When he was led by Cen Rubai to meet Su Ziji, he was devastated at that time. For the sake of his brothers and for himself to survive and not be hunted down, he temporarily took refuge with Su Ziji. During that time, he was actually very worried about Zeng Nianzhen.
That said, it also has some influence. After all, Su Ziji, the temporary lord, is very polite.
But what happened back then made Zeng Nianzhen still unable to let go and forget his old master, so he finally chose to say goodbye.
It's fate. If I had known that Su Ziji was the young master, Zeng Nianzhen would not have left even if he died that day.
Thinking of the parting scene that day, he felt regretful and ashamed. Looking at the young man in front of him, he felt a mixture of surprise and joy. As soon as he saw each other, he immediately fell to the ground, with tears in his eyes, and choked out: "The deputy of the Prince's Mansion team
Zeng Nianzhen, pay your respects to the young master!"
"Mr. Zeng, please get up quickly!" Su Ziji stood up and helped him up personally.
Zeng Nianzhen looked at the young man in front of him and once again regretted in his heart. When we got along before, he had felt more than once that Mr. Su looked a bit like His Highness the Crown Prince, but he did not go into it. As a result, he arrived late and failed to escort His Highness to the capital. If not,
Cen Rubai wrote a letter to him. Didn't he just make more mistakes and miss the matter directly?
"I am guilty for not recognizing you that day..." He thought and said so.
Su Ziji hurriedly comforted him: "Even I have only gradually learned about this matter in the past two years. It's human nature for you not to recognize it. Why should you blame yourself? Don't blame yourself if you don't know. If Mr. Zeng feels that he can't live with it, why don't you blame yourself?
How about just staying with me and doing things for me?"
"It's what I asked for!" Zeng Ninzhen responded immediately.
Su Ziji asked him to sit aside for a while, and then asked the prince about the current situation of his former ministers.
In fact, Cen Rubai was asked about this matter, but Cen Rubai's explanation to Su Ziji was that when the prince had an accident, most of the old officials of the East Palace were convicted. Those who were not convicted were only petty officials and family soldiers, and most of them were living in the world. In the past,
For more than ten years, although Cen Rubai has had some contact with a few of these people, the person who has the most contact with them is Zeng Nianzhen.
Hearing Su Ziji ask about the current situation of those people, Zeng Ninzhen, who had just secretly wiped his eyes, turned red again.
"My lord, the old ministers of the East Palace who were not thrown into prison back then were all low-level officials and soldiers. Most of them were looking for other ways to make a living."
"But there is still a part of me that is grateful for the kindness of the prince. Although I have not been convicted, I don't want to be an official anymore. I would rather live a simple life and live a very poor life. Some have passed away and some are still there. Their families are in dire straits. Even if I help them, they can barely do it.
maintain lifehood."
"There are three other people who were not prosecuted and convicted back then, but when they returned to their hometown, they were deliberately accused by local officials and thrown into jail. They were released only a few years ago. I was afraid that I would not be able to take care of them in my hometown, so I brought them to the vicinity of the capital again.
Easy to take care of.”
Zeng Nianzhen told them one by one. Su Ziji was moved and asked, "Do you have a list?"
"Your Majesty, before I came here, I carefully wrote down the list. Those who have been in contact with me over the years are all on it." Zeng Niazhen said, taking out a roll of paper from his arms and handing it over respectfully. Apparently, he had expected Su
Sub-registrations may have such inquiries.
Su Ziji hurriedly picked it up, started to look around, and found that there were 23 households on it, all in and around the capital. Most of them were inconspicuous people, and they should have been soldiers. Only one of the 23 people was a regular person back then.
The ninth grade is also an official.
"I will personally invite Sun Ping, the leader of the Dong Palace team." After reading this, Su Ziji let out a long sigh.
Although he had known that the trees would fall and the animals would scatter, and most of his officials would be targeted, either dead or demoted, and not many would survive until now, the small number of people still made Su Ziji's heart sink and be filled with emotion.
These are all loyal ministers, and they have all withered away.
Originally, Su Ziji had made a plan, knowing that there were not many people in the East Palace, so he wanted to display it publicly to appease the emperor's jealousy.
There is no need to worry now.
"Mr. Lu, Jian Qu, you will go on your own errands. Cen Rubai and I are going out of town."
There was an ox cart in the house, and Zeng Nianzhen worked as a cart driver. When he went out, he saw snowflakes falling in the overcast sky, and it was snowing again, and it was completely white.
It is not easy to live in the capital. Sun Ping's home is outside the city, not far from the capital, in a small village on the outskirts.
After walking for half an hour, they came across a bridge. Although it was not a single-plank bridge, an ox cart could not drive across it. Su Ziji got off the car and walked, pointing to a shrine and asked Cen Rubai: "Whose incense is this shrine?"
"It's not the main temple, it's basically the Tugong Temple!" Cen Rubai said, stepping on the slippery road: "Wei Shizu built the City God's Temple custom-made."
"Taoism and the people say that this is the spirit of someone."
"There is a special explanation on this matter. The Ministry of Rites wrote in a letter that - when building a country, it is necessary to build a high city and a deep god to protect its people. Therefore, every state, prefecture and county in the world has a city god temple, and those in the capital are called the city god in the capital."
"The God of the City God is not a human or a ghost. How can he have a so-called birthday? To celebrate his birthday, this is just substituting another thing, and it is better to remove them all."
“As for the Tu Tu Gong Temple, it is not part of the formal system and is just a fake.”
"The imperial system is full of profound meanings!" Su Zi, who had been admitted to Taixue, naturally understood that the imperial sacrifices and great sacrifices were made by heaven, earth, ancestral temples, and the state of the country, not human beings."
The central sacrifices include the sun, moon, agriculture, stars, wind, clouds, thunderstorms, mountains and rivers, etc., and the minor sacrifices are made to the gods.
It can be said that in the middle sacrifice, only emperors and ancestors are human beings, while in the small sacrifice, only gods are sacrificed, and half of them are not human beings. In the national sacrifice, very few people are sacrificed.
Is this a materialistic sacrifice?
Su Ziji didn't think about it and asked Zeng Ninzhen with a smile: "How far is it from here?"
Zeng Nianzhen smiled and pointed with his hand: "The village is to the north of Xiaolin, right at the entrance of the village. It's not far to walk there."
The three of them were walking in the snow on the river embankment. They felt that the snowflakes were blurred and the sky and the earth were blurred. Su Ziji stood in the snow, looking at the dark and gloomy forest and the man with a resolute and vicissitudes of life. After a long time, he said again: "Mr. Zeng
, I didn’t grant you the title of Lieutenant, do you have any ideas?”
Zeng Nianzhen said hurriedly: "Young Master only knows me. This is out of caution. Besides, I am the deputy of the team, and Mr. Sun Ping is the commander of the team. He should be the captain of the palace."
"That's not the reason." Su Ziji shook his head, his steps were very small, and his voice was very soft: "I don't give you the title of captain because I have something important to tell you, and only you can handle this task."
"Mr. Zeng, do you have some reputation in the world?"
Zeng Nian was really touched by Su Ziji's words. Hearing this, he felt a little embarrassed and said, "It's just a bit of a bad name."
"As a Yijian Chunhan, even I have heard that, Mr. Zeng, you are too modest." Su Ziji laughed after hearing this.
After a long time, he whispered: "The job I gave you is to raise five hundred troops overseas. The location is on an overseas island. I wonder if you are willing to take on this task?"
Raise 500 troops on overseas islands?
When Zeng Nianzhen heard about this, he seemed to realize something. This was because His Highness had learned the lesson from the Crown Prince. It was said that the army in the East Palace was actually quite large, with a thousand soldiers.
But when the imperial edict was issued, all the thousand soldiers obeyed the order and imprisoned the prince.
Even those who were loyal to the prince were of no avail and could only bend down and obey orders.
"Your Highness is going to have his own soldiers."