After accompanying Empress Wu for a while, after dinner, Sun Ce said goodbye and left the hall.

Cao Zheng was reluctant to part with Dahu and others, and was humming and making a fuss. Sun Shangying followed him with his hand, asked him to say goodbye, and stood by silently. Sun Ce could see clearly, waved his hand, and called Sun Shangying over.

"Are you worried?"

"No." Sun Shangyingqiang smiled. "I have no worries about food and clothing, what can I worry about."

"I can't even lie." Sun Ce snorted, looked at the reluctant children, and said, "While the King of Shu is not sincere enough, it is also an opportunity. If you have anything to say, write a letter, I will send someone to Nanzheng."

"What are you saying?" Sun Shangying raised her head and looked at Sun Ce secretly, with a little hope in her eyes.

"What did you say?" Sun Ce was both angry and funny. "Let him not think about his delusions and surrender honestly. I will save his life and ensure that he has no worries about food and clothing for the rest of his life." He paused and said, "It's time to enlighten him. You don't want him to be bullied in school, right?"

Sun Shangying was so sad. "Brother, you know my knowledge, and I really don't know how to write it. If..."

Sun Ce waved his hand and interrupted Sun Shangying. "You have no official position and don't have to worry so much. You can write whatever you think. Zixiu is a wise man. He is just confined to the father-son relationship and cannot bear to leave Cao Cao alone." He paused and said, "If you have time, go and see Mrs. Ding and see what she has to say to Zixiu. If she is willing to come forward to write a letter, it will be more convenient."

"Here." Sun Shangying responded, then knew that something was wrong, so he quickly changed his words. "Ye."

Sun Ce waved his hand, walked behind Cao Zheng, bent down, and patted his little face. "Do you want to go back to the palace with Brother Dahu, or do you want Brother Dahu to stay here?"

Cao Zheng blinked his eyes, looked at Sun Ce, and then at his mother Sun Shangying, which was difficult to make a decision. Seeing this, Dahu took the initiative to say, "Father, can I stay and talk to my eldest mother?"

Sun Ce smiled and patted Dahu on the shoulder. "Of course."

Cao smiled and pulled Dahu away. Sun Ce looked at Dahu's back and was happy. Although Dahu was only over ten years old, he had the temperament of his elder brothers and protected his younger brothers and sisters everywhere. His only weakness was that he didn't like to read, and his whole body hurt when he saw the book. Enlightenment was delayed and he barely finished reading "The Analects of Confucius" and "Mencius" and refused to read it again. Yin Wei beat him hard several times, but it was useless at all.

Seeing Sun Ce watching Dahu trance, Sun Shangying came over and said, "The emperor is worried about Dahu's study again?"

Sun Ce smiled and said nothing. To be honest, although he also hoped that Dahu would study hard, he would not be worried. Dahu liked to practice martial arts and was very good at it, so he would just let him join the army in the future.

"The big tiger looks very much like Aweng. Awen likes him the most during his lifetime and will be a powerful general in the future."

Sun Ce laughed out loud, but felt a little regretful in his heart. In a flash, Sun Jian passed away for several years, and he refused to give up his identity as a Han minister and buried alone in the ancestral tomb of the Sun family in Fuchun. Although it was his own wish, Sun Ce still couldn't let it go.

He didn't know if Sun Jian did this because he really wanted to be loyal to the Han Dynasty or for another reason.

Sun Ce withdrew his mind and changed the topic. "Have you ever thought about what your son will do in the future?"

"He can't compete with the big tiger, let it be left to fate."

Sun Ce looked at Sun Shangying with a squinting look. Sun Shangying couldn't help laughing, grabbed Sun Ce's sleeve and shook it. "Although his surname is Cao, in the palace, the emperor's brother and the queen treat him like their own children, what else can I worry about?"

"After all, my uncle is my uncle, not my father. This child is very smart. Although he doesn't say it, he understands it in his heart, but he is just afraid that he will make you sad. Keep up with the letters, and the war in Yizhou will not be delayed for too long, especially in Hanzhong."

"Vei." Sun Shangying nodded obediently.

Sun Ce walked back to the palace. He used to taking a short walk after supper, which was to digest food and to organize his thoughts. After dealing with the day's business, he liked to use this time to think about some master plans.

Thinking of Empress Dowager Wu's words during dinner, Sun Ce hesitated for a moment and turned to the front hall.

The front hall was very quiet, with a fully armed Hu Ben Lang standing with a halberd, one person in ten steps. The main hall was pitch black, and the side hall was still lighted, and people could be seen vaguely. Sun Ce walked up the steps and looked through the glass window. Seeing Sun Quan sitting behind the large desk, he was talking to several Shangshulangs. The voice was not loud, but it was very harsh. Shangshulangs bowed and stood silent.

Shangshu Ling Wang Can, Shangshu Lang Lucui, Pei Qian and others sat in the distance, each handling their own affairs and turned a deaf ear to Sun Quan.

Sun Ce stood still and listened quietly. He had a good ear and soon knew that Sun Quan was talking about the war in Yizhou. Sun Quan had doubts about the military expenditure on the front line, thinking that the amount was too large and inconsistent with the actual needs, and needed careful verification.

Sun Ce was a little strange. Military-related matters were handled by the Privy Council. Generally, they did not go through the Shangshu, Ju Su, and Guo Jia would send people to report directly, and sometimes even report directly. Even if there was anything, Zhu Yan, the Privy Council priest, would come forward. How did Sun Quan take charge of military expenditure?

After hearing a few words, Sun Ce waved his hand angrily. "Since the letter has been sent to the Shangshu Desk, you can't transfer this matter. You can check it out. If your Majesty asks in the future, it's easy to reply."

"Here." Several Shangshulang responded and hurriedly left. After leaving the door, the two of them looked at each other and shook their heads at the same time. Just as they were about to say something, they looked up but saw Sun Ce standing in the corridor. They were shocked and bowed down and bowed.

When Sun Quan and others heard the movement, they knew that Sun Ce was coming, and they all stood up and went outside to greet him.

Sun Ce waved his hand and signaled the Shangshumen to retreat, entered the hall, and walked past everyone's desk with their hands behind their backs. "What are you busy with?"

Wang Can turned his head to look at others and took a step forward. "Report to Your Majesty, I am sorting out the latest articles and coming up with several collections of essays."

"Collected Works?"

"Yes, according to the old examples of "Salt and Iron Theory", I will write down several important discussions, and then select some representative articles, compile them into collections, and leave them to the Tai Pavilion and county schools to prepare for future generations to understand today's grand occasion when studying history."

"So many articles are not easy to choose." Sun Ce glanced at the bookshelf that was piled up on the wall, and picked the corners of his mouth. "Do you also want to make money by making selections?"

Recently, Xianliang's literature has been fierce in politics and has published a large number of articles. The rhythm of some information explosion makes people feel overwhelmed. Soon someone suggested compiling collections of essays for reference and easy archiving. This was a good thing, but someone soon revealed that some people took advantage of the opportunity of compiling collections of essays to make money and wanted to make their articles selected. Not only did they have to donate royalties, but they also had to pay a considerable amount of money to select them.

Scholars were not used to this kind of operation that was so harsh and harsh that it was so harsh that it was harsh. This matter was treated as a joke and spread to the palace. Sun Ce heard that Wang Can and others were going to compile a collection of essays, and said nonsense, both of which were jokes and intentionally or unintentionally warning them not to cause such a futile thing.

Wang Can, Pei Qian and others laughed, and turned their eyes to Lu Cui in a sympathetic manner. Lu Cui was so angry that he couldn't say anything. Sun Ce's speakers were unintentional, and their listeners were intentional. Lu Cui supported the collection of the election. Although there was no clear evidence, Wang Can and others suspected that he was the initiator. After all, Lu Cui's luxury and greed for money were famous. After the failure of the competition for Shangshu Ling, he felt a little self-deprecating.

Sun Ce didn't have to look back and guessed the reason. Then he thought that what Sun Quan said just now was untrue military expenditure, which would be a reference to Lu Cui's younger brother Lu Zhao, right?

Lu Zhao was fighting under Huang Zhong's subordinates. Some time ago, there was news that due to the shortage of military rations, the generals on the front line were depressed for a while, and some people planned to put the blame on Xu Huang. It is said that Lu Zhao was there.

Although the Lu brothers have civil and military talents, their character is average, they are always stingy and greedy, and are criticized. The matter is roughly the fact that Lu Cui is indeed not a gentleman, but Sun Ce knows that there is an exaggeration here, and the fundamental reason is the prejudice of the corporations. To put it bluntly, there is a chain of contempt, and Lu Cui is the person despised by his colleagues.

Wang Can and Pei Qian were both from large families and had rich family resources. Although Lu Cui was not an ordinary commoner, his family's financial resources could not be compared with Wang, Pei and others. He was not as content as Ruan Yu, and he liked fresh clothes and delicious food. Even if he had subsidies for road recruitment, his financial resources were often embarrassed. He was poor and had a short ambition, and sometimes he was inevitably prone to show his misfortune and make jokes.

Sun Ce usually only asks about these things. Even if he sympathizes with Luci, he will not do it too conspicuously. But if Lucio is greedy for military expenditure in order to subsidize Luci, he will not turn a blind eye.

Sun Ce didn't say anything, asked a few casually, and said to Sun Quan: "Zhongmou, accompany me for a walk."

"Yi." Sun Quan cleaned up the documents on the case and followed Sun Ce out of the side hall.

The two walked slowly along the corridor, and after a few gossips, Sun Ce asked about what had happened just now. Sun Quan knew that Sun Ce had heard it outside the hall and would definitely ask, and was prepared for it, so he told the whole story.

Two days ago, he received a letter from a merchant in Jingxiang, saying that due to the war in Yizhou, Guan Yu took over a large amount of military rations after acting as the governor of Xiangyang, which led to a surge in the price of grain in Jingzhou and the people's livelihoods in several counties in Jingzhou were affected. In this case, some people sold military rations in large quantities, and they sold thousands of stones in one go. Some even had no food at all, and they could make a lot of money with just a few notes.

After receiving such a letter, Sun Quan sent someone to the Privy Council to review the relevant files and learn about the situation. However, the Shangshulang under his command advised him not to be too troublesome and directly transferred the memorial to the Privy Council for the handling of the Privy Council. There have been such things before, and this is how they are done.

Sun Ce felt nervous. Has there been such a thing before? He had never heard Zhu Yan mention it.

"Who handled it before?"

Sun Quan blurted out. "Lucui."

“How many times have they been?”

"I don't know the specificity. I've heard their tone at least twice." Sun Quan paused and said, "I asked Luci, but Luci would not admit it."
Chapter completed!