Chapter 1459: Choosing an Opportunity

"It is the Yu family that the emperor wants to act as matchmaker."

Zhulan raised her eyebrows, "From what I see, you seem to be quite satisfied with your family. Have you agreed to the emperor's request?"

Zhou Shuren took out the information from his pocket, "This is the information about the Yu family that the emperor gave me. The information on the Yu family is very detailed. I didn't agree to the marriage proposal and said I would think about it carefully when I got back."

Zhulan took it and flipped through it. "The investigation is really detailed. It seems that the emperor really wants to strongly support the Yu family."

As he spoke, his eyes fell on the evaluation of several young masters of the Yu family. It was too detailed. The Yu family must not know that they were being investigated in such detail by the emperor. Then he thought again, if the emperor did not want to support the Yu family, he would not take the trouble to investigate.

Zhou Shuren sat down. "The best way for the Yu family to quickly take root in the capital is through marriage. After careful consideration, the Zhou family does not have a large family behind them. They rely on the royal family in the capital, so they are the most suitable candidate for marriage."

No matter who the Yu family marries, it will never be as complicated as marrying the Zhou family. The emperor can rest assured that the Yu family will marry the Zhou family.

Zhulan was unhappy, "Yuyi's marriage is still a conspiracy."

Zhou Shuren raised his eyebrows, "As long as the emperor uses Chang Lian, Yuyi's marriage will be registered with the emperor."

"Should I be grateful for giving us the chance to choose?"

"Your Majesty is very confident in himself. Since he has asked for it, I will agree. You have also seen the information. The young master of the Yu family is indeed outstanding."

Zhulan was still unhappy, sighing at her helplessness towards the imperial power, "I don't want to watch it today, I'll talk about it tomorrow."

In Qizhou, Chang Lian didn't know that his daughter was being thought of. He was eating a roasted leg of lamb, eating it with his hands, his mouth full of oil, "It smells so good."

Dong, "You have suffered these days."

Chang Lian was indeed starving. The prefect was poisoned and in poor health, so the task of inspecting the counties fell on him. He inspected secretly without passing through the county government, which meant no good meals. He had been eating plain soup for the past few days.

Mrs. Dong saw her husband chewing the lamb leg bone carefully, and she felt so distressed. "I was lucky this time and bought two lambs. I will cook lamb for you tomorrow."

Everything is in short supply now, and the housekeeper went to several villages to buy these two sheep.

Chang Lian saw that there was no meat on the leg bones, so he wiped his hands with a handkerchief and said, "Prepare two lamb legs tomorrow and I will send them to the prefect."

Mrs. Dong felt a little reluctant, "Okay, I'll ask the housekeeper to prepare it."

Chang Lian, "It's not easy for the prefect."

The prefect had little financial resources to begin with, and had to support a large family. Mutton was scarce, and he would certainly not be willing to buy mutton to nourish his body.

Dong, "Oh, this is the first time I've encountered weather like this since I was a child."

This weather change affected the entire country. It was the first time she had seen such a food shortage. In the past, droughts and floods only affected a few states. There were very few beggars in the original Qizhou city. Now she encountered people begging on the streets several times.

Chang Lian also sighed, "Our province is a major grain-producing province, and we should not be short of food. Fortunately, we have planted late rice, so the situation in our province is still good."

Dong thought to herself that it was a good thing that she sent all the children back to the capital so that they would not have to suffer in Qizhou.

At the next morning court session, Zhou Shuren was stunned for a moment and continued to listen to the emperor. In this war, some grassland tribes were the emperor's pawns. After the war, he privately thought about how the emperor would arrange these tribes. If the emperor wanted to unify the grassland, the leaders of these tribes could not be kept.

Now it seems that the emperor wants to assimilate these tribes and keep them in the capital, far away from the territory. This is like plucking the teeth of a wolf and keeping it in a pen. In the future, the grassland tribes will only be one of the ethnic groups in the country.

When Zhou Shuren heard that the descendants of these tribes had reached marriageable age, he looked expressionless. This was not about marrying far away or annexing the grassland tribes, but just an ordinary marriage.

Zhou Shuren felt the emperor glance at him, "!!"

Is this telling him that the emperor treats the Zhou family well? Pah!

After the morning court session, Zhou Shuren took a deep breath and his eyes fell on Lord Yu. Lord Yu was a third-rank official and currently worked in the Ministry of Commerce. According to the information, the people of the right age were Lord Yu's second son and youngest son.

Lord Yu felt the gaze and was a little confused, "Lord Zhou?"

Zhou Shuren, "Well, Lord Yu has brought his family to Beijing. Is everything going well now?"

Lord Yu was confused. Lord Zhou cared about him? He suppressed his doubts and said, "Everything is fine. Lord Lao was concerned about me."

Zhou Shuren nodded. Hearing the discussion, he gestured to the adults to leave first. The emperor's purpose was very straightforward.

The big families would not be willing to marry off their daughters if there was no benefit. Everyone could see that after the annexation of the grassland, these tribes had become toothless wolves. The benefits brought by the marriage were too little, and the emperor would not allow the tribes that came to Beijing to be involved in military power.

Now the remaining tribes must either be obedient and come to the capital, or face extinction. They will have nothing but the title of prince in vain. No, the emperor may not even give them the title of prince. Besides having wealth, there will be no benefits.

The great families looked down upon these wealth and carefully educated noble ladies in exchange for benefits through marriage, but some who were short of money or wanted to share more of the emperor's worries did have ideas.

Zhou Shuren doesn't care about what these people think, he only cares about his granddaughter's marriage.