Chronicle of Emperor Jing

The seventh year of Tianxi, the first month.

"Master Hou, what do you think of this golden Buddha? If Lord Hou likes it, the price is negotiable." The owner of Caishizhai welcomed Wei Yan into the warehouse inside, and walked to a golden Buddha covered with red silk. Pulling back the red silk, she signaled him to step forward and take a closer look, "I don't dare to lie to Lord Hou. This golden Buddha was originally prepared by Prince An for his father's [-]th birthday, but it was useless because of something. It can be used in Beijing." There are not many rich and noble families with this golden Buddha, so they have to put it in the warehouse to collect dust."

This golden Buddha is a Maitreya Buddha statue, about seven feet high, cast of red gold, with excellent craftsmanship, and the Buddha's brilliance is bright and dazzling at a glance, obviously it is not ordinary.

Wei Yan walked around the Buddha statue a few times before standing up with his hands behind his back. After pondering for a long time, he finally shook his head.

Today he came to buy the emperor's birthday gift for the Longevity Festival.

The emperor returned to the court at the end of last year. After the three-year-old courtiers came back, besides being busy with reuniting with their long-lost relatives, they also had to go back to their respective yamen to report on their duties. As well as various celebrations and banquets year after year, everything is cumbersome and complicated.

Wei Yan was overwhelmed by all kinds of trifles, until now, with only ten days left before the Longevity Festival, he found time to buy a birthday present for the emperor.

If he had been in Beijing in previous years, he would have sent someone early to get ready.Now it's this time, and the family couldn't find anything suitable for a while, so he had no choice but to visit Caishizhai, the largest treasure store in the capital, to see if there was anything he could get his hands on. Treasures.

The Buddha statue shown to Wei Yan by the owner of Caishizhai is not bad. After so many years, no one cares about it, and it can only be placed in the warehouse to collect dust, but there is a reason.Wei Yan also knew the reason for this.

The birthday gifts prepared by Prince An for his old man are suspected of being over the limit for other people's households. Besides, Wang An's branch was demoted due to the "rebellion against the king", and many aristocratic families in Beijing probably do not want to touch this bad luck. The idea is inside, so this golden Buddha has not been able to make a move until now.

If you buy it and present it to the emperor, the worry of exceeding the limit is gone, but... Wei Yan looked at the golden Buddha in front of him. The tribute must be very eye-catching, and he turned to think of his father's earnest teaching to the two brothers after they became marquises. After thinking twice, he still gave up this idea.

The owner of Caishizhai is engaged in this precious business and deals with rich and powerful families, so the news is naturally very well-informed. He knows that the Hou Ye who came today is in the thick of his family, and because he wants to buy tributes, he must find some real top-grade ones. From the very beginning, he had planned to let the golden Buddha go today.

At this time, seeing that Wei Yan didn't like him, he immediately became 12 full of energy, his tongue was shining like a lotus flower, and he said a thousand kinds of good things, and he must make Wei Yan change his mind.

"Master Hou, since there is nothing good here, why don't you change to another one?" Zhao Shizhao, the guard who was following Wei Yan, saw that he was having a headache when he was told, so he offered to help him out of the siege very considerately, and by the way, gave him a cold glance. The owner of Caishizhai glanced at him.

"No, no, since Lord Hou doesn't like this golden Buddha, there are still many treasures in this shop, so I'll take the young one to see Lord Hou right away." The owner of Caishizhai was glared at by guard Zhao, and wiped his forehead With invisible cold sweat on his face, he turned the conversation sensibly and took Wei Yan to see something else.

After thousands of selections, Wei Yan finally settled on a screen.This is a single-leaf screen, with red sandalwood as the bone, and a picture of a dragon and a phoenix showing good fortune inlaid with jade. It is not the best. In the eyes of experts, it can at most get a good evaluation, but Wei Yan wants it now. The only thing is that this effect is not lost.

After making a decision, he looked at it and felt that something was missing, so he discussed with the owner of the Caishizhai for a while, and finally decided to use good red coral to inlay the words "Longevity without Borders" on the screen.

Caishizhai is engaged in this business, and there are many skilled craftsmen in the shop. They quickly agreed on where to inlay, how to inlay, and what specifications of red coral to use. It was only when the price was finally priced that they discovered that the entire screen had not been inlaid with these four characters. The red coral is precious.

After making an appointment with Caishizhai to pick up the goods in ten days, Wei Yan put aside one of his concerns, and walked around before going back to the house.

Although Wei Yan is now a Marquis, he still lives in his parents' house.

His eldest brother, Wei Ze, was brave and good at fighting in the battle of Yuncheng. After the war, when the emperor awarded the heroes, he was granted the title of "Marquis of Loyalty". The establishment of the government.

Wei Yan has been with him for the past three years, and his main responsibility is to be in charge of the emperor's security and defense. He tried in vain to use the death of the emperor to attack the morale of the front army and turn the tide of the battle.

The emperor's safety cannot be compromised, and his responsibility can be said to be the top priority.

The members of the Guards Battalion led by him had defeated these infiltrating barbarian bandits many times, and of course they were indispensable when the emperor rewarded them for their meritorious deeds.

After the emperor's class teacher returned to the court, everyone in the guard camp was rewarded generously, and Wei Yan was named "Marquis of Yongning" because of this, and was promoted to the deputy commander of the guard camp. .

The emperor's reward for Wei Yan was not insignificant. The strange thing is that after the emperor ennobled Wei Yan, he didn't give him a house to open a mansion, and he didn't know if he forgot or did it on purpose.After the members of the Wei family received the imperial decree, they studied for a long time, but they couldn't figure out the emperor's intention.

If the emperor forgets, the Wei family can naturally buy their own house for Wei Yan to open a mansion, but if the emperor does it on purpose, if they act against the emperor's will, it will be very bad.

Although Old Marquis Wei has resigned from office, this title can still be passed on to his descendants, so counting the title of Old Marquis Wei, the Wei family now has a family of three princes, and the other generations also have their own official positions, which can be called an honor. to the extreme.

However, it is never too much to plan for a rainy day. Old Master Wei thought about this unreasonable reward for a long time, and finally decided that it is better to be still than to move. It is better to be cautious before finding out the emperor's intention.

The Wei family is so powerful now, although it is the emperor's intentional cultivation and promotion over the years, it is just a moment of time, I am afraid that the Wei family is so powerful now, it will make the emperor think otherwise.Moreover, the eldest son will lead the army after the next year. Military power is no more than other powers, and it is easy to violate the taboo of the emperor.

Although the youngest son was favored by the imperial court, there were various unspeakable difficulties in the origin of this favor. Besides, the youngest son is now in his thirties, and this favor may not last for a few days.

Thinking of this, Old Master Wei earnestly taught everyone in the family that from now on, they must be more cautious in their actions, and they must not show off in everything. The strategy for longevity is to keep a low profile. Of course, the servants in the mansion must be strictly controlled , must not let them use the name of the master's family to cause trouble outside.

Now that the old father had spoken, Wei Yan naturally continued to stay in his parents' house obediently.

With Wei Yan's temperament, everything in the house is taken care of, and there is nothing wrong with being able to nest comfortably. Besides, he actually lives in the palace more than at home, so even if the emperor doesn't He didn't have much idea about granting a house to open a mansion.

Others, however, don't think so.Since he didn't open a mansion after he was conferred a title, people would always have other ideas. In addition, Wei Yan's hearing is good, so he heard a lot of things he didn't want to hear. A tribute, but also be careful.

If this birthday gift is too thick, he will be criticized, and if it is too thin, he will be criticized. How can he not lose it will test his ability.

Fortunately, in the past three years, he had to take care of many things by himself, and he experienced a lot of business affairs alone, which made Wei Yan improve a little bit in terms of human relations, so he tried his best to get this matter done.

After Emperor Jing returned to the court, he was entangled in political affairs. In addition, during the few years he was away, Wei Yan acted more and more steadily, and he was very capable of bluffing outsiders, so that it took a long time for him to discover Wei Yan's strangeness.

After all, there is no essential difference between prudence and prudence, and following the rules. If it weren't for the person next to him, if it wasn't for Wei Yan in front of him, and he couldn't pretend to be one thing on the surface and another thing behind the scenes, he would probably be deceived for a longer time Woolen cloth.

Wei Yan is willing to act prudently outside, and use his straw head to think a few times before doing things. Emperor Jing welcomes such good deeds.But Ruo Wei Yan became more stable in front of him, he had to think twice before saying anything, and was careful in everything he did, for fear that he would accidentally offend his taboo, which would make him extremely unhappy.

To be honest, during the three years in Yuncheng, he spent all his time thinking and planning military and political affairs, which was very hard work.But at that time, foreign enemies were in front, and barbarians often broke into Yuncheng. Wei Yan was busy patrolling and defending, so he didn't have time to fight with him. When the royal family is away, all the ceremonies are kept simple, it is difficult to achieve strict isolation, and it is very inconvenient to be intimate. In addition, the barbarian bandits come to make trouble from time to time, so everything is even more busy, often half done, because Wei Yan finds someone approaching and hastily settles the matter , but Emperor Jing felt that this day was more comfortable than ever.

However, as soon as he returned to the capital, everything seemed to be back to the past.No, worse than before.At least in the past, Wei Yan wouldn't think about it before speaking, and he wouldn't pretend to be okay when he was clearly full of thoughts, and he was so wary of him to this point.

"Wei Yan, I'm not a roundworm in your stomach. I can't guess what you're thinking. You have something on your mind to tell me, do you understand?" Emperor Jing couldn't think of what he did to make Wei Yan so afraid , I am really helpless for him like this.He couldn't bear to beat this person, and couldn't bear to scold him, so he could only coax him to speak.

"I'm fine." Wei Yan leaned against the emperor's chest, trying to prevaricate.

How can he tell the emperor what he is worried about?Did he want to ask the emperor if he was afraid of his Wei family's excessive power, so he didn't order him to open the mansion after he was ennobled?

This kind of question, unless the person who asked it was really kicked in the head by a donkey, otherwise, no one would ask it.