Chapter 388: Hearing the News

The Bei'anmen Gate of the Imperial City is close to Shichahai, and the nearby alleys were originally inhabited by the families of the Jingwei Army, and the neat and tidy houses were all built by the Ministry of Industry Shangshu Song Li supervised the construction, and thousands of rooms stretched out a radius of several hundred zhang square yuan, and this time a third of them had to be vacated. Since the 3,000 newly transferred people were on duty in three shifts a day, and the winter was extremely hard, the rice and grain were preferred, and there was sufficient hot water every day.

Although it is a joint management, and even a greater responsibility, Haishou, the great eunuch, is used to enjoying himself in the palace, so he naturally refuses to live in these rooms dedicated to military households, so he refuses to stay in the evening. As soon as he left with his front foot, Zhou Bailing, who came in with his back foot, saw Zhang Yue sitting by the brazier reading a book, and couldn't help but lean up to take a look, and immediately laughed.

"My lord is elegant, and he is still reading here on such a cold day."

Zhou Bailing was originally a bold man who was promoted from the military household for meritorious service in the Northern Expedition, and he was familiar with Zhang Yue again, knowing that he was not formal, so he sat down on a small stool next to him. Seeing Zhang Yue put down the book and put his hand up to roast the fire, he pouted towards the door, his face full of disdain.

"The emperor is good at everything, he just likes to use these eunuchs! This Haishou was sent by North Korea in the early years, and he was promoted to his current position after a few years of favor, and I heard that every time he returned to China, he was bribe-giving, and he was the most greedy guy! Don't look at him being polite to Lord Xiao Zhang now, that's because you are powerful in your family, he can't afford to provoke him, if you try it with someone else? They themselves are eunuchs, and they actually hire people to take care of the industry, and there are more than a dozen shops near Andingmen just by the master of ceremonies! ”

"Lao Zhou, just let me hear these words, don't go around!"

Zhang Yue knew that Zhou Bailing was not a person with a broken mouth, so he said with a smile at this time. Zhou Bailing scratched the back of his head with a smile, and wrapped the big red cotton robe on his body tightly, but sighed: "Compared with those local guards, our Beijing camp can be regarded as elite, and the supply of rice and grain is of the highest quality, but if you want to feed the whole family, it is still tight, and there is not a few dollars left in a year." My son is also a military household, but my thousand households are not world officials, so I may not be able to leave them to him. ”

The Ming Dynasty compiled the people of the world into the register, and Zhang Yue, who was enslaved in the yellow book, naturally understood. However, now the children of military families often participate in the imperial examination, so he comforted Zhou Bailing twice, and learned that his son lived in the city, so he simply instructed to send the child to study in the name of the Zhang family's relatives.

This Jingshi's private school is very expensive, and people look down on the children of military families, if he only asks the teacher, he doesn't have that ability, and it will be much easier with Zhang Yue's help. He didn't expect his son to pass the imperial examination, but it was easier for a literate officer to be promoted than an illiterate officer. Although he hadn't read a few books, some of the people who had made the same meritorious contributions as him were still hundreds of households and townspeople, but he became a thousand.

The two talked for another while on the fire, and Zhou Bailing stood up and prepared to go out to inspect. Zhang Yue went back early last night, and after coming back, he slept with clothes and didn't go to the inspection, so he said that he would go this time and change it in the evening. Zhou Bailing thought about the silence and loneliness at night, he was really not at ease to let Zhang Yue go out at that time, so he no longer competed, and after Zhang Yue put on a big coat and went out and called Hu Qi or four, he sent four more accompanying soldiers, a total of nine people entered the palace from Bei'anmen.

Bei'anmen is mainly the 24 yamen of eunuchs, although it is dark at this time, many rooms inside are still lit with lamps and candles, and people enter and exit from time to time. Because the lanterns of Zhang Yue and others were specially made, with the royal characters of Dou Da written on them, those eunuchs of all sizes knew that there was such a military horse stationed near the left side of the palace, and they did not come forward to inquire when they saw someone coming, and some even took a detour. When Zhang Yue walked all the way and saw Donghua Gate from afar, a group of people came out of the Neidong Factory on the left-hand side, and the two sides just collided.

"Father-in-law Lu."

"Hey, it's Lord Xiao Zhang, it's such a coincidence!" Lu Feng was originally scolding a few subordinates, but when he saw Zhang Yue, he squeezed out a trace of an unnatural smile, "You are really conscientious, and you actually led people to inspect in person." We still have some things to do, so let's go first, and I'll talk to you when I'm free. ”

Zhang Yue saw that the few little eunuchs behind Lu Feng were all full of bitterness, and his heart moved slightly, but he didn't say anything, nodded and let people go. After a while, he led people to Donghua Gate, and just asked the leading team a few words about defense, a few guards next to him showed a look of attention, and he quickly turned around. When I looked closely, there was a group of people not far away who were escorting a large sedan chair by four people, and the silk paper lantern carried by the two people was a word for Zhou. Only then did a shadow appear in his heart, and the sedan chair landed steadily, and a sturdy sedan chair man opened the sedan curtain high, and it was exactly the person he expected.

"County Lord?"

Zhu Ning bent down and came out of the sedan chair, and when she saw that it was Zhang Yue, she immediately smiled and said, "It's really a coincidence this time, I just came back from watching Wan'er from your house!" You guy only cares about business and can't take care of her who is pregnant with Liujia, but today I have met Juan'er who has repeatedly moved, and he will be born into an energetic little guy in the future. Why, you still have to patrol all the way along the royal road now? ”

"I just came in from Bei'anmen, and I haven't gone to Xihuamen at noon, and I haven't left a big circle."

Seeing that Zhang Yue was covered with a sable fur coat, Zhu Ning couldn't help but squint his eyes and take a closer look, then took out a letter from his sleeve and handed it over: "Your father brought a letter from Jiangnan to the family, one for the old lady to say goodbye, and one for you." You're not here, Wan'er has seen it for you, and I heard her say it's very important, and it's inconvenient for others to send it over, so I let me bring it over. I was going to take a detour to Bei'anmen, but who knew that I happened to meet you here. ”

"Thank you for your trouble."

"What's the effort, it's just a gesture!" Zhu Ning smiled generously, waved his hand and signaled a few of the surrounding entourages to retreat, and then whispered, "Wan'er told me what happened this morning, fortunately you think carefully, otherwise you will fall for others." Although I have a good relationship with you and your wife, I will never go beyond the rules when I do things. This is the way of the world, anything can be changed, but the rules will not change! ”

"The county lord reminded me that I didn't think about it at the time, and when I went back, I heard that said, and after thinking about it carefully, I felt that it was wrong. All in all, I will naturally be more careful in the future. ”

Listening to Zhu Ning's emotion, Zhang Yue couldn't help but think of Zhang Chao, who had asked for a long vacation from the army during Mrs. Deng's funeral in the past few days, and thought of Zhu Ning's reprimand for Zhang Chao's head and face that day. I thought that Zhu Ning must have been a little arrogant since she was a child, but now that she gradually understands her careful side, she really feels that she is not an ordinary heroine. Therefore, at Donghua Gate, it was inconvenient for him to stand there and talk with her all the time, so after saying this, he arched his hand with a smile, ready to lead people to continue the inspection.

At this moment, Zhu Ning reminded again: "It has snowed again just now, although there are people in the palace to clean it, it is inevitable that there will still be some places that are frozen, so be careful when walking." Now the palace gate has not yet been keyed, but it is the most slack time of the day, maybe someone will bring some messy things into the palace, if you meet a suspicious person...... Ahem, this is all my white instructions, just listen to it. I'm gone, too, don't forget to go back and check it out when you have time. ”

Zhang Yue nodded with a smile, and when he saw Zhu Ning walking into the Donghua Gate and leaving all the guards outside, he made a gesture to the people behind him, and the group continued to move forward. Before he had walked a few steps, he suddenly heard a violent and incomparable explosion, and when he looked up, he saw that the southwest sky was bright, and a faint red light was faintly visible. At this time, Zhu Ning, who had already entered the Donghua Gate, also ran out in a hurry, and when she saw the bright light over there, she couldn't help but look at Zhang Yue.

"What's going on with that voice?"

"I don't know. It's strange, the Gunpowder Bureau is in the northeast of the Imperial City, and the Ordnance Bureau is in the northwest of the city. The more Zhang Yue thought about it at this time, the more he felt that something was wrong, and then he saw that there were several eunuchs in Donghua Gate who were probing their brains, so he said to Zhu Ning, "The county lord also invites the first palace, and I will send someone to see what is going on." ”

"Okay." Zhu Ning nodded briskly, turned around and walked a few steps before turning back and reminded, "The emperor will go to report there, your duty is to guard and defend the palace city, this matter has the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Division and the Shuntian Mansion, just send someone over, don't be nosy!" ”

Seeing that Zhu Ning was far away, Zhang Yue hurriedly asked Zhao Hu to go back to see Zhou Bailing, and ordered the guards of Donghua Gate to temporarily impose martial law and not allow people to enter or leave, while he led people to continue to rush to the Wumen Gate. Because of this sudden explosion, he saw that the eunuchs in the porcelain warehouse, gratehead room and other places along the way ran out to see the movement, and he had to take people up to disperse it, but the mystery in his heart became bigger and bigger. When he finally came to the noon gate after a small half-circle, he found that all the places had already been under martial law, and when he asked, he learned that Zhang Qian, the imperial eunuch who was in the inner court, had personally ordered it.

"What else does Grandpa Zhang have to say?"

The one who guarded the noon gate was Zhou Bailing's extremely useful Qian Baihu, who had also been to Qingzhou with Zhang Yue and went down to Jiangnan together, and knew that he didn't need to go around in any circles with this young adult, so he said honestly: "No, I only saw that Zhang Gonggong's face was extremely ugly at that time, and there were stains on his clothes, probably because he ran too quickly and fell." ”

Knowing that with Zhang Qian's caution, sealing the noon gate would not miss the other gates, Zhang Yue was not in a hurry to go to Xihua Gate, but stopped in place for a while, and couldn't help but look at the several groups of eunuchs who had been stopped just now. Since most of these are from the palaces to the various bureaus, the eunuchs who are ready to return to the palace at this time are not those miscellaneous servants who live in Langxia's house, so most of them wear red or cyan sunflower chest and back collared shirts, wearing black gauze hats and rhino horn belts, but their faces are different. His gaze swept over the faces of these people, and he noticed that one of the young eunuchs was looking around, as if he was a little nervous. When the gaze met his, the man seemed to be startled, and suddenly stood still with his hands bowed and his chest bowed, his head only looking at the ground.

"Old money, that person, bring him here!"