Although Lu Ji and his three colleagues agreed that they would never reveal this matter to anyone before they had eyebrows, there was everything in this world, that is, there was no impermeable wall. In just two days, the news that Di Xu and Tao Qi had entered and exited the Lu family's mansion together spread all over Yanzhou City, and people speculated and inquired about what would bring these three big men together. Some politically sensitive people quickly sensed something unusual in the strange meeting and immediately linked it to the delicate political situation at hand.

Almost half a month ago, the war that had lasted for more than half a year finally came to an end, and according to the instructions of the camp, now all the guards have been transferred to defense and rest on the spot. At present, the imperial court has not yet given a final conclusion on the merits and demerits of this war, but it is certain that for a long time from now on, the political focus of Yanshan will no longer be military, but local political affairs such as pacifying and repatriating the fleeing people and resuming production as soon as possible. Under these circumstances, it is obviously inappropriate for Chen Zhuguo to take over the duties of the governor on his behalf. There are already rumors that she will soon leave Yanshan and return to Beijing. The news even revealed the departure time of her Luanjia, which was sometime after the arrival of the newly appointed admiral of the imperial court and before the Lantern Festival. In the past few days, people are very concerned about the specific time of Princess Changsha's return, and they are also very concerned about the time when the new admiral will take office; Of course, the main concern is the selection and appointment of the admiral. For most of the civil and military officials in Yanshan, it is impossible not to care about such a major personnel appointment, and it is impossible not to discuss this matter.

New news is popping up all the time, and it is being disseminated and talked about all the time.

It is said that Lu Ji talked to Chen Zhuguo about business on the morning of the second day of the "mysterious meeting", and no one knew what they had talked about;

It is rumored that there are people in Yanzhou City who are moving around, and there are important people in the camp and the Yanzhou garrison who are waving their flags and shouting for Li Shen;

I heard that when several of Tao Qi's disciples visited their teacher in the evening of the next day, Tao Mengchang mentioned that Yanshan needed a virtuous, responsible, and courageous admiral, as long as he was wholeheartedly for the good of Yanshan, even if the admiral was a martial artist;

Several "loud-voiced" officers and civilian officials who were close to Li Shen were "invited" by the Yamen of the Inspection Department to talk. There were many confusions in the war statements they had submitted earlier, and the inspection department and the survey officials appointed by the imperial court needed their cooperation in the investigation and re-investigation......

There is so much news that people simply don't have time to distinguish the truth from the fake, and they don't have time to figure out the mystery. They were only surprised to find that Li Shen, who was originally the most promising, seemed to miss the Admiral's seat overnight; And as time went on, the distance between him and that position became more and more distant.

But didn't someone claim conclusively before that Lu Bofu and Chen Zhuguo both supported Li Shen to take over as the governor of Yanshan? Why did these two people change their minds in the blink of an eye? Who and what could make them change their minds?

These questions are destined to have no answers.

It's all so treacherous!

In these news, which is difficult to distinguish between true and false, there is also an even more incredible rumor: it is said that the final result of the deliberations of the Lu Mansion that night was that Lu Jidi, Xu and Tao Qi unanimously decided to nominate the current Yanshan Zhongjun Sima Shangcheng to take over the post of admiral; And this proposal has been approved and supported by Chen Zhuguo and Xingying.

This ridiculous news was so unexpected and shocking that the vast majority of people heard about it and dismissed it as a conclusive rumor. However, although they don't believe it, there are still many people who have a curious psychology to inquire about Shang Cheng's resume. I don't know if I don't ask, when I inquire, it's scary and shocking, this Shang Cheng turned out to be the monk who fought the tiger in Yi County, and the "General Zhang" who fought in Nanguan in Yi County in the lyrics and drum books! What's even more amazing is that this surnamed Shang relied on the head of the Tuqi people, and in just one and a half years, he changed from a clay-footed man doing odd jobs to a general of Dingyuan on the fifth grade!

While people lamented Shang Cheng's legendary experience, they also became more and more convinced that he would never be able to get involved in the position of admiral. His qualifications are too shallow, and he has no prestige, except for daring to fight and kill, he doesn't even have the slightest experience in handling military and government affairs, even if Lu Jidi is willing to recommend it to the imperial court, he can't get through the three provinces.

In this way, it is more likely that the new admiral will be selected by the imperial court. Now, people are beginning to count on their fingers which general or civilian official who has led the army will take over this "hard" errand.

Admiral Yanshan is really a chore. Alas, I don't know what evil has fallen into this position, from the beginning of the establishment of guards 37 years ago, to Li Wei, who had just been arrested and returned to Beijing, the six commanders before and after, those who died in battle, those who died of illness, those who were involved in cases and lawsuits, and those who were defeated and imprisoned, none of them could start and finish well......

When the city was already full of wind and rain outside, Shang Cheng was still leisurely staying in the old official post.

Since mid-September, he has been living here to recuperate, except for some military meetings where he must attend. Now, not only has his physical condition recovered, but even the eye disease that had worsened for a time has been controlled, as long as he can change the cotton on the inner lining of the eye mask frequently, then the dryness of the eyeballs and eyelids can be effectively relieved, and the headache symptoms will be reduced to a tolerable level. He was very pleased with the result. He knew that with the existing medical conditions and treatment methods, it was impossible to completely cure the eye disease, so he sincerely thanked Dr. Zhu. A few days ago, when Dr. Zhu went back, he not only gave him a generous gift and Cheng Yi, but also sent Zhu Daichun to the official pavilion ten miles away from the city, and sent Tian Xiaowu to escort him along the way. He thought that Tian Xiaowu had been a soldier for almost two years, and he had mixed up a little bit of a good time, so he just took this opportunity to go back and have a look. If possible, he also hopes that Xiao Wu can resolve his previous grievances with his brother and sister-in-law; Anyway, they are brothers after all, and they shouldn't have such a deep hatred.

As for himself, he couldn't go back for a while. With the end of the war, the defeat investigation that was temporarily shelved some time ago began again, although he had passed the screening and inquest, but some matters before and after Mogan's breakthrough still needed to be asked to him; In addition, he participated in the post-war review held under the auspices of the Ministry of War. Of course, he himself didn't want to leave Yanzhou for the time being. The command yamen of the Yanshan Chinese Army is located in Duanzhou, but what is he going to do when he goes back to Duanzhou now? The Chinese army has a total of five brigades, three of which lost their combat effectiveness when they broke through the siege too hard, and have been resting near Yanzhou; There are two brigades left, Qian Lao's third division is in Beizheng, Fan is all in Ruqi, and there is a temporary brigade led by Sun Zhongshan, who stayed in the town and fought almost all the battles, and more than 200 people who are alive are all wounded, and are now recuperating in Guangliang. So he doesn't want to go to Duanzhou now. He thought, anyway, he is a bare-bones commander everywhere, so it is better to stay in Yanzhou! Simply, when the review meeting is over, Chen Zhuguo returned to Shangjing after the New Year, and he saw the new admiral again and received instructions, and it was not too late for him to return to Duanzhou. By that time, the three brigades that had rested and recuperated should also be replenished, and the weather would become warmer, and he would not have to worry about having nothing to do when he returned.

So he continued to "recuperate" with peace of mind.

Since it is under the guise of recuperating from his injuries, he basically doesn't go out much on weekdays, and usually stays in the house quietly and reads. There were a lot of books piled up in his room, most of them were history books, but there were also some ideological works, and there were facsimiles of books and so on, which were thrown everywhere. He paid for these books to be found for him by the Yangxingzhai Bookstore in Kejia Lane in the city. It's a pity that he has been thinking about the "Qingshan Manuscript" for a long time, and the bookstore has never bought it for him.

After reading so many books, he finally realized that the books looked similar to the ones he had read in college, but somehow there was always a lingering sense of paradox, as if something was wrong with them. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find what went wrong.

Now, he is sitting in the pavilion in the back garden of the official post, basking in the rare winter sun, while slowly flipping through a volume of "Three Kingdoms". Wei Shujuan 11, "The Biography of Yuan Zhangliang Guotian Wang Bingguan".

“…… Bu is angry and threatens the soldiers, and if he does it, he will live and die, and the color will not change, and he should say that he can insult people and not listen to them, so that he can be a gentleman and not ashamed, and the general's words are honest, and the villain will be evil, and the general's will be humiliated here, and the general's will not be in the other side, and the general's affairs are still today's things, and the general is like this, once he goes here, he can scold the general, but he is ashamed to stop......"

His gaze slowly swept over the pages, but his mind caught the fleeting thoughts.

There doesn't seem to be anything in the text. But he was sure that this series of "Three Kingdoms" must have the answer he wanted to know. It's just that he hasn't found it yet.

He hurriedly flipped through the pages of the book.

"From time to ......time, there are slanderers who have submitted books, Taizu is sick, and he must know that his master Yuan, please keep his book without revealing his book, and quote more from the two capitals, Fu Yuan, Cao Gong, Cao said, this county is both big and now in the capital, and the few scholars are simple, and they are young and want to send the teacher Gong, Cao sent three people to send to see the training, and what they have learned is not as good as the book of the two Beijing Fu Naturalists, and the world ignores that there are few of their teachers who can ask for the ability of the reader, and the secret metaphor is to be able to read the reader, so he went to the karma, because of the request to make a note, for example, his book and the person who submitted the book with the same hand to receive the case, and ask the reasonableness of the old clan to move the servant to live in the position of the secretary, cloth, clothing, vegetables, food, and Lu to disperse, the old clan to be frugal and self-guarding, the official Wei Shu said that Taizu was his son Tai Lang……”

There seems to be a problem, but he still doesn't know what the problem is!

He slapped the book on the stone table in disgust, and then stared at the blue sky with a black face.

A pro-soldier came over and said, "Lord Pan of the Ministry of Officials, Lord Cao of the Ministry of War, please see your lordship." ”

Shang Cheng breathed a sigh of relief, suppressed the nameless fire in his heart, and stood up to greet the two waiters.