I am a woman, I am a man, I want to marry a wife so that I can farm

After this incident, no official in the court dared to mention the emperor's harem anymore. It was better for them to keep their official hats safely. As long as they did their jobs well and didn't make mistakes, the emperor couldn't do anything to them.

After that, officials no longer dared to deal with memorials submitted, and reported all of them truthfully. Of course, there were no floods in the south and no droughts in the north, and the weather was good.

In the Imperial Study,

Ye Ze first gave some instructions to Mu Xingchen and Xu Wu, and then said to Shouhou and Goudan, "I want you two to go back to the village for me."

The two of them came forward happily and asked, "Boss, what are you doing back in the village?"

They were both almost bored to death during this period. It seemed that there was no point in being a marquis. It was more fun than training the troops.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to find time to go back for a long time. As the saying goes, one should not forget one's roots. Now that we have made it, we must do something for the villagers. And the Ye's Ancestral Hall must be rebuilt. If it is a big one, we cannot save money..."

Ye Ze explained his plan in detail, and then said to Zhao Youliang: "Dad, you are a duke now, you should give back to the village, repair the ancestral hall, and build a clan school. I will pay for it."

Zhao Youliang nodded and said, "You are very thoughtful. I will take Qian Ge'er and the others back to take a look. As for the silver, I can take it myself."

"Well, besides that, I have another important thing for you to do. Big Brother, Fifth Brother, you have to help me keep an eye on it."

"You said."

Ye Ze: "I want to recruit some skilled craftsmen to Beijing and replace all the useless people in the Ministry of Industry. For example, blacksmiths, carpenters, stonemasons, etc., as long as they have good skills and good character, they can be recruited to Beijing. If the court wants to develop, it must first strengthen itself. In the future, I will also open up trade with the other two countries. Only when the circulation is improved can the economy of the court improve."

Ye Ze no longer expected those people in the Ministry of Works to achieve anything. They couldn't even match others in terms of their crossbows for defending the city. Was he going to keep them eating for free?

"Okay, leave it to us!" Several people responded, rubbing their hands.

......

When Shouhou and Goudan returned to the village, they found that Liushu Village had been divided into two, becoming Yejia Village and Shenjia Village. This was a good thing, as the only ones who benefited would be their Ye family members.

Accompanying the two marquises was the Ninghuai County magistrate, Fang Shouchong.

Village chief Ye led all the villagers to the village entrance to welcome the two marquises back to the village.

When Ye Changzhu saw that the person who came back was Skinny Monkey, his face turned extremely ugly.

Yu Shi even shouted out loud: "Isn't that Xiaoshuan? Is he the Marquis?"

"What?" The skinny grandma pushed her way through the crowd and squeezed forward, but when she reached the front, she didn't dare to step forward to recognize him.

The only thing left of Skinny Monkey is his name, but he is not actually thin at all. He wears a golden crown on his hair and a gorgeous brocade robe, which makes him look extremely noble.

Well-trained guards in uniform followed behind the two men, each of them standing straight with a solemn expression.

Even Ninghuai County Magistrate Fang Shouchong was respectful in front of him.

Village Chief Ye smiled and greeted them, taking the lead in kneeling and saluting, "I, a humble servant, pay my respects to the two Lords."

Immediately, a group of people knelt down behind Village Chief Ye.

Only Ye Changzhu's family stood firmly in place, refusing to kneel. Didn't they say before that the two of them were just deputy generals? How did they suddenly become marquises?

The father and son stared at each other from a distance, one with a provocative look, the other with a dull look.

After a while, the skinny monkey asked coldly: "Why don't you kneel when you see me?"

Ye Changzhu's eyes widened immediately. Does he really want me to kneel down?

He immediately said angrily: "I am your father! Have you ever seen a father kneeling to his son? Aren't you afraid of being struck by lightning?!"

The thin monkey's face became even colder, and he looked at him fiercely, "Haha, stop flattering yourself. I have no father or mother, so where does my father come from?"

"you......"

Ye Changzhu was so angry that his face turned red. Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by the skinny monkey. The skinny monkey raised his hand and signaled to the guards behind him, "Make them kneel down!"

"Yes!"

Immediately, several guards walked towards Ye Changzhu's family and forcefully pushed them to the ground.

The skinny grandma burst into tears. Xiaoshuan actually didn't recognize them? "Xiaoshuan, I'm your grandma. I brought you up when you were a child. Have you forgotten all this?"

The skinny monkey didn't bother to pay attention to them anymore and said bluntly: "When you were paying off your precious grandson's gambling debts, didn't you sell me to the boss for seventy taels of silver? The severance agreement has been signed, so what? Do you regret it?"

The old lady's breath got stuck in her throat. Didn't she regret it? From the time Ye Xiaoyong was punished by military law for being a deserter, and from the time when the skinny monkey was promoted to deputy general, she had regretted it so much that her intestines turned green. It was really a wrong step, and then there were wrong steps. Who could have thought that the scoundrel who was despised by everyone back then would have such good fortune today?

Ye Changzhu struggled and shouted: "Even if we are no longer related, it doesn't change the fact that you are my child! I kneel down before my son, and may the heavens strike me with lightning!"

The skinny monkey glanced at him and took out Ye Ze's edict and read it out in public. This imperial edict was for Village Chief Ye, conferring the title of Dekang Earl on him, allowing him to worship the ancestral temple on behalf of the emperor, rewarding him with a thousand taels of silver, and building a new earl's mansion in the village for him to live in. All taxes in Yejia Village would be halved in the future.

Village Chief Ye took the imperial edict excitedly, his heart beating fast.

Skinny Monkey and Goudan settled down in the village, and then they started to build a lot of buildings, rebuilding the ancestral hall, building a new clan school and the Earl's Mansion.

The village roads were repaved, and all the villagers were mobilized to go up the mountain to quarry and cut wood, earning a lot of money every day.

Such a big commotion in Yejia Village soon alarmed the neighboring Shenjia Village. A nosy old woman secretly came to Yejia Village to inquire and found out that two marquises had appeared in Yejia Village. Not only did they have to rebuild the ancestral hall, but they also had to build a new clan school. Even the village chief Ye was conferred the title of earl.

Is there any need to say who these two marquises are? They must be Ye Ze and Ye Xiaoshuan. They are the only two people with the surname Ye who served in the army and became generals. Now it is not surprising that they have made contributions and become marquises.

When the head of the Shen family heard the news, he was dumbfounded. The Ye family had two marquises! This was simply a great honor! Even if the Shen family used the whole family's strength to support Shen Wenren to take the imperial examination, it would be impossible to surpass the status of the two marquises of the Ye family!

The main thing is that all taxes in Yejia Village will be reduced by half in the future. If he doesn't compete for the position of village chief, won't the Shen family also benefit from it?

There was another point that he couldn't figure out. Did the two marquises have enough face to ask the emperor to confer the title of earl on the clan leader?

When Zhao Tao heard about this, she couldn't help but gnashing her teeth, but there was nothing she could do. She could only hope that Shen Wenren would be promoted step by step and become an important official in the court.

......

Ye Ze,

Zhao Youliang and his colleagues sent more than a dozen craftsmen to Beijing one after another. Ye Ze summoned them personally. Unexpectedly, one of the carpenters was actually a scholar. His experience was similar to that of Wu Xiucai. He had a lot of talent but could not pass the imperial examination. He had to give up this path and chose to inherit the carpentry skills passed down from his ancestors.

The carpenter's name is Wang Shun, and he is about fifty years old.

Ye Ze arranged the craftsmen in the Bureau of Skilled Works of the Ministry of Works, and appointed Wang Shun as the Supervisor of Works, and handed all the craftsmen over to him for management. If there was anything that could not be solved, they could directly go to the palace to see the emperor.

This department is directly managed by Ye Ze and does not need to go through any other officials in the Ministry of Industry.

Wang Shun was flattered and immediately knelt down to express his gratitude. He never thought that he would become an official right away? And in the field he was best at!

......