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Chapter 134: Presenting a Book 1/4
Jin Xiaoye had never been concerned about her inability to get pregnant. She even welcomed the idea of not conceiving.
She was quite busy and didn’t want another child!
But Li Qingzhi’s mention of his own weakness made Jin Xiaoye worry. She glanced at Li Qingzhi’s waist. “Ah Qing, are you okay? Do you need to see a doctor?” Should she buy some medicinal ingredients to replenish Li Qingzhi?
Li Qingzhi quickly responded, “I’m fine, really.”
In fact, Jin Xiaoye didn’t see any sign of weakness in Li Qingzhi.
The married women in the village talked about everything, and she had heard a lot before. Judging by what she had heard, Li Qingzhi was doing pretty well.
No longer dwelling on this matter, Jin Xiaoye looked at the desktop and then realized what Li Qingzhi was writing; it seemed to be another story.
“What are you writing?” Jin Xiaoye asked.
“I’m writing about the Magistrate of Gou County personally measuring the land and discovering that some people’s dry land was recorded as paddy fields, and that although some households clearly had a hundred acres of good fields, only twenty acres were registered.” Li Qingzhi said.
This was the news he had just received. Among them, the family that had a hundred acres of good fields but was only registered for twenty acres at the county office was the Hong family.
Since both sides had already become enemies, they might as well write as much as they wanted.
Li Qingzhi felt that the Magistrate of Gou County measuring the land was the best thing he had done since taking office, and it should be promoted.
After finishing the tragedy, he also wanted to write something enjoyable.
But he had written too much in the past few days and hurt himself, so now he would write slowly. Writing three thousand words a day was enough.
After chatting with Jin Xiaoye for a while, Li Qingzhi went downstairs to eat.
Chang Zhan was cooking, and Li Qingzhi stood beside him, openly learning.
If he just learned from the recipe, it would be easy to learn things like braised food, but it was different for other dishes, especially in this era where factors like timing and quantity were hard to grasp.
But when he watched Chang Zhan cook… Afterward, he could completely replicate the dishes with his excellent memory!
Chang Zhan made fish today.
He bought a large fat-headed fish, locally called a “baotou fish.”
He used the fish head to make fish head tofu soup, adding wolfberries. It looked especially good and seemed different from ordinary fish head soup.
As for the fish tail, Chang Zhan cut it into sections and braised it with sugar and vinegar. Just smelling it made one’s appetite increase.
The four children ate rice mixed with tofu soup, plus the rich and delicious fish belly without the fish bones, and ate much more rice than usual.
After eating, Li Qingzhi called Chang Zhan to the study and discussed the opening of the braised food shop.
The lead types for printing books were not cheap, and the money from the Chang family selling houses and land had already been spent.
Next, they had to make money.
Chang Zhan also wanted to make money, and the two quickly worked out a plan.
In the next few days, Chang Zhan would go to nearby counties and even the prefectural capital to buy all the ingredients, prepare large pots and other things needed, and then they would start making braised food to sell.
After discussing it, Chang Zhan thought of Magistrate Zhang again: “Mr. Li, do you think my brother and the others going to the capital could save Magistrate Zhang?”
“I don’t know,” Li Qingzhi said.
Even in modern times, there is a lot of unfairness, let alone in this era.
The King of Jin definitely hated Magistrate Zhang now and wouldn’t let him off.
Li Qingzhi’s thoughts were correct. The King of Jin already hated Magistrate Zhang.
The people of the King of Jin’s faction had repeatedly submitted memorials, describing Magistrate Zhang as a cruel and evil person, and some even said that Magistrate Zhang had arbitrarily killed court officials and might even have rebellious intentions.
Lu Qingxi detested the King of Jin and initially wanted to use this matter to damage the King of Jin’s reputation, but now… it seemed unlikely.
In fact, the officials in the court all knew that Magistrate Zhang did this because the Lou family and Magistrate Yan had gone too far.
They also knew that the Lou family and Magistrate Yan were definitely guilty of capital crimes.
But how many of these people, who had never done anything wrong to their relatives, were there?
In their view, Magistrate Zhang didn’t need to resort to drastic measures! He certainly didn’t need to resort to killing directly!
Magistrate Zhang’s actions actually put him at odds with many officials!
Moreover, the Emperor’s days were numbered, and the King of Jin was the next in line for the throne… Who would want to offend him?
Ten days after the news reached the Linhu County, the members of the Lou family arrived in the capital.
The Lou family used to be ordinary peasants, without any background.
Suddenly gaining power and becoming someone even officials had to curry favor with… they didn’t know how to restrain themselves, and the list of their crimes was endless.
As a result, when Magistrate Zhang killed most of the adult men of the Lou family, the Lou family members who entered the capital were mostly left as widows and orphans.
As soon as these people entered the capital, they were taken away by the King of Jin. The next day, they sounded the gong to report to the court and accused Magistrate Zhang.
A group of women and children dressed in mourning, crying and wailing, looked pitiful. When the people of the capital saw this, some couldn’t help but think there was something wrong with Magistrate Zhang.
“He’s just a magistrate, why did he go and kill a county magistrate?”
“He even left the Lou family with nothing but widows and orphans.”
“This Lou family is related to the King of Jin. I heard that Magistrate Zhang did this out of resentment towards the King of Jin.”
…
Lu Qingxi was furious when he saw this situation: “Those fools don’t know anything! If it weren’t for the Lou family and that surname Yan going too far, why would Zhang Zhiru need to kill? With this one kill, he could lose his head and official hat!”
After scolding the commoners, he scolded the officials in the court: “Those officials are not good people at all; they are actually all siding with the King of Jin!”
Lu Qingxi vented to his confidants, then blamed Magistrate Zhang again: “Zhang Zhiru was also impulsive in his actions. Why was he so impulsive? Couldn’t he have taken it slow?”
“Your Excellency, what does the Emperor say?” The innkeeper asked Lu Qingxi.
“The Emperor hasn’t been able to eat for the past few days and has been afflicted by anger!” Lu Qingxi said.
“Your Excellency, the Emperor is still alive, but the King of Jin is acting so arrogantly, distorting right and wrong and pressuring the Emperor. It’s really outrageous.” The innkeeper incited hatred against the King of Jin, suggesting that the King of Jin didn’t care about the Emperor.
The Emperor was still alive, yet the officials in the court were all standing on the side of the King of Jin… How could the Emperor not be angry?
Of course, the Emperor was angry.
In fact, what the innkeeper said, Lu Qingxi had also told the Emperor, and the Emperor was very dissatisfied at the time.
But after feeling dissatisfied and thinking about his own health, the Emperor sighed deeply and did nothing.
Unbeknownst to anyone, the King of Jin had already gained considerable power. If he chose someone else at this time, could that person still fare well under the King of Jin?
Two years ago, he praised a child in the royal family, and a few days later, that child broke his leg and became lame from then on.
He didn’t want such things to happen again.
And there was Zhang Zhiru.
In the memorials Magistrate Zhang sent to the Emperor, in addition to detailing the crimes of the Lou family and Magistrate Yan, he also mentioned the issue of powerful families encroaching on land.
If the situation were allowed to deteriorate, the lives of the people of Daqi would undoubtedly become increasingly difficult.
If the Emperor were younger and healthier, he might have tried to deal with this matter, but now he was bedridden, with no energy to handle it!
The court officials might not even listen to him.
The Emperor’s mood became increasingly gloomy, and eventually, he fell ill for real.
At this time, Chang Duan and Feng Da dared not do anything else each day, focusing solely on binding books.
Their hands were covered in many needle holes, but they paid no attention to it and continued binding books without stopping.
Time passed quickly day by day.
In this era of poor communication, the Emperor arranged for people to investigate the situation in Linhu County. They only returned to the capital half a month after receiving Magistrate Zhang’s memorial.
After questioning them, they learned that there was not a single false statement in Magistrate Zhang’s memorial, and the people of Linhu County had indeed been severely harmed.
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