Chapter 420 Falsely Conveying the Imperial Edict

Ying Bao didn't know that her two younger brothers were so worried about her marriage that they couldn't eat or sleep.

Since the treat that day, the two brothers seemed to have grown up suddenly, and they became much calmer in speaking and doing things.

Later, the appointment letters of Jiang Wu and Hu Zi were also issued. Hu Zi was appointed as a Xiaoqi Lieutenant in the Imperial Guards of the Capital City, with the rank of sixth-grade military officer.

Jiang Wu was appointed as the training envoy of the Yuzhou regiment, and he was promoted to a fifth-rank official. He would rush to Bianliang to take up a post in the next year.

Chun Niang and Ying Bao were both happy and a little worried.

After all, Jiang Wu was still young, and he was only fifteen after the New Year. He would have to travel thousands of miles away, and he would not be able to return home for at least several years.

Ying Bao: "Mom, how about we arrange a marriage for Xiao Wu first? He has to have someone caring and caring around him when he goes so far away."

Chun Niang sighed: "Where can I find someone I like for a while? Oh, it would be great if your father was here."

Ying Bao frowned and thought for a while, "How about I accompany Xiao Wu to Bianliang?"

The capital was very boring, and with the Xiao family and Chen Tiantian nearby, he couldn't kill them immediately, so he simply walked away.

Anyway, A-niang has Jiang Jie taking care of her, and Mr. Wu and his family are watching over her. She will ask the emperor's master for a decree to let her father come to Beijing to live.

At that time, we will bring the grandparents and the second uncle's family over. The Jiang family has the Four Seasons Potted Plant Shop. Not only will the family be rich, they will not have to worry about food and drink.

Chun Niang shook her head: "No, just stay at home with your mother." My daughter is a big girl, how can she wander around?

Seeing her mother's firm opposition, Ying Bao said nothing. After thinking for a while, she suddenly remembered Jiang Jie: "Mom, we should invite a matchmaker to the Luo family first to make an agreement."

Although the Luo family first chose Jiang Jie as their son-in-law, they could not be rude. As long as Jiang Jie had no objection, they would hurry up and settle the marriage.

Chun Niang nodded: "I asked Mrs. Wu to help find a matchmaker a few days ago, but recently everyone is busy worshiping their ancestors, so Mrs. Wu asked us to wait a moment."

Ying Bao felt relieved and said, "I still have a lot of silk and satin there. Let's go to the jewelry shop to order some headgear and some jades. If the matchmaker comes, we will have a decent betrothal gift."

Chun Niang: "Then let's go to the market tomorrow. As the New Year is approaching, we need to prepare some fabrics to make new clothes for the servants at home."

"Well, we have to prepare new clothes for Xiao Wu and Hu Zi." Ying Bao wanted to buy more new materials from her childhood, and asked the embroiderer to make more clothes of good style for her two brothers and Hu Zi Jiang Quan.

They often walk outside and their accessories must be exquisite.

The next day, Ying Bao and Chun Niang took a girl to the market in the family carriage.

First, I went to a jewelry store and ordered six sets of gold-inlaid headdresses, two gold necklaces, several pairs of jade bracelets, several pairs of gold bracelets, and jade hairpins, Huasheng ivory combs, etc. I also ordered a leather belt and seven things for men. I bought a few sets and asked the shopkeeper to send them to the Jiang family in Meihuafang.

After that, he went to a silk and satin shop and ordered dozens of silk damasks, as well as cotton and linen fabrics for servants to wear.

He also asked the silk and satin shop to introduce several embroiderers and sent them to Jiang's house.

Then he went to the shoe shop and bought several pairs of shoes and leather boots for each of his younger brothers and cousins, and a pair of cotton shoes for each of the servants and maids.

This amount of expenditure alone cost hundreds of taels of silver, which made Chun Niang feel very distressed. She kept asking her daughter: "Does our family have enough money?"

For these things, you only need to pay money first, and then ask the store to deliver the goods to Jiang's house, and then pay the remaining amount.

"Mom, don't worry, it's enough." Ying Bao and her second cousin earned thousands of taels of silver from the four-season potted plants they opened in just over two months. They spent money on removing flower pots and planting seedlings, as well as building flower houses and purchasing The net profit from the shop's silver was more than two thousand taels.

Even after splitting with her second cousin, she would still get more than a thousand, which was enough to cover today's expenses.

Chun Niang could not rest assured, but she also knew that the money had to be spent.

Not only that, but you also have to prepare New Year's gifts and give them to relatives, friends, and Jiang Jie's colleagues.

Although people will return gifts, they are still gifts, not money, and you can never get back what you spend.

Therefore, it is not easy to be an official in the capital. His son's salary seems to be quite a lot, but he has to support a large family and has to deal with favors. Without a little extra income, he can't make ends meet.

Fortunately, the little girl did some business with her second cousin, otherwise, the family wouldn't even be able to afford a servant.

After browsing the shops, I went to the rice grain store to buy grain and salt, some spices, and several jars of miso and rice vinegar.

When Chun Niang saw that the soybean paste in the capital cost dozens of yuan per catty, she couldn't help but muttered: "If I had known how many tanks we could dry at home, it would be too expensive."

Yingbao also thinks it's quite expensive. A copper spoon costs more than a hundred yuan, which is not cost-effective: "We will dry it ourselves next summer."

Doenjang is indispensable for cooking at home. As a large family of 20 people, including servants, they need several spoons of doenjang a day, not to mention daily food such as rice, flour, oil, chicken, duck, and fish.

Ying Bao roughly calculated that their family spent about 10 taels a day, which is 300 taels a month.

This is only for food consumption. If we include the courtesy exchanges, the monthly salary of the servants is less than 500 taels per month, and it is impossible to survive.

The mother and daughter finally finished their shopping and took the carriage home.

After a while, all the stores were delivering their goods.

Yingbao checked it over and picked out a few boxes of beaded flowers among other samples sent by the store before settling the payment.

The valuable jewelry and cloth were placed in the Chun Niang's house and locked up in camphor wood boxes.

These are prepared as betrothal gifts.

The rest was handed over to Wei Xiuxiu and the newly invited embroiderers, and they were asked to make clothes for the master of the family.

The servants' clothes were all left to them to make themselves. Yingbao gave each servant cotton and linen, enough to make two sets of clothes for each of them.

The clothes of the male servants and servants were left to a few girls. Anyway, there was no need for embroidery on their clothes. The girls worked together and could finish it in two days.

As for rice, flour, oil, salt, sauces, etc., Yingbao put them in a separate room and let Mudan temporarily hold the key. The kitchen would keep accounts as much as they received.

After passing the sacrificial stove, two eunuchs suddenly came to the palace, saying that they were ordered by the Holy Spirit to bring Jiang Yingbao to the palace to see him.

Ying Bao recalled what Master Zhou Wuchang said before and asked the two eunuchs: "Master told me that if he summons me, there will be an imperial edict. Why don't you?"

The two eunuchs looked a little flustered, but quickly calmed down and said, "Jiang Yingbao, do you want to disobey the order?"

Ying Bao looked at the two of them: "You'd better tell the truth. Whose order did you take? And why did you call me into the palace? If you tell a lie, I will personally ask the master and punish you!"

One of the eunuchs lowered his face: "Jiang Yingbao, are you threatening our family?"

"False preaching of the imperial edict is an additional crime. My father-in-law, you don't know that, right?" Ying Bao was not afraid of these two eunuchs at all.

It's just Concubine Shu's family dog. Last time, the two of them lied about obeying the emperor's oral instructions. In fact, it was Concubine Shu who falsely conveyed the decree because she was pregnant.