Prime Minister

Chapter 235 Getting to know
Zhang Yue couldn't understand Cai Xiang's invitation, should he go or not?
It’s absolutely impossible not to go, the magistrate of Kaifeng Prefecture, if you don’t go, you will let him save face, but if you go, who knows if it will be a grand banquet.

Zhang Yue said to the man who sent the letter: "Wait a moment, I will change my clothes before going."

The mansion urged: "Please hurry up the scholar, don't keep the gentleman waiting for a long time."

Zhang Yue thought to himself, since it was recommended by Wang Anguo and Wang Anli, then Cai Xiang should not do anything to him.But the more Zhang thought about it, he still sent someone to report to Ouyang and Zhang Heng.

After going out, Zhang Yue chatted with the governor while walking.

Zhang Yue wanted to listen to the tone, but the other party was very vigilant, and kept saying "you will know when the scholar arrives" repeatedly.

Zhang Yue followed the other party to Cai Xiang's mansion.

But seeing that the residence of Cai Xiang, the Governor of Kaifeng, is not so prosperous.

But Zhang Yue understands that Cai Xiang is definitely a rich man, because he has a lot of books.Liu Kezhuang once lamented that he didn't know anyone with a rich collection of books that could surpass Cai Xiang.

As for where does Cai Xiang have so much money to buy books?
Salary is one thing, and another reason is that he is good at calligraphy. Cai Xiang's calligraphy, Ouyang Xiu's articles and Mei Yaochen's poems are known as the three masterpieces of the world.

Today's official family is Cai Xiang's number one fan. Ouyang Xiu also admires Cai Xiang's calligraphy very much, thinking that no one can match it, but Cai Xiang is too humble to admit it.

However, Cai Xiang knew very well that rare things are valuable, and he cherished his calligraphy very much, and he would not let his handwriting be spread easily, and he would not easily write letters to others.Therefore, his calligraphy was hidden as a treasure.

The income of Chido is not high, and the income of calligraphy is the most profitable.

One is to write epitaphs for people, and the other is to write steles for newly built temples or mansions.

For example, when Yuan Zhen died young, his family asked his good friend Bai Juyi to write an inscription.Yuan Zhen's family sent chariots and horses, silk, silver saddles, jade belts and dozens of slaves to invite Bai Juyi to write the epitaph.

Bai Juyi calculated that it was worth 70 yuan.

Bai Juyi refused to accept it. He said that Yuan Zhen and I were good friends, so I just wrote for you for free, and it would be boring to take money.

But Yuan Zhen's family insisted on giving it away, and in the end Bai Juyi could only accept it, returned the slaves and donated all the money to the temple.

Bai Juyi's article "Records of Building Fragrant Mountain Temple" talked about this. In Bai Juyi's article, he said that the money was given by me on behalf of Yuan Zhen, and all the merits and virtues belonged to him.

Another thing is to write a stele for the temple. Pei Du, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, asked Huangfu Shi to write a stele.

After finishing the writing, Pei Du gave Huangfu Shi a lot of money, but Huangfu Shi thought it was too little. He said directly to Pei Du, I don't write steles for others easily. My inscription has a total of [-] characters, according to one word and three lines, You should give me nine thousand cashmere.

One word is worth three bolts of fine silk, and the whole article needs nine thousand bolts of fine silk.

Pei Du was also very magnanimous, and gave Huangfu Shi more than 5000 silk to make up for the [-].

Han Qi built a day brocade hall at home, Ouyang Xiu wrote the article, and then asked Cai Xiang to write.In order to write this article well, Cai Xiang practiced each character hundreds of times and waited until he was satisfied before writing it, so this monument is called the Monument of Hundred Monks.

However, Cai Xiang didn't write all the monuments, and he didn't even give the number one fan the face of today's face.The officials asked him to write "The Inscription of Wen Cheng's Empress Father", but Cai Xiang declined.

Later Ouyang Xiu asked Cai Xiang to write a preface to his Jigulu.

After Cai Xiang finished writing, Ouyang Xiu was very satisfied and wanted to reward Cai Xiang heavily, but felt that he would not accept money if he was his friend.

He knew that Cai Xiang didn't like anything else, but the only three good things were 'burning incense, tasting tea, and wielding a brush'.

So Ouyang Xiu chose what he liked, and gave it to Cai Xiang with a mouse whisker brush and a copper-green brush, and then Longjing tea and Huishan spring.

Cai Xiang was very happy.

But one month later, someone gave Ouyang Xiu a rare incense cake (used for burning incense). Cai Xiang was very envious and said to Ouyang Xiu regretfully that my writing was too early, and there will be this incense cake in the embellishment pen more than a month later. .

After hearing this, Ouyang Xiu hurriedly turned around and made up for it.

Zhang Yue had heard Ouyang Fa tell this story, so he practiced calligraphy diligently, so he also had this concern.

In the future, I will not be able to get along in the officialdom, and I will have such means to make a living.

When Zhang Yue followed the mansion to Cai Xiang's mansion, he sat down in the front hall first.

Zhang Yue waited for a while but no one came.

When the person serving the tea arrived, Zhang Yue hurriedly asked, "I wonder when Cai Xianggong will meet you?"

The visitor looked at Zhang Yue in a daze for a moment, and then said: "Just now, the mansion has a business official, and my husband is going to take a step first, so you can just wait here."

Zhang Yue thought to himself, where did this come from? Is it impossible to enter the White Tiger Hall by mistake?
Zhang Yue immediately became careful, and waited for a while, but saw a thin and short green-robed official stepping in.

Zhang Yue immediately got up to salute.

Seeing Zhang Yue's extraordinary appearance, the other party couldn't help asking: "I don't know what to call a scholar?"

Zhang Yue didn't know the other party's identity, so he got up and said vaguely: "In the next Zhang Yue, the third person in the family was summoned by Mr. Cai."

The other party was fine, but suddenly felt that he had heard this name somewhere, and thought about it carefully, could it be that Uncle Ouyang Yong mentioned the young talent of Jieqian No.3.

The other party knew it well, and immediately sat aside, not talking to Zhang Yue.

Zhang Yue is in a place of right and wrong, and he doesn't know the identity of the other party and doesn't say a word.

The two of them were so bored.

Seeing that it was going to be dark soon, everyone in Cai's mansion came forward and said: "Master still has some trivial matters to deal with, the two of you should have dinner first!"

This person and Zhang Yue both nodded.

So two desks were brought up and placed in front of the chairs, with dishes on them.

Zhang Yue looked at the Cai Mansion's food, which was rich, including fish and meat, as well as black bean sauce soup. As for the rice, there was a big bowl, enough for two or three people.

In fact, at this point, he would be hungry sooner, he rubbed his stomach, and felt at ease as soon as he came.

Immediately, Zhang Yue took rice from the bowl and put it in a bowl, and then poured some black bean sauce soup on the rice in the bowl.

The salted tempeh is salty and fresh in your mouth first, and then you start to eat the soft rice.

The officials on the opposite side seem to be particular about official manners, and they are full after eating half a bowl, but Zhang Yue eats three bowls in a row with this soybean meal soaked in rice.

At this moment, the towel that the other party was wiping his face paused for a moment in the air.

The other party said: "Mr. Zhang Sanlang, do you know how much this bowl of rice is worth in Zhenzhou this year?"

Zhang Yue filled another bowl of rice and asked, "I don't know what advice other members have?"

Fang Yan said: "I just returned to Beijing from Zhenzhou to report on my work. The people in a county below Zhenzhou have just been flooded. After the flood, there are no houses and fields are submerged. I don't know how many people died in the belly of fish."

"One bucket of rice can buy a child so...so tall."

The other party gestured with his hand, and Zhang Yue put down the bowl and chopsticks after hearing this.

"Why doesn't the government take care of these children?"

The other party said: "Yes, the government has come forward to adopt orphans and widows. I have been there several times and got along very well, but because of busy work, I went there after a while. Many children cried when they saw me. I asked why The other orphans saw that I had come to see me for days and gave birth to a feeling of sustenance, and then they didn’t go for a long time. They waited so hard that they thought I had abandoned them.”

Zhang Yue sighed and said, "It's not the responsibility of the staff, it's a pity that these orphans, I only hope that other children in the world will not suffer from this disaster."

The other party said: "Exactly, as long as the officials can do more of their duties, the common people will suffer less. It's a pity that most of the officials in the officialdom don't know how to be sympathetic. Instead, the disabled people abuse the people. It bears the meaning of being lenient and benevolent to the people today."

After hearing this, Zhang Yue thought, what he said was really good, this person must be a good official with a heart for the common people.

Unexpectedly, I didn't see Cai Xiang, but I saw a good official.

Zhang Yue asked: "It would be great if all the officials in the world were like Yuanwai. I don't know Yuanwai Gao's name?"

Fang Yan said: "My next Lu Huiqing, with the cursive character Jifu, is currently the Tuiguan of Zhenzhou."

Zhang Yue couldn't help being taken aback when he heard this, this person is Lu Huiqing, no, isn't this a famous rebellious boy in history?
No matter what, Zhang Yue couldn't connect the other party with the evaluation in the history books.

Zhang Yue said in his heart that he wanted to say that Wang Anshi's path was not going to work, so he went to vote for Lu Huiqing, but he ran into Cai Xiang's mansion.

It is really hard to find a place to break through the iron shoes, and it takes no effort to get it.

This green-robed official was Lu Huiqing who was in Ouyang Xiu's residence before, and he came to pay a visit to Cai Xiang today.When Cai Xiang knew Quanzhou, Lu Huiqing was captured by Cai Xiang and then released.

He didn't expect to meet Zhang Yue who Ouyang Xiu admired very much here, so he felt a sense of acceptance.

He observed Zhang Yue for a while, so he had the following conversation.Of course, the fact that Zhenzhou was flooded was true, but it was not that serious. He also visited orphans, but what he said was also true and false.

It is not his job to help the victims of disasters, and his work is also based on hearsay.

But Lu Huiqing took this as an entry point, and immediately talked with Zhang Yue about the local people's conditions in Zhenzhou.

Lu Huiqing is very eloquent and knows what scholars like Zhang Yue who have no official experience like to hear the most. He immediately picked up some governance matters and added a lot of his own opinions.

Zhang Yue could not help admiring Lu Huiqing after talking about him.This person has completely crushed himself, a rookie, in terms of his knowledge of being an official and his experience in government affairs, and he speaks clearly and logically.

If you really want to be the treacherous minister mentioned in the history books, an incompetent official is really not qualified.

If someone came across someone who said boldly that it is not good to be a good official but a treacherous minister, Zhang Yue would definitely use Lu Huiqing as an example and ask if he would rather be a match?

Do you think it's easy to be a traitor?

If you can't marry a goddess, you can only marry a rich woman wrongedly, so wake up.

When Cai Xiang didn't come, Zhang Yue talked with Lu Huiqing about the past and the present.Zhang Yue has no experience as an official, but 1000 years of experience is still useful.

Just as Lu Huiqing and Zhang Yue talked more and more speculatively, Cai Xiang returned home.

Cai Xiang met Lu Huiqing first, and asked Zhang Yue to come in after a while.

Zhang Yue also saw Cai Xiang for the first time.

Cai Xiang met Ouyang Xiu when he was an official in Beijing. At that time, Ouyang Xiu was surprised and said how he was so old.

Cai Xiang was old and sick at this time.

What's more, Cai Xiang's beard is also very conspicuous.

Cai Xiang's beautiful beard is also very famous. Song Renzong asked Cai Xiang's beard when he saw Cai Xiang's beard, why do you put such a long beard under the quilt when you sleep at night?Or outside the quilt?

Cai Xiang said that the minister didn't pay attention to it at ordinary times, and he would study it when he went home to sleep before replying to His Majesty.

As a result, Cai Xiang kept thinking about it when she went back that night, and didn't sleep well all night.

Cai Xiang is indeed old now, and he is still at odds with Zhaowen Xiang Fubi in officialdom.

Cai Xiangzhong Jinshi was taken by Yan Shu, but Cai Xiang later impeached Yan Shu and pulled Fu Bi's father-in-law off the horse.

Fu Bi also hated Cai Xiang. Cai Xiang organized Beiyuan tea in Jianzhou and organized a "little dragon group" to present to the emperor.Fu Bi said, this is a way for servants and concubines to curry favor with their masters. Unexpectedly, Cai Xiang, who has thick eyebrows and big eyes, also did this. Instead of flattering you like this, it is better to copy a piece of "Traveling Mastiff" to the emperor.

But why did Fu Bi let Cai Xiang, who was at odds with him, be the magistrate of Kaifeng Prefecture?
This is definitely not what Fu Bi meant, but what Song Renzong meant.

Zhang Yue saluted Cai Xiang and sat beside him nervously.

Cai Xiang looked at Zhang Yue and said, "Duzhi, I've heard many people mention you and praise you in Beijing this time. I've seen you explain the test paper, and the meaning of the book is already your teacher, Mr. Boyi, seven or eight times." It's like dividing."

Zhang Yuexin said that Cai Xiang had read his paper, and said face-to-face: "Mr.

Cai Xiang said: "Your article is impeccable, solution No.3 is well-deserved, the article "The King's Achievement Strategy" is especially appreciated by the old man, there is no other purpose in asking you to come to the house today, just to have a look at today's heroes. "

Zhang Yue suddenly realized that this was the case, he really thought too much, and he was tired and nervous for a long time.

After finishing speaking, Cai Xiang smiled and said no more.

The boy at the side said: "Master respects you."

Zhang Yue and Lu Huiqing got up to bid farewell to Cai Xiang at the same time.

I didn't expect that I had waited so long in Cai's mansion, but Cai Xiang's process of seeing her was just a one-sentence effort from the beginning to the end. Cai Xiang didn't mention him and Zhang Wangzhi, Zhang Gongzhi in half a sentence. between the lawsuits.

Zhang Yue thought to himself that Cai Xiang might really have this intention, but after reading his article, he knew that he had passed the exam based on his real skills, so he gave up this plan.

Of course, these are all his conjectures, and it is impossible to know what Cai Xiang is thinking, but no matter what he says, he is treating the heart of a gentleman with the heart of a villain.

It seems to be the same sentence, go straight and straight, although it is a little slower in the short term, but in the long run, it benefits the most.

As for coveting immediate benefits, even if you get benefits temporarily, in the long run, it is easy to overturn.

Lu Huiqing and Zhang Yue walked and chatted, while the servants of the Cai Mansion lit lamps for them.

They passed a yard, but saw a big light in the yard.

At this time, a servant came from the courtyard to greet Zhang Yue, and Lu Huiqing's servant who led the way said: "Tonight is the first quarter moon, and you can't see the way with a small lamp. Your lord ordered me to change the big lamp for you to guide the guests." .”

Zhang Yue said in his heart, this move is very considerate, and it can be seen that this person is as careful as a hair.

After the servant changed the lamp according to his words, Lu Huiqing asked casually, "Who lives in this courtyard?"

The servant said: "It's the two relatives of Xianggong, who are now studying here in Beijing with Xianggong."

Lu Huiqing didn't care when she heard the words, and didn't say anything more.

But Zhang Yue wondered, could these two relatives be brothers Cai Bian and Cai Jing?

Good guy.

Counting the Lu Huiqing I met today, I can be considered to have dealt with many new party figures.

(End of this chapter)