The chariot entered the south gate of the royal city, and Zhao Bohu led a group of officials from the pedestrian department who had diplomatic relations with the princes, and greeted the princes politely in the wide carriage and horse yard paved with white jade.

Although Zhao Bohu is young, on this important day, his face, which has always been dignified, is also full of the warm wind of the spring sun, and he bowed his hand to the princes one by one, and stretched out his hand one by one to invite: "The ministers have gathered in the main hall, and they want to see the demeanor of the princes."

When it was the turn of the son and father, Zhao Bohu's face showed sincere concern and joy, and he grabbed his sleeve: "Brother He, when did you come?" Even if you don't have time to come to the house, you should send someone to hand over a famous thorn."

I haven't seen him for many years, and Zifu's father is still upright, but his sideburns have slightly added a little white. When Zhao Bohu said this, he suddenly felt a little ashamed, and thanked him: "I should have come to visit, but I just thought that Brother Zimu was busy with government affairs and couldn't bear to add to the chaos. After the ceremony, you must come to the door and apologize."

"You and I have fellowship, why should you be afraid of such a false courtesy? Childe, please go first."

For the first time, Zifu's father He Sumu's face smiled leisurely: "Brother Zimu is confused, it should be invited by Duke Yu first."

According to the gift of nine guests, every welcome and every delivery must be three concessions and three resignations. Therefore, more than a dozen princes in this line were given in turn, which was the proper meaning of the question, and it was not completely vain. The princes came to the front of the main hall, lined up in three rows according to the title of the prince and the prince, and bowed deeply to the main hall of the Haojing Palace, which was as majestic as the palace of the world.

Danqi, the stone steps in front of the temple painted with red lacquer. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the material resources were difficult, and the stone steps in front of the palace were paved with cyan stone strips, which was too gray and heavy, so it was painted red to show auspiciousness. In later generations, the country became rich, and the unified great dynasties used carefully selected high-grade white jade to pave the stone steps of the main hall. This is the high-quality red felt paving, which is more magnificent than the red paint. This style has been inherited from later generations, and there is a national gift on the red carpet. That's for another time.

The princes stepped on the steps of the Danqi, although they did not squint, but they also swept away the entire situation in front of the palace at a glance. The red armor and bronze axes of the royal city guards all stand solemnly on both sides of the Danqi, like the red poplar forest, and the majestic majesty is indeed the only one in the world. The princes are arranging their troops in the country, and they can naturally see that these ceremonial weapons are all genuine copper materials, and although they are clumsy on the battlefield, they can be called infinitely powerful when killed alone. Just that bronze axe, which weighs 36 pounds and is 9 feet and 9 inches long, can hardly stop its slashing and sweeping power no matter how sharp your sword weapon is.

Suddenly, the princes suddenly felt a chill on their backs.

After passing through the platform of the palace entrance to represent the nine big tripods of the world's Kyushu, it is the main entrance of the main hall with two zhang Xu in height and width.

At this moment, the main door was wide open, and a thick red felt three feet and six feet wide went straight to the front of the royal platform in the depths of the main hall. Looking at it from afar, the black and red are heavy, and the image of deep solemnity has to make people suddenly flash the sigh of "this is the temple of the true Son of Heaven".

In an instant, the bell rang nine times, and the grand and peaceful music suddenly filled the tall and majestic hall. In the midst of the music, waves of emcee ministers and voice bearers flew out of the hall one after another: "The Son of Heaven is coming to the Dynasty - the Son of Heaven is coming to the Dynasty-"

Then another wave of voices rushed in: "Princes to meet - Princes to meet—"

The princes bowed deeply to the heavy royal platform at the entrance of the palace, and stepped into this palace overlooking the world.

Halfway through the red felt road, the princes clearly saw that Zhou Li, Wang Ji Hu, was striding out from behind a red jade screen that was three feet wide and six feet wide - the balance crown, the big court clothes, the crown belt was neat, and the steps were calm. Although he is only a weak-crowned boy, he is graceful and exemplary in his gestures, and he is clearly a king.

According to common sense, at the spring court meeting, after the princes of the Quartet met with the Son of Zhou, they would go to the side hall to rest for an hour under the guidance of the chamberlain, waiting for the banquet of the Son of Heaven at noon.

The scattered dynasty has ended, and in the hall of the side hall, the princes are sitting or standing, gossiping with each other, in order to pass the boring time and relieve their fatigue.

"Duke Yu, why have I waited here for a long time, and I didn't see Zhou Zhao Ergong come to entertain one or two?" A few people gathered around Yu Gong and asked. Due to the inconvenience of the new Duke of Yu's funeral, the Duke of Song ------ had not come to the court in person for several years for conceivable reasons, and Duke Yu, who was not very outstanding, became the head of the princes

。 Everyone will ask him about anything first.

"Well," Duke Yu naturally didn't want to expose the shortcomings of his mediocre relationship with the royal family in front of the princes, and replied vaguely, "Maybe the Son of Heaven has other orders!"

"Did you find it? The Son of Heaven is not happy today, is he not very satisfied with our tribute?"

"Hey! What kind of person do you think of Zhou Tianzi?" Duke Yu grabbed his head at this time, and replied with confidence: "Look at the princes in this hall, how many are here? But a third of the ears. Can the Son of Heaven be happy?"

Someone opened his eyes and looked at the slightly empty hall, nodded, and suddenly pointed the finger at Suihou: "Look at you Jiang Han, there are several people like Quan Luodeng and you, the Son of Heaven is such a nine-guest gift, three invitations and four invitations, why don't you know how to lift?"

Sui Hou was angry, shaking his fat body and raising his tone: "Can I be blamed for this? Needless to say, everyone knows the Ehou Yufang in their hearts, and these two have now gathered many small countries. It's not bad that a widow can gather so many people! Besides, didn't the Son of Heaven and Zhaogong count these things? How can you blame it?"

Everyone thinks about it, Jiang Han's situation is like this, and he can't blame him for following Hou all these years. Yu Hou nodded, and pointed to the side: "It seems that I have to ask him."

Everyone followed his gaze, only to see Wei Hou and Zheng sitting boredly behind the table, turning the bronze cup with one hand and concentrating with the other, as if the fugue was too empty. Someone slapped his thigh and said, "Yes, who doesn't know that he is the son of heaven, such as today's son relies on every article and martial arts, but he recommended it."

As he spoke, everyone rushed up and surrounded Wei Hetuan, who was only a young man of dancing spoons. He asked gossipingly, "Little Weihou, tell us, why is the Son of Heaven not very happy today?"

Wei He blinked a few times, as if he was very dissatisfied with these distant uncles and uncles disturbing his solitude, and said angrily, "Why are you unhappy? Look at it, don't you understand all of our Central Plains princes if they haven't come?"

At a glance, Yu Gong was the first to understand, and slapped his forehead: "Oops! Why didn't Lu Hou come?"

Isn't it? The country of Lu is not comparable to other countries, but it was the feudal state of Zhou Gongdan back then. Zhou Gongdan became the king of the young lord, that is, the son of heaven, assisted the country for decades, pacified the rebellion of the three eunuchs, and was called the minister of the Zhou Dynasty. In that year, Zhou Gongdan had to seal the country in Ludi, and he stayed as the secretary of the dynasty and sent his eldest son Bo Yu to Ludi to take up the country. It is precisely because of this that the governance of the state of Lu was completely and inevitably reported to the Duke of Zhou at any time when Zhou Gongdan was alive, waiting for his specific instructions to be implemented.

At that time, the two dukes of Zhou Zhao all pretended to be an example to the world, so they naturally often issued decrees to follow the royal road, and once punished the monarch who did not implement the king's moral government with severe means. In such a spring court meeting that implements the gift of nine guests, it is really rare for Lu Hou not to come to meet the Son of Heaven in person.

"Not only Lu Hou, didn't you see that Qi Hou and Ji Hou didn't come either?" Wei He continued to blink at the young man's big, shining eyes.

"It's normal for them not to come, but it's rare for them to come!" Yu Gong replied nonchalantly.

"You know one thing, you don't know the other. There is already tension between Ruqi, and there are repeated conflicts in the border area, and war is about to be fought."

"Huh? Why is that?" The princes were very surprised, in the perception of the people of the world, the two countries of Luqi were the feudal kingdom of the Duke of Zhou, and the other was the feudal country of the Duke of Jiang, and they had been friends for generations, and they had repeatedly married, how could they make each other fight?

"Why?" Wei He smiled contemptuously: "It's not because Ji Hou is going to marry Lu Hou's young daughter as the main lady, which annoys Qi Hou Lu Bushan. He is the one who vows to destroy Ji Guo, and Lu Hou wants to marry Ji Guo, but he is slapping him in the face, how can he be willing?"

It turned out that this was the reason, and everyone suddenly realized. No wonder the Son of Heaven is displeased, this is really ------ hard to explain.

In the palace of King Zhou's palace, as soon as the balance crown on his head was taken off by the chamberlain, Ji Hu couldn't suppress the irritability in his heart, threw the crown on the desk, and shouted: "Zhong Ji is still cold, he is so eager to marry a new lady? Where is my room?"

Zhou Zhao'er looked at each other and exchanged glances.

Zhou Gong meant: You are the first assistant and the master of the Son of Heaven, who will you persuade if you don't go up? Zhao Bohu was helpless, so he had to persuade him: "The king, please mourn, when the marquis of Ji and Wang Ji were engaged, they were already in the year of the weak crown, and now that they are nearly thirty years old, it is indeed time to marry. Although it is faster, it is also human nature, please forgive the king."

"Forgiveness, forgiveness! Young Father, you are too lenient to these people, so they don't know the height of the sky, jumping up and down one by one, I don't know what to do!"

Zhao Bohu was shocked when he heard this, knelt down and pleaded: "It's because the minister's jurisdiction is not strict, please punish the king!"

Seeing his sincere and frightened look, Ji Hu regretted that he was talking too much, and hurriedly stepped forward to help him up, and softly comforted: "It's a lonely moment, don't take it to heart. For the sake of today's plan, let's discuss it with the three of us, how to calm down the tension between the two countries of Luqi now, and the war in the Central Plains is about to break out?"

After all, the State of Lu is the feudal state of the Duke of Zhou, and since the Duke of Zhou has inherited the hereditary title of the Duke of Zhou, I am afraid that it will not work if he does not speak at this time. He arched his hand and said, "Your Majesty, according to the old minister, Ji Hou's move is not only to marry, but its real purpose is to contact the Lu State to fight against the Qi State."