First Minister of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 134
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Night falls.

In front of the Qianhua Gate, the square was brightly lit, and officials and nobles came and went in an endless stream, congratulating each other on the New Year's Eve.

In the Hall of Martial Virtue, Li Yuan was wearing a black gauze hat and a folded upper towel, and a ochre-gold dragon robe. He was dressed in ordinary clothes, full of smiles, and his grandma's face was full of kindness.

New Year's Eve tonight, the atmosphere is peaceful, Li Yuan kept chatting and laughing with Pei Ji, Gao Junya and others, laughing up to the sky from time to time, in a very good mood, Chinese and military officials of the palace gathered together, chatting and laughing happily, what a scene of a prosperous dynasty .

There are desks lined up in the palace, and the maids and waiters who come and go serve plates and plates of delicacies, with fluttering clothes. It is a beautiful scenery in this grand palace.

Famous scholars gathered in the hall, all of them were of extraordinary bearing, there were gentle and elegant Confucian scholars, and there were also burly military generals, Gao Chong didn't recognize most of them at a glance.

Although Gao Chong was only a fifth-rank official, he was the son of Duke Yan and soon to be the son-in-law of King Tang, so his status was naturally not low, so he was placed in the upper left column, looking around.

On the left is Quan Hongshou, a member of the prime minister's mansion, an old minister who raised troops in Jinyang. Although Gao Chong didn't have much contact with him, he knew him well, and he nodded immediately.

Then he looked to the right, but saw a strong man with a strong body and slender arms lying on the seat, with one hand holding his head, and the other hand directly pouring wine from the spout of the jug to his mouth, so chic.

Seeing Gao Chong look over, the man grinned, "You don't have to be cautious when giving a banquet on New Year's Eve, just be more casual."

Gao Chong was stunned, and then nodded with a smile. Unexpectedly, the man sat up straight and leaned over with a smile: "A certain family's surname is Qiao, the name is Gui, and the character is Wendu. The young man is Gao Youzhi who fought in the bloody Heihe Valley. Look at you." Elegant and white-faced, but don’t want to fight so fiercely, a certain family admires.”

Hearing these words, Gao Chong was very humble. He didn't have much impression of Qiao Gui, but judging from his demeanor, he should not be mediocre.

"Yuzhi, you dare to fight tough battles, a certain family believes that you are a hero", Qiao Gui continued, "I kindly remind you, you need to be more careful tonight."

Hearing this, Gao Chong frowned, Qiao Gui pouted, and the two looked at the tables diagonally opposite. The people at the tables were talking and laughing loudly, and it was very lively. Among them, Gao Chong recognized a person, that is Yu Zhining .

"Yu Zhining?" Gao Chong asked softly, he could see that Qiao Gui was very relaxed and straightforward, and seemed to have no malice towards him.

Qiao Gui shook his head and said no more.

Although Gao Chong was puzzled in his heart, Qiao Gui had no friendship with him, but he was willing to remind him that no matter what, he was a friend rather than an enemy, so he immediately thanked him.

At this moment, Gao Chong keenly felt that someone was staring at him. This was a kind of intuition. Even if you were in a crowd, if someone was pointing and commenting on you, you would definitely be able to feel it.

Gao Chong looked up sharply, only to see Yu Zhining and a person beside him pointing at him, saying something, but unfortunately Gao Chong couldn't speak with lips, but he didn't know what Yu Zhining was talking about. Looking over, Yu Zhining was slightly taken aback, then nodded silently and turned around.

Gao Chong didn't like this feeling very much, holding a glass of pepper and cypress wine with an indescribable taste in his hand, he was thoughtful, but he didn't take it for a long time, just quietly watching the busy maids coming and going.

"Okay, Gao Youzhi", suddenly, a stern voice came from next to my ear, "I'm about to marry my sixth sister, and you're still here to look at the maid?"

Gao Chong was contemplating, when he heard the words, he was startled, the wine glass in his hand almost fell, he hurriedly said with a wry smile: "Second Young Master, don't scare me, let me, Aye, hear this, and don't beat me to death."

Li Shimin and Liu Hongji looked at him jokingly behind him.

"The position arranged by the ceremonial officer is too inhumane," Li Shimin complained straight away, "Separating the people in my right-hand army mansion so far apart, it's so refreshing to drink, let's go, you, let's go over there to drink together."

Gao Chong had no choice but to get up, and then Li Shimin gathered Tang Jian, Changsun Shunde, Gongsun Wuda and other acquaintances together.

All kinds of drinking orders emerged one after another, but Gao Chong smiled wryly. He was really not good at these. Seeing this, Liu Hongji and Gongsun Wuda were even more enthusiastic. They raised their glasses frequently. .

Seeing this, Li Shimin also straightly praised: "You have a good drinker capacity", the left and right were about to drink more, Gao Chong hurriedly shook his head and said: "Don't drink any more, if you get drunk on such occasions, it will be a great sin."

Hearing this, Li Shimin waved his hands generously, "Have fun tonight, you don't have to worry too much, just get drunk and rest." After finishing speaking, he took a pot of fresh juice and poured Gao a glass , Gao Chong burped, the paprika wine tasted hot and sour, but it didn't taste like alcohol.

Seeing everyone enjoying themselves so much, Liu Hongji held Gao Chong's shoulder tightly, "If you don't drink tonight, you will have to drink ten times and a hundred times when you get married, otherwise you will never stop."

Hearing this, Gao Chong raised his brows, he was excited, immediately put down the wine glass, and went straight to take the wine jug, "A few jugs of wine can do nothing to me", after finishing speaking, he drank a whole jug full.

Everyone applauded when they saw this.

"You...you're ruthless", Liu Hongji couldn't help hiccupping when he saw this, and nodded in a daze.

At this moment, Li Yuan seemed to be in high spirits, and clapped his hands, "Tonight is the Lunar New Year's Eve, and there are many people with outstanding literary talents here." , this jade will be regarded as a lottery."

When everyone heard the words, they all agreed, and there were many literati present. After hearing Li Yuan's words, they all searched their brains and racked their brains to organize rhetoric in order to make a name for themselves, and that piece of jade was destined to be not ordinary. A piece of jade is a gift from the imperial court.

When Li Yuan saw this, he was also very happy with a smile on his face. After all, the officials raised their glasses so frequently and drank it all in one gulp.

Speaking of which, although Li Yuan came from a noble family, and his archery skills are superb, Li Yuan himself is not good at literature, and no good works have been handed down to the world.

Li Yuan's works included in "Full Tang Poems" are also very simple, and there is only one titled "Mocking Su Shichang".

His poem said: "The name is long but the meaning is short, the mouth is righteous and the heart is evil. Abandon loyalty to Zheng Guo, and lose faith and righteousness to my family."

This poem is concise and to the point, most of it is colloquial, it can be called semi-vernacular, which is enough to see Li Yuan's literary level, it can't be said to be extremely high, it doesn't matter if it's arty, Li Yuan really likes literature.

If there is love at the top, the bottom will follow what it likes. Even if there are several scribes, they will read the works solemnly.

The servant at the side hurriedly wrote down, no matter who finished reading, Li Yuan would nod and clap in applause.

Gao Chong's face was flushed, and he dropped an empty pot casually. Hearing a scribe casually recite a few New Year's Eve poems, such as "New Year's Eve is just right, my king celebrates together", Li Yuan also clapped his hands and praised, Gao Chong couldn't help laughing Voice.

(End of this chapter)