On the tenth day of November, it has been clear and clear for many days, and the snow on the ground has long since melted. It is nearing the end of the year, and the people in Beiping City are increasingly leisurely, with more people shopping and leisurely on the streets. Due to the capture and development of Liaodong, Liaodong's A large number of mountain goods flooded into the Peiping market, especially furs, and almost everyone had a few pieces on hand.
Wan Lei is also wearing a fur coat and fox fur ear warmers. From the appearance, he looks like a tribal chief, but he doesn't care about this, as long as he wears warm clothes. Zhao Xueer is not ambiguous, and she also has a sewn skirt. He was very well-behaved, but he wore a half-arm piece of white tiger skin on his upper body and a tiger skin on his head to warm his ears. He looked elegant and luxurious.
In fact, this white tiger skin was one of the betrothal gifts given to her by Wan Lei. It was very precious. It was originally a trophy given to him by the Ping Liao Army, and he himself was reluctant to wear it. Due to the recent tight funds, Wan Lei had to put it at the bottom of the box. Fortunately, Zhao Xueer didn't mind it either.
His daughter was able to marry into a good family, and Mr. Zhao Jiu was smiling all day long. While accepting the betrothal gift, he secretly paid a dowry of 20,000 silver dollars to his prospective son-in-law. Mr. Zhao was also a member of the Yan Chamber of Commerce, and not only opened a wine shop, Workshop, and also holds shares in Huayuan Company. For him, scooping out 20,000 silver dollars at a time is not a small amount of money, but he has a daughter like Zhao Xueer. When a daughter gets married, of course the father must express his gratitude.
In fact, according to civil law, marrying Zhao Xueer in the Wan family can only be regarded as concubinage, and the official wife is Fu Wei. It is precisely because of her lower status that Mr. Zhao has to spend money on his daughter. There is no way, because his daughter's status in the Wan family is also It directly affects his own business.
Besides, with half a son-in-law, for Mr. Zhao Jiuye, who has no son, Wan Lei is his only hope in the future, so he keeps urging his daughter to get married as soon as possible. Wan Lei couldn't help but to persuade her, so she had to advance the marriage and set the date. It will be held on the ninth day of November.
Because it was a concubine, and Zhao Xueer was thin-skinned, the original plan to have a grand wedding was shelved. Wan Lei just held a dozen banquets and invited some relatives and friends to have a drink, and the matter was considered settled. . And this day was the first time that Zhao Xueer accompanied Wan Lei out as a "little lady", so her face turned red, she lowered her head and did not dare to see anyone, and she looked like a little lady.
"Mr. Wan, Mrs. Wan, good morning." Pedestrians on the road greeted each other one after another.
"Well, morning, Brother Liu Qi, you caught the carriage so early and are going out of the city?" Wan Lei also greeted the other party casually. Although his ability to recognize people was limited, he was an old neighbor who lived together in Beiping City. He still knows a lot of people. He always has no airs in front of acquaintances.
"I'm going out of the city. Taking advantage of the good weather, I want to build a shed outside the city so that I can have a place to stay when I go out to farm in the future." Liu Qidao. In fact, the citizens in Beiping can be called landlords, and they are also urban landlords. I usually live in the city and only go out to farm when the farming season is busy. I am no different from the city dwellers.
Of course, the reason why Liu Qi dared to go out of the city to build a house was because the situation in Beiping Province was becoming increasingly clear, and it was estimated that it would not be affected by the war in the future. The people's minds were wandering, and they built a villa or something outside the city to live in. It can be regarded as a kind of enjoyment of life. Anyway, there are too many barren slopes and the land is not valuable.
"Oh, if you want to go out to build a house, you have to go to the security chief to get a certificate. Have you got the certificate?" Zhao Xueer, who had been silent, asked.
"It's scooped. I understand all these rules. I don't dare to break the rules. Building a house on my own fertile land is not a waste of the land." Liu Qichong smiled lightly at Zhao Xueer, "Sir, I will leave the city first, you are busy."
Watching Liu Qi's back driving the carriage away, Wan Lei shrugged, took Zhao Xueer's arm, and continued strolling. However, he was quite happy in his heart, because the residents of Beiping City had awakened their civic consciousness and understood their rights and obligations. You can be called a citizen in the true sense of the word.
"Brother, as soon as the world gets better, people start to think about enjoying happiness. It's not enough to live in a house in the city, but they have to go out to build a house in the city. It's true." Zhao Xueer pursed her lips and said with some dissatisfaction. Although she was already married, However, he still calls Wan Lei brother as usual.
"That's someone else's freedom, we can't control it." Wan Lei shrugged and said teasingly: "You just became Mrs. Wan and you started to be the housekeeper of Beiping City. This is not good."
"What do you call a housekeeper? It sounds so unpleasant." Zhao Xueer flattened her mouth and twisted Wan Lei's arm, which made him grin. Zhao Xueer quickly changed the subject and said: "Brother, I heard that the Xu family has been There’s a lot of commotion, why don’t you go over and take a look?”
"What are you going to see? Let them make trouble first. When they are tired and annoyed, they will stop making trouble." Wan Lei said calmly. In fact, he had been having a headache on how to subdue the tiger Xu Huizu, even though he brought people here. , but Xu Huizu’s heart is not here at all, and it is extremely difficult to win over him.
"How about, let me take action." Zhao Xueer volunteered.
"Ma'am, do you have any ideas?"
"Of course." Zhao Xueer smiled proudly and said, "You are not Taishifu's disciple. There are many things you don't know about Taishifu. If you can ask Taishifu to be the intermediary this time, you will definitely be able to convince Xu Huizu."
"Please ask your great master to take action?" Wan Lei's mind flashed to the sloppy Taoist priest's old face. This old guy is always elusive and mysterious. Maybe he really has some ulterior secrets. And in the past month, The sloppy Taoist priest has been staying in the Chongdao Hall. I heard from Chi Xin that he spent all day reading in the Sutra Pavilion, especially those classified as confidential.
"Master Tai loves me the most. As long as I take action, I will definitely be able to persuade him." Zhao Xueer said nothing, dragging Wan Lei towards the Chongdao Hall.
After several months of construction and renovation, Chongdao Hall has been newly decorated inside and outside. Within the tall red brick walls, the statues of Tianzun enshrined in several halls are made of gold and are also covered with new colorful clothes. They look very special. After Xiongzhuang Wan Lei offered incense and prayed for blessings as usual, he asked someone to inform the sloppy Taoist Priest.
A few years later, although the sloppy Taoist Priest was getting older and his hair was all white, he was still in great spirits, his big belly was still round, his face was red, and his teeth were very good. I heard from Chi Xin that he could eat several kilograms a day. Meat, but also drink a pound of wine, a complete wine-meat expert.
"Why does the layman have time to come to see the Taoist?" The sloppy Taoist priest was still wearing the same sloppy Taoist robe, and he hadn't even changed it into a new one.
"After I got married to Xue'er, of course I had to come to see her master." Wan Lei didn't get straight to the point.
"Since Xue'er is married, she is no longer a Taoist and is no longer restricted by Tao rules." The sloppy Taoist priest looked at Zhao Xue'er with a kind look in his eyes, "However, the relationship between master and disciple is still there. In the future, I also ask lay people to take Xueer’s sake into consideration and help Taoists more.”
"This is natural. Taoism is the largest religion in our country, and this will definitely be included in the constitution. Of course, if Taoism is to be carried forward, it will not happen overnight. The key depends on Taoism itself. Now Taoism lacks Taoist personnel, and it is also The lack of a certain worship system is not conducive to the development and spread of Taoism." Wan Lei said, he is interested in developing the scale of Taoism, and even wants to use Taoism as one of the auxiliary tools to conquer the world.
"I have finished reading the reform proposal you wrote. The reason why Taoism develops slowly is indeed because its organization is flawed and cannot be truly secularized. It cannot be achieved by relying solely on the praise of the upper class." Tongming, Taoism has been established for more than a thousand years, and has risen and fallen. At this time, it is not even as good as Buddhism, so it must not be on the right track.
"Yes, it should be secularized. Of course, secularization is okay, but politicization is not. I don't want Taoism to interfere too much in politics." Wan Lei said, in his eyes, Taoism is just an auxiliary tool to conquer the world. We don’t want to create a country where politics and religion are unified.
"I know that too much involvement in politics is detrimental to the development of Taoism." The sloppy Taoist priest smiled indifferently. He knew the history of Taoism very well. In the past, Taoism bet on the emperor. Once the emperor believed in it, Taoism would If chickens and dogs ascend to heaven, and the emperor no longer believes in it, then they will all be blasted away. This situation will never develop normally.
"Oh, it's so boring to talk about this kind of thing right away." Zhao Xueer rolled her eyes at Wan Lei, "Master, are you living here well?"
"It's very good. You don't have to spend money to have food and shelter. It's much better than outside. But occasionally I think about the many people outside who are still living in dire straits, and I feel melancholy." The dirty Taoist priest said with a sad look on his face. In this long life, I have traveled around and seen too many tragic things, and I can't help but feel compassion.
"The world is in turmoil, and I also intend to save the people from the fire and water. However, the strength of the Peking Army is limited and it is not yet able to sweep the world. It is unable to drive away the thieves and save the people." Wan Lei was also sad.
"The layman has a benevolent heart and will be determined to be a master of enlightenment in the future. This is a blessing for all people in the world."
"Haha, the happiness of the common people does not depend on any enlightened ruler, but on good governance. Under good governance, if enlightened rulers emerge from generation to generation, then all people in the world can enjoy the blessing of peace and prosperity forever. You cannot rely on me alone."
"What is a clear ruler and good governance has no effect at all on some stubborn people. These people are stupid and loyal. They are only loyal to the emperor and not patriotic. Killing them will dirty our hands. If we don't kill them, they will be dirty." It's really hateful to cause trouble to us all day long." Zhao Xueer said very dissatisfied. Wan Lei knew what Zhao Xueer was going to do, so he also showed a bitter smile.
"Every person who eats grains has his liver and intestines. There are also stubborn people. We should do our best to enlighten them and make them do good. We should not use weapons in vain." said the sloppy Taoist priest.
"Master, you don't know how hateful those people are. We kindly rescued him from the hands of the Hunjun. Not only did they not appreciate it, but they also wanted to die. If we had known this, we would not have saved them." Zhao Xueer added fuel to the fire again.
"You are talking about Mr. Xu, hehe. I know you two brats are not good-hearted." The sloppy Taoist priest has become a mature man. He can see through Wan Lei and Zhao Xue'er's little tricks at a glance. He shook his head and smiled: "Okay, let me put down this old face and go meet the son of my old friend."