"What? But Zhao Gonggong came in person? Yang Shangshu trembled and stood up on the corner of the table, and asked with a look of disbelief.

The servant smiled and said: "It's not that Gonggong Zhao came in person, I heard that the emperor remembered that the lord had worked hard for the country, so he rewarded him with a festival." ”

Yang Shangshu was suddenly excited and burst into tears: "No wonder the old man heard a few magpie calls this morning, it turns out that there is really a happy event!" He hurriedly said to Zhang Shilang: "Xianning! You go to my study and wait for a while, and then you will come after receiving the decree for the teacher. ”

"Yes, congratulations to the teacher." Zhang Shilang hurriedly stood up and saluted.

"Come on, change my official uniform." Yang Shangshu shouted tremblingly. Immediately several young maids rushed up to him, changed him into a red patch of clothes, put on a black gauze hat, put on official boots, and everything was ready, and he hurried to the gate with the support of the servant.

When Yang Shangshu came to the door panting, he saw Zhao Quan, who had fine skin and tender meat, wearing a red robe, with a jade belt around his waist, and a golden scroll in his hand, standing at the door with a few little eunuchs and a group of guards, and a large group of people kneeling in front of him.

Yang Shangshu frowned, and asked in a low voice, "Why don't you invite Gonggong Zhao to sit in the main courtyard." ”

The servant replied in a low voice: "Gonggong Zhao is reluctant to go in, saying that the emperor's favor is for everyone to see." A hint of surprise flashed in Yang Shangshu's heart, but he was afraid that Zhao Quan would pick a thorn, so he still quickened his pace.

Seeing Yang Shangshu coming out of breath, Zhao Quan couldn't help but smile and said, "Lord Yang." Get down on your knees and take the order! ”

"Long live my emperor, long live, long live." Yang Shangshu hurriedly knelt down. A great salute was made.

Zhao Quan slowly opened the scroll in his hand and read it in a frustrated voice. This holy decree only expresses one meaning: that is, Yang Shangshu has worked hard and made great achievements, and has selected a large number of useful talents for the imperial court and the society for decades. The current emperor is sympathetic to your old age and frailty, and specially sent ten extremely precious and rare health pills. Moreover, this elixir is still saved from the emperor's mouth, and eating it can prolong life. Cure all diseases, and it is not far better than the elixir of the old man. After you eat it, you have to work hard for the society and the court until you die.

At this time, the family members of the Yang family also heard the news and rushed over one after another. After Zhao Quan finished reciting the holy decree in one breath, Yang Shangshu led everyone in the family to bow down again, and shouted together: "Thank you, Lord Longen." ”

Only then did Zhao Quan smile and roll up the holy decree and put it on Yang Shangshu's raised hands, and then helped him out. smiled: "Lord Yang, please get up quickly." ”

Yang Shangshu is old after all. still relied on the two sons around him to secretly exert themselves together to help him up. After receiving this holy decree, Yang Shangshu's old face turned red and white, and his heart began to feel uneasy. He didn't know what Zhu Xian's inexplicable holy decree meant, did it imply that he was old and it was time to give way to his juniors?

Zhao Quan beckoned a eunuch holding a vermilion lacquer tray, and he lifted the yellow cover on the tray, revealing a rectangular brocade box with gold embroidered phoenixes underneath. smiled: "Lord Yang, this is the longevity pill." Come on! ”

Yang Shangshu had to put aside all kinds of speculations in his mind for the time being, he handed over the holy decree in his hand to his eldest son, and he opened the brocade box tremblingly, and a strange fragrance immediately came to his face. I saw that there were ten red pills the size of pigeon eggs quietly placed in the brocade box, and the rich medicinal fragrance emanated from these pills.

Zhao Quan smiled slightly and said, "Come on, bring a glass of water." ”

"Yes." Immediately, a maid brought a cup of water, and Zhao Quan took a pill and put it in Yang Shangshu's hand, and said, "Please remember to take one every day, but you can't live up to the emperor's good intentions." Oh, by the way, Xuanyuan Zhenren said, this pill can't be chewed, it must be swallowed, and the essence contained in it will not disperse. ”

Yang Shangshu held this fragrant elixir, and burst into tears for a while. But this time he was scared out of his tears. If such a big pill is swallowed like this, won't you be choked to death?

However, Zhao Quan was staring at the side, and he didn't dare to disobey the holy will. So Yang Shangshu bowed three more times in the direction of the palace, and said some words of gratitude. Only then did he put his heart sideways and put the pill in his mouth. Then he drank a glass of water with a clatter, but he still choked his old face and burst into tears. He stretched his neck, like a crowing rooster, and it took a lot of effort to swallow this deadly elixir. Not to mention, this pill went down to his stomach, and Yang Shangshu immediately felt a warm current slowly spreading in his abdomen.

Zhao Quan smiled and watched him take the pill, not in a hurry to return to the palace to recover his life, but chatted with Yang Shangshu. Although Zhao Quan's rank is a few levels shorter than Yang Shangshu, he is Zhu Xian's personal person. Moreover, eunuchs have always had a reputation for being narrow-minded, loving to hold grudges, and having a vicious heart, and Yang Shangshu did not dare to snub him casually, as long as he chatted with him honestly.

After a few words of gossip, Zhao Quan curiously pointed to the dozens of black baskets that had been put aside in a hurry, exuding a pungent smell of the sea, and were stained with white sea salt particles, and asked, "Yang Shangshu, what's in there?" ”

Yang Shangshu frowned, hurriedly beckoned to the housekeeper, and asked, "What is that?" ”

The old housekeeper took out the gift list and looked at it carefully, and replied respectfully: "If you go back to the master, here are fifty baskets of fresh seafood sent from the mansion of Zhang Shilang, the minister. Because the smell was a bit strong, the villain temporarily piled them up to this side. ”

"I see, but today's festival, the gate is originally full of people coming and going, and you pile all the baskets here, isn't it blocking other people's paths." Hearing that it was just seafood, Yang Shangshu suddenly calmed down.

"Yes, yes, yes, the old slave will let them be moved inside." The old butler immediately beckoned a few servants to carry the things.

Zhao Quan smiled and said: "I grew up by the sea since I was a child, and I liked to catch the sea the most when I was a child. However, I haven't eaten it for a long time after entering the palace in the past few years. Yang Shangshu, can you open the basket and show me what kind of seafood it is? ”

"What's so hard about that?" Yang Shangshu was quite generous, and immediately waved his hand. said: "It's all open for Zhao Gonggong to see!" He said to Zhao Quan, who was smiling, "If you have something you like to eat, just take it." ”

"Yes." The servants were commanded, and immediately opened the lids on the baskets. Zhao Quan really walked over slowly with great interest. I took a closer look.

"It turned out to be all crabs." Zhao Quan exclaimed. He kicked over a basket, and out of it crawled out seven or eight fat crabs the size of a sea bowl, vigorous and fresh, and rampant. Look at that head, it is even bigger than the basket of crabs that the emperor ate at noon.

"Such a size, even if it is on the beach, I am afraid that it will be sold for 500 lines! It's just that this crab has to be eaten alive. If you die, it's no different from arsenic. So much, have you finished eating? Zhao Quan said with a stammering mouth. There were at least seven or eight in this basket, and the cheapest cost four taels of silver. These fifty baskets could not be taken without two hundred taels of silver.

Although Yang Shangshu was also a little surprised. But I didn't care too much, I just said: "There are a lot of people in the house, girls, and a lot of boys." Fifty baskets is not much. "Between words. Zhao Quan had already walked to the middle of those baskets. Suddenly, he frowned and said, "What is this?" Again, he reached out and kicked one of the baskets to the ground. I saw that in addition to two or three crabs crawling out of the basket, a bunch of silver ingots actually rolled out.

Yang Shangshu's eyelids jumped when he saw this, Zhao Quan kicked over one and didn't stop, and then raised his foot and kicked over more than ten baskets in a row. Except for three or four baskets that were all crabs, the remaining nine baskets were all silver ingots. Looking at it, it was all ten taels, and it looked like there were at least a thousand taels.

Yang Shangshu's old face suddenly turned blue and white, and cold sweat on his forehead also broke out. The hands and feet were also trembling, which showed that they were not lightly frightened.

Zhao Quan also restrained the smile on his face. He said, "I don't know when this silver ingot will become seafood?" Won't Lord Yang explain and explain? ”

"I don't know!" Yang Shangshu screamed.

Zhao Quan slowly stroked his legs, kicked a round silver ingot in front of Yang Shangshu, and said coldly: "These things were sent to your mansion, don't you know?" Obviously, he didn't believe Yang Shangshu's defense.

The drooping muscles on both sides of Yang Shangshu's cheeks began to twitch constantly, and he couldn't help but secretly scold Zhang Shilang for harming people. Nowadays, the giver of gifts is a silver ticket, and two fingers are tucked into the sleeve, which is both inconspicuous and easy to keep. Who else would send silver ingots in a big way, and occupy a space, and be conspicuous, and actually put them in a basket and send them in as seafood?

Seeing that Zhao Quan found a silver ingot in the seafood basket, he was furious in front of Yang Shangshu. The rest of the people who were ready to give gifts immediately slipped and climbed, and a long convoy was torn apart and soon disappeared.

Seeing this, Yang Shangshu's eldest son hurriedly took out a stack of thick silver tickets from his sleeve pocket, stuffed them into Zhao Quan's hand without counting, and said with a smile: "These silver ingots are really a big misunderstanding, no one in our family really knows." Even what the old butler recorded on the books was just seafood. I also ask Gonggong Zhao to say a few kind words for us in front of the emperor. He didn't dare to ask Zhao Quan to hide it, because there were too many people who saw this scene, and even if he did, he couldn't hide it.

Who knew that Zhao Quan didn't give face at all, he waved his hand and said: "I took the emperor's money, naturally it is reported according to the truth, as for how the emperor decides, it is the emperor's business, farewell." After speaking, he flicked his sleeves and walked away with those little eunuchs and guards.

"Phew, a dead eunuch, what's the spirit!" Yang Shangshu's eldest son spat at Zhao Quan's back, there was no way, the education they had received since childhood made them look down on these eunuchs in their bones.

Yang Shangshu's old face twitched violently, he picked up his slap and slapped his son's fat face fiercely, and then stomped his foot and scolded angrily: "It's all dying, you little beast is still here to make nonsense, I really don't know whether to live or die." ”

A man who is nearly fifty years old was scolded by his father for being a little beast, but Yang Shangshu's son did not dare to refute, so he only took a few steps back and did not dare to step forward again.

"Someone." Yang Shangshu jumped to his feet, and scolded in an unusually loud voice: "Go, go to my study and fork out the surname Zhang, and throw it out of the house with the things he sent." ”

Zhang Shilang didn't know that the biggest backer behind him had fallen, and he was still sitting in Yang Shangshu's study, peeking at the slender and beautiful maids who came and went, drooling. Suddenly, a few servants broke in with sticks, and after putting him down who didn't have time to react, he was trapped directly with a cowhide rope, and then picked up the stick from the middle, and sure enough, it was forked.

Zhang Shilang had been treated like this, he was angry, shocked, and afraid, and wanted to open his mouth to scold a few words, but his mouth was immediately stuffed with a rag that exuded a peculiar smell.

Until he was thrown out of the gate of Yang's Mansion and lying in the middle of a pile of crabs foaming at the mouth and rampaging with tongs, he was still the second monk who couldn't figure it out. The crabs, who could not distinguish between high and low positions, raised their pincers together at the uninvited guest who had descended from the sky

"Whew" Zhang Shilang howled bitterly and jumped up from the ground, his buttocks, and on his thighs, there were still several crabs that refused to let go of their pincers

Immediately, a servant from Zhang's Mansion stepped forward and helped him shoot off the bold crabs on his body, and by the way, he told him about the scene that happened at the gate of the Yang family before.

Zhang Shilang was dumbfounded when he heard this, and he had to look up to the sky and shout: "Teacher! The students were wronged, and I really didn't put those silver ingots. I obviously stuffed the silver ticket at the feet of the Bodhisattva. It's a pity that no matter how much he shouts injustice, the door of the Yang Mansion is closed and refuses to open to him again.

After Zhao Quan got into the carriage, he immediately knelt down, he held his breath and didn't even dare to breathe. I saw Zhu Xian wearing a guard service, sitting in the carriage, his face was so black that he was almost dripping water.

Zhu Xian originally wanted to see Yang Shangshu's reaction after eating the pill, so Zhao Quan would talk nonsense with Yang Shangshu there, the original intention was to delay time and observe his reaction. Who knew that he had seen such a blatant scene of bribery with his own eyes.

Especially when I saw those crabs that were fatter than those in the palace, I thought that I was the Son of Heaven, but I could only eat so many baskets. If you want to reward some for your beloved concubine, you have to save it from the mouth of your original wife.

And Zhang Shilang is just a three-grade one, and sending fifty baskets of crabs is like sending fifty cabbages. And Yang Shangshu seems to have also become a habit, and it seems that in his consciousness, as long as it is not money, he is fearless. Zhu Xian felt extremely indignant and guilty in his heart.

Zhao Quan buried his head lower, and didn't dare to speak at all. Zhu Xian suddenly thought of a more serious question, Yang Shangshu had done the Spring Exam many times, and the young talents he selected were really talented and learned? (To be continued......)