In the eighth year of Xining, the court at the end of October was very lively, it was the twenty-seven-year-old emperor who pinched his brows from time to time, looked at the prime minister Wang Anshi who was obviously in a bad mood on the side, and then looked at the noisy ministers, I had to sigh, since the proposal to prepare the army, such a situation in the court has happened from time to time.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I remember that Lord Zhao, the governor of Yuezhou, once wrote that Wu Yue would face a famine, what is happening now?" The Emperor wanted to put aside this troublesome issue of organization for a moment, but suddenly remembered another matter that worried him, and he couldn't help but sit up straight and interrupt the ministers who were arguing fiercely.

Hearing the emperor's question, the hall was a little quiet for a while, and many eyes quietly swept over the solemn Prime Minister, since Xining was demoted for three years, the former iron-faced Imperial History Reading Lord has not entered the capital for five years, counting, now he is a sixty-seven-year-old man.

"Your Majesty, the minister is having a good performance, and Zhao Luan, the governor of Yuezhou, privately levied money and grain hoarding, causing the price of grain in Wuyue to skyrocket, ignoring the law of green seedlings." Prime Minister Wang Anshi came out of the line, his emotions were a little excited, he was fifty-four years old, after last year's resignation incident, he appeared in the court again, and he looked a lot older.

There was a whisper in the court, thinking that Lord Zhao, who was then the governor of political affairs, tried his best to promote Wang Anshi, who had a bullish temper, as the prime minister, but in a blink of an eye, the two turned their faces into enemies, the reason was because of the "Qingmiao Law", with the resignation of Lord Sima Guang as the deputy envoy of the privy council, Lord Zhao also wrote to resign, and the emperor was willing to stay, so he had to be demoted to Hangzhou.

Wang Anshi, who is the second phase, is also very anxious, his life's ambition is to strengthen the country and enrich the people, but it has not been realized, last year he had to go away in a bad mood, he couldn't bear the emperor's plea to enter the court again, and he felt more difficult, the most worrying thing was that the high-spirited little emperor at the beginning, also began to be a little perfunctory to him, in this case, who wants to move his new law, no wonder he Wang Anshi to who is anxious.

Now most of the people standing in the court are Wang Anshi's factions, and for a while, except for the buzzing whispered conversation, no one came out to speak.

The emperor sighed in his heart, subconsciously avoided Wang Anshi's aggressive gaze, and asked, "Is there really such a thing?" ”

At this moment, Shen Kuo, a scholar of Hanlin, stepped out, he had just returned from the Khitan, and presented a travelogue as before, which detailed the dangers of the mountains and rivers of the Liao State and the customs and customs reported to the imperial court, which made the little emperor very happy.

"Your Majesty, the disaster of Wuyue is indeed true, the minister has sent someone to check, because of the long drought this summer, the reduction of grain production in Wuyue has become a general trend, and the disaster of rice plague has been encountered, Lord Zhao's move is extremely wise." Shen Kuo Langlang said.

The emperor breathed a sigh of relief in order to relieve Zhao Luan's difficulty, and when he heard that the disaster was true, he was worried again, and said: "In this way, the treasury should allocate grain for disaster relief." ”

Shen Kuo bowed again and said: "Your Majesty doesn't need to worry, the minister hasn't finished speaking, fortunately one person has been cured of the rice plague, and Wu Yue has no big losses except for the reduction in yield caused by the drought." ”

Not only the emperor, but all the ministers became interested when they heard this, and at this time, the ministers also remembered the various pieces they had received earlier, and remembered the same name as the governor of the four or five places, so they played it one after another.

"Liu Yanzhang?" The emperor came to be interested, he is a young man with great ambitions, and worried about the country and the people, the most looking forward to is a rich country and a strong people, so Wang Anshi is highly respected and cared for, but last year's Zheng Xia incident brought him a great shadow, he never dreamed that he would push the new law of the rich country and the strong people, bringing it is indeed a miserable homeless map, which is a big blow to a young man with a dream, at this time I heard the drought and famine, the emperor couldn't help but sigh again, Could it be that God is really punishing him for forcibly changing the law of his ancestors? And the sudden appearance of Liu Yanzhang, who cured the rice plague, made the emperor's heart light up, maybe God did not want to cut off his life.

"This person is an old farmer in Wuyue?" The Emperor asked.

"Back to Your Majesty, according to Lord Zhao's description, this person is a sixteen-year-old boy, and moreover, he is a northerner." A minister replied that when he received the first letter, he didn't care, thinking that it was these local officials who were playing nonsense, but as the number of letters increased, it was the same person, especially the strict Lord Zhao wrote a note, saying that this was the blessing of my Great Song Dynasty, and asked the emperor to reward this young man, so he had to believe it.

"Sixteen!" The Emperor said in amazement, and he almost got up from the dragon chair, "A boy born in the north? Whose child is he? With such a powerful young age, wouldn't his family be even worse? ”

"Your Majesty, Cheng'an County ordered Zhu Wenqing to report that Liu Yanzhang is a native of Shifang Village in his county, and he has an old mother and wife at home, and reported that the rice planted by their family this year yielded eight stones per mu." Hanlin scholar Deng Juan hurriedly replied that he hadn't spoken in the court for a long time, and the emperor had clearly shown that he didn't like him, but the reluctant minister never said half a good word for him, and he wasted himself to impeach Lu Huiqing for him before he was regarded as a straw by everyone.

Deng Juan was always in the uneasiness of being demoted to the land of the Southern Barbarians, these days he could not speak without speaking, hoping that the emperor could ignore him, but at this time, he saw that the emperor was very interested in this young man, and he happened to see the cronies of Zeng Bu who was degraded.

"Eight stones!" The emperor was not only happy, he was simply excited, and there was also an uproar in the court, so the emperor looked at Wang Anshi, who had been silent, and asked modestly, "Aiqing, do you think this matter is true or false?" ”

There is also a reason why he asked Wang Anshi this, Wang Anshi has decades of experience as an official at the grassroots level, and the reason why the emperor trusts and maintains it in every way is because he is not an official for the sake of being an official, he is indeed dedicated to the wealth and strength of the Great Song Dynasty, for the sake of tens of millions of people, decades of grassroots experience, no one knows the people's suffering better than him.

"Back to Your Majesty, the old minister has never seen such a high-yield rice, but there are many strange people among the people, and this matter may not be Zhu Wenqing's nonsense." Wang Anshi replied solemnly.

"What kind of person is this person? How can you have such a skill at such a young age? The emperor listened to Wang Anshi's words, his heart was completely convinced, his heart was full of excitement, and he couldn't help but clap his hands and said, "This is God bless my dynasty and save the people of my Great Song Dynasty from starvation." ”

The ministers listened to the natural chorus and sang the promise in unison, congratulations to Your Majesty.

"Since this young man is concentrating on farming, he must not have gone to school." The Emperor said.

And Deng Juan almost knelt down to worship himself, because his unintentional move would bring a great turn to his fate, because after watching Zhu Wenqing's performance, he deliberately checked this year's scientific examination, and found that Liu Yanzhang participated in the state examination, but he didn't win, and anyone could hear that the emperor was deliberately going to add an official to this young man, so he hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, Liu Yanzhang is a student, and he has participated in the state examination in Kaifeng Mansion this year. ”

These words made the ministers of the court and the central government scold in their hearts, they are really people who tend to be inflammatory, and if they don't pass the exam, they will figure out the holy will and pat themselves.

"Really?" The emperor was even more surprised, and although the ministers of the court expressed great contempt for Deng Xuan's words, they didn't dare to fake nonsense in order to cater to the holy will, since this young man knows how to farm, he must be a farmer, but he is also a scholar, this is really... Extraordinary?

"It's okay if you don't pass the exam, who will take a trip for me? I want to give Liu Yanzhang the qualifications to be a jinshi, seal the Longtu Pavilion system, and judge the agricultural affairs. The Emperor said, with unconcealed excitement in his words.

The ministers were taken aback, this is too sudden, it is directly a six-rank official, everyone's eyes are on Wang Anshi, but the prime minister with a cold face seems to be wandering outside, and he didn't pay attention to the emperor's words at all, so after a moment of silence, Shen Kuo bowed and said: "The minister is willing to go and check on the spot to verify whether it is true." ”

At the same time as Lord Shen Kuo left, Liu Yanzhang, who was still called Xiaohu, was walking outside his gate, at this time in previous years, the peasants no longer had any work, either going out to find casual workers, or squatting at the entrance of the village to chat and mingle, and Liu Xiaohu entered the village, except for seeing the old people with faint eyes sitting in the sun and basking in the sun, he didn't see a dog running away.

He didn't know that the people in Shifang Village were busy, and the shed had been set up in the paddy field, which was the time to plant xerophytic vegetables, and the vegetables in the greenhouse had grown fresh and tender, and those emerald green spinach had attracted a lot of buyers.

Liu Xiaohu stared at this house with a neat façade for a long time, if it wasn't for Lin Saiyu in the letter, he really didn't dare to recognize this as his home, tied the thin donkey to the tree outside the door, the door was hidden, and it opened with a squeak, facing three bright rooms, except for a few big trees in the yard, all paved with stone bricks, only one girl wearing a green cloth shirt and combing a bun was there to cool her clothes, and she turned her head to look when she heard the movement.

"You beggar for food? How did you get in? Get out of here. Ying'er was startled by the person in front of her, shouted, and opened her hands to drive away.

"You're Ying'er, right?" Liu Xiaohu hurriedly smiled, looking at this round girl, it was really the same as described in Lindsay Yuxin's letter, her face, eyes, nose and even her body were round.

Ying'er was startled, and was about to ask, when Lindsay Yu came out of the kitchen and finished the noodles, and saw that someone thought it was a tenant and came to ask something, so she walked over and asked, "Ying'er, who is here?" ”

Liu Xiaohu looked at it when he heard the sound, and saw a sister with a face like a silver basin and eyes like apricots, wearing a purple silk jacket and a dark silk skirt, with her sleeves rolled up, revealing a slender wrist and wearing a silver bracelet, she shook her hand and walked over, and her eyes were full of swaying for a while, and she didn't dare to recognize that this was the eldest sister Cao she was familiar with.

"Lady, I'm back." Seeing Lin Saiyu approaching, Liu Xiaohu put away his amazement, and began to feel a little distressed, this woman has lost a lot of weight, her eyebrows and eyes can't hide a trace of tiredness, she is very hard, right?

Lin Saiyu looked at the ragged and dusty person in front of him, and his first thought was that the beggar came to the door to beg for food, and was just about to let Ying'er go to the kitchen to eat those meals, when he heard this person shout a lady, he was stunned for a moment, and after watching it for a long time, tears welled up.

"Oh my God, how are you... Lin Saiyu rushed over, grabbed his wrist and choked up, why was that sentence so bitter and unspoken, and ran into the house with Liu Xiaohu in his hand, shouting, "Mother, Erlang is back." As he spoke, he burst into tears.

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I wrote this chapter for half a day and two hours at night, so tired.