The road of the farmer's fortune and the imperial examination

Chapter 970 The Elixir of Longevity
Gu Chengyu knows that this is not something that can be decided immediately, this matter is thankless after all, maybe he takes it for granted.

After figuring this out, Gu Chengyu didn't feel disappointed, and stood up with a smile to leave.

After digging a hole for the prince, he left calmly, just as he came lightly.With a wave of his sleeves, His Highness the Crown Prince left behind with a conflicted expression.

After Gu Chengyu returned home after dismissing his job, he took out the previous notebook and improved it again, after all, the previous writing was still too general.

Now he is waiting for the emperor's summons, he estimated the time, the emperor should be free tomorrow.

In the past two years, the emperor's body has been a little worse than before, and he was not very healthy in the first place.In addition, as you get older, your body recovers more slowly.

Due to the hot weather in the past two days, the emperor's health has been deteriorating, and there is no morning court today.

This kind of situation has happened from time to time in the past two years, Gu Chengyu is a little worried, the emperor is so old, how many years can he survive?
He is still only from the official position of the fifth rank, it is too slow!The Hanlin Academy will be disbanded next year, and he will definitely be promoted to the sixth department.

But Gu Chengyu was not satisfied with this speed of promotion, he wanted to be promoted to within the second and third ranks before the new emperor ascended the throne.

After all, the emperor still relies heavily on him now, but who knows if the new emperor will continue to use him after the emperor passes away?

For example, the prince, after he became an official of Zhan Shifu in the past two years, the prince did not give him much preferential treatment.Although this has a great relationship with the emperor, after the emperor passed away, would the crown prince have no grudges against him?

So Gu Chengyu felt that he had to hurry up, and now the torrential rain in the south of the Yangtze River was a turning point.

If he could give examples of the measures to prevent the dam from collapsing, and after the emperor ordered it to be implemented, it would have obvious good effects, then half of the success would be achieved.

For others, if you plan slowly, you will always find an opportunity.Gu Chengyu suddenly remembered that a courtier proposed at the court meeting two days ago that since Prince Jing went to the fief Fengqing Mansion, the taxes paid by Fengqing Mansion in the past two years have been much lower than in previous years.

Fengqing Mansion was not a rich place in the first place, and it was barely able to pay taxes before.In the past two years, it has plummeted, and he still owes the court tens of thousands of taels of tax money.

Several ministers asked the emperor to send officials from the household department to check the accounts to see if Fengqing Mansion was really in such a difficult situation.

Everyone understands the meaning of these words, and it is clear that King Jing is full of money, and the tax money is all given by Prince Jing.

Gu Chengyu also analyzed that Prince Jing's life in the fief for the past two years was not necessarily easy.

There was originally a separatist force, but it suddenly became the jurisdiction of King Jing. Can those people stop?

So in the first two years, King Jing had to spend some energy understanding and defending against those local snakes, and the money from taxes might really be embezzled by King Jing.

When the emperor ordered the princes to entrust the land, he gave about 5 taels of silver to build the palace, plus the annual salary.

The salary of a prince is converted into about 1 taels of silver per year. 1 taels of silver sounds like a lot, but the annual expenditure of the palace is not a small amount.

Just relying on 1 taels of silver is not enough to support the expenses of a palace.

The prince's fief must pay taxes to the court, and the prince can only get a small part of it in proportion.

So when the prince arrives in the fief, he will do his best to make money from the fief.It is understandable that Prince Jing will extend his hand to taxation.

In a place like Fengqing Mansion, money is even more expensive.Not to mention having to keep away from other local snakes, all of which will cost a lot of manpower and financial resources.

What's more, if you don't reach out to taxes, there will be no other places to make money.

Perhaps the emperor still felt pity for Prince Jing, so he turned a blind eye to this matter.

In Chengqian Palace, the emperor leaned on the pillow, his eyes were dazed, he seemed to be asleep but not asleep.Seeing this, De'an hurried forward and covered the blanket that had slipped from the emperor's waist again.

The emperor was awakened by De'an's actions, and he refreshed a little.

"What time is it?" His voice was a little hoarse, and it seemed that he was working harder than before.

"Back to the emperor! It's the beginning of the unitary hour, are you going to rest now?" De'an carefully observed the emperor's face, and replied softly.

"It's so late? Is there an answer from Daoist Tianji?" The emperor sat up, and De'an immediately stepped forward to help him.

"Not yet!"

The emperor frowned, and then yawned big.When people get old, their spirits become weaker and weaker!
At this time two years ago, he was still reviewing memorials, but now?

The more the emperor thought about it, the more he felt that he didn't have many years to live, and the thoughts in his heart became more and more intense.

"Go and invite Taoist Priest Tianji to come over!" The emperor pushed De'an away, and lay back down again.

De'an glanced at the emperor, and had no choice but to leave Chengqian Palace in response.

The emperor waited anxiously in Chengqian Palace, and finally after half an hour, Daoist Tianji arrived late.

Daoist Tianji has a childlike face with white hair, he looks like a fairy at first glance, and he walks with ease.

The emperor's face was filled with joy immediately, and he looked eagerly at Taoist Priest Tianji's hand.But the hand was empty, which made the emperor disappointed again.

"But it didn't work?"

Daoist Tianji came to the emperor and bowed to salute.

"The poor will see the emperor!"

The emperor was a little impatient, "Pingshen! Grandmaster, is it not possible again?"

Daoist Tianji stood up, then smiled mysteriously.He stroked his beard, "Your Majesty! What do you think this is?"

Then he took out a porcelain bottle from his bosom and handed it to the emperor.

The emperor was overjoyed, "This? Is this the elixir you mentioned?"

He was very excited, with a hint of disbelief on his face, and he was about to pick it up with shaking hands.

Who would have thought that Daoist Tianji shrank his hand back and did not give the porcelain bottle to the emperor.

The emperor was very surprised, and also somewhat dissatisfied, what do you mean?Did Tianji go back on his word?
"Your Majesty! How can the elixir of life you mentioned be so easy to make? Pindao has devoted himself to developing it for decades, but he has not yet found the right method."

Daoist Tianji sighed, his brows were furrowed, and there was a little helplessness in his words.

When the emperor heard this, he was greatly disappointed.Daoist Tianji has been developing pills in the palace for more than ten years, and he has also learned this alchemy technique with Taoist Tianji.

It's a pity that my aptitude is limited and I have no leisure, so I can't always find a way to do it.

Besides, his private treasury provides expensive medicinal materials and money for alchemy every year, which costs a lot, and it is no longer able to support two people alchemy at the same time.

So in the past two years, he couldn't help but calm down a little, and he had pinned all his hopes on Daoist Tianji.

But now Daoist Tianji means that he has spent so much money, yet he has not touched the threshold of the elixir of life?
Daoist Tianji knew what the emperor was thinking at a glance. His heart froze, and then he said: "Although we can't refine the elixir of immortality now, the poor Taoist has already touched the threshold. And the bottle of elixir in the poor Taoist hand The medicine even has magical effects that the emperor could not have imagined."

　Thanks to book friend 'lzsirjrl' and book friend Xiaoxue for their rewards!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)