Before this, the master of the Zhou Pavilion saw that Yang Xianmao was lukewarm to Cai Jing, and he didn't even keep him for dinner, and he didn't know what Yang Xianmao thought, so he felt a little uncomfortable, and suddenly heard that Yang Xianmao wanted to leave Cai Jing down to speak, and suddenly became happy.

Cai Jing was even happier, after all, Yang Xianmao's identity is different now, he is the son-in-law of King Wu, and it is amazing to be able to climb this high branch. Cai Jing also spent a lot of money to ask the owner of the Zhou Pavilion to take him to meet Yang Xianmao, and now Yang Xianmao wants to keep him, which is of course the best.

So the owner of the Zhou Pavilion took his leave first. Yang Xianmao invited Cai Jing back to the study, closed the door and spoke.

Yang Xianmao said: "You inscribed the plaque on me twice, and I am very grateful in my heart. I know that you came to me because you have been transferred to Beijing for this official position. Do you want me to tell my father-in-law, King Wu, for you and arrange a passable official position for you?"

In fact, Cai Jing didn't look for Yang Xianmao for this purpose, he just wanted to climb the high branch of Yang Xianmao. Cai Jing is exquisite, but he has to find a way to make friends whenever he has a relationship. Who knows which cloud has rain. Only when the relationship is wide, can there be a way when it is necessary to employ people.

Cai Jing didn't deliberately come to Yang Xianmao and asked him to find an official position for him. However, since Yang Xianmao said so, Cai Jing couldn't deny it, and hurriedly said with a smile: "If Yang Gongzi can open the golden mouth and talk to the old man of King Wu, and arrange for me to be an official and a half, no matter what position it is, I am very grateful." Otherwise, I will not be able to serve the country all the time, and I am still very anxious in my heart. ”

Cai Jing's words are half-true, but he believes that if King Wu really opens his mouth to arrange a position for him, it should definitely be a good errand and will not get an idle job. And the reason why he can now be transferred to the capital, and at the same time can be an official to the Liao Dynasty, is due to the fact that his younger brother is Wang Anshi's son-in-law, which makes him a person who is the prime minister Wang Anshi in the eyes of everyone, which will lay a good foundation for him to expand his relationship.

And now, if Yang Xianmao arranges an official position for him through King Wu, then in the eyes of outsiders, he is King Wu's person. This will be of great benefit to him in the future.

Yang Xianmao nodded and said, "I don't know what talent you have, you can recommend yourself and talk about it." When the time comes, I can talk to my father-in-law and arrange a position that can give full play to your talents. ”

Cai Jing hurriedly thanked him again, thought for a moment, and said: "I used to be a pusher, and I am quite handy in this position. It's also good if you can be a pusher in Kaifeng. ”

Yang Xianmao said: "It's not a big problem, but I don't dare to come to guarantee the ticket." I'll tell my father-in-law first, I don't know if I can make it or not. ”

Cai Jing hurriedly smiled and said: "That's natural, Yang Gongzi can help me so much, and I am already grateful." ”

Yang Xianmao said another key sentence: "I can recommend it to you, but as far as I know, Kaifeng Mansion is busy with official business." If you become a magistrate, I am afraid that you will not be able to go to this matter of envoying the Liao Dynasty. Otherwise, if you come back from the Liao Dynasty, it will be difficult to say whether this position is not yours or not. ”

When Cai Jing heard this, he couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, and then immediately said: "This is no problem, I really hope to get this position." I know that Kaifeng Mansion is busy with official business, and I will definitely not be able to leave. In fact, I am not necessarily the right person to send an envoy to the Liao Dynasty. Someone else may be more suitable than me, but this is the meaning of the official family, and it has already been decreed, if I don't go, isn't it a little inappropriate?"

Yang Xianmao heard what he said very tactfully, and couldn't help laughing: "It's okay, I heard that many ministers often violate the emperor's will, including Prime Minister Wang Anshi, who often refuses to accept the emperor's holy decree." Besides, you can be a little more skillful and let the Emperor know that you can't accomplish this mission, and he will naturally change someone else. ”

Cai Jing scratched his head and asked, "Then what excuse is better to find in the next place?"

Yang Xianmao had already thought about it, and said with a smile at the moment: "I'll give you a medicine, after taking it, you will have diarrhea." You take him the day before the mission travels, and the next day you will have a seizure. Then you will naturally not be able to go, because it can go on for many days, until you are completely unable to go out, but it will not hurt your roots. ”

Cai Jing was actually very hesitant to use this method to disobey the holy decree and not to send an envoy to the Liao Dynasty. But the envoy to the Liao Dynasty was actually not a major mission, because the Song Dynasty and the Liao Dynasty at this time were brother countries, and the relationship was very good. Therefore, the mission to the Liao Dynasty is only a courtesy visit, there will be no difficulty, there is no danger, and there is generally no reward for returning. Therefore, in comparison, Yang Xianmao's position of Kaifeng Mansion Governor introduced by King Wu has considerable temptation for him. If you lose this position because of your mission to the Liao Dynasty, it will be more than worth the loss.

He was a very decisive person, so after just a little silence, he decided to go to Kaifeng Mansion as a magistrate according to Yang Xianmao's arrangement, and not to go to the Liao Dynasty.

To become a person on King Wu's side, this temptation is too great. This will play a great, even decisive, role in his next step in officialdom.

Therefore, Cai Jing immediately clenched his fists and said, "I completely obey the arrangement of the son." ”

Yang Xianmao nodded and said, "According to the predetermined plan, how long will you send an envoy to the Liao Dynasty?"

"I'll leave in five days. ”

Yang Xianmao thought for a while and said, "Then I'll tell my father-in-law as soon as possible, and be sure to finalize this matter before you leave." ”

Cai Jing thanked him again, and lowered his voice and said to Yang Xianmao: "I know that it will definitely cost money to do this kind of thing, so I will send you the silver early tomorrow morning." ”

Yang Xianmao nodded, indeed, it will definitely cost money to do this. The reason why he has this certainty is because when he married the lord of Bai Zhi, King Wu once told him that if there is anything in the future, he should look for him, including the officials need to arrange a good errand. Yang Xianmao also learned from his wife, the county lord of Bai Zhi, that King Wu was selling officials in private to make money, and other princes did the same. This kind of thing is that the emperor turns a blind eye, as a relative of the emperor, of course, a little bit of small means are allowed, as long as they don't go out of line, the official positions they can influence are not big, and they can't affect anything.

After sending Cai Jing away, Yang Xianmao came to the house and said to his wife, the county lord of Bai Zhi, that she should go with her father Wu Wang to see if she could arrange a position for her good friend Cai Jing as the governor of Kaifeng Mansion in the capital.

Lord Bai Zhi didn't want to care about this kind of thing, but this was the first time her husband begged herself. And her father once said to Yang Xianmao in front of her that anyone who needed to be taken care of could find him in the future, so he agreed.

The next morning, Cai Jing really delivered a box of silver. Yang Xianmao brought the silver and took his wife, the lord of Bai Zhi, to the palace to meet the king of Wu.

Yang Xianmao said the request bluntly and sent the silver up. Because he knew that King Wu was selling officials, there was no need to beat around the bush. Sure enough, King Wu happily agreed, and the matter was completed within three days, and he was asked to wait for news.

Sure enough, only two days later, the Ministry appointed Cai Jing as the official of Kaifeng Mansion. Of course, this matter does not contradict the envoy to the Liao Dynasty. Because the mission to the Liao Dynasty was a temporary errand, all of them were held by the current officials, and they were all relatively low-level officials, so they would be sent to do this long journey of drudgery.

Cai Jingyi was happy, and sent a heavy line to Yang Xianmao, and then went to Kaifeng Mansion to report. Since he was ordered to send an envoy to the Liao Dynasty, he was not assigned an errand after the report.

On the day when he was about to leave for the Liao Dynasty, Cai Jing ate the pill given to him by Yang Xianmao, and sure enough, he quickly vomited and diarrhea, and it continued. The doctor from the Tai Hospital also came to see him, but the medicine was prescribed, but it was useless. After two days, Cai Jing couldn't get up from the bed.

Seeing this, Song Shenzong ordered another official to be sent to replace Cai Jing as an envoy to the Liao Dynasty, while Cai Jing stayed behind to recuperate.

Cai Jing successfully achieved his goal, so he stopped taking Yang Xianmao's medicine. The condition gradually improved.

These days, the torrential rain in the capital has been pouring down continuously, as if the entire city is about to be submerged in water. The water in the city is getting worse, and many low-lying houses are submerged.

Because there is no underground drainage, it is difficult to remove the stagnant water in the city. The government began to be anxious, and recruited migrant workers to load water in water trucks and transport it out of the city to dump.

However, the biggest threat to Tokyo's Bianliang City is not the rain from the sky, but the Yellow River.

The Yellow River flows five miles north of Bianliang Castle in Tokyo. The construction of embankments on both sides of the river plays a key role in restraining the river channel. However, because this area is an endless plain, the Yellow River is completely restricted. If the rainfall is too heavy and the river swells, it is easy to cause floodplains or even burst banks, rushing out of the river and flooding nearby farmland. Therefore, all dynasties have paid attention to the repair of the Yellow River embankment, and the Song Dynasty is no different.

Since the beginning of written records, there have been records of the Yellow River being diverted several times due to floods rushing out of the river. After the successive dynasties began to pay attention to the construction of river embankments for flood control, there are still records of many floods washing away the river embankments, causing the Yellow River to burst, resulting in the diversion of the Yellow River. Due to the importance of Bianliang in Tokyo, the construction and reinforcement of river embankments in this area are even more important to prevent the lack of embankments from floods, which poses a deadly threat to the capital.

However, the embankment can only protect against general flooding. If there is a catastrophic flood that occurs once in a century, it still cannot play a protective role. In the event of a larger flood, the Yellow River will burst almost certainly. It depends on where the Yellow River breaks through the embankment and plunges for thousands of miles.

In order to ensure the safety of Bianliang in Kaifeng, Tokyo, the imperial court has long formulated a plan, once the flood exceeds the warning line, which may endanger the safety of the embankment near Bianliang, or may cause the danger of bursting, the imperial court will dig the embankment in the downstream flood discharge area to ensure the safety of Bianliang.

These plans could have been implemented under normal circumstances, but this time it was different, because this time, Tokyo Bianliang was hit by a super flood that occurred once in hundreds of years.

The man in charge of maintaining the river embankments in the capital area, surnamed Hong, has been warned several times that there has been widespread precipitation in the upper reaches of the Yellow River. Panlong Canyon and other places have seen terrible and unprecedented flood peaks, causing heavy casualties and property losses.