Chapter 446: The King Has Special Homework Skills

The King delayed so long in Green Jade Commandery; You Province awaits the King's swift return, but that is absolutely not the most urgent. The four playboys led by Liang Bin in Peace and Stability Commandery have been hoping for the King, star after star, moon after moon, and are almost breaking down. They figure that after this long the King should have turned back by now; even if he went to South of Mountain on a trip, he should have returned.

Being closer, they still know less than the people of You Province; how could they guess that the King, in passing, could also fight a battle?

The King left Green Jade Commandery and directly returned to Golden Radiance, where he also discarded some people, to be picked up bit by bit.

The King had Tang Qian oversee the construction of the new outpost, while he himself went to Golden Radiance to rest and recuperate.

The first thing the King did upon returning to Golden Radiance was to distribute grain.

Golden Radiance's wounds cannot be healed so easily, but we must let the people see some hope.

The rations he withheld from the Green Jade construction project have already been exchanged for over ten times their amount in aged rice; this aged rice, Bai Yang, wouldn't even be considered aged in the Great Jin.

News arrived in Golden Radiance that the Northern Border King had taken Shaodang Qiang and slaughtered the people of Great Permission Valley; before the populace could even be happy, another great piece of news fell: the Northern Border King would give each person one dou of rice!

Yes, per capita, one dou each. 【Ten sheng make one dou】

Even infants count as a head.

All right, the urge to abandon children is put on hold.

Families with many members can this time receive a substantial share of grain, enough to ease their urgent need.

The King did not believe humans are inherently evil; he thought that if everyone lived well, some social problems could be readily solved, and innate bad seeds are still few.

The soldiers distributing grain, upon seeing a household register with many children, would also praise the family for its thriving population. They would tell them that in these troubled times, population is the foundation; as long as you grit your teeth and raise them, later going out to find a livelihood you can support the family, and even stepping back, in troubled times a large population also brings safety.

Someone complained that too many boys mean too many mouths to feed, impossible to support; the soldiers replied that boys are easier to handle, for now Golden Radiance has registered with the Northern Border King, and when they grow up they can enlist just like them, even go to You Province or Yi Province to find work quite easily, and the large farms the Northern Border King has opened everywhere are in great need of hands.

Doing this, the liberated zone of Golden Radiance began to boil over again.

Some people still hate the Jin, but they will exclude the King's Northern Border from that.

The Northern Border King simply doesn't know the atrocities of the Qiang people; look, once they found out, four hundred dared to march on Great Permission Valley, and they even transferred troops from the border pass to help them repair the city walls and assist in restoring Golden Radiance City.

The King truly rushes to the task, then turns around and distributes grain for disaster relief; finding a ruler who treats these border folk as people is rare, and frankly, those who have luckily lived to old age have never seen such good fortune.

The King's reputation in Golden Radiance is unmatched for the time being.

The King went out incognito for a stroll, and upon returning his stride was so arrogant that even his six close relatives didn't recognize him.

Wei Shen clicked his tongue, 'This is really arrogant!'

He called out to the King, 'Your Highness Northern Border King, put your tail down!' and successfully made Xie Tu beside him laugh.

Bai Li Proud Peacock Jing immediately implicated him, 'What are you laughing at? Have you finished your homework? Hand it over, let this king take a look!'

When the King set out to campaign against Shaodang, he gave countless instructions, but Xie Tu ultimately dared not pretend he hadn't heard.

Upon looking, not only was the handwriting neat, the essay was written quite seriously, good in every way, except it didn't look like his writing.

The King was troubled, 'Can't you imitate my handwriting a bit?'

'I dare not,' said Xie Tu, who truly didn't dare; he had already tried his best to write unlike his own characters, pretending it was the King's earnestly written neat version.

'Then this essay is also written too seriously—really over a thousand words each? Hey, just writing a good beginning is enough; why not copy some passages from the Thousand Character Classic into the middle?'

Xie Tu: ……Turns out you can do it that way?

The good student first learned that the King always does his homework like this……

The King was utterly innocent; this guy really has always written like that.

When he learned to read, he was an imperial prince; when he began writing essays, he was already a feudal lord. The King could state his viewpoint clearly in under two hundred characters per essay; having to write a thousand characters was difficult for the King. Isn't repeatedly arguing that point what ministers are supposed to do?

Wei Shen, watching the drama from the side, understood as well; his cousin, earnest and sincere, patted the King's shoulder: 'Just be a good King, otherwise you won't even pass the imperial examination you yourself set up.'

The King: ……

Spouting nonsense about the truth!

The King turned his head to continue checking the homework Xie Tu brought over, and indeed found several paintings.

The King took his time not returning; the cooped-up Xie Tu in Golden Radiance, not going out, painted many pictures with great care, even gathering materials and mounting them himself.

The King was extremely satisfied; he kept one favorite piece for himself, and prepared to monetize all the rest.

This guy, beaming with the joy of getting rich, even left Xie Tu himself bewildered. His paintings, even in the south, are considered valuable among the relatively young generation's circles, but still far from being worth enough for the King to deign to look at, after all he is still young and cannot compare to masters like Lu Tong and Xie Yuan.

How would he know the King has so many channels!

This guy, afraid that releasing too many at once would be worthless, only gave Bai Yang two to pick out, and stamped the rest with his own seal—indeed, the Northern Border King's seal.

This painting instantly became an imperial collection item!

The King firmly believes that civilizations differ, but beauty knows no bounds.

That night, the King's stall at the Phoenix Market turned into a curios shop, with a large landscape painting by Xie Tu hanging right in the center. Scattered below were the King's stockpile, some stationery from the Office of Works, and, to be specific, the stationery sent by the Internal Affairs Office.

This guy even took out his own stationery to set up a stall intending to sell it.