met free Chapter 251 Demoted to Gaoyao and Experienced in Qinzhou
Chapter 251 Demoted to Gaoyao and Experienced in Qinzhou
Little Si woke up exclaiming, "What? The Fengshan Ceremony?"
"Yes, he was given an important task and stole the show..."
Xiao Si frowned, her heart tightening: "Stealing the limelight? The nail that sticks out gets hammered down; it's definitely not a good thing!"
The next day at court, Qiu Rongmu was subjected to a tacit and unspoken collective attack from everyone.
Xiao Si finally understood. Qiu Rongmu's original owner was a very intelligent minister, but he was also greedy for profit, cunning, and treacherous, and his schemes were ever-changing and full of hidden agendas! In Bingzhou, Yue asked someone to curry favor with that Mao Zhong's Lord Wang and spent a lot of money to win him over.
Xiao Si said to Qiu Rongmu, "I never thought highly of Yue when I was still the Empress. Your original owner was extremely capable, but she only gave her talents to those who were useful. Of course, if someone was no longer useful, she wouldn't waste any time on them..."
Qiu Rongmu from the village rubbed his hands together, tapped his pipe on the sole of his shoe, and slowly began to speak:
"Hey, it's so much more comfortable in the Northeast! Things in Chang'an are like the ice cave in Shichahai Lake—it looks flat on the surface, but there are turbulent undercurrents underneath... That little brat, Xiao Si, was still dreaming while hugging a hand warmer last night, and then she woke me up early this morning with the sound of a clapper. As soon as I opened my eyes, I was given a hot potato—this is the job for the Fengshan Ceremony..."
Brother Wood took a sip of the crispy rice and squinted his eyes:
"To be honest, my original owner was a master of turning a glass bead into a knife's edge. In Bingzhou, he paved the road with gold and silver and still managed to climb up to Lord Wang's crooked tree. He treated people differently based on their status. He would serve those who were useful to him, and he wouldn't even bother to lift his eyelids for those who were not."
Little Si, huddled under the covers, clicked its teeth and said, "So this one's a gecko, always climbing high branches... Get more branches, make the fire burn brighter!"
Qiu Rongmu got up and went to add some twigs to the kang (heated brick bed): "No matter how clever a monkey is, it can't withstand the wolves' covetousness. I still vividly remember the morning court after the Fengshan ceremony. Those officials, as if they had made a pact, kicked me, attacked me with both open and covert means. I knew perfectly well that I had transmigrated into Zhang Yue, that old fox, whom Xiao Si had offended when she was empress!"
"What do you mean I offended them? That's an inappropriate word!" Xiao Si, in her haste, leaned forward, then stood up with a burst of energy. "Speaking of the lively legal battles in Chang'an over the past three years! My young master and his brother, a pair of handsome young men, were impeached by Prime Minister Wei Yuanzhong like leaves in the wind. These young men weren't exactly innocent either; they immediately started gossiping about Minister Wei, saying he was privately discussing how the Empress Dowager was senile and that it would be better to hold a young prince hostage for long-term stability. Good heavens! I know no one's old age is easy, and whether there's a prince or not, the pretext of rebellion is longer than the city gate tower!"
Xiao Si dusted off his long robe: "At the time, I seemed furious and threw Wei Yuanzhong directly into prison. The next day, I demanded that these gossipy people confront me in court. Zhang Yue was serving as a Fengge Sheren at the time, and Yi Zhilang and Chang Zonglang coaxed and intimidated him, forcing him to give false testimony. You see, at this critical moment, Jing, who hadn't yet transmigrated, and a few upright officials blocked the palace gate. One said, 'Don't let history down,' and another said, 'There is righteousness in heaven and earth,' and they actually managed to persuade Zhang Yue to turn back."
Qiu Rongmu said, "No wonder you said he was fickle."
Xiao Si suddenly raised her voice: "My young masters are spoiled rotten. When they arrived at the Golden Palace, they were red-faced and clamoring for witnesses. Zhang Yue, seeing this, knew he had to invest in the future, and immediately knelt down upon entering the hall: 'Your Majesty, it's all because of Yi Zhi and Chang Zong forcing me to give false testimony!'"
Chang was so angry he jumped up and down: "This Yue, when we contacted each other in private, she had a completely different attitude, claiming to be part of the family. She might actually be Wei Yuanzhong's accomplice!"
Mr. Chang was shaking his head excitedly, and he started rambling on about Yi Yin and the Duke of Zhou again. Yue, however, was quick-witted and said, "You two don't know anything! Yi Yin and the Duke of Zhou were wise ministers throughout the ages. If a sage's prime minister doesn't learn from them, are you going to learn from Wu Dalang, the pancake seller on the street corner?"
Xiao Si laughed loudly: "Haha, back then, I used that handsome brother to find an unrelated third party to check them, and also to select some truly talented people. But Zhang Yue is really cunning, a real 'fence-sitter,' so I imprisoned them both. After a few days of retrial, I still felt that Zhang Yue was a fickle scoundrel who would only act for personal gain, and not easy to control. Even if I used him, he wasn't quite ready. So—I'll train him! Actually, there was a plan to demote Wei Yuanzhong to Gaoyao, you just don't understand. Zhang Shuo was also exiled to Qinzhou, actually to let him experience the DNA of the sea, so he can still be used in the future!"
Wei Yuanzhong spent two years in Gaoyao, learning two dialects: Cantonese and Hakka. These two dialects are grammatically similar, with only occasional ambiguities in vocabulary usage. However, the initial consonant values, the distinction between finals, and the tonal variations all bear the distinctive characteristics of Gaoyao!
Wei Yuanzhong also discovered that the accents of residents in places like Jindu, Baitu, Huilong, and Xiagang are quite distinctive, and everyone calls them "Baitu" or "Huilong" dialects. Meanwhile, some areas in Jinli and Xiagang, because they are close to the core area of the Pearl River Delta in the future, have an accent similar to that of Nanhai, Shunde, and Sanshui, so they are called "Jinli"!
The miasma of Lingnan shimmered eerily bluish-purple under the moonlight. Wei Yuanzhong stroked the bamboo slips inscribed with strange symbols, then suddenly stopped breathing—the pronunciation of "rain" in the Jindu dialect was exactly the same as the password given by the sentries on the city wall during the Luoyang mutiny three years ago. He abruptly pushed open the wooden window and stared at the Persian merchant ships moored at the ferry. The boatmen, speaking with Jinli accents, were carrying not spices into the cargo hold, but clearly long-handled swords wrapped in oilcloth!
At that moment, thunder roared, and the sound of rapid hoofbeats echoed from the direction of Baitu Town. Wei Yuanzhong held the parchment filled with dialect annotations close to the candlelight. In the flickering light, the hidden secrets in Xiao Si's secret letter emerged: it turned out that the "tone changes" corresponded to the twelve-hour garrison rotation in Chang'an, and the "lexical ambiguity" concealed a gap in the garrison rotation of the Shen Du Longwu Army. He suddenly remembered the tea merchant at the Xiagang teahouse yesterday, who claimed to be Zhang Yue's cousin, whose cuffs were embroidered with flame patterns from Tibetan Tantric Buddhism...