Farmhouse Green Plum

Chapter 636 Paralysis

Yuan Qing was stunned for a moment, then became very excited. He never expected that the senior whom he had always admired would be willing to humble himself and continue his friendship with a junior like him!

He pursed his lips, suppressing the excitement in his heart, and said, "Brother, you are too kind. You have already had the whole thing in mind, and I just happened to touch upon it."

At that moment, the two of them discussed "On Current Affairs" in detail by candlelight. They were so excited that they didn't even care about dinner. They asked the servants to bring it in and ate while they talked.

Yuan Qing suddenly paused, hesitated, and said, "Brother, your article is truly brilliant, but there is one point I disagree with."

"Oh?" Zhang Renzhi was not angry at all, but rather very happy. "Tell me about it."

Yuan Qing pointed to a passage in the article and said, "Brother, in your memorial, you mentioned five diseases: bloating, paralysis, and paralysis. The most serious one is the arrogance of the royal family. I think this is nothing."

The affairs of Prince Ning and Prince Jin during Emperor Wuzong's reign seemed grand, but in reality they were merely minor issues. The real threat lay with Zonglu.

Among Taizu's 26 sons, except Crown Prince Jingwen, the others were all granted the title of prince. The eldest son of the prince inherited the title, and the rest of the sons were granted the title of county prince. Even though the titles were passed down from generation to generation, in addition to the eldest son who inherited the title, there were also the titles of General Guarding the State, General Auxiliary State, General Serving the State, Lieutenant Guarding the State, Lieutenant Auxiliary State, and Lieutenant Serving the State.

In addition, there are princesses, county ladies, county ladies, county ladies, county ladies, and county ladies, as well as their husbands, princes-in-law, and grooms-in-law.

The court had to pay these people an annual salary, ranging from 10,000 dan for a prince to 200 dan for a county lady or a royal consort. The annual salary of just one prince's palace was already daunting, and with each successive dynasty, several more princely palaces were added.

Since there was no limit on concubines, there was no limit on their children either. Taizu had 26 sons and 16 daughters, which was already a large number. During the reign of Wenzong, Prince Qihong of Liang had more than 70 sons.

The entire nation provides the capital with 4 million dan of grain annually, while the government-subsidized rice for each prefecture totals 8.53 million dan. Just take Shanxi and Henan provinces as an example. Even if the entire grain supply from these two provinces were required, it would still not cover half of the government-subsidized rice, not to mention that government salaries and military pay all come from this.

Zhang Renzhi frowned and silently calculated the accounts in his mind. The more he calculated, the more frightened he became. Before this, his attention was all on the arrogance of these royal family members, and he actually ignored the fact that they were draining away the country.

However, having many children means more blessings is a concept that has existed since ancient times, and if you want to refute it, you may cause public outrage.

He exhaled slowly and said, "According to the 'Daqian Law. Household Law': A prince may not have more than ten concubines, a county prince may have four, and the number decreases from general to general."

Yuan Qing understood what he meant. This meant that if there was an opportunity in the future, he could start from this Ming Dynasty law and restrict the heirs of the royal family.

Zhang Renzhi's humility made Yuan Qing admire him even more, and he became more relaxed in his words. The two of them enjoyed the conversation more and more, and it was not until the moon was past the zenith that they ended the conversation at the servant's gentle reminder.

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Yu Lingwan's nearly nine-month-old body was weighed down heavily, causing her to gasp for breath every time she turned over. She often tossed and turned until three in the morning before falling into a drowsy sleep, and would occasionally be awakened by the "punches and kicks" of the baby in her belly.

On this day, the sun had already climbed over the carved window lattices outside the window, casting a diamond-shaped pattern of light and shadow on the ground.

Yu Lingwan frowned and slowly opened her sore eyes. The sunlight made her eyes dazed.

"What time is it?" Her voice was hoarse, and her throat was still dry from waking up in the middle of the night.

"It's almost noon." Yanqiu responded neatly. While pulling up the gauze curtain, he gently helped her sit up and took a pillow to support her waist.

Yu Lingwan closed her eyes and relaxed for a moment. The fetus in her belly seemed to be disturbed and turned restlessly. She gently stroked her bulging belly and waited until the dizziness passed before she was helped to her feet by the maids.

After washing her face with warm water, rinsing her mouth with green salt, and moistening her hands with rose ointment, she finally felt better and asked, "Where's Sister Lingwei?"

Yanqiu pursed her lips and smiled, then raised her hand and pushed open the carved wooden window. The river breeze wrapped in moist water vapor blew in her face: "I'm studying with Mr. Yuan."

Yu Lingwan looked over and saw a small elm table propped up on the side of the boat. Song Ying and Yuan Qing were sitting opposite each other, holding pens. One had a slightly furrowed brow while the other wrote with a vigorous movement.

Yuan Qing's ink seemed to have faded. He picked up his pen to dip it in ink, but saw that there was only a little ink left in the inkstone. He put down his pen and rolled up his sleeves to grind the ink, but his eyes fell on Song Lingwei opposite him. His eyes were warm and even thicker than the newly ground ink in the inkstone.

The autumn sun shone through the gaps between the masts and sails, and when it fell on the two of them, it seemed to be a little gentler.

Yu Lingwan smiled: "Other people are like red sleeves adding fragrance, but for them it's the other way around."

Maids such as Yanqiu were also very happy.

Song Ying heard the laughter and looked over. Seeing that Yu Lingwan had woken up, he said, "Sister, you're awake! Wait a moment, I'll be right there."

As he spoke, he picked up his brush and quickly wrote a sentence, then weighed it down with a paperweight. He said to Yuan Qing, "Please help me put it away after it dries. I'll go check Sister Ling Wan's pulse first."

Yuan Qing nodded, then stood up and bowed to Yu Lingwan from a distance.

Song Ying quickly walked into the cabin. The pulse-taking equipment, including the small pillow, was already in Yu Lingwan's cabin, so there was no need to get any elsewhere. She carefully took her pulse and said with a smile, "The fetus is stable."

Even though he took her pulse every day and had heard this sentence countless times, Yu Lingwan still felt relieved every time he heard it.

Yanqiu frowned and said, "Our wife was so restless yesterday that she didn't even get a wink of sleep. She finally fell asleep, but was awakened by fetal movements just after the hour of Yin. Is it really okay for her to sleep so restlessly like this?"

"It seems like she's about to give birth. This is normal." She paused as her eyes caught the dark shadows under Yu Lingwan's eyes. "The due date is approaching, so she needs to conserve her energy. I'll prescribe a calming prescription, along with Poria Cocos porridge."

Yanqiu's frown finally relaxed slightly, and he said, "That's great. We're almost in Linqing, so we'll stay for two days. Madam, you can have a good rest."

"I've always been resting." Yu Lingwan smiled.

Song Ying said solemnly: "Sister, you can't rest all the time. You are about to give birth. You should walk around a bit so that you can suffer less during the birth."

"That's the theory?" Yu Lingwan was surprised, then suddenly realized, "No wonder my brother Chen had such a hard time giving birth. It turned out he'd been lying in bed for too long."

Speaking of her eldest son, Yu Lingwan couldn't help but reveal a look of longing: "I've been away from home for two years now. I wonder if Brother Chen has grown taller?"

When Zhang Renzhi went to Beijing for the spring examination, Yu Lingwan was seven months pregnant. Naturally, her family did not allow her to follow her husband to Beijing. After Chen Ge'er turned three years old, her mother-in-law was worried that her husband would have no one to take care of him in Beijing, and that the long-term separation of the young couple would be detrimental to their offspring, so she allowed her to go to Beijing.

She wanted to take the child with her, but her mother-in-law refused. Firstly, the journey was long and she was worried something might happen to the child. Second, she didn't want to be separated from her eldest grandson.

Yu Lingwan had no choice but to suppress her longing for her child and separate from him.