Da Wei Chun

Chapter 338
Ninth day, Chang Chao.

The moon is dark and the sky is full of stars, like a huge curtain studded with pearls, shining brightly.

The breeze is thin, and the mountains and forests are rustling softly.The mist gradually thickened, soft and hazy.

The cicadas chirped softly, the crickets hummed softly, and occasionally, you could hear the mournful hissing of wild foxes and the roaring of lynxes, which were really like ghosts.

Fireflies fly around the tomb mound, and the dots of green light flicker on and off, just like the eyes of ghosts opening and closing.Suddenly, a cloud of phosphorous fire flashed, and the forest of steles disappeared like a group of floating ghosts.

Suddenly, there was a whimper unique to beasts in the woods, and there were several soft sounds of "chirp... chirp...", which seemed to be birdsong, but much crisper.

In just two breaths, a similar sound resounded tens of feet away.Then there was another flame.

It was a fire pocket, and the lantern was lit again.Then a figure stood up from the grass.He was wrapped in a leather robe, and there was a leather mattress in the grass where he was hiding.Although staying in the wild, it seems to be very comfortable.

The guard got up, and the big mastiff beside him also got up, and just about to open his mouth, the guard slapped him back: "Idiot, you are handsome!"

Shouting, the movement in the grass is getting closer.Li Rui wore a similar leather robe and walked out of the woods with a big dog on his lead.

"It's time for Yin, let all the sentries return to the village!"

The guard responded, raised his head with his whistle in his mouth, and a crisp bird song drifted away with the wind.Then the two of them and two dogs returned to the manor with a bunch of odds and ends.

Although in Beijing, the possibility of war or attack is very small, but Li Chengzhi still did not relax his vigilance.

Even though there were only twelve personal guards, and they had to watch the craftsmen making ice during the day, but no matter it was windy or raining, or the sky was clear, there were at least four secret sentries around the manor every night.

Gao Zhan also joked that the capital city is the most benevolent place, how could there be so many lawbreakers.But Li Chengzhi was lucky, he even used the means of battle and march, he was so afraid of death to the extreme.

Li Chengzhi just smiled and didn't explain.

When a person's secrets reach a certain level, it's not a matter of being afraid of death or not, but of getting used to it and taking precautions...

After entering the North Garden, Li Rui went to the ice platform to have a look.A group of craftsmen and Lifu are making ice, and further inside is the Central Garden, and another part is drawing and transporting water.

One day and one night, only two hundred cubic meters of ice are produced, but nearly one thousand tons of water are used.Fortunately, it is close to Mang Mountain, and wells have been dug enough and deep enough, otherwise Li Chengzhi would have to find a way to buy water from the city.

After turning around and seeing that everything was normal, Li Ruicai went to the south courtyard and knocked lightly on the door of Li Chengzhi's room.

"Lang Jun, it's Yin Shizheng, it's time to go to court!"

Upcoming?

Li Chengzhi really didn't wake up, he thought for a long time before he came back to his senses: Today is the ninth day?
According to rank, he only belongs to the capital official and has no qualifications to go to court.But today there will be a censor to join him, so yesterday the censor Zhi Taichang informed him that he would go to court today to defend himself.

It is a fact that it almost caused a riot, and there is nothing to argue about it.It is nothing more than accountability, fines, and demotions.Li Chengzhi has long been mentally prepared: in Yuan Ke's lifetime, he no longer plans to receive a salary...

Yawning, he quickly got up and took a shower.Let Li Rui help him put on the crown again.

It's not very smooth for a man to do this kind of work, at best it can be considered neat, but there is no beauty at all.

Even Gao Wenjun persuaded him to hire a few maidservants from the market first, or borrow some from her and Gao Zhan's courtyard temporarily, but Li Chengzhi refused without thinking.

It is an ordinary aristocratic family, which either uses the daughter of the servant's wife, or buys the slavery of the death contract, the kind that prospers and prospers with the family, and loses both.What's more, Li Chengzhi has countless secrets, how can he dare to use outsiders by his side?

He calculated the time, Li Liang should be here soon, and he will bring some of his clansmen to solve the problem of guards and servants together...

In just a moment, Li Rui tied the crown for him.He drove the rented carriage through Guangmo Gate and entered the inner city.

Along the north-south Guangping Imperial Road (Guangmomen to Pingchangmen), pass Hualin Garden, Henan Yin, Donggong, Diannong, Taicang, etc., and travel about seven or eight miles to the East and West Imperial Road (Dongyangmen to Xiyang Gate).Then travel about four li, and you will arrive outside the Meridian Gate.

Knowing that the sooner you come, the more people will line up, Li Chengzhi almost stepped on the spot. It was two o'clock at this time, and the yellow gate at the gate of the palace had been called for a long time, and there were not many officials left.

Li Chengzhi handed over his family registration, name, rank, appearance, etc. in the letter.Immediately, the general on duty and Huang Men came up to identify each other with a lantern, and when they saw Li Chengzhi's face clearly, the eunuch didn't even bother to examine him.

One is that it is too eye-catching, and others can't pretend to be it.The second is that although it is the first time to go to court, Li Chengzhi is already very familiar to these officials: he has been beaten twice outside the palace gate, entered the palace twice, and angered His Majesty twice... and both It happened a few days ago, how could they forget it so quickly?
He probably knew some details about Li Chengzhi, and the eunuch in charge of the verification was very polite, and reminded him when he handed back the registration: "Feng Chaolang hurry up, the dynasty is about to start..."

Hearing the phrase "Feng Chaolang", Li Chengzhi was a little dazed.

If the eunuch didn't remind him, he would have forgotten that he still has such a first-level official?
It is true that he rises up today and falls down tomorrow, and the ups and downs are so frequent that even he himself didn't understand which level was cut off for him.

"Thank you, Lieutenant Officer, for reminding me!"

Li Chengzhi took the door registration and replied with a smile.

There are still two moments before the opening of the court, so there is no time.

Entering the palace gate, the Imperial Army can be seen on both sides of the palace road, which is almost like a human wall.Everyone is wearing armor, everyone is holding a knife, and they are all staring at each other with evil looks on their faces.If you are timid, your legs will tremble.

This is also one of the "challenge ceremonies" to show the majesty of the emperor, and to prevent some officials from getting too hot-headed and not going to court properly, but running around in the palace.

If an official walked too fast, walked too slowly, made noise for no reason, looked around, etc., these imperial guards would yell and scold them.

As he walked, he looked at the appearance of the imperial army, secretly comparing himself with his subordinates.Before he knew it, Li Chengzhi passed the car door and the end door.

Just after checking the family registration, there was a sound of "boom", a bell rang on the tower of Duanmen, and several wrestlers were closing the door.

Seeing that he was still in the mood to wait and see, the general on duty at Duanmen was speechless: why such a heavy curiosity?
However, some officials went to court for the first time, and they were afraid that they would arrive late, and they stayed up all night. There were many people waiting outside the palace gate just after the third watch.After entering Miyagi, they were even more trembling, they just focused on walking and didn't even dare to lift their heads, and it was not uncommon for them to fall and get injured.

This one is good, just like You Jing?
You look left and right, besides you, is there a figure of a court official in Tai Chi City?

They have already entered the hall and are in their respective classes!

"Feng Chaolang, at most two words (an ancient time unit, also called minutes. One word is about 5 minutes, and three words are one moment), even the gate of the Taiji Hall will be locked..."

Li Chengzhi's heart skipped a beat.

It turns out that this bell is the so-called Chaozhong?

Great!
He walked quickly to the Tai Chi Hall, still mumbling and cursing: Is it really idle?
It's just a Tai Chi city, but it has a radius of two miles. What's the point of repairing such a long city?
Bare doesn't even talk about planting a tree...

He couldn't run, at most he could only walk quickly, and he barely stepped into the threshold of Taiji Hall, and the third bell rang on the end gate.Immediately, a strong man closed the Zhumen of the Taidian.

Li Chengzhi breathed a sigh of relief: After a few breaths at night, he would have to kneel outside the hall and wait for his crime.

Civil and military, upper and lower, and internal and external are all strictly separated. Li Chengzhi is now a pure civil official with a seventh-rank job, so he is naturally listed at the bottom of the left class.

As soon as he stood up, the left servant shot Yuan Yiqing and shouted "Respect Your Majesty", and then he heard the sound of a whip in the inner hall, and Jin Wu, the general, and Lishi each held their umbrellas and imperial fans and entered from the gate.

In the Yuan and Wei dynasties, the virtues of water were respected. From the emperor to the courtiers, the common clothes were all of the same color: soap clothes and crimson clothes.The difference is the crown and ribbon, that is, the hat and the ribbon.

The Son of Heaven wears a crown with twelve white beads hanging down, which is the kind of crown worn by Qin Shihuang often seen in movies and TV shows.

The courtiers are all Jinxian crowns, and they only distinguish titles and grades by whether there is a sable tail on the cage crown, whether there are jade beads on the leather belt, and the length of the hem of the skirt.

A seventh-rank official like Li Chengzhi naturally has nothing, even his hem is bare.

"Good weather, safe inside and outside!"

When Yuan Ke was seated, he heard General Jin Wu singing loudly, and all the officials bowed together: "I have seen Your Majesty!"

Including the Qing Dynasty, the regular dynasties of all dynasties are roughly like this.Only when there is a big celebration like New Year's Day, the ministers will shout "Long live" three times.It's not like shouting every day on TV.

And as long as it is a great dynasty, there will be music.After all the officials worshiped and retired after playing with the emperor, they still had to dance a few times.

After all the officials paid homage, the San Gong, San Tai, and the Prince each entered a few cases and took their seats, while the rest of the courtiers had to stand.It is also rare to kowtow, and most of the etiquette is to bow or bow.

And when those important officials who are kneeling are saluting, they put their hands on the ground and bow their heads to show respect, but this kind of etiquette is not more important than bowing.

Since Zhu Yuanzhang, officials only need to kneel and kowtow when they go to court!
There are six to seven hundred court officials in the palace, and Li Chengzhi is still at the bottom, more than ten feet away from the emperor.He couldn't see the emperor's face clearly.Only heard the emperor ask from a distance: "Is there something to do!"

Although there was only one sentence, Li Chengzhi felt that the emperor seemed a little impatient.

Mostly nothing happened, Liu Fang played that envoys from Goryeo and Khitan countries would come to Beijing to worship and pay tribute in the near future.Cui Guang played the creation of the new calendar, and Gao Zhao played the revision of ritual music, weights and measures, etc.

Seeing that there was no more Chen Zuo among the officials, Wang Xian, the lieutenant of the imperial officials, came out of the squad, and Gao Zhan and Li Chengzhi were in the city on the seventh day of the seventh day to confuse the people and almost caused turmoil.

According to the procedure, the person involved should come forward to defend himself or admit responsibility, and then he should be punished and surrendered.

But the emperor obviously didn't want to entangle them, and he didn't wait for General Jin Wu to order the two to come forward. He looked at Wang Xian and asked, "The two of them will be demoted to one level and retained, what do you think?"

Without any hesitation, Wang Xian responded respectfully: "I obey the order!"

All the officials felt strange, including Yuan Yong, Liu Fang, Cui Guang and so on.He thought that Cui Liang would Bingzuo later and promote the two of them, but he had to go through the procedures that should be followed, otherwise the courtiers who didn't know the bottom line would inevitably think too much.

And what happened to Wang Xian?

As the lieutenant of the imperial affairs, he was responsible for admonishing him, but he let the emperor mess around like this?

Looking at the emperor's complexion, everyone was guessing what had happened, the emperor was unwilling to wait for such a little effort?

In just two or three breaths, I saw Yuan Yi and Liu Teng leaving the class together, and only heard Liu Teng playing loudly: "I have something to say: yesterday, the ice master Gao Zhan sold more than 12 gold from the sale of ice and transported it to Taifu. Check it out and hand it over to Sinong Temple!"

"Minister Fuzou!" Yuan Yi followed suit, "I would like to ask Your Majesty to approve it: first transfer [-] gold to the seven soldiers, and use it to relieve famine in Wuchuan Town and Jindi..."

"allow!"

The emperor waved his hand, pointed at Liu Fang, Cui Guang and Cui Liang, and said anxiously: "12 gold, how long has it been since I have seen so much real money? Gao Kan's move can be said to be a contribution to the community ...Well, there is also Li Chengzhi, who presented the three pieces of array music, and should also be commended... Zhu Qing will submit a note as soon as possible. In addition, except for Li Chengzhi, who is Dayu Zhen, he will be moved to the palace to listen to it..."

A group of courtiers were a little confused.

Where did the 12 gold come from?According to their previous guess, as Gao Zhan said, the ice in the inner palace and Guanglu would be sold by catty by catty, and they could be sold out.Excluding the two-month damage, it would only cost fifty or sixty thousand gold if it was exhausted.

Where did this extra double come from?
It's not that those who react quickly have already guessed that the ice in Gongzhong and Guanglu is probably sold out.

No wonder the emperor moved back to Dachao City, and the ice mirror was also used in the Tai Chi Hall, but the emperor didn't mention when he would resume the awarding of ice by hundreds of officials.

All the balls are sold out, and I will give you a fart... Then how do you let us live this summer?
At least seven or eight of the ten ministers glared at Gao Zhan standing in the martial arts class, as if asking: What a good thing you did to give birth to a son without an ass hole.

Only a few, such as Liu Fang and Cui Guang, secretly scolded Li Chengzhi.

There is still a small group of doubts: the two sons Gao Zhan are only average in intelligence, when did they have such wisdom and skills?
Just as he was wondering, he suddenly heard a loud singing from the hall: "Retire!"

Looking up, the emperor had already left the jade couch, got up and entered the preface gate.While walking in, he waved to Wang Xian: "Follow me!"

As he spoke, he pointed at Gao Zhao again: "Sikong is also here!"

Gao Zhao and Wang Xiangong followed closely.

Seeing the emperor's eagerness, all the officials were even more confused: what happened?

Taking advantage of everyone's stupefaction, Li Chengzhi breathed a sigh of relief.Rolling his eyes, he walked out of the hall calmly.

It's two months away from the cold sky, and there is no ice available for Baiguan, so I'm afraid I won't be able to fry it?
The emperor was still righteous, and he didn't mention his name, but promoted himself in the name of "Three Songs of Music for the Battle".Even if the officials want to grit their teeth with hatred, they will only find trouble with Gao Zhan...

Sure enough, a group of military officers had already surrounded Gao Zhan with three floors inside and three floors outside.Yuan Yongzheng shouted, "Where is the ice?"

Gao Zhao was the one who received such treatment on weekdays, Gao Zhan was a little flustered after going through this battle.

But he suddenly remembered Li Chengzhi's confession: The donkey will not fall if it dies, and with His Majesty's backing, are you afraid of an egg?
"Of course it's sold!"

Yuan Yong said angrily: "Fart, that's tens of thousands of square meters, even the palace can't use so much?"

Gao Zhan straightened his waist vigorously: "The big temple in Beijing is nearly three hundred, and each buys one hundred square meters..."

All the ministers were startled and anxious.

Actually... sold it to a monk?

Each of the three hundred temples is one hundred square meters, which is already thirty thousand square meters, and the remaining twenty thousand square meters may be used sparingly in the palace, so what are the court officials doing?

How to survive this summer?
All the officials were furious, but frightened by Gao Zhao's prestige, they dared not speak out.

Only clans like Yuan Yong thought they were elders and dared to ask Gao Zhan a few words.

Yuan Yong's face was full of astonishment: These monks are crazy, I don't know how the emperor can find something for you when he is worried?

This idea is definitely not Gao Zhao's idea, but rather the emperor's idea?

Surprised in his heart, he involuntarily let go of Gao Zhan's sleeve, and cursed bitterly: "To flatter a villain, are you really not a son of man?"

All the ministers fell.

If you talk about flattery, who dares to compare with you Yingchuan King, you have the nerve to scold such words?

Hearing this, Liu Fang and Cui Guang could not guess that it was Li Chengzhi's idea.

Liu Fang asked the officials calmly: "Can you see Li Chengzhi?"

Most of the courtiers didn't know who "Li Chengzhi" was. When Gongsun Chong said "Li Chengzhi is Li Houlang, the Taishi Supervisor", some people realized that they were just played by Wang Zhongwei and rewarded by His Majesty. the one.

"I was still at the end of the class just now, it seems that I have left the palace..."

Ran?

How can it be so easy?

There are three gates in the palace alone, and every gate has to be inspected, how could he be allowed to leave the palace so easily?

Cui Guang laughed grimly, and casually pointed to a golden-armored general outside the palace gate: "Go to Duanmen to send an order that Li Chengzhi is not allowed to go out, run faster..."

It happened that Li Shao came over and asked curiously: "A certain person just happened to be looking for him. It's also strange that His Majesty granted Li Chengzhi the title of Da Yuzhen. How did he do it?"

This is an official from the sixth rank!

And non-emperor's cronies cannot be responsible.

For example, the lucky ministers Zhao Xiu and Ru Hao used to hold this position.Now, apart from Gao Zhao, Lieutenant Wang Xian of Yushi, Chang Shigang of Sanqi, and Captain Zhao Yong of Fengche, who were favored by the emperor, also served in this position.

But the question is, how many days has Li Chengzhi entered Beijing?
As soon as he saw Li Shao, Cui Guang became annoyed: "Uncle Yuan, do you recommend a good person for brother (the two are relatives by marriage)?"

Li Shao was at a loss: Hearing this voice, it actually has something to do with him?
……

After a short time, Li Chengzhi was brought back.

Seeing Li Shao, he was full of surprise: "When did Shi Bo return to Beijing?"

For Li Chengzhi, Li Shao is not just as simple as an elder, but also has the grace of protection when he was in Jingzhou.Including Cui Guang and Liu Fang taking such good care of him, there are many reasons for Li Shao.

Li Shao replied with a smile: "I just entered Beijing yesterday..."

The two were about to chat, when Cui Guang stepped in the middle and looked at Li Chengzhi with a sneer on his face: "What are you doing so fast, I guess I guess the old man is looking for you, right?"

Where would Li Chengzhi recognize it?
He slandered in his heart, and even opened his mouth to tell a lie: "This is the first time for an official to go to court, so it is unavoidable to be flustered, and I feel a little anxious, so I left a little faster..."

The old man believed you a ghost?
"I see among the hundreds of court officials, there is no one who is more daring than you."

Cui Guang cursed with hatred, and dragged Li Chengzhi out of the hall.

It wasn't until the surroundings became quieter that he cursed in a low voice, "Do you know why Your Majesty has become more and more anxious in recent years? How dare you come up with such a sinister idea..."

It means that Li Chengzhi is clearly digging a hole for the monk.

Li Chengzhi's eyelids twitched: I'm going, have you become a genius?

(End of this chapter)