bookcurios Chapter 304: Trouble Begins Again
Chapter 304: Trouble Begins Again
Modern geography students can use some stones or address information to determine whether there are minerals in the mountain.
But Zhao Fangyu obviously did not have this skill, and naturally he could not travel all over the country to find where the third prince's iron mine was hidden.
But Zhao Fangyu can ask others to find the third prince's iron mine.
Iron ore is a good thing. Even a noble family would not watch the ownerless ore being used by the third prince to equip his private soldiers.
Aristocratic families would not openly participate in the struggle for succession, but that did not mean they would not secretly bet on it. The merit of following the dragon represented countless interests, and gold and silver were just the most direct manifestation.
For weapons, especially iron weapons, which are such practical weapons and equipment, price is one thing, but whether you can buy them and how much you can buy are the key points.
No one wants outsiders to know exactly how many guards there are in their home and how many weapons the guards are equipped with.
If a fight really comes to pass, it will be a surprise attack, and a head-on fight will only be fought face to face as a last resort.
Zhao Fangyu could not find the mountain containing the mineral vein, but he would not allow the mountain to continue to be used by the third prince.
When you have good things, think of your family first.
But it is estimated that the Li family has already known this news, and now the noble families are probably secretly looking for where the third prince's iron ore is hidden.
The fact that it has not been found yet only shows that the location of this iron mine is extremely secretive, even somewhat unexpected.
Zhao Fangyu doesn't believe that there is an impenetrable wall in this world. She has known a saying since she was a child: there is strength in numbers.
If the people from the Five Surnames and Seven Families are not enough, then let all the wealthy families in the capital know about this. If word spreads from one person to ten, ten to a hundred, someone will eventually find it.
This iron ore could be handed over to the Daliang treasury or controlled by other noble families, as long as it was no longer in the hands of the third prince.
Coming out of the dark room, Zhao Fangyu held Shu Jie'er and learned some words.
Little Shu frowned and poked Zhao Fangyu's shoulder with a worried look on her face: "Is my aunt okay? Why do people say that my aunt did something very bad?"
Zhao Fangyu paused for a moment while writing, slowly put down the pen, rubbed Shu Jie'er's furry little head and asked her, "Auntie has been sick these days and has been taking medicine. It's not that she didn't come to play with Shu Jie on purpose."
"She was sick before and had to stay in bed all the time. She had to have a lot of needles inserted into her body. She even needed someone to support her when she walked, and she couldn't hold Shu Jie'er, so she couldn't do anything bad."
Shu Jie'er opened her mouth wide, her focus completely shifted: "So many needles stuck in your body?"
Seeing Zhao Fangyu nod, little Shu Jie'er hugged Zhao Fangyu and looked left and right, as if she wanted to see if there were any silver needles that had been removed from Zhao Fangyu's body.
Zhao Fangyu put Shu Jie'er down, stood on the ground and turned around so that Shu Jie'er could see clearly: "It's gone now. When Uncle Cui comes to give Auntie acupuncture later, if you're not afraid, come and take a look, okay?"
Shu Jieer nodded rapidly, and immediately believed what Zhao Fangyu said. Zhao Fangyu hugged Shu Jieer again, pinched her chubby little paws, and asked, "Who told you that my aunt was doing something bad? How did she know that my aunt was doing something bad?"
Shu Jie'er is just a child under five years old. She has to walk slowly to go up the stairs on weekdays. It's really hateful that someone would whisper in her ear even at such a young age.
It was expected that there was a traitor in the palace, but the traitor chose to target Shu Jie'er with evil intentions, which was extremely despicable!
Today was fine. I just said some provocative words. No matter what my purpose was, fortunately I didn't cause any harm to Shu Jie'er.
But what about tomorrow? If the person behind the scenes wants to capture Shu Jie'er and threaten Zhao Fangjin...
She is about to give birth, how can she bear the scare?
Zhao Fangyu hugged Shu Jie'er and couldn't help but worry about Zhao Fangjin.
Zhao Fangjin must have realized that there was a sneaky villain hiding among the servants of the Song family, so he sent Shu Jie'er to the Hewang Mansion.
Giving birth is the gate of hell, something quickly flashed through Zhao Fangyu’s mind.
When the eldest lady came, Zhao Fangyu did not hold Shu Jie'er in his arms to class. Instead, he patted Shu Jie'er's belly and gently coaxed her to sleep. Seeing that the eldest lady had come, he put up a screen on the kang to block the wind for Shu Jie'er.
Covered with a velvet blanket, Zhao Fangyu got off the bed and gestured to the Madam to keep quiet. He then pulled her a few steps away and said, "Someone in the palace wentssip in front of Sister Shu today. I have ordered a thorough investigation, but where Sister is is the most important thing right now. Mother, think of a way to send someone to check on her."
Giving birth is a life-threatening experience for women, so the delivery room must be prepared in advance. It would be best to find an old maid who is well versed in medicine to carefully check Zhao Fangjin's yard inside and out, to avoid the curtains being fumigated with medicine, which would make people think it was some rare incense.
The eldest lady hummed with a normal expression, patted Zhao Fangyu's hand and praised her for her thoughtfulness: "Tomorrow, I will go to see her, and ask Xiao Cui's mother to take a look. On the day of the birth, I will also bring people over."
The Zhao family had all arranged very good marriages. The Song family of the Ministry of Personnel were the most loyal party to the emperor. No one expected that Zhao Fangyu would become the princess and the Song family would be forced to be involved in the fight for the throne.
No matter how clean the Song family appears to be, and how distant they are from the Zhao family, as long as Zhao Fangjin is still alive, she will still be the head wife of the Song family in charge of household affairs, and the Song family will be in-laws of the Zhao family.
When the critical moment comes, even if I don’t bet on the second prince, I will definitely not bet on anyone else.
Zhao Fangyu reminded the eldest lady to keep a close eye on Zhao Fangjin, lest anyone take advantage of the situation and cause a tragedy in which the old man dies the young man.
A smart person knows when to speak and when to stop. After Zhao Fangyu knew that the eldest lady had a plan to deal with it, he sat back next to Shu Jie'er.
The eldest lady stared at Shu Jie'er's face which resembled Zhao Fangjin, and rubbed it gently with her fingertips. The child's skin was smooth and tender, and the eldest lady's force was light. Shu Jie'er thought it was a small insect landing on her face, and rubbed her face uncomfortably.
"Mother, I want to hold the grand banquet in the Qunfang Garden."
"The place where we live has always been the middle section of the palace. There is a large open space at the back. My husband and I discussed building a garden there."
The garden was separated from the residence by a wall. Now that the garden has been built, the wall has naturally been demolished.
Shu Jie'er stayed in the house for a nap, while Mother Cui and Xingzhi stayed here to watch. Outside the main courtyard, a group of people knelt down, surrounded by a circle of guards. Nong Bo, who was beside Zhao Fangyu, stood in front of those people and gave a lecture.
There was a little maidservant at the side who was tied up tightly and only her eyelids could move. She was not very old. Behind her was a couple with a fat dark boy who were kneeling on the ground and begging.
The eldest lady knew at a glance that this must be the maid who had provoked Shu Jie'er in front of her.
Although she looked pitiful, people had to pay the price for their mistakes, so the eldest lady and Zhao Fangyu turned around and went to the Qunfang Garden.
"Garden of Flowers...but what's the point?"
Zhao Fangyu has loved elegance since she was a child. The courtyard where she lived in the Zhao family was originally called Banana Leaf Pavilion, which everyone thought was tacky, but as no one lived there, no one had ever specifically changed the name of the place.
Later, Zhao Fangyu moved in and planted cherries and osmanthus flowers. She changed the name to Jiaolu and decorated it with a unique flavor. She even told the story of banana leaves covering a deer, which left Fangyun, who had originally made fun of her name that sounded like a vegetable garden, speechless.
Zhao Fangyu and his wife slowly walked into the Qunfang Garden. When they opened the door, they saw a smooth bluestone road and beautiful weeping crabapples blooming on both sides of the road. The weeping crabapples were charming and looked particularly shy under the shade of green leaves. They were beautiful to the right degree. Any more would be vulgar, and any less would be insufficient.
Behind the crabapple flowers are two hydrangeas that are in full bloom, green and lush, white as snow. Passing through the crabapple flowers are two paths, one covered with fallen petals, and the other covered with green and white.
Zhao Fangyu and his wife were walking on this blue-white stone road. The blue ones were various exotic flowers and plants with new branches and tender buds growing on them. The white ones were the thin palace lantern covers carved with transparent white jade on both sides. At dawn, the white jade looked even warmer under the light. After dark, the candlelight lit up in the white jade lampshades, and the light penetrated the white jade, further highlighting its beauty. This short road without any gold or silver was better than gold and silver.
The path was winding and secluded, with tall old trees halfway above the head, blocking out more than half of the sky but not enough to block out the light, making it difficult to tell day from night.
The road is not long. After passing through a moon-shaped gate, there is an extremely special flat area.
There was fine grass growing on the flat ground. On the left was an archery platform, and on the right was a martial arts arena with eighteen kinds of weapons hung on it. Further back was a small building facing the water, with many pens, inkstones, and rows of desks. If you didn't know better, you would have thought you were in a school.
What’s even more strange is that there is an abacus on each desk.
The uses of bows and arrows, martial arts arena, etc. can be seen at a glance, but there are only a few books in this small library, but the abacus is really confusing.
It can't be that the people outside are drawing their bows and shooting arrows while the people inside are fiddling with the abacus and calculating how many times the people outside have hit the target?
Zhao Fangyu smiled without saying anything and took the puzzled lady upstairs.
"The Garden of Flowers, when the banquet begins, won't the garden be filled with countless rare flowers?"
A garden of flowers must have various flowers to be worthy of its name.
The first floor of the small building is filled with ebony desks, while the second floor is much more empty. There are even many musical instruments and several larger long desks, but the things placed on them are different, divided into calligraphy, painting, and several tables.
Opposite is a treasure house placed against the wall.
There were many things on it, including a priceless white jade disk, a white porcelain vase that was said to have been repaired after being broken, and a cloak made of top-quality brocade, which was stained with blood and had now turned into black blood stains...
Broken jewelry, cleaned powder boxes, even broken bronze animal incense burners and burnt calligraphy and paintings.
The things listed here are not all precious, and some of them may not even be bought at the market.
The eldest lady knew that Zhao Fangyu must have a backup plan since she had made such a big scene, so she waited quietly for her explanation.
Then Zhao Fangyu handed over a thin booklet with the words "Hong Yu Niang" written on it.
Just looking at the title, I thought it was some kind of storybook, but when I opened it, I found out that it was the life story of a woman named Pei Hongyu.
She was born into a wealthy family, but she married the wrong man. It was a time of chaos and her husband was captured and made a city guard. The local officials and bandits colluded with each other and robbed her family of their property. Her parents and relatives died tragically, her husband was killed in battle, her children were starving, and her father-in-law died of suffocation.
In such a difficult situation, Pei Hongyu killed three men who had assaulted her with a kitchen knife and became a famous black widow in the local area. Later, she gathered a group of women and started a flesh trade to support young children and orphaned elderly people.
Outside the city gate, there were corpses and blood everywhere, and body parts were scattered all over the ground. The officials in the city offered a large amount of gold and silver to avoid being looted. Countless women, elderly people and children were left on the streets, and finally relied on Pei Hongyu to keep their lives.
Pei Hongyu started out in the flesh trade, and later gradually expanded to hairpins, jewelry, and clothing. When peace came, countless families in the city despised these women, even the elderly they supported.
Pei Hongyu took the women to each house and scolded them, saying that whoever ate the food they bought with their flesh and blood owed them money. When they were eating their food, they were female Bodhisattvas who saved people from suffering, but now that the world was at peace, they became prostitutes despised by everyone?
Pei Hongyu expanded her business little by little. Since the locals didn't buy their products, they sold them to outsiders. In this way, their business flourished and they were able to support a group of elderly, weak, women and children.
Later, the Pei family business opened all the way to the capital, and Pei Hongyu also left the city, but a hundred years later, no one mentioned the story about Pei Hongyu anymore.
The only things that were mentioned were the amazing jewelry of Pei's business and the wealthy and prosperous owner. No one talked about the war, and no one remembered the female Bodhisattva who, during the war, put aside her dignity and exchanged food with officials and soldiers to help the elderly and the weak.
The eldest lady's eyes became slightly moist.
Zhao Fangyu then pointed at the extremely exquisite but broken Jinshan Tea Duobao Ruyi hairpin on the Duobao Pavilion.
"This is a camellia hairpin made by Hong Yu Niang. I don't know what it was called at the time, but she is like a camellia, blooming passionately and falling decisively."
She was filial to her mother-in-law all her life, raised a son, and later remarried. However, her husband was a good-for-nothing and was kicked out of the house by Pei Hongyu with a divorce letter.
The lady had never seen or read such a book or such a story.
She looked back at the small bookshelf, where there were Zhu Jin's wife Cheng Liuyun, Die Yi's wife Mulan Xun...
Book by book, women forgotten by history, were fished out from the river of time bit by bit by Zhao Fangyu and placed before the public.
Some of these people came from wealthy families, some from the common people, but all of them were people who lived hard.
"There is no better name than the Garden of Flowers."
There are tens of millions of kinds of flowers and tens of millions of people. Whether it's a peony, a camellia, or even an unknown roadside weed, as long as it's alive, it's a beautiful and passionate life.
It's just suffering, compared to being alive, it's nothing.
As long as you are alive, you will get what you want and see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The eldest lady looked at the treasure cabinet, the books some thin some thick, and suddenly she felt that a ray of light was shining through the dark sky.
No matter how thick the clouds are, there will always be a day when the clouds clear and the moon shines.