After being dressed as Wu Zetian's daughter, she was favored by the group

Chapter 44 Really poor

Coming out of the camp, Li Lingyue took Gong'er into a carriage, and under the guard of a hundred imperial guards, they headed for Yang Yushi's mansion.

I thought that Yushi's mansion should be a very grand deep house compound, but after going around for several streets, after asking passers-by, I found out that Yang Yushi's home was just a small courtyard with three tile-roofed houses.

Li Lingyue got out of the carriage and looked at the small door of Yang Yushi's house, which was only one person tall, feeling a little stunned.

Wang Gong'er stepped forward and knocked on the dilapidated wooden door. After a while, a maid in linen clothes leaned out half of her body.

"who are you looking for?"

"Sister, is Lord Yang at home? My young lady is here to visit!" Wang Gong'er bowed slightly and replied politely.

"So I'm looking for the master!" The servant girl opened the door and looked towards Li Lingyue. When she saw a large number of officers and soldiers standing behind Li Lingyue, her face turned pale with fright.

"You...you are..."

"Miss, don't be afraid, these are my guards!"

Li Lingyue stepped forward to explain, seeing that the maid was still in shock, she stopped talking nonsense and repeated what Gong'er said just now.

"Excuse me, is Master Yang at the residence?"

"It's not a coincidence that you came here. The master has just returned home. He heard that there are refugees rioting outside the city, so he went out again!"

"Then can we go into the mansion and wait for him?" Li Lingyue pressed.

"This... wait a moment, I'll go ask grandma for instructions!"

Soon, the maid came back and welcomed Li Lingyue, master and servant, into the courtyard.

The small courtyard couldn't accommodate a hundred or so imperial guards, and Li Lingyue didn't want to disturb her master, so she took out the fish charm given by Li Zhi before entering the house, leaving only two guards outside the door, and sent the rest back to the camp.

The small courtyard of the farmhouse can be seen at a glance. As soon as Li Lingyue entered the courtyard, she saw an old woman with silver hair sitting straight on the ground, skillfully weaving a fishing net. Beside her, another The maid, holding a circle of twine in her hand.

"Grandma, the guests have arrived!" The maid who opened the door called to the old woman, who hurriedly put down the fishing net in her hand.

Li Lingyue stepped forward and saluted the old lady: "This junior has seen the old lady!"

The old woman showed a simple smile of a rural woman, rubbed her rough palms on the linen cloth twice, and smiled apologetically at Li Lingyue and the two of them:

"Sorry, the house is a bit messy, Min'er, Qiu'er, tell the two girls to sit down and drink water!"

"Thank you old lady!" Li Lingyue said politely.

The maid who opened the door entered the room and took out two futons. The other maid also put down her work, walked to the side, and poured two bowls of cold water for the two of them.

Li Lingyue took the tea bowl, sat on the futon, and asked curiously:
"You are Yang Yushi's mother?"

"Yes!" The old woman smiled kindly, and couldn't help picking up the fishing net, and while working, chatted with Li Lingyue:
"Girl, by the looks of you, you must be young ladies from a rich family. What can you do with me?"

Li Lingyue put the tea bowl on the ground, and replied with a smile: "It's nothing important, I just want to ask Master Yang a few questions!"

Li Lingyue prevaricated, seeing a pile of woven fishing nets beside her, she picked up one at random:
"Old lady, you weave so many fishing nets, are you going to go fishing in the river?"

The old woman shook her head and said with a smile: "This is for catching locusts. My son and the others are looking for someone to weave this thing everywhere. The old woman has nothing to do, so I can help weave some!"

"That's why!" Li Lingyue sighed a little: It seems that Yang Yushi is not a mediocre person. Using fishing nets to catch locusts is indeed much better than the "smoke and fire" method, but this method also treats the symptoms but not the root cause.

Just as he was thinking, a woman walked in outside.

"Grandma, I'm back, it's strange, why are there two military masters standing at the door today!"

Li Lingyue followed the sound and saw that the woman was thirty years old, she was also dressed as a peasant woman, her clothes were patched, and she was carrying a bamboo basket on her back with some wild vegetables in it. Presumably she had just finished her farm work. return.

The woman put down the bamboo basket, and only then did she realize that there were guests at home. Li Lingyue stood up and bowed to the woman:
"Meet Mrs. Yang!"

Madam's sallow complexion instantly turned red, and she also bowed to Li Lingyue cautiously: "Miss, you are joking, what is this young lady, Mrs. Yang, please sit down quickly!"

After Li Lingyue sat down again, the woman took out the wild vegetables in the basket, said hello to the old woman, and went into the kitchen.

Li Lingyue chatted with the old woman for a while, and Yang Yushi finally returned home. When he saw it was the princess, he immediately knelt down.

Li Lingyue hurriedly grabbed him and called out "Yang Shibo", who immediately understood without disturbing the old woman weaving the net.

Yang Yushi led Li Lingyue to the hall, and she was shocked again just as she stepped into the room.

In the small hall, there is an Eight Immortals table in the middle, which enshrines the ancestral tablet, and there is an old desk in the corner, which is full of books. In the middle of the room, there is a square low table for eating. Other than that, there are no decorations.

Until this moment, Li Lingyue completely believed that Yang Yushi, who pretended to be poor, was really poor.

"I don't know the princess is here, what's the matter?" Yang Kuo bowed to Li Lingyue.

Li Lingyue did not answer, walked around the hall, and asked her biggest doubt:

"Master Yang, the imperial court gave you a lot of money, how could you live in such distress?"

Yang Kuo smiled wryly and said: "Back to the princess, most of the salary of the humble minister has been used to pay off the debt!"

"Oh?" Li Lingyue looked at him suspiciously: "Could it be that Master Feiyang still has a hobby of gambling?"

"No!" Yang Kuo thought for a while, and said truthfully: "In the past few years, the Guanzhong has been infested with insects. Every time the imperial court's disaster relief funds and food are distributed to the states, there are always corrupt officials. Fill it with salary."

"Why don't you go to the imperial court and ask the Ministry of Accounts to apply for it?"

"I've tried it, and given it a few times, but it can't be the same all the time. Besides, the empress..." Yang Yushi glanced at Li Lingyue when he said this, and didn't continue.

Alas, it is estimated that his behavior of asking for money has become what my old mother called "incompetent waste", so I was too scared to play again.

"Even if the imperial court doesn't allocate funds, you don't need to fill it up personally, do you?"

"The princess doesn't know anything!" Yang Yushi sighed and said, "After the pest infestation, the common people have no crops. They need enough grain to survive the winter. When the next spring plows, they need to buy a lot of cattle, farm tools, and food. To grow food, in order to keep the people alive, the ministers had to order the state officials to deduct part of each person's salary to make up for the shortfall caused by corruption. As a result, the more and more they owed, it became the current situation !"

"So it is!" Li Lingyue was greatly shocked: "Since life is so difficult, how can Mr. Yang afford two maids?"

Li Lingyue asked jokingly, but Yang Yushi looked helpless again:

"Hey, those two girls are actually refugees fleeing famine. Their parents were starved to death, and their mother was kind enough to take them in and give them a good meal!"

Li Lingyue was deeply stimulated by Yang Yushi's words. She thought that the disaster would be serious, but she never thought it would be this serious.

The two chatted for a long time in the hall, and Li Lingyue learned a lot from Yang Yushi.

In the evening, Li Lingyue and Duo'er had a very shabby meal at Yang Yushi's house, then changed her mind and went back to the camp, preparing to make her disaster relief plan overnight.

(End of this chapter)