The official rank arranged by Emperor Wen for Li Hao this time surprised many people, including the prince and his wife, because Emperor Wen did not consult the prince beforehand about this matter.
Of course, given the prince's temperament, as long as Emperor Wen spoke, he would not refuse even if he didn't want to, so it made no difference whether Emperor Wen asked or not.
However, after Xiao Yuehou learned about this, he reacted more excitedly, because he had always wanted the third prince to replace the crown prince. Now that Li Hao has taken up a post in the East Palace, there is no doubt that the crown prince's strength will be strengthened.
Especially with the arrival of Li Hao, the prince may have help from the three families of Yuan, Qu and Liang. You must know that the strength of these three families is much stronger than that of the Lou family. This may break the previous situation where the prince was alone. situation.
But he didn't dare to talk to Emperor Wen and Concubine Yue. After all, he shouldn't be involved in the reward matter, and it involved the prince, so he shouldn't be able to intervene. So in the end, Xiao Yue Hou came to find Li Hao, wanting to test Li Hao, or in other words, he wanted to test the Yuan family's thoughts.
Of course, when facing Li Hao, Xiao Yuehou did not mention this matter directly. Instead, he took advantage of the business between the two families and went through detours with Li Hao for more than half an hour.
It is said that since the cooperation with Li Hao, whether it was the soap, ceramics, glass business before or the white paper business later, Yue has benefited a lot from it, and the relationship has naturally been maintained well.
Xiao Yuehou used this business to get closer to Li Hao. When he felt that the relationship was about the same, he pretended to be relaxed and complained: "Young Master Yuan has now been named the Marquis of Nanzheng by His Majesty, and he has become an official under the prince's sect. Come to think of it. I will have a bright future in the future, unlike my Yue clan who relies on others and lives a difficult life.
I invited Mr. Yuan here today just to ask if my Yue clan will still have a share in this business in the future, so that I can make a living. "
Li Hao had already guessed the purpose of Xiao Yuehou calling him here, and had already thought about how to deal with it in his mind. It was just that he kept making detours, so he didn't make it clear.
Now seeing Xiao Yuehou finally asking, he replied: "Why did Yuehou say this? The business cooperation between our two families is so smooth, how can it be changed by this little thing.
And to be honest, going to serve in the East Palace was not what I wanted. I had wanted to shirk it at first, but His Majesty did not agree.
It's better for me to contradict His Majesty over this matter. Don't turn the happy event of promotion into a bad thing such as dismissal from office. That's not worth it.
If the Marquis of Yue has any idea, why not go and ask His Majesty for me and give me another job? I think the positions of Shaofu and Guang Luxun are quite good. "
After hearing what Li Hao said, Xiao Yuehou felt a little relieved, because according to Li Hao, it was obvious that this incident was just an accident and was not something Li Hao did deliberately. In this case, naturally there would be no Yuan, Qu, and Liang The three families are determined to support the prince's matter.
Of course, Xiao Yuehou did not completely believe Li Hao's words. He would definitely find a way to continue to test Li Hao's true attitude later.
And even if he doesn't support it at the moment, who can guarantee that Li Hao will not change his attitude after long-term contact, so he is also ready to think of ways to see how to transfer Li Hao out of the East Palace as soon as possible.
But he didn't say this clearly to Li Hao. He just said: "I can't interfere with His Majesty's will. You think too highly of me. Drink and drink."
Then he picked up the wine glass and drank it all in one gulp. When Li Hao saw this, he naturally followed suit. When the two of them pushed the glasses to change cups, Xiao Yuehou pretended to be half drunk and half awake, and said that he wanted to introduce Li Hao to him. The situation in the East Palace.
Then he started to talk to himself. It turned out that before Taifu Lou, Marquis Yu also served as the prince's wife, but he resigned from his official position on the grounds of illness six months after taking office.
In fact, besides Yu Hou, there were several such people. Without exception, they were personally appointed by Emperor Wen, and then declined for various reasons.
Xiao Yuehou said this to take the opportunity to explain the prince's unbearable situation to Li Hao. Otherwise, why would these important officials in the court unanimously not want to take up their posts in the East Palace.
In addition, he also showed Li Hao the way and told him that he could find a way to resign after taking office. There wouldn't be any big problem. After all, those who resigned before are now living well in the court.
This is true, but Li Hao understood that Xiao Yuehou deliberately ignored two very important information in his words. First, most of these officials were from Jingfan heroes, and their attitudes were basically the same as those of the Yue clan. If you get close, you will naturally not be too supportive of the prince.
Secondly, this group of people were important officials in the court, and they were old brothers who conquered the world with Emperor Wen. They had a solid foundation in the court, and Emperor Wen would not be too harsh on them even if they were disobedient.
But Li Hao is different. He has just established himself in the court. If he really pisses off Emperor Wen, the outcome will most likely not be so good.
So when facing Xiao Yuehou, Li Hao took advantage of this to complain, and then said that he could not drag down the Yuan family. Anyway, he had the same idea. He couldn't help himself. If Xiao Yuehou could help him get out, That's what you want.
But if you want to go out and disobey Emperor Wen's will, it will definitely not work. You must consider yourself and the Yuan family.
After a while of pulling each other, both of them were almost drunk, so they loudly called Bu Qu to come in and send them back to their respective homes.
But when the two of them got on the carriage, they both woke up at the same time. It turned out that they were both pretending to be drunk in the restaurant.
After returning to Yuan Mansion, Qu Lengjun saw Li Hao coming back smelling of alcohol. He quickly stepped forward and asked with concern: "Why do you feel unwell after drinking so much alcohol in broad daylight?"
Li Hao smiled and replied: "No, it just smells stronger. In fact, I didn't drink much. After all, I was drinking with that old fox Xiao Yuehou, so I can't really drink too much.
You wait for me to change clothes first, don't smoke you, that will make me feel very distressed. "
When Qu Lengjun heard Li Hao's teasing, he patted Li Hao lightly and said, "You are just not serious. Go and change your clothes quickly. It smells terrible."
When Li Hao heard this, he smiled in his heart and went to the inner courtyard to change his clothes. When he came out again after everything was packed up, Qu Lengjun had already prepared sobering soup for Li Hao to drink.
Li Hao was naturally very accepting of this concern. He happily took the hangover soup from Qu Lengjun and drank it in one gulp. At the end, he said: "The hangover soup Madam brought is delicious. Why do you think it is?" !”
Hearing this, Qu Lengjun glanced slightly at Li Hao and said, "You have been out of shape all day. You can't do this when you take up the post in the East Palace, lest you be blamed."
While talking, he didn't forget to take the empty bowl from Li Hao's hand and hand it to the maid to take it down.
Hearing this, Li Hao looked at Qu Lengjun with burning eyes and replied: "Madam, don't worry, this is all I do to you, other people don't deserve to be treated like this."
Seeing Li Hao transforming himself into a unique being and adding this scorching gaze, Qu Lengjun couldn't resist in the end and ran away with an excuse.
Li Hao didn't chase him. Anyway, he had time to talk about anything in the evening, and now he could take the time to deal with business matters.
For example, if you are concerned about the development of your own business, the housekeepers who were in charge of various businesses in Jiaodong have already rushed to the capital one after another after receiving the summons from Li Hao.
Li Hao only paid general attention to other businesses. After all, under Qu Lengjun's management in recent years, the business has been on an upward trend.
Anyway, Li Hao is not short of money now, so naturally he is not that concerned about a simple increase in money.
Only for the white paper business, Li Hao paid special attention to it. He left people alone to ask questions to see how much the price and output were controlled here.
According to the steward of the white paper workshop, he has now controlled the cost of shipping white paper to five times the price of bamboo slips. At the same time, several new workshops have been built, and the output has greatly increased compared to before.
But even so, the supply is still in short supply, and the order quantity required by each family is constantly increasing every year. Basically, aristocratic families everywhere have realized the benefits of blank paper.
For this reason, many people go to Jiaodong's white paper workshop every year and want to steal the technology of papermaking. However, these people either die in the end or are caught and turned into slaves. Of course, they will not be arranged to make paper. That's it for the workshop.
At this point, Li Hao began to focus on printing. After all, printing does not actually have too many threshold requirements.
After paper is widely used, sooner or later someone will take the initiative to reach this point. It is better for Li Hao to realize it.
However, when presiding over this matter, Li Hao specifically made a request, that is, to control printing costs.
It's just that Li Hao's requirements are different from others. It's not to control costs downwards, but to control costs upwards. He also designated the research direction to be block printing. After it is developed, it can be spread out inadvertently.
Anyway, those who can use white paper now are rich people, and they don’t care about this little wealth. Moreover, we can take this opportunity to temporarily fix the users of this technology in the top few, and delay the development of technology at the price cost. The speed of penetration.
As for spreading it further, this is a trump card that Li Hao wants to use, which can be used as a political achievement to help win the hearts of many poor people.
After being busy with many personal matters, it was time to officially go to the East Palace to take office. This time Li Hao had an official status, so it was much more convenient to enter and leave the palace, and there was no need to notify him in advance.
With the prince's seal of command, Li Hao rushed to the East Palace without any hindrance. When he was about to visit the prince, he bumped into an unreliable guy who was patrolling the East Palace with his troops.
But the careless way this man walked seemed more like he was taking a walk than patrolling.
Moreover, after seeing Li Hao, this guy loudly said: "Who are you and why did you enter the East Palace without notification? Do you know that this is a serious crime?"
Although Li Hao couldn't see it, he didn't get angry directly without knowing who he was on the other side. Instead, he replied: "I am the newly appointed crown prince, and I am here to see the crown prince today. Do you know where the prince is now?"
After hearing Li Hao reveal his identity, all the guards immediately saluted Li Hao and said hello, because although in name, they were commanded by the Crown Prince and the Young Master.
But now that Emperor Wen has not appointed a young master to the prince, Li Hao, the commander of the imperial edict, has the right to assist in the defense of the East Palace, which means he can actually control them.
The leader looked quite stubborn. He looked indifferent to Li Hao and said, "Oh, you are that Li Hao. You are the one who caused my cousin to be punished. You really dare to serve in the East Palace."
Hearing this, Li Hao still didn't know who the person in front of him was. After all, the only person in the Sun family who had slipped through the net in the capital was the Crown Princess's cousin Sun Sheng, who happened to be working in the East Palace.
So he replied: "My official position was decided by His Majesty himself. I came to serve according to the decree. What's the problem?"
Could it be that you have doubts about His Majesty's will and think that His Majesty's appointment was wrong? "
With this big hat off, Sun Sheng was not stupid enough after all, and he did not dare to argue with Li Hao. He just snorted coldly and said to his subordinates: "If you don't continue patrolling, what if something goes wrong somewhere?" If there is a problem, can you shoulder the responsibility?"
Naturally, the guards did not dare to offend Sun Sheng. After all, he had the support of the Crown Princess and was known for his bad behavior. On the other hand, Li Hao's reputation was much better and he was from a wealthy family, so they naturally chose to offend a gentleman. , Don’t mess with villains, so they all saluted Li Hao and followed Sun Sheng’s departure.
Li Hao didn't say anything about this. After all, he was new here, so he asked Sun Sheng to enjoy some leisure time. After he became familiar with the affairs of the East Palace, he would naturally have a way to deal with Sun Sheng.
After all, based on his style, there is no need to look for this mistake carefully, I am afraid it will naturally fall into Li Hao's hands.
After Li Hao asked people again, he went straight to find the prince, and finally found the prince with the help of the guards.
The prince's first reaction when he saw Li Hao was quite complicated. After all, Li Hao married Qu Lengjun. Although he was involved in this matter, he told himself in his heart that he had given up.
But after Qu Lengjun officially got married, this was the first time the prince saw Li Hao, and he came to the East Palace to serve, so naturally he felt a little awkward.
However, the prince soon adjusted his mentality and stood up and said: "Marquis Nanzheng received the order from his father and came to assist Zuo Yugu. He was very happy in his heart.
It turns out that although you have been to the East Palace before, you only have a rough understanding of it. Why not let Gu Gu take you around the East Palace and introduce you to the details of the East Palace. "
Of course, Li Hao had no objection to the prince's proposal. Anyway, he had to be familiar with the environment of the Lower East Palace. It would be more convenient for the prince to lead the way.
What Li Hao didn't know was that while Li Hao and the prince were browsing the East Palace together, someone in another place was accusing Li Hao of being cunning.
