The deputy envoy of the General Administration Department summoned Han Xiufeng, a subordinate, and Ji Yunfei naturally did not want to follow, so he took his leave. Thinking that Han Xiufeng had his own government office, but he didn't have a family member here, he deliberately let Yun Qijun stay in the Dengwen Drum Hall while waiting for news, and at the same time be Han Xiufeng's friend for a few days.

Considering that if nothing else happened, Yun Qijun would go to Guangdong to take office in a few days, and it would be good to familiarize himself with the situation as soon as possible, Han Xiufeng simply handed over the key to the public house to Yun Qijun, and asked him to take a look at the folds in the public house and the peace treaty signed by the imperial court Daoguang with Britain, the United States and France in 234.

After sending Ji Yunfei away, arranging everything in the Dengwen Drum Hall, and coming to the deputy envoy's office in the northwest corner of the Yamen of the General Administration, he found that Yan Zhengji was pouring himself a drink, and he probably felt that it was not interesting to eat wine alone, so he sent his family to call him to eat wine.

Wine is good wine, and meat is even better meat!

"Hubu Street Horse Record" is named because the shop is open at the gate of the Zongren Mansion Yamen, next to the Hubu Yamen, and the sauce mutton and roast mutton cooked are mellow and fragrant. It is said that the imperial physician of the Tai Hospital often went to the back kitchen of his house to give instructions on how to cook better, and anyway, the officials of the Yamen, such as the Liubu and the Zongren Mansion and the General Administration Department, were frequent visitors to his house. However, Han Xiufeng had only heard of it, and he had never eaten it, so he didn't expect to have this blessing today.

Yan Zhengji really didn't have anything else, he just felt that it was boring to eat alone, and when he learned that Han Xiufeng was going to face the saint again in the afternoon, he smiled enviously: "Since you want to face the saint in the afternoon, then drink less." ”

"Thank you, Lord for your understanding."

"Don't be so polite, come on, come on, try the sauce."

It was almost time to eat, Han Xiufeng was really hungry, picked up a piece of baked cake that the store had already cut in the middle, sandwiched a piece of mutton with chopstick sauce and stuffed it into the cake, and asked curiously while eating: "Lord Yan, are you busy today?" ”

"Lord Li and Lord Shuangfu are fine, what do I have to be busy with," Yan Zhengji smiled, and pointed to the side dishes on the table and said, "Young people have a good appetite, so eat more if you can." Zhixing, don't believe it, when I was young, I could eat two catties of sauce meat like this, and I could eat three or four baked cakes like this at a meal! ”

"Then Xiufeng won't be polite to adults." It could be seen that the energetic old man in front of him was a man of temperament, Han Xiufeng was respectful and obedient, and took another big bite.

Seeing that Han Xiufeng was eating with relish, Yan Zhengji's appetite also improved, and while chewing slowly, he asked curiously: "Zhixing, I still have to meet today, didn't I see the emperor yesterday?" ”

"See, it's just that the emperor was a little busy yesterday, so he asked Xiufeng to kneel down without asking a few words, and ordered Xiufeng to hand over the sign again today."

"Ask about the river camp?"

"My lord doesn't know, the river camp now has only one name left, and some of the soldiers who Xiufeng trained on the south bank with the governor were transferred to Shandong to quell the chaos, and some were transferred to the capital and incorporated into the patrol camp, and the camp was empty before Xiufeng was ordered to return to Beijing."

"Then why did the emperor summon him again and again?"

This question stopped Han Xiufeng, because he really couldn't say it. Yan Zhengji saw that his face was embarrassed, and immediately smiled slightly: "It seems that it must be a confidential matter, when the old man didn't ask, you don't need to explain." ”

"Master Xie."

……

Yan Zhengji did what he said, he didn't ask again without asking, and he didn't ask about it, but he kept thinking about why the emperor summoned Han Xiufeng, and why Wen Qing wanted to promote Han Xiufeng to the General Administration Department as a counselor, but he couldn't think of a reason after racking his brains.

The top boss was approachable, but he couldn't say anything to the top boss, this meal made Han Xiufeng more and more embarrassed the more he ate, and when he saw a pen post style coming in with a stack of official documents, he simply got up and retired.

Returned to the Dengwen Drum Hall and sat for a while, and told Yun Qijun, who had just bought some food from the vendor outside, about the investigation of Yiqing, calculating the time The emperor should be having dinner, and when he is finished, he will drive the West Garden, and he would rather go to the West Garden early to wait for the emperor than let the emperor wait for him as a courtier in the West Garden, so he walked out of the yamen and climbed into the carriage and went straight to the West Garden.

Xiao Shandong, who was sitting in front of the car, became more and more strange the more he thought about it, and couldn't help but turn around and say: "Fourth master, you just said that the emperor is having dinner, but it's still early, and it's almost the same time to have lunch at this time!" ”

"That's right, the emperor should really be having dinner at this time." Han Xiufeng smiled, thought about it and sighed: "Don't look at the emperor sitting on the world, he is the honor of the Ninety-Five, but the emperor's life is far less comfortable than the people imagined." Every day before dawn, you have to get up to greet the Queen Mother, and then read it in the morning, and only after reading the hadith can you have breakfast. After breakfast, you either read the excerpts, or summon the ministers, or listen to the government, and start to eat dinner at this point, only eating twice a day. ”

"The emperor only eats two meals a day, so what should I do if I am hungry?" Xiao Shandong will be skeptical.

"Eat a snack when you're hungry, and only two meals anyway."

……

As expected, not long after arriving at the east gate of Xiyuan, the emperor sat on the foot carried by sixteen eunuchs, and arrived in the crowd of nearly a hundred guards wearing yellow jackets, Han Xiufeng hurriedly dusted off his horse's hooves and knelt down to greet him, Xianfeng also saw him, and the eunuch who followed Buyu all the way trotted sideways whispered a few words and went in.

Han Xiufeng didn't dare to look directly just now, until he heard a little eunuch say, "Master Han, please come with the little one", and then he quickly got up.

Stuffed the little eunuch with a silver ticket of ten taels, followed the little eunuch left and right, and came to a small island in the middle of the lake, on which there was a dirt mountain, a temple on the mountain, and a white pagoda on the top of the mountain. After waiting in a pavilion at the foot of the mountain for about half an hour, the emperor arrived surrounded by several guards.

Han Xiufeng hurriedly stepped forward to greet Saint Ann.

Xianfeng sat on the cushion that the eunuch had just placed, and waited for the eunuch to withdraw a few dozen steps, then he rubbed his legs and said lightly: "Flatten, this is not the palace, there are not so many rules, get up and talk." ”

"Your Majesty."

"How do you find out the rules of the situation?"

"Your Majesty, the minister has prepared it," Han Xiufeng hurriedly took out the fold from his sleeve and presented it respectfully.

Xianfeng motioned for the guard who was about to go up to pick up the fold to step down, took the fold with his own hands and put it aside, and rubbed his legs while saying, "I will look back and take a closer look, you can tell me first." ”

"The minister obeys the order," Han Xiufeng cleared his throat, bowed down and said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that if he sends a detailed work to investigate like this, not to mention that he may not be able to get things done, and if he doesn't do it, he will even be arrested by local officials as a chaotic party." It's okay to be captured by local officials, but if it is captured by Xiyi, it will really delay the big thing, and it will really startle the snake! ”

"You can't startle the snake," he said. Xianfeng was talking about business, but his eyes stayed on Han Xiufeng's official uniform.

Han Xiufeng suddenly realized what the emperor was looking at, the official uniform he was wearing now was given by Qiao Songnian when he was in Shanghai, and Qiao Songnian estimated that he was also temporarily sent to buy it, anyway, it was an old official uniform. Although it is old, although it has been worn for nearly a year, it is not broken, but it does not look so glamorous. And it is not cheap to buy a new one, and Han Xiufeng has never thought of changing it.

It's just that I entered Beijing too hurriedly this time, and I didn't bring a change of clothes.

When I came to Xiyuan yesterday afternoon to meet him, I came from the Yamen of the General Administration Department and did not take a car. The road was dirty and difficult to walk, so by the time I got back to the hall, it was too dirty to wear anymore. Xiao Shandong hurriedly helped wash it, but it didn't dry until this morning, so he ironed it with an iron in a hurry. As a result, the scalding was dry, but the color of the fabric was also scalded off several pieces.

In short, it looks like it's blue and white.

Walking on the street, even if you go to the yamen, no one will laugh at you, after all, there are many poor Beijing officials, and some Beijing officials are poor and have no official uniforms and can only borrow them from others, and if they can't borrow them, they will draw a patch with paper...... But now he is a face saint, not on the street or to the yamen, if he is targeted by the imperial historian, he may really be impeached for the emperor's misconduct.

Han Xiufeng chuckled in his heart, hurriedly pretended not to have guessed anything, and continued: "So the minister discussed with Lord Su Shun for a long time, and planned to ask the emperor to see if he could elect a group of civil and military officials, and send them to Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Ningbo, Shanghai, Xin'an, which is next to Hong Kong, and Xiangjiang, which is next to Macao, as officials, and ordered them to recruit and train on the spot, and investigate the movements of Xiyi day and night. ”

The selection and meticulous work that was said before has now become the selection of civil and military officials!

Xianfeng frowned slightly, subconsciously picked up the fold and opened it to take a look, and found that Han Si and Su Shunbao were not the eighth or ninth rank of the Zuo Er petty officials, or the insignificant military attachés such as the Green Battalion guerrilla and the thousand presidents, and his brows gradually stretched again.

"Why do you have to choose two people in each place?"

"Your Majesty, the reason why the minister asked each place to select two people is that he thinks that the matter of investigating the situation of Yi must not be publicized, and whether it is the inspection or the county to investigate the military situation of Yi, especially the military situation of Xiyi, after all, it is necessary to quickly transmit the military information to Beijing. The soldiers are very fast, and the fastest way is to send a post to the military department, which is 600 miles urgent. But an inspection or a county, even if there is a military department survey, it is inconvenient to send such an urgent mail, even if it can be sent, it will alarm the state and county main hall. ”

Although the post shops are subordinate to the Ministry of War, in fact, the post shops in various places are under the management of the main halls of each state and county, and most places do not have post houses. Thinking that it was not appropriate to let the official document of the inspection or the county minister expedite six hundred miles in three days, Xianfeng couldn't help but look at the excerpt and smiled: "Baoju Zhili raised Yun Qijun as the vast number of Confucianism in the South China Sea, and Baoju Tuketan, the secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as the deputy member of the Guangdong Customs, is this planning to order Yun Qijun to investigate the situation, and then Tuketan will send six hundred miles to expedite the news back to Beijing after the investigation?" ”

Su Shun also raised several people, and this Tuktan is.

Han Xiufeng bowed down and said: "The emperor is sage, but the reason why the minister guarantees two people in each place is that there are two considerations. ”

"Tell me about it."

"Your Majesty, the ministers are worried that people will be lazy if they stay in one place for a long time, and each place will appoint two people to supervise each other. Maybe the minister spends the belly of a gentleman with the heart of a villain, but the emperor gives such a heavy task to the minister, and the minister has to do his errand well, even if he is a villain in vain. ”

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