Capítulo 1594: Chapter 1569: Cooperation
Yin Li never used to think about these matters, but the Yin Family, though a small clan, had seen enough to understand them, albeit incomparable to great surnas like the Wang or Cui families.
With only one son who would definitely not enter office, Yin Li had little feeling about the Emperor suppressing the noble families.
Therefore, he could completely stand on the Emperor’s side and contemplate these matters.
The Emperor also liked to discuss these concerns with Yin Li; there were so things he couldn’t talk about with the Empress, nor with his sons, and even less with ministers like Wei Zhi in the court.
Yin Li’s advice was taken seriously by him; he never dared to underestimate these noble families. When he revised a book on the Clan Record, they would grumble for years. Ms. Cui was unhappy because he demoted them and refused to let her daughter marry into their family, and he was unwilling to marry his daughter into theirs.
Those instigating Sanlang were all mice. If punishing them affected the Crown Prince and Sanlang, it would indeed be a loss for outweighing the gains.
The Emperor began to ponder how to gradually deal with them without having his two sons suffer too much influence.
Yin Li silently followed the contemplative Emperor and, after sending him back to the main hall, took his leave and departed.
The Emperor stood at the hall entrance and thought for a mont, ultimately not going inside, but instead turning to the study.
Gu Zhong, seeing this stance, understood that the Emperor intended to rest in the study tonight. So, he instructed soone to inform the Empress on one side while preparing on the other.
Once he finished attending to the Emperor, the sky had already darkened; only then did he find a mont to go out and eat.
Gu Ji specially heated up so food for his master. As soon as he saw his master enter, he served him a bowl of hot soup and whispered, “Master, your stomach isn’t well, have a bowl of soup to pad it first.”
Gu Zhong nodded, took a sip of soup, and seeing that only the two of them, master and disciple, were in the side room, whispered, “This matter is past now; you shouldn’t ntion it to others outside in the future.”
Gu Ji let out a sigh of relief and quietly asked, “Master, since we heard of Prince Gong and the Crown Prince’s contention, do we really not need to avoid it by going to the village?”
Gu Zhong shook his head, “His Majesty’s attitude towards Prince Gong has changed from before, as has it towards the Crown Prince. So, just focus on your duties, and act as if you know nothing.”
He glanced at Gu Ji’s hands and softly asked, “Have you applied dicine?”
Gu Ji quickly nodded, “Applied the ointnt, and it’s much better in the afternoon, hardly red anymore.”
“And the knees?”
“Applied too.”
Gu Zhong nodded, looking at the darkening night outside and said, “It’s still too hot; even if the bluestone slabs on the ground are only exposed to the sun for a morning, they’re like fire. Next ti you kneel, don’t be so sincere, find a place with shade to kneel, at least it won’t be as hot…”
Gu Ji responded in a low voice, indicating that he understood, “This ti I owe Lord Zhou Junior a favor.”
Gu Zhong waved his hand, “Why rush? You can return the favor in the future, but you must rember that even when repaying a favor, you must not break the palace’s rules.”
He said, “We serve His Majesty, and must only follow His Majesty’s orders.”
Gu Ji acknowledged, “Master, I rember it all.”
Gu Zhong nodded in satisfaction; he intended to cultivate Gu Ji since he would need him to care for him in his old age after leaving the palace or living in so corner of it.
Gu Ji entered the palace at five years old. He rembered things late; within less than six months in the palace, he had forgotten much about his family, but he rembered being sold into the palace by his parents.
Gu Zhong occasionally saw him and felt a good rapport, so he took him under his wings. He called him a disciple, but in truth, he raised him as a son. Gu Ji’s na was also given by Gu Zhong, following his surna.
It could be said that besides the Emperor, Gu Ji was the most important person in the palace to Gu Zhong. Prince Gong wished to utilize Zhou Man’s influence to return to Luozhou but didn’t consider the inner palace maidens following them; who would have thought these little people could also thwart his plans?
Returning to his room, Prince Gong pondered that Father Emperor should have already heard hints of his conversation with Zhou Man, wondering whether Father Emperor would send him back to Luozhou.
However, what Zhou Man said today surprised him. Perhaps when Father Emperor heard it, it instead cleared her of suspicions of being part of the Eastern Palace.
Prince Gong sat at the table, frowning in deep thought, feeling sowhat displeased, realizing that things were far from under his control.
anwhile, Manbao had already forgotten about the day’s events and was splitting up the writing of morials with Bai Shan and others.
Manbao pondered for a long while and consulted Teacher Mo’s opinion. In the end, she decided to end with herbal tea, drawing from experiences in ancient traditional Chinese dicine books.
How about Indian pennywort, Andrographis, and honeysuckle?
Bai Shan felt that since these main ingredients were so easily accessible, the court could fund the purchase of these herbs and then distribute them to the common people, which could also generate inco for everyone, how nice.
This was akin to providing work as relief.
So Bai Erlang and Yin Huo assisted him in refining this plan, setting different purchasing and relief sches based on the situations in the capital, Yongzhou, and Shangzhou.
Bai Erlang was familiar with such tasks, and Yin Huo was clever and quickly got the hang of it, but it was arduous for Liu Huan, who ca over to watch the excitent, as he realized after a long ti that all he could do was grind ink and spread paper.
anwhile, Manbao was specifically writing these herbal tea formulas, distributing the grades of herbal packs and estimating the approximate number of packs needed in various places according to different circumstances.
The three with Bai Shan, based on her estimates, calculated the general costs and losses…
The four worked together until each courtyard was about to lock the doors before they separated.
After Bai Shan returned to their residence with the half-written morial, he continued writing. Yin Huo, being in poor health, couldn’t stay up late, so he went to rest.
Liu Huan gladly went off to find soone else to play with.
Bai Erlang, while writing arduously, complained, “Isn’t this the work of the Imperial Hospital and the Ministry of Revenue? Why are we doing it?”
He said, “Zhao Liulang bought a small bucket of ice from the Bureau of Food Supplies to make cheese, aren’t we really going?”
Bai Shan, without lifting his head, replied, “This is the first ti the Crown Prince asked Manbao about the policies of the Imperial Hospital; if it’s done well, her authority in the Imperial Hospital will be greater in the future. Haven’t you noticed that Director Xiao and others only assign her to edit books, and rarely involve her in other affairs of the Imperial Hospital?”
Bai Erlang thought for a mont and realized it was true. Manbao seldom participated in the construction of the Imperial Hospital, mainly working on book editing or treating the emperor’s family at Daming Palace.
Bai Shan said, “Although the position of fifth-rank editor is higher, the real power lies with the sixth-rank imperial physicians at the Imperial Hospital. Since the Crown Prince has consulted Manbao about governance, if we do this well, her opportunities will be more in the future.”
The two senior brothers worked on the morials until late at night, and the next day, with dark circles under their eyes, handed them to Manbao, then hurried to class.
Manbao carefully reviewed the morials, noticing that the handwriting in these two morials was much like her own, though one was particularly similar, and the other was sowhat similar.
She twitched her lips, then added Bai Shan and Bai Erlang’s nas at the end in her actual handwriting, and after considering for a mont, also added Yin Huo’s na.
The letter she wrote separately also bore the nas of the three, which she took to the Crown Prince together.
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