As the saying goes: "If you can't punish a doctor, you can't be courteous." Therefore, although Le Qi was detained by Fan Yingluo on charge, he was not directly thrown into a dirty prison, but only locked up in a small courtyard and placed under house arrest.

This place is heavily guarded, and Zhao Wuxian can only send Le Lingzi here first.

He said softly to Lingzi: "You go in first, I still have the king's life, I want to go to the Mingtang to see the king, and participate in the sacrifice, you may have to stay awake all night." If you can stay here tonight and be with Lebo, please confess to Lebo for me, and come back tomorrow morning to bow down to him and take you out of the palace. ”

Although Le Lingzi had a slight dependence on Zhao Wuxian, she also knew the importance of this matter, and her eyes were strong again, after all, she was a woman who dared to travel thousands of miles and come alone to visit her father.

Zhao Wuxian watched her carry the medicine box containing silver needles and herbs, and followed the temple people into the small courtyard before turning around and leaving.

At this time, he could take a good look at the appearance of the Qiqi Palace.

Unlike Le Qi, who first entered this palace a year ago, Zhao Wuxian did not interpret too many political connotations and allusions, he was more with a kind of sightseeing and appreciation.

Compared with the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which rendered too many rich colors, the Qiqi Palace looks simple and heavy. The wide avenue paved with bluestone slabs leads to the main hall, where the high platform made of stone and rammed earth stands unadorned, and the stout copper-based pillars add a lot of solemnity and majesty out of thin air. It is said that these were built in the era of Jin Mourning Gong, simple and solemn, showing the momentum of the overlord of the northern country.

The other buildings surrounding the main hall are clearly of a different style.

The grand hall of space, the curved houses connected by twists and turns, the deep and distant Yuyu, and the small and exquisite south rooms are all high eaves and flying corners. Wadang covered with cirrus moire and animal face patterns. There are pottery and stone sculptures on the eaves. There are covered bridges between the high-rise buildings, and the cornices and paintings are tied together like color exercises.

Most of these buildings were newly built during the reign of the Emperor of Jin and Ping, and they were as ornate and delicate as the monarch's temperament. But it is a little fragile, and the follow-up Jin marquis. It is not as good as the generation.

Zhao Wuxian's destination is "Mingtang", which is the so-called "palace of the government, in the yang of the country", which is located in the south direction of the main hall.

The Ming Hall was first built by Zhou Wengong when he was running Luoyi, and it was developed from the "Shifu" of the Xia Dynasty and the "heavy house" of the Yin Shang. In order to "channel the gods, feel the heaven and the earth, and be at four o'clock." Enlightenment, virtue, morality, Taoism, ability, praise and action".

Looking from afar, the Ming Hall is "round and below, with eight windows and four rings, and twelve halls in nine rooms". If you look closely, you can see that it has three floors, and the ground floor is square. Each side is painted with a color, representing the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter; The middle twelve-sided layer imitates the twelve hours of the day, painted white with clam ash; The top floor is round. It is covered with blue-black tiles.

It is somewhat similar to the Temple of Heaven in the Forbidden City in later generations, but on a smaller scale. In addition to the limitations of the times and technology, it is also because the Jin Kingdom is now only a marquis country, although the rites and music have collapsed, but the formal sacrifice has not dared to transgress the specifications of the Son of Heaven. Otherwise, I am afraid that it will cause the princes to be dissatisfied and shaken, and give the Qi State an excuse to oppose the Jin.

When Zhao Wuxian arrived, preparations for the sacrifice had already begun. Wei Ju, an old acquaintance, wore a beautiful black armor suit as a sacrificial guard. As for Fan Jia, who is also a guard in the palace. It is said that it is another place in charge.

Wei Ju exchanged a few words with Wuxian and led him to Yousi's place to receive the sacrificial clothes to be worn today's sacrifice. The sacrificial dress is plain Tsing Yi. Zhu clothes, covering knees, no scarf.

Here, Wuxian also saw the slightly short stature and cold eyes of the Zhongxing Black Humerus, his identity is also the king's assistant sacrifice. Zhao Wuxian was extremely disgusted with this person because of Zhao Guangde's matter.

The sacrificial matter has always been in charge of the Taizhu, the Taizhu is the official of Zhou, on the occasion of heaven and man, to tell God, welcome God in the sacrifice, pray for blessings, and ask for eternal chastity. To put it bluntly, it's similar to what Chengwu did in Chengxiang, but the level is countless times higher than that wild witch Zhu.

Taizhu is resident in Mingtang, when the age is to the ancestral hall, there are also Yazhu, Shaozhu and other assistance, the responsibilities are different: Taizhu welcomes the gods to the sky, Shaozhu guides the monarch to come, and Yazhu welcomes the monarch outside the hall.

Yazhu, who was in charge of the preparations for the sacrifice, was named Zhu Sumire's father, a middle-aged man in his thirties with a short beard and a serious face.

Yazhu Jian's father didn't care about the noble status of Zhao Wuxian, Bank of China Hei Hu and other assistant sacrificers, and told them about their lives. First, they were asked to walk through the steps of the ritual in their sacrificial robes, while chattering about the reason for the July sacrifice to Mars.

"Great Mars, also known as Shang Xing, the fire of the Tao Tang clan is living in Shangqiu, worshipping the fire, and the fire is timely."

The big Mars mentioned by Yazhu is not the Mars of the eight planets of the solar system, in this era, Mars is called "glowing confusion", once there is a phenomenon of "glowing confusion and guarding the heart", it is usually related to war, ominous, and disasters.

And the scientific name of the Great Mars, in the Heavenly Officials and Wuzhu, is "Antares".

Legend has it that since the time of Emperor Gaoyang, he began to send fire to observe this star. Using the relationship between the orientation of Mars relative to the ground, that is, the exact position of Mars on the eastern, central and western lines of the sky at dusk every day, to determine the law of the seasons, the most primitive calendar was formulated: the Zhuan calendar.

The calendar is mysterious and ethereal, and now it is only used by the Chu State. From three generations onwards, under the observation, summary and correction of the Tianguan, Wuzhu and Huozheng for thousands of years, the Central Plains has successively appeared in the summer calendar, the Shang calendar and the Zhou calendar.

The difference between them is that the beginning of each year is different: the summer calendar starts with the month of Jianyin, that is, the first month of the lunar calendar every year, the Shang calendar starts with the month of Jianchou, the second month of the lunar calendar, and the Zhou calendar starts with the month of Jianzi.

Cheng Zhou, Lu and other places use the Zhou calendar, and the Jin State originally sealed it to the east of the Xia Ruins River, so it used the Xia calendar.

In the second half of July of the summer calendar, the Great Mars begins to fall, indicating that the weather is getting cooler and the spring crops are beginning to enter a bumper harvest. In the folk, "it is a day, it should be sunny, and people use soybean rice to worship the stove". The official one is to be sacrificed in the Ming Hall.

When the sun was approaching, when the big Mars loomed in the sky, the Marquis of Jin finally arrived on time under the guidance of Shaozhu.

I saw the young Marquis of Jin wearing a gown, wearing a crown, decorated with seven chapters, riding the ink (yu), and the vertical temple behind the public opinion held the banner of the dragon pattern.

After descending from the public opinion, the Marquis of Jin's gaze looked at Zhao Wuxian, Bank of China Heiqiu, Wei Ju and others through the "crown" made of pearl and jade, and chatted with them casually.

But obviously, he was more friendly to Zhao Wuxian, praising him for being loyal and trustworthy when he was young, and never forgetting the king in everything. Zhao Wuxian secretly guessed that his series of flattering behaviors against Jin Hou did have an effect.

After the arrival of the guard of honor of the Marquis of Jin, the white-haired Taizhu also came out of the Ming Hall to greet him, and the monarchs and ministers worshiped each other on the steps, exchanged positions, and bowed again. And the old but thin and capable Tai Shimo recorded the words and deeds of the monarch on the side, and wrote it on the history book "Cheng" of the Jin Kingdom.

Zhao Wuxian guessed that as an assistant sacrificer, his name would also be written on it. However, he was actually more curious about Tai Shimo himself, staring at him again and again.

This unsightly historian is a wise man who hides in the court, and even his domineering father Zhao Ying has to learn from him! (To be continued)

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