There were many motorcades heading towards the palace, and those who arrived early found a place to stay quietly outside the palace gate. Even if they saw acquaintances, they would just smile and nod, instead of getting together to chat.
Today is different from the usual court attendance. During the engagement ceremony, the eldest princess needs to pay homage to her ancestors, and all the guests will be witnesses together, so the beginning of the ceremony is very solemn.
The Ding family's motorcade arrived outside the palace gate under the escort of the palace guards. The imperial guards led Ding Kui to his seat in front of the palace gate, and even Ding Qi had to line up behind him.
At about seven o'clock in the morning, morning drums sounded in the palace, and two teams of imperial guards ran out of the nine-curved military road on both sides of the palace's main entrance and surrounded the square in front of the door.
Each imperial guard holds a royal flag, and each royal flag represents a king in history. Except for the founding emperor Shaodian Zong, the exclusive royal flags of successive kings of Shaodian Kingdom are all displayed.
It is said that doing this can attract the attention of the souls of past kings in the Eternal Temple, and is the first step in the ancestor worship ceremony of the Shaodian royal family.
The morning drums continued to beat, and people in the square before the drums stopped were not allowed to move around at will. At this time, the king was leading important members of the royal family to the square in front of the palace. Anyone who wanted to cause trouble was up to no good, and the guards could kill them on the spot.
Beating the drum early in the morning is a habit of the Shaodian royal family. It was a rule established by Shaodian soon after he became king. He reminded himself to wake up in the morning to be energetic and deal with state affairs. Later, he asked future generations to do the same, and no one would knock the drum.
If anyone is a lazy king, the Senate has the right to impeach him.
After about a stick of incense, the drumming finally stopped. Eight palace guards wearing brand new uniforms pushed open the main entrance of the palace, and Taiwei Shaodianhuang walked out with steady steps.
"Today, the eldest princess, Shaodian Luan, is engaged to the Lord Protector of the Kingdom. The king hereby pays tribute to the ancestors and invites everyone to come and be a witness." Shaodian Huang stood on the top step and shouted, "Now please follow me.
Enter the palace." After shouting, he looked at Ding Kui.
Ding Kui walked towards the left side of the palace gate, followed by Ding Qi, Long Yan and others; the ten Dukes headed by Yang Zhao walked towards the right side of the palace gate, followed by various nobles according to their rank.
There are two types of guests today. The first type is invited by the royal family, and the second type is invited by the Ding family. If the royal family and the Ding family invite at the same time, they are still considered invited by the royal family. The first type of guests follow Yang Zhao
On the right, the second type of guests followed Ding Kui to the left, and the order was strictly based on status.
The Ding family is considered half the owner, so they can line up in the front row on the left.
The square in front of the Assembly Hall is the largest open space in the palace, and all the major ceremonies of the Shaodian Kingdom are held here.
The square is already filled with all kinds of sacrificial items, which were obviously placed overnight last night. It would take at least several hours to place the various sacrificial items in categories, and it would be too late to put them up in the morning.
The guests were arranged on the left and right sides of the square. Since the ancestor worship ceremony took a long time, the royal family very humanely prepared seats for the guests to avoid having to stand here all morning.
After Shao Dianhuang brought the guests in, he walked into the meeting hall without waiting for them to sit down. He wanted to worship his ancestors with the king and could not sit and watch like the guests.
Shao Qing, a group of people walked out of the meeting hall in an orderly manner. King Shaodiandan, Queen Tang Qiong, Princess Tantaiyue, eldest princess Shaodianluan and prince Shaodianfeng walked in the first echelon. Taiwei Shaodianhuang led other related royal families
Members walk in the second echelon, and here are all the royal family members attending the engagement ceremony.
The Chamberlain Wang quickly ran to the foot of a high platform in the center of the square and shouted at the top of his lungs: "The sacrifice begins!"
A lengthy sacrificial ceremony began under the leadership of Shaodian Dan.
The sacrificial rituals of the Shaodian royal family are divided into big sacrifices and small sacrifices, both of which are very grand and complicated.
What we are doing today is a small sacrifice, which also has 6636 major steps. Each major step is divided into 30 small steps, for a total of 1,080 small steps.
Ding Kui, who was watching from the side, was sweating. "This is still a small ceremony. What will the big ceremony be like? Isn't it going to take a day?"
During the ceremony, the guests were still unable to speak. Ding Kui could only hold back what he wanted to ask. His eyes fell on his fiancée Shaodianluan many times, the eldest princess who was already beautiful and fragrant under the age of eighteen.
The temperament is extraordinary, and it gives off a feeling of déjà vu.
It must be her! Hehehe, don’t think I can’t see it. Hey, your eyes are turned away; oh, you just don’t look over; just keep pretending, there is no three hundred taels of silver here.
Ding Kui became more and more certain that Shaodian Luan was someone.
The sun slowly climbed to the center of the sky and sat above everyone's heads.
Shao Diandan finally led the royal family members to the high platform in the center of the square, put a densely written piece of gold paper into the hanging brazier and lit it. At this point, the entire sacrificial ceremony came to an end.
Shaodian Huang walked quickly out of the crowd, took the place of the chamberlain, and shouted loudly: "Your Majesty, your Majesty is invited to enter the palace!"
Shao Diandan smiled and nodded to the left and right until he made eye contact with each guest before walking down the stage and leading the royal family members back to the meeting hall.
After the royal family members had finished leaving, Shaodian Huang shouted again: "All guests are invited to enter the palace!"
Ding Kui and Yang Zhao, who were at the head of the queue on the left and right sides, stood up, straightened their clothes, and under the guidance of the palace guards, led their respective teams into the meeting hall.
The standing positions in the meeting hall are different from those outside, and are divided into an inner circle and an outer circle. The inner circle contains the king's immediate family members and members of the Ding family, and the outer circle contains other royal members and guests attending the ceremony.
Of course the king was sitting on his throne, while the eldest princess, Shao Dian Luan and the prince Shao Dian Feng stood obediently behind him on either side.
At this time, Shaodian Luan's eyes would glance at Ding Kui from time to time, but his eyes would never meet Ding Kui's.
Ding Kui stood solemnly under the left side of the king, his eyes watching his nose, his nose watching his mouth, his mouth watching his heart, his eyes not squinting, and he meticulously performed the standard manners a prince-in-law should have.
The Taiwei came to the main hall and saluted the king, and then said: "Your Majesty, please give a speech to the guests."
"Today is the engagement day between Gu Gu's beloved daughter and the son of the Protector of the Country. I'm very happy..." Shaodian Dan spoke eloquently and officially for more than ten minutes, and finally said, "Let the engagement ceremony officially begin."
First, Ding Qi wrote a memorial to thank the king for his grace, praised the eldest princess for her beauty and virtuousness, and presented the betrothal gifts one by one in public.
Betrothal to the eldest princess is the top priority of the man in this ceremony. Any words of thanks are empty, and the betrothal gift prepared for the eldest princess is real. The value of the betrothal gift represents the importance the man attaches to the eldest princess. The more
Nobility means that the more you value the eldest princess, the more grateful you are for the king's grace.
The first betrothal gift of the Ding family shocked the guests. It was not the "Cat's Eye Fire Diamond" as speculated by the outside world, but the "Ice Orchid Spirit Root" produced in the Far North Icefield. This kind of heaven and earth spiritual creature is also very rare in the Far North Icefield.
, sometimes even one cannot be found for hundreds of years, so it is considered a rare treasure.
Shaodian Dan had received the news a long time ago and was not surprised by this. The ten Dukes except Long Dang and Jiang Li were all moved. What surprised them was not how precious the "Ice Orchid Spiritual Root" was, but how deep the Ding family's secrets were.
Without revealing it, plus the well-known "Cat's Eye Fire Diamond" and the Void Crane Feather transferred from Yang, the Ding family spent more than four million gold coins on the eldest princess.
Among the betrothal gifts given to princesses by the top ten dukes in the past, the value of four million gold coins was ranked at the forefront. The down-and-out Ding family could actually come up with such a large sum. Excluding the income from mahjong tiles a while ago, it is no small matter.
.
The other little nobles were all amazed. Four million gold coins were more than the savings of most families. This "Ice Orchid Spirit Root" alone could be a family treasure.
As expected, the next step was the "Cat's Eye Fire Diamond". After careful consideration and Ding Qi's urging, Ding Kui reluctantly took out this diamond as a betrothal gift.
Then there is a piece of "feather armor", which was made by the famous craftsman Shen Tie Gao. The craftsmanship cost alone is estimated to be less than 100,000.
It’s not that the gifts offered at the end were not valuable, but they couldn’t be compared with the previous three. Even without the latter, Shaodiandan was still happy inside. Of course, on the surface, the king remained calm, with a reserved smile hanging on his lips.
The eldest princess, Shaodian Luan, rolled her eyes when the "Cat's Eye Fire Diamond" was served, but she was not that concerned about Yu Jia.
The second step of the engagement ceremony is for the man and woman to formally salute each other. Generally, the two people getting engaged do not know each other until this step, and it is considered the first time they have met.
Ding Kui walked to the center of the hall at a snail's pace, keeping his eyes fixed on the eldest princess who walked out from behind the king; the eldest princess walked out with her head lowered, and only raised her head to look directly at Ding Kui when she came to his side.
"Ding Kui has met the eldest princess." Ding Kui bowed and said.
Shao Dianluan put his hands on his lower abdomen, leaned forward slightly, and said, "Brother Laoding."
This is the standard etiquette among nobles in the Shenyuan Continent. The princess has a higher rank, which is equivalent to accepting an audience from Ding Kui.
"How are you?" Ding Kui added softly.
Shaodian Luan raised his eyebrows, but did not answer. He lowered his head and slowly returned behind the king.
"You are still pretending to be with me. Let's see how I deal with you in the future." Ding Kui looked at Shao Dian Luan's back and his teeth itched with hatred. He didn't expect her to give such a reaction.
The third step is the return gift from the royal family, which means that the princess is satisfied with the choice of consort, and the royal family agrees with the Ding family's proposal of marriage.
According to convention, the royal family's return gift should be more expensive than the man's betrothal gift, unless the man is a prince or prince of a kingdom, but this time it was beyond everyone's expectation. The total value of the return gift prepared by the royal family for the Ding family was only two million gold coins, less than
Half of the betrothal gift.
There is an explanation for the royal family in the aristocratic ceremony, which is that the royal family believes that the princess who is getting married is deeply loved by the king, and marrying her to the consort is countless times more valuable than any other gift.
"How did I end up with such a stingy father-in-law?" Ding Kui screamed in his stomach that he was at a disadvantage.