Since the children invited and selected today were all children between the ages of seven and ten, Emperor Longqing, who was always kind and kind, did not put on any airs and let a group of children stand at the foot of the steps to wait, but let them rest in the side hall first.
Gao Pragmatic didn't wear a dress today. Instead, he changed into a simple dark blue suit with an ordinary white sheepskin waistcoat over his head. Although his dress was not outstanding, he was still elegant.
At this moment, he had already greeted several other "candidates" and exchanged names with each other. They were all underage, so of course they didn't have a first name, let alone a nickname. They had to call each other "brother" proportionate.
After some greetings, Gao Jingshi found out that after Ge Shouli, Sun Gexi was the closest to him. He always said "Brother Gao" when he spoke, and his words were steady, not like a child. Next is Ma Ziqiang’s second son Ma Zhen, who is also quite close to Gao’s pragmatic attitude. However, this son seems a little reserved or not good at words. Most of the time, he is not very talkative. I don’t know if it is because it is the first time he faces such an occasion. Can't let go.
Shen Yongmao is older than Gao Jingshi and is ten years old this year. Although he is quite polite to Gao Jingshi, his expression is somewhat disdainful of such a "little brother"; Li Sicheng and Lu Xingzhou are not on good terms with Gao Jingshi. Bad, they exchanged a few greetings but had no intention of communicating more.
The most interesting people are Zhao Zuyin and Zhang Jianxiu.
Zhao Zuyin is also nine years old this year. He is the oldest among the children except Shen Yongmao, and his body is taller than the short and thin Shen Yongmao. He seems to have found confidence because of this, and he keeps sticking out his chest and belly. , with a look of looking forward to Zixiong.
Gao Pingshi looked at it and couldn't help but curl his lips inwardly and thought to himself: Your grandfather Zhao Zhenji looks after Zixiong in the cabinet. At least he has some confidence. After all, he is known as one of the "Four Great Masters in Sichuan" and has a prosperous literary reputation. In addition, he dared to fight Yan Song back then, and some of his arrogance could be considered as a result of his character, but you, a boy, have to be talented but not learned, and capable but not capable.
Li Sicheng is different. His temperament is not exactly like Li Chunfang. Li Chunfang always had a smile on his face and refused to offend anyone, even those with much lower official positions than him, he could always smile at them. I heard that just yesterday, Hai Rui probably received the news that Gao Gong had written to Cai Guoxi asking Yingtian Mansion to keep an open eye on the Songjiang land withdrawal case, so he wrote a memorial to the capital to scold the Emperor. Being so "courteous", this time he even pointed the finger at the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, saying that all men in the Manchu Dynasty were women.
At that time, Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, and Chen Yiqin all had dark faces after hearing this, but they just held back and said nothing. Zhao Zhenji looked at Li Chunfang with an angry look on his face. Li Chunfang was the chief minister. Others could keep silent, but he had to. After being stunned for a long time, he said with a wry smile: Since the whole court is full of women, I am probably an old woman.
All the ministers in the cabinet were shocked: I have seen cowards, but I have never seen anyone so cowardly. This chief minister is too cowardly.
But Li Sicheng gave Gao a pragmatic feeling, but he was not exactly the same as Li Chunfang, his grandfather. Although he also smiled when talking to others, it was not a "compensatory smile" smile, but a polite smile. If others say something that is not in line with his meaning, although he will not refute, he will never agree with him. In short, this person is probably the kind of person who has been influenced by Li Chunfang but still persists in his high pragmatic observation.
Reminiscent of Li Sicheng's later history of passing the Jinshi examination in the 26th year of Wanli with the 17th place in the second class, Gao Pragmatic felt that this person still needs to be paid attention to.
Not long after, several eunuchs came in from outside. The leader of them was Meng Chong, the number one person in the inner court and the eunuch in charge of the ceremony. And the person who was half a step behind him was no one like Yi. He was Bingbi, the Superintendent of Ceremonies, and Feng Bao, the Superintendent of the East Factory.
Because Meng Chong was recommended by Gao Gong, he had met Gao Jingshi before when Gao Gongshi entered the palace with Gao Gong. When he met Gao Gongshi now, he even nodded to him specially, and then he stood still, Gao Gongshi He said in a voice: "The emperor invites all the ministers and disciples to come to see you."
Feng Baoze continued: "Please tidy up your appearance a little, and then follow us to the audience. Remember, you must not lose etiquette before you."
For the sake of a few brats, the No. 1 and No. 2 Superintendent of Ceremonies of the Labor Department actually came in person. This shows that Emperor Longqing indeed treated this matter as a major event, and at least he gave him full face. Of course, in theory, this face must be given. Not for these children themselves.
The children arranged their appearance one after another, and then consciously walked up to Meng Chong and Feng Bao according to their elders' official positions and seniority. Meng Chong frowned when he saw Gao Jingshi walking behind Li Sicheng, as if he wanted to call Gao Jingshi to the front temporarily.
Seeing that the situation was not good, Gao pragmatically shook his head slightly at him. Meng Chong had already opened his lips slightly, but he gave up after seeing Gao pragmatically's look.
Gao Pingshi breathed a sigh of relief, but he caught a glimpse of Feng Bao twitching his nose on one side, as if snorting silently, and couldn't help but said: This is not good, it seems that Feng Bao not only despises Meng Chong, but also looks down on Meng Chong. Even if I have deep resentment, it would be very difficult for me to win over him. But... Meng Chong is really doing something bad, so blatantly, I'm afraid it's a bit too muddy to hold him up, which is a bit difficult to handle.
Fortunately, nothing else went wrong next. Everyone followed Meng Chong and Feng Bao from the side hall to the main hall of Wenhua Hall. According to the most formal etiquette, they entered without looking directly and with a slight bow.
The same was true for Gao Pragmatic, so he didn't see the specific situation in the palace.
But this problem was solved immediately, because he heard Emperor Longqing's gentle voice like the uncle next door: "Haha, all the gentlemen are here, okay, okay, don't be restrained, all raise your heads and let me see look."
When the children heard this, they each raised their heads. Long Qing looked at them carefully and said with a smile: "Okay, okay, all good."
I don’t know what aspects of his "not bad" evaluation are based on it. If we look at appearance alone, there is indeed no one here who looks completely crooked. Most of them are at least average-looking. In terms of temperament, these are After all the children are civil servants, and with their family background, they are naturally not comparable to ordinary children - at least on the surface they are always a little better.
Gao Pingshi noticed that Emperor Longqing himself was sitting on the throne of the emperor in the palace, and there were two people on his left and right hands. As usual, the one on the left is the prince. It doesn't matter. No matter how young he is, he is the crown prince and must occupy a distinguished position. On the right side of Long Qing, sat a beauty in royal attire who was only in her early twenties, with pink and phoenix eyes, willow-leaf eyebrows, and Yao nose and cherry lips.
