Today, the Holy Father celebrates his birthday, and the courtiers who came to congratulate him all brought birthday gifts. When they entered the palace, they asked the palace eunuchs to register and store them in the treasury. Because there were too many birthday gifts, it was impossible to present them one by one. There were only some birthday gifts, such as the queen, the prince, and some first-class gifts. Only the special birthday gifts of important ministers will be presented in public.
Sui'an was only a sixth-grade court lady, and she was also a peasant woman. Her birthday gift was not of great interest to anyone present.
But after all, it was Mrs. Lin who spoke, and there were always some people willing to flatter him.
But some political opponents of the Lin family also raised objections.
"At the Wanshou Festival night banquet, the golden duck incense burner rises with auspicious smoke, and the banquet begins with a wonderful dance, and the spring music moves the red strings... It is better to appreciate this flourishing song and dance."
"Many ladies have prepared Qing songs and dances for the Emperor, and the ministers are eagerly looking forward to it."
"There is no need to present a birthday gift to a peasant woman..."
The courtiers were all good at dancing, and they shocked Taifu Lin speechlessly.
Although the Lin family held a high and powerful position, Taifu Lin disdained forming cliques. Therefore, he did not have many close comrades in the government, and no one stood up to say a word of help at this time.
The old man snorted coldly: "There are singing and dancing every year, there is nothing unusual about it, but a peasant woman gives a birthday gift to the emperor. This is the first time in the hundreds of years since the founding of the Daewoo Dynasty. I really want to see it."
He has always appreciated talented people, and Sui'an was the first woman he admired. Furthermore, since Sui'an asked the Lin family to present a gift, he must handle this matter well.
"Your Majesty..." Eunuch Ming spoke in a low voice, "When I went to Dahe Village, I heard that the people of Sui'an were tinkering with some strange things. I thought that this birthday gift must be related to that strange thing. Why not take a look in public... Anyway, it's just a gift. A birthday gift, it won’t waste much time.”
The queen's voice was gentle: "Sending goose feathers from a thousand miles away is a light gift but heavy with affection. Your Majesty, take a look."
There was no expression on the emperor's face, and he waved his hand: "Present the Sui'an people's birthday gift!"
The eunuch below immediately went to handle it. Before these birthday gifts had time to be put into the warehouse, they were quickly brought up and two boxes and cages were placed in the center of the imperial garden.
Eunuch Ming walked down and opened the box himself.
The people surrounding him immediately stood up and stretched their necks to watch.
"It seems to be a birthday gift like a quilt. The surface of the quilt is embroidered with the word "longevity", and it looks okay."
"I thought it was some kind of rare treasure, so I embroidered a quilt and a lining and sent it all the way. It was too much trouble."
"Teacher Lin must have thought it was a good thing, but he didn't expect it to be so shabby, tsk tsk!"
The political opponents of the Lin family could not help but gloat a little.
Taifu Lin frowned slightly. The Sui'an people wrote very clearly in the letter that this birthday gift is very important and will be of great benefit to the national economy and people's livelihood.
But he looked around and couldn't see the mystery. Could it be that the real birthday gift was hidden under the quilt?
He was about to walk to the middle to watch closely, when a courtier with a white beard jumped to the edge of the cage one step ahead of him.
This man with a white beard is the Minister of Honglu Temple of the Dayu Dynasty, that is, the official in charge of the foreign exchanges of this dynasty. There are countless affiliated small countries around the Dayu Dynasty. Besides the small countries, there are many big countries. The economic and culture of those big countries are not inferior to During the Dayu Dynasty, there were various exchanges between the two sides, but due to the language barrier, diplomatic progress has been slow. This has always been a headache for the Honglu Temple Qingzhang.
Mr. Zhang walked to the edge of the cage. From such a close distance, he could clearly see the patterns on the quilt. His old pupils suddenly tightened. He stretched out his hand to touch the quilt. The moment he was about to touch it, he quickly retracted his hand. He turned around and cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, I dare to observe this birthday ceremony carefully, and I beg your Majesty to agree."
This gentleman is over sixty this year. He has been in the position of Minister of Honglu Temple for more than thirty years. This is the first time that the emperor has seen this veteran minister showing such an excited look. It seems that the birthday gift of the Sui'an people is indeed great. With deep meaning, the emperor naturally nodded in agreement.
Master Zhang asked the eunuch behind him to clean his hands, and then he carefully picked up the quilt in the cage.
The surrounding courtiers were all confused and had no idea why Mr. Zhang was so excited all of a sudden. They looked at the quilt more carefully, but still couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.
Mr. Zhang carefully held the quilt in his hand. With the help of Eunuch Ming, his hand moved to the corner of the quilt. There were several lines of text embroidered with gold thread, which looked very bright under the lights at night.
"The old minister is indeed right!" Mr. Zhang was very happy. "Please see, Your Majesty, the words embroidered here are the words of our Dayu Dynasty: Like the rise of the sun, like the perseverance of the moon, like the longevity of Nanshan, it will not fall even if it does not rise."
The courtiers on the side couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. What did they think it was? It was just a birthday wish. It was indeed very elegant and had a great meaning, but it was not so exciting, right?
While they were feeling disdainful, Taifu Lin had already walked up quickly and asked: "The top line is the writing of our Dayu Dynasty. What about the following lines? Are they the writing of other countries?"
"Master Taifu is right." Master Zhang stroked his beard, "This second line of text is written by Suso, the largest diplomatic country in Daewoo. This sentence has the same meaning as the previous sentence, but it is written in Expressed in different languages... The third line is the script of the Laji Kingdom, which is somewhat similar to the script of our Dayu Dynasty. The fourth line is the script of Assab, but Weichen has done little research on Assab. I don’t know if this sentence means birthday wishes... As for the fifth line of text, I apologize for my lack of knowledge and knowledge, so I really can’t recognize it... But it looks vaguely familiar, and I need to go back and check the correspondence to be sure..."
The emperor, who had been calm all this time, suddenly stood up.
This quilt is actually embroidered with a foreign language that even the minister of Honglu Temple cannot recognize. How many surprises does the Suian people have that he doesn't know about?
He hurried down, picked up the quilt and looked at it carefully. As an emperor, he had to deal with diplomatic documents from time to time. The most common ones were the characters of the Thuso Kingdom, which had the most contact with the Dayu Dynasty. The other characters were just familiar and could not understand the meaning at all, but they were enough to prove , Sui'an people understand foreign languages, and it seems that they understand it more deeply than Lord Zhang.
The courtiers who were watching were extremely surprised.
"She is a peasant woman from Sui'an, right? How can she know so many languages?"
"It's just a longevity slogan. If you look up the relevant vocabulary in a book and then embroider it on it, it doesn't prove that she understands it, right?"
"Master Zhang has been studying these for decades, but he can't recognize the last line. It's hard not to make people wonder if he made it up..."
"The talent of a peasant woman can be used in farming, but she actually makes some fancy things..."
Mr. Zhang ignored these voices. He suppressed his excitement and said: "Your Majesty, can you give me this quilt to study for a few days..."
"Lord Zhang, after watching it for so long, can you allow me to pay my respects to you?" The political strategist from the Ministry of Revenue came over and cupped his hands towards the emperor and said, "I think the fabric of this quilt seems to be different from ordinary ones. I beg your Majesty's permission." Wei Chen, please check carefully."
Only then did Taifu Lin become interested.
Being proficient in foreign languages is not a skill that is beneficial to the national economy and people's livelihood. This quilt must be related to farming, so people from Sui'an can be so serious.
The real secret of Sui'an's birthday gift is to be able to get the senior political figures to come and check it out in person.
