Zhou Bangyan squeezed out a smile and said with a smile. "Master Zhuangyuan, when will the Liao envoy arrive?"
"Everyone Zhou, please be patient. After all, we are the hosts and the Liao envoy is the guest."
"Don't worry, Duke Zhuangyuan, I understand, I understand..."
Zhou Bangyan paused before speaking, and subconsciously raised his eyes to glance at his personal follower Zhou Mo, who was not far away, and the other two "personal followers" brothers Wednesday and Thursday.
Well, the names of this Wednesday and Thursday are not fake, but their "personal follower" nature is fake.
These two were the elders of the Imperial City Department, but Gao Zhang arranged for him to be his personal followers.
That uncomfortable feeling made Zhou Bangyan feel like he went to the toilet to relieve himself, and then a big living person squatted next to him and stared at him.
However, the No. 1 Scholar was so convincing that he handed over these two capable detectives from the Imperial City Division as his confidants.
In order to allow myself to safely take the Liao ambassador to Goulanguange for a blind date without having to worry about inquiring about information or testing the other party.
Because these two "confidences" would do what they should do, they could avoid letting the Liao ambassador see flaws in themselves.
It was strange that Zhou Bangyan dared to believe this, especially since Zhao Yaban, the second-ranking figure in the Imperial City Division and the sixth-grade Imperial City Division, was also among the group of servants behind Gao Zhang.
Zhou Bangyan was really frightened by his groveling and ingratiating manner when facing Gao Zhang, the champion.
After learning that there were many people from the Imperial City Division in the team welcoming the Liao envoys.
How dare Zhou Bangyan act like an elder? He even had the urge to shrink into a ball, preferably hiding under the bed.
If he were to offend this prodigy with ulterior motives, all it would take was a look.
This notorious and ruthless Imperial City Secretary will definitely make his life worse than death. No matter how famous he is in the literary and art circles, what will happen?
When I think about the coming days, not only will I be ordered around by Gao Zhang, but I will also be watched by those from the Imperial City Department.
This really made Zhou Bangyan's eyes turn red. Nima, not only would his reputation be ruined for the rest of his life, but he would also have to worry about it.
I really wish I could pull up my belt and look for a crooked-necked tree...
"Everyone Zhou, let's go..."
Gao Zhang saw a horse galloping towards him and made frequent gestures in this direction, knowing that the team that should be the Liao envoy was about to arrive.
Zhou Bangyan stood up quickly, straightened his robes with a smile on his face, and said in a respectful manner.
"Master Zhuangyuan, please first..."
#####
Gao Zhang walked slowly out of the post house and stood by the roadside. Smoke and dust were already billowing in the distance, and he was walking slowly towards this side.
This Liao envoy should be small in size, with about a hundred people.
Gradually, the team got closer and closer, and Gao Zhang finally saw the whole picture of the Liao envoy clearly.
With just one glance, Gao Zhang's eyes almost turned red. He was so awesome!
Look, there are hundreds of Liao envoys, everyone is riding a good horse, and there are several carriages in the team.
And it can be clearly seen that the horses of these people are quite tall and magnificent, probably no worse than the royal horse that the officials rewarded them.
The officials of Honglu Temple behind Gao Zhang did not have as good self-control as Gao Zhang.
They all started pointing and whispering quietly. Naturally, the topic was all about the fine horses of the Liao envoys and their costumes.
The big man at the head also looked quite fat and strong, but his clothes didn't look like Liao people at all.
The only difference is the three wisps of beard under his chin. Unlike the Song Dynasty people who preferred long beards, the Liao people preferred to trim them into a short beard style. This was considered a custom among their Khitan people.
And there are not only three small wisps of beard, but also some have a mustache, and finally there is a short beard just under the nose and between the mouth.
When I saw this Liao team, there were a few fat, muscular, shaved, armored Liao riders with beards that were very Japanese-style.
Gao Zhang curled his lips, "Well, it seems that he is very strange. It turns out that this beard style that was popular in the Japanese country has been popular in ethnic minority areas in China for more than a thousand years."
Presumably those Japanese people thought that such beards were very distinctive, so they also liked to imitate them and passed them down to later generations.
At this moment, Xiao Fengxian, who was on horseback with two dark circles under his eyes, widened his eyes in disbelief and pointed at the short figure standing by the road ahead.
"That one is Gao Zhang, the child prodigy who is responsible for receiving this envoy?"
"Reporting to the Liao Envoy, this is none other than our top scholar in Jinke of the Song Dynasty, the Prime Minister of Honglu Temple and the Prime Minister of Gaosi Temple. Next to him is the deputy envoy, Zhou Bangyan, the great music commander of Dasheng Mansion..."
Xiao Fengxian opened his eyes wide and looked at these two people, one was an old man in green robe with gray beard and hair, and the other was obviously not yet grown up, with red lips and white teeth, a handsome and delicate young man in red robe.
This made Xiao Fengxian a little confused. He never expected that the court would send such a strange combination to receive him.
Although the old and the young were far away in the Liao Kingdom, they had already heard of their reputation.
At the age of eleven, he became the number one scholar in the Song Dynasty. This was definitely an unprecedented anecdote, and even aroused a lot of discussion among the Liao Dynasty and the public.
As for Zhou Bangyan, his lyrics were also very popular among those talented people in the Liao Kingdom who liked the culture of the Song Dynasty. This naturally includes Xiao Fengxian.
However, he was sent as an envoy to the Song Dynasty by the Emperor of the Liao Dynasty in order to put pressure on the Song Ting, which currently had the military advantage, to stop its troops, and to ask the Song Ting to return the captured territory to Xixia.
For such a major military and state matter, Song Ting did not appoint one or two wily officials to deal with it.
He actually just let a newcomer to the officialdom who is young enough to be able to pinch water, and an artist whose reputation in the Goulan Pavilion circle is far greater than his official skills to deal with him.
Are you looking down on yourself, the envoy of the Liao Kingdom who rose to power thanks to your sister? Or maybe those ministers and workers of the Song Dynasty were afraid of the prestige of the Liao Dynasty and did not dare to receive him...
Just after thinking wildly, Xiao Fengxian's mount had already arrived.
Xiao Feng first jumped off his horse and strode forward, introducing himself in his relatively fluent Song Dynasty Mandarin.
"...Xiao had already heard about the name of Gao Si Cheng's prodigy number one scholar when he was in Daliao. Today he finally got to meet the real person..."
"And Mr. Zhou, when Xiao went to Goulan when he was young, he heard about Mr. Zhou's reputation and excellent works. Even now, Mr. Xiao can still hear about Mr. Zhou's new works from time to time..."
(End of chapter)
