The next day, the two took Ling Quan and a few guards to set off for the Yellow River embankment. At first they rode horses, but then the roads became more and more muddy, so they had to abandon their horses and walk. As a result, it was only possible to travel forty or fifty miles in one day, and it took two days to reach the embankment. On the first night, they had to find a half-flooded house and spend the night on the roof.

Originally, sitting on the roof of the house and watching the stars, the flowers before the moon and the moon were very beautiful. But now the rain is intermittent, and they are covered in mud, and they can't make a fire to cook, so they sit on the roof of the house and get drenched in the rain while nibbling on the dry food they carry with them, which is very embarrassing. Shen Mingyuan, as a prince, doesn't actually need to suffer this crime. However, the Yellow River and Bianhe embankments were built by him with hand-selected drawings, and he was very confident in the plan he chose and the materials he used, but why did the Bianhe River burst after only three days of heavy rain? He thought about it and thought about it, he was not at ease with the Yellow River, the Yellow River is the second largest river in Dayang, and once it bursts, it will be several times more harmful than the Bianhe River, and he will come to see it anyway.

When there was nothing to do at night, Wei Yangyang asked the doubts that he had stored in his heart for two days: "Your Highness, why did you pick up two pieces of wood and leave at the Chenghuang Temple that day?" Shen Mingyuan groaned slightly, as if considering whether to tell her the answer. He thought for a while, deleted the important part, and only said the irrelevant part: "Kaifeng Mansion is a relatively large city, and the gate of the City God Temple here should be made of pine wood and iron plate according to the regulations, which is very strong. It stands to reason that even if two people use an axe to cut it, it is not easy to cut it, but you can easily cut it with a knife, tell me, why is this? ”

Wei Yangyang wanted to say, "It's not easy for me to cut it", but he didn't dare to talk such nonsense. She thought for a moment: "When I was in Hercy, I also cut my windows, bed boards, and my mother's jewelry box. Windows are the easiest to cut, bed boards are a little harder, and jewelry boxes are the hardest. Because the jewelry box is my mother's dowry, and it is made of fine wood. Shen Mingyuan agreed, and added her words: "Yes, the better the wood, the harder it is. The day before yesterday, I could chop off wood chips with a casual swing of your knife, which shows that wood is worthless. This only shows one thing: someone is cutting corners. ”

Wei Yangyang immediately understood what he meant: "Your Highness is saying that the person in charge of the construction is shoddy, and then puts the saved money into his own pocket?" Shen Mingyuan's expression became serious: "Yes, I have been growing up since I was a child, and I can be said to know all kinds of building materials well. The courtyard walls, main halls, golden bodies, and temple gates of the City God Temple all have corresponding regulations. The annual maintenance is also funded by the imperial court. I can now be sure that someone embezzled money. ”

Wei Yangyang muttered after hearing this: "Who is that?" This bit of money is also embezzled? Shen Mingyuan's expression became more and more solemn, and even his brows furrowed: "It's harmless to cut corners at the City God Temple." What worries me is what if the officials of Kaifeng Prefecture and even Yuzhou County cut corners when repairing the river embankment? Originally, the two of them were lying on the roof talking, but as soon as he said this, Wei Yangyang was so shocked that he immediately sat up: "The embankment also dares to cut corners?" If it were a breach, hundreds of thousands of people would be affected! Isn't this a lack of virtue? ”

Shen Mingyuan glanced at her and gritted his teeth angrily: "It's not just a lack of virtue, this is a big crime that should be killed!" He knew a thing or two about the various corrupt methods of the court officials, but when the water was clear, there were no fish, and he knew that it was impossible not to allow people to go home to collect silver. But what makes him sad is that if someone makes a fuss on the river embankment, the people will be displaced, and the court will adjust grain and silver. In the end, those people may have only made hundreds of thousands of taels or millions of taels, but the imperial court lost tens of millions of taels, and the people lost living lives and large tracts of first-class farmland.

The prosperous land of the Central Plains, which the Wei family army desperately protected, was destroyed by these moths. If Wei Yangyang knew the truth, he would definitely be furious. Thinking of this, Shen Mingyuan didn't dare to tell her all the things, and only mentioned it briefly. But Wei Yangyang was still angry, and he kept scolding: "These officials are really damned, aren't they afraid of retribution?" This is the first time I've been back to my hometown, and I'm so angry that I will encounter this kind of thing. ”

While scolding, she told the story of the day before yesterday when she encountered the temple to defraud the victims of money and goods. But Shen Mingyuan didn't notice how she said how she subdued that temple zhu, he only noticed one sentence, this is Wei Yangyang's hometown. He suddenly thought that Empress Zhang was also from Yuzhou County, and the British family was from Zhangde Mansion in Yuzhou. The Zhang family was the founding hero, much more powerful than the Haixi Wei family, covering almost the entire county of Yuzhou. Among the officials in charge of repairing the embankment, at least half of the people he knew were people who affirmed Minghuang. Where did the money go? The answer is already on the horizon.

He was a little disappointed and a little embarrassed in his heart. Their brothers have been fighting for many years, and on the surface, they are brothers and friends, but in fact, they have long been incompatible. After all, he has six brothers, but there is only one throne in the East Palace. The eldest brother, the third brother and the fourth brother are not sisters-in-law, and they have withdrawn from the competition for the crown prince early on. His opponents have always been the second brother Shen Mingbao and the fifth brother Shen Minghuang from Empress Zhang. But during the Battle of Qiantang, Shen Minghuang seized the handle of Wang Chengdan, the chief soldier of Ling and Zhejiang, so that the second brother Shen Mingbao, who was in charge of the military department, was rejected by his father. Now he has to deal with only Shen Minghuang.

The power that Empress Zhang's maiden family brought to Shen Minghuang was much greater than that brought to him by Empress Tang, and Shen Minghuang's intelligence and means were above him. Shen Mingyuan couldn't imagine what would happen if he failed to win the heir. He wants to be a vassal king in peace, but I'm afraid that he is dreaming, and the queen mother should also be implicated. Also, what about Wei Yangyang? How can I protect her?

Thinking of this, he suddenly turned over and asked a clueless question: "If I can't be the prince in the future, will you still be friends with me?" Just now, when Wei Yangyang saw him in deep thought, he didn't dare to speak, for fear of disturbing him. But now that he suddenly came up with such a sentence, Wei Yangyang was confused by the question for a while: "Can't you be the prince?" Why can't you be friends? Now His Royal Highness is not the crown prince. Aren't we friends? ”

When she said this, she felt a little lost, did the other party never regard her as a friend? Shen Mingyuan saw her expression and knew that she had a misunderstanding, so he had to pick it out and say: "You know that those who fail to seize the crown prince will end up very miserable, and I may not be able to be a prince when I want to." ”

Wei Yangyang wondered why he said this: "It doesn't matter, if His Royal Highness really can't be the prince, then buy a piece of land far away and move out of Huadu to live." Shen Mingyuan saw that she didn't understand anything at all, so he had to continue to explain to her: "I'm afraid that when the time comes, I won't be able to buy land if I want to." may be demoted, confiscated, reclaimed fiefdom, have nothing, stripped of the title, deposed as a concubine, or exiled, or", "or executed", he did not finish the half sentence for fear that Wei Yangyang would be frightened, so he did not say it.

Wei Yangyang disagreed: "Will you be exiled? Our Hercynian is a place of exile, and the worst thing is to go to Hercy. My sixth sister-in-law's maiden father came to us in exile, so she had the opportunity to meet my sixth brother. Your Highness can go back to Wei's house with me, I still have a hundred acres of sandy land, and we can herd sheep and horses. If it's not enough, let's go and eat our poor family Hachiro. I'm his sister.,Your Highness is my friend.,It's right for him to raise us.。。 She thought that she could go back to Haixi to eat poor Wei Bingyue, and she couldn't help laughing.

Shen Mingyuan thought that if Wei Bingyue heard her words, he was afraid that he would be so frightened that he would cut off the brother-sister relationship with her overnight. The battle for the prince is as simple as she thinks. He asked tentatively, "What if I am not exiled to Hercy." Wei Yangyang snapped his fingers and calculated very seriously: "Your Highness is so good to me, I can support Your Highness." The silver I saved should be enough for the two of us to live for the rest of our lives. ”

For the rest of my life, it was a very heavy commitment. Although she didn't say it in tune, it still aroused Shen Mingyuan's strong curiosity: "How much silver do you have?" Dare you say enough for the rest of our lives? Wei Yangyang raised two fingers: "By now, there should be more than twenty-six thousand taels." "More than 20,000 taels?" Shen Mingyuan was also shocked when he heard this amount, and he hurriedly sat up and asked, "How can you have so much silver?" ”

Wei Yangyang saw his surprised expression, and knew that more than 20,000 taels was a lot. Her tone was full of pride, and she even folded her fingers to count: "The money I earned by cutting people's ears before, plus my monthly silver, and my money, oh, and the more than eight thousand taels that His Highness gave me before." What she said was that outside the ancient city of Poling, Yuan Shukuo owed her eight hundred and seventy-one taels of silver, and she would definitely declare that Yuan would make it up to her. Later, Shen Mingyuan didn't break his promise when he returned to Hua, and really made up her eight thousand seven hundred and ten taels of silver tickets tenfold.

She continued to happily calculate the accounts: "The two of us take Ling Quan, it should be enough to buy a yard." It's just that His Highness can't eat and wear as much as he does now, and Gwangju Yunwu can't drink. But it's a little better than ordinary people, and it should still be okay. With me here, Your Highness doesn't need to ask for a nursery, and I have saved a sum of money. This money, hey, shouldn't be used up for half a lifetime. ”

More than 20,000 taels, although it is already a silver that ordinary people can't earn in a few lifetimes, but the amount spent in Qinghe Wangfu for a year is far more than that. The little money in her hand was just a drop in the bucket for Shen Mingyuan. But hearing her say that she was willing to support herself, Shen Mingyuan was still very moved: "No, I won't lose to the point where I want to use your silver." ”

Wei Yangyang said so sincerely, he was also ready to express his heart to the other party. He knew that the queen was very concerned about his marriage, and from childhood to adulthood, no matter which girl he had more contact with, the queen couldn't wait to find out the eighteenth generation of the other party's ancestors immediately. Now that Wei Yangyang has been in the Qinghe Palace, she should not restrain herself, otherwise the queen is afraid that she will not be allowed to associate with her anymore.

But he didn't know the bottom in his heart, so he decided to ask: "Luang, I only know that you were born in Ding Maonian, so what day is it?" He shouldn't have told others about his birthday casually, but he was very sad just now, and Wei Yangyang couldn't bear to refuse him: "I was born at noon on August 15. Shen Mingyuan suddenly realized: "Oh, you are a rabbit, and you were born on the Mid-Autumn Festival, no wonder Yuan Shukuo called you the Jade Rabbit Fairy of Haixi City." But it's a good day, why do you kill people? ”

He mentioned that he would be able to conquer people, and Wei Yangyang was also a little apprehensive in his heart. But when people interact with others, the emphasis is on honesty, not to mention that this kind of thing can't be hidden. She told the truth: "The fortune teller thought I was a boy, and said that noon was the time when the yang energy was at its heaviest, and it was a good eight character." But on August 15, the moon is the largest and roundest, but it is the day when the yin energy is at its peak. I'm a girl, and the yin and yang are out of balance, so it's very bad, and I have to have a man to suppress the yang energy in my body. When I was a child, I was often sick and the same was true, that is, I had a yin and yang imbalance in my body, and I had to be healthy after the age of eighteen before I could get married. ”

As soon as her words fell, Shen Mingyuan couldn't help but clap his hands: "Wonderful! Wonderful! Not only did he clap his hands, but he laughed so hard that he almost rolled off the roof and into the water. Wei Yangyang looked at him, and thought that he was crazy, and he was so frightened that he didn't dare to interrupt him, so he just looked at him motionless and laughed for a while. Shen Mingyuan's face was flushed with laughter, and he almost collapsed on the ground, and it took a long time before he had the strength to speak: "Yangyang, do you know when I was born?" ”

Wei Yangyang gave him Gwangju Yunwu as a birthday gift last year, knowing that he was born in July. But how dare she ask about the prince's eight characters casually, so she only knew that it was July, but she didn't know what year and day it was. Shen Mingyuan saw that he was dirty and didn't want to set his life's events for this embarrassment, so he took out a handkerchief and wiped his face clean, before telling her the answer: "I was also born in the year of Ding Mao, and I am the son of the fifteenth day of July." ”

"July 15." Wei Yangyang was thinking about this day, and she always felt that something was wrong. After repeating it a few times, she exclaimed: "July 15, no, no," The other party was the prince, and she didn't dare to say what she thought after several times. Shen Mingyuan knew what she was thinking, and continued her words: "July 15 is Halloween, and I was born when I was a child, and I am the man with the heaviest yin qi. He is the man with the heaviest yin energy, and Wei Yangyang is the woman with the heaviest yang energy, isn't the two of them a match made in heaven?

But Wei Yangyang once again grasped the wrong point, Wei Shuping is the king of Hades, and she has no scruples about Halloween. She just thought that the two of them were actually the same year: "His Royal Highness was also born in the year of Ding Mao, just one month older than me, and both of us are rabbits." Twin rabbits walk on the ground, can Ann tell that I am male and female? This "Mulan Ci" was taught to her by Wen Ru, and she thought that she and King Qinghe were both rabbits, so she unconsciously read it out.

Shen Mingyuan heard her recite the poem, the smile on his face became stronger, and he made a pun: "Well, the two rabbits are walking on the side, wonderful!" Wonderful! Although he didn't know much about eight characters, he thought that the dates of birth of the two were so perfectly matched, and he would definitely be able to close! At this time, the stone in his heart fell to the ground, and after returning to Huadu this time, he opened his mouth to the queen. It's the beginning of June, just over two months before August 15, and Wei Yangyang is just turning eighteen years old at that time, and he will soon be engaged!