The next day, more than a dozen boxes were moved to Guo's mansion, and Guo Shao opened them in the room for inspection. One of the boxes was filled with copper coins, not ordinary copper coins, all freshly minted and in good condition, and then wrapped in red silk. the other, when opened, was a chest carved with delicate patterns cast in silver; When it was reopened, it was a golden box inside. At the bottom was a large box of gold and gemstone jewelry, with a large bead the size of a quail egg in the middle. He couldn't help but pick it up and look at it, wondering if this thing was a pearl of the night, how valuable it was.

Guo Shao took the beads and looked at them for a while, and said in his heart: It really costs a lot to get a wife, and I'm about to go bankrupt now.

Zhao Kuangyin's wife died at the end of last year and needed to be married; The loss should be quite large, and the money spent on Ming Media marrying a married wife is obviously wasted.

No amount of money is enough. It is not easy for Guo Shao to save some money, and he does not hesitate to kidnap prisoners and extort money when he fights Shu State; After fighting Shouzhou, he robbed the Southern Tang Dynasty government and scraped the big households in the city; plus Yu Lu, who has held the position of senior military general and magistrate for a long time. All at once the money was gone...... also bargained for a big bargain from Mrs. Chen, otherwise this dowry would have to be discounted by at least half; Thinking about it, Mrs. Chen also made a bloody investment, and this money put pressure on senior generals and bureaucrats like Guo Shao.

Of course, because of her background, Fu Ermei is worth more than this amount of money at all, and it is not that person who can't marry her with so many dowries...... As Guo Shao once said, it is worth exchanging the sixteen states of Huainan, the only problem is that the sixteen states of Huainan are not his.

Compared with the two compartments, Yulian and Yang's are easy to get, basically the same for nothing, and Jingniang is about the same. No wonder women are generally reluctant to be concubines, everyone wants to show a little bit of their own value and nobility, and it is probably not a pleasant thing to be accepted home without any movement.

Guo Shao couldn't take care of a lot, marrying a second sister Fu was enough for him to toss, and he had to take care of his busy work for a while.

At the same time, the "Shen Chen Li" firm will have a caravan to Youzhou in the near future to import and export goods. Guo Shao felt that he only sent his own soldiers over, and he might not have the insight to find out any valuable information, so he fooled Zhou Duan and asked him to go to Youzhou as the leader of the spies; After the work was done, he promised him to sit in the second position of the shogunate in Xuzhou Zhongwu Festival (Zuo Yu hung the long history).

Zhou Duan, a side branch of the Zhou family in the Southern Tang Kingdom, is unknown and has no merits, whether he has the talent to say only by himself, it is not easy to be an official; If the official position is so easy to get, everyone will be an official.

Although there are no elite soldiers in Xuzhou Jiezhen, it is a big city, and the rules do not interfere in the government affairs of the local state and county, but in a city, you can be the emperor of the soil; Guo Shao and Zuo You are often not in Xuzhou, if Zhou Duan is a curtain man, his power can directly override all the officials in Xuzhou, and he has no reason to refuse.

……

Zhao Kuangyin married Wang Shizhong of Hebei before Guo Shao, but now he can't marry a wife. The funeral of the Zhao family has been largely over, and he once wrote to Ding Wei, but it was not surprising that he was rejected and retained as appropriate. The emperor didn't want a man he regarded as a powerful general, because his father was dead, and he couldn't use it.

Now the generals are relatively idle, Zhao Kuangyin and Guo Shao have no contact, and they met in the main hall on the first day of April.

The generals did not speak at the court meeting, and the emperor and civil officials were concerned about ensuring agricultural production in various places. Li Gu played detailed measures for the prevention and control of the Yellow River, and urged the abolition of Tuntian, the implementation of a new tax system and service law, and quarreled with several other officials in the main hall. Wang Pu Shangshu continued to plan and expand the city of Tokyo, as well as improve the transportation system. Wang Puxian Hebei Water Conservancy Irrigation Map...... Others suggested all sorts of strange ways to prevent locusts.

The emperor finally focused his energy on governing the country, and the civil officials all vied with each other to offer advice, hoping to show their merits and worth.

Zhang Yongde, Zhao Kuangyin, Guo Shao and others didn't say a word, regardless of which of them was right and who was wrong.

finally dispersed the court meeting, and the senior generals walked out of the palace boringly. Zhao Kuangyin and Zhang Yongde all the way, the two did not hide their friendship, one of them was the commander of the front of the palace, and the other was inspected, and the two people with the most military power in the Zhou Dynasty.

The two of them went out from the Donghua Gate, and then rode to the palace magistrate's office, and walked to the rest room to drink tea together.

Zhao Kuangyin is one year older than Zhang Yongde, but he respects Zhang Yongde very much between words, and often calls him "Gong": "After the Battle of Gaoping, if it wasn't for the Gong's efforts to ask for credit for me, Zhao would not have today, and he dare not forget the grace of his encounter." ”

Zhang Yongde shook his head and said: "It is the official family who has the grace of knowing Brother Zhao, and I am just discovering talents for the official family." ”

Because there were no outsiders, Zhao Kuangyin poured tea for Zhang Yongde with his own hands, opened his mouth and seemed to have something to say, but he swallowed it from his mouth, and then said: "The official family is dedicated to adjudicating and governing local affairs, and it is also for the Northern Expedition to have sufficient supplies, so as not to have worries." Didn't Wang Pu say that as long as there is a bumper harvest in the summer and autumn this year, the Northern Expedition can start next year! This year, it seems that the wind and rain are smooth and there are no major disasters, and it will be a few months before we can go into battle. ”

Zhang Yongde said: "Why don't you prepare this year...... After the Battle of Jinyang, it has been three years now, which day is the official family not preparing for the Northern Expedition? The attack on Qinfeng and Huainan was all to eliminate the worries of the Northern Expedition. Youzhou since Shi Jingjiao dedicated to the Liao State, has always been the pain of the Central Plains, if this place can be recovered in the hands of the official, it will be a great achievement praised by all generations. Our forbidden army has fought so many battles, and what we are waiting for is that day! ”

"From this point of view, the key to this battle is to capture Youyun, and only need to drive the Khitan soldiers out of Hebei." Zhao Kuangyin said.

Zhao Kuangyin felt that the emperor's mood was very urgent...... Is it because of the weakening of the body? He and Zhang Yongde are both people who often see the emperor, and they can observe the emperor's complexion and physical condition.

There was no expression on the black face, and Zhao Kuangyin pondered for a long time. He wanted Zhang Yongde to say something in front of the emperor, but he didn't know where to persuade Zhang Yongde for a while...... He opened his mouth before, just to take advantage of Guo Shao's marriage to King Wei; But thinking that he had a holiday with Guo Shao, it was too obvious to mention Guo Shao, so he looked at him.

There is a very obvious thing lingering in Zhao Kuangyin's heart: once the official family dies, the eldest prince Chai Zongxun is only three years old, and Empress Fu will inevitably be regent.

Zhao Kuangyin had to take into account that Guo Shao was a military general and the queen's confidant from the Wei Wangfu, and now he was going to marry the Fu family, and the relationship was even further; If Empress Fu takes power, he Zhao Kuangyin still has good fruits to eat?

This situation doesn't matter as long as Emperor Chai Rong is in power, but now seeing Chai Rong's weak body makes Zhao Kuangyin under a lot of pressure. Empress Fu didn't hear anything bad about her after a serious illness in Huainan, she was still so young, she should live longer than the official family. and that Guo Shao, who is in his twenties.

Zhao Kuangyin felt more and more that it was not Guo Shao who was a big threat to him, and his grudge with himself was just accelerating the conflict...... The hardest thing to deal with is the Fu Hou.

The queen has not appeared for a few months, but as long as you pay attention to her layout, it is not difficult to see that everything is very favorable to her.

The title of the queen also holds the name of the mother of the prince Chai Zongxun; No one in the harem can threaten her at all, and in recent months, she has been even more cautious in her words and deeds, and she refuses to make any mistakes at all. In the forbidden army, she gave wide favors, and her prestige in the hearts of the soldiers was very high, and she even surpassed Zhang Yongde in terms of prestige and support...... Not only that, but she also promoted her henchmen and concretized the military power to further stabilize the power of the forbidden army through marriage.

That Guo Shao has a lot of power in the Guards Division. The elite troops are not as good as the Imperial Division, but it doesn't matter at all, as long as he is inserted in Tokyo in the future, it is enough to threaten everyone and dare not resist, so as to protect the will of the regency center. And the location is appropriate, if Guo Shao is now in Zhang Yongde's position and the empress's private person, the emperor is unwilling to reuse it.

After the Fu family was sealed more than a year ago, Zhao Kuangyin didn't pay attention to this woman at that time, and he was too busy to take care of himself at that time. But just a year later, looking back, Empress Fu had already deployed everything.

Zhao Kuangyin had to look up at this woman. He said to Zhang Yongde quietly: "In the past, I could occasionally see the queen in the court, but in recent months, I have never seen her and the official family enter and leave the palace. ”

Zhang Yongde looked upwards in thought, thought for a moment and nodded yes.

Zhao Kuangyin said again: "Fan Zhen once talked to Dou Yi about a secret matter, has the public heard of it?" It is rumored that when Taizu died, he mainly focused on two people, one was to let Wei Renpu be the privy envoy, and the other was to strictly order the official family to be sealed. Taizu believed that with these two people, Ansheng would be able to hand over the throne to the official family. ”

Zhang Yongde shook his head and said, "I haven't heard of this. However, today's queen is extraordinary, with the bearing of a mother. ”

Zhao Kuangyin secretly thought: Wei Renpu's role is completely understandable, at that time, the official family was still unstable when he first ascended to the base, and he needed a person who was both capable and reliable to grasp the military power of the Privy Council; What is the direct effect of the symbol? Could it be that Taizu has a long-term vision, and has already considered that all the descendants of the Guo family have been slaughtered and there is no successor, and he wants to think about the third generation of the throne? If the queen is dedicated to maintaining the royal family of the Great Zhou, it is indeed much more stable to have a person like her who presides over the government after a hundred years in the official family.

But now it seems that no matter what she thinks, it is not a good thing for Zhao Kuangyin...... If the Zhao family can marry the Fu family, and there is no Guo Shao, the queen's henchman, Zhao Kuangyin will naturally not feel the threat of the queen. It was the queen's actions that made him very uneasy.

He said quietly: "Taizu's edict is far-sighted, and Wei Renpu is still a privy envoy. ”

Zhang Yongde did not shy away from saying: "I see the situation, Wang Pu may replace Wei Renpu as the privy envoy. ”

Zhao Kuangyin listened and said: "Empressing the queen is also what Taizu meant earlier. If the official family is away from the court and is no longer in the court, the queen can also preside over the overall situation. ”

Zhang Yongde was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and felt that the tone of his words was a little wrong. Doesn't that mean that there are no emperors in the world who are the same, and there are queens who can control the court?

Zhao Kuangyin recklessly hinted in an aggravated tone: "Please think carefully, whether the queen's prestige and strength can preside over the military and politics...... Now the official family and the queen respect each other like guests, and the dragon and phoenix are in harmony, which is indeed a blessing in the world. ”