Chapter 3: The Great Tang Dynasty during the Kaiyuan Era

  The woman, holding her son and future daughter-in-law, almost floated out, this time Zhang Xiaobao did not continue to indulge in the warmth of having a mother in this life, his eyes constantly exchanging with Wang Juan, occasionally using lip language, meaning to let Wang Juan cooperate with him to quickly figure out what kind of place they are in now.

  Wang Juan's heart still had some contradictions, and she hadn't fully adapted to her new identity. She wasn't used to being carried around by a young woman everywhere. Seeing the meaning conveyed by Zhang Xiaobao, she suppressed the various emotions in her heart and began to recall the scenery all around, including the clothes on people's bodies and the layout of the houses.

  Two people who can be said to be past elites are about to play out all their specialties and embody the accumulation of knowledge and experience at this moment.

  "Palace?" Zhang Xiaobao mouthed to Wang Juan as he was being carried out by his mother.

  Wang Juan slightly nodded, glanced at the table, and found two coins on it. She narrowed her eyes to take a closer look and replied, "If I'm not mistaken, they should be from the Tang Dynasty. I see Kaiyuan Tongbao coins, but I don't know which specific dynasty."

  At this time, the woman had already arrived at the door, and Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan looked out again to see that it was not directly visible outside, but there was a courtyard in front of them.

  "A wealthy family? A manor owner? An official? A merchant?" Wang Juan made a judgment as soon as she saw the situation.

  "Not an official family, my mom, my mother doesn't have that kind of temperament. Judging from what my mother just said, it's a landlord class, with a villa." Zhang Xiaobao analyzed and replied.

  "Ma'am, how can you carry two by yourself? Quick, give me one to carry." Just as Wang Juan was about to speak, a man's voice rang out. She thought it was the woman's husband, but instead saw a forty-something uncle wearing silk clothes walking over. Calculating his age based on her own, she should probably call him "grandfather". Immediately, she shut her mouth and returned to her innocent childlike appearance.

  Zhang Xiaobao was also looking at this person with curious eyes, especially the eyes of this person, wanting to see if there was any deception or repression towards his mother. He positioned himself as a housekeeper, and according to his temperament, if he saw any hint of contempt for his mother in the eyes of this suspected housekeeper, he would kill him.

  "It doesn't matter, both children are not heavy, and it's comfortable to hold them. Zhang went to busy himself. Oh, today everyone in the courtyard will be rewarded, let's add a portion of meat for dinner." The woman couldn't help but smile whenever she mentioned her children, and naturally wanted to share the joy with everyone in the courtyard.

  "Yes, madam, I'll go and call someone to stand by and hold an umbrella for the young master and mistress. It's hot today." Zhang Guan Shi replied respectfully, bowing his head and walking away quietly, without showing any disrespect, unaware that this attitude had just saved him from a deadly disaster.

  The woman carried two children and continued to move forward. Before she had even walked into the courtyard, a young girl of similar age came over and held up an umbrella, blocking out the scorching sunlight. Cherry also handed over warm and damp handkerchiefs for Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan to gently wipe their faces.

  "Pomegranate, do you know where Master is?" The woman kissed Zhang Xiaobao's face and asked the umbrella-holding girl.

  "Speaking of which, the master is in his study warming up his books. At this time, the old lady and the old gentleman should be resting under the trees in the front yard." Xie Liang replied cleverly, often serving people, she naturally knew what her husband meant, that is, to let the family see the child.

  The woman nodded: "Well, let's go to the front yard. Cherry, you'll tell the people in the back garden not to be lazy, and after it's fixed, let Grandma and Grandpa move back in. It's always been like this, it doesn't look good for our status."

  He turned his head and looked at the two children in his arms, and changed to a smiling face. He slightly leaned over and said: "Xiao Bao, Juanjuan, the one who just passed by is our family's steward, this servant girl is called Cherry, and the other one is called Pomegranate. Later, I'll let you see Grandpa and Grandma."

  He didn't care whether the two children could understand or not, and continued to walk forward while teaching them how to speak. "This is called a house," he said, "the middle part of the house is the door, and there are windows too." They walked all the way to the front yard, where they saw two people under fifty years old sitting by the stone table under the big locust tree. Only then did he stop talking and quicken his pace.

  "Quickly, come here and let grandma see our dear grandson and granddaughter." The old lady who was sitting there being served tea stood up as soon as she saw the woman's figure, walked forward to greet her, and while speaking, stretched out her hand to take Zhang Xiaobao, complaining in her words: "Qiao'er, on such a hot day, carrying two children, what if you get exhausted? In the future, let the servants do it."

  As she said that, she herself had no intention of letting others help her carry the child. With both hands holding Zhang Xiaobao, she put him in front of her and looked at him, but couldn't look enough, with wrinkles at the corners of her eyes squeezed together, her smile never faded.

  "Not tired, who would think it's tiring to hold their own child? Ah, right, Grandpa and Grandma, our little treasure will call out 'Mom' now. Just a moment ago in the house, he called out again, and also called me 'Grandma'. Come on, little treasure, call out once more." Zhang's mother said as she suddenly remembered that they had come to make Grandpa and Grandma happy together, stretching out her hand to touch her son's chubby face, letting him call out again.

  "Mom." Zhang Xiaobao naturally wouldn't refuse, this life finally got to have parents' addiction, preparing to call back all the words he hadn't called out before. Then, without waiting for others to praise him, he shouted at the old lady hugging him: "Grandma."

  He turned his head again and looked at the old man sitting there, who was also looking over, and continued to call out: "Grandpa."

  The old man couldn't sit still anymore, and with a sudden movement, he stood up, walked quickly to his grandson's face and said: "Ah, my dear grandson, let Grandpa take a look. Good, better than other people's grandsons, no family can compare to ours. Say it again for Grandpa to hear."

  "Grandpa." Zhang Xiaobao carefully examined his grandfather, thinking to himself that if he were swept away by water again, this grandfather should also be able to carry him to shore.

  "Grandpa, grandma." Wang Juan also shouted along at this time, seeing the old man, at least some respect was necessary.

  Two people shouted, and instantly everyone followed with joy. The old lady took over Wang Juan, the old man hugged Zhang Xiaobao, and they sat back together, praising without end: praising their son, praising their daughter-in-law, praising their grandson, praising their future granddaughter-in-law, including the servants who were also praised, as if everything was so good.

  It doesn't feel hot anymore, people are no longer irritable, and even the watchdog that usually doesn't let anyone get close is now lying under the tree with them.

  Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan were now experiencing warmth on one side, while carefully listening to everyone's conversation and observing the surrounding situation, analyzing their living environment for the future.

  Especially when they heard their grandfather, grandmother and mother talk about some trivial matters at home later, the two of them listened more carefully, and their lip language was endless.

  "Who says it's not official? Isn't this a fiefdom? And there's also a hundred households of food allowance." Wang Juan said this when he heard that Zhang Xiaobao's grandfather was worried that the ancestral reward land, which was fought back with his life, would be taken back. He spoke to Zhang Xiaobao.

  Zhang Xiaobao also listened, his ancestors went to war, made military achievements, saved important officials, and were awarded a virtual title. He got several hundred acres of land. Later, the ancestor died, the virtual title was gone, but the land and the 100 households did not take it back. Now that the year number has changed, it means the emperor has changed, and he is afraid that the land will be taken away.

  "Ancestors and now differ so many years, it's not an official long ago, before also a virtual one, this is not important, what's important is to know the era, Kaiyuan second year, it seems that it can be stable for decades, Li Longji has just finished his aunt, in the stage of vigorous development." Zhang Xiaobao got this most important information from his grandfather.

  With intelligence, it's easy. People are not afraid of danger and difficulties, but they fear the unknown. It's most unbearable when everything is pitch black.

  "What's good about it? It would be better to go back a bit earlier, such as during the Zhenyuan period. At least you wouldn't have to worry about the Anshi Rebellion. Your family's land probably couldn't be kept anyway, and it should have been confiscated long ago. It's not like it was inherited, and who knows what means were used to hide it for so many years." Wang Juan said sarcastically, but she also worried in her heart that if Zhang Xiaobao's land was gone, their income would decrease, and when disaster struck, they wouldn't have any grain stored up, making life difficult.

  Zhang Xiaobao wasn't worried about this, no big deal if he had to make money to buy land, just accept it. Making money isn't a difficult thing, even if you don't cheat, not making a lot of money is okay, small money can still be easily obtained. The only worry was what Wang Juan said about the An Shi Rebellion. After thinking for a moment, he said to Wang Juan: "Don't worry, saving someone's life isn't easy, but taking someone's life is even easier?"

  "Kill An Lushan?" Wang Juan asked.

  "Well, this is one of them. No rush for now. When we grow up a bit, we'll get rid of An Lushan, eliminate Shi Siming, overthrow Li Linfu and wipe out Yang Guozhong." Zhang Xiaobao said firmly.

  "Go ahead, even if you really killed An Lushan, there are still Li Lushan and Wang Lushan." Wang Juan didn't give Zhang Xiaobao any face.

  Zhang Xiaobao nonchalantly rolled his eyes and said, "In theory, there is such a situation, but the ones who truly change history are people, specifically an important person's character is what determines historical factors. There's only one Napoleon, let's not discuss this for now, we'll see when the time comes."

  Wang Juan also knew that, for this philosophical thing, there was no conclusion for the time being, so it's better to be realistic. So she asked: "What are we going to do? Just wait and grow up a little bit?"

  "Of course not, our top priority is to make money and buy more land. Kaiyuan Shengshi was a time of economic prosperity, but no matter how prosperous it was, it couldn't compare to our time. Back then, food was also in an unassailable position, let alone here." Zhang Xiaobao gave his thoughts.

  "How are we supposed to do it? Just relying on us two little brats? Will anyone listen to what we say?"

  "Fools think of difficulties, wise men consider opportunities. Let's wait for two more days to understand the situation and I'll tell you what to do." Zhang Xiaobao put on a calm and collected appearance.

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