Although it was snowy outside the city, it was difficult to walk, but inside the city was much better, although the sky was still fluttering with snowflakes, there was not much snow on the ground, and there were soldiers ready to sweep it.

There were not many people on the street, and when the three knights entered the city, their speed increased significantly, and they rushed all the way along Suzaku Street, and soon entered Chongrenfang, stopping in front of Uncle Shen's mansion.

Uncle Shen Guo, like other high-ranking officials, also has his own official residence in Yongjing, but it is a little smaller than Luojing's house, covering an area of twenty acres.

The three knights stopped their horses, and a butler immediately greeted them, "Are the three of you here to find my master?" ”

"We are from Chuzhou, and Shen Shaoyin asked us to send a letter to Xiangguo."

At this time, Shen Shaoyin was no longer the former Shen Yuan, but Shen Qiwu, the son of Shen Guo's uncle, and when the housekeeper heard that it was someone sent by the young master, he immediately became enthusiastic.

"The lord hasn't gone down yet! But I'll be back soon, and you guys will go to the house and have a hot soup. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, a family member shouted: "The master is back!" ”

I saw that in the wind and snow, more than 100 guards escorted Uncle Shen's carriage at a high speed, and the family members hurriedly swept away the last piece of snow and flashed it aside.

In the carriage, Uncle Shen Guo held a copper kettle for heating, squinting at the heavy snow outside, he has obviously aged a little in the past few months, his temples have been gray, he has suffered too much pressure in his heart, he also obviously feels that the emperor's heat on the king of Chu has cooled down, a few months ago, he had publicly hinted to the minister that he could consider changing the prince, but now, he has never mentioned the matter of changing the prince.

A few days ago, Emperor Fu Renjie of Zongzheng Temple proposed that the king of Chu could go to Chuzhou to take office, but the emperor rejected it, "I am still young, I will not consider it for the time being", although this result was expected by Uncle Shen, but it still made him very frustrated.

Seeing that the emperor's health is getting worse and worse, and he is in danger of falling at any time, but the king of Chu is getting farther and farther away from the East Palace, this really makes him worried, mainly because the king of Chu is too young, if the emperor can continue to be on the throne for another ten to fifteen years, then there is hope for the king of Chu.

Uncle Shen sighed softly, he knew that it was a mistake to send Shen Ruyi into the palace, he thought that Shen Ruyi and inheriting Queen Shen's grace would let the emperor continue to Enlong King Chu and even the Shen family, but he didn't expect that Shen Ruyi did not have Queen Shen's heart of family protection, and her existence made Queen Shen fall out of favor, so that the emperor could no longer listen to Queen Shen's words, which was a fatal mistake he made.

The carriage slowly stopped, and at this time, Uncle Shen Guo saw three people leading horses standing under the steps, obviously from afar.

"Who is that?"

One of the guards asked loudly, "Xiangguo asked, who is coming?" ”

The housekeeper hurriedly stepped forward to report: "Xiangguo, they are from Chuzhou, and there is a letter from the son." ”

Uncle Shen nodded, "Give me the letter first, take them down to eat and bathe, and come to see me later." ”

The first messenger handed the letter to the guard, and followed the housekeeper into the house, Uncle Shen Guo felt that the letter was quite thick, and it seemed that his son had a lot to say to himself, so he ordered: "Go directly to the study!" ”

Uncle Shen Guo entered the study and sat down, and he didn't even change his clothes, so he couldn't wait to open his son's heart, the recent run on Chuzhou has attracted the attention of the government and the opposition, and the emperor only dealt with the officials of Jiangning Mansion, but did not mention the business war of the three major merchants, but Uncle Shen Guo paid attention to another detail that happened at this delicate moment, that is, the emperor ordered him to attack the Phoenix Society after less than two months when Huangfu Wujin served as the governor of the navy, and Uncle Shen Guo believed that this contained very important information, This is actually a harbinger of the emperor's attack on King Liang.

The major game of politics will never be on the water, only people with deep eyes can understand it, and Uncle Shen Guo also thinks that he is a person with deep vision, but he gradually understood a little bit after the fact.

In the past three months, the emperor has actually only done one thing, that is, the game between him and the Liang Wang family, from the open dispute between Huangfu Zhuo and Zhang Chongjun, to the secret fight between the emperor and Huangfu Jiang, Huangfu Jiang pushed Huangfu Wujin to the forefront, and asked to be clear as the heir of King Liang, the emperor was forced to agree, but then sealed Huangfu Wujin to Chuzhou, away from Helong, this is the first round.

Huangfu Jiang personally went to Helong to announce Huangfu Wujin as the successor of King Liang, established the status of Huangfu Wujin in the army, and dealt a heavy blow to Huangfu Zhuo, but the emperor immediately ordered Huangfu Wujin to attack the Phoenix Society, obviously, he was ready to take the Huangfu Zhi of the year as a precedent to cure Huangfu Wujin's crime of ineffective attack and cut off his Liangwang domain, which was the second round.

Then there will definitely be another third round, so what will be the third round? Uncle Shen Guo will wait and see.

As for the fact that there is a run on Chuzhou that seems to be very eye-catching, Uncle Shen Guo also thinks it is not interesting, these are just the excitement floating on the water, for those who don't understand politics, he Uncle Shen Guo has a deep gaze, what he wants to see is the game under the water, that is the real wonderful.

Uncle Shen opened the letter and read it carefully, the letter was written six pages, most of the pages were written about what Huangfu Wujin did, the more Uncle Shen looked at it, the more shocked he became, Huangfu Wujin actually married the daughter of the Qi family, recruited a large number of elite militia groups, and spent huge taxes and silver to buy a large number of food and materials from all over Chuzhou.

Raising militia groups, hoarding grain, buying tea, storing fine iron, recruiting blacksmiths, building warships, every action is a big deal, especially Wujin's unauthorized change of will, the holy decree is obviously to require the counties to recruit the reserve militia of the navy, and the money and grain of the militia are borne by the counties, so that the county officials can control the militia, but in the end it became the county officials, and the emperor Fu Wujin himself to recruit, the money and grain are borne by him, with the support of the Qi family, he can fully afford it.

This is undoubtedly to take the opportunity to recruit private troops, so that Uncle Shen Guo is frightened, the so-called layman looks at the excitement, and the insider looks at the doorway, Uncle Shen Guo is based on the first two rounds of the competition, he can see more deeply, see through the true intention of Huangfu Wujin, this is the third round of the Liang Wang family and the emperor.

Once the attack on the phoenix will be unfavorable, the emperor will definitely take the opportunity to cut the domain, and the emperor Fu Wujin will use the power in his hands to fight, plus Xiliang's 200,000 army is eyeing behind him, what will be the end in the end? Uncle Shen suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

"Bang!" He slapped the table and stood up, his heart was both anxious and excited, and the anxiety was that if the emperor did not give in, then the fourth round would be to trigger a war, and the emperor would mobilize the army of the country to launch an attack on the Xiliang army and Chuzhou at the same time, and use force to quell the rebellion of the king of Liang, then the army of the king of Qi would go south to Chuzhou, and the army of Yuzhou, which was biased towards the prince, would also go south to Chuzhou.

And the excitement is that in this case, the emperor will also be the king of Chu, sit in Chuzhou, and lead the army of Chuzhou to attack Huangfu Wujin with the general of the king of Chu, and finally Chuzhou will really fall into the hands of the king of Chu.

Only war will break the existing pattern and break the predicament of the king of Chu, Uncle Shen Guo deeply understands this, although as a prime minister, Uncle Shen does not want war to happen, but as a representative of the Chu royal line, he hopes that the war will break out from the bottom of his heart.

Uncle Shen walked around the room with his hands behind his back, and his heart was extremely conflicted.

At this time, the butler's voice came from the door, "Master, the messenger is here." ”

"Let him in!"

Uncle Shen returned to his seat, keeping his posture high.

The leader of the three messengers walked in and knelt down to Uncle Shen Guo, "See Xiangguo for your humble duties!" ”

Uncle Shen Guo saw that he was quite capable, and couldn't help but secretly praise his son for choosing people, so he smiled gently: "What's your name?" What to do in Jiangning Mansion? ”

"Li Jin, who is lowly, is the head of the Yamen Bing Cao of Jiangning Mansion."

"Hyosa?" Uncle Shen shook his head and sighed, "Is there still a military thing to speak of in Jiangning Mansion?" ”

"Back to Xiangguo, after the run, Shen Shaoyin deeply felt that there was no one in the government, and he was negotiating with the Chuzhou Metropolitan Governor's Office, hoping to lend a part of the army to the government directly under the government?"

"And how much is he going to borrow?"

"Shen Shaoyin said, five hundred sergeants."

"Not bad!"

Uncle Shen Guo laughed, it seems that his son is also quite smart, according to the regulations of the Ministry of War, the allocation of more than 50 people, subject to the approval of the Ministry of War, and the secondment of more than 500 people, with the permission of the emperor, so in the way of borrowing, to avoid the approval of the Ministry of War, no more than 500 people, but also to avoid the emperor's permission, this kid is now very good at playing side balls.

"I mainly want to ask you one thing, that is, to what extent has Huangfu Wujin recruited the reserve militia of the Navy now?"

This is what Uncle Shen is most concerned about, he thinks that this is the core of everything, everything that Huangfu Wujin does, marriages, grain, pig iron, craftsmen, everything is to recruit his own army, this is the most important thing, but the son's letter is very simple about this matter, indicating that the son did not see through the truth.

Li Jin pondered for a moment and said: "I have a friend in the humble position, who is the captain of the plum blossom guard, who turned out to be the captain of the Jiangning Military Mansion, very capable, and the martial arts are also very strong, the plum blossom guard expanded the army in Chuzhou by 5,000, he was selected, the day before the humble post left, he drank a meal with him, he told me that this time the reserve 80,000 militia regiment of the navy army was recruited by the plum blossom guard, and a thousand people were transferred to various parts of Jiangbei and Huaibei, divided into fifty recruitment teams, my friend was in charge of the recruitment of Runan County, and there were three teams under him, he told me, The recruitment of the reserve militia is nominally for the sake of the water army, but the recruitment criteria do not require water knowledge, but require strong and powerful, mainly displaced people in the Huaibei disaster area, and the salary recruited is very high, giving three taels of silver and one stone of rice every month, it is said that the recruitment is very hot, and the 80,000 places can be filled within seven days. ”

Uncle Shen Guo gasped, his private soldiers only gave one tael of silver and five buckets of rice every month, and Huangfu Wujin actually offered such a high price, which could support him from the Qi family, and he hurriedly asked: "Then your friend said that it will break through the quota?" ”

"My friend refused to say, but his meaning was obvious, he would definitely break through the 80,000 limit, and he told Humility when he was drunk that even if they recruited 200,000, they would only report it to the Ministry of War as 80,000, and the Ministry of War had no way to check it."

Uncle Shen Guo lightly stroked his beard and sneered, as expected.

(To be continued)