Yanjing, Yonghe Palace.
About a hundred palace maids were busy waiting for the current queen to bathe. One of the palace maids in charge quickly arrived at Yonghe Palace with a pair of socks from the royal dressing room.
"What a waste!"
The palace maid in charge scolded a little palace maid on the ground, "The queen's socks must be made of silk and cannot be worn again after being worn once. Don't you know?"
"Lord Attendant, I was wrong."
The little palace maid knelt on the ground and kept kowtowing and shouted, "The dressing room said that it takes seven or eight days to make the Queen's socks. Due to the Emperor's birthday party, there were too many clothes to make. Unexpectedly, the stock was exhausted. , so this slave wants to wash yesterday’s socks and wear them again for the next day.”
"snort!"
The palace maid in charge shouted directly to the two father-in-laws behind her, "Drag us down and hit the ten big boards again!"
"Sir, please spare my life, my lord, please spare my life!"
The little palace maid was directly dragged down by the two little father-in-laws. The fate that awaited her next was death, and the reason for her death was because of a pair of socks.
The queen's socks are made of silk and take seven or eight days to make, and a pair of such socks costs 21 silver dollars to embroider.
So just for socks, the queen needs to spend tens of thousands of silver dollars every year, because sometimes, the queen may need to change them several times a day.
In the bathing room, a graceful young woman was being washed and wiped by two palace maids. Every time she wiped her body, the towels needed to be replaced. Every time the queen took a bath, she had to use hundreds of towels.
The amount of money spent on a bath may be an amount that ordinary people cannot earn in a lifetime.
Someone once calculated that the empress's expenses per day were 20,000 silver dollars, and the expenses for a year including birthdays, construction of gardens, etc. were about 8.8 million silver dollars.
After taking a bath, the entire palace became lively because today is the day when the current saint celebrates his fiftieth birthday.
Almost all of the three thousand beauties from the harem who could be ranked came, as well as the direct family members of the major governor's palaces, as well as the current prince, cabinet elders, and marshal Zeng Tianle all came.
As the marshal of the three armies, Daxia Kingdom is known as a military god-like being. His face today is not very good-looking.
Zeng Tianle is now over sixty years old. He has been in the army for 49 years. He has fought in the north and south, and has made great contributions to the Great Xia Kingdom. His great-grandfather even founded this huge empire with the ancestor emperor of the Great Xia Kingdom.
Although the marshal, who was over sixty years old, was old, he was still tall and powerful. Sitting upright, he was like Mount Tai guarding the dynasty that was about to be broken.
As for why the other party looked so unhappy, it was because the emperor's birthday banquet consumed a total of 7.7 million silver dollars.
The funds of 7.7 million silver dollars were withheld from the Military Department, because the new year was approaching, and except for the Military Department, which still had some money, other departments had almost no money left.
But now that the new army has millions, it will cost nearly 7 million per month just for military pay. This money is untouchable, but for this birthday banquet, the soldiers' New Year's military pay has been reduced. Naturally, the old general's face will not look good. .
Under the banquet, a young man who looked exactly like Su Yu looked at the grand scene, shook his head and said to himself, "This kind of country should perish."
This person is none other than Su Yuan, Su Yu's eldest brother.
He knew that the direct family members of the major governors who came with him had been placed under house arrest by the imperial court just like him.
He was thinking of ways to spread the news.
Because he knew that by placing them under house arrest, the imperial court must be trying to force his father to give in to his interests. He was thinking that if he couldn't escape, he would die and he would never create difficulties for his father's great cause!
...
While the Holy Father is celebrating his birthday today, it happens to be the day before the New Year.
In the Su family compound, Su Yuanzhong, Su Yu and other father and son were sitting in the back garden. The atmosphere was very solemn. The three of them were very silent and frowned.
"No matter what, we have to find a way to rescue my eldest brother."
"Why!"
"Easier said than done."
Su Yuanzhong sighed and said, "I have received news that once this year is over, the imperial court will target me and the governors of Guangdong and Guangxi. As for how, there is no way of knowing."
"What is the attitude of the other three governors?" Su Zhiqing asked.
"What other attitude can there be? Of course it is to wait and see," Su Yuanzhong said angrily. "The governors of Sanma are isolated from the world on the western plateau. With the natural barrier, they are the safest, so they took out a pair of opera masks. manner."
"As for the Governor of Yinchuan and the Governor of Kunnan, they also took a lot of money from the imperial court, established some kind of Northwest Alliance with the Governor of Sanma, and refused to cooperate with us."
"I contacted all the major military governors the day before yesterday, and only Xue Hongyi, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, replied to me. We discussed the formation of the Southern Alliance to jointly fight against the imperial court, but," Su Yuanzhong sighed and said, "Your eldest brother!"
"This is a conspiracy of the imperial court, there is nothing we can do about it," Su Yu said, "What we can do now is to find a way to rescue the eldest brother. As for how to rescue him, let the Intelligence Bureau's action team formulate a detailed plan and implement the rescue. "
"I agree with this approach."
Su Zhiqing nodded and said, "Our two intelligence organizations can work together to rescue the eldest brother."
"That's all it can do."
Su Yuanzhong gritted his teeth and said, "Now we still have an ally. If your eldest brother hadn't been sent to Yanjing, we probably wouldn't have even had this ally. So this is a conspiracy. If your eldest brother doesn't go, one of you will have to go." Either way, the result will be the same, now it depends on how the court will move!"
"The day after tomorrow, which is the first day of the Lunar New Year, I will meet with Xue Hongyi, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, to sign an agreement on the Southern Alliance and jointly fight against the imperial court."
"The total strength of our and Xue Hongyi's troops is seven to eight million. In addition, this war will surely sweep across the country. Therefore, I believe that the imperial court will not easily start a war unless it is absolutely necessary. It will only continue to force us. To erode the territory in our hands, let us take the lead in firing this first shot.”
"Xiaoyu," Su Yuanzhong said to Su Yu, "after the New Year, you will return to Shanglu immediately. If the imperial court does not choose to go to war, I believe that their intention will definitely be on Shanglu."
"I see."
Su Yu nodded and said, "Shanglu can be said to be the heart of Jiangnan Province and Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces. I won't let it cause any problems."
"Um."
Su Yuanzhong nodded and said, "Okay, for the New Year tomorrow, you also go buy some New Year's goods. Tomorrow the whole family will have a New Year's Eve dinner together. I hope this is not the last New Year's Eve dinner."
"Will not."
Su Yu said confidently, "This will be the first New Year's Eve dinner for the rise of our Su family. We will complete transformation in difficult situations and transform into dragons when encountering storms."
"Haha, well said," Su Yuanzhong praised with a smile.
