hundred taels of silver to the six people, and then gave an extra three hundred taels to Eunuch Lai Yu.
After some initial refusals, the group happily accepted the money. They had ridden horses all the way here in the freezing winter weather and had suffered quite a bit along the way. Li Mai thought it best to give each of them one hundred taels of silver. As for Eunuch Yu, he was the second most favored eunuch in the Emperor's court, so they should be on good terms with him first.
Xu Changhuan quickly arranged rooms for the six people, told them to go back and warm up for a while, and prepared ginger soup and warm water for them to bathe, change clothes, and drink ginger soup to get rid of the cold.
Li Mai brought six brocade robes for the six people, so that they could have new clothes for the New Year.
When the six of them were in the palace, they were all servants. During the New Year, they might not even be able to have a proper warm meal. They never expected that after freezing all the way to the Prince of Yun's house, they would be treated with the highest level of hospitality, eating the same sumptuous food and drinking the same wine as the others, and even sitting at the main table.
Zhou Quan invited them to drink, while Li Mai and Xu Changhuan treated them to food. Since there were only a few people in the family, they didn't have separate rooms, but rather two tables. Zhou Quan hosted them at one table, along with the Xu family head and Xu Changhe.
Li Mai and Xu Changhuan sat at a table with the children.
Eunuch Yu had once seen the head of the Xu family in the palace; he was the one who delivered live sheep to the emperor. He had never seen such a person before in his entire life.
During the meal, he also mentioned the sheep that Master Xu had sent last time. The emperor had eaten it several times and praised him for his skill in raising the sheep, saying that the meat was delicious.
Everyone couldn't help but laugh.
The head of the Xu family smiled and said that since the emperor liked it, he would send it to him again next autumn.
Because people from the capital had arrived, Zhou Quan and his group originally planned to go to the Zhou residence that evening. However, Zhou Quan went over to inform them that they would not be going today and would stay here to help entertain the guests, and would go on the first day of the new year.
That night, Grandpa Yu and the others also set off fireworks with them, ate dumplings to welcome the gods, and then went back to rest.
On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, they bid farewell early and headed to the capital. They also carried a letter home for Xu Changhuan and two letters for Li Mai: a letter of thanks to the Emperor and a reply to Yun Chang.
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