The leaves on the tree turn from green to deep, the spring rain is gone, the red flowers are scattered, and the time has passed in a blink of an eye. In late March, catkins were still flying on the Qinhuai River, but summer had indeed arrived, and Ning Yi and Tan'er's family boarded a boat outside Jiangning City and boarded the waterway back to the capital.

After returning to Jiangning for a month, Ning Yi and Tan'er didn't need to do much, except for paying homage to the family members who died in the accident last year, the rest was only the effort of sending congratulatory gifts to King Kang's mansion, and they would do it immediately. However, in the days before getting married, Xiao Pei himself was not in Jiangning, so during this journey, Ning Yi did not see this female disciple who was about to marry.

The little county lord is about to get married, that is, he is already an adult, and for Ning Yi, who seems to be just a nominal guest teacher, King Kang is not too lazy, and he came out to receive Ning Yi, and accepted Qin Siyuan's calligraphy and paintings and a large number of gifts from the Su family. It's just that Zhou Pei's whereabouts were not explained in too much detail, and then when Ning Yi went to visit Kang Xian, he understood the specific things.

At this time, the Wu Dynasty clan has never had much freedom, only a few people, and they can barely be an exception. The royal industry under the name of Princess Zhou Xuan of Chengguo is all over Tiannan at this time, which is enough to affect the political situation to some extent, and now Zhou Xuan and Kang Xian are both old, and it is also the time to start choosing a successor.

Although they have several children themselves, when it comes to economic and numerical sensitivities, no one can afford to admire them. It is also for this reason that when Zhou Pei showed some interest in this aspect, Zhou Xuan decided to hand over part of the matter to her, during this time. Zhou Xuan decided to go to various imperial villages, so she brought Zhou Pei, first, to let her know the specific matters, and then to let the stewards come over to recognize people. Zhou Pei has high talent and interest in this matter, and Kang Xian casually told Ning Yi about it.

Whether it's a good thing or not, Zhou Pei has found his position. On the other hand, although the little prince Zhou Junwu's Gewu Society is not favored, it has more or less become larger-in the past, he found his own group of friends to play around, after Ning Yi talked to him last year. He began to search for craftsmen everywhere. Start with the kite, gradually increase the size and firmness of the kite, and choose a more ideal material to get to this year. Kites that can carry goods are getting bigger and bigger. And on the other hand. Work is also underway to increase the number of Kong Ming lanterns.

Such a Gemono Society. At first, it was just a small fight, and King Kang's mansion only turned a blind eye, but after the scale expanded. The issue of money inevitably has to be put on the table. Zhou Junwu is a self-conscious person, and since a few months, he has been understanding the source of income of the palace, trying to incorporate some income-generating shops into his name.

The little prince showed that he wanted to make money and take power, and he still adhered to the right path to some extent, not to blackmail a group of friends or to think that other royal children generally only need money but no consequences, Kang Xian regarded this as a symbol of his progress. Speaking to Zhou Yong, Zhou Yong was also quite happy. The property of King Kang's Mansion is not as good as that of the princess of Chengguo's mansion, but it is also up to him to toss. So recently, Xiao Junwu extorted a few money-making shops from several housekeepers in the palace and held them in his hands, and used the income of the stores to supplement the Gewu Society, stumbling and living his small life tightly.

After Ning Yi came back, Jun Wu happily showed off his achievements with him, and also took Ning Yi over to see it. He remembered what Ning Yi said about giving the status of a craftsman, but he never treated the group of craftsmen he recruited badly, and even treated him a little too politely. Ning Yi also put forward some opinions to him, so that he still had to optimize the reward and punishment mechanism, be efficient, and not be good to everyone. By the way, teach him a little bit of business experience.

As for what results this Gewu Society can produce in the end, Ning Yi is not willing to worry about it - a hot air balloon with low safety may still be possible, but even if it is himself, it is unlikely that he will build an airplane - the important thing is that Jun Wu will find future survival experience in these things. is also for this reason, for Jun Wu to calculate income and expenditure a little tightly, Ning Yi gave a special advice, it is okay to save, but a lot of normal social expenses are still needed, fortunately, Jun Wu is also born under the education of excellent Lu, he understands this very well, he is not harsh in his dealings with other royal nobles, but his usual snacks, watching dramas and other items are all deducted, Ning Yi looked at it, and felt that this little prince was a little pitiful.

"Ask your sister for money later." Ning Yi patted him on the shoulder and said.

Jun Wu also nodded as a matter of course: "Well, definitely." ”

Except for this little walk after returning home, on weekdays, Ning Yi usually only lectures at Yushan Academy and does not run much. At this time, Jiangning was completely a singing and dancing atmosphere, without the fanaticism of Bianliang, but it always contained the elegance of the south of the Yangtze River. The Qinhuai River is lit up every night, and the literati have made good deeds from time to time to celebrate the peace of the country and the people, and the Northern Expedition went smoothly. Some people came to look for Ning Yi to attend the meeting, but Ning Yi refused one by one.

Of course, sometimes when the fire comes, it's not just these people who come to the door. As the richest man in Jiangning, Pu Yangyi, the son of the Puyang family, has come to the door several times, and sometimes brings one or two people. The Puyang family has some officialdom relations, and the salt tea business also accounts for a part, although it may not be famous in Bianliang, but in the south, I am afraid it is already a family that can be involved in the accounts not long ago. He came to look for Ning Yi and Su Tan'er, naturally for business matters, so he will not go into detail here.

*****************

When the royal girl named Zhou Pei returned to Jiangning, it was already May of this year.

Hearing the news that the teacher came back and Jiang Ningxuan left again, the girl went to the treasury to see the gifts sent by the Su family one by one, and then she didn't show any unusual thoughts. The auspicious day of marriage is the sixth day of June of this year, and everything is going according to plan.

Not many people can know the little budding in the girl's heart, including her brother Junwu, who is close to her, and they don't know the small relationship she had in her youth. The girl finally decided to bury everything and she talked to Junma Qu Zonghui privately on the eve of the wedding, and no one knows what they talked about, only after this time. The wedding was held as scheduled, and the two who were equally outstanding became a respectful and enviable young couple.

The stars are changing. In the tide of the years, the fate of one or two people can not become the focus of attention, this year's summer, drought and flood disasters are frequent, the Huanghuai floods, and heavy rains become disasters. Parts of the south were caught in scorching heat, and there was no rice harvest.

Meanwhile. The state of affairs of the Northern Expedition. It's still evolving.

In the past six months, although the Wu Dynasty has been celebrating the success of the Northern Expedition with singing and dancing, the literati and writers have been full of interest and have written articles praising this prosperous era that has been rare for hundreds of years. But north of Yanmen Pass. The situation is starting to get tense. This tension comes from several sources.

In the original covenant between the Wu Dynasty and the Jin people. After agreeing to join forces to attack Liao, the Wu Dynasty will share the original lost Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures. Now that Yanjing has overcome, the sixteen states of Yanyun have also changed hands. Negotiations on the return of the 16 states have been quite difficult since last year.

For the civil officials of the Wu Dynasty who participated in the negotiations, the Jin people at this time were no longer the humble uprising groups they had at the beginning. They forgot that the Wu people had always held the Liao people in check, and became arrogant because of a series of victories. For the Jin people, the Wu Dynasty's sluggishness in the Northern Expedition, including its usual defeats, had gradually turned them from confusion to contempt. Although some of the core members of the Jin people, such as Wanyan Xiyin and others, still have respect for the Wu Dynasty, most people have begun to disregard this southern court as a thing.

Of course, the number of Jurchens was not much, and after quickly swallowing most of the Liao Kingdom, they had already slowed down their pace a little and began to enjoy the advances at hand - they had no need to fight the Wu Dynasty, but when the Wu Dynasty came to ask for the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, they could not give it.

At the end of last year, Tong Guan and others took charge of the increase of millions of coins as a condition to buy back Yanjing and Zhuo, Yi, Tan, Shun, Jing, Ji and other six states, at this time the praise and rewards in the court are still coming down, but the next negotiations have reached a deadlock.

In the remaining states, the Jurchens are too lazy to give, and even the Jurchens already have a saying: You can't beat the Liao, and then pay tribute to them, now we might as well put a dozen on the border, if we win, you add more New Year's coins, if you can win, how about winning back the New Year's coins?

In order to maintain the victory, Tong Guan and others had raised more than 50 million guan of property and began to gradually buy the city from the Jurchens, and at the same time announced to the south: "This is what we have brought down ourselves." On the one hand, it was the "victory" of Tong Guan and others, and on the other hand, the Jurchens reversed, and the emperor Zhou Zhe began to give orders in the capital, and he was very unhappy to say that he wanted to be "tougher" against the Jurchens.

But what is really difficult is not Tong Guan's group of adults, they still have money, whether it is an empty city or a ruined city, in short, they can continue to buy. Now Guo Yaoshi and others, who are stationed in the north, really have friction with the Jurchens. The cause of the friction lies in the agreement between the six states before the settlement.

In order to take back the credit in their hands first, the agreement signed between Tong Guan and the Jin people stipulated that not only the Wu Dynasty would give the Jin people a million coins, but also Tong Guan promised that at the same time as the delivery of the six states, the Jin people could plunder all the gold silk children, gentry and wealthy households in the six states - Tong Guan didn't care whether there was anyone in the place where the delivery was made, as long as the place was in hand, the credit would be there.

The Jurchens were short of people, but they had limited power to mobilize, and began to sweep up the rich and official gentry in this area, who first wanted money, and then grabbed some strong men. On the other hand, Guo Yaoshi had already realized the importance of his troops before entering Beijing to receive the reward, and in the process of delivery, he told his subordinates to start searching for civilians to serve as soldiers, so in the next few months, what happened on this vague boundary between Wu, Jin, and Liao became a true portrayal of the proverb "death is only Yanmen Pass".

The Jin people started from the rich households, and most of the victorious soldiers were poor households, in a sense, it can be regarded as Guo Yaoshi's deliberate attempt to avoid friction. But in any case, when the two sides start to touch, there will be friction. The Jin people provoked several times - they didn't really find the Wu Dynasty to fight at this time - Guo Yaoshi's side also forbears several times, at this time the negotiations are still ongoing, the Wu Dynasty officials continue to negotiate the return of the sixteen states, the Jurchens are too lazy to deal with it, when the Jurchen side is annoyed because of friction, the civil officials headed by Wang Anzhong have to go over to negotiate, adjust, and apologize. As for the folk. Families are ruined everywhere, and the people have long been struggling to make a living.

For such a state, many people in the south are clear, including Qin Siyuan and Ning Yi. In the end, the attitude of the secret investigation department was also very simple: fully support Guo Yaoshi, when Guo Yaoshi asked the Wu Dynasty for money, weapons, and logistics, the Prime Minister's side carried out full support, and Guo Yaoshi's continuous capture of Ding and expansion of the army made some people who entered the army have a way to live.

On the civilian side, Wang An and others were also depressed. The Wu Dynasty has always been a civilian and a military attaché. But when he got here, not only did he have to look at Pharmacist Guo's face in everything, but he also had to compensate Jin Ren, a "parent official" like him. Under the big picture of chaos. It also looks extremely embarrassing.

As an officer who can be sent here. It's not that they don't have the slightest discipline or ability, and for the sake of a local parent, they naturally want to protect the territory and the people. But at this time, they were already angry, but they didn't even have the ability to reach out and manage - Guo Yaoshi's victorious army was also a factor that caused them trouble, in Wang Anzhong's eyes, Guo Yaoshi was arbitrary and domineering, and he had no humanity to catch the strong man, he searched everywhere for money and goods, and gave them to various officials, although he couldn't fail to accept them, but this also deepened his bad feelings towards Guo Yaoshi: make friends with the villain who drives people for profit!

All this may only be attributed to: he has no way to control Pharmacist Guo, the big celebrity at the moment, and he has to pay for a smiling face, as a civil official, he originally went north to make meritorious contributions, but now he ...... It's too boring for this official to be deserved!

In June, tensions swept over this backdrop.

Since Yanjing was broken, the Liao State has fallen into a situation of lingering, Emperor Tianzuo went into exile, and Yelu Dashi and other pillars of the Liao State were scattered or fled westward. In the first month, when Guo Yaoshi entered Beijing to receive a reward, Xiao Gan, the king of the Northern Courtyard, established himself as the emperor and gathered the Liao people to establish the Great Xi State. Xiao Gan is a man of great talent, several times he rejected the Jin people in front of the battle, he can fight the generals of the Jin people, let alone fight the martial artists, Guo Yaoshi founded the resentment army when he originally belonged to him to control it, and the first battle of Yanjing was also killed by him in time, Guo Yaoshi and others almost died in his hands, which was quite a shadow on him. In June, due to the lack of food, Xiao Gan finally attacked the Wu Dynasty again, sent troops to Lulongling, and soon destroyed Jingzhou and approached.

The atmosphere was solemn.

At this time, although the Wu Dynasty was in the name of the Northern Expedition, there may not be many troops that could fight, especially in front of a general like Xiao Gan who could fight with the Jurchens, everyone was worried. At this time, the Changsheng army had expanded to 50,000 people, but it was still in training, and the village soldiers under his command - that is, the militia that could be mobilized - claimed to be 300,000 people, under the urging of all parties, in the middle of the month, Zhang Linghui and Liu Shunren, who were also generals of the Changsheng army with Guo Yaoshi, opened a plan to meet Xiao Gan.

Then, Xiao Gan broke Zhang Linghui and Liu Shunren in Shimen Town, and in the blink of an eye, captured Jizhou.

At this time, the general Tong Guan had already returned to Beijing to receive a reward, and several times issued a reprimand for Wang Anzhong and Guo Yaoshi, at the same time, they contacted the Jin people and began to lobby the other party to defeat Xiao Gan, and by the way, Xiao Gan was handed over to the Wu Dynasty. The content of this transaction once became a laughing stock within Jinren.

In mid-July, autumn has arrived, and the lingering heat does not seem to have faded. In the capital, many officials are busy with the disaster situation in the north and south, and in such a gap, many people still can't help but look to the north in their chats, including Qin Siyuan, Ning Yi, Yao Zunian and others.

At the same moment, in the sixteen states of Yanyun, in a place called Waist Shop, the army under the command of Guo Yaoshi finally came here, and his front army began to confront Xiao Gan.

Guo Yaoshi rode on his horse, looking at the fiery red banner belonging to Xiao Gan from a distance, his expression had become silent and resolute. He remembered how he felt when he first met Xiao Gan more than two years ago.

The formation of the resentment army was actually seven years ago. At that time, Gao Yongchang of the Bohai State rebelled, and the Liao people were unfavorable at that time, and were defeated by the Jurchens who supported Gao Yongchang, so Emperor Tianzuo recruited the hungry people of Liaodong to join the army with Yeluchun, the king of Yan, and took the meaning of revenge against the Jurchens, and named it "Resentful Army".

At that time, this group of Liaodong people only served as soldiers for a bite to eat, but at this time, the Liao State was also declining, and the treatment of this army was extremely poor. In the end, the "resentful army" did not win many battles, but rebelled repeatedly. Two years ago, Dong Xiaoqiu, the leader of the resentful army at that time, and others rose up because of the unfavorable war, and Yelu Yujian, Xiao Gan and others came to quell the rebellion. Guo Yaoshi knew that the resentful army was definitely not the opponent of the other party, and killed Dong Xiaoclown and others. Accepting Zhao'an, that was the first time he saw Xiao Gan.

At that time, there were rumors in private that in order to solve the problem of the rebellion of the resentful army at one time, Yelu Yujian discussed with Xiao Gan, and simply killed all the resentful troops this time, once and for all. But Xiao Gan has a straightforward heart, thinking that "if there are loyal and righteous people who are coerced by others for a while, how can they all be killed." Xiao Gan's opening saved the lives of Pharmacist Guo and others, and when the news came out, everyone was grateful to Xiao Gan in their hearts. When Pharmacist Guo saw Xiao Gan for the first time, he felt the grace and nobility of the other party. That is the breath of a true superior, the spirit of a hero who is not afraid of challenges and looks at all directions.

But in his heart, he didn't feel surrendered, yes. There is only fear and insignificance.

The resentful army is in the eyes of these people. Actually, it's not human. At the beginning, the other party recruited their own group of hungry people as soldiers. In line with the idea of giving a life, these people just wanted a life. However, after joining the army, everyone also had a bad time. In fact, how many thoughts can a person who is about to starve to death have, if he is not always deducted from military salaries and rations, and his status in the army is inferior to that of dogs, how many people who are about to starve to death are really born against the bone and want to rebel?

He understood Dong Clown's helplessness, and he also knew the helplessness of killing Dong Joker and others with his own hands. When they knelt in front of Xiao Gan and the others as heroes anyway, when Xiao Gan and the others praised their merits, what he felt was still fear.

On top of that, there are tigers, and they, not even dogs, may only be regarded as cockroaches. The other party can easily talk about whether to kill all their tens of thousands of people, or they can easily leave their tens of thousands of lives behind to express the other party's benevolence. When others felt lucky, he only felt scared when he saw Xiao Gan's graceful figure.

The tiger stretched out its paws, lazily played with the cockroach in front of it, yawned, and spared its life.

After seeing Xiao Gan several times after that, he only felt scared after a hundred battles.

Such an idea was not too strong originally, knowing that the Dao Jin people and the martial artists joined forces to attack Liao, Xiao Gan and others had begun to distrust the army of the non-Liao system, due to the rebellious history of the resentful army, that time, Xiao Gan, who had originally let go of the resentful army once, really wanted to do it to himself and others, only Guo Yaoshi was the most astute, he suddenly reacted, and encouraged everyone to take refuge in the Wu Dynasty first. As it turned out, this decision was correct.

On that day, Pharmacist Guo suddenly discovered that he could not be a cockroach or a dog, but more or less a person.

He then planned the battle to capture Yanjing, but the Wu Dynasty colleagues were too stupid, Xiao Gan returned, crushed like a nightmare, he also thought about fighting the battlefield, but the rapid defeat of the Wu Dynasty army disrupted his thoughts, and in the end, he didn't even have a chance to fight desperately, he could only flee in embarrassment under the coercion of a very small number of brothers.

Except for a loud scolding in the camp at the beginning, he didn't complain anything to the warriors. Only by constantly expanding the army and grasping Ding, we can accumulate strength. He took advantage of his position to loot a large amount of money, on the one hand, to settle his brothers, and on the other hand, to give gifts to the officials of the Wu Dynasty, because the officials of the Wu Dynasty liked this.

If everyone likes it, he can ask for support such as grain, grass and weapons, so that everyone can turn a blind eye to his arrest, and he also knows that some dissatisfied civil officials have handed him an excerpt to the imperial court, and he will send more money to the other party. After the expansion of the Changsheng army, some brothers have begun to become arrogant, and in the friction with the Jin people, it was he who first came forward and pressed the dissatisfaction of everyone: "There is no victory, you are nothing, let me endure it!" ”

This time Xiao Gan went south, he also secretly endured for a long time, under pressure from all sides, first let Zhang Linghui, Liu Shunren and others test the other party's quality to some extent, and then quietly waited for the opportunity until this time......

The clouds are flowing, the sky is shining, in this piece of summer sunshine, the fiery red banner looks like the blazing flame condensed by the Great Liao Empire, under that banner, there is the mountain-like hero, and now on the battlefield where tens of thousands of people are confronting, they are about to press over this side.

Guo Yaoshi sat quietly on his horse, looking over there like a rock. Only the horse under him seemed to feel uneasy, moved slightly, he reached out and patted its neck, and said something silently in his heart, but the expression on his face was only more indifferent and calm.

The murderous aura has spread.

In the Yellow River in the south, every spring, the carp climbs Longmen Mountain against the current, and the heavenly fire burns its tail from behind and turns into a dragon.

Ahead, that's his dragon gate...... (To be continued......)