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Chapter 198 Wei Yan's Big Birthday

(PS: The computer system is paralyzed during the day, so today is only one chapter, please forgive me.)
November 25, Wei Zhongxian's 60th birthday!In order to celebrate this auspicious day, the emperor Zhu Youxiao announced that he would be closed for one day, so as to spare time for civil and military officials to go to Wei Zhongxian's mansion to celebrate his birthday. As a result, of course, the Weiran Hutong where Wei Zhongxian's mansion is located was already crowded with people. In order to protect the safety of these officials and envoys, officials and envoys from all over the country and foreign lands crowded the inside and outside of Weiran Hutong. The army, even Zhu Chunchen reluctantly mobilized the troops of the three major battalions of the capital to help maintain law and order. Within a radius of ten miles, all were under martial law!
The streets outside the Wei Mansion were full of sedan chairs and carriages, official entourages and people watching the excitement. There were huge crowds of people and it was very lively, but the inside of the Wei Mansion was even more lively and extravagant.In the corridor of the front yard, flower petals are spread into a carpet. On both sides of the corridor in front of the lighting wall, there are sixteen book offices dedicated to recording guests’ gifts. Only guests with gifts worth more than one thousand taels of silver are eligible to enter the hall; In the east courtyard, there are [-] eminent monks (self-proclaimed) who are chanting scriptures and praying for Wei Zhongxian; Qingban and Xiangyun Club set up a stage to sing operas, which were the most taboo operas in Liyuan. A group of eunuchs such as the ten children and the forty grandsons lined up to kowtow to Wei Zhongxian to celebrate his birthday. The gathering of civil and military officials was even more lively than the celebration of worshiping heaven in the Forbidden City.

Behind the bustle is a faint confrontation. Cui Chengxiu and Feng Quan, who are in the same situation, lead a gang of lackeys to stand on both sides. They are not glaring. Most of the neutral officials and a small number of eunuch officials are standing on the wall. No one dares to offend. .But in this way, many caring people have discovered a major problem. Now that the time has passed, how can the third banner be erected, and at the same time the most beloved godson of Wei Zhongxian, Zhang Haogu, the former detective and the great war god of the Ming Dynasty? Didn't show up?Logically speaking, he should have come earlier than the eunuchs such as Wuhu, Wubiao, Shihaier and Forty-sun?

Surprised, some people began to ask Feng Quan and Cui Chengxiu about the reason. Cui Chengxiu's answer was quite kind, and replied: "He was sent to Tongzhou by Jiuqian. Congratulations, the canal was blocked for two days, and I was only able to arrive in Tongzhou this morning. Eunuch Li is the most trusted person in the south of the Yangtze River. In order to show respect for him, Jiuqian specially asked Zhang Haogu to go to Tongzhou to meet him. , probably won’t arrive until noon.” Feng Quan’s answer was a little gloating, and he said with a smirk: “Why haven’t you come yet? I’m out of favor. I don’t want to see him dangling in front of my [-]-year-old birthday, so By the way, find an excuse to send him out, so as not to upset him."

There is a saying that there is no wave without wind. Some time ago, the news that Young Master Zhang coveted the post of Governor Xuan had not been obtained, but it had already been spread in the dark. Many officials also began to wonder whether Young Master Zhang had fallen out of favor. If he failed to be there at the first time, and was sent out on purpose by Wei Zhongxian, the problem was even bigger—after all, people in ancient times didn’t live very long. I can't tell.Coupled with the fact that many interested people headed by Feng Quan deliberately spread the word, many civil and military officials who had originally planned to join Young Master Zhang changed their minds, thinking that it would be better for them to keep a distance from Young Master Zhang.

"The special envoy of the governor of Liaodong has arrived—" With a long shout from the concierge eunuch, Lu Wanling and Li Wanting led the way, surrounded by a middle-aged man with dark skin and short like a monkey, and walked into the front yard. On the side of Wei Zhongxian, the eight major locust merchants in Zhangjiakou, and a large group of strong men carrying gifts.After they handed over the gift list and name thorns, something happened that stunned the court officials present——Wei Zhongxian, who was wearing a suit embroidered with 99 birthday characters in red auspicious blessings, and who had been sitting in the hall to accept the kowtows of all officials, actually walked out of the hall and personally Coming to the entrance of the hall to greet the special envoy of the governor of Liaodong, Cui Chengxiu and Feng Quan, the two giants of the eunuch party, also went forward to greet the little man.

"Who is that kid? Nine thousand years old actually came to greet him in person?" While dumbfounded, countless officials began to inquire about the origin of the short man.Among them, Li Yingjian, who was the first in history to shoot at Yuan Chonghuan, snorted coldly and introduced to everyone: "He is Yuan Chongyu, the younger brother of the Governor of Liaodong, and a great salt merchant in Guangdong!"

"The younger brother of the governor of Liaodong? Jiu Qiansui came out to meet the younger brother of the governor of Liaodong in person?" Countless officials were startled again, and then naturally, countless officials flocked to Wei Zhongxian and Yuan Chongyu together, scrambling to please Wei Zhongxian, While eavesdropping on the conversation between Wei Zhongxian and Yuan Chongyu.And Wei Zhongxian's attitude towards Yuan Chongyu and his party was really affectionate, and said with a smile: "My nephew is too polite, our family can't afford such an expensive gift."

"Nine-thousand-year-old is too polite. You are always my Great Ming Fuguo. You have made outstanding contributions and high morals. You are admired all over the world. You can only express our Yuan family's gratitude to Nine-thousand-year-old. I would like to invite Nine-thousand-year-old Don’t be disgusted at the age of [-].” Yuan Chongyu’s mouth was as sweet as honey, “My brother shoulders the heavy responsibility of guarding the soil and cannot escape, so I can only ask Chongyu to congratulate Nine Thousand Years on his behalf. Like the flowing water of the East China Sea."

With that said, Yuan Chongyu led Lu Wanling and his wife to kneel down with the eight major locust merchants in Zhangjiakou, and kowtowed to Wei Zhongxian to celebrate his birthday.Wei Zhongxian laughed loudly, "I've lost my mind, I've lost my mind, my nephew please hurry up, and Wan Ling please hurry up too." Speaking of this, Wei Zhongxian pointed suspiciously at the eight big locust merchants in Zhangjiakou who were kneeling behind, Asked: "Who are these people? From the appearance, they don't look like your entourage, nephew, right?"

"Fan Yongdou, a grassroots man, kowtowed at nine thousand years old." Fan Yongdou bravely apologized and said with a smile: "The grassroots are all Ming merchants from Zhangjiakou, Xuanfu, and have always had good friends with Yuan Futai in Liaodong. They happened to be in the capital, and I ran into Yuan Daguan, and heard that he came to the capital to celebrate his birthday in place of Yuan Futai in Liaodong, so I boldly accompanied Yuan Daguan and his family to show the respect and gratitude of Zhangjiakou's major businesses to Nine Thousand Years. , I hope Jiuqiansu will forgive me." Then, Fan Yongdou held up the gift list, flatteringly said with a smile: "Nine thousand years old, this is the gift list for Caomin and his party, please have a look at it."

Wei Zhongxian winked, and Yang Liuqi immediately stepped forward to take the gift list. After a glance, he found that the gift was worth about 1 taels of silver, and nodded to Wei Zhongxian with satisfaction.Wei Zhongxian understood, waved his hands and smiled: "Get up, everyone who comes is a guest, just sit down for a while. Our family remembers that when the imperial court bought horses and sheep, they basically came to you Zhangjiakou merchants. You provided war horses for the Ming army. Tents (ancient military tents are mainly made of cow and sheepskin) support the front line, do business to make profits, and pay taxes, which can be regarded as hard work. How about those officials at Xuanda, do you still support you?"

"Thank you Jiu Qiansui for your concern. Most of Xuanda's court officials at all levels are very kind to grassroots people." Fan Yongdou, Wang Dengku and other locust merchants were flattered, and quickly replied to Wei Zhongxian.Wei Zhongxian frowned and said with a smile: "Most? So, a small number of officials are unwilling to support you businessmen? But don't be afraid, your Xuanda will soon have a new governor, and it will be yours. Old acquaintances, I will definitely support you even more. Hehe, hehehehe..."

"Old acquaintance? Could it be the governor of Liaodong?" Fan Yongdou and other locust merchants were ecstatic. Just when they wanted to hear more about Wei Zhongxian, a better person appeared over there - the only two in the court who did not need to buy Wei Zhongxian's account Zhang Weixian, the Duke of England, Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Cheng, and Mei Qingyun, the adopted daughter of Taikangbo Zhang Guoji and Zhang Weixian, went to the Wei Mansion to celebrate Wei Zhongxian's birthday in person.Zhang Weixian and Zhu Chunchen gave face so much, of course Wei Zhongxian didn't dare to neglect, he hurried to the gate in person, leaving Feng Quan to entertain Yuan Chongyu, Fan Yongdou and others.Fan Yongdou hurriedly asked Feng Quan in a low voice: "Master Feng, the old acquaintance mentioned by Nine Thousand Years is probably the Governor of Liaodong?"

"Besides him, who else? Could it be Zhang Haogu?" Feng Quan sneered triumphantly.Yuan Chongyu, Fan Yongdou and the others were overjoyed when they heard the words, but Fan Yongdou's heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly remembered a big event—it seemed that Zhang Haogu's little mad dog, himself and Wang Dengku, were old acquaintances, right?Over there, Wang Dengku, who was scammed by Master Zhang for a lot of money, didn't think so much, but asked Feng Quan in a low voice: "Master Feng, we have prepared the couplet you explained." He took out a pair of golden lacquered scroll couplets from his pocket, and quietly handed them to Feng Quan.

"That's right, it's exactly the same as the couplet that Zhang Haogu was going to give away." Feng Quan glanced at the couplet, and quickly stuffed it into his sleeve...

At this time, Wei Zhongxian had personally greeted Wei Zhongxian and Zhu Chunchen and his party into the hall. Seeing the beautifully dressed Mei Qingyun entering the yard, her big eyes rolled wildly, looking around, and Wei Zhongxian made a rare joke, "Qing Niece Yun, who are you looking at? If you want to see our own son, then you have to wait a while, our own son went to Tongzhou and didn't come back until noon. "

"Who's watching him?" Mei Qingyun blushed, pulled Zhu Shengqu, the daughter of Zhu Chunchen who was snickering next to her, and said with a blushing face, "Sister Qu, let's pay our respects to Mrs. Fengsheng."

"Okay, we'll come here at noon." Zhu Shengqu agreed with a smirk.Mei Qingyun's face turned even redder, she pinched Zhu Shengqu hard, pulled her up and left, leaving Wei Zhongxian, Zhu Chunchen and others laughing in place.Zhang Weixian was full of embarrassment, and smiled bitterly at Wei Zhongxian: "Eunuch Wei, the little girl is rude, Eunuch Wei must not care about it."

"There, there, our family has always treated her as a daughter-in-law." Wei Zhongxian said surprisingly, and smiled at Zhang Weixian in a low voice: "Mr. Zhang, please save face and promise your niece to our worthless Zhang Hao." How about the ancient monkey cub?"

"What?" Zhang Weixian was taken aback, thinking that Zhang Haogu had fallen out of favor in front of Wei Zhongxian these days?Why did old eunuch Wei ask for a marriage for him again?Could it be that the old eunuch Wei saw through my plan of alienation, and it actually had the opposite effect?Puzzled, Zhang Weixian had no choice but to evade, "Eunuch Wei, it's a matter of Qingyun's life. I have to discuss this matter with my nephew before I can give Eunuch Wei an answer." Wei Zhongxian laughed and stopped pushing.

When Wei Zhongxian returned to the hall to accept the birthday celebrations from all the officials, Feng Quan suddenly walked up to Wei Zhongxian and whispered in Wei Zhongxian's ear: "Nine thousand years old, the gift list from the governor of Liaodong, I have already seen it, and it is worth 15 yuan. Two!" Wei Zhongxian was stunned for a moment, then laughed so hard that he couldn't close his mouth, he quickly asked Feng Quan: "Didn't you agree on 8 taels? How did it become 15 taels?"

"He also really wants to establish Zhang Hao's incomparable achievements like Gubei's conquest of Tatar." Feng Quan said in a low voice: "So he wants to ask Nine Thousand Years to be kind, and Enzhun will temporarily second the Slaughter Army to his command for a period of time. Use the old to lead the new, and train his army better, so that he can be more loyal and filial to the nine-thousand-year-old you."

Wei Zhongxian kept his composure, and quietly picked the armrest of the grand master's chair with his fingers, and said in a low voice after a while: "We can discuss it, today is not the time to discuss this matter, let's talk about it another day." But he wasn't in a hurry, he just retreated in a low voice and stepped aside.

While Mei Qingyun was waiting like looking through the autumn water, when noon was approaching, the dusty Young Master Zhang and Jiangnan's number one eunuch Li Shi finally returned to the capital, and rushed to Wei Ran Hutong non-stop to celebrate Wei Zhongxian's birthday.Hearing the news, Wei Zhongxian left the hall again and came to the middle gate of his mansion to greet Li Shi and Young Master Zhang in person. When they met, Li Shi knelt down on his knees first, kowtowed to Wei Zhongxian with tears and said, "Li Shi, my son, Kowtow to godfather, I wish godfather happiness like the East China Sea, longevity than Nanshan, every year has today, every year has today...Godfather, I haven't seen you for more than four years, you are much thinner than before."

"Shi'er, you've lost a lot of weight." Wei Zhongxian also choked with sobs, helped Li Shi up, and asked with concern: "Shi'er, I heard that someone stabbed you again on the Mid-Autumn Festival this year. How did it hurt you?" ?”

"Thank godfather, that assassin was taken down as soon as he entered the room, he didn't hurt the baby, nothing happened at all." Li Shi replied honestly.Wei Zhongxian nodded again and again, "It's fine, it's fine." At this time, Young Master Zhang also knelt down, kowtowed to Wei Zhongxian and said, "Boy, Zhang Haogu, kowtowed to see my father. My father's [-]th birthday, I can't wait for you all the time." I beg my father to forgive my sins. My child wishes my father to last forever like the sun, to rise like the moon, to live like the Nanshan Mountain, never to grow and not to collapse. Like pines and cypresses to flourish, everything will be inherited."

Wei Zhongxian glanced at Young Master Zhang, and then at the densely packed civil and military officials beside him. He didn't go to help Young Master Zhang, but said indifferently: "Get up, you have worked hard. Tonight, you and Liangqing, Liu Qi and the others will go to the back hall together. Kowtow to our family, and don't squeeze in with other people." After finishing speaking, Wei Zhongxian pulled Li Shi up and left, giving Young Master Zhang a cold back.

"Fall out of favor! This kid must have fallen out of favor!" Seeing this scene, among the many officials nearby, I don't know how many people secretly gloated.Yuan Chongyu, Fan Yongdou and others who were crowded behind the crowd were even more ecstatic, so ecstatic that they wanted to rush up and grab Young Master Zhang by the collar and shout—"You have today too, kid?!" Standing in the yard, Cui Chengxiu and Feng Quan did not Looking at each other emotionally, I knew that our joint suppression had finally paid off.

"Third brother, third brother, Master Zhang, you are finally back." Seeing that Young Master Zhang is about to fall out of favor, most of the neutral factions are afraid to avoid it, and scramble to stand far away from Young Master Zhang. Under the circumstances, Liu Ruozai, Yu Huang and Bo Jue did not dislike it, they still greeted Young Master Zhang happily, and greeted Young Master Zhang with each other.Immediately afterwards, Song Jin and Xiao Chuan, the two giants of the East Factory, also brought Chen Jianhuang and other powerful figures in the East Factory to greet them, and hugged Young Master Zhang with a very affectionate attitude; Yang Jingchen also brought a large group of poor Hanlin over, saluted and greeted Young Master Zhang without hesitation, and followed Young Master Zhang into the yard without hesitation; A few thorn-headed censors who are notoriously reckless, and many Young Master Zhang's Jinshi in the same year also joined Young Master Zhang's team without hesitation.Although these people's official positions are not very high, they are superior in their large number. In the blink of an eye, the number of officials following Young Master Zhang suddenly surpassed the sum of the party members behind Feng Quan and Cui Chengxiu.

Seeing this, Feng Quan and Cui Chengxiu greeted Young Master Zhang hypocritically while secretly wiping sweat from their hearts, saying that fortunately Zhang Haogu had suddenly fallen out of favor these few days, those fools dared not flatter him too much Otherwise, Zhang Haogu's momentum will completely suppress our momentum today!At that time, more scumbags will be icing on the cake, and Zhang Haogu will be promoted to the point where he is under one person and above ten thousand people. I am afraid that the people under me will have different ideas!
Feng Quan and Cui Chengxiu are here secretly alarmed by the great potential behind Young Master Zhang, but the team on Young Master Zhang's side is getting longer and longer. Under the circumstances, Zhang Ruitu, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, still bit the bullet, and brought several chief examiners to meet him, accepting the student etiquette of Young Master Zhang, and joined the team of Young Master Zhang to praise him, which immediately led many officials to join him. team.Wang Yongguang, Minister of the Ministry of War, who once hated Young Master Zhang for spending too much money and hated his toothache, did not know what medicine he had taken wrongly. The blessing of the young master, Wang Yongguang is already the longest-lived Minister of the Ministry of War in the Tianqi period, and in addition, the young master Zhang is also very good at being a man, and he always takes some of the trophies he won in battle as souvenirs for Wang Yongguang, and he does not want to pester Feng. Quan and Cui Chengxiu's troubled Wang Yongguang had no choice but to say hello to the same year Zhang Ruitu on the excuse, and sat down at the same table with Young Master Zhang.

Xu Guangqi, Wang Yongguang and Zhang Ruitu, at Wei Zhongxian’s [-]th birthday banquet, three of the six ministers sat at the same table with Young Master Zhang, and the remaining two cursive ministers were also sitting on the wall. On the other hand, Cui Chengxiu and Feng Quan, who were fighting to the death in the dark, inevitably felt a little guilty. Cui Chengxiu, who had a decent relationship with Young Master Zhang, was thinking about how to further strengthen the relationship, at least to continue to get along with Young Master Zhang on the face of it.Feng Quan subconsciously touched the pair of couplets in his sleeves, and then quietly glanced at the servants of Wei's mansion who were receiving gifts over there. He waited for the gift from Young Master Zhang to arrive before he began to act...

(End of this chapter)