serious man in the red chamber

Chapter 137
Banquets were set up in the front hall and backyard of Ningguo Mansion.

Jia Amnesty and Jia Zheng led the children in the inner hall, and Jia's mother took the women of the family to chat and have fun in the big flower hall.

Jia Mu changed her homely clothes, leaned on the couch, and talked and laughed with everyone. Fei Cui sat on the couch and beat Jia Mu's legs with her beauty fist.

There is an exquisite small high table in front of the bed, with wine glasses, spoons and chopsticks, as well as melon and fruit snacks.

There were a total of ten or so banquets in the Dahua Hall. In addition to Mrs. Xing, Mrs. Wang, Youshi, Yingchun, Tanchun, Xichun, Daiyu, etc., Jia's mother brought her daughter Xiluan, and Jia Qiong's mother brought her daughter Xiluan. There are about twenty daughters, fourth sisters, and granddaughters in the other rooms.

Jia's mother loves pretty girls, seeing that Xiluan and the fourth sister are well-born, and they speak and act differently, plus one of their elder brothers works in the Yongwei Battalion and the other works in the Chamber of Commerce, so she looks at them differently. , and also rewarded the purse, which contained a lot of gold and silver zippers.

Jia Mu was listening to sisters Yingchun talking and laughing, and the maid said back and forth, "The aunt is here."

Without saying a word, Aunt Xue came in with Baochai, and said with a smile: "The old lady is happy today, and she feels sorry for our orphans and widowed mothers, so I have the cheek to disturb you. Baochai, salute the old lady." Push Baochai.

A maid had already placed a kneeling mat in front of the couch, and Baochai came forward to salute Jia Mu.

"Okay, get up."

Jiamu stood up, took the purse from Yuanyang's hand, and handed it to Baochai: "Come on, take it, don't be disgusted." Then she asked Aunt Xue: "Where is my brother?"

Aunt Xue said with a smile: "Physician Wang said that we can't see the wind for a month. The grandma ordered someone to deliver a table of banquets, and the evil one is eating. No wonder people often say 'gifts come from everyone', I am an experienced person." It’s all good, it’s all good for the ancestors.” After speaking, he nodded his thanks to You Shi.

"Hahaha Aunt Madam is very polite, they are all from my own family, please take a seat."

Mother Jia gave up her hand with a smile, and said, "Forgive me for being old and my bones hurt. Let me be more presumptuous and accompany you on a crooked side."

"You're being polite!" Aunt Xue waved her hands hurriedly.

While talking and laughing, a servant girl's voice came from outside: "Ms. Shi is back!"

Before the words were finished, Xiangyun rushed in like a gust of wind, and said happily: "Old ancestor!" After speaking, he fell to his knees and kowtowed firmly to Jiamu.

"Well, good boy, get up."

Mother Jia waved, hugged Xiangyun into her arms, and asked with a smile, "Why did you come back so soon?"

Xiangyun smiled and said, "I'll come back to drink and laugh with my ancestors." After speaking, he whispered a few words in Jiamu's ear.

Jia Mu nodded and asked Baoyu, "What time is it?"

Baoyu stood up, took out his pocket watch from his bosom, and replied, "It's the end of the time."

Mother Jia turned her eyes to Youshi again, and said, "It's getting late, if you have anything to say, let's talk slowly while eating."

"Yes." Youshi agreed, then turned and walked out.

After a while, the mothers-in-law and maidservants put all kinds of delicacies on the table. For a while, the flower hall was filled with the aroma of delicious delicacies, which made people's index fingers move.

Jia Mu picked up the wine glass: "Please!" As she said, she drank it in one gulp.

The banquet officially begins.
At this time, Jia Hu was sitting in the study, looking at the letter in his hand, lost in thought.

This letter was written by Bowling Marquis Shi Nai to Jia Hu, and it was brought back by Shi Xiangyun in his home letter.

The letter said three things: the first thing was that he had received a secret decree from the Supreme Emperor, asking him to guard Xuzhou City, and not to care about other things.

The second matter was a little more serious. Shi Nai found out that the Xuzhou defenders were on empty pay. Xuzhou did not have 1 defenders, maybe not even [-].Because the Central Plains has been peaceful and stable for nearly a hundred years, the soldiers have become slack, content with having fun, neglecting training, not practicing battle formation, and having no combat power at all.

In a word, the Xuzhou defenders are abolished!
The last thing is even more ridiculous. What is stored in the huge arsenal of Xuzhou City is not armor weapons and other combat supplies, but piles of scrap copper and rotten iron. Even the registered artillery has disappeared.

The Xuzhou guard said that he was like this when he took over. As for where the lost artillery went, his predecessor didn't know. He only knew that Ma Maocheng, the former right servant of the Ministry of War, sent someone to transfer it away.

All right, his predecessor died, and Ma Maocheng died too, making it a case without suspense.

As for those lost artillery, don't think about it, it must be in Huai'an.

The situation in Xuzhou City is completely different from what the imperial court has grasped. If there is a war, it will be impossible to defend.

Shi Nai said that he recruited all the craftsmen in Xuzhou Mansion to build weapons and equipment day and night, especially the defense equipment, and wrote to Shandong General Army Mansion asking for help, asking them to help Xuzhou with a batch of artillery shells and explosives first. The shells did not fire.

As an important town in the Central Plains, Xuzhou City is like this, and other places can be imagined. The key is that the imperial court has not heard any news.

The county deceives the government, the government deceives the province, and the province deceives the imperial court.

Once there is a war, the court doesn't know where it will be defeated!

It's New Year's Eve, and I don't know how the emperor will feel when he receives Shi Nai's urgent delivery?
Now, without the emperor releasing water, the rebellion of the Salt Gang and the White Lotus Sect can sweep across the Huaihe River and Huaihe River, and maybe even Anhui will be affected.

There is also Shui Rong who is eyeing the tiger. Once he sees the weakness of the Central Plains, he will definitely show his minions. Not to mention the poorly trained patrol battalions, even Anhui Wei, who has just experienced the First Battle of the Grassland, can't resist firearms.

Thinking of this, Jia Hu sighed deeply, Da Zhou was really going to mess up.

That's good, the pressure on me will be much less, and the next step is to wait until the emperor has to come to me.

Thinking of the information sent recently, heh, tonight is destined to be uneventful!

Jia Hu stood up, picked up Shi Nai's letter, went to the brazier and threw it in. The letter was quickly swallowed by the flames, then burned to ashes, and strode out.

It snows and gets dark early, ordinary people are not willing to light up lamps to eat, unlike big families like the Jia family, they finish their meals before dark.

Snowflakes fluttered.

Many women and old people took their children out to watch the fireworks, and some wealthy families hung up firecrackers in front of their doors to set off firecrackers, which aroused the envy of the neighbors.

The sky in the distance was illuminated by fireworks, and colorful fireworks fell down. That was Xicheng, where all the relatives of the emperor and noble families lived.

At this time, the sky in the east city was also falling colorfully. That area was at the root of the imperial city, and all the people lived in the families of officials and eunuchs.

The same is in Dongcheng, in many places only the sound of firecrackers can be heard, interspersed with the sound of "two kicks" roaring into the air and explosions.

Several soldiers of the Bingma Division hid in the corner to avoid the wind and snow, stomping their feet to keep warm, and whispered:

"This damn weather, it's extremely cold!"

"That's right, it's really bad luck for eight lifetimes to still be on duty in Dongcheng!"

"It's really unlucky. In previous years, I was on night duty, but it was in the west city. When people make a move, they get silver locks. If you're lucky, you can get gold locks. This year, there are no hairs, and it's still freezing for nothing!"

"The infantry yamen is too dark!"

"Fart! The people from the infantry yamen are in Nancheng and several Taoist temples and temples."

"Oh? Which yamen in the west city is on duty at night?"

"That's not clear."

"."

Several soldiers looked at each other in blank dismay, but it was none of their business, then they rubbed their hands and stomped their feet while holding their spears, talking about the gossip they heard.

(End of this chapter)