The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

"…Madam, urgent news came from Lord Lin, saying that someone was found secretly offering sacrifices to evil gods in Yunzhou. After interrogation, it was found that the Red Sun Cult was behind it."

"Yunzhou?" Xie Yuzhen frowned, "...Isn't my sister also setting up a girls' school there? Did Guanying meet them?"

"Not yet." Xia Zhi said, "Lord Lin entered from the border between Luzhou and Yunzhou. He and the person who runs the Yingyang Academy are in the north and the south respectively. I'm afraid it will take some time before we can meet them."

Xie Yuzhen pulled a map from the table and circled Yunzhou with a red pen. She thought for a moment, then circled the three prefectures on the left and right of Yunzhou, including Luzhou, with cinnabar. "Tell people to pay more attention to the movements of these four prefectures, especially the temples and Taoist temples on festival days, as well as the incense vendors, paper money, wood, and spice merchants, as well as the pharmacies and clinics... and the movement of money and grain. Keep an eye on them all."

"Yes." Xia Zhi couldn't help asking, "My Lady, are there going to be any unusual movements in these states?"

Xie Yuzhen gently put down the brush with the tip dipped in red and shook his head: "The Red Sun Cult can't cause such a big commotion, but they have always been good at hiding. I just can't figure out where their base is for the time being."

As he spoke, he motioned Xia Zhi to fetch him a blank memorial, then he spread out the paper and began to write a memorial to be presented to the emperor: "Once we have found out the location of the stronghold, we will have to ask the local officials and soldiers to cooperate and jointly crack down on this cult. From time to time, there are people who use the name of the Red Sun Cult to cheat people. If they just want to make a living and don't hurt anyone, it would be fine. But now they have started to offer sacrifices to evil gods and perform obscene rituals. It's really true that the world has been peaceful for a long time, and those ghosts and weird things have become bolder!"

There are currently no ghosts or gods in this world.

Xie Wei was very clear about this.

Her soul was damaged, so she could only practice the first half of the magic technique. However, Lu Weiyuan, who had practiced the complete technique, never hid anything from her mother. She reported her practice progress almost every month. Half a year ago, Lu Weiyuan said in person that her practice speed was getting faster and faster, and the mysterious existence called "aura" by the world consciousness and dream makers was getting stronger and stronger.

To give an example, the concentration of spiritual energy that Lu Weiyuan could sense before was like throwing a grain of salt into a bowl of the sea. Starting from half a year ago, the concentration of spiritual energy in this bowl has been slowly increasing at a rate of two grains of salt every three months. Although it is still very small, and perhaps Xie Yuzhen will not be able to see the birth of a second cultivator other than his daughter in his lifetime as a human being, this tiny change is enough to cause earth-shaking changes in some things in this world other than humans.

for example.

Plants.

Xie Yuzhen looked at an orchid she kept by the window. This orchid was a unique variety of Dasheng Jingzhou, with slender leaves. The top-quality plants had flowers that were as white and warm as jade, with a very short flowering period and no fragrance. They were called humble gentlemen and were very popular among some people. The one she kept by the window had leaves as emerald-like in texture, and the flowers no longer fell after blooming, but the texture became more and more like a piece of beautiful jade.

It is a pity that this orchid does not have any extraordinary function as described in strange stories and legends of immortals. It is still just an orchid, but it looks better and has a longer flowering period.

Since discovering this change, Xie Yuzhen secretly ordered Xie Jinchao to bring female doctors from all over to collect medicines to determine whether they have produced any different changes from the past.

After half a year of research and comparison, the female doctors gave an answer - the medicinal properties of the drugs seem to have been enhanced, and some drugs have even produced new effects, but further research is needed to reach an accurate conclusion.

"Guanying's letter said that a lot of gold and silver suddenly washed up on the beach near a fishing village in Yunzhou, and the Hongyang Sect member happened to pass by and told the people in the fishing village that the Dragon King in the sea wanted to get married, and the gold and silver were the betrothal gifts, and asked the villagers to choose a bride for the Dragon King as soon as possible..."

Xie Yuzhen took the written memorial to the emperor and took the opportunity when the emperor was reading it to talk about Lin Qiao's letter: "Otherwise, the Dragon King will be angry. At that time, not only will he take back the gold and silver, but he will also launch a tsunami to flood their entire village."

The emperor glanced at the memorial casually for a few seconds, then stamped it with his imperial seal and put it aside. Upon hearing this, he looked up at his wife and said, "You are really foolish."

He commented: "Now that you have all the gold and silver, why are you still clinging to that small fishing village? You might as well take the money and move the whole village inland. Can the old dragon still catch up with you to the shore? Do you have any shame?"

Xie Yuzhen: “…”

"Ahem." Clearing her throat, she pinched the emperor who was beginning to act unserious, "The people in the fishing village didn't believe it at first, but then a child in the village drowned with a gold nugget stuffed in his mouth, and then people from the neighboring village who came to exchange food said that their village had presented a bride to the Dragon King, and after the bride went into the sea, the whole village became rich..."

She sighed: "It's still a lack of education. Border areas like Yunzhou are not as prosperous as the Central Plains..."

"Fools are everywhere. No matter how much the family's granary is in deficit, there will always be people who are fooled by such things as gods and ghosts. What's more, human nature is greedy, isn't it?" He raised his hand to embrace Xie Yuzhen. "We set up official schools in various places, allowing poor children to be exempted from tuition and miscellaneous fees. They can work or provide side dishes to the official school canteen to earn daily expenses. The flow of merchants from various places is also included in the standards for official assessment. A large amount of money has been allocated to build roads... Although there may still be many places where the work is not good enough or sufficient, the tax revenue in various places has indeed increased slowly."

"Since I ascended the throne, I have never raised taxes. It is clear that after you came to power, you have also reduced taxes many times to benefit the people. Even so, in the past ten years, tax revenue has continued to increase slowly, and the people have not been exploited to the point of civil unrest. If the tax revenue only increased for one or two years, it might be that the people below exploited the people for the sake of appearance, but this has been twelve years."

The emperor never hesitated to recognize and praise Xie Yuzhen: "I have seen the unprecedented prosperity. Although the frontier land is a little slow, it will eventually be prosperous in the hands of our children. We will leave one day and cannot protect her forever. I know you can't let go completely. I wish you could arrange everything for Yuanjun."

"But the child will eventually grow up. Although she is very intelligent, she still needs to be trained. At the age of fifteen, it is time for her to do things for her parents. Let her take the people to Yunzhou to handle this matter. I haven't been on tour for a long time. My husband and I will tour Dasheng from another direction, and then meet her in Yunzhou to inspect the results. How do you think?"