Give you a spring

Today is the twelfth day of the first lunar month, just after the beginning of spring, and the temperature is still very low. The soldier Chen Jing ran on the road, his high-tipped hair was probably combed too hastily, a few strands slipped and stuck to his cheeks, and were flushed red by the strong wind. Panic was written all over his face.

He finally ran to the gate of the city, his military uniform was not neatly put on, although he was a bit embarrassed, but he didn't care too much, Chen Jing stood next to a person, and pulled out the messy clothes.

"First day on duty?" The person next to him noticed that the armor on his body was very new and asked casually.

"That's right...nearly missed," Chen Jing panted, "I heard that there were a lot of people entering the city a few days ago, but there are not so many people now."

"Everyone chooses to enter the city on the fifth and sixth day of the lunar new year." Last year, the situation was not good. Daqi suffered two floods and one drought. Everyone simply ended their vacation early and went to the city to earn money.

The man glanced at Chen Jing, and said calmly, "You've caught up with the good times."

Chen Jing sneered, and prevaricated, "Everyone is the same." Then he asked, "My name is Chen Jing, how dare I ask the elder brother's name?"

"Guan Yue."

"Oh...Brother Guan," Chen Jing chewed these two words in his heart, and wanted to say a few more words to him. A rooster crowed in the distance like a needle piercing his ear, and the drowsy man guarding the city gate The soldiers woke up suddenly, the people on the high places on both sides waved their arms, the drumsticks hit the drum surface, and the deafening drum sounded three times.

"Every moment—"

He roared at the top of his voice.

"The city gate is open—!"

Linjing City is the first capital of Daqi, with a huge flow of people every day. It is not only the place where the emperor lives, but also the place where all currencies are circulated and merchants trade the most.Therefore, whether it is to make money or to go sightseeing, ordinary people want to come in to see the bustling scene.This also leads to cumbersome inspections when entering the city-soldiers not only need to look at the pass of the people, but also record the purpose and frequency of each visitor. If they bring a large amount of goods to Beijing, they need to have further documents. to pass.

Although the number of people entering the city has been greatly reduced now, there are still quite a lot of them. After a few cups of tea, Chen Jing broke out in a sweat.

Turning sideways to let an old man pass by, Chen Jing glanced behind him from the corner of his eye, and saw a small tent was set up there at some point, with a small stool inside, and Guan Yue happened to be sitting in it leisurely, much more comfortable than him.

"Why are you there?" Chen Jing held the documents in his hand, paused for a while before asking in surprise, "Why don't you come over and check the pass together?"

Guan Yue didn't answer him, Chen Jing looked around again, fearing that people would find out that the other party was being lazy, he stuffed the pass back into the hands of the people in front of him, and strode towards Guan Yue just as he was about to speak out to dissuade him, but his eyes fell on the other party .

The strides she took were stopped abruptly.

——It was only then that I noticed that the opponent was not wearing his armor for guarding the city gate, but... an official uniform.

The workmanship is extremely exquisite, and the official uniforms of the six departments in the Daqi Dynasty have different colors, and the style is determined by the level of the official position.And Guan Yue is dressed in deep purple, which is obviously the representative color of the Ministry of Industry. Looking at the pattern drawn with gold lines... it is obviously above the fifth rank.

"I'll wait for someone." Seeing him frozen in place, Guan Yue guessed what was going on, and explained.

"Wait someone?"

"Yes," Guan Yue turned his head to look at the Lou Ke next to him, got up and walked to the right side of the city gate, looking at the intersection.

Chen Jing's gaze closely followed him, but after half an hour passed, there was no movement at the big intersection that was only for carriages.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead, and was about to say something, when a horseshoe sounded just right——

Guan Yue raised the corner of his mouth, "Here we come."

Lao Zhao is 40 years old this year. Ji Guan came to Ancheng to take part in the imperial examination with a full stomach of poems that year.After failing the exam, he didn't choose to return to his hometown, but stayed in Lin'an City and taught others in a private school.

Twenty-one years later, the young man of that year has turned into an old man with gray sideburns. He quit his job in a private school and now works as a storyteller in a teahouse.

——What I want to talk about today is the matter between the First Prince and the Second Prince.

It shouldn't be said about the affairs in the palace, but he has always mixed the truth and the false, adding a few words to the established facts, isn't it a big deal?

Old Zhao made a good excuse for himself, and when the chopping board was put down, there were more than a dozen listeners in front of him, and he said loudly, "You know that the crown prince has been suspended for several years, right? The eldest prince Xie Shi and the second prince Xie Lianzheng are all robbed The hottest candidate for the Lord of the Eastern Palace."

"Hot candidate," laughed one of the audience standing on the outermost edge. Emperor Chongdi had only given birth to two sons in total. If it wasn't for these two, who else would compete?It seems that there are still a few princes in front, but something happened, and they all died at the age of five or six.

Speaking of the two princes, the eldest prince was born to Concubine Ning. At the beginning, his mother's family had no influence.And Xie Shi was talented in both literature and martial arts, and he was very favored after completing the errands assigned to him by Emperor Chong.But probably to avoid suspicion, Xie Shi seldom participated in the banquets held by the officials, plus his calm personality, he usually stayed in the mansion except when going to court or discussing business with other officials.

The second prince is the queen's adopted son, and the biological mother is said to be a crazy concubine in the cold palace. Because the queen has been childless for decades, seeing the child being left in the cold palace is pitiful, so she hugs her to raise her.He is different from his elder brother Xie Shi, Xie Lianzheng made friends with many officials, and his family has many counselors. He usually has a casual style, does not care about trivial matters, and is very good at interpersonal relationships.

"Last year when the southern Hunan was flooded, His Majesty sent the Second Prince to help the disaster. Do you know why?"

Old Zhao took a sip of tea, looked around at the people in front of him, put down his teacup lightly, and was about to continue, when someone interrupted him, "Before that, the Yuzhou Drought Sect was the eldest prince. When he passed by, wouldn't the two weighing weights that were involved with each other be pressed to one side?"

As soon as the voice fell, someone retorted, "No, the drought was very serious. At the beginning, the local officials refused to report it, and then the refugees rioted. I remember that the eldest prince solved it very well. The emperor treated him very well. I appreciate it. The second prince has no experience in such things, so instead of sending him there, it is better to let the first prince who has solved the problem once, and the people will have confidence in him, so the matter will be simpler?"

"Is this the only thing you consider as His Majesty?"

Everyone was discussing enthusiastically, and Lao Zhao was not in a hurry. He looked at the noisy audience opposite him with a smile, and when everyone was tired of discussing, he straightened up and approached the table, pretending to be mysterious and authentic, "Last August, there was The daughter of a third-rank official died tragically at home, this matter...do you know?"

As soon as this remark came out, there was an uproar.

"Is there such a thing? Why haven't I heard of it, which official is it?"

"The news has been suppressed?"

"There is a relative in my family who works as an official in the government. It seems that he told me about this..."

"Wait," someone scolded in a low voice amidst the noise, looked at the leisurely old Zhao at the front, and asked sharply and vigilantly, "This should be a secret inside the palace, how do you know?"

Old Zhao reassured, "I also heard about this matter from hearsay, everyone just listen to it. It is said that the official's daughter...was raped and killed in the house. The traces of abuse, from the neck to the ankle, were cut a dozen times, and the room was full of blood."

"So cruel... Has the murderer been caught?"

"I was arrested on the third day after the incident," Lao Zhao smiled indistinctly, "He is the son of an official in the household department, the name is not important, the key is...he is on good terms with the eldest prince... ...."

Someone immediately asked, "Isn't the First Prince rarely going out for personal relationships, and he doesn't have many friends in the court?"

"He said no, you believe it?" Lao Zhao sneered and shook his head, "The officialdom is a deep pool of water, and the deeper you go, the more quagmire will become. If you are not careful, you will fall down and can no longer move forward. Courtiers It is a vine that can be grasped when moving forward, no matter how proud a person is, he will want to make more friends and save his life in times of crisis. Although the eldest prince is openly not forming cliques for personal gain, in fact he still has a few cronies."

"Is that official among them?"

"Yes, that man went to the First Prince for help after his son's accident, hoping to save his son from death. I don't know what the two talked about. The next day the First Prince went to plead with His Majesty, but after all, it was the daughter of a third-rank official who died. , and their family is also very powerful, because of this matter, the Eldest Prince...had conflicts with His Majesty."

"That's why His Majesty didn't let the First Prince go during the flood in southern Hunan, in order to warn him not to mess around again?" someone asked.

Lao Zhao didn't answer, he always told the story only seven points - the follow-up of various reasons depends on the listener to complete it by himself.

Ordinary people, everyone is usually busy making money to live. These things happen to people who have nothing to do with them and have never met them.

However, at this moment, a voice passed through the whispers of the crowd, and got into Old Zhao's ears at an inappropriate time.

"The two princes have been fighting for four or five years. It's not a solution to stay in such a stalemate. In the end, they are forced to be anxious. It's hard to say that they won't unite..."

The voice suddenly disappeared, and the man covered his mouth as if realizing that he had said something terrible.

Old Zhao leaned back on the back of the chair, thinking, so don't we need a new person to hold these two hungry tigers...

At the gate of the city, a carriage slowly drove in.

Chen Jing still stood where he was, without much expression on his face, but his frowning betrayed him, and his eyes couldn't be moved away as if they were glued to the carriage.

He stared at the carriage thoughtfully - the appearance was very simple, without much decoration, but if an official could wait early in the morning before the city gate opened, the people inside must be either rich or noble.

Guan Yue walked half a meter in front of the carriage, turned his head and looked at the driver in front of him, he was wearing a hat, he couldn't see his face clearly, he was wearing a dark blue dress, which outlined his well-proportioned and strong figure.

"Have you reached the city gate yet?"

Someone asked in the carriage, it was very soft, and it was a tone that made people feel comfortable.

"Well," replied the driver.

The hanging car window was brushed open, and he took a step forward to block the appearance of the person inside, bowed slightly and saluted, and spit out two words, "Your Highness."

——Although he deliberately lowered his voice, Chen Jing was not deaf, the word fell lightly in his ears like a feather, and then turned into a thousand pieces of gold and weighed on his heart.

It turned out to be a prince.

He stood there blankly. As far as he knew, the eldest prince and the second prince hadn't left the city recently, so this is...

Chen Jing began to wonder why he didn't just ask for leave today and not come.

The conversation between the two before was still going on.

"you are?"

"My name is Guan Yue, and I work in the Ministry of Industry. Guan Shan, the Zhonglang of the Ministry of War, is my father."

"Oh……"

The people in the car responded, generally officials will let their sons take over their shifts, it will be more convenient to do things like this, and it will be easier to get a position.However, this man "rebels" to the Ministry of Industry, which is quite different from the Ministry of War, and he doesn't know what kind of trouble he had with his family back then.

The people in the car thought it was interesting, raised the arm that opened the curtain, the prince leaned out of the car window, and looked at the respectful Guan Yue below with a pair of eyes probing. My name is Xie Xu, and Pingwei is my name."

"Um."

"Just now you said you were in the Ministry of Industry?"

"Correct."

"It's surprising that someone from the Ministry of Industry will come over," Ping Wei thought it would be someone from the Ministry of Rites at first.

"The Ministry of Rites has been busy working on the Lantern Festival in three days' time, and there is no manpower to come," Guan Yue seemed to know what he was thinking, and said, "His Majesty ordered that this year's Lantern Festival be celebrated, except for guessing lantern riddles and giving rewards in previous years. In addition to the lanterns, fireworks and juggling are also arranged, and His Highness will be able to climb up to the moon-watching platform and have a glimpse of the elegance of Linjing."

Guan Yue wanted to show Ping Wei the ten-meter-high moon-watching platform, but remembered that he couldn't see it at the gate of the city, so he smiled awkwardly.

Ping Wei is very face-saving, "I will definitely be there when the time comes, let's go to another courtyard first."

He put down the curtain, Guan Yue turned around and looked behind him, and asked Chen Jing, "Do you need to see the passport and official documents?"

Chen Jing took the pass handed over by the "coach driver", nodded and said, "The three of you can go."

"Thank you," Guan Yue walked past him, loosened the rope of the horse that had been parked by the side of the road for a long time, and rode up to lead the carriage.

The driver whipped the horse in front of him, and the carriage immediately moved.Chen Jing stood on the side of the road and watched them leave, he didn't want the covered car curtain to be lifted again, and he could clearly see the people inside——

Very young, at most 25 or [-] years old, with excellent facial features, and a pair of eyes that seem to have a variety of styles, just a casual glance over them can touch your heart.

Chen Jing was stunned and stood there motionless.

This dazed look made the prince laugh uncontrollably.

——like a paintbrush stained with heavy ink suddenly dropped into the water, the gorgeous colors are mixed together in just the right proportion, forming an indescribable but thrilling beauty.

"Thank you."

The prince put down his words lightly, and the carriage drove away.

Afterwards, Chen Jing saw each other several times, but he always remembered the astonishment when he first met. That kind of beauty did not contain any sexuality, but it was extremely aggressive. It was deeply rooted in his memory, and it was unforgettable. ....