The winter solstice on the first day of the lunar month is getting closer and closer, and the atmosphere in Kaifeng Mansion has become more and more tense.

The number and frequency of patrols on many major roads in central Beijing have doubled. If someone walks on the road at night, they will inevitably be caught by the inspectors.

The gates and tax cards have also become stricter. Luggage and parcels that used to be just looked through or sometimes not even looked at are now opened and searched. In the old days, ordinary weapons that pedestrians could carry with them, such as bows and arrows, short knives, and clubs, also began to be strictly inspected, and if they exceeded the rules at all, they would be confiscated.

The two judges and the two magistrates in the palace are also very busy these days, and they have to stay up in the yamen every day until the lights are lit before they can go home.

Those pranksters, ruffians, and prodigal children of some big families in Beijing used to run rampant in the market in Beijing, and as long as they did not commit serious crimes, the government had no energy to pay attention to them. made some ordinary mistakes and were dragged into the yamen, and they all scolded them a few times, knocked on a few boards and let them go back. But now, as long as he commits a crime, no matter how serious it is or not, he will be directly put in prison after asking a few sentences, and will wait for the amnesty to be issued before releasing him.

For this great gift, even the beggars on the street can get three meals a day from the government, and they don't need to come out to beg.

And the prefect Sun Yong has to go to the court every day to perform holy affairs, and after returning to the yamen, he has to deal with all kinds of affairs in Beijing. In addition, he had to find time to inspect the renovation work of the Sacrificial Mounds outside the city.

It was the middle of winter, and when the ceremony was about to arrive in half a month, Sun Yong couldn't remember whether he had gone to the Qingcheng Palace in the south of the city for the tenth or twentieth time.

The elm willows on the side of the road have lost their leaves, their branches are bare, and there is still some residual snow piled up on them. The scenery is bleak, but the houses near and far are all white, and it is much better than the last year's drought, when the gray soil covers the ground.

Two days ago, there was another blizzard, and the city was covered with snow. Although this is a good omen that can make the Son of Heaven smile, but for Sun Yong, it is not so gratifying.

It took two days and 3,000 troops to clear out several major official roads inside and outside the capital. Although sledding cars can often be seen in the capital this year, no matter what, the Son of Heaven can't let him travel by sled when he goes out of the palace to worship the heavens.

Sun Yong's mount was walking on the official road that had just been rebuilt two months ago. The horseshoe nailed with hooves made of rammed soil in the triple earth, like a solid stone, made a crisp sound of clattering. And on Sun Yong's side, there is a string of crisp hooves doing the ensemble.

Accompanying the prefect of Kaifeng was a young official in his twenties. Wearing a green robe, he has a vigorous posture and a very high level of horse control.

Coming all the way from Kaifeng Mansion, this matter has gone out of Nanxun Gate. Sun Yong found the difference between the front and back of the two horses, and always kept a distance from the head of the horse to half the body of the horse. This gap does not affect his speech, but it reflects the respect that the young man next to him has for him.

Sun Yong chuckled with satisfaction, looked up at the sky, and said, "Yukun, let's see if it's going to snow this day." ”

This young official was naturally Han Gang, and he also looked at the sky. In the afternoon, the sky was already shrouded in lead-gray clouds. The clouds are so low that they don't seem to be far from the ground, and if you look farther away, they are already entangled with the gray-white ground, making it difficult to distinguish them. Riding on a horse, the oncoming wind is even more biting. Chilled by the cold wind, he nodded: "It may really be snowing again." Dafu, it seems that you have to hurry to the Qingcheng Palace. ”

Although Han Gang only echoed Sun Yong's words, Sun Yong believed it.

Because of the case of the exile and a rainstorm ten days later, the world believes that Han Gang has the ability to judge the weather.

The people of the capital say that he is a disciple of Sun Zhenren, so he can pinch and calculate. In officialdom and Shilin, it is generally said that he learned the ability by relying on his peasant background. 'I'm not as good as an old farmer', 'I'm not as good as an old farmer', this is what the sage said, and it's not surprising that Han Gang can do it.

On the contrary, no one now suspects that Han Gang was fooling the emperor at the beginning, and that rain could not have been more timely.

The sound of hooves turned from slow to urgent, and the crisp rhythm of the clatter like a castanets turned into a summer rainstorm in a blink of an eye, and the torrential rain fell on the road like a torrential rain.

Sun Yong and Han Gang whipped and hurried, and with a group of followers behind, they began to hurry and hurry, heading towards the Qingcheng Palace.

Both of them are officials who can do things, and in the year of working together, the two get along very well and have some friendship.

Han Gang has received Sun Yong's full support in official affairs for the past year, if it weren't for this, hundreds of thousands of Hebei refugees, his placement would not have been so smooth. For his top boss, Han Gang has a good impression and respect.

In Sun Yong's eyes, he was only twenty-two or three-year-old Fu Jie, although he was not bound by etiquette, but he never saw the arrogance of a young man, and he spoke and acted in a proper manner, not at all like a fledgling young student.

However, Han Gang is not so smooth that the edges and corners have been deeply polished in the officialdom, otherwise he would not have taken on the drudgery of resettling the displaced people.

Han Gang has made a lot of contributions to the resettlement of displaced people this year, but how much effort he has put into it, Sun Yonghe, the Kaifeng prefect who stands in the nearest place, can also see it most clearly. In other words, if it is an ordinary official, the smart one will not take over, and the stupid and greedy one will not be able to do well next. can comforting and resettle hundreds of thousands of displaced people like Han Gang, and the only way to compare it is with Fubi back then.

The state has a virtuous minister, Sun Yong, who is kind and used to be an old minister of Qiandi, but he is happy for the Son of Heaven.

Qingcheng is not far from Kaifeng Fucheng, only five or six miles away, after leaving the city, it will not be long before you reach the ground.

In terms of nature, the Qingcheng Palace, which includes the sacrifice to the Heavenly Mound, is exactly the same as the Temple of Heaven in later generations.

Of course, Han Gang is not the first time to see the Temple of Heaven, not to mention the Temple of Heaven in front of him, the one in the capital in the later generations, and the one that was dug up in the Tang Dynasty, he has gone in to visit.

The Temple of Heaven used at this time was completely different from the Temple of Heaven he saw in the capital in his previous life, but it was very similar to the one in the old Tang Capital.

It is also a mound, and the one in front of Han Gang is divided into four layers, not a white jade railing and a white stone pedestal, but is made of loess rammed, and it is plastered with white ash. At the same time, around the mound, according to the earthly branches, there are twelve majestys who go to the top of the stage, that is, steps. Among them, the one due south is the widest, for the Son of Heaven to walk.

Han Gang and Sun Yong walked from the side to the top of the mound. Standing on the top of the mound, it does not feel like a small view of the mountains. The building of the Son of Heaven is actually not very high, each floor is eight feet and one inch, and the total is only more than three zhang, which is not as good as the Duancheng Palace, the main hall of the palace in the north.

Sun Yong and Han Gang can only go up now, and when it is really time to worship the heavens, only the Son of Heaven, as well as the gods of heaven and earth, plus the Taizu god seat who accompanies them, can stand on the top of the stage. The rest of the tens of thousands of gods, civil and military ministers, all have to be ranked under His Majesty.

The two of them carefully checked it in the Tai Majesty, the dark clouds in the sky were even lower, and the sky and the earth were dark, but before the time, it was already like night had fallen in advance.

Sun Yong and Han Gang only hesitated slightly, and the snowflakes were already flying wildly in the air with the wind. Hurriedly came down from the mound and retreated to the side hall in the Qingcheng Palace-the palace gate in front of the Xicheng Palace. But in the blink of an eye, the flying snow was overwhelming, and the vision was blurred.

Watching the servants in the palace close the doors and windows tightly, blocking the wind and snow outside. Sun Yong patted the snowflakes on his body and sighed: "No matter how much you worry about the matter of the bridge and the road, things are always busy. ”

The state ceremony, which is held only once every three years, will not set up special officials, but will arrange temporary errands for the officials of the DPRK and China.

Generally speaking, the prime minister and the great envoy of ceremonies, the bachelor of Hanlin served as the ceremonial envoy, the military department Shangshu was the envoy of the Lu book, the imperial history Zhongcheng was the honor guard, and the Kaifeng prefect was the fixed bridge and Daodun envoy.

The most troublesome of the five envoys is the position of the bridge and the donkey, and the other functions only need to check the preparation in advance, and basically on the day of the ceremony, they just supervise the observance of etiquette and laws by the hundred officials. Only the bridge is handed over, and it is necessary to run inside and outside the city, and if there is a slight mistake on the predetermined route, this sin can make people go to the south for three or five years.

Han Gang nodded with deep feelings: "I only swept the snow two days ago, and it fell again today, and it took so much effort, it was almost useless." He laughed self-deprecatingly, "Last year, I was looking forward to snow but it didn't fall, and now I want to snow again after the winter solstice, but now I can't stop." ”

At this time, the palace people who stayed in the palace brought hot tea to the two high-ranking officials of Kaifeng Mansion to dispel the cold. Sun Yong sat down and drank his tea. Listening to the snowstorm outside constantly knocking on the door, he sighed even more: "Jingfu Dayin, the most complicated drama among the pro-people officials in the world." has been an official for ten years, which is comparable to his ten years in office. ”

Seeing that Sun Yong had already sat down, Han Gang also sat down and said with a smile: "Feng Xianggong was Kaifeng Yin in the early years of Zhiping, and he served as an official for more than a year, so he invited himself out one after another. I remember that Wei Guogong [Han Qi] said, 'The affairs of the Beijing Consul Mansion have been very long, and they will seek to go to Er with complicated dramas'. Even if he is a prime minister, he is afraid of the busyness of Kaifeng Mansion. ”

"Who let this place be Kaifeng......" Sun Yong sighed. As the prefect of Kaifeng, the weight of authority is far above that of the ordinary prefect of the prefecture, even if only the important ministers can participate in the deliberations of the Chongzheng Palace, he is indispensable.

"Feng Dangshi is still doing a good job, didn't Han Zhigui also say it, he has nothing to do with things!"

"Dafu should not lose to Feng Xianggong!" Han Gang said. He didn't think so, he really thought so. This time the drought was not experienced by Feng Jing.

"Thank you Yukun for your praise, the old man is ashamed." Sun Yong smiled, "It's a pity that I can't get along with you more than Yukun." ”