In the early morning, Wei Chen, as usual, got up to practice channeling, and then punched and drew the bow to strengthen his muscles and bones.

After a set of movements, the whole body was steaming, and the close-fitting clothes were soaked with hot sweat, outlining Wei Chen's burly and upright shoulder line.

After the New Year, Wei Chen will be eighteen years old, and he has eaten and drunk well over the years, not only has he become strong and strong, but he has also become taller.

If you look at it from the perspective of a previous life, Wei Chen is now about 1.85 meters tall, half a head taller than Gu Tingye.

After exercising for about an hour, the sun came out, and the golden morning glow sprinkled all over the backyard of the Wei family.

Wei Chen took the sweat towel handed by Yuan An and wiped his sweat, returned to his house to scrub his body, and then changed into the official clothes on his body, and then boarded the carriage and went out of the house.

When passing through the gate of the Sheng Mansion, Wei Chen just lifted the curtain and looked at it silently, and did not tell the driver to stop.

Yesterday, in order to hurry home to reunite with his family, Wei Chen asked his entourage to report to Xuandemen for him.

This is no longer very conformist.

It's just that the imperial court understands the hard work of foreign officials in local positions, so they generally don't pursue it.

Today, it is the triennial pilgrimage of foreign officials, and the Son of Heaven will give a banquet in the palace of Jianji Hall to feast on the ministers.

On such a major occasion, if Wei Chen can't delay it because of personal matters, it will be too much to say, and he will have to be included in the imperial history, and Zhao Zhen will also have opinions.

Therefore, no matter how urgent Wei Chen wants to see his fiancée, he has to go to the palace first and go to the Hajj banquet.

Wei Chen's carriage did not stop at the gate of Shengfu, exited Jiying Lane, and walked slowly along Nanxunmen Street.

Drive all the way to the majestic and magnificent Xuande Gate, which is the main gate of the imperial city and the only way to enter the imperial city.

When Wei Chen arrived, many officials who had come to the banquet had already gathered outside the Xuande Gate.

There were more than 3,000 Beijing officials and more than 30,000 foreign officials in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and in addition to some local officials who had to stay behind, there were 7,000 or 8,000 foreign officials who entered Beijing.

For many lowly officials in remote areas, this may be the only opportunity in their lives to enter Beijing to face the saint, so they cherish it extraordinarily.

During Zhao Zhen's reign, his administration tended to be lenient, and even if there were foreign officials who did not perform well in the appraisals, Zhao Zhen generally only verbally applied for compensation or fined him for several months, and would not take hundreds of people from office at every turn, as he did during the Hajj inspection during the founding of the country.

Therefore, the mood of the officials to the banquet is still quite relaxed and happy, on the way to the palace, walking together, talking and laughing, if they meet long-lost old friends, they are even more happy to pull each other to talk.

Wei Chen got off the carriage in the square outside the Xuande Gate, stepped forward and showed the documents of the officials to the forbidden army guarding the door, and soon entered the palace smoothly through the right gate, and then went straight to the Jianji Palace, where the pilgrimage banquet was held.

The palace banquet is divided into two categories: the big banquet and the middle banquet, and the suburbs, the New Year's Day, the winter solstice, and the longevity (the emperor's birthday) are the most solemn in the big banquet.

As for today's Hajj feast, it has only reached the level of the middle feast, which is far inferior to these feasts.

Of course, this is a banquet from the Son of Heaven after all, even if it is only a middle banquet, hundreds of tables have been placed, and the huge Jianji Hall cannot be placed.

Most of the officials had to sit outside the temple, and only officials of the rank of governor and governor could sit at the top of the temple.

Wei Chen, a Zhizhou from Wupin, can call the wind and rain in Yuzhou, but when he arrives here, he is not qualified to enter the palace and sit with those real feudal officials.

However, after all, Wei Chen is the first in the performance appraisal of Henan officials this time, and Guanglu Temple, which is responsible for arranging official seats, still arranged Wei Chen in a position close to the Jianji Palace, second only to the upper seat in the hall.

After arriving at the square outside the Jianji Temple, Wei Chen found his seat under the guidance of the officials of Guanglu Temple.

Before taking his seat, he glanced at the several officials who were already sitting on the seat, and couldn't help but light up, and said in surprise: "Zecheng, Boyong, you are also there!" ”

It turned out that the people who sat at the same table with Wei Chen this time were Wei Chen's former friends, Sheng Changbai and Wang Yaochen.

Wang Yaochen saw Wei Chen coming, and immediately got up and arched his hand towards Wei Chen: "Congratulations to Wei Zhizhou, the first performance in the land of Gyeonggi, today will be praised by the Son of Heaven, the day Wei Zhizhou soars, don't forget to bring your little brother!" ”

Wei Chen hurriedly smiled and saluted: "Boyong said that he was joking." The so-called Zhizhou, it sounds amazing, in fact, it is just a pro-people official, the big and small affairs of a state have to worry about Zhizhou, and you have to accompany the bosses on all roads with a smiling face, how can it compare to you and Zecheng in the Hanlin Academy? ”

Wang Yaochen couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth slightly when he heard this.

Of course he knew that Wei Chen was humbling himself, how could Wei Chen, the Zhizhou, be comparable to ordinary Zhizhou?

However, what Wei Chen said did scratch his itch.

Generally speaking, after three years of teaching, the Kujishi will be disbanded and conferred officials, some of which will be awarded as Hanlin review, some as imperial history, and the rest will be assigned to the six ministries as the director.

Of course, those who perform well in the Gurgis can also be awarded in advance.

And Sheng Changbai and Wang Yaochen are the best of the best.

In June this year, the two of them were awarded the Hanlin editor of the seventh grade, catching up with Li Zuochang and Cai Xuan, who were on the list of the same department.

Now although Wei Chen is from the five-grade Zhizhou, the grade is higher than Sheng Changbai and Wang Yaochen, but in terms of gold content, it may not be as good as their seventh-grade grade.

After all, they served as the editors of the Hanlin Dynasty, and they were not only the Beijing officials, but also the most noble Hanlin officials among the Beijing officials.

Theoretically, the Beijing officials of the same rank are generally two levels higher than the local officials, and the Hanlin officials are almost one level higher than the Beijing officials.

After such a conversion, the grades of Sheng Changbai and Wang Yaochen are about to catch up with Wei Chen.

To be honest, when he was first awarded the title of Hanlin editor, Wang Yaochen was still a little proud.

Although he is friends with Wei Chen, he has always regarded Wei Chen as his goal in his heart, and now he finally sees the hope of catching up with Wei Chen.

However, this hope lasted less than five months and was quickly dashed.

Since learning that Wei Chen was promoted to the first place in the performance appraisal of Henan officials and was called to Beijing, Wang Yaochen has clearly realized that Wei Chen is about to be promoted again, and he wants to catch up with him, but it is still far away.

As soon as he thought of this, Wang Yaochen's gaze at Wei Chen couldn't help but become melancholy, and even a little resentful.

How did Wei Chen know that Wang Yaochen had so many psychological activities, and after a few words of greeting with him, he turned his head to look at Sheng Changbai, who was sitting silently on the side, and saluted with a smile: "Brother woman, I haven't seen you for a few years, how are you doing lately?" ”

Sheng Changbai glanced at Wei Chen, and said without saltiness: "Who is your brother-in-law?" Wei Zhizhou can be described as a high authority now, how can our little Sheng family be worthy of kissing you! ”

Wei Chen saw Sheng Changbai's angry look, he was slightly stunned, and immediately realized in his heart, Bai Lan is blaming me for not coming to visit immediately after I came back, and he is angry with me!

He explained with a wry smile at the moment: "Zecheng, the state is busy with official business, and it is inseparable from people for a moment, and when it was handed over, it took a lot of effort, so I missed the day of departure."

I hurried along the way, and I entered the city in the afternoon of yesterday. When you go back to Bianjing, you have to go back to your home to see your teacher first, right?

I had dinner with my teacher, and it was getting dark. In the dead of night, it's always hard to go to your house to bother.

The next day it will be a pilgrimage feast, and you know that I, as a foreign official who has been called, cannot help but come, and I really can't get out of this .........! ”