The next day was the Chinese New Year's Eve, and from noon, sporadic artillery battles sounded in the city of Nanjing.

As night fell, the sound of firecrackers gradually intensified, and the sound was endless. Colorful fireworks are also blooming all over the city, pulling up the atmosphere of Chinese New Year's Eve.

Liu Junshiqiao's sincerity is incompatible with the festive atmosphere of this family's Zhang Hong and household reunion. There were no Spring Festival couplets on the closed door, only two yellowed and crispy white papers, shivering in the cold wind......

The house is also deserted, and Liu Jing's family and Liu Li are in Qingtian's hometown.

According to the custom of the hometown, the first year of the burial of relatives is the same year, and a solemn sacrifice is required. Therefore, Liu Xiang, as the only male descendant of the Liu family, also had to go back to participate in the ceremony.

As a result, there were only a few old servants left, who accompanied Liu Bowen for the New Year.

Such a bleak Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, it was really more and more sad, and some people began to secretly wipe their tears.

Liu Bowen sighed, just wanted to put down the chopsticks, let them clean up, and celebrate the New Year by themselves later, and no longer have to worry about themselves.

But I heard a sound of footsteps in front of me, and the joyful shout of Menzi: "Master, let's see who is coming." ”

Before he could finish speaking, the door of the hall was pushed open, and a huge figure covered the bleak night in the courtyard.

"Master." Zhu Zhen called out with a smile.

The servants in the house hurriedly knelt on the ground, but Liu Bowen was stunned.

"What are you doing here?"

"Accompany your old man for the New Year." Zhu Zhen untied the big slur, and Hu Quan hurriedly took it.

"Nonsense, thirty nights, not in the palace to accompany the queen and the emperor, come to me, are you itchy again?" Liu Bowen had a sour nose and was busy with his face.

"I ate two bites with them and toasted a round of wine, and then I took leave." Zhu Zhen said and walked to Liu Bowen and sat down, took out a wine jug from his arms, and said with a smile:

"This is the pot of New Year's wine on my old man's table, and I brought it to Lingshun."

"What a man, clean nonsense." Liu Bowen's voice trembled slightly: "Master still lacks this pot of wine?" ”

"Yes, Master is not short of wine, what he lacks is someone to accompany you for the New Year," Zhu Zhen smiled and poured two glasses of wine. "Won't I come?"

Saying that, he took a glass of wine, handed it to Liu Bowen, and raised a glass himself: "Come, drink this glass of old wine first, and leave all the bad things for this year." ”

"......" Liu Bowen took the wine glass, took a deep look at his closed disciple, and sighed: "Okay." ”

As soon as the master and apprentice clinked glasses, they drank it all.

At this time, the people hurriedly removed the remnants of the table and rearranged the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner brought by His Highness. There is a food box in the palace that stores hot food, and when the dishes are taken out, they are still steaming.

The king of Chu rewarded them with money again and asked them to go down and eat and drink on their own. I accompany the master to keep the New Year.

When everyone retreated, Liu Bowen smiled: "I thought you would give them food stamps." ”

"No one recognizes my thing when it comes out of Jiangnan." Zhu Zhen smiled: "As a reward, isn't it a scolding?" ”

"That's because they don't know." Liu Bowen said lightly: "Within a few years, they will rush to ask for food stamps and abandon treasure money." ”

"Haha, then my old man is going to be angry and scold the street." Zhu Zhen filled the master with another glass of wine and said, "To be honest, I was quite surprised to see the master's state." ”

"What, do you think the old man will be stiff in the hospital bed, described as withered, and the time of departure is not far away?" Liu Bowen asked rhetorically.

"Of course, I hope Master will get better." Zhu Zhen smiled bitterly and said, "But before leaving Beijing, how can you not make people worry about your appearance?" ”

"Don't worry, this person has a breath of life, and until that breath is held in his chest and not dispersed, the old man will be fine." Liu Bowen picked up the wine glass, toasted Zhu Zhen and said, "Thank you for clearing Liu Lian's reputation and avenging it." ”

"It's all in vain." Zhu Zhen said: "And although the direct murderer has been stripped of the skin and grass, the culprit behind the scenes is still at large." Let's wait until the future to drink this wine. ”

"Drink this cup first," Liu Bowen said slowly: "Let's figure out how to do the rest together." ”

"Okay." Only then did Zhu Zhen raise his neck and drink the wine in the cup, and then looked at Liu Bowen in surprise and said, "Master wants to personally meet Hu Weiyong's gang for a while?" ”

"Hmm." Liu Bowen nodded and said, "Originally, when Liu Xiang and the others left Beijing, they wanted the old man to go back to his hometown together. But I didn't agree, because at my age, once I left Beijing, I would never come back. ”

"Yes." Zhu Zhen thought so, with Liu Bowen's status, he would not be able to return to Beijing without being summoned. With his body and age, the old man really won't recruit him back.

"I just want to stay and fight with them," Liu Bowen also slapped the wine cup on the table, and said in a deep voice: "They were the ones who fouled first, so you can't blame the old man for not following the rules and killing their whole family without leaving a chicken dog!" ”

"Good! What is Master going to do? Zhu Zhen asked with his hands open.

"I'm going to use a year to get rid of Hu Weiyong!" Liu Bowen said in a very firm tone: "The struggle in the imperial court will be fierce next year, so you will stay in the capital and don't go anywhere." There are many things that you can't do as a teacher, so you can only do it. ”

"Okay." Zhu Zhen nodded without hesitation: "I also wanted to clean up Hu Weiyong for a long time, but the old man has been protecting him and not letting the eldest brother check him." ”

"He's all shit all over his butt, how can he stand up to inspection?" Liu Bowen said slowly: "If your eldest brother finds out ironclad evidence, then will the emperor still handle him?" ”

"What about him?" Zhu Zhen said unhappily.

"I told you before, it's simple for the emperor to kill Hu Weiyong, one will be enough, it's almost like pinching an ant to death." Liu Bowen said in a deep voice:

So in the eyes of the emperor, Hu Weiyong has never been a threat. The real threat came from the forces around him—the Zhongshu Province he led, the noble generals who obeyed him, and the feudal officials and powerful families of the provinces. ”

After a pause, he continued: "If there is no Hu Weiyong's grasp, this force will be dispersed. If you try to deal with them one by one, you will definitely get twice the result with half the effort, and there will be many difficulties. ”

"Gathering is a lump of soaring, and scattering is the sky full of stars?" Zhu Zhen asked with a smile.

"Uh......" Liu Bowen was stunned for a moment, and said with a wry smile: "It's a little interesting." Therefore, the emperor has always adopted a tolerant and even laissez-faire attitude towards Hu Weiyong, just to let him continue to grow bigger and stronger, and when he has gathered enough forces and the participation of all parties is deep enough, he will finish his work in one battle and catch them all. ”

"Makes sense." Zhu Zhen smiled: "The apprentice thinks the same way. ”

"If you can't think of it, it's not right." Liu Bowen smiled and sighed: "But now there is a problem, the incident at the beginning of the year frightened our Hu Xiang." Although the rumors passed later, he came back to see things like no one, but he became cautious, obedient to the emperor, and very polite to the prince.

"In this case, it's hard to wait for him to make a mistake." He looked at Zhu Zhen fixedly and said, "You have to rely on His Highness to stimulate him to make a move." ”

"What Master means," Zhu Zhen said with a sly smile, "Let's have a soldier and scare him." ”

"That's what it means." Liu Bowen nodded approvingly, the growth of this disciple gave him great comfort.

This is one of the reasons why he was able to come out of the pain of losing his son.

[End of this volume]

(End of chapter)