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The day after Chinese New Year's Eve, the first day of the new year, coincided with the 56th birthday of the Deqing Emperor.

For the hundreds of officials in the court, this day every year is a big day, if you can take the opportunity to curry favor with Emperor Deqing, the future will naturally be immeasurable.

And this year's day is even more special, just in time for the recovery of the Hetao area, as well as the surrender of the Jianzhou Jurchen and other departments, which can be called the arrival of three joys, which is naturally celebrated by the whole world and the attention of the world.

Therefore, on this day, Emperor Deqing not only celebrates his birthday and rewards the meritorious officials of the Hetao War, but also goes to the Temple of Heaven to worship heaven and earth and the ancestors.

Anyone with political sensitivity will know that such an important time point often means a change in the direction of certain policies, and this change will inevitably change the fate of countless people.

Therefore, on this morning, when all the ministers rushed to the palace, everyone was in high spirits, their eyes were wide open, and they did not dare to miss any details of the day, which was a mixture of nervousness and excitement, anticipation and anxiety, which made many officials stay awake all night last night.

Of course, Zhao Junchen, as a cabinet elder and one of the powerful ministers of the DPRK and China, is naturally not among them.

With Zhao Junchen's status and power today, even Emperor Deqing must say hello to him in advance before formulating policies, so he has long understood the trend and changes in the situation in the imperial court, and has made sufficient preparations in advance, not like ordinary officials are nervous and uneasy, at this time, there is a feeling of sitting firmly in the Diaoyutai, when he rushed to the palace in a sedan chair, his attitude was also quite comfortable.

"There are no surprises in this year's birthday process, and the birthday gift I presented to Emperor Deqing is also ingenious, and it will definitely make Emperor Deqing very satisfied...... Because of my arguments a few days ago, the results of the rewards of the heroes were not satisfactory, and they were not too chilled...... The envoys of the Jianzhou Jurchens and the Mongol tribes of Monan, as well as the Koreans, also arrived in time for the capital, and their request for surrender would soon be settled......

In this way, except for the memorial text on the occasion of Emperor Deqing's sacrifice to heaven today, all the situation is already under my control, as long as Emperor Deqing does not make some decisions today without thinking, everything is just a formality, and there is no need to pay too much attention to it......"

While thinking about it, Zhao Junchen's attitude was calm and calm at first, but when he thought about it, his expression gradually became more solemn.

This is because Zhao Junchen suddenly thought of Emperor Deqing's ridiculous actions last night, not only indulging in wine, but also missing the deep city mansion that has always been gone, obviously getting carried away, and vaguely there was already some faint atmosphere.

When he received the news last night, Zhao Junchen just thought that Zhang Zhaodi's chess piece had finally played a role, but he ignored that this matter also represented a certain change in Emperor Deqing.

With Emperor Deqing's current spring breeze and full of ambition, maybe he will really make up his mind and do something unexpected today!

If it was in the past, Zhao Junchen would never worry about such a thing, because Emperor Deqing is certainly a person who is very happy and suspicious, but he will never act rashly, and all his decisions are made by weighing the pros and cons, and being cautious and thoughtful, such an Emperor Deqing is of course difficult to deal with, but what he does is also traceable, and it can be predicted one or two.

But recently, with the recovery of the homeland in the Hetao area, the initiative of the Jurchens and other departments in Jianzhou, coupled with the sycophants of the officials, Emperor Deqing has gradually become arrogant and complacent, only feeling that he is a generation of heroes, and he has gradually lost his previous trade-offs and cautions when acting.

After such a change in Emperor Deqing, he may really do something jaw-dropping today.

Thinking of this, Zhao Junchen couldn't help frowning slightly, only feeling that all his plans didn't seem to take into account the future personality changes of Emperor Deqing, and many aspects had to be reconsidered.

Zhao Junchen is such a character, whether he is prepared for danger in times of peace, whether he is jealous and worried, all kinds of thoughts in his mind can not stop, and he often wastes his mind and air to fight wits and courage, but this quality is also the key to his ability to get to this point.

And just when Zhao Junchen was concentrating on thinking, time passed very fast, and before Zhao Junchen could understand some key points, he found that his sedan chair had fallen to the ground with a slight shock, and then he heard Zhao Dali's report outside the sedan chair: "Zhao Ge Lao, we have arrived outside the palace." ”

Zhao Junchen was interrupted from his thoughts, and couldn't help but shake his head slightly, and thought: "Nothing unexpected may happen, although Emperor Deqing's mentality has undergone some changes, it may not affect his usual caution and trade-offs...... Maybe I'm overthinking. ”

Thinking of this, Zhao Junchen's expression had regained his calmness, and he was waited by Zhao Dali and walked out of the sedan chair.

After stepping out of the sedan chair, Zhao Junchen looked up a little, but found that there were already hundreds of officials outside the noon gate, and he was already the latest to arrive.

Because today is the birthday of Emperor Deqing, not only all the officials have arrived, but also the nobles have come, all of them are coming with birthday gifts, these birthday gifts are large or small, more or less, but they are all extremely valuable, all piled up in a corner outside the noon gate, and the relevant eunuchs are responsible for registration and keeping, occupying a large area, which makes the situation outside the noon gate more crowded and lively.

Under such circumstances, the appearance of Zhao Junchen still attracted everyone's attention.

In recent years, Emperor Deqing's birthday has always been Zhao Junchen's most showy, and the annual birthday gifts are all blockbuster and eye-catching, and every time Emperor Deqing will be happy, so the officials are also very concerned about Zhao Junchen's new tricks this year's gifts.

Under everyone's attention, Zhao Junchen nodded lightly at Zhao Dali behind him, and then saw Zhao Dali hand over a lacquer plate covered with red silk to Zhao Junchen to hold in his own hands.

The things on the lacquer plate and the red silk cover are obviously the birthday gifts that Zhao Junchen is going to give to Emperor Deqing this year.

The width and length of the lacquer plate are only about a foot, and the birthday gift placed on the lacquer plate is naturally not large, although it is obscured by red satin, giving people a sense of mystery, but everyone still sees the approximate outline of this birthday gift—as if it were a few fruits.

Could it be that Zhao Junchen's birthday gift to Emperor Deqing this year is just a few fruits?

Even if these fruits are carved from gold and jade, how much money can they be worth? Compared with Zhao Junchen's congratulatory gifts in previous years, this congratulatory gift is too overshadowed, right?

Doesn't Zhao Junchen know the truth of "Shengmi Endou Mi Hatred"? The congratulatory gift he gave to Emperor Deqing in previous years is not only unique, but also expensive, although it is to make Emperor Deqing happy, but it also raises the expectations of Emperor Deqing for the next year, if Zhao Junchen's next gift is a little perfunctory and cheap, it will make Emperor Deqing very disappointed, and even think that Zhao Junchen is arrogant and deferential, in this case, even if Zhao Junchen can't find that kind of ingenious birthday gift, he should at least maintain the price of the birthday gift, and how can he use a few fruits to perfunctory?

Thinking of this, many officials and nobles couldn't help but start gloating, secretly looking forward to what kind of anger Emperor Deqing would be after seeing Zhao Junchen's congratulatory gift!

Zhao Junchen could also guess the despicable psychology of some people, but he didn't care, he just held his congratulatory gift and handed it to the relevant eunuch for safekeeping, and then looked around carefully and carefully looked at the situation outside the noon gate.

At this time, most of the officials and nobles had already arrived, such as Zhou Shangjing, Zhu Hejian, Hong Jin and other heavyweights in the DPRK and China were present.

What made Zhao Junchen secretly pay attention to it was that Zhu Hejian's side was surrounded by many officials at this time, some of these officials were born in the Qingliu of the court, such as the pavilion elder Cheng Yuandao, the left capital of the Imperial Palace, Lu Chunxiao, etc., and some officials were former "Shen Party" officials, such as Shaobao Zhang Cheng, the Ministry of Rites Shangshu Lin Wei and others are all listed!

Obviously, now not only the Qingliu faction has thrown themselves into the Seventh Prince Zhu Hejian, but after Shen Changmao collapsed a few days ago, those "Shen Party" officials were all taken in by Zhu Hejian!

In this way, Zhu Hejian has the support of Qingliu officials and the original "Shen Party" officials at the same time, but he has become a big party in the DPRK and China that can compete with Zhao Junchen and Zhou Shangjing!

From now on, the "Seven Emperors' Party" will surely become a force to be reckoned with in the temple! Moreover, if Zhu Hejian successfully inherits the position of the prince, the "Seven Princes' Party" will further become the "new prince. Zi Dang", coupled with the support of the new crown prince and master Wang Baoren, the influence of this force will be further enhanced.

The speed of such a rise is far stronger than that of Zhao Junchen at the beginning.

Moreover, these officials of the "Seven Emperors' Party" were able to surround Zhu Hejian so blatantly, without any taboos, and it must be because of the tacit approval of Emperor Deqing, obviously Zhu Hejian will soon come to the front of the stage.

Seeing this scene, Zhao Junchen knew that Emperor Deqing's determination to change the prince had no possibility of change, and he couldn't help but secretly sigh for Zhu Heyu, who was far away in Luoyang.

At this time, perceiving Zhao Junchen's gaze, the eyes of the Seventh Prince Zhu Hejian also turned to Zhao Junchen, and after the two looked at each other for a moment, they also nodded and smiled at each other, and their attitudes could not be described as unfriendly, as if the two of them had no trouble.

Next, Zhao Junchen no longer paid attention to Zhu Hejian, and gestured to Zhou Shangjing from a distance, and finally set his eyes on a remote corner outside the noon gate.

There, however, there were a group of people dressed in alien costumes, some dressed as Jurchens, some dressed as Mongolians, and a few dressed in costumes similar to those of Han officials, but with some differences in details.

These people are obviously the envoys sent by the Jianzhou Jurchens, Monan Mongolia, and the Korean State.

In fact, the previous leader of the Ordos tribe, Qi Yan, was captured alive by the imperial army, and now he is among them.

For Emperor Deqing, the appearance of these envoys also added a lot of color to his birthday this year, and he declared it to be "the coming of all nations".

However, Zhao Junchen heard some gossip.

It is said that because of the urgency of time, after the Jianzhou Jurchen and Zhao Junchen agreed on the matter of surrendering, they did not have time to arrange for the envoys of the Korean state to rush to the capital, so they randomly found a few Korean businessmen to disguise themselves as Korean envoys, but because these Korean businessmen had also been to the capital to do business, they were quickly recognized.

It's just that at this time, no one wants to make extraneous branches and make Emperor Deqing feel disappointed, so the court pretended not to find out, but many of the officials already knew the truth, and only Emperor Deqing was still hidden.

Zhao Junchen carefully observed these envoys at this time, not because he wanted to debunk the true identity of the North Korean envoys, but because he had seen a lot of costume dramas in his previous life, there were often scenes in which the Qing Dynasty emperor made private visits, went deep behind enemy lines, and personally observed the enemy's situation, so Zhao Junchen thought about whether he could find a familiar face among the envoys.

But it's a pity, after all, it's just a fantasy of later generations, that Xuan Ye obviously won't do this kind of thing, but there are also acquaintances of Zhao Junchen in this group of envoys, it is the Han Qian Tong who followed Xuan Ye at the time of the negotiation, obviously Xuan Ye is very relieved of this person's ability and loyalty.

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And just as Zhao Junchen was looking at this group of envoys, all the "Zhao Party" officials and all the heroes of the Shaanxi and Gansu wars also gathered around Zhao Junchen.

These two factions of officials are respected by Zhao Junchen, and now they are a family, after various opportunities to contact each other during this period of time, they have gradually become familiar, but their origins and positions are still a little different after all, and there is still some estrangement between them, when they arrived at Zhao Junchen's side, it is also a bit clear, Zhang Shengde, Fang Zhenshan led by all the Shaanxi and Gansu heroes have stood on the left side of Zhao Junchen, and the "Zhao Party" officials headed by Huo Zhengyuan and Chen Dongxiang are gathered on the right side of Zhao Junchen.

Such details naturally can't escape Zhao Junchen's eyes, but Zhao Junchen doesn't intend to let the relationship between the two factions of officials be too close, but after signaling to each other, there are idle things to talk about, waiting for the opening of the noon door.

Huo Zhengyuan is a thoughtful person, when he noticed that Zhao Junchen's birthday gift to Emperor Deqing this year seemed to be a bit ordinary, he was secretly a little anxious, for fear that Zhao Junchen's birthday gift was too light and attracted Emperor Deqing's dislike.

Now that he saw Zhao Junchen, he didn't seem to notice anything wrong at all, just chatting with all the officials close to him, but Huo Zhengyuan couldn't help but interject and reminded: "Elder Zhao Ge, I see that your birthday gift this year seems to be a few fruits, isn't it a little light?" If you give Your Majesty a few fruits as a congratulatory gift, I am afraid that it will make Your Majesty dislike it, especially since your congratulatory gifts in previous years are all valuable and abnormal...... The noon door hasn't opened yet, and there is still some time, do you want to find a way to change it? If you really can't do it, you can also make up some ...... from the birthday we are waiting for."

Zhao Junchen saw Huo Zhengyuan thinking about himself like this, and he became a little closer to this person, but he didn't care about Huo Zhengyuan's worries at all, waved his hand and smiled: "I know what you're worried about, but this birthday gift of mine this year is not as simple as a few fruits, it's not an exaggeration to say that they are an auspicious rui!" ”

"Xiangrui?"

Hearing Zhao Junchen's explanation, Huo Zhengyuan couldn't help but be stunned.

But seeing Zhao Junchen's confident appearance, Huo Zhengyuan was a little relieved, he knew that Zhao Junchen never did something he was not sure of.

In ancient dynasties, the meaning of "auspiciousness" could not be overstated, but Huo Zhengyuan couldn't figure out what kind of auspicious rui could a few fruits be?

But before Huo Zhengyuan could ask further, as several bells rang, the palace gate finally opened slowly.

A series of activities such as the birthday of Emperor Deqing, the rewards of Shaanxi and Gansu heroes, the courtiers of various countries, and the ceremony of sacrificing to the heavens were also officially opened.

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