The process of rewarding meritorious soldiers and banqueting meritorious soldiers has come down, and it is already late at night. Looking at Zhang Jun, who was drunk and lying on the main throne and wandering freely, the subordinate officials of the Assassin Mansion who were still awake during the banquet got up one after another, and set up their drunken colleagues to say goodbye and withdraw. Seeing this, Li Yanzhi and the others also knelt on the ground and kowtowed, said goodbye and returned.

When the feast dispersed, the chamberlains began to clean up the dishes used by the guests. After cleaning up, Chen Zhen, who stayed by the drunken Zhang Jun's side, waved his hand and asked the attendants to retreat. Then, Chen Zhen picked up the drunk Zhang Jun and went to the inner room.

After entering the inner room, the drunken Zhang Jun squinted slightly, glanced around the room, and saw that there was no one else. Immediately, he broke free of Chen Zhen's support, walked to the couch and sat down, with a clear look, how could he still be half drunk?

Chen Zhen was shocked when he saw this: "Make Jun ......" Before the words came out, he saw Zhang Jun laughing, stroked his palm and said: "Chen Zhechong, don't be stunned. In this drinking banquet, all the officials and generals drank wine during the banquet. And what Jun drinks, all water. ”

"Lone pretended to be drunk during the banquet, but he just wanted one or two confidants to go here with Lonely, and discuss matters." Seeing that Chen Zhen was silent, he asked: "This time the Western Regions are restrained, what should I do after I break the Chongjue?" ”

Chen Zhen pondered for a moment, and arched his hand: "Xie Zhushu has been in the army since he went to, he has been conscientious and conscientious, and he has taken the lead in everything. Military supplies, money, food, etc., were also properly purchased. Yu Binglu is also quite insightful. I heard that the Western Regions were restrained, and I had made it clear to my subordinates that this time I should refuse to be Hulu, recuperate, and never raise a sword again. When his subordinates heard it, they thought it was true. ”

"Oh?" Zhang Jun's eyebrows raised slightly: "Thank you for the meaning of the book, is it a sense of approval?" ”

"Military and political affairs, so that the king has his own judgment." Chen Zhen lowered his head and said: "However, this time the Western Regions have been conquered, and there have been three major wars in the middle of the year. The government treasury was empty, and the additional taxes and grain made it difficult for the commoners' families to make ends meet. The previous defeat of Woganling made the loss of troops even worse......"

Thinking of this, his subordinates dared to admonish him, and dared to ask the envoy not to use the sword lightly. Now that Li Dingdong has been appointed by the chief historian of Huqiang, he can pay part of the money and grain, and send sharp soldiers to join forces with him, guard the order, and strictly prevent the invasion of thieves. And the westward direction through the trade route, the accumulation of wealth, is to lead the army to the east in the coming day, the treasury is full, the army is strong, but also adds a few points of chance. ”

Zhang Jun nodded, and only then did he realize that Chen Zhen was still standing and replying, and hurriedly pointed to the side of the Hu bed, and asked Chen Zhen to sit down. Chen Zhen bowed to face Zhang Jun, cautiously walked to Hu's bed, and then knelt on it in a proper manner.

"Zhe Chongjue Li Dingdong, is this person credible?" Zhang Jun saw Chen Zhen sitting down in an orderly manner, so he opened his lips lightly and asked.

Chen Zhen hesitated slightly, and then replied: "Dingdong previously held the order of residence, and the loss was not small. Does the envoy think that it is inappropriate for him to raise military funds and purchase food and equipment by himself? ”

Zhang Jun's face was worried: "I heard that Dingdong had few desires and threw himself into the army. There are not no matchmakers, Guangwu and Lingju are all over the country, and their demeanor is also considered to be upper-middle. But Li Dingdong didn't even marry a family. Previously, you and I guessed that Li Dingdong's sale of the first was to accumulate wealth for himself. However, this time Lingjun was under the stage, seeing that the soldiers of Lingju County were so strong and strong, it can be seen that this person's intentions are not small, and most of the property he collected before must have been used in the army......"

Chen Zhen arched his hand and said: "What the king is concerned about is far-reaching, Dingdong gathers assets, one does not repair the house, and the other does not marry." Life is also monotonous and simple. It would be difficult to explain if all the resources were not spent in the military. If they are against it, they really have to guard against ......"

He pondered for a long time, then looked up at Zhang Jun again, and said: "My subordinates have heard that Li Dingdong is friendly with Xin Peng, the Shou Xin of Guangwu County, and Xin Yan of Lingju County. I privately thought that Xin Yan could still stay in Lingju. However, Xin Fei will be transferred out of Guangwu. Now that the Su Wei has been trained for a small success, he asked Jun Ling Xie to be the main book of the Qiang Captain's Mansion, and the army was stationed in the Jieling Residence. Such an arrangement means that Li Dingdong has two hearts, and he must be tied up and difficult to do. ”

Chen Zhen's suggestion made Zhang Jun's eyes light up. Many of the problems that have plagued him for a long time seem to be resolved one by one. In the past, Han Pu and others, who were both relied on by his uncle and himself, were really a little anxious in their ability to lead the army. And now there is a Li Dingdong who can fight, but he may not have any other thoughts.

Zhang Jun has been struggling with how to place Li Yanjiong's hot potato. He once wanted to transfer him to the state and serve as a subordinate official in his own government. Unexpectedly, those high-ranking scholars were already aware of their desire to promote the Han Shu and the humble stream to fight against them. In this case, they were able to tolerate a Chen Zhen in the mansion, which was already tolerant enough. If another Li Dingdong is inserted, no one will easily agree. Previously, Zhong Zhengying Dynasty found a lame excuse to strongly demand the execution of Ma Ping, which can also be regarded as a counterattack caused by these noble clans against the matter of making the monarch reuse the Han Shu and the humble stream.

And Li Yanzhi was promoted to a subordinate official of Guangwu County, and since he became the commander of the army, he has been deliberately accumulating assets and goods. Undoubtedly, Zhang Jun was deeply disturbed. He had already sensed that Li Yanzhi was a sharp knife, but it was okay if the knife was pointed at the enemy. Zhang Jun is worried that this knife will one day be pointed at him.

Chen Zhen also saw through Zhang Jun's thoughts, and proposed that Xie Ai led the newly reorganized and trained elite of the state governance and guards, and stationed in the festival residence. First, it can enhance the border defense strength of Liangzhou, and if the thieves invade the north again, the Guangwu front line has sufficient troops to block the enemy's attack. The second is to let Xie Ai contain Li Yanzhi and transfer a county guard who has no friendship with Li Su, so as to eliminate any possibility of rebellion to the greatest extent.

Zhang Jun let out a long sigh: "When the ancestor was here, Lone was stubborn. At that time, thanks to the blessing of the ancestors, I didn't know what was difficult and what was sorrowful. To this day, the ancestors have become ancient. No matter how big or small, you have to ask one by one, so that you can know that the situation is troubled internally and externally, and it is especially difficult to maintain. ”

"Don't worry about it. Li Dingdong came from exile in Yongqin, and he is not a disciple of a high family, so he has no foundation, and if he has two hearts for a while, it will be unfair to lose. The subordinates speculated that they were driven by the idea of returning to their hometowns and recovering their land, and they never forgot the wishes of their ancestors. If the king drives him to do it, this person will also have a lot to do. ”

Chen Zhen's words of relief did not make Zhang Jun's expression relaxed. He slowly picked up the stone inkstone on the table, looked at it and said, "Xi is as Chong said." In the future, if there are any difficulties in military and political affairs, I hope to answer questions and solve doubts. ”

Chen Zhennuo continued to speak. And Zhang Jun's face not only did not feel relieved, but became a little more dignified......

Li Yanzhi led the generals all the way back to the camp where the troops were temporarily housed. The generals all drank some wine and were rewarded for their exploits, and everyone was full of red light and proud.

The patrol guards they met along the way all looked at them with strange eyes with a little jealousy. During the day, the county soldiers were ordered to escort the captives into the city, and these guards also saw it with their own eyes. Chen Zhen has led the troops for a long time, and he knew that the soldiers who returned triumphantly were the most arrogant, so the special city guard camp vacated a lot of empty rooms for the soldiers of Lingju County, and the food supply was also extremely favorable, so as not to let these uncles be dissatisfied and do something under the nose of the king, and then he and Li Dingdong would not be able to explain, and everyone would not look good.

When the generals returned to the camp, they immediately returned to their own camps and summoned the generals under their command to apply for military discipline, so as to prevent the soldiers under their command from leaving the camp without authorization, picking quarrels and provoking troubles, and causing unnecessary trouble. Li Yanzhi drank a lot today. Although the mash-like rice wine didn't bring him much drunkenness, he was already sleepy after days of running. He lay down on the couch and fell into a deep sleep.

The county soldiers stayed in Guzang City for another two days, and as the rewards and gifts were in place one after another, Li Yanzhi was summoned to meet Zhang Jun again. Replace the official seal in his hand with the official seal of the governor of the Qiang Lieutenant Mansion issued by Zhang Jun. The team then replenished some grain and grass one after another, and then set off on the road back to their hometown.

In this expedition to the Western Regions, there were more than 300 dead soldiers in the camps. Due to the hot weather in the Western Regions, it was impossible to bring them back to the county, so the generals chose a place to bury these robes. The names of these fallen soldiers are all recorded. When they returned to the county, they had to be engraved into tokens and stone tablets, and then sent to the martyrs' shrine for placement.

Li Yanzhi already had a plan in his heart to do everything in the future. The last time the first asset was sold, after the bereavement pension was issued, and then the armor equipment was built, it cost millions of dollars. There is still one million dollars left, but Li Yanzhi wants to allocate some of it to open several schools for the orphans of lieutenant generals to go to school.

Thinking of the opening of the school, he couldn't help but think of the problem of textbooks again. As soon as I read the textbook, I thought of the miraculous movable type printing in history. Before Bi Sheng, the reason why knowledge was almost monopolized by the big families was because the books were all copied by hand or printed on a single block of engraving. Copying by hand and, needless to say, is inefficient and costly. Although engraving has made great progress compared with hand-copying, it also faces the limitations of service life, printed content, and still high cost.

Movable type printing is a great invention in the history of mankind. Bi Sheng made the clay into small character molds of single characters, and then fired them to harden. After that, you only need to arrange and combine the different characters, and you can brush the ink on the arranged movable type board and print all kinds of books as you like. This invention can be said to have broken the long-standing monopoly of high-level knowledge, and enabled the Confucian scholars and scholars of the Han class to gradually form a civil and official force through study, and become the mainstay of governing the country.

One of the most obvious benefits of popularizing education to the poor and the general public is that it can dispel the current situation of serious class solidification. The reason why the high families of the scholar clan can monopolize the various ascending channels is because they know that the humble and humble people in this era cannot afford to read at all. If you can't get knowledge, you can't compete with these high-ranking scholars.

However, on the road of civilization development, there will always be some changes. This time in Guzang City, Li Yanzhi inadvertently climbed the camp wall to watch the tower, and saw a scene that he will never forget. There is a large courtyard near the Hongfan Gate in the north of the city, and there are many half-grown children dressed as Confucian scholars sitting in the courtyard. It looks like it's a school, but this school is not quite the same as an ordinary school. Teachers and students use sign language to communicate with each other.

Later, Li Yanzhi learned that this academy was established by Zhang Liangming, the first assassin of Liangzhou. In his later years, Zhang Liang suffered a stroke and was paralyzed in bed, unable to hear or speak, although he still had food and clothing to support, but thinking of the deaf and mute among the ordinary people who would not have support, he had the idea of setting up this special school.

Zhang Liang's decision caused the state to spend a lot of money every year to fund this special school. And although this move was implemented, it did not cause much fierce opposition from the scholars and high-ranking families. Perhaps it was because these self-deaf families felt that these deaf and mute people did not threaten their interests and positions, so they acquiesced to the continuation of this school.

Li Yanzhi came up with this idea, on the one hand, to find a way out for the orphans of those fallen soldiers in the army. On the other hand, it is also a reserve of talents for himself. After all, it is now a fact that he has become a subordinate officer of the Captain of the Qiang Guard's Office, although this Captain of the Qiang Protector is generally concurrently held by the Liangzhou Assassin Shi, but Zhang Jun personally took this position, and the possibility of leading the army to the expedition is obviously very small.

In this case, in the military operation to recover Longxi, which is very likely to be launched in the future, most of them will be appointed by the state to appoint a chief general to act as a lieutenant to protect Qiang. And Xie Ai and Li Yanzhi, one chief bookkeeper and one long history, are bound to serve as deputy generals. As for which place to find to govern after conquering Longxi, and use it as a stable rear in his hands, it is not something he can worry about now, but he thinks that if there is a day, he must have one or two available people in his hands, so as not to be blind again.

Since Guzang returned to the county seat, the army walked for another three days. And when Li Yanzhi led the army to appear in the north of Lingju City at dusk three days later, he saw Liao Rulong with an anxious face outside the north gate.

Seeing Liao Rulong for the first time, Li Yanzhi was still a little strange in his heart. And Liao Rulong had already rushed forward as a flying horse, and before the mount entered in front of Li Yanzhi, he had already rolled the saddle and dismounted, and said with a crying voice in his voice: "The negligence of his subordinates deserves death, please punish Sima!" ”

Li Yanzhi saw his expression, and an ominous premonition suddenly came to his heart. He looked at Liao Rulong with a solemn face: "But what's going on with the little lady?" ”

Liao Rulong knelt on the ground: "My subordinates have a heavy trust from Sima...... I still hope that Sima will punish the crime, and his subordinates will not dare to resign......" Liao Rulong's voice fell, and the horsewhip in Li Yanzhi's hand was already thrown out angrily, and he was pulling Liao Rulong's back.

After pumping this whip, Li Yanzhi also regained some sanity and clarity, he leaned out from his horse, pulled Liao Rulong up, and said: "Get up, this is not the place to speak, and go into the city with me, and then talk carefully!" ”