For the next period of time, everything was calm and time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, the year passed and a new year came.

Of course, this does not mean that Li Ling has completely relaxed, nor does it mean that there is no major event worth paying attention to between the government and the country. On the contrary, in the last two months of this year, there were still major events that made the king and ministers nervous, that is, Huguang, which was deeply affected by locust plague, and the disaster became more and more serious.

As the most important granary in the middle of the Great Vietnamese country, the grain paid in Huguang every year can be matched with taxes and grains in other places except Jiangnan. However, this year, due to this sudden locust plague, the grain production was greatly reduced. Even though the court sent specialists to deal with the disaster, and even dispatched tens of thousands of troops to cooperate in the fight against the insects, it still failed to exterminate the huge number of locusts.

As for the rice and wheat in the fields damaged by locusts, the number is even more amazing. Preliminary statistics show that more than 40% of the local fields have been harvested, and the remaining 30% have also been harvested in half, and local agriculture can be said to have been severely damaged.

In this way, the imperial court's grain tax will naturally be greatly reduced, and it may not be reflected yet, but when the youth and bad luck are not accepted next year, the problem will inevitably appear. This trouble alone will be enough for the monarch and minister in the court to develop a response and make up for it as soon as possible.

The more troublesome thing is still to come, that is, how to recover the mess in Huguang next? There is still plenty of food in the local warehouse this year, but what about next year? And those people who have not stored food in their families after the disaster? These are big things that the court officials need to come up with the regulations as soon as possible. Otherwise, once a large-scale famine occurs, a major event will happen to the largest granary in Dayue, and then it will be mobilized, which may even affect the peace of the entire Dayue world.

For this reason, the Dukes of the Dayue court had already discussed the court more than ten times in a row before the New Year, and even Li Ling had participated in it and asked him for advice. However, although he was good at managing and settled accounts and had some experience in governing the government for several years, he still had no idea about this matter, so he could only talk about a few common ways to do it casually.

At least now, the situation in Huguang next year is not optimistic, and the court should make the worst plan. This makes many officials in the court still not relaxed in the end of the year. Finance and tax offices such as the Ministry of Revenue and Transportation Department are even more worried, and no one is happy.

However, Li Ling didn't have to worry too much about it because he was not in his position. After all, he could only do things in his position. This made him a little grateful that the court had avoided the important rewards of his merits and rewards.

During this period, the court made corresponding arrangements for the rewards of the previous battles of Northern Xinjiang. Major generals like Dong Gongwang were naturally rewarded and promoted. The meritorious generals below were also promoted to a greater or lesser extent. Even ordinary soldiers could be given some silver, taels, wine, meat, cloth, etc.

But Li Ling, the most powerful contributor who reported to the court at that time, had to put him aside because of some resistance. As for the arguments to prevent him from being rewarded, he was very familiar with it. It was nothing more than being young and experienced, and the reports were mostly untrue. In addition, there were still questions about the dispute between the prince and him... Anyway, some people were trying their best to suppress Li Ling and then go further.

In this regard, the emperor and Lu Zhen actually reached an agreement and did not force Li Ling to be promoted again, because they all knew that with Li Ling's current age and qualifications, being a fourth-rank official is enough to make people jealous. If they are promoted again, they will become the target of public criticism.

The wood is so beautiful that the forest wind will definitely destroy it. In order to protect this young man, they chose to aggrieved him first. In addition to giving Yang Qingxiao a sixth-rank imperial edict and rewarding the Li family with some gold, silver and wealth, Li Ling was not promoted in his official position, and he still made him a fourth-rank transshipment officer Shaoqing.

Li Ling did not complain at all and accepted some unfair arrangements from the court. So during the next period of time, he only did his own duties and no longer could find opportunities to show off as before. Even the matter in Huguang was just following the crowd.

As Li Ling could easily deal with things in the officialdom, he focused more on his family and his own business.

Before, he felt that he owed his wife and daughter a lot, so in the past two months, he stayed at home to accompany them more, and he was happy and comfortable in body and mind.

Now that Nian'er can crawl, Li Ling specially arranged a large house in the backyard, with a thick felt blanket on the bottom, which was filled with either bought from outside or designed by him, and then asked a craftsman to create dozens of toys of all sizes. This place suddenly became a paradise for his daughter. The father and daughter spent more than half an hour playing in the paradise every day.

This made Yue'er look at it hotly. Although she was already a big girl, she still couldn't control herself sometimes and ran into the house to play with some swing horses. However, Qingxiao was a mother-in-law, but she was much more serious than others. She just felt tired when she looked at the big and big children of this family.

In addition to accompanying his wife and daughter at home, Li Ling devotes his other spare time to business.

Zongheng Bookstore has now become the leader of the industry, and its business is booming, and it has long become a trend maker, so naturally he doesn't have to worry about it anymore; but what really makes him spend time running is the newly opened Zongheng Business.

This shop that relies on the bookstore and quickly opened its popularity in Luoyang City was actually established elsewhere a few years ago. For example, in the southwest of the Yangtze River, Wanlang led his people to open it up. However, the renminbi of the Beijing city has just emerged.

But even so, as the business company with the golden sign of Zongheng opened, it still put a lot of pressure on its peers. It was even rumored that many bosses of other business companies have begun to connect and want to join forces to suppress Zongheng Business.

Li Ling was not very surprised by this, nor did he think that he would fight with them by relying on his own power. He had long since opened up the level with these ordinary merchants, and then he fought with them by bullying the small ones, but instead lost his identity. It would not be glorious if it was reported in the court.

So he only made several strategies in this matter and then handed over everything to Wan Lang to deal with it. The latter's ability and mind, coupled with the experience of developing various places in the past few years, naturally, this open and secret struggle in the shopping mall is not difficult for him.

However, for the sake of safety, Wan Lang would come to see Li Ling every few days and tell him the information he had and the determined countermeasures. Then the two of them finally decided after discussing.

Even during the Chinese New Year, this habit has not changed. On New Year's Eve, he actually went to the door again, pulled Li Ling to mutter in the study room for a long time, and then returned with satisfaction. Then when Li Ling returned to the room, he found that his daughter had already fallen asleep, but his wife looked at him with some complaints: "You are too busy, I originally wanted to get close to you."

"Uh... I ignore the time when talking about things, and make you feel wronged." Li Ling said, hugging his wife in his arms and apologizing with practical actions.

For a moment, the temperature in the room rose, making people blush and the sound of the ears blushing for more than half an hour. It was not until late at night that it finally stopped.

At this time, Yang Qingxiao no longer had the heroic spirit of the past. She lay lazily on Li Ling's chest like a kitten, and kept drawing circles on his chest with her fingers. This numb feeling made Li Ling feel a little uncomfortable. She wanted to stop her several times, but her skills were really inferior to her own wife, so she could only let others bully her.

Finally, Qingxiao, who had fun, stopped and looked at him and said, "This year has passed again."

"Yes, it's another year, but this year is better than last year. Think about it, I spent the New Year Festival on the road at that time, so how stable is it today..." Li Ling couldn't help but sigh, and then remembered some New Year Festivals earlier, and thought of the first New Year Festival after he came to this era. At that time, he spent it with his sister Yue'er.

At that time, the family was very poor, but when the brother and sister were together, they felt very warm...

Yang Qingxiao glanced at him and said, "Did you forget an important thing?"

"Hmm? What?"

"After the New Year, Yue'er is 26. Can't you, a brother? Two years ago, there were matchmakers coming to you, but because you stopped him, it was left alone. Since last year, there has been no matchmaker. You can't let Yue'er stay at home all the time, right?" Yang Qingxiao sighed and said, "In our feelings, we can raise her even if she doesn't marry for the rest of her life, but...every time I think of her being alone at night, especially when she is alone in a day like today, I feel bad."

Li Ling was stunned. His concept should have been changed. Yue'er, who is twenty-six, should have been married long ago in this era. But the problem is that what Yue'er likes is Sun Bi.

"I also slammed the Seventh Prince before, and his impression of Yue'er is not bad. However... he takes love very lightly. Moreover, as a prince, sometimes this matter is not something he can do, so he delayed it." Li Ling said, and sighed, "How about this, I will wait for this New Year after he succeeds in becoming the king, and I will ask him privately."

"Do you really want to match Yue'er and the Seventh Prince?" Qingxiao asked strangely.

"What, is there anything wrong?"

"But his identity... would it be too high?"
Chapter completed!