The Spirit Monarch was silent for a long time. He was hesitant. The position of a prefect was not a small one in the Great Han Dynasty. It was equivalent to the current Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee. According to the Spirit Monarch's usual style of buying and selling official positions, how could such a position be given casually? It would definitely be sold for a good price.
None of the ministers dared to speak either. They all stared straight at the Spirit Monarch.
Seeing that the Spirit Monarch was silent, Ding Huai guessed that he would not be willing to part with it, so he said,""This lowly subject recently invented a new invention, and this is the only one I made. This time in the capital, I specially brought it to show my respect to Your Majesty.”
Hearing that there were treasures, the Spirit Monarch's eyes lit up and he hurriedly said,""If you have any treasures, let me take a look.”
" This is amazing. I've never seen such a wonderful thing before." The Spirit Monarch praised as he admired it. His eyes were filled with greed.
It turned out that the treasure that Ding Huai had offered to the Spirit Monarch was actually a golden toothpick. However, the toothpick's head was abnormally sharp, so there was no need to consider the fact that the gap between the teeth would widen after being used for a long time. Besides, toothpicks were invented after the Spirit Emperor, during the reign of Emperor Xian. Before that, toothpicks were not used at all. People usually used their fingernails to pick their teeth after stuffing them. Firstly, it was unsanitary. Secondly, the gap between their teeth would become bigger after a long time, and the teeth would become even more stuffed.
The excited Spirit Monarch suddenly remembered that this thing was not complicated to make. Once it was spread, there would be many people who would copy it. At that time, it would be worthless. As he thought about it, the Spirit Monarch's face fell.
Ding Huai had been secretly checking the Spirit Monarch's expression. When he noticed that the Spirit Monarch's expression had suddenly turned from sunny to cloudy, he had already guessed what the Spirit Monarch was thinking. Hence, before the Spirit Monarch could make a fuss, he hurriedly stepped forward and said,""Your Majesty, although this item is small and exquisite, simple to make, and easy to copy, there is one thing that no one can do.”
"What about that?" the Spirit Monarch asked anxiously.”
Ding Huai said unhurriedly," If this item is made of pure gold, not only will the cost be extremely high, but the most important thing is that it will cause damage to the human body if used for a long time. It may cause symptoms of gold poisoning, and this illness is a fatal disease that cannot be cured. This humble subject's method is to melt the gold, add a special solution, and then pour it into a special mold to produce this non-toxic golden toothpick. Moreover, the gold content of this toothpick is only a quarter of pure gold, so this humble subject guarantees that no one in the world can imitate it. In addition, His Majesty can carve special words on the root of the toothpick in the future and sell it in specialized shops everywhere. It can also be imitated by others.”
When the Spirit Monarch, who was still doubtful, heard Ding Huai's words, his heart naturally blossomed with joy.'Good boy, you have good eyes. You know that I'm worried about this, so you solved the knot in my heart. It seems that you're really a promising child.' He said,"My dear minister is really meticulous and talented. To be able to create such an invention at such a young age, although it is not complicated, it proves that my dear minister's talent is extremely high. In the future, you will definitely be a pillar of my Great Han Dynasty.”
What really pleased the Spirit Monarch wasn't Ding Huai's cleverness and invention, nor was it Ding Huai's gift of a toothpick. It was that once the toothpick was mass-produced, the market potential would be huge, and the profits would be considerable. According to the Spirit Monarch's vision, which was extremely gifted in business, the potential profits of this toothpick were much greater than the money he could earn from selling a Hanzhong prefect.
Therefore, after settling the score, the Spirit Monarch happily said,""Since what you said just now concerns your life, I don't want to lose a talent that only appears once in a hundred years in the Great Han Dynasty. I'll do as you ask. There's no need to wait three years. After you leave the capital, you can rush to Hanzhong and take over the position of Hanzhong's prefect.”
Ding Huai secretly pursed his lips and thought, What do you mean by not wanting to lose a talent that only appears once in a hundred years in the Great Han Dynasty? If it weren't for my toothpick, I'm afraid you might not have agreed either. However, he was overjoyed and shouted,"Thank you for saving my life, Your Majesty."
Ding Huai's joy was not faked. He had only thought of taking over the Hanzhong Prefecture three years later. He did not expect to be called the Hanzhong Prefecture now. This was really beneficial to his plan.
Why did Ding Huai want the position of Hanzhong prefect? Hanzhong was located between Yizhou, Jingzhou, and Yongzhou. One could take Yizhou in the south, Wancheng in the east, and Chang 'an in the north. Its geographical location was very important. Moreover, the terrain in Hanzhong was steep and easy to defend. Moreover, training soldiers and hoarding grain in Hanzhong would not be discovered.
At this moment, the Spirit Monarch seemed to have thought of something and said,""Is Ding Yuan here?"
Ding Yuan was happy for his son when he suddenly heard the Emperor mention him. He hurriedly stepped forward and replied,"Your subject is here."
The Spirit Emperor said," I heard that Minister Ding had once proposed marriage to the Tang family of Yingchuan, hoping that your son would marry Tang Mao's daughter. Unexpectedly, Tang Mao rejected him. The reason was that Minister Ding was quite mischievous when he was young, and Tang Mao did not like him. Is there such a thing?"
Ding Huai was both surprised and amused. He was surprised that the Emperor's intelligence was so accurate that he could not even hide such a small matter. He was amused that it was no wonder the Spirit Monarch was a fatuous ruler in history. He did not care about the government and instead went to inquire about such matters. It was really boring. Thinking carefully, Ding Huai couldn't help but come to a realization. The current Yingchuan Mayor was He Jin. No wonder the Spirit Monarch's information was so well-informed.
Ding Yuan was also slightly shocked.”
The Spirit Monarch nodded and said to Ding Huai,""Ding Huai, it was precisely because of this that you personally went to Baofeng and promised Tang Mao that you would study hard behind closed doors from now on and that within two years, you would definitely make Tang Mao look at you in a different light. If you could do it, you would beg Tang Mao to agree to this matter.”
This time, Ding Huai was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat. He thought to himself that the Emperor's intelligence network was too powerful. It seemed that only a few people knew about this matter. One was himself, the other was Tang Mao, and there were also a few servants in the Tang family who knew about it. He did not expect that the Emperor could also find out about this. Could it be that the Emperor had planted spies in the residences of every foreign official? If that was the case, the Spirit Emperor was too powerful.
Ding Huai did not know what the Spirit Monarch meant, so he could only answer yes. The Spirit Monarch laughed out loud." I didn't expect the number one prodigy of the Han Dynasty to be such an infatuated child. Since that's the case, I'll be the matchmaker and let you have your wish. How about it?"”
Ding Huai was relieved. It seemed that the Spirit Monarch did not know about his second entry into Baofeng. In fact, it was not surprising. Ding Huai had just gone to Baofeng, and the Spirit Monarch's imperial edict had already arrived in Bingzhou. How could the Spirit Monarch know in such a short time? If it had been a few days later, the Spirit Monarch might have also known that Ding Huai had entered Baofeng.
If Ding Huai had not entered Baofeng twice or if Tang Mao still did not agree to this marriage, Ding Huai would have been overjoyed. However, these two things had already happened, and the favor of the Spirit Monarch was dispensable. However, Ding Huai still hurriedly knelt on the ground and shouted,"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your help. It's just that I've already received Lord Tang's approval for this marriage a few days ago. I'm extremely grateful for your trouble, Your Majesty.”
The Spirit Monarch seemed to be particularly happy today. Seeing that Ding Huai had settled this matter, he said,"Since that's the case, Zhen can rest assured. Since I said today that I will be the matchmaker for you, how can I go back on my word? Do you know that there are two talented women in our dynasty? My dear minister, you can stand up and reply."
Ding Huai rose to his feet and said,"I have heard of them. They are Xun Cai, daughter of the Imperial Court's Grand Official Xun Shuang, and Cai Yan, daughter of the Imperial Court's Grand Official Cai Yong.”
When the Spirit Monarch heard this, he thought," Oh, good boy. You even know about this. Not bad. It seems that you have a conspiracy in your heart. When you grow up, you will definitely be a romantic figure again.""Today, I will be the matchmaker again. What do you two think?”This question was asking in vain. You are the emperor, and you have already said so. As a subject, would you dare to disagree?
However, things did not develop like this. Cai Yong was the first to step forward, kneeling on the ground and saying,"Please forgive me, Your Majesty. My daughter, Cai Yan, has been betrothed to the Wei family of the east of the river since she was young.”
The Spirit Monarch was stunned for a moment, as if he didn't expect Cai Yong to reject him on the spot. He was furious and said,""Is that Hedong Wei family even bigger than me?”
Cai Yong quickly knelt on the ground and said," Your Majesty, please calm down. My daughter has been married to the Wei family since she was young. Please understand my difficulties."”
Ding Huai was overjoyed when he heard that the Spirit Monarch was personally selecting his betrothal gifts, and one of them was Cai Wenji, who was famous during the Three Kingdoms period.
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