Chapter 587 The country is peaceful and the people are safe
Jiang Qingzhi received the news before lunch.
Tomorrow is the New Year, or New Year's Day. The old dandy came to the Bo's mansion in person and brought a lot of food. According to the agreement between the two families, last year's New Year was spent in Xin'an Lane, and this year it will be spent in the Duke's Mansion.
"Lan Zhen committed suicide." The old dandy sat down, picked up the teacup and took a sip, "From the palace? His Majesty gave me a cup last time, it tasted good."
"Committed suicide?" Jiang Qingzhi was stunned. "The methods I prepared..."
"When a person dies, the debt is settled." Zhu Xizhong sighed, "He sneaked into the study in the middle of the night and hanged himself under the beam. His wife went to the study in the morning and was frightened to death. Now the doctor is giving her medicine. Lan Zhen left a suicide note..."
"What was written?" Jiang Qingzhi lit up the incense. He had no sympathy for Lan Zhen.
"One wrong step leads to another, and it's too late to regret."
"hehe!"
Jiang Qingzhi took a puff of medicinal smoke. "If they had succeeded in the matter of Suzhou Prefecture, those biogas pools would have been completely destroyed by now. The 10% increase in income would have been gone. How many families would have become refugees? How many people would not have enough to eat, or even starve to death? It is better to cry at home than to cry all the way!"
Zhu Xizhong stood up and said, "It's better to die, otherwise life would be worse than death."
The old playboy had already prepared several methods, waiting for Lan Zhen to fall. He had already found out some problems with Lan Zhen, and then he would trigger them, either sending him into exile or exiling him. At that time, he only needed to say a word, and Lan Zhen would be in ecstasy all the way.
"Where's my sister-in-law?"
"Packing things up."
"Hurry up, your sister-in-law is very busy over there, just wait for her to come and help."
Afterwards, Jiang Qingzhi and his wife followed Zhu Xizhong to the Duke's Mansion.
On the last day of the 29th year of Jiajing, the entire capital was filled with joy.
The same is true in the palace.
Prince Yu stood outside the palace, hearing the sounds of firecrackers everywhere and the joyful voices of the eunuchs and palace servants.
"Your Highness, His Majesty has been in a very good mood these days, and he will definitely ask for a good omen later."
Yang Xi muttered beside him, and took a few steps back, carefully looking at the new clothes he had just changed, frowning slightly, "The jade pendant is missing."
Prince Yu shook his head. "That thing is hanging heavily around my waist. It's not comfortable."
"A gentleman is like jade!" said Yang Xi.
"Third brother!" King Jing is here.
This guy returned to the palace yesterday to apologize and was beaten by Concubine Lu Jingfei. It is said that Concubine Lu cried while beating him and said that if he was not her only son, she would really want to beat him to death.
People in the palace didn't know how Prince Jing had offended his own mother, and all kinds of speculations were rampant.
Some people say that King Jing did something that affected the succession, and some people say that King Jing doesn't like women...
"Did you get beaten?" Prince Yu saw that his younger brother had changed into new clothes. The key point was that the clothes were obviously not made by the beauties in the palace, but most likely by Concubine Lu Jing.
It’s great to have a child with a mother!
Prince Yu sighed in his heart, but when he saw Prince Jing's bruised face, he couldn't help but laugh and thought it was better to be alone.
"Don't mention this matter." King Jing said, "Let's go!"
"go!"
The two brothers walked side by side.
"It's snowing." someone shouted.
The two looked up and saw snowflakes beginning to float sporadically in the sky.
"I heard you want to study medicine?"
"Ok!"
"You're worried about alienating me."
"You think too much."
"We are all grown up, and our father is in good health. You are overthinking it."
“Many times, I have no choice.”
"Sure enough, I didn't think much about it."
"You are such a mean person. You look dull, but you are actually full of evil intentions."
"Everyone in this palace has a pair of snobbish eyes. My father is indifferent to me, so they are indifferent to me. If you want to live a good life, you have to be humble."
"That position..."
"My cousin is right. The position is decided by our father. No matter how much we try, it will be useless."
"In my mother's eyes, as long as I can make my father happy, that position will change."
"Yes!"
"You are so dull, just giving them hope."
"What about you? Don't you expect it?"
King Jing stopped and turned sideways.
Prince Yu stopped.
Snowflakes fell on the two of them. The eunuchs following behind them felt that the atmosphere was not right, but they did not dare to step forward.
King Jing stared at King Yu with anger in his eyes. He took a deep breath and said, "If I were to compete with you, do you think you could win against me?"
Prince Yu looked at him slowly, "Then why don't you fight?"
King Jing sneered, "I don't even bother to do that!"
"But you also can't give up the temptation of that position."
King Jing suddenly laughed, "You never asked questions like this in the past, but you kept pestering me today. Do you think I took the initiative to avoid being punished by my mother? You think too much. It has nothing to do with this matter."
King Jing said jokingly: "Remember, if I want to fight, you will definitely not be my opponent."
"I know."
"It's good to know."
King Jing strode forward.
"Third Brother!"
Changle came. She had just watched for a long time and came over to whisper, "I happened to pass by Concubine Lu that day and heard Concubine Lu say that you don't need to oppose your uncle. You just need to be nicer to those Confucianists, that is, the gentlemen around you, and show some recognition of Confucianism. It was done quietly, so who would know?"
Prince Yu was silent. He did not ask how Changle could hear these words, nor did he want to think whether Concubine Lu Jing wanted Changle to hear them on purpose or unintentionally.
"Fourth brother said that if I want to fight, I will definitely fight with third brother in an upright manner and will never stab him in the back. I will not borrow the power of Confucianism either!"
Changle looked up at Prince Yu, "Fourth brother, Third brother... is a good man."
"Ok!"
Prince Yu trotted forward to chase after him, and Prince Jing in front also quickened his pace.
"Wait for me!"
King Jing turned around and asked impatiently, "Can you walk faster?"
Prince Yu came over and said, "I got some good wine from outside last time. It's the best wine from Shu. Would you like to have a drink later?"
"Do I want it?" "There are also some sent from Shu. They say it's beef jerky from the plateau. It tastes really good."
"We'll talk about it later."
Prince Yu stretched out his hand to hook his shoulders, and Prince Jing's body stiffened, "Let go!"
"What if I don't let go?"
King Jing also hooked his shoulders and pressed down hard.
Prince Yu refused to give in and fought back vigorously.
After an unknown amount of time, the two of them let go of each other's hands.
"You're good."
"You're okay too."
The two of them hooked their arms around each other's shoulders again and staggered towards Yongshou Palace.
Not far away, Changle was watching with a smile, and suddenly found that he had fallen behind.
"Third brother, fourth brother, wait for me!"
The two brothers turned around.
"Hurry up!"
The three brothers and sisters arrived at Yongshou Palace.
Huang Jin was wearing new clothes and waiting with a smile on his face.
"Your Majesty has prepared some delicious food."
It was rare for the Taoist priest to change into casual clothes today instead of Taoist robes.
The two sons saluted across the screen, while Changle accompanied the Taoist priest and served food to entertain him...
The Taoist raised his glass.
“Everything will be fine next year!”
Changle also got a cup of sweet rice wine, "Dad, it's getting better and better!"
"Oh!" Taoist smiled at his daughter, "That's right. The Ming Dynasty should get better and better!"
"Father is getting better and better!"
"Okay, you too..."
Huang Jin was smiling outside the hall, enjoying this rare warm moment.
"Eunuch Huang."
Huang Jin turned around and saw that it was Zhang Tong. "What's the matter?"
Zhang Tong bowed, "I wish that all the bad luck this year for Eunuch Huang will be gone, and next year, good luck will come from the east, bringing happiness, wealth, longevity and joy..."
"Okay!" Huang Jin took out a brocade bag and handed it to him. Zhang Tong opened it and saw that it was actually a small silver ingot, shaped like a gold ingot, round and cute. He said happily, "Thank you, Eunuch Huang."
"Go! Eat and drink with them."
"What about you?" Zhang Tong raised his head and said, "How about I accompany you?"
"No need." Huang Jin shook his head. After Zhang Tong left, he stood alone outside the hall, looking up in a daze at the increasingly dense snowflakes.
With his status, it is basically impossible to find a sincere person in the palace. Although he seems to be surrounded by people every day, Huang Jin feels lonely.
"Eunuch Huang!"
Huang Jin turned around and saw Zhang Tong jogging over with a pot in his hand. He said as he ran, "There's a lot of meat!"
Snowflakes fell to the ground and melted. Zhang Tong stepped on a puddle of water and fell forward.
Zhang Tong's eyes widened, not caring about himself, he just wanted to protect the pot...
He fell heavily to the ground, still looking at the pot. Some of the food in the pot fell out, and Zhang Tong was very distressed and couldn't help crying.
"Why are you crying?"
Huang Jin squatted in front of him.
Zhang Tong raised his head and said with tears in his eyes, "This is the meat we begged from them with great difficulty."
"How can you eat so much?" Huang Jin was puzzled when he saw that there was quite a lot of meat.
"And you too!"
"we?"
"They say that on the last day of the year, someone must accompany you, otherwise you will be a wandering ghost. I quickly went to beg for some meat and borrowed a pot..." Zhang Tong looked up, "I'll accompany you! Then you won't be a wandering ghost anymore."
Huang Jin was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Yes."
Huang Jin helped him up and picked up a few fallen ribs.
He tasted a piece.
Zhang Tong asked, "Is it delicious?"
Huang Jin raised his head and smiled warmly, "I have never eaten ribs as delicious as these."
……
At Xianzhang Marquis Mansion, when Jiang Qingzhi and Lan Zhen confronted each other, Wu Xun and Du He made a bet that Jiang Qingzhi could not produce anything good. The two bet 20,000 strings of cash, and today Du He came to collect the debt in person and successfully got the money.
After returning home, Du He gave generous rewards, which caused the servants in the house to cheer.
The atmosphere in the Marquis' Mansion was lively, and Du He's family gathered together to drink.
Du He looked at the steaming pot and his wife and children with rosy faces. He raised his glass and said, "This glass is for the Ming Dynasty!"
His wife and children raised their glasses to drink. Du He filled his own glass with wine, raised it, and said softly, "This glass is for the uncle!"
At the Yan family, Yan Shifan raised his glass to toast his mother, Ouyang, and then put on colorful clothes and danced for his parents, doing all kinds of funny things during the dance, which made Yan Song and Ouyang burst into laughter.
The Duke's Mansion.
The two families drank in a warm atmosphere. The Duke's wife said that this year's gift giving was several times more than in previous years. Zhu Xizhong said that at the end of the year, there were countless people who invited him to drink...
The Duke's wife raised her glass and said, "All this is thanks to Qingzhi. I hope everything will be fine next year." She glanced at Li Tian's belly.
"Sure." Li Tian raised his glass.
Zhu Xizhong raised his glass, "What's this for?"
Jiang Qingzhi raised his glass, "This glass is for peace and prosperity for the country and the people!"
"The country is peaceful and the people are safe!"
There was a sudden explosion outside.
"The country is peaceful and the people are prosperous!"
(End of this chapter)
