Happy Emperor

Chapter 140 Tea Ceremony

Before long, the sun was halfway up the sky.

The residence of the prefect of Anfeng City.

Duan Chengming and a sixty-year-old man sat on both sides of the table, sipping tea and smelling the fragrance.

A young woman is playing the guzheng, and the music is melodious and graceful.

Although the sixty-year-old man is old, his face is rosy and he is full of energy.

On the contrary, the middle-aged Duan Chengming looked very old in front of him.

This person is none other than the local official of Anfeng City, Li Zuo Taishou.

During the reign of Emperor Gaozu, he won fame through imperial examinations and was once promoted to the governor of Liaoan Province. Later, during the reign of the previous emperor, he could not bear the Batu family's exclusion of him in Liaoan Province. After submitting memorials to the previous emperor many times but to no avail, he decided to retire in anger.

The late emperor knew that this man was a man of outstanding talent and a good general for governing the country. Moreover, his status was somewhat special, so he did not agree to his request to retire and return home.

He was then appointed as the prefect of Anfeng City.

Moreover, Li Zuo and Duan Chengming had some relationship, so Duan Chengming lived in his mansion after coming to Anfeng City.

After the song ended, Duan Chengming was the first to clap his hands softly.

"Uncle, Yue'er's piano skills are really getting better and better."

"Hahaha."

Li Zuo smiled faintly, stroked his beard with his hand, said nothing, and didn't even look at the two of them.

He drank a cup of hot tea by himself.

After a moment, he asked, "Did you persuade Governor Tang Bo when you went to Qingning Prefecture this time?"

"Oh!" Duan Chengming sighed after hearing this.

"As my uncle expected, Uncle Tang really made things difficult for me, but..."

Duan Chengming picked up the teacup and poured the tea into his mouth without any knowledge of how to taste the tea.

"But fortunately, we have solved part of the food problem on the front lines."

"Chengming, how does this premium Longjing tea taste?" Li Zuo seemed to have not heard what Duan Chengming answered at all.

Instead, he asked out loud how the tea tasted.

"Forehead......."

Duan Chengming just poured the tea into his mouth in one gulp without tasting the quality of the tea.

"My uncle loves tea, so this must be a pot of good tea."

Duan Chengming thought to himself, savoring the taste in his mouth for a moment before speaking, "It's sweet and delicious. It's top-quality Longjing tea."

As soon as these words were spoken, the young woman sitting next to the guzheng couldn't help but cover her face and chuckle.

"Cousin Yue'er, what are you doing..."

Duan Chengming looked at the girl with some confusion.

"Cousin, you have a really good tongue. You can even taste the flavor of Longjing tea."

After saying that, the girl chuckled again.

The girl is in her prime, and when she smiles gently, dimples appear on her fair cheeks, which is very cute.

"Yuer, you are becoming more and more unruly."

Li Zuo criticized the girl out loud, but he couldn't hide the love in his eyes.

The girl stuck out her tongue and stopped teasing Duan Chengming.

No matter how stupid Duan Chengming was at this point, he knew that he seemed to have said something wrong just now.

He smacked his lips and savored the remaining tea leaves in his mouth. Only then did he feel something was wrong.

He opened the lid of the teacup and looked at the tea leaves inside. This wasn't Longjing tea at all; it was actually black tea.

Duan Chengming looked embarrassed.

"Uncle, this...I..."

"Chengming, no need to explain. I know you're not deliberately flattering me. Besides, I was the one who took the initiative to guide you."

Li Zuo picked up the boiling water and poured it into Duan Chengming's cup.

He spoke again: "In fact, it doesn't matter what kind of tea is in the cup. What matters is your attitude when tasting it. Just like when I said this is Longjing tea, you were clearly drinking black tea, but at that moment, you were thinking of green tea Longjing tea."

"Uncle, you..."

Li Zuo waved his hand, signaling Duan Chengming not to speak in a hurry.

"Just like when you went to Qingning Mansion to find Tang Bo this time, all you had in mind was how to complete the mission assigned by the Emperor and transport the grain to the front lines, so you didn't care about anything else at all."

"Have you ever thought about why Uncle Tang dared to disobey orders and not transport food?"

"Uncle, are you saying that Uncle Tang...he secretly surrendered to the Prince of Pingdong? That's why he had the confidence to openly challenge Emperor Li?"

Duan Chengming had already had this guess in his mind, so he asked.

"I don't know who he surrendered to. Be it the King of Pingdong or the Seven Kingdoms Alliance. But don't forget, he is now in Liao'an Province, and the military power here is controlled by Emperor Li of Shengjing."

"Those people are out of reach. It would be easy for Emperor Li to punish Tang Bo."

"What...what exactly is that?"

Duan Chengming really couldn't figure out what Tang Bo's confidence was. In fact, he was quite surprised that Tang Bo dared to act like this.

"Very good then!" Li Zuo tapped the table lightly with his hand. "If you were Tang Bo now, what would you do so that you wouldn't be afraid of Emperor Li's investigation later?"

"Forehead......."

"Control all officials in Liaoan Province, especially those in Qingning Prefecture. Make them collude with me, and the law will not punish them all."

Duan Chengming thought for a moment and replied.

"Very good, but based on your understanding of Emperor Li, would he care about killing those officials?"

".......Won't!"

Duan Chengming answered truthfully that he had witnessed Emperor Li's decisiveness in killing people.

Moreover, in this war-torn period, if the officials in the rear do not cooperate in logistics, it will be a disaster. Emperor Li will definitely not be merciful.

Suddenly, cold sweat broke out on Duan Chengming's forehead.

"It's over! I've been fooled."

"When my nephew went to Qingning Prefecture this time, Uncle Tang made an excuse that he had used the military rations to help the people. He said that if I could get the rations back, he would transport them."

"I had no choice but to do this. When the people of Qingning Prefecture heard that this was military rations transported by the emperor, they handed it over obediently, but..."

"Why are the people of Qingning Prefecture out of food?"

Li Zuo interrupted Duan Chengming's self-report and asked in a cold voice.

"It must be Uncle Tang... He used the war as an excuse to extort excessive taxes and grain from the people!"

Duan Chengming cursed viciously: "This...this despicable villain!"

Because he knew that although he had ensured that some food was delivered to the front line this time, he had completely made the people of Qingning Prefecture, or even more cities in Liaoan Province, hate Emperor Li in the name of Emperor Li.

He seemed to have completed a task assigned to him by Emperor Li, but he did something that put Emperor Li in a passive position.

If the emperor blamed him, his life might be in danger.

"Uncle, save...save me."

Duan Chengming became more and more frightened the more he thought about it, and he knelt on the ground.

"Get up! If Emperor Li wasn't a tyrant, he wouldn't touch you."

"I was the one who asked for the food. Wouldn't Emperor Li execute me in front of the people of Qingning Prefecture just to get their grievances?"

Duan Chengming asked back.

"If it were peacetime, he would. But now it's wartime, Emperor Li won't. He can't let those who are willing to follow him to fight against Prince Pingdong be discouraged."

"Furthermore, the fact that Emperor Li is willing to entrust you with the task of transporting grain is enough to show his trust in you."

Li Zuo replied in a deep voice.

"Besides, even if he is a tyrant, I still have a way to save you!"