Shen Xi's prayer ceremony in the palace temple was very smooth, according to the established process, burning incense and worshipping, writing the sacrifice text of heaven and earth, praying for the safety of the queen and the "prince" in the queen's belly, and it was over. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

According to logic, sincerity is spirituality, but Shen Xi doesn't even know whether Queen Zhang is carrying a prince or a princess in her belly, and now she has to forcibly determine that the birth will be a dragon son, and she has to pretend to be careful, which is really a bit too much of a test of acting skills.

The palace was heavily guarded, and no one came to watch the ceremony, except for the sacrificers.

After Shen Xi came down from the altar, he handed over the sacrificial text to the officials of Honglu Temple who were waiting on the side, and he had a special person to keep the sacrificial text properly, but it was a question whether the emperor could read it in the end.

said that he had arranged a new errand for Shen Xi, but no matter how he looked at it, this errand looked like a fool.

When the emperor was seriously ill and bedridden, he naturally took the protection of the gods very seriously, but recently the emperor's condition has improved, and his attention is focused on the war in the northwest, so he can't think so much.

Of course, Emperor Hongzhi will also care about his wife, but what is the result of Shen Xi's sacrifice and whether he can obtain the protection of God is not in the ranks of Emperor Hongzhi's concern.

The sacrifice was carried out for two hours, and there was a lot of red tape, and after the end, Shen Xi handed over his waist card to the Ministry of Rites for entering and leaving the palace gate, which meant that he would not have the opportunity to enter and exit the palace gate freely in the future.

It was not convenient for Shen Xi to hold the waist card, but it was cheap for Xie Qian, Shen Xi was instructed to plan a night in Wenyuan Pavilion, so that Xie Qian asked Shen Xi to go to Xie Mansion every other day, and the discussion was nothing more than the use of troops in the northwest, but where did Shen Xi have so many opinions for Xie Qian?

Shen Xi is in the capital, although it is said that the Son of Heaven guards the country, but it is hundreds of thousands of miles away from the nine sides, and what big strategic policy the imperial court wants to formulate, it is not his turn to be a little Hanlin to point fingers, as for the specific strategy of using troops, Shen Xi does not know the specific situation of the front line, even if Xie Qian occasionally introduces some, but many of them are four or five days ago or even ten and a half months ago, and the road is back and forth, and the plan cannot catch up with the rapid changes.

After Shen Xi had a brilliant performance, he quickly "returned to flatness", but Xie Qian still likes to discuss with Shen Xi if there is anything, no matter whether Shen Xi can help him or not.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming in a blink of an eye, and Xie Yun'er and his party are still nowhere to be found, but the letter arrived first.

The letter was sent by official mail, which was sent to the capital by Xie Yun'er when she set off from Guangzhou City, Shen Xi calculated the time, it had been more than a month since Xie Yun'er and his party set off, and the letter had been on the road for a month, and it would take at least a month for the people to return to the capital.

Shen Xi originally hoped that the female dependents of the family could return to Beijing at the end of August, but now it seems that he hopes to be in the soup, he is alone in the capital, there is no formal errand, all he does every day is to write and paint, or go outside for a walk, and occasionally go to the Ministry of Officials and Rites to inquire if there are official vacancies, and at the same time, the court is worried that officials like him will pick and choose, and he must also report to the Metropolitan Procuratorate on duty.

On the afternoon of August 14, Shen Xi and Su Tong met at a wine shop in Beijing.

The restaurant is a small two-story building facing the street, located near Dongzhimen, but the layout of the storefront is very narrow, and the second floor can only accommodate four tables.

After Su Tong returned to Beijing after Shen Xi, he invited Shen Xi many times, but unfortunately he never got his wish. This time, Shen Xi finally accepted the invitation, but it was in such a small place, Shen Xi didn't know whether Su Tong was deliberately low-key, to hide people's eyes, or for the sake of Shen Xiqing's reputation, so as to avoid being said to be a bribe by the official because of accepting the banquet.

In short, Shen Xi felt a little strange about Su Tong, who had always been bold and generous, to invite him to such a small place to eat and drink.

“…… Brother Shen, who has lived in the capital for the past two years, has poor property management at home, and the tea plantations in western Fujian generally failed in the first year, so ...... Be aggrieved first, and then go back and then change places to feast Brother Shen! ”

It seems that Su Tong is shy in his pocket and has to lower his standard of living. It is not easy to live in the capital, and you have to spend a hundred taels of silver in Beijing for a year to maintain the minimum pomp, which is not comparable to a small place like Tingzhou.

Shen Xi asked with concern, "Do you need to help Brother Su tide over the difficulties?" ”

Su Tong hurriedly waved his hand: "It's not a difficult time, Brother Shen is too worried, because my brother can handle it!" ”

Shen Xi smiled, not reluctantly. Now he has nothing else, what he has is silver, and this time he returned to Beijing with two large boxes of silver, and then sent more silver to the capital for him to work in the officialdom.

Thanks to Shen Xi's business network in Fujian, Guangdong and Guizhou provinces gradually taking shape, Hui Niang and Li Jin sisters helped him take care of the business of Liangguang, and Song Xiaocheng was in charge of the surrounding industries of Fuzhou.

Xie Qian told Shen Xi before that now Shen Xi seems to have no errands, but when the corn and sweet potato seedlings are transported to the capital, the emperor may send him to the household department to serve as a waiter, or go to Huguang, Jiangsu and Zhejiang to be the governor, and then he will still be a feudal official guarding one side.

Going to Huguang to take up a post is nothing more than changing the land and returning to the stream, quelling local ethnic disputes, and going to Jiangsu and Zhejiang is basically to quell the coastal bandits, anyway, the Ming Dynasty seems to be peaceful but is actually secretly turbulent, and it is not difficult for the imperial court to find something for him to do.

Shen Xi did a good job as the governor of the three provinces, and all the soldiers who went out with him were rewarded for their military merits, and the imperial court also specially issued a decree to commend him, so no one else would think that Shen Xi was idle.

Shen Xi said: "Brother Su, the next session of the examination will be two years later, why don't you take your wife and children back to Tingzhou?" It is important to prepare for the exam in the capital, but it is equally important to save the family business. ”

Su Tong was stunned, repeating Shen Xi's sentence "Iron has to be hard", and felt that it was very reasonable, whether it was taking the exam or being an official, if there was no silver foundation, it would be inconvenient. But Su Tong knows his own affairs, and it is indeed a little difficult for him to give up his current comfortable life, so he explained at the moment:

"Living in the capital for a long time, I feel that this place is prosperous, I can't bear to go back, if I try to take another exam, if not, I can only accept the imperial court's mission, and I am afraid that it will be difficult to get involved in the imperial examination again!"

Even Su Tong, who has always been very confident in his future, actually said that he was ready to give up after taking the next exam, and he was relieved to be a yamen official, Shen Xi felt a little sorry for Su Tong's change in mentality.

Shen Xi nodded: "If you can help in this matter, you must do your best!" ”

When Su Tong heard this, he immediately smiled...... As Shen Xi expected, Su Tong asked to see him, and all he wanted to say was this.

As the so-called there are people in the court who are good officials, Su Tong knows that if there is no one to help, even if he accepts to release the official as a promoter, it is likely that it will take a few years for there to be an official vacancy, and the assignment is nothing more than the county school, the government school teaching, or the assistant officials of the provinces, state capitals and county offices, or even the scribes.

In the entrance examination, if you are not ranked in the first and second grades, but the third is born in the same jinshi, you have to wait for the real shortage at the county level, and you don't know if you want the year of the monkey. The imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty seemed to be fair, but it mainly relied on interpersonal relationships and played the favor card.

Su Tong has the help of Shen Xi, a member of the three grades of the central government, and can be active in the Ministry of Officials, and he may be able to put it in the county for a real shortage when he turns back, and after a few years, there is a shortage in the county, and the court has no time to dispatch, Su Tong can be replaced as the county magistrate, so gradually climbing, being an official may not be slower than a jinshi.

Su Tong's family is backward, and it seems that he desperately wants to get an official vacancy, and he doesn't even want to participate in the next session.

But Shen Xi didn't want his old friend to give up the road to the imperial examination so quickly, a jinshi, even if he didn't get the Shuji Shi to enter the Hanyuan, he would have the qualifications to become an official of the six departments in the future, and his name would go down in history.

But if it's just a person, the official usually won't do too much, and the imperial court only uses it to make up the number when the officials are insufficient, like Gao Mingcheng, who can do several prefects with the body of a person, and even become the governor of Henan and the head of the household, looking at the entire Ming Dynasty, it is almost a handful, and I am afraid that only the Qing official Hai Rui is compared to it.

Su Tong was relieved when he got Shen Xi's promise, and immediately toasted Shen Xi.

It's a pity that Shen Xi didn't have the intention of drinking, shook his head and said: "In the past few days, there may be official affairs in the court, I'm afraid I can't have a hangover, so I can only thank Brother Su for his kindness." ”

"It's still Brother Shen who is enviable, he entered the court early, and he is so prosperous that everyone praises him. Oh yes, I heard that Brother Shen's family has not yet returned to Beijing, if you don't dislike it, you can temporarily live in your brother's mansion, and you will be hospitable! Su Tong extended the invitation with anticipation on his face.

In Shen Xi's impression, Su Tong was not very enthusiastic about studying, but he had a very good set of things for eating, drinking and having fun, especially some special habits, which he couldn't accept, so he immediately shook his head with a smile and rejected Su Tong's "kindness".

Su Tong showed a look of disappointment on his face and said, "Although Brother Shen refuses to move to our house, he can often come over as a guest and treat his brother with hospitality. Brother Shen must not be a brother and down, even if the tea garden run by the family is a little sluggish, it is ...... The world is not good, and the house has some savings. ”

Shen Xi thought to himself, where is the world bad, it is fundamentally that in the past year or so, the tea trade in Fujian, Guangdong and Guizhou provinces has basically been monopolized, and the tea introduction is the same as the salt introduction, which cannot form huge profits, speaking of which Sutong is on the verge of bankruptcy, or Shen Xi's "credit".

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PS: The fourth update is here! The Son of Heaven sincerely asks for a guaranteed monthly pass! Thanks! (To be continued.) )