Domineering husband

Chapter 147

   The days are slipping away day by day, and after spring comes, the weather is getting warmer and warmer. The duck that Li Qiao asked Han Ning to raise last winter has finally grown up and can be used to make duck products.

These ducks have a short growth period and weigh only one or two catties, which can barely be used to make duck products.

Although the British government came to apologize in person before, the duck shop in the British government has not closed and is still making duck products.

If the British government is not closed, Na Liqiao will naturally not back down, and he is still buying ducks at high prices.

If someone is willing to sell it to him, he will use it to make duck products.

No one sold it to him, so the duck shop continued to make hot pot.

Anyway, he couldn't swallow this breath.

But the hot pot business was very good, so he bought another shop dedicated to making duck products.

Anyway, the reputation of duck goods has already been spread, so he didn't choose the location of the new shop, only the size.

He spent 10,000 taels of silver and bought a big house in a small street three alleys behind the duck shop.

This house was originally a warehouse used by a merchant to store goods, so it is very large.

It occupies an area comparable to the four-entry house of his family now, and he simply remodeled it. When the two cubs celebrate their first birthday, they first set up a banquet here, and then the duck shop reopened. The duck shop was changed to Lijia hot pot shop.

The duck store has reopened, which makes the diners who are good at it very happy.

Although the duck products from the British government can be eaten, they always feel that the taste is not right. Now that the duck products from the Li family have finally started to be sold on a large scale, they must buy them, buy them hard, buy them every day, and have a good time.

The business of the Li Family Duck Store was good, but the business of the British Government Duck Store, which was not so good, suddenly became bleak.

But Li Qiao felt that this had nothing to do with him, he was just doing business normally.

In the fourth month of the lunar calendar, when the potatoes are ripe, Sheng Hong opened five potato noodle restaurants in Shengjing.

All the potatoes grown in Liqiao's field were sold to Sheng Hong.

Potatoes are also considered high-yielding crops. Even if there are no pesticides and fertilizers here, the yield per mu of land is slightly less than that of sweet potatoes, which can reach a thousand catties.

Half of Liqiao's 80 mu of land 70 miles away from Shengjing is planted with winter wheat and half with potatoes. Now that the potatoes are harvested, they can be used to grow watermelons and sweet potatoes.

However, Seventy Lands is still too far away. If you take a slow stroll in an ox cart, you can only go there for a glance, and spend the rest of your time on the road.

Therefore, Tao Zhu has not been to his family's field in Shengjing so far.

And Li Qiao, in order to shorten the traveling time, learned to ride a horse.

He is now a fifth-rank official, but he can go to court in a horse-drawn carriage. Before, he had never bought a horse because his family had an ox cart.

But now my field is too far away, if I want to come back in a day and spend more time in the field, I can only ride a horse.

After the horse was bought, Li Qiao went to work again in a carriage.

Now he has indeed become a close minister of the emperor, and Sheng Hong will call him into the palace every day and ask him to write for him.

He wrote a lot of characters, and his calligraphy did not improve by leaps and bounds, but no matter how many characters he wrote every day, he could ensure that the characters on the memorial were correct stroke by stroke.

Sheng Hong was very satisfied with this.

What a good ghostwriter, it seems that I won't be tired, young people are in good health.

He has never been a mean and ungrateful person, but now he is aggressively ordering Li Qiao, so he must give some grace.

When the two cubs were one year old, he specially asked Qian San to go there and rewarded him with some fabrics, two wishful longevity locks, and a small Zhuangzi.

He also knew that Li Qiao wanted to buy a field but hadn't. If so, then give Li Qiao a Zhuangzi, since he has a lot of fields in his hand anyway.

Who is the biggest landlord in Dasheng?

Of course it was him.

Li Aiqing took his Zhuangzi, and she should be more serious when writing contemporary pens.

Li Qiao was short-staffed, so he was naturally very serious about acting as a ghostwriter.

In fact, contemporary pens are also beneficial. Staying in the palace all day, eating and drinking are provided by the imperial dining room, and the treatment is much better than that of the Imperial Academy.

Moreover, he knew a lot of things from the memorial, and quickly got to know all the officials in Dasheng.

Many officials from other places like to give notes to Sheng Hong, and love to show their presence in front of Sheng Hong. Some simple greeting notes are full of flowers and nothing.

Sheng Hong was very annoyed by this kind of notes, and each reply was only a few words.

But there are also some clever ones, such as explaining the magistrate.

After working as a ghostwriter for Sheng Hong for three months, he saw three notebooks from Mingzhifu.

The Mingzhi government wrote the greeting paper as a work report, and every time it wrote down the latest situation and major events of Hexi Prefecture in detail.

For example, he recently started planting sweet potatoes, so he clearly wrote down the number of acres of sweet potatoes in the whole prefecture.

The lack of sweet potato harvest last year was due to the drought, so he stated in the notebook the focus of work for the next month: digging wells and ditches.

Sheng Hong likes this kind of excerpt very much, every time he reads it carefully and replies seriously.

Before seeing Mingzhifu's memorials, he never knew that Mingzhifu's memorials were of this type.

It has to be said that Ming Zhifu knew how to poke Sheng Hong's heart.

However, knowing that Zhifu has been in Hexi Prefecture for many years, Sheng Hong has never let him move, but with the achievements of Hexi Prefecture, once Sheng Hong lets him move, the promotion speed is probably not worse than that of Jiangzhi County.

On this day, Li Qiao rested and took a bath. It happened that there was a very precious light rain last night, so today the air is fresh, neither hot nor cold, which is suitable for traveling.

Li Qiao and Tao Zhu took their two cubs, Li Xiaorui, and Li Xia and Zheng Qianqian to their home Xinzhuangzi.

Sheng Hong suddenly rewarded Zhuangzi, and both Li Qiao and Tao Zhu were quite surprised.

Moreover, this Zhuangzi is only 30 miles away from Shengjing, and in the northeast direction, it has a total of 40 mu, all of which are first-class fields.

In Shengjing, the market price of first-class land is as high as three hundred taels, and there is no such thing in the market, so you can't buy it if you want to.

Now that Sheng Hong rewarded a 40-acre small village, both of them were very pleasantly surprised, but, until today, they didn't have time to go for a field trip.

The small village is good. There are several wells in it, and irrigation is no problem. Moreover, the original tenants seem to be hardworking and honest.

Li Qiao and Tao Zhu unanimously decided to plant the forty acres of land with watermelons.

When the watermelon is ripe, not only can the family eat it, but it can also be put in a hot pot restaurant.

Once you enter a hot pot restaurant, the price of watermelon will double.

Xiao Zhuangzi was satisfied, but the bumpy road made Li Qiao frown.

He thought that the rain last night was very light and there would be no water on the road, but who would have thought that the road was a bit muddy after walking all the way.

Moreover, it was quite jolting, waking up the sleeping cub twice.

The little boy was very good, and he didn't cry when he was woken up by the jolt, but Li Qiao was so distressed that he couldn't even sleep well after going out, it was a damn pathetic.

It would be too high-profile if this official road was built into an adobe brick road for this Zhuangzi.

No, absolutely not.

However, Tao Zhu likes to go to the field very much, even if he doesn't do farm work, just looking at the crops can make him feel very happy.

...

When will he be able to "research" the cement in a fair and honest manner?

Cement can be used in a wide range of applications. It can be used not only to build roads, but also to build dams. Now the construction of the Grand Canal has started...

Xin Zhi has taken a fancy to his greenhouses and plans to build a few at his own. Otherwise, he Taking this opportunity to start "researching" cement?

The conservatory in his house is actually not perfect, because the roof is suspended like a mountain, and an additional layer of cover cannot be added like the walls.

Therefore, in order to maintain the temperature in the greenhouse, a lot of dry firewood is consumed a day.

His family has a big business, so naturally he doesn't care about this little firewood, but because of the limitation of the roof, the heating room at this time is not as good as the heating room in his previous life after all.

Hmm... This year, let's quietly develop cement on the basis of how to make the greenhouse warmer.

It is impossible to develop such a thing as cement at once. He will spend a lot of time and take many detours just like developing a keel waterwheel, and then "unintentionally" make cement.

Li Qiao made up her mind, and after returning home, she turned the topic in this direction.

Now that the weather is warmer, the family of four can move back from the greenhouse to the main courtyard—the greenhouse is in the side yard.

"You don't need to go back and forth, this yard is pretty good."

Tao Zhu held a cup specially made by Li Qiao for drinking soy milk from a ceramic workshop, and while sipping the milk tea in it, he pointed to the pomegranate tree in the yard and said: "Summer is here, and you can enjoy the shade in the yard. There are no such big trees in the main yard." The

former owner of this yard loved pomegranate trees very much, and planted eight pomegranate trees in this yard, and each tree is over a hundred years old. above.

The shade is full of trees, which is perfect for enjoying the shade in summer.

Hearing this, Li Qiao thought for a while, nodded and said, "Okay."

If it's really too hot in summer, you can lie down and sleep in the yard.

He said, looking at the room for a few times, and then said: "The airtightness of this greenhouse is a bit poor. There is a small wind leaking from the windows, and the roof is not warm. I will think about it this year and see if I can improve it." "Huh?"

Tao Zhu looked at him with wide eyes: "The warming room is very good, don't bother to think about it, it's rare to take a bath, so you just take a rest,

and you are too tired on weekdays." Hong is a Mingjun, but Li Qiao is a farmer, what if a sentence or a behavior violates Sheng Hong's taboo?

Therefore, since Li Qiao became a close minister of the emperor, every day before Li Qiao went out, he would tell Li Qiao to watch less, talk less, and be careful.

When Li Qiao was in the palace, his nerves were always tense.

He only rested once every seven days, Tao Zhu didn't want him to bother.

"It's okay, I'm not tired, I'm just thinking about it casually."

Li Qiao smiled and shook his head.

"You just can't stay idle." Tao Zhu said helplessly.

"I'm free to live."

Li Qiao got up as he said, and stretched out his hand towards him: "Come on, let's lie down in the yard."

It's only past three in the afternoon, and we can still bask in the sun.

It's just that, basking in the sun here, I can't hug Tao Zhuni on the bamboo bed like in Sanliu Village.

But it's still okay to sit and snuggle up in a chair.

Seeing this, Tao Zhu raised his eyebrows, then held his hand with a smile, yes, Li Qiao was free when he was by his side.

But Xiumu's days are always short, and in a blink of an eye, it's time for Li Qiao to go to work again.

There is no need to go to court today, Li Qiao can just enter the palace directly.

Before Li Qiao went out, Tao Zhu took his hand and gave him careful instructions.

Li Qiao kept that in mind, held his cheek and kissed him on the lips, and then stepped out of the room.

When he came to the palace, Li Qiao first went to the seat of the cabinet: Guang'an Hall.

The Guang'an Hall is the side hall of the Taiji Hall, opposite to the Qiuxian Hall. This is the office of the seven cabinet scholars in the palace.

The hundreds of papers that poured into the palace every day were first sorted out by the hands of the cabinet scholars, and then handed over to Sheng Hong.

It is not an easy job to sort out the memorials, but most people are not qualified to read the memorials, so this job is done by the seven cabinet scholars.

Now here comes Li Qiao, with bright eyes and a quick mind, so Sheng Hong asked him to classify the memorials as well.

His speed was much faster than that of several elderly cabinet scholars. He had scanned hundreds of memorials, while the other scholars had only read a dozen or so.

Since his appearance, the work that takes more than an hour to complete every day can be completed in half an hour.

It's over here, and Sheng Hong at Qiuxian Hall has also finished his fitness and rested.

In the past few years, Sheng Hong didn't exercise. When the scholars classified the memorials, some memorials would appear in his imperial case, or officials were called into the palace for discussion.

In short, he is also a restless person.

But since he was ill last year, after he got up every day, the most important thing was to exercise. The imperial doctors customized a set of fitness exercises for him to strengthen his body, similar to Baduanjin. He practiced it every morning I have to come here several times.

Li Qiao carried the booklet and followed the other scholars to the Hall of Qiuxian.

The day's work between him and Sheng Hong officially started.

The morning was calm and uneventful, and it was soon approaching noon.

After reading the papers all morning, Sheng Hong was tired. In the afternoon, he planned to call the ministers into the palace to discuss matters, so he asked Li Qiao to leave the palace and return to the Imperial Academy after lunch.

Li Qiao was about to get up, when Qian San was holding a box in his hand, and walked into the Hall of Seeking Virtue.

The box was blue and black, covered with intricate patterns, only half a foot long and one finger high, and could be stuffed in one's bosom.

This is the secret box used to hold the secret fold.

This secret box is made with Dasheng's current highest steelmaking technology. It is difficult to destroy from the outside and can only be opened with a special key.

Only local officials, magistrates and officials in the border region can have this kind of secret box. The local magistrate, who Sheng Hong has always valued, has no right to use the secret box.

However, according to Li Qiao's observation, apart from the secret boxes on the surface, Sheng Hong should have spies in the dark.

These spies are spread all over Dasheng, and they can also use secret boxes.

Otherwise, how would Sheng Hong know the real world affairs?

Most of the memoirs he reads every day have been beautified by officials and are not in line with the facts, but Sheng Hongduan is neither deaf nor blind when sitting in the palace, and truly knows the affairs of the world.

Apart from spies and secret boxes, Li Qiao couldn't think of a second way.

Qian San handed the secret box to Sheng Hong. Sheng Hong looked at the number on the lock of the secret box, then took out the corresponding key from the bookshelf, opened it, and took out a memorial from inside.

Unfolding the memorial, he only glanced at it, then frowned tightly.

After reading it, his face was already clouded.

Qian San and Li Qiao immediately breathed lightly, the Holy Majesty seldom had such an expression.

"Go to Longevity Palace."

Sheng Hong squeezed out these four words through his teeth.

The hand holding the memorial is also bruised.

Li Qiao's face became more and more respectful, but he was puzzled in his heart, what happened?

For the past three months, Sheng Hong has received the secret box every day, but he has never been so angry like today.

But obviously, Sheng Hong would not tell him the reason, so when Sheng Hong left Qiuxian Hall, he also left Qiuxian Hall.

Forget it, he'd better go back to the Imperial Academy for lunch.

Back at the Hanlin Academy, just in time for lunch, Xin Zhi rarely saw him at noon, very surprised, and came to have dinner with him again.

Naturally, he couldn't say that Sheng Hong was angry, he only said that Sheng Hong was going to call officials for a meeting in the afternoon, so he was no longer needed as a ghostwriter.

He changed the subject naturally, and discussed with Xin Zhi the progress of the Xin family's house warming.

In the afternoon, he read a book obediently, and there was no big movement in the palace.

Soon it was time to get off work, and it was still calm. Sheng Hong's anger was obviously confined to the Longevity Palace.

Li Qiao couldn't help but praise Sheng Hong again.

To meet such an emotionally stable emperor, his traversal skills are really awesome.

When I got home, my husband and son were warming up on the kang, and they were happy in their childhood.

But when he went to court the next day, something big happened.

In front of the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs of the Manchu Dynasty, Sheng Hong issued an edict to deprive the Duke of England of his duke title, and directly demoted the Duke of England to a commoner.

And listed various illegal deeds of the British government, including the British government.

Li Qiao was standing at the gate of the hall. Because of his good hearing, he could hear the voice of Qian San reading the imperial edict very clearly.

Generally speaking, Sheng Hong, Sheng Jun and his son have endured the British family for a long time.

But for the sake of Duke Ying's military exploits and his contribution to saving his family, the father and son endured it for thirty years in a row, until yesterday, when this happened.

Yesterday, Sheng Hong received a report from the secret box, saying that the nephew of the British Duke secretly opened an underground gambling shop in Yuanshan Mansion and Daze Mansion, the British Duke's hometown, to collect money for the British Duke.

The mountain is high and the emperor is far away, and Yuanshan Mansion and Daze Mansion are the hometowns of the Duke of England, so the prefects of the two prefectures turned a blind eye to this matter based on the principle that one thing more is worse than one thing less.

The underground gambling house acted unscrupulously, not only taking money from those gamblers, but also lending usury. In more than ten years, many families were separated, their families were destroyed, and even hundreds of people were killed.

This year, because the British government's gambling house in Shengjing was robbed of its business, and the duck shop can't make much money, therefore, the underground gambling houses in Yuanshan and Daze prefectures have become the pillar industry of the British government .

The British government needed money, so the British government's nephew intensified his efforts to collect money. Originally, the British government still cared about the law and only opened an underground gambling shop in Fucheng. After all, Sheng Hong and his son investigated this area strictly, and if they were discovered, they would be beheaded.

But lack of money makes people crazy. Within four months from Chinese New Year to now, he instructed his nephew to open underground gambling houses in all counties of Yuanshan Prefecture and Daze Prefecture.

There are more gambling houses, and the attack is also ruthless. For example, malicious people get addicted to gambling, and the interest rate of usury is increased, so hundreds of people were killed in four months.

The county magistrate of a county below Daze Prefecture didn't want to see the common people suffer from this disaster, so he specially advised the British nephew to restrain himself.

Instead, he was beaten up by the British nephew, and the magistrate's youngest son also fell into the river and drowned.

As soon as this incident happened, the county magistrate became honest and dared not say much.

But when the news reached Sheng Hong, Sheng Hong couldn't bear it anymore.

Even if he has made great achievements, he can't abuse his people like this.

So, yesterday Sheng Hong went to Changshou Palace to discuss this matter with Sheng Jun.

After reading the memorial, Sheng Jun didn't hesitate, and immediately asked people to summarize the crimes committed by the British government over the years.

Except for those underground gambling houses full of crimes, the British government in Yuanshan Mansion and Daze Mansion are completely toubobs. The prefects of the two prefectures dare not provoke their Lu family, and let the Lu family run rampant in the two mansions, causing countless troubles .

In addition to those bad things in his hometown, the British government also made a lot of troubles in Shengjing.

For example, in the case of the British government robbing civilian girls, how shameless is it for an 80-year-old man to occupy a teenage girl? !

There is also the gambling house of the British government. On the surface, it still obeys the rules set by him, but secretly, the British government has asked people to open a small gambling house outside the city.

This small underground gambling house has only been open for more than two years, and no one has been killed so far, but Dasheng's law clearly prohibits private gambling shops. Once discovered, it will be a felony of beheading.

There are also occupation of merchants' fields, using the relationship of the fifth prince in the household department, and interfering in the promotion of officials.

Each one listed is a serious crime with severe punishment.

But Sheng Jun endured it before.

Sheng Jun is a person who knows how to be grateful. He always remembers the situation when he was about to die by the enemy's knife when the city was broken.

If it hadn't been for the timely appearance of the British prince with his troops, there would be no great prosperity later.

Therefore, even though he knew about the crimes committed by the British government, he endured it, his benefactor.

But today, he can't bear it any longer. If he doesn't show up again, the British government will be even more unscrupulous.

The Dasheng that the father and son worked so hard to maintain, those innocent people should not be casually dismissed by the British government.

Therefore, the British government should be punished.

But for the sake of his meritorious service and military exploits in saving his family back then, he did not kill people from the British government, nor did he move the British government's properties in Shengjing except for the gambling house.

The British Duke is getting old, and despite all his crimes, he gave the British Duke a chance to enjoy his old age in peace.

However, the property of the British Duke in Yuanshan Prefecture and Daze Prefecture was poured into the national treasury, and the Lu family in Yuanshan Prefecture was punished for the crime, and the innocent found their own way out.

Sheng Hong's edict came without warning, but it rang violently in everyone's ears like thunder on a sunny day.

When Qian San finished reading the long imperial edict, all civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty were stunned.

This, this...

was too sudden.

It was really sudden.

No one expected that there would be such an imperial decree today.

Especially the Fifth Prince, his eyeballs almost fell out, and he looked at Sheng Hong who was sitting high on the dragon chair with disbelief.

what's going on?

What's the situation?

Why didn't he get any news and hear any rumors beforehand?

Didn't his father communicate with him first when he dealt with the Duke of England?

Duke Ying and the Dong family are his right-hand men, now that his father cut off one of his arms, why didn't he notify him first?

Just like that, without any warning, the final result was announced in front of the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, and he was not given a chance to intercede, nor was he given a chance for the British public to repent.

Does his father hate him so much? !

Do you have to step on his face? !

Is there such a thing?

Have you considered his feelings?

He has already become a laughing stock, now that his father is doing this again, what face will he have to stand in this court from now on?

He was cut off with one arm, and lost face twice in a row. From now on, who will support him and fall to him? !

How much his father hated him.

His father treated him unfairly!

Li Qiao stood at the entrance of the hall, lowered his head slightly, and stared at the bluestone slab under his feet. At this time, he was naturally happy.

He hasn't grown up enough to bring down the British government, but the British government fell first.

However, thinking about the innocent people being bullied by the British government, he couldn't laugh at all.

A little bit of spittle from these great people falls on the heads of ordinary people, that is a landslide and a tsunami.