There was a locust plague in the northern part of Daheng, and the Emperor wanted to cancel the Longevity Festival, but everything that should have been prepared earlier had been prepared, and the envoys from the foreign dynasties had already arrived at the capital, so whether it was for the sake of face or for the sake of the inner circle, all the ministers took turns to persuade him that the festival needed to go on as usual.
The news that Gu Yuanbai had sent troops and horses to the northern border to send grain and grass could not be hidden from the emissaries from the Guanwai who had already arrived at the capital. He simply went straight and invited the emissaries from various countries to the scene as well, to go and personally watch Daheng's soldiers and horses go out to war.
This group of messengers were invited to the top of the city wall, looking at the ten thousand horses and thousands of troops under the city wall, unconsciously, after the back of the spine has scurried up wisps of coldness.
When looking down from a high place, the number of troops and horses seemed to be out of sight, so many soldiers and horses and food in a well-organized sub-lined forward, the flags cover the sun, majestic.
Daheng had not waged war for many years, it was still big and strong, but the neighboring countries could see that this powerful country was gradually declining. The rulers of Daheng became timid and allowed the nomads to wreak havoc on the border, so the neighboring countries, too, began to be foolish enough to bully their big brother.
But now.
These messengers looked at the densely packed Daheng soldiers under their feet, at the fine equipment and strong, powerful stance of each soldier, and they wondered incredulously: how could Daheng's soldiers be so full of spirit.
Their horses had strong limbs, while their soldiers were full of vigor. Take a look at the carts of grain that stretched on and on, so much grain, could it be that the Emperor of Daheng was taking out all the grain inside the granary!
Isn't he afraid that if he takes out all this grain now, and if some natural or man-made disaster occurs afterward, the entire Daheng will be ruined?
The messengers were puzzled.
But no matter how much they thought about it in their minds and how much they didn't want to believe it, they still kept this shocking scene in their hearts. Their scalps even felt numb because of this long, rippling army, and their legs were so tense that they couldn't even move a bit.
It was only after the army had stepped out of sight, and the eunuchs accompanying them who had watched the scene of the general's departure from the battlefield raised their voices to remind them, that these emissaries came back to their senses.
The officer of the forbidden army on the side laughed twice and humbly said, "These soldiers are just a small corner of the forbidden army, I've made you all laugh."
The interpreting officer of the Honglu Temple also accompanied him, and with a smile on his face humbly translated the officer's sentence to the envoys of various countries.
The waiters of all nations look strange, is this modesty? This is a demonstration!
Among these messengers from different countries, there is only no shadow of the Western Xia messengers, they are still locked up in the sounding stage to learn the rules of Daheng, as long as one day does not learn, then one day can not go out.
These emissaries didn't have the heart to ask where the Western Xia emissaries had gone.
If it was said that before seeing today's scene, the envoys from other countries still had a little bit of heart after knowing about the locust plague in Daheng, but after seeing today's scene, they shriveled up.
Even if the locust plague is even bigger, these food is enough for the soldiers to boil down the locusts that can only live for three months, the locust plague in the north did not cause any harm to Daheng at all. And look at the capital in the officials and the people of the bottom of the city is still in the fervor of the emperor's birthday look, how to see how to think they have not yet reached the degree of food depletion.
These emissaries racked their brains trying to discern traces of the Daheng people's swollen faces, but no matter how they looked, they saw only the people who were unusually jubilant because of the coming of the All Souls' Day.
The Emperor of Daheng was by no means a robber, and did not use this as a reason to ask the emissaries of various countries to also contribute to the locust plague in the north. Rather, after demonstrating the strength of his fist, he gentlemanly released them, and even thoughtfully sent articulate officials to accompany them on a tour of the capital.
While wandering about the capital, from time to time a messenger pointed to a wooden utensil guarded by an official at the side of the road and said, "What is this?"
The Daheng official took one look at it and casually said, "Oh, it's a footed fan cart."
A fan bike with a foot pedal?
The messengers pressed, "Is this different from the previous fan car?"
"It is no different from the old fan carts," said the official, "except that the hand-cranked ones have been changed to foot-operated ones, which are easier and more powerful, and clean the chaff and dust out of the grain."
The messengers looked a few more times and saw the people lined up before the fan wagons, and each time they cleaned up and removed the husks, they handed over a small portion of the grain that served as a royalty by the pound, or they handed over the chaff that had come out of the husks.
These were so few in number that even the people with the smallest harvests had the spare capacity to come and shell, and not only these by the roadside, but also people in groups of three or five, pushing larger fan carts sweating away into the distance.
"This is a large fan car," the official took the initiative to explain, "usually placed in the government office, if the people need, to the basis of the military registration, together to go to the government office to draw a pledge to rent a fan car."
A messenger was certain, "That must have been expensive."
The official said calmly, "Not so. A household only needs to contribute a hundred Wen, a family with such a large fan cart, at most two or three days of work can be cleaned chaff shells, if there is a diligent can not afford to spend money, then do not eat or drink, it is almost only a day of work."
A Wu is five families, a large fan car a day is 500 yuan, two days is one or two silver, divided equally among the people, the people can afford this money, a family a day of 100 yuan, really not expensive.
All kinds of thoughts were in the minds of the envoys, and the official changed the subject in time to direct their thoughts to the colored paintings and shining cloths of the streets.
*
After Gu Yuanbai returned to the palace, he had someone go and write the order to re-appoint the two ladies of the Xue House.
Old Lady Xue and Mrs. Xue's enjoined rank have been raised upwards, the men who can be in charge of the Xue House have all left, and the only one left is a disreputable person whose reputation has been stigmatized, and Gu Yuanbai has to let others know that the Xue House is not to be bullied.
Only after these trivial matters were dealt with did Gu Yuanbai let out a sigh of relief, he raised his foot and kicked the two wolves lying beside the paperwork, telling them to go and lie down in a corner to one side, and instructed the palace guards, "Let them have enough to eat every day, so they don't come hungry to keep an eye on me."
Tian Fusheng advised, "Your Holiness, wolves are ferocious by nature, how can this be when you keep them by your side?"
Gu Yuanbai hooked his lips, "I like it."
He had done quite a few dangerous and exciting things, and not to mention, raising two adult wolves by his side was something Gu Yuanbai had never really done.
It began to stir in his nature, and even though he knew it was dangerous, he couldn't resist the itch.
Gu Yuanbai thought for a moment, "Go find a few people who are proficient in taming beasts and let them see how far these two wolves have been tamed today."
Tian Fusheng answered yes and retreated to look for someone.
"Wolves." Gu Yuanbai recited several times, but suddenly he heard several inhaling sounds, and he turned around to see that it turned out to be the two gray wolves lying in the middle of the corner that had heard his voice and stood up and walked over to him.
They look scary, but this is a wail and a low cry, a look of inviting favor.
Xue Yuan really taught them a good lesson.
Gu Yuanbai held out his hand, and one of the wolves paced under him, its head rubbing, its scarlet tongue licking over the sharp teeth and snout, also touching Gu Yuanbai's hand.
Gu Yuanbai jerked his wolf while pulling out the curricula that Kong Yilin had handed over some days ago and slowly read it.
Kong Yilin wrote more than five thousand words on this curatorial essay. If it was translated into the vernacular, there should be an amount of twenty thousand words. Gu Yuanbai read it very slowly, only by reading it slowly could he completely eat up the meanings and understand them, and then transform them into something of his own.
After he finished reading a large portion of the essay, the sky outside was already dark. The dinner was set out on the table, and Gu Yuanbai sat down at the table with the treatise, and after a few mouthfuls, he realized that there were still some vulgar characters in the article.
The vulgar character is the name of the simplified Chinese characters in ancient times, Chinese characters since ancient times, there are simplified and traditional, Kong Yilin in the article, if you come across a large number of strokes of a big word, but also unconventional, for the sake of convenience, directly adopted the vulgar character.
Gu Yuanbai felt familiar when he looked at these words, and sometimes when he saw them he just smiled, doubly so.
The lights danced, the night deepened, and before returning to the bedchamber, someone from the inspection office came to report.
"Your Holiness, the newly appointed magistrate of Huang Pu City has discovered a strange looking fruit in the local area," said the man from the Supervision Office, "This fruit is bright red all over, petite and cute, and the locals call it the Red Lantern Fruit."
Gu Yuanbai jerked his head up, his eyes glowing.
"Huang Pu City magistrate had a sense of the birthday of the saint, and remembered the anti-corruption matter, it is considered to be the heavenly descent of the divine fruit, so it was reported up, and hastily transported to the capital. Just this red light fruit colorful, bright red like fire, I'm afraid it is highly toxic."
This stuff should be tomatoes.
The origin of the tomato is in South America, but in modern times, there were experts in 1983 when digging the ancient tomb of the Han Dynasty found tomato seeds, just this tomato seeds who can not be sure is the Han Dynasty handed down to the present day, or tomb robbers or transportation process accidentally dropped into it, therefore, Gu Yuanbai did not have the hope that this life can still eat tomatoes. ①
At this time, steeply learned that may really find tomatoes, Gu Yuanbai suppressed the heart of joy and excitement, immediately ordered, "Bring it to me to see."
Supervision of the people presented up four or five red light fruit, Gu Yuanbai a glance at the determination that this must be tomatoes. Palace guards for him to put on the leather gloves, Gu Yuanbai picked up a tomato and touched it, presented these fruits have been selected through the layers, the skin is rounded, red and vivid. He let a bowl to, hand force, tomatoes will burst out of the tender meat and sweet and sour juice, the aroma is rich, slightly acidic flavor makes people unconsciously mouth and mouth.
These tomatoes all looked smaller than the modern ones and tasted like they hadn't changed.
Gu Yuanbai put down the tomatoes and had the gloves removed from his hands, "Half of these red light fruits, keep half of them for seed planting, and send the other half to the Imperial Hospital to test for poison. When it is determined that consumption is harmless, come and inform me immediately."
The IG nodded in response.
Gu Yuanbai washed his hands, looked at the one tomato and tomato juice in the bowl that he had pinched and broken, and sighed quietly, "Take it and throw it away."
This is really one of the biggest surprises in these times.
Now for safety reasons, although you can not eat, but Gu Yuanbai heart know, this thing in all likelihood edible harmless, and once harmless, this sweet and sour, can be made into soup can also be made into something, as long as the production can keep up, will soon be able to move on the people's food table.
Tomatoes, truly the greatest gift he had ever received for his birthday this year.
*
His Holiness received the red, auspicious fruit, while the Prince of Harmony, two days later in the evening afternoon, received a special gift of reparation from a Western Xia emissary to his door.
A Western Xia beauty.
The women of Western Xia are beautiful, so beautiful that they have been written into many articles and poems. The one sent to the Prince of Harmony's residence is especially beautiful, with a flower hairpin and a trimmed face, and her cheeks are more delicate than flowers.
The woman was brought by Mr. Wang, a gatekeeper among the Prince of Harmony's residence, who said, "The messenger from Western Xia said that this is an indemnity for the king."
The Prince of Harmony's face was stoic as he sat on top of the high seat.
The woman from Xixia raised her eyes to note his appearance and rose with a curtsy, her waist soft.
"A reparation gift for this king?" The Prince of Harmony said, "Why would he want to give me a reparation gift."
Mr. Wang said softly, "I heard that it was the Western Xia emissary who had once rushed the king, so I was worried in my heart and came here to make amends and apologize."
Hearing this, the Prince of Harmony couldn't help but frown.
How did he not know that the Western Xia emissary had once rushed him?
"Send it back, this king is not interested," Prince He stood up, his tone grumpy, "Tell those Western Xia emissaries, don't move anything you shouldn't, take a woman to bribe this king, what is he trying to beg this king to do?"
"If you really hit, then take the gift personally to the door to this king to explain the reason," Prince of peace snorted, "hide in the woman behind what is a good man, back off. Mr. Wang, you also better wake up, don't what kind of things are promised, what kind of people are brought to the side of the king, if you can't refuse the beauty, then this beauty grace, you'll be your own consumption to go!"
After saying that, the Prince of Harmony waved his sleeve robe and left the hall in large strides.
Mr. Wang's face did not change, he smiled faintly and turned to the Xixia woman, "Please also return."
*
This morning, the Western Xia emissaries finally learned the etiquette of Daheng, and could enter and exit the Songsheng stage at will. But in the evening, just sent out of the Western Xia beauty was sent back again gray, which for the Western Xia people who have always been proud of the Western Xia beauty famous in China and abroad, a breath of air, only feel more than learning Daheng's rules to come to humiliation.
Li Angshun sat at the table, his face gloomy and uncertain, "This Prince of Harmony locked me up here for more than a dozen days, and as a result, now, he is completely forgetting about me?"
The Western Xia beauty lowered her head, not daring to make a sound.
The more Li Angshun thought about it, the more ugly his face became, he clenched his hands and let out a cold laugh, "Then do you remember the appearance of Prince He?"
The Western Xia beauty said, "Prince Harmony has a handsome face and is very handsome."
Lee Aung Soon's expression changed slightly, "Handsome very much?"
He remembered the half chin he had seen in the carriage that day, and the fingers that had lifted the curtain. He said, "Is this kind of appearance "handsome" and "very handsome"?
He would have believed it if he had said it was handsome, but looking at the woman's wording, he only heard Englishness, but nothing else.
Li Angshun was locked up in the Songsing Post to learn the rules of the past few days, when he was very annoyed, he would always think of the condescending look of the man on the carriage over and over again. As long as he thought of it, he could endure the impatience and humiliation and continue to learn the rules, just as if he was lying down with his head in his hands.
Whenever he couldn't bear it anymore, he thought about how to humiliate the Prince of Peace in front of him when he went out, but who ever thought that the Prince of Peace didn't remember him at all!
The Prince of Western Xia grimaced under the candlelight, "He asked me to personally bring gifts to the door to make amends, so I'll just go there myself tomorrow."