C256 Gift

The banquet actually passed by very quickly.

After drinking three rounds of food and drinks, the nobles on the field began to show off their gifts.

The lower class aristocrats naturally could not bring out any decent gifts, so they could only keep their mouths shut.

Thus, the introduction ceremony began with a ceremony brought by Dong Zhuo.

He was at the thirteenth level of the rank system. He was two levels lower than Xiao Wen and three levels lower than Xiao Wen.

However, nobles at a higher rank would gradually be able to control their own destinies. Thus, this noble felt that he could still give out some decent gifts.

However, when this fierce-looking aristocrat walked to the front of the stage and introduced his present, an awkward atmosphere emanated.

The fierce-looking aristocrat said, "Great Master Zhang, I brought you a birthday present today. It's a five jin golden longevity peach. I hope you like it!"

As he spoke, the servant behind him brought out a large longevity peach buns that were made out of pure gold and showed it to Zhang Cang.

If five pounds of gold were placed in the modern era, its value would be close to one million yuan.

However, in ancient times, it wasn't strange for a noble to offer a birthday present worth a million gold coins.

However, when Zhang Cang looked at this golden longevity peach buns, his eyes did not contain any surprise.

He even clasped his hands at the man very politely and said, "Thank you for your concern."

However, from his observation, Xiao Wen saw a hint of disdain in his eyes.

Obviously, as a great scholar, although he did not hate money, giving it to others when giving gifts more or less made people feel that it was a bit vulgar.

This sort of vulgarity was the vulgarity of a nouveau riche.

As a result, even though he didn't have many aristocrats, Xiao Wen, who only thought that nobility made things easier for him, was extremely disgusted.

After all, not only did the aristocrats hate the nouveau riche, but the commoners also didn't like these people.

Fortunately, the nobles who came up to introduce the gifts were all nobles from the east.

Most of the gifts they offered consisted of master teachers' calligraphy and paintings, as well as fragments of ancient books. They were all extremely meticulous in nature.

As such, he did not make a joke out of it.

However, an Eastern aristocrat took out a painting scroll and said to Zhang Cang, "Great Master, this is a painting that I obtained from the Song Kingdom. It was painted by Wu Daozi, I hope you will like it."

Hearing this, Zhang Cang's eyes lit up.

He said, "Can you let this old man have a look?"

"Naturally. After all, this is something that this junior has in mind." The noble nodded his head and brought the scroll to Zhang Cang's table in a pleasant manner.

Thus, Zhang Cang started to read without any distractions.

At the same time, a trace of curiosity flashed in Xiao Wen's eyes.

After all, in the history of China, Wu Daozi was a very famous painter.

Wu Daozi was probably born in 680, the Tang Dynasty.

When he was young, his family was very poor and he was an orphan, but since then he had already drawn up the name of the painting.

He had served as a County Lieutenant of Yanzhou County (now Zuyang, Shandong Province), but he resigned shortly thereafter.

Later, he drifted to Luoyang, where he was engaged in the creation of frescoes.

During the Kaiyuan period, Kaiyuan was summoned to the court with good paintings.

Moreover, he had once learned calligraphy from Zhang Xu and He Zhizhang, and through watching Gongsun Niang's swordplay, he had experienced the way of using a brush.

It specializes in Buddhism, ghosts, characters, mountains and rivers, birds and beasts, vegetation, pavilions and other materials, especially in Buddhism, characters, and mural creation.

However, due to the technology, it was difficult for any of the Song Dynasty's previous paintings to survive.

Therefore, most of the works that Wu Daozi inherited into the 21st century were just some frescoes.

If there were pictures, there were basically only two results. One was to enter the Palace Museum and use it as a treasure. The other possibility was that the auction house would bid at least two billion.

However, after Xiao Wen had observed Zhang Cang for a long time, he saw a trace of disappointment in his eyes.

Xiao Wen was curious and asked, "Can this junior have a look?"

He was asking Zhang Cang, and also asking that noble.

That aristocrat had just seen Xiao Wen humiliate Dong Zhuo, so he was both respectful and afraid of Xiao Wen and didn't dare to refuse.

As for Zhang Cang, because of Sun Shangxiang, he had taken good care of Xiao Wen.

As such, the two of them had no objections and passed the painting to Xiao Wen.

Xiao Wen looked at these words but didn't study them closely. After taking a glance, he scanned it directly to the super library.

Then he began to search for information about the painting.

However, very quickly, he received a message that disappointed Xiao Wen.

So it turned out that this painting was just a fake.

"I thought I could tell what it was, but I didn't expect it to be a fake." Xiao Wen thought as he looked at Zhang Cang.

However, the moment he saw Zhang Cang, he discovered that this elder was silently shaking his head, his expression full of hints.

Xiao Wen instantly understood Zhang Cang's meaning.

So he said to the nobleman, "This painting is actually the real thing. I didn't expect you to be so lucky. I've heard that there are always counterfeits in the black market in Song (the historical truth), and not a single one of the hundred paintings is real. It's just that your luck is too good, you actually found the real thing in the vast sea of paintings. If we have time, how about we exchange our appreciation of the paintings together? "

"Since you are willing, I am honored." The nobleman was just an idiot. He was flattered by Xiao Wen's goodwill.

Xiao Wen, on the other hand, glanced at Zhang Cang from the corner of his eyes and discovered that this old man was smiling and nodding to him, obviously very satisfied.

"Sigh!" "Old mister is a kind person and doesn't want to embarrass this kind-hearted fellow. He is indeed a good person." Xiao Wen couldn't help thinking.

To be honest, if he had received a counterfeit at a birthday party, he would certainly have exposed the other party. Who cares about face.

However, this way, he would unconsciously establish an enemy.

Returning the painting back to Zhang Cang, everyone looked at the gifts being delivered to Zhang Cang one by one.

There was nothing special about these gifts.

Soon, they arrived at Dong Zhuo's place.

Dong Zhuo clapped his hands. A servant came up with a box. He personally opened the box and placed it on Zhang Cang's table.

"This is the Military Strategy?" Zhang Cang's eyes lit up.

Although he was not a military general, his interest in military affairs was only average.

However, he was a bookworm. Regardless of what field of books it was, he liked them all.

As for the Military Strategy, because it was used by martial generals for their meals, many military generals treated their collection of Military Strategy Books as a secret that was not passed down.

Even in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, this phenomenon was common.

In fact, it was only after the modernization of the country that the modern military academy's system of uniformly training officers appeared.

Zhang Cang looked at Dong Zhuo and asked, "Sir Dong, who is this military manual?"

"Duke Huai Yin." Dong Zhuo laughed as if he was showing off.