"It's all sent by someone else on the way to find you, you can't let me sneak back to the yamen first, right? That's a lot of trouble. Li Chongyan said.

Cao Xiwen thought about it, and it was reasonable! So he stopped being stubborn and diligently sent things to the kitchen and let his grandmother help with the cooking.

Today is no exception, not long after Cao Xiwen sent the meat and bamboo shoots into the kitchen, the aroma of braised pork belly with bamboo shoots wafted into the courtyard.

Li Chongyan and Cao Xiwen sat under the grape trellis in the courtyard as usual, and drank a plate of peanuts first.

"You, the county master, are really the strangest person I've ever met."

Li Chongyan smiled: "How do you say this? ”

"Other county officials, it's too late to loot, but I've never heard that you have extorted any money from anyone, and the court judges the case according to the law, and never shelters those local tyrants and inferior gentry. But it can be said that you don't take a penny, you keep yourself clean, and the people don't refuse to give you gifts and come again......"

"It's called the big husband being informal. I have treated the people as children, and the people have treated me as a high house. Have you ever seen a child give a piece of pork to his parents, and his parents still don't accept it? ”

"Hahaha, you people who read can come up with crooked reasoning. How old are you to be the father of Yao Po in the roast chicken shop? Cao Xiwenle broke a chicken leg and handed it over, but he picked a weak chicken breast.

"What can chicken breasts taste like? It's better to lose it. Li Chongyan said in disgust.

"Chicken breasts don't taste good, but my master said that people who practice martial arts eat chicken breasts best."

"Sure enough, he is a martial arts idiot, and he even thinks about practicing martial arts when he eats a chicken. If you work so hard, if you don't become a general or commander in the future, I'm afraid it will be a pity. ”

"General? Command? I don't know the art of war, so I can't lead the army to fight. ”

"Hey, what's so hard about that. Now that it is a peaceful and prosperous era, there is almost no war to fight, and you must know the art of war to be a general? ”

"Then there is no chance of promotion."

"Not necessarily, didn't your father just serve as a guard for the mission twice and was promoted to commander?"

Li Chongyan is used to a condescending tone, and he never calls it "Lingzun Lingtang", Cao Xiwen is a cheerful person who practices martial arts, and he doesn't care about these subtleties, and he feels close to him when he listens to it.

"Hey, how did you know about my father's ascension to commandership?"

When Li Chongyan first met Cao Xiwen, he heard him say that his father served in the army, so he asked the prince to secretly investigate, but he didn't expect that it was Cao Feihu, who escorted him to the blue sea last year.

“…… I'm a native of the imperial capital, and I can still hear some rumors in the officialdom. ”

Cao Xiwen let out an "oh" when he heard this, but he didn't think much about it.

"Actually, although I practice martial arts, I don't want to be a military attache like my father."

"Why is that?"

"The big husband should bring a three-foot sword to make immortal achievements! He followed behind a group of civil officials like that, and he bent on each other every day, so he was not aggrieved. ”

"You don't believe it when you say that you can't study while practicing martial arts, you only remember half of the words, the contemporary three-foot sword is true, why don't you say four words after the three words of the husband?"

Cao Xiwen was stunned for a moment and said, "Why don't I remember?" ”

"It should be that the eldest husband was born in troubled times and should bring a three-foot sword, but now it is not a troubled time, where do you go to make any immortal achievements? Don't you have to be like your father to do things?

Road? ”

Cao Xiwen became a little impatient: "I obey the order, I live every day by looking at people's eyes, and how to stand up to the sky." It's not a good feeling to be in front of such a military attaché. ”

"So what do you want to do in the future?"

Or...... I went to open a dart game, so I ate on my own. ”

"That's not good, I heard that the dart game is also a dangerous job, and if you don't do it well, you will lose your life."

"No matter how dangerous it is, it's better than following behind the butts of these civil officials." As soon as Cao Xiwen's voice fell, he remembered that Li Chongyan was also a civil official, and his face was a little sneering.

Li Chongyan didn't care, he laughed in a low voice: "It's better for you to be my guard, I'll pay you, we can talk, and you don't have to go out to do business, how good?" ”

Cao Xiwen looked at Li Chongyan for a while, and suddenly laughed out loud: "I said that the county commander, in our Xinyang County, now the thieves have been lured by a notice from you to guard the door for you, what other guards do you need?" Besides, the man has ambitions in all directions, and I don't want to stay in Xinyang County with you all the time. ”

"You...... You are," Li Chongyan just wanted to say that Yanque knew the ambition of the bird, but felt that this sentence was too difficult Cao Xiwen might not understand, so he sighed and said, "What if I am promoted in the future?" ”

"Where's the rise?"

"Imperial Capital."

"Then I'm not going either."

"You just said that men are ambitious in all directions, isn't the imperial capital enough for you to break through?"

"It's not that the imperial capital is not big enough, but it's ......"

"Don't talk in a hurry."

Cao Xiwen raised his neck and drank a cup, then frowned and said: "Brother Li, although you are a civil official, I think you are not as calculating as those civil officials, and you are also a cheerful character, and you are fair in this Xinyang County, although sometimes you ...... Sometimes it's a little ...... The temperament of a rich boy, but that's not a big deal. I Cao someone makes friends, I don't look at the wealth of the family, I only look at the temper and not the temper. You are a civil official, and now the whole country of Cangwu is heavy on literature and light on military force, but you still persuade me to join the army, and also subsidize me with silver taels, which shows that I don't follow the world, so I am really willing to make friends with you. If you need to keep you safe in the future, and you want me to help you, how will I shirk it? You have come to pay me now, and you will really provoke people's irritation. ”

Li Chongyan was greatly moved by what he said on the phone, and was about to open his mouth to explain, when Cao Xiwen's grandmother brought out a large pot of pork belly.

His grandmother had to bow down when she saw Li Chongyan at first, but after getting acquainted with him, she was not so restrained, and whenever Li Chongyan brought a bunch of things, she would pick out the best to serve him with good wine and food.

It happened that Mrs. Cao came out of the back kitchen at this stall, heard the word "join the army", and asked in surprise: "Xi Wen, are you going to join the army?" Have you consulted with your father? ”

"Grandmother, and it's a matter of not a word, Hugh must mention it to my father, otherwise he will beat me again."

Old Madam Cao saw that his face was red, and she knew that she couldn't listen to the persuasion of this wine, so she had to turn her head to Li Chongyan and said: "Master Li still helps persuade this useless thing, and he thinks about fighting and killing every day, what can he do in the future?" Can you still kill a generalissimo? His father wholeheartedly let him give him this name from Wencai, hoping that he would be able to serve as an official in the same dynasty in the future. ”

Li Chongyan said with a smile: "The old lady is too worried, in my opinion, this little Cao may not be as good as Lao Cao in the future." It's better to let him go, if he can really be a generalissimo of soldiers and horses

Isn't the old lady happy? ”

Old Madam Cao didn't expect him to persuade herself in turn, she was stunned and couldn't refute it, so she had to shake her head and turn away.

Cao Xiwen laughed: "I just like Brother Li's temperament, I can say whatever I want." ”

Li Chongyan sighed: "In fact, it is only a matter of time before you join the army with your ability and be reused, why do you disbelieve in the imperial court so much?" ”

"It's not unbelief, it's unwillingness. The sky is high and the birds are flying, wouldn't it be better for me to be free and unfettered. ”

Li Chongyan still wanted to persuade him, but Cao Xiwen had already made a gesture to stop him:

"Let's not talk about this first, it's useless to talk about it. Have you heard about the Ministry of War coming to Jingzhou to recruit troops? ”

"What?"

"All states and counties in Jingzhou have posted recruitment orders, but Xinyang County has not posted them."

"Is there such a thing? Why is that? Li Chongyan was surprised.

Cao Xiwen smiled bitterly: "I don't know either...... In fact, Brother Li persuaded me to join the army, and I also thought about it, but now that people don't recruit, I simply broke my mind. ”

The more Li Chongyan thought about it, the more strange it became, and he couldn't wait to immediately run back to the imperial capital to find the theory of the military department. But the distant water couldn't save the near fire, so he had to give up.

He sighed and said, "Actually, I came to look for you today to do something else. ”

Cao Xiwen was stunned for a moment and asked, "Where are you going?" ”

"Go back to the imperial capital, I have been transferred back, and I will leave in about three or four days. I originally said that if you go to join the army, then you can go with you on the way back to the imperial capital, so it won't be too boring. ”

"Why is it so urgent? How have I never heard you mention it? Cao Xiwen had already put down his wine glass and stood up.

"So I'm here to ask you today if you want to go to the imperial capital with me."

"What if you go? My father is in the imperial capital, and I don't want to see him at all. ”

"Are you afraid of what he will do, if you get ahead in the imperial capital, won't it just convince him?"

Cao Xiwen thought about it, and finally bowed his head and said: "I'm not only afraid of him, but also afraid that I don't have that ability." In a place like the imperial capital, either relying on the power of the family, or relying on the song to meet the people, how can it be a place to eat with real skills? ”

Li Chongyan couldn't wait to stretch out a hand from his throat to grab Cao Xiwen, telling him that he was a prince, what did he want to do in the future, and what could he not do?

But he endured it after all, after all, his father said that he would not let him mention his identity to anyone. Seeing that there are still three days to expire, you can't break the vows at this juncture.

Cao Xiwen rejected Li Chongyan, and for a while the two of them didn't speak with their wine glasses, each thinking about their own thoughts. Cao Xiwen saw that his face was quite depressed, thinking that he was reluctant to say goodbye to him, and was greatly moved, so he was relieved: "It's good that you can reunite with your sister-in-law when you go back to the imperial capital, which is also a happy event." ”

When Li Chongyan heard the word sister-in-law, he remembered Zhu Zhijie's face that was full of country, and his heart was a lot more relieved.

Cao Xiwen picked up the wine glass and persuaded him, taking advantage of the situation and sneering: "It's so far away, didn't my sister-in-law leave anything for Brother Li?" ”

Li Chongyan was already half-drunk, so he took off a sachet from his waist and threw it over.

Cao Xiwen took it in his hand and saw that it was a blue-colored sachet, the embroidery was extremely fine, and there was a faint fragrance of tea.

"This is what she embroidered for me, but unlike ordinary sachets, it is not incense, but tea."

"Tea?"

(End of chapter)