Chapter 242: There is a woman in Shezhou named Sang Luo
The first day of February was the New Moon Court. According to the old rules of the previous dynasty, all civil and military officials above the ninth rank in the capital had to attend the morning court on this day.
At the direction of the morning drum, before the cocks crowed, the capital city in the dark night had already set off the first round of traffic and traffic of the day. Officials in the capital rode horses and carried lanterns across half of the capital to rush to the Taiji Palace. The palace gate was opened at dawn, and a group of officials first went to the Tailou Courtyard to rest.
It seemed that Old Master Zeng, who had just arrived in the capital a few days ago to serve as the chief academic officer of the Imperial College, was also among them.
As he was old and of high rank, he had a designated place to rest. But to be honest, it was just a place where it was warmer than outside. He was going to attend the court, so he didn't dare to drink tea. So Old Master Zeng just sat down and closed his eyes to rest.
Someone sat down beside him and chuckled, "Mr. Zeng is so lucky."
Old Master Zeng opened his eyes, only to see the person sitting next to him with a smile on his face. Who else could it be but the Minister of the Central Secretariat Xue Yan, whom the current emperor relies on so much?
"Oh, Master Xue!" He turned sideways and bowed, "I don't deserve to be called Master Zeng."
"You are too modest." Xue Yan smiled and said meaningfully, "You have a good grandson."
Old Master Zeng's eyebrows moved and he looked up at Xue Yan, but Xue Yan stroked his short beard but smiled without saying a word.
Does this mean... we'll know the answer during the morning court session?
It sounded like a good thing, so he didn't ask any more questions. He had lived a long life, and what he had practiced best was the skill of nourishing qi. He only said modestly, "Master Xue, you are too kind."
After resting in Louyuan for more than half an hour, the palace gate opened and the officials entered the palace in order. There was another ceremony. Of course, there were not many officials in the court at the moment and many positions were still vacant, so the process was not too slow.
When the civil and military officials were called out to enter the hall, Old Master Zeng noticed at a glance that there was an object in the hall that shouldn't be there - a large wooden box.
He turned his head to look at Xue Yan, but Xue Yan just stood there holding the hu and didn't even glance in his direction.
Old Master Zeng: ...
Before he had time to figure out what was in the wooden box, a eunuch's voice came: "The Emperor has arrived—"
His Majesty has arrived.
All the officials straightened their postures, but the same thought came to their minds: The emperor has arrived early today!
From the shout that came after the kneeling ceremony, Old Master Zeng understood what was going on: His Majesty is in a very good mood today!
Sure enough, when I looked up, I saw the young emperor with a smile on his face.
"By retaking Jianye City, our Great Qi will have taken back all the mountains and rivers within its borders. This is a happy event. Yesterday, Shezhou received a gift, a gift presented by the villagers under the jurisdiction of the Shezhou governor."
As soon as the emperor finished speaking, a eunuch came over, opened the wooden box, and took out a plow from it.
Yes, plow.
But it was different from any plow they had ever seen.
The civil and military officials were whispering to each other, not knowing for a moment what the difference was between this plow and the usual plows. Some of them subconsciously looked at Old Master Zeng, pointing at him, hoping to know something.
The emperor on the dragon throne looked at it for a while, then smiled and said, "Listen to the memorial sent by the governor of Shezhou, and you will know the wonderful thing about this plow."
After saying this, he signaled the eunuch beside him to read the memorial.
The memorial was not very long. The first part was a familiar rhetoric for officials. However, at the end, it mentioned that Shezhou reported victory on the 15th day of the first lunar month, and on the morning of the 16th, villagers presented plows as a congratulatory gift. It described the grand occasion of Sang Luo, a villager from Daxingzhuang in Shezhou City, presenting a plow. Then Zeng Sanlang frankly said that he had tried the plow in the field and described the differences between the curved plow and the straight plow.
Governor Zeng's writing was excellent. With just a few hundred words he described the magnificent scene of Shezhou that day in a way that made all the officials feel as if they had seen it with their own eyes. However, none of these were as moving as the last few paragraphs of Sang's response.
Whenever an imperial edict was issued, there were countless words of praise in the edict. The scholars who wrote the most beautiful articles could not be compared with Sang. However, those were the voices of the court, while what Shezhou presented this time was the voice of the real people.
The gratitude, vision, recognition and praise of the people! What we are praising is the will of the people!
This has a different meaning than any beautiful article. What's more, this happened at a time when the news of the emperor's conquest of the Chen Dynasty and the unification of the world had just reached Shezhou, and the plow presented was related to farming and people's livelihood. How could they be the same?
Didn’t you see that the attendant on the side of the palace who was recording the emperor’s behavior and words had his eyes lighting up and was writing furiously when he heard the memorial?
Regardless of whether they really believed it was a coincidence or began to think that this was a big show that the governor of Shezhou had prepared long ago, they all knew that this was a great good thing! It was a praise and recognition for Da Qi, the present, and the new regime!
After the memorial was read, all officials congratulated!
The morning court session that day was not held in the main hall of the Taiji Palace. Soldiers cleared the way and headed all the way to the outskirts of Jianye city.
The capital city was named Jianye City during the Dagan Dynasty.
Outside Jianye City, the spring ploughing for the people in the suburbs has just begun. This place was still under the rule of the Chen Dynasty a few months ago.
The emperor invited farmers to try out the new plow!
The news that the people of Shezhou presented new plows to celebrate the unification of the Great Qi soon spread inside and outside the city of Jianye.
The morning court session of that day lasted until the afternoon. At noon, the officials returned to the court from outside Jianye City. The imperial kitchen provided a meal for all officials at noon, and the government meetings continued in the afternoon.
What was discussed was the reward for the Sang family of Shezhou and the promotion of the curved plow. What the officials had never imagined was that the name change of Jianye City, which was named in the Daqian Dynasty and which the emperor had asked the ministers to discuss, was finally decided today.
It was not the name that the ministers had been arguing about for days but had not yet decided on, but Chang'an!
The name is taken from the second wish of Sang family of Shezhou, which was to wish the prosperity of the Great Qi Dynasty and the eternal existence of the country, and the word "Chang'an" in the prosperous Chang'an.
Chang'an City!
The imperial edict commending Sang for presenting the plow, the imperial edict renaming Jianye to Chang'an, and the blueprint of the curved plow were simultaneously issued to all the prefectures and counties of Da Qi. The first people to see the imperial edict were the people of Jianye City in the capital.
No, the people of Chang'an City!
On the way out of the palace after court, Old Master Zeng was congratulated by his colleagues all the way. Those who understood knew that the matter in Shezhou was handled very well. It seemed that Sang had the most limelight and received the most generous reward, but as a country woman, she could only stop there.
In the eyes of court officials, the biggest winner in this round was Sanlang of the Zeng family, who was the governor of Shezhou at the time.
Old Master Zeng was very humble and modest all the way. He got on the carriage, and after the carriage rumbled a few steps, he lifted the curtain in front of him and said to the driver, "Let's go to the notice posting place at the city gate."
The new edict has been posted at the city gate. Old Master Zeng is looking at the people gathered around the notice wall and the former Jianye city gate. He thinks the word Jianye on the top of the gate should be replaced soon.
"Chang'an City." He murmured again, smiled, and said to the driver, "Let's go back."
The coachman turned the carriage around, leaving the Jianye city gate behind him, and moved forward, and it was Chang'an City.
When it is associated with the name of the capital of a dynasty, the Sang family of Shezhou has donated more than just a plow.
The driver was driving the carriage, and he seemed to hear a voice coming from inside the carriage, which seemed to say:
"There was a woman in Shezhou named Sangluo, who became famous overnight."
The voice was low and unclear, and he didn't know if it was his illusion.
…
In Shezhou City, Sang Luo knew nothing about what was happening far away in the imperial capital of Kyoto, let alone that her name would soon spread to every prefecture and county of Da Qi along with the emperor's edicts and curved plows, and even be recorded in the emperor's daily records by the diligent and responsible attendant.
She was standing in front of her own pigsty with her hands in her sleeves, watching Chen Ning scoop a few spoonfuls of hot pig food into the trough. The five little pigs grunted and ate happily, not knowing what fate they were about to face.
"I've grown stronger, and my spirits are better."
It's time to cut off the balls.
Sang Luo stared at her five little pigs.
Two boars and three sows.
As for the skill of castrating pigs, she remembered that both male and female pigs could be castrated. However, Sang Luo didn't really understand the significance of castrating sows, so she focused her attention on the two boars.
Which end should be castrated?
It's really hard to decide.
Shezhou is short of livestock, so castration of all pigs is definitely not an option. But after trying one, Sang Luo thinks it is feasible. The pork from a castrated pig will obviously taste better. Another very important point is that the pigs will grow fast and strong. The technology of pig castration is worth promoting.
There is no good example. When the pigs of the villagers outside the city grow up and the next generation of piglets are sold, who will be willing to try it?
It is actually better to castrate pigs when they are still young because the wound is smaller and the risk of infection is also lower.
"Aning, which of these two boars at home is better?"
Logically speaking, the best and strongest ones should be kept for breeding boars, but there were no professional butchers, so Sang Luo had to rely on what she read in miscellaneous books. She still felt uneasy, so she decided to choose the one with the best physique so that the injury could recover quickly.
Chen Ning had no idea why her sister-in-law asked this question. She pointed at the one that was eating happily and said, "The one with the black spot on its ear is the easiest to raise and the best at snatching food."
Sang Luo smiled: "That's it."
Shen Ning: “???”
"You'll find out later."
Shen Lie and Shen An took on a new task as soon as they returned from the provincial school: to castrate a pig.
The two brothers were confused and felt a chill in their hearts.
"Castration?"
Any man, regardless of his age, would feel his scalp tingling when he hears this word.
Pian Sangluo nodded seriously: "Yes."
Without waiting for the two to doubt their lives, he explained the theory that pigs won't get fat unless they are castrated, and that pigs won't be at peace unless they are castrated. He also roughly explained how to castrate a pig, and asked Shen Lie and Shen An to figure it out.
I really have to wonder who has done this before. They have to hold the pig upside down to study it, for fear of killing the pig.
After studying it for a long time, Chen Lie said that it would be safe only with a special tool, so he figured out how to carve one out of wood and went to find a blacksmith the next day.
The little pig with black spots on its ears has been taken out by its owners every few days to be looked after. After three or four days, it struggled at first, but eventually got used to it and cooperated very well.
Until one day when its testicles felt cold, its innate spirituality made it realize that something was wrong, and it howled like a murderer, scaring away Old Man Chen, Chen Youtian, Chen Ershan, Zhou Cunzheng and his son, and the Shen Jin brothers who were working in the mountains.
Then he witnessed Shen Lie slaughtering a pig.
A group of men tightened their legs and asked, "What are you doing?"
Chen Lie smeared a handful of wood ash on the pig and locked it in a relatively clean pen. Seeing the pig frightened and howling and running around, and finally curled up in the innermost part of the pen and kept groaning, he calmed down and said to Old Man Chen and the others, "A Luo is thinking of a pig-raising method. It says that pigs that are not used for breeding can be raised stronger by castrating them. We don't know yet, but we're just going to give it a try."
If someone else had said this, would anyone believe it? When they heard that it was Sang Luo who said it, the group was speechless for a moment. They didn't dare to look at the two bloody eggs, but moved closer to look at the pig that was screaming.
"You really won't die, right?"
Shen Lie: “…”
Can he say he doesn't know either?
The two brothers looked at the pig and felt nervous.
In the next few days, the two brothers visited the temple once in the morning before going to the state school and again in the evening after school.
Every family in the village knew that the Shen family had a pig that had been castrated. Even a group of boys had heard about it. Every day someone would come to the pigpen to see if the pig was still alive.
The same goes for Sang Luo. There are only five pigs in her family and she loves them very much. She comes to check on them three times a day. At first, she sees the pigs are listless and doubts their survival. She wishes she could starve themselves to death. Later, she doesn’t know if her grief and anger turned into appetite or what, and she puts all her thoughts on eating!
Eat and sleep, sleep and eat, eat and sleep again...
Mrs. Chen, Mrs. Lu, and Mrs. Gan all started to believe it, but gradually they began to believe it. Mrs. Chen whispered, "Don't tell me, isn't this just like a man? He doesn't care about anything, he just eats and sleeps. If he does this, he will grow up even better."
Sang Luo burst out laughing.
There was still a pigsty here, Xu Wenyin and Shen Ning hurried over here, Shen Ning shouted as she ran: "Sister-in-law, sister-in-law, someone from the government is coming!"
What government office are they from?
Sang Luo took a few steps forward. The group of people were already approaching. Leading the way was Governor Zeng's long-time attendant, and following behind with maids and servants, who else could it be but Governor Zeng's wife, Lady Fan?
Concubine Fan's steps were really fast, and soon she was close to Sang Luo: "Madam Sang, hurry up, your family needs to make some preparations, the imperial edict will arrive soon."
Old Mrs. Xu and Wei Lingzhen, who came over to see what was going on, were both stunned and had the same reaction as Sang Luo.
"What imperial edict?" Sang Luo realized after she finished speaking: "You mean the curved plow?"
Concubine Fan looked at Sang Luo and started laughing. It was not just a curved plow. Jianye City had become Chang'an City. She had not expected such a coincidence to happen.
But he didn't say anything, fearing to shock people, he just smiled and said, "Yes, the emperor has commended him, and the angel of the emperor's decree is coming soon, my lady, hurry up and prepare to receive the decree."
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