Qin Zhao sat in the office of the secretary Ling Gongsun Changming, waiting for Li Ze's invitation.

As the general who led the left Xiaowei, Qin Zhao was about to lead the troops and horses of his headquarters to Dizhou, before leaving, it was originally his majesty's resignation, but now it is Li Ze who actually holds the power of the imperial court, and this object has naturally become Prime Minister Li Ze.

The autumn harvest has begun, and all the regions under the rule of the imperial court have entered the extremely busy autumn harvest, and the autumn harvest is carried out together with the annual collection of rent and taxes, and everyone is very busy, especially Li Ze, as the prime minister.

The water in the cup has been refilled, and it is starting to become a little bland. Qin Zhao got up a little bored and walked to the window, looking at the hall that belonged to the secretary and supervisor outside.

Although it was not early, the entire secretarial prison was still brightly lit.

In the hall, there were small rooms with wooden partitions, which made Qin Zhao feel a little strange that these partitions were only about half a person high, and the people sitting in them, as long as they stood up, they could see what the people in the other compartment were doing. Ten compartments, composed of the secretary and deputy commander Zhang Xun and nine secretaries.

Gongsun Changming has a separate room, but this room does not have a window to the outside, a row of windows is open in the hall, standing in his public hall, pushing open the window, the behavior of the secretaries in the hall is clear at a glance.

The whole hall was filled with the atmosphere of youth, and the nine secretaries were all young people in their early twenties, even if they were Zhang Xun, they were only a little over thirty, and in comparison, Qin Zhao, who was already in his forties, felt that he was really old.

He touched the neatly trimmed beard on his chin a little self-deprecatingly, and looked back at the thin, old figure of Gongsun Changming, who was sitting on the desk, and his heart was a little balanced.

As if realizing that Qin Zhao was looking at him, Gongsun Changming raised his head, looked at Qin Zhao and smiled, and said, "General Qin, don't blame, please sit down, Li Xiang has been so busy these days that he can only sleep for two hours every day!" There are just so many things to deal with. ”

"Understood, understood." Qin Zhao nodded and said, "I'm not in a hurry." ”

Gongsun Changming put down the pen in his hand with a smile, took out a box of dim sum from the cabinet on the side, put it on the coffee table next to Qin Zhao's seat, and said, "The general will drink some tea first, eat some dim sum to fill his stomach." ”

"Thank you, Mr. Gongsun." Qin Zhao arched his hand with some gratitude, he had been waiting here for almost an hour, and the things he ate at night had long since come to naught, to be honest, he was really a little hungry.

While eating, he looked at Gongsun Changming, who was working hard to write after returning to the big case, for this person, Qin Zhao's feelings are a little complicated, in Xue Ping's opinion, this person is both admirable and annoying, and at the same time he is the most difficult guy to deal with.

Qin Zhao sometimes can't figure out what a person like Gongsun Changming is trying to live for?

Back then, he was able to fight against the Khitan for ten years in Lulong, and he collapsed the Khitan that had just had a momentum of revival, in Lulong, this person can be regarded as a success, Zhang Zhongwu rebelled, if he was willing to follow, the high-ranking official Houlu would not be able to run, but this person slapped his ass and ran, and became Zhang Zhongwu's most troublesome enemy.

said that he was loyal to the Tang Dynasty, but now he is Li Ze's most relied on military advisor, so Xue Ping and them gritted their teeth but were helpless.

He doesn't ask for fame.

He could not be found among the high-ranking officials and dignitaries of the imperial court, and most people didn't know what the secretary ordered this position to be? But Gongsun Changming was willing to do it.

He doesn't seek profit.

In Wuyi, except for a small courtyard, this person has no acres of land and no shops.

He doesn't ask for sex.

There was not even a maid and concubine in the house, and until now, only a few guards who protected him were taking care of his daily life.

People in their fifties don't even have a family.

Qin Zhao shook his head, he couldn't understand it, he couldn't see through it, anyway, he felt that he and Gongsun Changming were not the same kind of people at all.

Just finished eating the snack, a person came in from a side door of the public hall, whispered a few words in Gongsun Changming's ear, Gongsun Changming nodded, looked at Qin Zhao with a smile and said, "General Qin, Li Xiang let you in." ”

Qin Zhao patted the crumbs on his hands, stood up, straightened his clothes, and bowed his hand to Gongsun Changming, and followed the guard through the back door and walked inside.

It turns out that the secretary has a passage leading directly to Li Xiang's office!

Qin Zhao, who was walking on this semi-enclosed corridor, suddenly realized, looking at the solemn and heavily armed guards outside the corridor, he couldn't help but look back at the secretary behind him again, Li Xiang seemed to value the secretary and supervisor, and the defense was so strict.

When he stepped into Li Ze's public hall, Li Ze was rubbing his face vigorously with a wet towel, and when he saw Qin Zhao coming in, he casually threw the towel into the basin and said with a smile: "General Qin, it's sluggish, it's sluggish, you're impatient, right?" ”

Li Xiangshu laughed. Qin Zhao shook his head again and again: "Li Xiang is in charge of the overall situation and is busy with official business, Qin Zhao can imagine it." ”

"Thank you General Qin for your understanding, General Qin, please take a seat." Li Zedao: "Does the general know why I transferred your Zuo Xiaowei to Dizhou this time?" ”

Qin Zhao was stunned, looked at Li Ze who was sitting back, and said: "The court has an order, Zuo Xiaowei is naturally obedient, Zuo Xiaowei is the army of the imperial court, where the court tells us to go, we will naturally go." ”

"I think Xue Ping and Han Qi must have told you that I transferred you to Dizhou to keep you away from Wuyi Zhenzhou, so as not to be an eyesore under my nose!"

Qin Zhao was suddenly embarrassed, Xue Ping and Han Qi really told him that. The dispute between the two factions, this is something that everyone knows, but it always needs to be passable in terms of face, Qin Zhao really didn't expect Li Ze to say it so casually.

"Li Xiang is only afraid that there is a misunderstanding!" He sneered.

Li Ze waved his hand: "What they say, I don't care, there is no best, even if there is, I don't care, but I need to explain to General Qin, transferring you to Dizhou has an extremely important task." General Qin, please come here. ”

Qin Zhao stood up and walked in front of Li Ze's big case.

Li Ze took out a map from the desk, spread it flat on top of the big case, and pointed to a place with his fingers.

"Pinglu?" Qin Zhao's eye holes shrank slightly.

"Yes, Pinglu! Hou Xiyi controls this Shandong Peninsula, I am salivating! Li Ze said: "If we can hold this territory in our hands as soon as possible, we will control the entire Bohai Bay, and more importantly, General Qin, you will be able to open a passage with Jiangsu and other southern regions if we take Pinglu." Now our land connection with the south of the Yangtze River has been blocked by Zhu Wen, but if we hold this place, we can reopen the land passage, even if we take the sea route, it will be much closer, there, but there are many good ports that can be used, Hou Xiyi, this idiot, is a violent thing! ”

Qin Zhao said with some hesitation: "Li Xiang, didn't we just reach an agreement with Zhu Wen's side?" ”

Li Ze pouted and said, "An agreement is an agreement, is it another thing to do it?" If a war does not break out in an all-out way, it does not mean that there are no minor frictions, and that the army does not engage in war, and it does not mean that other parties do not engage in war. ”

"What does Lee Xiang mean?"

"Hou Xiyi is scared to death now." Li Ze smiled: "We are already expanding our armaments, for fear that we will attack him." Since he is so afraid, let's make another fire. After General Qin went, he vigorously conducted drills on the border every now and then, forcing Hou Xiyi to keep increasing troops, recruiting troops, and collecting taxes. ”

Qin Zhao suddenly realized: "External persecution has prompted internal chaos!" ”

"External persecution is only one aspect, we will also have other actions internally, of course, there are other people in charge of these things, Pinglu is under the rule of Hou Xiyi, the economy is already sluggish, so under such a force, this person will inevitably expropriate and expropriate, and then under the destruction of the people we send out, internal chaos is inevitable."

Speaking of this, Li Ze laughed: "There is chaos in the internal life, Hou Xiyi will suppress it, as long as Pinglu is in chaos, our opportunity will come, no matter when we fight, we can catch it." ”

"Li Xianghao is scheming. It's been a long time coming, hasn't it? Pinglu already has a lot of our internal responses? Qin Zhao said.

"Yes, those wealthy families naturally refuse to defect to us, but there are still many small and medium-sized landlords, they have been miserable, and these people are the main ones that Hou Xiyi blackmails. These people have no objection to our policy, and they can't reach this amount of 5,000 acres of land. Li Ze said with a smile.

"I see." Qin Zhao nodded.

"The five thousand elite armor soldiers under Li Hao in Dizhou have all been added to your Zuo Xiaowei, plus your headquarters people, then Zuo Xiaowei's soldiers and horses will have 25,000 people, which can already make Hou Xiyi's bedroom uneasy. Yang Wei, the assassin of Dizhou, and Lu Guan, the long history, will strongly support your actions. Li Ze said: "And Shen Congxing is stationed in Cangzhou, and he will also support you at any time." He is preparing as your follow-up soldiers, once we officially start the war, with your left Xiaowei and Shen Congxing's right leading guard, it should be no problem to take down a Pinglu that is in internal chaos. ”

"Yes."

"General Qin, when I was in Chang'an, I knew that you were a pure soldier." Li Ze straightened up and said meaningfully: "No matter what others say or do, I hope you can always maintain the foundation of a pure soldier." Some people think that I will fight for something, what to do, and say something unpleasant, but now there is no one to fight for, what is there to fight for. If you don't lose the foreign enemy first, everything is a mirror. ”