Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 465: Golden Body

"I just think she is a bit pretentious. She is just a concubine's daughter. Let's go to her house to make friends and see her attitude." said Xiao Zou.

She was unhappy with Minglan. Besides the fact that Minglan deliberately mentioned that the Zou family also lived nearby when she said that they should visit each other more often in the future, which made her feel a little embarrassed, there was another reason, which was Minglan's attitude towards her.

She had been in Bian Jing for some time and had met many noble ladies. Everyone who saw her was smiling and very polite.

Minglan is not of high status and is a concubine's daughter, but she does not fawn on her like some noble ladies do, which makes her feel very disappointed.

She didn't even think about the fact that although the Zou family had the merit of saving the queen, a daughter who is married off is like water spilled, so the credit should still be attributed to the Shen family.

It was only because Zou was Empress Shen’s brother’s wife that Empress Shen looked upon the Zou family differently.

However, the noble ladies in Bian Jing didn't care about whether they were from the Zou family or not, so naturally they wouldn't associate with her.

She was able to meet those noble ladies only when she was with Queen Shen.

Others were polite to her only because Queen Shen was around.

"I think it's pretty good." said Mrs. Shen.

Although Xiao Shen's personality is somewhat similar to Rulan's, she is the carefree type.

But in fact, there are some differences. Because of her background, she came to Bianjing and saw the prosperity of Bianjing and the grandeur of the wealthy families, which made her feel a little inferior.

Even though those noble ladies were very polite to her because of her status, she always felt a little hypocritical.

Although Minglan was not as enthusiastic towards her as those people, she felt very comfortable this way.

"What did you say?"

Xiao Shen's voice was not loud, and as they were walking, Xiao Zou didn't hear clearly for a moment.

"Nothing." Xiao Shen shook her head.

……

After finishing his shift, Li An did not go home but went to Prince Huan's mansion.

The wedding to Princess Anyang was arranged by the Ministry of Rites.

If you don't want to make it too grand, you can't wait until the people from the Ministry of Rites come to make the arrangements.

Li An didn't want to look for Zhao Zongquan, so he could only look for Zhao Ceying.

I told the doorman and he went to report it.

After a while, Li An was led in.

"Your Highness Prince Huan!" Li An bowed.

"No need to be polite!" Zhao Ceying waved his hand, asked Li An to sit down, and said with a smile: "I was just looking for you, but I didn't expect you to come by yourself."

"I wonder what instructions Your Highness has for me?" Li An asked puzzledly.

"Haha." Zhao Ceying smiled and said, "Your suggestion for me to ask Duke Qi about the salt business is indeed a good idea. I have learned a lot of useful information from Duke Qi."

As he spoke, Zhao Ceying's face gradually darkened, and he said, "Those private salts are indeed official salts!"

That time, Li An suggested that he go to the Duke of Qi to inquire about the inside story of the salt business. After careful consideration, he went to find the Duke of Qi.

If it were any other time, he wouldn't say much even if Zhao Zongquan asked him, not to mention Zhao Ceying.

Most of those who work in official circles keep a distance from matters that do not concern them.

The salt business involves a wide range of issues. If the imperial court is not determined to conduct a thorough investigation of the salt business, he may face retaliation.

Even if the imperial court conducts a thorough investigation and he reveals everything, his future life will not be easy.

There are many dirty things in the officialdom, such as gift-giving, bribery, and local tributes, which are common.

These are problematic in themselves, and if you really want to pursue them, it's not a bad idea.

But no one ever uses these as an excuse to attack their opponents.

Doing so is equivalent to revealing the unspoken rules in officialdom and offending everyone.

But now the Duke of Qi has no choice.

The title of lord is only honorable on the surface, in reality it still depends on grace.

Most of the lords hold sinecure positions and do not have any real power.

The Qi family originally belonged to this type. It was only after he married Princess Pingning that he got the lucrative job of the Salt Transport Commissioner of Jingji Road.

Now that the new king has ascended the throne, the Qi family has fallen into decline.

In addition, the Qi family and the Prince of Yong's Palace were married. Although Princess Jiacheng was already dead, the relationship still existed.

Prince Yong was the original crown prince. Although he is dead, he still has a young son.

Zhao Zongquan might not care about those who originally supported Prince Yong. It would be impossible for him to reuse the Qi family, who had a marriage relationship with Prince Yong's palace.

The Duke of Qi could accept not being valued, but if Qi Heng wanted to take part in this special examination, who knew whether he could pass it if he didn't say anything?

For the sake of his son's future, the Duke of Qi had no choice.

So he told everything he knew without reservation.

For him, it doesn't matter whether he says more or less, no one will believe it.

If he doesn't check thoroughly enough, he will get into trouble.

Although the salt in the Song Dynasty was state-owned, its source and sales were not controlled by the court.

Salt is produced by salt farmers, and the imperial court stipulates that salt farmers can only sell to the imperial court.

When officials purchased salt, they would shortchange the salt in their hands. In this way, the extra salt ended up in the hands of those officials.

In addition, some sand and gravel will be added to the salt when it is stored in the warehouse.

By squeezing the two ends, you can get a batch of salt out of thin air.

And these salts are the so-called private salts.

Although the salt merchants knew that the salt they bought from the imperial court contained a lot of sand and gravel, they did not dare to offend the officials in charge of salt affairs.

However, those salt officials also knew how to do business and would sell the salt they intercepted to salt merchants.

The price is much cheaper than the price given by the court.

As for why they did not transport it openly together with official salt, it was because they were afraid of being discovered.

Salt merchants had a certain amount of salt to transport with salt permits, and they all used water transport.

There is a limit to how much a ship can transport.

If they are transported together, they can be easily discovered.

Moreover, although those officials were very bold and intercepted the salt from the court and used the court's sales channels to sell it, they did not have the courage to use the court's storage space.

After all, there are many guards in the warehouse where salt is stored, and there are many people and eyes.

As a result, salt gangs emerged to transport private salt on the canal.

"Your Highness, there is no need to be angry. Now that we know, the next things will be much easier to handle." Li An said.

"Yes." Zhao Ceying took a deep breath and said, "Unfortunately, it is not the time to take action yet."

Although Zhao Zongquan had been on the throne for several months and had won a battle, he had initially stabilized the situation.

But in fact, he has little control over civil and military affairs.

Naturally, there would be no proposal to conduct a thorough investigation of the salt business at this time.

"By the way, what do you want from me?" Zhao Ceying asked.

"I came to see Your Highness to discuss my marriage with Princess Anyang. The treasury is empty now, and I think it's better to keep things simple," Li An said. "Ziqian is a good minister. I will tell my father about this, but you'd better submit a memorial yourself," Zhao Ceying said.

"I understand. I came here just to communicate with Your Highness." Li An said.

He naturally knew that he had to submit a memorial. It was only natural for him to ask for it himself and Zhao Zongquan to agree.

If Zhao Zongquan spoke, he would be considered stingy.

"Have you seen Zhong Huai these days?" Zhao Ceying asked.

"I have been to the Gu family to pay my respects several times," said Li An.

"Alas, it's a pity for Zhong Huai." Zhao Ceying sighed.

He knew all the troubles in Gu Tingye's family, but it was difficult to reuse Gu Tingye as he was now carrying the infamy of having angered his father to death.

Even the title cannot be inherited by Gu Tingye.

Originally, his father wanted Gu Tingye to inherit the title of Marquis of Ningyuan and take over the Gu family's network.

Now it seems we have to wait.

"When you have time, go and comfort him more often. Don't let him become depressed." Zhao Ceying said.

"Yes!" Li An replied.

"Okay, let's talk about something happy." Zhao Ceying said with a smile: "Ziqian, I didn't expect you to be so talented!"

"Huh?" Li An looked at Zhao Ceying with a puzzled look.

"The Tongpan of Yangzhou submitted a memorial saying that a child prodigy appeared in Yangzhou. He was only five or six years old, but he could recognize most characters. He went to meet the child prodigy in person, only to find out that the reason why this person could recognize so many characters at such a young age was all because of something called Pinyin. He learned about it carefully and was amazed. After asking, he found out that it was actually written by Ziqian." Zhao Ceying said.

When Ang Lee heard the pinyin, he roughly knew what was going on.

He originally invented pinyin in order to teach his nephew to read.

If Zhao Ceying hadn't mentioned it, he would have almost forgotten it.

"This method can help children learn to read quickly. It has immeasurable merits and can even help you become a saint. Yet you kept it secret." Zhao Ceying scolded with a smile.

Confucianism has three immortalities: establishing virtue, establishing merit, and establishing words.

To put it bluntly, it means to go down in history and be worshipped by future generations.

Stories like lying on the ice to catch a carp and Kong Rong giving up his pears to his friends are examples of establishing virtue.

To make achievements is to help the world and expand the territory.

To establish a legacy means that one's words and thoughts can be learned by later generations, or to leave behind one's own works for later generations to learn from.

Li Ang's pinyin can make it easier for people to learn to read. Once it is popularized, it can be said that it is a teacher for readers all over the world.

Why is Confucius revered by all generations and called the teacher of all ages?
Isn't it that Confucianism has been respected in all dynasties, and all scholars have studied the thoughts of Confucius and Mencius?

Pinyin teaches literacy, and although it is not as good as Confucius and Mencius, it has also done immeasurable good deeds.

Li An was stunned for a long time after hearing this, and almost couldn't help but slap himself.

How could he have forgotten all this? He was still thinking that passing the imperial examination would be a great achievement.

A Jinshi can at most be considered a golden body, and whether he is killed or not depends on the emperor.

In fact, the Song Dynasty did not have any so-called rule of not killing scholars and officials. The rumors that Emperor Taizu left a stele in the Taimiao, treated the descendants of the Chai family well and did not kill scholars and officials were just rumors and have not been confirmed.

Moreover, there were records of killing civil servants from Taizu and Taizong to the last emperor.

However, during the reign of the previous emperor, who had been on the throne for decades, not a single civil servant was killed.

As the previous emperor had died, the city became the ancestral system, and the subsequent emperors were given a tight hoop on their heads.

Whenever they wanted to kill civil servants, countless people would jump out to organize and claim that it was the ancestral rule or something.

They were not concerned about the people to be killed, but they were worried that once the emperor started the killing spree, they or their descendants would become the ones to be killed.

But the so-called ancestral system, in the final analysis, depends on whether the emperor is ruthless enough to enforce it.

In history, didn’t Su Shi almost lose his life because of the Wudai Poetry Case?

Indeed, in history, starting from Renzong, subsequent emperors hardly ever killed civil servants, but his existence itself is a variable.

Ang Lee can hardly guarantee that such a day will not come to him.

However, if Pinyin is popularized, it can prove its immortality.

Unless you seek death by rebelling or something, or go against the government, you will not die.

This can be seen from the Kong family. Many people think that the aristocratic families disappeared after the Song Dynasty.

In fact, this is not the case. The Kong family is a true thousand-year-old family.

Since the Han Dynasty, when Confucianism became the only official doctrine, every subsequent dynasty would posthumously confer titles on Confucius, even the nomadic dynasties.

For example, during the Yuan Dynasty, the Kong family surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty. After the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, they still cursed Zhu Yuanzhang as a traitor and were unwilling to serve him.

When it comes to killing people, Zhu Yuanzhang is definitely the most ruthless emperor in history.

As a result, the Kong family was not touched.

Zhu Yuanzhang moved Mencius out of the Confucius Temple, but eventually he welcomed him back.

Deleting some words from Mencius's books was just the result of a compromise with students all over the world.

It is also possible that Zhu Yuanzhang knew from the beginning that it was impossible to move Mencius out of the Confucius Temple, and he did this only to retreat in order to advance.

The original intention was to delete some words from Mencius's books.

But no matter what, it can be seen how special the Kong family's status is.

Moreover, throughout the dynasties, the Imperial College has been the base of the Kong family.

Even if you are not in direct charge, you will put your name on it.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Kong family has been officials for generations.

Of course, Ang Lee is not so naive as to think that he can be compared with Confucius and Mencius just by relying on pinyin.

Confucius and Mencius relied on the bonus of being posthumously honored by successive dynasties. Wang Mingyang is known as the only two saints in history, but they cannot compare to him in this respect, let alone him.

Ang Lee’s idea was very simple. Once he figured out Pinyin, he would have a real golden body.

If he died in the future and was posthumously honored by a later emperor, even if his descendants could not enjoy the same special status as the Kong family, at least no one would easily attack his descendants when any unrest occurred.

"Ziqian, what's wrong with you?" Zhao Ceying asked puzzledly when he saw Li An's expression changing.

"Nothing." Li An shook his head and said, "Your Highness wants to promote Pinyin?"

"It's not me, it's my father. My father intends to promote this method and wants to appoint you as a Hanlin scholar." Zhao Ceying said.

"Your Highness, this method can be promoted, but forget about it for Hanlin scholars." Li An shook his head.

Although there is a saying that only those who are Hanlin can become prime ministers, but one cannot stay in the Hanlin Academy forever.

Hanlin Bachelors are all of the fifth rank. Although no one will object to my becoming a Hanlin Bachelor after pinyin is promoted, how can I be transferred to a distant position in the future?
If he is sent to a local position, he can at least be a prefect or something like that, but what's the point of that?

"Zi Qian, this is a good thing, why do you refuse?" Zhao Ceying asked puzzledly.

Zhao Zongquan and his son had only been in Beijing for a short time and did not quite understand some of the intricacies of officialdom.

"Your Highness, I am still young and it is really difficult for me to take on this role. And I just suddenly had an idea," said Li An.

"What idea?" Zhao Ceying asked puzzledly.

"Using pinyin to compile all the characters in the world into a code, then as long as you know pinyin and have a dictionary, you can learn to recognize characters at home, which will undoubtedly greatly reduce the cost of studying," said Li Ang.

(End of this chapter)