After the replacement marriage, I was forced to fight at home

"Salt is controlled by the imperial court. I didn't know that our family had this as a New Year gift. If Hu Shi gave this as a New Year gift, wouldn't that be looking for trouble?"

Meng Wan's limited knowledge of history didn't allow him to know this. "So, she did it on purpose. She wanted me to deliver salt to every household?"

"No, definitely not. Every family has a quota for salt, and they have to go to the government shop to buy it, once a month with salt tickets. Of course, this is only for ordinary people. For a family like ours, if we are worried that the quota is not enough, we will think of other ways."

"Private salt?" Meng Wan suddenly thought of "private salt dealers".

"That's not the case. Why would our family buy private salt? My father should help those who do this business get salt permits. Do you know what salt permits are?"

Meng Wan nodded, "With it, I can be unlucky in a fair and open way."

"Well, the amount distributed by the court every year is fixed, so it's hard to get it without connections. Whether it's obtained by my father or through other channels, I think it's no problem to ensure that there is no shortage of salt in the mansion. Whether it's our family, the big families in Beijing or even the whole country, they all have their own channels."

Zhou Yu hugged Meng Wan and lay back down. "So, Hu said to you about salt openly, there must be something wrong. I'm afraid she is going to make a fuss about it."

"What will she do? She won't ask me to send a few kilograms to each family, right? If so, how can the palace explain it? Wouldn't that bring disaster upon ourselves?"

"So, she wouldn't do that. By the way, is there salt in the books from previous years?"

Meng Wan was a little frustrated. He knew too little about history and was almost completely ignorant of ancient customs and systems. He had thought that he would never be the loser in the "battle" with the Hu family. Now it seemed that the Hu family was not a loser.

She was sure that since she was a lady from the inner house, she would not understand these things. In her opinion, Zhou Yu was not close to her, so she would not ask Zhou Yu about some things, or Zhou Yu would not bother to talk to her more.

In addition, Meng Wan made his servants appear to know nothing, which made Hu feel more at ease and make her plans.

"These past few days, I've only looked at the people I visit and how much money they need for New Year gifts. I haven't really looked at the details."

Zhou Yu nodded, "You can check tomorrow to see if it has been delivered in previous years. If it has been delivered, there will be no problem. Just deliver according to the previous years, don't add or subtract."

"What if it has never been sent?" Meng Wan asked.

"Then I won't send you."

"But the princess specifically mentioned salt, which means she must give it to me. Even if she didn't give it to me in previous years, she must ask me to give it to her this year?"

"You do this. It's the end of the year now and my father will go to Mrs. Hu's house more often. Whenever he goes, you should tell him what gifts he gave to which family, and especially mention the family that gave salt, so that he can also know about it."

Meng Wan nodded. That was good. It seemed that he would have to look at the detailed list of gifts tomorrow.

Meng Wan lay down but couldn't fall asleep. The fact that Hu put salt in the New Year gift must be something serious.

The next day, Meng Wan took out the New Year gift booklet from the mansion last year and looked through it carefully. Sure enough, there was an item called salt, but the families to whom it was given were very few, mostly relatives, and there were no other aristocratic families.

As for the gifts given to clan members, those whose lives were not so good and who could only afford a fixed quota of salt, the gift from Hu touched their hearts.

In addition, the concubines, concubines, and aunts in the palace would receive gifts from their families. The quantities were not large, usually one or two packages, or at most three packages.

"How much is in this bag?" Meng Wan asked Lvliu.

Lvliu looked at Meng Wan pointing at the salt, thought for a moment and said, "Qinghe Garden has never given this away, and I don't know, but judging by the market price, it should be one pound."

Meng Wan nodded, and took a look at the one from the previous year. Just like last year, neither the people nor the quantity had changed.

When we went to Grand Hyatt in the evening, Mrs. Hu smiled and said, "I heard that you have sorted out your list?"

Meng Wan hummed, "Thanks to my sister-in-law and Mother Hong for their help."

Xie Fen paused while sipping tea. Why was Meng Wan so inconsistent? Sometimes his words were pleasant to the ear, but sometimes they left people speechless. He even compared the master with the servant.

"You have done your best. Since the things were put into the warehouse yesterday, you can start to arrange for people to pack them. First send out the ones from the clan and some unimportant things, and send the useful maids. Then, send the relatives and friends in the mansion, let Madam Hong, Madam Xie and Madam Kong in your courtyard to send them in person. Finally, ask the major officials and the palace, and then ask the prince to see what the rules are before making a decision."

Meng Wan responded gratefully, "Yes, thank you for your reminder, Princess. I wanted to ask how to send it specifically, but it's not written in the account book, so I have no idea."

"Have you delivered all the ones in your yard?"

"Almost. You know those people that Second Master is close to. Second Master doesn't like the things I prepared. He said he could buy them directly from outside and send them to me."

Mrs. Hu laughed and said, "Brother Yu is like this. I heard that the New Year gift he gave to the grandson of the Wucheng Bingmasi family last year was a bag of dirt. I don't know where he got it from. The prince was so angry that he wanted to beat him on New Year's Day." After saying that, she covered her mouth and giggled.

"You are still childish even after getting married. I thought all his affairs would be handed over to you this year."

"The Second Master may be afraid that I won't do well and embarrass him again." Meng Wan said softly with a flushed face.

"Forget it, let him be. If he makes a mistake, let Brother Ming or Brother Zheng clean it up for him. It happens every year, and we are used to it." After saying that, he showed a meaningful smile, "Put the ones at your home in the back and send them out on the same day as your eldest sister-in-law's."

Then he turned his head to look at Xie Fen, "Your second brother's wife just got married, and this is the first time I'm sending New Year gifts to the Huainan Marquis' Mansion. I've added a few more things to what I sent to your family last year, so don't take it personally."

Xie Fen smiled and said, "How could that be? It's only natural that my second brother and his wife have just arrived at our house, so it's only natural that they give us more."

Meng Wan said, "How can that be possible? Just be like my sister-in-law."

"It's okay. Tell me when my second brother and sister-in-law are ready. I can then ask Mother Xie to free up some time to go with Mother Hong and Mother Kong."

In this way, Meng Wan's work entered the final stage, which was to take the detailed information collected in the early stage to the warehouse, buy everything one by one, and send people to deliver them one by one according to their status. Each New Year gift was attached with a large red list sprinkled with gold, which detailed what was included and how much it was, so that people could see it clearly at a glance.

After delivering each household, Chuaner and Caiyun would cross out a line and then copy it again.

"What's going on? These people are really something. They make mistakes because they can't pay attention." Cai'er walked into the room dissatisfied.

"Speak softly, Second Grandma hasn't woken up yet. What's wrong?" Chuan'er asked softly.

Cai Er looked behind the screen and lowered her voice, "The one sent out today is from the side branch of the palace, the one that lives in Qingquan Town outside the city."

Chuan'er nodded. She remembered the food from that family. Because their harvest was not good this year, they added some rice and flour.

"In the end, there were clearly three bags of candy to be delivered, but the woman who loaded the car only took out two bags. I said she took too few bags, but she refused to admit it and said she didn't take the wrong bags. She just saw that everything was loaded and thought I was afraid of trouble and couldn't check it again, so I had to check it."

"Is it really less?" asked Chuan'er.

"Well, I noticed that her cotton coat was bulging more than others, so I took it to heart. But then she made excuses like she had a bad memory and forgot something. It really made me angry."

"You shouldn't be angry about this. It's not worth it. It's the Second Grandma's reputation that has us keeping a closer eye on it. One more or one less package doesn't matter on a normal day, but when the order is delivered to someone else and we compare it, it's not good if anything is wrong."

"That's not true. Fortunately, we are keeping a close eye on it. We will pay more attention to it in the next few days. I think it would be better to ask the Second Madam to send a few more points. We will send them to the in-laws and the noble families starting from tomorrow."

The two maids were talking to each other. Cai'er had just come in. Meng Wan, who had woken up from a nap, was too lazy to move. He lay there thinking that it was only four days before the Little New Year and he had to hurry to send the gifts.

Listening quietly to what the two were saying, Meng Wan suddenly seemed to have thought of something. He sat up abruptly and called out Cai'er loudly.

The two maids hurriedly turned around the screen and went to the kang to hang up the curtains.

"Second Madam, did I scare you?" Cai'er asked nervously.

"No, what did you just say? Did you take less?"

"It's not that she took less. It's that the old woman wanted to take it for herself. I found out, but she still refused to admit it. So I asked them to count it again, and then she took it out."

Meng Wan thought about it and realized that this was probably what Hu planned.