Chapter 105: The Funeral

early morning

The entire Zeng Mansion was shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere, not because of the increasingly cold weather, but today is the day of the funeral of Zeng Hanru in Sichuan.

According to the officials of the imperial court, the funeral of officials from the third rank and above should be selected by the Yin and Yang Division of the Qin Tianjian to choose the day, and the obituary will be sent after three days.

Originally, the two red lanterns in front of the Zeng Mansion were all replaced with white paper lamps, and the two red lacquered wood pillars had also been wrapped in plain curtains.

On the big "Zeng Mansion" plaque on the door, a flower cluster made of white cloth is also pulled.

An Yi felt that although he and Zeng Ziren couldn't look at each other, the regimental training camp was under the jurisdiction of the Sichuan Metropolitan Command Envoy, and nominally, Zeng Hanru was also his top boss.

Jiang Ruyue is a cautious person, and she is still very worried about letting Meng Qi take the three hundred Xiao cavalry camp and follow Anyi together.

When I walked to the street in front of Zeng's house, I already heard the whimpering sound in the house.

The far away places on both sides of the gate are already full of paper fragrant cars and BMWs, beauty group flowers,

The funeral procession, with this white silk tied around his waist and musical instruments such as suona and small drum in his hands, leaned on the door and waited.

At the door, there are two servants in mourning clothes, and from time to time the usher comes to mourn the guests like comforting them.

"My lord, I look at the funeral of the commander of this hall, there is not much pomp, you look at the door, but there are only two or three official sedan chairs." Meng Qi sat on the horse, looked at the sparse figures in front of Zeng's house, and said to An Yi,

An Yi smiled, turned his head to answer him, and said: "This funeral is for the living, so its scale does not depend on how big the dead person is, but how big the living person is." ”

He pointed to Zeng Ziren, who had just come out of the mansion, dressed in a filial piety robe, and was personally handing over the two guests, and continued: "If you change the position, it is Zeng Hanru who is standing outside the door, and Zeng Ziren is lying in the coffin, I think I am afraid that there will be no palanquin for condolences on this street." ”

Whether it is a thousand years that have passed, or another year in the future, people will always be so realistic, this is like a cat eating fish and a dog eating meat, it is instinct, it is something engraved in the bones, and it cannot be changed.

"Mr. Wang, please come in."

The man at the gate bowed down and led a man in armor into the house, and then when he turned his head, he saw the comfort of leading the horse to the gate of the house.

Hurriedly tiptoeing a little step, ran over, and said politely: "This official, I don't know how to call it?" So that the little one can help you with your name. ”

An Yi bowed his hand and saluted back: "In Xiahuayang, the regiment is training to make it comfortable, and come to mourn the old commander." ”

"Huayang regiment practice makes it comfortable, come to condole!"

The man turned his head and shouted loudly at the house, and then flashed and made a "please" gesture towards the house,

An Yi and Meng Qi handed the reins of the horse in their hands to the little servant on the side, and stepped into Zeng's mansion.

The mourning hall is located in the main hall of Zeng's house, the plain curtain in the hall is white, the cigarette smoke is swirling, it is very solemn and solemn, the tablet of Zeng Hanru is enshrined in the middle of the high arch, and the tablet is engraved with gold powder with several vigorous and powerful characters:

The commander of the Sichuan capital made Zeng Gong the spiritual position of the Han Confucian monarch

In front of the tablet is a huge Nanmu coffin, which is wrapped in white silk, Zeng Hanru is wearing a blue-bottomed silk official robe, with black foundation soap boots on his feet, and a leopard-like patch on his chest, lying peacefully in the coffin.

On the surrounding futon, 50 Zen monks are invited to kneel and sit in a circle in robes, worship in the main hall with great compassion and confession, and transform the souls after the death to avoid the sins of the deceased, and the voice of sorrow is endless.

As the only eldest son, Zeng Hanru knelt on a futon facing the tablet, bowed his head, holding a white flag in his hand, and he would only get up to greet important guests when they came in and out.

An Yi handed the silk gold prepared in advance to the waiter at the door, and the waiter respectfully took the white brocade bag in his hand, and wrote down the names of the people who came in from outside the door and the amount of silk gold on the rice paper with Mao.

As a guest and not a relative, Anyi, took Meng Qi and bowed deeply to Zeng Hanru's tablet, and then retreated to the door.

"Sichuan political envoy Lord Zhu came to condole!"

An Yi is still the first time to see Zhu Zongchen, wearing a brocade official robe with a blue background, a lifelike peacock embroidered on the repair uniform, wearing a two-winged official hat with a gold thread edge, and striding into the house with a pair of soap boots.

Zeng Ziren heard that it was the political envoy Zhu Zongchen coming, and hurriedly got up to greet him, and bowed deeply to Zhu Zongchen from afar, "The political envoy can still come to mourn after being busy, and the ghost of my father's death will also be very comforted if God knows it." ”

Zhu Zongchen had a sad expression on his face, and said bitterly: "Where is the virtuous nephew, the old commander has worked hard all his life, and he is the great instrument of the country and the pillar of the imperial court. ”

"Your Excellency, please!"

While speaking, Zeng Ziren bowed down and introduced Zhu Zongchen into the mourning hall,

As soon as Zhu Zongchen entered, the sound of scriptures, cries, and drums inside was on a tone at the same time, as the supreme administrator of Sichuan, the imperial court ordered the announcement of the political envoy, he should be the most honorable one among the people who mourned today.

An Yi saw all this in his eyes, and said in his heart that this little young master was also confused enough, Zhu Zongchen directed and acted in a big drama of suppressing bandits, and put the old commander and his own father into it, and the two of them could still greet each other like this when they met, you asked me to let it,

However, it's not just Zeng Ziren, isn't the old commander in the coffin also confused?

This family is old and young, the official to one side of the feudal official, the death is not clear, this enemy came to mourn, and he can also receive the highest courtesy, which can be regarded as a strange news.

An Yi shook his head helplessly,

"Let's go, Meng Qi, let's go back."

He turned his head and was about to call Meng Qi back to the camp together,

"Yes, sir!"

Meng Qi responded, turned around and followed An Yi, and wanted to walk towards the gate of the mansion one after the other.

"Please stay for the group training envoy!"

The shout came from behind him, stopping An Yi and Meng Qi, who had already taken steps and were about to leave.

He turned around and saw that it was a man dressed in armor and dressed like a guard, with an official knife on his waist, and he approached him and arched his hand and said, "Please stay with the regimental training envoy, my family has something to discuss with you." ”

An Yi looked the guard up and down, as if he had no impression of seeing this person, so he asked him, "Dare to ask who your family is?" ”

"Sichuan political envoy Lord Zhu."

The guard did not look up, but replied,

Zhu Zongchen?

What does he ask me for?

An Yi was a little confused, and asked him casually: "I have no contact with your family, do you know what to do with me?" ”

The guard shook his head, "I don't know, I just said that I invited you to go." ”

Well, since others want to see me so much, it's not easy to retreat.

Thinking like this, An Yi raised his arm and raised it forward, "Labor leads the way." ”

"You can't go!"

He hadn't even taken a step forward when he saw the guard standing up straight and stopped Meng Qi behind him.

"My lord has an order, only one person is invited to meet in the group practice, and the rest of the unrelated people are not allowed to enter."

The guard looked at Meng Qi expressionlessly and said coldly.

Meng Qi frowned, crossed the crotch knife in the scabbard in his hand, and wanted to push the guard away.

"Meng Qi, forget it, around the mourning hall, you can't see the sword light, you go and wait for me outside the mansion."

"Yes! My lord, I am outside the door with my brothers, and we can hear anything if you call out. ”

Meng Qi seemed to have said this specifically to the guard, and when he was about to say this, he glanced at him fiercely, turned around and walked towards the door of the mansion.

The guard walked around the mourning hall with comfort, and walked around to the door of a side hall.

"My lord, this is it, please come in."

Looking at the location, this side hall should be in the back house of Zeng's mansion, a bit like the study of the Shu Wang's Mansion, it is not very big, the door of the hall is closed, and I can't see whether there are people or no one inside.

An Yi glanced back at the guard suspiciously, feeling as if he didn't want to bring himself in, but let him in by himself,

The guard didn't mean to explain, just bowed down and took two steps back, then turned around, and turned around as if he had completed his task.

"This envoy is quite mysterious."

An Yi smiled slightly and said to himself.

He pushed open the door and stepped in,

The hall is a very standard set of house furnishings, two rattan and wood Taishi chairs, a square table, and a landscape painting on the wall.

On the Taishi chair at the bottom, there is a familiar figure,

The figure was dressed in a filial piety robe, crossed Erlang's legs, and was coiling a piece of jade in his hand.

Zeng Ziren!

Although the figure was half-bowed with his head, it still made An Yi recognize the cynical face, and he almost blurted out,

"Is that you?"

Zeng Ziren raised his head when he heard the sound, saw the familiar man in front of him, stood up, stuffed the treasure jade he was playing with back into his sleeve, and asked An Yi sharply: "What are you doing here?" Is this where you came from? ”

An Yi didn't pay attention to him, his eyes scanned the surrounding furnishings in the hall, looking for the figure of Zhu Zongchen.

"When I ask you, do you hear me? This is my house, who gave you the courage to trespass? ”

Zeng Ziren didn't answer when he saw Anyi, he took two steps forward and pointed at him.

An Yi frowned and looked at him with disgust, he was impatient with this gentleman from the bottom of his heart,

After he searched around and didn't find the person he was looking for, he reluctantly asked Zeng Ziren: "You are the only one here?" ”

Zeng Ziren didn't understand what he meant, and his face was a little angry about the comfort he asked.

"Who else but me! Did you hear what I asked you? ”

An Yi didn't intend to pay attention to him at all, and after getting the answer he wanted, he wanted to turn around and leave.

"Please stay for the group training envoy."

A slightly muffled voice stopped Comfort, who had already stepped out of the door on one leg.

Zhu Zongchen's bronzed face was full of smiles, looking like a kind old man, he stepped forward in two steps and grabbed Anyi's arm,

"The group practice makes the adults stay."

The anger on Zeng Ziren's face just now had long since disappeared, and he looked at Zhu Zongchen with a look of surprise, it was obvious that he was also called by Zhu Zongchen, and he didn't know that Zhu Zongchen had been in this small side hall all along.

Zhu Zongchen very kindly dragged An Yi in from outside the door, and said to the two: "The old man was dealing with some things in the pavilion just now, and the two virtuous nephews waited for a long time. ”

This image of a warm and intimate elder is completely inconsistent with the initiator who colluded with the Wugu Sect, killed the commander, and almost killed himself in the mouth of An Yi and Jiang Ruyue last night, which once made An Yi a little suspicious of his own inference.

However, since Zhu Zongchen was willing to be this kind elder, then there was naturally no reason to dismantle the stage, and he politely asked, "I don't know what Lord Zhu is looking for?" ”

Zeng Ziren heard that An Yi was also called by Zhu Zongchen, and looked at Zhu Zongchen with a blank face.

Zhu Zongchen still maintained that "kind" expression, and pressed his hand towards the two: "The two are about to be ministers in the same hall, don't be so angry as soon as you meet, and you will have to be more friendly in the future." ”

"A minister in the same hall?"

Zeng Ziren was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, frowning, looking at An Yi with disdain,

"Ridiculous! He is an unpopular little official, why is he a minister in the same palace as me! ”

An Yi laughed very contemptuously, and asked him rhetorically: "Then I don't know what your official position is now?" ”

"I...."

Zeng Ziren was speechless for a while, as soon as this old man Zeng died, I am afraid that he would not even have to wear the "official hat" of the commander of his son.

I didn't expect this blurted out sentence, but I put myself into it.

An Yi didn't have such an exaggerated expression, he seemed to look at the Zhu Zongchen who was sitting at the top, and said coldly: "There are more ridiculous things in this mansion than this. ”

I don't know if Zhu Zongchen heard the meaning of An Yi's words, so I saw that he gradually put away his "kind smile" expression and put on a serious face.

Seeing him stand up, he pulled out the two cotton cushions on the rattan chair and threw them on the ground in front of the two of them, and then slowly took out a roll of yellow silk from his cuffs, and said loudly:

"Zeng Ziren, comfortably take the order!"