On the seventh day of the seventh month, the Begging Festival.

This day is one of the most important festivals for the prosperous country of the Wu Dynasty. The girls' families wore needle cloth feasts, prayed to Vega for wisdom and skillful hands, and prayed for marriage in the coming days.

Large families and royal courts often have all kinds of luxurious banquets, such and such lively programs, all night long.

Only in the morning of this day, all kinds of festive atmosphere has been filled with Bianjing City, and in the evening, the lights gradually turn on, and the Qinglou huā cars parade along the main street in the noisy gongs and drums, which symbolizes the official beginning of this night's festivities. A gorgeously dressed man and woman, a boy and a scholar, a maid, decorated this subtle but mellow ancient festival with the fragrance of books and ink.

In the palace, the lights were lit up as usual, but those festive atmospheres did not spread to the outside of the palace. In the harem, princesses, concubines, and palace maids have also prepared a begging wedding banquet, which is usually presided over by the queen, and the emperor will come every time. But from today to nightfall, the royal merchants have not yet come, and several little princesses and princesses of the royal family or princes have been in the banquet to thread the needle, and the festive atmosphere is as intoxicating as ever. Only occasionally, some well-informed people will subconsciously look in the direction of the silent main hall of the palace, and then withdraw their gaze, look at the activities of the banquet, laugh and applaud, and say a few auspicious words.

The main hall of the palace was actually not as silent as they imagined, a little west, in the Zichen Palace, which dealt with major matters, it had actually lasted for a whole day of noise, noise and killing, at this time the noise gradually dispersed, and the officials involved should have left the palace to go home, but the emperor did not come, it was enough to see the seriousness of this situation.

The fall of Hangzhou, in the eyes of many people, may also mean responsibility, and half of the south of the Yangtze River has fallen.

Qin Siyuan was the last group of people to come out of the palace, and Li Gang was also with him. Not long ago, the imperial court made a decision, and three days later, Tong Guan led the 150,000 elites of the forbidden army to the south to suppress the trouble, and Wang Yu and Yang Keshi led an army of 100,000 to the north to attack Liao. Tong Guan has already gone back, but Qin Siyuan, who has always understood advance and retreat, stubbornly wants to persuade the emperor again, Li Gang accompanies him to stay, and Emperor Zhou Gu of Jinghan also respects the left and right two ministers, and keeps them for dinner, but after the meal is finished, there is actually no result.

Let's not talk about Zhou Pin's own opinion, under such circumstances, the resolution that has been made, even if the emperor repents, there is no way to reverse it.

In the past few days, all kinds of news from the south have been flying like pieces of paper, all of which are bad news, Hangzhou has been besieged, and the Wu Su army trying to rescue the south has been blocked on the way. Suzhou Shisheng, Huzhou Gui'an Lu Xing'er, Wuzhou Lanxi Zhu Yan, Wu Bang, Yongkang Fangyanshan Chen Shishi, Chuzhou Jinyun Huo Chengfu, Chen Hoop Bucket, Taizhou Xianju Lu Shinang, Yuezhou Yan County Qiu Daoren, Quzhou Zheng Demon King has unveiled the rod...... Some of these people were already famous rebels on the official list, and some were unknown before, but just from the situation of these days, it seems that long before the official attack on Hangzhou, Fang La may have been secretly contacting everywhere, planning the arrival of this day.

Reports of these rebellions sprung up in the southeast, and although they were large and small, they effectively prevented the troops from being sent to Hangzhou to rescue them. In the past few days when Hangzhou has become a lonely army, the situation in the court is changing every day, and the foreign faction, the Anai faction, the main battle faction, and the main and faction have all taken out their hole cards and constantly launched an offensive against each other and the emperor.

Now in this court, Tang Ke, Li Bangyan, Wu Min and others are representatives of the Annei faction, they don't care about the Liao, but the interests of most of the people around them are in the south of the Yangtze River, and what they care about is the order of the war.

Among these Annei factions, there are certain lords and factions, who were originally unwilling to provoke the Liao State, but also stood with the Annei faction and fully supported the suppression of Fang La. At this time, the old handsome master in the northwest who was not in Bianjing made an admonition to suppress Fang La, so it also attracted the support of many officials.

As the left minister, Li Gang adheres to the righteous path and was originally an extremely tough main battle faction, but this time the disaster in Hangzhou came, he was actually slightly shaken, probably feeling that if Jiangnan was unstable, even if the Wu Dynasty succeeded in cutting Liao, it would inevitably hurt his vitality, and his actions in the past few days were a little conservative. After all, he has been away from politics for too many years, and even if he has the power at this time, it is not the largest, at this time, he has the most resolute attitude to cut Liao, and the amount of force used is also the largest, but it is Tong Guan Tong Daofu, who was known as the "first general of the Wu Dynasty" at this time, who was the privy envoy and was in charge of the military. ,

However, Tong Guan's toughness, when the news of the fall of Hangzhou arrived today, he finally knew that he could not do anything, and finally could not resist the huge pressure and received the order to lead the army south. Only Qin Siyuan, even at the most critical juncture, has always adhered to the strategy of going north, and when Tong Guan recommended Wang Yu and Yang Keshi to lead the army north to attack Liao, several Qin Siyuan's cronies also expressed some opposition, and after the most Lu, several generals were installed in the army. After that, the meeting dispersed, Tong Guan and the others immediately went home to prepare the next strategy, while Qin Siyuan and Li Gang stayed a little and left the imperial city at this time.

The evening breeze blows, and on the royal street outside the city, the fire trees are silver. Two old men with the highest power in the court at this time walked on the road.

"One night of fish and dragon dance," Qin Siyuan sighed slightly, "Chong Shuai is a person who understands, ......" "Uncle Chong Yi?" Li Gang frowned, all day today, although some people took out the idea of cultivating the Dao as a bargaining chip, but at this time, among the Bianzong,

The influence of the Dao of the Seed Master is still not big" Why did Si Yuan suddenly talk about him? ”

"If you can't cut down Liao, then simply negotiate peace, so that Liao is better than Jin, and it should be better to get along." "The place south of the Yangtze River is too important, and in all fairness, I also think that we should go south first.

Didn't Si Yuan say a few days ago that if Hangzhou is lost, my Wu Dynasty will be greatly injured. ”

Qin Siyuan smiled: "Ji Weng also thinks that I am trying to steal merit today, do you lose your mind?" "In the past few days, people have often attacked him with this, Qin Siyuan resurgence this time, the most important thing is to think that the situation in the north, others say that he is for his own affairs, regardless of the overall situation. Of course, after saying this, Li Gang also shook his head with a wry smile: "We have been friends for many years, and I know that Heiyuan has always been above board, and when it comes to doing things, I might as well be far away, but today's matter is really forced by the overall situation, and you and I have no choice......"

The two of them walked down the street, the carriage and the people behind them were following, and Qin Siyuan was silent for a moment1

sighed: "I don't know that Jiangnan is important, but now the north is more dangerous." If I really want to divide my troops to the south, I'd rather Tong Daofu lead the army north, as for whoever leads the army south, then it's all right..............."

"Now there are really people in the army who can fight, except for the Northwest Commander, there is really only Tong Daofu...............

"It's not that I can fight, it's that I dare to fight Ji Weng, today I want to oppose Wang Yu and Yang Keshi as the commander, you know the reason, right?" Li Gang smiled: "After all... It's because of Tong Daofu. ”

"yes." Qin Siyuan nodded, and lowered his voice, "Daofu, this person is the main battle, the reason you and I understand, to put it mildly, he is a eunuch." He got enough money, he wanted to go down in history, he was greedy for ink, this is nothing, once he wants to go down in history, he will fight bravely, and the matter of cutting Liao is the best time for him to achieve fame, but once this opportunity is given to others, heh... Wang Yu and Yang Keshi are all members of his Tong Army, who have voted for the post" Li Gang nodded: "In this way, 100,000 troops will go north, and the invasion of Liao will be in vain for the time being." "It's just a waste of money and food."

Qin Siyuan answered, the two old men walked for a while, fireworks and firecrackers were being set off in front of a mansion in front of them, it was very beautiful, it was the mansion of Tang Ke, the head of the household, obviously there was also a lively banquet going on inside, plus Tang Ke and the others won in the court today, it should be regarded as a joy and joy.

"The second granddaughter of Chin Su is going to be promised." Li Gang said.

"It was promised to Wu Min's nephew, and the Wu family has climbed high."

“

……”

After saying so, the two walked through the mansion, and a young official who came over recognized them, and came to say hello, Li Gang returned the salute, and then smiled and waved his hand, after the man left, Qin Siyuan said: "Ji Weng also thinks that I am too resolute in fighting Liao, so how does Ji Weng think that my martial arts are singing and dancing?" ”

"It's very good, you and I are like this, don't you just want to keep this song nose level." Qin Siyuan sighed: "But if you want to sing and dance, you will lose your minions, when I was in Jiangning, a young man was talking to me." There is never a difference between people, whether it is a martial artist, a Liao person, or a Jin person, it is all the same. My Wu Dynasty has been leveled for many years, and there are fewer people who dare to work hard, when the Liao people first rose, Yelu Abaoji was so eloquent, and at this time, in fact, it has gradually lost its sharpness in the momentum of Chengping, but we have lost more, and the Jurchens, they fought out from the ice and snow, white mountains and black waters, and their sharpness was flourishing, like hungry tigers and wolves. The Jurchens are invincible, and it is the same to let us go. ”

Li Gang didn't speak, and Qin Siyuan continued: "What these people value most is not negotiation and conspiracy, only the simplest strength can make them look at you equally." Ji Weng, everyone in the court said that there were few Jurchens, and it was difficult to attack our Wu Dynasty, but if they were allowed to occupy a large piece of land of the Liao people, wouldn't it be easy to have an army, we couldn't even beat the Khitans, so why use the Jurchens? "So I said, the seed master is a person who understands, he was afraid early in the morning, drove the Liao people, let the Jurchens take root on the side of the couch, it is very unwise, Qin Su and others do not think so, they use too much power, just think that let the Jurchens and the Khitans kill both losers, my Wu Dynasty can sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, pick up a big bargain. Scheming, scheming, what is the use of it on the battlefield. ”

"Ji Weng, that young man is right, we provoke the two countries to fight, what we can get is not a bargain, just an opportunity, and the bargain still has to be reached out to pick up. In this opportunity, if our Wu Dynasty can take advantage of the fatigue of the Liao people and win a few big victories, the Jurchens will naturally be in awe of our Wu Dynasty. If our warriors are incompetent, and we are defeated by fighting the autumn wind next to us, once the Jurchens replace the Khitan, we will only face a change from an old wolf to a young tiger......

Ji Weng, I'm afraid that when the time comes, we are really going to be sinners for thousands of years, Lou people, we should think of countermeasures...... "Fireworks are rising, silver huā fire tree."

Li Gang was silent for a moment: "Who is that young man?" "A chess friend I met by accident." Qin Siyuan smiled, "But he is also trapped in Hangzhou now......"!