At sunset, the sky is unpredictable and the afterglow of the setting sun shines back on Yingtian City. The whole city seems to be coated with a layer of rose gold.
"Respectfully send off all the angels to rest. The meals are simple and home-cooked. We apologize for the poor hospitality. Please forgive us..."
In front of the restaurant, in the afterglow of the setting sun, a group of slightly tipsy officials sent Chen Hong and other eunuchs onto a sedan chair carried by eight people.
"No, no, thank you all for your hospitality today. I and others are honored."
A young eunuch lifted the curtain of the sedan chair, revealing Chen Hong. He bowed and said to the officials who were seeing him off outside.
"You are too polite, sir. It is our honor to have a meal with you." Duke Wei and other officials spoke one after another.
Zhu Pingan stood in the crowd and couldn't help sighing in his heart. What a simple and home-cooked meal!
In the entire Ming Dynasty, only to the emperor in the Western Garden, this is home-cooked food.
Apart from His Majesty, there is no other common people in the entire Ming Dynasty who can afford such simple meals.
This meal cost at least thousands of taels of silver. Thousands of taels of silver could be used to pay soldiers, increase armaments, and improve people's livelihood. It was wasted on just one meal. It is really heartbreaking.
But, as a person of low status, my words have little influence and I can only complain and sigh in my heart.
"What are you thinking about, nephew? Come on, come back to my house with me, and we will celebrate properly."
Linhuai Hou patted Zhu Ping'an on the shoulder and pulled Zhu Ping'an to go with him without saying a word, showing great enthusiasm.
Linhuai Hou is full of fat, just like the modern crosstalk performer Sun Yue. His tonnage is obvious, and Zhu Pingan really can't refuse since his thighs can't even twist his arms.
There was no choice but to follow Linhuai Hou to his residence in Yingtian, as there was nothing important to do anyway.
Zhu Ping'an first said goodbye to Zhang Neitai and others, explaining the reason, and then asked a minor official from the Zhejiang Provincial Judicial Inspection Office to go back to the yamen and tell Hua'er and the others that they don't need to wait for him for dinner, and that he would have dinner at Linhuai Marquis' Mansion and go back later.
As for the curfew, it didn't exist. The Duke of Wei had given him a token a long time ago. With this token, the curfew in Yingtian City was unimpeded.
"Old Li, my dear nephew, I will come back to find you." Duke Wei shouted from afar. As the temporary person in charge, he also had to arrange the sleeping arrangements for Chen Hong and others, and he could not leave for the time being.
When Zhu Ping'an arrived at the gate of Linhuai Marquis's mansion with Linhuai Marquis, he saw the housekeeper Li Er, who ran up to Linhuai Marquis with an anxious and embarrassed look on his face and reported: "Master, Master, something bad has happened. The two masters in the backyard..."
Seeing Zhu Ping'an was also there, Li Er hurriedly changed his words, "The two nurses in the backyard started fighting."
Upon hearing this, Zhu Ping'an's mouth couldn't help but twitch.
Marquis Linhuai is still strong and healthy. When I visited him last time, there was only one wet nurse in the mansion, but now there are two.
She was nominally a wet nurse for the naughty child Rui Ge'er, but in reality she was the concubine that Marquis Linhuai took in locally. The imperial court had a decree prohibiting officials serving in other places from marrying local women as wives or concubines in the place where they were employed, so Marquis Linhuai made this compromise and announced to the public that she was Rui Ge'er's wet nurse.
This also made Rui Geer complain a lot, saying that the wet nurse he hired for me ended up being my father's wet nurse...
Li Er said that they started fighting, and it seemed that Linhuai Hou had a fire in Yingtian's backyard.
This is also the reason why there is no hostess in the backyard. In the capital, although Linhuai Marquis also has several wives and concubines, Linhuai Marquis's wife is in charge of the backyard, and none of Linhuai Marquis' concubines dare to make trouble.
There are only two concubines in Yingtian's backyard. They are both concubines, so neither of them can suppress the other. Naturally, neither of them will submit to the other, so conflicts are easy to arise.
"Ahem, Li Er, take my nephew to my study. I'll serve you some good tea. Nephew, I'll be right back."
When Marquis Linhuai heard that the backyard was on fire, he immediately got angry and arranged for Li Er to take Zhu Ping'an to the study. He said something apologetic to Zhu Ping'an, lifted up his official uniform and trotted to the backyard, saying "DuangDuangDuang".
"Uncle, you just go. I've come here more than once or twice, so I won't be shy." Zhu Ping'an replied.
"Son-in-law, please come in." Li Er invited Zhu Ping'an in.
"Thank you, Butler Li." Zhu Ping'an smiled slightly and followed Li Er into the mansion.
"Enjoy your meal, sir." Li Er led Zhu Ping'an into the study of Marquis Linhuai and served him hot tea and fruit and vegetable snacks.
"Butler Li, you just do your thing. I'll be fine as I please." Zhu Ping'an said with a smile.
"Well, call me if you need anything, sir."
Li Er took his leave.
After Li Er left, Zhu Ping'an looked through the books in Linhuai Marquis's study. Most of the books in Linhuai Marquis's collection were for decoration. The row of books on the bookshelf were all brand new, and you could tell at a glance that they had never been read.
The only book that had been read was a popular romance novel.
In modern times, Zhu Ping'an has become accustomed to reading all kinds of fantasy, fairy tale, and historical online novels on the Qidian website, and his appetite has long been spoiled. The popular romance novels of this era cannot arouse his desire to read at all.
Zhu Ping'an found a Northern Song Dynasty military strategy book "Hu Qian Jing" from Linhuai Hou's bookshelf and took it out to read.
He hadn't read a few pages when he heard the sound of jogging footsteps outside. When he heard the footsteps, Zhu Ping'an knew that the naughty kid had come.
Sure enough, the next second I saw the naughty kid running into the study.
"Brother-in-law, I heard you were here, so I came to see you right away. Hehe, I'm touched, right?"
The naughty kid acted like an idiot, and started yelling with his fat face raised as soon as he walked in the door.
"You've finally found a reason to skip class." Zhu Ping'an saw through the naughty kid's heart at a glance.
"No, I've been studying very well recently. It doesn't affect me at all to skip classes occasionally." The naughty kid said in a nonchalant manner.
Have you learned well?! Come on, I really don't know where your confidence comes from. Every time you are full of confidence, the final result is terrible.
Zhu Ping'an didn't believe a word the naughty kid said.
"Brother-in-law, I heard from my father that you became a general." The naughty kid asked with his fat face raised.
"I guess so." Zhu Pingan nodded.
"Then how many soldiers are you in charge of?" the naughty kid asked.
"There are more than 800 soldiers now. Why are you interested in this?" Zhu Ping'an asked.
"Hehe, I am just concerned about my brother-in-law. Eight hundred soldiers are a bit too few. My father manages thousands of people."
The naughty kid blinked his little eyes and said.
Your father manages several thousand... If your father hears what you said, you will have to eat a bamboo meal again.
Zhu Ping'an couldn't help laughing. This naughty kid was either being beaten or on his way to being beaten.
"Brother-in-law, you have too few soldiers. Let me help you. I'll send my two wet nurses to serve as your soldiers. No need to thank me. It's my duty to do." The naughty boy Rui Ge'er blinked his little eyes and said kindly.
"Thank you, but no thanks. We don't accept women in the barracks."
Zhu Pingan smiled and waved his hands. This naughty kid was really bold. He even wanted to send his father's concubine into exile...
You really are on the road to getting beaten, but you keep moving forward courageously.
"Why don't you accept women? Stop lying to me. There are a lot of female soldiers in the barracks." The naughty kid said with his neck stiff.
"Oh, who told you?" Zhu Ping'an asked with interest, thinking he had discovered a new continent.
"Ancient poetry tells me that there were hundreds of thousands of women in military camps in history." The naughty kid said with certainty.
"Which ancient poem, what history?" Zhu Ping'an curled his lips speechlessly.
"It's that sentence, '140,000 soldiers took off their armor, and not one of them was a man!' You see, 140,000 soldiers took off their clothes, and it was discovered that not one of them was a man. That means they were all women." The naughty child said proudly.
Pfft...
Zhu Ping'an just took a sip of tea and spat it all out.