Chastity Layman

Luoyang, the eastern capital.

Yang Guang sent Yang Su to build it with all his strength in the Sui Dynasty, and it was destroyed by the war at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and then fully rebuilt by Qin Lang in the Zhenguan period. It is luxurious and magnificent.

Since the reconstruction, countless nobles and ministers have opened houses in Luoyang, more than a thousand.

Moreover, unlike the aristocratic mansions in Chang'an, most of the aristocratic mansions in Luoyang have large or small gardens. However, due to the restrictions on the inner squares in Luoyang City, the scale of the gardens in the city is limited, and most of them are small and well-maintained. The dignitaries also built mountain villas and villas in scenic spots in the mountains and forests in the suburbs.

As the son-in-law of the emperor and the favorite minister of the sage, Qin Lang also had a gift in Dongdu. The house was very large, covering an area of ​​more than one hundred acres, so Qin Lang also built it into a garden. It is very different from the Weiguo Mansion in Chang'an Pingkangfang. The biggest feature is that it pays attention to gardens and forests to make it a pleasant place to live.

His Luoyang garden, called Cherry Island, is well-known and well-known. Qin Lang built his 100-acre mansion into a paradise with a lake and an island, surrounded by green water, and the garden is full of cherry trees and Taihu stones.

And Qin Lang also bought a plot of land in Bieye in Yichuan Jiangu, southwest of Longmen, Luoyang, and built his own manor outside the city. Because of the mountain springs gushing out from the flat land, it was named Pingquan Villa.

In the ditch where Pingquan Villa is located, there are also villas of Qin Qiong, Cheng Yaojin, Ma Zhou, Niu Jinda, Su Dingfang, Li Ji, Li Jing, Xu Jingzong, Jia Wuben, Li Daliang and many other high-ranking officials and nobles.

However, Qin Lang's Cherry Island and Pingquan Villa are very well built, but Qin Lang has no chance to live and enjoy it. This time when he returned to Luoyang, he was called back temporarily, and his concubines and children were still in Guangzhou.

He lived alone on a huge cherry island, but actually felt a little empty and boring, so most of the time, Qin Lang actually lived in another courtyard located in Ludaofang, Luoyang.

This house is smaller, with an area of ​​only ten acres, of which five acres are landscaped, there is a lotus pond, and a thousand poles of bamboo are planted, so it is called a bamboo garden.

Although there are only ten mu of land, there are halls and pavilions, bridges and boats, books and wine, songs and strings, purple water chestnuts and white lotuses in the pond, Taihu Lake stones and bamboo in the garden, it is even better to live alone. Be more comfortable.

When he returned to Luoyang this time, he lived in the bamboo garden of Ludaofang, next door was Ma Zhou's house, separated by a wall, and sometimes the two of them could have a drink under the moon at night.

In order to show his sincerity, Li Tai specially chose Du Wen, a member of the military in Prince Wei's mansion, to give Qin Lang a post.

Participating in the military in the Wei Palace is only an official position under the eighth rank, and the official position of the royal family is generally lower than that of the imperial court. But Du Wen has a lot of background. His father is the chief official of Wei Wangfu, and at the same time, Du Chuke, the new minister of the Ministry of Industry.

And Du Wen's brother-in-law is also the prime minister, that is Ma Zhou, and his sister Du Shu was married to Ma Zhou as a continuation under Qin Lang's matchmaking.

So although Du Wen is not very old, he did not become the son-in-law of the emperor like his cousin Du He, and he is not as good as his other brother Du Gou who can directly start a family and serve as the emperor, inherit the title of Duke of Lai, and then go to Zhenguan for five years When Laizhou was encircled and suppressed by pirates, the needle beam Yuzui broke his left hamstring and became the laughing stock of the capital. However, he was from a good background, his father was the late founding meritorious prime minister, and he was the eldest son, even if he encircled and suppressed pirates As a result, Yuzui broke his hamstring, and the emperor not only didn't blame him, but promoted him to be the governor of Cizhou as compensation.

But Du Wen is also a son of a famous family after all, and his father Du Chuke has also had a smooth official career in recent years. First, he served as governor of Puzhou and served two terms with outstanding achievements.

His father is a member of the King of Wei's party, so his son naturally joined the Prince of Wei's residence. Although his military service is small, Du Wen is also King Wei's confidant.

He personally delivered the stickers because the Du family has a good relationship with the Qin family.

Du Wen took the invitation card and rode a horse all the way to Shanglinfang. Shanglin was originally the name of the Luoyang Palace in the Han and Wei Dynasties.

Located in the northeast of Luoyang City, it is adjacent to the Luohe River in the south. There is a sandy beach near the river called Golden Beach, and there are two sandy beaches on the opposite bank. There is a jade sandy beach next to Tonglifang, and a silver sandy beach next to Cihuifang.

Across Yifang Street in the northwest is Beishi of the three cities of Luoyang.

There is also a royal garden in Shanglinfang, which was originally the old site of Shanglinyuan in the Han and Wei Dynasties, so the people who live in this square are basically the prime ministers and princes.

Du Wen rode his horse out of the Prince Wei's Mansion located in the southeast of the Luoyang Imperial City. He first walked east along Luoshui South Bank Street, crossed the Luoshui Floating Bridge on the beach next to Cihuifang to the opposite bank, and then came to Shanglinfang.

Entering Shanglinfang, there are many mansions of princes and prime ministers, with flying pavilions and double eaves, very solemn and dignified, he dismounted on his own initiative and led the horse along.

It is no longer possible to ride horses here, because horses are practiced in front of almost every house.

Officials above the fifth rank in the Tang Dynasty were called Tonggui, and officials above the third rank were called Qingui.

Officials of the third rank and above can set up halberds inside the gate, and use horses in front of the gate.

This line of horses looks like a refusal horse, placed on both sides of the street in front of Fumen, reminding pedestrians to get off their horses and walk slowly.

Of course, if there are important ministers with high meritorious service, there will even be specially built stone archways on both sides of the gate.

Du Wen came all the way, and there were horses standing in front of the Wutou gate of every mansion. No one dared to offend easily, so they came all the way with horses.

In front of Qin Lang's Duke of Wei's mansion, there were several archways standing on the side of the road, with three stone archways on each side.

Under the archway, there are still horses with red knees.

There were even servants of the Qin family standing under the archway wearing green clothes and holding sticks.

Du Wen politely explained the purpose of his visit, and the servant helped him move the horse and let him go.

After passing through three archways and six paths of horses, we came to Luoyang Weiguo Mansion. The gate of Wutou mansion was deep, and there were two rows of halberds inside the gate.

There are eight gate halberds on each side, a total of sixteen.

This is the highest standard number of halberds for a minister, and only first-rank officials can list sixteen halberds.

Without a first-rank official position, even princes, heir kings, county kings, Shangzhu Kingdom, etc. cannot be listed as sixteen halberds. Fu Mu, as well as those above the level of Doctor Guanglu and the general of the Zhenjun, have fourteen halberds in their families.

Datang places a lot of emphasis on official positions, and many salary standards follow the official positions. It is not enough to have honors and titles alone, and you must have corresponding duties.

The highest specification for gate halberds is twenty halberds, twenty halberds for the palace gate and temple gate, and eighteen halberds for the east palace gate.

The sixteen halberds are ranked first in Qin Lang's mansion, not because he is the Duke of the state, and the Duke is not enough to rank sixteen halberds. It is also a first-class Sikong.

If he didn't have these two first-rank positions, even if he had the double material of supervising the majority, plus the position of Xuanfu Jinglue, plus the position of inspecting the school and the secretary, he would only be able to list fourteen halberds.

Du Wen's family only had ten halberds. Although his father was a minister of the Ministry of Industry, he was only a third-rank official. His father was able to rank ten halberds, but he still had a honor of the guard, otherwise, if he was only a third-rank Shangshu, he would not be qualified to be listed as a halberd.

A door halberd can divide the princes of the Manchu Dynasty into three or five grades. They are also princes, but some are worldly princes, some are real princes, and some are only false princes. , There are also those with first-rank ministers, those with second-rank ministers, those with third-rank ministers, and those who add Zhu Guo, add Zhu Guo, and add guards.

Anyway, just look at the number of halberds listed in each house to know their grade.

There are archways and horses outside the Qinlang mansion, and there are sixteen halberds inside the gate. The plaques on the Wutou gate are all inscribed by the imperial pen. Only those who are in charge can add Fu characters. Generally, the public can only write a certain house and a certain house, and they are not qualified to write Fu characters.

Standing in front of the gate, Du Wen saw the grandeur of Qin Lang's mansion and was very envious. Then he took the invitation and walked around to the side door to deliver the letter.

The gates of top noble houses like the Duke of Wei's Mansion would not be opened to greet them unless the emperor arrived or an imperial decree came.

Du Wen took out the invitation at the side door, and Mending didn't even let him go in directly, but asked him to wait there, and he went in with the invitation to report to the steward.

Sitting in the concierge's tearoom drinking delicious tea, Du Wen was secretly envious, thinking that the Du family was also a relative of the founder of the country, and even had two prime ministers in one family. Du Qutian Wuchi's top aristocratic family can't compare to Qin Lang's grandeur.

Think about how the Qin family in Licheng was just a small noble family before, how can they compare with the Du family? But the Qin family has no two in the limelight, whether it is five surnames and seven families in Shandong, or six surnames in Guanlong, they are all overwhelmed by him.

The Qin family won honors for their military exploits, and both father and son became generals. In fact, military merit is very important, but the more important thing is that Qin Qiong and his father stood in the same team back then. today.

And although his Du family also had meritorious deeds from the dragon and produced two prime ministers, both of them died early, which was very unfavorable to the Du family. Now the Du family only had his father as Minister of the Ministry of Industry, plus Du The family's son-in-law, Ma Zhou, is the Zhongshu servant who specializes in confidentiality.

Du Wen secretly thought, if the Du family wants to rise again and become a first-class powerful aristocrat in the court, it is not enough to rely on the merits left by the predecessors, they must make new achievements, and ordinary new achievements will not work.

It must be the merit of Conglong and support.

His father took a fancy to Wei Wangtai and thought that Wei Wang was smart and would be able to replace Chengqian as the crown prince. This was a gamble for the Du family, and it was also the only way for the Du family to return to the ranks of the top nobles.

Back then, Qin Lang and his son supported the King of Qin to the throne together with them, now I don't know if Qin Lang is willing to support the King of Wei together with the Du family again, and repeat what happened back then?

Looking at the majestic Duke of Wei's mansion, Du Wen suddenly lost his confidence.

"Mr. Du, I'm sorry, we, Alang, are not in Cherry Island today."

"Where is Duke Wei?" Du Wen stood up.

The steward hesitated for a moment, and finally looked at the name sticker written by Wei Wang Li Tai himself. Wei Wang's handwriting is really excellent, and a cursive script is extremely accomplished, "My family, Alang, has not been in Cherry Island in Shanglinfang recently. Mr. Wen can go to the bamboo garden in Ludaofang to have a look, maybe it’s over there.”

Du Wen didn't expect to run into nothing, but he still smiled, "Thanks, I'll visit the bamboo garden myself!"

He took back the invitation and went out to lead the horse.

The steward watched him walk away, and summoned a servant, "Go to Zhuyuan and report to Alang, and say that the young master of Dushang's calligrapher is going to visit, and he took Wei Wang's name sticker."

"Why tell him that Ah Lang is in the bamboo garden?"

"Mr. Wen is Mr. Ma's brother-in-law after all." The steward smiled.