Shangguan Rui really couldn't remember when Shang Cheng asked him for something.

"What about the stone you promised to give me?" Shang Cheng squinted at him and said.

Oh, so that's it! Shangguan Rui smashed his fist in the palm of his hand, and finally remembered. In May, I don't know if Shang Cheng was bored from his illness or if he was suffering from heat stroke, so he went to the military department to open an official document and went to the Liyuan camp to read some old archives. At that time, it was Shangguan Rui who received him. Because Shang Cheng had too many things to borrow, and the contents of some documents and files were still confidential even after a few decades and could not be taken away, Shangguan Rui arranged for him to live in a large cross-courtyard, and also found a few documents to follow Shang Cheng to help search for records. This stay is ten days. During that time, Shangguan Rui asked if he had anything to do, and invited Shang Cheng to eat two meals. In this way, no matter what kind of mood the two people are dealing with, after all, there is some intersection, and the relationship will naturally no longer be so estranged when you push a glass and change the lamp on the wine table. Shang Cheng also invited Shangguan Rui back once before leaving. At that time, he went to Shangguan Rui in the public office, but he saw a big stone in the public office at a glance, and said that he wanted to buy it at that time. How much is a broken stone in the barracks worth, and you still need to pay for it yourself? Shangguan Rui casually agreed, and forgot everything in a blink of an eye, who would have thought that he would be blocked by Shang Cheng today......

"Ouch, I really can't remember if you don't mention it. I just said that these two months have seen the world go in and out of the public house, and I always feel that there is something on my mind, but I can't remember it. That's it for half a day! Shangguan Rui smiled and said to Shang Cheng, "I'm really sorry." At that time, it was said that the front and rear feet were sent to you at home, but that thing was too heavy, and there were thousands of pounds on the ground, and I was afraid that it would be ugly to split, so I just wanted to find a safe way to transport it to you, but it didn't work left and right, and finally ......" He grinned and spread his two hands, which means that now you want to beat and punish whatever you want.

"Don't make excuses." Shang Cheng didn't eat this set, "You slapped your chest loudly at the beginning, and now you say that the stone is too heavy?" It's late! Tell me, when will the stone be delivered? ”

"This late?" Shangguan Rui said tentatively. Seeing Shang Cheng's eyes narrowed, he immediately changed his words, "Mid-term, mid-term!" I send it by all means in the middle of the month. If you can't deliver it in the middle of the month, you can find me! ”

"If I don't look for you for this, who else can I go to?" Shang Cheng said with a smile, "But you said in the middle of the month." Chen Zhuguo," he turned his head to look at Chen Pu, and said, "Chen Zhuguo, you help me testify, it is the middle of the month that he said personally." ”

"Okay, I'll be the witness." Chen Pu smiled and said, "However, you have to tell me first, what kind of stone is it that is worth thinking about until now?" ”

This matter will not be clear for a while, and Shang Cheng can only vaguely say that it is a Taihu Lake stone.

Chen Pu was a little unconvinced. Although collecting and appreciating Taihu stone has become a trend nowadays, people usually think that this is a very elegant thing, but I don't know why, she always feels that such a thing cannot happen to Shang Cheng. Moreover, Shang Cheng's words were vague, which made her feel that the stone must be unusual. It seemed that Shang Cheng was unlikely to tell her the truth, so she looked at Shangguan Rui.

Shangguan Rui didn't think so much about the big sesame thing, and explained to Princess Changsha after laughing: "It's the stone in my father-in-law, one by one, I will send it to him when I turn around." ”

Chen Pu was even more skeptical. Even if she doesn't understand Taihu Stone, she knows that the big stone can't be Taihu Stone. The reason is obvious, if it is really Taihu Stone, it will definitely be gone, where are you still waiting to come to Shangcheng to pick a bargain. She has seen that stone I don't know how many times, it is said that it was dug out of the ground when the camp was built, and the only commendable place is that there are two natural beast heads faintly on the stone. The heads of these two beasts are vivid, with mouth, nose, eyebrows, sharp teeth, and sharp teeth, and the tall ones look down and hold their heads low, and they are only a few feet apart and look at each other, teaching people to feel that they are entangled and fighting at a glance. What's even more peculiar is that people can follow the texture on the stone, and can also find the torso and limbs of two beasts entangled all over the stone, which makes people feel the work of natural creation. Generally speaking, it is impossible to leave this kind of thing, but it is unlucky to bury the stone out of the soil and bury it back, and if you move it away, you are afraid of provoking ghosts and gods, so you end up staying in the same place. Anyway, as long as everyone doesn't talk about it, just stay away, the so-called "Zi Bu is strange and confused", this is the truth...... But it's by no means a Taihu stone.

Thinking about this layer clearly, she became more and more angry. This businessman, he actually dared to coax himself again!

She was not angry, but her face did not show it, and she turned to talk to Shangguan Rui about some trivial things about the old sesame seeds and rotten grain in the Liyuan camp. She is the deputy commander of the Liyuan battalion, and Shangguan Rui is the main commander of the army, so it is normal to say this. Even if she is not worthy of the name of the deputy commander of the army, but the princess's title cannot be faked, it is equivalent to the second rank of the national prince, what she said, Shangguan Rui and others could not ignore it, so the two of them walked towards the young man's room of the military department with a word and an answer. Shang Cheng followed behind.

said that it was a young man's room, but in fact it was not small, and there were still seven or eight big cases, which just made Yang Du and the two groups of people sit clearly. As soon as the three of them entered the door, there was a brief pause in the buzzing and chatting that had filled the room. Several of them had their mouths open and did not care, and some of them blinked vigorously; Everyone couldn't react to what was going on. Shang Yanshan and Shangguan Rui actually walked together, what does this, what does this mean?

Chen Pu ignored those surprised and confused eyes, and sat down at the empty table by the door. Shangguan Rui couldn't leave her and go to another table, so he had to beckon Shang Cheng to sit down.

They both sat down. Chen Pu still ignored Shang Cheng and continued to talk to Shangguan Rui.

She doesn't care, and Shang Cheng doesn't care, but Shangguan Rui can't ignore Shang Cheng. He not only had to talk to Chen Pu, but he couldn't snub Shang Cheng, and he had to match the appropriate expression on his face, and the result was that he was very busy. In the end, it was Chen Pu's words, which finally allowed him to eat two mouthfuls of Ansheng rice: "Zida, what are you doing when you have nothing to do with pulling such a big broken stone home?" ”

"Research." Shang Cheng had already eaten, took a sip of tea soup and said.

"Research?" Such a simple answer made Chen Pu very unwilling, and she asked, "A broken stone, is it also worth taking the time to carefully examine and get to the bottom of it?" ”

Shang Cheng didn't say anything. The last thing he lacks now is time, so he has to find something to kill time, right? And this thing can't be easy, preferably the kind that can't be done in three or five years; Paleontological fossils, for example, are good. For example, the stone in Shangguan Rui's mansion is a very rare fossil that is worth his study. He pondered that for a novice as him, it would take at least two or three months to completely strip the fossils out of the stones, and then casually study some outlines and the like, and he would be able to mix them up until the next year, but it was really impossible for him to spend some more money, buy some fossils everywhere, and wait for the dinosaurs of the reptiles to produce some results, even if he was not of retirement age, there should be no problem in publishing his autobiography. He even thought of the title of his autobiography "The Man Who Walked with Dinosaurs" one by one......

Shangguan Rui quickly finished planing two large bowls of rice, put down the bowls, and said to Shang Cheng: "Speaking of 'research', I thought it was a new word you wrote yourself. As a result, I turned my head and asked someone, only to know that I was wrong. For a long time, there is this word in the poems written by the Tang Dynasty. ”

Chen Pu was a little unnatural. She made the same mistake until Tian Xiu told her that the word "research" had been used at least in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, in the book "The New Language of the World". Although Tian Xiu can't remember what the original text said, she believes that Tian Xiu should not be mistaken.

She asked Shang Cheng, "What do you want to study in stone?" Seeing that Shang Cheng was silent, he asked Shangguan Rui again, "What did Uncle Ying go to Liyuan Daying to study?" ”

Shangguan Rui glanced at Shang Cheng and saw that Shang Cheng did not object, so he said, "It's just a matter of reading some documents and files." They are all old archives from Emperor Gao to Xianzong. Heh, I always thought that these things should be found at the Taishi Bureau, if it wasn't for the merchant who found me, I wouldn't have known that there were still some of these documents in the camp. ”

"You think I'm going to trouble you." Shang Cheng finally spoke. He sighed and said, "Not only the Liyuan Battalion, but also the Military Department, the Ministry of Rites, the Taishi Bureau, and the Domain's Courtyard...... In order to find some original materials, on a hot day, I ran back and forth countless times in six or seven yamen. Probably thinking of something unpleasant, he gritted his teeth and stopped talking, and was silent for a long time before he let out a long breath silently.

Chen Pu couldn't help but say to him: "You have nothing to do, what are you running around?" ”

She said this with good intentions, which means that this kind of thing is not worth running for himself, just let others do it. How do you know that this is just to the point. Shang Cheng is already thinking about his autobiography, and what he hates most is to hear others say that he has nothing to do. If someone said something like that, he would just think they were farting; But Chen Pu, how can you say such a thing? Therefore, before Chen Pu's words fell, the evil fire in his belly jumped up, and the face that was originally smiling suddenly became iron-blue, his teeth were biting his cheeks, and he had already clenched the porcelain cup in his hand, and he saw that a resentment in his chest was about to burst out on the spot

Shangguan Zhongwu is worthy of his single name "Rui", his eyes are good, he doesn't mention it, and his mind is also unusually flexible and agile, looking at Shang Cheng's expression, he knew that Princess Changsha said something that should not be said, and he was in a hurry, picked up the teapot and gave Shang Cheng a new tea soup, and said in his mouth: "Zida, I still remember that when you left last time, you said that you had probably touched some of the origins and goings of the Tuqi people. Don't say it, I've been thinking about you for almost two months," he stared at Shang Cheng with admiration. "What kind of truth have you studied, tell me first."

Shang Cheng drank all the tea soup in one gulp, suppressed the anger in his heart and said to Shangguan Rui: "I tossed around, and I didn't study anything......

"Oh, it's just idle talk, you just talk, I'll listen." Shangguan Rui enthusiastically helped him refill the tea soup. "You are a master of the art of war, this is a recognized thing, and the truth you came up with, no matter how bad it is, it is better than me, isn't it?"

Look at Shangguan Rui, who is pouring tea and boasting about it, he is very enthusiastic, Shang Cheng is not good not to say: "I really haven't researched anything worth saying, it's just a little immature idea......"

So, Shang Chengcheng began to tell his opinion.

More than 100 years ago, when the Li Tang Dynasty was about to collapse and collapse in the midst of internal and external troubles, the Turks who had gained a foothold in the north began to enter a stage of expansion, they swept the desert, attacked the Yan and Buyeo in the east, and expelled the Uighurs in the west. By the time the Great Zhao was established, the Tuqi people had driven the Tubo people back to the plateau, destroyed the Tatars and the Uighurs, and controlled a large area of land from Heishui to Beihai, and the country began to enter a period of strength. However, this strength was built on the basis of military conquest, and as a result, like most countries conquered by military force, the strength of the Turks lacked a solid foundation and was fraught with all sorts of fierce contradictions. The contradiction between the newly joined peoples and the original Turks, the contradiction between the new military aristocracy and the traditional aristocracy, the contradiction between the land, and the contradiction of population...... During that time, although the Turks established their hegemony, the regime they established was in constant turmoil, and in some cases even on the verge of collapse. In order to pass on internal contradictions, but also to satisfy their insatiable greedy appetite for population and wealth, they turned their attention to the rich Central Plains, frequently heading south. In the Taizu period, the national strength of the Great Zhao was still very weak, and the people of the Turquoise could only be exhausted, but when it came to the time of Zhao Taizong, the strength of the two sides was roughly equal, and the two sides fought for more than ten years, although the Great Zhao was finally defeated, but it also thwarted the rapid momentum of the Turquoise people going south, and shook the determination of the Turquoise people to go south, so the war in the Gaozong period, militarily it was said that the Great Zhao failed, but politically speaking, the Turpentine people failed, from the economic point of view, It also destroyed the fragile economic base that the Turks used to wage war. From the sixth year of Taizong Jingkuang to the third year of Gaozong Taijia, the northern border was in a relatively calm stage for eleven years, which shows that, at least within the Tuchu Dynasty, the strategy of going south did not receive widespread support; This also proves from another aspect that several wars fought during the reign of Taizong were successful. After the third year of Gaozong's Taijia, the northern grasslands suffered a series of large-scale natural disasters, and when the survival of the race was seriously threatened, the Tuqi people once again unified their understanding, so there were five southward trips from the third year of Taijia to the thirteenth year of Taijia during the reign of Gaozong. But all five southward expeditions were defeated, and the Turks consumed a large amount of vital forces and war reserves in the successive southward wars. After their hopes of going south were dashed, they had to look in other directions; But there aren't many directions that give them a choice. To the east is the more barren white mountains and black waters, and to the west is likely to encounter the stubborn resistance of the Tibetans, and in the end their main force is likely to choose to go west, across the Beihai Sea and the Green Mountains, all the way to the west, to the west, to the west, and then to the west......

Shang Cheng finally came to a conclusion similar to the one he had made at the Prime Minister's Office a few months earlier, but this time he was no longer guessing out of thin air, but based on a relatively careful reasoning based on the archives he had seen. This conclusion is also more credible, and it has at least been recognized by Shangguan Rui and Chen Pu. But this conclusion is of little use for the time being. Quite simply, there was no money in the treasury, and there was no way to support the use of troops by the Northern Four Guards against the Turks; There will not be enough money for at least three years; This is still when the southern expedition goes well. If the southern expedition is a stalemate, then when the troops will be sent to the grassland, no one knows.

The afternoon meeting still did not come to a conclusion, and the question of which forbidden army could be the first to try out the "New Drill Code" had to be left to the fourth meeting two days later.