In the early morning, Wei Chen got up as usual to practice Daoyin, then boxed and drew a bow to strengthen his muscles and bones.
After a whole set of movements, heat was steaming all over his body, and his close-fitting clothes were soaked with hot sweat, outlining Wei Chen's burly and straight shoulders and back.
After the New Year, Wei Chen will be eighteen years old. Over the years, he has eaten well and drank well. Not only has he grown strong, he has also grown taller.
From the perspective of his previous life, Wei Chen is now about 1.85 meters tall, less than half a head taller than Gu Tingye.
After practicing for about an hour, the sun came out, and the golden morning light spread all over the Wei family's backyard.
Wei Chen took the sweat towel handed over by Yuan An and wiped his sweat. He went back to his room and scrubbed himself. Then he changed into the official uniform he was wearing and got on the carriage and left the house.
When passing the gate of Sheng Mansion, Wei Chen just opened the curtain and looked at it silently, without instructing the driver to stop.
In order to rush home to reunite with his family yesterday, Wei Chen asked his entourage to report to Xuandemen for him.
This is no longer in line with the rules.
It's just that the imperial court understands the hardship of foreign officials serving in the local area, so it generally does not pursue them.
Today is the triennial pilgrimage for foreign officials. The emperor will give a banquet to the officials in the Jianji Hall in the palace.
On such an important occasion, if Wei Chen continues to delay due to personal matters, it will be unreasonable. At least he will be cited by the censor, and Zhao Zhen will also have objections.
Therefore, no matter how eager Wei Chen was to see his fiancée, he had to go to the palace first and finish the Hajj banquet.
Wei Chen's carriage did not stop at the entrance of Sheng Mansion, but left Jiying Lane and walked slowly along Nanxunmen Street.
Drive all the way to the majestic Xuande Gate, which is the main entrance of the imperial city and the only way to enter the imperial city.
When Wei Chen arrived, many officials who came to the banquet had gathered outside Xuande Gate.
There were more than 3,000 Beijing officials and more than 30,000 foreign officials in the Great Zhou Dynasty. During this Hajj, in addition to some local officials who had to stay behind, there were seven to eight thousand foreign officials entering Beijing.
For many officials with low official positions in remote areas, this may be the only opportunity in their lives to go to Beijing to meet the saint, so they cherish it very much.
During Zhao Zhen's reign, his administration tended to be lenient. Even if there were foreign officials with poor performance evaluations, Zhao Zhen would usually give them verbal orders or fine them a few months' salary. He would not dismiss hundreds of people from their posts like he did during the Hajj inspection at the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Therefore, the officials went to the banquet in a very relaxed and happy mood. They walked together on the way into the palace, chatting and laughing. If they met a long-lost old friend, they would happily hold each other and talk.
Wei Chen got off the carriage in the square outside Xuande Gate, stepped forward and showed the official documents to the imperial guards guarding the gate. He quickly entered the palace through the Youye Gate smoothly, and then went straight to the place where the Hajj Banquet was held. Go to Jianji Palace.
The banquets given by the palace are divided into two categories: large banquets and medium banquets. Among the large banquets, the most solemn ones are Suburban Sacrifice, Zhengdan (New Year's Day), Winter Solstice, and Wanshou (the emperor's birthday).
As for today's Hajj banquet, it only reached the level of the mid-level banquet, and was far inferior to these major banquets.
Of course, this was a banquet given by the emperor after all. Even if it was just the middle banquet, hundreds of tables were set up, which could not be accommodated in the huge Jianji Hall.
Most officials had to sit outside the palace, and only officials at the level of governor and governor could sit on the upper seats inside the palace.
Wei Chen, a fifth-rank magistrate of the state, could call the shots in Yuzhou, but here he was not qualified to enter the palace and sit with the real frontier officials.
However, after all, Wei Chen ranked first in the performance evaluation of Henan officials. Guanglu Temple, which was responsible for arranging official seats, still arranged Wei Chen near the Jianji Hall, second only to the top seats in the hall.
After arriving at the square outside Jianji Hall, Wei Chen found his seat under the guidance of Guanglu Temple officials.
Before taking his seat, he glanced at the officials already sitting at the table. His eyes lit up and he said in surprise: "Ze Cheng, Boyong, you are here too!"
It turned out that the people sitting at the table with Wei Chen this time were Wei Chen's old friends, Sheng Changbai and Wang Yaochen.
When Wang Yaochen saw Wei Chen coming, he immediately stood up and bowed his hands towards Wei Chen and said: "Congratulations to Wei Zhizhou. He is ranked first in the Gyeonggi area. Today he will be praised by the emperor. On the day when Wei Zhizhou is prosperous, don't forget to support your younger brother!"
Wei Chen smiled hurriedly and returned the courtesy: "Bo Yong is joking. The so-called Zhizhou sounds powerful, but in fact he is just a people-friendly official. Zhizhou has to worry about all the big and small things in a state, and he also has to smile at all the superiors. , how can it compare to the noble status of you and Zicheng in the Hanlin Academy?"
Wang Yaochen couldn't help but raise his lips slightly when he heard this.
Of course he knew that Wei Chen was being self-effacing. How could Wei Chen, a magistrate, be comparable to ordinary magistrates?
However, what Wei Chen said really scratched his itch.
Generally speaking, after three years of training, Shujishi will be dismissed and awarded officials. Some will be appointed as Hanlin reviewers, some will be appointed as censors, and the rest will be assigned to the six departments as directors.
Of course, those with outstanding performance among common people can also be awarded officials in advance.
And Sheng Changbai and Wang Yaochen are the best among the common people in Tianyou's sixth year.
In June this year, the two of them were awarded the title of seventh-grade Hanlin editor, catching up with Li Zuochang and Cai Xuan, who were ranked second in the same subject.
Now, although Wei Chen is from the fifth rank of Zhizhou, and his rank is higher than Sheng Changbai and Wang Yaochen, but in terms of gold content, he may not be as good as them, the seventh rank.
After all, they serve as Hanlin editors. They are not only Beijing officials, but also the most noble Hanlin officials among Beijing officials.
Theoretically, a Beijing official at the same level is generally two levels higher than a local official, while a Hanlin official is almost one level higher than a Beijing official.
After such a calculation, the grades of Sheng Changbai and Wang Yaochen are almost as high as those of Wei Chen.
To be honest, when he was first awarded the title of Hanlin editor, Wang Yaochen was still a little proud.
Although he and Wei Chen are good friends, he has always regarded Wei Chen as the target of his pursuit. Now he finally sees the hope of catching up with Wei Chen.
However, this hope lasted for less than five months and was quickly dashed.
Ever since he learned that Wei Chen was promoted to the top official in Henan Province and was called to the capital, Wang Yaochen clearly realized that Wei Chen was about to be promoted again, and he was still far away from catching up with him.
Thinking of this, Wang Yaochen couldn't help but look at Wei Chen with melancholy, even a bit resentful.
How did Wei Chen know that Wang Yaochen had so many mental activities? After chatting with him for a few words, he turned to look at Sheng Changbai, who was sitting silently aside, and saluted with a smile: "Brother, I haven't seen you in a few years, how are you doing lately?"
Sheng Changbai glanced sideways at Wei Chen and said indifferently: "Who is your brother-in-law? Wei Zhizhou is a very powerful person now. How can our little Sheng family be worthy of marrying you!"
Wei Chen was slightly startled when he saw Sheng Changbai's angry expression, and immediately realized that Bo Lan was blaming me for not visiting immediately after I came back, and was angry with me!
He then explained with a wry smile: "Zecheng, the state is busy with official affairs and cannot be separated from people for a moment. It took a lot of effort during the handover, so the departure date was missed.
I hurriedly hurriedly and slowly arrived at the city I entered yesterday afternoon. After returning to Bianjing, you have to go back to your hometown to meet the teacher first, right?
After dinner with the teacher, it was getting dark. It's late at night and it's hard to come to your house to disturb you.
The next day is the Hajj banquet again. As you know, as a summoned foreign official, I have to come. I really can’t get away from this and this... "
