The West Garden was shrouded in clouds and white cranes were circling.
Meng Chong brought several young eunuchs from the Northern Pacification Prison back to the Western Garden to report, as if he had come from hell to fairyland.
"Eunuch Meng is back. The emperor is not in the palace. At this moment, the emperor is inspecting the imperial garden with General Longhu. Eunuch Meng can go to the imperial garden to ask for an audience with the emperor." The eunuch Sizhi at the palace gate said to Meng Chong.
"Thank you for the reminder, Eunuch Zhang. When you have time, please come to my Shangshenjian for a visit." Meng Chong bowed and thanked him with a smile.
"That's a deal. I've been craving for it for a long time." The eunuch Sizhi said with a smile.
"Our Shangshenjian doesn't have much else, but we have enough food. That's settled. I will be waiting for you, Eunuch Zhang." Meng Chong replied with a smile. While trying to maintain a good relationship, he did not forget his official duties. After saying goodbye to the eunuch Sizhi, "I still have to report to the emperor, so I won't say much."
"Goodbye, Eunuch Meng." The eunuch Sizhi bowed.
Meng Chong led the eunuchs and trotted to the Imperial Garden. When they reached the gate of the Imperial Garden, the eunuch on duty informed them. After a few minutes, a young eunuch came with the Emperor Jiajing's oral order, ordering Meng Chong to go inside and report.
The Western Garden is much larger than the Imperial Garden in the Forbidden City. Stones are piled up to form mountains, and caves are dug into the mountains, which wind up to a flat surface. In the garden there are palaces, a nine-bend pond, and all kinds of rare flowers and plants in full bloom, making it look like a fairyland on earth.
Meng Chong followed the young eunuch along the winding path for several minutes before he approached the place where Emperor Jiajing was enjoying himself.
"Great! My General Longhu is worthy of his title. He can take the enemy's head in the midst of thousands of troops as easily as taking something out of a bag."
Before he even reached the front of Emperor Jiajing, the sound of Emperor Jiajing clapping and cheering had already reached Meng Chong's ears. Meng Chong lowered his head, bent his waist and walked forward in small steps, not daring to look directly at Emperor Jiajing's face, but lowering his head was enough for him to see Emperor Jiajing. In his sight, Emperor Jiajing, regardless of his imperial dignity, squatted in the bushes, clapping his hands and cheering. Right in front of Emperor Jiajing, a fat tabby cat took out a ball of wool from the flowers.
Um.
Obviously, this fat cat with a chubby face is the Dragon and Tiger General mentioned by Emperor Jiajing, and taking the enemy's head in the midst of thousands of troops only refers to this fat cat taking out a broken ball of wool from a bunch of flowers.
The fat tabby cat has yellow and black fur. Its two round cat eyes are full of spirit and have a majestic aura. It looks like a little tiger in the sun.
Hearing the Emperor Jiajing's cheers, the fat tabby cat proudly threw the ball of yarn high up, then pounced on it and caught it.
"The dragons soar and the tigers leap, the tigers are mighty and powerful. My Dragon and Tiger General is truly a fierce general." Emperor Jiajing cheered again.
After being praised again, the fat tabby cat proudly walked towards Emperor Jiajing with the ball of yarn in his mouth, walking as if he didn't care about his relatives.
Emperor Jiajing stretched out his hands and picked up the fat tabby cat, then sat down on the grass, put the fat cat on his legs, and gently stroked the tabby cat's head. Not only that, he gently tickled the fat cat under its chin, and began to stroke it with skillful and enjoyment... The tabby cat stretched out its chin towards Emperor Jiajing's hand and purred with enjoyment.
Hearing the purring of the fat tabby cat, Emperor Jiajing smiled and was as happy as a child weighing over 100 pounds.
At this moment, Emperor Jiajing did not look like an emperor at all. He was just like a cat lover returning home from get off work.
Meng Chong lowered his head and saw this scene, with no sign of surprise on his face, and it was obvious that he was used to it.
"Your servant pays homage to His Majesty. Long live the Emperor. Your servant pays homage to the Great General Longhu. The Great General Longhu is mighty and powerful."
Meng Chong walked with his back bent and his head lowered to a place more than two meters away from Emperor Jiajing, then stopped, knelt down with his head touching the ground to pay his respects to Emperor Jiajing. At the same time, he also paid his respects to the tabby fat cat on Emperor Jiajing's lap and greeted the fat cat.
That's right, Meng Chong paid a special visit to this fat tabby cat. This fat tabby cat was the new favorite of Emperor Jiajing. It was more favored than any cat in the past. Emperor Jiajing would take time out of his busy schedule of government affairs, alchemy, and cultivation to play with it almost every day, take it to visit the imperial garden, the harem, and the Taiye Lake, eat and live with it, and dote on it to such an extent that even the most favored Concubine Shang in the harem could not compare to it. Every time Concubine Shang was able to sleep with Emperor Jiajing, she would half act coquettishly and half complain in front of him, saying that she had a dream, that she wanted to become a cat... ...
Oh, by the way, some time ago, when Emperor Jiajing and the fat cat were patrolling the imperial garden, they met a small snake on the way. It jumped out from the flowers unexpectedly, as fast as if it was equipped with a jumping knife, and whizzed towards Emperor Jiajing's feet. Emperor Jiajing and the eunuchs and palace maids who were accompanying him had no time to react, and they were suddenly panicked. At this critical moment, a yellow shadow flashed by, and the fat cat let out a roar and pounced on it, ganking the small snake.
The escort was successful.
It did it before anyone had time to react.
This made Emperor Jiajing, who already doted on it, dote on it even more.
For this reason, Emperor Jiajing specially held a title ceremony for it in the name of the emperor, and specially named it "General Dragon and Tiger".
Well, the first celebration banquet for General Longhu was prepared by Meng Chong himself. It was a full fish banquet made of 18 kinds of precious fish, including Yellow River carp, Songjiang perch, Xingkai Lake bream, Songhua River mandarin fish, etc.
"What's wrong, young Zhu?" Upon hearing Meng Chong's greeting, Emperor Jiajing turned his head and asked softly.
"Your Majesty, Lord Xiao Zhu..." Meng Chong knelt on the ground and replied with his head lowered.
At this time, Emperor Jiajing stopped petting the cat unconsciously because he was listening to Meng Chong's report.
"Meow~ Meow~"
When Emperor Jiajing stopped, the fat tabby cat on his lap, which had stretched its neck and looked very happy, became unhappy and glared at Emperor Jiajing with its big round eyes, looking unsatisfied, as if asking: "I am enjoying it, Your Majesty, why did you stop? Please continue quickly."
"Haha, good, good, I won't stop, I won't stop, I'm in a hurry to scratch General Longhu." Emperor Jiajing laughed when he saw the tabby fat cat's look, and continued the movement of his hands.
"Long story short."
Emperor Jiajing said something to Meng Chong while scratching the fat tabby cat.
"Your servant obeys your order. On the first question, Lord Xiao Zhu nodded very honestly. On the second question, Lord Xiao Zhu replied that 'or ask the two princes' was wrong, so he suggested to delete it. He also said that he had no right to speak without investigation. He entered Prince Yu's mansion and understood Prince Yu's affairs. He knew that Prince Yu strictly followed the ancestral system, did not interfere in government affairs, and did not contact foreign officials. Therefore, he said 'or ask the two princes' was wrong, and suggested that Yang Jisheng delete it."
Meng Chong lowered his head and replied.
After hearing this, Emperor Jiajing said nothing and showed no emotion on his face.
"This is the 'Quiet Night Thoughts' revised by Mr. Zhu." Meng Chong then took out the 'Quiet Night Thoughts' written by Zhu Ping'an, held it in both hands and raised it above his head.
A young eunuch was ready to come and take it.
"Read it to me." Emperor Jiajing said lightly.
"Yes, Your Majesty." Meng Chong responded.