Lan Haochen exclaimed: "Could it be that Brother Li wants to bet 10,000 taels?"

Li Hu nodded at this time and said, "It's ten thousand taels."

Lan Haochen smiled bitterly: "Lan's family wealth is limited, and such a large gambling fund can't be taken out." ”

In fact, Li Hu is much poorer than Lan Haochen, and the silver taels worth of the jewelry collected from Zhu Huichan's sister and brother earlier have already been spent after all these days, and now there are only a few copper plates left in his pocket.

However, he seemed to have forgotten all about this, and said: "Ten thousand taels of silver is only a small amount, as long as you can win one and a half moves, I will immediately offer it with both hands, if you accidentally lose, it doesn't matter, just promise me one thing!"

Lan Haochen asked, "What's the matter?"

Li Hu grinned and said, "It's just a small matter, there are a lot of people here, let's go over there and talk about it." ”

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※ Yonghe Palace is one of the six eastern palaces of the inner court, not too far from Donghua Gate.

However, the so-called is not too far, and in this huge Forbidden Imperial City, there are many courtyards that must be passed. Hua Bushi entered the palace once, but saw that the buildings in the palace were all red walls and gold tiles, and there were many precious flowers and plants planted in the courtyard, and strange stones and trees abounded, which opened his eyes.

Starting from Yongle Emperor Zhu Di to today's Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen, there have been fourteen emperors in this Forbidden Imperial City, and they have also experienced the rise and fall of the Ming Dynasty. Even though the current Ming court is empty, many previous emperors have spent huge sums of money to renovate and expand, and have collected many treasures from all over the world and placed them in the palace.

Hua Bushi has also seen the Crystal Palace on Black Dragon Island, where a large amount of gold and silver treasures are stored, but its scale is much smaller, the Black Dragon Palace is just a pirate who dominates the South China Sea, how can it be compared with the grand foundation of the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years.

On the way after entering the palace gate, there are often eunuchs and palace maids coming and going, and when they see Chen Ping and Cao Duyun and their party, they all stand still on the side of the road and bow and salute, and wait for the group to pass before continuing to act. Although these people did not dare to slack off Cao Duyun, they were also very respectful to Chen Ping, which showed that the status of this old eunuch in the palace should not be low.

After a cup of tea, the three of them came to a palace. I saw that on the plaque under the forehead of the palace gate, there were three golden words of "Yonghe Gate", and I thought that this was the Yonghe Palace where the emperor was.

Outside the door, there was a row of four eunuchs, all dressed in royal blue brocade robes and silk hats, which were different from the eunuch attire seen on the road before, and there were more than a dozen internal guards with knives on the side. When these people saw Cao Duyun coming, they did not salute.

Chen Ping stepped forward and whispered a few words with a blue-shirted eunuch outside the door, then turned around and said to Cao Duyun: "Your Majesty is drinking tea in the palace, and Concubine Tian is also in the palace, do you want the old slave to go in and pass the ceremony?"

Cao Duyun said: "There is Lao Chen's father-in-law. ”

Chen Ping said that he didn't dare, turned around and walked to the palace gate, and the four blue-shirted eunuchs moved out of the way. It turned out that this Chen Ping was the head of the eunuchs who served the emperor closely, and these blue-shirted eunuchs were all his subordinates.

Chen Ping walked into the palace gate, and only came out after a long time, stood still at the door, waved the dust in his hand, and said loudly: "Holy Shangxuan, the emperor is in the twilight, and the common people Hua Bushi entered the palace to meet him." ”

Cao Duyun gave Hua Bushi a look, and then he stepped forward and walked into the palace gate, and Hua Bushi followed behind him.

Yonghe Palace is actually a courtyard with two entrances in front and back, and the main hall is in the courtyard in front of it. The courtyard of the palace is much larger than the courtyard of the ordinary house, and the two of them walked forty or fifty steps one after the other before they came to the palace.

Crossing the threshold, I saw a rosewood plan in the middle of the room, and on the dragon couch behind the case, there was a middle-aged man in a yellow robe, who was Emperor Chongzhen, and beside him, there was a woman in a light blue palace dress, who thought it was Tian Guifei.

Seeing this son of heaven of the Ming Dynasty, who was in charge of the imperial power and made everyone look up to him, Hua Bushi was slightly surprised. What surprised him was not the majesty of the emperor, but the old age of the person in front of him.

The forehead is full of wrinkles, the hair on the sideburns is already pale, the eye circles are blue, the pupils are covered with bloodshot around the perimeter, but the face is lacking blood, and the cheeks are deep, and the body is thin and slightly rickety. In terms of age, Chongzhen was not yet forty years old, but his appearance was more senile than ordinary people in their fifties and sixties.

The clothes Chongzhen was wearing were also very old, with raw edges on the cuffs of the robe, and a patch on the armpits. If it weren't for the palace of the Forbidden Imperial City, but in other places, Hua Bushi would definitely not think that he was the emperor with the Ninety-Five Honor when he saw this person, and this eldest young master also understood why Cao Duyun had to change his clothes when he had prepared shabby clothes before.

If Hua Bushi was still wearing the original clothes, wouldn't it be more luxurious than the emperor's clothes, so what kind of system!

The Tian Guifei next to her did not look old at all, her duck egg cheeks were as beautiful as flowers, and her willow eyebrows and phoenix eyes were even more coquettish.

Cao Duyun and Hua Bushi came to the door, knelt on the ground and kowtowed, saying long live long live.

But I heard that Tian Guifei said: "Your Majesty didn't sleep all night last night to correct the recital, and this morning I went to the court to manage the government, and I was busy all morning, and I came to the Yonghe Palace of the mourning family, and I should have rested and recuperated, but you people are really not interesting, and you come here to disturb again." I said that Your Majesty doesn't need to see them, just tell them to go!"

Before the emperor could speak, the concubine spoke first, which was not very should, but Chongzhen was obviously very doting on this Tian concubine, and said kindly: "Don't be anxious to love the concubine, can't you just say a few words and send them away?" This time, thanks to them, Hong'er and Chan'er can return safely." ”

Tian Guifei pursed her lips and didn't say much.

Zhu Cihong and Zhu Huichan are both from Empress Zhou of the main palace, if Zhu Cihong is killed by gangsters, Tian Guifei's biological son Zhu Cizhi will have a chance to become the prince, and she will not have a good impression of the people who escorted Zhu Cihong back to Beijing. Of course, this displeasure is not easily expressed.

Chongzhen looked at the two kneeling on the ground, coughed lightly, and said, "Yun'er, get up." ”

Cao Duyun said yes, stood up and stood aside with his hands.

Chongzhen said: "Yesterday, ** told me that he was able to rescue Hong'er from the hands of the bandits and escort him back to Beijing, and there was a Mr. Hua who made a lot of contributions, and I asked you to bring him to see him, but is this the person?"

Cao Duyun said: "Back to my father, it is this person. ”

Chongzhen nodded, turned his gaze to Hua Bushi, and said, "You raise your head." ”

Hua Bushi knelt on the ground, and only when he heard the words did he straighten up and raise his head. Chongzhen looked at him carefully, and saw that Hua Bushi looked ordinary and not outstanding, so he was slightly disappointed, but when he saw that this person was dressed plainly, with two patches on his sleeves, his face was slightly gentle.

"Where are your ancestral hometowns and what do you do for a living?" Chongzhen asked.

Hua Bushi replied respectfully: "Xiaomin is a native of Wuyang in Xiangjing, and his family has opened some business. ”

There are many kinds of business transactions, and the Jianghu sect also makes money by operating industries, and this young master's words are not considered to be bullying the king, as for whether those industrial transactions violate the king's law, it is another matter.

Chongzhen didn't doubt anything else, he only regarded the person in front of him as an ordinary businessman, and said: "Hua Qing's rescue this time is not a small credit, I will give you five thousand taels of silver and a hundred horses of brocade, so let's go down!"

It is said that 5,000 taels of silver and 100 pieces of silk are also a lot of money, but in terms of the great merit of saving the prince and princess, it is really not much, and with the net worth of the "evil dog gate" now, this reward will not be placed in Hua Bushi's eyes.

He immediately kowtowed and said, "Thank you for the grace of the Holy Lord, but the gold and silver and wealth are not needed by the small people, can you ask the Holy God to exchange them for a reward?"

As soon as these words came out, Chongzhen's face suddenly sank, and he said: "Aren't you satisfied with rewarding you with two silver brocades, what reward do you want in exchange!"

Hua Bushi said: "Xiaomin just wants to give a piece of ink treasure from the Holy Emperor, which is enough to be worth tens of millions of silver taels." ”

Before Chongzhen could speak, Tian Guifei beside him had already said in a hurry: "Bold! How can Your Majesty's Mobao casually reward you with such grass people!"

She turned her face to Chongzhen and said, "Your Majesty, this person has no respect and humility, and he has no words, it is better to drive him out of the palace!"

Chongzhen held down Tian Guifei's hand and said to Hua Bushi: "You don't want silver two brocades, but you want my ink treasure, is there any reason?"

Hua Bushi said: "Gold and silver brocade silk is just a wealth outside the body, that is, no matter how much it will be spent, the saint is a Taoist king, the royal gift of Mobao small people to worship at home, passed on to future generations, preserved for thousands of generations, since it should be stronger than endless wealth." ”

This sentence is full of flattery, but it is really quite numb, Hua Bushi's face is thick enough, and his eloquence and acting skills are also good, but it really seems to be a piece of piety when he says it, and there is no sense of doing anything at all.

In fact, these words were all set up by Cao Duyun and this eldest young master in advance. Although he doesn't know much about Emperor Chongzhen, Cao Duyun knows this father very well, including his character, preferences, habits, etc., all of which are clear.

Unlike many kings who liked luxury, Emperor Chongzhen was very frugal, which is also related to the current state of the empty treasury of the Ming court. Thousands of taels of silver are nothing in the eyes of those princes and ministers who have a lot of money, and even in the eyes of the principals of the Jianghu sects such as Hua Bushi, but in the eyes of Emperor Zhu Youzhen, it is a large amount, and it is actually quite distressing to give it away.

And what Chongzhen is most afraid of in his life is that others say that he is mediocre. The state of the Ming Dynasty has declined to such a point, there are few bureaucrats and bureaucrats who are not greedy and corrupt, but this great tomorrow is the most diligent person, busy with government affairs every day, often reviewing and reading the recitals until late at night, and working hard, which is also the reason why he is not very old, but his face is aging like an old man of fifty or sixty years.