The prayer ceremony held by Chen Xi in the imperial palace Taimiao was very smooth. According to the established process, burning incense and worshiping, writing a sacrifice to heaven and earth, praying for the safety of the queen and the "prince" in the queen's belly, and it is over.

Logically speaking, sincerity is a good person, but Chen Xi doesn't even know whether Queen Zhang is pregnant with a prince or a princess. Now he has to forcefully decide that the one who gave birth to a dragon son, and he has to pretend seriously. This is really a test of his acting skills.

The palace was very vigilant, and no one came to watch the ceremony except for the sacrificial people.

After Chen Xi came down from the altar, he handed over the sacrificial text to the officials of the Honglu Temple who were waiting on the side. There was a special person who kept the sacrificial text properly, but whether the emperor would look at it in the end was a problem.

It was said that he had arranged a new errand for Chen Xi, but this errand seemed to be fooling people no matter how he looked.

When the emperor was seriously ill and could not afford to get up, he naturally took great care of the gods' protection. However, the emperor's condition has improved recently and he has focused on the war in the Northwest, so he can't think about it so much.

Of course, Emperor Hongzhi would also care about his wife, but the result of the Chenxi sacrifice and whether he could obtain the protection of God was not among the attention of Emperor Hongzhi.

The sacrifice lasted for two hours, and there was a lot of red tape. After the end, Chen Xi handed over the signs of his waist to the palace gate to the rituals department, which meant that he would not have the chance to enter and exit the palace gate freely in the future.

It was not convenient for Chen Xi to hold the waist tag, but instead Xie Qian was cheaper. Chen Xi was ordered to plan a ticket to Wenyuan Pavilion for one night, so Xie Qian asked Chen Xi to go to Xie Mansion every now and then. The negotiations were nothing more than the northwest military use, but where did Chen Xi have so many opinions for Xie Qian?

Chen Xi was in the capital. Although the emperor guarded the country's gates, it was hundreds or thousands of miles away from the nine-sided and important places. What major strategic policies should the court formulated? It was not his turn, a little Hanlin, to point out the specific strategies. As for the specific military strategy, Chen Xi did not know the specific situation on the front line. Even if Xie Qian occasionally introduced some, many of them were the situation four or five days ago, or even ten or half a month ago. They went back and forth on the road, and the plan could not keep up with the changes.

After Chen Xi had a brilliant performance, he quickly "returned to the ordinary". However, if Xie Qian had something to do, he still liked to discuss with Chen Xi, regardless of whether Chen Xi could help him.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming soon, and Xie Yuner and her entourage are still missing, but the letter arrives first.

The letter was taken by official posts, which was sent to the capital when Xie Yuner set out in Guangzhou City. Chen Xi calculated the time. It had been more than a month since Xie Yuner and her entourage left. The letter had been on the road for a few months, and it would take at least one month to wait for people to return to the capital.

Chen Xi originally hoped that the female family would return to Beijing at the end of August, but now it seems that she hoped to be ruined. He was alone in the capital city, without formal responsibilities, and he did nothing but writing and painting every day, or going out for a walk, and occasionally going to the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Rites to inquire about whether there are any official shortages. At the same time, the court was worried that unemployed officials like him would give up and report to the Censorate where he was on duty.

On the afternoon of August 14, Chen Xi and Su Tong met at a tavern in the capital.

The winery is a two-story building facing the street, located near Dongzhimen. However, the hall layout of the store looks very narrow. The second floor can only accommodate four tables. No matter how you look, it looks like a shop transformed by ordinary households.

After Su Tong returned to Beijing, he invited Chen Xi for many banquets, but unfortunately he never got what he wanted. Chen Xi finally accepted the invitation, but in such a small place, Chen Xi didn't know whether Su Tong was deliberately low-key to cover up his eyes or to consider Chen Xiqing's reputation, so as to avoid being called by the censor for accepting the banquet as asking for bribes.

In short, Chen Xi felt a little strange about Su Tong, who had always been generous and generous, and invited him to a small place like this to have a drink.

"... Brother Chen, I have lived in the capital for my brother in the past two years, and my family's industry management is not good. The first year, the tea gardens in western Fujian generally have a bad harvest. So... I feel wronged first, and then change the place to host a banquet for Brother Chen!"

It seems that Su Tong is short of money and has to lower his living standards. It is not easy to live in Beijing. He has to spend 100 taels of silver in a year to maintain the minimum appearance, and it is not comparable to a small place like Tingzhou.

Chen Xi asked with concern: "Do you need to help Brother Su through the difficulties?"

Su Tong waved his hand quickly: "It's not a difficult situation. Brother Chen is too worried, so I can handle it!"

Chen Xi smiled, without force. Now he has no other money, but he has only brought two boxes of silver when he returned to Beijing this time, and then sent it to the capital for him to settle more money in the officialdom.

Thanks to the gradual formation of Chen Xi's business network in Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi, sisters Hui Niang and Li Jin helped him manage the business in Guangdong and Guangxi, and Song Xiaocheng was responsible for the surrounding industries of Fuzhou. Even if he has stepped down, his remaining power is still there. The officialdom of the southeastern provinces does not look at monks and Buddhas, especially the commanders of the two provinces, Chang Lan and Li Che, who just regarded Chen Xi as their backer. The General Administration, the Censorate and the Local Government Offices at all levels also gave him the face of the governor of the top three provinces.

Xie Qian told Chen Xi before that Shen Xi seems to have no chores now, but when the corn and sweet potato seedlings are transported to the capital, the emperor may send him to the Ministry of Revenue as a minister, or to go to Huguang, Jiangsu and Zhejiang as the governor, and then he will be a magistrate who will guard the territory.

Going to Huguang is nothing more than changing the land and replacing local ethnic disputes, and going to Jiangsu and Zhejiang is basically to quell the coastal bandits. Anyway, the Ming Dynasty seems to be peaceful, but it is actually in secret. It is not difficult for the court to find something for him to do.

Chen Xi did a good job as governor of the three provinces. All the soldiers who went to war with him were rewarded with military merits. The court also issued special orders to commend him. No one else would think that Chen Xi was unemployed.

Chen Xidao: "Brother Su, the next session will take two years to go back to Tingzhou? Preparing for the exam in Beijing is important, but preserving the family business is equally important. Don't abandon the family business in order to take the exam. If you have to make a blacksmith, you have to be strong yourself!"

Su Tong was stunned and repeated Chen Xi's sentence "The iron must be strong himself", and felt it was particularly reasonable. Whether it was taking the exam or becoming an official, it would be inconvenient without the foundation of the money. However, Su Tong knew his own affairs and asked him to give up his current comfortable life, which was indeed a bit difficult. The explanation is now:

"I have lived in the capital for a long time and felt that it was prosperous here and could not bear to go back. It would be better to try to take the exam again. If I fail, I can only accept the imperial examination. From now on, I may not be able to participate in the imperial examination again!"

Even Su Tong, who had always been very confident in his future, actually said that he would give up after taking the exam for another session and be a yamen official. Chen Xi felt a little regretful about the change in his mentality for Su Tong. After not seeing him for a year, Su Tong seemed to have become a little calmer due to his family's decline.

Chen Xi nodded: "If you can help with this matter, you must do your best!"

When Su Tong heard this, he immediately smiled... As Chen Xi expected, Su Tong asked to see him, and he was nothing more than this.

As the saying goes, there are people in the court who are good at being officials. Su Tong knew that if no one helped him, even if he accepted the position of an official as a juren, he would probably have to wait a few years before the official flaw would appear. The assignments were nothing more than county schools, prefectures and prefectures, county government officials, or even clerks.

If you pass the imperial examination, if you do not rank first or second, you are just rank third and third, you will have to wait for a magistrate to be at the first level, and you will not know that you will be in the year of the monkey and horse month. The imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty seemed fair, but it mainly relies on interpersonal relationships and play the card of favor.

Su Tong had the help of Chen Xi, a third-rank official in the Central Committee of the Court, and could be in the Ministry of Personnel. If he turned around, he might be able to give up the actual vacancies like the county magistrate. After a few years, the vacancies of the county magistrate would not have time to dispatch them. Su Tong could be replaced as the magistrate. In this way, he would not be slower than the jinshi.

Su Tong's family was backward and seemed to be eager to get a shortage of officials, so he didn't even want to participate in the next session.

But Chen Xi did not want his old friend to give up the imperial examination so soon. Even if a Jinshi did not pass the Shujishi and entered Hanyuan, he would be qualified to become an official of the Six Ministry of Death in the future, and his name would be left in history.

But if you are just a juren, you usually don’t do too much. Moreover, the court can only make up the numbers when there are insufficient officials to make up the numbers. Like Gaoming City, you can be a prefect of several places as a juren, and even become the governor of Henan and the minister of the Ministry of Revenue. Looking at the entire Ming Dynasty, there are almost only a handful of people. Compared with this, the only one in the Qing Dynasty is probably the only one who is the Qing official Hai Rui.

Su Tong was relieved when he received Chen Xi's promise and immediately toasted Chen Xi.

Unfortunately, Chen Xi didn't want to drink freely, so he shook his head and said, "There may be a vocation in the court these days, so I'm afraid I can't hangover. I can only thank Brother Su for his kindness."

"It's still the enviable brother Chen. He entered the court early and was very prosperous and everyone praised him. Oh, by the way, I heard that Brother Chen's family has not returned to the capital yet. If you don't dislike him, you can temporarily live in my house and you must treat him with all your heart!" Su Tong sent out the invitation with anticipation.

In Shen Xi's impression, Su Tong was not very enthusiastic about studying, but he had a good time to eat, drink and have fun, especially some special hobbies, which he could not accept. He immediately smiled and shook his head, rejecting Su Tong's "good intention".

Su Tong looked disappointed and said, "Although Brother Chen refuses to move to my house, you can always come to visit me and treat me warmly. Brother Chen should not be a waste of time. Even if the tea garden runs at home is a bit unrest, it is still... the world is not good, and there is some savings in the mansion."

Chen Xi thought to himself, what is the bad world? It is because over the past year, tea buying in Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces has been basically monopolized. Tea induced, like salt induced, cannot produce huge profits. Speaking of which, Su Tong fell on the verge of bankruptcy, it was Chen Xi's "profit".

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p: The fourth update is here! The emperor sincerely asks for a guaranteed monthly ticket! Thank you! (To be continued.)

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Chapter completed!