"Thank you, young master! I will teach them how to make the girls happy when I go back!" Xiao Si said with a smile. These two sons are lucky and will be able to get married soon. I will go back and teach these two brats a few tricks, otherwise they will miss the opportunity given by the young master. People in ancient times got married early. Xiao Si was just in his thirties, and his two sons were not young anymore. One was fifteen and the other was thirteen. In this era, the two children should have been engaged a long time ago. But the family conditions were not good before, and Xiao Si had no money to marry his two sons. Now it is different. After they followed the young master, the young master first gave him a glass bottle worth hundreds of taels. Now he is planning to match the two maids with his two sons. This is a good thing that you can't find anywhere else.
"As long as you are loyal and do your job well, I will not treat you unfairly! We will set off tomorrow morning and you go to ask for the people from the escort agency. The things this time are quite valuable, so we need them to accompany us." Zhao Xiaofei ordered.
"Escort agency? What is an escort agency?" Xiao Si asked.
Zhao Xiaofei slapped his forehead. He had forgotten that escort agencies only existed during the Qing Dynasty. So he said, "I forgot. This is the Ming Dynasty. In Nan'ao, the people who help merchants safely escort their goods to their destinations are called escorts. An escort agency is a business where merchants hire escorts."
"I understand, young master! We have people who do this business here! We call it the fighting business! They are all masters! They have connections in the underworld! We also have people who have served in the military before. Young master, which one do you think we should choose?" Xiao Si asked.
"Let's find someone who can fight!" Zhao Xiaofei didn't believe in the ethics of soldiers in the late Ming Dynasty!
"Yes! I'll go right away!" Xiao Si agreed and went to the gambling den immediately.
The next day, Xiao Si had all the goods in Zhao Xiaofei's house loaded onto a horse-drawn carriage. Forty thugs were armed with clubs covered in iron sheets. That's right! Guns were strictly controlled back then. Didn't you see that many of the peasant soldiers were still holding hoes?
The forty men in the fighting business didn't look like the escorts in TV dramas. Instead, many were unremarkable, the kind you wouldn't find in a crowd. But one could tell from their eyes that they were all seasoned men. Xiao Si had told Zhao Xiaofei that these men all had families in the county. They had a solid background and wouldn't be a problem.
Zhao Xiaofei nodded, Xiao Si gestured, and the group headed straight for the capital. The journey was smooth and safe. As soon as they arrived at the door, they saw a girl sitting at the gate, looking anxious.
A closer look revealed that it was Li Sisi's maid, Xiaohong. Seeing Zhao Xiaofei, Xiaohong hurried to the carriage and said, "Young Master! This is bad! Lord Wei and some scholars from the capital have surrounded the Misty Rain Tower, saying that your poetry is just whining and vulgar. They say that if you can't write better poetry, they won't let you out of the tower. The tower is surrounded, and food can't be delivered. You haven't eaten or drunk anything in a day. You are weak, and I'm afraid you won't be able to withstand this torture!"
Zhao Xiaofei was completely bewildered. Why was he forcing Li Sisi to stay indoors? Besides, Li Sisi was a free woman in the brothel and could leave Misty Rain Tower at any time. What did they mean by not letting her eat? But there was no time to think. To take over Misty Rain Tower, he had to marry Li Sisi, and she held the deed. He followed Xiaohong to Misty Rain Tower and asked Xiao Si to watch as the goods were brought in.
In reality, after Wei Zaode obtained the "Song of Burying Flowers," he felt his poetic talent might not rival Zhao Xiaofei's. So, to save face, he gathered some of the city's literati and scholars and went to Misty Rain Tower to cause trouble. First, he asked Mother Hong to persuade Li Sisi not to marry Zhao Xiaofei. When that failed, he then instigated the others to find faults in the poem. He knew he couldn't do anything to Zhao Xiaofei, after all, as a tribute favored by Emperor Chongzhen and Empress Zhou. But he could force Li Sisi to death, preventing Zhao Xiaofei from marrying her and thus disproving his poetic prowess. Because Li Sisi, the woman he was planning to marry, was dead, no one could prove that his poems had pleased her.
When Zhao Xiaofei arrived at Misty Rain Tower, no one expected him to actually come. He must be a Grand Secretary, a well-known figure in the imperial court. Ordinary people couldn't afford to offend him. And with so many scholars and scholars around, who could guarantee he'd win?
As soon as he entered, he was surrounded by people. Zhao Xiaofei asked, "Everyone! I wonder why you are gathered here in the Misty Rain Tower? Miss Sisi and I are already engaged, why are you surrounding us and not letting her eat? What are you doing? Are you trying to force a weak woman to death?"
"Are you the second prince of Nan'ao Kingdom? My name is Wei Zaode, also known as Qinggong! I wonder what talents you have to win the favor of Miss Sisi?" Wei Zaode said proudly.
"Master Wei! I wrote a poem that moved Miss Sisi. Miss Sisi believes that I am her destiny. Is there any problem with this?"
"Your poetry is nothing! Lord Wei is the top scholar. How can you compare with Lord Wei's poetic talent?" A man in a white Confucian robe pointed at Zhao Xiaofei and said.
"It doesn't matter how good my poem is. The key is that the girl likes it. No matter how well you do, if the girl doesn't like it, do you still want to force it? Do you still want to forcibly seize the girl?" Zhao Xiaofei said.
"Stop making excuses! Miss Li Sisi said before that she would only marry the man whose poetry is better than hers! Today we have invited famous scholars from the capital to compete to see whose poetry is better. Only the winner is worthy of Miss Sisi." said a scholar in a blue Confucian robe.
Zhao Xiaofei finally understood. These people were looking for trouble. They felt that as a foreign envoy, they had surpassed them in poetry and made them lose face. They were bullying me, a foreigner. It seems that if you don't act cool, you won't know how many eyes the Horse King has! So Zhao Xiaofei said, "In that case! Let's get started! First, please invite Miss Sisi down!"
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