Chapter 37: As the morning bells rang throughout the capital, a rider from Hongchen entered the city...
As the morning bells rang throughout the capital, a horseman rode into the city gate.
In the document box carried by the post horse were memorials and letters handed to the emperor by the Fourth Princess.
As soon as Emperor Kangxi saw the memorial box, he knew it was the work of the Fourth Prince. This child always liked to seal it tightly when delivering memorials or letters, and he didn't expect that the Fourth Princess had also learned this trick.
This pair of fourth siblings seemed to get along well on the road, Kangxi thought.
He opened the memorial box and found a letter and a memorial.
The letter contained a few casual words, such as "Khan Ama, I first saw the magnificent scenery of the Great Wall" and so on. The casual words were warm and affectionate.
Kangxi held the letter in his hand and looked at the beautiful handwriting. His brows relaxed a lot.
The fourth girl is introverted. Instead of leaning in front of him to talk, she uses the letter paper to show her daughter's feelings more.
After reading the letter, he opened the memorial box and took out the memorial.
The tone of the memorial was much more serious, just like a minister should be. She first talked about the phenomenon of people going west, then mentioned that she thought this move would be beneficial and could stabilize the border areas. Finally, she mentioned that she wanted to ask Khan Ama to grant her the land of Guihua City as her own land, cultivate the fields to absorb immigrants from Kouzi, and the food obtained could be used to supply the soldiers stationed nearby.
Finally, a map was attached, which roughly depicted which areas of land were suitable for farming.
Kangxi flipped through the map and smiled.
I have improved and now I know how to make meaningful requests after conducting on-site inspections.
It is not a big problem to ask for some rouge land. In the past, the princess born to Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang also had 500 hectares of land near the Balin tribe where she married. We can just compare it with this one. The phenomenon of going west has just attracted his attention, and it is worth discussing with the people in the South Study.
Kangxi approved the memorial and issued another decree, in red ink, which granted the fourth princess 400 hectares of land along the Qingshui River in the city of Qionghua.
He rubbed his hand on the jade ring, thinking, and called the minister of the Ministry of War to ask: "How is the post road in the Khalkha area of Mobei now?"
Hearing this, the Minister of War felt a little embarrassed.
Where is the post station in that area? A few years ago, the northern desert was still not obedient to the imperial court, but was later beaten badly by the Junggar in the western desert. They were driven all the way to the southern desert before they became obedient. Now it has only been a year since the war ended, and even Tushetu Khan and the Great Lama only returned to the royal court of Kulun a few months ago. How could a post station appear there immediately?
But since His Majesty asked this, it probably means he wants to build a post road there. The Minister of War gritted his teeth and answered no, and then mentioned some practical difficulties, such as unfamiliarity with the road, the long distance would require dozens of post stations, and the cost was too high. If it was just a brief communication, maybe he could just send someone with enough food and a letter.
Observing His Majesty's expression, the senior official of the Ministry of War finally added: "...But now that Mobei has surrendered, we must put the issue of building a post road on the agenda. I will gather people to consider this matter when I return!"
Kangxi nodded kindly: "I understand."
But he changed his mind and thought that there was not even a proper post road in Mobei now, and the fourth princess wanted to go to such a place. He couldn't help but feel a little guilty.
The map presented by the Fourth Princess was still spread out on the table. Kangxi's fingertips fell on the words "Guihua City". He remembered what the Fourth Princess had courageously said before she got married, and he drafted another decree, asking the new General of Guihua City to find a suitable place to build the princess's mansion.
After all, this marriage was to show the court's favor to the Tushetu Khanate. It was reasonable that the fourth girl had to live in her husband's house for a while, and when the mansion in Guihuacheng was built in two years, she could live there, which would also be considered as fulfilling his father's love for his daughter.
When Kangxi's edict came from the capital, Mu Xue and his party were crossing the vast Gobi Desert.
After days of hard work, the camel's humps became smaller, limp and tilted, and the whole camel looked listless. Only when it stopped to be fed with bean cakes would the camel have a brief moment of joy.
Even the usually energetic Fifth Prince became listless. Seeing that it was another scorching hot day, he simply took a ride with Mu Xue.
He fanned himself vigorously with a palace fan, but still felt it was not cool enough.
"Oh, if only there was some ice to use at this time. In this weather, in the palace, the Queen Mother will make ice cream cheese, which is cold and topped with sweet and sour jam. It tastes so good. Mother will also make ice plum soup, which is refreshing and delicious."
After the Fifth Prince said this, Mu Xue also remembered the ice plum soup made by Concubine Yi. The more she thought about it, the thirstier she became. She asked someone to dig out a jar of salted plums and shared it with the Fifth Prince.
"This is the last can." Mu Xue took out a plum and ate it slowly, trying to make the taste last longer.
When she arrived in Kulun, she probably wouldn't be able to eat these salted plums until the trade routes prospered.
In the past few days, Zheng Yunqi has been busy communicating with businessmen. With her age and status, it is easy for her to deal with any businessman. She is not like the eunuchs who look like they came out of the palace and make people afraid to say much.
She was a very flexible person. She had experienced a lot in the first half of her life, so she could talk about any topic. With the funds she drew from Mu Xue, she was able to blend in well with the business community.
The Fan family was the most considerate and quietly helped Zheng Yunqi get acquainted with other merchants.
After Zheng Yunqi had roughly figured it out, he reported it back to Mu Xue one by one. There were twelve merchants in total in the first batch going to Mobei, some selling grain, some selling medicinal herbs, some selling silk cloth, some selling gold, silver and copper wares... There was no consensus, and the goods pulled by the camels behind were also very messy. Although some merchants were originally famous for selling tea or something, perhaps because it was their first time to go to Kulun to do business, they were not so clearly divided. Basically, the shopkeepers brought whatever they thought was easy to sell, and prepared to see how it sold, and then make adjustments.
The previous sandstorm caused some merchants to lose some goods. They were worried about what would happen if they encountered sandstorms again in the future. Fortunately, the princess was kind and allowed them to go with the dowry. With more people, at least there would be someone to take care of them, for example, they would not encounter bandits and horse thieves. There were so many Eight Banners flags in front of them, and they ran away when they saw them from a distance.
After listening to it, Mu Xue was afraid of forgetting, so she picked out the important ones and wrote them down in her notebook using a mixture of pinyin, English and simplified Chinese characters. At first glance, it looked messy and it might seem like random writing, but she could understand what was going on.
After arriving in Kulun, she planned to organize these merchants as part of her available resources. Before the Mobei Post Road was fully established, these mobile merchants could serve as a link in the delivery of messages.
In addition, it sounds easy for people to think that it is inappropriate for the princess to open a business directly. The ministers inside and outside the court may complain on the grounds that officials should not compete with the people for profit. But if there is an agent, there is an extra cover, and many people would rather accept it.
The Fan family seemed to have the potential to become her official agent, but they needed further observation.
She was thinking about something, so she ate slowly. In the time it took her to eat three plums, the Fifth Prince had already eaten ten.
Seeing that Muxue seemed to be worried, the Fifth Prince touched another plum and asked with concern, "Did you have a quarrel with Dunduo Buduo Erji?"
"Huh? Why do you say that?" Mu Xue came back to her senses and saw that he had eaten so much. She immediately gathered the can of salted plums in her arms and said, "Hey, hey, hey, I told you to save some plums. You'll have some to eat when we get back to Beijing. How dare you snatch them from me?"
The Fifth Prince muttered quietly: "It's no wonder Dunduo Buduo Erji is angry because he is so fierce..."
“Who’s angry?”
"Your husband," the Fifth Prince said, "he has been riding on horseback for the past few days without saying a word or coming to look for you. Didn't you realize it?"
"No? Why is he angry?"
The Fifth Prince said, "Your Prince Consort, if you ask me, who should I ask? Oh, it seems like I'm angry. For a while, you didn't notice it at all?"
Muxue blinked her eyes. She had been busy these days and hadn’t really realized it.
Did she do anything bad to him? No, everything was fine.
To confirm, Mu Xue asked Rong'er, Nanny Wu and Mother Zhao to help think about it.
Rong'er had been accompanying her closely the whole time. Hearing this, he had an idea in his mind and said carefully, "Princess, after the sandstorm, the prince consort came to look for you once, but... you were busy with a meeting, so you asked him to go back. It seems that since then, the prince consort has not come to look for you on his own initiative."
Mother Zhao had been in the harem for many years, and she was so angry that she said, "The prince consort is probably a little sad and feels that you don't care about him."
It's really rare. Generally speaking, this situation only happens to young concubines, who feel that the emperor is busy with state affairs and rarely visits them, so they are angry.
Muxue tried hard to recall and remembered that time when it was windy and sandy and Duoerji held her in his arms. Although this move might have been done in order to impress the Fourth and Fifth Princes, she was indeed very moved by the suspension bridge effect at that moment.
But later, she was so worried about the safety of her dowry that she forgot about it.
So, is he angry about this?
Mu Xue found it very novel.
A person who is angry because she didn't pay attention to him at the first time?
Dunduo Buduo Erji doesn't seem to be the type of person who gets easily tangled. Why is he angry about such a small thing? This reaction doesn't seem to be out of consideration for a loving couple in marriage. What is the reason?
She thought about it and couldn't help laughing.
Thousands of tents are lit deep in the night.
Duo Erji was flipping through a Chinese military book under the lamp, but he found it difficult to fully concentrate on it.
On such a quiet night, what is the princess doing at this moment?
He suddenly had this thought, but the next moment, he became angry about this thought.
He has nothing better to do than think about such a small matter and get angry about such a small matter. He is nothing like the usual him!
How can a man, a real man, be so petty!
What's wrong with him?
This woman is like ice that can never be warmed up! Duo Erji was so angry that his teeth itched. Forget it, I will just treat her with due courtesy from now on, and never mention anything else!
Just when I was feeling upset, I heard Monk's joyful voice outside the tent: "The princess is here!"
Duo Erji subconsciously wanted to stand up, but stopped, sat upright, his face as cold as ice, and focused on reading the military book.
Even when the princess came into the tent, he did not move. He just lowered his eyes to read the book and said coldly, "Good luck to the princess."
"Are you really? Angry?"
The princess came close to him, her hair hanging on the paper, disturbing his reading.
Dorji said nothing, but just stared at the word hidden by her hair, expressing his attitude through his silence.
The princess came closer, her tone full of smiles.
"You really care about me, don't you?"
Duo Erji turned aside, not looking at her, and said coldly: "I don't care, the princess doesn't care anyway."
With his face tilted sideways like this, his beautiful features and high nose were completely highlighted by the light, and because he wasn't smiling, he looked even better.
Well? Seems like it’s a little hard to appease?
Mu Xue didn't believe it.
She suddenly leaned over and pecked him lightly on the right side of his face.
"Don't be mad at me, okay?"
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