"I wonder how the guards are doing at night!"
Sun Lei looked around to see clearly the location of the palace lantern and the place where the lantern could be hung. These would have to be confirmed at night.
The banquet was going on like this. The emperor and ministers were drinking, talking, laughing and watching singing and dancing in the palace, while the candidates were sitting outside.
After changing the plates in front of Sun Lei five times, Sun Lei finally felt full, holding the wine glass and tasting it slowly. This imperial wine still had a different taste.
Seeing that Sun Lei had finished eating the food on the table, the maid on the side laughed softly, went over to remove the empty bowls, and served Sun Lei another table of food.
"Brother Cui, how long will this continue?"
Sun Lei looked at the sky getting late, and the eunuchs were already lighting palace lanterns and hanging lanterns.
"It depends on when His Majesty the Emperor ends the banquet."
Cui Yulin said.
"If I had known I wouldn't have come!"
Sun Lei was speechless for a while. He didn't even see the emperor's face, so he sat outside for a long time, like a fool.
"Your Majesty has a decree to have fun with all the candidates today! Recite poems and compose poems on New Year's Day!"
A eunuch screamed at the door of Daqing Palace, and the eunuchs in the officialdom also echoed.
The maids quickly removed the plates, dishes, and chopsticks, and then spread them with pens, ink, paper, and inkstones.
"I really want to recite poems and compose poems!"
Sun Lei looked at the white paper and brush on the table and felt lucky. Thanks to his cleverness, he had learned from Wen Huanzhang before he came here.
Unlike other candidates who had to think hard to come up with a good poem that would be appreciated by the emperor, Sun Lei simply adapted a limerick to fool him.
"The new year bids farewell to the old one, the branches are covered with frosty plum blossoms, and the emperor holds a feast to celebrate the year of peace."
Sun Lei was very satisfied with his poor poems. Coupled with his rather mediocre calligraphy, if he threw it on the street, no one would pick it up. An expert like Zhao Ji, who was proficient in music, chess, calligraphy and painting, would probably not even bother to take a fancy to it. One glance.
But unexpectedly, the eunuchs did not directly take away the poems and poems from the candidates, but stood nearby.
After a while, there was movement in the Daqing Palace. A group of eunuchs and maids came out, surrounded by a thin middle-aged man, about thirty-five or six years old.
"Is this 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 steps were sloppy and his face was red. He seemed to have drank a lot. His face was full of smiles and he seemed to be in high spirits. Behind Zhao Ji were people from Tong Guan and Cai Jing.
With the support of the eunuch, Zhao Ji went to the middle of the square, and started shouting in the excitement of drinking, saying that he wanted to compete with the candidates all over the world to see whose poems were better.
Cai Jing and others naturally agreed and praised Zhao Ji's poetry as unparalleled in the world. It can be said that it is unprecedented and unprecedented.
After hearing Zhao Ji's words and the horse-like remarks of the ministers, many candidates quickly rubbed out the masterpieces they had racked their brains to write. They couldn't compete with anyone, but they couldn't compete with the emperor. It was better than losing. Say a few words of good luck. Talk, flatter, and make the emperor happy. How to compare the emperor to the throne and make it impossible for the emperor to step down? In this case, it is to seek death.
The eunuchs collected the poems they had written in batches and presented them to the emperor in ten copies.
Zhao Ji smiled and asked Cai Jing and others to taste it together, and took a pen to make a few notes on his favorite poems.
Sun Lei took advantage of the chaos to observe the palace at night. Except for the Daqing Palace, which was brightly lit, the palaces on the left and right did not have any lights on the young master. It was not difficult for someone to sneak in. The only trouble was that the palace walls were relatively high and guarded by guards. There are patrols down there, and you can hear dogs barking through the wind.
"People are easy to handle, but this dog!"
Sun Lei frowned for a while. Dogs are the most difficult to deal with. Dogs are good at guarding the door. They have great ears and a good sense of smell. They can chase people quickly.
"Go back and ask Shi Qian if there is any way to deal with the dog."
Sun Lei couldn't deal with dogs, but Shi Qian was a master, and he must have been able to deal with watchdogs when he stole things in the past.
Several candidates whose poems had won Zhao Ji's favor were called to the imperial court. Zhao Ji commented on their poems with a smile, and everyone naturally shouted long live them.
After commenting on the poems, Zhao Ji began to show off his poems again, as well as the thin gold calligraphy in his hands.
It was almost midnight when the banquet ended. Sun Lei followed everyone out of the palace. Because there were too many people and the bustle, Sun Lei, Cui Yulin and others got separated.
"elder brother!"
Not long after they left the palace, Wu Song and Hua Rongyou came up to them. In order not to attract attention, they also wore white robes.
"Let's go, everything goes well, it's okay!"
Sun Lei smiled and nodded.
Back at the Zhuangyuan Building, everyone was already waiting.
"elder brother!"
When everyone saw Sun Lei coming back, they stood up to greet him.
"Everyone, sit down! Serve some hot tea, we've been freezing in that square all day."
Sun Lei waved his hand and asked everyone to sit down.
"This is the layout from Xuandemen to Daqing Hall!"
Sun Lei took out a folded map from his arms, opened it and said, he secretly drew this while everyone was there with Zhao Ji to comment on the poems.
"Brother, look at this layout, stealing the flag is a trivial matter!"
Shi Qian looked at the map and said with a smile.
"The guards at the palace gate are so fooled, but there are many dogs in the palace. Is there anything you can do about this?"
Sun Lei looked at Shi Qian and asked.
"This... it's easy to handle if there are just one or two, but if there are more, there's nothing we can do!"
Shi Qian looked embarrassed. He could still give medicine to one or two dogs, but if there were too many dogs, he wouldn't be able to give medicine. It would be problematic if dozens of dogs got sick at the same time.
“Dogs are simple!”
Assistant Li smiled and took out a white bracelet.
"This is made of tiger bones. Dogs don't dare to bark even if they smell it!"
Li Assistant smiled and said that humans can't smell anything about this white bracelet, but dogs have a keen sense of smell and can smell it from a long distance away.
“With this thing, dogs don’t have to be afraid!”
Shi Qian was overjoyed when he took the thing.
"Then it's settled. There will be banquets in the Daqing Palace in the past few days. It's hard to do anything. I just asked about it. There are no banquets in Chuliu Palace. The emperor said he wanted to go to Long Live Mountain and the guards probably worked shifts for several days. I’m so tired that there will be fewer people leaving the palace by then.”
Sun Lei nodded and said, this trip to the palace was not in vain. With the help of Yinzi, he learned a lot of things from the eunuchs and maids.
The joy of Tokyo City continues, the whole city is covered with lanterns, and the number of people visiting has not decreased at all because of the late night.
The sixth day of the lunar month.
Zhao Ji led the civil and military officials and a large group of guards to Long Live Mountain in the northeast of the inner city.
Wansui Mountain has been under construction 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 been built, which is enough for fun.
It was dusk during this trip. Zhao Ji had no intention of returning to the palace. Instead, he continued to have a banquet with the civil and military officials at Long Live Mountain, holding candles and tasting the Taihu flowers and stones. He would not go back until midnight.
"Brother, get out of the city as soon as possible, and my little brother will get the dragon flag right now."
Watching the sun go down slowly, Shi Qian clasped his fists at Sun Lei and said, if something happens to Long Qi, the entire city of Tokyo will be under martial law.
"Remember the arranged route! We will wait for you outside the city."
Sun Lei nodded.
(End of chapter)
