business lady

Chapter 58 Birthday Banquet
When dawn broke in the morning, carriages were driving on various streets in the capital, breaking the tranquility of the morning, and rattling and rattling in the originally quiet streets!

If the wild geese flying in the sky look down, they will find that these carriages are all heading to the same place like a cobweb!
It is the residence of Prince Duan!Today is the sixth day of June, the day of Duan Wang Xiazhi!These people are all going to the birthday party!
Because of the difference in distance, some people even left before dawn, but no one felt unhappy about it. You must know that you can participate in King Duan's birthday banquet, or you are a dignitary in the current dynasty, or you are an upstart in the future. Everyone regards being able to participate in this birthday banquet as an affirmation of their identity or ability!

At this time, the gate of Duanwang Mansion had already opened early, and Zhang Xiu had already waited at the door with several senior officials in the mansion. roster!

If someone came later, he had to show the invitation card. All he had to do was to draw the name of the person on the roster, and record the gift that this person brought. If there was anything to do in the future, he would know how to return the gift!

And the mansion was already full of people coming and going, and the servants in the mansion were already busy making things for the banquet!

The Gengxuan Hall on the east bank of Jingming Lake was even more crowded, and all the important banquets in Prince Duan's Mansion would be held here!

Tan Se stood in the hall and directed the servants to arrange all the utensils in the hall before the guests came!For a while, she pointed at this for people to deal with, and for a while she pointed at that for people to take care of. When she looked at the hall and felt that everything was about the same, she said that you are here to watch!Then she left in a hurry, she was going to see how Cha Xiang was preparing!
The kitchen is in full swing. The fragrance of tea is watching everyone prepare food for the banquet in the kitchen, especially the cakes and fruit tea that will be served to the guests before the banquet. Seeing that the sky is bright, if the early guests are almost there The mansion is here, these are all needed now, the fragrance of tea is urging everyone to be more careful, when they see the color of tea, they ask her how the preparations in the hall are, and when they hear that they are ready, they relax After taking a deep breath, the two each talked about their own situation, and then went to report to Jiu Yuan from Tan Se!
Jiuyuan had already woken up before dawn to prepare for today's banquet. She was wearing a concubine crown and a first-class court dress for a prince and concubine. She was sitting upright with rouge on her lips, thin gouache on her face, and flowers in her eyebrows. In the Duanfang Zhaitang, I listened to someone who came to report the situation there!
At this moment, Tan Se also came back and told her that yes, she and Cha Xiang were ready too!Jiu Yuan nodded, it's almost done in this way, now everything is ready, only Dongfeng is missing!

Not long after, someone came to invite her, saying that the prince invited her to the main hall of the palace. After hearing this, Jiu Yuan waved his hand to let him go, got up and straightened the folds on the clothes that did not exist, and then led the tea ceremony to the main hall. go!
When he entered the hall, he saw Xia Zhi was sitting on the hall, so he lowered his body and made a blessing, and said with a smile on his face: "I have seen the prince! I wish the prince a long life and good health!"

"You don't need to be too polite! Get up!" Xia Zhi also looked happy when he saw her, and pointed to the seat beside him for her to sit down!
After Jiu Yuan thanked him and sat down as he said, he heard him say: "For my birthday banquet these days, you have worked hard!"

"This is what I should do, not to mention hard work!" Jiu Yuan replied, as his concubine, it was her duty to do these things for him, and she was just doing her own duty !

Xia Zhi wanted to say something more, but saw a servant coming to report that someone from Zhongyonghou's mansion had arrived, so he gave up and asked him to lead him into the hall!

Not long after, I saw a servant leading a middle-aged man in his forties to come in. After he came in, he saluted Xia Zhi Jiuyuan who was sitting in the hall, and said: "I have seen the prince and concubine! I wish the prince a happy life and a long life!" He didn't want to either. He came so early, but his home was too far away, and he was afraid of being late, so he left early, but he was the first one to come!

After Xia Zhi heard this, he said: "You don't need to be too polite! Please sit down!" After speaking, he pointed his hands down to the lower seat!
Zhongyong Hou sat down after Xie En, and immediately someone came up to serve tea, the two of them shivered casually, and people came one after another!Seeing that there were too many people, Xia Zhi led them to the Gengxuan Hall!

The banquet was scheduled to start at Riyi time, and when it was close to Riyi time, almost everyone had arrived, at this time Zhang Xiu came to report that the emperor and empress had come, so everyone got up and followed Xia Zhi out of the hall to welcome the saint!

Fuxi took a step forward and read out the emperor's imperial decree, all of which were rewards for Xia Zhi, everyone was stunned after hearing it, this reward is too generous!
Lu Qian, who was listening directly, wrinkled his face bitterly, and the further he listened, the more wrinkled his face became. Is this the rhythm of the emperor wanting to evacuate the treasury!I don't know how much infamy I have suffered for being so hard to tighten my belt here!Can't resist the emperor's extravagance!I just wanted to quit the job, and then thought about the feasibility of handing in my resignation tomorrow!
Xia Zhi and Jiu Yuan took the imperial decree and thanked the emperor for his grace!

Seeing that he had received the decree, the emperor lifted Xia Zhi's shoulders, made him stand up, and said with a smile: "Haha, no need to be polite! Get up, you are the protagonist today!" After supporting Xia Zhi, he looked around the crowd and said: "Everyone is in peace! Today is my emperor's birthday, and I would like to thank you all for coming to congratulate me!"

After everyone heard this, they all said that they didn't dare, and then congratulated the emperor!
The emperor entered the Gengxuan hall in a good mood, and everyone followed suit. The emperor took the empress and sat down in the first seat, then looked at the people in the hall and said, "All your lords, please take your seats too!"

After thanking everyone, they also sat down at the table one after another. Xia Zhi Jiuyuan sat at the lower left seat of the emperor, and An Wang and his wife sat at the lower right seat. Pastel longevity tableware, silver chopsticks, jade chopsticks pillow and a cup of Wuyi rock tea!
Afterwards, the servant girl passed on the dishes. First, ten cold dishes were served, followed by eighteen stir-fried dishes, twenty big dishes, and twelve beet dishes!After the cold dishes are served, the banquet can begin, and there will be silk and bamboo singing and dancing performances in the hall for everyone to watch!
Just after the banquet, Xia Zhi raised his wine glass to toast the emperor and empress to thank him. The emperor couldn't help but be overjoyed, but when he was toasting to the empress, the empress stared at his face for a long time, and murmured softly: "You Why are you still there?" There was puzzlement in the voice, as if he couldn't believe it!
Because silk and bamboo were played at the banquet, her voice was too low, only the nearby emperor and Xia Zhi heard it, and the emperor didn't care when he heard it. The queen often spoke nonsensical gibberish like this, and he was already used to it. Xia Zhi frowned slightly after hearing this, and cast a doubtful look at her, did she see herself as a mother concubine?
Xia Zhi covered up the suspicion in his eyes, and sat back in his seat calmly after toasting!

When the emperor and queen were in the middle of the eighteen dishes, they ordered everyone to drink to their heart's content, and they left together first!
Once the emperor and queen left, the crowd obviously let go a lot. After all, the emperor was present, and they were a little restrained even in rough lines. Now that the emperor left, the atmosphere immediately became active!

The noisy banquet didn't end until the day's shop!
Jiu Yuan followed Xia Zhi to send away batches of personnel, and he let out a long sigh of relief when he saw that the entire messy Gengxuan Hall was empty, and it was finally done without any mistakes!

Looking sideways at Xia Zhi, seeing that Xia Zhi was also looking at her, the two couldn't help but smile at each other!
For a banquet like today, side concubines like Wan Yingjiao and Yao Tingyu are not eligible to participate. Those who can enter the Gengxuan Hall and the banquet must be the first wife of the main family, and they are not allowed to remarry. , must also be a second-rank imperial wife and above who was entrusted by the imperial court!Although the concubine's rank is second rank, she is still a concubine after all!

After today's main banquet, there will be another small banquet in the evening, specially for the people inside the palace and the relatives and family members of the palace!

Like Yao Shilang's family, they will stay after the main banquet with everyone in the Duke Protector's Mansion in previous years, and they are having a small banquet in the evening!

(End of this chapter)