In the first year of Xingping (194 AD), the imperial capital was Chang'an.

There was only a dim light in the living room, and Li Dao and Jia Xu sat quietly in the living room, and no one spoke.

After the bloody night in the imperial capital, Li Dao and Guo Yan jointly held the power of the capital division. Although Jia Xu was Dong Zhuo's subordinate, Li Wei did not embarrass him, but let him be a scholar. But Jia Xu didn't seem to receive Li Xu's affection, and always deliberately distanced himself from him, and Li Wei didn't mind, so he never had any contact with Jia Xu.

Not long ago, Jia Xu's mother passed away, so he resigned from his position as Shangshu and prepared to return to his hometown. But tonight, Li Dao came to visit him for the first time.

"Life and death are fate, sir, don't be too sad, take care of your body." In the end, it was Li Dao who opened his mouth first.

"Thank you, General Lee. I'm afraid the general is not just here to visit. Jia Xu has always maintained a direct way of talking.

"Hehe, then Li will no longer be polite with Mr. I came to visit late at night today, in fact, I want to keep my husband. ”

"When my mother passed away, I was saddened in my heart, and I was afraid that it would delay the important affairs of the court, so I resigned from the post of Shangshu. Now I just want to go back to my hometown to spend the rest of my life in peace, and I hope the general will understand. ”

"Sir, why bother to lie to Li, if you really don't care about Dahan anymore, how could you go against me because of Tang Ji in the first place." Li Dao smiled, but in Jia Xu's opinion, this smile made Li Dao even more terrifying.

Li Dao is talking about Tang Ji, the concubine of the young emperor. When the young emperor was poisoned by Li Ru, Tang Ji had to return to his mother's home Yingchuan, after Li Dao invaded Chang'an and grasped the power, he ordered the soldiers to go to the Kanto to plunder, Tang Ji was unfortunately captured as an ordinary civilian woman.

If she was just an ordinary woman, Li Dao would not pay attention to her, but the former imperial concubine appeared in Chang'an again. Li Dao decided to marry her in order to defy the emperor and the Han court and establish his absolute authority.

After Jia Xu found out, he told the emperor about it as soon as possible. So the emperor issued an edict and ordered her to be brought into the palace, settled in the hometown where the young emperor lived in the past, and named her the princess of Hongnong to ensure that she had no worries about food and clothing.

Because of this, Li Wei looked at Jia Xu angrily when he saw him for a long time, but Jia Xu acted as if nothing had happened. In the end, Li Wei didn't trouble Jia Xu.

Hearing Li Dao mention this matter again today, Jia Xu couldn't help but smile, "General, what Jia did that day was not for the sake of the big man, but for saving the general." ”

"Oh? Li is willing to listen. ”

"If the general marries Tang Ji that day, it may make the emperor lose face, and the prestige of the Han court will be gone. But it will also make the general bully the imperial concubine and despise His Majesty's infamy, even if the general can tilt his power to the government and the opposition, it will not become a second ...... Lord. ”

"Yes, the lord is loyal to the Han, but he ended up in a troubled dynasty, threatening the reputation of the Son of Heaven, and leaving a stench for thousands of years. Actually, I didn't really want to marry her at the beginning, but I just wanted to test the extent of the emperor's patience. Even if the emperor is silent, I will only let Tang Ji return to his hometown in the end. Li Dao scraped his forehead with his fingers and said with a smile.

"Heh, that's Jia Mou worrying."

"But through this incident, I also know that you still care about the world, and if you let you leave like this, it will be the biggest loss for the Han."

"And what does the general want?" Jia Xu raised his head, looked directly at Li Dao and asked.

"Since Mr. said that he can't participate in court politics because he is disturbed, then he will be a Guanglu doctor."

Seeing that Jia Xu did not object, Li Wei continued: "Actually, Li still has something to ask for Mr. 's help. ”

"General, please."

"Ma Teng, the general of the expedition, has raised troops."

"What?!" Jia Xu couldn't help but be surprised.

At the beginning, Ma Teng was also one of the eighteen princes of the town who crusaded against Dong Zhuo. Because he himself has half Qiang blood, he has a very high reputation in the Xiliang region. And with the fierce combat effectiveness of the Qiang soldiers, any prince is afraid of Ma Teng. If he really wants to attack Chang'an, I am afraid that this Beijing division will suffer more disasters than when Li Dao entered Beijing.

"Mr. usually says: there is no friend or foe in doing things, and the interests are the same. Now you and I don't want this Chang'an to suffer another war, so we only ask for help. Li Dao unexpectedly arched his hand rarely.

Jia Xu was silent for a moment, sighed, and nodded slightly: "Jia knows, tomorrow I will go to the general's mansion to discuss the strategy of retreating from the enemy." ”

Li Wei stood up and thanked him again: "Then thank Mr. in advance." It's late at night, so I won't disturb Mr. Rest, and I'll take my leave first. ”

Jia Xu also got up to send him off.

Until Li Wei walked away, Jia Xu didn't move. He slowly raised his head, looked at the stars in the sky, and said with a wry smile: "Troubled times, are you so unwilling to let go of Jia Xu?" ”

————————————————

Chang'an, Zhang Ji's mansion.

Since Xu Yuan reunited with Zou Li, she has come to see her sister every now and then, for fear that she will be bullied.

Originally, she went to buy Zou Li's favorite dim sum today, but as soon as she entered the door, she found that today's scene was a bit too big.

The people were waiting outside the living room, and the living room was almost full of people, evenly divided into two waves, left and right.

The person sitting on the right is Xi Yan, who Xu Yuan has always disliked, and the two men and two women standing behind her are her four subordinates, the first tall man is called Zhou Han, and the words are hidden; The person with a scar on the corner of his mouth next to him who seems to have been laughing is called Luo Xie, and the words are harmonious; The two women in long skirts are sisters, the elder sister is called Xiao Mei, and the younger sister is called Xiao Rao. They were followed by a dozen or so "little minions".

Xu Yuan had heard of this group of "poisons" before she came into contact with Li Dao, so she had always avoided them. At this time, the group of people had all arrived, and Xu Yuan felt as if there was poison everywhere in this living room.

She instinctively took two steps in the opposite direction, and when she looked to the left, she involuntarily fell to one knee.

"Subordinates, see Shen Shuai."

The person sitting on the left hand side is his own handsome Shen Rong, who still wears his hair straight on both sides as always, and if you look closely, her fair face is still the same, with slender eyebrows, eyes and lips, even ordinary women can't compare to the charm. I didn't expect him to come to Chang'an today.

"No wonder the people I sent couldn't find you everywhere, it turned out that you were there for recreation."

Xu Yuan realized that he was still carrying a snack in his hand, so he hurriedly hid it behind him, and stood behind Shen Rong with a twist.

Zou Li stood to her left, turned his head slightly and smiled at her, and whispered in her ear, "Thank you, sister." ”

Xu Yuan also responded with a smile, and then she noticed that Shen Rong had brought all his subordinates.

Next to her expressionless face was Wancheng's subordinate Lei Xu; And the person who smiled at himself across him was called Zhang Xian. Behind them, too, stood a dozen of his men.

Xu Yuan glared at Zhang Xian, then turned his head and stopped looking at him, Zhang Xian shrugged his shoulders and looked at the other side.

The two sides seemed to be discussing something before, but they were interrupted by Xu Yuan's sudden intrusion.

"Mrs. Li," Shen Rong continued the topic just now, "what do you think of what I just said?" ”

Mrs. Li is what she calls Xi Yan now, because Li Dao has officially married her.

"If Shen Shuai can really help my husband defend Chang'an and repel Ma Teng, what is the point of a mere Huaiyi captain." Xi Yan's voice was very gentle, if she didn't know how vicious her killing methods were, Shen Rong would have mistakenly thought that she was from a scholarly family.

"Then I will go to General Li tomorrow to discuss in detail. It is really a blessing from heaven for a general to have such a virtuous help as his wife. Shen Rong said with a smile.

Shen Shuai said. Now that everything has been decided, please forgive me for staying for a long time. With that, Xi Yan got up, bowed slightly to Shen Rong, and left with a group of subordinates.

Seeing them go out, Xu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, took out a piece of dim sum from the package and handed it to Shen Rong, "Shen Shuai, why did you come here in person." ”

Shen Rong took the dim sum and took a bite, when there were no outsiders, he and his subordinates were actually very casual.

He slowly leaned back in his chair and said a little tiredly: "If I don't come forward in person with these big people, it will inevitably make people think that we are not sincere enough, but fortunately, things are going well in the end." ”

"Is it just for the sake of a captain?" Xu Yuan was a little puzzled.

"What a woman thinks about is simple." Zhang Xian teased on the side.

"You're looking for a fight again, aren't you? Have you forgotten all the hardships you endured before? Xu Yuan glared at him and said.

Zhang stuck out his tongue and stopped talking. Of course, he will not forget the experience of being sneaked into the bedroom in the middle of the night by her in the middle of the night because of Xu Yuan's joke last time, and put a cage of rats into the bed.

Zou Li watched them bickering, and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Sister! I bought you snacks, but if you don't help me, you're still laughing on the sidelines. Xu Yuan complained angrily to Zou Li.

"Sister is angry, Li'er knows that she is wrong." She spoke, but the smile remained.

"Sister Yuan, you don't know, in fact, we came to help, the purpose is to get married to Li Dao, the reason why we asked him for an official position is just to let us lose face. If you don't want anything, the flattery is too obvious. Lei Xu said with a wry smile.

"Alas, okay, these things will be left to our family Shen Shuai to worry about, I just need to obey the orders with all my heart. Come on, come on, have a snack. Xu Yuan didn't care, and beckoned everyone to taste it together.

……

Shen Rong and his subordinates chatted until late at night before leaving with Lei Xu, Zhang Xian and the others.

In order to defend against Ma Teng's possible night attack, Zhang Ji and Fan Chou had already led their troops out of the city and stationed there. At this time, everyone was also sent to rest, and only Zou Li and Xu Yuan were left in the bedroom.

"Shen Shuai didn't know about us, so I was scared." Xu Yuan lay lazily on the bed, half of her clothes were undone, revealing her two slender legs.

Zou Li quietly rested his head in her arms, "Shen Shuai was also afraid that his whereabouts would be exposed and obstructed by the people of the Northern Branch, so he didn't tell him in advance." ”

"Girl, have you noticed? When Shen Shuai was talking to the demon girl, his hand never let go of the 'sleeve pin'. ”

"Well, I saw it, I believe Mrs. Li should also be aware of it." Zou Li nodded in affirmation.

"Alas, Shen Shuai's injury, I'm afraid it will never get better." Xu Yuan said with a sigh.

This is a secret that only a few of them know, the night commander Shen Rong under the seat of Zhang Zhao, the Seven Sages of the Southeast General Hall, who commanded the 20,000 assassins of the Southeast General Hall, but there was a deep scar in his heart.

He was once assassinated by the woman he loved the most, and his injuries were so severe that he almost died, but fortunately, the ten virtuous elders were treated in time to save his life. But since then, he has never believed in women again.

Laughing as a lonely butterfly with flowers, but the thorns pierced my heart.