At the end of the first year of Xiangfu, the first snow suddenly fell. If it did not fall, it would be a heavy snowfall. However, compared to previous years, it was said that this year, there were seventy to eighty percent fewer visitors in and out of Great Peace City. It would probably cause the scattered stalls to make less money.
There were countless Zhang Mansions in the capital, but there was one mansion that was undoubtedly unique. Whether it was a local official who went to the capital or a scholar who went abroad to study, as long as they casually asked the people in the capital where Zhang Mansion was, the latter would definitely not bother to ask which Lord Zhang it was and would directly give the answer.
Even if it was snowing heavily, and the snow on the Imperial Path was so thick that it could not be swept clean, the court session still continued. Also, it was a sensitive time for the Crown Prince to be regent. Which official would have the guts to be late?
But today, there was one person missing in the imperial court. Without him, everyone was shocked and absent-minded. Even the Crown Prince, who was in charge of supervising the country, appeared to be in a trance.
This person who was absent from court for the first time did not ask for leave. It was as though he was telling the Crown Prince and all the civil and military officials a simple truth: If I am not coming, I am not coming.
His Highness the Crown Prince ignored this. He did not have the chief eunuch go and ask about his well-being, nor did he fly into a rage. The Minister of Rites, Bai Guo, who could make a big fuss over a small matter, was the same. He acted as though nothing had happened.
Some people wanted to use this as a pretext to make a fuss, but after hesitating for a while, they did not dare.
After all, even Third Jin had sewn his mouth shut today.
This official who made the entire court session seem like it was not a court session was the Grand Secretary Zhang Julu.
He and the emperor who was patrolling the borders were the most diligent people in the court. However, one was the first among the monarchs, and the other was the first among the officials.
Zhang Julu was not feeling well today. After putting on the purple robes of the standard first rank, he suddenly did not want to attend morning court. Therefore, he did not go.
This old man, whose sideburns were turning white, had been sitting under the eaves since early in the morning. He did not change into more comfortable and warm clothes. The old housekeeper of the mansion had brought in a simple stove made of bamboo strips, and had added charcoal to the stove many times.
In Zhang Julu's life, other than a few times when his good friend Tantanon forced him to drink a few cups or two, he almost never drank. He insisted that drinking would make things worse. However, with nothing to do today and nothing to do in the future, the old man still did not have the slightest intention of drinking. When it was close to noon, he carelessly ate some of the rough homemade pastries and continued to flip through the nameless poetry collection in his hands. Zhang Julu's ability to govern was outstanding in the world. Most likely, even those powerful political opponents who still had the strength to fight when he first started his career would not deny it against their will. However, Zhang Julu came from the Hanlin Academy. Other than the artistic essays he wrote when he was young that could be considered sloppy and had some talent, whether it was in memorials or memorials, the wording of his speech and the words themselves, they were all dull and tasteless. After so many years, there was not a single good work of a famous teacher that was passed down. There were also no rumors that he favored a literary master, and no comments that added the finishing touch to a good work.
From an outsider's point of view, the Grand Secretary seemed to have a natural resistance to writing. In reality, only Huan Wen knew that his old friend Zhang Julu did not hesitate to write, but he would also fall in love with the good works of many scholars, especially the good sentences that added the finishing touch. Whether it was the frontier poems, the resentment poems, or the sentimental poems, the funeral essays, they all had their own preferences. They were all collected in that self-edited poetry collection. For example, the Takaoka Ouyang family's memorial to their father in Shangyin Academy, the Chu war declaration that Zhao Changling personally carried the sword in the Battle of the Western Wall, and so on. Zhang Julu would occasionally flip through them. Among them was Huang Longshi's "The Yellow River runs for more than a thousand miles to the north, the air of grievance turns into black clouds." There was also that line by that person who had been scolded as "Mei Xu Mei Liang" back then, "There is no war in the horizon, the energy of war dissipates into the sun and moonlight." There was also a famous palace resentment line from an unknown person in the previous dynasty, "Outsiders do not see a smile, the Heavenly Treasure's last years is a gift for the world." Xu Weixiong's took up a lot of space among the three hundred or so. Even some of the poems that Hsu Fengnian had clearly bought with a large sum of money were included.
This was probably the so-called magnanimity of the prime minister.
The old steward suddenly jogged up the steps and said in a low voice, "Old Master, the young master has come."
Zhang Julu was slightly puzzled, but did not say anything. While his son and daughter-in-law feared him as a father, he was not unreasonable to the point that his children were not allowed to disturb him. However, the eldest son and second son had soft personalities and were somewhat pedantic from a young age. After they got married and started their careers, the two daughters-in-law came from a small family. If not for the Grand Secretary's blessing of having two grandchildren, they would not dare to come here and ask for trouble. The youngest son, Zhang Bian Guan, was an anomaly among the three sons. His personality was the most stubborn, but his relationship with the Zhang manor was also the most rigid. It was as if father and son would never have any contact with each other. For Zhang Bian Guan to take the initiative to walk into this manor was indeed like the sun rising from the west. Although Zhang Julu's face was expressionless, he still unconsciously glanced in the direction of the courtyard gate.
Even a vicious tiger would not eat its cubs. How many fathers in the world truly loathed their own sons?
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