Chapter 420： false edict

Yingbao didn't know that her two younger brothers were so worried about her marriage that they couldn't eat or sleep.

Since the treat that day, the two brothers seemed to have grown up suddenly, and they became much calmer in speaking and doing things.

Subsequently, the appointment letters of Jiang Wu and Hu Zi also came out. Hu Zi was appointed as a valiant cavalry officer in the Imperial Guards of the capital, with the rank of sixth-grade military officer.

Jiang Wu was appointed as the training envoy of the Yuzhou regiment. He was promoted to a fifth-rank official and would rush to Bianliang to take up a post in the next year.

Chunniang and Yingbao were both happy and a little worried.

Jiang Wu is still young after all. He is only fifteen after the New Year. He will have to travel thousands of miles away and will not be able to return home for at least several years.

Ying Bao: "Mom, how about we arrange a marriage for Xiao Wu first? He has to have someone caring for him when he goes so far away."

Chunniang sighed: "Where can I find someone I like in one or two hours? Alas, it would be great if your father was here."

Ying Bao frowned and thought for a while, "How about I accompany Xiao Wu to Bianliang?"

The capital is very boring, and the Xiao family and Chen Tiantian are nearby, and he can't kill them immediately, so he simply goes further away.

Anyway, Aniang is being taken care of by Jiang Jie, and Mr. Wu and his family are looking after her. I will ask the emperor's master for a decree to let my father come to Beijing to live.

When the time comes, we will bring the grandparents and the second uncle’s family over. The Jiang family has the Four Seasons Potted Plant Shop. Not only will the family be rich, they will definitely not have to worry about food and drink.

Chunniang shook her head: "No, you just stay at home with your mother." My daughter is already a big girl, how can she wander around?

Seeing her mother's firm objection, Ying Bao said nothing. After thinking for a while, she suddenly remembered Jiang Jie: "Mom, we should invite a matchmaker to the Luo family first to make a deal."

Although the Luo family first chose Jiang Jie as their son-in-law, they could not be rude. As long as Jiang Jie had no objection, they would hurry up and settle the marriage.

Chunniang nodded: "I asked Mrs. Wu to help find a matchmaker a few days ago, but recently every family has been busy worshiping their ancestors. Mrs. Wu asked us to wait a moment."

Yingbao felt relieved, "I still have a lot of silk and satin there. Let's go to the jewelry shop to order some headgear and some jade. If a matchmaker comes, we will have a decent betrothal gift."

Chun Niang: "Then let's go to the market tomorrow. As the new year is approaching, we need to prepare some fabrics to make new clothes for the servants at home."

“Well, Xiaowu and Huzi’s new clothes must also be prepared.” Yingbao wanted to buy more new materials, and asked the embroiderer to make more good-style robes for her two brothers and Huzi Jiang Quan.

They often walk outside, and their clothing and accessories must be exquisite.

The next day, Ying Bao and Chun Niang took a girl to the market in the family carriage.

First, I went to a jewelry store and ordered six sets of gold-inlaid headdresses, two gold necklaces, several pairs of jade bracelets, several pairs of gold bracelets, and jade hairpins, Huasheng ivory combs, etc. I also ordered a men's leather belt and seven things to do. I bought a few sets and asked the shopkeeper to send them to the Jiang family in Meihuafang.

Then he went to a silk and satin shop and ordered dozens of silk damasks, as well as cotton and linen cloth for servants.

He also asked the silk and satin shop to introduce several embroiderers and sent them to Jiang's house.

Go to the shoe shop again and buy several pairs of shoes, leather boots and cotton boots for each of his younger brother and cousins, and a pair of cotton shoes for each of the servants and maids.

This amount of expenditure alone cost hundreds of taels of silver, which made Chun Niang feel very distressed. She kept asking her daughter: "Does our family have enough money?"

For these things, you only need to pay money first, and then ask the store owner to deliver the goods to Jiang's house, and then pay the remaining amount.

"Mom, don't worry, it's enough." Ying Bao and her second cousin earned thousands of taels of silver from the four-season potted plants they opened in just over two months. They spent money on flower pots and seedlings, as well as building flower houses and buying flowers. The net profit from the shop's silver was more than two thousand taels.

Even after splitting the money with her second cousin, she would still be able to get more than a thousand, which is enough to cover today’s expenses.

Chunniang can't rest assured, but she also knows that the money has to be spent. Not only that, but you also have to prepare New Year gifts and give them to relatives, friends, and Jiang Jie’s colleagues.

Although people will return gifts, they are still gifts, not money, and you can never get back what you spend.

So it’s not easy to be an official in the capital. My son’s salary seems to be quite a lot, but he has to support a large family and has to deal with favors. He can’t make ends meet without a little extra income.

Fortunately, the little girl did some business with her second cousin, otherwise, the family wouldn't even be able to afford a servant.

After browsing the shops, I went to the rice and grain shop to buy grain and salt, some spices, and several jars of miso and rice vinegar.

Chunniang saw that the soybean paste in the capital cost dozens of yuan per pound, so she couldn't help but muttered: "If I had known how many tanks we could dry at home, it would be too expensive."

Yingbao also thinks it is quite expensive. A copper spoon costs more than a hundred yuan, which is not cost-effective: "We will dry it ourselves next summer."

  Doenjang is indispensable for cooking at home. As a large family of 20 people, including servants, they need several spoons of doenjang a day, not to mention daily food such as rice, flour, oil, chicken, duck, and fish.

Ying Bao roughly calculated that their family spends about ten taels a day, which is three hundred taels a month.

This is just for food consumption. If we add in the courtesy, the servant's monthly salary will be less than 500 taels per month, and it will be impossible to survive.

The mother and daughter finally finished their shopping and took the carriage home.

After a while, everything was delivered from various shops.

Yingbao checked it over and picked out a few boxes of beaded flowers among other samples sent by the store before settling the payment.

Precious jewelry and cloth are placed in Chun Niang's house and locked up in camphor wood boxes.

These are prepared as bride price.

The rest was given to Wei Xiuxiu and the newly invited embroiderers, and they were asked to make clothes for the master of the family.

The servants' clothes were all left to them to make themselves. Yingbao gave each servant cotton and linen, enough to make two sets of clothes for each of them.

The clothes for the male servants and servants were left to a few girls. Anyway, there was no need for embroidery on their clothes. The girls worked together and could finish it in two days.

As for the rice, flour, oil, salt, sauces, etc., Yingbao kept them in a separate room and let Mudan hold the key for the time being. The kitchen would keep accounts as much as they came to collect.

After passing the sacrificial stove, two eunuchs suddenly came to the palace. They said that they were ordered by the Holy Spirit to announce that Jiang Yingbao had come to the palace to see him.

Ying Bao remembered what Master Zhou Wuchang said before and asked the two eunuchs: "Master told me that if he summons me, he will have an imperial edict. Why don't you?"

The two eunuchs looked a little flustered, but they quickly calmed down and said, "Jiang Yingbao, do you want to disobey the order?"

Yingbao looked at the two of them: "You'd better tell the truth. Whose order did you give me? Why did you call me into the palace? If you tell a lie, I will personally ask the master and punish you!"

One of the eunuchs frowned: "Jiang Yingbao, are you threatening our family?"

"False preaching of imperial edicts will be punished by an additional degree. My father-in-law, you don't know that, right?" Ying Bao was not afraid of these two eunuchs at all.

It's just Concubine Shu's family dog. Last time, the two of them also lied about receiving the emperor's oral instructions. In fact, it was Concubine Shu who pretended to convey the decree by relying on her own pregnancy.