Since the beginning of spring, there has been no rain except on the day of the competition. And the rain on the day of the contest was in a hurry, like an irresponsible cleaner who poured a basin of water on the ground and then called it a day. Miss Tian, who is disguised as a cleaner, seems to be in a hurry to go on a date with a flamboyant man.

It is said that the spring rain is as expensive as oil, and this year's spring rain is even more expensive, and the people look up at the sky, looking like they can't afford it.

It stands to reason that His Majesty the Emperor should have come out to ask for rain. There has been a speech official to play, asking the emperor to sacrifice to the sky. But for some reason, Emperor Tiande, who was diligent in all kinds of rituals in previous years, was too lazy to move this year, like a lazy man who had lost hope in life.

The emperor is not only too lazy to do things, but he doesn't even go to court, and then some people speculate whether the emperor is sick?

Some ministers asked to meet the emperor, but they were all blocked by Empress Han. As for praying for rain, some ministers proposed that the crown prince should sacrifice to heaven instead of the emperor. Empress Han said that the crown prince was secretly ordered by the emperor to go out to run errands and was not in the capital for the time being. When the prince returns, make plans.

At this time, someone proposed that if the royal family could not pray for rain for some reason, then the folk rain method should be activated, and the East Palace, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Ministry of Rites would take the lead. Queen Han readily agreed, and said that she would let the household allocate funds.

The funeral of the county lord of Anle was held on a sunny day, and the wind was dry that day. The cold wind of spring is very penetrating, making the thinly clothed people shiver for a while.

The lord of Anle has no heirs, and the filial sons and grandsons are replaced by nephews and nephews.

At the end of the white silk bag, the eight nephews of the Tang family used a wooden pole to pass through the white silk, carried the heavy coffin, and put it on the hearse.

The sandalwood coffin, which is high in the front and low in the back, and presents a streamlined shape as a whole, exudes a sandalwood fragrance, although the aroma is strong, but it has a slight bitterness of almonds, as well as a milky aroma and sweetness.

The coffin board was tightly sealed, completely sealing the stench of the corpse inside. The coffin also contained many flavored herbs, which were said to keep the body from decaying.

There were not many burial goods for the county lord, especially the lack of gold and silver utensils, and the pitiful lack of jade utensils.

In order not to look too shabby, Tang Kuan asked the ceramics workshop to bring the backlog of goods that had been backlogged for many years. Most of them are some daily necessities, and those that can be regarded as spiritual weapons are some figurines. There are male servants, male musicians, male dancers, male haiyu, tall and mighty sword-wielding guards. These are all things that the county lord of Anle liked during his lifetime. Men, men, and men.

Before sealing the coffin, Mrs. Cao looked at the coffin on her stomach and said to Tang Kuan: "I said four boys, you will prepare this little burial for your aunt?" ”

"Old lady, you know, the family has no money."

"But that's shabby."

Mrs. Cao couldn't stand it, so she took off a pair of jade bracelets from her wrist and put them in the coffin.

It is worth mentioning that people often call Mrs. Cao Mrs. Cao. The word "Taijun" is a word derived from Shenzhou. In the Tang system, the wife of the fourth-rank official is the county monarch, and the fifth-grade official is the county monarch. His mother's name is all added to the monarch. As for what the Taijun of the Eastern Island Country is? It may be the result of copying homework and not understanding it, so I won't discuss it.

The old lady has three pairs of jade bracelets on her wrist, and she can usually hear the jingling sound when she walks, just like a cat bell.

Of course, the sixth lady Tang Mei also had to attend the funeral, and she also brought her son-in-law.

Miss Six has officially become the Okura Supervisor, and she will not miss any opportunity to show off her power to the family, and at the same time, this is also her opportunity to infiltrate the new rules into the family. She took the trouble to "read" her new rules in front of people. She has memorized it backwards, and even remembers it more clearly than the original author Su Bottle.

Obviously, Miss Six's popularity is getting worse and worse. Miss Eight, who used to take the initiative to say a few words to her, now began to ignore Tang Mei, and would roll her eyes at Tang Mei from time to time.

The eyes of the girls of the Tang family are very big, and the immature face of the eighth lady Tang Yun makes her very cute, her big white eyes look a little cartoonish funny, and Su Bottles smiled.

Su Bottle snickered, was seen by Tang Yun, and bowed at Su Bottle, expressing his protest.

Lin Tong, the eighth aunt who was recuperating at home, was sitting with a group of Tang family sons, and he didn't know what funny things they were talking about, and let out a burst of shameful laughter. Then they were scolded by Mrs. Cao.

Mrs. Cao continued to be in the main room before the death of the old prince, so Tang Ning can also be regarded as a concubine. However, after the death of the old Guogong, Mrs. Cao did not stay in the Guogong Mansion, but moved to the Hou Mansion to live. It's more reassuring to live in my son's house.

But after all, she is the concubine of the old prince, the highest authority among the women of Qinghuafang. The Tang family has a family power stick, and Mrs. Cao carries the family power stick as a crutch to call. Whoever is unhappy is a stick. Just now, she waved her wand at the laughing crowd and gritted her back molars, as if she was going to beat someone to death.

Tang Mei squinted at Jia Weibang, and there seemed to be some covetousness in her eyes.

It is said that the Tang family has a total of two family sticks, and the other one is in the hands of Princess Fan. However, now the concubine is very seriously ill, and she can't come to attend the funeral of the county lord of Anle today.

"Spirit!"

With a scream from the celebrant officer, the long funeral procession began. There were more than 200 people who had nothing to do, including old men, sons, aunts, young masters, aunts, aunts, girls, and young grandmothers, and sent the hearse slowly.

The lord of the gate valve, if there is no special merit, only the "lord of Xingguo", is the fourth grade. According to the "Daliang Ceremony", the death of the lord of the gate valve is counted as a sting, and the Ministry of Internal Service and the Ministry of Rites will also send a ceremonial officer to hold a guard of honor that will only be used by the royal family.

The funeral procession became shorter when it walked out of the gate of Thanh Hoa Fang, because some older people would not continue to send it off. At this time, there was a cry at the gate of the fang, and a group of mothers-in-law either sincerely, or sympathetic, or perfunctory howled a few times, which was the last time to say goodbye to the county lord.

"Okay, okay, stop crying. Those who should get on the bus get on the bus, and the others can disperse. I'm too busy to stay here. ”

The place where the county lord was buried was relatively far away, and Tang Kuan didn't prepare so many cars for them to sit in, so most of them returned to Qinghuafang.

Tang Kuan helped Mrs. Cao, suddenly with a hippie smile, and suddenly with a bitter and helpless face, I don't know what to say. When I didn't have a long time, I came to the door of the Hou Mansion. At this time, I saw the eunuch of the Inner Servant Province coming to find him. The eunuch knew Tang Kuan and Mrs. Cao, and they greeted everyone from afar.

Seeing that it was Lu Shi, the little eunuch of the East Palace, Tang Kuan walked forward and saluted, Lu Shi returned the salute, and then took two steps to salute Mrs. Cao.

Old Lady Cao changed her stern complexion, and said with a kind face: "Father-in-law Xiao Lu came in a hurry, what is the matter?" ”

Lu Shi said: "It didn't snow last winter, and it didn't rain this spring, so it was a dry year." Queen Han was a little anxious and wanted to hold a rain ceremony. But the emperor and the crown prince were very busy and had no time to hold it, so they used Zhang Zhenren's method back then, and the people begged for rain. According to the usual practice, it is the turn of the Tang family to do it this time. ”

"Yo, are you going to choose 'Rain Boy' again?" Mrs. Cao recalled: "If I remember correctly, the last time I chose Mr. Yu was six years ago. That time, Yu Gongzi was a son-in-law and aunt of the Meng family, it seems that his surname is Tian, and his name is Tian Dare, right? Oh, that young man looks good, like a jade man. ”

Lu Shi said with a smile: "The old lady has a good memory, our family only remembered it after reading the documents of the Ministry of Rites, but the old lady remembers it really." ”

"Hey, you were only a few years old at the time, so it's not surprising if you don't remember." Old Mrs. Cao glanced at Tang Kuan, Tang Kuan was squeezing her nose and eyes, she understood what Tang Kuan meant, so she sighed and said, "But, now our Tang family is fighting outside, and the family has no money." It's not that my old lady is crying poor, you see that the funeral of the county lord of Anle is so shabby. I can't hang my old face. ”

Lu Shi nodded with sympathy on his face and said, "The queen has already considered it, so she agreed to let the household department allocate funds." The Tang family will do it first, and the household officials will come over in a while. ”

While they were talking, Su Wei had already followed Tang Mei back to Yizhi Spring Pavilion. Nowadays, people call this place simply Spring Pavilion or Plum Pavilion.

Su Bei took Zhen Ping'er, Wang Jin'er, Zhu Tao, and Feng Die, four maids who knew the words, as well as Tang Mei's nephews Tang Liu, Tang Qing, and Tang Fei, to form a supervision team and inspect the work everywhere in the three warehouses.

Later, Tang Mei recruited three more literate maids to follow Su Bottle's team to inspect, and at the same time, she was also familiar with Okura's work. And these people will be the main cadres of Tang Supervision in the future. Replace them with the old rats.

Tang Mei is also a bit politically minded, and she knows that if she wants to replace the original three co-organizers, she can't offend the father or grandfather of the three co-organizers. Because those people are all masters of Zongzheng Mansion.

Therefore, Tang Liu, Tang Qing, and Tang Fei were also selected from those old men's families. It's just that they have been taught by Tang Mei personally from the beginning. And these three young men have a good reputation.

Although they are young, they are all older than Tang Mei. But it's not much older, and the eldest Tang Liu is only twenty-two years old.

Young people often have a greater sense of justice than middle-aged and elderly people, which is also the idea that Su Bottle gave Tang Mei.

The son-in-law and uncle, who looks to be only eighteen years old, took a group of young men and women around the three major warehouses, and in the past few days of contact, no one can help but feel that this son-in-law and aunt has a maturity beyond his age and rich life experience.

In just a few days, under the leadership of the son-in-law surnamed Su, three dispatchers and four warehouse supervisors were fired successively.

Usually the son-in-law laughs, but if someone dares to offend his authority, he will also become very loud. The son-in-law acted in full accordance with the rules and disciplined those people speechless.

However, in Zhen Ping'er's opinion, this aunt is also quite slippery, such as the fire prevention regulations he wrote, which are obviously deliberately fault-finding regulations. This time, they went to Higashiokura, and they were going to find some fault here.

At this time, a small servant came from Meige, beckoned his son-in-law to go back, and said that Mrs. Cao wanted to see him.