Chapter 173: Imperial Court Annual Banquet, Killing the Japanese

On the night of the New Year.

Because Wei Shuyi and others knew that Wei Yuan was going to have a drink with his comrades from Daizhou.

So they did not come.

As for the New Year, no matter whether it was the nobles or the peddlers, it was nothing more than eating, drinking and having fun, so I will not go into details.

On the third day of the New Year, the emperor held a banquet in the palace and invited all the officials in Beijing and their families.

The Sheng family was also among them.

This banquet alone would cost at least hundreds of thousands or even two hundred thousand taels of silver, which was a fixed expense of the court every year.

Ministers above the third rank and envoys from various countries were almost all in the Daqing Hall.

And their families were in the Shengping Tower on the left side of the Daqing Hall.

Officials from the fifth to fourth ranks, including Lin Zhaoyuan and other military generals who held important positions in the army, had a banquet in the Jiying Hall on the right side of the Daqing Hall, accompanied by several favored princes.

As for the rest of the officials and even their families, they could only eat a buffet outside the hall.

Fortunately, fireworks, firecrackers, troupe performances and other lively things are all outside the palace.

Sometimes, the queen would personally bring people to the palace to eat buffets, just to watch the performances.

Moreover, there are very beautiful lanterns in the attics, pavilions, and corridors, and there are music in many places.

Compared with the palace, there is nothing else except some dancers playing music.

At midnight, there is a large concert outside the palace, and the emperor will take all officials to watch it.

It was the first time for Wei Yuan to attend the court's annual banquet. He entered the Daqing Palace with Zhang Fu, Gu Yankai and others.

At the same time, Zhang Guifen had been guarding outside the palace, looking left and right as if waiting for someone.

It happened that Rong Feiyan came over and asked:

"Why doesn't sister Zhang go in?"

Zhang Guifen said: "You go first, I'm waiting for Minglan."

Rong Feiyan nodded, "Or, I will wait with my sister?"

Zhang Guifen shook her head.

Rong Feiyan said again: "Then sister, please come quickly. The song and dance troupe invited by the palace has arrived. I plan to order a Feiyan dance. Sister, come and see."

There is a song and dance troupe in the palace, but in order to make it more lively, a more famous folk troupe was specially invited.

Those dignitaries who want to order songs need to pay for it out of their own pockets.

Previously, the emperor wanted to pay for the ministers, but at that time a minister said that the ministers should also ask for a good start, so the link of the dignitaries ordering plays became a tradition of the court's annual banquet.

Zhang Guifen nodded and said: "Please order Mulan to join the army for her father. Let someone send the money to you tomorrow."

The price of ordering a song and dance is about a thousand taels of silver.

It can be seen that the luxurious life of the dignitaries in the court is really incomprehensible to ordinary people.

After all, one thousand taels of silver is enough for ordinary people to eat and drink for generations.

Rong Feiyan smiled and covered her mouth, "I know, Sister Zhang orders this every year."

After saying that, Rong Feiyan went into the palace.

After a while, Zhang Guifen finally saw the Sheng family's motorcade.

This was also the first time that Sheng Hong attended the court's annual banquet. He seemed to attach great importance to it and brought all the younger generations in his family.

Even Old Lady Sheng was invited by him.

Otherwise, it would be a bit humble to participate in such an occasion as the annual banquet just by relying on his status.

Wang Ruofu is the eldest lady of the Sheng family, so she should come.

Wei Shuyi has a royal decree, so he naturally has to come.

When Zhang Guifen saw Minglan get off the carriage, she hurriedly walked up to her, took her hand and said:

"I'm waiting for you, let's go."

Minglan asked: "Where are you going, aunt?"

Zhang Guifen said: "On the New Year's Day, I went to the palace to pay New Year's greetings to the Queen. I asked the Queen to prepare a lot of fireworks, and the Queen said she was waiting for me to set them off."

That is, fireworks.

Minglan was excited at first, and then looked at Rulan and Molan beside her.

Zhang Guifen waved and said, "Let's go together."

Erlan was delighted.

There is no woman in the Great Zhou who doesn't like to watch fireworks.

Sheng Hong said, "Follow your aunt carefully, pay more attention, be more careful, and talk less."

Sanlan nodded repeatedly and followed Zhang Guifen into the palace.

Sheng Hong glanced at the old lady's carriage and bowed;

"I think the Zhongqin family must have entered the palace by now. Mother, I think we should not wait for Hualan and the others, let's go in first."

The old lady slowly got off the carriage, looked at the huge palace, and said sadly, "It's been 20 to 30 years since I last entered the palace."

——

In the Daqing Palace.

Wei Yuan sat in the fourth seat on the left.

The first three seats were Duke Ying, Duke Han and Marquis Ningyuan.

Originally, Wei Yuan wanted to sit in a relatively back seat, after all, the two predecessors, Fuguogong and Anguogong, were also highly respected.

Unexpectedly, they returned to their hometown with their families.

Helplessly, Wei Yuan had to sit in the fourth seat, and Bao Xiaosu was sitting on the seat facing the civil official on the right.

He was so young, and sat opposite Bao Xiaosu, which seemed to be a kind of flattery.

But apart from him, other nobles did not dare to sit in the fourth seat of military honors.

Bao Xiaosu glanced at Wei Yuan, raised his glass and smiled at him.

Wei Yuan quickly picked up the wine glass and drank it all.

About a quarter of an hour later, officials above the third rank and nobles were basically all here.

In addition, there were envoys from various countries, and Liao and Xia also sent envoys.

But they were all small figures, not worth mentioning.

Soon, the palace maids came in unison, holding a dish called "crab stuffed orange".

This dish requires cutting the top of the orange, digging out the flesh inside the orange, stuffing crab roe and crab meat, adding some wine or vinegar for seasoning, and then covering it with the original cut top, and steaming it in a cage.

It is a famous dish often eaten by the noble families of the Great Zhou Dynasty at banquets.

At this time, some officials were talking quietly:

"In previous years, the first dish was some candied fruits to whet the appetite, why is the first dish this year crab stuffed with orange?"

"You don't know yet? The emperor can't eat anything too sweet recently, and crab roe and orange have a moderate taste."

"."

As in previous years, the banquet in Daqing Hall had a total of 36 dishes in front of each person's table.

The table was wide and long, enough to hold dishes and drinks.

After the dishes were served, Zhao Zhen came here with the help of a palace maid, and then sat on the dragon chair in front of everyone.

Officials and envoys from various countries immediately stood up and saluted.

Zhao Zhen waved his hand and said, "At the New Year's banquet, don't care about these vulgar rituals, sit down."

Then, as usual, Han Zhang stood up first to toast, praising Zhao Zhen for his hard work in governing the country this year, which led to peace and prosperity for the country and the people.

Then it was Zhang Fu.

After the ministers of the Central Committee have finished toasting, the other ministers can toast in groups of three or five.

After this part, the dancers came to perform.

They danced some court dances, which were beautiful, but far less bold than the dancers in Guangyuntai.

At this moment, there was a palace maid standing behind each minister. If someone ran out of wine in the cup or encountered some problems, it was basically these palace maids who served.

Of course, no one dared to take advantage of these palace maids.

This was the treatment only for the ministers in the Daqing Palace.

For example, people in the other palaces did not have this.

During the performance of the singing and dancing girls, if the ministers wanted to drink, they could only clink glasses with the people next to them or communicate with their eyes.

Except for some whispers, no one dared to speak loudly.

After the performance, it was time for the envoys of various countries to perform.

In order to celebrate the New Year of the Great Zhou, every time the annual banquet came, the envoys of various countries would also prepare some small programs to liven up the fun.

This year, Xixia and Liao prepared a folk dance that was unique to them.

For a moment, the whole hall was filled with singing and dancing, and it was so lively.

Even Zhao Zhen had a smile on his face.

Many ministers became more casual after seeing this.

Since Xu Changzhi had no title, he could only sit in the second row of four seats behind Wei Yuan.

He had the official position of guard, and was a third-rank official, so he could come to the Daqing Hall for the banquet.

Xu Changzhi looked at the Xixia beauty with a high nose and big eyes who was performing the dance, and said to Wei Yuan jokingly:

"Brother Wei, Brother Wei."

Wei Yuan leaned back a little, "What's wrong?"

Xu Changzhi leaned forward and smiled, "If there is a chance, we must recapture Xixia."

Wei Yuan understood what he was saying in an instant, smiled, and did not respond.

Soon.

It was the turn of the Japanese envoy to perform.

The chief, Taira Tadamori, bowed to Zhao Zhen and said:

"Your Majesty, I brought a famous warrior from my country with me to your country this time. He wants to perform a sword dance for you."

Although the two sides did not speak the same language, there was a translator who had learned Japanese in the Honglu Temple, which did not affect the communication.

Zhao Zhen glanced at the warrior standing behind Taira Tadamori, and seeing his arrogant face, he gradually restrained the smile on his face and nodded.

Taira Tadamori bowed deeply, and then asked the so-called famous warrior to start performing swordsmanship.

At this time, Japanese warriors did not completely use knives, and many people also used swords.

For example, the famous Kusanagi Sword, etc.

But their swords were not Han swords, but swords that they thought they had made improvements based on Han swords.

Wider and larger than Han swords.

When the samurai was dancing with the sword, the sword tip passed by many civil officials intentionally or unintentionally. If it weren't for the civil officials who could serve as the third-rank officials, they would have been scared to death at the moment the sword passed by their eyes.

Even so, many officials were still in fear and their faces became more serious.

Provocation, this is a naked provocation!

How dare the Japanese country!

In fact, even Taira Tadamori frowned deeply.

He brought this samurai to save his face, not to cause trouble.

If the Taira family wants to completely control the Japanese country, they still need the help of the Zhou country!

At this time, Xu Changzhi leaned forward again and said to Wei Yuan:

"I investigated Taira Tadamori before I came here."

"Many of their Taira clan members hold important positions in Japan, and they seem to be trying to sideline the Japanese emperor."

Wei Yuan nodded.

According to the timeline of the previous life, in a few years, the Taira clan will be able to control the entire Japan.

Suddenly, Wei Yuan noticed that Zhao Zhen was looking at him.

At the same time, he also glanced at the Japanese warrior.

Wei Yuan instructed and was about to stand up.

Xu Changzhi was very thoughtful, and he knew what Zhao Zhen was thinking. He said:

"Why don't I go? With your current status, it would be embarrassing to go."

Wei Yuan shook his head and said, "Your Majesty asked me to go because he wanted to seek peace of mind. As for whether it would be embarrassing or not, it doesn't matter."

It really didn't matter. He just wanted to beat up the warrior who was living a good life in front of him.

After that, he slowly stood up and looked at the Japanese warrior,

"Since it is a sword dance, there must be someone to compete with, so let this general test your skills."

The warrior was stunned and looked at the Chinese translator brought by Japan.

The man translated Wei Yuan's original words verbatim.

The warrior said: "What weapon do you use?"

The Honglu Temple gave a translation.

Zhao Zhen ordered Zhu Zongguan to bring the sword.

Wei Yuan bowed and said: "Your Majesty, my fist and foot skills are not bad, so let me fight with fists and feet."

The most enjoyable thing about beating someone is to punch them to the flesh. Using weapons? That's so unpleasant!

Zhao Zhen really trusted him, smiled, and said:

"I am fortunate to see Wei Qing take action again tonight, which is very comforting."

"Wei Qing, remember, be careful not to make mistakes."

Wei Yuan bowed.

When the Japanese warrior saw that Wei Yuan did not use a sword or a weapon, he immediately felt that he was looking down on him, and he gritted his teeth and cursed,

"Baga!"

After this was said, before the generals could say anything, many third-rank civil officials who were drunk stood up one after another,

"What are you talking about?"

"Bullshit!"

"Hey, Mr. Bao, don't use vulgar words, General Wei, beat him, beat him hard!"

"Yes, beat him!"

"."

Although they did not understand Japanese, they could tell from the look of the Japanese warrior that it was not a good word.

Wei Yuan was very angry.

He thought, I didn't say anything, how could this wild monkey say a fart when he opened his mouth?

I thought I didn't know what Baga meant?

It happened in a flash.

The warrior had already swung his sword at Wei Yuan.

The latter took a deep breath, dodged sideways, and then grabbed the warrior's head with one hand at lightning speed and smashed it hard on the floor of the hall.

The floor was paved with gold bricks, not real gold, but a kind of square bricks of extremely high quality, which sounded like gold when hit, so they were called gold bricks.

However, the extremely hard gold bricks made a dent in the warrior's head.

Seeing this, Taira Tadamori quickly stood up.

At this time, Bao Xiaosu, Fu Yanguo and other civil officials saw that Wei Yuan had the upper hand, and immediately stood up, blocking Ping Zhongsheng, and shouted:

"Drink, come and drink, what, don't you give me face?"

"I've finished this pot, if the Japanese envoy can't drink it, it's up to you."

"I've also finished it, my grandson can drink the pot, but the Japanese envoy can't?"

"."

At the same time, every time the sound of "bang, bang, bang" sounded, Wei Yuan's fist as big as a casserole would fall hard on the warrior's head.

The brain was smashed out.

Obviously, he was dead.