On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, there was a crowd of people in front of the Zhenguo Mansion, and hundreds of civil and military officials dressed in civilian clothes came to the mourning hall in the front courtyard hall of the Zhenguo Mansion to mourn Li Yuntian.

According to the custom, after the death of the Son of Heaven, the capital will stop a red and white ceremonial event, so as not to clash with the funeral of the Daxing Emperor, which means that the folk funeral and marriage should be simple, and there can be no ceremony.

However, there were two court ministers in the capital who received Emperor Xuande's edict before his death, namely Li Yuntian and Jian Yi, who could hold a funeral after Emperor Xuande's burial to show Emperor Xuande's favor.

Therefore, on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, in addition to the officials who guarded the coffin of Emperor Xuande in the Qianqing Palace, the rest of the people went to the Zhenguo Mansion and the Jianyi Mansion to mourn.

Although there is the grace of Emperor Xuande, the people of the Zhenguo Mansion and the Jian Mansion did not do any major things, but only set up a mourning hall to park the coffin, and buried it after the first seven days.

Zhou Yuting led the family members of the Zhenguo Mansion to kneel in the mourning hall wearing linen and filial piety, and there was a cry on the scene, although she tried her best to restrain herself, her eyes were still moist.

The important ministers of the imperial court and Li Yuntian's friends who came to mourn comforted Zhou Yuting and other family members after paying homage to Li Yuntian's tablet, so that their mourning was smooth, and a sad atmosphere was enveloped in the air.

It is worth mentioning that the coffin in the mourning hall is empty, and there is a set of Li Yuntian's court clothes and the gold-handled embroidered spring knife given by Emperor Xuande, and his "corpse" is now parked in the punishment department.

According to the order of the imperial court, since Li Yuntian was involved in the imperial case, his "body" could only be retrieved by the people of the Zhenguo Mansion after the Gyeonggi Governor's Mansion fire case was officially closed, and the Gyeonggi Governor's Mansion fire case was complicated, and it was not an overnight matter to close the case.

Normally, Emperor Xuande would issue a decree to allow Li Yuntian's "corpse" to return to his home for a funeral, but to the surprise of the outside world, Emperor Xuande issued a surprising edict before his death, that is, Li Yuntian's "corpse" must remain in the Criminal Department before the Criminal Department solves the case, so as to urge the Three Law Divisions and the Gyeonggi Metropolitan Governor's Office to do their best to find out the case and return Li Yuntian's innocence, so the Zhenguo Mansion can only use this way to open a mourning hall.

In fact, Emperor Xuande did this with two deep meanings, one of which was to avoid the "corpse" of the stand-in from entering the mourning hall of the Zhenguo Mansion, otherwise it would be a very embarrassing thing, who would have thought that the family members of the Zhenguo Mansion and the civil and military officials would be a stand-in.

Another meaning is that Emperor Xuande has not thought of how to treat Li Yuntian, so he gave Empress Sun two completely different holy decrees, if Li Yuntian was later killed by Empress Sun with Emperor Xuande's edict, then the civil and military officials mourning Li Yuntian will become a joke.

Therefore, Emperor Xuande weighed it for a long time, and finally made the decision to let Li Yuntian's "body" stay in the Criminal Department, but at the same time, he gave the Zhenguo Mansion a decree to let Zhou Yuting Zhang Luo Li Yuntian's funeral, so as to confuse those potential enemies.

Suddenly, there was a commotion among the people in the courtyard, and I saw a group of military attachés dressed as martial arts officers walking in in a neat procession, led by Wang Jian, the prince of Xiaoguo, and the left and right sides of Wang Jian were Liang Shaojie, Marquis of Wuping, and Li Daniu, Marquis of Anwu.

This condolence team composed of middle and senior military attachés of Jiangwutang and Xiaowujun immediately attracted people's attention as soon as they appeared, and at the same time reminded the outside world that Li Yuntian is the soul of Jiangwutang and Xiaowujun.

"County Lord, the festival mourns and changes, even if there is something to do in the future, my father and my colleagues in the martial arts hall will definitely do their best." After worshipping Li Yuntian's coffin, Wang Jian came to Zhou Yuting and other Li Yuntian's wives and said solemnly.

Although Li Yuntian is dead, his influence in the Jiangwutang and Xiaowujun is still there, and the huge interpersonal network formed by Li Yuntian is still running, and the Jiangwutang and Xiaowujun have a new leader to lead.

This new leader is neither Liang Shaojie who was inserted by Emperor Xuande into the Xiaowu Army to monitor the military situation, nor Wang Jian, who ranked second in the Xiaowu Army, nor Li Yuntian's henchman Li Daniu, but Li Yuntian's sixth wife Lei Ting, only Lei Ting can suppress the various factions in the Jiangwutang and Xiaowu Army, and then reconcile the contradictions between the factions, so that the Jiangwutang and the Xiaowu Army are still united.

Moreover, although Li Yuntian died, he left behind an heir, and after his lord became the new Zhenguo Duke, the military attachés of the Wutang and Xiaowu Army would gather under the leadership of Lei Ting to avoid being swallowed up.

Due to Li Yuntian's sudden death, the nobles of the capital city have set their eyes on the position of the chief instructor of the lecture martial arts, and it seems that the name of this position is very ordinary, but in fact, whoever holds this position means that he will control the lecture martial arts hall.

The Xiaowu Army is a subordinate unit of the Jiangwutang, so controlling the Jiangwutang is equivalent to holding the military power of the Xiaowu Army, so this position is an out-and-out sweetheart.

It is not easy to win this fragrant dumpling, the reason is very simple, the essence of the martial arts hall is the military attache school of the Ming Dynasty, so if you want to become a chief instructor, you must have enough knowledge, to be precise, you are proficient in the teaching of the martial arts hall, this alone is equivalent to breaking the thoughts of the vast majority of nobles in the court.

Among the nobles of the imperial court, only the nobles of the Xiaowu Army line clearly talked about the teaching curriculum and philosophy of the martial arts, but except for Li Daniu, Wang Jian and Liang Shaojie and others did not serve in the martial arts hall, and even Li Daniu could not suppress those military attaches in the martial arts hall.

It is worth mentioning that the lecture hall is a huge system, not just an academy, but also a Xiaowu army, various workshops and industries under its command, this position seems to be nothing, but there are many affairs to do, and it is difficult to convince the public.

If the emperor forcibly appoints a new chief instructor, then the new chief instructor will definitely be hollowed out of power by those below, unless the new chief instructor carries out drastic reforms to the martial arts hall to control the situation, but in this way, the martial arts hall will be ruined, and it will eventually return to mediocrity in the struggle for power and profit of various forces.

From the current situation, it is certain that the position of the chief instructor of the martial arts hall will inevitably lead to fierce competition among the noble group in the court, and everyone wants to swallow this piece of fat in their mouths.

In the face of pressure from the outside world, the nobles of the Xiaowu Army have actually secretly reached an agreement, first Wang Jian will act as the chief instructor of the Jiangwutang, and wait for Li Yuntian's eldest son, Li Anbang, the newly promoted Zhenguo Gong, to take over the position of chief instructor when he becomes an adult, and Lei Ting will be responsible for coordinating the affairs during this period to ensure the stability of the Jiangwutang and the Xiaowu Army.

Even Liang Shaojie agreed to Wang Jian's acting chief instructor, his career is in the Xiaowu Army, so he doesn't want to watch the good situation that Li Yuntian has created with great difficulty ruined in the hands of others, and his heart is also full of guilt for Li Yuntian, it was he who secretly transferred the arquebuses stored in the arquebus workshop of the Xiaowu Army camp outside the city after receiving the edict of Emperor Xuande a year ago.

Wang Jian, Liang Shaojie and others came this time not just to mourn, they want to keep Li Yuntian's soul until Li Yuntian's funeral, and it is also a tradition in officialdom to keep a wake for the chief official of this yamen, usually only people with high prestige can enjoy this honor.

Just when the Zhenguo Mansion was in full swing, two beautiful women dressed in plain clothes and wearing white flowers got out of a carriage with haggard expressions and walked towards the gate with sad faces.

Seeing this situation, the people at the gate of the courtyard showed surprised expressions, and looked at the two beautiful women dressed in heavy filial piety in amazement, not knowing who they were, and they actually came to the Zhenguo Mansion in this costume.

"Two girls, please stay, dare to ask why the two girls are coming to our Guogong Mansion." The two young men standing at the gate of the courtyard immediately stepped forward to block the way of the two women, and one of them asked quietly.

"Two girls, please!" However, at the next moment, before the two women could identify themselves, a middle-aged man who was at the door and commanded the people to register to come to the house to pay their condolences to the guests hurriedly greeted him, bowed down and made a gesture of please.

Hearing this, the two women immediately entered the door and walked to the mourning hall under the surprised gaze of the people along the way.

"Uncle, who are they?" The two young men who stopped the people were puzzled in their hearts, and couldn't help but come to the middle-aged man and ask, they have only been in the Zhenguo Mansion for half a year, so they don't know some things about the Zhenguo Mansion.

"One is Zhao Xinyue, the chief reporter of "Mingxin Daily", and the other is the former Jiangnan Oiran Hongluan girl, both of whom have been old acquaintances with the grandfather of the country for ten years, and the relationship with our town and the government is extraordinary." The middle-aged man was a steward of the Zhenguo Mansion and explained to the two of them in a low voice.

The two young family members suddenly showed a look of sudden realization on their faces, no wonder Zhao Xinyue and Hongluan were dressed in heavy filial piety, it turned out that there was such a secret in them.

The appearance of Zhao Xinyue and Hongluan made a small commotion in the scene of the mourning hall, the Zhenguo Mansion received the distinguished guests of the capital to come to mourn today, according to the custom, the female dependents of the distinguished guests in the capital were not close relatives of the Zhenguo Mansion, so they could not appear in the mourning hall, so Zhao Xinyue and Hongluan came this time to make people feel very confused.

Zhou Yuting, who was kneeling on the side of the coffin, couldn't help but sigh when she saw the scene in front of her, and shook her head secretly, she knew the intention of Zhao Xinyue and Hongluan, but she didn't expect the two to be so infatuated.

Under the gaze of everyone at the scene, Zhao Xinyue and Hongluan knelt side by side in front of Li Yuntian's coffin, and after kowtowing three times, they couldn't help but cry bitterly.

"The county lord, the grandfather and I have a great kindness, I have nothing to repay, I am willing to enter the palace to be a concubine for the grandfather of the country, I hope that after death, I can be buried next to the tomb of the grandfather of the country to serve, and I hope that the county lord will be fulfilled."

Perhaps knowing that there were still people waiting to mourn Li Yuntian, Zhao Xinyue and Hongluan wiped the tears from the corners of their eyes after crying for a while, and both came to Zhou Yuting, knelt down at her, and said in unison, looking extremely resolute as if they had made up their minds.