After a long day of court meetings, the courtiers didn't eat, so they relied on Zhao Guan's family to give each of them two meat-filled steamed buns to pacify their stomachs.
After leaving the palace, they were immediately invited to a banquet in groups, either to someone's mansion or to a brothel.
The most important thing in the world is eating. No matter how big something happens, even if the enemy is really approaching, you can't delay eating.
What's more, the style of some people has always been like this. No matter how fierce the fighting along the border is, it does not affect them from living in a state of intoxication to playing music and dancing.
More importantly, officials basically have their own small groups and need to communicate privately about the current situation to clarify how to respond.
In such a common phenomenon, four or five officials such as Ma Tianji and Chen Dafang look inconspicuous when walking together.
Chen Dafang frowned and felt worried. Today, he was going to put King Yan into a trap, but he didn't expect that King Yan gave him a trap...
"Brother Dev, you and I both have to leave the court tomorrow for official business. Why don't we find a secluded place to sit down and treat each other as farewells."
The word "secluded" is particularly emphasized.
Ma Tianji was equally troubled and heard the implication, "It's just what I want... Then let's go to Mother Wang's tea shop."
Then several people got into their own cars and headed towards their destination together.
Drinking tea is a fashion and an indispensable part of Lin'an people's life, so tea shops in the city are very prosperous.
For different classes of people, tea shops are divided into different levels.
There are floating shops selling food on carts, and you can buy a big bowl of it for a few cents. If you add a few cents to buy some fruit cakes, you can have a meal. It is a daily choice for the working people.
There are market teahouses, where businessmen and brokers usually gather, so it becomes a place to discuss business transactions.
There are "hangpai" for wealthy children to gather and have fun, and there are usually some relatively simple teahouses nearby for their entourage to entertain themselves while waiting.
There are even flower teahouses that use female prostitutes as lures to provide sensual services.
These places are often noisy and bustling with people, but they are disliked by people who rely on their status. They are "not a place for gentlemen to stop."
Therefore, some very elegant teahouses naturally appeared to serve the scholar-bureaucrats, among which the more famous ones include Huangjianzui Cuizhu Teahouse, Dajie Cheercha Teahouse, Jiang Review Teahouse, etc.
And Mama Wang's tea shop is one of them. The official name of the shop is Yikugui Tea House. I have to say that the taste of the scholar-bureaucrats is a bit strange.
This cave ghost tea house is located near Zhongwazi in the north of Shinanfang, not far from the back door of Prince Zhang Xun's palace.
Wazi is a kind of entertainment place. When gathered, the tiles will be combined, and when scattered, they will disintegrate.
It is said that the earliest time was after the southern crossing. Because the soldiers were easily depressed after leaving their hometowns, Yang Yizhong, the commander in front of the palace at that time, set up tile houses near each military camp and gathered musicians to perform for the soldiers in their spare time.
Then Zhao Jiumei saw that this move seemed to be very good, so she ordered Xiu Nei Si to build five relatively large tile houses in the city so that the people who followed him and could not escape could get spiritual comfort, or in other words, paralysis.
And Zhang Jun is a person who likes to have fun, so he deliberately chose his residence between Nan Wazi and Zhong Wazi so that he can have fun as soon as he goes out.
This place is not far from Chaotianmen. Ma Tianji and others arrived soon and asked the shopkeeper to find a relatively secluded elegant room.
The shopkeeper asked as usual, "Officials, do you want to order the tea lady and the corner dancer?"
Ma Tianji waved his hand, "No, bring the tea and food as soon as possible, and don't let anyone disturb me while I wait. By the way, I have a guest coming later. His surname is Zhang. You can introduce him directly when he arrives."
The shopkeeper bowed and retreated, walking to the kitchen to make arrangements. When he passed a small door, he tapped it with his fingers a few times in a specific rhythm, and then continued to move forward as if nothing had happened.
The space inside the small door was not large and relatively dark. A young man lay lazily on a recliner. After hearing the knocking sound, he immediately sat up and quickly lit an oil lamp.
The firelight reflected the handsome face of the young man, who turned out to be Wen Tianxiang's younger brother Wen Bi.
only saw him
His eyes quickly scanned the copper pipe port installed on the wall. After selecting it, he put his ear to it and put down the pen and paper at the same time, ready to record.
What Wen Bi was listening to was the elegant room where Ma Tianji and others were, but they were completely unaware of it.
But they were really hungry, and they were busy eating and not talking much.
After about a quarter of an hour, the shopkeeper led a guest wearing a curtain hat in. When he dismissed the shopkeeper and closed the door, the face of this man was none other than Zhang Shu.
"Didn't I tell you not to see each other during these days? Wouldn't it be nice to send a letter if you have anything to do?"
Ma Tianji's expression froze, as if he was unhappy with Zhang Shu's attitude, but he quickly suppressed it.
"Sir, you must be aware of what happened in the court today. Mu Tong and I were tricked by King Yan. We will leave Lin'an tomorrow, so we have to discuss it with you first to avoid any mistakes."
Zhang Shu found a chair and sat down, "Okay, anyway, King Yan has been suspecting my Zhang family for a long time. It's not a big deal if he finds out now."
"That's true." Ma Tianji nodded, "King Yan is not an ordinary person. Even if he didn't know it before, our words and deeds in the court today were enough to wake him up."
Chen Dafang sighed, "King Yan is indeed very difficult to deal with. He is not only alert but also cunning. He immediately noticed our purpose and even tricked us back into it. It's really embarrassing."
Zhang Shu chuckled, "His move was a bit unexpected, but it doesn't matter. Anyway, we have achieved our goal. You don't need to worry about this errand. Just do your best when you get there. Someone will take care of things, that is, find someone to help you." You've got a lot of credit for a few scapegoats."
Hearing this, Ma Tianji and Chen Dafang were relieved.
Then Chen Dafang frowned slightly again, "Although King Yan can only bring few elites to this expedition, his Eastern Guard has more than 30,000 people. Can Fujian really handle it?"
"Don't worry, the more soldiers the better in this war. Besides, his bullshit Dongwei is just a plaything. I wish he could take them all with him. Hehe, if there is a problem with the logistics, they will be killed. , What’s more, he has to take the sea route, and it’s hard to say whether he can get to Quanzhou... In short, we have done all the things we should do, and what to do next is the matter of those Fujian people, we don’t need to worry..."
Zhang Shu looked relaxed and contented, but he didn't know that every word he said was recorded.
After Zhao Mengqi returned home, he immediately issued many orders and distributed them everywhere, and completed the preliminary setup of the command organization on paper.
After finishing all this, I returned to the back house, and then the two sisters Zhao Yan and Zhao Feng greeted me.
"Fourth brother, are you really going to go on an expedition? Isn't it dangerous?" Zhao Jian's eyes were full of worry.
Zhao Mengqi smiled and pinched his sister's cheek, "Don't worry, I'm just going to suppress the bandits. There are tens of thousands of troops protecting me, so what danger can I be in?".
But Zhao Wei complained, "Father, it's true, why do you have to go to the war? There are so many ministers and generals in the court, are they all doing it for free!?"
Zhao Mengqi let go of Zhao Han's face and smiled slightly, "My father didn't ask me to go, I wanted to go there myself. You two just stay at home and wait for my triumphant return."
Zhao Hui was surprised, "Ah? Fourth brother, won't you take us with you?"
"Why should I take you with me to the war?" Zhao Mengqi asked angrily, "When I'm not at home, you should try not to go out and stay in the palace."
Originally, Zhao Mengqi wanted to send the two sisters back to the palace, but considering that it was not necessarily safe in the palace, it would be better to stay in Prince Yan's Mansion.
Zhao Fei was a little confused about this, "Why?"
"Don't worry about why, just obey." Zhao Mengqi didn't explain much.
At this moment, Qian Duo came running up in a hurry, shouting, "Zhao Mengqi, do you think my armor looks good? Isn't it very heroic?"
Zhao Mengqi looked over and couldn't help but was startled. He saw that Qian Duo was actually wearing a set of fiery red leather armor, and it seemed to fit him very well. He obviously didn't find it temporarily.
"Where did you get the armor?"
Qian Duo's face is full of smiles
He was very excited, "I asked Tiangongyuan's tools to help me make it. It was originally used for Cuju, but I didn't expect that it happened to be during the war. What a coincidence."
Zhao Mengqi didn't quite believe this. He pointed to the rank mark on the shoulder of the armor and said, "You actually dare to raise the rank of Dongwei privately, good guy, and even make a major!?"
At this time, the military attache class was too numerous and complicated. Not counting the top soldiers, there were as many as sixty in total, ranging from Taiwei and below, to Guards and Jinyong, Deputy Lieutenants and above.
This was actually not conducive to combat command, so Zhao Mengqi followed later generations and tried a simplified military rank system in the Eastern Guard.
And because there are currently no real senior officers in the East Guard, the highest military rank is only major.
"I think it looks good." Qian Duo obviously didn't care much about the meaning of this military rank.
Zhao Mengqi couldn't laugh or cry, and took off her military rank himself, "This is not something you can wear casually. Don't mess around in the future."
"Hey! Isn't it just a piece of broken iron? If you don't wear it, don't wear it. I don't care about it." Qian Duo disagreed, and then laughed, "In this expedition, I will be your personal soldier, and I guarantee that you will not have any If there is any danger, I can tell you that I am no longer Qian Duo before. I have also practiced my martial arts seriously. Even three big men are no match for me. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Chang Geng. He is You can’t beat me.”
I believe you as a ghost...
Zhao Mengqi curled his lips and said, "Really? Since you are so good at martial arts, then after I go on an expedition, I will hand over my family to your protection."
"Zhao Mengqi, what do you mean!?" Qian Duo immediately raised his head and looked into Zhao Mengqi's eyes, "What do you mean leaving the family to me? Don't you plan to take me with you!? Even if I can't be a soldier, I'm still you. My personal maid, do you understand personal maid!?"
Zhao Mengqi opened his palm, covered Qian Duo's face, pushed back gently, "Don't make trouble!"
