Chapter 594: Halloween Gift

There are no festivals in a year, including the three major festivals of the New Year's Day, Lantern Festival, and Winter Solstice, as well as small festivals such as the Dragon Boat Festival, Qingming Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival. The festival is a rare time for the people to celebrate and rest, and it is also a rare day for officials to have a holiday and rest, and the festival is at most just a lively reunion dinner. As for the poor Beijing officials who are alone in Beijing, it is difficult to even eat a reunion dinner, after all, with their little money, even if they settle down in the capital, they are also tight, let alone take over the family reunion.

However, Hallomy is different from those festivals. Although Zhu Di has not had a serious birthday since moving the capital to Beijing, this is the most important festival of the year in the Ming Dynasty. A few days before the Wanshou Festival, the hundred officials had already been pulled to the Lingji Palace in advance to practice etiquette. After all, if something goes wrong in the Chaohe ceremony where the envoys of the Four Yi gather, it is a much more serious sin than the usual court meeting. From the first three days of the Wanshou Festival, the officials who usually wear official clothes and sit in the court must change into auspicious clothes that they will only wear a few times a year.

The so-called auspicious clothes, that is, the imperial clothes, a complete set of clothes are worn on the body, which is twice as complicated as the ordinary official clothes. Early in the morning, Zhang Yue began to wear that outfit under the girls' Zhang Luo.

The usual black gauze hat was replaced with a three-beam crown, and the body was a top and bottom. Wearing a white gauze in the middle, the outer cover is a red Luo shirt with a blue collar, and the lower head is a green red Luo dress, a red Luo covering the knees, a red and white two-color silk belt, a silver and silver leather belt, a yellow, green, red and purple four-color plate carved brocade ribbon, a silver gold-plated ribbon, and a white socks and black shoes underneath. Although the pioneer Lingji Palace had worn it several times when he practiced etiquette, and it was not that he had not worn it before, he still felt constrained when he came out of the house.

"Brother's clothes are so beautiful!"

Hearing Zhang Jing's joyful shouting, Zhang Yue couldn't help but bend down, gently rubbed the little girl's head, and told her to be more well-behaved when she was in the British mansion. Seeing Zhang Jing nodding obediently, he just stood up, and when he turned around, he saw Du Juan standing at the door with Sansan in his arms, and when he saw his son standing there quietly and blinking at him, he smiled and waved his hand.

This auspicious garment has to be worn for seven days, starting today until three days after Halloween. In order to prepare for the Wanshou Festival, the General Administration Department will no longer perform events from today, and the court meeting will also stop from today, and all affairs will be handled by the chief officials of their respective yamen, and if there is any urgent matter, it will be directly reported to the Qianqing Palace. Therefore, in addition to being tired all day on the day of Wanshou Day, as long as it is not an official of the Ministry of Rites or Honglu Temple, the few days before and after are rare rest, and he is naturally no exception.

Wearing such an auspicious suit, it is natural that you can only take the car. Fortunately, after he returned to Beijing, the carriage was used much more often than before, and the official-made Qingman Yuntou car had already been cleaned. Sitting in the car, he couldn't help but think about this congratulatory gift.

Now more than 50 years have passed since the founding of Hongwu, although the imperial court has issued several edicts to be diligent and thrifty, but the folk atmosphere is still very different from the beginning, and the birthday gift is much richer than before, and even many people have taken great pains to prepare since the beginning of the year, even the military generals and nobles are no exception. Chengguo Gong Zhu Yong prepared a hundred refined red porcelain longevity peaches, Anyuan Hou Liusheng prepared a Gusu longevity embroidery map, and now Zhang Fu, who is leading the troops, is two sets of horses and two sets of harnesses, which is the most trouble-free. Of course, these people are all related to the Zhang family, so he understands, but as for those who are secretive about congratulatory gifts, they don't know.

As for himself, he originally prepared a complete set of purple clay pots as a birthday gift, but ten days ago, Liu Da in Nanjing sent someone to send a batch of various gadgets to Beijing, including a pair of copper cloisonné enamel vases mentioned in the past when they wrote to the past, which is a treasure called cloisonné in later generations. Nowadays, there is no such name as cloisonné, and there are few such goods on the market that are sold, but as far as he knows, there are craftsmen who make small enamel objects in the palace, so he does not dare to rashly change to this for a birthday gift.

It's just that with the backing of such a skilled craftsman, it is really easy to help. Although he didn't know all kinds of recipes, he had at least seen all kinds of things in later generations, and he knew what the general ingredients were, so he simply put them up one by one and threw them to Liu Da to use his brain. In this letter back to Nanjing, he also instructed Liu Da to carefully inquire about the technologies that various countries now have through the merchant ships that traveled overseas, and by the way to see if he could hire some skilled craftsmen from overseas to come back.

Foreign ministers entering and leaving the palace were originally to go through the left and right doors of the noon gate, but the officials of the East Palace and the officials who were specially called could go to the Dong'an Gate and the Donghua Gate. Familiar with the way to the palace of the emperor's grandson, and immediately a eunuch reported it, so he only waited for a moment before being led to Mingdezhai. As soon as he arrived outside the door, he heard Zhu Zhanji's familiar voice coming from inside.

"Three days later is Halloween, poke out such a leak that can't be filled, what are you doing......"

The chamberlain who led the way was Chen Wu, who had met Zhang Yue several times, and couldn't help but be puzzled at this time. Zhu Zhanji was still in a good mood when he just left, why did he suddenly get angry at this time? Glancing at Zhang Yue behind him, he decided to bring someone in and talk about it, after all, Zhang Yue was there, and he was willing to persuade him. Thinking of this, he cautiously reported it outside, and immediately opened the curtain.

As soon as Zhang Yue entered this Mingdezhai, he saw people kneeling here, including the big eunuchs he had seen with their heads and faces, and more of them were small eunuchs who were lying down in fear of being afraid, and there were even many people who were trembling. Seeing Zhu Zhanji standing behind the desk with a pale face, and there was a box on the table, he couldn't help but move in his heart, and hurriedly stepped forward to salute.

"You don't need to be polite on the Yuan Festival" Zhu Zhanji glanced at the box, and his heart was even more annoyed, and he shouted at these eunuchs: "Get out, don't be an eyesore here, get out of the way and kneel under the corridor!" ”

When they retreated in frustration, he said to Zhang Yue: "Yuanjie, you come and see." This is a pair of vases that I specially painted for the royal supervisor to burn, and it was still good when I got it back, but now it has become like this! ”

Seeing that Zhu Zhanji's face was flushed with anger, Zhang Yue stepped forward, and saw that there was a gap in the lower part of one of the vases, and he couldn't help frowning. The calligraphy and painting on the vase is Zhu Zhanji's own handwriting, it seems that it has obviously taken a lot of effort, and now it is just a failure, the important thing is that the longevity festival is three days later, if there is no way to remedy it, you have to find another birthday gift, no wonder this emperor grandson, who rarely gets angry on weekdays, suddenly became like this.

"If it weren't for the fact that Grandpa Huang's birthday is approaching now, and I can't get anything back if I kill them all, I have to take care of them!" Zhu Zhanji slammed his fist on the desk, his fair face was full of anger, "Or maybe the craftsman who fired this thing is not dedicated, so this flaw occurred...... Damn, I can't even prepare a gift, isn't this a big shame! ”

"Your Highness is angry!" Zhang Yue thought of the thing that he was originally difficult to choose, and hurriedly stepped forward and persuaded him tactfully, "The matter has come to this point, His Royal Highness will investigate it again, and there will be no results within three days, so it is better to put it aside for the time being." Speaking of congratulatory gifts, I happened to get something a few days ago, which I originally wanted to use as a congratulatory gift, but now I may be able to give you an emergency. ”

Although he knew that Zhang Yue had never been a gossip, but now that it was a time of 100,000 urgency, Zhu Zhanji had to be cautious, and hurriedly asked him to go back to get it. Fortunately, in the past few days, he doesn't have to lecture on the official class, and he has time. By the time the things were delivered, it was already noon, and he was stunned when he watched Zhang Yue open the box and recognize the contents clearly.

He had seen the blue color of the whole body like a sapphire in the utensils presented by the royal prison, but it was just a small thing like a wine cup and a wine glass, how could it be so big? What's more, the color is much more beautiful than I have seen before, which is very in line with the celebration of Halloween. After taking it out and playing with it for a while, he felt that the workmanship was graceful and generous, and his complexion gradually calmed down.

"This is...... Well, the last time the royal eunuch mentioned it, it seems that it was once called a ghost country. ”

Zhang Yue saw that Zhu Zhanji's anger was completely gone, and he knew that this thing was mostly in line with the other party's wishes. It's just that he didn't want to put Liu Da in the imperial prison because of such a thing, so he just said lightly: "This is made by skilled craftsmen in the south, I heard that this blue glaze is newly formulated, so it is more beautiful than the previous ones." It happened that my father's steward saw it and thought that the emperor's birthday had arrived, so he bought it with a lot of money and hurriedly sent it up. Since there was such an accident today, His Royal Highness might as well send this to the emperor as a gift for the Birthday Festival. ”

"This thing is quite suitable, but what about your family's congratulatory gift?"

"Your Highness, although the steward of my family is kind, it is not appropriate for me to give this thing, and besides, my congratulatory gift has already been prepared."

Zhu Zhanji naturally understood what the so-called inappropriate meant, and he had vaguely heard that Zhang Yue's father, Zhang Zhuo, had a joint stock deal with some nobles, so he no longer shirked at this time and accepted it happily. Now that the birthday ceremony has been settled, he also plans to let go of this matter for the time being, and sent Chen Wu out to call everyone in, he scolded the little eunuchs below, and immediately retreated them, but left a few eunuchs led by him.

"If today's incident wasn't for the Yuan Festival, I would have had to ask Jinyiwei and Dongchang to investigate. The matter is not over yet, you go back and investigate carefully, I want an explanation, don't think about fooling the past like this! ”

When Zhu Zhanji was furious just now, these big eunuchs even thought that the imperial grandson would use a board to beat people, but when they heard this, they were like being amnestied, and they were secretly grateful to Zhang Yue, who solved the big problem for them.

And Zhang Yue himself is also very satisfied, you must know that the cost of cloisonné is too high, and it is not suitable for popular use among the people. It is naturally a good deal to exchange this kind of thing that will sooner or later become a royal contraband for the gratitude of others.

Solving such an annoyance, Zhu Zhanji was much more relaxed. instructed the others to retreat, leaving only one Chen Wu, and he said to Zhang Yue: "Princess Zhao died at the beginning of the year. Princess Zhao is the daughter of Mu Sheng, the Duke of Qianguo, in order to appease the Duke of Qianguo in Yunnan, so this Wanshou Festival, King Zhao will most likely be released. Even so, don't worry, the emperor's grandfather has never been seriously rewarded for your original traitor, but I have always remembered it. If you don't pursue it at the beginning, you won't pursue it forever, it's just that the time has not yet come! ”

Seeing Zhu Zhanji's murderous appearance, Zhang Yue's heart couldn't help but burst, and he remembered the entrustment of Baoding Hou Mengying at that time. It seems that Meng Ying thought things too simply, Zhu Di let go of the Meng family for the sake of Meng Shan, the Marquis of Baoding, but Zhu Zhanji would not worry about that sentiment after all, and even the Marquis of Baoding would be compensated for it. If you want to protect the Meng family, you have to take precautions now.