Spring is late, the flowers and trees are lush, the orioles are chirping, and the people are busy picking flowers. - The Book of Songs
On the first morning after the announcement of the results of the imperial examinations, Zhu Ping'an had his breakfast and rode his black horse to the Ministry of Rites.
On this day, Emperor Jiajing gave a banquet to the Ministry of Rites, which is the legendary Qionglin Banquet, or more appropriately, the Enrong Banquet. How could the emperor not be gracious when giving a banquet? This is a royal banquet, and as a foodie, Zhu Ping'an was naturally very enthusiastic.
Zhu Ping'an also heard about what happened in the backyard of Linhuai Marquis's mansion last night. He was not surprised when he heard that Li Shu whipped the maid. After all, it was not uncommon for Li Shu to beat and scold the servants when she was a child. He had seen it all, although the girl's temper had become much more restrained when she grew up. In this feudal society with strict hierarchy, don't ask for democracy and equality. It is not a democratic and equal society.
Because the wife of Linhuai Marquis had issued a gag order, Zhu Ping'an was not very clear about what happened in the backyard. He only vaguely knew that someone had poisoned her and Li Shu had whipped the maid of Miss Six. However, he could guess roughly that when the imperial official came back yesterday, Li Shu had asked Miss Six to deliver the sweet soup to her. It was probably because of this bowl of sweet soup that Li Shu had beaten Miss Six's maid.
However, based on Zhu Ping'an's understanding of Li Shu, it seemed that this girl Li Shu wanted to teach the Sixth Miss a lesson.
From the moment Li Shu asked Miss Six for sweet soup, Zhu Ping'an roughly guessed it.
Before going out in the morning, when the maid Baozi brought her breakfast, she took a quick glance at the page that was said to be for Wang Xiaoer, but Zhu Ping'an, who had a photographic memory, could still see it clearly.
The above is roughly how the girl who was beaten by Li Shu was dealt with.
Zhu Pingan was not surprised when he heard that Li Shu had beaten someone, but he was a little surprised when he saw this page. Li Shu's treatment of the "involved" maid was somewhat beyond Zhu Pingan's expectations. Marrying a simple and honest local man and a simple and honest husband is not a bad destination for a maid. The dowry given to her as a first-class maid must be very expensive according to the standards of the Li family. In the future, the couple will work hard. They will probably not have to worry about food and drink for the rest of their lives.
The unruly and sinister Li Shu also has this side, which is somewhat beyond Zhu Ping'an's expectations.
The Shamatte Black Horse seemed to have hooked up with a female horse in the stable of the Linhuai Marquis's Mansion in recent days. When Zhu Ping'an took it out, it was still very unhappy. When walking on the road, it looked like someone owed it a dozen female horses, with its face stretched long and raised high.
It seems that spring is indeed a season for birds to fall in love and ants to live together. Even the Shamatte guy has hooked up with a girl.
Due to the unwillingness and passive resistance of the Shamatte, Zhu Ping'an was almost late when he arrived at the Ministry of Rites. If he had not been late yet, Zhu Ping'an almost considered castrating this guy.
Eating and drinking are probably the universal ways of celebration for us Chinese, and probably for the whole world.
This banquet was probably the happiest and most relaxing thing for the newly promoted scholars who had gathered at the Ministry of Rites. They were so nervous when the results were announced yesterday. Today, they didn't need to be nervous at all. They could eat and drink and relax as much as they wanted. Although the banquet was large in scale and had many people, the main characters were the four hundred newly promoted scholars.
It was not easy for Emperor Jiajing to leave the West Garden yesterday, and it was also expected that Emperor Jiajing would not attend the Qionglin Banquet today. In addition, everyone was more relaxed when Emperor Jiajing did not come.
The banquet was hosted by Xu Jie, the Minister of Rites, who conveyed the Emperor Jiajing's intention to hold the banquet. Xu also congratulated the newly promoted Jinshi. Then the banquet began with seats being allocated.
The three people in the first class, namely the top scorer Zhu Ping'an, the second scorer Han Yupeng and the third scorer, sat at one table, and the rest of the people sat at tables of five.
There were about a hundred tables at the banquet, and the imperial chefs from the imperial kitchen were dispatched by Emperor Jiajing to host the banquet. You should know that the imperial chefs served Emperor Jiajing and the palace. The skills of the imperial chefs were naturally the best in the pyramid of the entire Ming chef world.
This banquet did not disappoint Zhu Ping'an. There were a total of thirty dishes made from beef, mutton, pork, deer, roe deer, chicken, duck, fish, seafood and vegetables, which corresponded to the good omen of Emperor Jiajing's 30th anniversary of his accession to the throne.
The imperial chefs did not disappoint Zhu Ping'an. Whether it was the color, texture or taste, Zhu Ping'an was extremely satisfied.
The Enrong Banquet was to celebrate the newly promoted Jinshi, and eating and drinking were the main activities. Except for the fact that Zhu Ping'an, under the guidance of the officials of the Ministry of Rites, led the newly promoted Jinshi to toast three cups of wine to the senior officials present, there were not many other details.
However, as the top scholar, Zhu Ping'an was still given special attention by many people and was offered a lot of wine.
Ouyang Zishi, in particular, led the way, leading several newly-appointed scholars who had hooked up with each other to take turns forcing Zhu Ping'an to drink, and walked towards Zhu Ping'an step by step.
Ouyang Zishi's intentions were written all over his face, and Zhu Ping'an naturally saw through them at a glance.
Before Ouyang Zishi and his companions arrived, he slipped away with his wine glass in his hand, and wandered to the table of Zhang Siwei and Wang Shizhen. He used the excuse of toasting the people at their table to avoid Ouyang Zishi's aggressive approach.
Zhang Siwei and Wang Shizhen heard Zhu Ping'an talk about Ouyang Zishi, and after seeing Ouyang Zishi's attitude, they guessed that Ouyang Zishi attributed his failure to win the first place to Zhu Ping'an. At this moment, the two of them also cooperated with Zhu Ping'an, helping Zhu Ping'an to keep an eye on Ouyang Zishi's movements.
Thus, the following scene appeared in the whole Enrong Banquet: whenever Ouyang Zishi wanted to bring people to get Zhu Ping'an drunk in the name of toasting, Zhu Ping'an would always stroll around with a wine glass in hand and toast to other tables in advance, without exception.
Therefore, Ouyang Zishi always came with high hopes but left disappointed, and the anger in his heart became even worse. He stole my number one scholar and my woman... ...
Ouyang Zishi, in particular, felt even more depressed when he saw that everyone at the banquet looked at Zhu Ping'an, the top scholar, differently.
Helpless and had to drink to drown my sorrows.
One cup, two cups, three cups... ... Before long, Ouyang Zishi was completely drunk.
Of course, Ouyang Zishi was not the only one who got drunk at the banquet. When one's name is on the list of successful candidates, one's life reaches its peak, and many people get drunk out of joy. Throughout the banquet, almost all the newly promoted scholars were drunk, and there were probably more than ten people who were drunk.
Life is full of different behaviors after drinking, and drunk people behave in different ways. However, the officials of the Ministry of Rites had already prepared for this. In order to prevent the scholars and officials present from losing their temper after drinking, they had already arranged nearly a hundred servants to be ready. Whenever there was a drunk person, a servant would come and help or carry him to the accommodation that had been arranged in advance to sober him up.
Wang Shizhen was "carried" over. This guy had a poor alcohol tolerance and passed out after only three cups. Zhang Siwei also drank a little too much, but his words and actions were still calm.
Zhu Ping'an was able to escape the disaster thanks to a trick he created to avoid drinking.
But before Zhu Pingan could rejoice, he received an invitation, a familiar style, from the Yan residence. In addition to Zhu Pingan, only a few people present also received invitations from the Yan residence.
Seeing Zhu Ping'an's invitation, many Jinshi became jealous.
This is the custom of the recent banquets. This banquet is a big banquet, which is given by the emperor. After the big banquet, there is a small banquet, which is given by Yan Song, the chief minister of the cabinet.
Great grace and honor are only superficial benefits.
The benefits of the Small Enrong Banquet are real. Once you are appreciated by Lord Yan, your career in the future will be smooth. (To be continued.)