Chapter 13 Are these two people really taught by the same master?
"Everyone put down what they are doing. The master of the house has something to explain." The housekeeper summoned all the servants in the house to the backyard.
Qin Hao's eyes swept around the faces of these servants, and they all lowered their heads.
"Sir, you see, these are all the servants in the mansion. If you feel that they are not enough, or you dislike them for not serving them well enough, you can send them back and let them choose new ones." The butler said with a flattering look.
Qin Hao nodded slightly: "Thank you for your hard work."
"No hard work, this is the duty of a villain." The butler quickly expressed his loyalty.
Qin Hao looked at the servants standing in a row again and said in a deep voice: "I heard you all. From now on, you will each do your own duties. I don't think I am a harsh master and I will not punish you at every turn.
, but if anyone has any evil thoughts, don’t blame me for not teaching him and punishing him.”
Qin Hao was sure that among these people there were spies from Baiqisi, and even spies from certain forces in the imperial court. However, he did not make any announcement, nor did he find a reason to replace these people. After all, this was Chang'an.
In the city, every move he makes cannot escape the eyes of Bai Qisi. It is better to treat it as ignorant and do whatever he needs to do, so that His Majesty Li Er can rest assured.
"Slave, maid, please obey your Lord's teachings."
In the Tang Dynasty, male slaves generally called themselves slaves, while female slaves called themselves maids. As for slaves, they were only available in the Qing Dynasty.
"Okay, let them all go to work, and boil a bucket of hot water." After Qin Hao said to the housekeeper, he walked to the room.
Upon hearing this, the butler immediately said to his servant: "Hurry up and get ready to bathe and change your clothes for the Lord."
The servants dispersed in a hurry and started working on their own. In ancient times, heating hot water was not an easy task. A pot of hot water required burning a lot of wood, and there were no insulated barrels. It was difficult for poor families to afford it.
Therefore, many families will build two stoves with connected bottoms, one for cooking, and the other for boiling hot water. This kind of stove is still used in many rural areas today.
After driving away the two maids who said they were going to help him bathe, Qin Hao called the housekeeper to the window and asked while taking a bath.
"Can the monthly income and expenditure of the house be balanced now?"
The butler lowered his head in shame and said, "As for my lord, if I can barely make do with it during normal times, it will definitely not be enough during the holidays."
"Oh, then please tell me the specific income and expenditure situation."
"According to the regulations of the imperial court, a county baron like the Marquis can receive a monthly salary of twelve guan, in addition to some cloth and grain, which is almost 20 guan. In addition, the food given to you by your majesty
There are three hundred households in the town, but the actual number of households in the three nearby villages is only 213. Calculated based on the annual output, the annual grain and rice available is about 50 guan."
After that, the housekeeper began to calculate the expenses again. In addition to the wages, food and clothing of the servants, there were also gifts given to other officials and dignitaries during the New Year and festivals, as well as rewards for going out for entertainment. All these, the total expenses for the year were calculated.
It would cost at least five hundred guan, and according to the butler, he had to settle for less.
"How about we ask those villagers to pay more grain?"
"You don't have to worry about my expenses. You just need to tell me whether my salary can support you and the servants in the house." Qin Hao shook his head when he heard this. He had so many ways to make money, why bother to exploit him?
For those ordinary people who are already living a miserable life, they still have this bottom line.
"That must be enough." The housekeeper said quickly.
"That's enough. From now on, you can record the income and expenditure of the account separately every month, and just check it with me at the end of the month. Okay, go and get busy." Qin Hao waved his hand, indicating that he could leave.
After taking a shower, Qin Hao went back to his room to rest. Going to court was a very tiring task, especially when he had to face an emperor like Li Shimin.
The whole night was silent, and when I woke up the next morning, it was already dark.
Qin Hao did not continue his previous habit of meditating, but just had some breakfast and rode the "Red Moon" to Chang'an City.
Chiyue is the horse king he tamed in Longyou. Originally, Yun Ye planned to name it "Xiaoqiang", but Qin Hao decided to name it after he refused. It would be better for the horse king to name it after a cockroach, so Yun Ye
That's why there is such bad taste.
After arriving at Chang'an City, Chi Yue was stored in the stables outside the palace. There were already many noble horses stored there, but these horses all acted very uneasy after Chi Yue came in.
Chiyue is also a very domineering guy. He drove several BMWs with their heads down in the manger and ate fried beans. He did not enjoy the delicacies in the trough alone, instead of just one horse.
It seemed that this guy would not suffer any loss, so Qin Hao went to the palace with peace of mind.
With the gold medal in hand, everything went smoothly. Except for checking whether he was carrying dangerous weapons when entering the palace gate, the other guards readily let him go.
Qin Hao's first stop was directly at Jixianyuan. The royal collection of the Tang Dynasty was basically stored in three halls, namely: Hongwen Hall, Jixianyuan, and History Hall.
As the name suggests, the History Museum is a place that specializes in collecting history books. It contains some official historical documents. It is unlikely to store books about "qigong practice". As for the Hongwen Museum, it mainly collects books about etiquette and Confucianism.
It was also the place where Li Shimin gathered talented people.
Jixian Academy, also known as Jixian Academy, was the largest book collection institution in the Tang Dynasty. The collection of books in it can be said to be all-encompassing, and it should be the most likely place to find the ancient books Qin Hao needs.
Not long after, Qin Hao arrived at Jixianyuan. After showing his gold medal, the guard politely let him go.
Entering Jixian Yuan, Qin Hao looked at the densely packed bookshelves inside and couldn't help but marvel that these books were the accumulated knowledge of generations of Chinese sages.
"Your Excellency, are you here to check out some books?" A middle-aged man wearing dark blue official uniform came up to him.
Qin Hao knew that the other party must have recognized the gold medal in his hand and reached out to avoid hitting the smiling man. Besides, he was worried about where to start with so many books, so he said kindly: "Exactly, I wonder what I call this gentleman?
"
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "You're welcome, noble man. The villain is just a little scholar. How can he be called a noble man? If you don't mind, just call the villain by his nickname: Zi Qian.
, that’s fine.”
"It turns out that this is Brother Ziqian, whose name is Zihan below. I heard that there are many ancient books from the Pre-Qin Dynasty collected in Jixian Hall, but I don't know where to start. Could you please give me some guidance from Brother Ziqian?" Qin Hao raised his hand to the other party.
Song Ziqian hurriedly returned the gift: "Thanks to Zihan for thinking highly of me, I am so proud of you."
After a few more polite words, Song Ziqian led Qin Hao to a row of bookshelves.
"Zihan didn't know that there were more than 200,000 books in the collection of Jixian Palace. They were all written on Yizhou hemp paper. After being checked and found to be correct, they were archived and stored. All the books were divided into four categories: Classics, History, Zi, and Ji.
, marked with red, green, green, and white respectively. The row of red ones are Confucian classics and the annotations of Confucian classics by great Confucian scholars of all dynasties."
"This row of green ones are history books, which are a relatively small category in the collection."
"And this row of blue ones are the hundreds of pre-Qin scholars and religious classics. This is also the category with the largest collection of books in Jixian Hall."
Qin Hao's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he walked straight to the rows of bookshelves. Song Ziqian was also a smart man. He understood at a glance that Qin Hao was here for these books, so he stopped introducing them.
"Brother Ziqian, can you help me find all the Taoist classics?"
Song Ziqian thought he heard wrongly: "Brother Zihan, there are so many Taoist classics, are you sure you want to find them all?"
"Brother Ziqian is here to help."
"Okay." Song Ziqian could only call a few of his subordinates to help him find books. Who asked people to call me brother, not to mention that he still held a gold medal given by the emperor.
Not long after, Qin Hao had piles of Taoist classics piled up in front of him.
Qin Hao was not in a hurry and quickly flipped through each book one by one.
Reading at such a speed made Song Ziqian shake his head and thought, this is another person going through the motions.
Qin Hao didn't explain it either. In fact, he couldn't explain it. If you talk to a person from the Tang Dynasty about artificial intelligence, he would think you are crazy.
After reading one book after another, Song Ziqian could only find a subordinate to sort out the finished books for Qin Hao because he read them too fast. After all, these books were all registered, and if they were damaged, they would have to be copied again.
But it's very troublesome.
For the next month, Qin Hao went like this, going back and forth between Wannian County and the palace every day, almost at two o'clock. He would go out at dawn in the morning, and at night when the sun went down, he would come out before the palace gate closed.
At first, Song Ziqian thought that Qin Hao was just a young man from a noble family who was bored and made fun of low-level officials like them, and might not come back in two days. However, Qin Hao had been here for a month and gave Song Ziqian a headache.
Although it was too big, he didn't dare to offend the other party because he reported it to his superiors and the answer he got was: let him.
There was no other way, so Song Ziqian could only play with Qin Hao every day, playing the game of finding books, moving them and then returning them to their places.
And all this, of course, cannot escape Li Shimin's eyes.
"Erlang, so the man from Qin County really stayed in Jixian Hall for a full month?" Empress Changsun gently changed Li Shimin's clothes.
Li Shimin nodded, looking thoughtful.
"What do you think is wrong with this kid, Erlang?"
But Li Shimin shook his head: "There's nothing wrong with that. It's just that the Qin County man read too fast. It doesn't look like he's reading, but like he's looking for something."
A gleam flashed in Empress Changsun's eyes: "Oh? Your Majesty, do you think this son is here with a purpose?"
"It shouldn't be wrong, but judging from this son's previous performance, his master is a scholar of heaven and earth. There is something that he needs to enter the palace to find."
"Your Majesty, why should you belittle yourself? The collections in the palace are rare ancient books handed down from past dynasties. Many of them have long been extinct in the world. No matter how powerful the master of Qin County is, he is just a mortal. How can the collected ancient books still be used?"
Is it better than our royal family?"
Hearing this, Li Shimin also showed a relieved smile on his face: "Yes, I am the one who got the best of me. It is true that this son's performance is extraordinary. It is a pity that their master has passed away, otherwise I really want to see what kind of person he is."
"Actually, not necessarily."
"Oh? What do you think of Guanyin's words?"
Empress Changsun held Li Shimin's arm and said softly: "Although the Qin County man and the Yun County man insisted that their master had passed away, there was no third person to testify. Bai Qisi had already gone to the wasteland they mentioned.
, but no trace of anyone living there for a long time was found.”
"Assuming that their master is not dead, does it make sense what the Qin County man did?"
Li Shimin slapped his thigh: "Mr. Guanyin, do you mean to say that the Qin County man was born this time to enter the palace in search of something?"
"This is just my concubine's speculation..."
"Yeah, but it's still a possibility."
Seeing that Li Shimin showed no signs of being angry after being deceived, Queen Changsun couldn't help but wonder: "If this is true, the man from Qin County committed the crime of deceiving the emperor."
"Hey, what is there to deceive you? First it's the method of making salt, and then there's the auspiciousness of potatoes. If it's as Guanyin guessed, these are just in exchange for something in the palace. I wish I could talk to that master from Qin County more.
"I have made many trades with you. These two things have solved the urgent need of the Tang Dynasty. As long as he does not want my throne, there is nothing else I can be reluctant to part with." Li Shimin laughed boldly.
"Your Majesty, your Majesty." Empress Changsun looked at Li Shimin with stars in her eyes. Being able to marry such a radiant man meant that she had no regrets in her life.
"By the way, what happened to the man from Yun County?" Queen Changsun suddenly asked.
When Li Shimin heard this, the smile on his face stopped immediately, and he showed an angry expression.
"After this Yun County man returned home, he did nothing else and only thought about how to make money. The dignified County man was so full of money that he didn't know how the same master could teach two disciples with such huge differences."
Empress Changsun became interested: "Oh? What has the man from Yun County done this month?"
"He, he made a stove surrounded by iron sheets and a set of chimneys. He made a few dark coal cakes and burned them in it. Now all the nobles in Chang'an are using such stoves. The effect is good.
, the merchants and common people are also rushing to buy it, and it is said that the price of the stove has increased by more than 30%. It really does not have the dignity of a noble man, how is it different from those fat-minded businessmen!" Li Shimin said angrily.
Empress Changsun covered her mouth and smiled softly: "Your Majesty, there is no need to be angry. Perhaps this man from Yun County was under too much pressure and had no choice but to do this. After all, the Yun clan members now rely on him to support themselves, just with their salary and food."
The town is definitely not enough."
"Huh, if it wasn't like this, I would have issued an order to reprimand that boy!"
Empress Changsun became interested in the stove: "Erlang, since all the nobles in the city are using that stove, why don't we also get a stove to try. If it works well, it will be beneficial to people's livelihood. The weather will change soon."
It’s cold, it’s not going to be easy this winter, but I’m afraid I’m going to take advantage of that kid again.”
"If it can benefit the people, I will be happy to let that guy take advantage."
