"It is the Yu family that the emperor wants to be the matchmaker."
Zhulan raised her eyebrows, "From what I see from you, you seem quite satisfied with your family. Have you agreed to the emperor's request?"
Zhou Shuren took out the information from his arms, "This is the information about the Yu family that the emperor gave me. The information about the Yu family is very detailed. I didn't agree to the marriage, so I said I would think about it carefully when I got back."
Zhulan took it and flipped through it. "The investigation is quite detailed. It seems that the emperor really wants to strongly support the Yu family."
As he spoke, his eyes fell on the evaluation of several young masters of the Yu family. It was too detailed. The Yu family must not know that they were being investigated in such detail by the emperor. Then he thought, if the emperor did not want to support the Yu family, he would not bother to investigate.
Zhou Shuren sat down. "The best way for the Yu family to quickly take root in the capital is through marriage. After careful consideration, the Zhou family does not have a large family behind them. They rely on the royal family in the capital, so they are the most suitable candidates for marriage."
No matter who the Yu family marries, the marriage with the Zhou family will not have the least involvement. The emperor can rest assured that the Yu family is marrying into the Zhou family.
Zhulan was unhappy, "Yuyi's marriage is still scheming."
Zhou Shuren raised his eyebrows, "As long as the emperor uses Chang Lian, Yuyi's marriage will be registered with the emperor."
"Should I be grateful for giving us the opportunity to choose?"
"Your Majesty is very confident in himself. Since you asked, I will agree. You have also seen the information. The young master of the Yu family is indeed outstanding."
Zhulan was still unhappy, and sighed about her helplessness towards the imperial power, "I don't want to watch it today, I'll talk about it tomorrow."
In Qizhou, Chang Lian didn't know that his daughter was being missed. He was eating roasted lamb leg, eating directly with his hands, his mouth full of oil, "It smells so good, so good."
Dong, "You have suffered these days."
Chang Lian was indeed starving. The prefect was poisoned and in poor health, so the task of inspecting the counties fell on him. He inspected secretly without passing through the county government office, which meant he had no good meals. He had been eating watery soup these days.
Seeing her husband chewing the lamb leg bone carefully, Mrs. Dong felt very distressed. "I was lucky this time and bought two lambs. I will cook lamb for you tomorrow."
Everything is in short supply now, and the housekeeper went to several villages to buy these two sheep.
Chang Lian saw that there was no meat on the leg bones, so he wiped his hands with a handkerchief and said, "Prepare two lamb legs tomorrow and I will send them to the prefect."
Mrs. Dong felt a little reluctant, "Okay, I'll ask the housekeeper to prepare it."
Chang Lian, "It's not easy for the prefect."
The prefect has little wealth to begin with, and has to support a large family. Mutton is scarce, and the prefect must be reluctant to buy mutton for health reasons.
Dong: "Hey, this is the first time I've encountered such weather since I was a child."
This weather change affected the entire country. It was the first time she had seen such a shortage of food. In the past, droughts and floods only affected a few states. There were very few beggars in the original Qizhou City. Now, she had encountered people begging on the streets several times.
Chang Lian also sighed, "Our state is a major grain-producing state, and we should not be short of food. Fortunately, we have planted late rice, so the situation in our state is still good."
Dong thought to herself that it was a good thing that she sent all the children back to the capital, so that they would not have to suffer in Qizhou.
At the morning court the next day, Zhou Shuren was stunned for a moment and continued to listen to the emperor's speech. In this war, some grassland tribes were the emperor's pawns. After the war, he privately thought about how the emperor would arrange these tribes. If the emperor wanted to unify the grassland, the leaders of these tribes could not be kept.
Now it seems that the emperor wants to assimilate these tribes and keep them in the capital, far away from the territory. This is like plucking the teeth of a wolf and keeping it in captivity. In the future, the grassland tribes will only be one of the ethnic groups in the country.
When Zhou Shuren heard that the children of these tribes had reached the age of marriage, his face turned wooden. Now it was not about marrying them off far away or annexing the grassland tribes, but just ordinary marriages.
Zhou Shuren felt the emperor glance at him, "!!"
Is this to tell him that the emperor treats the Zhou family well? Pah!
After the morning court session, Zhou Shuren took a deep breath and his eyes fell on Lord Yu. Lord Yu was a third-rank official and currently worked in the Ministry of Commerce. According to the information, the ones who were of the right age were Lord Yu’s second son and youngest son.
Lord Yu felt the gaze and was a little confused, "Lord Zhou?"
Zhou Shuren, "Well, Lord Yu and his family have come to Beijing. Is everything okay now?"
Lord Yu was confused. Lord Zhou cared about him? He suppressed his doubts and said, "Everything is fine. Thank you for your concern."
Zhou Shuren nodded. Hearing the discussion, he gestured to the adults to leave first. The emperor's purpose was very straightforward.
The big families would not be willing to marry their daughters off if there was no benefit. Everyone could see that after the annexation of the grassland, these tribes had become toothless wolves. The benefits brought by the marriage were too little, and the emperor would not allow the tribes that came to Beijing to get involved in military power.
Now the remaining tribes must either obey and come to the capital, or face extermination. They will be nothing more than princes in vain. No, the emperor may not even give them the title of prince. Apart from wealth, there will be no benefits.
The big families looked down upon these wealth, and the carefully educated noble ladies wanted to marry into alliances in exchange for benefits. However, some who were short of money or wanted to share the emperor's worries a little more did have thoughts on it.
Zhou Shuren doesn't care what these people think, he only cares about his granddaughter's marriage.