Chapter 1108 Changping County Lord 56
There is no such boast. You must know that there were 500 gold horseshoe gold ingots and 10,000 taels of silver in the warehouse before. Later, the King of Han rewarded him with a hundred taels of gold and a thousand taels of silver. Now there are only two hundred taels of gold and five thousand taels of silver left, nearly half of which have been used up.
Butler Xiao also had to remind: "The post-autumn competition, the bounty plus the money to buy arrows, will cost about one hundred gold, or even two hundred gold."
This time, half of it was removed, and it was not such a waste!
Xining nodded: "Oh, I thought I calculated it wrong, but it seems about the same. Then save some flowers."
What are you saving? It’s almost gone!
In the ninth month of the lunar calendar, the cold dew has passed but the frost has not yet arrived, and the weather seems to have finally cooled down.
The grain in the farmland has long been dried, peeled and put into storage. Although the weather this year is too hot and the grain harvest has failed, after delivering the grain, it is barely enough to eat. There is nothing to do now, just waiting for winter and next spring.
So at this time, people in the countryside will drag their families to nearby counties to go to the market. Sell the remaining grain and buy some daily necessities, and watch the beheadings of the prisoners on death row.
But this time there is a new program, which is the archery competition.
Three days before the competition, the city gate posted a list and wrote the rules clearly and clearly. There are also official servants holding gongs and drums, beating and shouting: "From now on, within one month, all arrows that come in will not be taken out of the city. Those who can hit the target without falling will be bought by Shiwen."
Some good people discussed what it meant that arrows in the city were not allowed to be taken away during this month.
The answer is that for the sake of fair competition, if you cheat on the arrows, you can simply buy all the arrows and check them if you have any objections.
Archery is not a test of knowledge, so where is the point of cheating?
It seems that the county leader is also a layman and doesn't understand anything.
Outside, arrows cost twenty cents each, and there were also ten cents, but they were rougher. It is said that for the competition, the county boss also specially purchased a blacksmith shop. Anyone who is a resident of Linyi County can buy it. One arrow per article, and each person is limited to ten arrows. All in all, excluding labor, ten cents is simply a free gift of at least five cents.
Now that the regulations are out, let the county lord do what she likes. After all, the county lord has a fiefdom here. Even if she doesn't give money and wants to take the arrow, she has no choice but to give it.
Xining leaned on the soft cushion and flipped through the book. Since arriving here, she has been lying down and leaning on her almost every day. Who knew that kneeling and sitting are the main methods here, and it is really not as comfortable as lying down.
Jing'er came in with a plate of peaches and placed it on the low table: "County Master, this is a tribute from your Majesty. Butler Lin just brought it back."
The peaches are very big, one weighs half a catty. I only gave two of them, one was a bit broken. This era is no different than in the future. Three hundred years later, if Concubine Yang wanted to eat lychees, she would have to transport them overnight on a fast horse that traveled thousands of miles.
Jing'er looked at the county master, wondering which one the county master would eat first. If you eat the rotten food first, it proves that you are prepared for danger in times of peace, and you eat the bitter food first and then the sweet food. If you eat the good food first, you are greedy for pleasure.
Five days later, the pigeon flew into the pigeon house. A man grabbed the pigeon and took a bamboo tube tied from its feet. He walked into the room and handed the bamboo tube to a person sitting at the table.
The man opened the bamboo tube, took out a wad of paper, and looked at the calligraphy written on it. Then he picked up the pen and wrote the words on the bamboo slips on the table.
Another moment of burning incense passed, and the secret report was in the hands of the chamberlain.
The chamberlain read it out: "Taste the bad first, then the good, use up the bad, and leave the reward."
The King of Han was stunned and suddenly laughed: "She tasted them all."
Xining picked up a bad one and bit into the good part of the peach.
Then she picked up the other one with her other hand and took a bite: "The rotten peach is sweeter."
So he ate the rotten peach, and the other one also took two bites: "I can't eat any more, Jing'er, just eat it, it will go bad if you leave it for a while."
"Thank you, County Master!" Jing'er took the peach and started eating it. It's a lucky thing to be able to eat tributes. It's possible to dislike eating even two bites. Moreover, the master had eaten it, so he only rewarded it to show respect for the king of Han. Otherwise, if the tribute given to you is given to your slaves, you will still be able to hold on to it. After eating the peach, Jing'er said curiously: "It must be very lively there for today's game. The county boss let them off their work, but the county boss didn't go to see it."
It was indeed lively. People from nearby villages came to attend the market on the street, and you could also see beheadings. Now that there are competitions, there are undoubtedly more people.
There are many craftsmen, merchants and vendors carrying burdens to sell. Many entertainers also took advantage of this time to put on a show.
Xining said with a smile: "I'm afraid of the excitement, but you are, why don't you go and see it?"
Jing'er complained a little: "If this servant also goes to see it, there will be no one in this house."
The county head actually gave the people in the mansion two hours of leave every day, so they could go shopping and watch the game. And now the game happened to be starting, so they all went to watch the excitement and came back when it was almost time to come back.
"There won't be anyone! If you don't believe it, just listen." Xining shouted towards the outside: "Is there anyone? Come here!"
"Swish, swish, swish~" Three men in black flashed in. One ran in through the door, and the other jumped in through the window.
The three of them put their hands on the knife handles and looked around nervously to see if there was anything unusual.
Forgot about these dead men who were monitoring... Jing'er rolled her eyes.
Xining said with a smile: "It's okay, I just wanted to ask you why you didn't go out to watch the competition today. No matter how good you are, you might be able to win a prize in archery."
The three dead soldiers clasped their fists at each other: "You have a heavy responsibility and don't dare to neglect it...Thank you very much for the county shirt. You don't dare to leave your post without authorization..."
Seeing how many dead soldiers around him were quite good, Xining nodded: "Thank you for your hard work. Later, I'll ask the kitchen to prepare some wine and roast meat for them to take back to eat when they get off work."
I knew that good things would happen when the county lord called out. The dead soldiers bowed and thanked them, and then went back to where they came from.
Xining looked at the two people who still jumped out of the window and found it funny. Are they really used to jumping out of windows?
Because there were so many people participating, the competition lasted three days.
On the first day, all ten arrows hitting the target will be considered selected. Those selected can keep the arrows and use them in the next round.
If you are not selected, you will buy as many arrows as you want. If you miss the target and want to sell the arrow, you can pick it up and continue shooting. Any arrow that hits the target but does not fall will be purchased for ten cents.
In order not to affect the competition, several targets were set up nearby for people to shoot at. After shooting, the money was counted.
You can wait a month to take away the arrows. Some people simply sell the arrows because they can't afford to wait that long.
For a time, money was flowing like water. I had prepared tens of thousands of copper coins a long time ago, but at the end of the day, I had very little left.
On the second day, there will be a selection. A red circle is drawn on the target, and those who shoot all ten shots within the red circle will be shortlisted.
The third day is the final, which involves several rings.
Everyone was eager to see the county lord, but the county lord had not been seen until the third day. In the end, I found out that the county boss was going to present the award on the last day, so he came over.
(End of chapter)