The Jinxiang Hall on the high pedestal is magnificent, and the large pillars exposed under the roof of the hall make it increase a little rougher. A group of people came out of the temple gate, and they talked as they walked, and the voices of the people were noisy.

There are a lot of people here, but the square still feels empty, probably because the space around it is too wide; There were no additional buildings around the Jinxiang Hall, not even a single tree, but there were many water tanks next to the houses in the distance. Most of these important buildings are next to this look, not for the sake of beauty, but for the prevention of assassins and fires.

A group of ministers had just retired from the court, and they were still discussing the state affairs just now. Under the heavy eaves building full of oriental charm, the appearance of the civil officials in robes bowing and waving has a unique scenery.

Wang Pu casually clenched his fists at the officials who saluted him: "Gong Li, please come back to the next day." ”

After he said that, he turned his head to Guo Shao and said: "Li Chuyun has chosen the right person, and the old man didn't expect him to progress so quickly." ”

What I just paid attention to in the court was what Wang Pu said. Less than a month after leaving Beijing, Li Chuyun had already crossed the river to capture Lizhou, besieged Langzhou (Changde), and sent people back to Beijing to report the progress of the war; He besieged Langzhou on the one hand, and attacked the surrounding territory on the other hand, in order to turn Langzhou into an isolated city. Li Chuyun wrote the strategy of "cutting the wings first, and then pounding the heart": he thought that Changsha would send troops to save Langzhou; After besieging the city and sending reinforcements, weaken the forces of Changsha, and then further capture Changsha, without rushing to storm Zhou Xingfeng's old nest Langzhou.

After consulting with several core ministers, the Privy Council considered Li Chuyun's ability and granted the former battalion the right to make arbitrary decisions.

Guo Shao laughed and said: "I have known Li Chuyun for many years, don't you know what kind of person he is?" ”

Wang Pu bowed.

At this moment, Guo Shao saw a eunuch with a dust whisk hurrying from the corridor under the Jinxiang Palace. The empty square is really very conspicuous when it is occupied, and it is no wonder that it is said that not planting trees can prevent assassins.

Guo Shao has good eyesight and recognizes Cao Tai at a glance. Wang Pu glanced at it, saw Guo Shao's footsteps slowing down, waiting for the eunuch slowly, and immediately took his leave.

After a while, the thin Cao Tai caught up with Guo Shao, Guo Shao hugged his fists and saluted: "What is Grandpa Cao in a hurry?" ”

Cao Tai hurriedly returned the salute politely, and took out an envelope from his arms: "Guo Du will check this first." ”

Guo Shao glanced at Cao Tai, quietly took out the letterhead, first looked at the first line that was written "General Gao Yanyan", and immediately turned to the end to look at the retained money: Emperor Dashu. He asked: "Is it Qin Guogong's handwriting?" ”

Cao Tai said: "That's right. ”

Guo Shao browsed the contents of the letter, and looked at the corner of his mouth with a smile. After a while, he raised his head and smiled: "This Qin Guogong is really funny." ”

Cao Tai also laughed when he saw this, glanced left and right at the moment, and whispered: "What the Queen Mother means, Meng Chang doesn't have to worry about it first...... Now that the sender and the letter are in hand, why not just ask the messenger to give it to Gao Yanyan? Gao Yanyan has not left Beijing in the past few days. ”

After listening to it and thinking about it for a while, Guo Shao understood Fu Jinzhan's intention: it was nothing more than distrusting the generals of Shu, and now let Gao Yanyu take charge of the Shu army, he was not at ease, and wanted to test it.

He was silent for a long time. Cao Tai said: "Gao Yanyu is the person recommended by Guo Dudian, and the Queen Mother also wants to ask you what you mean first." ”

Guo Shao thought for a while, his face seemed to be relieved, and finally spoke: "There was one thing before. After the battle of Qin Fengcheng, the Great Zhou captured some Shu troops, and the first emperor incorporated them and transferred them to the Huainan battlefield; As a result, those Shu soldiers surrendered at the first touch, and they also took the initiative to find the southern ** generals to surrender. Later, the first emperor defeated the southern ** and captured the Shu soldiers, and the first emperor was very angry and ordered them to be killed. ”

Cao Tai nodded to show that he was listening.

Guo Shao said again: "I think of the Battle of Gaoping again, after the Xiaodi army was dispersed, my brother Luo Mengzi was called by other generals to continue to pursue the Northern Han army; Luo Mengzi said that if it wasn't the general's soldiers, he would be called by cattle and drive everyone up to die...... It can be seen that even his own people don't trust unfamiliar generals, not to mention the surrender of the Shu army, how can it be easy to trust the generals sent by the Great Zhou?

That's why I want to use Gao Yanyu, he was originally a general of the Shu army, and the soldiers of Shu were familiar with him and trusted him. Only the soldiers of Shu who have been incorporated in this way have combat effectiveness, otherwise we will accept them in, and it will not be easy to use, so what will we do with food and military salaries in vain? Gao Yanyu is a capable and intelligent general, but there are many capable generals in the Great Zhou, if it weren't for his background as a military general of the Shu Kingdom, I don't have to use him as the commander of the Jiannan Army. ”

Cao Tai said: "I see, the miscellaneous family remembered it, and when I went back, I relayed it to the Queen Mother." ”

Guo Shao said: "I don't think there is any need to give this letter to Gao Yanyu. We gave it to him, what do you want him to do? First of all, it was impossible for him to listen to Meng Chang's wishes and take risks. Gao Yanyan is not a stupid person, he originally wanted his family to be ruined because of the destruction of Shu Kingdom, but now he can keep everything and get greater reuse, and the good general of the Zhou army will not do it, and he will be in the same stream with Meng Chang? Meng Chang doesn't seem to be a person who has done something, and now he has nothing to do, as long as Gao Yanyan is not stupid, he will not go to death with him.

Gao Yanyan can only have two reactions. First, to hand in this letter as a sign of loyalty, so that he will have to bear the remorse and condemnation of the old master (Meng Chang) for his ruthlessness and unrighteousness; How much more would it prove his loyalty? What a person thinks in his heart, no one can force it, people can only look at his words and deeds on the surface. Mutual trust can only be managed, not forced.

Second, pretend not to know, and quietly burn the secret letter as if it was not received. In this way, he can fulfill a little affection for the old master. However, since we have tested him, will we find that he will be suspicious of doing that? Gao Yanyan thinks that if we are suspicious of him, he will also be wary.

With such speculation, it can be concluded that to test him will not gain a little, but only destroy a little fragile trust between them. So I think it's useless, or tell the Queen Mother not to be tempted. The ancients said, 'Don't suspect when employing people', maybe it's because it's useless to doubt him, right? If I felt that Gao Yanyan was unreliable, I wouldn't have recommended him before. ”

Cao Tai hurriedly nodded after hearing this: "Guo Du checked his words, and made the miscellaneous family suddenly, think about it." ”

Guo Shao smiled confidently: "Even if Gao Yanyu wants to rebel, he can't beat me in Shu at the beginning; Now that I've lost the mountain barrier, I can still clean him up a second time. Don't worry too much. ”

Cao Tai looked up to see Guo Shao's face, Cao Tai looked at Guo Shao's calm and confident smile, and listened to a look of respect: "The miscellaneous family has never served a few people in their hearts, but the miscellaneous family is really serving Guo Du to check." There is Guo Du to check in the court, and the miscellaneous family feels very peaceful! ”

Guo Shao patted Cao Tai on the shoulder: "Father-in-law Cao is also a good person with both ability and political integrity...... The letter was given to me. ”

Cao Tai said excitedly: "The miscellaneous family and Guo Du have been inspected by nine deaths and a lifetime of hardship, and the miscellaneous family has always remembered your goodness." How does Guo Du Spot Check plan to deal with MeSign? If the Queen Mother asks, the miscellaneous family will also answer correctly. ”

"Give it back to Meng Chang." Guo Shao said, "If I want to kill him, I don't need this thing." ”

Cao Tai was thoughtful, as if he was pondering the intention of Guo Shao's move, but he was not a talkative person, so he didn't ask again.

Guo Shao said: "If it's okay, I'll go first." ”

Cao Tai saluted and said: "The miscellaneous family also has to rush back to ask the Queen Mother to return to this matter, so I will leave." ”

Guo Shao was not in a hurry, he took the letter home and stayed for a long time, joking with Jing Niang in the living room in the front yard, while waiting for Zuo You. Zuo You has to come almost every day to talk nonsense, so he usually comes by himself.

Sure enough, he didn't wait long, Zuo You entered the courtyard gate, no one stopped him at all, and there was no need to report, he entered Guo Shao's house as easily as he entered his own house.

The two exchanged recent news so that information could be shared. Guo Shao took out the secret letter and handed it to Zuo You: "You take the time to go to the Mansion of the State of Qin and return the letter to Meng Chang." ”

Zuo You took the letter first and looked at it, his shoulders twitched: "This...... It's so funny, it's not like looking for death. ”

Guo Shao glanced back at Jing Niang, and said quietly: "The Queen Mother didn't say that she wanted to kill him." Zuo You went to return the secret letter, took the opportunity to observe Meng Chang's attitude, and figured it out, let's talk about it again. ”

Zuo You suppressed his smile and said, "Meng Chang really can't rebel, but we still have to beware of him talking nonsense and affecting the situation in the hearts of the people of Shu." ”

Guo Shaozan said: "Mr. Zuo is getting more and more thoughtful, and he has the talent of a prime minister." ”

Zuo You hurriedly shook his head and said, "Don't dare, I'm too junior in the next class." ”

After talking for a while, Zuo You got up and wanted to go to see Meng Chang immediately. The so-called close to Zhu is red and close to ink is black, Guo Shaoping is also like this, and the people around him are more or less affected.

At this time, Jing Niang said: "Ah Lang, I want to go with Mr. Zuo to see Mrs. Hua Rui." ”

Guo Shao smiled: "It's okay, you can do whatever you want, I didn't tie your feet." ”

…… Zuo You rode in a carriage, and Jing Niang wore a hat to shade the sun, which was more crisp than the man, and rode directly with him. The Mansion of the State of Qin is in the east of the inner city, not too far from Guo Shao's mansion, and the carriages and horses can't walk along the street for a long time, and the slow walk is less than half an hour.

The group handed over the greetings in the Qin State Mansion, but they went out to greet a tall and fat civil official. Zuo You said: "Zuo You, the young secretary of Taichang Temple, wants to meet Qin Guogong, I hope you will introduce me." ”

The civil official hurriedly said: "Please, please come in quickly." ”

Zuo You came to the door with Jing Niang. The civil official was much lower in grade than Zuo You, and he only dared to walk behind the side, guiding the direction with his hands, and did not dare to go to the front. Zuo You vaguely heard a scribe behind him whisper: "Zuo Shaoqing often enters the gate of Guo Du's mansion. ”

Zuo You ignored their whispers, didn't care, and said in his heart: I am Guo Shao's staff, and I have nothing to hide; If it weren't for this identity, would I be able to be the Shaoqing of Taichang Temple?

Instead, the civil official nodded and became more deferential. Zuo You saw it in his eyes, and he was not surprised, he had seen too many of this kind of things; When the low-ranking colleagues in the DPRK heard about his relationship, most of them looked like this.