fifth form

Chapter 2198 Treasure Appraisal
The seating order at the treasure viewing banquet at the Marquis' Mansion caused a little commotion, but it died down quickly.

The identities of those involved in queue-jumping were rather special. Li Shaojun was a guest of honor in Anle Palace, Zhenyuan Shenjun was respected by Tian Fen as a teacher, and Zhang Xuezhou was pulled to the front row by Tian Fen and sat next to Weiqi Hou Dou Ying.

Zhang Xuezhou was sitting in a higher position. In front of him was Dou Ying, Marquis of Weiqi, and behind him was a warrior wearing a coarse robe.

Ignoring Li Shaojun and Zhenyuan Shenjun, many people looked at Zhang Xuezhou with amusement in their eyes.

Zhang Xuezhou was young and reckless. As a Taizhong doctor, he was in charge of reforming the court uniforms in the court. He would bite anyone he could find. Everyone was waiting to see what would happen to Zhang Xuezhou after he lost power.

People like Zhang Xuezhou were not special in the court. Every few years there were some young people like him making trouble.

These young people used the sword of law to change the system again and again, and some of them did not let go of people, making those who acted beyond the rules pay a heavy price.

If you offend a lot of people, it will inevitably lead to many people banding together to oppose you, and no one can protect these young people.

These young and inexperienced people were either demoted and exiled, or imprisoned and became commoners, or died, or even brought disaster to their entire clan.

There were no obvious consequences of Zhang Xuezhou's reform of court uniforms. After all, wearing clothes was not a big deal, and no one violated the rules at the time. However, everyone saw with their own eyes that Zhang Xuezhou was finding fault with Zhuang Qingzhai.

At this time, the dispute between Zhang Xuezhou and Zhuang Qingzhai had not yet subsided, and the fire had not burned themselves, so everyone just watched the show.

"Master Dongfang, there are a few things I want to say but I don't know whether I should say them or not!"

The wine was served at the Marquis' Mansion, and the beef that had just come out of the pot was also placed on the table.

Weiqi Hou Dou Ying took a sip of the wine, then stretched out his right hand to cover his face, turned his head towards Zhang Xuezhou, and started to talk in a low voice with Zhang Xuezhou.

Banquets are occasions for communication, and close seats allow people of similar status to communicate normally.

Dou Ying could only communicate with Tian Fen, the organizer of the banquet, and it was Zhang Xuezhou, the queue cutter, who had to communicate downward.

He took the initiative to talk to her, and although Zhang Xuezhou was wary of Dou Ying, he did not refuse to communicate with each other.

"Wei Qihou, you know I'm a very straightforward person. If someone else asked me this, I would tell them not to tell me if they didn't know." Zhang Xuezhou blinked and said, "But Wei Qihou is different. If you don't know, just tell me. I'm willing to listen!"

"You... ah!"

Wei Qihou sighed, feeling that Zhang Xuezhou was indeed the kind of young man he had imagined. He spoke too directly, and even a word of flattery sounded uncomfortable.

"I heard that Lord Dongfang is upright in enforcing etiquette, which is a good thing," Dou Ying said, "but Lord Dongfang must not become a target of others' attacks, lest he fail to accomplish his mission and bring disaster upon himself."

"Oh?" Zhang Xuezhou asked in surprise, "I hope Wei Qihou will explain it clearly!"

"I don't know who instructed you to target Zhuang Qingzhai," Dou Ying whispered, "That man is actually not easy to mess with. He usually smiles and is polite, but when he starts fighting, he won't leave anyone alive!"

"I'm not targeting Lord Zhuang. I'm just criticizing him for dressing too simply and shabbily. He doesn't have the demeanor of a Censor at all. I want Censor Zhuang to wear better outer clothes in the future," Zhang Xuezhou explained.

"so?"

Dou Ying thought about it for a few seconds and felt that Zhang Xuezhou might have been flattering the wrong person. His original intention was to praise Zhuang Qingzhai for his frugality in dressing, but in fact, everyone thought he was picking on Zhuang Qingzhai.

If the system was not changed due to someone's conspiracy, then the other party was a newcomer in the officialdom and had not yet learned the art of flattery.

If the latter is the case, Dou Ying has no way to complain.

In short, Zhang Xuezhou was promoted to a position where he shouldn't have been promoted, and the other party also made some jokes.

"You can talk to Guan Fu who is sitting next to you. He is in a similar situation as you," Dou Ying reminded him, "Now that he has lost his job, you'd better learn from his experience and avoid making the same mistake again!"

"Guan Fu actually has this kind of experience?"

Zhang Xuezhou was delighted after hearing this and quickly turned his head to the back.

Zhang Xuezhou had limited knowledge of the imperial court in Chang'an, but he had indeed heard of Guan Fu.

This was an important official appointed by the new emperor. He once served as Taifu, one of the Nine Ministers, and was in charge of the animal husbandry of the Han Dynasty.

Although it sounds like the department in charge of animal husbandry is an agricultural department, the department controls the most important armaments of the major cavalry legions, which is equivalent to controlling the major logistics of the imperial army, and is a position of real power.

It is not surprising that the Empress Dowager adjusted the arrangements for the new emperor, and Guan Fu would inevitably be assigned to other positions later. What Zhang Xuezhou was curious about was how Guan Fu lost his official position, and even after losing his official position, he was still qualified to attend the banquet at the Marquis' Mansion.

As long as he could be close to the new emperor, Zhang Xuezhou didn't care what position he held. He was even trying to get rid of the position of Taizhong Daifu, which was beyond the standard.

"Sir Guan Fu, Marquis Wei Qi asked me to ask you how you lost your job?" Zhang Xuezhou turned his head away and ignored Marquis Wei Qi, and went to find Guan Fu excitedly. This made Dou Ying, who was about to speak, curse him in his heart as a "greenhorn".

"Fuck this!"

Guan Fu, who was drinking below, raised his wine bowl and gestured with his fist.

"Beat anyone you don't like. If you break their head, you'll be fired!"

Guan Fu muttered in a low voice.

Guan Fu didn't know Zhang Xuezhou, and he didn't want to pay attention to him, but Zhang Xuezhou mentioned Wei Qihou, which made Guan Fu respond honestly.

"My Lord said I should drink less, but I feel sick when I see some people's faces," Guan Fu said, "I don't want to cause trouble or pay attention to those people, but the more I drink, the angrier I get. The angrier I get, the more I drink. Then, after drinking too much, I don't know anything. When I wake up, I realize that I beat someone up when I was drunk. Then I was fined. After being fined a few times, I lost my official position!"

"You're going to hit someone!"

Zhang Xuezhou really wanted to learn how to lose his job without losing his life, but Guan Fu's experience gave Zhang Xuezhou a headache. After all, no matter whether he was pretending to be drunk or really drunk, Zhang Xuezhou's chances of winning by beating someone were not high.

When he thought about the officials in the court who were powerful in name only, he felt that he lacked understanding and had no idea who had real power and who was just a fake.

"Some people in our court are just disgusting and they deserve a beating!"

Zhang Xuezhou had no choice but to echo along, as a way of agreeing with the question.

But he didn't expect that after he said this, Guan Fu became unusually enthusiastic and even raised his glass to toast with Zhang Xuezhou.

"The wine in this mansion tastes like horse urine. If this wasn't the Marquis of Wu'an's banquet, I would have flipped the table." Guan Fu said, "Brother Dongfang, come to my house for a drink when you are free. My wine is guaranteed to be good!"

"to make!"

Zhang Xuezhou simply agreed to these unreliable promises.

He clinked glasses with Guan Fu and drank three large bowls of wine in a row. He felt that the wine was spicy and sour, with a pungent smell, and the anti-poison spell in his body was also slightly activated.

Obviously, these wines contain a lot of impurities, and even some slightly toxic fusel alcohols. Excessive drinking can easily induce drowsiness, excitement, or loss of reason.

Zhang Xuezhou didn't care about the poison, but the drinks had little nutritional value. No matter how much he could compress his fasting skills, a large amount of water would remain in his stomach.

"Brother, another bowl!"

Zhang Xuezhou had no taboos and drank with big gulps, which obviously pleased Guan Fu. After being repeatedly dragged to drink by the other party, Zhang Xuezhou couldn't help but have a headache. He could hear the sound of water in his stomach when it was shaken.

Only when Tian Fen took out a golden seal for identification did the treasure appreciation and appraisal banquet enter its formal stage.

"Master Guan, look at the baby!"

Zhang Xuezhou stretched out his hand and pointed, trying to stop Guan Fu from gulping down the wine.

"It should be the seal of some blind official of the Qin Dynasty. It can probably be used to hit people." Guan Fu took a look and said, "This is an object used by Marquis Wu'an to open the banquet. It is somewhat useful but not very useful. Eighty percent of the objects brought to the banquet are waste, and another 15% are for pleasing people. There are very few good treasures!"

Zhang Xuezhou was so anxious to resign that he spoke without restraint. Guan Fu's mouth is really unpleasant.

The treasure appraisal banquet had just begun when Guan Fu gave the answer directly, and his voice was even quite loud, attracting many guests to look in and some of them even laughed.

This made Tian Fen, who was sitting at the head of the table, extremely embarrassed.

He raised the seal and wanted to ask Li Shaojun to speak, but it was difficult for him to speak loudly for a while.

Tian Fen had a headache for a few seconds before he stretched out his hand and asked his servant to bring up an ancient wooden box.

"Everyone, Master Li's reputation for being able to read ancient characters has spread throughout Chang'an City. I have an old item in my home that is difficult to identify, so I'm sorry to show it to you!"

Embarrassed by Guan Fu, Tian Fen simply took out the heavy object from the bottom of the box.

He carefully opened the ancient wooden box, revealing a scroll with a golden banner.

The scroll was unfolded, revealing an ancient text, and a person with fluttering sleeves appeared on the scroll, as if he was about to be blown away by the wind.

Zhang Xuezhou took a closer look and found the ancient characters difficult to recognize. Li Shaojun frowned slightly, as if he had seen something on the scroll, and most likely had some unnecessary thoughts in his head.