Fan Jin became a father before the winter solstice, and Ge Dainou gave birth to a daughter. Ge Dainiao gave birth to the child and was disappointed when she saw that it was a baby girl. The carpenter and his wife even look at their son-in-law with a guilty conscience for their daughter's failure to produce a male heir for her husband's family.
Fan Jin hugged the ugly little baby, but did not feel that it is not a son, just hope that the daughter in the future will be as smart as Huo Sihua. Now Huo Sihua, in the valley and Nambu area, is in addition to Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui outside the highest level of culture, this almost 11-year-old girl, in less than two years, the twenty-first century elementary school number sequence and language arts finished, is now self-study junior high school courses. Huo Sihua, while studying on her own, also works as a teacher at the Valley School, teaching children who are older than her.
When Zheng Yuming learned that Fan Jin had been blessed with a thousand dollars, he sent someone to send a very large tiger gold pendant as a gift from him and Chu Chao Hui to Fan Jin's daughter. The tiger gold pendant was chosen as a gift because Fan Jin's daughter's zodiac sign is the tiger.
Da Qin use the 12 Chinese zodiac to remember the year, the origin of the 12 Chinese zodiac has two sayings, one is the yellow emperor to select 12 kinds of animals in the sky on duty, through the competition and selected 12 kinds of animals such as rats, cows, tigers; another theory is that the 12 Chinese zodiac originated from the primitive society of some clans of the totem worship, according to the strength of the tribes in a certain assembly, the division of the strong and weak.
Because he had to go to Dacheng for the wax festival early in the morning of the winter solstice, Chu Chao Hui brought Wei Qing back to the villa the day before the winter solstice before it got dark. But after the two came back early, they found that the door of the villa was tightly closed, and Zheng Yuming, Woody, Huo's siblings and Su woman were not in the villa.
"The Lord Councilor has left a message asking the Lord to go to the Nambu residence as soon as he returns, and to host a banquet today." The slave guarding the villa truthfully relayed Zheng Yuming's message to Chu Chaohui, this evening the Nambu councilor's residence is going to hold a banquet to entertain the various parties who have come to defect, because tomorrow the two of them will have to rush to Dacheng to participate in the Wax Festival, Zheng Yuming guessed that Chu Chaohui would return to the villa early, so he did not send anyone to send a message to Chu Chaohui, he only left a message here at the villa's guards.
Today's villa, is no longer a striking building in the valley, the villa is surrounded by almost as tall brick buildings, the yard around the transplanted tall trees is the villa well hidden.
Chu Chao Hui and Zheng Yuming two people have half a month did not meet, the heart has been very homesick, listened to the guards of the relay, immediately the horse did not get off, turn the horse head towards the south port of the speeding.
It doesn't take long to walk out of the slit passageway entrance towards Nambu village, and you can see the newly-built military barracks to the east of the main road. Most of the wasteland at the exit of the slit towards Nambu has already been reclaimed by the civilians who have defected to the area as farmland, which has been planted with wheat and oilseed rape. The wheat and vegetable seedlings were being covered with snow, and this year's winter weather had been very cold, with two heavy snowfalls having already fallen in the Nambu area.
Although the sky will be dark, but the village of Nambu on the pedestrians are still a lot of people, has been nearly the end of the year, the village people on the street to buy New Year's goods a lot of people, after the slope and Nambu around the village to buy New Year's Eve villagers are also a lot of Nambu stores in the goods than Dacheng are rich, and even Dacheng City, the city's residents will be driving mule carts rushed to here to purchase.
Most of the pedestrians on the street used straw shoes to pad under their cloth shoes to prevent snow and water, in addition to the straw shoes to pad the bottom to prevent wetness, some people wore leather boots made of animal skins on their feet, these people were either the small chiefs of the Security Bureau and the Escort Guard or the officers in the military barracks in Nambu, and the leather boots they wore on their feet were made by the leather shoe factory which was a cooperation between Shanyu and Kuo, and one of the orders of Zheng Yuming was for four thousand pairs of them, and after the production of the leather boots was made, because of the small production, they could only be distributed first to the Security Bureau, the head of the escort and the officers of the army to use, when the production was raised later, all the soldiers would be distributed. To soldiers equipped with leather shoes, the cost is counted in the military expenses, the army similar to the munitions consumption of leather boots have a lot of huge military orders, greatly pulling the local gross domestic product of Nambu, promote Nambu, and even the city of Dacheng's economic development. So the South Port munitions expenditure, although the number of huge, but the South Port region's economy is the strongest pushers.
The Nambu Councilor's Office, the original governor's residence, has now been expanded, and the offices of a number of governing bodies are located in the governor's residence, such as the Security Bureau, which manages security affairs, the Civil Affairs Bureau, which manages villagers' affairs, the Industrial Bureau, which manages factories and enterprises, the Civil Affairs Bureau, which manages agricultural affairs, and the Education Bureau, which manages education. Among them, the head of both the Security Bureau and the Industrial Bureau is Wu Da, the Civil Affairs is the head of the Wu Clan in Nambu, the Agricultural Affairs is a slave in the valley who is very skillful in farming, and the head of the Education Bureau is Fan Jin.
Whether it was the villagers of Nambu or the nobles of Dacheng, there was no reaction to Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui's appointment of slaves to be in charge, because the phenomenon of using slaves as stewards and housekeepers in noble families was very common. People treat Nambu and the valley as Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui's private property, using slaves and domestic servants to manage the property is a very normal thing, they don't realize that Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui in their heart of hearts are treating Nambu and the valley as a country to be governed by a large number of slaves to be promoted to be the managerial personnel, firstly because of the slaves' loyalty, and secondly in order to improve the status of the slaves, in order to prepare for the abolition of the slavery system later in the fiefdom.
Chu Chao Hui and Wei Qing's horse arrived at the entrance of the councilor's mansion, the guards at the entrance of the mansion rushed over to take the horse away, the brown and red horse that Chu Chao Hui brought back from the King of Wu's capital make-up has now regained its robust appearance, this brown and red horse was named Wind Chute by Chu Chao Hui, and Zheng Yuming's white horse was called Lightning. It is rare to see this kind of BMW in Nambu area, the guards are always scrambling to hold the mount for Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui, they can't ride the BMW, it's good to hold it for a while.
The more to the end of the year, Zheng Yuming need to deal with more and more affairs, the office where he is, to deal with official business of the Nambu officials have just left, Zheng Yuming took advantage of no one, and hurriedly closed his eyes to raise a moment of God.
Zheng Yuming is hand propped forehead want to rest for a while, a pair of hands suddenly cover in his head gently massage, backhand a mold, feel out this hands is Chu Chao Hui's, because this hands although slender, fingers but like crab pincers as powerful. Dare to be so intimate to him is only Chu Chao Hui.
"Chaohui, has the army made arrangements for New Year's vacation yet?" Zheng Yuming did not open his eyes and closed his eyes to enjoy Chu Chao Hui's massage.
"It's all arranged, the whole army will take annual vacation in two days, give the soldiers a relaxing time." Chu Chao Hui feels the delicate skin of his men, his heart itches terribly, if there is not a tiger eyeing wood in this room, Huo Sihua who is counting the accounts, Huo Sizhong who is transcribing the documents, and Wei Qing who comes up in front of Huo Sizhong to make a mess, Chu Chao Hui is too eager to hug Zheng Yuming and make out fiercely.
"Tomorrow we are going to arrive at the city's wax festival, the winter solstice will not have time to entertain the guests who have come to join us, so we will hold a banquet this evening to entertain them first." Zheng Yuming explained to Chu Chao Hui the reason for holding the banquet tonight.
"Did you find any useful talents?" Chu Chao Hui's hand moved to Zheng Yuming's shoulder and pressed and pinched at the acupuncture points.
The corner of Zheng Yuming's mouth picked up, "There are quite a lot of people who consider themselves to be great talents, but I'm not their bole, so I can't really recognize the talents."
Chu Chaohui smiled faintly: "Let them participate in the hiring exam, can pass the exam in the governor's office to arrange a position, the exam can not be do not drive away, three meals a day for the line, anyway, we have this meal money can also afford to spend."
Now Nambu is short of talent, in order to let the reputation of Nambu is thirsty for talent spread out, even if the people who come to join now is indiscriminate, have to eat and drink to provide.
Feeling much more relaxed, Zheng Yuming pressed Chu Chao Hui's hand, signaling Chu Chao Hui to stop massaging. "That's exactly what I did, the ones who failed the exams I would advise them to teach at the ancestral hall, but not many of them might want to go." The first thing that these downtrodden noble children want is to occupy a fiefdom official position beside their lord, going to teach commoner children to be literate is not in their preconceived notions.
"As long as they survive." Chu Chaohui mouth a corner, the council house only supply guests with food and lodging, other expenses to be taken care of by themselves, the shrine school teacher position salary is very high, a month has ten gold salary, do not ask these literate downtrodden nobles all go to apply for the position of teacher, as long as one or two out of ten is willing to go, can greatly reduce the pressure on the teachers in the south port and the valley.
In the evening, the banquet was very rich in dishes, and Mrs. Su commanded the kitchen staff of the Council House to cook sumptuous and delicious delicacies. Some of the guests had been in Nanbu for a long time, and had already tasted some very delicious dishes at the Council House, but today, Su's skillful cooking once again refreshed their understanding of food.
Zheng Yuming turned out to be a billionaire florist, business entertainments are not a few, has long practiced the ability to not move and hide his true emotions, and Chu Chao Hui, do undercover agents to do a sensitive drug lords have him as a close confidant, control of the face and body of the ability to have been quite a high sector. Now the two men sat side by side at the top, both very qualified hosts, warm words and polite to the guests, all the guests felt like a spring breeze.
Zheng Yuming see the guests have eaten and drunk almost, they want to toast another cup of green wine and then retire, the end of the year too much official business, Zheng Yuming feel very tired.
"Come! This councilor ...." Just as Zheng Yuming stood up and prepared to serve the wine cup, the councilor's guards came in through the door.
"To the two lords, there is a strong man outside the mansion seeking an audience."
Zheng Yuming sighed, how could anyone come to defect at such an hour. "Quickly have an invitation!"
The guard went out for a few moments and brought two men into the hall, as well as a cold wind through the door.
"Ho ho ho! It's so warm in here!" Followed by the guards of a young man people, tall and sturdy, walking 'thud' sound, followed by him is a thirty years old or so thin middle-aged man, two people dressed in thin, once into the heating iron pipe hall, a dozen degrees of room temperature makes them as if into the spring.
Once Chu Chao Hui saw the tall man, his eyes couldn't help but narrow, "So it's you!"
This tall one is not someone else, but the royal palace Huben who was defeated by his one-finger divine power in Wu Capital City.
"Not bad, it's exactly me!"
The tall one was not at all restrained and stood in the center of the hall, bowing with an arch of both hands in salute to Chu Chao Hui, while the middle-aged man who followed him closely did perform a bowing salute in a regular manner. From the time these two men came in, many of the guests on both sides of the hall frowned slightly, because although they were all downtrodden sons and daughters, when they went out they all tried to do their best to keep their clothes polished and maintain their noble face. The two people who came in now were shabby and the taller man was even bad at etiquette, so it was no wonder that there was contempt in the eyes of these downtrodden noble children.
"Didn't you concede the bet? Why haven't you gone back to your ravine." Chu Chao Hui had a smirk on his face.
"A great man's word is his word, I, Da Niu, lost to you must return to the ravine." The tall man called Da Niu patted his chest vigorously, Da Niu returned to his hometown from the King's Palace, and after being instructed by a tall man, he realized that he had lost unjustly. "But the match at the King's Palace, it was you who swindled to win me!"
"Are you unconvinced? Want to compete again?"
Chu Zhaohui heart a sun, this big bull is know fooled lose, want to come to get back a game? At first in the royal palace he was not afraid to compare with this Hercules, even though the big bull is very strong, Chu Chao Hui has 60% certainty to defeat him. The original is not want to fight hard, want to win beautifully, with ten percent sure win the game.
"The big bulls give in!"
"Oh? Why did you still need to find Nambu to come after serving defeat?" Chu Chao Hui was surprised.
"The Great Sage of Qimen Mountain has said that although the Great Bull did not lose in strength, he lost in strategy, and the Great Sage said that the Great Bull did not lose unjustly! You are a sage in literature and arms!" Da Niu's hometown was just below the Qimen Mountains on the border between Wei and Wu, and the Daxian in Da Niu's mouth was a hermit, a hermit who was omnipotent in the eyes of the local mountain people. "The Great Sage also said that such a virtuous man should defect, so Da Niu came to Nambu to defect."
"The Great Sage of Qimen Mountain?" Zheng Yuming had not heard of this famous scholar, and he inquired towards the guests on either side of him, "Everyone, do you know of this great sage?"
Some of the guests at the table shook their heads outright, others shook their heads after thinking about it.
"How can you not know the Great Sage?" Da Niu crossed his arms and his voice was loud. "The Great Wise Man knows the wind and rain, he can notify us of wind and rain in advance, and he can also foretell the next year's harvest, how can you not know?"
"Where is the great sage? Can you be willing to come out?" Zheng Yuming eyes lit up, this person is proficient in astronomy and meteorology, but a rare talent, he asked while his eyes swept behind the big bull, this thin middle-aged man will not be the sage, right? Look at the face is not good, there is a righteous air.
"No! The Great Sage said that he doesn't want to enter the Turbid World, but Da Niu is a person of the Turbid World, so he can come and join us!" Da Niu's answer disappointed Zheng Yuming, why did all the people of the Great Sage have to put up a noble front? Even though Zheng Yuming very much wanted to invite this great sage to come out, he was unable to go to Qishan to invite him, because he could not even take a step away from the Dacheng area.
"Those who come to join the Lord must be tested! Only if you pass the test will the Lord choose you." A guest next to him couldn't stand the rudeness of Da Niu and laughed out coldly.
"Row! Lord quickly assess the Great Ox!" Da Niu beat his chest 'bang' again.
Chu Chao Hui does not think that Da Niu is rude, he has quite a good feeling about Da Niu, because although Da Niu is straight and uneducated in nature, he is a man of his word, and after losing to him in the King's Capital Tournament, he immediately kept his promise to give up Huben, a nobleman, and left the King's Capital to return to his hometown in the ravine to be a commoner.
"They say you're strong, so let's see how strong you really are."
"Obey! My Lord!" Da Niu arched both hands towards Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui, and then looked around for something that could show his great strength. The middle-aged man behind him came up to Da Niu's ear and whispered a word, and Da Niu flung his steps out of the hall and went to the courtyard.
Not long after, Da Niu from the yard to carry a two hundred pounds of slate, put the slate to the hall floor, took a few deep breaths, luck to the slate with the palm of his hand slammed, the slate should sound in pieces.
"Good!" The guests couldn't help but applaud at the same time, just moving the two hundred pounds of stone slabs had already made them admire them, and slapping the stone slabs with one palm made them even more impressed.
"Lord! Has Da Niu passed the test yet?" Although Da Niu easily dislodged the stone slabs, his palms were slapped red by the reaction force, and now while shaking his palms, he looked at Chu Chaohui with longing eyes, "If I pass the test, can Da Niu eat meat or not? The big ox is starving."
"Men, serve the strong man with wine and food." Chu Chaohui caused the people to serve wine and food to the big bull.
Da Niu threw down the middle-aged man, rubbed his hands, sat down behind the wine case and grabbed a chicken leg with his hand and gnawed on it, living like a starving ghost.
"What's your name, what's your talent?" Chu Chao Hui turned to the middle-aged man standing alone in the center of the hall, who couldn't help but choke on a few mouthfuls of saliva when he saw Da Niu gnawing on a chicken leg there.
"My Lord, my name is Huang Zhong, and I have a three-inch tongue." The middle-aged man bowed to the upper seat.
"Three inches of tongue? Tell me." Chu Chao Hui was happy, the original time and space's Three Inches of Tongue was talking about Mao Sui, the protagonist of Mao Sui, this Huang Zhong wouldn't be the Mao Sui of Great Qin, right?
Chu Zhaohui's guess is not right, Huang Zhong is not Mao Sui, he is just a traveler, traveled large and small more than 20 vassals, but did not meet the nobles willing to accept him, down and out, encountered the big cow, followed the big cow to the south of the port to try his luck.
"Sage sees a lot of light ah, then let's use the wine and food first, and then make arrangements later after attending the examination." Chu Chao Hui's eyes swept down the guests on both sides, his heart had plans for Huang Zhong, so he arranged for him to enjoy the wine and food first.
"Ha!" Zheng Yuming couldn't stay up and yawned with his hand my mouth, he had been sleep deprived for almost two months.
"You go back to your room and rest first, I'll be fine here." Chu Chao Hui painfully squeezed Zheng Yuming's hand.
"Well then, you work hard, I'll leave the table first." Zheng Yuming stood up, excused himself to change and left the hall to go back to his bedroom, the wood that had been sticking around hurriedly followed his master's ass, but before he was about to enter his master's bedroom, he was hugged away by Huo Sihua.
Chu Chao Hui sent away to eat and drink enough guests, tiptoe into Zheng Yuming's room, lying on the bed of Zheng Yuming has entered a deep sleep, Chu Chao Hui fingers gently stroked over Zheng Yuming's slightly green eyes, can not help but sigh slightly, today it is not easy to have a chance to have a deep exchange, and can not be carried out.