The Red Chamber: The Rise of the Shuzi

Chapter 84
After Zhengdan, the whole city of Shenjing became more and more lively.

Because at this time, it is the time of the year to visit relatives and friends, and have a New Year's call.

Families with a little bit of power and wealth usually set up a banquet, prepare fine wine, invite a theater troupe, and finally invite relatives, friends and guests to have a happy meal and listen to a play, so that they can walk around and get acquainted.

Faced with such a season, the Jia family is naturally unavoidable. Like other big families in Beijing, they have already set the date list for the New Year's wine a few years ago.

So, after the first day of the first lunar month, Ningrong Street, which was quite lively in the past, became even more noisy several times.

All the relatives, friends and guests of Jia's family come and go in sedan chairs, chariots and horses every day.

In the three mansions of Jia's family, today you invite, tomorrow I will have a banquet, all kinds of operas are sung and sung, and the banquets are arranged like flowing water.

During this period, Jia Jing either invited people or was invited, dealing with delicious food and wine all day long, and never had a moment to spare.

After being so busy for eight or nine days, the Spring Festival is over.

It's just that the Chinese New Year has just been busy, but the Lantern Festival is coming soon.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Mother Jia ordered a few large banquets and a small show. The courtyard was filled with lanterns of various colors, and she took everyone in the Jia family and several relatives together to hold another performance. Had a family dinner.

In this way, it can be regarded as passing the Lantern Festival.

……

As soon as the Lantern Festival passed, the atmosphere in Shenjing suddenly became tense.

Following the order of Emperor Hongde, the entire Great Zhou court began active preparations for the battle one or two months in advance.

Just overnight, Shenjing, which appeared to be calm on the surface, was already filled with turbulent undercurrents underneath.

The sixteenth day of the first lunar month.

The first thing to do after the opening of the household department was to start preparing food, grass, military salaries and other materials for the army of the Northern Expedition.This workload is not small, so all the officials of the household department, big and small, were busy all at once.

On the other hand, under the order of Emperor Hongde, the Ministry of Industry began large-scale inspections, repairs, and even replacement of soldiers' weapons and armor; various military equipment and siege weapons also had to be inspected and repaired, and some of them were made. spare replacement parts.

Taipu Temple also sent a large number of veterinarians and craftsmen to check the health of many horses in the army and replace the horseshoes;

As for the several ministers in the Ministry of War, as well as many generals who led the troops, they were frequently summoned by Emperor Hongde to the palace for questioning.

Just after the Lantern Festival, the whole Great Week is like a huge war machine, and it starts to operate rumblingly.

For this battle, Emperor Hongde's request is:

Not only to win, but also to win beautifully!
…………

Of course, all those preparations for wars have nothing to do with Jia Jing for the time being.

As a person who is about to get married, he is so self-willed.

As for the three battalions under Jia Jing's command, because they all had to go out with the army, Jia Jing, under the order of the Supreme Emperor Yang Bing, temporarily handed over the military talisman to the new general who conquered the captives, the Duke of Qi, Qiu Lu.

In this way, Jia Jing didn't even have to go to the daily drills in the Gyeonggi camp.

Fishing at home openly, no, paid vacation!

After being free, Jia Jing either practiced martial arts riding and archery at home every day, or went to the villa outside the city to see the new seedlings of spices grown in his own greenhouse.

It was also a leisurely time for a while.

Just like that, in the blink of an eye, more than half a month has passed.

……

The eighth day of February is an auspicious day specially chosen by Jia Mu and Mrs. Xing.

On this day, Mrs. Xing ordered people to take out the prepared gifts from the storage early, and then called Jia Jing, who changed into a bright red dress, and ordered Mrs. Wang and other four blessed female relatives, I made an appointment with a matchmaker, took the dowry money and the dowry gift, and went to Lin's mansion to pay the big gift.

Because it was a bestowed marriage, Jia and Lin's family had already asked someone about Najib's name, set a specific date, and reported directly to the Ministry of Rites.

Strictly speaking, today is just a cutscene procedure of the solicitation period.

In Lin's mansion, because Lin Ruhai is now alone and has never remarried since the death of Daiyu's mother, and has never taken in a concubine, so this time when Jia Jing and his party came to the ceremony, Lin Ruhai invited a blessed elder from the family, The four mothers and matchmakers who came to entertain the Jia family on their behalf.

As for Jia Jing, just throw it on the banquet and drink as much as Lin Ruhai ordered!
As early as when Jia Jing and others left the mansion, Lin Ruhai, who had received the report, had already counted the time, ordered someone to set up a banquet, and specially prepared a few large jars of spirits, and waited for Jia Jing to come to the door.

Now that Jia Jing is only here, and soon she will marry her own cabbage, how can Lin Ruhai let Jia Jing go so easily?

Immediately set the wine jar, anyway, let's drink hard!
But this drinking is also interesting.

Because Lin Ruhai worked too hard when he was released as the censor of the Lianghuai salt tour a few years ago, which made his body not very strong, so now he just tastes the wine when drinking, but he just asks Jia Jing to drink it. Except for the glass that Lin Ruhai poured for himself, the rest of the wine went into Jia Jing's stomach.

But there is still more than half of the wine in Lin Ruhai's glass!

If Daiyu in the backyard hadn't sent Zijuan to watch in front of him in advance, and stopped Lin Ruhai in time, maybe Jia Jing's future father-in-law would drink this glass of wine to the end, and let Jia Jing drink the wine by the way. The remaining large altars of wine were all dry.

It's just that Daiyu's stop made Lin Ruhai look at Jia Jing even more wrongly!

……

After Jia Jing and his party were full of wine and food, they took the return gift from the Lin family and went back happily.

Well, both families are happy, except Mrs. Lin who is a little melancholy...

After returning, Jia Jing first went to Rongqing Hall and told Jia Mu the news, and Jia Mu was naturally very happy.

Afterwards, he went to Jia She's courtyard and informed Jia She and Mrs. Xing of the news.

After running on both sides, Jia Jing was able to return to her own Hou Mansion.

…………

After the big gift, the next day is waiting for the marriage.

As a result, Jia Jing returned to the form of salted fish again. Apart from practicing martial arts all day long, she was bored reading military books in the study.

One day, Jia Jing was flipping through military books in the study, when suddenly Lai Fu came in and reported: "Master Hou, Ping'er, the maidservant next to Lian's Second Mistress, came to look for him, saying that he had something urgent to see Master Hou!"

"Urgent matter?" Jia Jing asked curiously after hearing the words: "What urgent matter can their family have?"

Saying that, he greeted Laifu, "Let's go out and have a look together!"

Outside the courtyard of the study, Ping'er was anxiously circling back and forth at the gate of the courtyard, when he saw Jia Jing coming out of it, he immediately rushed over as if seeing a savior.

As soon as Jia Jing went out, she saw Ping'er rushing over eagerly, "Master Hou! Hurry up and save our second master, he is about to be beaten to death by the master!"

Jia Jing was taken aback when he heard the words, "Are you about to be beaten by the master? Go, take a look!"

Hearing Ping'er's words, Jia Jing didn't hesitate, walked quickly to the Rong Mansion, and asked as she walked, "Tell me, why does the master want to beat someone?"

Hearing Jia Jing's question, Ping'er gritted his teeth and scolded: "Isn't it because of a wild bastard who came from Jia Yucun who didn't know where he came from? We only knew each other for a few years, so we gave it to us." How many troubles have happened in the house..."

(End of this chapter)