Making these winter clothes was already a lot of twists and turns, and since I’ve put so much effort into it, naturally I want to hand it over to someone who needs it.
With the guarantee of the Prime Minister's daughter Wang Qingluo, Shen Qingqiu did not use the imperial caravan to distribute winter supplies to the refugees. Instead, she asked Tu Jiu to assemble a caravan and head south. One reason was to deliver supplies to the refugees, and the other was that she wanted to open up a trade route for herself.
Gu Yong looked at the six textile machines standing in the Liu family compound. He was the one who asked people to come here. He naturally knew how much cloth these six small machines could produce and how many soldiers could be fed and clothed.
"Qiu'er——"
After all, they were going to be father and daughter. As soon as Gu Yong opened his mouth, Shen Qingqiu knew what he was talking about.
"I can write down how this loom is made." Without waiting for Gu Yong to speak, "This will be my mother's dowry when she enters the Marquis' Mansion. How do you think it is? Are you satisfied?"
Gu Yong laughed, but he couldn't shake his head at the dowry.
Shen Qingqiu easily wrote out how to make this machine. This was a direct contribution of a method that could have been used to monopolize or even make unlimited money. Even the emperor would be tempted to see such a huge amount of wealth, but she didn't even blink.
“But before that, if someone wants to take my textile machine, my Lord, what do you think we should do?” Shen Qingqiu said deliberately.
It was just a small wooden machine, but if hundreds or thousands of them were built, it would make a poor man rich enough to rival a country in less than a year. Gu Yong had no doubt about the allure of this thing.
The two looked at each other and saw a similar light in each other's eyes.
"When the emperor was young, he was wise and brave, but when he got older, he loved to abuse his power. There were more and more treacherous villains around him, but he was not blind and deaf." Gu Yong said: "The Princess Changping sold official positions and used tricks to harm court officials. The emperor saw all this, but do you know why he didn't care about the princess?"
Shen Qingqiu thought about the refugees in the south, "Because they are poor."
Gu Yong smiled and said, "Yes, the emperor is also poor. Although he doesn't have to worry about food and drink on weekdays, he has to take care of more than just his own mouth. If there is a shortage of food today, the court will provide disaster relief. If there is a flood tomorrow, the court will provide relief. The emperor is short of money, and Princess Changping can make money and give money to the emperor."
Otherwise, how could the daughter of a foreign prince have such a status in the capital.
Although the people of Changping are vicious, they do have a good business sense.
"I see that you seem to dislike this Princess Changping." Shen Qingqiu said. She could see that Gu Yong couldn't hide his disgust when he talked about Princess Changping, and it wasn't just because of her mother.
Gu Yong did not deny it. He said, "Tu Jiuben was born into an official family. Five years ago, the Tu family was imprisoned because of a literary inquisition. Do you know the reason?"
Shen Qingqiu said: "Because of Tu Jiu's sister, the courtesan?" When Tu Jiu told them about the evil things Changping had done that day, she heard something unusual, and she remembered it when she heard Gu Yong talk about it today.
"That's right." Gu Yong twitched his lips. "I killed tens of thousands of enemies on the battlefield, but I was no match for a little girl in the capital who has power. She can easily destroy a family with just a few words. Tu Jiu's sister is extremely beautiful, and the Tu family's misfortune is because of his sister. Changping opened a brothel in the capital and even in the nearby big cities. Brothels need beautiful women, and what gimmick can be greater than the fall of a delicate and precious official daughter?"
During that period, not only Tu Jiu's family, but many others fell victim to Changping's murderous hands.
However, due to the continuous influx of silver into the national treasury, the emperor turned a blind eye to the then young Princess Changping.
"So even if she kidnapped your mother, she has nothing to fear. Even if she can't do anything to me, she has the emperor secretly protecting her, so I can't do anything to her either."
Shen Qingqiu said: "You can't stand her but you can't get rid of her, aren't you very angry?"
Gu Yong: ...
"She does not shy away from doing anything to make money, and has offended many people. All you need to do is make her lose her backing, and you don't need to do anything. Those enemies will bite her to death one by one." Shen Qingqiu curled his lips.
"But Your Majesty?"
"What the emperor wants is silver," she pointed at herself, "and I will soon give him more silver than Changping."
The winter time passes quickly, and after a few hot pot meals at home, spring has arrived in the blink of an eye.
In previous years, there were always people freezing to death or starving to death in the south in spring, but this year there was good news, because more than 40,000 cotton-padded clothes and jackets were provided, and the number of casualties in the south this year was less than 100. Compared with previous years, this was already an impossible number.
Liu was a kind-hearted person. Although the business was introduced to her by Wang Qingluo, she basically paid for all the 20,000 taels of silver except for the workers' capital.
Especially when Tu Jiu came back by boat and told everyone in the yard about the horror of the disaster in the south and how the whole family shared one cotton-padded jacket, Miss Wang, who had just received the commission from Liu, sent the silver back.
"I don't want it. Go make them some more cotton-padded jackets. How can the whole family wear the same one in this cold winter?"
"Why would my son make a cotton-padded jacket now? It will be hot again in spring." Tu Jiu said, "But Master, you don't know how many lives you saved by making those extra 20,000 sets of clothes. The local government didn't expect that there were more than 40,000 jackets on our beds. Do you know that many people built temples for you in gratitude for saving their lives?"
When Liu heard this, she shook her head and said, "Is this impossible?"
"What temple?" Shen Qingqiu became interested.
"In the Holy Goddess Temple, they all say that the Goddess is a living Bodhisattva who saves people from suffering and distress. That's why she saved their lives in the winter."
Liu felt very embarrassed when she heard this. "That was the money allocated by the court. I just sewed the clothes in the middle."
"Don't say that. You put a lot of effort into it, too."
Wang Qingluo, who was standing beside him, was also listening attentively, envious of the fact that someone in the Liu family had such faith...
Perhaps it was a blessing for doing too many good things, the disaster in the south was alleviated in the spring. The winter in the south that year was particularly cold, and the victims survived the winter with the cotton-padded jackets sent by Liu. Naturally, they remembered her kindness. In April of the following year, the spring ploughing in the south officially began, and the emperor was very pleased.
Seeing that Liu was quite popular among the people in the south, in order to help them return to life quickly after the disaster, he officially ordered Liu to be named the Holy Queen. Although it was a title of low rank, it was much better than the title of the Princess that she got because of her relationship with Gu Yong.
"Oh my god, why do these days feel like a dream~" Mother Chen looked at the endless stream of rewards coming from the palace and wanted to bite her own mouth to see if she was dreaming.
"Our princess is blessed with great fortune. Once she marries Marquis Gu, good days are yet to come." The eunuch smiled like a chrysanthemum.
Mother Chen thought for a long time before she realized that the princess was talking about her own wife... She had forgotten that her wife was now called the princess.
After sending away the eunuch who came to give the reward from the palace, Mother Chen curled her lips and said, "I always feel that being called Princess is not very nice."
The same goes for Jin Cai. When she hears the title of Princess, she thinks of Princess Changping. Although she has never met the woman, her viciousness is now deeply engraved in her heart.
Shen Qingqiu's eyes moved, and he thought of something, so he asked, "Tu Jiu, where are the women who were released from the dungeon of the Princess's Mansion?"
"Many of them have already returned home. The daughter of a wealthy businessman in Hangzhou even sent a gift, which you just rejected a while ago, Master." She had been busy with other things recently and had forgotten about it.
"There are also some who look confused and can't tell where their homes are when asked. I guess their houses have been raided." This is also a trick that works in Changping. She has taken a fancy to the beautiful daughter of some minor official and can easily crush the official position of a ninth-rank official with any means.
"Master, I felt sorry for those girls, so I asked them to live in the backyard first."
Shen Qingqiu pointed his finger and said, "You can support them for a while, but not for a lifetime." If they were really a group of young ladies from official families, what could they do after leaving home when they couldn't even carry anything?
——
On the other side, after recuperating for half a year, Princess Changping's leg was finally completely healed.
But seeing that Liu was not held accountable for failing to make winter clothes for the refugees, but was instead commended by the emperor and given the title of Holy Mother for no reason, she became so angry that she smashed another set of blue and white porcelain in the room.
"What? Just a few sets of winter clothes. I've done this before. What did the emperor reward me with?!" The more Changping spoke, the more unbalanced he became.
But she didn't think about the fact that she was shortchanging the victims in terms of clothes weight, and it was good enough that they didn't freeze to death.
The victims didn't even think of her, so how could the emperor think of her?
Princess Changping bit her lip and said, "Check it for me. There is obviously something wrong with her material. How did she get enough of it in such a short time?"
The maid was hesitant and could only say yes.
After a long while, she couldn't help but say, "Princess, no matter what, Liu will become the Marquis's wife in the future. If we go against her, won't we go against the entire Marquis's mansion?" Even Queen Pei reminded them not to go against Gu Yong. Aren't they going against the Queen's wishes? Changping was angry. She was a princess, and she almost had her face scratched. Was she going to let it go?
"I won't show up in person." She looked up. "Why are you in such a hurry? I have plenty of knives in my hand."
Anyway, the Xiao family was still thinking about the marriage with the Gu family. Would they be willing to let this woman who came out of nowhere directly snatch the position of Marquis Gu's wife?
After the beginning of spring, the marriage of Liu and Gu Yong was also scheduled. Originally, the emperor was still hesitant to grant the marriage to the two of them because it would arouse doubts. After all, Gu Yong had made great military achievements, and it was not reasonable for him to marry such a woman who had been married and had children. But now that the incident of the Holy Mother has come out, Liu's prestige among the people is very high, and no one would say that he was afraid of being too successful and deliberately gave Gu Yong such a woman.
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