Water Margin people

Chapter 692 The Imperial Palace
"I don't know how the guards are at night!"

Sun Lei looked around for a week to see clearly the position of the palace lantern and the place where the lantern can be hung. These will be confirmed at night.

The banquet was going on like this, the emperor and ministers were drinking and laughing in the palace, watching songs and dances, and the candidates were sitting outside.

After changing the plate in front of Sun Lei five times, Sun Lei was finally full. He took a glass of wine and slowly sipped it. The imperial wine was quite special.

Seeing that the dishes on Sun Lei's table were finished again, the maid at the side laughed softly, went to remove the empty bowls, and served another table of dishes for Sun Lei.

"Brother Cui, how long is this going to last?"

Sun Lei saw that the sky was getting late, and some eunuchs had already started to light palace lanterns and hang lanterns.

"It depends on when His Majesty ends the banquet."

Cui Yulin opened the mouth and said.

"If I had known earlier, I wouldn't have come!"

Sun Lei was speechless for a while, he didn't even see the emperor's face, so he just sat outside for a long time, like a fool.

"Your Majesty has a purpose to have fun with all the candidates today! With the theme of New Year's Day, I will recite poems and compose Fu!"

A eunuch screamed at the gate of the Daqing Hall, and the eunuchs in the officialdom echoed the shout.

The maids quickly removed the plates and chopsticks, and then covered them with pens, ink, paper and inkstones.

"I really need to recite poems and compose Fu!"

Sun Lei looked at the white paper and brushes on the table for a moment of luck. Thanks to his cleverness, he learned a few things from Wen Huanzhang before he came.

Unlike other candidates who had to think hard, Sun Lei came up with a good poem that would be appreciated by the emperor, so he directly adapted a doggerel to fool him.

"The New Year is farewell to the old year, the frost plums are full of branches, and the emperor holds a feast to celebrate the year of peace."

Sun Lei was very satisfied with his clumsy poems. Combined with his rather improvised calligraphy, no one would pick them up if he threw them on the street. Zhao Ji, who is proficient in all kinds of piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, would probably not bother to read them. glance.

But unexpectedly, the eunuchs did not take away the candidates' poems directly, but stood beside them.

After a while, there was movement in the Daqing Hall, and a middle-aged man who was about 35 or [-] years old came out surrounded by eunuchs and maids of the brigade.

"This is Emperor Zhao Ji?"

Sun Lei squinted his eyes and looked at Zhao Ji who was being helped out of the palace. At this time, Zhao Ji's footsteps were sloppy, his face was red with wine, he seemed to have drunk a lot, his face was full of smiles, and he seemed to be in high spirits.Behind Zhao Ji are Tong Guan and Cai Jing's people.

With the help of the eunuch, Zhao Ji went to the middle of the square, and started shouting through the wine, saying that he wanted to compete with candidates from all over the world to see whose poems were better.

Cai Jing and others naturally echoed, praising Zhao Ji's poems as unparalleled in the world, it can be said that there is no one before and no one to come.

Hearing Zhao Ji's words, as well as the horse's words of those ministers, many candidates quickly rubbed the masterpieces they racked their brains to write, and compared with anyone else, they can't compare with the emperor, it's better than losing, and say a few words of auspiciousness Talk, flatter, and make the emperor happy.How to compare the emperor and prevent the emperor from stepping down? In this case, he is courting death.

The eunuchs collected the written poems in batches, and presented every ten copies to the emperor.

Zhao Ji smiled and called Cai Jing and others to taste together, and took a pen to make a few comments on the poems he liked.

Sun Lei took advantage of the chaos to observe the imperial palace at night. Except for the brightly lit Daqing Hall, the left and right palaces were all lit up. It is not difficult to mix people in. The only trouble is that the palace wall is relatively high and there are guards on it. There are still patrols below, and the barking of dogs can be heard through the wind.

"People are easy to handle, this dog!"

Sun Lei frowned for a while. Dogs are the most difficult thing to deal with. Dogs are good doorkeepers. They have excellent ears and a good sense of smell, and they are even faster at chasing people.

"Go back and ask Shi Qian if there is any way to deal with dogs."

Sun Lei can't deal with dogs, but Shi Qian is a master, and he must have been able to deal with watchdogs when stealing things before.

Several candidates whose poems were favored by Zhao Ji were recruited to the imperial court. Zhao Ji smiled and commented on their poems, and everyone naturally shouted long live.

After commenting on the poems, Zhao Ji started to show off his poems again, as well as his thin golden body that was so elegant.

It was almost midnight when the banquet ended. Sun Lei followed the crowd out of the palace. Due to too many people and bustling, Sun Lei, Cui Yulin and others got separated.

"elder brother!"

Not long after leaving the palace, Wu Song and Hua Rongyou came up to meet them. They also put on white 襕 to avoid attracting attention.

"Let's go, everything is going well, it's okay!"

Sun Lei smiled and nodded.

Back at the Zhuangyuan Building, everyone was already waiting.

"elder brother!"

Everyone stood up to greet Sun Lei when he came back.

"Sit down! Serve some hot tea, it's frozen in that square for a day today."

Sun Lei waved his hand to let everyone sit down.

"This is the layout from Xuande Gate to Daqing Hall!"

Sun Lei took out a folded map from his pocket and opened it, saying that he secretly drew it when everyone accompanied Zhao Ji to comment on the poems.

"Brother, look at the layout, stealing the flag is trivial!"

Shi Qian looked at the map and said with a smile.

"The guards at the gate of the palace are so foolish, but there are still many dogs in the palace. Can you do anything about it?"

Sun Lei looked at Shi Qian and asked.

"This... If one or two are easy to handle, there will be no way if there are more!"

Shi Qian looked puzzled, he could still prescribe medicine for one or two dogs, but if there were too many dogs, he would be unable to prescribe medicine. It would be problematic if dozens of dogs were sick at the same time.

"Dogs are easy!"

Li Zhu took out a white bracelet with a smile.

"It's made of tiger bones. Dogs don't dare to bark when they smell it!"

Li Zhu said with a smile, people can't smell the white bracelet, but dogs have a keen sense of smell and can smell it from a long distance.

"With this thing, dogs don't have to be afraid!"

Shi Qian took the thing and was overjoyed.

"Then it's settled. There will be banquets in the Daqing Palace these few days. It's not easy to start. I just inquired. There will be no banquets in the Sixth Palace. The emperor said that he would go to Longevity Mountain. The guards will be on shift for several days. If you are very tired, there will be fewer people driving out of the palace at that time."

Sun Lei nodded and said, this trip to the palace was not in vain, with the help of Yinzi, he learned a lot from the eunuchs and maids.

The jubilation of Tokyo City is still going on, the whole city is covered with lanterns, and the number of people visiting has not decreased at all because of the late night.

Sixth grade.

Zhao Ji took all the civil and military officials and the brigade guards to the Longevity Mountain in the northeast of the inner city.

Longevity Mountain has been built for several years. Although it is still early to be completed, countless flowers and stones from the south of the Yangtze River have been transported in, and some garden pavilions have also been built, which is enough for sightseeing.

It was dusk during this trip, Zhao Ji had no intention of going back to the palace, but continued to have a feast with all the civil and military officials at Long Live Mountain, holding candles to taste the flowers and stones of Taihu Lake, and he would not go back until midnight.

"Brother, get out of the city as soon as possible, younger brother, go get the dragon flag now."

Watching the sun go down slowly, Shi Qian clasped his fists at Sun Lei and said, if something happens to Longqi, the entire Tokyo city will be under martial law.

"Remember the route you arranged! We will wait for you outside the city."

Sun Lei nodded.

(End of this chapter)