Huang Quan's words puzzled Wang Chuan: "What did Princess Wuyang post?"
"It's about inviting the ladies and young ladies of all the mansions to attend a banquet at Prince Wenxuan's mansion on the tenth day of the lunar month, which is tomorrow evening. Not only the mistresses and legitimate daughters of each mansion are invited, but even the concubines' daughters are invited."
Wang Chuan frowned: "But our house didn't receive any notice?"
"That's what I'm talking about." Huang Quan stamped his feet and said, "What's going on? It's impossible for Princess Wuyang to not invite our young lady to her banquet. Did you have a quarrel with Princess Wuyang?"
Feng Yuheng rolled her eyes. "She just cheated us out of food and drinks yesterday and left. Did you see that she was upset?"
Wang Chuan twitched her lips. What does it mean to eat and drink for free? Except for Miss Bai, the others paid 100,000 taels of silver for food, right? She suddenly thought of something, "Could it be that the secret plan that Princess Wuyang mentioned yesterday was this?"
Feng Yuheng did not comment. She asked Huang Quan: "Do you know what the theme of the banquet is?"
Huang Quan nodded, "He said he wanted to pray for Dashun, the Emperor, and the Empress."
"That's it." Feng Yuheng laughed. She understood a little bit what those girls were doing. With such a big hat, who dared not attend this kind of blessing banquet? If it was spread that the wife or daughter of a certain official's mansion did not go, it would mean that they did not give face to Dashun and ignored the safety of the emperor and empress. Who could bear such a crime? You have to spend money to pray for blessings! You have to pay for incense when you pray at the temple. Xuan Tiange will not do business at a loss.
She raised her lips and smiled. Wangchuan figured out some reasons, but Huangquan was still confused. However, she also realized that there was no rift between her young lady and Princess Wuyang, so she stopped dwelling on it.
Feng Yuheng simply ate some porridge and side dishes as breakfast. This year was not a happy one, but the welfare that the servants in the mansion should have was not reduced at all. Of course, she didn't need to worry about these. Everything was arranged by the housekeeper Qingyu, and she also delegated a lot of power to Qingyu. For example, if the money spent on the account was less than 1,000 taels, she didn't need to report it to her, just record the account. Every New Year's Day, the welfare of the servants in the mansion was managed by Qingyu, including the families of these servants, and those in the capital and the suburbs could not be ignored.
Qingyu is indeed a good material for a housekeeper. She not only thinks about the families, but also makes specific New Year gifts according to the different needs of different groups in each household. For example, if there are children, she will prepare more candies, and if there are elderly people, she will send some gifts. If there are servants who have wives, it is easy to deal with if they work together. If not, they will be given the same share as the maids in the mansion, with no less jewelry and fabric. And the servants in the mansion are not only given double wages and extra silver, but also fish, meat, eggs, oil, etc., which is very considerate.
Feng Yuheng always believed that money was not enough to impress people. Sometimes, doing some thoughtful little things would make the servants follow her wholeheartedly. After all, her princess's mansion could not afford the risk of having spies. Even if they were not spies, a few servants with bad intentions would muddy the water. Small favors could win people's hearts. She would never be stingy with that little bit of money. In addition, if the servants in the mansion were sick, they would be sent to Baicaotang for treatment for free. The servants did not need to pay a penny. All the expenses were borne by the mansion.
Now that Baicaotang was closed, she couldn't take all the servants with her when she went to her fiefdom. In order to take care of the people left behind, she asked Wang Lin to select a doctor who was a little older and whose family business was in the capital and couldn't go with her. He was paid and was responsible for treating the people in the Princess's Mansion, Yao's Mansion, and several other mansions that she was close to. When the servants heard about this, they were all very moved and said that they would definitely guard the Princess's Mansion and wait for the Princess to come back.
As for the servants who were chosen to follow Feng Yuheng to the fiefdom, they were also busy packing their things these days, and each of them was full of hope for the new territory in the future.
Now, the news that Feng Yuheng was leaving Kyoto for her fiefdom was no longer a secret. She did not deliberately conceal it, and even let Wang Lin and Qingyu spread the news, and implicitly stated that she was driven out of the capital by those old officials. And who those old officials were, the people naturally knew, weren't they the ones who forced Princess Ji'an to close Baicaotang! People also would not forget that those people all relied on the Eighth Prince!
Feng Yuheng has never given up on building a reputation in the capital over the years, and has done a lot of good deeds. There are a lot of people in the capital who have received her kindness, and her medical skills have even cured many officials. Those people were originally neutral parties, but because of Feng Yuheng's miraculous healing, the balance in their hearts gradually shifted towards the Ninth Prince.
The common people spontaneously organized the "Anti-Eight Alliance", and the team of thousands of people dispersed and blocked the doorsteps of the officials who were enemies of Princess Ji'an. They were also smart and did not rush in, knowing that trespassing into the official's house would cost them their heads, so they sat at the door, one person brought a small stool, and some even filled water bags with water and drank a sip when they were thirsty.
As a result, there were one or two hundred people surrounding the gate of each mansion. People did not just sit there, but organized themselves to denounce in unison from time to time, shouting towards the gate: "Give justice to Princess Ji'an! Give us back Baicaotang! Why did you drive Princess Ji'an out of Kyoto? You are the ones who should get out!" The voices rose and fell, and it was very lively.
When they weren't shouting, people would chat in groups of three or five. Driven by the general environment, all the chats were about Feng Yuheng. People always remembered Feng Yuheng's contributions to Kyoto. Someone mentioned the winter disaster two years ago. "That year, my mother was so cold that she was stiff. She was about to die. Fortunately, someone said that the princess was giving out warm tea at the entrance of Baicao Hall. I carried my mother to get the tea. When the princess saw that my mother was seriously ill, she took her to Baicao Hall to treat her in person. She pulled my mother back from the brink of death. Until now, my mother still says that Princess Ji'an is her benefactor and always tells me that she must kowtow to the princess when she sees her."
As soon as he finished speaking, someone immediately followed up and said, "That's right! If it weren't for Ji An thinking about the poor people in the north of the city and distributing food to us and asking people to help us repair our houses, who would care about our lives? We would all have frozen to death in the snow."
Someone else mentioned the flood that year and the epidemic that followed the flood. "If the princess and the ninth prince hadn't acted decisively to block the refugees outside the city, the entire capital would have been infected. That was an epidemic! Who could survive if they were infected? It was the princess and the ninth prince who saved the entire capital."
"That's right! The princess and the ninth prince are both great. In order to save the lives of those people outside, they actually left the city with such a noble status and set up tents outside to personally treat the refugees. Are there other princes and princesses as good as this in the world?"
"That's right! The princess also made steel for us in Dashun. I heard that our steel tools easily broke Zong Sui's iron tools. It's really impressive!"
"The princess has also recovered Qianzhou!"
People were talking about Feng Yuheng's great achievements over the years. Not only was there such discussion at the gate of one mansion, but all the gates of the mansions that were blocked were telling the same story. The more people talked, the more excited they became. The more they talked, the more they felt that with such a princess, Dashun would have hope. Only when the Ninth Prince and Princess Ji'an got married and ruled the world together, they would have hope for the future.
"But such a good princess is being driven away by these bastards!" Someone shouted excitedly, standing up and pointing at the gate in front of him, cursing: "Are you officials of Dashun? Are you Dashun people? Are you spies sent by other countries? Why are people who are good to Dashun and the people being driven away? Why can't you watch Dashun become stronger day by day?"
With someone taking the lead, the others could no longer sit still and stood up to curse, some even crying while cursing. Finally, everyone knelt down facing the direction of the palace and kept crying and begging, "Your Majesty! Look at these officials who don't care about the safety of Dashun and the lives of the people! The court can no longer use such officials! As long as they are here, Dashun will never have peace! Your Majesty! People's hearts are unpredictable, and the Eighth Prince has bad intentions! Please investigate! Your Majesty!"
The shouts were so loud that they could be heard along the ten-mile-long street. People were infected by the atmosphere, and more and more people went out of their homes to join the "Anti-Eight Alliance". The scene was so spectacular that even the officials sent by the Jingzhao Yin to maintain public order got goose bumps when they saw it, and they even had the urge to kneel down as well.
Jingzhao Yin saw this scene. He was the official of the capital. If this happened, he should have suppressed it immediately. However, as a member of Feng Yuheng's party, he knew that what he should do now was to go to the court to see the emperor and tell him everything about the situation outside. Regardless of whether it was useful or not, at least the court must know about this situation.
However, the officials and their families who were hiding inside the government office were trembling with fear. They all gathered in a room and speculated about what the final outcome of this incident would be.
Some timid officials had already begun to plan what to do if they were convicted, whether to flee or seek help from the Eighth Prince. The more courageous ones sent their servants to sneak out of the palace through a small door and run to the city gate to inform the city guards that there was unrest in the capital and to send troops to suppress it.
Little did he know that the commander of the army defending the city was Wang Zhuo, one of the four generals, who was promoted by Feng Yuheng. He had heard about the incident in the city a long time ago, and he was also present at the palace banquet that night, but he had no choice but to do so because his official position was too low, and he was a military commander, so his eloquence was nowhere near as good as those of the civil officials, and he could not get a word in even if he was anxious. But he did not expect that someone would shamelessly ask him to send troops to rescue and suppress the people. Wang Zhuo was so angry that he hung up the servant who reported the news and beat him up, and threw him into jail on the charge of destroying the city defense.
The servant was also unlucky. Did he destroy the city defense? He did, because he accidentally fell when he ran over. The soldiers on the wall were bored and playing with blue bricks. He knocked down five blue bricks that had just been stacked.
Such a big thing happened in the capital, of course it could reach Feng Yuheng's ears, and the person who told her the news was the seventh prince Xuan Tianhua who came to her half an hour ago.
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