klisemfg Chapter 431 Birthday is coming
Chapter 431 Birthday is coming
Seeing that his master was so excited, the butler immediately took out the letter from his sleeve and presented it to him.
Liu Ben quickly tore open the envelope and opened the letter. There was only one sentence on the letter: [Don’t forget your original intention, and the future will be promising]
Liu Ben's hand holding the letter trembled slightly, and then his body softened and he fell back into the chair. He did not forget his original intention. What was his original intention for becoming an official?
Liu Ben suddenly remembered that he had studied hard for ten years just to be able to enter the court, serve as an official, and benefit the people in the future.
Yes, to benefit the people.
But when did we lose this original intention?
When he was full of vigor and ambition and ready to serve his country, he was casually abandoned in a barren land.
He was filled with frustration and had no place to vent it. With the guidance of his close friend, he learned how to please his superiors and manage his career. Only then did he get the opportunity to transfer to a wealthy place three years later.
He was disappointed when he arrived in Qinghe and found that the place had already been controlled by the aristocratic families and did not need him as a local official at all.
No matter how hard he tried, he was just a rootless duckweed, a puppet mascot without any support.
Now, Princess Zhaohua talked to him about her original intention.
Is it a reminder to him that as long as he can stick to his original aspiration, he will have a bright future?
Liu Ben didn't know whether he should believe it or not.
But then she thought, a princess who cares about the innocence of the people and the survival of the miners and tenants would never lie to her.
What's the harm in trusting her this time?
Never forget your original intention... Liu Ben closed his eyes, then said to the housekeeper, "Go to the front hall and bring over those backlogged petitions. The county wants to see them now..."
The butler didn't understand why, but he still followed the order.
Not long after, two large boxes were carried over by several yamen runners. Liu Ben rubbed his brows and began to check the petition.
Liu Laoer's cow is missing...
The two brothers of the Wang family had a fight because they were dissatisfied with the distribution of the inheritance after their parents died suddenly.
An armed fight broke out among villagers in Hegouzi Village outside Qinghe County...
Liu Ben's eyes became more and more serious... As expected, being a good official is not that easy.
........
Princess Zhaohua is going to celebrate her birthday.
Everyone in Kyoto knew about this.
Why does everyone know this?
Because in the past few days, some people saw one carriage after another loaded with grain being pushed out of a warehouse called Zhonghua Grain Store.
It is said that this grain shop is under the name of Princess Zhaohua.
Then there was a rumor coming from the palace that His Majesty originally wanted to hold a grand palace banquet for Princess Zhaohua.
But Princess Zhaohua said that palace banquets were wasteful. One palace banquet could buy hundreds of stones of grain. It would be better to exchange the money from holding palace banquets for grain to support the front battlefield!
This rumor was, of course, spread by Emperor Yong.
Because Zhong Ning said that after the imperial examination, she wanted to enter the court and promote reforms, and was willing to be the emperor's sharp knife to point directly at Dayong's current predicament.
Emperor Yong naturally wanted to build momentum for her.
At least we have to win the hearts of the people first. Of course, if this sharp knife reform fails or causes public outrage, we will naturally have to introduce it to calm the anger.
This is a double-edged sword!
Emperor Yong understood, and Zhong Ning understood too.
In addition, there was a statement in the latest issue of "Dayong Weekly" that attracted everyone's attention.
It is said that Princess Zhaohua's birthday is approaching, and the China Theatre is launching its first drama "The Legend of White Snake". The original ticket price is 30 cents, but now it is 50% off, so you can watch the drama for only 15 cents.
It was also said that this event will last for three consecutive days to celebrate Princess Zhaohua’s birthday!
The Chinese Bookstore, Chinese Grain Store, Chinese Dim Sum Store, and Chinese Beauty Pavilion... jointly issued a statement. To celebrate Princess Zhaohua's birthday, all items will be discounted by 30% on February 18th!
So, everyone knew.
February 18th is Princess Zhaohua’s birthday.
Of course, those grain carts pushed out were all for Emperor Yong to see.
If we really want to send it to the front line, relying only on current means of transportation, only 20% will reach the front line at most.
Therefore, Zhong Ning asked the secret guards to push the grain carts to an uninhabited place outside the city, and then directly put the grain carts and the secret guards into the space.
Zhong Ning calculated the approximate distance. It would take about one and a half months for an ordinary horse-drawn carriage to travel from the capital to the southern Xinjiang frontier.
But if you go by water, it only takes twenty days.
But if it is to transport supplies, the journey will be slower and it will take at least two months by land.
So Zhong Ning used the teleportation talisman and spent five hours to reach a small coastal town not far from the border city. He rented a large warehouse, put the grain in it, and left thirty secret guards and a seventh-grade warrior to guard it.
As mentioned before, Zhong Ning also changed the names of the other seven seventh-grade warriors, except Hei Lie, to Zhong as their surname, and recorded their given names according to the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
This time, the seventh-grade warrior in charge of guarding here is Zhong Lu.
"Take good care of this batch of grain. After a month and a half, bring this token and deliver it to the front-line military camp and hand it over to the Marquis of Pingning..."
"If there are any additional circumstances, I will send a letter via carrier pigeon. If you receive my letter within a month and a half, you will proceed with my orders. If not, proceed as planned!"
"I obey your command! I will definitely live up to your trust!" Zhong Lu replied seriously with a salute.
Zhong Ning nodded slightly and handed over two more silver notes. "I'm sorry to trouble you these past few days. After delivering the food, you can just ride back quickly!"
"Yes!" Zhong Lu and others took the banknotes and saluted.
They still don't have much rationality at this moment, like a machine, with no expression on their faces, only knowing to obey the orders of their master.
This is good, otherwise Zhong Ning really couldn't explain how she brought all of them here in such a short time.
Zhong Ning had also studied the so-called loyalty pill carefully and conducted relevant experiments. She gave one of the secret guards who had taken the loyalty pill a drink of water containing the detoxification pill for a month, and his sanity gradually recovered.
But it is only limited to knowing who they are, having the ability to think independently, and being able to adapt to local conditions and effectively complete the master's tasks.
Therefore, as long as Zhong Ning puts a small amount of detoxification liquid into their diet in the next month, he will be able to help them regain a lot of sanity.
But what about recovery?
Except for those seventh-rank warriors, the other secret guards were originally dead soldiers. They had no emotions, no thoughts, and only knew how to kill people.
They had long been tamed by those people and turned into killing machines, so it didn't make much difference to them whether they recovered or not.
Without thinking too much, Zhong Ning shook his head slightly, shaking off the random thoughts in his mind. Zhong Ning then said: "When you return, I will personally teach you a few moves!"
Zhong Lu's eyes sparkled. He had been stuck at the seventh rank for a long time. If he could receive guidance from His Highness, he would surely make great progress.
The eyes of the other assassins all sparkled, and they looked at Zhong Ning with excitement and gratitude in their eyes!
After Zhong Ning arranged everything, he used the teleportation talisman to return to Kyoto.
Soon, it was the birthday.
Although Princess Zhaohua announced to the public that there would be no palace banquets but only private banquets, those who could enter the princess's mansion to celebrate her birthday would all be people Princess Zhaohua knew and was close to.
But many officials still sent their stewards to deliver gifts, and the gift boxes were piled up at the door of the princess's mansion. They just wrote down the names and turned away.
I was afraid that if I stayed too late, I would be sent back to the Princess's Mansion.
Zhong Ning glanced at the gift list and was about to have them return the gifts one by one according to the list, but Gu Mingzhe said, "These are all favors. If Your Highness doesn't accept them, those people will probably be terrified!"