Chapter 492： Roasted sweet potatoes

In March of the following year, the emperor gave the throne to the prince, and then took his two concubines to Dongchen Village and lived in the courtyard built for him by Yingbao.

Hundreds of guards who came with them were able to squeeze in the courtyard for a while, but as time went by they became too much.

Among these guards, there are many children of the family valve family. Where can I have eaten this bitter, they ran to the accompanying minister to complain.

"This is not a march to a war. We are forced to crowd into tents and have to queue up to get to the hut. Mr. Lu, why don't you ask the head of this village to find another place for us brothers to live without delaying our duty?"

Lu Xiangguo is Empress Lu's brother and one of the ministers who lived in Dongchen Village with the Supreme Emperor. He thought about it and felt that the guards' request was quite reasonable.

Every house in this village is very spacious, and just two or three yards can be used to accommodate all the guards.

He ran to report to the emperor, but Zhou Wuchang said: "In that case, let them go back to the capital. I am very safe here, safer than the palace. There is no need for many people to stay here and disturb the purity."

Lu Xiangguo silently withdrew and asked the guards to work together. They cut more than 500 bamboo sticks and blackened one end of the 100 bamboo sticks with ink. After drying, they mixed them together and inserted the black ends inward. In a large pen bucket.

After that, everyone was called together and asked to draw lots. Those who got the black heads would stay, and those who didn't get the black heads would return to the capital immediately.

The guards were dumbfounded when they heard this.

But some people are still willing to go back. After all, they are spending time in the countryside and have no future at all.

Some clever guards immediately exchanged the white lots in their hands with the black lots that wanted to go back, while those who were slow could not exchange them.

Many people are still hesitating whether to leave or stay. The people over there holding black tickets have already registered with Lu Xiangguo.

Next, all the guards with white tickets went to pack their luggage and prepare to return to Beijing the next day.

Many of these people have some regrets.

They are all martial arts practitioners and can directly feel the physical condition.

Since moving here, everyone has felt comfortable all over. Even if they have just practiced stone locks, as long as they take a rest, the pain in their arms will slowly disappear.

The Holy Spirit has asked them to leave now, and it is estimated that they will not be allowed to come back again in the future.

The guards have lived in the village for two or three months, and they can see people wandering outside the village every day. They have been queuing up since the first day of the new year, hoping to enter the village on the fifteenth day and worship the villagers. That sacred tree.

Some guards have witnessed with their own eyes that someone in the village accepted money bribes from outsiders, took a few outsiders into the village for a walk, and gave them a handful of vegetables in the vegetable field. In the end, the outsiders left happily without any complaints.

That picture somehow appeared in the minds of the guards again, making them panic.

"I don't want to leave!" a guard shouted, ran to Lu Xiangguo, and said with a mournful face: "My lord, I want to stay here to serve the emperor because of my humble position."

Lu Xiangguo said helplessly: "Your Majesty is here to do the Qing Dynasty. There is no need for so many people. You go back first and wait for the rotation later." If the guards who come here are stationed here for a long time, they must have a period of time, which can be two or three years. , it can take as little as a year and a half to rotate with another batch, and no one can say whether they will be able to come back again.

The guard knelt down on one knee, "I don't want to go back, I just want to stay here to guard the Holy One."

Lu Xiangguo stroked his beard and pondered for a moment, then said: "The lot has been drawn, I can't show favoritism. If you really want to stay, you might as well go outside and find someone else to change the lot."

This child is the grandson of a family with a surname of Song Dynasty in Beijing. His grandfather was the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. Lu Xianggong knew him, so he was more polite to him.

Seeing that Lu Xiangguo refused to let go, Song Yu had to find someone to change the lot again.

In the end, he spent ten guan to exchange a black-headed lottery ticket with a poor guard.

Others laughed at him for being stupid, and they didn't know what he wanted to do with ten guan of money in exchange for a chance to stay. Song Yu did not argue with them and happily carried the luggage back to the compound.

In the blink of an eye, several months have passed, and the eggs, sweet potatoes, and corns grown in Dongchen Village have all matured.

Every household in the village cooks a pot of sweet potatoes and eggs, and if the people can’t finish it, they give it to the pigs.

 Chen Zhao saw that sweet potatoes were very delicious when roasted, so he asked someone to make an oven and put it at the door of his restaurant to roast sweet potatoes for sale.

Not to mention, the roasted sweet potato business is very popular, and most of them are bought by foreigners with a lot of money.

It was the first time for people from other villages to see this kind of food. They came to inquire about it and bought some raw sweet potatoes back. They wanted to grow some as their staple food next year.

At the same time, Wei Zhan found farmers from Qinchuan County and Zhouhe County and handed them a batch of sweet potato eggs and corn, asking them to distribute them to the countryside. They must make these crops popular throughout the county.

It’s August 15th in a flash.

Dongchen Village is very lively because many old ministers came from the capital and asked to see the Emperor.

As soon as their carriages arrived, Chuanhe Town was quickly filled with traffic, and there was even more traffic outside Dongchen Village.

The market in Dongchen Village is comparable to a large temple fair. All the vendors and merchants are like picking up money, and the business is booming and they are too busy.

Those inns are even more crowded, and the price of an ordinary room is more than ten times the usual price.

Even so, the supply exceeded demand, so Chen Xubao had no choice but to free up his house for guests.

 Chen Changping saw so many noble people coming, and his mind became much clearer. He devoted himself to helping his son manage the inn, and chatted with those noble people from time to time.

When the nobles learned that he was once a scholar but was later deposed, they felt somewhat sympathetic, and intentionally or unintentionally introduced him to several aristocratic families to serve as his aides.

Chen Changping thought about it for a long time, but finally decided not to go.

He was getting older and his mood had calmed down. Seeing those noble people coming to live in his small village one by one, he felt inexplicably proud.

Thinking about it in another way, I suddenly feel that living like this for the rest of my life is not bad.

The inn business of my son Xu Bao is booming, and I give him some money as pocket money every month. If I don't gamble, I can use the money to eat and buy whatever I want. Moreover, he has no interest in women, so he occasionally teaches children. Sun Tzu is doing his homework and living happily.

Thinking of this, the resentment in Chen Changping's heart suddenly disappeared, and he became much kinder to others.

 Even when he saw all the younger Jiang family members, he remained calm.

Today, Zhou Wuchang was sitting in the fruit forest of Yingbao's house to receive the courtiers.

There were many fruits on the stone table in front of him, including mare's milk grapes, pears, citrus, papaya, overused sweet persimmons from the Western Regions, as well as some sesame sugar cakes, hibiscus pies, etc., all of which were given to him by Yingbao. It is said that after cultivation, it is full of spiritual energy, and mortals can live longer if they eat it.

When the two old ministers saw Zhou Wuchang, they covered their faces and cried: "I miss your majesty very much, woo woo woo woo."

Zhou Wuchang twitched his face and asked the palace servants to bring stools for them to sit on.

These old ministers are all the fathers or grandfathers of the palace concubine, so you should treat them with some courtesy no matter what you do.

Concubine Yao Shu's grandfather was over eighty years old. He sat down shakily, tested his eyes and said, "Your Majesty, I want to stay here with you."