After Zhang Wen got into the carriage, he rushed to the governor's yamen to exchange official documents, received the seal letter of Guan Fang, and prepared to leave for Beijing the next day. He walked out of the governor's line and got into the carriage, when a group of children's immature nursery rhymes came from the streets: "Carrots, honey sweet, look at the New Year's ......" The air wafted with the fragrance of all kinds of food.

Zhang Wen lifted the curtain of the car and glanced at the scene outside the car, and couldn't help but sigh: "We have to spend this year on the road." ”

At this time, the carriage went to the east gate, and when Zhang Wen saw the tower, he shouted to the front: "Stop." ”

After the carriage stopped, Zhang Wen stepped down from the carriage and said, "Go to the tower to have a look, I don't know when I can come to Shenyang in the future." As he spoke, he walked downstairs and looked at an acquaintance carrying a bird's gun: Wang Laogong. Zhang Wen had a relationship with Wang Laoquan for a while before, mainly to learn some information about actual combat from the veterans.

Wang Laoquan shrank his head, put his hands in his sleeves, and stomped his feet in the cold wind. His head and beard have turned gray, and he looks old, but he still has to guard the city gate on a cold day, and he does look a little miserable. But in fact, Wang Laoquan is not bad, he can eat and drink in the army, and he can still receive a little military salary every month.

"Wang Laoquan." Zhang Wen shouted. Wang Laoquan turned around and saw that it was Zhang Wen, his face was suddenly happy, and he shouted: "Lord Zhang! Oh, what's blowing you here today...... Brothers, Master Zhang is here! Wang Laoquan shouted, ran over with the bird in his arms, bent down and said, "My lord doesn't know, your name in the army now is a ring." Alas, alas, last time I beat Jianyu, why didn't the adults let me go too......"

Zhang Wen smiled: "Next time, I will definitely make a special trip to you to be my personal soldier." By the way, is the woodcutter's little girl okay? ”

Wang Laoquan said: "I raised it as a granddaughter, it's okay." ”

At this time, the officer upstairs asked, "Wang Laoquan, which Lord Zhang?" Wang Laoquan glared and roared: "Which Lord Zhang, Lord Zhang who killed tens of thousands of soldiers!" ”

As soon as he said this, the officers and soldiers all gathered to see what Lord Zhang, who was usually blown to the sky, looked like and how many arms he had grown. But seeing that Zhang Wen looked like a handsome boy, some generals smiled and said: "It is said that Lord Zhang is like a god with soldiers, and everyone thinks that the adult looks like a tiger with a bear waist and can fight a tiger with his bare hands. ”

A sergeant behind shouted: "My lord, follow your brother to fight Jianyu, this time in Shenyang is very generous, can you take us next time?" The other said: "The Jianyu are all scared, what is the next time?" ”

Zhang asked: "There are at least hundreds of thousands of Jurchens, and it is too early to say that the fight is over." Don't worry, I will be able to fight again soon, but I will return to Beijing tomorrow, but I can't accompany my brothers to kill the enemy and serve the country. ”

After hearing this, Wang Laoquan said, "My lord, do they still dare to come?" ”

"Dare to come, why don't you dare to come? There is no food in Jianzhou, and there is no other way than to rob our Daming. ”

The sergeants shouted: "Don't go back to Beijing, take your brothers, destroy Jianzhou, and see if Jianyu dares to rob it." ”

Zhang Wen didn't speak, there is no need to answer this, how can anyone who wants to lead the troops lead the troops? He walked up the tower, wanting to look at the land of Liaodong from a high place. The group walked to the tower, Zhang Wen looked down at the vast white land outside the city, and suddenly felt a kingly air in his heart.

He stood beside the railing, staring at the wind for a long time, and he wanted to shout: one day Lao Tzu will come here again with a million male soldiers. However, he has always been relatively low-key, but he didn't shout a word. Xuan Yue heard what Zhang Wen had just said to the officers and soldiers, and asked with some doubts: "Dongjia, since Jianyu will definitely make a comeback, why doesn't the military gate take advantage of the victory to capture Hetuara and control all the Jianzhou?" ”

Zhang Wen turned around and said, "I guess Governor Yuan also wants to do this, there is a good opportunity to make contributions, how can he wait?" However, it was the intention of the imperial court to ease the situation in Liaodong. As soon as there was a war in Liaodong, the military expenditure was often one million, and the loss of soldiers was often one hundred thousand, and the imperial court could not afford it. Yuanfu wants to reduce taxes and love the people, and to make up for the deficit of the household, so it is necessary to avoid war as much as possible...... Maybe Yuanfu is right, as long as the Ming Dynasty is rich and the people's hearts are gathered, what is a tribe like Jianyu? ”

Everyone accompanied Zhang Wen to talk, and Zhang Wen came down from the tower and said goodbye to everyone, which was regarded as a farewell to Shenyang.

The next day, Zhang Wen set off, Yuan Yingtai and several accompanying civil officials went to the Changting to say goodbye, and the farewell people also included Liu Ling, Qin Liangyu, Zhang Zhao and other people who were good friends with Zhang Wen; None of the other colleagues in Shenyang came to draw a clear line. Yuan Yingtai is the governor of Liaodong, and from the etiquette point of view, he wants to ask Zhang some face, so he came to say goodbye. Huang Renzhi and Shen Jing recorded the people who saw them off one by one according to Zhang Wen's intentions.

Zhang asked how he came, how to go back, came out of the west gate of Shenyang, and set foot on the road back to Beijing. In the early morning, the sound of the horn unique to the military town fades away; The red-hot atmosphere of the New Year has gradually faded, and it has been replaced by the desolate and vast snowy land of Liaodong. A group of people went out of Shenyang and went south along the side wall to pass through Dingliaowei, Haizhouwei and other places; Then turn northbound into the Quang Ninh Wei area, and walk west for a while, which is the Liaoxi Corridor; The Liaoning West Corridor travels southwest and enters Shanhaiguan. Traveling lightly, when Zhang Wen arrived in Beijing, it happened to be the tenth day of the first month, and it was really in time for the Lantern Festival.

At the time of the festival, the Beijing division is very lively, the major shops are hung with red lanterns, the sound of firecrackers is endless, at night, you can also see fireworks, there are all kinds of beautiful fireworks in the Forbidden City, there are also large households, explode in the night sky, release dazzling prosperity. The whole city can watch, the streets are crowded, all kinds of lantern riddles, jokes, and a dazzling array of goods, as if setting off a great peaceful and prosperous world.

However, I heard that a few days ago, the news of the destruction of the Juniper Department and the Malin Department in Liaodong came back to Jingshi, and people with knowledge said that Jianyu might hit Jingshi, and the price of rice in Jingshi rose for a while. But when the news of the battle of Qinghe Fort came back, everything was normal again.

After Zhang Wen went home, he ordered someone to clean up the old house in the bluestone alley, buy some lanterns and red candles, and also decorate the festive atmosphere. Since Zhang Ying left, there was a lack of a hostess in the house, and Zhang asked what were the shortcomings of the house...... But I don't know where she spent the New Year, Zhang Wen guessed that she should go to Shen Baguio. Zhang Ying's social relationship is also relatively simple, her sister is in the palace, she can't go to the palace, only Shen Biyao in Hangzhou is more familiar. Zhang Wen thought about it, looking for an opportunity, he had to go to Hangzhou, and he would find Zhang Ying back; The second also looks at Shen Biyao, who is pregnant with a child, and she is six or seven months pregnant.

Everyone in the family was busy cleaning up the yard, and Zhang Wen went to the Metropolitan Procuratorate to deliver the official report. He soon learned another important news, the celebrant had changed. Wang An, the former eunuch who was in charge of the seal, was first assigned to serve in the army, and was soon hanged to death by "Jiaozhao"; The palm seal eunuch was held by Wang Tiqian, and Wei Zhongxian was promoted to the chief eunuch Bingbi.

In a lively and festive atmosphere, the imperial court is still secretly changing. The Donglin Party was very dissatisfied with Wei Zhongxian and others in charge of the ceremonial supervisor, and believed that Wang An's death was a conspiracy; Donglin believes that not long ago, the emperor personally gave the palm seal of Wang An, and the emperor has been busy with wood carving, and he has been obsessed with skating during this time, how can he have the heart to take care of the celebrant supervisor? Not to mention the sudden change in attitude and the killing of the eunuch, it must be Wei Zhongxian's party who is playing tricks.

Donglin wrote to impeach Wei Zhongxian one after another, and demanded that the case of Jiao Zhao's unjust murder of Wang An be strictly investigated. Zhu Youxiao issued an edict saying that Wang An was killed by his order and had nothing to do with others; Zhu Youxiao's own eunuch, do you still need Donglin's consent if you want to kill? He didn't give a specific reason, so he said that he would kill if he wanted to.

Zhu Youxiao did tell a big truth, without his instructions, Wei Zhongxian dared to kill the palm seal of the celebrant supervisor? It's still overkill, unless Wei Zhongxian is really impatient. But the more Zhu Youxiao said this, the more Donglin didn't believe it, thinking that it was just the reason why the emperor covered up the inner palace.

This effect is exactly what Zhu Youxiao wants. Killing Wang An, who was pro-Donglin Party, was an enemy of Donglin. Zhu Youxiao swaggered and killed, but he was not hostile to Donglin; Donglin was only hostile to the eunuch Wei Zhongxian and others.

After Zhang Wen learned the ins and outs of this matter, the less confidence he had in Yuan Fuye's political and strategic ideals, the emperor didn't support it, so what else could he do. He didn't care about these things, he only cared about his own affairs, and first arranged the storyteller Tang Sanye who was brought back from Shenyang, and caused public opinion in Beijing, paving the way for the great achievements of Liaodong. It just so happened that at this time, Donglin was concerned about Wang An's case, and Zhang asked to return to Beijing instead of Donglin's first priority.

Donglin was busy writing and scolding Wei Zhongxian, but the emperor ignored all of them, and he didn't even look at them. When the recitals were all in the master of ceremonies, Donglin scolded Wei Zhongxian, which was equivalent to standing in front of Wei Zhongxian and pointing his nose and scolding. But the emperor didn't care at all, he heard that he liked ice skating, and the Xiyuan Ice Pool was frozen, and the ice was hard and slippery, so he ordered a group of eunuchs to play ice games with him. He personally designed a small drag bed for himself, the bed was small and delicate, only for one person, painted with red paint, with a canopy on it, surrounded by red satin as a railing, and with small hooks of lanyards on the front and back. Zhu Youxiao sat on the towing bed and asked the eunuchs to pull the rope, some of them were pulled with ropes on it, some of them were guided in front of the bed, and some of them were pushed behind the bed. With force on both sides, the progress of the towing bed is extremely fast, and it can go back and forth for miles in an instant. Zhu Youxiao had a lot of fun.

Zhang Wen returned to Beijing, but did not receive any information from the emperor, so he asked him to wait at home.

In contrast, the people of the Donglin Party were still worried about Zhang Wen, and wrote a letter requesting that Zhang Wen be dismissed and investigated, but they failed to get approval; They didn't dare to take off the black gauze hat of a fourth-grade official to investigate, so they could only wait.

The ministers have nothing to do about this attitude of the emperor, the emperor is illiterate in the first place, think about how high can you ask for an illiterate person? It's no wonder that others, it was the Donglin Party itself that put others on the throne. And it stands to reason that although Zhu Youxiao likes to have fun, the things that can be played are all gadgets, and they are not extravagant and wasteful; The emperor doesn't care about political affairs, and there are ministers, which should be a lot less restrictive for the ruling party to realize its political ideals.

So the person hated by the ministers was Wei Zhongxian, not Zhu Youxiao.

After Zhang Wen understood the situation of Jingshi, he breathed a sigh of relief. The heart said that if Wang An hadn't fallen, and the Donglin Party had written to investigate himself, Wang An would have been approved according to Donglin's intentions, so who would he cry to? The emperor was having fun, and he didn't know if it was true or not, and he wouldn't necessarily stand up and speak anyway.

Zhang Wen was relieved, so he spent his festival very comfortably at home, and explained that people were unhurried to do business. From the 10th day of the first month to the 15th day of the first month, the Lantern Festival is a noisy lantern festival every year, which is very lively, and Zhang Wen often goes to wander on the street to feel the joy of the festival.

Xuanyue, who followed her, was very interested in those who were showcasing and playing, setting up stalls and tinkering with all kinds of strange things. In contrast, Zhang Wen and the housekeeper Cao An were a little uninterested, they had been in Beijing for many years, and they were like this every year, and there was no sense of novelty.

At this moment, there was a shout of "good, good" from the side of the street, and Xuan Yue ran over curiously to step on his feet to see the strangeness. Zhang Wen followed, looked into the circle, and saw a strong man standing in the snow, holding a bottle in one hand and a fire stick in the other, picking up the bottle and raising his head to drink it, and then spraying it on the fire stick, "whew", and the fire erupted from his mouth, and the surrounding onlookers shouted: "Okay, good, another one." ”

Zhang Wen said boringly: "This kind of little trick can often be seen in Jingshi. ”

Xuan Yue turned around and said, "It's just to have fun, it's a big New Year." Hey, you said that if the fire burned in your mouth, it wouldn't burn? ”

Zhang asked, "Do you still need to ask such a simple thing?" If the oil in the pot is boiled, cover the pot and the fire will be extinguished. Fire needs gas to burn, and once the gas is burned, it cannot be burned. Didn't you watch the man shut up every time he spit out? ”

Xuan Yue listened and took a closer look, it was really like this, and turned around and said: "The more the owner reads, the more he understands." ”

Zhang Wen touched his forehead and said, "Do you really think that everything is said in the book, such things are thought by oneself in the brain, and it has nothing to do with the scriptures." ”

Xuan Yue said: "I heard a joke that a show had to cross the river, but I didn't know how to cross it, so I went home and found a bunch of books to open it, and I couldn't cross the river after reading it for a long time." ”

After she finished speaking, Zhang Wen and the others looked at her stunned, and Zhang Wen couldn't help asking, "And then?" ”

Xuan Yue's eyes were innocent, and she said, "Isn't this over." ”

Xuan Yue usually doesn't smile or laugh, and it's rare to tell a joke once. Zhang Wen dropped a sentence: "It's not funny at all, it's a joke." ”

At this moment, I heard someone shouting: "If you like to watch, please come in the teahouse, today is the Lantern Festival, and all the tea in the building is free." A cup of hot tea and more fun jokes are waiting for everyone to watch. ”

Someone else shouted, "Okay, free tea, let's go in and see." ”

Zhang Wen looked left and right, and pointed to the teahouse across the street and the teahouse that was grabbing business here, "Cao An, look at another one over there, and there is also a sign for free rewards at the door, but the guy Xiaoer is standing at the door to watch the excitement here, and the door is full of birds, but he is worried." ”

Cao An thought for a while and said in a low voice: "Why don't you let Tang Sanye go to that teahouse to tell stories?" ”

Zhang Wen smiled and said: "I have this intention, Tang Sanye's mouth, the people of Beijing must love to listen to it." When the business of that teahouse is good, other shops will follow suit, and they also say that the surname of the country is ......" After that, the two looked at each other and smiled, very proud.

Zhang Wen looked up at the sky and said: "The sky is getting dark, and there will be a lantern festival at night, which is even more beautiful, so it is better to find a place to eat dinner, and it will be a good lantern festival for a while." ”

As night fell, the weather was still cold, but it didn't affect the lively atmosphere on the streets. There are children playing with firecrackers on the street, and adults are worried about their safety, so they beat them with sticks, and the children cry. But the cry was not sad, but like a joyful voice; Just like laughter sometimes doesn't mean happiness.

On both sides of the street, there are people selling mutton, steamed buns, and noodles, and the smell of food wafts through the air, which makes people have a great appetite. Zhang Wen and the others found a clean restaurant and prepared to eat and watch the lantern festival.