There was nothing to say all night, and Wu Kangyuan came to him early the next day.

Zhao Hao was still sleeping in the quilt, rubbing his sleepy eyes and asked, "Why are you here so early?"

"Send an invitation to my uncle. Didn't he agree with Lingzun yesterday that he would treat you to dinner today?" Wu Kangyuan handed the invitation with a green skin sticker to Zhao Hao.

Zhao Hao reached out to take it, opened it and saw that it said:

‘I want to have lunch at noon on the fifteenth day, and the gift is generous. I dare not be lucky, but he has finished his face late.

———You Jin presented the letter to the minister of the Zhongshun, and the head of Shuntian Prefecture Wu Shi.’

Seeing the three words "Wu Shilai", Zhao Hao's mouth showed a touch and was so slight and undetectable. He had long guessed that Wu Kangyuan's uncle was one of the "Three Sons of Wu Wu". The famous Wu Shilai was here.

The "Three Zi of Wuwu" is as famous as the "Four Advices in Yuezhong" where Zhao Jin is. They are both ministers who speak out in the Jiajing Dynasty and dare to advise and were brutally imprisoned. On the list of resumption in the first year of Longqing, there is naturally a great name from the Wu Dynasty, and the order is still before Zhao Jin.

Now Zhao Jindu has been promoted to seven levels in a row within a few months, becoming the third-rank Guanglu Temple Minister. Wu Shilai, as Xu Jie's favorite disciple, naturally would not fall behind. He transformed himself from the seventh-rank engineering department to the fourth-rank Shuntian Prefecture Chief, and was also promoted to seven levels in a row.

Moreover, Zhao Hao knew that like Zhao Jin, the Shuntian Prefecture Chief was just a stepping stone for his transfer. Soon after the Chinese New Year, he was promoted to the right censor of Nanjing and the admiral Cao Jiang was promoted to the position of governor.

At that time, the defense of the entire Yangtze River would be in his hands, not to mention that he would later become the Censor of the Left Capital. Zhao Hao said that he would have to join him in any way.

Of course, he would never admit that Wei Jixian gave Wu Kangyuan a long-term private room to hook up this Yanei... That was obviously a gratitude for Zhanyi's move.

~~

"Today is over ten?" Zhao Hao put the invitation to the head of the bed and retracted his warm bed.

"Fifteenth." Wu Shilai replied.

"Ah, that's not today?" Zhao Hao sat up and said in a daze: "You didn't say it earlier."

"I just found out last night. My uncle took a day off to invite you to have dinner at home."

"Stop saying anything. Let's go quickly." Zhao Hao became more and more sure. Wu Shilai should have something to look for him, but he couldn't figure it out even if he wanted to break his head. What should he do if he was a 14- or 15-year-old man with a dignified fourth-rank official? Could he ask him to tutor his son?

When he got to the place, he knew that he stopped making random guesses and asked his two apprentices to serve him in dressing and washing.

After some dressing up, a unkempt boy staying in bed transformed into a handsome young man in the turbid world.

"Master seems to be a little handsome again." Hua Shuyang smiled in the mirror.

"What is this? Master has always been the most handsome!" Wang Wuyang glanced at him and corrected.

"Yes, yes, yes, master has always been the most handsome." Hua Shuyang quickly changed his words.

"You two can become eunuchs if you shaved." Zhao Hao laughed and cursed: "This little mouth is so sweet. If you go out to be an official in the future, you will have nothing to worry about as a teacher."

~~

After breakfast, he brought the gifts he had prepared long ago and got on the carriage with the lantern of "Shuntian Fucheng" with Wu Kangyuan.

The carriage left Chunsong Hutong, walked north along the street, and exited the inner city from Chongwenmen.

When he arrived at the outer city, the speed of the carriage suddenly slowed down. Zhao Hao opened the curtain and saw that there were many beggars wearing torn cotton jackets and rotten straw ropes on the street, and they were begging for food around the passing carriage.

"Are you blind? You dare to stop the carriage from Shuntian Mansion!" The coachman waved his whip in anger and drove away the beggars surrounding him.

The beggars were indeed frightened, so they made way and turned to pester other cars.

Begging scenes are not uncommon in Jinling, but Zhao Hao has never seen so many beggars on the street. Looking further to both sides of the street, I saw densely packed shacks and thatched huts were set up under the walls facing the street. Each shack lived in a bunch of unkempt and dirt-faced refugees, which seemed to be a permanent residence and never leave.

"The last time I went to Beijing to take the exam, there were not so many beggars in Beijing. I heard that it was because the Tatars invaded the mainland this fall, and the people all fled into the capital to take refuge."

Then Wu Kangyuan explained in a deep voice from the side: "At the end of last month, the Tartars withdrew from the customs, and the martial law in the capital had long been lifted, but the people refused to go back. My uncle was worried about this."

"Why don't you go back?" Zhao Hao asked softly.

"The family's food was stolen by the Tartars. What should I eat when I go back? After all, there is a porridge factory in the court, and wealthy families will give alms. Even begging for food is much easier than elsewhere."

"That's right." Zhao Hao nodded, believing that with Mr. Xu's current style of cherishing his reputation, he would not let too many people starve to death under his nose.

"Besides, beggars are the few after all, and most people are still shameless." Wu Kangyuan continued, "They are stuck and they cannot return. The purpose is that it is easy to find jobs in Beijing. Even if they don't have any skills, they can still go to the West Mountain to dig coal. At the foot of this emperor, as long as you are willing to put in your strength, you will never starve to death."

"Dig coal in the West Mountain?" Zhao Hao's heart moved.

"Yes, it's the Mentougou area west of the capital. There are countless high-quality carbonites there. People have mined and mined coal there since the Liao and Jin Dynasties. To the present, most of them rely on coal transported from the West Mountain to keep warm." Wu Kangyuan is very knowledgeable and is very knowledgeable no matter what he talks about.

"How many miners are there in Xishan?" Zhao Hao asked afterwards.

"I don't know very well, but there are at least 20,000 to 30,000 people." Wu Kangyuan replied: "This is the result of the imperial court's restrictions and no mine owners are allowed to recruit refugees, otherwise there will be more."

"Yes." Zhao Hao nodded and smiled, "I'll go and have a look another day."

"What's so good about it? You think, how dirty the mine is." Wu Kangyuan didn't know why Zhao Hao was interested in the coal mine, so he just thought he was talking casually and didn't take it to heart.

While talking, the carriage stopped in an alley next to the Temple of Heaven, and Wu Kangyuan led Zhao Hao into a five-entry official house.

~~

Zhao Hao came to meet Wu Shi in the back house of Wu Mansion, which shows that the other party treated him with his own nephew, which made Zhao Hao quite flattered.

"Nephew Zhao Hao to meet Uncle Wu Shi."

Zhao Hao hurriedly met with his younger generation. Wu Shilai held him in his arms and said with a hearty smile:

"Hahaha, I have heard of my great nephew Daming for a long time. I finally saw it today! There is no need to be too polite, no need to be too polite..."

Zhao Hao didn't really want to bow, so he stood up and looked at Wu Shilai. But seeing that he was thin, straight, and his face was full of the wind and frost of time, his eyes did not change the sharpness of the impeachment of Yan Song back then.

A very upright and very standard image of an honest official.

He was looking at Wu Shilai, and Wu Shilai was also looking at Zhao Hao. He saw that the young man had red lips and white teeth, and his face was as pink as a finely tailored green brocade robe and a pure white cloak covered with a white fox. I really don’t know who was a young man, covered with orchid musk, and his face was filled with fragrance.
Chapter completed!