Those who came to Beijing from the Lou family included nine-year-old Lou Shiji, Lou Shiming's widow Wu and her two-year-old son, as well as Lou Zishi's elder brother Lou Zian and his son Lou Shiying.
Come to the back first to meet the kids. Lou Shiji is a bit frail, but his eyebrows have the air of Lou Shiming, and he speaks in a leisurely manner, which Li Dan likes very much.
Ask him if he can read and what books should he study? The answer was that he had studied "Three Character Classic", "Hundred Family Surnames", "Thousand Character Classic" and "Ancient and Modern Virtues", and now started to read "Spring and Autumn".
Li Dankao asked a few questions and felt quite satisfied. He took a palace silk hairpin from his head and put it on him as a reward. The little guy was so happy that he jumped out to show off to Du Jing.
Li Dan was surprised as soon as he walked in. He peeked at Mrs. Wu several times. She just turned twenty-one this year. She didn't talk much, and her eyebrows were lowered and she looked very submissive.
Her family specializes in the seafood business in Ningde, and she is fair and round. Unexpectedly, she became a widow at such a young age, which made Li Dan sigh secretly and feel pity.
His son was only two years old, with bright eyes and nimble hands and feet, and he didn't recognize life. When he saw Li Dan, he clung to him and called him daddy, which made Wu's face turn red with embarrassment.
When Li Dan saw him, he said, "Sister-in-law, don't be shy. Why don't I accept this adopted son? It will be worthy of Brother Shiming's spirit in heaven!"
After speaking, she asked what the child's name was. Mrs. Wu replied that she only had a nickname of Guo'er and had not yet given a full name. Li Dan thought about it and found out that his father's name was Shiming, so he named the child Cunshi.
"Let him take my surname first so that no one will doubt him. When he grows up, it's up to him whether he wants to change his surname or keep his surname of Li!"
After saying that, I felt that this place was not a long-term solution after all, with so many people coming and going, so I decided to find a long-term place to house them.
Then he went to the front to meet everyone, and everyone came up to greet Mr. Li. Li Dan saw that Lou Shiying was a strong-looking young man and liked him very much.
I also heard that he was good at walking on mountain roads and was nicknamed "Flying-footed Luoluo". Luoluo was what the natives called wild boar, which meant that this kid was not only fast, but also brave.
Unlike Lou Zisheng (Lou Zishi's younger brother) who was detained in a temple in Nanchang after the surrender, the father and son never relied on Lou Zishi to cause rebellion, but they were ostracized and harassed by the locals because of their status, so this time Li Dan will also His father and son took him out together.
"Uncle, if you have skills, you can stay in the trading company and be a bamboo craftsman. Brother Shiying seems to be a man who can earn military merit. This time I go to Liaodong to fight against the ancient E people. How about asking him to be my guard?" Li Dan He hugged Lou Shiying's shoulders intimately and asked his father's opinion.
"Young Master is going to Liaodong?" Lu Jiu next to him was surprised.
"Otherwise, why do you think the emperor is so anxious to find your son?" Li Dan reached out and slapped him on the forehead. Lu Jiu immediately grinned happily. He knew that this slap meant that Li Dan would take him there.
"Since I concurrently hold the post of the Ministry of War and participated in the discussion of the situation in Liaodong, it is almost certain that the emperor will send me to join the army." After speaking, Li Dan looked at Lou Zi'an and his son: "Of course, I will not force it. I want to stay. It’s okay to do things later.”
"I'm willing to go!" Lou Shiying looked at his father: "I can only chop bamboo and hunt, what can I do in this city? Why not follow the young master to fight on the front line, maybe earn a hundred households and come back, see who are the bird people in the village Dare you talk nonsense?"
"Okay, if you want to go, just go." Lou Zian was actually a simple and honest man. After saying this, he looked at Li Dan.
Li Dan naturally understood: "Uncle, don't worry, Shiying is Shiming's brother, that is, my brother. I will definitely take care of him!" Then he turned to Wang Xu and Du Jing who came with them: "Today's employees On this occasion, would you two come and help me?"
Both of them cupped their hands and said, "Young Master is very righteous. Now that they have all settled down, we have nothing to worry about. We can just let him do the big things!"
Li Dan was so happy that he asked Du Jing to join the shogunate as a counselor and help Wu Mao. Externally, he was the boss of Han An's trading company that expanded business in Zhili, Anhui, and Jianghuai. Wang Xu stayed with him temporarily, and served as an assistant to Wu Mao. Said he was a personal guard.
After the arrangements were made, Li Dan discussed with Du Jing and asked him to agree that Wu, Shiying and Shiji would recognize him as a foster father. Therefore, Shiying and Shiji changed their surname to Du, and Du Jing himself also changed his name to "Jing" , to avoid unnecessary trouble caused by other people’s eyes and ears.
Li Dan returned home with Shiying and Shiji
, entrusted Shiying to Li Tiedao as an apprentice, invited Jiao Tong, explained Shiji's identity to him, and asked Shiji to become his tutor.
"This place is small after all, and it is inconvenient for nobles to come and go." Li Dan called Jiao Tong and said, "Please find a more suitable house for me. It should be spacious enough and preferably closer to the palace."
Because he was also responsible for the affairs of the Party Secretary, the guild hall where people came and went was no longer suitable as a residence, so Li Dan wanted to move. More and more cadres are being transferred, and the vacated houses can accommodate more people from Raozhou.
"Brother, what is the origin of this Li Dan? Tanhua Lang should have entered the Hanlin Academy as an editor. Why did he become Zhongshu and also be the head of the Military Affairs Department?"
Xie Minzhong came to find his brother to find out what was going on. His period of observing the government was over, and it was said that he would be assigned to the General Affairs Department to do a general job this time.
While he was secretly feeling proud, someone suddenly said to him, "Don't think it's great to be a capital official. Li Tanhua started out as a clerk and wailang. Although he was a sixth-rank official, he was one of the officials closest to His Majesty."
He thought along these words, and immediately became discouraged with himself, so he came to ask what happened.
Several officials who were gathering in the signing room to discuss the matter laughed. Gao Moling asked him to sit down first, and then told him roughly Li Dan's resume.
"What? If you are still not convinced, come and bring thousands of soldiers to fight two battles and let me see, or else just shut up." Xie Minhong shook his head at this younger brother from the bottom of his heart. This kid can do nothing but talk about being noble.
"Hey, it turns out he is a martial artist!" Xie Minzhong curled his lips.
"A martial artist?" "
"Who knows, maybe he cheated?"
"You're talking nonsense!" Xie Minhong threw down the pen and ink on the case with all his face. "How dare you say such nonsense? If word gets out, how will Master Su handle himself? Shut up!"
"Um, brother Minzhong, you should go back and rest first." Gao Moling hurriedly came out to smooth things over. He didn't want news about the quarrel between the brothers in Xie Xianggong's house to spread throughout the capital tomorrow.
"How much worse can I be than him?" Xie Minzhong said angrily: "If you don't believe it, I will go to the Ministry of War tomorrow. Don't make it look like I am so grateful to you that I am so happy to stay in the capital!" Throwing down a book, he turned around and went out.
Watching his leaving figure, I struggled to say, "Tongli (Chinese character Xie Minhong) is quite bloody! Why didn't brother Cong'an (Chinese character Xie Minhong) fulfill his wish?"
"Huh?" Xie Minhong was surprised. After thinking about it, he suddenly became enlightened. He nodded slowly and said, "Okay, I'll give this fool a chance to try it out!"
Gao Moling was startled and asked hurriedly: "Do you really want to send Brother Shi to Liaoxi?"
"So what?" Xie Minhong stamped his feet in hatred: "He has been extremely pampered since he was a child, so it would be good to let him suffer some hardships! You go to Yang Shi'an tomorrow and ask him to make arrangements."
Yang Shi'an was quite frightened since he lost his brother's protection, so he got closer to Xie Minhong.
Gao Moling wanted to say something else, but he waved his hand to stop him: "The emperor has decided to send this new science scout to Western Liaoning to join the army. If you go with Liruo, you can observe him more from the side, and we also have an additional spy in Western Liaoning. What's wrong?"
Use your own brother as eyeliner? Gao Moling opened his mouth, but the rest of the words didn't come out.
Xiangyu appeared at the door of the restaurant wrapped in a black velvet cloak, and immediately the latest model of a single-couple and double-driving carriage appeared.
A soft-curved arm stretched out from the carriage, allowing her to put it on it and enter the carriage through the side carriage door. Then, after closing the door, the carriage turned around and walked towards the main road inside Yinmen.
Two knights riding mules walked out of the alley next to them. After nodding to each other, one of them followed the carriage, keeping a distance of more than thirty steps from it.
Another person came to the door of the hotel, came down and entered the lobby, sat down near the door and window, ordered a bottle of wine and two side dishes, and observed the guests coming in and out. After a while, a dignified middle-aged man walked down the stairs.
See you at the shopkeeper
He quickly stepped forward and bowed his hands humbly: "Master Shangshu, please go away!"
"Yeah." The middle-aged man didn't even move his eyelids, and went straight down the steps with the help of the servant. A carriage immediately stopped at the door, and the attendant came up and helped him get into the carriage.
The boy sat next to the coachman, with two guards in front and four followers behind him. The group left the restaurant in a swaggering manner.
Thirty steps away from them, the knight was holding the mule and hanging behind them as if nothing had happened. Not long after he arrived in Shangjing, he did not recognize that this "Master Shangshu" was actually Zheng Shou, the left minister of the Ministry of Rites.
Zheng Shougang met Xiangyu and still had her body fragrance on his hand. Gently raising his hand to smell the smell, Zheng Shou smiled slightly and frowned again.
Unexpectedly, the emperor was so decisive this time that he even entrusted the Qionglin Banquet to King Ding. He devoted himself entirely to the upcoming conflict with Kerr's ministries.
This Li Tanhua had only appeared for two days, but her influence on His Majesty was already so obvious. Zheng Shou was very alert to this. For no other reason than that, Prince Teng (Prince Xiang) was suddenly punished, and he was inextricably linked to this young man.
News came from King Teng that Chitose demanded that no matter what method was used, this little thief blocking the way must be driven out of the capital as soon as possible. However..., this is easier said than done!
If this guy was just a Jinshi, it would be fine to send him to be a state official far away, or arrange him to the position of chief secretary with a smile. Zheng Shou was even prepared for this, but he became Yijia Tanhua!
This is beyond the control of the officials. What's even worse now is that the emperor simply said that he didn't enter a prestigious place like the Hanlin Academy, but directly joined Zhongshu as a part-time official.
Weird, so weird! How could your Majesty do this?
The series of events that happened these days confused Zheng Shou, and Han Wei, the chief minister, was also caught off guard. Everyone just watched helplessly as the emperor said nothing but was actually preparing for war.
As usual, an imperial meeting was organized at this time, and then the emperor announced that he was going to war, and reached out to the Ministry of Household Affairs to ask for money. The Ministry of Household Affairs began to cry and see-saw, while the cabinet discussed the necessity of launching a war.
But this time there was none. The emperor did not mention money at all. He only called Quan Zai in and talked for half an hour. Quan Zai left the palace relaxed and happy, as if nothing had happened.
This is so strange! Does it mean that the emperor can fight the war without spending money, or is he certain that all cabinet members will support it unanimously this time? The more Zheng Shou thought about it, the more puzzled he became.
He made an appointment with Xiangyu to meet tonight, thinking that on the one hand he would tell her about the war, and on the other hand he would ask her how much information the channels there had.
But it seemed that Xiangyu didn't know much more than he did. She only said that she knew that Qimeier Khan was going back to the grassland. Zheng Shou said no, he had to rush back to organize an army to fight with you.
Xiangyu was surprised, because as far as she knew, although Kelge sent a partial force of about 3,000 people to contain it, he actually had no intention of fighting with the Ula tribe. Why was Qimeier Khan so active?
Zheng Shou laughed and said, you girl has long hair, people are taking advantage of this opportunity!
No, the canonization edict has been issued. Qimeier Khan can use this to call on Huifa, Seyan and Luyan. It is His Majesty's big move for all the tribes in Monan to unite to fight against Kerge.
Then Zheng Shou told her that the emperor would send an envoy to Seyan to ask for the concubine for King Ding. It was probably because these words frightened the girl that she hurriedly jumped off her lap and ran away.
Hum, no matter how fierce Kerge is, he is still afraid of Monan's alliance!
The car swayed and suddenly stopped. Zheng Shou frowned but didn't move. "What's wrong?" he asked in the car.
"Sir, there is a car on the wrong side of the road from ours. The driver on the other side said that his young master wants to say hello to you and please show your respect." The boy replied in a low voice outside.
"Who is it?"
"I am bestowed upon you by the Imperial Academy to be the editor and editor of the Hanlin Academy, Mr. Zhou, who is ranked second in the new department."
Zheng Shou was stunned for a moment, then kicked the car with his feet, and then slowly raised the curtains.
The mule cart coming from the opposite direction came to a stop, and Zhou Junlan greeted him with the courtesy of a junior. Her fair face was a little pale in the moonlight, and Zheng Shou was stunned for a moment before he remembered that this guy must have been powdered.
"Congratulations to Yisheng (characterized by Zhou Junlan)
I was given the honorary title of editor and editor of the Hanlin Academy. From now on, I will be able to advance steadily and be able to show what I have learned. "Zheng Shou replied calmly and politely.
"What a blessing it is that the student and Lord Tianguan (the ancient name of the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, because there has never been a Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and the court used to believe that Zheng Shou would take over sooner or later, so many people used this title to him behind his back) met by chance!"
Zhou Junlan smiled and said, "Actually, although the student was born in Shandong and settled in the hometown of the saint, his ancestors and fathers are all from Dangyang. The student also thinks that he is of Jinghu blood."
"Oh, is it so?"
"Uh, hey, I've heard a long time ago that Mr. Lao is a leader in Jinghu and is highly regarded by scholars. I hope that students will receive more teachings and corrections from you sooner or later. I'd be very grateful!"
Seeing Zhou Junlan crossing her arms and saluting in the car, Zheng Shou secretly laughed in his heart. It turned out that this guy was here to win over his fellow countrymen. "Okay, okay, okay," he nodded with a smile:
"I didn't expect this year's First Class to be so interesting. After the champion praised his official position, he rushed into the Tongwen Hall and never showed up again. Tanhua Lang was ordered by the emperor to keep his feet on the ground. It is said that he didn't even have the time to go home and take a nap. I went to report to the Ministry of War with dark circles under my eyes.
Only you, the second best, drive around the streets and are busy paying homage to people, which is great! "
"The students don't know whether they should come to visit, and they are afraid of the inconvenience of being in a humble official position, and there is no one to guide them in the capital, so... they have to make their own decisions." Zhou Junlan seemed to be unsure whether he was praising her or sarcastic, searching for answers. word.
Zheng Shou laughed when he saw him looking like a country bumpkin: "It seems that Yisheng Guo is an honest gentleman."
This sentence was an obvious compliment. Zhou Junlan was overjoyed and quickly bowed and said:
"My nephew is like this. He has been comfortable in books since he was a child, but he doesn't know how to flatter Shangguan. He has neither the appearance of a champion nor the intelligence of Li Dan. If, if, I can get guidance from the old man, my nephew will definitely... .”
"Oh, I've said it before!" Zheng Shou was afraid that he would say something inappropriate in the street, so he quickly stopped him: "Since I am a descendant of Jinghu, I should take care of you." After a pause, he suddenly asked: "Yisheng also thinks that Li Tanhua very smart?"
Zhou Junlan lowered her lips slightly: "Not only smart, but also smart."
"Oh?" Zheng Shou laughed: "I have never heard of using these two words to describe a man."
"Humph, sir, you see, my generation, together with the two juniors of the second and third grade (the first in the second and the first in the third grade) are all Hanlin emperors, but he went to Zhongshu.
Of course, everyone has the same level, but why does he win the favor of the emperor? "He looked around and lowered his voice and said:
"My nephew heard all the rumors about him before he came to the capital, and they were all unbelievable. Now there are rumors among the same rankings that he actually won the emperor's heart early, and taking the imperial examination was just a formality."
As he spoke, he paid attention to Zheng Shou's face, and sure enough he saw a flash of light in his eyes. He quickly cupped his hands and said, "It doesn't matter if my nephew is a newcomer, the worst thing is to stay away from him.
What's scary is that the old minister will be in and out of the same palace as him, and conflicting political opinions will inevitably cause some friction. When the time comes...will your majesty take the opinions of the old minister into consideration, or will you protect a lucky person like him? The boss will know it at a glance! "
"Yisheng, you said too much!" Zheng Shou said with a dark face, lowered the curtains and kicked the car, and the carriage started to move. He was in a irritable mood and was jolted a few more times, and he couldn't help but shout angrily:
"Look at the road, are you pulling cargo?" After saying that, he felt a little regretful that he shouldn't have lost his composure. He gritted his teeth and said bitterly, "This old car is really uncomfortable! Shuboy, go tell the butler that you will be able to drive to Dongri tomorrow. Let’s order one of their new cars with side-opening doors!”
Zhou Junlan's car also started slowly. He vaguely heard the roar coming from behind, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
"Sir, he's such a big official, why do you bother to make him angry? You see, he doesn't want to hear it anymore. If you don't say the last few words, maybe you can still have a place to visit him later. It's good now, he doesn't care about it. It’s good to hate you.”
The coachman complained at the front that he didn't know how to flatter others: "Say more good words and bow more often. Isn't that what the master said before we came out?"
"What do you know?" Zhou Junlan curled her lips sarcastically. He felt there was something wrong with that Li Dan.
if
He has military merit, how can he be admitted to the top three? Even if there are people who are both civil and military in the world, they must be those who command the army and are praised for it. How can it be the other way around?
In his opinion, abnormal things in the world are monsters. This Li Dan is either a monster or a big female thief! People are afraid of the imperial power and dare not speak out, but I want to expose him.
Don't look at Mr. Zheng's dark face, but it also shows that these words have touched his heart. "Take your time, now it's just a stab in his heart, the fun is yet to come!" Zhou Junlan said to herself.
