Chapter 319 Another Reward

Chapter 319 Another Reward

The Marquis of Dingbei's openness and loyalty made those who only knew how to scheme look like clowns.

Forced by the prevailing trend, they could no longer continue to criticize the Marquis of Dingbei's residence. Instead, they had to swallow their pride and join others in praising the Marquis of Dingbei's residence.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that their current emperor is not the kind of narrow-minded and suspicious emperor. If he were intolerant of meritorious officials, then the more meritorious the Marquis of Dingbei would be, the faster he would die.

Ultimately, whether a villain has the opportunity to stir up trouble depends on whether those in power give them that opportunity.

They forcefully drove away the Tatar envoys who were trying to make a fortune in Wei, and then, after the craftsmen had made a sufficient number of homemade bombs, they secretly sent the goods to the southeast coast, catching the Japanese pirates off guard.

These two events, occurring in quick succession, served as a powerful deterrent to the restless foreign tribes surrounding the Great Wei. Those tribes that had initially sought to take advantage of the situation when the Tatars attacked the Great Wei were now as docile as quails.

The emperor was in a great mood as a result. When rewarding those who had contributed to the cause, he not only promoted the Marquis of Dingbei to the Duke of Anguo, but also gave Xie Wanniang, who had already received a large sum of money, a mansion in the capital, two large estates in Jingzhou, and two shops on the main street of Baoding Prefecture.

The mansion is not only in an excellent location, but it has also been renovated according to the regulations for a princess's residence.

Both shops had a two-courtyard layout, covering a very large area, and one of the shops even had a three-story storefront.

The two estates were not only in excellent locations with abundant water resources, but also extremely large in area, with a total of 3,600 mu of fertile land, not to mention the ponds, hills, and villages inhabited by tenant farmers that were not included in the land count.

When Xie Wanniang received that thin but valuable stack of contracts, she had just finished her postpartum confinement.

She carefully washed herself from head to toe, making herself feel clean and refreshed.

Just as she was happy that she could finally take baths to her heart's content, the head of the village ran over to tell the old woman guarding the gate that the imperial court had sent her a reward.

After the old woman guarding the gate recounted the story, Xie Wanniang was completely bewildered. She hadn't done anything recently, so why was His Majesty rewarding her again?

Despite being filled with doubts, Xie Wanniang acted with remarkable efficiency.

She first asked Haitang to help her tie up her half-dry hair, and then changed into a new outfit that was more suitable for receiving guests.

While busy at work, Haitang couldn't help but ask, somewhat puzzled, "Miss, weren't you in your postpartum confinement period recently? Why is His Majesty bestowing gifts upon you again?"

Xie Wanniang shrugged, "You're asking me? Who should I ask?"

The female guard standing at the door couldn't stand it any longer and couldn't help but peek in, saying a few words, "Princess, have you forgotten? You've captured quite a few Tatar spies. And what about the silver His Majesty rewarded you with before? Didn't you spend almost all of it on the army and disaster areas?"

Why can't these be considered achievements?

The female guards were a gift from the emperor to Xie Wanniang. Although she and her companions had not done any more work for the emperor and empress since they came to Xie Wanniang's service, their silence did not mean that the emperor had no other sources of information.

Leaving aside the emperor's two lines of command, one overt and one covert, which have been operating for a long time, just consider the Zhenbei Army and the various prefectures and counties in the disaster area who benefited. Would they dare to deny Xie Wanniang's credit?

Xie Wanniang is someone who doesn't acknowledge the Prince as her biological father, yet the Emperor still bestows upon her the title of Princess and showers her with gifts from time to time.

Even if not all the generals and officials who received Xie Wanniang's help were of good character, out of a desire to avoid harm and seek benefit, they still had to honestly write Xie Wanniang's contributions into their memorials.

Xie Wanniang and Haitang were reminded of the money Xie Wanniang had casually scattered.

Although the money was taken from the emperor, empress, and crown prince's private treasury, it was indeed a gift from their family to her and belonged to her.

She immediately used the money for the army, disaster relief, and to help catch Tatar spies, which can indeed be considered another meritorious deed.

Therefore, it was reasonable and justifiable for the emperor to include her in the rewards when he was rewarding those who had made contributions.

That's what she thought, but after seeing those contracts with her own eyes, Xie Wanniang was still shocked once again.

No, isn't the emperor being a little too generous?

With these things, her personal wealth could easily quadruple.

No, no, no, that's not the most important thing. The most important thing is that if it weren't for the emperor's gift, she most likely would never have been able to buy such a large and otherwise impeccable estate in her lifetime.

This is not her way of belittling herself, but rather because there are far too many people in this world whose status and power are above hers and Jiang Yuan's.

Not to mention there are those who don't care about obeying the law; in order to have more land and cheap labor, they don't mind breaking the rules at all.

These people may not have such large, but legally obtained, estates, but they may have more private land than Xie Wanniang.

With these people scheming to seize land, it's naturally difficult for people like Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan, whose status and power are only average and who wouldn't do anything illegal or disorderly, to buy such a large-scale estate that is impeccable in every aspect.

Now that the emperor has directly bestowed two upon her, Xie Wanniang has instantly become a proper landlady, so of course she's happy.

Furthermore, the problem she had been worrying about—how to settle the people her caravan had bought from the disaster area—has now been solved.

Although Jingzhou is far from Baoding Prefecture, and it would take at least a month to travel from one place to the other by carriage and boat in this era, Xie Wanniang was still very happy.

The reason is simple: that area was a well-known grain-producing region in the previous dynasty and the Great Wei Dynasty because of its suitable climate, fertile soil, and abundant water resources. The land there has always been very suitable for growing crops.

The emperor's bestowal of such a large estate in this place upon her, rather than the estate in Baoding Prefecture, better reflects the emperor's high regard for her and the magnitude of her contributions.

If there is any drawback, it's probably that she will have to spend some time and money every year on remote management and autumn grain transport.

However, this is not a big problem. None of the high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital have their eyes on the capital and the surrounding counties.

Their businesses are spread throughout the country, especially in the Hubei and Hunan provinces, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and the Guanzhong Plain. At least 20% to 30% of the fertile land belongs to the high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital.

If they can manage remotely, Xie Wanniang can too.