After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

After leaving Wangfu Street, arrive at Qipan Street, and head north along Qipan Street towards Daqing Gate.

The curtains on the carriage windows were nailed shut, so you couldn't see the scenery outside and could only feel the carriage's occasional stops and turns.

Some shouts came from outside. Based on these familiar voices, I could roughly tell when I arrived at Sihai Tower and Du Tower, and when I arrived at Chang'an Street.

The soldiers' shouts to stop were quite loud, and the horse slowly came to a halt, indicating that they had arrived at the Great Qing Gate.

The Great Qing Gate is only opened on occasions such as the emperor's tour or wedding, and only the emperor's imperial carriage can pass through it. Naturally, it will not be open today, and he does not have the authority to pass through here.

I listened for a while in the confined car, and it was basically about the gatekeepers of the Qing Dynasty verifying identities.

Not long after.

The carriage wheels started rolling again, heading right along Chang'an Avenue.

After traveling for a short while, Ning Nan smelled the aroma of food and knew that they were about to reach the right gate of Chang'an.

really.

The carriage stopped, and the curtain was lifted from the outside, letting in white light and a cold wind.

The wind was a bit chilly, and Ning Nan hunched her neck.

Upon arriving at the right gate of Chang'an, one must dismount from the sedan chair and horse.

"get off!"

"Red Feather Dai, looking serious, called out from under the carriage."

Ning Nan hunched over as he got off the carriage.

The afternoon sun shone on the tall city wall, turning the upper part of the wall golden.

The lower part remains shrouded in shadow.

The wind was howling through the city gate.

With thirty guards surrounding him, Ning Nan turned around to look at Chang'an Street.

Bang!

A guard shoved him from behind, saying, "Go!"

He stumbled a few steps on the white marble brick surface.

We passed through the dark city gate.

Enter the imperial city.

Ning Nan walked rather slowly, but the guards didn't urge him on.

After walking for a while, we passed through the main gate of the imperial city and then through the Duanmen gate.

We arrived at the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Ning Nan took a slight breath. The Meridian Gate of the Nanjing Forbidden City and the Beijing Forbidden City seemed to be quite similar, except that the air in Beijing was drier.

About sixty or seventy years ago, Cui Cui's ancestors were the masters of this city. But now, this magnificent Forbidden City belongs to someone else. He chuckled.

Urged by the guards, we entered the city through the left side gate.

Stepping into the palace, the view opens up.

The three main halls that suddenly appeared before us were quite different from the three main halls of the Forbidden City in Nanjing.

The three main halls of this Forbidden City have been rebuilt; they are taller, larger, and wider than those in Nanjing, and their names have also been changed.

The three main halls of the Nanjing Forbidden City are, in order, the Hall of Imperial Sacrifices, the Hall of Literary Glory, and the Hall of Prudence.

The three main halls of the Forbidden City in Beijing have now been renamed the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony, and the Hall of Preserving Harmony.

I slowly walked across the square paved with white marble, glancing left and right.

The morning assembly is held in the morning.

At this time, only eunuchs and palace maids sweeping the courtyard in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, guards on guard duty, and several patrol teams of guards were present.

As Ning Nan passed the last building, the Hall of Preserving Harmony, his calves began to ache slightly.

Stop in front of the Qianqing Palace.

A cold-faced eunuch approached him, stared at him, raised his chin, and shouted:

"When you see the Emperor later, you must kneel and kowtow three times and kowtow to him!"

The Southern Dynasty deputy envoy, dressed in a Han-style moon-colored robe, said solemnly:

"Firstly, I am the deputy envoy of the Great Liang delegation. Your Northern Dynasty envoys have never performed the three kneelings and nine kowtows ceremony when visiting Great Liang. Secondly..."

Ning Nan glanced at the eunuch with an unchanged expression and said:

"I am betrothed to the Empress of Great Liang and am a member of the imperial family. Is your country so ignorant of etiquette? When your Prince Yi of the First Rank traveled south, did Great Liang ever order him to kneel?"

His voice rose at the end, and his tone became sharp.

The cold-faced eunuch remained unmoved, holding his whisk and sneering:

"Who do you think you are, sir! The Southern Dynasty's Deputy Envoy Ning Baixuan is already dead. Where do you get the audacity to impersonate a noble envoy from the Southern Dynasty?"

Ning Nan chuckled, hands behind his back, "When it comes to impersonation, my courage is no match for that old dove from your country who has taken over the magpie's nest."

"How dare you!"

The eunuch's hand trembled, and his voice was as shrill as a cat whose tail had been stepped on!

"Come here," he gestured to the guards on either side, "quickly punish this madman for me!"

At this time.

"Eunuch Zhang."

A gentle voice came from the Qianqing Gate.

The cold-noodles eunuch trembled.

Ning Nan glanced at the door and saw a eunuch wearing a red hat and a mandarin jacket emerge from inside, bowing low.

Zhang Gonggong's voice changed from that of a cat to that of a mouse, and he bowed, saying, "Eunuch Su."

The eunuch, who looked to be around fifty years old and of moderate build, said with a smile, "Your Majesty has been waiting for a long time. Please don't make Young Master Ning Jiexiao perform empty formalities."

That's all.

The smiling eunuch Su turned to the side, spread his hands, and said, "Young Master Ning, please."

Ning Nan said, "My name is Ning Nan, courtesy name Bai Xuan."

Su Peisheng deliberately gave a sly look and smiled:

"This servant did not call you by the wrong name; it was 'Young Master Ning'."

Ning Nan remained silent for a moment.

They didn't continue to argue with the other party about these matters.

Step through the Qianqing Gate.

After passing through the Qianqing Gate, you will be greeted by the Qianqing Palace.

From this vantage point, the Hall of Mental Cultivation is located not far to the left of the Palace of Heavenly Purity.

In the imperial palace of Nanjing, Cui Cui's wife lived in the Qianqing Palace. Before leaving Nanjing, she had lived in the Qianqing Palace with her husband.

If he were to return to Nanjing, he would likely live in this palace with his wife there for the rest of his life.

If the two imperial palaces in the north and south were overlapped.

It was probably during the time when he and his wife, Cui Cui, were discussing in the Qianqing Palace whether "Journey to the West" was suitable as a codebook, that Emperor Yongzheng in the Yangxin Hall next door was reviewing memorials.

Go left through a palace gate and enter the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

The eunuch Su Peisheng went in to report.

After a while, Ning Nan entered the main hall and saw the emperor sitting on the dragon throne.

An imperial desk was placed in front of the dragon throne.

The emperor wore a dragon robe, a thick melon-shaped hat, and a thick black riding coat.

His cheeks were thin, his eyebrows were long and thin, and he had two sparse mustaches.

He has a friendly appearance.

His eyes, however, possessed an extraordinary aura, radiating a light like sharp swords.

Ning Nan's heart pounded rapidly as he slowly stepped into the center of the main hall.

As I regained my footing, my heartbeat gradually returned to normal.

He bowed slightly and said loudly:

"Ning Nan, Deputy Envoy of the Liang Dynasty Delegation, Compiler of the Hanlin Academy, greets His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Qing."

Ning Nan's voice was crisp and loud.

Although he did not kneel, he believed he had done enough in terms of etiquette.

To be fair...

Although that night he blew up two embassies, killed Yue Le, killed Tian Ye and the twenty or thirty men Tian Ye led, and devised a plan to have six hundred Northern Dynasty cavalrymen fight each other, in the end nearly one hundred and seventy or eighty people died and about one hundred were injured.

But without evidence, he really didn't do anything wrong that night.

The only one who could be considered guilty was Ah Lin. After all, Ah Lin endured a whole day before dying, so there was a victim and a testimony.

After the young man in the center of the hall bowed in respect, the Hall of Mental Cultivation fell silent.

Yongzheng did not speak.

Su Peisheng, standing beside the emperor, remained silent.

The yellow-jacketed guards at the four corners of the main hall remained silent.

a long time.

Ning Nan narrowed his eyes, just as he was about to give up and straighten up, when he heard the emperor on the dragon throne say:

"You look down on me?"