Thanks to the blessing of plug-ins for more than a year, Wang Yehao has now successfully occupied the top position of the General Affairs Department, ranking among the six ministers and nine ministers. The General Affairs Office is in charge of internal and external affairs. Whether it is cashiering the emperor's orders, communicating with subordinates, official documents from various companies, and suggestions from all directions, they are all gathered here. It can be said that it is the most well-informed yamen among all the departments in the imperial court. , so this is indispensable for officials from all over the country to respect each other and communicate with each other.
When the eunuchs gained power, the authority of the General Administration Department was greatly reduced, and the Secretary's Office of Liturgical Supervision actually took its place. Since he ascended the throne today, the General Secretary has resumed his former status. Wang Yehao's status also rose accordingly.
However, the "small gift" sent to the government by Wang Zunde, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi today, made Wang Yehao a little embarrassed. It's not that Wang Yehao didn't dare to stretch out his hands, but because the items listed on the gift list were "Australian treasures".
He remembered that Liu Zhao and Zhou Lezhi came back from Guangzhou and talked about the Hearthstone Immortal's strange reaction after they saw "Australian goods". He also said that the Immortal told Mr. Gao that he was also Australian and tried to find these overseas merchants.
From this point of view, even if Zhou Xianren is not an "Australian", at least he has a close relationship with this group of overseas merchants.
"Go and call Liu Zhao and Zhou Lezhi. You have to avoid Mr. Zhou." Wang Yehao thought about it, but he was still a little unsure, so he asked Wang Liang to find someone to confirm, "Wait a minute, call Liu Ying too. .”
Because Liu Zhao was the most familiar with Mr. Zhou, after returning to Beijing, he was arranged to continue to work at Zhou's house. He was obviously a guard, but in fact he was under close surveillance. In addition to his student Zhou Lezhi, his follower Wang Zhi, and his maid Yui, Mr. Wang has arranged undercover agents for Master Hearthstone both inside and outside the bed. Basically, there is 24-hour all-round monitoring with no blind spots.
Not only did Mr. Zhou not know about it, but he was quite satisfied with this arrangement. After all, in this time and space lacking modern entertainment activities, it is better to have two people who can relatively talk to each other than to face each other every day who can't even read a few Chinese characters. The maid of the first-in-law must be strong. At present, he has successfully reproduced epoch-making pastimes such as Landlords, UNO, and Ludo, and is developing high-tech card games such as Three Kingdoms.
That night, Liu Zhao, Zhou Lezhi and Liu Zheng gathered in the study as scheduled. Wang Yehao prioritized the confidentiality of the matter: "You came out so late, did Mr. Zhou become suspicious?"
"Don't worry, sir. The whole family is ours, so we can keep it a secret." Liu Zhao replied with a smile, "Mr. Zhou should be tossing Yui at the moment. After the tossing, he fell down and went to sleep. I can't wake up even after three hours of sunrise."
"What if he doesn't sleep?"
"The younger one added some fun medicine to his tea - but he will be even more tired afterwards."
"You really have some tricks up your sleeve," Wang Yehao stroked his beard with satisfaction, and suddenly thought of a question, "Speaking of which, Yui's belly hasn't moved yet. Go back and remind her. If she doesn't see you again, she won't be a doctor." She did."
"Okay, I know what to do." Liu Zhao nodded in agreement, looking at Wang Yehao and waiting for further instructions.
"I came to you today to identify some things." Wang Yehao opened the gift box on the desk and asked, "Are these Australian items?"
With the light in the room, several crystal clear glass fruit plates appeared in front of everyone. Liu Zhao looked at it carefully for a long time, and still said with some uncertainty: "Sir, I have indeed never seen such glassware in Gao's shop before. However, I have only been there once, and Zhou Lezhi should have seen more. "
"Sir, I've never seen it before." Zhou Lezhi continued Liu Zhao's words, "The Gao family shop has a lot of strange products, but it's true that they have never sold anything like this. But I can't say for sure. I can't guarantee that they didn't hide it. Good goods are not sold in bulk. But..." He hesitated for a moment and then said, "It does look like the goods in Gao's shop!"
Everyone was at a loss when Liu Zhao suddenly frowned and said, "No, this is not from Gao's shop. Look, there is a word on the bottom of this plate, 'Zizhenzhai'!"
Wang Yehao quickly took out several other artifacts to check, and all of them had such stamps.
"Have you ever seen this shop in Guangfu?" Wang Yehao asked, rubbing the stamp on the bottom of the plate.
"My subordinates have never seen it. The whole city of Guangzhou knows that Australian goods are only sold exclusively by Gaojia Shop and there are no branches." Liu Zhao said very firmly.
"Since Australian goods are only sold in Gao's shop, and the stamps are not from Gao's shop, then these are not Australian items?" Liu Zheng, who was standing by, listened to several people talking for a long time and asked with some confusion.
"My lord, I'm sorry for my garrulousness, but there is indeed something surprising about these things." Liu Zhao expressed his dissent. "Although I have a humble position, I have seen good things when I was on duty in the Zhenfu Division. Dare I ask, sir?" Have you ever seen such a transparent glass lamp before?"
"I have never seen it."
"Not to mention that the pattern size of these glazed lamps is not bad at all, just look at the stamps underneath, it is beyond the capabilities of ordinary craftsmen." Liu Zhao paused and said in a deep voice, "In my humble opinion, these glazed lamps It is undoubtedly a foreign product."
"Even ordinary foreign glaze ware is not like this." Zhou Lezhi has lived in the outskirts of Guangzhou since he was a child. He has also been to Guangzhou City and has seen foreigners and foreign goods.
"So, maybe the Australian maritime merchant is back?" Wang Yehao agreed with Liu Zhao's analysis. Besides, Wang Zunde was just sending some daily favors, and there was no need to lie about his origins.
"I don't dare to speak nonsense. Ask Mr. Zhou, maybe he has seen it before." Liu Zhao suggested tentatively.
"No, if he knows about this, he will definitely go to Guangzhou to look for someone again. We can't let him run away now." Wang Yehao flatly refused, "Don't talk to him about today's matter."
"Young man, I understand!" The two were about to leave when Wang Yehao said, "Brother Zhou, stay here for a moment."
Because Zhou Lezhi was considered a disciple of Taoist Hearthstone, Wang Yehao was quite polite to him on the surface.
"How did you learn from Mr. Zhou?"
Almost every time Zhou Lezhi saw Wang Yehao, he would supervise his homework, which was considered a cliché.
He hurriedly said: "The little one studies diligently every day. As long as the teacher can teach me, no matter whether he knows it or not, the little one will memorize it first, and then ask the teacher for advice when he is free."
"It doesn't matter if you learn anything," he asked. "You have been studying for a year. Do you know a thing or two about his skills?"
"The master's abilities are as vast as the ocean, while the younger ones have only scratched the surface."
"Well, most of what he taught you was arithmetic and studying things, which seemed useful but not very useful - it seems that he is unwilling to teach you his real skills." Wang Yehao sighed.
Zhou Le felt a chill on his neck afterwards, as if he was very dissatisfied with himself.
What would happen if it became useless? He could only think about it with his toes.
He quickly defended: "I don't know something, Mr. Zhou. What he taught me was the secret science learned from overseas. After learning it, I have the ability to understand the world. However, this secret science has three basic foundations, which must be learned first." Learn this secret…”
"Oh? Is there such a thing?" Wang Yehao was doubtful, "What are the three foundations?"
"The first is arithmetic, the second is investigation of things, and the third is logic..."
Wang Yehao didn't know what "logic" meant and was doubtful of Zhou Lezhi's words. Because I didn’t understand, I couldn’t question him. I could only sneer and say, “Everything is under control.”
Zhou Lezhi became more and more frightened when he saw the master's smile, and hurriedly said: "Sir, he also taught me a lot about the pros and cons of governance in past dynasties, and he also said..." At this point, he felt that it seemed inappropriate and kept silent.
"What did you say?" Wang Yehao asked.
"The gains and losses of this dynasty..." Zhou Lezhi hesitated, "The words are too wild and outrageous, and I dare not repeat them."
This is actually not beyond Mr. Wang's expectations. With his accurate prediction of the government's situation, it is natural for him to comment critically on the government's affairs.
"What did he say?" Wang Yehao slowed down his tone, "Just say, there are only you and me here!"
"He said, he said: Although the Taizu of this dynasty expelled the Tartars and restored China, in fact, except for the clothes and inscriptions, all the old systems of the Tang and Song Dynasties were forgotten. Instead, they inherited many bad policies of the Jin and Yuan Dynasties..."
Wang Yehao was secretly surprised when he heard his ramble. Although most of these remarks are not coherent and can only be regarded as fragments of words, and some are even biased or nonsense, many of the criticisms have been thought of by me or heard from others when I was studying in the past.
"Although it is crazy, it still has some real insights." Wang Yehao said, "When you go back, write down all these and give them to me every month."
"yes."
"If you learn from it, his mantle will be yours in the future."
"Thank you, Master!" Zhou Le was surprised and happy.
After sending Zhou Lezhi away, Wang Yehao ordered Liu Zheng: "Go to Guangfu quickly and check the details of this 'Zizhenzhai' and the Australians."
"My subordinates will set off tomorrow." After Liu Zhao agreed to the matter, he said with some doubts, "Why don't you let Liu Zhao and Zhou Lezhi go? After all, they are more familiar with each other."
"The two of them have to keep an eye on the hearthstone and not make him suspicious."
"Sir, my subordinates know that they shouldn't ask questions and don't ask them. But how capable is Mr. Zhou that he needs to be so vigilant?"
"The Taoist Master is jealous of his house?" Wang Yehao had a smile on his lips, but his words made Liu Wei's back shiver.
"I don't dare." Liu Wei quickly denied.
"Has Taoist Master read "Shishuoxinyu"?"
"I'm sorry for my humbleness, but I haven't read it."
Wang Yehao stood up and walked to the bookshelf. After groping for a while, he took out one of the books, opened it and read it slowly: "There was a prostitute in Wei Wu who had the most noble voice and a cruel temperament. If you want to kill, you will love talents. , if you want to ignore it, it will be unbearable. So you select a hundred people to teach them all at once. After a while, if there is still one person who mentions it, you will kill the evil one."
After reading this paragraph, Wang Yehao took out a page of paper he had copied from the table and handed it to Liu Zhen, "When you go to Guangli, you can look for experts along the way. If you can solve this spell, I won't need that." It’s rough.”
