Chapter 1250: Get off work

Chapter 1250: Get off work

Chapter 1250: Get off work
Shao Xun decided to dine at Fangzhou Pavilion, which overlooks the lake and has beautiful scenery.

Well, there might not be much scenery in winter, but neither the host nor the guests care about that.

As the only designated food supplier for the imperial palace, the Shaofu Cuisine Department really had little stock left. Fortunately, some game or livestock were delivered from Luoyang West Garden in recent days, so they could make do with what they had.

When the deputy chancellor Yan was leading people to count the food, they saw Shao Xun passing by not far away and were immediately startled.

But Shao Xun didn't even look at her and walked straight past her.

Yan heaved a sigh of relief. Fortunately, in the eyes of outsiders, she was still innocent.

"Deputy Secretary, there are only two yellow sheep sent by Dai State." After counting them, the female historian reported.

"Is there anyone else over there, Office Manager Wang?" Yan asked in a deep voice, calming herself down.

"This is what Wang Shucheng sent."

Yan said, "Two are enough. Send one to the Imperial Food Bureau first. Your Majesty may have to host a banquet tomorrow."

"Yes." The lady replied.

The Zhenxiu Office has two magistrates and four assistants. The magistrate is the chief official and the assistants are the assistant officials.

Yan was responsible for the management of live livestock food in the harem, including rare animals such as cattle, sheep, horses, camels, and gazelles.

Others are in charge of tea, wine, dried meat, cheese, fruits and vegetables, etc.

If the emperor was in the outer court, the ingredients would be sent to the Taiguan Office under the Guanglu Temple for cooking, but the cooking location was not fixed because the emperor did not necessarily eat in any particular palace.

After the meal is ready, it is first tasted by the people in the Imperial Household Department, and then presented to the Emperor.

If the emperor had a meal in the harem, the meal would be prepared by Sishan (sixth rank) of the Shangshi Bureau. After it was ready, the Shangshi (fifth rank) would taste it in public and then present it to the emperor when there was nothing else to do.

Therefore, whether in the inner court or the outer court, the Shangshi Bureau is the key.

The current chief chef, Ms. Liu, is a middle-aged woman in her forties from Shao’s mother’s hometown.

Yan was probably the criminal closest to killing Shao Xun, but she was mainly in charge of live animals, and slaughtering and cooking were either done by the Imperial Office or the Shangshi Bureau, not by her. Moreover, there would not be only one or two people working throughout the process, and there were also people testing for poison, so it was still very difficult.

Instead of that, it would be more realistic to seduce Shao Xun and let him die of lust in her body.

Of course, she doesn't have that intention now.

Half an hour later, Yan brought the female historian and, with the assistance of the soldiers from the Right Imperial Guard, drove a horse-drawn carriage to the vicinity of the dike that was being reinforced.

Yan looked around and soon saw a pavilion on a sandbar not far away. On the third floor of the pavilion, a man was leaning against the window, looking at the lake.

She lowered her head in panic, as if she had done something wrong.

A whistle sounded on the dike.

The laborers who were clearing silt in the freezing cold water breathed a sigh of relief and went ashore in batches to receive dry food.

The brothers Wang Yanzhi and Wang Yunzhi stood in the queue, with their heads slightly lowered and depressed, and silently received three Hu bings.

Sima Ying, the Prince of Xiyang in Jin, and Sima Xi, the Prince of Ruyang, were standing behind the two princes. Seeing this, they were very upset and asked, "Why do the Wang brothers have three cakes, but we only have two?"

The deputy captain of the palace soldiers who was distributing meals took one look at him, took off his sword, and hit him on the head with the scabbard attached.

Sima Ying and Sima Xi screamed loudly, then behaved themselves, took two pieces of Hu bing and left quietly.

Li Shou lined up behind Er Ma, saying nothing. After receiving two Hu bings, he followed closely, cursing in his heart: Even among the hard laborers there are many people with connections.

It was obvious that Wang Yan had someone hired to take care of the Wang brothers, and maybe he would have to find a way to free them from their hard labor in the future.

But he also has connections.

"Husband." As I turned a corner, I heard a soft call.

Li Shou turned his head and saw Yan coming over and stuffing him a piece of jerky and two pieces of cheese.

Li Shou was secretly delighted. After taking it, he glanced at his wife.

She seemed to have become a little rounder and more charming than before.

"Hurry up!" A row of soldiers in helmets and armor stood at the corner, and the leader shouted.

Li Shou left reluctantly.

The food has been good recently. We have meat, milk, dried fruits, and even wine and candied fruits every now and then. People living in the same barracks are envious.

But they didn't dare to rob.

Are you kidding me? Although Li Shou came from a wealthy family, he had led troops in battles and had martial arts skills. He was only 34 years old this year and his strength was still strong.

One of the people living with him was called Wang Xia, who looked like a pampered civil official with very little strength.

One of them was called Sima Fan, and his beard was all white.

One of them was an old acquaintance, Jing Qian, the former Li Cheng Si Li Xiaowei. It was said that he was brought here by Yu Liang.

These three people combined are not enough for him to beat, so there is no point in being afraid.

After leaving the palace and arriving at the barracks outside, Li Shou sat cross-legged on a reed mat and ate voraciously.

Wang Xia was worried and couldn't eat.

Sima Fan's eyes were dull and his face was gray, as if he would die at any moment.

Only Jing Qian's eyes turned around, and he quietly approached Li Shou and said, "Prince Jianning, can you give me some food?"

Li Shou glanced at him, snorted coldly, and said, "Get lost!"

Jing Qian had only been there for a few days, and was unprepared for Li Shou's bad attitude. His expression looked a little ugly.

Sima Fan's almost frozen eyes moved. He turned his head slightly and looked at Li and Jing.

"King Xiangyang, you don't know..." Li Shou pointed at Jing Qian and said, "This thief secretly colluded with Fan Ben and murdered my nephew, Crown Prince Ban. He is a traitor who sells out his master for fame. I'm lucky I didn't beat him up. Damn it, I wouldn't even give him to a dog to eat."

Sima Fan lowered his head and said nothing.

Wang Xia couldn't help but glance at Jing Qian, with a look of scrutiny in his eyes.

"Jingqian!" Li Shou continued to scold, "Will you regret doing such a rebellious thing? How about the fate of being a dog for the Liang people? Haha! Shao Xun didn't give you an official position, and his brother-in-law Yu Liang ruined your family."

Jing Qian's face turned pale and blue.

He was angry because he didn't get a job. When Yu Liang found fault with him and confiscated his family's land, he couldn't help but cursed "Shao thief", and was directly sent here.

Thinking about it now, I regretted it a lot, but being humiliated by Li Shou, I felt a little embarrassed and retorted, "Li Shou, why are you so proud? Can you swallow the food earned by your wife selling her body?"

"What did you say!" Li Shou was furious. He grabbed Jing Qian's neck and cursed, "She is a female official of the Shaofu Palace. Why are you slandering her? I think you want to die!" After that, he slapped Jing Qian hard.

Jing Qian's eyes were full of stars, and he fell to the ground. It took him a long time to recover, but he still said unconvincedly: "I think you are blind! When I was young, I had sex with countless women, and I can see it clearly. Your wife must have been seduce by Shao the thief."

Li Shou was getting angrier and was about to fight again, but Wang Xia sighed and said, "We are all prisoners, but you are still fighting each other. Isn't it ridiculous? It's better to save your energy. In a few days, we will all be sent to Jiyin to dredge the Bian River. It's uncertain whether we can come back alive."

Li Shou took a long breath after hearing that, and then slapped Jing Qian before sitting back down and eating in silence.

As he ate, the more he chewed, the less tasty it became. So he threw the meat in his hand to Wang Xia and said, "I don't want to eat it anymore. Here you go."

What Wang Xia was thinking about was what Li Shou had just said, "I wouldn't give it to you even if you threw it to a dog." Finally, he sighed, took it and ate it.

After lying on the ground for a while, Jing Qian slowly stood up, picked up the Hu Bing, and ate it carefully.

He ate very carefully, even picking up the fallen crumbs and eating them all.

After finishing eating, he thought for a while, moved away from Li Shou, approached Wang Xia, and whispered, "Lord Wang, are we really going to dig a river?"

"I also heard it from the Wang family of Langya." Wang Xia said, "It's probably true. When the Shao bandit pacified Jiangnan, he distributed land and houses to his meritorious officials. In order to connect the north and the south, he must have dredged the canal. The west is fine, but the Bian River, Honggou, Sishui River, and Hangou in the east are often blocked, and they have to be cleared."

"Does he want to control the river?" Jing Qian murmured to himself.

"It's not going to be a big deal, but it's inevitable that there will be a small deal." Wang Xia sighed, "Save some energy."

Jing Qian looked unhappy.

Wang Xia stopped talking and just ate in silence.

Li Shou was lying on the straw mat, tossing and turning.

******
On the pavilion, Shao Xun and the three Zhuge brothers had almost finished their meal.

Yellow sheep meat is not considered a delicacy, but the three brothers have never even eaten jerky, let alone freshly slaughtered sheep.

It is easy to hunt a yellow sheep, but it is difficult to capture it alive. It is even more difficult to capture it alive and send it to Bianliang. Moreover, this kind of wild animal is unruly and many of them cannot be kept in captivity. Eating this kind of thing is a luxury.

This is probably what "richest man in the world" means.

"You're like a cat, only eating a few bites. Would you like some more?" Shao Xun grilled a piece of meat himself and asked softly.

Zhuge Wenbiao shook his head.

Shao Xun glanced at the fox fur on her, put the meat on the plate, and then went to talk to the Zhuge brothers.

Zhuge Wenbiao looked at the meat on the plate for a while, gently stroked his hair by his ear, silently picked up the chopsticks, and started eating.

"The products of the south of the Yangtze River are indeed rich, but if they are to be transported to the north, they still need to be transported by water." Zhuge Yu said: "Guangling is to the north, and the Han Canal often dries up. It needs to be repaired. When Cao Wei went south, it encountered such a thing. A large number of ships were stranded in the river and destroyed by the Wu people."

Shao Xun nodded slightly, then suddenly changed the subject and asked, "Can the Jiangnan Navy ships go to sea?"

Zhuge was stunned, frowned and thought for a while, then replied: "The ships of the Jingzhou navy may not be able to do it, but the boats of Danyang, Kuaiji and Wujun may be able to do it. However, the wind and waves on the sea are not comparable to those on the river, which is really dangerous. If you really want a sea ship, you have to go to Jin'an or Guangzhou."

Shao Xun nodded. Of course he understood this. He could tell from the shape of the ship.

How should I put it? Nowadays, most ships in the north and south are inland ships, not designed for seafaring.

It is not impossible for inland vessels to go to the sea, but the risk factor is much greater than that of professional sea vessels.

Even if the Yangtze River Navy sails along the coastal waters with less wind and waves and tries not to go to the rough deep sea, whether they can come back alive depends on luck.

He remembered that in later generations, when Li Shimin attacked Goguryeo, he issued an edict to reward all those who crossed the sea. This was because this action was very dangerous, so it was necessary to count the merits before the battle in order to boost morale.

To put it bluntly, in that era, neither the East nor the West was ready to take to the sea. The scale of maritime commerce was still small, and the probability of shipwreck and loss of life was very high - sailing was originally a game for the brave.

But there is also a considerable need for short-sea shipping.

Apart from other things, Yangzhou had two counties, Jin'an and Jian'an (in today's Fujian area), and the land route was extremely difficult, which was not as convenient as taking a boat on the sea. Jin'an (Governed by Houguan, today's Fuzhou) and Nankang County to the west had once belonged to Jiangzhou, and today they still belong to Yangzhou.

The connection between Guangzhou and Jiaozhou also relied on ships sailing along the coastline, which was much easier than by land.

Since deep-sea navigation technology is not possible, near-shore navigation along the coastline can be promoted.

There wasn't much demand before, but what about in the future? Besides, it would be better to have a fleet to help transport supplies and even land troops when attacking Murong Xianbei, which would be much easier than crossing the muddy pond of Liaoze.

Shao Xun looked at Zhuge Yu and said, "You can take on the position of Captain of the Ships and go to Wenma (now Xiapu, or Lianjiang) to restore the ships. I am worried that there are not many people left, so you can do your best."

"Yes, sir." Zhuge Yu replied.

After becoming the captain of the fleet, although he was still in the shogunate and leading the army, he could no longer stay in Jianye and had to go to Jin'an County.

There were three ship camps in the Eastern Wu Dynasty, two of which were specialized in building sea vessels, one of which was Wenma Ship Camp.

"If you do this well, I will still reward you handsomely." Shao Xun encouraged.

The night grew darker and it was getting late, so Shao Xun asked Tong Qianjin to send someone to lead the three Zhuge brothers out of the palace.

Zhuge Wenbiao stood up gently.

"Are you cold?" Shao Xun walked up to her and tightened the straps of his fake fox fur clock.

Zhuge Wenbiao subconsciously wanted to retreat, but Shao Ze didn't give her a chance to choose and tied it in two or three seconds.

Zhuge Wenbiao's eyelashes trembled and he turned his head slightly.

"Let's go." Shao Xun took the lead again.

Under the starry sky, the two of them walked one after the other and soon arrived at the familiar courtyard.

Zhuge Wenbiao bowed and quickly returned to his residence.

Shi stood quietly by the window, opened it a crack, and looked out in the starlight with her eyes wide open.

For more than ten days, "Dr. Zhuge" has been going out early and coming back late, as if he is deliberately avoiding meeting her, which makes her very curious.

When she asked the two female officials Cheng and Guo, they refused to say anything. Today, she finally saw it with her own eyes, but the answer left her speechless.

Zhuge Wenbiao seemed to glance over here, and Shi felt a little guilty and hid in a hurry.

Shao Xun paced outside the yard with his hands behind his back.

After taking over Jiangnan, his empire was finally complete and many of his plans could finally be implemented.

"Pass the message, Dongyue is preparing two talks, right in the sand sea." After saying this, he turned and left.

Tong Qianjin secretly took note of it and prepared to pass it on tomorrow - the emperor's verbal order was called "edict", which was one of the eight major decrees.

(End of this chapter)