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The longqi bed in the front hall was too wide and deep to hold on to or lean on. After a morning court session, Qin Mu felt it was more tiring than leading troops in battle.
It happened to be a rare good day with the first snow in the afternoon and the sun was warm and the wind was blowing. Qin Mu simply asked someone to move Zhang Tangqi to the plum tree behind the Jianjia Palace.
The snow on the plum trees has melted, the buds are blooming, and the subtle fragrance is already spreading.
Qin Mu lay down on the chair and stretched his body comfortably. The warm winter sun shone through the branches of the plum blossoms, making him feel very comfortable.
Li Xiangjun was afraid that he would catch a cold, so she asked the palace maid to find a blanket to cover him.
Right next to Qin Mu was a small sandalwood table, on which were placed writing brushes, inkstones, and a stack of memorials. On top of a cloisonné incense burner, smoke was curling up, emitting a whiff of ambergris.
Li Xiangjun sat down at the sandalwood table, opened the memorial, and began to read it to him. First, there was the report from the Ministry of Works, which said that a copper mine had been found at the northern foot of the Yanran Mountains in Mobei.
This surprised Qin Mu. Although he had already marked out the approximate location of the copper mine, finding it was not as simple as drawing a circle on the map. It could be said that the Ministry of Industry was able to find the copper mine so quickly largely due to luck.
With the vigorous development of Daqin's industry and commerce, the demand for copper is increasing, and the price of copper in the market is rising. In addition, the emergence of electrical appliances such as generators and transmitters, once mass-produced, will increase the demand for copper.
If the copper mines on the northern foot of Yanran Mountain are found at this time, it will not only be beneficial for imposing rule over Mobei, but will also be of great help in alleviating the current copper shortage in the country.
"Congratulations, Your Majesty. Congratulations, Your Majesty."
Seeing Qin Mu's happy expression, Li Xiangjun felt the same way and congratulated him with a smile.
She wore a golden hairpin in her hair, and a mink coat with a white collar made her petite body look graceful and charming. Her skin was as crystal clear as jade, which reminded people of daffodils: they bloom with the help of water. Water is the bones and jade is the skin.
Qin Mu laughed and said, "I have discovered that every time Xiangjun comes to read a memorial to me, there is always good news."
Just this one sentence makes the beauty look like a delicate flower just blooming, infinitely pure and graceful.
"Your Majesty, how about I ask them to bring some snacks, or warm up a pot of wine, so that Your Majesty can drink and appreciate the plum blossoms while I read the memorial?"
"Isn't this too much of a treat? I'm a wise ruler." As a five-good emperor, Qin felt that he needed to be a little more reserved.
This made Li Xiangjun almost laugh so hard that her waist broke.
Qin Mu smiled and snapped his fingers. The court lady Li Shuang'er came over and bowed, "What do you want, Your Majesty?"
"Shuang'er, ask them to bring some side dishes, set up a stove, and warm up a pot of osmanthus wine for me and send it over."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Li Xiangjun smiled charmingly and said, "Your Majesty, aren't you afraid that others will say that you are a hedonistic and incompetent ruler?"
"I suddenly realized! There are thousands of rivers with moonlight, and there are thousands of miles of cloudless sky. What others say cannot affect me. Hahahaha..."
Li Xiangjun saw him laughing heartily. It seemed that the exhaustion from the morning court session had completely dissipated, and she was very happy. She picked up another memorial and continued to read it to him.
The next one was an urgent report from Guangzhou, which roughly stated that Wang Guichen had found Nanhuazhou and sent back several ships, bringing back a batch of property worth nearly one million dragon coins, as well as a navigation route map.
Among them, there is also a memorial from Wu Yue, the deputy minister, which clearly analyzed the current situation in Nanhuazhou and put forward his own suggestions for handling the situation based on these situations.
After Qin Mu finished listening, he pointed to the paper and pen on the table. Li Xiangjun understood and immediately picked up the pen and dipped it in ink, waiting for him to speak.
Qin Mu thought about it and realized that there were only some primitive indigenous tribes in Nanhuazhou at present. There would not be any war that would threaten Wang Guichen and his men, so there was no need to send more warships.
What South China needs now is materials from Daqin and the need to guide Daqin's merchant ships there, so as to start the colonization of South China in a commercial way.
"Xiangjun, write a note and copy Wu Yue's memorial to the newspaper office, and ask Wang Fuzhi to publicize Nanhuazhou in the Daqin Times."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
It was just a note, which was a piece of cake for the talented Li Xiangjun. Her calligraphy was very good. According to Qin Mu's instructions, she wrote a concise letter in one stroke, and then copied Wu Yue's memorial.
Li Xiangjun was very happy to be able to give full play to her abilities. When reviewing memorials, Qin Mu would personally write his comments even if it was just a sentence like "I understand".
After the formal memorial was reviewed, it was not the end of the matter. It often had to be sent back to the relevant department for execution. So it was very important to check whether the handwriting on the memorial was the emperor's own.
If the handwriting was not from the emperor himself, the ministers had reason to refuse to execute it. Therefore, when he was marking documents, Li Xiangjun and others were absolutely not allowed to write for him.
After copying Wu Yue's memorial, Li Xiangjun attached it to a note and immediately sent someone to deliver it to the paper company.
The circulation of the Daqin Times is now very large. Officials and civilians all know that when the emperor has any special ideas, he will occasionally publish them through the Daqin Times for people to discuss. In addition, Wang Fuzhi has made the Daqin Times very exciting, with beautiful articles, the court's new policies, and business conditions in various places. Now both officials and civilians like to read the Daqin Times.
The affairs of Nanhuazhou were publicized by Daqin Times. Qin Mu believed that profit-seeking sea merchants would definitely go there to promote exchanges between Nanhuazhou and Daqin. In this way, Nanhuazhou could be gradually turned into Daqin's territory.
At this time, a gust of west wind blew, and Li Xiangjun's skirt fluttered, beautiful as a poem.
A plum blossom petal from the branch just happened to fall on Qin Mu's forehead, feeling cool. Qin Mu was too lazy to move, so he pursed his upper lip, pursed his lower lip, and blew gently, trying to blow the plum blossom away from his forehead, but even after blowing several times, he failed to blow the petal away.
Li Xiangjun accidentally turned around and saw this scene. She couldn't help laughing and said jokingly: "Your Majesty, you have nothing to do, so you put on plum blossom makeup?"
The so-called plum blossom makeup, according to the "Taiping Yulan" compiled in the early Northern Song Dynasty, Princess Shouyang, the daughter of Emperor Wu of the Southern Song Dynasty, Liu Yu, was lying on her back under the Hanzhang Palace on the seventh day of the first lunar month of a certain year. A breeze blew on the plum tree in front of the palace, and a plum blossom fell down, sticking right on the princess' forehead, and she couldn't get it off no matter what she did.
So the queen kept the princess by her side and observed her for a long time. After three days, the plum blossom was washed off, but the mark of five petals remained on the princess' forehead.
The women in the palace saw that the plum blossom mark on the princess' forehead was very beautiful and wanted to imitate it, so they cut plum blossoms and stuck them on their foreheads. Thus, a new beauty technique was born, which was called "plum blossom makeup" at the time.
The style of painting a dot or a plum blossom with multiple petals on the forehead was very popular in the Tang Dynasty. The palace maids thought that decorating their foreheads with a few plum blossom petals would make them look more charming, so they also learned to stick petals on their foreheads.
Qin Mu couldn't help laughing after being teased by Li Xiangjun. He replied, "Xiangjun, am I beautiful now... uh, very handsome."
Li Xiangjun automatically ignored the second half of his sentence and smiled like a lotus in the breeze: "Your Majesty is so beautiful. When I see you, my heart is beating wildly."
"Come here, I want to see how fast your heart is beating."
"Hehe..." Li Xiangjun, holding a memorial in her hand, actually threw herself into his arms. In the harem, except for Yun Qiaoer, she was probably the only one who dared to act naughty in front of Qin Mu.
“Hahaha…” Qin Mu did not really reach out to check her heartbeat rate. He pulled out the blanket that was pressing on her and wrapped her in it.
Li Xiangjun lay in his arms, moved her body upwards, and looked at the plum blossoms on his forehead. The plum blossoms were somewhat sticky because they were covered with snow. Li Xiangjun pursed her warm lips slightly and blew gently, but she still failed to blow the plum blossoms away.
"Your Majesty, it's stuck and can't be blown away, hehe..."
Qin Mu shook his head, throwing the petals off, then glared at her and said, "Stop being naughty and continue reading the memorial."
"Hmm..." Li Xiangjun felt so comfortable lying in his arms and reading the memorial. Her voice was as soft as water: "Your Majesty, I am as gentle as the wind..."
After hearing a few words, Qin Mu couldn't help but slap the armrest of his chair and shouted, "Hai Rufeng, you are so rebellious!"
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ps: I know you all care about Hai Rufeng very much. If you want to know what happens next, please vote for me. Hahahaha... ... ... ... .
.(To be continued..)
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