Chinese New Year

Chapter 647: Congratulations (Part )

"Tick-tock!" The sound of water dripping from the copper kettle at night is urging people.

The night clock has not yet reached ten o'clock, and it is almost time for morning celebration.

The servants were busy running back and forth, making various preparations.

Inside the Guanfeng main hall, bells and chimes were displayed one by one, and the musicians had already taken their positions.

In the square outside the main hall, braziers and torches were lined up everywhere, lighting up the night as bright as day.

There are two shallow trenches outside the square, and the bottom of the trench is paved with stone slabs and blue bricks. That is the foundation of the palace wall.

A tall gate tower has been built in the middle of the south city wall, facing the Guanfeng Main Hall in the distance.

There are large, vigorous characters on the gate tower: "Guanfeng Gate".

This was written by Yang Chen, the right Sima of the shogunate.

As one of the more famous calligraphers of the Qing dynasty, Yang Chen was very happy to write inscriptions for the gates of the Bianliang Palace, Imperial City and Outer City.

Outside the Guanfeng Gate, officials had already arrived in twos and threes. There were officials from the General's Mansion and the State of Liang, as well as representatives of prefectures, counties, and towns who had come from all over the place.

The Palace Secretary Cai Cheng ordered the guards to build several straw huts to provide temporary shelter for the officials from the wind and cold.

However, there were limited straw huts, and only a few high-ranking staff members and generals could sit in them, such as Wang Yan, the left army commander, and Lu Zhi, the right army commander who came from Luoyang, as well as Liang Xiang Yu Chen, Imperial Censor Pan Tao, and Shangshu Ling Pei Miao.

The middle and low-level officials could only wait outside the open space.

They passed the time by breathing heavily and stamping their feet, chatting and making small talk.

Some people even stretched their heads to look inside.

The Liang Palace is still rather shabby.

The palace city had no walls, only a solitary gate tower. The courtyards and squares inside the gate were not paved with bricks, but only slightly leveled. There were no silk lanterns, and no ribbons hung everywhere. In short, it was nothing like the magnificent palace city in Luoyang.

But no one dared to look down on Liang Palace.

Compared to the palace city of Luoyang, the Liang Palace was the real power center of the world. No matter how dilapidated and shabby it was, the orders it issued were more effective than those in Luoyang.

"The Guanfeng Hall is the main hall of the Liang Palace, where affairs are managed. Where does its name come from?" someone asked in the cold night before dawn.

"From the Book of Rites, 'Order the master to recite poems to observe the customs of the people'. It is said to understand the people's sentiments and the gains and losses of government policies." The person who spoke glanced at the person asking the question with a smile, as if to say that he was not well-trained and had not read all the books.

The man blushed and stopped talking.

"If the Guanfeng Hall is indeed the main hall, it covers a very large area. It includes the main hall, side halls, front hall, back hall, pavilions, towers, gardens, pools and mountains. It can almost be called a palace." Someone else sighed.

Generally speaking, a "palace" is larger than a "hall", and the palace is often associated with a city, called a "palace city".

But sometimes the hall is larger than the palace, especially when the hall is the main hall and includes a series of ancillary buildings - gardens, pools, pavilions, platforms, towers, chambers, halls, courtyards, etc., can all be ancillary buildings of the hall.

This is the Guanfeng Hall.

Next to the planned main hall is the Lichun Terrace named by Liang Gong himself. After taking care of government affairs, it is a wonderful place to go up to the terrace to enjoy the spring scenery and cultivate one's temperament.

Opposite the Lichun Terrace is the Secret Pavilion, which houses a collection of books that can be read at any time.

There are also two garden pavilions and several small ponds transformed from swamps, where you can fish and plant flowers when you are tired.

A very tall building will be built on the back wall of the Guanfeng Hall, overlooking the entire city. When the ruler of the world climbs this building, he will feel proud and have great ambitions, which can be said to be inspiring.

The Huangnu Palace, located to the northwest of the Guanfeng Palace, is smaller. If nothing unexpected happens, it is the residence of some of the family members of Duke Liang. The overall structure is mainly low-rise single-story palaces, but there are also a few landscape buildings.

It is rumored that Queen Hui Yang lived in Huangnu Palace, but no one can confirm it.

Madam Yu lived with Duke Liang in the Guanfeng Palace.

This place was originally an office space, not a place for people to live, but the palace was not yet completed, so they had to make do with it for now. Of course, there may be other reasons, but that is not something that outsiders should know.

"Cock-a-doodle-doo—" A rooster crowed loudly in the military camp near the Liang Palace.

Uh, this is not telling time, it's just supplies sent by Chenliu County to the garrison troops.

The ancients believed that the crowing of a rooster heralded the dawn. In fact, this is not quite accurate. Many times, the roosters crowed in the middle of the night and no one knew what was happening.

The officials and generals gathered outside the Guanfeng Palace stopped whispering and looked serious.

Inside the Guanfeng Hall, the attendant Yang Man looked at the time: it was less than seven o'clock in the morning.

So he ordered the city gates to be opened.

The Palace Secretary Cai Cheng personally led more than a hundred soldiers to the Guanfeng Gate. The soldiers on duty outside the gate made way, and the officers were divided into two rows according to their status, the lower officials in front and the higher officials in the back, and passed through the Guanfeng Gate, which had not yet been installed as a city gate, and stood in the square.

The morning congratulations ceremony has not officially begun yet.

Cai Cheng then led the Prime Minister, the Chief Censor, the Military Commander and others to the side halls on both sides to rest for a while, and served them tea and snacks.

Yu Chen looked at the middle and lower-ranking officers standing outside in the cold wind, and a strong sense of satisfaction arose spontaneously. Thinking of the difficulties in the past, his eyes were moist.

It's not easy, it's really not easy.

Although the State of Liang was small, it already had the atmosphere of a proper imperial court. The Yu family of Yingchuan had spent almost all their family assets, and finally got a reward after working so hard. Thinking back to when I married my daughter, I was ridiculed by so many people in secret - others might not dare to say it to my face, but it was inevitable to spread rumors in private, perhaps out of contempt for Lord Liang, or perhaps out of jealousy of the Yu family.

I got through it slowly.

At this point, few people talked about it in private, at least not in Yingchuan.

As for other counties outside Yingchuan, Yu Chen just thought those people were jealous.

If you have the ability, your daughter can become Liang Gong's wife? If you don't have the ability, just shut up. Do you really think I can't deal with you?
While drinking tea, Imperial Censor Pan Tao recalled the strategy of building a fort to protect themselves that he had proposed when the relationship between Shao Xun and Sima Yue began to crack.

Without the three forts in the Luoshui River Valley, there would be no original Silver Spear Army.

Without the Silver Spear Army, Lord Liang would have to rely on conscripting young men to fight like most military leaders, and the outcome of the war would be hard to predict.

Oh, it was also his suggestion to plunder the Xuchang arsenal.

To be honest, I didn't think too much about it at the beginning. It was just because Sima Yue ran back to Xuzhou, and Luoyang was in chaos, so we needed to support a military leader to stabilize the situation.

The subsequent developments were beyond his expectations. However, he had always maintained close contact with Liang Gong and had a good relationship with Wang Yan. It was a little unexpected but reasonable that he had come to this point.

Wang Yanze and Lu Zhi talked and laughed in low voices.

The two men's military advisors Wen Qiao, Bian Dun, Zu Ying, and Lu Qiu Chong also came in, but there were no seats, so they had to stand.

Lu Zhi was not in a very good mood and did not want to say much. But Wang Deng was too talkative and polite. He flattered Lu Zhi repeatedly with his status as a famous scholar, which made Lu Zhi smile more and slowly responded.

Wen Qiao looked around bored.

The job of military advisor is not difficult, and he always handles it perfectly.

Lord Liang was amazed after seeing his works and thought that they were of great talent, which made Wen Qiao's fame grow day by day.

Well, everything is good, except that the money is a little less.

After his wife passed away, he thought about marrying again, but he had no money. He could only sell his belongings.

When I followed Liu Bingzhou, I got a lot of good things. Let’s add them together - well, it may not be enough. I will go to gamble for a chance to make up for it after the new year.

Speaking of Liu Kun, he also received the news recently, which came in a roundabout way from Jizhou.

After winning over 30,000 Hu and Han civilians, Kun's military power was greatly boosted, so he marched south to Shangdang, but was unexpectedly defeated by Liu Yao.

Liu Kun was not convinced, so he fought again a year ago and was defeated again.

In addition, Jinyang did not have much reserves, and it could not afford to support nearly 200,000 people who came at once.

Therefore, under the dual influence of food shortage and military defeat, these newly-attached people scattered, most of them went to other places in Jizhou and Bingzhou, and some even returned to Tuoba Dai Kingdom, leaving a huge group.

As for why he returned to Tuoba Dai Kingdom, there was a reason for that.

First of all, Tuoba Pugen died. He died just over a month after taking the throne. It was said that he had an acute illness, but who knows what the real situation was.

After Pugen died, his wife Wei became regent and made her son Shisheng the successor ruler.

Shisheng is said to be very talented, but he is too young, still a child. I don’t know if he can sit firmly on the throne and be harmed by others again.

In such a situation where an orphan and a widow were in power, do you think Daiguo would send troops to rescue Liu Kun? Impossible.

The only one who can save Liu Kun now is Lord Liang, and he may not even be able to reach him.

Moreover, Wen Qiao doubted whether Lord Liang was willing to save Liu Kun.

According to his observation, Liu Gong was actually ambitious and not a loyal subject. He was now acting as a lone loyal subject out of helplessness.

When the Liang troops entered Jinyang, it was hard to say what would become of Lord Liu, so he had to think of a way to turn the situation around, just in case.

There was a sound of footsteps outside the side hall, and it seemed that a lot of people had arrived.

Wang Yan, who was speaking, stopped.

Bian Dun went out of the palace to inquire about it, and came back to report: "Before the fifth hour of the night, Yuan Chong, the imperial coachman, and his servants and assistants arrived."

Wang Yan nodded slightly.

The State of Liang did not have a Grand Herald, so it could only let the Minister of Coachmen Yuan Chong take over temporarily to preside over the morning congratulations ceremony.

Yuan Shi of Yangxia has a profound family background and is very proficient in these etiquette matters, so it is very suitable for him to take charge of them.

After his conversation was interrupted, Wang Yan felt a little sleepy.

I’m old, and I can’t bear getting up too early.

So he took off his shoes and took a nap on the couch.

He waited for five quarters of an hour, until the moment before the hour of dawn, when the official in the palace called him softly. He then stood up and stood in the courtyard.

When the time is up, Lord Liang slowly appears on the stage.

(There is another chapter in the evening, brothers, please give me your monthly tickets, kill!)
(End of this chapter)