Chapter 729: The Birthday Banquet Storm Rises (1)
On the fourth day of the fifth month of the fifty-seventh year of Kangxi, the old man's birthday finally arrived, although it was only less than two months from the edict to the beginning of the celebration, but under the arrangement of the third master's "essence", various matters were really smooth, not only the ancient princes of Meng, many envoys of the subject countries were all feasted, but also the special "door" from the Beijing division and the surrounding provinces summoned 999 old men over seventy years old to accompany them, and the whole "thousand banquets", this is not, four minutes of the hour, Nearly 1,000 old people and civil and military officials from the court and the central government from the third rank and above have gathered in the square in front of the Taihe Palace, chatting and laughing in groups, while waiting for the emperor's arrival.
"Wait and greet Your Majesty!"
When the time was right, a whip suddenly sounded from the direction of the Qianqing 'door', and then saw Li Dequan leading dozens of small eunuchs to open the way in front, followed by sixty-four dressed palace 'women' who sang and danced, and then the old man's dragon chariot, as soon as he saw that the old man had arrived, Zhang Ting 'jade' and Ma Qi, the two highest-ranked university scholars in the center, did not dare to slack off, and led all the people in the square to kneel down in one and salute in unison.
"Zhong Aiqing is flat!"
As soon as the dragon chariot stopped, two little eunuchs rushed forward one left and one right, and they all started to lift the bright yellow curtain of the dragon chariot, and two more little eunuchs stepped forward to 'serve' the old man with a red face, and then saw the old man look around the crowd kneeling all over the place with high interest, raised his hand in vain, and called out very kindly.
"Your Majesty Longen, long live my emperor, long live, long live!"
Since the old man shouted, the crowd did not dare to lose their manners, and thanked them in unison, and they all stood up one after another, all of them stood with their hands down, and put on the appearance of listening to the instructions.
"Okay, okay, there's no need to be formal, so many old people are gathered here today, accompanying me for my birthday, I am very happy, everything is casual, I arrived after breakfast, presumably the big guys arrived early, and they should all be hungry, so please all the old gentlemen and all the lovers to sit down."
The old man's "spirit" is very good, his face is very ruddy, his interest is also high, and the tone of his speech is extraordinarily kind, and after smiling and instructing, he took the lead in walking to the top seat and sat down.
"Lord Wang, Your Majesty has a call."
Hongqing is in the center, and he is the identity of the dragon grandson, so he has to accompany him in the first few seats, and he is going back and forth with a group of old people who came to the banquet, but when he is coming and going from the cup, he saw Li Dequan hurriedly walked over, bowed to Hongqing, and whispered a word.
"Elders, Your Majesty has a summons, Xiao Wang must be with him for a while, please take care of yourself, Xiao Wang will go and return."
Hearing that the old man was invited, Hongqing didn't dare to ignore it slightly, but he didn't make a rude to many old people at the same table, and after humbly confessing his guilt, he got up and walked to the chairman where the old man was.
"Excuse me, just calm down, I can't drink enough, Qing'er and you, Amma, toast to the tables on behalf of me to express my gratitude."
The old man didn't let Hongqing think about it too much, waved his hand with a smile, and casually ordered.
"Oh, grandson obeys!"
It is a very high honor to toast to the tables instead of the old man, Hongqing did not dare to resign, so he could only respectfully agree to the promise, and together with the third master, accompanied by several little eunuchs, he slowly walked down to the tables at the bottom, and thanked him for the toast.
The third master father and son acted like this, and the people at the table did not dare to have the slightest slackness, all of them flattered with a smile, and the atmosphere of the banquet was extremely high for a while, and the eyes of the three brothers and sons could not help but be filled with envy and jealousy, especially the old ten, the jealousy in the eyes was so fierce that it could burn the sky out of a hole, if the eyes could kill, I was afraid that the third master and his son had been killed by the tenth master thousands of times.
"Third master, there is something wrong with Your Majesty's face, the royal doctor was looking at it from the side before, saying that the blood is on the head, and if you drink more, the slave is afraid that something will happen, look at this ......"
There are nearly 300 tables of banquets in the square, even if each table is just to say hello, the meaning is just a moment, but it is not an easy job to walk down in a circle, fortunately, the third master father and son are massive, and under the turn of the battle, it can be regarded as barely able to cope with it, and when they are about to return to the chairman to return to life, the third master and father and son are already slightly drunk, but at this moment, they saw Li Dequan greeted him with a sad face, and whispered a whisper to the third master's ear.
"Oh?"
The third master was already drunk and fluttering, this time hearing Li Dequan say this, the wine immediately woke up for seven minutes, and hurriedly looked at the chairman, only then did he realize that the old man was not only reddened by one side, but the corners of his mouth were even more crooked from time to time, obviously something was wrong with his body, and he couldn't help but be taken aback, but he didn't dare to make a decision in a hurry, but glanced at Hongqing quickly, until he saw Hongqing bowing his head silently, and then hurriedly ordered: "Without further ado, There is Lao Li's father-in-law who immediately went to pass on the king's order, and this is a good way to send off the guests. ”
"Wow."
With the words of the third master, Li Dequan was relieved, hurriedly responded, and walked to the drum team in front of the Taihe Palace, without spinning his heels, he listened to the music of His Majesty, and the old man who was on the rise was stunned at first, but he didn't think much about it, waved his hand, and waved his hand in the face of the crowd of people kneeling all over the place, and shook it on the dragon chariot, and a shout sounded, and the team of people and horses went to the direction of the Zhonghe Palace. Yu', Ma Qi and other scholars, as well as the elder brothers, did not dare to slack off a little, and got up one after another and followed behind the emperor.
In general, the ceremony is held in the Taihe Palace, the ceremony is cumbersome, time-consuming and lengthy, not only for the ministers is a torment, for the emperor, it is also individual work, really to the end of the ceremony, often tired enough, every time at this time, the Zhonghe Hall comes in handy, the emperor can rest here enough and then return to the harem, this old man's birthday ceremony is the same, The difference is that in the middle hall and even the corridors around it, there are several sons full of all kinds of congratulatory gifts, what 'jade' stone carvings, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, etc., are all there, piled up with a dazzling array of jewels, full of jewels, making people look at the 'dazzle' and 'chaos'.
"Huang Ama, the ministers have asked the minions below to prepare a soft couch in the hall, you are not busy going back, and you can rest in this hall first, if you can allow your sons to fulfill their filial piety, it will be a blessing for your sons."
When it is worth the old man to drive, the third master has already led the people to the Zhonghe Hall as quickly as possible, and quickly arranged it, just after Zhang Luo, the old man has been supported by two little eunuchs into the palace, the third master saw this, hurriedly greeted him, and said with a smile on his face.
"Well, the third child has a heart, I'm not tired, let's take a look at some very strange congratulatory gifts, you don't care about me, I'm fine."
The old man did not receive the kindness of the third master, waved his hand with a smile, pushed away the two little eunuchs who were supporting left and right, and walked along the edge of the main hall with his footsteps.
"Well, who sent this box? Why is it closed? ”
The congratulatory gifts that can be displayed in the hall are all treasures, even though the old man is used to seeing treasures, but he is still a little 'dazzled' by the dazzling array of gifts in front of him, and he is very interested while walking, but when he gets the middle of the hall, the old man's brows are suddenly wrinkled, and he stretched out his hand and pointed to a closed big box, and asked suspiciously.
"Your Majesty, it was just sent by the minions, and this is a gift that the general king specially asked the minions to bring back from the front line."
As soon as the old man's question came out, even if the third master was a little blind, there was no side, but the layout of the Zhonghe Hall was handled by him personally, and there was never such a strange big box in his memory.
"Yo, it's Orotai, tell me about it, what's inside?"
The old man looked at it fixedly, and saw that it was Orotai, the corners of his mouth immediately picked, and he raised his hand with a smile, signaling Orotai to flatten his body, but his mouth asked with great interest.
"If you go back to your master, the minions don't know, and the general only says that the inside is a treasure from the sky, and the minions have no chance to see it."
Oro Tai has had several ups and downs in the past ten years, first in the Mulan hunting ground because of drunkenness was relegated to Beigukou to eat a few years of sand, and then because of the intercession of the tenth master, he was able to return to Beijing, but there was never a serious messenger, until the old fourteen got the handsome position, and he was able to re-hang the first class of Ouchi' The title of the guard, in the name of the deputy marshal with the army, this time by the old fourteen entrusted back to the capital on the birthday ceremony, all the way to the hurry, yesterday only arrived in the Beijing division, this time the child rushed to the palace to the banquet, and did not go to the third master to arrange gifts, relying on his own in the big in any of the 'waiting' guards, familiar with the situation, people directly put the gift of the general king into the palace, this time to hear the old man to ask, since not dare to slack off, hurriedly bowed down to answer a sentence.
"A treasure from the sky? Oh, I'm very curious, come on, open it. ”
Hearing this statement of Oro Tai and other sellers, the old man's already high interest immediately became a little stronger, and he didn't think about it, he waved his hand and commanded with great interest. "Wow!" Li Dequan was following the 'waiter' on the side, and when he heard the old man's order, he didn't dare to delay a little, so he hurriedly responded, walked forward, took a copper spoon from the hand of a little eunuch who was on the side at the time, and quickly put the copper lock hole on the box, but after listening to the crisp sound of "click", the copper lock was opened, Li Dequan opened the lid a little carelessly, only to look, and his body immediately stiffened on the spot like a puppet......