By the Weishui River.

Zhang Chao and Qingluan walked side by side and strolled by the river.

"Thank you today, thank you for working so hard for me!"

Qingluan turned her head and looked at Zhang Chao, smiled slightly, reached out and held his hand, and pulled him forward. "You are my Axia, of course I have to stand up for you, otherwise I will be ridiculed."

Zhang Chao smiled and let her hold her hands, keeping up with her footsteps.

"I will definitely explain to you the Emperor's request from the Eastern Lady Kingdom and will help you to make this happen."

In the twelfth lunar month, there is actually no scenery to see by the Weishui River. The wind is very cold and the river is frozen. The grass on the edge has long since withered, and the willow trees by the river are all bare.

But Qingluan thought that all this was good. When it came to Chang'an, it was already densely populated, with one village next to another, like a huge village connected together.

"Chang'an is so lively!"

"This place is dozens of miles away from Chang'an. Xiwei Bridge is just a small market. When you arrive in Chang'an, you will know what a towering Chang'an means. Then I will take you to visit the two markets in the east and west, and there will be countless products there, all over the world, all over the world, and all over the world."

"Okay." She just turned her head and said a word to him.

"I heard you have been promoted again, so I haven't congratulated you yet."

"nothing."

Qingluan stopped, "I heard that you will not go back to Taozhou again?"

"Well, I'll go to Liangzhou after the New Year."

"Is it far from Liangzhou to Taozhou?"

"It's not far, it's only one thousand two hundred miles."

Qingluan's smile decreased a little, one thousand two hundred miles away. From the royal city of the Queen's Kingdom to Taozhou, it was 1,600 miles away. Now there are 1,200 miles from Taozhou to Liangzhou, which is 2,800 miles away.

"How far is one thousand two hundred miles?"

"It's the distance from Taozhou to Chang'an!"

"Then I won't see you again."

Zhang Chao turned around and looked at her and said, "How could it be? From now on, I will be in Chang'an at the end of each year. I usually live in Liangzhou, and it is less than three thousand miles away from your daughter's country, which is only more than a month away. If you have time, you can come to Chang'an or Liangzhou to find me at any time."

Three thousand miles, fast horses are only ten days and half a month. But if it is a caravan, the road there is difficult to travel, and it will take half a year to travel back and forth.

"Let's go to the ice to play!" Qingluan said suddenly.

Zhang Chao looked at the thick ice on the Wei River, and saw how she wanted to play, so he agreed.

The two of them went down to the ice on the river. The ice was very bright. Zhang Chao fell a few times, but Qingluan was as clever as a bird. Although she didn't have ice skates, she walked very steadily and could even spin elegantly.

"Qingluan has a kind of ice skates that are specially designed to walk on ice. The soles of the shoes have ice skates, which can make people dance on ice. If you wear ice skates, you will definitely dance very well on the ice."

"Okay, I remember, I'll wait for your skates. Then I will definitely put on it and dance the best dance for you."

The two of them played for a long time before Qingluan reluctantly pulled Zhang Chao back with a few hits.

In the camp, there was a lively and festive atmosphere.

The emperor rewarded him with wine and meat, and everyone had good food and drink.

Cui Yingying saw Zhang Chao coming out with Qingluan and came back very late, so she didn't ask. She just brought him a plate of roasted golden mutton and a pot of wine.

"It's just baked, it's so delicious, so you can eat it too. Today, you haven't eaten anything yet."

Zhang Chao looked at Cui Yingying, wanted to speak but stopped, and finally turned into two words, "Thank you!"

On the other side, Zhang Chao saw that his father was talking and laughing with Qi Niang. Qi Niang was an ordinary farmer woman, but she was married for the second time. Now her husband is the founding uncle, and she has also been awarded the title of county monarch. Because she is not Zhang Chao's biological mother, Zhang Chao was promoted all the way, and only Cui Yingying received the imperial edict. Now, with her husband's merits, she has also received the imperial edict, and she is naturally overjoyed.

Du Shiniang has no imperial edict, but she has also gained benefits this time.

The emperor granted Zhang Chao the permission to take eight mothers. Most people call mothers and concubines together, but in the Tang Dynasty, there were actually differences between mothers. In the family of Duke and Marquis, mothers were side rooms outside the main room, and had side rooms according to grade. For example, the prince had ten mothers, second rank eight, third rank six, fourth rank four, and fifth rank three. This grade is not the grade of ordinary officials, but the grade of title.

If you have a third-rank official, if you don’t have a title, you are not qualified to have a mother. They can only take concubines but not mothers.

Zhang Chao, the county magistrate, was from the second-rank rank, and was able to host eight women.

A mother is also called a lower wife, a side wife, or a young wife. Her status is very different from that of a wife, but it is much better than a concubine. Generally, concubines do not say marry, but rather buy. People in the Tang Dynasty often call buying a concubine but not marrying a wife. If there is a concubine at home but no wife, they still call it unmarried. Even the law strictly stipulates that concubines are not allowed to be married.

Although in principle, a concubine must be a good person, not a good person, and not even a concubine is not qualified to be a concubine. She can only be a slave, maid, a musician, a singer, and a family genius, but a concubine is a cheap man.

My mother has a higher status than her concubine, is protected by the law, has certain property rights, etc. Generally speaking, my mother has a higher origin.

The Tang Dynasty had a strict hierarchy, including wives, mothers, concubines, and those who had no status, such as family servants, family craftsmen, singing and dancing people. In fact, their status was the same as slaves, but they generally did not need to work. However, those maids who were used by their masters but still had to work, were still maids.

Under this strict level, Du Caiwei was promoted from her original maid to a mother, and this kind of improvement in her identity was huge.

For her, this was equivalent to Zhang Chao becoming the founding county duke.

And for the child in her belly, it was even more amazing. After her child was born, she became a concubine's son.

Du Caiwei's belly was not yet showing her eyes. Her face was full of red charm. She sat next to Zhang Chao like she had drunk wine, very gentle, and happily poured wine and tea for Zhang Chao and Cui Yingying.

"Sanlang, that girl from Hongxian is working very hard at home. You have to polite her this time."

Zhang Chao became the Duke of the State and had eight mothers. Cui Yingying did not forget her good sister red line.

"Of course, when you get home, you will have a new meal for them. Caiwei and Hongxian can invite some of their sisters and friends to come over. I won't bother them and let them toast you a cup of tea." Zhang Chao said with a smile.

Although there are eight places, Zhang Chao has no intention of randomly giving people.

She knew that Cui Yingying was more concerned about the backyard affairs. It was not that she liked to take over power and dominate things, but that this was an affirmation of a mistress.

The one who praised Du Shiniang as a mother was mentioned by Cui Yingying. Zhang Chao knew that she would mention it on his own initiative, so he didn't say it first and kept waiting.

Cui Yingying took the initiative to lift Du Shiniang and wanted to lift the red line again, which didn't matter. But Cui Yingying didn't pick up the two Hu Ji, so Zhang Chao couldn't say anything.

"Thirteen Niang, look at Caiwei and Hong Shi are lifting up as mothers. Why not lift Alisha and Diana as concubines as well."

Zhang Chao took a knife and sliced ​​a piece of mutton for Cui Yingying and said with a smile.

Cui Yingying was very satisfied with her husband's respect for her. The male lead was the outside and the female lead was the inside, and the family had their own division of labor, so that yin and yang could be harmonious. Her husband's official position was getting bigger and bigger, but she was very happy to respect herself as usual. When she was happy, she would not take the husband occasionally to pick up flowers and grass outside, and so on.

"Since Saburo wants to praise them, I have no reason to object. These two people are also lucky. They are originally slaves, but they are just singing and dancing people in the general Duke's family, and they can give them away at any time. But when they arrive at our house, they become treasures. Now, they are still praised."

Zhang Chao accompanied him with a smile on his face.

The family of the Tang Dynasty, Duke Hou, liked to raise kabuki, also known as family crafts. Many families raised hundreds of them. For example, Yang Su, a powerful minister of Yue in the Sui Dynasty, once raised hundreds of young and beautiful family crafts. Li Jing's wife was a family craft in Yang Yue's mansion. Because she was the foreman, she often held a red fu in her hand, so she was called Hongfu. Later, she ran with Li Jing at night, which was also a legendary story.

There is even a story about reunion in Yang Su's mansion.

Yang Suping Chen made great contributions. Emperor Wen rewarded many princesses from Nanchen to the kings and the soldiers who were rewarded by him, and he also kept a few. Yang Su divided a princess who had a husband in Nanchen. When he arrived at Yang Su's mansion, Yang Su was also very nice to the princess. But the princess's husband later found Chang'an all the way. When they separated, they threw a bronze mirror into two halves and agreed to recognize each other in the future.

When the prince-consort knew that the princess was in Yang Su's mansion, she took half a bronze mirror to the edge of Yang Su's mansion to sell. Her strange behavior finally made the princess know. The princess found an opportunity to escape and escaped with the prince-consort. Yang Su sent someone to chase him. Later, after hearing this story, she was very moved and gave gold and silver to the prince-consort and asked them to leave.

The Tang people became popular in supporting their family skills, and they also liked to give their family skills to others.

When a guest comes, he asks his family to come up to sing and dance to cheer him up. If a guest sees something he likes, he will give it to the guest directly. This behavior was called generous and generous by the Tang people.

Zhang Chao couldn't accept that how could his own people be given to others at will? Not to mention his own family tricks, even ordinary servants cannot give to others at will.

It is said that there was also this kind of atmosphere in the Song Dynasty. A concubine sent by Su Dongpo was said to be pregnant when she left.

The two Hu Ji were originally just family kids in the Zhang family and were not from good people. However, Zhang Chao’s current status is not about taking them as his wife or mother, but just being a concubine. It doesn’t matter much.

"Half a year has passed in a flash. I feel that the change is so big when I go back to Chang'an." Zhang Chao sighed.

When he left, he was just a landlord who was thinking about copying books and writing history all day long, running the first newspaper of the Tang Dynasty, setting up workshops, wineries and printing workshops, and making money to buy land.

But now when he comes back, he suddenly becomes a senior official in the Tang Dynasty.

It was Zhang Chao who left, but it became Li San when he came back.
Chapter completed!