Gu Yuzhi learned very quickly and soon wanted to copy the "Three Character Classic" and mark the pinyin on it for easy reference in the future. However, he did not expect that his studies were too heavy, with two hours of enlightenment class every morning and two hours of martial arts class every afternoon.
After school, I still have to do the homework assigned by the teachers, repeat Xie Changshi's explanations, practice writing large characters, and before going to bed, I have to learn pinyin with Teacher Shu, try to mark the pinyin on the large characters I practice, and then because the large characters with pinyin cannot be handed in, I have to write them again.
Shu Xiaohan looked at Gu Yuzhi, whose face had become noticeably smaller, and fell silent. She didn't want to add to his burden, but he wouldn't cooperate and seemed to be enjoying himself...
A few days later, it was finally Gu Yuzhi's day off. He was looking forward to it from the moment he got up in the morning, thinking that he would go to Changzhou Prefecture for a visit. But as soon as he finished eating, the gatekeeper announced that Prefect Qi had arrived.
Gu Yuzhi glanced at Chief Secretary Xie and saw that he also looked bewildered, so he quickly ordered someone to bring in Prefect Qi.
Prefect Qi's face was deathly pale, and fine beads of sweat clung to his forehead. With each large movement, they trickled down his cheeks. Upon entering the council hall, before he could even utter a word, Prefect Qi trembled and knelt down: "Your Highness..."
"Prefect Qi, please rise." Gu Yuzhi jumped off the chair and stepped forward to help Prefect Qi up, but found he couldn't. He could only turn to look at Chief Secretary Xie and ask, "Prefect Qi, what's wrong?"
Qi Wenhan wanted to speak, but when he opened his mouth, he found that he couldn't say anything. He was so angry that he kept pounding the ground.
At this moment, Chief Secretary Xie finally noticed the person following Qi Wenhan. His hair ornament was half off, his clothes had many scratches, and his shoes were covered in mud. When he looked up, Chief Secretary Xie's expression changed: "Eunuch Ran!"
This Eunuch Ran is no ordinary person; he is the adopted son of Zhao Xi, the Grand Eunuch of the Imperial Household Department. His current disheveled appearance in Changzhou suggests that something has gone wrong with His Highness's reward!
At this moment, Gu Yuzhi recognized Eunuch Ran and was taken aback: "Eunuch Ran, why are you like this?" He glanced behind Eunuch Ran, "Did you come to Changzhou alone?"
Then, as if he had just thought of something, Gu Yuzhi looked at him with pity: "Eunuch Ran, did the Emperor send you here? Why didn't you come with us before? Weren't you scared coming alone?"
Eunuch Ran was just a teenager, and because he became a eunuch at a young age, he had grown very slowly over the years and didn't look much older than Gu Yuzhi. He had previously helped the emperor relay messages and was quite familiar with Gu Yuzhi, so he was in charge of supervising the emperor's and the empresses' Mid-Autumn Festival gifts.
Seeing the young prince's concerned expression, Eunuch Ran's strong composure finally crumbled, and tears streamed down his face. He knelt down with a thud: "Your Highness, this servant is guilty. The Emperor's reward was robbed by bandits on the way to Changzhou!"
He lay on the ground and first sobbed softly, but then, remembering the two days of his escape, he couldn't hold back and burst into loud sobs.
The northern desert is truly terrifying; the young prince is so pitiful!
"A reward?" Before Gu Yuzhi could even rejoice that his elder brother had actually given him a reward, he was struck by a bolt from the blue: his reward had been robbed by bandits!
The young prince snorted angrily, trying to express his rage. He turned to look at Chief Secretary Xie, his voice unconsciously carrying a hint of grievance: "Chief Secretary Xie, the rewards my brother gave me were robbed by bandits!"
The reward he had been longing for for so long hadn't even been seen before it was robbed by bandits!
This is absolutely intolerable!
Chief Secretary Xie's gaze fell on Prefect Qi, clearly not expecting the bandits of the northern desert to be so audacious as to rob the Emperor's reward.
Prefect Qi, feeling cold sweat pour down his body under Xie Changshi's gaze, cried out in protest: "Your Highness, Your Highness, we in Mobei have no choice but to accept this! The Mobei army is far away in Quanzhou. Before they even set off, those mountain bandits got wind of it and ran away completely. After this happened several times, the Mobei army stopped responding to our pleas for help."
Prefect Qi had no way of explaining this: "Our prefectural government is short-handed, and we joined forces with several surrounding prefectures to try and catch them off guard. Who knew these bandits, relying on their familiarity with the terrain, would end up seriously injuring many of our men. We..."
Those damned bandits!
The more Prefect Qi spoke, the more he wanted to cry. He wished he had retired to his hometown earlier!
Chief Secretary Xie comforted Gu Yuzhi in a low voice, and after coaxing Gu Yuzhi to sit down again, he looked at Ran Quan and asked, "Eunuch Ran, you are the supervisor, so is there a list of rewards?"
"Yes, yes." Ran Quan took out an oil paper package from his bosom and handed it over. "I haven't dared to leave the list of rewards with me."
Xie Changshi opened the list with some disdain and glanced at it. Then he walked to Gu Yuzhi's side and whispered, "Your Highness, I have seen the rewards. Apart from jewelry, cloth and medicine, His Majesty and several empresses have given Your Highness a total of three thousand taels of gold."
After being educated by Chief Secretary Xie, Gu Yuzhi had a general idea of how to convert treasury silver. When he heard that the gold was three thousand taels, Gu Yuzhi's eyes lit up. He then slammed his hand on the table. The next second, his face contorted in pain as he shook his hand violently. He didn't understand why his elder brother liked to slam the table when he was angry.
He took a breath, feeling even more aggrieved: "Chief Secretary Xie, I want my reward back."
Chief Secretary Xie nodded and called out, "Go and summon Chief Guard Qi." After the people outside left, he stared at Prefect Qi and said, "Find a way to notify the prefects of other prefectures that they must bring the constables they can bring to His Highness tonight."
Prefect Qi nodded repeatedly, hurriedly bid farewell to Gu Yuzhi, and quickly walked out. He wrote several letters, tied them to carrier pigeons, and sent them out as soon as possible. Touching the sweat that had never dried on his forehead, his wildly beating heart finally calmed down a little.
God help me, Buddha help me, the reward must be found, otherwise his old life is completely over!
After all the arrangements were made, Chief Secretary Xie said to Gu Yu, "Your Highness, according to Prefect Qi, these bandits have been in this area of the northern desert for a long time. If Your Highness wants to establish a foothold in the northern desert, now is a very good time."
Gu Yuzhi knew that he was young, and even though he had the title of prince, some people looked down on him from the bottom of their hearts. He could clearly sense this from the last Mid-Autumn Festival banquet.
He said with some concern, "But I have a feeling that some of them won't send anyone."
"It doesn't matter if they don't send anyone, we're not counting on them anyway. Your Highness just needs to write down the names of these prefects, and we'll talk about it later."
Let's talk about it later?
Gu Yuzhi looked up at Xie Changshi and felt that Xie Changshi was teaching him something amazing.
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