There were also many activities on New Year's Eve in Datang.
As the first time for players to celebrate the New Year in the game, Li Yan also launched activities to celebrate the New Year.
This is also the first New Year that Li Yan has spent in the Tang Dynasty. When he thinks that Long You has finally gained a firm foothold under the management of himself and the players after time travel, the tight string in Li Yan's heart finally relaxes.
.
Because he lived in Tingzhou, Li Yan did not celebrate the New Year at the Longyou Governor's Mansion, so the ceremony was a little simpler, but he still completed a set of New Year's rituals under Li Mi's guidance.
The first is to insert peach branches. According to the custom of the Tang Dynasty, peach trees can ward off evil spirits. Every household must insert peach branches at the door.
After Li Yan inserted the peach tree branches, he took the spring letter written by Li Mi himself and posted it on the lintel.
The Spring Book is Spring Couplets. Li Yan promoted simplicity in various government offices in Longyou, and the Spring Book is written on ordinary red paper.
However, the spring books posted on the Daming Palace and Taiji Palace in Chang'an City are made of red paper with gilded mud flowers as the base, and are cut into characters from brocade silk and pasted on the gilded red paper.
Naturally, the emperor did not need to personally post the spring letter in the Daming Palace. A young eunuch stood on the ladder, tremblingly, and hung the spring letter on the doorpost under the command of the old eunuch.
"Little Muzi, go to the left!"
"Down, down!"
"Okay, okay, stop!"
As the old eunuch called to stop, Mu Rong wiped the sweat from his forehead.
After the cleansing, the wound gradually healed, but the wound grew slowly in winter, and I still couldn't do heavy physical work.
The young eunuchs who successfully purified themselves with Mu Rong were assigned to various provinces in Da Nei, while Mu Rong was assigned to the Shangshu Province because he could read and write.
The Shangshu Province is a key department that manages the royal collection and the emperor's study. However, Mu Rong was just a low-ranking eunuch who had just entered the palace, so he was naturally not qualified to organize the royal collection.
Today, he followed his master, Eunuch Zhou, and was ordered to post spring letters from the Daming Palace.
After posting the Spring Letter, Mu Rong followed Eunuch Zhou back to the Shangshu Prison to resume his duties. Then several eunuchs pulled up big spring banners at the entrance of Daming Palace.
Spring banners are cyan flags. Ordinary people hang small cyan flags at their doors, but the imperial palace naturally hangs large flags.
People in the Tang Dynasty pay attention to coping with the four seasons. After New Year's Eve, it is spring, and cyan is the color of spring.
Hanging spring flags also means welcoming spring and praying for good weather in the coming year.
Li Yan also hung spring flags at the entrance of his camp. After all this work was done, he only heard the sound of firecrackers rang out sparsely in Tingzhou City.
The sound became louder and louder. The sound of firecrackers was used to drive away the Nian beast, and also to blow away the bad luck of the previous year. Tingzhou City gradually became lively, and Li Yan also lit two firecrackers with great interest.
In Chang'an City, the dignitaries also began to set off firecrackers, but most of the people in Chang'an did not even have enough food, clothing, and shelter, so how could they have the money to set off firecrackers.
Wang Chengwei led the county government officials on horseback to inspect various cities and towns in Wannian County. Originally, Wang Chengwei was worried that setting off firecrackers would cause fires, but in the cities where several poor people lived, no one set off firecrackers at all. He only saw these people throwing tree branches.
Stacked at the door.
Wang Chengwei asked the government servant next to him in confusion: "What is the custom of putting this branch at the door?"
The government officer next to him immediately said: "Master County Magistrate, this is people burning tree branches to ward off evil spirits!"
Burn branches to drive away evil spirits?
I saw only one family of people walking out of the house and lighting the branches at the door with torches.
The burning branches made a crackling sound, and Wang Chengwei finally realized that this was burning branches to ward off evil spirits.
The sound made by burning branches is similar to the sound of firecrackers. People who cannot afford firecrackers use this method to perform the same ritual.
After the inspection, the government servant beside him urged: "Master County Magistrate, there is a grand exorcism ceremony outside Zichen Hall in the afternoon. You must not miss it."
"Expelling Nuo?"
The Yamen servant nodded quickly and said: "In previous years, the Nuo opera in Taichang Temple was the best. Last year, the barbarians who pretended to be Yan did not hold a Nuo opera. This year's national Nuo opera is definitely going to be held. The people of Chang'an are very excited."
At the same time, the governor's residence in Longyou also received an invitation letter from the palace, inviting the governor's residence in Longyou to watch the Nuo opera in the afternoon and participate in the New Year's Eve banquet in the palace.
Deputy Zhang Leyan and Zhou Shi accepted the invitation letter. Zhou Shi said: "This Nuo opera can no longer be seen in modern times. The president of the Chamber of Commerce will turn on the recording function this afternoon to show the brothers."
Shang Bo also smiled and said: "I have never seen a Nuo opera. I heard that there are still Nuo operas in the southwest. I don't know if it was passed down from the Tang Dynasty."
Zhou Shi said with some regret: "I heard from Teacher Zhang that people can go in and watch the Nuo opera in front of the Zichen Palace. This year, because Chang'an has just surrendered, they are afraid of assassins in the palace, so the court only allows those with official status in Beijing.
Officials, envoys from various vassal states, and envoys from the Jiedushi envoys can go and watch."
Zhou Shi also wanted to watch this Tang Dynasty Nuo opera live, but unfortunately it was not open to the public this year, so he had to let Shang Bo record it to satisfy his craving.
Shang Bo smiled and nodded. He put on the clothes of the Liu Hou Envoy. After watching the Nuo opera today, he would stay at the palace to stay up late. He handed over the affairs of the Liu Courtyard to his two deputies and rode out of the Liu Courtyard towards the Daming Palace.
go.
The state owns Nuo, and the common people also perform Nuo opera. In various workshops in Chang'an, Wu Zhu, who has been working part-time for generations, took out the Nuo opera masks at home and danced Nuo dances in the market in the center of the workshop.
People in the Tang Dynasty loved dancing. The masked Wu Zhu danced in front, and the common people also joined in and danced together.
Although this year's snowstorm in Chang'an caused the collapse of many people's houses, everyone still had to spend this New Year's Eve with a smile.
The whole Chang'an was filled with the sound of laughter, and the children wore red ropes newly bought by their parents on their heads. This was a day when they would not be scolded by their parents for being naughty and troublesome.
After Li Yan finished watching the Nuo opera prepared by the Beiting Protectorate, he stood up and prepared to return to the military camp.
At this time, Princess Ningguo, who was sitting next to Li Yan, suddenly said: "Brother Emperor, I have prepared a banquet today. Can you please come and watch the New Year together?"
Li Yan was slightly stunned. Although he and Li Qinguang were brothers and sisters in name, they actually had no blood relationship.
Seeing Li Yan's hesitation, Li Qinguang said: "The delegation sent to see the bride is also here. I invited Cao Daduhu and his family. Daduhu said that as long as the emperor goes, he will bring his whole family with him."
Li Yan nodded at this time. According to the custom of keeping the New Year's Eve together, you can invite relatives and friends to stay together.
Although Li Guangqin was Li Yan's nominal sister, she wanted to marry a Uighur, so Li Yan did not invite her to stay with her.
Unexpectedly, this sister actually invited me.
Li Yan thought for a while and agreed. Instead of staying up with Li Mi in the military camp, it would be better to go to Princess Ningguo's place to liven things up.
On the other hand, Shang Bo rode his horse towards the palace. As he got closer to the palace, the flow of people became denser. These were officials and their families who went to the Zichen Hall to watch the Nuo opera.
Shang Bo complained about the bad traffic in Datang while walking.
Although Zhuque Street is relatively spacious, there are too many officials crowded on this road.
On weekdays, people who go to court can be squeezed into a pot of porridge, but today's Nuo opera can bring family members, and it is even more crowded.
What makes people even more desperate is that once they encounter the prime minister or an official with a title when entering the palace, they have to stop and give way.
This flow of people, which was already difficult to leave, is now even more difficult to leave.
In addition, officials at all levels in the Tang Dynasty had their own ceremonial guards. When the prime minister entered the palace, he had to ride an ox cart, with a ceremonial guard of sixteen people on the left and right to clear the way.
Shangbo kept walking for half an hour, and he couldn't even see the palace gate of Nanya.
Shang Bo sighed heavily, he would have found a reason not to join in the fun.
Why is it that in the real world, tourist attractions are crowded during a long holiday, but even when playing games in Datang, it is still crowded?
At this rate, when Shang Bo arrives at Zichen Hall, he will be waiting for dinner.
At this moment, a familiar female voice sounded in Shang Bo's ears.
"Shang Liu envoy?"
Shang Bo looked sideways and saw that it was Wan'er, the maid next to Princess Yanguang.
He only saw a familiar carriage appearing in the middle of Zhuque Street. Seeing the carriage's ceremonial guard, Shang Bo knew that this was the convoy of Princess Yanguang entering the palace.
The curtain of the carriage opened, revealing Princess Yanguang's bright and moving face. She said to Shang Bo: "Shang Liu's envoy will go with me."
Originally, Shang Bo was prepared to refuse, but now there are a lot of rumors in Chang'an City about him and the princess, and almost everyone believes that Shang Bo is the princess's face.
The key is that the princess has a husband!
Shang Bo didn't want to be the first player to be beaten to death as an adulterer.
Bah, bah, bah, what an adulterer, you and the princess are obviously innocent!
Shang Bo was hesitating when Wan'er came over on a pony and said, "Shang Liu envoy, my prince consort is still out in Chang'an and has not returned to Chang'an."
Shang Bo breathed a sigh of relief. Wait, why should he breathe a sigh of relief? It is obvious that he and the princess are innocent!
However, after hearing that the consort was not in Chang'an, Shang Bo looked at the crowded crowd in front of him and immediately followed Wan'er to join the carriage at the Princess Mansion.
With the attendants from the princess's palace clearing the way, the motorcade began to move forward smoothly.
The surrounding officials looked at Shang Bo with jealousy and contempt, and those who knew Shang Bo even showed playful expressions.
Now even if I jumped into the Yellow River, I couldn't wash it off, Shang Bo thought as he broke the jar.
The princess drove without any obstacles, and in less than a quarter of an hour, Shang Bo entered Nanya.
After walking around the palace city of Taiji Palace and arriving at the main entrance of Taiji Palace, the Shence Army soldiers briefly checked everyone's passes and then allowed everyone in the Princess Mansion to pass.
Zichen Hall is the outermost palace of Daming Palace. At this time, a high stage for Nuo opera has been set up.