Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 260

The next day is a ten-day holiday, which is a rare holiday for court officials. For Fan Ning, today is also a day with more entertainment. Today is the [-]th birthday of Cao Cong, the old owner of the Cao Mansion. Cao Cong was the famous founding general of the Song Dynasty. Bin's youngest son is one of the few elders in the second generation of the meritorious family.

There are more than a hundred members of the Cao family in three generations, and they are basically officials in the army. In addition to Cao Bin's own prestige, the Cao family has great power and influence in the army.

It is also for this reason that after the emperor Zhao Zhen abolished Queen Guo, in order to stabilize the military, quell the dissatisfaction of the military, and of course to win the support of the army, he appointed Cao Bin's granddaughter as the queen.

Cao's being the queen not only consolidated Zhao Zhen's throne, but at the same time the Cao family also took the top spot in the meritorious family by virtue of the queen's nobility.

This time Cao Cong celebrated his 1th birthday, and more than [-] copies of invitations were sent out, inviting meritorious families, court officials, foreign relatives and dignitaries, etc. The emperor Zhao Zhen also specially rewarded [-] taels of silver to congratulate Cao Cong on his [-]th birthday. Big birthday, but it is not clear whether the emperor and empress Cao will come to pay their respects.

Fanning finished his lunch, took a nap, and left his residence at about three o'clock in the afternoon. Usually, the main event was at night. Most of the guests who went in the morning were relatives and friends, and most of the ordinary guests went in the afternoon.

Fan Ning went there in an ox cart. In the past few days, Fan Ning has been thinking about whether he can buy a horse for transportation. It was not realistic before. Now that the new house he bought has a barn, it is possible to buy donkeys and horses for transportation. up.

It is also normal to use animal power to travel. Most people in the capital have donkeys. Riding a donkey is very common in the capital. Not everyone needs to ride an ox cart to go to the streets.

Of course, if the family conditions are good, you can also buy a horse for transportation. Although horses are relatively rare in small places, it is not the case in the capital. As long as you have money, you can still buy horses.

You can often see people riding horses on the street, especially most middle and low-level officials also choose to ride horses. The main reason is that it was too early in the morning. Impossible, so riding has become the choice of most officials.

It's just that once a horse is bought, the family needs a groom. If there is a groom, a cook must be hired, and other servants must be hired, maidservants should be added, and finally a housekeeper must be hired.

It's like changing a designer tie, you have to buy a matching suit, you have to buy pants, a belt, and shoes, so Fanning has been hesitant to buy a horse?

The ox cart was moving very slowly. The driver was a strong man in his thirties, from Caizhou, and his family lived outside the city. So when Fan Ning told him about the inconvenience of transportation, he did not recommend himself. It was really inconvenient for him to live outside the city. , but he gave Fanning a good suggestion.

"In fact, petty officials don't need to buy horses. You can consider renting them. You can find out if there is a mule and horse shop near your residence. This kind of mule and horse shop opens before dawn and closes after dark. You can take horses or donkeys at night. Hand it over to them, they will feed them, and then go to the mule and horse shop to pull out the legs the next day, which saves the trouble of hiring a groom and mule driver.

As far as I know, many people do this. After all, there are not many people with livestock sheds. You can rent a donkey for two bucks a month, and a horse for five bucks a month. This is the current practice. price. "

This suggestion made Fan Ning quite moved. Thinking about it carefully, there are quite a few mules and horses. There are two in the old Caomen area, and there seems to be one on the other side of the Feiyun Bridge. It is less than a hundred steps away from his new house. I don't need it, so I don't take it to heart. Now that I think about it, renting a foot is really a good way. I'll take a look in two days.

"Thank you, big brother!"

"You're welcome, little official, the west section of Hengjie is ahead!"

The west section of Hengjie Street is the location of Cao Mansion, which is close to Xishuimen. Cao Mansion is a mansion covering an area of ​​nearly [-] mu. Because of Cao Bin's high status in the Song Dynasty, he has been awarded many times, so his descendants live in The [-]-acre giant mansion can also be tolerated by the imperial court.

At this time, the front of the Cao Mansion was full of carriages, just when a large number of guests came, almost all of them brought their families, wives and children and so on.

Men's clothes are relatively simple and very similar. Most of them wear a white or blue gown with a leather belt, a gauze cap on their head, and almost all of them hold a folding fan in their hand.

This is Fanning's attire. He is wearing a blue satin blouse and holding a gold silk folding fan.

But the women are all gorgeous, their hair is combed in a high bun or cloud temples, their hair is oiled, and it is black and shiny in the sun. There are nobilities in their hair, and their steps are light.

The pretty face is covered with a thin powder, which makes her cheeks more pink and rosy, her eyes are sleepy, her long neck and breasts are exposed, and her snow-white skin is as smooth as fat and as greasy as pink.

Especially the young women are all graceful and charming, as if they are not here to participate in some birthday banquet, but to participate in a blind date meeting.

Not to mention, this kind of gathering is really an opportunity for many parents to choose a lifelong partner for their children. After all, the guests who can come to the Cao Mansion birthday banquet are relatively prestigious families.

Fan Ning got out of the bullock cart early and walked over. He was a little hesitant, did he come a little early?
"The little official is also here to attend the birthday banquet?" A man with the appearance of a housekeeper approached him and asked politely.

Seeing Fan Ning holding the wooden box in his arms and the invitation card in the other hand, with a refined temperament and good manners, he didn't dare to scold him casually.

Fan Ning handed him the invitation, and the butler's eyelids twitched. It was No. 17. This was no ordinary guest. Even if he wasn't a relative of the royal family, at least he was a guest that the old master valued very much.

The butler quickly clasped his fists in salute, "Officials, please!"

He saw that Fan Ning didn't come with his parents, and this invitation card belonged to him, so the housekeeper naturally removed the word "small" and called him Guanren directly.

The term 'officer' is very mysterious. Regardless of whether the wife calls her husband an official, others call her an official. There is a kind of affirmation of the other party's status, and it has nothing to do with age. The key is to If you have status, you can be called an official no matter how young you are.

If he is an adult, but he does not live up to his expectations, idles around all day, and can only rely on his parents with status to grow old, this kind of young man cannot be given the title of official, but another title: Ya Nei, which means his father. It's Li Gang, don't provoke him casually.

Although Fan Ning looks young, he has an independent invitation card, No. 17. Such a person should not be called an official, what should he be called?

The housekeeper led Fan Ning all the way to the gate, where there were two welcome teams from the Cao family standing at the gate,
One team was led by Cao Yu, who is the eldest son of today’s birthday star Cao Cong, and the official served as a general. He took four Cao family children to stand on the left side of the gate. My younger brother, the dignified uncle of the country, is an official Qingxu Jiedu envoy.

Empress Cao also has a brother named Cao Yu, who is indifferent to fame and wealth, advocates Taoism, and likes to go to various places in the world to find immortals and visit Taoism. He is one of the legendary Eight Immortals Cao Guojiu.

Uncle Cao Guo is currently living in the Cao Mansion, but he usually doesn't show up on such occasions.

At this time, Fan Ning saw Cao Shi and waved to him. Cao Shi's eyes lit up, and he ran over with a smile and said, "Brother, why are you here?"

Since Su Liang sometimes called Fan Ning senior brother, everyone felt that this title was better, since it was kind and didn't look down on Fan Ning, so everyone started shouting.

After all, Fan Ning was the first senior among their group of Jinshi in the Tongzi Division to be a Beijing official, so it was only natural to call him senior.

Fan Ning shook the invitation in his hand, and said triumphantly, "I have a formal invitation, why can't I come?"

Cao Shi scratched her head, "Why didn't I know that the senior brother was invited? I copied the guest list."

Fan Ning was taken aback, and then he smiled and said, "Maybe I stopped temporarily, and I want to ask you two things?"

Fan Ning pulled Cao Shi aside and asked, "Is there anything taboo about giving your grandfather a birthday present?"

"It's about the same as ordinary people!"

Cao Shi thought about it, and it seemed that his grandfather had no special taboos. Fan Ning opened the box, and inside was a Tianhuangshi Guanyin statue, about one foot long. Zhu Zhe's work was carved very finely and vividly.

"This birthday gift is not bad. My grandmother believes in Buddhism. She must like it."

Cao Shi looked at it carefully and said with a smile: "This is Tian Huangshi, who has become very famous recently!"

"That's it, the top-quality Dongshi Tianhuang, carved by a famous artist, and the queen also likes it very much."

"Then let's go!"

"Wait a minute!"

Fan Ning waved his hand and said, "I still have a question, I guess you don't know it, but it's best if you help me find out."

"What question?"

Fanning handed him the invitation, "Why is my invitation NO.17?"

"Ah!" Cao Shi exclaimed, it turned out to be No.17, this number can only be assigned to an extremely distinguished guest, why Fan Ning is No.17?

He suddenly felt something was wrong. When he was copying the list, there seemed to be someone in No.17, but it was definitely not Fanning.

"I don't know what the reason is, how about I help you find out."

Fanning nodded, "Then please!"

Of course, Fan Ning knew that the Cao family would not make such low-level mistakes, and there must be some reason for giving himself the NO.17 invitation.

And his intuition told Fan Ning that maybe it was not a general reason, it was not as simple as Zhu Yuanfeng said that he won a free gold medal.

(End of this chapter)