followed by Cao Hui was indeed Zhao Mian.

Among the officials in the hall, about half of them are old officials in the original Puqin period, who know Zhao Mian, and the rest are those who have been newly removed from local counties and townships after Guo Daoqing arrived in Nan'an, and they do not recognize Zhao Mian. Because when Cao Hui told Zhao Mian's story, all the officials were in the courtyard and didn't hear it, so no matter whether they knew Zhao Mian or didn't know Zhao Mian, they didn't know why Cao Hui took Zhao Mian into the room.

Those who recognize Zhao Mian can't help but be suspicious, a subordinate official, and a petty officer, why did he suddenly come when this banquet was opened?

I don't recognize Zhao Mian, but I can tell from Zhao Mian's uniform and ribbon that he is an eight-rank officer, and I can't help but wonder, what qualifications does a small eight-rank officer have to come here to participate in the banquet of the county's Taishou to invite the history of the state? Suspicion is his old friend Tang Ai.

For a while, more than ten pairs of eyes fell on him.

With Tang Ai's permission, Cao Hui and Zhao Mian entered the hall.

Zhao Mian was not restrained, behaved calmly, and was generous, and bowed down with Cao Hui and said: "Xiaguan Zhao Mian, go to see the governor." ”

Tang Ai had stopped chopsticks, his eyes were bright, he looked at Zhao Mian, and asked, "You are Zhao Mian?" ”

"The next official is Zhao Mian."

"About you, I heard what Captain Cao said, okay, not only courageous, but also wise. After hearing this, I sighed very much, I don't realize that there are talents like you in our army, because you are the captain of Lao Caodu, please come and see you. Although Zhao Mian spoke Pu Qin's official dialect, Tang Ai heard that his Xianyang dialect was not very authentic, it seemed to be mixed with accents from other places, and it sounded kind, so he asked, "Where are you from?" ”

Zhao Mian replied: "Xiaguan's family is from Changshan County. ”

"Are you from Changshan?"

"Yes."

Tang Ai threw away his chopsticks, got up and went to bed, and when he arrived in front of Zhao Mian, he helped him up, smiled, and said, "I didn't expect to meet a person from the state today!" Gu and Cao Hui and Guo Daoqing said, "What you and the two know, my family is from Hejian, and in the past, in Guyin, people in the state have really never seen a few, and the local voice has not been heard for a long time!" Lao Guo, it's good that I can meet a fellow in your place today! ”

According to the state and county system of the Tang Kingdom, the two counties of Changshan and Hejian belong to Jizhou, and the two counties are not far from each other, Changshan is in the west, Hejian is in the east, and there is only a Gaoyang country and Zhongshan country in the middle, which are only one hundred and forty or fifty miles apart. In fact, judging from this distance, the residents of Changshan and Hejian counties can almost be said to be fellow villagers in the same county, so the Changshan accent in Zhao Mian's words is very similar to the Hejian dialect spoken by the elders of Tang Ai since he was a child, and it is no wonder that he sounds cordial.

Tang Ai didn't expect Zhao Mian to be from Jizhou, and Zhao Mian didn't expect Tang Ai to be from Jizhou, so he shook his head, broke free from Tang Ai's palm, and wanted to bow down again.

Tang Ai grabbed him and said with a smile: "Don't say that you have gone deep into the tiger's den and made great contributions, so the relationship between you and me in the state, these troublesome etiquette will be saved from now on!" Changed to Hejian dialect and said with a smile, "As the saying goes, when the villagers see the villagers, the eyes are full of tears, I haven't heard the country's voice for a long time, and I think very much, come, come, you sit next to me, let's have a good time." ”

"Lagua" is the dialect of Hejian, which means chatting.

Cao Hui had a look, and hurriedly called the attendants in the hall, and called a new case to be placed under Tang Ai's dining table. The waiter also added a food table to Cao Hui and placed it opposite Guo Daoqing. After a while, the wine and food were served to the two of them.

Zhao Mian couldn't refuse, so he had to sit down with Cao Hui.

Tang Ai returned to his couch and sat down, picked up the wine bowl, and said, "This glass of wine ,......" asked Zhao Mian, "What is the word Qing?" ”

Zhao Mian replied: "The lower officials are cheap and diligent. ”

"Reluctantly and diligently, it is for diligence, and this word is very good. Ziqin, this glass of wine, you and I drink together. ”

Zhao Mian raised his glass, covered his mouth with his sleeve, and drank the wine.

Tang Ai was drinking, his eyes were still paying attention to Zhao Mian, and when he saw his drinking posture, his heart moved, and he said: "Ziqin, I look at your words and deeds since you came to the court, your family doesn't seem to be a gate, right?" You still unconsciously have a Changshan accent in your words, and it hasn't been too long since your family moved to Guanzhong, right? ”

Zhao Mian replied: "Let Jun's eyes be like a torch, the Xiaguan family is indeed not a general, originally to cultivate and read the heirloom, when the Xiaguan was young, the pseudo-Wei Dynasty changed suddenly,......"

"What are you talking about, but the pseudo-Wei implemented the reform, which led to chaos in the country, and finally Murong Wei was able to usurp the throne?"

"That's exactly what happened. Although Xiaguan was still young at that time, he still remembers that the soldiers in the puppet Wei realm rose up, the Xianbei tribes were in a scuffle, and the Huns, Zahu, and Qiannu who moved to Hebei and various states took the opportunity to gather and loot the township, and the Xiaguan township was also affected. The dock fort in the Xiaguan clan was broken by Hu Lu, and the family monarch took the lower officials and others, and was lucky to escape, so he entered the west of Guanzhong.

"After arriving in Guanzhong, first in Pingyang County, did a Qiang chieftain attached to the family, and later the family died of illness, the lower official was thirteen years old, the strength was not successful, and the body of the residence, the family was often bullied by the local Qiang Hu, the lower official was not enough to protect the old mother, the younger brother, when Murong Wei to stabilize the pseudo-position, sent troops to attack the pseudo-Qin, and went to the county of the Zahu rebellion, the pseudo-Qin army was overstretched, it was a big conscription, and the lower official was thrown into the pseudo-Qin army. From then to now, Xia Guan has spent nearly twenty years in the puppet Qin army!

"In the past 20 years, the lower officials have been bullied by the generals of the Rong captivity, and they have been driven forward by them in peacetime, and the lower officials have long been resentful, and now they have been deeply gracious, and finally get rid of the sea of suffering, and have to abandon the darkness and turn to the light, and the lower officials are grateful and crying, and the words cannot be exhausted."

Speaking of this, Zhao Mian left the bed, went down to the ground, bowed down to Tang Ai's case, and expressed his gratitude.

Tang Ai helped him up, sighed, and said: "The six Yi invaded my Middle Earth, and the civil war was endless, as Xin Gong said, 'Xing, the people are suffering; Death, the people suffer', in the end, it is the people of Li who are suffering! Wen Yan comforted Zhao Mian and said, "You have suffered all these years, since herence, you can rest assured that in our army, you will not be like you were in the Qin Lu army before!" He asked, "Where are your mothers and brothers?" ”

"Xiaguan's mother died of illness a few years ago, and Xiaguan's brother is now in Pingyang."

"Pingyang, it's far away, don't worry, if you have a chance in the future, I will definitely send someone to bring your brother to Qinzhou and meet you!"

When Zhao Mian heard this, he glanced at Tang Ai and didn't say anything else, just saluted again and said, "Governor is kind, and the next official can only repay him with death!" ”

"You have done such a great work, and I must not fail to appreciate it." Tang Ai picked up his own sword on the case, handed it to Zhao Mian, and said with a smile, "This sword is for you!" …… Where do you live? ”

"Xiaguan is now serving as the general of Cao Duwei's account."

Subordinate generals, subordinate generals, deputy and scattered generals, these types of military positions, although there are grades, in order are seventh, eighth, and ninth grades, but their status in the army is not high, they are mainly responsible for the supervision of the army's grassroots, in other words, to supervise the ideological dynamics of the soldiers in the army in peacetime, and to supervise the soldiers in wartime, and because of this, sometimes their treatment is similar to that of the soldiers, and the same seventh, eighth, and ninth military chief Shi, Sima, joining the army, etc. are completely incomparable, and people with better backgrounds are ashamed of this appointment.

Zhao Mian's military position was before he surrendered to Dingxi, in the Puqin army, after the surrender, the Dingxi Army did not give him a promotion, nor did he demote, which is equivalent to retaining the original position, from this military position can also be seen, what he said in a suitable way, such as "being bullied by military generals and being expelled to the front during war" and the like, should at least be true, not false.

Tang Ai said: "With Qing's ability, the trilogy will be too condescending!" I will temporarily grant the secretary of the governor's office to join the army, and I will ask the secretary of the governor's office to join the army and record it in the reading book, and wait for the secretary to make new contributions, or wait until this year, when the military department of the Central Taiwan Military Department evaluates the military officials and discusses the merits, and then the secretary will be rewarded. ”

As mentioned above, there is no seal ribbon for the board to join the army, and the lord of the governor's mansion has the right to appoint himself and award Zhao Mian as the "board to join the army", which can be said to be the fastest way for Tang Ai to give him merit. ——Before, not only did the board join the army, but the governor of the governor's mansion could also appoint himself, but Xin Er changed this last year and asked for Zuo's decree to prohibit the current and future governors of Dingxi from removing the marching army on their own, and the right to appoint and dismiss the marching army was returned to the imperial court. The reason why Xin Er did this is self-evident, of course, it is to restrict the personnel appointment power of the various governors, and to prevent them from using this power to expand their personal power. As for why he only accepted the right to appoint and dismiss the army and did not accept the right to join the army, it was because of Ko Shuang's strong opposition, so in the end, Xin Er could only take a step back and accept the army first, and then talk about it after the board joined the army.

However, it is said that although there is no seal to join the army, but suddenly from a lowly general, he jumped to the army of Tang Aidu's mansion, which is also an undoubted step for Zhao Mian.

First got the gift of the sword, and then got the move of the board to join the army, Zhao Mian was flattered, and was about to salute and thank him again, Tang Ai stopped him, grabbed his arm and dragged it down, and said with a smile: "Ziqin, this is called 扽 (den) in our vernacular, right?" ”

Zhao Mian smiled unconsciously, and also changed his hometown dialect, and said, "Yes." ”

The two smiled at each other and sat down again.

Tang Ai and Cao Hui said: "Cao Duwei, when I am employing people, I love only my heart, don't blame me for snatching love." ”

Cao Hui replied: "How dare the last general! Ziqin ,...... No, Zhao joined the army with wisdom and bravery, and the last general has always said that he is by no means a thing in the pool, and today he can be used by the king, not only to make the king wise and see people, but also to make the king say that the last general is also very happy for him. ”

"Your mouth is much stronger than Lao Guo Ke."

"What you said makes sense!"

Tang Ai laughed, looked around the hall, raised his glass and said, "You and others, please raise this cup together, congratulations to me for being diligent and talented!" ”

Guo Daoqing and the others raised their glasses together and drank together.

Tang Ai ran for a day today, he was tired, the banquet didn't last too long, and it dispersed in less than two watches. Zhao Mian went back to the camp, packed his bags, and prepared to go from Tang Ai to Xiangwu Governor's Mansion to take up his new post, and didn't say much, only said that after Cao Hui and the officials said goodbye and left, Tang Ai stayed in the state capital overnight, but he didn't rest immediately, but called Guo Daoqing, and talked secretly with him in the house in the middle of the night.

The next morning, Guo Daoqing, Cao Hui and others sent Tang Ai out of the county.

Zhao Mian came out of the camp before dawn and was already waiting outside the state capital. Tang Ai took him with him. Guo Daoqing, Cao Hui and others were sent to the county border to be returned.

Out of the county boundary of Zhangdao, Tang Ai ordered to stop the ox cart, opened the curtain, beckoned with a smile, called Zhao Mian from the side of the car to come in, and said: "It's boring to sit down, I didn't have enough with you last night, Ziqin, you get in the car, let's talk about it again!" ”

Wei Xian came back last night, and when he heard Tang Ai's words, he saw that Zhao Mian was about to get into the car, so he immediately stopped in front and said, "Dare to ask the army to give me the sword." ”

Tang Ai's face was unhappy, and he called Wei Xian's small characters and said, "Medicine King, what are you doing here?" ”

"Governor, this is an order from Duke Xin to the last general. Duke Xin strictly ordered the last general, no matter who it was, not to wear a sword to the governor's left and right. ”

"Ziqin is my army, and he is from my state, and his relationship with me is far more than human, can he still hurt me? Why are you so serious? Besides, I gave him his sword, and you don't know what is in the scabbard? A wooden sword! ”

Wei Xian made a straight face and said: "Governor, for other things, the last general will listen to the governor, but this matter is a strict order from Duke Xin, and the last general cannot obey the governor." Stretching out his hand, he said to Zhao Mian, "Join the army and give me the sword." ”

Zhao Mian took off his saber and gave it to Wei Xian, who also took off the short dagger he was carrying, and then let him board the car.

Tang Ai shook the feather fan, with a helpless face, and said: "Ziqin, you have first met the Medicine King, and you don't know his temperament yet. He's such a stereotypical person. Before Duke Xin gave him to me, he was the subordinate governor of Duke Xin's mansion, and whenever he was on duty, there was no reply order from Duke Xin, even the koji order of Zhongtai, the eunuch in the palace, and even me, I couldn't enter the door of Duke Xin's mansion half a step!

"Ignore him, come in and sit down. My family has moved to Longzhou for several generations, what is my hometown like now, except for the occasional hearsay, I almost don't know, you tell me in detail, the current Jizhou is different from the old years when there was no king! ”

Zhao Mian promised and got into the car.

The curtain fell, and the ox cart continued on its way. Wei Xian rode his horse, tightly from the side of the door, propped up his ears, and always paid attention to the movement in the car. Sometimes Zhao Mian's words, sometimes Tang Ai's laughter, came out of the car from time to time. The sky is clear, the cold wind is blowing, a car, more than ten from the ride, along the black and yellow official road, in the bleak roadside trees, fields, towards the northwest.

In the afternoon, I passed the Red Pavilion and arrived at a village.

It's not so much a village as a small dock wall. The dock wall is surrounded by farmland, and the river water attracts from it on all sides, and there is a suspension bridge on its west side. The bullock cart stopped outside the drawbridge. Wei Xian reined in his horse and said loudly into the carriage: "Governor, it's here." ”

The non-stop talking and laughter along the way stopped with Wei Xian's words.

Soon, the curtain opened, Tang Ai poked his head out, looked at the suspension bridge and dock wall twice, and said, "Is it here?" ”

"Yes, Doge."

There is a door on the dock wall, facing the suspension bridge, the door is open, and some Qiang and Tang people carry burdens and carry firewood in and out of it.

Tang Ai got out of the car, and Zhao Mian, who got off the car with his entourage, said, "You guys are waiting for me here." "I only took Wei Xian, crossed the suspension bridge, and walked towards the dock gate.

Zhao Mian is not Shi Ping's former general, he has been stationed in Nan'an for longer than Shi Ping, he is very familiar with the counties and townships of Nan'an, knows this dock wall, knows that the people living in the dock are the villagers of this village, there are Qiang people, there are also Tang people, Tang people have two surnames, one is the Zhuang surname, the other is the Qi surname, but he doesn't know what Tang Ai came here for,—— Tang Ai is suave and suave, and people say, although it is not like Xin Er, it can make people sit on the spring breeze, but his casual nature can also make people relaxed, so although Zhao Mian is a loyal nature, he chatted with Tang Ai for a long time, I couldn't help but feel relaxed, and I couldn't help but ask, "Why is the Governor here?" ”

From the ride, an official of the governor's mansion smiled and said, "The governor is here to say that the matchmaker is here." ”

"Matchmaker?"

The official of the governor's mansion briefly talked about Qitong, and said that Zhao Mian knew, and finally said: "Yesterday, the governor said to Qitong that today he will come to tell her a good family matter. The governor, the believer, has always made promises, so he made a special trip today. ”

"This Qitong is really a strange woman."

"That's what the Governor said."

"But I don't know who the governor will introduce to her as a son-in-law?"

"The governor didn't say it, so we don't know."

When it comes to the topic, the more than ten people who have ridden are all close to Tang Ai, and those who know Tang Ai's friends and relatives have to make some guesses, guessing who he will introduce to Qitong, but guessing and guessing, under the different opinions, no one can guess after all.

Tang Ai and Wei Xian arrived at the dock door, and after the township officials inspected the road strip, they entered the dock.

Wei Xian led the way, and the two came to the door of a house. Wei Xian stepped forward and shouted the door open.

The person who opened the door, with his hair hanging down and his beard, was wearing a skirt, although he was more than 20 years old, he was still dressed as a woman to be married.

Tang Ai held a feather fan, bowed, and said, "In the lower Tang Ai, I will send my son-in-law here." ”

"Envoy? A good son-in-law? Qi Tong's gaze subconsciously fell on Wei Xian behind Tang Ai.

"It's not him, it's me."

"Huh? Envoy? ”

"Yesterday I promised you to introduce you to good family affairs, I thought about it, although the world is big, although I have many Long Junjie, but I am not enough to match you, it is because I simply recommend myself, what do you think of me?"