Zhu Pingjin naturally would not be so stupid as to immediately enter the palace to report in person. Just kidding, when the two dragons meet, they talk about family and country affairs, and this kind of is worth Zhu Pingjin to go to in person? Besides, this time the thieves entered Sichuan, and the officials and people of Shu did not know how many people died, how much silver did it cost to pay for the bereavement? Where can I get the treasury? If the prince applies for the yamen of the three divisions, and the yamen of the three divisions returns to a treasury without money, and the army of thieves still owes a certain amount of money, please ask the prince to quickly send the mansion to the treasury for help, isn't it asking for trouble?

Sending Uncle Shu away, Zhu Pingjin just called the great eunuch Cao Sanbao according to the usual practice and instructed him to report to the prince like this. In the evening, Cao Sanbao returned, and the prince went to Master Shu's house to mourn the prince, but he must not be too public, and he must not lose his etiquette; Widely invite Shuzhong poetry and literature everyone to solicit masterpieces to continue the mink, and the matter is also approved. Cao Sanbao said, the prince seemed to be very interested in this matter, not only asked Cao Sanbao to read the poems of the prince carefully to write, but also instructed the attendant eunuch Chen En to invite the king of Taiping into the palace tomorrow morning. Taiping King Zhu Zhilu, the fourth brother of Shu King Zhu Zhishu, and the fourth uncle of Zhu Pingjin.

"How much is the sacrificial banner?" Zhu Pingjin asked.

"The prince asked the slave to report to the princess. The princess gave three hundred taels of silver, ten horses of silk, and some food, incense, candles, and paper money. It is estimated that the slave and maid will be packed in eleven or twelve boxes. ”

Zhu Pingjin nodded, my mother will be in charge, there are many things, but the money is not much spent. There is enough favor, and both the gift-giving and receiving parties have decency.

"How much is the reward for continuing the poem?"

Cao Sanbao twisted and didn't say.

"Speak!"

"Not a penny!" Cao Sanbao carefully observed Zhu Pingjian's face, and said, "The princess still said, and ......."

"Say what?"

"Write poems and paintings, sing the wind and make the moon. Have a virtue with your father, and go to your father. ”

When he went out the next morning, in accordance with the important instructions of the prince's "two nos", Zhu Pingjin did not sit on his standard car, and also streamlined some honor guards. The honor guard of the team hugged Zhu Pingjin's sedan chair out of Zunyi Gate and walked along Genwai Street in Wangcheng to the northwest corner of the city. The northwest area of CD Mansion is the closest to Dujiangyan Guankou, upwind and water, and has always been a favorite place for government officials and wealthy gentry to stay at home. The feudal division was built on Wudan Mountain (Note 1), while the prefect and the two prefect yamen followed the old yamen of the previous dynasty, both in the north of the royal city. However, due to the overcrowding of buildings in the northwest city, the governor and the governor's yamen, which were not planned in the Hongwu period, were forced to build in the west city (Note 2) and the southeast city (Note 3) respectively. The eunuch palace maid in the team, like Zhu Pingjian, wrapped a white ribbon around her forehead, and the four corners of the prince's sedan chair were also hung with flowers made of white silk. The sun is rare again, and the streets are bustling with people. As soon as the prince's guard of honor arrived, the common people avoided the roadside; As soon as the guard of honor passed, the common people gossiped again. In particular, the more than a dozen wooden boxes with red lacquer copper edging in the condolence team are even more eye-catching, and have become an excellent conversation point for the people, and even some idle small street children are still hanging not far behind the honor guard, ready to see enough of the excitement.

When the funeral guard arrived, the alley outside Master Shu's house was already full of people, most of whom were well-informed low-level officials and people who had not yet come out of office. None of the major officials in Sichuan, such as the chief officials of Fu, Press, Domain, Division, Division, and Bingbeidao, arrived. Most of them just sent their subordinates or family members to accompany them. Instead, he learned the Tao and sent an unknown subordinate official to attend the funeral.

On the street outside the alley, there is a large area of sedan chairs, mules and horses. As soon as he arrived at the entrance of the alley, Cao Sanbao called the sedan chair according to the instructions of the master on the road. Zhu Pingjin stepped out of the sedan chair, the officials and soldiers knelt and buckled their heads, Zhu Pingjin held his hands weakly, Cao Sanbao shook off the dust, and shouted, "Get up!" So see Licheng. Master Shu and seven or eight sons and nephews who followed him to study and escaped the catastrophe had already walked out of the door, and before Master Shu could speak, Zhu Pingjin walked forward to give a student salute, and held Master Shu's arm, and met Master Shu's sons and nephews one by one, and said some words of comfort. Then he entered the door of the house and bowed and offered incense on the mourning hall. Taking advantage of the time to accompany the master to tea, Zhu Pingjin met with the official who had learned the Tao and dozens of well-known talents, and said a few words of encouragement to them. After Cao Sanbao handed over the gift slip and handed over the gift box, Zhu Pingjin confessed to Master Shu and returned to the palace the same way.

The guard of honor returns. As soon as he arrived at the palace, Zhu Pingjin dropped the sedan chair, got into the duty room in Zunyi Gate, changed the prepared clothes with Cao Sanbao and a few people, and came out of the palace. Outside the Zunyi Gate, there is a tall and gorgeous archway, on which the book "admonishes the order of the world to guard the Shu State". Zhu Pingjin and the others did not pass through the archway, but quietly walked south along Wangcheng Genwai Street, and soon saw an open square. This is the Huangcheng Dam (Note 4).

The original name of Huangcheng Dam is "Wangcheng Dam", also known as "Wangcheng Street". Maybe there is no distinction between "emperor" and "king" in the Sichuan dialect, or maybe there is a prince who lives in the palace with dragon sons and phoenix grandchildren, and it is comfortable to listen to it when he is called high, so the name Huangchengba has been called by the people of the Ming Dynasty for three hundred years, and it is ready to continue to be called for another five hundred years, and no one can change it. The south of the Imperial City Dam is the Zhonghe Gate of the South Gate of the CD Mansion, and the southernmost gate of the outer city of the Shu Mansion is the Lingxing Gate in the north, which is about one mile long from north to south. From Zhonghe Gate to the Star Gate of the Shu Wangfu, there is a straight and wide street in the middle. In front of the Lingxing Gate, there is a ochre red light wall, about two zhang high, more than nine zhang wide, the top of the small palace, the red bottom of the wall, the glazed golden dragon is embedded on it, the street is cut off horizontally from the middle. Ochre red is the symbol of the royal family in the Ming Dynasty, which is the origin of the red wall in the mouths of the people. The open space within the wall is the place where the civil and military officials go to the palace of the king of Shu to worship the king of Shu (Note 5).

When people do business, they are willing to be a little extravagant. Like the Qianmenwai Street of Jingshi, this street on Huangchengba is also a famous commercial street in CD House. The street is full of shops and is bustling. Teahouses, restaurants, pharmacies, bookstores, silk houses, jewelry stores, singers, jugglers, and. It's about to be the Spring Festival, the thieves have retreated, the people are rejoicing, and the city gates are wide open to welcome guests, so the flow of people on the streets today is more prosperous and denser.

All the scenes are just like the Tiananmen Square in Zhu Pingjian's previous life.

But Zhu Pingjin didn't come to visit the excitement today, he had something on his mind.

Cao Sanbao felt that the prince was a little abnormal today. The prince not only circled around the red wall several times, of course, as soon as the prince turned, Cao Sanbao's followers also had to follow; The prince also touched the wall with his palm, of course the prince could touch it, but the prince in scholar's clothes couldn't touch it. You see, the few Qiu Ba guards by the Lingxing Gate look like they are ready to move. Of course, under the eyes of the eunuch guarding the door, the Qiu Ba did not act rashly, otherwise they would definitely cause trouble today. Cao Sanbao wondered, what is there to touch while looking at the wall?

It is normal for Cao Sanbao not to understand, but it is not normal to understand. Because Zhu Pingjin crossed around here.

When crossing, the car was on Hongzhaobi Street, and the left hand side was probably the S Public Security Department, just past the intersection of Hongzhaobi Street and Laonanmen Street in the old time and space, and about 200 meters away from Tianfu Avenue. Zhu Pingjin remembers very well that when he slept at night in the past few days, the scene at that moment would appear again and again. But Zhu Pingjin was still not at ease, and carefully searched for various clues in the memory bank. In the old time and space, there was the street name of the old South Gate Street, so could the Tianfu Avenue in the old time and space not be the north-south axis of the CD in front of us, but the old South Gate Street? If the location of the old South Gate Street overlaps with the Huangchengba Street in front of you, then which landmark is used to measure the position when crossing it? Is it okay to set the location of the red wall in front of you as the intersection of the old time and space of the red wall street and the old South Gate Street? The more Zhu Pingjin thought about it, the more bottomless he felt in his heart, and he felt that his head was about to explode.

Zhu Pingjin walked straight west from the red wall, trying to measure the distance with his steps. There were people coming and going on the street, Zhu Pingjin didn't look at people, he bumped into passers-by several times, coupled with his mechanical stiff pace, which made Cao Sanbao very worried, is it the devil's obstacle? He decided to take advantage of the rest of the world to do something to divert the attention of the world and bring back the soul of the world son.

"Lord Shizi, you see that there are so many people around there, it seems that they are all scholars and talents, is it that your reward for continuing the poem has been posted. Why don't we go over and have a look? Of course, there is a list of rewards for continuing poems, Cao Sanbao already knew that this was arranged by him personally last night.

The text was not posted under the gatehouse of the Lingxing Gate. Because many years ago, once the prince went out for a stroll, he saw that on both sides of his house, he was posted everywhere by various official lists, and he was very unhappy with vitiligo on his face, so he ordered that on the east and west sides of the Huangcheng Dam, a stone sign more than one person high was built to post all kinds of official small advertisements.

The stone plaque was crowded, and Sven swept the floor.

The merchants on Huangchengba Street were the most excited, selling tea, snacks and bean curd with burdens around two stone plaques, forming a circle. The happiest thing was the shop that sold paper and pencils, and even the tables and benches were carried to the side of the stone plaque. The scholars read the question, turned around and wrote the table, and the ink was stuffed into the large cabinet next to the stone tablet before it dried. Then turn around, continue to throw down the copper coin, get the paper and write again, strive for a more point siege, and increase the probability of winning.

The large cabinet was locked, and the poems could only be put in through the cracks in the door. There are two eunuchs in the palace guarding them, and there are a few officials who don't know whether they are CD County or Huayang County holding water and fire sticks and shouting to maintain order. However, some scholars who continued the poems were not in a hurry to put them into the big cabinet, but also pasted them high on the stone plaque for everyone to comment on first.

Cao Sanbao was loyal and tried to fight his way out for Zhu Pingjin in the dense crowd watching the excitement. However, he undoubtedly underestimated the objective and overestimated the subjective. Scholars are not all powerless; If yes, it's because they didn't hear the money.

"Master, can you see it?" Cao Sanbao in the crowd was hoarse. At this time, he had been squeezed off the ground by the scholars, hanging three inches in the air.

"I can see it, but I can't see it clearly."

"Sizhong, Sixian, where did you two thieves die? Why don't you help me? ”

"We don't have to go in." Zhu Pingjin shouted and commanded the retreat.

When Cao Sanbao, who was covered in stinky sweat, returned to him, Zhu Pingjin ordered in a deep voice: "This won't work, the effect is not good." Cao Banban, you go back to the Shizi Mansion first, stop the unimportant things in the mansion in advance, and let all the idle people in the mansion do this. Some people copied the lists, and some people took to the streets to post them. The streets and alleys of CD Mansion should be pasted, focusing on the Huangcheng Dam and the bend of Wangchengwai Street from south to west. You have to put it on the door of every house on the street, whether it is a county palace, a government office, or a private house. In short, this son wants to let everyone know about the continuation of the poem! If the yamen interfered, they would say that the prince had a special decree and posted it throughout the city to arouse the morale of the army. Did you write it down? ”

Cao Sanbao looked very excited, wiping his sweat and nodding vigorously.

"Repeat!" Zhu Pingjin didn't need to be polite with him.

Cao Sanbao said honestly one by one, and hurriedly said goodbye.

"Come back!" Zhu Pingjin called back Cao Sanbao, "If there is a woman watching the list, then what should you do?" ”

"Then let her see it, too."

"What if she can't read?" Before Cao Sanbao could figure out how to answer, Zhu Pingjin had already said the answer: "Then read it to her, or find a literate person to read it to her." Not a word is missing, not a single person is missing! People who go out of the house to do errands send some copper coins, how can they find someone to read and have no money? ”

Cao Sanbao's open mouth was already a little closed.

"This is the overriding event of the moment! Be sure to hold on! Be sure to do it! After the matter is over, there is a reward for the (HE) house, at least one person and one or two, and you have another reward! Zhu Pingjin waved his hand and opened the reward.

Note 1: The former CD Military Region compound. Now it seems to be the compound of such and such a war zone.

Note 2: Today's CD General Yamen Street.

Note 3: The current Sichuan Provincial People's Government compound.

Note 4: Today's CD Tianfu Square.

Note 5: According to the regulations of the Forbidden City of Nanjing, Huabiao, Tongshi, Jinshuihe, and Xiangmu guessed that they should be inside the Lingxing Gate and outside the Duanli Gate.