King Sheng of Wu succeeded to the throne at the end of winter in the year of Yi Ji's civil unrest. In the coming year after King Sheng succeeded to the throne, half of the places in Wu had a good summer harvest, and in the fall, all the places in Wu where water conservancy had been constructed had a good harvest, which had not been seen for twenty years in the history of Wu. This year's harvest festival festival, the royal capital of Kang unprecedented lively, and on this day, the first newspaper on the continent, Wen Wei Po appeared.
This year Wu's agriculture had an unprecedented harvest, but it was also the year that winter came earlier than any other time in previous years, and at the end of September, a heavy snowfall fell on Kang.
The snow was falling heavily, the streets, houses and trees of Kangcheng were all colored white by the snow, which made the night of Kangcheng see things clearly. A twelve or thirteen teenager, wearing a thick winter coat and a cotton cap that could cover both ears, with both hands folded in his sleeves, carrying a cloth bag and wearing thick straw shoes made of cattail grass, walked on the streets of Kang City with one foot deep and one foot shallow, a light 'ticking' sound came from behind the teenager.
"Tie! Who is in front of you, running in the street before the warning time has passed?" The chief guard in charge of the patrol halted his horse and asked.
"Lord General, I am a newspaper boy heading to the newspaper office to wait for the release of the new paper." The young man stopped his steps, turned his body around, bowed respectfully to the patrolling soldiers, and took out a belt tag from his waist and handed it to the chief of guards for inspection. Within the city of Kangcheng, a curfew began after eleven o'clock at night and ended at five o'clock the next morning, during which time the people were not allowed to wander the streets without incident.
"Oh, so it's to fetch the newspaper, in this issue of the newspaper, is it Tai Gongwang who is going to come out to help the Lord of Zhou?" The patrolling guard was also a loyal reader of the newspaper, and the Taigongwang he was referring to was Jiang Ziya, the founding prime minister of the Zhou Dynasty, a character from the newspaper's serialized vernacular novel, Feng Shen Yan Yi (The Enlightenment of the Gods).
"This little man does not know; the little man has not yet seen the paper." The newspaper comes out every Monday morning at 5:30 a.m., and the teenager then gets up at 4:00 a.m. to go to the newspaper printing office and wait just so he can get the paper early.
"Quickly go forward and collect the newspaper, and send it quickly to the barracks office after you have collected it." The patrol leader looked a little anxious.
"Yes, Lord General!" The teenager arched his hand in response and finished by avoiding to one side to let the patrol pass.
Close to the North College of a courtyard-like residence, inside the light is on, under the eaves of the doorway, has stood two or three teenagers, these teenagers are work-study elementary school students, because of the difficult family situation, so they went to the newspaper office to receive a distribution of subscriptions to the newspaper errand, as long as you are busy in the morning of the week, you can get five Wu coins of pay, four times a month, there are twenty Wu coins enough to buy study paper and charcoal pencils, these teenagers are all the These teenagers were all the sons of commoners in the city of Kham.
At 5:30, the gate of the courtyard opened, the teenagers entered one after another, received their respective newspapers to be delivered scattered, running around to deliver the newspaper, they want to deliver the newspaper is not much, basically in the twenty or thirty copies of the newspaper, more than an hour can be delivered, can catch up with the seven o'clock to the school class.
Wu Wangsheng woke up at dawn, and when he opened his eyes and saw a bright light outside the window, he eagerly nudged Queen Tian awake beside him, "Qiang, wake up, the newspaper is coming." Rose was Queen Tian's maiden name.
"Is it dawn yet?" Queen Tian rubbed her eyes, winter morning sleep is really good, lying in the warm blanket, people are not too eager to get up.
"Ryo Ryo!" Wu Wangsheng moved around under the covers, every Monday, he didn't love sleeping.
"Since it's dawn, let the Great King get up." Queen Tian sat up and put on a thick cotton coat.
"Yeah, yeah! Get up!" Wu Wangsheng happily lifted the quilt off and, wearing his thin clothes, was about to jump out of bed.
"Put on your clothes before getting out of bed, don't freeze." Queen Tian hurriedly pulled Wu Wangsheng back, got out of bed herself, took Wu Wangsheng's winter coat that was on the hanger and dressed him.
"I wonder what little stories are in the paper today, well, there's that acting, I wonder if they'll say Nezha again no." Wu Wangsheng stretched out his hands, to be ruffled by Queen Tian.
"Nezha has been to the sea before, but how can he do it every day? Every time he goes to haunt the sea, the Dragon King's dragon children and grandchildren will be drawn and skinned by Nezha?" Queen Tian pursed her lips to tease her husband.
"I like Nezha's haunting of the sea. If the dragon's children and grandchildren are gone, don't they still have shrimp soldiers and generals? Don't they still have sinews and skins to whip and peel?" Wu Wangsheng pouted, he loved Nezha, it was much more fun than that old man fishing.
"Alright, Your Majesty go and wash your face and rinse your mouth, concubine go and check if the newspaper has been fetched." Queen Tian dressed King Wu Sheng before clapping her hands for the maid on duty outside to come in and serve King Wu Sheng to go wash.
Only when Wu Wangsheng followed the maid to the washroom did Queen Tian step out of the bedroom door and ask the female officer in the outer room. "Did the newspaper come today?"
"Your Ladyship, it hasn't arrived yet, Nu has already sent Little Yellow Clothes to fetch it." The female officer bowed in a half crouch towards Queen Tian.
As the two were talking, the figure of the little yellow clothes appeared in the distance, his hands holding a stack of newspapers, there were many people in the royal palace who wanted to read the newspapers, apart from the couple of Wu Wangsheng, the female officials also subscribed to the newspapers, the pricing of a newspaper was only half a Wu coin, the female officials had a five gold monthly salary, and the price of half a Wu coin was nothing at all in the eyes of the female officials.
Seeing that Xiao Huangyi had already fetched the newspaper, Queen Tian did not rush up to read the newspaper, but only instructed the female officer to let the kitchen set up the breakfast, take a copy of the newspaper and put it on the breakfast table, and went back to her bedroom to freshen up herself.
By the time Queen Tian had groomed herself and sat down at the dining table, Wu Wangsheng was already waiting there with bated breath. Wu Wangsheng couldn't read or write, and he was waiting for Queen Tian to read the newspaper to him.
"Great King, have breakfast first." Queen Tian scooped up a bowl of eight-treasure porridge for her husband.
"Alright." Wu Wangsheng pressed down his heart anxiety, huffed and puffed down two bowls of congee, ate half a cage of Xiao Long Bao, picked up the napkin in front of him and wiped his mouth, and eyed Queen Tian again.
Seeing her husband's eyes looking longingly at her, Queen Tian could only speed up her meal, and it was only after breakfast that Queen Tian took the ink-scented newspaper on the dining table. "Your Majesty, should we read the Seal of the Gods first, or should we read the short story first?"
"Little story, read the little story first." Seeing his wife pick up the newspaper, Wu Wangsheng burst into joy.
"Yes, Great King." The newspaper in Queen Tian's hand was just an octavo-sized sheet with black letters printed on the front and back. "Today's short story is The Tortoise and the Hare."
"Tortoise and Hare?" Wu Wangsheng cocked his head.
"Good, it's the story of the tortoise and the hare racing to run." Queen Tian's eyes swept over the content of the story.
"How can a turtle outrun a hare?" Wu Wangsheng yelled.
"Your Majesty, the tortoise can outrun the hare, it won the running race!" The female officer serving next to her interjected with a smile, the female officer had already read that little story while the King of Wu and his wife had space for their breakfast.
"Chance, read it to Lone." Wu Wangsheng couldn't wait to hear the content of the story.
Queen Tian glanced at the female officer, cleared her throat, and began to read a short story to her husband.
While Queen Tian was reading a short story to her husband, Zhao Xuan, the Crown Prince of Zhao, was teasing his three-month-old son. Crown Princess Zhao gave birth to Zhao Xuan's firstborn son in July of this year.
"Crown Prince, Sheriff Wu Milling seeks an audience." Just as Zhao Xuan was enjoying heaven with his wife and child, the attendant loudly informed outside the door.
"Oh, please ask Sheriff Wu to wait in the study." When Zhao Xuan heard the attendant inform him, he hurriedly handed his son to the Crown Princess, and the maid next to him scrambled forward to change Zhao Xuan's clothes.
When Zhao Xuan left, the smile on the Crown Princess' face disappeared.
"Madam, that your daughter is only three months pregnant, whether it is a boy or a girl is not yet known, even if she gives birth to a male son, it will only be a commoner's son, it is not enough to be afraid of." The Prince Consort's beloved maid knew what was on her mistress's mind and went forward to console her.
The Crown Princess put her son on the soft cushion and sat herself on the edge of the couch, how could she not know that your daughter's status was lowly, and that even if she got a man, she would not be able to threaten her and her own son's status, but ever since she got pregnant herself, your daughter dominated Zhao Xuan, and it was only until your daughter was diagnosed as pregnant by the healers last month that Zhao Xuan came to her and stayed the night with other concubines, and the Crown Princess, who had married Zhao Xuan, had fallen deeply in love with her husband, and every time he went to stay the night at another concubine's place, she could not control the boiling sourness in her heart. The Crown Princess couldn't control the boiling acidity in her heart.
"Alas, glory and riches are not as good as getting a heart." The Crown Princess spat out her feelings to the door.
"What is this?" The thing that Zhao Xuan was turning over and over in his hands was none other than the newspaper that was only available at the Harvest Festival in Wu.
"It's called the Wenhui newspaper." Wu Milling bent down to report.
"What's the point?" Zhao Xuan looked carefully at the paper in his hand, this newspaper had a date, and the date showed that it was last month's time.
"It has a variety of content on it, from short stories to a serialized long story called Feudalism, plus Gongsun Pan's predictions about the weather." In addition to all this, the newspaper has explanations of certain passages of ancient books, and there are short stories published by a pen name called Herald after reading them. There were also two small articles in the interstices of the paper that advertised the Nambu brocade and tea, the kind of small articles that are said to be called advertisements.
"This Gong Sun Pan's weather forecast is very accurate." Gongsun Pan predicted at the beginning of September that around October in Wu, it would cool down drastically, and that Wu would be very cold this winter.
"Yes, the people of Wu call Mr. Gongsun the Living Immortal." Wu Mou peeked at Zhao Xuan's face, Zhao Xuan went to ask Gong Sun Pan to come down from the mountain to no avail, and came back thinking that Gong Sun Pan was useless, but Gong Sun Pan's accurate prediction of the weather allowed the people of Wu to avoid many losses.
Zhao Xuan pursed his lips did not talk, he did not put Gongsun disk in the heart, but on the foot of Qimen Mountain met Chu Yu can not forget, but unfortunately sent to Lu to look for Chu Yu's messengers are disappointed, Lu prestigious families do not have that handsome young man named Chu Yu.
"Yugong Yishan?" Zhao Xuan saw that short story. "This short story is quite interesting."
"The most interesting thing is that after-reading article, the article is thought-provoking, this person has great talent." Wu Milling pushed for that after-reading article signed by the Herald.
"Be persistent and tough as a mountain, and then, declare war on fate. Believe that the sweat that falls will eventually nourish a shade of green, and the only person who destroys the mountain is us. Because, we are millions of Yugong." Zhao Xuan read the final sentiment of the article, and was silent for a while.
After a while, the study resounded with the sound of newspapers 'hee hee soo soo'. "Wu Milling, have the secret agents in the capital of King Wu deliver every newspaper back to the Crown Prince's residence as fast as possible."
"Here!" Wu Mou led the order to exit the study.
Zhao Xuan frowned deeply, staring at the snow on the branches of the trees outside the window, and muttered, "Gongzi Ming, what kind of character are you? Is this Yugong Sensei a work of yours?"