Oriole Line

Why never tell me this? "

Wen Tao didn't stop his actions: "It's all over anyway. After the Northern Yan invaded the South, my family members and neighbors all died in the chaos of war. I never ate dumplings on the Winter Solstice."

"What about when you were in Guangling?"

"Nanjun doesn't eat dumplings." Wen Tao talked about his loneliness at the end, as if he had sorted out his emotions, he stood up and counted, "Enough, let's cook..."

Before the word "guo" was finished, Pu Chen hugged him from behind, and he realized how little he knew about Wen Tao.Now Wentao Wentao's left hand is useless, and he can't hold a sword. Things like making dumplings should be one of the few things that he can use his left hand and enjoy.

"In the future, regardless of the winter solstice or not, you can pack as much as you want, and pack as many as you want."

Wen Tao nodded silently, with his back to Pu Chen, collecting the dumplings one by one.

"Throw this away." Pu Chen reached for the ugly dumplings he had made.

With sharp eyes and quick hands, Wen Tao grabbed his wrist and said, "Don't throw it away, it's a waste."

A quarter of an hour later, Wen Tao came with the cooked dumplings. The steaming dumplings smelled fragrant. Just as Pu Chen wanted to move his mouth, Wen Tao said to him: "There is a lucky one in this pot of dumplings. Who will eat it tonight?" Just..." Wen Tao raised his eyebrows, his eyes shifted, and he made a mouth shape that only Pu Chen could understand.

When Pu Chen saw it, his whole body went to that state of blank mind again. He quickly picked up his chopsticks and started to gobble it up.Wen Tao over there eats politely. He now uses his right hand to hold chopsticks, and his movements are still a bit unskilled.He took a bite and asked Pu Chen, "Is it delicious?"

Pu Chen stuffed two or three in his mouth, didn't taste the taste at all, and nodded indiscriminately, only wanting to eat the goodness in the dumplings.

Wen Tao shook his head helplessly, the two of them ate two plates in a short while, the lottery hadn't appeared yet, only the last plate was left.Pu Chen ate too much just now, and now his belly is full of half-chewed dumplings, which have been stuffed up to his chest.But how could he easily give up Wen Tao's rare olive branch? Just as his chopsticks reached the third plate, Tang Yu jumped in. When he saw them, he was very dissatisfied and said, "You guys are here to eat Xiaozao!"

Wen Tao explained: "It's the same as the dumplings in the house, but we made them ourselves."

"No." Tang Yu protested, "I want to taste the one made by the owner." After he finished speaking, he picked up one, Wen Tao saw it, and before he could stop it, Tang Yu had already yelled "Ouch", "What? , It’s so hard, your teeth will collapse!” He took out a round object, like a copper coin, from his mouth.

"Hey, it's the lottery..." Wen Tao was also a little annoyed, he had marked this dumpling, and put it on a plate far away from Pu Chen, originally for himself.When Pu Chen heard this, he stared at Tang Yu in a daze, his bulging cheeks were still filled with dumplings.

"The lottery?" Tang Yu was overjoyed, "What rewards do you get for getting the lottery?"

For a moment, the atmosphere among the three was a little awkward. Both Pu Chen and Wen Tao stared at the lottery in Tang Yu's hand, but they all shut up at the same time.

Tang Yu thought they didn't hear clearly, so he asked again.

Damn, I am most afraid that Tang Yu will ask this question.Pu Chen had no choice but to perfunctory: "How about giving you some money?"

Tang Yu is also a fine person. Looking at Pu Chen's expression, he knew that the Patriarch was prevaricating himself, and complained: "What kind of prize is this! Patriarch, I came with the edict of Jiankang, and I will send it to the Patriarch at night. , After eating a mouthful of your dumplings, you won the first place, and the Patriarch took a few rewards and sent it away."

When Pu Chen heard that it was Jiankang's edict, he immediately became serious, and said in a serious voice: "The edict is here to stay, and I will reward you to choose any thing in the warehouse, regardless of the value."

When Tang Yu heard "no matter the value", he was so happy from ear to ear, he handed the edict to Pu Chen, and rushed to the warehouse in a flash.

53, 53.

"What is it?" Wen Tao probed.

Pu Chen reserved half a seat for him, pulled him to his side, let Wen Tao hold one end of the imperial edict, and held the other end himself, and the two began to read together.

"New Year's banquet?" Wen Tao glanced at it and asked in doubt, "Did you have it before?"

Pu Chen pondered for a while and said: "It was a custom when the late emperor was alive. At that time, Nanjing was built, and the monarchs and ministers were united. The New Year's banquet was very lively. My father also had to go. Later, the late emperor became weaker and weaker, so he stopped for a few years. "

"If that's the case, it's not surprising that this year is His Majesty's first New Year's banquet after he ascended the throne, and he called a group of ministers. You are the chief minister among the three princes, and you have just defeated Beiyan, so you must go."

Pu Chen nodded: "I still want to take this opportunity to persuade His Majesty to make a northern expedition. Now that the Northern Yan is weak, if we don't attack now, when will we wait?"

"Then should I stay in Wuchang or..."

Before Wen Tao finished speaking, Pu Chen looked at him and said, "You, a counselor, left the Patriarch alone in Jiankang, which is full of dangers? Where's your conscience?"

Wen Tao smiled brightly and said, "Alright. I just came to reorganize your eyeliner in Jiankang."

Seeing him pretending to be serious, Pu Chen remembered the bed where they slept together for a month in the General's Mansion in Jiankang, but nothing happened, and his heart itch.Wen Tao saw Pu Chen's eyes light up, he understood instantly, knocked on him and said, "Don't think about what's missing, it's more important to make preparations. This is a New Year's feast, so it's not appropriate to bring too many personal guards into the city."

Pu Chen's distracted horse was pulled back by Wen Tao, he stared at him and sighed deliberately: "Okay, then I'll go to the study today to prepare for resettlement."

Wen Tao let out a muffled "Hmm", but his eyes fell on Tang Yu's leftover dumplings just now.Pu Chen secretly laughed, Wen Tao is like this, and he doesn't talk about what he wants.With his chopsticks, Pu Chen picked up the extremely ugly dumpling he made on the plate and said, "This is also a lottery, does what you just said still count?"

"Hey..." Before Wen Tao had time to speak, Pu Chen had already swallowed the dumpling and said, "Tao Tao, I would like to admit defeat."

"Who said your dumpling is a lucky draw?"

"No one said it doesn't count?" Pu Chen said cheekily, "Since you won the lottery, I won't go to the study today..."

Wen Tao didn't hold back, but Pu Chen kept his word. After the winter solstice, he stayed in the study well for more than ten days, prepared everything properly, and brought Wen Tao, Tang Yu, and hundreds of guards to reconcile several Che's New Year's gift went to Jiankang.

Just a few days after Pu Chen arrived in Jiankang, there was an endless stream of visiting officials.The Pu family has been powerful since Puyang, but Puyang seldom made friends with courtiers, and only had a close relationship with the late emperor Zhou Shaojun and his ministers. Not making friends with hundreds of officials also meant to make Zhou Shao feel at ease.Pu Chen is well versed in his father's way of being an official. He is now in charge of 10,000+ soldiers and horses in Wuchang. Be cautious in your words and deeds, avoid all visiting officials, and Wen Tao alone handles the matter of welcoming guests.

Wen Tao was in charge of the post of chief secretary of the General's Mansion, and had done a detailed investigation of all the officials before coming to Jiankang.All the officials couldn't see Pu Chen, but they saw that the master of the general's mansion was handsome and amazing, with a top-quality silver fox always around his neck, and saw that he advanced and retreated with a certain degree of clarity, so they didn't feel overwhelmed. Instead of being negligent, he privately gave the head of the general's mansion a nickname, "Mr. Silver Fox".It's just that Wen Tao suffered, he was not a long-sleeved and good dancer, and he was even more silent when he was a personal guard.But now that the left-handed sword is useless, he forced himself to be Pu Chen's counselor, and slowly intervened in Jiankang's government with the most unfavorable countermeasures in the past.Military generals making friends with courtiers were originally the rebels of the emperors of all dynasties, but the Pu family has been stationed in Wuchang all the year round, and has little intervention in Jiankang's government affairs.In the past, Pu Yang would bring some of the Pu family's side branches into the court as officials. After one of Pu Xuan's incidents, Pu Chen had almost no contact with the Jiankang court.

Wen Tao had been busy for a whole day, calculating the situation in his mind over and over again. When he entered the door, he didn't notice the threshold. He almost fell and was caught by a hand in time.

"Take a good look at the road." Pu Chen helped Wen Tao into the room, saw that his face was a little pale, and said angrily, "It's not a big deal, if you feel tired, you don't have to socialize. No one in the court knows, Beginning with my father, Pu Shi did not associate with courtiers."

Wen Tao sat down, drank two cups of tea in one breath and said, "I'm afraid you have forgotten the embarrassment of not being able to borrow soldiers in Wuchang?" Wen Tao glanced at Pu Chen and continued, "I know you see Not to mention these people, but they are the imperial court of Nanjing after all, when Haril was approaching the city of Wuchang, when you borrowed troops from His Majesty, if you could have a few courtiers to speak for you, you would not be so passive."

"That's not necessarily the case." Pu Chen's eyes flashed a cold light, "If there are courtiers who speak for me, His Majesty will only be more worried about me."

Wen Tao sighed lightly: "Although the northern gentry is the leader in the current imperial court, there are always pure ministers. Just like the king of Dai was able to borrow troops from you for the crime of resisting the decree, isn't it because you made friends first?" , trust each other?"

Speaking of Dai Wang, Pu Chen expressed gratitude and said, "Farewell to Wuchang, I haven't formally thanked Dai Wang yet."

While the two were talking, Tang Yutong reported: "The acting king has arrived."

"Oh? You said Cao Cao and Cao Cao will be here." Wen Tao became interested, "I was seriously injured in the last battle of Wuchang, and I didn't have time to meet this acting king. How about it, Patriarch, bring me, a little Shall I see you, Master?"

Seeing Wen Tao's enthusiastic expression, Pu Chen was inexplicably depressed, but seeing the sincerity in his eyes and the sincerity in his words, he had no choice but to say: "Okay."

In the hall, Zhou Yu was wearing a light golden brocade robe and a sable cloak