"It's all guests"!

Regardless of the rank of the other party, Zhong Nan warmly received everyone who came to congratulate him, and tried his best to remember the name and official position of the other party. "Thirty years in Hedong, thirty years in Hexi", no one can guarantee that there will not be a few big names in the future among these people, and treating each other with courtesy will not inexplicably make enemies.

When it was almost six o'clock, big people gradually came, first Xing Jue, the secretary of the Ministry of War, and Song Yingchang, the left attendant of the Ministry of War, came together.

"Zichu, I told Shi Xiang about your plaque just now!" As soon as Xing Jue came, he pointed to the golden plaque and joked about Zhong Nan.

"Lord Shangshu, Lord Zuo Shilang, thank you for coming!" Zhong Nan arched his hand to the two bosses to show his gratitude, and then looked at the plaque and continued: "I didn't expect the emperor to show love so much, ashamed, ashamed!" ”

"Maybe our military department will have to rely on Zhong Shilang in the future!" Song Yingchang also joked.

"Where is it, I will have to bother the two seniors to give me a lot of advice in the future!"

"It's easy to say, it's easy to say..."Xing and Song laughed, and then were greeted by the people arranged by Zhong Nan.

After that, Zhao Zhigao, the cabinet assistant and secretary of the ministry, and his two deputies came to congratulate, and after Zhong Nan greeted them, he still arranged for his own soldiers to welcome him into the lobby.

Immediately afterwards, Ruan Zhongji, the secretary of Dali Temple, and Cao Weiying, the imperial historian of Zuodu, each took the members of the headquarters and arrived at Zhongfu one after another.

When it was almost half past six, except for Shen and Xu in the cabinet, all the other important people invited had already arrived, including Xiao and Wang, two fathers-in-law under Zhang Jing, who also sat in the lobby.

Seeing that it was getting late, just when Zhong Nan thought that the first assistant and the second assistant would both be absent, Shen Shixing and Xu Guo came hand in hand. As soon as the two arrived at the door, they accompanied the salute, "Zhong Shilang, something happened on the way, it's late, please Haihan!" ”

"It's okay...... Shen Ge Lao and Xu Ge Lao can come, and Zhongfu is shining! Yes, please take a seat. Zhong Nan personally led the two to the lobby, and then signaled that the Fubo people had arrived and could start the banquet.

Today's dinner set up four tables in the Zhong Mansion, all of which were sitting in the court officials of the fourth rank and above and some other important figures, and the others with lower official ranks were arranged in the "Qingshan Restaurant" next to the Zhong Mansion. The main reason for this arrangement is that the Zhong Mansion cannot hold more banquets, and the other is that the ordinary officials who came to congratulate cannot be neglected.

As soon as the banquet opened, there were soldiers outside the door to report, Hu Huanshan heard the news, immediately ran to Zhong Nan's side, and whispered. Immediately afterwards, Zhong Nan said "sorry" to everyone, and hurriedly left the table with Hu Huanshan.

After a while, Zhong Nan returned with a smile on his face, and he was accompanied by the eunuch Zhang Whale and the commander of the East Factory. Seeing the people, everyone in the audience stood up, saying hello and greeting, and for a while, it was not lively.

Zhang Whale was in his fifties, but because of proper maintenance and a fair complexion, he looked like a person in his forties. He casually dealt with everyone in the field, and when the scene was quiet, he said leisurely: "Today is a good day for Zhong Shilang, and the miscellaneous family can't steal his limelight." ”

Speaking of this, Zhang Whale arched his hand in the direction of the Forbidden City, "The Holy Lord is busy with official business, so he specially ordered the miscellaneous family to come and congratulate Zhong Shilang." ”

After saying this, Zhang Whale congratulated Zhong Nan in front of everyone, "The miscellaneous family wishes Lord Shilang: A hundred years of happiness in a good day!" ”

"Thank you Father-in-law Zhang, you've worked hard!" Zhong Nam responded.

"There are a lot of affairs in the palace today, and the miscellaneous family can't stay here longer, I hope Lord Shilang will forgive me!" After Zhang Whale finished speaking, he took the wine glass handed over by Zhong Nan and toasted it extremely happily.

"There is a father-in-law, I will come to the door to thank you another day!" Zhong Nan drank three glasses, and then personally sent people out of the gate.

For Zhang Whale's support, Zhong Nan really didn't expect it. Although it was the emperor's meaning, Zhang Whale could just assign a little eunuch to come over, and his personal presence undoubtedly conveyed the meaning of attention and friendship, so Zhong Nan came to the door to thank him.

In Zhong Nan's impression, Zhang Whale is a villain, and he and Zhang Cheng, the current eunuch of the celebrant and the eunuch of the seal, worked together to bring down Zhu Yijun's former companion Feng Bao and let Feng Bao go to Nanjing Yingtianfu to grow vegetables.

Don't think that going to Nanjing to grow vegetables is a light punishment, on the contrary, for eunuchs who have fallen out of favor, this can be regarded as a punishment second only to the death penalty. Because even if you used to be a powerful celebrant eunuch, when you go to the Xiaolingwei Royal Vegetable Garden in Yingtianfu, Nanjing, you have to be disarmed first, and then carry a heavy dung bucket to fertilize and grow vegetables in full view of everyone.

The eunuchs who were demoted to this place not only had to engage in heavy manual labor, but also did not have a good rest, so they could only sleep in the vegetable garden and endure the suffering of winter snow and summer rain. Their activity space is the vegetable garden, and other places are not allowed to cross the thunder pond for half a step, which is equivalent to being imprisoned in the royal vegetable garden in disguise. I believe that for the eunuchs who used to be well-dressed and well-fed, going to Nanjing Yingtianfu to grow vegetables is probably not much better than dying, right?

A better punishment is "degraded to live in a private residence of the emperor", "Gai is still a six-grade official", which means that he is in the cold palace, but he still has an official position; The next important thing is to be sent to Nanjing Xiaolingwei to serve Zhu Yuanzhang, because when he arrived in Xiaoling, he had no official position and was completely a little eunuch; The heavier punishment was to "demote the pure army" (meaning cleaning) and go to Nanjing Xiaolingwei to grow vegetables.

Zhang Whale, a native of Xincheng County, Beizhili, entered the palace as a eunuch during the Jiajing period, and was accepted under the name of the great eunuch Zhang Hong. After Feng Bao was demoted to Nanjing, Zhang Hong was promoted to the eunuch of the celebrant and the eunuch of the seal, and promoted his younger brother Zhang Whale to the eunuch of Bingbi. It's just that not long after, the loyal Zhang Hong died on a hunger strike in order to persuade the Wanli Emperor, so Zhang Cheng climbed to the position of the palm seal eunuch.

Zhang Cheng and Zhang Whale have completely controlled the "Twelve Eunuchs" since then, but Zhang Whale will be more likely to do things, and later he will supervise the East Factory and concurrently manage the internal government supply warehouse, so they gradually climbed to Zhang Cheng's head and became the "first eunuch in the interior" at this time. Zhong Nan recalled the small amount of introductions about Zhang Whale in the original time and space, and knew that Zhang Whale was not a good person, but now that the other party was powerful and trusted by the emperor, he could only avoid his edge and temporarily make a mistake.

After Zhang Whale left, the views of the ministers present on Zhong Nan changed again. Especially the several bigwigs in the cabinet, they exchanged glances with each other, silently expressing the meaning that only they could understand, in addition to surprise, sigh and admiration, there was also a hint of vigilance.

The dinner was sumptuous, and the delicacies cooked by the chefs of the "Worry-Free Restaurant" were full of praise from a group of gourmets. Zhong Nan toasted table by table with a wine glass, the liquor content at this time was not very high, and Zhong Nan was originally a person who was "alcohol test", and he didn't feel drunk after four tables. As for the banquet at the "Qingshan Restaurant" next to him, Zhong Nan just went to show his face and drank three glasses of wine with a little affection.

After three rounds of drinking, everyone at the Zhongfu banquet talked in secret with each other. Seeing this, Zhong Nan walked out of the banquet hall and beckoned Fu Bo to ask him to arrange for the invited troupe to start singing on stage.

At this time, cultural life was relatively scarce, and going to the theater was one of the relatively popular activities. If you want to invite them to perform, not only do you have money, but you also have to have a certain social status, otherwise no matter how much money you pay, people will not come.

This time, I was able to invite "Guangyue Xing", thanks to the help of Xiao Yuxiao's father-in-law, otherwise Zhong Nan wouldn't even know where to find the other party.

The main purpose of the dinner is not to eat, but to arrange a program to not only add to the fun, but also to allow the guests to stay longer. So the atmosphere at this time is that there must always be some performances and the like after dinner for everyone to enjoy.

It didn't take long for the troupe to set up the stage, and with the sound of "Qiang Qiang" musical instruments, the big drama kicked off.

First staged "The Story of the Jade Hairpin", which is a famous opera in the early Wanli period, composed by Gao Lian and loved by everyone. The play depicts the story of Taoist aunt Chen Miaochang and scholar Pan Bizheng, breaking through the constraints of feudal etiquette and Taoist rules, and falling in love until they are combined.

Soon after the repertoire on stage began, a small number of officials poured on the wine table, and the others around them all ridiculed the fallen people for not drinking enough. After a few moments, more and more officials fell, even some military attachés. After that, except for Zhong Nan, all the officials in the field lost consciousness and fell on the table or the ground.

Although he didn't know exactly what happened, Zhong Nan understood that his situation was not good, and he had an idea and collapsed to the ground in the same way as others.

After a while, the sound of the musical instruments of the troupe did not stop, but Zhong Nan heard a female voice coming from it, "Hurry up, just pick a few officials!" ”

A male voice asked, "How do I know whose official is the biggest?" ”

The woman who spoke before was angry, and she shouldn't be very old when she heard the voice, "Are you stupid, those who sit at the same table as the master of this house must be those officials." You pick three and tie them up with the master. ”

"Oh." The man who spoke earlier answered, and then asked, "There are more than a dozen people sitting at that table, which one should I choose?" ”

The woman seemed to be annoyed by the silly man, and the voice of "whoa, whoa, whoa" seemed to be appointing someone for the other party. Immediately afterward, the man said, "Just the four of them, hurry up!" ”

In an instant, Zhong Nan felt someone walking towards him quickly, and then he was tightly tied with a rope, and finally was resisted on a person's shoulder. The man carried Zhong Nan but didn't seem to have any effect, his movements were still very agile, and he walked out of Zhongfu in a few big steps.