Picturesque Rivers and Mountains in the Red Chamber

Chapter 147 3.54 A good relationship between the king and his ministers

Volume Three

3.54 A good relationship between the king and his ministers

The next morning, still in the open space in front of the high platform, only about half a hundred candidates were left standing in groups, excitedly discussing around their prey. Although there was a ranking, as long as they could still be left, There are definitely benefits. As for everyone's ranking, you can almost understand it just by looking at the prey he has in front of him now.

"Brothers, this is..." Looking at the six large prey in front of him, and each prey had a powerful arrow in the front of the head, and other than that there were no wounds, Zhou Yang was a little confused, "How to divide it among the younger brothers? So much? The elder brothers have their own hardships, why should the younger brother be like this?"

"Hahaha, brother Zhou is joking, what's yours is yours, can we still snatch it away?" Niu Ben smiled and patted his shoulder. What he said was not entirely untrue, at least the prey shot by Zhou Yang, Doubling the number is not an exaggeration. "Among all the people in this area now, you are the one who preys the most. I congratulate you in advance, brother!"

"I would also like to thank the elder brothers for their help yesterday. Otherwise, I would not have the manpower to transport these beasts." Everyone carried the sedan chair. Since we are already in first place, we don't need to worry about the little "problems". "Look at what you have gained, elder brothers. Naturally, your Majesty’s praise is indispensable today!”

Well, this group of prince's sons also "harvested" quite a lot. Each one of them had at least two large prey items in front of them, piled together with a large number of pheasants, wild ducks and the like. It really looked eye-catching, even if it was Shi Meng, who didn't care the least, also looked at Zhou Yang with a grateful look at this moment.

"The emperor is here—" talking and laughing, fighting and fighting, dragging on until the time of the day, watching the guard of honor on the central stand, and matching Dai Quan's eunuch's voice with a long voice, everyone around is silent They lined up in order, and when everyone was ready, Emperor Yonghe happened to come out of the back tent and take his seat.

What’s interesting is that, probably because it was not an official court meeting, when the curtain behind Emperor Yonghe swayed, a figure faintly appeared. Although he didn’t say who it was, everyone in the audience could guess it. He must have been treating the emperor like a guest for more than ten years. The queen of the country also came to watch the ceremony during this spring hunt, which was not a secret in the camp.

"Hahaha, all the gentlemen are in peace!" After some procedures, Emperor Yonghe got up and stood at the front edge of the stand and said to the ministers below, "Although there are some things in the spring hunting that make me very dissatisfied, the result is not bad. A group of young talents have performed well in their own way, and they have given me hope for the future of our Great Zhou Tianbing!"

"I congratulate Your Majesty!" The generals immediately cheered.

"I congratulate Your Majesty!" The civil servants expressed their grievances.

In fact, all the civil and military leaders here today are not stupid, and they all see the moisture of the prey. If nothing else, the "harvest" of the personnel of each "detachment" is obviously too average. At a glance, you can tell that there are " They are suspected of "sharing the pork", but yesterday's riding and shooting has screened out most of the people who are pretending to be fake, and the remaining people are just ranking, so there is no need to be picky.

"Niu Aiqing, how did everyone perform during this spring hunting?" Emperor Yonghe asked with a smile.

"Your Majesty, the person with the best performance this time is Zhou Yang from Daxing County. He is also No. 15 in the second list of this year's martial arts exam." Niu Jizong immediately came out to answer, "The rest of the people have their own performances, but they are not as good as Zhou Yang. Jinshi and Weichen have listed their rankings, please check them!"

Dai Quan immediately came down, took the memorial from Niu Jizong, and quickly walked to Emperor Yonghe and handed it over. After looking through it for a while, the emperor nodded with satisfaction. It was still moist, but not excessive. At least six princes None of the disciples were in the top five, but they were all in the top twenty. It was obviously "arranged".

"Top ten - come forward!" Seeing Emperor Yonghe nodding, Dai Quan immediately went to the next step according to the procedure - well, in fact, it is the same in ancient and modern times, the show does not distinguish between time periods - Zhou Yang, who has been notified, will be the Spring Festival The leader of the hunt took the lead and walked to the stand with the nine people behind him, "Wei ministers (caomin) see your majesty!"

"Zhou Yang, right? Come up here!" Originally, according to the procedure, Emperor Yonghe only needed to say a few words of encouragement and give some "rewards" to finish the work. Unexpectedly, he did not follow the routine and changed the operation. " Dai Quan, please pass on the rewards I have prepared to all the heroes - dear friends, this is strange, isn't it? Why do I treat Zhou Aiqing so favorably?"

"I don't dare!" In any case, since the boss has expressed his doubts, the subordinates must express their opinions no matter what.

"Bring it up!" Emperor Yonghe nodded to Dai Quan, and soon Zhou Yang's three weapons, namely the sword given by the Supreme Emperor, the six-foot-six-breaking horse sword and the jade-waisted bow, were brought to the stand for display, " My dear friends, I only found out yesterday that Zhou Aiqing has such abilities, just like this horse-breaking sword that looks heavy, but you may not realize the weight - Zhou Aiqing, tell me!" "Back to Your Majesty, This sword is close to twenty kilograms. It was given to me by my father-in-law when I returned from south to Jinling with the Xuezihao caravan!" Zhou Yang bowed and replied, and the audience was shocked with just a few words, "According to what my father-in-law said , this sword was made by the skilled craftsmen he hired to mix fine iron with black iron, it can be called the best of the world!"

"Seriously, Zhou Jinshi? Such a big sword really weighs twenty pounds?" What everyone didn't expect was that when the curtains in the backstage were shaking, the queen actually came out in person, so that the accompanying maids and eunuchs didn't even react. He hurriedly came out to set up the guard of honor, and everyone in the audience followed suit and saluted, "I have heard that a strong man with a strength of one hundred kilograms uses only three kilograms of weapons.

If this big sword really weighs twenty kilograms, Zhou Jinshi Shao said it would have to have more than five hundred kilograms of strength to use it normally. Today is the imperial court's spring hunting. If you have the guts to lie here, your majesty will forgive you. You, I will also persuade His Majesty to punish you severely! "

"I don't dare!" Zhou Yang raised his eyes and felt his eyes light up. The queen looked like she was in her thirties, but her appearance was that of someone in her twenties, and she was over 1.7 meters tall. Although because of the age of this era, The clothes were generally loose and it was hard to tell what his figure was, but the mature charm exuding from his body was extremely lethal to anyone of the opposite sex, forcing him to quickly turn his eyes to the ground.

"Hahaha, I guess you all have doubts?" As soon as Emperor Yonghe spoke, everyone realized that this was an opportunity he deliberately gave Zhou Yang, "Zhou Jinshi, you might as well explain it and show it by the way, so as not to let others know. Say, what is the bias of my grace!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Zhou Yang quickly bowed and saluted, and then said, "Although I don't dare to boast, my strength of a thousand catties is still no problem. I don't dare to be like the fierce generals in ancient times who can carry a cauldron with only twenty Weichen asked himself, "There is no problem with a long soldier weighing a kilogram, not to mention that this is what Weichen is used to when struggling with strength."

"Can you lift a thousand pounds?" Emperor Yonghe was also slightly surprised, "Okay, I will give you this opportunity - someone, bring the incense burner from the back tent!"

Dai Quan immediately called a few eunuchs into the back tent. He heard shouts from behind the curtain. Six strong eunuchs carried a bronze incense burner to the stage. It could be seen that these eunuchs had given their best. In just a dozen short steps, everyone's forehead was sweating.

"If Zhou Jinshi regrets it now, he might as well ask Your Majesty to admit his mistake. Although his fame will definitely not be saved, his life will be fine." Seeing the eunuchs put down the incense burner, Dai Quan persuaded with "kindness".

"Thank you for your advice, father-in-law." Zhou Yang smiled and bowed, "But in front of His Majesty, I don't have the guts to talk nonsense - thank you for your hard work, father-in-law!"

I saw him striding to the side of the incense burner and taking a look first. It was a three-legged bronze furnace. The whole was beautifully cast, and the various relief patterns all showed its preciousness. It must have been specially cast for the use of the emperor and empress. Others If anyone dares to use it, it is arrogance; after weighing it for a while, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It seems to be at most seven or eight hundred kilograms, no problem. In that case——

"Drink!" Zhou Yang grabbed the two furnace legs with all his strength and shouted loudly with all his strength. He saw the bronze furnace instantly lift off the ground, rise rapidly under his huge force, and finally lift it above his head; He didn't just put it down, but amidst the exclamations, he just stepped into the open back tent, and soon there was a dull landing sound.

"Okay, okay!" Emperor Yonghe laughed loudly, losing all his usual restraint, "Zhou Jinshi has lived up to my grace. I have such a strong man in Zhou Dynasty, so why worry about the lack of strong heavenly soldiers!"

"Please forgive me for overstepping my bounds. I just saw how hard it was for my father-in-law to carry it, so I couldn't bear it and sent it to the back tent privately!" Zhou Yang quickly knelt down to apologize. Not everyone could enter the place where the emperor lived!

"Get up, Zhou Aiqing was in a hurry, what's the crime!" Emperor Yonghe was very satisfied with his advance and retreat, "Go down, I believe that the imperial court has talents and will give you a suitable position to serve you!"

"Thank you for your grace!" Zhou Yang bowed again and slowly backed away.

"Wait a minute!" Just when everyone thought the matter was over, Emperor Yonghe suddenly stopped him, took off a jade pendant from his waist and threw it into his hand, "I see you have good looks, but you don't even have a sachet jade pendant." If you don’t take it with you, what does it look like—just take it and play with it!”

"Kowtow to thank Heaven!" Zhou Yang could only kneel down and salute again.

Here he has a good relationship between the king and his ministers, but he has blinded all the important civil and military ministers below!
(End of this chapter)