The New Year's wine scene placed in the Zhenguo Mansion on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year is very large, and there are many guests.

However, the people who came were not all the officials or prominent families inside and outside Chang'an City, most of them were relatives and friends who had close contacts with the Zhenguo Mansion on weekdays - not including the distant tribesmen who were relatively estranged, and there were also colleagues and subordinates of the Zhenguo Gong's father and son. As for the officials of the Chang'an Mansion, the high-ranking military attaches of the various health posts, or the military attaches stationed in the border who return to Chang'an to visit relatives and report on their work, unless they are relatives and friends of the Zhenguo Mansion, they will not receive the invitation post.

This is also to show the outside world that the Zhenguo Mansion or the Zhou family does not control the power of the Northwest Frontier Army and runs the entire border army as its own word.

As for whether the emperor and the court will believe it, that's another matter.

But even so, the pomp and circumstance of New Year's wine is still very large, and there are still many guests who come to the banquet. The gate of the Zhenguo Mansion was opened, and the entire front yard and the school field were vacated as a banquet venue, and several courtyards were also opened in the second gate to entertain female guests, and it is said that there were eighty seats in the front and back, and it was very lively. Many guests said that in Chang'an City, if it weren't for the banquet of the Zhenguo Mansion, no one would be able to vacate such a big place.

Since it is such a big scene, whether it is the relationship between the Hai family and the Zhou family, or the official rank of the Haixi Cliff, it is not up to the level of distinguished guests, so it is natural that they will not be entertained as hosts and guests.

Xie, Cao, and Lu have another place to go, and Haixiya took his grandson Haijiao to the side hall in the front yard, where the place is not big, and only eight seats are placed, but the people sitting here are basically the colleagues and subordinates of General Thursday, and they are all old acquaintances of Haixiya, and everyone brings their children and grandchildren to the banquet, just to eat, drink, and chat about family life, and get closer to the relationship, but also harmonious.

Ma and Haitang were arranged to go to the courtyard of General Wednesday in the second gate. Most of the people sitting here are the in-laws of the Zhou family, and there are generally no high-ranking officials and eunuchs, and most of them are acquaintances of the Ma family, and there are even several in-laws of the Ma family. As soon as Ma came, he was like a fish in water, chatting with people skillfully. Mrs. Wednesday would come over from time to time to take a look and greet everyone to eat and drink, and Mrs. Thursday also brought her children to say hello to the family members of her husband's subordinates, but most of the time, the female guests sitting in this courtyard were eating, drinking and chatting by themselves, and some people set up two card tables and played leaf cards lively.

Ma chatted with people enthusiastically, from the experience of more than ten years after leaving Chang'an, to the things and people he learned after returning to Chang'an, as well as many stories of disappeared faces, as well as gossip news such as weddings and funerals of acquaintances. She chatted so happily that her granddaughter Begonia was not good to disturb. She is a junior, and it is difficult to blend in with the chats of middle-aged women. If she didn't want to get together with the other little girls to play, she would have to sit at the table and eat melon seeds by herself.

Before the banquet began, Begonia had already poured two cups of tea and a large plate of melon seeds into her stomach, and she didn't want to eat any more, and she couldn't stuff the main dish after eating for a while. I heard that today's Zhenguo Mansion is preparing to restore the Tang Dynasty court's roasted tail banquet, Begonia has never eaten in three lifetimes combined, so naturally he wants to eat a big meal, how can he fill his stomach in advance?

She glanced at the corner where the little girls had gathered, wondering if she should join in. Although she didn't know a few of these little girls, there were also two of them who were from nearby neighbors, and if she wanted to talk, wouldn't it be easy? It's just that she thinks that they are all playing with spinning tops, and she is a person who has practiced internal skills and whip techniques to join in, which is inevitably a little invincible. Compared to sitting bored, chatting with the little girls seems to be more interesting.

Haitang was about to get up, when she saw Zhou Yijun coming to find her.

Zhou Yijun is the granddaughter of Sanfang. Although Zhou Shigong and his wife died of illness today, Mrs. Ma was "ill for a long time", and Zhou Jinpu was "busy preparing for exams", so he did not come to the Zhenguo Mansion to eat New Year's wine, but Zhou Ma was unwilling to miss this great opportunity to show his face in social occasions, and simply sent his granddaughter Zhou Yijun to Zhou Wenjun, the eldest lady of the Zhenguo Mansion, nominally as a companion with her cousins, but in fact, she was looking forward to Zhou Wenjun taking Zhou Yijun to participate in the New Year's banquet, so that more people could see her good granddaughter.

Zhou Mashi could not disobey her husband's decision, but she still remembered that her son and daughter-in-law would let her granddaughter return to her hometown in Chang'an alone, in order to say a good family matter. If you can't let the official eunuchs and famous families in Chang'an see Zhou Yijun himself, how can this family affair be said?

However, Zhou Yijun himself didn't care much about this. She only thought that she was eating and playing at a relative's house, and happily came to find Begonia, and wanted to pull Begonia to their sisters' table.

Haitang went to say hello to Ma, and Ma responded happily. This is in the Zhenguo Mansion, surrounded by people, is she afraid that her granddaughter will lose it? She also greeted Zhou Yijun with her eldest sister Zhou Ma's body, and when she learned that Zhou Ma's was fine, she let the two children go, and didn't even tell her granddaughter to remember to come back before the banquet - as long as she wasn't hungry, it didn't make a difference whether her granddaughter sat at any table at the eighty tables today.

Haitang ran hand in hand with Zhou Yijun. They ran away, and only then did a lady on Ma's side react consciously: "Ah! That sister just now seems to be the granddaughter of the third room, right? I remember seeing the housekeeper of the three-room go out of the city to pick up people. It's a pity that after she got home, there were accidents in the third room one after another, and Mrs. Friday didn't have time to take the children to the homes of relatives and friends, so that everyone could recognize people......"

So immediately someone began to talk about the recent rumors of Sanfang: "The old lady seems to be very sick...... I don't know which doctor you are looking at? ”

"The doctors he used to see, his family didn't invite them anymore." The wife who answered the call said in a tone full of meaning, "Come to think of it, after taking medicine for so many years, I haven't cured Mrs. Ma's illness, what do you ask them to do?!" Let the patients rest at home more, eat and drink well, take less care of things and worry less, and maybe they can get better faster......"

The wives exchanged glances with each other, some with sad faces, others with a dark smile. Obviously, everyone has already heard about what happened in the third room of the Zhou family, and they also know what is going on with Mrs. Ma and Zhou Shigong's condition. Not to mention anything else, just looking at the carefree appearance of Zhou Yijun, the granddaughter of the third room, who came to a relative's house to eat and play with New Year's wine, everyone knows that the heads of the third room are not sick at all......

On the topic of the Zhou family's three rooms, Ma Shi did not participate. She took a sip of tea, and then took another conversation: "I heard that the Jin family has been making trouble again recently?" Is the old lady of the Jin family sick again? What the hell is she? More than ten years ago, I always said that she was going to be bad, but after so many years, I haven't seen her really bad! ”

Regarding the Jin family in Chang'an City, there has been a lot of news recently, which is also a topic of interest to the wives of petty officials and the in-laws of the Zhou family. And compared with the ancestors and grandchildren of the old lady Ma in the third room of the Zhou family who openly violated the family taboo and dug the corners of the border army, the rebellious white-eyed wolf son-in-law of the seventh room of the Zhou family got a cheap grandson who knows how to be grateful, and the internal turmoil of the avant-garde in Chang'an, the gossip of the Jin family is obviously much safer as a topic of small talk.

Ma just started talking, and everyone immediately changed the topic with great interest to discuss the recent rumors of the Jin family: "The old lady of the Jin family seems to be planning to marry her granddaughter to her own grandson!" ”

"His family treats his eldest grandson as a baby, but he actually has no ability, but he is born better, where is he worthy of his granddaughter? That's the daughter of the Tongzhi family who commanded from the second grade! ”

"Mrs. Jin brought her granddaughter under the banner of illness, she wanted to coax the child to agree to the marriage, who knew that other children's children were not stupid, so she invited a famous doctor to diagnose and treat her, and fed bitter medicine every day, and Mrs. Jin herself couldn't hold it first......"

(End of chapter)