The next day is the tenth day of rest, is a rare holiday for the court officials, for Fanning, today is also a day of more entertainment, today is the 70th birthday of Cao Cong, the old master of Cao Mansion, Cao Cong is the youngest son of Cao Bin, the founder of the Great Song Dynasty, and one of the few old people in the second generation of the meritorious family.

There are more than 100 people in the Cao family for three generations, basically all of whom are officials in the army, and Cao Bin's own prestige makes the Cao family very powerful and influential in the army.

It is precisely for this reason that after the abolition of Empress Guo, Zhao Zhen, the son of heaven, in order to stabilize the military and appease the dissatisfaction of the military, of course, also to win over the army's support for him, he appointed Cao Bin's granddaughter as the queen.

The Cao family is the queen, not only Zhao Zhen's throne has been consolidated, but at the same time, the Cao family has also taken the top spot of the meritorious family in one fell swoop by virtue of the queen's nobility.

This time, Cao Cong celebrated his 70th birthday, and more than 600 invitations were sent out, inviting meritorious families, court officials, relatives and magnates, etc., and Zhao Zhen, the son of heaven, also specially rewarded 10,000 taels of silver to congratulate Cao Cong on his 70th birthday, but it is still unclear whether the Son of Heaven and Queen Cao will come to pay their respects.

Fanning finished lunch and took another nap, leaving his accommodation at about three o'clock in the afternoon, and the main event was usually in the evening, and most of the guests who went in the morning were relatives and friends, and most of the ordinary guests went in the afternoon.

Fanning is going by ox cart, these days Fanning has been thinking about whether he can buy a horse to travel, it was not realistic before, now he bought a new house with a livestock shed, it is possible to buy a donkey and horse for transportation.

It is also normal to use animal power to travel, most people in the capital have donkeys, and donkey riding is very common in the capital, and not everyone needs to take an ox cart on the street.

Of course, if the family conditions are good, you can also buy a horse to travel, although horses are relatively rare in small places, but not in the capital, as long as you have money, you can still buy horses.

People on horseback can often be seen on the street, especially most of the middle and low-level officials also choose to ride horses, mainly because the dynasty was too early, at that time the ox cart had not yet gone out of the street, and it was not a system to ride a donkey, and it was even more impossible to ride a horse-drawn carriage, so riding a horse became the choice of most officials.

It's just that once you buy a horse, you need a groom at home, and if you have a groom, you have to hire a cook, and you have to invite other people, add maids, and finally hire a housekeeper.

It's like changing a designer tie and having to buy a matching suit, pants, belts, and shoes, so Fanning has been hesitant to buy a horse.

The ox cart walked very slowly, and the coachman was a sturdy man in his thirties, from Caizhou, and his family lived outside the city, so when Fanning told him about the inconvenience of transportation, he did not recommend himself, and it was indeed inconvenient for him to live outside the city, but he gave Fanning a good suggestion.

"Petty officials don't actually have to buy horses, you can consider renting, you look for mules and horses near your residence to find out if there is a mule and horse shop, this kind of mule and horse shop does not open the door until dark, and the door is closed after dark, you can give the horse or donkey to them at night, they will feed, and then the next day you go to the mule and horse shop to pull out the leg strength, so as to save the trouble of inviting a groom and a muleman.

As far as I know, many families do this, after all, there are not many people with livestock sheds, and you can rent a donkey for two yuan a month, and you can rent a horse for five yuan, which is the current market price. ”

This suggestion made Fan Ning quite excited, think about it carefully, there are really a lot of mules and horses, there are two in the old Caomen area, there seems to be one on the other side of Feiyun Bridge, less than a hundred steps away from his new house, because he usually doesn't need it, so he doesn't take it to heart, now that I think about it, renting a head of foot force is indeed a good way, and I will go to see it in two days.

"Thank you, big brother!"

"You're welcome, little official, the front is the western section of Hengjie!"

The west section of Hengjie is the location of Cao's mansion, close to the West Water Gate, Cao's mansion is a mansion covering an area of nearly 200 acres, because Cao Bin's status in the Great Song Dynasty is very high, and he has been repeatedly posthumously sealed, so his descendants live in a huge mansion of 200 acres can also be tolerated by the imperial court.

At this time, the carriages were parked in front of the Cao Mansion, and it was just when a large number of guests poured in, almost all of them brought their families, wives and children, etc.

The men's clothing is relatively simple and very similar, most of them wear a white or cyan robe, a leather belt, a gauze hat, and almost always hold a folding fan in their hands.

Fanning was dressed like this, wearing a blue satin shirt and holding a gold-filigree folding fan.

But the women are all flowery, their hair is combed in a high bun or cloud temples, their hair is smeared with oil, and it is black and shiny in the sun, and there is a golden hairpin in their hair, and their steps are light, and the golden hairpin arm rings and sounds.

The pretty face is covered with a thin powder, which makes the cheeks even more rosy, the eyes are beautiful, the long neck and a touch of breast are exposed, and the snow-white skin is as delicate as fat, and the pink is greasy.

Especially the young women are all graceful and moving, as if they are not here to attend a birthday banquet, but to participate in a blind date meeting.

Not to mention, such a gathering is still an opportunity for many parents to choose a lifelong partner for their children, after all, the guests who can come to the Caofu birthday banquet are all families with relatively high status.

Fanning got off the ox cart early and walked over, he was a little hesitant, did he come a little early?

"The little official is also here for the birthday banquet?" A man who looked like a butler stepped forward and asked politely.

He saw Fan Ning holding a wooden box in his arms and an invitation card in his other hand, with an elegant temperament and good manners, but he didn't dare to scold him casually.

Fanning handed him the invitation, and the housekeeper's eyelids jumped, it was actually No. 17, this was not an ordinary guest, even if it was not a relative of the emperor, but at least it was a guest that the old master valued very much.

The housekeeper hurriedly clasped his fists and saluted, "Official, please!" ”

He saw that Fanning was not coming with his parents, and this invitation was his, so the housekeeper naturally removed the word 'small' and called him an official directly.

The title of 'official' is very mysterious, regardless of the wife calling her husband an official, other people call an official, there is a kind of affirmation of the other party's status, and there is no direct relationship with age, the key is to have status, then no matter how young you can be called an official.

If he is an adult, but he is not angry, he is idle all day long, and he can only rely on his parents with status to gnaw at the old, this kind of young man cannot be casually given the title of official, but another title: Yanei, which means that his father is Li Gang, don't provoke casually.

Although Fanning seems to be young, he has an independent invitation, or the seventeenth, such a person should not be called an official, what should he be called?

The housekeeper led Fan Ning to the gate, and there were two welcoming teams of the Cao family standing at the gate.

One team was led by Cao Fu, Cao Mo is the eldest son of today's birthday star Cao Cong, the official general, he stood on the left side of the gate with four Cao family children, and the other team was led by Cao Fu, Cao Fu is the brother of Empress Cao, the dignified uncle of the country, and the official envoy of Qingxu Festival.

Empress Cao also has a brother named Cao Tong, this person is indifferent to fame and fortune, advocating Taoism, and likes to go to all parts of the world to find immortals and visit the Tao, he is one of the legendary eight immortals Uncle Cao.

Uncle Cao Guo currently lives in Cao Mansion, but he usually does not show up on such occasions.

At this time, Fan Ning saw Cao Shi at a glance, so he waved his hand to him, Cao Shi's eyes lit up, and he immediately ran over with a smile and said, "Senior brother, why are you here?" ”

Since Su Liang sometimes called Fan Ning his senior brother, everyone felt that this title was better, which was both cordial and did not despise Fan Ning, so everyone shouted along.

After all, Fan Ning was the first senior among their group of boys to serve as a Beijing official, so it was natural to call him a senior brother.

Fan Ning shook the invitation card in his hand and said triumphantly: "I have an official invitation, why can't I come?" ”

Cao Shi scratched her head, "Why didn't I know that I invited a senior brother?" I copied the guest list. ”

Fan Ning was stunned, and then he smiled and said, "Maybe I'm temporarily plugging, I want to ask you two things?" ”

Fan Ning pulled Cao Shi aside and asked, "Is there any taboo about giving your grandfather a birthday gift?" ”

"It's about the same as ordinary people!"

Cao Shi thought about it, it seemed that his grandfather had no special taboos, Fan Ning opened the box, and inside was a statue of Guanyin in Tianhuangshi, about a foot long, Zhu Zhe's work, carved very finely and vividly.

"This birthday gift is good, my grandmother believes in Buddhism, she must like it."

Cao Shi looked at it carefully and said with a smile: "This is Tian Huangshi, who has been very famous recently!" ”

"That's it, the first-class frozen stone field yellow, the famous carving, the queen also likes it very much."

"Then let's go!"

"Wait!"

Fanning waved his hand and said, "I still have a question, I guess you don't know, but it's best for you to help me inquire." ”

"What's the doubt?"

Fanning handed him the invitation, "Why is my invitation number seventeen?" ”

"Ahh Cao Shi exclaimed, it turned out to be No. 17, this is an extremely distinguished guest who can make up this number, why is Fanning the seventeenth?

He suddenly felt that something was wrong, when he was copying the list, No. 17 seemed to have someone, but it was definitely not Fanning.

"I don't know why, or I'll help you inquire."

Fanning nodded, "Then please!" ”

Of course, Fanning knew that the Cao family would not make such a low-level mistake, and there must be some reason for giving him the seventeenth invitation.

And his intuition told Fan Ning that maybe it wasn't an ordinary reason, and it wasn't as simple as Zhu Yuanfeng said that he won a gold medal without calling.

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