Chapter 40 Dinner
On July 20, the 25th year of Wanli, Liuzhai, Hangzhou, returned to Niaozhai.
After returning home for a few days, Rui'er seemed to have forgotten the unpleasantness that happened that day, and became as lively and active as usual, but after falling asleep, she often woke up from nightmares.
Thinking that Ruier's experience was related to her negligence, Xiaohuan kept blaming herself, and Zhou Ma and Ruyi kept comforting her. It was inevitable that there would be a mistake in life. Fortunately, Ruier was safe and sound.
After lunch today, just after coaxing Rui'er to go to bed, Rongmu came with a snack.
"What's this?" Xiaoyun saw it with sharp eyes.
“Osmanthus Cake.”
"For Ruier?" Xiao Huan was a little happy. Everyone in the mansion liked Master Ruier, but after thinking about it, he said, "Mrs. said that he can't give him sweets recently, because he has tooth decay."
"Is it okay to give it to you?" Rong Mu smiled.
"Show your diligence if you have nothing to do." But Xiao Huan still took the snack from him.
"That, I'll ask you something."
"Tell me." Xiaohuan opened the Nati Osmanthus Cake and started eating happily.
She knew Rongmu was really good to her, so she didn't care about those rumors. Now there was no one else, so she had nothing to be afraid of.
"I heard from my wife that when you are eighteen years old, I will let you go out to get married. Isn't that true?"
"What are you asking about this?"
"Don't you want to go out and get married?"
"I thought about it before." Xiaohuan took a bite of the osmanthus cake, it smelled so good!
"What about now?" Rong Mu was a little nervous. What was going on with "I thought about it before"? Don't you think about it now?
"Now, I just want to stay with Master Ruier forever and never leave him for the rest of my life. When he gets married and has children, I will take care of him like Ma Zhou."
"Ah? Then you don't plan to get married anymore?" Rong Mu was shocked. He didn't expect that Xiao Huan would have such a big blow because of this incident.
"What's the best thing about getting married?" Xiao Huan glanced at Rong Mu.
"Then you...then you..."
"'You' what 'you'? Say something."
"Can you marry me so that we can stay in the Liu family and work for the rest of our lives, and you can always stay with Master Ruier." Rong Mu said a little shyly.
"What?!"
Xiaohuan's osmanthus cake was halfway through, and this sudden proposal scared her. She had never told Rong Mu that she wanted to be with him. What is this?!
She put down the osmanthus cake, pointed at Rongmu and said, "Don't be rude, I just ate your snacks."
"I... I'm serious." Rong Mu said: "I am the butler of the Liu Mansion now. My monthly salary is enough to support my family. The master also said that he would go to Chongqing Mansion to deploy a Shu porcelain factory and let me invest in it as a small shareholder, so that we can have no worries about food and clothing."
"Who is 'us' with you?"
"You, do you think I'm a lame man?" Rong Mu said with some inferiority.
"Who dislikes you? I don't want to get married yet?" Xiao Huan cleaned his hair and said, "I'm only sixteen this winter, it's still a little early."
"oh."
This dumb wood, without knowing the charm at all, proposed to her directly. She was less than sixteen years old and hadn't understood what it means to be in front of the flowers and the moon, and they were in love.
Although the master and his wife often have a quarrel, they are really good. It would be nice if they could be as sweet and quarrel as they were.
Today, Liu Chengzhi did not go home for dinner, but the prefect held a banquet at Huixianlou and hosted major merchants in Hangzhou.
The Liu family was rich and a wealthy taxpayer. The head of the Liu family naturally sat next to the prefect, and Meng Shaofeng and his father, Mr. Meng, were sitting on the other side of the prefect.
After three rounds of wine and five flavors of food.
"Sir, I heard that the court has added the position of 'Mine Supervisor'. Now taxes are collected across the country. I wonder if the situation is true?" asked Mr. Meng.
The Ming Dynasty always emphasized agriculture and neglected business, so the court was not very concerned about the taxes of merchants. Most of the yamen in Jiangnan adopted relatively loose tax policies because of their good deals with merchants. Some county magistrates even asked merchants to pay as much as they wanted.
"I have been using troops to Ningxia and North Korea in recent years, and now Bozhou is not peaceful. The palace was in a fire last spring. Although the emperor, the empress dowager and the empresses of each palace were safe, it took money to renovate the palace and equip the army. Therefore, the court has added the position of "Mine Supervision Tax Envoy" since last year, and was served by the emperor's confidant eunuch. I heard that this time I was going to Jiangnan, the former Sili Supervisor, Gao Huai and Gao, and I don't know what kind of character he is." said the prefect.
"No matter what kind of personality, since we are here to collect taxes, we are all serious businessmen and just pay taxes according to the government's regulations." Liu Chengzhi said.
"Brother Liu, you don't know. This mine supervision tax means not only to collect taxes, but they can also set up checkpoints at will, collect money on various rivers, docks, and bridges, and also control mine development. The royal procurement and warehousing are also supervised by them, and they have great power." Meng Shaoqing sighed: "If we increase taxes at will and indiscriminately, our good life will be over."
"What do you guy know? You are talking nonsense here!" Meng Yuanwai was a little unhappy when he saw his son being so mean.
"Father, the child is wrong..." He apologized very quickly.
Seeing the scene awkward, the prefect hurriedly said, "I invite you all to come today. I only talk about the romance and the moon. Don't talk about political affairs, don't talk about political affairs."
"Yes, yes, just talk about the wind and moon, only talk about the wind and moon." The others echoed.
"Speaking of this, I went to Wuxi last month and met someone. Who do you guess it is?" said the prefect's master.
"Who is it?"
"Former Department of Personnel's Literature Selection Department Gu Xiancheng and Mr. Gu."
"That Mr. Gu, I have heard of it." A salt merchant said: "Four years ago, Wang Xijue retired and returned home. The emperor asked the Ministry of Personnel to draft a cabinet candidate. The emperor was not satisfied with the people recommended by Mr. Gu and Minister Chen of the Ministry of Personnel. Especially he also recommended Wang Jiaping, the master of Wang Jiaping, who had resigned because of participating in the 'national dispute'. The emperor was angry and dismissed Mr. Gu and asked him to go home."
"After returning home, Mr. Gu was not idle either. He had the same views on the 'country between the 'national foundation' as well as some scholars and officials who had the same views on the 'country between the country's foundation' and started teaching again at the former Donglin Academy, criticizing the shortcomings of the government."
The master continued, "This 'national dispute' has been a long time, and it has been more than ten years. However, I heard that Lord Gu and the emperor had deep grudges. A year before he was dismissed, the emperor also named the eldest son and the third son of the emperor as kings, but did not make the crown prince. Mr. Gu wrote a memorial with others, demanding that the crown prince be established as soon as possible. The rule set by Taizu: If there is a legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate leg
"In this way, this Mr. Gu is a loyal and courageous person, with integrity and confidence." Liu Chengzhi sighed.
"What's the use of being a person in this world?" Meng Shaofeng said: "I heard that the few of them renovated Donglin Academy, which cost a lot of money, and it all depends on the funding of the county government and donations from all parties."
There is a wealth in the family, and the actions are determined by the heart. Sometimes money is really a good thing, although many scholars look down on it.
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The manuscript is being saved this week, so the update is a bit slow.
Chapter completed!