Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

Zhao Zhen was generous and kind, even if he complained a little, he only let it out in his heart, and didn't mention a word to the servants.

Although it was fruitless to turn it over twice, but considering the courtiers who were eagerly looking forward to it, Zhao Zhen sighed helplessly, and lowered the standard in his heart again and again, and only opened the stack for the third time. portrait.

This time, finally, there were two beauties with beautiful looks, gentle and virtuous temperament, and not extravagant and luxurious attire, who barely met the official's requirements and were able to 'survive'.

"Send it to the meeting hall. After the ministers have examined it, call these few people into the palace and let people take a look." Zhao Zhen looked indifferent, and after ordering the servants to take away all the portraits, he ordered: "If you are with this The appearance in the portrait is not much different, so let’s keep it.”

The servant responded without thinking, and immediately sent the two portraits selected by Queping to the meeting hall.

But in the meeting hall at this time, the civil servants seemed to be busy with their own business, but their eyes kept on intentionally or unintentionally looking towards the door, as if they were waiting for something.

Not to mention Kou Zhun, who looked up again and again, even Li Di, who was always as dignified and cautious as Li Di, unknowingly showed some unusual expressions.

When the servant who was holding the portrait carefully came quickly, everyone was excited and stood up at the same time, wanting to see with their own eyes, who will get the concubine who can be considered by the weak official's eyes.

As the chief assistant, Li Di took the portrait without hesitation, opened it without changing his face, and then frowned slightly.

Kou Zhun pretended to be unintentional and strolled to his side, taking advantage of his tall stature, he took a quick glance, then raised his eyebrows: "The family background of these two young ladies is probably a little humble, so I can't bear it."

Kou Zhun actually had a hand in the arrangement of the pile of portraits that were sent.

He deliberately put the girls from the more prominent military officials' families at the top.

It's just that his intention for this move was not for his own selfishness, but purely in consideration of the latent intention of the past emperors to win over and appease the generals through marriage in order to stabilize the country, so he made this special arrangement.

However, despite the fact that the official family does not seem to be close to women, the young ladies from the Shang and Yang families are all delicate and delicate beauties.

Kou Zhun vaguely remembered that they were not even qualified to be promoted to the imperial court, and belonged to the young ladies of the fifth and sixth grade Beijing official families.

Except for the former emperor who acted absurdly and promoted a singing girl as a queen, this kind of background is already reluctant to be a prestige, so why should he be a queen?

Regarding Kou Zhun's words, Li Di was noncommittal, and said after a long while: "The selection of the saint still needs to be discussed in a long-term way. Since the officials like the two daughters, they will follow the officials' wishes and fill them into the imperial court."

The little emperor treats them very courteously on weekdays, and when it comes to innocuous matters such as picking a good color when choosing a concubine, they reciprocate, and they are willing to do as the official wants.

Li Di thought tolerantly, even if he really wanted to object, he had to wait until His Majesty really showed his obsession and praised the two women too much.

Even Zhao Zhen, who picked those two at random, didn't expect it to go so smoothly. In just two days, the two shy women in palace costumes "coincidentally" appeared in the imperial court when he was returning to the palace. Among the gazebos in the garden.

Because the makeup of the two is exquisite, and the clothes are also different from the gorgeous clothes of ordinary palace maids, Zhao Zhen's eyes were attracted to the two when they passed the pavilion, and they took a few more glances at the two.

The servants who are well aware of this arrangement are obviously paying close attention to the official's reaction.

Seeing His Majesty's rare look of stunned youth, they couldn't help but sneered and looked at each other, thinking that this matter would definitely happen.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Zhen turned around the next moment, and asked very inexplicably: "What are you still doing in a daze, don't you ask which palace maids you are? Don't mention the clothes that violate the rules, and dare to do nothing in an open manner. Yu Yu Hang out in the garden, at least for some reprimand."

The servants: "..."

After their initial astonishment, they understood the truth dumbfoundingly: the official reacted like this, and they didn't recognize it at all!

Those two well-dressed young ladies who are flirting with the official family in Yushu Linfeng at this time are not the two who were selected for portraits by themselves the day before yesterday.

Facing the doubts from the frowning officials, their words reached their lips several times before they finally spoke the truth hesitantly.

Zhao Zhen was startled, and couldn't help turning around, and looked at the shy and timid second daughter earnestly. Only then, from the deja vu on the outline, recognized them with difficulty who had been beautified several times by the portrait.

This is too...!

The portrait and the real person are so different, they don't seem to be the same!

Rather than being angry, what Zhao Zhen felt more was that he couldn't laugh or cry.

He shook his head, subconsciously, he would never compare them with the heroic and heroic young master who were doing nothing and only caring about putting on airs.

Seeing the official's reaction, the servants looked at each other in blank dismay. They still couldn't understand, did the official have a crush on the second daughter?

The only way to send the person back is to save Li Di and Kou Zhun from the embarrassment.

And the new portrait quickly lay on top of the imperial case again.

After the failure experience last time, Zhao Zhen became more and more dispirited. This time, he directly followed the order and started to look at the top few pictures first.

He went in the opposite direction and made a special trip to find portraits with rather ordinary looks, and selected five portraits in one go.

Since the color looks good, it's fake, so he wants to see if the plain-looking one in the portrait is ugly or not.

When Kou Zhun saw that the daughter of a military general whom he no longer had hope for was selected this time, Gu Du was strangely selected, he only had mixed feelings in his heart.

... I really don't know whether to lament that the preferences of the officials have changed faster than this weather, or to be happy that I have unintentionally planted willows and willows.

With the lessons learned from those two beauties, the five noble ladies who were selected into the palace this time were all urged by their family members to dress up very plainly, and they did not make any fuss.

Zhao Zhen really took a moment to look at them seriously, and called them one by one, asking them about their names and family backgrounds.

Just when the servants thought that this group of ordinary-looking daughters of generals who were completely inferior to the two well-dressed ones before would definitely lose the election, the officials unexpectedly nodded at the two of them. .

This means that this woman was really left behind.

The matter was immediately reported to the meeting hall, and a group of officials headed by Li Di worked hard for a while, and quickly turned up the details of the two lucky women.

One is the granddaughter of the late Zhongshu Ling Guo Chongzhi, the Guo family; the other is the great-granddaughter of the late General Xiaoqiwei Zhang Meizhi, the Zhang family.

They are all born in the general family, and the most prominent official in the family has passed away, so there is no need to worry about their relatives taking power.

Whether it is Li Di or Kou Zhun, they all think that these two women are really suitable.

The final key is only that which one belongs to the official family is the empress, and the other one should be the concubine.

Zhao Zhen, who has always been prudent, was very decisive this time. Without thinking about it, he chose Guo Shi, who was slightly inferior in appearance among the two, as the queen, which made the surrounding people very puzzled, but they dared not speak up.

Not to mention others, even Miss Guo, who was appointed by the imperial court, was very astonished.

What virtue and ability does she have to win the favor of officials?

She would never have imagined in her dreams that the reason why she, with her mediocre appearance, could stand out from the crowd of ladies, was entirely based on the words she held in her hand at that time.

That was because she couldn't read it at home for a while, but because she was too addicted, even though she knew she was going to enter the palace, she was still immersed in the vivid and interesting scenes depicted in the story book, and she didn't let go of the book, so she simply took the story book with her. When entering the palace, relying on the fact that the family members don't know about it, they should pretend to be virtuous and elegant props in front of the official's house.

But I don't know that the official has not only read it with relish, but also recognized it with a sharp eye. Looking at Guo Shi who is pretending to be serious, he subtly developed a good impression in his heart.

...that is the witty and affectionate Liu Sanbian, humorously speaking in the tone of "Liu Niangzi", about the separation and reunion with the "Merry" Lu Sanyuan, lingering and sentimental, which is the most exciting in the book of love stories that make readers worry A compact fourth.

No one knows about these inside stories except Zhao Zhen who is in a good mood.

Moreover, the emperor's wedding followed the etiquette system, so it was extremely grand, and it took at least a month to prepare for the relevant matters.

Even if Zhao Zhen wanted to keep everything simple, he couldn't escape the earnest persuasion of the officials, so he could only turn a blind eye and let them toss about this trivial matter, as long as it wasn't too much.

By the time Lu Ci, who was far away in Qinzhou, got the news that the ex-student was about to get married, it was already the end of January when the preparations were coming to an end.

"Days go so fast," Lu Ci put down Zhao Zhen's private letter, and said with emotion: "The officials are about to get married, but I'm still alone, leaving my hometown, and drinking the northwest wind."

Today, it was frosty and snowy, and it was extremely cold, so Lu Ci simply asked all the people in the government office not to go out of the hall, and all the tools were lit on the brazier, so as not to freeze the ink that was grinded, and the people were also frozen to death.

Teng Zongliang, who was also shivering in thick clothes while leaning against the same brazier with him, didn't feel sorry for him at all when he heard the groans without illness, and couldn't help rolling his eyes on the spot: "Time grows long, deep-rooted Jie, giving birth to men and women is a common way in the world. Instead of lamenting that the official family got married, why don't you think about it, it is clear that your vision is too high, so you are still alone today?"

Back then, when Lu Sanyuan was parading around the streets with horses, he asked the late emperor to send a row of Jinwu guards to escort him in advance, so he was not snatched by the family of high-ranking officials and nobles on the spot. Later, at the wedding banquet, he was forced to jump into the Jinming River by many servants who robbed him of his husband The anecdote is still talked about by people in Beijing!

Not to mention that today's Lu Ci is on the rise, only a few years after the crown, he has already become a festival, and ordinary wealthy people dare not climb high.If he is willing to look down at the mortal who is desperately seeking, why bother with no wife?

Lu Ci chuckled, and said nonsense: "It's not that I admire Brother Teng's demeanor of spending a lot of money, and I'm delaying—"

Teng Zongliang interrupted him unceremoniously: "Brother Ci, don't wait any longer!"

His little lady only turned four years old during Chinese New Year, how could she be a good match for Lu Ci!

Thinking that if Lu Ci really becomes his son-in-law, then he will probably be reduced to such a miserable state that he can be manipulated around by the other party even at home...

Teng Zongliang felt a chill down his spine, could not sleep or eat, and said viciously: "Don't even think about it!"

Lu Ci sighed pitifully, and really didn't say anything, just quietly staring at the jumping flames.

——The little emperor is about to get married, what kind of gift should he personally prepare to celebrate the great joy?

Just pack up and send the noisy brother Teng.