——On the seventh day of the fifth month of the 32nd year of the Western Liang Zhengsheng, King Ruiying attacked the king of Longshan, after the great victory of Haojing, a banquet was set up on this day to invite the vassals to celebrate, during the banquet, the nobles of the public yi were quite controversial in order to reward the merits of the feudal and the new policies such as the imperial examination, and the praisers were mostly old nobles, and the Hu and Qing two clans were waiting to see each other and dispute. Later, the party promoted a case, which caused the contradiction between the old nobles and the two surnames, and on the eleventh day of the same month, the three alliances were convened to veto the government of rewarding merit and fiefdom with many victories and widows. The "Midsummer Jun's Mansion Banquet" is actually the end of the abolition of the three surnames in power, and the beginning of the fall of the Qing and Hu two clans.

The above is a brief record of the banquet in May in the Maharaja's Mansion in the history books of later generations, and if you want to say what happened on this day, you must first ask the magistrate to pay attention to a rough maid in the Huanyi room of the Maharaja's Mansion.

In May in Dajing, the sun is already very strong, the sun is in the morning, and the surroundings are already a piece of gold, maybe sitting in the corridor or walking slowly under the shade of the flowers still does not feel hot, but for the servant women who have to be busy carrying water and clothes early in the morning, even if the sleeves are rolled up to half an elbow, a thin layer of hot sweat oozes from the door of the head.

A gray-clothed maid was putting her washed dress on a bamboo frame, and she listened to the thick voice of Zhan Mama, the housekeeper of the Huanyi room: "Yo, isn't this Miss Xia Ke?" Why did you bring your clothes in person, and those little maids were too lazy? When the gray-clothed maid heard the word "Xia Ke", her eyebrows couldn't help but move, and her slender fingers lifted the corner of the long skirt on the bamboo frame, and looked out, when she saw the person clearly, the corners of her lips trembled even more.

Xia Ke didn't notice that he was being spied on, and only handed the basket in his hand to Mama Zhan: "There is a banquet in the house today, and the little maids in Luqingyuan have been recruited, so I came over to run errands, this is my dress with Pan'er, there is Mama Lao." ”

The gray-clothed maid watched Xia Ke's back out of the courtyard gate, and then stepped forward with a smile: "Mama, that sister is so good-looking, but is on duty next to His Highness?" ”

These words seem to indicate that the gray-clothed maid has just entered the mansion and is not familiar with personnel.

Although Mama Zhan has a loud voice, she is actually a kind person, and although this gray-clothed maid is a newcomer, she is a clever and sweet mouth, and she usually comes to things, Mama Zhan takes good care of her, so she says: "It's the person in front of Mrs." ”

"Ma'am? Didn't you say that the Maharaja hadn't gotten married yet? ”

Mama Zhan lowered her voice: "In short, it is the order of the Maharaja, calling the master of Luqing Yuan Madame, we slaves and maids can't care too much, and carefully come out of the mouth." ”

The gray-clothed maid still wanted to ask carefully, but Mama Zhan had already turned around and handed the basket to the woman on the side, who was her daughter-in-law: "Xia Ke and Pan'er girl are not ordinary people, but you have to be careful, you wash the clothes immediately, keep them to dry and send them to Luqing Garden." The gray-clothed maid walked to the side slowly, moved a small pestle to sit next to the maid who lived in the same room with her, helped clean her clothes, and touched her roommate with her elbow: "Have you seen Madame?" ”

"How can I have that blessing, but I have heard that Mrs. was born very beautiful, Xiao is like a princess of Dalong, it is said that the prince used to admire the princess, so he doted on Mrs. so much." "Roommate" buried his head and whispered, not paying attention to the sudden change in the gray-clothed maid's expression and the dark calculation in her eyes.

Mama Zhan was watching her daughter-in-law roll up her sleeves and treat the dress sent by Xia Ke carefully, when she heard a voice, "Sister-in-law Zhan is there?" As soon as she turned around, Deng was full of courtesy, so her voice became a little thicker: "Internal manager, why do you have time to come here?" ”

Of course, the internal steward is not empty today, but the prince is worried that the servant woman who was originally waiting in the inner house is not tight, and leaks the words of the lady to the guests, so that she can gather the original "team" together in a cross-hospital temporary isolation for a day, so that she has to transfer a large group of people to come in to call, she has been busy for two or three days, and finally transferred all the manpower, who knows that last night, the two maids were greedy and ate bad stomachs, and today they couldn't get out of bed, and the internal steward really couldn't find someone to replace him for a while, thinking that the prince was going to conquer the six counties this time, Brought back dozens of Beiyuan slaves and maids, among whom it seems that some of them are young and beautiful enough to show up to entertain guests, and they are temporarily arranged in the raccoon clothes, sprinkled and swept and other places.

As soon as Mama Zhan heard this reason, she immediately thought of the gray-clothed maid who had a good relationship with her, and called someone over: "This girl is called Snow Lotus, is it appropriate for the steward to take a look?" ”

The housekeeper looked at the maid in front of him, and saw that she was tall and slender at the waist, and her appearance was indeed thoughtful, and her bearing did not look like a rough job, and asked a few more words, and saw that Xuelian answered the rules, so she was a little more satisfied: "You have to be careful today, if you are a good messenger, you will not be rewarded." ”

So he took the man to the inner house.

These maids are just responsible for the trivial things of serving tea and water, or running errands and passing on words, and the internal steward turned Xue Lian to the specific person in charge, and was busy with other affairs.

It is also said that the Xiliang banquet, although it is not according to the set of men and women, most of the family regardless of the male guests and female relatives sit in a column, the husband and wife sit in the same table, and then there are children, but the guests can not step on the point of the banquet, and they also have to arrange in advance to visit the garden, in the pavilion hall and pavilion to lay tea and melon fruit hospitality, in the end there is a difference between men and women, the topic will be different, most of the male guests gather in one place, and the female relatives also have their own good acquaintances and chatter, and there is no men, women and children sitting in a pile, you say your national politics and military I say my clothes and jewelry, that is to say before the banquet, men and women are still separated from each other, but they are not as strict as Dalong, and there are two separate yards and back houses.

Just a moment after the arrival of Chen, I didn't expect that some guests would be the first to come to the door.

The people who came were from the Qing clan, Lan Jiang Gong and Chunjiang Jun's father and son, as well as female dependents including Ji Yu.

The reason why this group of people rushed early in the morning was, of course, the decision of the head of the family, Lan Jiang Gong - since the good news of Haojing's victory arrived in Dajing, Lan Jiang Gong was extremely shocked by the Maharaja's means and ability, and his determination to promote the marriage became more and more unswerving, but after several temptations, the King of Xiliang just did not let go, and the Duke of Lanjiang also understood that the monarch wanted to match the Yuan and the Mahking, although the Western Liang pursued the rule of the three surnames, but the government could only interfere in the affairs of the country, and it was impossible to force the Maharaja to marry a wife, this is the queen's niece, with her coming forward, how can the queen be a little dead.

I don't know that the Yue clan was forced to enter the palace several times, but before the goal was achieved, on the day the king returned to Beijing, he put forward the proposal of enfengyi.

The Duke of Lanjiang was anxious, and convened his staff to discuss for many days, thinking that he could not tear his face with the monarch as a last resort, and of course it was impossible to accept the implementation of the decree of the fiefdom, and the final way to come up was just to persuade the monarch to dispel the idea of fiefdom.

"Although the Mahyun has made military merits this time, His Majesty may not be determined to make His Highness the prince, in the final analysis, His Highness is not surnamed Wan." The Duke of Lanjiang took the lead in opposing the Maharaja and Jin Yuan, and then subdivided it into details: "If according to the covenant, Your Majesty has no children, and you should be succeeded by a concubine, Your Highness proposed to wait for the nobles at this time, originally to boost morale, but Your Highness forgive me, Your Majesty's intention is to use this as an excuse to provoke the nobles to be separated from the political council, and the fundamental intention is to abolish the political council!" If the council is abolished, and the royal power is no longer restrained, will Your Majesty still abide by the covenant? If the Maharaja is wise, he should oppose the fiefdom, and the Qing clan is willing to help you inherit the throne. ”

Lan Jiang Gong has always been a straightforward white man, and the intention of these words is obvious, which is to make the Maharaja stand on the side of the political council, especially to share weal and woe with the Qing clan and strive for the throne.

In contrast, the Maharaja was too unstraightforward, he didn't say anything at all, and only sat on the top with an unfathomable smile.

He also said that the female dependents, the Yue family did not attend as usual, the two ladies are the younger daughters-in-law of the Lanjiang Gong, one is the main room of Han Yangjun who accompanied Jin Yuan to envoy Dalong last time, and the other is Mrs. Liang Yang, the mother of Jiyu, because of the humiliation of Jiyu, the streets are known and heard, and the female dependents of the Qing family are greatly humiliated, they dare not complain about the monarch, and a grievance is recorded on the head of "Qianpan".

Ji Yu and her cousin, who had not been feuded, couldn't sit still, and it was inconvenient to say some private words in front of the elders, so they walked around the flower garden hand in hand.

When they arrived at a flower pavilion, the two saw that the maid of the Dajun's Mansion was setting up refreshments, so they walked in and sat by the window to talk.

These two noble daughters of the royal family who are self-assured of themselves don't care that there are other maids and maids beside them.

So Xue Lian, who was temporarily caught on a mission, heard the gossip in her ears.

"Today's banquet in the Maharaja's Mansion, I don't know if Qianpan will attend, I am really a little curious about her." Qing Xiaomei said.

"She is just a concubine, what qualifications do you have to attend the banquet, no matter how much the king pampers her, she has to take care of the guests present, but the people who came today are all nobles, who wants to sit with a humble concubine?" Ji Yu was angry when she heard the word Qianpan, and all she had was the heart of humiliating "Qianpan", wishing that someone would spread the word, how could she care about the eyes and ears around her.

"Sister, don't say that, I heard that there are already many noble ladies who have come to the door to talk about it, it's Tongyang, haven't you also become a frequent visitor to the Dajun Mansion?"

"What kind of noble ladies are they, but the female dependents of some small nobles don't care about decency to entertain with a concubine, Xiliang has never had such a joke for a hundred years, as for Tongyang, no wonder she is like this, who let the Hu family decline, the family has no face and no skin." Ji Yu snorted coldly: "Look at it, Qianpan can't end up with this cheap concubine, didn't the eldest aunt also say that the queen is very resistant to her?" ”

Although Xue Lian didn't know who these two noble girls were, she understood from Ji Yu's words that "Qianpan" was the owner of Luqing Garden, so she became more and more concentrated, but it was just that she didn't have a chance to listen to it more, because a housekeeper's daughter-in-law called her out and asked her to go to the pantry and bring a few boxes of refreshments.

This pavilion is very spacious and has a beautiful view from the outside, and it should be the main venue for entertaining the ladies before the feast, and the refreshments prepared in advance are slightly insufficient and need to be added.

Xue Lian reluctantly followed her companion to the pantry, and before going out, she looked at Ji Yu a few times, remembering her face and clothes.

He pretended to be curious and asked: "Who were those two noble girls just now, and in front of us, they actually discussed the rights and wrongs of the main family." ”

A maid explained: "It's the Qing lady, the older one was splashed with tea by the lady last time, and was reprimanded by the monarch, she is a noble girl with three surnames who has a fiefdom, and she is also famous for being rude, so she naturally resents." ”

As he was talking, he saw a group of people passing in front, several mothers-in-law carrying chariots, Xia Ke following alongside, and more than ten white-clothed maids behind him.

Although Xue Lian learned from her companion to immediately avoid the side, lowered her face, and bowed her knees, there was a faint resentment in her eyes.

With just one glance, she could see the face of the woman on the chariot.

Xiao like? No matter how Xiao looks, the maid next to him also has the same name and appearance?

This person is not Qianpan at all, but the Su family's Wuniang, the princess of the King of Chu in Dalong!

But how did she end up here? And became the concubine of the Maharaja!

"That's Madame?" Waiting for the long way, Xue Lian couldn't help but ask.

"It should be true, I haven't seen Madame's true face before, but I heard the steward say earlier that Madame is going to have a banquet in Donghuayuan today, and it is in that direction."

When this was confirmed, Xue Lian's mind moved, and the corners of her mouth hooked up a meaningful smile.