On the night of the second day of the twelfth lunar month, heavy snow fell all night, and in the morning the world was covered in silver. Sima Hong got up early in the morning and took the coffins of his grandmother, father, and brother to the ancestral tomb to bury them. After many years, the remains of the three finally returned to their hometown.
As women, Mingyu and Miao were not qualified to step into their ancestral tomb while they were alive. Mingyu was happy to have some free time. She really didn't want to go out in such a cold day.
Miao was also busy, and ordered the servants to send Luo Lingxiu to the family temple. The abbot was very embarrassed. The monks had their own temples and the nuns had their own nunneries. It was not reasonable to throw the nuns into the temple. It was really inconvenient for the eldest grandmother, a female relative, to live in this temple.
After Nanny Wei talked for a long time, the abbot reluctantly agreed to give Luo Lingxiu a courtyard at the back of the temple to live in, and put a heavy iron lock on the door of the courtyard. The women of the nearby farmers who rented Sima's land would deliver three meals a day to Luo Lingxiu through the small window in the door. This was the arrangement for now, and they would make another decision after spring.
Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, Mingyu and his friends welcomed the first New Year after the construction of Tianshui City. This New Year was of great significance to all the native residents of Tianshui. Since the beginning of Laba, the sporadic sounds of firecrackers in the streets never stopped, and the atmosphere of joy and festivity was everywhere.
Sima Hong was still worried about the personnel issues in the northwest, so Mingyu gave him an idea: civil servant recruitment. Every spring, each government office would release a certain number of vacancies to recruit people to work, but these vacant positions were obviously not good jobs, and they were not officials, but just odd jobs.
Mingyu asked Sima Hong to take over the recruitment rights for these vacancies and set questions for open recruitment examinations. Anyone who can read and write can apply, and those who have the title of scholar or juren will be given priority. The questions are not essays, but specific application questions based on different positions. After all, Sima Hong recruited these people to do work, not bookworms. Mingyu also tried hard to recall the math test papers she had done, and helped to make a decent ancient math test paper.
After these people pass the written test, Sima Hong will interview them one by one and take note of those who have some knowledge. After these people enter various government offices, it will be a real process of screening out the talented. If they are really capable, Sima Hong will promote them as appropriate after a year of observation. These people will be his direct civil service troops that he can use in the future.
The idea is beautiful, but it will take much more than a year to do it. Sima Hong wants to build his own iron-clad Northwest Marquisate, so he needs to continue to work hard.
After the Lantern Festival, Mingyu transferred the power of the housekeeper to Miao. Miao had been complaining about this matter for a long time and could not sit still. Mingyu thought she had a thorough understanding of her mother-in-law. Miao was a favored girl in her natal family and a strong daughter-in-law in her husband's family. She was straightforward in what she wanted and did, and she didn't bother to play tricks. Although she was embarrassed to bring it up directly now, her thoughts were written on her face. She hinted at things in her words, such as the inappropriate decoration of the hall and the irregular training of the servants. She could find fault with everything.
I really don't know what's so good about this family! Mingyu couldn't figure it out no matter how hard she tried. With so little money, she had to worry about the family's food, clothing, and expenses, manage people, and do the accounting... As soon as she opened her eyes, there were a lot of trivial matters waiting for her. She was a person who liked to be idle, and she couldn't understand the panic of people like Miao who had no power at all.
In addition to Sima Hong's monthly salary, Mingyu also handed over the income from Sima Hong and Baihao's purchase of farmland outside, and enjoyed a leisurely and comfortable life.
The fields in Tianshui have been abandoned for too long, and the land has been remeasured. If the farms want to make a profit, they have to wait until the spring wheat harvest this summer.
There were so many places to spend money at home. The Anxi Marquis Mansion was built, but only a few courtyards for people to live in were built. The outer garden for viewing the scenery had not been built yet. Dozens of acres were left for pavilions and waterside pavilions, and the land for rockery and flower ponds was still barren. If Miao wanted to be the housekeeper, she naturally had to build the garden.
When Miao first took over the position of housekeeper, she refused for a long time, saying that she was old and her energy was not as good as before.
Mingyu smiled and said, "My daughter-in-law is pregnant, so I'm afraid she doesn't have the energy to manage the household. Mother should be considerate of her and help her manage the household for the time being."
Miao was embarrassed for a moment, then took over the task happily with an attitude of “Since you are in such a difficult situation, I can't bear to sit back and do nothing, so I will help you out with reluctance.”
After just two days of taking over, Miao began to complain. The servants in the house were all bought by Mingyu. The old women were respectful to her on the surface, but in fact they only listened to Mingyu. Sima Hong's salary was just enough to maintain the expenses of a mansion. How long would it take to save enough to build a garden? She also wanted to give Sima Hong a few pretty maids, so that she could have more children and these maids would definitely listen to her. However, it was not difficult to use her own private money to buy maids, but the difficult part was how to ask for it.
Young couples don't need maids to serve them, but you, an old lady, want to buy a maid for your son as soon as you arrive, and you use your own private money to buy her. If this gets out, it will be embarrassing for everyone.
Miao called her son over and exchanged pleasantries for a long time. The implication was that you shouldn't take home so little money every month? When your father was a marquis, his salary was just a foil among the red flowers. Don't think your mother is an outsider and fool you!
Sima Hong knelt down immediately and said, "Mother, there are so many eyes watching us in Xinjian, Tianshui. Those civil officials seem to be friendly on the surface, but in fact they do not obey my discipline at all. How dare I make the slightest mistake in my behavior? You, you are forcing me!" After saying that, he began to kowtow to Miao and apologize, feeling sad that he was useless and did not let his mother live a rich life.
This scared Miao back to her words. No matter how anxious she was, she couldn't hinder her son's important work. She could only suppress her dissatisfaction temporarily and wait until autumn when the land rent was collected before making any plans.
Sima Hong naturally knew what kind of person his own mother was. When the Marquis's Mansion fell into decline, she lost all her support. At that time, the mother was fragile and weak. But now that she has a son who can hold up the sky for her, she will return to her old ways and become the proud and domineering lady of the Marquis' Mansion.
Mingyu could sense the changes in Miao. Miao's enthusiasm for her had not diminished at all. This was all thanks to the little one in her belly. Miao held great hopes and expectations for this child. As for the morning and evening visits as was the custom in wealthy families, they did not do so. The family only ate together at dinner, and the rest of the time they did their own things in their own yard.
But Mingyu could also feel that as time went by, Miao became more and more integrated into the family, and she became more and more dissatisfied with many of her behaviors. If it were in the past, Miao would definitely have dragged her out and taught her a lesson, but things were different now, and for the sake of the child in her belly, Miao had to endure it.
At the beginning of spring, Sima Hong was busy preparing for the government's recruitment examination. He had long given up hope on those brainless bastards in the military camp and was ready to roll up his sleeves and open his eyes to look for new recruits.
However, spring had arrived on the side of the Chu Empire and also on the side of the Tartar Empire. The Chu Empire was an agricultural society, and as long as it was not a disaster year, the farmers would not go hungry even if they hibernated all year long. But the Tartars were a nomadic people, and not only did they have to spend the entire cold winter fighting against the blizzards raging on the grasslands, but the days when the ground thawed in the spring but the grass had not yet grown were equally difficult.
Sima Hong also received news that the Tartars had sent many spies to sneak into Longxi, pretending to be people from the Great Chu fleeing back to Tianshui. However, he was one step too late when he received the news. The spies had already been released. The entire Northwest is so vast, and there was no sign of the spies taking any action. Looking for people is like looking for a needle in a haystack. He couldn't just ask everyone he met, "Are you a Tartar spy?" Sima Hong was anxious, but he had to put the matter aside for the time being. He secretly intensified the investigation and waited for the spies to reveal their tracks before annihilating them in one fell swoop.
When the spring came in March and the flowers were in full bloom, Miao wanted to take Mingyu to the ancestral temple to burn incense. In two or three months, Mingyu would be born, and she would probably not be able to leave the house for half a year. Miao wanted to take this opportunity to let her deceased relatives see that their offspring would soon be born.
The sun was shining brightly, and the peach blossoms were in full bloom. When Nanny Wei came to report to Mingyu, Mingyu was walking in the yard with the help of Sister Liu. When she heard the news, Mingyu's brows were so furrowed that they could kill a fly. "We haven't discussed this with the Marquis, and there's no one to escort us. Let's wait until the Marquis comes back before we talk about it."
Wei Ma Ma spoke in embarrassment, "The old lady said that she has sent someone to ask the Marquis to come home. The carriage is ready for you and is parked at the second gate." She added, "You know the old lady's temper. She just wants the old Marquis and the old lady to see that the baby in your belly is fine and rest in peace."
Mingyu couldn't help but sneer. Her mother-in-law could always find a high-sounding excuse for anything she did. Never mind. After all, her mother-in-law was not her biological mother. If Madam Xu were still alive, she would never let her go to burn incense to the ancestors with such a heavy belly. Wasn't it Miao who wanted to show off her status as a mother-in-law
Miao waited for a long time in the carriage parked at the second gate. She thought Mingyu would come as soon as she got the notice, but she was so slow that she complained to Nanny Tan who was waiting outside the carriage, "Look, it's different when you're pregnant. You're much taller than everyone else and don't even take me, an old woman, seriously! I took care of the household affairs when she was pregnant. Everything was ready. She didn't have to worry about anything and didn't have to set any rules. Where else in the world can you find such a comfortable daughter-in-law like her? What's there to be dissatisfied about? When I was pregnant with Yang Ge'er, I had to take care of all the household affairs and go to the old lady's house every morning and evening to visit her every day..."