Chapter 1106 Warm pot banquet
In mid-February, there was indeed an imperial edict in the palace. The new king gave his future father-in-law a house in the capital on Thursday, which was located near the palace in the inner city, with a garden on the fifth and third roads, which was very spacious and decent.
On Thursday, the general brought his son Zhou Yijun to the palace to thank him. After a few days, he moved into the new home with his wife, children and servants, and soon set a date for the warm-pot banquet. Although the general did not plan to hold a big banquet on Thursday, his familiar relatives and friends still wanted to invite him to his new home to have a banquet and celebrate.
At this time, there was no bad news coming from Chang'an. Many people in the circle of powerful people in the capital have heard the news of Zhenguo Duke's serious illness, and some people have been ready to act and have the idea of the military power of the northwest and the throne of the new king. However, the palace did not respond and his attitude towards Zhou Xuejun had no change. The cabinet had no other thoughts about the Zhou family. These people did not dare to move lightly after all, so the capital was still calm at the moment.
On the day of the warm-pot banquet in the fourth house of Zhou's family, Haitang followed his grandparents and went to the new house granted by Zhou Xuejun's family with his brother Chang Haijiao.
The house is very large and spacious, and you can see that it has put a lot of thought and materials into construction. However, the house is not new. It looks like it has been a few years. It was just a simple and small-scale renovation project not long ago, so it is not very obvious. After the generals were given a house on Thursday, they did not make any further repairs and moved in directly, without making any major changes to the furniture decoration inside the house. Although the wife ordered people to decorate the banquet scene with various furniture and fresh flowers and plants on Thursday, she did not buy new furniture decorations in large quantities, so a discerning person could still see the real situation of the house from many corners.
The generals and his family were very calm about this on Thursday and did not feel embarrassed. The house once belonged to a famous general in the late emperor's dynasty. The other party had military achievements but no bad achievements. He died. The descendants in the family were also sensible and polite. He never had any premature moths. It was because of filial piety that the family returned to their hometown and returned the house to the court. Now this family has been filial for many years, and their descendants have also re-employed officials and have gone to work in various places in Da Chu. Unfortunately, no one has returned to the capital for the time being to inherit the career of his father. With such a former owner, this house is quite auspicious and has no bad luck in history. The general on Thursday felt that he was honored to move into the old residence of such a respected old senior.
As for the furniture decoration of the house, what is the problem? Just live and use it. Their military generals don’t pay so much attention to it. The imperial court has money and should spend it in more useful places, such as building roads and bridges, and replenishing military rations and military funds...
Haitang followed his grandmother to pay homage to the hostess Mrs. Zhou Thursday. Grandmother Ma was soon taken away by the hostess to sit with Mrs. Chengenhou and Mrs. Chengenhouzi. Haitang herself was led to a banquet for entertaining young female guests by the maid, and was soon attracted by the various flowers placed around her.
These flowers are obviously moved out of the garden of the house. Although there are not many precious varieties, they are bright and colorful, making people feel refreshed when they look at them.
Haitang stood by the flowers for a while, and then saw Zhou Xuejun and Wu Qiong standing not far away, smiling and talking to the flowers. They hurried over and greeted them.
Zhou Xuejun was in a good mood today. She was very happy to see Haitang. She held her hand and said, "It's great that Sister Hai can come today. Sister Wu and I have lived in the palace for a long time and have been missing you. Unfortunately, it's not convenient to leave the palace. I want to write a letter to deliver things, but it's not good to bother the sisters and nannies around the Empress Dowager. Fortunately, our family moved into a new house. The Empress Dowager was kind to me. I promised me to come back and stay in a new house for a few days. I invited Sister Wu to come here. Just now I was thinking, "A sister can always meet in such a good day today, right? I'm looking forward to you here!"
Haitang smiled and said, "I miss you very much at home. Unfortunately, Sister Wu and I can still find a way to communicate with you. It is really difficult to contact you, so I can only ask Sister Wu to convey my greetings on my behalf." Zhou Xuejun sighed. She also knew that since she was selected as the Queen of the New Lord, there have always been many people around her, whether at home, in the Marquis of Cheng'en or in the palace, and she can no longer go out and move, let alone contact and meet outsiders. She knew that was the price of becoming a queen. When she thought that such unfree days would last for a lifetime in the future, she felt a little scared. Just thinking about the family and the new king who cared about her very kindly... she felt that all this was not unbearable.
No matter what, her future has been decided, and the once free and happy life will be far away from her, so she can only let herself be as open as possible.
Zhou Xuejun shook Haitang's hand and said solemnly: "Now I am in the palace, and Sister Wu is the company. When Sister Hai gets married to Mr. Jin in the future, she will be able to enter the palace to pay her respects. You must come to see me at that time."
Haitang smiled and nodded: "This is natural. We are good friends who grew up together and will be relatives in the future, so we naturally have to come and go."
Zhou Xuejun secretly breathed a sigh of relief and his mood became brighter again: "I tell you that when the emperor gave the house to my father, the house also had many servants, one of which was a good man who was serving flowers and plants. The flowers and trees in the garden were carefully cultivated by him. Even if it was just ordinary flowers and plants, he had a way to make them grow more lush than the flowers and plants in other people's homes. Thanks to him, otherwise my mother would not know how to spend less money, but she would have to hold this housewarming banquet in a decent manner!"
After saying that, she lowered her voice again: "There are grape seedlings sent from the northwest in the Marquis Cheng'en's mansion. I begged a few of them from my aunt and they have been planted in the garden. There is a good gardener who is taking care of them. Maybe we can eat fresh grapes in autumn! After entering Beijing, I have been thinking about this bite. The grapes in the capital are not as sweet as those in Chang'an."
Haitang smiled and said, "That's great! I also have grape seedlings brought from Chang'an, but they are very small and wilted all winter. It took me a lot of effort to keep my vitality. Now that spring is just beginning, I don't know if this grape can grow smoothly. If it can blossom and bear fruit, I will send you a letter to invite you to taste fresh grapes!"
Wu Qiong covered her mouth and said with a smile: "That's great! If you can plant all the grapes, I want to ask for a branch and plant them in the garden in the future. When the fruits come out, not only can I eat fresh grapes, but if the fruits grow a lot, I can also make wine by myself! I have been in Chang'an for several years, but I have found out how to make wine, and I have even collected two recipes, but I have never tried it."
Zhou Xuejun smiled and said, "I am just ordinary about wine, but I love to eat raisins. The recipe for wine is difficult to find in Beijing, but it is easy to find in Chang'an. It is not difficult to find out, but it is too troublesome to make it home. If I want to drink it, it is better to buy ready-made ones. My mother said that some tribesmen in Chang'an's hometown plan to come to Beijing to make a living. Those who are not good at literature and not martial arts may transport the local products from the northwest to Beijing for sale, and open some glassware shops or wine shops. At that time, we want to buy these things, which will be much more convenient!"
Haitang blinked: "Huh? Does the people in Chang'an intend to send the products of several workshops from Bianjun directly to the capital to open shops for sale? I thought they just wanted to sell them to passers-by. "
Zhou Xuejun smiled and said, "Who knows? Glass and wine are now considered in short supply in the capital. The money is made by passers-by. We are not short of people or horses in the northwest. Isn't it just to transport goods into the capital? What's the difficulty? The emperor also said that if the northwest has its own source of wealth and does not have to compete with the people for profit, we can be self-sufficient and the court can be much easier!"
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