In the past few days, there are really a lot of villagers like Zhang Laohan who came to the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion in advance to give gifts, Luo Jian told Steward Luo, and on the sixth day of the new year, he must invite all the villagers over, Steward Luo had arranged thirty tables for the wedding before, so that I am afraid that dozens of tables will have to be added, although it is a little difficult, but Steward Luo still agreed.

Although the snow is very thick, there are many people who rush from Nanjing to Yangzhou, and there are endless carriages and wagons on the official roads outside the city.

Ma Shiying was also in one of the carriages, and since he decided to repair relations with Yangzhou, he was ready to go to Yangzhou in person to attend Luo Jian's wedding.

He knew that Ruan Dacheng and Qian Qianyi arrived in Yangzhou yesterday, but he was the first assistant, and he brought the gifts prepared by the emperor himself, so his identity was different, so he couldn't be with them.

Ma Shiying has not been to Yangzhou for a long time, he remembers that the last time he was in Yangzhou was two years ago, he has heard a lot about the changes in Yangzhou, and he also wants to see it with his own eyes.

Lift the curtains on the carriage and look out the window. Although the cold wind outside poured into the car from time to time, Ma Shiying did not feel a little cold, and he was stunned by the huge changes in Yangzhou.

Although the whole land is covered with ice and snow like Nanjing, the black smoke from the factories in the distance still makes Ma Shiying feel the great vitality hidden under the ice and snow cover.

The carriage had already driven into the wide street, Ma Shiying was a little strange, he didn't see the city wall of Yangzhou, how could he enter the city, he stretched out his head to look, and then saw that the tall city wall of the east gate of Yangzhou was still standing in front.

When they arrived at the east gate, Luo Jian, Shi Kefa and others were already waiting outside the east gate, and the first assistant of the imperial court came in person to greet them, which was also the most basic etiquette.

When he received the news that Ma Shiying came to attend the wedding in person, Luo Jian was surprised for a moment, but soon understood what Ma Shiying meant. When the Kaichun offensive began, Yangzhou needed a stable rear, and it was also very necessary to maintain good relations with the imperial court, and Luo Jian did not reject the arrival of Ma Shiying.

When Huang Degong and the division commanders arrived, they were taken to the newly renovated staff building outside the city by the staff members one by one on the way, and did not enter Yangzhou City.

This surprised Huang Degong and others, didn't they say that they would come back to attend the wedding of the Grand Duke? How did you get here?

Yi Bang told everyone in the war room, this is in the name of attending the wedding of the Grand Governor to inform everyone to come back for a combat meeting, everyone then understood, and the war room suddenly became noisy.

The sixth day of the Lunar New Year is a good day, and although the snow and ice are still thick, the sun still makes people feel warm when the sun shines on their faces.

The East Gate Street, where the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion is located, is full of people, including officials in official uniforms and ordinary people in cloth clothes, all of whom are rushing to the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion.

Lai Fu wore a straw hat and shuttled through the crowd with people from the Ministry of Security, today is a good day for the Metropolitan Governor, Lai Fu can't allow a little problem, these days he has almost walked all over the streets and alleys of Yangzhou, and he doesn't look for anyone else when he finds a suspicious situation, so he runs to find Wang Qiang, and asks Wang Qiang's garrison to send someone to investigate.

In front of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, Xiao Liu and Xiao Wang stood at the door to greet the guests, Ren Minyu took a few people to receive gifts in the courtyard, saying that they were receiving gifts, but in fact, they were also checking whether the gifts given by the guests exceeded the standard, and if they exceeded the standard, they were not even allowed to enter the door.

Luo Jian didn't expect that there would be so many guests, and there were one or two hundred people from the nearby people alone, and as long as the Yangzhou officials met with the governor of Dadu, most of them also came.

There was a notice that no gifts were received before, and most of the guests were holding simple gifts, some were a jar of old wine, and some were some Yangzhou specialties.

It wasn't until Ma Shiying, Ruan Dacheng, Qian Qianyi, Xu Hongji and other guests from Nanjing arrived that the courtyard was really lively.

Ma Shiying brought a congratulatory gift from Emperor Hongguang, this is a jade Ruyi, just this jade Ruyi, he looked at Ren Minyu who greeted him, he couldn't estimate the price of this thing.

The congratulatory gifts given by the guests from Nanjing City are extremely rich, and as far as Ma Shiying's personal congratulatory gifts are concerned, Ren Minyu estimates that they are no less than two thousand taels of silver, and the others are not much different.

Ren Minyu was in a very good mood, because the governor of Dadu had already said that all the gifts and photos sent by the guests in Nanjing City were accepted, but all of them were handed over to the Yangzhou treasury.

A group of people in the Senate listened to the greetings and did not give expensive gifts, such as Liu Zongzhou, although he had a lot of opinions on Luo Jian, but he still wrote a handwritten frame as a congratulatory gift, and other people like Gao Hongtu and Lu Daqi were about the same.

Seeing that there were so many guests coming from the Metropolitan Governor today, Ma Shiying and the others were also speechless, and there were many cloth cloth people who came to the guests, some nodded in approval, and some did not agree.

Ruan Dacheng brought his troupe, set up a stage directly in the courtyard, and sang Kunqu Opera babbling.

After a while, the red lady also arrived with the art troupe, and also set up the stage in the other direction, and the two sides sang the "play against the stage", the guests looked at one end in the east, and then looked at the other end in the west, it was very enjoyable to watch, and finally most of them gathered in front of the stage of the art troupe, the reason is very simple, although the play sung by the troupe is good, but there are not many people who can understand.

Shi Kefa accompanied Ma Shiying and others to sit in the open space by the pond, basking in the sun and chatting, everyone was attracted by the scene in the courtyard, seeing that Ruan Dacheng's troupe gradually no one watched, Ma Shiying shook his head, and Ruan Dacheng was also a little embarrassed.

Fortunately, the courtyard in the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion was large enough and numerous enough to accommodate so many guests.

The flowing water banquet started at noon, Steward Luo was so busy that his feet did not touch the ground, the guests who came exceeded expectations, and the ingredients prepared in the house were a little insufficient, so he had to send someone to buy them quickly.

After lunch, the wedding officially begins.

The wedding process was extremely cumbersome, and Luo Jian had wanted to keep everything simple, but Liu Lan really wanted a complete wedding, and with the resolute support of the old lady, Luo Jian could only follow her.

A sedan chair carried by eight people to carry the bride is a precedent in the history of Yangzhou weddings, and Luo Jian used the sedan chair carried by eight people to take Liulan back to the Governor's Mansion from the Governor's Mansion.

The sedan chair was made by the villagers themselves, and there was no special sedan chair driver, and it was Zhang Laohan's eldest son who carried the sedan chair with a group of young men in the village.

The distance from the Governor's Mansion to the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion was too short, and everyone went around a few more streets before returning to the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion.

Get up the sedan car, return to the carriage and horse, welcome the sedan chair, get off the sedan chair, worship the heaven and earth, perform a celebration ceremony, enter the cave room... Each process has several to a dozen forms, and although he knew that these rituals were used to express good luck and ward off evil spirits, Luo Jian felt that it was too tiring.

The whole process of the wedding was in accordance with the rules of this time, but after Luo Jian and Liu Lan entered the cave room, both of them came out to toast the guests, which made the old lady very angry, saying that how could the bride come out to toast the guests?

Liu Lan was generous and noisy with the guests, and the ladies who could see it were extremely envious.

When he arrived at the table of Shi Kefa and Ma Shiying, Steward Luo hurriedly ran over and whispered a few words in Luo Jian's ear, and Luo Jian's brows suddenly furrowed.

"Xinghua, what's the matter?" Seeing this, Shi Kefa hurriedly asked.

"The Manchu envoy is here." Luo Jian said.

It was only after receiving an edict from Dolgon in Beijing that he rushed to Yangzhou.

Dolgon felt that this was a good time to ease relations with Yangzhou, the group of foreigners and the general as a prisoner had recently made great progress in the study of firearms, and what they needed most now was time, so they ordered Curb Pilon to rush to Yangzhou with a heavy gift, Dolgon's edict arrived a little late, and Curb Pilon hurried to hurry, and finally arrived this afternoon.

Along the way, the non-stop investigation and a lot of time was delayed, and he tried his best to say that he was here to give a congratulatory gift to the new wedding of the Metropolitan Governor of Yangzhou, so he was let go, and he rushed to the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion when the wedding banquet began.

When Ma Shiying heard this, he also felt strange, the Manchu court had been fighting with Yangzhou for life and death, why did they send someone to congratulate Luo Jian's wedding?

Thinking about it, it is not a bad thing that the relationship between the Manchu Qing and Yangzhou has eased, as long as there is no fighting, the Southern Ming court can always be maintained, thinking of this, Ma Shiying wanted to speak.

"You go and tell them that I don't need them to congratulate Luo Jian's wedding, let them go back!" Without waiting for Ma Shiying to speak, Luo Jian said coldly to Steward Luo.

Luo Jian wanted to say that he would let them go, but considering the festive atmosphere of the wedding, he didn't want the smell of gunpowder to be too strong, so he let them go back instead.

Shi Kefa nodded in approval, but the faces of Ma Shiying and the others were a little unsightly.

"I think the Tartars are weasels giving New Year's greetings to chickens, and I don't have a good heart, so I will arrest them."

It was Huang Degong who said this, and he was the only one among the generals in the army who attended the wedding as a representative, which made Ma Shiying and others very puzzled.

The commanders of the divisions did not come to attend Luo Jian's wedding, and they were still planning seriously in the staff headquarters.

"What Jing Nanhou said is angry, you go and let them go." Shi Kefa said to Steward Luo that although Yangzhou and the Manchu Qing were still hostile, it was always inappropriate to arrest the people who came to deliver congratulatory gifts.

Ma Shiying raised his hand and beckoned a staff member, whispered a few words in his ear, and the staff member walked out.

Except for this staff member who went out to settle down and Suppilon and his party, no one cared about the affairs of the Manchu envoys, and the wedding banquet was still lively.

The wedding ended very late, this is because Liu Lan had already made a big screen in the courtyard, and after the banquet in the evening, the cartoon "Havoc in the Heavenly Palace" was played to everyone with a projector in the courtyard, and even Ma Shiying and others watched it without blinking before saying goodbye and leaving.

Early the next morning, Luo Jian habitually wanted to lift the quilt and get up, only to find that Liu Lan was sleeping soundly with him in his arms.

"Xinghua, can't you afford to be so early today? Let me lie down a little longer, I haven't slept a single sound since I got here. Luo Jian's movement woke Liu Lan up.

Hearing Liu Lan's words, Luo Jian hugged her tightly with pity.

The old lady had already taken a group of people to clean up in the house, and when she saw that there was a girl ring who wanted to call the newcomer to get up according to the rules, she hurriedly shouted to stop, and beckoned everyone to be light-hearted, don't wake up the girl.

"The two children are worried about their lives, so when they are not idle, let them sleep more on the big day." The old lady said softly, lest she wake up the two upstairs.

"Mother, why are you so early?"

The old lady looked up and saw that Liu Lan was already standing at the top of the stairs.

"You kid, you don't sleep much on the big day, and you don't have to worry about the affairs of the house." The old lady looked at Liu Lan with some disgust and some distress.

Luo Jian also wanted to quietly hug Liu Lan and have a good rest, but there were indeed too many things today, and the two of them didn't have time to warm up at all.

The guests from Nanjing this morning will return tomorrow, and there are some things that we still have to talk to them today, such as Liu Zeqing's matter, which has to be decided by Ma Shiying.