"Cousin Yunhua, I haven't seen you for a long time, don't come unharmed. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Seeing Cui Yunhua again, Zhou Ming greeted her and asked her about her situation in the past few years.

However, when I saw the child she held in her arms, after marrying a woman, she had a somewhat round and fat body, a shallow smile at the corner of her mouth, and a noble appearance, she knew that she should have lived a relatively happy life over the years, and when she asked, she found out that she was married to Li Da, the sister-in-law of the Li family of Zhao County, one of the six surnames and eight families.

Li Da, the word Kangming, this person is known for his virtuous name and dignified appearance, and what is more difficult is that he is single-minded, after getting married, he and Cui Yunhua respected each other like a guest, and soon had a man...... They have become a well-known model couple in the marriage relationship of the family.

Speaking of which, the couple can come together is also thanks to Zhou Ming, because Cui Yunhua's husband Li Da is also a die-hard fan of Mr. Zihua, and he admires Mr. Zihua's articles and poems, especially comics, to the point of obsession.

It's just that Zhongzhou is too far away from Qingzhou, and "Zihua Anthology" and "Comics" are too few in circulation, desperately searching, and he can't find the complete collection of Mr. Zihua's works, and there are many missing in the middle, which is extremely regrettable.

It just so happened that after receiving a full set of collections presented by Zhou Ming, Cui Yunhua, who brought these collections to Zhongzhou, quickly became the hottest figure.

This back and forth, the strange feelings between men and women, coupled with common hobbies, finally come together, it is a matter of course.

……

Ma Dexi, who stayed at Cui's house in Qinghe for three days, and returned to the imperial capital first, sent someone back a holy message: expressing the feelings of His Majesty the Ming Emperor and the Queen of Heaven Niangniang, who were eager to see him, and urged him to stay less and enter Beijing quickly.

Zhou Ming nodded, made a little preparation, and set off early in the morning of the second day, along the wide and straight official road, playing the plaque of "Facing the Holy Order", without any stop in the middle, with a bang, and in the afternoon and evening of the same day, he arrived at Luojing City, the imperial capital of Zhongzhou, which was hundreds of miles away.

Now it is the spring of March, the season of birds singing and flowers, and thousands of trees competing for glory, and the beauty of this giant city in front of me makes people palpitate.

In front of this huge city standing on the flat plain, like a huge square chessboard, the circumference is more than 100 li, the city is 12 zhang high, the moat is surrounded by Qu and Luo Ershui, the water surface is 20 zhang wide, the permanent population in the city is more than one million, there are multiple urn cities inside, there are tens of thousands of acres of vegetable gardens and farmland, it can be self-sufficient, even if it is a million army, it is difficult to capture.

At this time, the sun is setting, the golden light of the city is diffused, the peach blossoms by the moat are open, the dragon flag is displayed on the city gate, the female wall battlements like gears, and the soldiers stand in equidistant columns, full of energy.

The stone arch bridge deck at the entrance of the city gate, people are like swimming dragons, shuttling back and forth, so lively.

"The style of the imperial capital, just standing and watching from a distance, you can feel a heavy dragon aura, rushing towards your face. It is said that some foreign envoys from all over the Western Regions saw this city, and immediately knelt on the ground and said: "This city of gods cannot be built without the power of the gods, and those who live in the city must be gods, and extraordinary men and women are also ordinary people!"

Lu Wencai shook his head and sighed.

"Luo Jing, known as Shenjing, is indeed true. ”

Zhou Ming was also shocked by this city, as long as this city can be preserved intact for thousands of years and not destroyed in the flames of war, there is absolutely no problem in evaluating a "miracle of world civilization".

An ancient city with a population of one million, there is only one such city on this planet.

"Mr. Zihua is here!"

"Mr. Zihua has arrived in the imperial capital!"

"Mr. Zihua, can you go to my master's mansion Zhang Shilang for a few days?"

There was a commotion at the stone arch bridge in front of him, and to Zhou Ming's surprise, there were many people from the imperial capital who stood at the gate of the city to greet him.

Tens of thousands of people gathered, some were sent by the big families, there were representatives of merchants, there were high-ranking officials of the imperial court, and even several noble princes, each sent a team of elite warriors over, saying that they had invited Mr. Zihua to come to the door as a guest, and they hoped to appreciate the light.

After Zhou Ming apologized for these invitations, he politely excused himself and went straight to the property founded by his family in the imperial capital, Deyun Building.

The reason for rejecting these invitations is not that Zhou Ming pretends to be high and wants to improve his qualifications, but because as long as he agrees to any family's invitation, no matter how noble the status of the owner of this family is, he will immediately offend countless forces that he politely refuses, and will become the target of public criticism.

Many times, face is fame, and if you lose other people's face and break the other party's reputation, it's no wonder that they don't hate you to the core.

Therefore, instead of pandering to one and offending one, it is better not to cater to one and not to offend anyone.

……

Twenty-sixth year of the Heavenly Sage, March 18.

Imperial capital, Daming Palace, Taiji Palace.

After the headache was relieved, the emperor Li Zhi, who had rarely been in the court several times in recent times, and today he and the queen Wu Mei were all in good spirits, and they appeared on the dragon throne at the same time.

After discussing daily state affairs, the ministers in the palace rarely quieted down together, especially when they heard the eunuch's shrill voice shouting: "Xuanqingzhou celebrity, Mr. Zihua has entered the palace to meet him!", he was even more energetic, and couldn't help but turn his neck, and glanced towards the door of the main hall from the corner of his eyes.

"Tread, step, step. ”

A burst of unhurried footsteps, coming from far to near, gradually became clear.

Until a young man with sword eyebrows and starry eyes, a high crown and jade belt, a white robe, fluttering sleeves, and not very white skin, but he looked heroic and handsome, strode into the Taiji Hall......

What a handsome and elegant man, unparalleled in the world!

He is the world-famous Mr. Zihua?

Young, so young!

In the gaze of countless spotlights, the man in white walked to the end of the main hall, stood in the middle of the ministers, shook his sleeves, bowed his hand deeply, and said loudly: "Caomin Tianjian, meet His Majesty the Emperor Ming, meet the Queen of Heaven!"

"Bold! Why don't you kneel when you see Your Majesty and the Queen of Heaven?"

The eunuch in charge of the ceremonies in front of the hall was furious, and the dust in his hand pointed at him and scolded.

The ministers were also slightly surprised, and looked at him in unison.

Zhou Ming raised his head and said: "The grass people are here by holy decree, they are guests invited by His Majesty, and since they are guests, how can they kneel to the master as soon as they meet, which is unreasonable." ”

The eunuch was obviously stunned, and then pointed at him and scolded: "Dare to make a fool of the people! Sitting on the true dragon son of heaven and the queen of the nine heavens, how can you be a mortal, if you don't kneel down again, you will be treated with a ......."

"Okay, Mr. Zihua is reasonable, he came here with a special edict by my holy decree, and he is my guest, it is indeed unreasonable to let him kneel, it is still exempt from courtesy!"

Emperor Li knew.

"Your Majesty Emperor Xie Ming!"

Zhou Ming bowed deeply, as he guessed, Emperor Li Zhi was indeed a generous and humane emperor, and he listened to some truths.

If the one sitting on the top is Wu Mei, the queen of heaven alone, then he kneels and knocks three times, he can't escape no matter what.

At this time, Zhou Ming didn't look at the look on Wu Mei's face, and it seemed that she had always maintained that smile without any fluctuations, and others couldn't guess what she really thought in her heart.

After the small episode, the hall was slightly cold for a while, and Emperor Li Zhi took the initiative to open the conversation and asked some questions that interested him.

For example, where is Mr. Zihua, who are his parents, how many brothers are in the family, who are the teachers, and what he saw and heard along the way some time ago, and what anecdotes he encountered.

Zhou Ming answered these questions fluently, without stage fright, and also used a humorous tone to tell more than a dozen fascinating stories, which caused the court to laugh from time to time, and the atmosphere in the Taiji Hall soon became warm.

is the queen Wu Mei, who has also been teased several times, like a girl, covering her mouth and laughing.

"Tian Zihua, you have been to the Western Regions, participated in the Battle of Stone City, and defeated Tufan Lun Zanqin, I don't know what you think about the land of the Western Regions?"

An old gray-haired civil servant suddenly asked him.

Zhou Ming pondered for a while, spit out sixteen words: "The Western Regions are in hand, and the country is peaceful and peaceful." The Western Regions are lost, and the soldiers are not stopped!"

"Nonsense!"

The old civil official refuted: "In order to pass through the Western Regions, the imperial court transfers more than 300,000 troops every year, requisitions millions of people, and spends tens of millions of dollars and grain...... After the move of the Western Regions, it is better to end it quickly, and that barren land, don't do it!"

Obviously, this civil official has a lot of opinions on the imperial court's vigorous management of the Western Regions, especially after reading Zhou Ming's "Stone Town War", he can't say anything about it, only disgust from the bottom of his heart.

The battle of Stone Town is not necessary to fight at all, it is meaningless to pay such a big price and casualties to occupy a barren land, and the huge investment of the imperial court is better used to improve the people's livelihood, relieve the pressure of the people, and rest with the people.

As for the interracial threat...... As long as everyone understands the principles of the sages and influences them with morality, there is no need to use swords, and the threat will disappear.

"Hehe, the most stupid of the people!"

Zhou Ming sneered, and then expounded the importance of the Western Regions to the Great Zhou from military, economic, cultural and other aspects, and even asserted: Without the Western Regions, the Great Zhou, which has lost the northwest barrier, will definitely face the Turkic, Without the Western Regions, the Great Zhou, which lost its important source of gold and silver currency, would surely have come to a standstill in economic development; without the Western Regions, the grand occasion of the coming of all nations to the dynasty would no longer be seen, and diplomatic relations with other countries would have been forced to be suspended, and the Great Zhou would not be known to foreign countries, and cultural exchanges would also have come to a standstill.

All kinds of arguments were clear and well-argued, and they were convincing, and the old civil servant who refuted them was speechless and unable to deal with them.

Of course, the remoteness of the Western Regions and the difficulty of supplying and transporting supplies did bring great burdens and pressures to the state, and Zhou Ming put forward the good policy of "merchants transporting grain and the army doing business" in due course, saying that businessmen are highly profitable, and as long as they have 30 percent of the profits, their commercial activities will be active; if they have 100 percent of the profits, they will not be afraid of any road obstacles and dare to go anywhere; and if they have 300 percent of the profits, they will defy all the laws of the world and sell the rope that hanged them.

Requisitioning merchants to transport grain, even if they grab up to 50% of the profits, can save countless people.

By joining the silk business, even if the garrison in the Western Regions only earns hundreds of thousands of taels of gold and silver every year, the pressure on the common people will be reduced a lot, and the national economy will also be benignly developed.

Of course, there are pros and cons to everything, and encouraging commerce can bring many benefits on the one hand, but also many disadvantages on the other.

However, Zhou Ming didn't want to go too deep into how to try his best to dig out the benefits and avoid the disadvantages as much as possible...... He couldn't finish talking about it for three days and three nights, he just put forward these two feasible suggestions, and he didn't care whether others adopted them or not.

"Feasible! Feasible! These two strategies are good strategies to ease the strength of our Great Zhou people, and they should be adopted as soon as possible!"

Emperor Li Zhi was very excited, feeling that these two strategies were very feasible, and adopted them without much thought, and more than a dozen officials were just about to raise objections, but they were immediately suppressed by him, and the proposal was passed.

"Mr. Zihua is talented, I don't know if he has the idea of being promoted to the office, entering the dynasty as an official, and benefiting the people of the Great Zhou?"

Wu Mei, the queen of heaven who had not said anything just now, stared at Zhou Ming with burning eyes and asked, it was obvious that she had moved her mind to recruit talents and use them for herself.

Hearing this, Zhou Ming shook his head, arched his hand and said: "Your Royal Highness, the grass people are just a prosperous literati, and they don't have the idea of becoming an official. ”

Don't want to be an official?

Everyone in the hall was stunned, including Emperor Li Zhi and Queen Wu Mei, who were sitting on the dragon chair and phoenix, and they were very stunned.

In these years, there are still people who don't want to be officials, but just want to be a genius and weirdo who is a prosperous literati.

As a result, many officials began to persuade him, saying a bunch of words such as "talented people are high, and they should ask for their lives for the people", "they are talented and should benefit the Great Zhou more", "they rely on their talents, and they have no responsibility to serve the country and the people", and so on, from persuasion to criticism.

The meaning expressed is basically the view that "with great ability, great responsibility".

Emperor Li Zhi also said cordially: "Tian Zihua, are you afraid of failing in the examination? Don't worry, I can be promoted to you exceptionally, reward you with a seven-grade official body, and let you be the first county magistrate?"

Zhou Ming shook his head again, and said something that caused an uproar among the people in the palace, and he said: "It's not that the grass people are afraid of the imperial examination, if the grass people are asked to take the examination, it is to take the top prize, and it is like digging into the bag to get things, the grass people just don't want to be officials, and they can't be officials! Because, if the grass people are officials, they will make the grass people fall into ambush, be greedy, be strong and law-abiding, and the officials will not make a living, and they will attract endless resentment and even killing...... Instead of this, it is better to be chic and free, and be a happy idler!"

"Arrogant! too arrogant!"

"This son doesn't know how thick the sky is!"

"I'm disappointed, this Tian Zihua, he didn't do it for a day, he dared to release such nonsense, we have been an official for decades, why don't he say a word?"

"This son has a saying that is not wrong, if he is an official, he will definitely invite death!"

His Royal Highness's ministers were in a state of applause and discussions.

Emperor Li Zhi and Queen Wu Mei, who were sitting in the palace, also looked at each other helplessly, a little crying and laughing.

Tian Zihua, the number one man in the world, is indeed worthy of his name, but he didn't expect that he is still the number one madman in the world, young and frivolous, crazy to the limitless.