For the next three days, Shang Cheng basically stayed in the courtyard where the prime ministers worked in the imperial city.

Originally, he was at the military headquarters to report and discuss the plan to march into the grassland next year, but due to various reasons, he only stayed at the military headquarters for less than two hours before returning here.

Regarding the military plan submitted by the Yanshan Wei Mansion, there are many contents that need to be explained to the military department one by one, and there are also many places where the military department needs to come forward to coordinate between the three Wei towns of Bohai, Yanshan, and Dingjin in the preparation, initiation, and execution of the entire campaign. In addition, because they were worried about the road blocking or other reasons that would cause leaks, he and Zhang Shao deliberately left some ambiguities and omissions in the secret letter, so the strategy presented to the military headquarters in August was not comprehensive, and there was no mention of the follow-up after the campaign began, and now he needed to make a detailed supplement to it.

Just listening to what he said, the newly appointed military department Shangshu was stunned. Yan Shanwei's proposal for this plan is far from being as simple as it was said in the official document in August! According to Shang Cheng's account, the content of this plan was very large, except for the Western Longwei, the entire northern defense line of Dazhao was involved, and most of the left flank of the Turks was also completely covered. He believed that as long as this plan dictated by Shang Cheng could be carried out and implemented, then after a series of battles, the bad situation in which Da Zhao had been on the passive defense and exhausted in the conflict with the Turks for more than a hundred years would be completely reversed, and if the seven war objectives proposed in the plan could be achieved, the entire left wing of the Turks would inevitably end up in ashes. It is conceivable that under such a blow, the vitality of the steppe empire will be greatly damaged, and it is likely that it will collapse as a result......

In the face of such an important military plan, the secretary of the military department did not dare to slack off in the slightest, and immediately sent people to inform the two squires and the chief officers of several important departments to immediately put down the matter at hand and come to the meeting, and immediately informed the prime minister's office on the grounds of "top military secret".

Several prime ministers and deputy prime ministers were quickly alarmed. The venue of the meeting was also shifted from the Yamen of the Ministry of War to the Prime Minister's Office. In the simplely furnished hall that Shang Cheng had been to the day before, a military and political meeting was held that had not been made public for a long time afterward.

The meeting lasted for three days, and the number of participants in the meeting gradually expanded from the initial few prime ministers and principal officials of the Ministry of War to the six ministries and nine secretaries and several high-ranking generals in Beijing. However, as the standard of the meeting becomes higher and larger, the differences in the meeting will become larger and the contradictions will become more and more acute. Some of these contradictions can be persuaded and compromised with each other, while others are not just as simple as "whether the people will delay spring plowing if they work too long"; The focus of the contradiction is no longer a question of actual existence, but a question of stance and a question of supporting or opposing the general strategy of "first the south and then the north." Dong Quan, a provincial servant under the ministry of the deputy prime minister, openly criticized Zhang Pu's strategy at this military meeting, and asserted that "first the south and then the north" is simply putting the cart before the horse. Ye Xun, the left attendant of the household department, also ridiculed each other, saying that the "thunderous advance" advocated by Dong Quan was "made behind closed doors", and Dong Quan was even more "scholarly", simplifying all complicated things, and purely "taking it for granted......

I can't help but say that Ye Xun, as a representative of the slow progress faction, said this on such an occasion, which is very inappropriate. Before he spoke, although the topic of discussion had long been detached from the original intention of the meeting, everyone could still carefully control their words and not make personal attacks on the opponent so as not to anger the other party, but his sarcastic words were directed at Dong Quan personally, which obviously destroyed the fragile tacit understanding that the two sides had been abiding by together. His words fell like a drop of water into a hot pan of oil, and immediately ignited the already tense atmosphere in the venue. Ye Shilang, who was unscrupulous, immediately became a living target for the radicals to vent their anger.

Not to be outdone, the Slow Progressives who attended the meeting were not to be outdone when they saw their comrades besieged by their opponents, and they jumped out to accuse the radicals of disregard, arrogance, and blind optimism. While the radicals were given three big hats, they were also rebuked by the radicals as disrespectful, self-indulgent and cowardly......

The hall in the Prime Minister's Mansion, which was used as a temporary meeting place, was suddenly in chaos.

There was no way for the meeting to continue. Zuo Xiang Tang Xing, who presided over the meeting, had no choice but to announce the end of the meeting, which seemed to be difficult to argue for a result.

People who had been arguing for several days left the room one after another.

Seeing that the people were almost gone, Shang Cheng and Guo Biao, who were sitting in the corner, also stood up. Shang Cheng carried his fox fur robe around a slanted chair, turned around and whispered to Guo Biao, who was a head shorter than himself: "Old Guo, you are the head snake in the capital." I didn't say it one by one, it's up to you to arrange it tonight. "The old general Xiao Jian only showed up in the public office on the evening of the first day, and then he was recruited by the inner court to speak for the prince, so there was only one Guo Biao among the people who came to the meeting.

Guo Biao was released from the Xuanwu Temple in Yongle Fang only half a month ago. This person has a wide mind, and has been detained by the court without interrogation for more than half a year, but now he can't see the slightest haggard and decadent state, and he still has a smile and a happy expression. Not only that, but his already rich figure is now more and more plump, the robe of the fourth rank is tightly tied to his body, the fat on his waist and abdomen has been stretched out of three folds, and his round face is also white and tender, ruddy as if he has just eaten drunk, and even the wrinkles on his forehead have disappeared without a trace. He nodded with a smile, and peeked at Tang Xing, who was sitting behind the desk and holding his beard silently, shook his hand and whispered, "Let's go out first." ”

Shang Cheng smiled, stopped talking, and came to the door in three steps and two steps, one hand had already covered the thick cotton door curtain, and someone behind him greeted him:

"Yan Du,"

Shang Cheng had no choice but to stop and turn around.

Tang Xing pointed to a chair in front of the desk with a thin and long finger and said, "Yan Du, please stay a step." ”

Shang Cheng silently sighed in his heart, grinned at Guo Biao who passed by, and walked back to sit in front of the case.

But the soup shop didn't speak immediately, but slowly sipped it with a bowl of tea soup. Shang Cheng didn't say anything. He leaned forward slightly, pressed his arms against the armrests of the chair, crossed his fingers and two thumbs against his chin, and the dark pupils flickered with a faint light, staring fixedly at the two or three yellowed pages scattered in front of a chair opposite.

The voices of people outside the house soon died down, and the small courtyard of the public house returned to its former silence. Someone outside the door was talking in a whisper. The curtain was carefully lifted, and it was immediately closed again, and then someone whispered in an indisputable tone: "The adults are still here, and you will come back to clean up later." ”

Then there was a long silence.

Tang Xing still didn't speak, and he didn't ask someone to serve tea to Shang Cheng. He seemed a little tired, holding a tea cup that had long since run out of heat, and reclining in his chair with his eyes closed. Shang Cheng didn't speak either. He sat in his chair, motionless like an old monk, not even wavering in his eyes, staring firmly and stubbornly at the pages of paper on the ground without a word. If it weren't for the fact that his eyelids were still blinking from time to time, he would have looked exactly like a statue here.

The thick curtains that had been glued to the lattices gradually dimmed, and everything in the room gradually became blurry and hazy. The deacon of the public house quietly entered the house with a lantern pick, put a few lamps in the room with bated breath, and then asked Tang Xing in a quiet voice with a careful gossamer: "Old Xiangguo, dinner has been prepared in the stove room, ...... Do you want to eat now? ”

After a while, Tang Xingcai closed his eyes and shook his head gently: "What time is it?" ”

"Old Xiangguo, it's the beginning of the year now."

Tang Xing nodded, waved his hand and said, "You go down." ”

There were two more people left in the room, Tang Xing and Shang Cheng. The two lamps placed on the table cast a soft light in all directions; The backs of both men were dragged to a very long distance, and they crawled on the walls in black, like two silent giants, quietly observing everything in the room.

Tang Xing still didn't talk to Shang Cheng. He stood up and walked slowly around the room, straightening the chairs that had been pushed to the east and west at the end of the meeting. The seats here are all ebony four-pillar Panlong Taishi chairs, and the handles are both large and heavy, which is really not the heavy physical work that an old man with mottled hair like him can do. He rolled up his sleeves, restrained his hem, gritted his teeth and pushed, pulled and pulled, so tired that his cheeks were red and beads of sweat were seen on his forehead, and he finally arranged all the thirty or forty chairs neatly.

Now, he stood in front of the case with his gray beard, looking at his hard-earned fruits with pride and pride like a victorious general. He immediately noticed that there was still a little flaw. After rearranging the fourth seat in the front row on the right, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

While he was doing this, Shang Chengcheng kept watching silently from the side, and he didn't mean to help at all. The only thing he did was get up and leave his seat as the busy old Xiangguo approached. Now, he still didn't speak, let alone make a noise to disturb the soup shop, but just stood by the table with a calm demeanor.

After Tang Xing finished reviewing his "team", he clapped his hands and looked back and smiled: "Let Yan Du see it smile." When I was a teenager, my family was poor, and it was rare to have overnight rice rations, and my father died early, so my family relied on my old mother to wash and sew for others. I am the eldest son, and I have three younger brothers and five younger sisters, and when it is time to eat, I always let them sit by the wall with a small stool, and then I will distribute the soup and cakes. The younger brothers have more points, and the younger sisters have less points...... The family is poor, and the bran and vegetable dumplings can't fill their stomachs, and the younger brothers and sisters are sensible, and the big ones always let the small ones go, and the ones that are a little delicious and delicious, and everyone endures the hunger and leaves them for the younger ones. But that's it, two younger sisters and a younger brother couldn't keep ......" The more he spoke, the lower his voice became, and his face became darker and darker. “…… After they left, every time it was time to eat, the family still had to put their little stools on the table, if they couldn't see the three small wooden stools, they always felt that something was missing, and their hearts were terrified......" He smiled sadly, and said with a long breath, "After a long time, I will fall into this problem, no matter when, as long as I see that the chairs are not neatly arranged, my heart will always be frizzy......"

Shang Cheng listened quietly and didn't say anything. His heart was also tumbling badly. Listening to Tang Xing's story, he remembered his life experience. His father went to work in the south, and when he went, he was never heard from; The mother remarried twice but was unsatisfactory, and finally ran away with a provincial; If it hadn't been for an old man in the clan who adopted him, maybe there would have been no one in this world for a long time. Grandpa was a cheerful man with a strong personality and an open-minded heart, and this character, like many of the old man's virtues, was eventually passed on to him......

He immediately forced his mind to detach himself from the memories of the past. It's not that he doesn't miss the past at all, but because he suddenly realizes that now is not the time to reminisce at all!

In front of him is the old prime minister Tang Xing, but he is not a melancholy prose writer, let alone a sour and rotten literati who is worried about giving new words! Who is Tang Lao Xiangguo? He has risen and fallen four times and appeared three times, and he has long been accustomed to seeing the hot and cold state of the world, how can he recall the bitterness and bitterness of his youth with such warmth and affection as now? Even if Tang Xing occasionally has the tender gesture of a child, it is impossible to show it in front of him!

He pondered Tang Xing's words for a while, and immediately understood a little.

Tang Xing said this, showing that he is a nostalgic person. This old, of course, can't be said to be a business, but to land mail. Tang Xing is the teacher of Lu Ji High School when he was a scholar, and he has always been very good at Lu Jiqing, and he has taken care of him in his career, and his deep relationship for more than 20 years is no longer an ordinary teacher-student friendship. Tang Xing values Lu Ji, and Lu Ji is good friends with himself, so can he understand Tang Xing's words as Tang Xing is hinting, implying that he looks at him differently?

As for why Tang Xing told the story of his youth, Shang Cheng felt that the focus of the story was on those stools. Tang Xing should be a person who hates chaos and disorder, as long as things are within his control, he must let things develop according to the rules and order, and whether this order is beneficial or harmful, Tang Xing does not care so much. This can be seen from his impartial attitude towards Zhang Pu and Dong Quan; And his consistent peacemaker posture is also the embodiment of this point, whether it is Park's strategy of "first the south and then the north", whether Dong Quan wants to solve the threat from the north once and for all, it doesn't matter, the important thing is that the order cannot be chaotic, the imperial court cannot be chaotic, and Dazhao cannot be chaotic!

Thinking along this line of thought, the other meaning of Tang Xing's words is very clear: whether the slow progressives have the upper hand in the court or the radicals make a comeback, he must not disturb the rules and order; That is to say, if the imperial court has a decision on the use of troops against Nanzhao, and Zhang Pu insists that he be the deputy head of the Jiazhou camp, he must resolutely implement it without hesitation!

This is actually a warning. It seems that Lao Xiangguo was very dissatisfied with his proposed battle plan against the left wing of the Turks. The root cause of the dissatisfaction is probably because this plan has filled the dispute between the radicals and the slow progressives in the court with uncertainties......

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but be a little puzzled, could it be that Lao Xiangguo was a centrist? Holding the officials with one hand and holding the East and West Pavilion with the other, Tang Xing, the left minister, turned out to be a wall-riding faction, which is too, too ......

He didn't know what to make of it.

How is it possible for a person who is a political leader in his own right to be a wall-to-wall with no political position?

He couldn't trust his own judgment. This judgment almost completely overturned his understanding of political life.

However, he also reaffirmed one thing that was important to him: it seemed that he was indeed not the material to be a commander; Compared with the admiral, who must clearly support or oppose something, he is more suitable to be a pure soldier, a general who does not care about politics and only trains troops to fight......

"Yesterday, I talked to Zhang Xiang, and the imperial court will not transfer you out of Yanshan for the time being." Just when his train of thought was getting farther and farther, Tang Xing turned the topic to business. "However, for the time being, I won't officially let you administer Yanshan. Your military strategy is proposed at this time......" Shang Cheng immediately corrected Lao Xiangguo's words and said: "This strategy was jointly formulated by General Zhang Shao and ......"

Tang Xing didn't pay attention to him, but continued: "...... Your military strategy is put forward at this time, and the court will be restless for a long time, so you need to be more cautious when you do things in Yanshan, and if you have anything, you can discuss it with Bo Fu more. Although Bo Fu is short in military affairs, he has served as a squire twice, so he is proficient in government affairs and a good deputy...... In addition, you still have to be ready to go to Jiazhou at any time. ”

…… Tang Xing did not stay in Shangcheng to have dinner at the Prime Minister's Mansion. But it doesn't matter. The important thing is that Shang Cheng has already gotten a hint from Tang Xing. This is not necessarily the opinion of the imperial court and the center, but it certainly represents the opinion of a large number of officials like Tang Xing who are unwilling to get involved in political disputes and bury their heads in work. Since it is a fake governor, you can decide whether to fight or not, how to fight!

Walking out of the right gate and coming to the Heavenly Street, Shang Cheng looked back with respect and looked up at the imperial city that was even more majestic and magnificent against the background of the dark night.

It seems that Tang Lao Xiangguo is not a wall-riding faction.

He said, how can Lu Ji, who is vain and pragmatic, have a centrist teacher?