Troubled times: Start practicing spiritual practice by taking care of your sister-in-law.

The third year of Zhenghe, late May.

Chen Mo and his party arrived at the capital of Wei.

Chen Mo placed Si Song in the Prince of Wei's mansion where he lived before he became emperor.

After returning to the palace, Chen Mo issued an edict to confer the title of Jade Consort on Nalan Yiren.

As soon as the decree was issued, Geng Songfu came over.

Geng Songfu, wearing a purple official robe and with gray hair, bowed to Chen Mo, handed over a booklet, and said respectfully, "Your Majesty, this is the draft of the cabinet to divide Jinxia into eight states. Please take a look."

Chen Mo took it and took a quick look. He was definitely not as good as Geng Songfu in terms of internal affairs, so he had no objection to the division of Jinxia by the cabinet. He just pondered for a while and said, "Assign Haiyan Pass to Youzhou, and let Youzhou control the pass of Jinxia."

"Yes." Geng Songfu wrote it down.

"How is the war going in the south of Jinxia?"

"Your Majesty, General Chang'en has reported back victory news. The three major tribes south of Jinxia are willing to submit to our Great Wei. However, these three tribes have made demands to our army. This is a serious matter, and General Chang'en dare not agree to it outright. He has reported the matter and asked for your Majesty's opinion." Geng Songfu said.

"What's your request?" Chen Mo put one hand behind his back and casually flipped through the seal with the other.

"There are three requests in total. The first request is to ask His Majesty to grant them a title no less than Viscount, and hope that this title can be hereditary. The second request is that His Majesty can pardon their crimes and let bygones be bygones. The third request is that the three major tribes want each to present a beauty to become His Majesty's concubine."

"They have a good plan. They want both." Chen Mo sneered, closed the memorial, looked up at Geng Songfu, and said, "What do you think, Mr. Geng?"

"In my opinion, Your Majesty can agree to this."

"Oh? Tell me."

"Your Majesty, it is easy to eliminate these three tribes, but as far as I know, these three tribes have great influence in the south of Jinxia. If Your Majesty agrees to their request, you can use their power to appease the people in the south of Jinxia and prevent the people in the south from hating our Great Wei. After the division of the eight states is completed, Your Majesty will send officials to Weiize the eight states. In the long run, the people of the eight states of Jinxia will be able to completely become subjects of our Great Wei." Geng Songfu said slowly.

Hearing this, Chen Mo tapped the table with his fingers and said carefully: "They are not qualified to become my concubines. Even Jinxia Khatun is just one of my concubines. Since you want to present me with beauties, I will reward them with the title of beauty.

As for the title, I can award them an earldom and allow them to inherit it, but I also have a requirement, that is, their descendants cannot be mediocre, they must pass the imperial examination of my dynasty and obtain the title of Jinshi, and their descendants can inherit the earldom. Otherwise, the title will be reduced in sequence, from earl to son."

Geng Songfu thought about it and felt that this was fine. If he agreed to the demands of the three major tribes word for word without changing a word, they would think that the court and the emperor were easy to talk to, and thus they would become more and more demanding.

"Your Majesty is wise." Geng Songfu cupped his hands, then raised his eyes and said, "Your Majesty, if their descendants are demoted to viscounts, and their descendants' descendants pass the imperial examination and become Jinshi, will they be restored to their ancestors' earldom, or will they inherit the viscountship?"

"Of course they will inherit the Viscountship. If their descendants still fail to pass the exam, they will be demoted to Baronship. If they never pass, their titles will be stripped." Chen Mo pondered.

"Your Majesty is wise. In this way, they can no longer rely on the protection of their ancestors' titles. They need to work hard on their own and prevent their descendants from becoming parasites of our Great Wei." Geng Songfu stroked his beard with a bright smile on his face.

"Yes, not only that, but even the nobles of Wei will have to do the same thing in the future." Chen Mo paused for a moment, and then said, "But they are meritorious officials after all, so the requirements are relatively low. Let's just pass the Juren exam. As long as the descendants of the Dukes of Wei pass the Juren exam, their titles will not be reduced. Of course, the heirs will also be those who pass the Juren exam, and they cannot be impersonated."

".promise."

"Mr. Geng, do you have anything else to report?" Chen Mo asked when he saw that Geng Songfu looked like he had something else to say.

Geng Songfu nodded and said, "Your Majesty, Lord Wu Changlin returned to the capital at the beginning of last month. Your Majesty was not there at the time, and Lord Wu told me about the Nangong family in Chuanhai."

When he said this, Geng Songfu lowered his voice and looked around.

"All of you go down." Chen Mo dismissed several eunuchs including Jia Yin.

Geng Songfu bowed and said, "Your Majesty, Lord Wu said that according to his investigation, the Nangong family's private army was not disbanded, but destroyed a small country called Ryukyu overseas and transferred all the troops to this small country.

Therefore, Lord Wu speculated that the Nangong family's previous smuggling activities must have required a large amount of money to support these people in the Ryukyu Kingdom."

"This is actually happening." Chen Mo frowned. He could tolerate the smuggling before, but raising a private army touched his bottom line.

"Is there any evidence?" Chen Mo asked.

"There are witnesses. Lord Wu sent many people to infiltrate the Nangong family and bribed some of them. However, the Nangong family found them and eliminated many of them. The remaining people are all in Ryukyu. The Nangong family seems to have noticed something and is conducting a self-investigation."

Geng Songfu paused for a moment, thinking of something, and said, "Oh, Your Majesty, Lord Wu told me that he had something else to discuss with Your Majesty in person."

Chen Mo was already concerned about this matter and said, "Where is he now?"

"In the capital."

"Tell someone to bring him to see me."

"promise."

When Geng Songfu bowed and left, Chen Mo watched him limping as he walked.

Chen Mo almost forgot that when they first met, Geng Songfu was limping and said it was an old injury that would never heal. Later (before he met Nalan Yiren), he also found many doctors to see Geng Songfu, but they really couldn't cure him, so Chen Mo never took it to heart.

Thinking about it now, Chen Mo felt really guilty. Other doctors were helpless, but Yiren might be able to do it. After all, he had not asked Yiren to see Geng Songfu yet.

"Geng Qing." Chen Mo called him.

"Your Majesty, do you have anything else to tell me?"

Chen Mo smiled and shook his head, saying, "I'll tell you later. Please wait here first."

Chen Mo called Jia Yin and asked him to go and call Yiren.

When Nalan Yiren came over, Geng Songfu learned that it was His Majesty who wanted Concubine Yu to check his leg. He was immediately terrified and said, "Your Majesty, how can I be so worthy as to trouble Concubine Yu to take care of my incurable leg."

"What are you talking about, Geng Qing? You have made great contributions to the country, to me, and to the people. I feel guilty for not asking Concubine Yu to help you earlier." Geng Songfu played an indispensable role in Chen Mo's development to where he is today. It's no big deal to just ask Nalan Yiren to take a look at his legs.

"Lord Geng, please take a seat." Nalan Yiren said.

"No need to trouble Your Majesty to condescend to me." As he said that, Geng Songfu lifted up his trouser legs.

Nalan Yiren took a look, and then touched his lame spot through a layer of handkerchief. She already had the answer in her mind: "Your Majesty, those doctors are not wrong. It has grown strong. The reason why they said it can't be cured is that they are not sure they can help Lord Geng recover."

"Can it be cured?" Chen Mo asked.

"It's not difficult." Nalan Yiren said.

When Geng Songfu heard this, his body trembled. He didn't expect that even at his old age, he could still have a good leg like a normal person.

Nalan Yiren said: "The reason why I said that those doctors are not sure that they can help Lord Geng recover is because his leg has grown strong here, and it needs to be broken, and then the bone needs to be reconnected and fixed. After it grows well, it will be fine. But Lord Geng is old and his recovery ability is not as good as that of young people, so those doctors are not sure whether Geng Songfu can grow well again. After all, if he fails to recover well, he will not only be lame, but his leg will also be useless.

But I am sure of it. I just need to break it off, fix it, and apply my special ointment. "

"Hiss." After hearing this, Geng Songfu's legs were already hurting, and he said, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, it's actually quite good to be lame."

"Don't be afraid, Lord Geng. As long as you take the Ma Fei San specially made by me, you won't feel any pain during the whole process. You will recover in half a month at most." Nalan Yiren said confidently.

Geng Songfu wanted to say more, but Chen Mo made the final decision: "Then I'll trouble Yiren. Wait for Geng Qing to finish the things at hand, and then find some time to treat his leg."

Nalan Yiren nodded. To her, this was just a small matter.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, and thank you, Empress Yufei."

Chen Mo waved his hand.

Afterwards, Chen Mo met Wu Changlin.

"Fairy Island?" After hearing what Wu Changlin was going to say, Chen Mo raised his eyebrows.

Wu Changlin nodded.

The Nangong family searched for the fairy island in the waters of Gu Luo Kingdom with such great fanfare, and so many people died, how could it be possible that no information was leaked at all.

As Wu Changlin investigated intentionally, he naturally learned some things.

"Your Majesty, I heard that Zhang Feng of the Nangong family bought a fairy fruit from a commoner of Gu Luo, and this fairy fruit was obtained by that commoner from the fairy island." Wu Changlin guessed, "In my opinion, this fairy fruit should be true, and the Nangong family has gained actual benefits from the fairy fruit. Otherwise, they would not have spent so much manpower and material resources to find an illusory fairy island. It is very likely that this fairy island is real."

Hearing this, Chen Mo immediately became interested.

The incident of Jin Xia's Blood God Seal made him feel that there must be stronger beings in this world who have transcended the Heavenly Man Realm. After all, the Blood God Seal was definitely not something that could be created by the Heavenly Man Realm, but Chen Mo just couldn't access it.

Now hearing about the fairy fruit and the fairy island, perhaps it will help him understand the unknown side of this world.

He said, "Just because of this, you believe that the fairy fruit and fairy island are real?"

"Your Majesty, I was not sure at first, but I sent people to investigate and learned that the citizen from Guluo Kingdom who sold the fairy fruit has died. Not only him, but all six members of his family have died. This is obviously not a coincidence. Someone is killing people to silence them. If this is false, why would the person behind it cover it up?" Wu Changlin said.

"You are just making up stories. Do you have any actual evidence?"

"Not at the moment, and I also suspect that those people I bribed and infiltrated the Nangong family should have been controlled or killed by the Nangong family. I haven't received any news from them for some time." Wu Changlin shook his head and sighed.

"Nangong Jin," Chen Mo frowned and said, "If I remember correctly, he didn't come to Beijing last time due to illness. It seems that I have to think of a way to summon him to Beijing and give him a try."

"Your Majesty, I have a suggestion."

"explain."

"Your Majesty, we can do this"

Mid June.

Chuanhai, Chaoping County, Nangong Family.

"Let me come to Beijing to be an official." Nangong Jin frowned as he looked at the appointment documents issued by the Ministry of Personnel and then delivered to him through the post stations in various places.

"Why did the court suddenly let me come to Beijing to be an official? What's the purpose?" Zhang also felt that there was something strange about it.

"The court meant that I have made contributions to the Maritime Customs Office, and contributions should be rewarded." Nangong Jin said, "So the Ministry of Personnel selected me to be the Langzhong of the Ministry of Personnel, which is a fifth-rank official."

"Then there's no need to go to the capital. Can't you just give me some silver as a reward for your meritorious service?" Zhang said.

"Yes, this is not right. The court transferred the guy surnamed Wu back and sent a poor boy here. I don't know what they want to do?" At this point, Nangong Jin suddenly thought of something and frowned: "At this time, Wu Changlin has already arrived in Beijing. Maybe he said something to His Majesty, which led to the transfer of this old man to Beijing."

"Master means that the kid from the Wu family was slandered." Zhang's face changed.

“I’m afraid that’s the case.” Nangong Jin was still worried about something else.

"Then go to Beijing?"

"No, no, I have to write a letter and resign."

Early July.

Nalan Yiren was shocked. When she went to see Si Song today, Si Song suddenly fell into a coma without saying a few words.

Nalan Yiren took a look at him and found that he was already at the end of his strength.

She could only find Chen Mo, use some century-old medicinal herbs and her current blood to forcibly prolong Si Song's life and wake him up.

But she knew that this was only temporary. If she wanted Si Song to get better, Taogui Gu would have to successfully transform for the fourth time.

Judging from the forced life extension just now, the Taogui Gu’s fourth metamorphosis was successful, and it might really be able to save Si Song.

In order to allow the Taotie Gu to complete its transformation as quickly as possible.

As long as the Taogui Gu was not in a dormant state, Nalan Yiren would pester Chen Mo whenever she had time. As a result, the concubines in the harem had a great change in their impression of Nalan Yiren.

Once, she even wanted Chen Mo to run a red light.

When Chen Mo found out, he scolded her.

Into mid-July.

The Ministry of Personnel handed Nangong Jin's letter to Chen Mo.

Chen Mo saw the words of refusal in the letter.

Things like old age and lack of ability made Chen Mo think that Nangong Jin was hiding something.

This is the same intention as the suggestion made by Wu Changlin at that time.

Just give Nangong Jin a try.

See if he feels guilty.

Now it seems that I have tried.

(End of this chapter)