After being taught such a lesson by Li Yuanyin, these brocade guards were really much more reliable, and they were cautious and cautious along the way, guarding against enemies who came from nowhere (or even if they really existed), and passed through the streets of the capital one after another, and finally came to the palace Zuoshun Gate.

Ji Qingwen has entered and exited the Forbidden City from this gate many times, and he is very familiar with the terrain here, so he raised his eyes and looked around, and sure enough, he saw a wonton stall set up twenty or thirty steps outside Zuo Shunmen, and a couple in the stall were busy preparing to open.

Although the holy decree summoned by the emperor was urgent, Ji Qingwen still didn't forget to move to the side of the stall and greeted loudly: "Yo, Lao Zhangtou, you got up early, today is another good day!" ”

When the old man who sold wontons saw that it was Ji Qingwen coming, he immediately put down the wooden spoon that was still stirring the wonton soup, and said with a smile on his face: "Yo, I didn't expect it to be Lord Ji who entered Beijing...... You are always flying and prosperous, the emperor is going to summon you again, right? ”

Ji Qingwen nodded, and was about to speak, but he heard the old mother-in-law interject: "Didn't you hear the old ladies who came and went?" Now Lord Ji is not just Lord Ji, long live Lord Ji is going to knight Lord Ji, he is now Lord Ji! ”

Ji Qingwen said with a smile: "Sister-in-law Zhang's words are wrong, I am still me, no different from before." No, when I see the emperor, I will still come over to drink a bowl of wontons. ”

Lao Zhangtou "hehe" smiled: "There are numbers, there are numbers." Hime-sama...... Lord Ji is here, I will give you the old cash bag, now, and I guarantee that you will eat a bowl of the best wontons in the capital hot. Don't be busy, the emperor is still waiting for you in the palace, you go in first to face the saint, I'll wait for you here, if you don't come out, I won't collect the stall, you can please! ”

In this way, after a few more words, Ji Qingwen said goodbye to Lao Zhangtou, and followed the eunuch and Jinyi Wei into the palace through Zuo Shunmen.

As soon as he entered the palace gate, a palace guard stopped Ji Qingwen, pointed to the sword he was wearing at his waist, and asked, "What?" Don't know the rules? How can anyone enter the palace and still wear a sword? ”

Ji Qingwen squinted at it and said with a smile: "Brother Guard, this is not an ordinary sword, but the Son of Heaven sword given to me by the emperor, which was originally used by the emperor himself. This official is ordered to enter the palace to face the saint this time, and this sword of the Son of Heaven is not carried with him, okay? ”

His rhetorical question really made these guards stupid.

They discussed with each other for a few words, but they still didn't know what to do, and they asked the foreman of the guard to study for a long time, but they still couldn't come up with a result. There was no way, so he could only send a guard with fast legs and feet to run to the Qianqing Palace and ask the emperor for a decision.

Emperor Chongzhen was a quick temper, and when he heard that he was thinking about Ji Qingwen, who was summoned early in the morning, he was actually stopped at the palace gate by several guards who did not open his eyes because of a "sword of the Son of Heaven".

This made Emperor Chongzhen angry, and scolded: "You are so bold, Ji Aiqing is specially announced by me, and you dare to block him." Hum! Okay, in this Forbidden City, are you in charge, or am I in charge? ”

With the emperor's personal will, no matter what kind of rules, what kind of laws, and how kind of ethics they are, they have become redundant waste.

So Ji Qingwen wore this "Sword of the Son of Heaven", accompanied by a group of eunuchs, guards, and brocade guards, and walked through the hall to the door of the Qianqing Palace, where the emperor lived and discussed daily.

As usual, when hundreds of officials meet the emperor, they have to report their names and resumes outside the gate of the Qianqing Palace, and they kneel three times and bow nine times in parallel. But as an inactive young man who has been deeply educated by the core values of socialism for many years, Ji Qingwen is unwilling to bow to the feudal emperor in his heart.

However, since he has traveled to the end of the Ming Dynasty, Ji Qingwen can only "follow the customs", and was just about to kneel down, but saw that the doors of the Qianqing Palace were pushed open from the inside out, and it was Emperor Chongzhen who came to greet him in person, and standing behind him were Zhou Yanru, Wen Tiren, and Xu Guangqi, three cabinet ministers.

Now it's okay, Ji Qingwen's "three kneels and nine knocks" gift that he originally planned to do came to the "supervisor", so that he could only meticulously complete this set of cumbersome, boring, but essential routines.

Emperor Chongzhen was not in a hurry, after seeing Ji Qingwen complete this set of prescribed actions, he made an urgent look, walked quickly in front of Ji Qingwen, helped him up, and said with words in his mouth: "Ji Aiqing worked hard for the country, and I only entered Beijing yesterday afternoon, and I summoned you to the palace early this morning, Aiqing, don't blame me for not thinking about the hard work of my courtiers." ”

Emperor Chongzhen thought that he was saying this very funny, but in Ji Qingwen's ears, it sounded very useless - originally, if you really want me to rest, then don't wake me up so early; I'm already up, so hurry up and talk and do things, and now I'm talking a few words of gossip so hypocritically, isn't this taking off my pants and farting?

However, in front of Emperor Chongzhen, Ji Qingwen didn't dare to say what he thought in his heart, and quickly opened his mouth to say some nonsense such as "the emperor's grace is vast".

The reason why Emperor Chongzhen wants to behave is to make an appearance of cherishing talents in front of the whole world. He saw that Ji Qingwen cooperated well with his acting, so he put away his slightly exaggerated acting skills and said, "Let's go, follow me to the house to talk." ”

Ji Qingwen was thinking about it, and casually said a word of gratitude, and followed the emperor into the Qianqing Palace.

As soon as he entered the palace, Chongzhen sat down behind the dragon book case, pointed to Ji Qingwen wearing the sword of the Son of Heaven on his waist, and said: "It's all because I haven't been able to train my subordinates well, and I don't even recognize my sword, and I almost stopped Aiqing outside, it's really ridiculous." As he spoke, Emperor Chongzhen laughed dryly.

The emperor laughed, and if he didn't laugh as a courtier, it was rude.

So several of the adults present also laughed inexplicably.

As soon as Ji Qingwen heard that Emperor Chongzhen had just opened his mouth and said something with the "Sword of the Son of Heaven", it seemed that there was something in his words, so he hurriedly untied the sword, held it in both hands and sent it to Emperor Chongzhen, and said: "This sword given by the emperor is now exchanged for the original thing, and the emperor is invited to inspect it." ”

Unexpectedly, Emperor Chongzhen did not stretch out his hand to take the sword, but asked, "How is it, is this sword easy to use?" ”

Ji Qingwen replied: "It's easy to use, it's easy to use." If it weren't for the emperor's sword, how could the minister suppress the sincerity of Lord Liu Kongzhao and Han Zan Zhou's father-in-law, and set up a plan to lure the enemy into the depths, so that they could completely pacify the bandits of the White Lotus Sect? The minister sees, based on this alone, if you talk about the merit of judging, the emperor must remember one of the first merits. ”

Ji Qingwen's sycophant shot was very clever, which made Emperor Chongzhen laugh "haha": "This dog is only a gentleman, and his eloquence is very good, I'm afraid that you have heard too much flattery from others, and you have used it on my head, right?" ”

Ji Qingwen arched his hand and said: "The emperor is Shengming, now there is such a rule in the Ming officialdom, and the minister is a rich official, and there are naturally many people who flatter the minister." Speaking of which, the minister has a story, I wonder if the saint is interested in hearing it? ”

Zhou Yanru, the first assistant to the cabinet, saw that as soon as Ji Qingwen entered the palace, Emperor Chongzhen's mood became very good, which made him feel some jealousy in his heart, and interjected: "Lord Ji, the emperor has a lot of opportunities, and there are still many serious state affairs to discuss, I'm afraid I don't have time to listen to your story, right?" ”

Ji Qingwen originally didn't have a good impression of Zhou Yanru, the head of the cabinet who always held a shelf, but last night he heard Xu Guangqi say that Yuan Chonghuan's incident was caused by the party struggle between Zhou Yanru and Wen Tiren, and he was even more interested in scolding this civil leader.

I saw Ji Qingwen grinning and said: "Lord Zhou, the story of the lower officials is told to the saint, whether you listen to it or not, it is up to the saint to decide, I'm afraid it's not your turn to intervene, right?" If you don't like to listen – it's fine, just plug your ears. ”

These words made Zhou Yanru speechless, but Wen Tiren on the other side was extremely comfortable to hear, and when he raised his eyes, he saw that Emperor Chongzhen's face was also uncertain.

I only heard Chongzhen say: "Zhou Aiqing, this is your mistake." The way of civil and martial arts, one by one. Ji Qingwen, this dog is a funny person, comparable to my Dongfang Shuo, and there is nothing wrong with listening to him tell stories. Maybe you can even learn something from the story! ”