In the spring of February, the south of the Yangtze River is warm and rainy. There are many apricot trees planted in the apricot blossom lane of Jiangdu City, and every spring, the pink and white petals are intertwined with water droplets, floating down with the wind. Perfectly spinning in the air.

One after another, they flew down, and they were beautiful.

Xinghua Lane is not deep or big, only five families live in a house with high doors and deep walls, covering an area of several acres, and it can be seen that it is a rich family.

The innermost house was originally Yu Shiji's private house in Jiangdu, and later Yu Shiji's family was killed by Yu Wenhua, and the house was empty.

Bing Yuanzhen and Zhai Rang established Wagangzhai together, and they can be said to be the elders of the elders in the Wei State, even Shan Xiongxin and Xu Shiji are later people, and their qualifications are far inferior to Bing Yuanzhen.

When Li Mi and Zhai Rang confronted each other, Bing Yuanzhen belonged to the middle faction, and later focused on supporting Li Mi, and was reused by Li Mi, and slowly became Li Mi's first strategist, and even Fang Xuanzao was far inferior. However, in Li Mi's major decision to abandon the Central Plains and move to Jiangnan, he advocated uniting the Tang Dynasty to resist the Sui, but Li Mi adopted Fang Xuanzao's decision to go south to Jiangnan and stand on three legs.

In this dispute over the development route, Bing Yuanzhen accepted bribes from the Tang Dynasty. In the end, Li Mi's suspicion and dissatisfaction were aroused, although Li Mi did not embarrass him because of this, but obviously he would not reuse him.

After moving to Jiangdu, he was first named the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and he had no power or soldiers in his hands, and even because Wei had no allies, the Ministry of Rites became a Qingshui Yamen with a lot of doors, and no one saw a few, and he couldn't participate in the decision-making of the military aircraft at all, and did some trivial things such as emperor ceremonies all day long. Bing Yuanzhen, who was extremely depressed, often excused himself from old illnesses, asked for leave for three days and two ends, and didn't deal with government affairs at all, Li Mi didn't bother to care about him, and directly added the false position of a great minister, the implication is that since you are not in good health, then you can live and care for the elderly at home.

Li Mi went to inspect the barracks today, Bing Yuanzhen closed the door as usual and hid at home, he was nothing more than reading books, drinking tea, and drinking at home, but he had one of his biggest hobbies, that is, counting money in the secret room and wiping the dust that did not exist on the rare treasures.

Bing Yuanzhen's name of greed for money was well known in the Wagang Army in the past, and after so many years, he really saved a lot of wealth.

He knew very well that the land could not be kept, and the copper coins could not be taken away, so he used the convenience of his position to exchange all the money for gold and jewelry, and there were only five large boxes in total.

At this time, Bing Yuanzhen hid in the inner room of the study, counting gold with one ingot, and the gold accounted for four large boxes, and the other box was a rare treasure. He stroked a yellow ingot of gold in his hand, pushing the lost heart of power, and suddenly a great sense of satisfaction was overflowing.

His wife glanced at her husband, who was obsessed with money, speechlessly: "You know money now in your head, and you count the days to come, is it interesting?" ”

Bing Yuan really said eloquently: "What do you know about this girl? What do you eat, drink, and wear, which one doesn't cost money? I used to be a poor boy with no power and no power, and you thought I was poor; Now that you have money, you say that you are a philistine, and you say, it's all my fault."

Mrs. Bing asked rhetorically: "Let me ask you, is money or life important?" ”

Bing Yuanzhen said without hesitation: "Of course life is important, if life is gone, money will become someone else's money." ”

"......" Mrs. Bing just wanted to praise him a few words, but she heard him continue: "But my life is lost, and I can do it again in the next life...... If I didn't make money in this life, I wouldn't be willing to die! ”

Mrs. Bing's face turned green with anger, and she pounded his back a few times, and said angrily: "You just hold your money and go to hell!" ”

Bing Yuan really screamed in pain, he was in a high position, but the most trusted was always this poor wife, although he accepted a few concubines, but he knew that if a catastrophe came, none of those little fox spirits could be relied on, and only the old wife made him feel at ease in the family.

And although Bing Yuanzhen is greedy for money, he has a very strict family education, and never allows his children to participate in bribery, and even his children don't know what kind of person their father is, and even defends him outside, which makes him extremely pleased, looking at the old wife with a few more strands of white hair, he suddenly sighed: "These belongings are earned by me for your mother and son, and I will definitely not need them in my life." ”

"Why?" Madame Bing was taken aback.

Bing Yuanzhen smiled: "Let me ask you, when Brother Zhai was the master, was I greedy for money?" ”

Mrs. Bing thought about it carefully, and found that when her husband was in charge of Zhai Rang, she really didn't take much money, so she glanced at her husband suspiciously, and said: "If you are developed, you will naturally lose your heart of helping the world and loving your fellow villagers." ”

Bing Yuanzhen almost died of anger, glared at his old wife, and said, "If I don't do this, I will die a long time ago." ”

"You mean the Holy One?"

"Brother Zhai has no ambitions, but he is really good to us old brothers, thinking that he can be rewarded if he treats people sincerely, but he ignores that greed is human nature, when Wagang has hundreds of thousands of soldiers, everyone wants to be the founder of the country, everyone hopes that he dares to be the first in the world and directly challenges the Sui Dynasty, but his courage and vision are far from enough, which makes many people feel dissatisfied, and the old brothers are just that, but the people who joined later are all ambitious, therefore, Brother Zhai has become a stumbling block for many people, and even old brothers like Xu Shiji are also dissatisfied. But none of these people took the lead, became a group of dragons and leaderless scattered sand, even if there were complaints, they didn't dare to say anything, when the saint entered Wagang, his heroic charm who dared to be the first in the world, won the admiration of this group of people, and soon made Wagang divided into two, forming a situation where one mountain does not tolerate two tigers, I persuaded Brother Zhai many times, either to blow the saint away, or kill him directly, but Brother Zhai did not listen, he believes in 'righteousness' too much, and regards 'righteousness' as sacred, even if this kind of person does not die, sooner or later he will be murdered for the saint. In order to protect myself, I can only go with the flow, neither betraying Brother Zhai, nor being loyal to the saint, and watching coldly. ”

"Later, I became the saint's adviser, but I am one of the founders of Wagang, and now I am in a high position, and some old brothers gradually take me as the leader, I see that the saint is crazy to cut off dissidents, and can only stink his reputation and let everyone disappoint me, it is in this way that we have lived to this day."

"Then why did you take Li Yuan's money for the decision to go south?" Madame Bing wondered.

Bing Yuanzhen sneered: "Wagang's roots are in the Central Plains, and going south is not a good way out at all, the situation at that time was to unite all the forces that could be united, and beat Yang Dong, the tiger, to a painful one, so as to curb his pace of going south, at that time, the foundation of the Sui Dynasty was unstable, if Li Tang united to go north, those local heroes who were poisoned by Yang Dong would definitely respond, which would make Yang Dong fall into internal and external difficulties." The Tang Dynasty is full of sincerity, and there are many far-sighted people, if our army goes north, Li Yuan will definitely enter Guanzhong to recapture the fundamental place of the Guanlong nobles, and Guanzhong is the capital of the Sui Dynasty, once lost, Yang Tong will inevitably struggle to take it, so that the Sui and Tang dynasties will fall into a long war, which is a great opportunity for my Wei State...... But under the general trend of the saint, Li Yuan is still calculating. Well, now, it's a dilemma. ”

Although there is a suspicion of hindsight, judging from the events such as his advocacy of forming an alliance with Wang Shichong and Li Yuan, he does have the idea of joining forces to fight Yang Dong and fight for the south again.

There is one thing he didn't tell his wife, that is, the situation of Wei is very dangerous.

Although he has been marginalized, but the danger of Wei is like a mirror in his heart, not only the powerful Sui Dynasty can attack Wei at any time, but the deeper crisis lies in the Jiangnan Shi clan's disapproval of Li Mi, although he was tied to the chariot of Wei with a rogue scheme, but voluntarily and forced are completely different things.

So while he was desperately collecting bribes, he also had to consider the future of his children and grandchildren, and no matter what, he had to leave a way back for the Bing family.