Chapter 63 – Marquis Changning’s Mansion
Fan Xian’s face was unchanged, he had expected this. Today’s trip to Xiushui Street, in fact, the surface purpose is secondary, the key is to see how the inner treasury in the north of the operation in the end, so when he heard this Sheng old wrench to call his aunt, he was not surprised, the inner treasury is now after all, is still in the eldest princess’s management, there will always be some of the eldest princess’s close confidantes, lurking in the north of Qi.
For some reason, Fan Xian believed that the Princess would take the initiative to send someone to find herself as the ambassador of the mission. This is not only intuition, but also a kind of judgment for the people of Qing Dynasty, Qing Dynasty people, no matter whether they are wise or foolish, there are some almost paranoid confidence and pride in their bones, the Princess is going to let Sean go, there must be something else, if it’s not related to the secret of the temple, then it must be related to the Uesugi Tiger, who lives in the upper capital. Now Sean has been sent to the North Qi country, the Princess wants to save Sean out, naturally will contact with his son-in-law as the main ambassador of the mission.
However, the word “aunt” still made Fan Xian feel a bit ridiculous, his mother-in-law did not seem to be able to look at his son-in-law the more she liked.
Since Sheng Huairen dared to call him “Auntie”, he must be one of the Eldest Princess’s inner circle. Fan Xian looked at him and nodded, saying, “What does the elder have to say?”
Sheng Huairen didn’t say anything, only handing him a letter.
Sitting on top of the carriage, Fan Xian pinched the envelope in his sleeve; he hadn’t had time to read it yet, but he was already beginning to feel the weight of the letter. When today’s business was done, he had to take care of it, Wang Qinian by his side was good at tracking, Gao Da force was amazing, but there was one less person to help him judge the current situation and analyze the intelligence.
He couldn’t help but think of the chun exams when he received a few students, those guys should now have been decentralized, but these people may be able to do the official, engaged in these conspiracies is not their strengths, even if they want to cultivate the Shi Hanyanli out, but also do not come to and. Fan Xian suddenly had a change of heart, if he could fish out Yan Bingyun quickly, I believe it would be of great help to the court’s plan.
At this time, Wang Qinian respectfully handed over a thin sheet of paper. Fan Xian slightly raised his eyes and glanced at it, realizing that it was actually a full five hundred taels of silver bills, and frowned, “What is this?”
“A rebate from Boss Yu of the glass store.”
Fan Xian glanced again and said with a smile, “There are rebates to be taken for hitting a blank check …… You and Gouda take it and split it, and yes, leave some for those tiger guards as well.”
Five hundred taels of silver, is already a great number, Fan Xian is not lift his eyes on the reward out, only the Fan family this kind of rich family can raise out of this kind of habit, now Fan Sicheng is a yearly income of ten thousand taels of rich people, more will not care about these numbers.
Lin Jing smiled on the side and said, “Lord Fan regards money as dirt, I am impressed.”
Fan Xian knew that he wasn’t really admiring his own cleanliness, but was only admiring the fact that his house was full of golden winds. He smiled and said nothing. The carriage passed through the quiet and beautiful streets of Shangjing and finally came to the area where the dignitaries lived, stopping at the entrance of Marquis Changning’s residence.
Shangjing is somewhat similar to the southern city of the Southern Qing Dynasty. The spring breeze lightly brushes the branches of the trees sticking out from the mansions, and the light of the sky is covered by the big trees overhead, spreading out in a clear way. Fan Xian stood beside the carriage, looking at the street, looking at the stone lions beside those magnificent facades, and somehow thought of his own situation when he traveled from Tanyu to Kyoto.
The carriage was parked in front of the Marquis of Changning’s mansion, and with the imperial guards protecting it, the commotion was not small, and some people had already begun to peep in the shadows. Marquis gate of the concierge underlings, but also looked at their own house in front of the carriage some overwhelmed, do not know whether to go down to meet, or should be rushed into the house to inform the master.
These subordinates have seen out, the coming dress is very clear, is actually the South Qing envoys!
How in the world have I heard of an envoy coming to the residence of a minister of another country by himself? If the two countries really allowed the trip, then Marquis Changning’s residence would have already begun preparations, where would it be so quiet and silent?
The concierge gulped, thinking to himself, “What the hell is going on here? Could it be that these marquis ministers don’t know the rules at all?
Today’s mission was not official business, and Fan Xian had arbitrarily ditched the accompanying officials from the Honglu Temple, so the only person around him was the Wei Commander from Northern Qi. Seeing Fan Xian’s four people ready to break into the Changning Marquis’ residence, Wei Commander was also anxious and stepped forward to stop: “Lord Fan, this is absolutely not possible. Without the court’s permission, ambassadors are not allowed to interact with courtiers without authorization, and if Lord Fan and the Marquis of Changning are really close friends, then it’s even more important not to go in like this, what if it brings trouble to the Marquis of Changning?”
The Marquis of Changning is Empress Wei’s own brother, what kind of trouble could there be? Fan Xian muttered in his heart, it’s best to bring him trouble, who told his son to avoid himself for a whole day today, but on his face, he smiled and said, “It’s not worth it, I’ve talked to his majesty in the palace in the morning, and his majesty doesn’t have a problem with it, so I’m afraid of those who have a broken mouth.”
When the Emperor of Northern Qi was brought out, Commander Wei froze, did he really go to the palace to ask for proof?
At this time, Fan Xian had already brought his three subordinates to the door of Changning Marquis, and the concierge hurriedly came up to greet him, with courteous manners and clear words. Fan Xian secretly praised the high family and said, “Please inform us that the drinking friend from the Southern Dynasty is here.”
This kind of self-acquainted skill, Fan Xian had finally learned a few hints of its essence during this year of honing his skills in the official drinking scene. That concierge was stunned, thinking to himself that the Marquis had indeed traveled to Southern Qing last year, and I had heard that he had gotten drunk quite a few times in the south as well; could it be this young envoy before him?
But he didn’t dare to go to pass the message immediately, after all, a foreign minister entering the house is a matter of great importance. When he was in a difficult position, he suddenly heard the corner door slam, and a man came out, bowed down to Fan Xian, and said, “The Marquis has an invitation.”
Fan Xian also did not expect this marquis so good into the hall, into the hall, looking at the chair on the middle-aged man, haha a smile, walked over to the extremely enthusiastic embrace, said: “A year has not seen, marquis elegance is even better than when ah.” In fact, last year in the middle of Kyoto, he and this Northern Qi master envoy also but met a few times, and finally in the temple is a painful drink, just vaguely remember each other’s face.
Changning Marquis is the empress dowager’s own brother, the identity of the noble incomparable, where has encountered such a “passionate” gift, coughed twice, some headache said: “a year no see, small Fan Lord reputation is better than the original, how to think of today to sit in this house?”
“Yesterday just entered the capital, this morning accompanied his majesty to chat for a while, this is not, the thought of this capital city late generation also do not have any acquaintances, of course, have to come to visit the marquis.”
The Marquis of Changning had a white face and swollen eyes, and at the age of forty or fifty, the traces of excessive drinking and coloring could not be eliminated. Fan Xian could clearly smell the odor of alcohol on the other party, and it seemed that he had been drinking all night last night. Fan Xian was secretly happy in his heart, thinking that the gift he had bought was right on target.
The Marquis of Changning was not only good at drinking and coloring, but was also a mediocre person. The empress dowager has two brothers, of which the Chang’an Marquis can still lead the troops into battle, although it is a defeated general, but always better than him, this marquis for some years, only dare to harbor in the capital, that is, this kind of stupid generation, but also relying on the sister empress dowager to do backing, only dared to so insignificantly will be the south of the Qing ambassadors of the Fan Xian welcome into the house.
Fan Xian came to the door today, first of all, he wanted to get closer to the Empress Dowager’s own brother, and secondly, he wanted to force Wei Shaoqing out of the house through Changning Hou’s side.
As expected, looking at the wine brought up by the long followers, Marquis of Changning smiled so much that his eyes narrowed, although he did not have a noble status, but the name of the Empress Dowager’s brother was enough to make him look down on all the people in the world, even if Fan Xian is now a supervisory institute of the southern dynasty, how would it fall into his eyes. After hearing the concierge’s announcement, he remembered the young and beautiful guy who was a good drinker, and after returning to Northern Qi, he kept thinking about his “defeat”, which is why he let Fan Xian into the mansion.
At this time, once he saw the beautiful alcohol bottle, the marquis more and more happy, deep thought he really have the knowledge of people, this little Fan, really is a person who knows what is interesting ah.
In the information of the Supervisory Board, the Changning Marquis is a person of the border township, although once studied in Zhuang Mo Han, but in fact in the court of Northern Qi is extremely unsatisfactory, always by the officials of Northern Qi that he is relying on the Empress Dowager’s nepotism to climb up, not many people look down on him, in the court’s reputation and even worse than that of his son, Weihua, so that the Marquis will be sent to the wine between. In the middle of the day, the marquis immediately set up a large table of good food, Changning Marquis pulled a few foreign ambassadors and began to drink up.
Fan Xian narrowed his eyes slightly, drank a cup, looked at this old man smacking his lips in a greedy manner, smiled and said, “Marquis, when I entered the door earlier, Commander Wei said that it might cause you some inconvenience.”
“Fear a zipper!” Marquis Changning cursed and grinned, “Guests come to the door, do you want this marquis to close the door and thank the guests? Last year in Kyoto, you and Lord Xin Qimo Xin, but this Hou accompanied me well, today this Hou accompanies you, who has the guts to say anything more?”
Fan Xian thought to himself, “That’s good. After three rounds of drinking, he watched Marquis Changning’s pale face gradually emerge red, his eyes a little lax, knowing that the other party had drunk a little too much, before Fan Xian took the opportunity to say what he wanted to ask. Hearing his words, Marquis Changning froze slightly and said, “Lord Fan, you want to see Lord Shen, the Commander of the Zhenfu Division?”