"Xianggong, this is a secret message from the emperor, please open it yourself." A hurried handler who rushed back from the front line handed a box wrapped in yellow silk to Li Qiong.

Li Qiong stretched out her hands, took the box, and respectfully rested it on the bookcase.

"Xianggong, this is a receipt, please sign and pledge." The hurried hand with chicken feathers on his helmet did not leave immediately, but cautiously took out a slip from his satchel and handed it to Li Qiong.

Li Qiong carefully looked at the receipt, and then took out the purple gold seal representing the prime minister's dignity from her bosom and stamped it on the document.

After sending off the hurried hand, Li Qiong sat in front of the chair, staring at the box in front of her in a daze, not knowing what she was thinking.

"Come on, send someone to take a look, what is the prince doing?" Li Qiong not only didn't rush to open the box, but wanted to know about Zhe Congruan's movements.

"Xiang Gong, there is also a hurried hand with chicken feathers on the helmet, and no one knows the specific content."

About a quarter of an hour later, Li Bao, the official of the hall, came to report the movement of the court.

"Hehe, this thing is very strange!" Li Qiong nodded with a smile and waved her hand, Li Bao turned around obediently and left the official hall.

Li Zhongyi's style of doing things has always been meticulous, and Li Qiong knows this very well, so she asked people to take a look at the situation on Ruan's side.

If Li Qiong's expectations are correct, the four ministers in the cabinet, as well as Li Yunxiao, who holds the military power, should have received a secret message from Li Zhongyi.

Li Zhongyi is outside Beijing, but his arms can be stretched out freely in Beijing, what kind of ability to control the political power?

Of course, as the prime minister, Li Qiong naturally heard some bad rumors. For example, someone wants to create a bad incident on the way back to Beijing for Li Zhongyi's class?

However, after all, the rumor is just the rumor, and the specific situation, even if Zuo Ziguang of the Tiqi Division and Li Yanqing of the Police Administration Temple are Men'er Qing, it is impossible to report it to Li Qiong.

People in the capital often say in private that Zuo Ziguang and Li Yanqing, the two big villains, are the two vicious dogs carefully raised by Li Zhongyi.

As long as you are targeted by these two vicious dogs, even if you don't die, you will definitely shed several layers of skin!

Today's cabinet is not a political hall that monopolizes the power of the world after all, and a lot of confidential information has never been in the hands of the ministers.

After Li Qiong drank two cups of tea, he opened the box wrapped in yellow silk alone, he took out the secret message and looked at it, and couldn't help but gasp, how could this be?

Almost at the same time, Zhe Congruan also opened the box, he took out the secret message in the box, and carefully read it no less than three times.

"The emperor is far-sighted, and the old minister is ashamed!" Zhe Congruan cast his gaze out the window, muttering to himself and sighing softly.

"Da Lang, the old man thinks that you should join the army well, and you can't continue to stay in the capital, a place where you will lose your will."

Zhe Congruan collected the secret message, ordered someone to find Zhe Yukou, and carefully told him that he had to join the army to have a way out.

"Great, great, great!" Zhe Yukou has long wanted to go away and fly high, but because he needs to be taken care of, he has been stranded in the capital.

"Grandfather, you've finally figured it out?" Fold Yukou rubbed his hands and asked Fold Congruan.

Zhe Congruan sighed heavily, and said: "The foundation of Shengzhou will be returned to the imperial court sooner or later, and in your generation, you are the most stable and capable." The old man has already made up his mind to let go of this old face and find a good errand for you in the Western Expeditionary Army. ”

After the emperor personally conquered the south, although he ran Lin Renzhao and 60,000 sailors from the Southern Tang Dynasty, he was afraid that the western expedition to Shu would be put on the agenda earlier.

In the Li family's army, those who have no military merits must not be knighted, which has become an iron law to the world!

Therefore, if you want to find a title that can be passed on to future generations, you must enlist in the army and get enough military merit on the battlefield.

Unlike the two brothers, Zhe Yukou is just the adopted son of Zhe Deran, and if he stays in Shengzhou all the time, he will cause endless trouble.

Therefore, over the years, Zhe Congruan has been placing Zhe Yukou in the capital, one to avoid suspicion, and the other to take care of the mother and son of Zhe Saihua nearby.

Now, seeing that the southern expedition is over and the western expedition is imminent, Zhe Congruan has made up his mind decisively after reading the secret message sent by Li Zhongyi, and he wants to let Zhe Yukou return to the battlefield and get back his military exploits and glory.

Li Zhongyi stood in front of the window with his hands down, looking at the horizon in the distance, unable to retract his gaze for a long time.

Now, the Southern Expedition has officially ended, Wu Yue and the Southern Tang Dynasty have been wiped out one after another, and the territory controlled by the entire Qiang Han Dynasty has more than doubled in an instant, which is really gratifying.

However, Lin Renzhao led the army to take refuge in Meng Chang, which did bring a lot of negative impact to the future westward expedition.

Originally, although there were a few boats in Xishu, and they were also known as sailors, those few broken boats and broken trees were not put in Li Zhongyi's eyes at all.

Who would have thought that Lin Renzhao would actually go to Meng Chang? As a result, the water strength of Shu expanded in an instant, and it became a fierce rival of the strong Han Dynasty.

Originally, according to the idea of Li Zhongyi and the General Staff, to attack Xishu, at most one general was sent to lead 100,000 troops from the north across the Qinling Mountains and directly take Hanzhong and Chengdu.

Now, this idea is obviously no longer valid, after Shu has more 60,000 sailors, you can take the waterway to threaten the old land of the Southern Tang Dynasty anytime and anywhere, and the Jiangnan region must leave heavy troops, and the strength of the sailor division cannot be too small.

How to say it, because he didn't eat Lin Renzhao's navy in one bite, it was tantamount to invisibly restraining the troops dispatched by the Qiang Han Dynasty's sailors.

Therefore, when the class teacher returned to the dynasty this time, Li Zhongyi deliberately left Zhao Laoqi and most of the water division in Xiazhou, the only place for Shu to take the waterway out of Sichuan.

Xiazhou, that is, Yichang in later generations, was the only main road for Lin Renzhao to get out of Sichuan, and Li Zhongyi had to send troops to garrison it, and he had to defend it.

At present, the old border between Western Shu and Southern Tang is west of Guizhou and east of Kuizhou.

Because the relationship between Xishu and Southern Tang is relatively close, before, there was no boundary monument on the border between the two countries, which basically belonged to the boundary of Sanzhi.

The terrain of Guizhou is relatively dangerous, but it is difficult to transport tens of thousands of people's food, weapons and other logistical supplies, so after Zhao Laoqi inspected the terrain and water potential, he decided to station most of the water divisions in Xiazhou.

"Your Majesty, it's time to eat." Zhu Niang walked lightly to Li Zhongyi's side and reminded in a whisper that it was time to start eating.

"I'm not hungry, you can eat first." Li Zhongyi drank a lot of tea in the afternoon, and his stomach was not hungry at all, which was really strange and strange.

Zhu Niang whispered: "Eat on time, this is what you teach your concubines on weekdays, and you should do the same yourself." ”

Li Zhongyi couldn't help but smile slightly, in front of him, the people who dared to talk like this, except for Li Qiniang, were Zhu Niang.

"Come, accompany me to see the scenery!" Li Zhongyi stretched out his hand to wrap his hand around Zhu Niang's slender waist, and the two stood side by side in front of the window, silently looking at the calm waves outside the window.

After the army set out from Hongzhou, it passed through Poyang Lake, turned to the Yangtze River, and finally sailed into the vast sea, which only took half a month.

With the passage of time, Li Zhongyi became more and more fond of the way of traveling by boat, which not only saves manpower and loading, but also saves time, and can be rushed day and night.

The fly in the ointment is that if you are unlucky and encounter a typhoon after entering the sea by boat, it is very likely that the ship will be destroyed and people will die.

However, at the national level, shipping is definitely the main direction in the future, and even if there is a risk of sea loss, it should not be wasted due to choking.

Zhu Niang also enjoyed the good time alone with Li Zhongyi, she actually forgot to urge the man to eat, and kept staring at the distance outside the window.

"Hehe, what do you think? I forgot about it. Li Zhongyi's stomach rumbled twice, and then he woke up and began to make fun of Zhu Niang.

"Oh!" Zhu Niang murmured softly, and suddenly lowered her head and sighed, "It would be great if you could get along with your husband so peacefully!" ”

Li Zhongyi grabbed Zhu Niang's shoulders and said with a smile: "People outside the city want to come in, people in the city want to go out, alas, it's difficult for everyone!" ”

"Your Majesty, what you say is so philosophical." Zhu Niang pondered carefully, she very much agreed with Li Zhongyi's assertion, isn't it difficult to advance and retreat?

In Kaifeng City, there has been rumors in the palace that Li Zhongyi is about to return to the court, and the source of the news must be the Empress Dowager Xue.

Since she knew that Li Zhongyi was coming back, Empress Dowager Xue was extremely excited, and even her appetite was much better than usual, and she could actually eat two small bowls of rice.

Tianya, who had been by the side of Empress Dowager Xue, said with a smile: "Big brother is coming back soon, and I will have a lot of gifts." ”

Empress Dowager Xue has a son and a daughter, and Li Zhongyi only has such a sister as Tianya, how can she not hurt her?

"You, you, you're really useless, thinking about the good things from your eldest brother." Empress Dowager Xue raised her finger, pointed it on Tianya's forehead, and counted her angrily.

"Hehe, anyway, the eldest brother has never missed my gifts when he comes back from afar." Tianya is twelve years old this year, but her personality is still innocent, and she doesn't look like a woman in the palace.

"You little troublemaker, it's a terrible headache, I'm just waiting to find a good husband for you and marry you off, so as not to be annoying."

Empress Dowager Xue said ruthlessly, but in fact, the most painful thing in her heart was the old girl. Previously, she had agreed with Li Zhongyi that she wanted to marry Tianya a few years later.

According to today's customs, a woman is generally over eleven years old, and it is time to go on a blind date. When you are about fifteen years old, you must get married.

Li Zhongyi understood in his heart that a fifteen-year-old woman's physical development had not been completed, and after marrying someone rashly, the moment of childbirth became an authentic ghost gate.

Therefore, Empress Dowager Xue only said the beginning, and Li Zhongyi immediately nodded and agreed.