Chapter 69: Bottom Fishing

  Who is in charge if the king does not take charge?

  Although it's just a couplet, it still depends on who said it and in what situation.

  Xiao Wangye Xia Zhi originally was the royal family of the Great Xia Empire's prince, from his mouth came out, could it be that Prince Xia Liang himself had complaints?

  Xia Ming Emperor is in a "living dead" state, and now the Great Xia Dynasty is governed by the Empress Dowager who holds court and issues edicts.

  It was only sixteen years later that the Great Xia Empire was in a state of prosperity and peace, with everything going smoothly. Even though Emperor Ming of Xia was not on the throne, it did not affect the operation of the entire empire.

  Resisting foreign invasion has General Zhou's divine strategy.

  Inside the imperial court, there are four great national public offices and the officials of the imperial court who jointly manage state affairs.

  However, since the incident with Emperor Xiaoming, the Shengguo Gongfu of Shen Nong Fu was destroyed overnight, and the other three national gongfus became much more honest, retreating to their own domains and not daring to share power with the Grand Secretary in court as before.

  Thus, the power of the imperial court, that is, the power of the empress dowager became greater and greater, while the power of the four major national dukes' mansions became smaller and smaller.

  It's clear to anyone with eyes to see that this game is a gamble between the imperial family and the four great noble families.

  If this couplet reaches the Empress Dowager's ears, Prince Xia Liang will be in for another scolding.

  As the only prince of Dashahuang City nowadays, Xia Liang is an existence that can be blamed at any time.

  It's easy for people to understand that the king is dissatisfied with the empress dowager's interference in politics when his son Xia Zhi says "If the king doesn't take charge, who will?"

  Especially today's empress dowager is neither the birth mother of Xia Ming Emperor nor surnamed Xia, but a pure outsider.

  The Empress Dowager also particularly dislikes others mentioning this point.

  For the past sixteen years, anyone who mentioned this matter was either demoted to a remote and desolate place or had their family exterminated. The methods were ruthless, with no mercy shown.

  The people in the Daxia Imperial Palace have been keeping silent all these years. As long as the Daxia Empire still exists, whoever is sitting in that position giving orders can be temporarily ignored.

  But with this couplet coming out, does it mean that people in the imperial clan also don't want to tolerate anymore?

  Are there still some people who can't wait?

  It was just an instant, and a string of causes and consequences flashed through Wang's mind.

  Her mind was suddenly in a mess, and she didn't speak for a long time.

  Sheng Siyan watched Wang Shi's expression change, and she knew that what she had just said seemed to be a problem. She thought carefully, except for the couplet, there was nothing out of place?

  Was Niang worried that she had offended the Wu family?

  "...... daughter?" Sheng Siyan called out nervously, "Did I say something wrong?"

  Wang's eyes sparkled as he looked at her and thought it was time to tell her something about the imperial court.

  The 'daughter' of a noble family is more knowledgeable than the 'daughter' of an ordinary commoner, because she is in a wealthy and prestigious environment and cannot be completely unaware of court politics. Moreover, the legitimate 'daughter' of a noble family will generally marry into a family of equal status and become the mistress of the house, it is impossible for her to only manage the inner courtyard and be completely unaware of external affairs.

  A simple sentence: The mistress of a wealthy family can't just rely on being virtuous and beautiful like a flower.

  "Si Yan, Mother asked you, the couplet that young Master Wang said, was it something he came up with on the spot, or did he hear someone else say it?" Madam Wang asked gently and persuasively.

  Sheng Siyan thought for a moment about the situation at that time and said, "Young Master Wang seemed to mention that he wanted to tell his master that my goods were better than his." Then she added another sentence, "I heard Wu Erguniang say that his master was Zheng Lao Yezi, the Duke of Zheng Guo Gongfu, who is also Wu Erguniang's maternal grandfather."

  "It turned out to be Zheng Suxin and Zheng Xiangrong's father." Wang smiled, feeling relieved. If it was related to the Zheng family, then it had nothing to do with the Sheng family.

  Moreover, Sheng Siyan's couplet, although somewhat disrespectful to the Wu family, would actually bring good fortune if it reached the Empress Dowager's ears.

  Wang looked at Sheng Siyan with a smile, pinched her red apple face and said: "You really are a lucky one. If you can be so lucky all your life, I'll be at ease."

  Sheng Siyan let out a sigh of relief, knowing that this hurdle was over. She hugged Wang Shi's arm and coquettishly said a few words before getting up to wash up in the bathroom.

  Wang went out to take care of household chores.

  The Wu State Duke's Mansion stepped forward to help the Sheng family entertain guests, to welcome back the seventh young master of the Sheng family and wash away his travel fatigue. The Sheng family couldn't just do nothing either.

  Next, it's the Shi family's turn to invite all the colleagues and relatives of the various families.

  Sheng Siyan helped Wang Shi 'manage' this matter, from the dishes for the banquet guests to the list of invited guests, Wang Shi brought her along to take care of everything.

  Watching Wang and the kitchen aunt calculating the bill, Sheng Siyan clicked her tongue and said: "This round of entertaining guests will probably cost more than 10,000 taels of silver. How can we afford it?"

  The annual salary of the national duke's mansion is only 100,000 taels of silver. It hasn't even entered winter or passed the New Year yet. During the New Year, inviting guests and giving gifts are like the fine rain on a spring day, continuous and unending.

  The silver flowed out like seawater.

  Wang looked at the bill in her hand and sighed, saying: "This silver is dead when it's in my hands. When I spend one, there will be one less. It can't be spent like this. Money should make more money. But... alas..." She shook her head and wrote down another expense on the paper.

  Sheng Siyan listened in her ear, after asking Wang Shi for peace at night, Sheng Siyan whispered: "Mother, I heard that the four major national public houses have their own farms and tenant farmers, as well as shops and businesses. What about our Sheng family's farms?"

  Wang sighed and stroked Sheng Siyan's head, saying: "The Sheng family was raided sixteen years ago, everyone in the mansion, regardless of age, was beheaded. Think about it, what could have been left behind? - Of course, everything was taken away."

  "But didn't the Empress Dowager let Father inherit the title? If it's an inherited title, then the Shi family's property should also be inherited by Father. Many things shouldn't be ancestral properties, right? Mother, did the Empress Dowager forget?" Sheng Siyan asked anxiously.

  Wang sighed and said, "The empress dowager would not covet such trivial things. However, when the house was searched initially, many items were secretly kept by those underlings and not handed over. How can the imperial court return them? The deeds to the land, houses, and shops have all disappeared, who knows whose pockets they have lined? You are well aware that during my time with your father, the Sheng family had already fallen, so even I do not know which estates, fields, and shops belonged to the Shengs, let alone where their accumulated wealth of a thousand years has gone."

  Sheng Siyan was shocked, her mouth agape for a long time before she finally spoke: "So it wasn't the Empress Dowager's order that made everyone return the stolen goods..."

  Wang was originally full of sorrow, but after hearing Sheng Siyan's words, she couldn't help but laugh and said: "You kid, you can still make your mother happy."

  Sheng Siyan hastily said: "I really thought so!" The script of the play she had read before was performed like this.

  The curtain was lifted, and Sheng Qiye walked in with a smile: "You two don't have to worry. The wealth of the Sheng family has been accumulated for thousands of years, but it's not actually in those external things. Most of our belongings are in 'Yao' Mountain and the place I used to live. Those people have an old relationship with my family, so half of our family's wealth is stored there. As for the estate and land, we need to take them back because they are the ancestral lands of the Sheng family and cannot fall into outsiders' hands. The shops, however, only the 'Yao' pharmacy belongs to the Sheng family. In the past, three old shopkeepers were in charge, but now that the old shopkeeper has passed away, the people below have risen up and divided our family's belongings."

  Sheng Siyan listened blankly, and asked suspiciously: "'Medicine' Mountain? Is it the 'Medicine' Mountain next to Wangjia Village?" He then said: "Father, how do you know all this? Didn't you grow up in a temple before?" How could he have known about the Sheng Guo Gong Fu's family secrets?

  Sheng Qiye sighed and said, "It was my father who made preparations in advance. He left a copy of the Sheng family tree with those people, which, apart from the names and ranks of family members, recorded the family's assets."

  Looking at the stunned expressions of Wang Shi and Sheng Siyan, Sheng Qiye smiled wryly, "You don't have to be surprised. I dare say that the other three major national dukes' mansions are also like this, storing these things elsewhere. Even if there wasn't the disaster back then, they would still need to guard against thieves and fire. This is a convention."

  Zhurong is the god of fire.

  The houses of Daxia are mostly made of wood, once a fire breaks out, everything turns into ashes.

  Sheng Siyan was the first to react and said: "Dad, then let's go get those things back?"

  Sheng Qiye smiled and said, "I had already copied a copy back. It's just that after the restoration of the title, I've been busy to the point of being unable to 'breathe', without any time to deal with these trivial matters."

  Wang couldn't help but say: "Are these trivial matters? Only today did I realize that the 'medicine' houses throughout the land are actually owned by the Sheng family!"

  "Is the imperial pharmacy really that amazing?" Sheng Siyan asked in confusion. As a young girl who had just risen from being a village maiden in a small mountain village to becoming the eldest daughter of a top-tier aristocratic family in the capital, Sheng Siyan found that there was much for her to learn.

  "It's not a big deal. However, 60% of the 'medicinal' materials used in the Great Xia Empire are supplied by the Tianxia Pharmacy. The Great Xia Empire has five states and thirteen roads, and the Tianxia Pharmacy has opened hundreds of stores, covering all five states and thirteen roads." Sheng Qiye said calmly, "In recent years, there have been three main old shopkeepers at the Tianxia Pharmacy. Let's wait a few days, after we've finished entertaining our guests and passed the new year, then we'll talk about it."

  Wang refused, thought for a moment, and said: "Can't give them time to prepare. You give me the names of these three families, I'll send someone to their homes tomorrow, and ask the owners to come to Sheng Guo Gong Fu to talk. See which day is free, 'spare' some time to see them. Pretend not to know about past matters, you are the master, let's see what they plan to do."

  Sheng Qiye listened to Wang's words and nodded, saying: "I'll do as you say." He then turned to Sheng Siyan and said: "You go back and rest. Your eyes are sunken from lack of sleep."

  Sheng Siyan smiled and bowed her knees to Sheng Qiye and Wang Shi, bidding them goodnight.

  The next day, Sheng Siyan ordered her maid to pay attention and see if anyone from the Tianxia Medicine House came to visit their house. However, after waiting for several days, until it was almost time for the banquet at the Sheng's house, not one of the three shopkeepers had come to visit!

  Wang and Sheng Qiye seemed to be expected, without paying attention. However, Sheng Siyan was annoyed. She huffed and puffed at Wang: "Mother, how dare they be so arrogant? They occupied the east house's property, do they really think these things are theirs?"

  Wang said calmly, "I sent someone to invite them to talk, originally just to probe and see if they had the deed of the Tianxia Medicine House. You should know that when we were confiscating their property back then, no one knew who had secretly taken these deeds."

  Sheng Siyan suddenly understood and clapped her hands, laughing: "So that's it! That means if they came, it would mean they still don't know our contract is lost. Which family's master wants the shopkeeper to speak up, who dares not go? But now they refuse to come 'in', it means they not only know we've lost the contract, but this contract should be in their hands! That's why they can be so fearless!"

  "It's true." Wang smiled and nodded, "It seems that they not only took advantage of the Sheng family's difficulties to kick them while they were down, but also went to the yamen to file a complaint."

  The ownership of the shops in the Great Xia Dynasty all have to go through a registration procedure at the government office. Without the signatures and seals of both parties, relying solely on a contract, it is still impossible to register the shop under one's own name.

  "But at that time, there was no one in the Sheng family. How did they get the signature and seal of the Sheng family to transfer the property?" Sheng Siyan caught the loophole.

  Wang thought for a moment and said: "Probably because they thought all the Sheng family members were dead, so the government handled it as a special case."

  Sheng Siyan's eyes rolled around and she said: "But now my father is still alive, can he say that the previous procedures were problematic and should be invalidated?"

  Wang shook his head, "I don't know about this. The key is that there's no time to deal with it now. Let's focus on taking care of the matters related to inviting colleagues and friends first."

  Sheng Siyan nodded and went down to help Wang Shi prepare the list.

  By noon, her maid Mugun came to report: "Miss, there is a girl named Niu Xiaoye visiting outside, saying that she was your classmate and good friend."

  "Is that Xiao Ye?!" Sheng Siyan's eyes lit up, "Quickly call her in! I have something to ask her right now!" Sheng Siyan remembered that Niu Xiaoye's family was now a royal merchant, and they must be very familiar with these shops.

  Mu Ge went out and led people in.

  "Siyan, what are you busy with?" Niu Xiaoye smiled and chatted with Sheng Siyan, then asked her: "I want to ask for a invitation card from your family to help my brother, can I?"

  "Of course, I'll take care of it," said Sheng Siyan with a heroic tone. "Do you know what procedures are needed to buy a shop?" he asked her again.

  "What's this? Your family wants to buy a house? You can ask my brother! He knows, he's currently in Beijing helping a wealthy family from Jiangnan with buying and selling houses and land. Yeah, it's the Wang family." Ni Xiao Ye inadvertently revealed the relationship between Wang Er Ge and her family.

  Sheng Siyan secretly remembered it in her heart, chatted with Niu Xiaoye for an entire afternoon, and then had dinner with her before sending her out.

  Sheng Siyan escorted her all the way to the entrance, but saw Wang Erge wearing a sky blue brocade changshan, with a white jade belt around his waist, standing in front of a large carriage at the entrance with his hands behind his back. His pale and gentle face was as bright and warm as the clear sky.

  The first update is 4,000 words. Hmm, it's Monday, so I'm asking for a few pink tickets and recommendation tickets. There will be an additional update this afternoon.

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