Night falls slowly.

The palace lanterns in the back garden were lit one after another.

Not long after, the entire back garden turned into a sea of ​​lights.

Soon, even in the inner pond, dots of candlelight appeared, moving with the waves.

Zhao Xu stood on the attic of Taiqing Temple, looking at the inner pond in the back garden from a distance.

Those are hundreds of ship lanterns that are being released.

What Zhao Xu knew was that the maids and low-level ministers in the palace were seizing this rare opportunity to let go of their longing for their families.

"Everyone, the three county princes have cleaned Yanchun Pavilion." Liu Weijian quietly came behind Zhao Xu and reported in a low voice.

"Oh!" Zhao Xu turned around, looked at Liu Weijian, who was a little older than last time, and said softly: "Thank you for your hard work, old Qianjia."

"I dare not, this is the duty of an old slave." Liu Weijian lowered his head and replied.

Zhao Xu smiled and looked at the three girls following Liu Weijian.

Wen Xunniang, Di Qiang and Meng's daughter were immediately blessed.

Zhao Xu said: "Three county princes, please come with me and kowtow to the Empress Dowager Cishengguangxian."

Taiqing Temple is a place where the relics of deceased queens of past dynasties are enshrined.

Among them, the Yanchun Pavilion is the place where Zhao Xu's father specially set up a place to enshrine the relics of Empress Ci Sheng Guangxian.

When he was alive, whenever he was in a bad mood, he would come here to look at the relics of Ci Sheng Guangxian and be in a daze looking at the relics of Ci Sheng Guangxian enshrined here.

After the death of Ci Shengguangxian, Zhao Xu's father was truly alone.

According to what Zhao Xu knew in his previous life, he made a special trip here before he suffered a stroke and was paralyzed.

Therefore, Yanchun Pavilion actually became the last place of activity for Zhao Xu's father before his death.

Zhao Xu has always wanted to come here to see the last place his father visited before his death, but unfortunately he has never found a good opportunity. Today, taking advantage of the Holy Day of the Empress Dowager, he was finally sent here by the two palaces with a text

The three ladies of Xun Niang came to pay their respects and worship the portrait of Cisheng Guangxian.

Entering Yanchun Pavilion, Zhao Xu saw the portrait of Cisheng Guangxian enshrined in the pavilion.

In the portrait, Cisheng Guangxian, wearing Zhai clothes and a phoenix crown, sits upright, kind and gentle.

On both sides of the portrait, there are elegies written by Zeng Gong.

His poem says: The virtues of mountains and rivers are revealed latently, and the benevolence of Jianghan and Han Dynasties is far away...

He also said: The eagle of our ancestors is soaring and it will finally eat Ji, and the sound of the family springs out from the old Xing Qiao...

Zhao Xu stepped forward, knelt down on the futon respectfully, kowtowed to the portrait seriously, and said: "Zengsun Xu respectfully worships the Empress of Mercy, Holy Light, and Goddess of Mercy."

After the ceremony, he stood up, took the letter incense from Liu Weijian, lit it and inserted it into the incense burner.

Behind him, Wen Xunniang and the other three ladies kowtowed respectfully and said, "I, my concubines, respectfully pay homage to the Emperor Song Ci Sheng Guang Xian and the Empress Goddess."

After doing these things, Zhao Xu led his people and respectfully exited the Yanchun Pavilion.

Two old female officials who had been favored by Cisheng Guangxian during his lifetime came out of the pavilion and closed the door respectfully.

Zhao Xu looked at Wen Xunniang, Di Qiang and Meng's daughter.

"Please remember, from now on, you will come here to offer incense on the first and fifteenth day of every month."

"No!" The three women seemed to understand.

Zhao Xu knew that after completing this procedure, the three women would be considered the future concubines of Zhao Xu's harem.

This is part of feudal etiquette.

Since you have worshiped your ancestors, you are now a member of my family.

Going down from Taiqing Temple, people sent by the two palaces were already waiting under Taiqing Temple with lanterns.

"Liang Weijian." Zhao Xu waved.

Liang Weijian immediately came forward with a lantern: "What are your orders?"

"Have all the wives entered the palace?" Zhao Xu asked.

"We entered the palace through Ningyang Gate early in the morning." Liang Weijian replied with a smile.

"Yeah!" Zhao Xu said, "Let's go to the Yuhua Palace."

"promise."

…

Yuhua Hall was built in the fourth year of Xining Dynasty and was used as a recreation place for emperors and empresses.

So the scale is not big.

It's just a mountain pavilion, a combination (Fengxianghe), and a hall (Jichun Hall).

When Zhao Xu arrived, the open-air garden outside the Yuhua Palace was already crowded with the ladies who came to court. Looking around, they were all county princes and princes in Zhai clothes, flower crowns, and rosy clouds covered with emerald pearls.

When Zhao Xu entered the arena under the escort of Yulongzhi, all the wives came forward one after another and placed a blessing on both sides of the road: "I, my concubines, respectfully welcome the official to the palace."

Zhao Xu did not respond, but just led the people forward. When they arrived in front of the Jichun Palace, the imperial guards who were guarding here placed yellow sticks made of silk in front of the palace. The steps were opened for the first time, and the viewing angle effect was suddenly full, and the momentum was quite impressive.

It's a little bit like when a modern head of state reviews a guard of honor.

This is the war-ringing ceremony, an important part of the emperor's official office ceremony in the Tang Dynasty.

After entering the Song Dynasty, as the Japanese and Korean systems were abolished, Zhao officials no longer sat in government offices, and the stick-waving ceremony naturally disappeared.

But when Yuanfeng was restructured, it was revived.

However, it is still rarely used.

Generally, only during the Zhengdan Dynasty of Wende Hall every year, the full set of ringing stick ceremony will be used.

That's a terrifying scale.

The flags used as red flags alone require hundreds of flags, divided into five different ceremonial guard teams.

At least more than a thousand Imperial Guards are needed to form the war ringing ceremony.

Therefore, what is being used here now is just a small stick-waving ceremony, with only more than two hundred people and dozens of Huangyan battles.

This was a link deliberately arranged by the Imperial City Secretary in order to please the Empress Dowager.

I have to say, the ringing stick ceremony is really cool!

Zhao Xu walked all the way up the stairs.

The crimson flags kept rising and falling as he moved forward.

The sense of ceremony and atmosphere immediately filled up the atmosphere, causing Zhao Xu, who was walking in it, to secrete adrenaline faster, and his whole body was a little excited. It felt like I had the sun, the moon, the universe in my hands, and could travel thousands of miles of mountains and rivers at any time.

It’s no wonder that Zhao Ji in history, after taking power, couldn’t wait to restore the full set of the staff ringing ceremony, and then doubled it - turning it into a super ceremony that required more than 5,000 people!

…

When Zhao Xu entered the Jichun Palace, the first thing he saw was his biological mother, Princess Zhu.

Beside Zhu, Grandma Guo, whom she had not seen for a long time, came forward to greet her: "The official family is well."

"Mother-in-law is well." Zhao Xu smiled and looked at the little girl in Grandma Guo's arms.

This is Zhao Xu's sister, and also his youngest sister. She is now the tenth daughter of the emperor who is only one year and eight months old.

Zhao Xu reached out and touched this little sister's cute little face.

The little guy slept soundly and was very well-behaved.

"After some time, it's time to ask Da Zongzheng to give Shi Niang a good name." Zhao Xu said with a smile.

"The Empress Dowager said it would be best to ask the Empress Dowager to grant her a name."

Zhao Xu did not comment and said: "That's okay."

Mrs. Zhu was very happy when she heard this, and said from the side: "You still have to ask the official to come to your mother-in-law to ask for this favor."

"Yes!" Zhao Xu looked at Zhu, nodded, and agreed.

Then he asked: "How are you doing, sister?"

When Zhu suddenly heard Zhao Xu's concern, she felt helpless and panicked. She subconsciously smoothed her hair in front of her forehead and said, "I'm in the palace. Everything is fine. I just need to take good care of my body."

"Recently, I heard Dr. Qian say that the old illness of the official family has not recurred, and I felt really happy. A few days ago, I went to Kaibao Temple to burn incense and pray in front of the Buddha..."

"That's it..." She looked at Zhao Xu's expression and said cautiously: "I heard from the monks at Kaibao Temple that there seems to be some noise in the court that is not very respectful of Buddhism..."

When Zhao Xu heard this, he narrowed his eyes, and then said: "Sister, it is good to worship Buddha."

"But if monks and nuns have nothing in common, why should they discuss government affairs?"

Zhu was startled immediately, knowing that she might have said the wrong thing, and quickly stopped talking.

Zhao Xu looked at Zhu's appearance and sighed in his heart.

He knew that Zhu was such a person.

There is no political sensitivity whatsoever.

But she is a very nice person and is kind to everyone.

She is a very typical, submissive personality.

Therefore, she can get along with everyone, and can even become best friends with concubines who are in the same ecological niche in this intrigue and intrigue palace.

Both Concubine Xing and Concubine Lin have a good relationship with her.

Zhao Ji's biological mother, Mrs. Chen, even thought about entrusting Zhao Ji to her to raise him.

It is precisely because of this that Zhu can easily be taken advantage of.

She trusts others too much!

"Sister, go out to worship Buddha and respect Buddha, and don't listen to those monks talking nonsense about government affairs."
To be continued...