The people of the Liao people actually asked the people of the Song Dynasty about life and death plans. It was the most ridiculous thing in the world. For a while, Chen Ke couldn't figure out whether it was a trap or whether the Khitan people should eat brain fragments.
However, it was impossible for him to give an answer on the spot, so he excused himself to think about it for a few days before letting Xiao Feng know.
Xiao Feng was not in a hurry, so he stood up and said goodbye: "Since the melons and plums are in the fields, Xiao Wang won't bother you anymore." He said with a sincere face: "I just ask the bachelor, no matter what, don't leak this matter?"
"..." In an instant, Chen Ke was about to think that this was a trap against him, but when he thought about it, he couldn't help but burst out laughing. Who is he? How could the Khitans sacrifice a prince to stage a trap? What's more?
Queen Xiao will also be implicated.
While pondering, Xiao Feng lowered his voice and said: "The queen said that the bachelor will definitely agree."
"..." Chen Ke could only smile bitterly.
After Xiao Feng left, Chen Ke ordered people to count the gifts according to the gift list, and prepared to seal them up and hand them over to the department for disposal.
After taking inventory, I found that the Khitan people's gifts were extremely valuable. The furs of precious animals, pearls, wild ginseng, gold, silver, and jade articles were all worth roughly tens of thousands of dollars.
"Queen Khitan is so generous!" Liu Yue'e was shocked and said, "But for writing a poem, you can reward me this much?"
"How come I heard that the Khitan people have always been rogues," the younger sister said, "always using worthless things in exchange for gifts worth a hundred times the value of the Song Dynasty? This time, the reward that the third brother received was much higher than the gift from the court.
.I’m afraid someone will gossip again.”
Chen Ke was a little absent-minded, his eyes wandering among several gifts. Liu Yue'e's eyes were sharp. She immediately noticed that the items he was looking at were the Red Covered Knees, the White Jade Zhang, the Jade Unicorn, and the Dream Bear Picture. These items were mixed in the pile of gifts.
It's inconspicuous. Maybe only those with evil intentions will notice it.
"Scare, this Liao envoy is so careless." Yue'e said, "He actually mixed the congratulatory gift given to the queen into the gift given to you."
But only Liu Yue'e believes this. The first few things are easy to say, but the last thing is the same. The picture of the dream bear painted by Queen Xiao herself cannot be a mistake. Although the picture is of King Wen's dream bear, it seems that there is a mistake.
Seeking talents is like thirsting for talents.
However, among the Han people, "mengxiong" has long been interpreted as "a sign of meeting a good person". Instead, it means "congratulations on giving birth to a child"...
"Did the people in Liao misunderstood the rumors and thought that the third brother also..." The younger sister blushed and said, "It's Zhang's happiness?"
Chen Ke finally calmed down, but he was in a state of turmoil. He was secretly cursing Empress Xiao who had brought disaster to the country and the people. When something like this happened, she didn't try her best to hide it. Instead, she was sent to send Zhang, Lin, and others to fly away.
Xiong, I’m afraid the world doesn’t know about the untold story between the Queen of Liao and the Number One Scholar of Song Dynasty?
But then I thought about it. This matter is too unbelievable. Even if I confess to others, I will be laughed at as a lunatic. So the most appropriate way to deal with it is to do nothing...
"Let her do it." After making up his mind, Chen Ke regained his composure: "Anyway, it will be decided by the court. Why should we care about it?"
"That's right," Liu Yue'e said, "hurry up and pack up and go, we're going to be late."
"Oh..." Chen Ke was stunned for a moment. Then he remembered that there was a banquet to attend, so he said to his younger sister: "Don't forget to write a note for me and send it to me as soon as possible." After that, he followed A Cai to the inner room.
Change clothes.
The two grew up together since childhood, and Chen Ke's choice of words and handwriting could be mistaken for real by the younger sister. Therefore, when Chen Ke wanted to be lazy, he asked her to write memorials for him.
The younger sister looked at his back, frowned slightly, and then gently shook her head.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In such a big country, even if there is a holiday, it is impossible for everyone to have a rest, and there are still officials on duty. Perhaps during the Chinese New Year, there are very few memorials, so only one day later, there is an edict.
Zhao Zhen's personal approval was: 'Since it is a reward, just accept it. Remember to write a letter to thank the Queen of Liao, and then take some money to thank the envoy of Liao. Don't let people say that I, the number one scholar of the Song Dynasty, do not understand the rules.'
Chen Ke didn't know why, thinking that the emperor was testing himself, so he wrote another rebuke.
Zhao Zhen soon received another comment from Zhu: "The body of a great country must not be weakened by itself. It should be accepted and made unpredictable."
Only then did Chen Ke understand what Zhao Zhen meant.
The Liao envoy returned to his country the next day. In addition to the normal return gifts, Zhao Zhen gave him some more rewards, the value of which was exactly equal to the share given to him by Empress Xiao. Only then did Chen Ke know how to handle affairs between countries appropriately.
.
Fortunately, this little turmoil finally passed without incident, and no one investigated the meaning behind those gifts.
This made Chen Ke finally let go of his worries, and the family happily celebrated the Yuan Dynasty.
Although it is approaching the end of the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival is the real climax. It is really a carnival funded by the imperial court and celebrated by everyone.
Its long history can be traced back to the Jianlong period. At that time, Emperor Taizu climbed to the Xuandemen Gate Tower and saw the bright lights in Bianjing City, and the flutes and drums were playing. He asked the minister beside him, Li Fang: "How do the characters here compare with those of the Five Dynasties?
?”
Li Fang replied: "The people are prosperous, which is several times more prosperous than in the Five Dynasties."
This answer made Zhao Kuangyin secretly happy, and he came up with the idea of borrowing Shangyuan to light up lanterns and celebrate. So on the first day of the fifth year of Qiande, on the grounds that the rice was abundant and there were many things to do, he specially ordered the Kaifeng Mansion to be in Shangyuan.
During the festival, two nights were held on the 18th and 19th nights, so that the people could enjoy themselves. Since then, the five-day Shangyuan carnival has become a common practice.
At this time, the people of the Song Dynasty would be as enthusiastic as a volcano, fragrant mist, colorful mountains, beauties, Liniang, every lamp, brocade tents everywhere, bright flower market, eye-catching golden lotus, such as
Cars flowing on the water and horses swimming around made up the carnival that lasted for five nights. Its lively and prosperous scene is difficult to compare with the joyful celebrations of any dynasty.
From the fifteenth to the nineteenth of the first lunar month, from dusk to dawn, people go to the streets to enjoy the lanterns and have fun. The lanterns in various shapes are like the stars in the sky turned to the ground, twinkling and shining everywhere, which is very exciting.
It's like being in the Milky Way.
Among these lanterns with unique shapes and characteristics, the most eye-catching ones are naturally the big lanterns made by shops and the government, but there are more numerous lanterns carefully crafted by the common people. It is this sea of lanterns that everyone is drawn to.
With more efforts, citizens will have more sense of participation and love this carnival even more.
Various lantern scenes gather together in one place, and its highest achievement is 'Dengshan', also known as 'Aoshan'. This year's Aoshan is 16 feet high and 360 steps wide. There are two Ao pillars in the middle, 20 feet long.
Five feet, two golden dragons are wrapped around the pillars. A lamp is lit in each dragon's mouth, which is called the double dragon holding the light. It is lit at night, and two giant dragons are entangled in Bianjing City. It is amazing and spectacular.
Under the illumination of the sea of lanterns, the city becomes a nightless sky, and the citizens can enjoy the carnival. The performers all over the world are willing to perform their special plays on the night of the Lantern Festival, because this is the time when the audience is the largest and it is easiest to become famous.
Ten thousand.
In the past, Chen Ke had only seen the name of such stunts as swallowing an iron sword with a double-edged edge, spitting five-color water from the mouth, jumping fish into the sword door, summoning bees and butterflies, and chasing ants. In the past, Chen Ke had only seen the name in "Menghualu".
Unless you see it with your own eyes, you can never imagine its true appearance.
For example, the "fish jumping through the knife gate" uses sound to stimulate the fish to jump high out of the water and jump over the knife gate.
The 'calling bees and butterflies' is even more magical. A piece of silk is overlapped and cut into bees and butterflies. The bees and butterflies fly away with the scissors, either gathering on the viewer's clothes, or gathering on the beauty's hairpin.
This scene delighted the spectators, and naturally they were flooded with rewards.
In addition to these miraculous skills, more citizens entertained themselves on the Lantern Festival, such as rowing land boats, lion dances, pretending to be gods and ghosts, and playing tricks on monks... There are no taboos on the Lantern Festival, and even high-ranking officials will be used by the citizens.
tease.
For example, Chen Ke and the others heard with their own ears that someone was making fun of Bao Zheng, the former governor of Kaifeng. Amidst the noise of silk and bamboo, a woman in Tsing Yi sobbed: "Bao Heizi, you are an egg! What do you care about the grievances of our three daughters?"
?'
A big man with his face blackened and wearing an official robe said in a rough voice: 'You bitch, please understand that I have a black face but my heart is not black. If you have any grievances, just tell them directly and don't call me an egg.'
"The wind is tight, the rain is cold, the sky has no eyes, and my heart is broken. My life is the most miserable in the world. The bastard left my three wives. He, he, he, he found the east bed of a high family..." Woman
Sing.
‘How abominable is this thing? Tell me its name. I’ll chop it up and feed it to the dogs!’ the big man sang.
'Don't, don't, don't, even if he's at fault, he can't be killed. Why don't you beat him, Lao Bao, but don't beat him too hard. Although I hate him, I miss him even more...'
‘Ouch, let out a long sigh, I’m so embarrassed to accuse you...’
Chen Ke never expected that he actually listened to the original version of "The Case of the Beauty". Although the singing, reading, and beating were incomparable to those of later generations, the characters in it were more like human beings, and he couldn't help but feel very happy listening to it.
But the next moment, he stopped laughing. He only heard the audience shouting with indignation: "Tell me, what is that man's name?"
"My husband's surname is Chen," the woman said timidly, "I dare not mention my name."
"What is it?"
"He is the top scholar in the new department!"
Chen Ke's face immediately turned green. When Bao Zheng was the governor of Kaifeng, there was only one number one scholar - his surname was Chen Ke and his courtesy name was Zhong Fang!
Liu Yue'e raised her eyebrows and was about to have an attack, but she was held back by her younger sister, who said in a low voice: "Today is the Lantern Festival where there are no taboos."
"Then we can't let them do the dirty work!" Liu Yue'e waved her hand, threw the little girl away, and strode to the stage. She was extremely tall and beautiful, and as soon as she entered the stage, she made the actors in vulgar costumes stand out.
It pales in comparison. (To be continued)
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