Li Ji happened to arrive in Jinling on the day before the chrysanthemum feast, and what made Chungui happy was that Li Ji's wife Ding also came to Jinling, and the two had formed a friendship when they were in Fenyang, and Li Ji is now the king of Zhou, and his family will also temporarily live in the palace of King Wu.

"The lady arrived today, it is indeed a good thing, tomorrow is the chrysanthemum feast, His Royal Highness has invited so many guests, I am worried that I can't take care of all these affairs, that is, the lady has only traveled a long distance, and she has to be busy when she comes, and she has no time to rest." Chun Gui was a little reluctant: "There are so many things to prepare today, and I can't pick up the wind and wash the dust for my mother." ”

Ding hurriedly smiled: "Yiren regards the concubine as a friend, and the concubine should be pleasant to receive the wind and wash the dust. ”

The spring return bento really doesn't meet with the Ding family.

Tell Ding the inside story of the chrysanthemum banquet 1510: "His Royal Highness and his grandson discussed, simply make the focus of this supervision public, and avoid rumors from floating in the hearts of the people, the imperial court decree originally exempted a lot of miscellaneous errands, intended to effectively reduce the taxes borne by the people, but since the decree was issued, the people have rarely known about these benefits, and because the local officials have violated the law, most of them have not really selected the grain chief according to the law, which is the focus of His Royal Highness's rectification this time.

Therefore, before the chrysanthemum banquet this time, His Royal Highness had ordered the officials of the four provinces to report on their work in Nanjing, and the banquet was to take advantage of the convenience of the debriefing, but it did not seem to be an extravagant drink. ”

It turned out that the guests invited by the king of Zhou this time were not limited to the officials and gentry of Jinling City, not only all the officials under the rule of Ying Tianfu, but even the prefect of the governor of Nanzhili also received the invitation, of course, if this was just an ordinary banquet, it would be too absurd, and the king of Zhou might be impeached by the officials, but since he first ordered to convene the governors of various places to report on their work, it is obvious that this is a "Hongmen banquet", the purpose is to effectively push the administrative order to strictly investigate the ransom of corruption, and no official will impeach the king of Zhou for greed for pleasure and obstruction of official business.

According to the law of this dynasty, most local officials are not allowed to serve in their hometowns, but of course this cannot restrict officials from favoritism, because no matter whether officials are from high families or poor families, once they enter the office, they will inevitably be involved in party factions, and the four provinces in the south of the Yangtze River have always been the main "production areas" of scholars and eunuchs, so it can be said that none of the civil servants of the Manchu Dynasty did not have classmates from the south of the Yangtze River, and the officials of the four provinces had a close relationship with the local gentry.

At the same time, the king of Zhou also invited the gentry of the four provinces to a banquet, in order to find out the major factions in Jiangnan through this banquet, in order to destroy the alliance and confrontation between them.

"Most of the men are old and sophisticated, and they are not so easy to show their flaws, but most of the female dependents are ignorant of foreign affairs, which family is really close to which family, which family is pseudo-friendship with which household, and it is easier to peek through the words and deeds of the female dependents. His Royal Highness is not very relieved that Tao Cairen is responsible for this matter alone, so the lady and I will inevitably have to pay attention, the matter of tea and food, is Tao Cairen and my two aunts to keep an eye on, the lady and I are only responsible for socializing, I have sorted out some personnel that need to be focused on during this time, there is Lao Niangzi today, and it is familiar with it, and it is cheap to know tomorrow. ”

Chungui left Ding's family to have lunch together before handing over the stack of personnel connections to her to read the notes, and then invited two other Changshi ladies to do the "final preparations", and went to the various offices of the inner garden to take a look, so busy that they almost forgot the time of dinner, on this day Zhou Wang and Lan Ting had to receive officials from all over the world, deal with debriefing matters, and they were also so busy that they didn't have half a minute of free time, and Chungui estimated that Lan

The court meeting simply rested in the outer courtyard, bathed and settled early, and recuperated to prepare for the next day's social entertainment.

Before dawn the next day, she was woken up by Qingping and Ju Xi, and still went to the Anle House to accompany her grandfather for breakfast, and went to the inner garden with her two aunts.

The group went to Qinghui Garden first.

Tao Fanglin is naturally dressed up today, with a brocade skirt full of embroidered Jinying, the first distinguished guest she came forward to receive was Mrs. Qian, the female dependent of the Nanjing Hubu Shangshu Mansion, Mrs. Qian was born in Fengyang, and now she is past the age of knowing the destiny of heaven, so she came with two daughters-in-law and a granddaughter who is close to the age of Lu, the little girl looked around, and couldn't help whispering: "Auntie, where is the Jin Ying in this garden to be rewarded?" ”

was glared at by the old grandmother.

Tao Fanglin smiled: "Miss Qian said very well, there are no Jinying plants in this Qinghui Garden, so even I don't think it's very suitable for today's banquet, but Gu Yiren also has Gu Yiren's thoughts, Miss Qian shouldn't be anxious, maybe she will find it interesting after waiting for a while." ”

"Talented people are really blessed, with such a helper as Gu Yiren by their side, even such an important event in the palace can save their worries." Qian Shangshu's daughter-in-law casually flattered.

Tao Fanglin was smug, and felt that although King Zhou told Chungui to preside over the overall situation, in the eyes of the female dependents, the Gu family was nothing more than a courtier, and she was the hostess of today's banquet.

"It's not that I have this blessing, it's that His Royal Highness is afraid that I will be dull, and that I will not entertain the distinguished guests well, so I asked Gu Yiren to help."

Mrs. Qian thought about it, and said with a smile: "Your Highness is afraid of talented people working hard, and Your Highness is really considerate of treating talented people." ”

Tao Fanglin looked at the daughters of the Qian family more and more pleasing to the eye, and then touted more in words, and intended to introduce Miss Qian to get acquainted with Lan Xin, she still used her past understanding to measure Lan Xin, wishing that Lan Xin would embarrass Miss Qian, form a grudge with the Qian family, and ruin Lan Xin's reputation.

Not to mention that Lan Xin's temperament is greatly restrained now, even today because of Hua Ying's company, Hua Ying will also mediate to resolve the conflict, and it is impossible for Tao Fanglin to succeed.

And today Mrs. Zhou also received an invitation, and she will come to Wu Wanggong to cheer, but when she saw the eldest aunt of the Li family, she was a little ashamed, but Li Wanyan hurriedly stepped forward to comfort: "Mother Zhou doesn't have to be careful, it's my second sister who doesn't have this blessing, my mother and second sister will not dare to blame Zhou Shimu, my mother also specially told me, I will take Zhou Shimu to see Tao Cairen." ”

Mrs. Zhou refused: "Tao Cairen is so busy today, I won't bother much." ”

"Tao Cai is the most amiable temperament, and I am fortunate to be able to win the favor of talented people, and the mother of the world does not have to worry about disturbing talented people." Li Wanyan said with a smile.

But Chun Gui had already left Mrs. Zhou to be there, and at this time she had already greeted her here.

So Mrs. Zhou didn't "bother" Cheng Tao talent in the end.

However, Chungui did not have much time to talk to Mrs. Zhou, welcomed Mrs. Zhou to the banquet hall and sat down, and then took her leave for the time being after politely entertaining, today Mrs. Zhou went to the banquet with her eldest daughter-in-law, and the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law went to watch Jin Ying on the way to watch Jin Ying according to the guidance of Chungui, and the eldest daughter-in-law said in a low voice: "Why is the eldest aunt and grandmother of the Li family so shallow-minded?" Just now I was teasing her in front of my mother and winning the appreciation of Tao Cairen, which shows that I am greedy and vain, and my daughter-in-law has also seen Miss Li, who is indeed open-minded and straightforward, and Mrs. Li is like a sister. ”

Mrs. Zhou's eldest daughter-in-law and her own father-in-law

The wife is out of harmony, but she is very filial to Mrs. Zhou, and Mrs. Zhou is not dissatisfied with the eldest daughter-in-law, after hearing this, she only patted the eldest daughter-in-law's hand: "The marriage between our family and the Li family has been done, so don't theorize about these rights and wrongs, we can get a banquet today, inheriting the hospitality of Gu Yiren, since Yiren did not introduce us to Tao Cairen, we can't go to Tao Cairen, you remember this." ”

"I just don't know what kind of temperament my future brother-in-law is, and my daughter-in-law has never seen Miss Zhao."

"How do I know this, just listen to what the preface said to be studious and progressive." Speaking of this, Mrs. Zhou still can't laugh or cry.

The eldest daughter-in-law also laughed out loud: "Uncle, this is looking for a daughter-in-law using the standard of making friends." ”

Mrs. Zhou sighed.

The two sons she gave birth to are exactly the same old-fashioned, but the eldest daughter-in-law is very jumpy, so she can't talk to the eldest son, the eldest son is an official in Lingnan, and the eldest daughter-in-law is unwilling to follow at all, so the husband and wife can use letters to argue for the upbringing of their grandchildren, she only hopes that Miss Zhao can really be with her younger son and Meimei in the future, no matter what kind of temperament Miss Zhao has, the younger son is happy.

Said to be a chrysanthemum feast, spring return is not completely without "to the topic" preparation, she personally designed, with chrysanthemums mainly planted with different styles of eighteen bonsai, and now placed in the Qinghui Garden of the bright star, Minghe two pavilions for male guests and female guests to watch, Mrs. Zhou's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law just entered the bright star court, then heard the ears full of admiration.

Of course, the eighteen bonsai are not randomly stacked in the Bright Star Garden, according to the style not only with a few separate shelves, forming a staggered order, each bonsai also hangs on the side of the painting or poetry, the theme is of course related to Jin Ying, the end is not interesting.

Mrs. Zhou's eldest daughter-in-law admired and admired: "The combination of the basin base and the flower stone is really ingenious, this is definitely not a finished product purchased in the commercial market, is it possible that there are still skilled florists in the palace of King Wu?" ”

I heard someone behind me say: "This is not the craftsman of the gardener, it is a bonsai created by Tao Cairen himself, if the younger brother-in-law of the Li family has the heart to ask for advice, why not follow me to see Tao Cairen?" Tao Cai people are bound to be willing to point. ”

Mrs. Zhou's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law turned around one by one, and they saw Li Wanyan who seemed to be following her again.

Li Wanyan may not know whose technique these bonsai come from, but in her opinion, this is the chrysanthemum banquet of the Zhou Palace, the king of Zhou and Tao Caicai are the masters, and Chungui naturally did not dare to steal the limelight of Tao Cairen, so she said such a thing casually, she didn't expect that Tao Cairen had already stated to Mrs. Qian and so on that she had not handled these labors, so as to divide Qingming in front of everyone who was the master and slave.

It just so happened that Hua Ying and Lan Xin also accompanied many ladies to this place to hang out, Hua Ying heard her sister talking nonsense in public, and she was so embarrassed that she couldn't find a crack in the ground to hide, and came over with a red face to greet Mrs. Zhou, and naturally pulled Lan Xin in.

It's not that Mrs. Zhou hasn't seen Lan Xin, it's just that she doesn't know Lan Xin's temperament, and at this time, she can't care about Tao Cairen, and her thoughts are all on Lan Xin, so the group temporarily left the Bright Star Court and changed to a quiet place to speak.

Li Wanyan still didn't give up, and even went forward to participate, in front of Mrs. Zhou, she praised Lan Xin, but she said the wrong sentence: "I heard Tao Cairen say that in the past, I used to talk about poetry with the second girl, and since the talent of the second girl can be recognized by Tao Cairen, it must be really outstanding, such as the eighteen bonsai in the Bright Star Garden, maybe it can't be separated from the second girl's advice." ”

Lan Xin's little face immediately turned into a piece of iron.