Luoyang North Palace, Jiaofang Palace, the Son of Heaven sat on the main hall, playing the piano attentively, the slender eyebrows shrugged slightly, two slightly tired eyes looked at the void of half a step in front of the piano, neither fell on the piano, nor fell on the opposite Queen of Song, Bai Chen's fingers slid flexibly on the strings, wiping and moving, like a dancing elf, the passionate sound of the piano flowed out under his fingers, there seemed to be a banner in front of him, the iron horse ran wildly, if there was a golden drum in the ears, feathers and arrows galloped.

With a dazzling twist of the Son of Heaven, a strong note suddenly sounded, and with a sound of "呃", the piano song stopped abruptly, and a string flew in the air like a snake, and fell weakly on the piano case.

The Son of Heaven tightened his brows, looked at the broken string in a daze, and his face turned pale.

Empress Song's face also changed, and she stirred her fingers uneasily. Now she has a thinner face, three points thinner than before she was pregnant, but she is more energetic, and her eyes are more agile than before. She knew that the Son of Heaven was worried about the war in the northern Xinjiang these days, so she played this "Victory Song" to pray for blessings, which was originally a good thing, but she never thought that the strings were broken, and it was an ominous omen.

"Your Majesty......" Empress Song hesitated slightly, then opened her mouth and blamed herself: "The concubine's piano has not been used for a long time, maybe...... It's too tight. Yaxing, who disturbed His Majesty, is really a sin that cannot be forgiven. ”

The Son of Heaven sat in front of the piano case and was silent for a long time. He picked up the broken string and looked at it, anger and frustration flashed in his eyes, and he suddenly smiled faintly: "One piece and one relaxation, the way of civil and martial arts, people are so stringed, they really can't be stretched too tightly." Queen, you're too nervous. ”

Empress Song was stunned, and then she exhaled with relief, and bowed down: "What Your Majesty said is very true, the concubines are indeed a little nervous when they see Your Majesty." ”

"Hahaha......" The Son of Heaven laughed, raised his eyes to look at the Empress Song who seemed to be reborn, and nodded with satisfaction. When he was a little tired of Yuan Meiren's games and would rather lock himself in the side hall to do pottery, he was surprised to see the new Queen Song, and felt very fresh, and he was very curious about Queen Song's experience of opening the valley for a month, so he had the interest to play the piano to Queen Song, but he didn't expect to encounter such a disappointing thing in the end.

It's just that he doesn't want to expose his mind in front of Queen Song.

The Son of Heaven stood up and walked out slowly, and the queen got up to accompany her, her face as calm as water. The Son of Heaven is a little strange, if it was before, Queen Song would definitely invite him to eat in Jiaofang Palace, why didn't he take the initiative to have a surname today? Although he didn't want to stay here, if Empress Song didn't even have the intention of asking, he felt a little unhappy.

"Queen, has this time been boring?"

Empress Song smiled lightly: "Your Majesty, everything is self-satisfied, and the four o'clock Jiaxing is the same as others." The concubines came to read the scriptures and pray for blessings, and occasionally they were a little bored, so they went to enjoy the flowers and things, and realized the avenue, and there was no sense of loneliness. ”

"Really?" The Son of Heaven's eyes flashed, and he stroked his beard: "You are the queen, what blessing do you pray for?" ”

Empress Song was unhurried and bowed: "Naturally, I pray for Your Majesty, pray for the soldiers in Northern Xinjiang, may Your Majesty be in good health, and may the soldiers in Northern Xinjiang return victorious." ”

The Son of Heaven looked at Queen Song in some surprise, is this still the same wooden woman before? He hesitated, didn't say anything more, and walked out of the Jiaofang Hall quickly, the queen stood under the corridor to send off, watching the figure of the Son of Heaven go away, she turned around and went back to the hall.

Tang Yingzi pulled Wang Chu out of the back of the hall and squeezed a grimace at Queen Song: "Her Royal Highness the Queen answered really well." Wang Chu also smiled and bowed. Queen Song smiled faintly: "It's nothing, it's just going with the flow, now I also see it lightly, it's not interesting to think about this competition for favor, just let others toss it, anyway, I'm not in the mood." ”

"Women's morality is to be obedient first, and it is not the work of sages to compete for favor, and it is good to avoid some appropriately." Wang Chu comforted him twice, and frowned again: "How can a good victory song break the strings, this doesn't sound like a good sign." ”

"You can rest assured, even if there is any mistake, it will not fall on your husband's head." Queen Song smiled, changed a string again, slowly tuned the tune, and played the song "Liang Zhu". Wang Chu raised his eyebrows and didn't say anything more.

The Son of Heaven had just come out of the Jiaofang Hall not far away, and the Zhongchang attendant Huan Xian greeted him, and said to the Son of Heaven with a happy face: "Your Majesty, the Northern Xinjiang has won a great victory." ”

"A big victory?" The Son of Heaven was overjoyed, and then became nervous again: "Who is the big victory?" ”

Huan Xian lowered his head and handed over the battle report with both hands. The Son of Heaven glanced at it, did not reach out to take it, he took a deep breath, took the battle report, opened it and looked at it, and immediately smiled.

"Serving His Majesty's Tianwei, he led more than 10,000 elite horsemen, went deep into the barren, spanned 3,000 miles, exterminated the crazy sand, slaughtered wild wolves, beheaded 23,521 people, and obtained countless ...... of cattle and sheep."

The Son of Heaven was overjoyed, and patted Jian Shuo's shoulder hard: "My Beizhong Lang will win again, win again, hahaha, go and tell the queen that I am going to her for dinner, let her invite the eldest princess and Wang Chu, and I will tell them the good news in person." ”

Jian Shuo's face bloomed with joy, and he answered, and trotted back.

The Son of Heaven thought for a while, and said to Huan Xian: "Go, inform the nobles and beauties of the palace, and go to the queen's palace for dinner today." ”

Huan Xian nodded again and again, and hurriedly went to the palaces to spread the word, and just after taking two steps, the Son of Heaven stopped him again: "Tell Yuan Meiren that I want her to play the piano and the piano, just that "Victory Song". ”

Huan Xian was stunned for a moment, didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly went.

Yuan Hui sat in the stone room, and after listening to Huan Xian's words, the corners of his eyes twitched, and he nodded quietly. Huan Xian left, she lifted the pen on the case, ready to continue to complete the painting on the case, but suddenly felt a sense of unexplained upset, the pen stuck in the air for a while, but I didn't know how to put down the pen, the ink on the end of the pen dripped down, and the originally refreshing picture was suddenly stained.

Yuan Hui sighed, put down the pen, crumpled the painting into a ball, threw it into the wastepaper basket, stood against the railing, smashed the railing with his fist hatefully, and said to himself: "Providence makes people." ”

…… Danhan Mountain, a new city rises from the ground, the original low city wall of the palace city has been widened and heightened, it has become a fortified city that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, hundreds of crossbows to defend the city are lined up along the four city walls, there is a stove every dozen or so, which is used to boil water for cooking in peacetime, and can be used to boil oil to retreat from the enemy in wartime. The storehouses along the base of the city wall stored a large amount of food and ordnance, enough for 10,000 men to hold on for half a year.

No matter who it is, they will be shocked when they see this scene, Yuan Shao is equivalent to building a new city in less than a month, no matter what, this is a thing to be proud of.

But Yuan Shao is not in a good mood at all now, sitting in the corner tower at the head of the city, looking at the vast sky in the north, his face is pale, the jade Ruyi in his hand is broken into two, and the remaining half is tightly held in his hand, as green as his face.

Liu Xiu wrote him a military newspaper, just a simple description of the war a few days ago, it was these few words, but it aroused Yuan Shao's sky-high anger. When everyone thought that Liu Xiu would shrink back and hold out in Bingzhou, he made a surprise surprise attack of thousands of miles, wiped out the Wild Sand tribe at lightning speed, slaughtered the wild wolf tribe, and sent the first level of the law deduction to Luoyang.

The edict of the Son of Heaven has not yet arrived, but it is conceivable that at this moment, his exploits in "capturing" Danhan Mountain have become a joke, and the original plan has been unable to achieve his goal. He must make meritorious contributions, and make military exploits that are even more brilliant than Liu Xiu, in order to ensure that the goal of taking charge of the military power in Northern Xinjiang can be achieved as scheduled, otherwise, the result of the Yuan family's best efforts is only to make a wedding dress for Liu Xiu.

He Hao is here, Han Fu is here, Zang Min is here, Guo Tu is here, Guo Xun is here, the trial is here, Cui Lie is here.

Tian Yan and Xia Yu also came. Sitting in the crowd, Tian Yan and Xia Yu sat side by side, glanced at each other, no one spoke, sighed in unison, and lowered their heads.

The atmosphere was very dreary, and no one would speak first in the face of this good news.

Yuan Shao took a deep breath, forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart, hid half of the jade Ruyi in his sleeve, and said loudly: "Beizhong Lang will win the first battle, which is a great blessing. Now that Xianbei in the west has been beaten to the point that there is no power to fight back, and the left flank of our army is safe, how to arrange the next war, please speak freely. ”

He Hao frowned, he heard something wrong from Yuan Shao's words, according to their plan, occupying Danhan Mountain is the goal, and then sit and wait for Tanshihuai to come back to attack the city, and wait for him to attack the city when he is exhausted, and then send out cavalry to raid, they should wait now, how can there be a new arrangement? Does Yuan Shao want to take the initiative?

"General, the horse is tired in the spring, and it is not suitable for a long battle, this time ......"

"Liu Xiu can attack three thousand miles, why can't we?" Yuan Shao blocked He Hao with a word. He Hao couldn't figure it out, at this time, when the horse was the thinnest, how could Liu Xiu run long distances and win a big victory?

Not only did he not understand, but almost everyone couldn't figure it out, except for Tian Yan, because he had also received a notice from Jia Xu asking him to give priority to the money he got to buy refined grains such as soybeans that could guarantee horsepower, but Tian Yan was reluctant, he felt that it was a pity to feed the horses with a large number of beans, and it was almost the same for people to eat, and the state was short of food, how could it be so extravagant.

It was only at this time that he figured out Jia Xu's intentions, and he probably estimated that Liu Xiu would return to Bingzhou at that time, and also thought that Liu Xiu must take the initiative in this season, and whether he could keep the war horse in better physical condition was the key to it.

However, it is too late to say anything now, and even if the war horse is soaked in gold, it is impossible for the war horse to recover in a few days.

So when Guo Tu said that the army should attack in several ways, and Liu Xiu crossed the desert to pursue the Xianbei people, Tian Yan spoke out against it, he didn't say why Liu Xiu Neng, they can't, he just said that at present, the physical strength of the war horse is insufficient, and the effective combat distance is greatly reduced, with the most ideal plan, the army can only cross the desert, but after crossing the desert, the army has no ability to continue the pursuit, will the Xianbei people wait there for you to fight, and the army can catch the main force of Xianbei as soon as the desert is out of the desert?

Before Tian Yan's words were finished, Guo Tu sank his face, and said in a strange manner: "Tanaka Lang was originally under the command of General Bei Zhong Lang, so tell me, why can't we do what General Bei Zhong Lang can do?" Could it be that Tanaka Lang was as brave as a tiger when he was under the command of General Kitakaro, and he was as timid as a mouse when he arrived under the command of General Zhengbei? ”

Tian Yan was furious, he hated this kind of scribe the most, he didn't understand anything, he was bitter, he was about to scold, Yuan Shao sank his face and snorted: "Everyone is a person with an identity, discussing the war situation is discussing the war situation, don't hurt the harmony." Tian Yan was speechless, stared at it for a long time, sat down very depressed, and refused to say a word again.

Xia Yu smacked his lips and didn't say anything. In fact, he has long seen that although Yuan Shao is now a general of Zhengbei, he has never regarded himself as a martial artist in his dress, speech and demeanor, he is still a child of an elegant family, and those who are close to him are still those scribes, and martial artists are inferior in his eyes.

Tian Yan and Xia Yu are the most experienced in combat among these people, they have no room to speak, and other warriors have no qualifications to speak, only to hear Guo Tu and others speak freely, the results soon came out, the army went out to attack in three ways, Zang Min, Tian Yan and Xia Yu each led 10,000 horses in front, Yuan Shao led the Chinese army to respond in the back, and when they encountered the Xianbei people, they could fight, and if they couldn't fight, they would slowly retreat, and the Xianbei people would be lured to the front of the Chinese army, and then gather strength to annihilate them.

At the same time, Yuan Shao ordered Zhao Bao, the Taishou of Liaoxi, and Shi Gongsun Zhan, the governor of Liaodong, to lead the Wuhuan people of Liaoxi to attack to attract the main force of Xianbei in the east and cooperate with the army.

For a time, Youzhou was scratching again, and the people's grievances were boiling.

…… Liu Xiu received a handwritten letter from Lu Min, Lu Min blamed him for intensifying the situation for his own selfish interests, and now Yuan Shao wants to attack with all his might, wantonly requisitioning Wuhuan cavalry and homeless people, the people of Youzhou are uneasy, many homeless people began to flee, and it took several years of hard work to stabilize the situation to come to naught. For the sake of safety, he has sent Mao's mother and son back to his hometown in Zhuo County, because he is worried that if this battle fails, the Xianbei people will take advantage of the weakness, then Shanggu will bear the brunt, and it is difficult to say whether he can hold the military capital and ensure the safety of Zhuo County and Guangyang.

Liu Xiu didn't know what to say, he had already estimated that there would be blame, but he didn't expect that the first one to blame him was Lu Min. This nerd brother has been too conservative for a few years, and he can be regarded as proficient in military affairs, but he still doesn't know anything about politics.

The edict of the Son of Heaven soon arrived at Yangshu Lake, and it was Liu Bei and Buqihou who sent the edict. Liu Bei told Liu Xiu that he passed the exam last year and his grades were not bad, but the admitted scholars had no job arrangements and could only find their own way at present, so he applied to Bingzhou. Fu Wan is the husband of the eldest princess of Yang'an, and he is your brother-in-law, and the Fu family is a family of scholars, and Fu Wan's knowledge is very good, and His Majesty arranged for him to write a chapter for you. Speaking of this, Liu Bei smiled, Your Majesty said that you left Liu Biao, and you can't read the recitals you wrote, and you don't have any literary brilliance at all, so you arranged for Fu Wan.

Liu Xiu smiled disappreciably, what kind of arrangement was made to write the recital, in fact, he was still a prisoner. However, Fu Wan has such a relationship, which is closer than Liu Biao.

"Where did Liu Jingsheng go? I thought he would come back after staying in Luoyang for a while. ”

"The history of Jingzhou thorns." Liu Bei quietly told Liu Xiu, "It is said that Liu Yan is likely to do the Jizhou Assassin History, and Liu Yu may also be released, but it is still clear where to go, I heard the news from the palace that if Yuan Shao wins this time, Liu Yu should be the Yuzhou Assassin History, if Yuan Shao loses, then Guo Xun may be dismissed, and Liu Yu may return to Youzhou." ”

Liu Xiu was shocked in his heart, this is the bureau of the Son of Heaven, using a trustworthy clan to seize the states?

"Is there any news from Zhang Jiao?"

"Zhang Jiao has been the Taishou of Runan." Liu Bei smiled mysteriously: "Zhang Liang made the history of Qingzhou Thorn, and Ma Qiang made the history of Yangzhou Thorn." ”

Liu Xiu nodded, he was not afraid of Zhang Jiao's people as officials, the more people he arranged, the better, it was best to expose all his strength, Zhang Jiao took the grassroots route, but to be honest, although the number of homeless people is very large, but if they really want to rebel, the homeless people can't do anything, they occupy too little property, and there are too few people who can lead the troops to fight, and manpower can't be turned into troops, and they can only become cannon fodder in the end.

Liu Xiu greeted Fu Wan ceremoniously, Fu Wan read out the edict, the Son of Heaven commended Liu Xiu and his subordinates, and then put Liangzhou back into his control, and Zhang Ze, the captain of the Qiang Guard, and Zhou Hong, the assassin of Liangzhou, and the county guards, as well as the soldiers and horses they commanded, were all returned to his command and were responsible for the war west of Yunzhong.

This edict, in fact, has already pulled Liu Xiu out of the Zhengbei General's Mansion, he is already the main general in charge of the war on the Western Front, no longer need to listen to Yuan Shao's command, it is estimated that Yuan Shao will be very angry when he hears this edict, but there is no way to be angry, who let him mobilize the army for more than two months, except for occupying an empty city, there is no real surname at all.

"Your Majesty is very satisfied with the exploits of General Kitakaro." Fu Wan said to Liu Xiu with a smile. He was less than forty years old, of medium stature, well-mannered, and had a smile on his face whenever he spoke. While handing the edict to Liu Xiu's hands, he exclaimed: "Now Luoyang City is reciting the name of the adult, and I am surprised that the adult can travel thousands of miles at this time." ”

Liu Xiu understood, he called Jia Xu over, and then introduced Fu Wan and said: "This is my long history, Wuwei Gu Zang Jia Xu Jia Wenhe, Jia Changsha's descendants, this time I can go on the expedition, on the one hand, it depends on His Majesty's grace and conquers everything, and on the other hand, it is also Wenhe's human strategy, and there is no last resort." ”

After looking at Jia Xu, he saluted with a smile on his face and talked to him. Jia Xu was a little embarrassed, what Jia Yi's descendants are bragging, they can't be taken seriously, he doesn't dare to talk nonsense casually, for fear of being laughed at, but he didn't expect Liu Xiu to say it to Fu Wan seriously. However, the weight of what Liu Xiu said was of course different from what he said, if he could rephrase it from Fu Wan, no one would dare to say it to his face in the future.

What's more, Fu Wan Shangshu has been a heirloom for 400 years, and he has the eldest princess of Yang'an, his identity is unparalleled, if Fu Wan can mention his name in front of others, the impact is not ordinary, Liu Xiu pushed the credit to him, which will be very beneficial to his future career.

Liu Xiu set up a banquet to receive the wind for Fu Wan, and then arranged for Fu Wan to visit several nearby cities, Fu Wan came here definitely not to write a document for him as simple, he and Liu Biao bear the role of supervising the army, let him see and understand the new policy of the state, and through his articles to the ears of the Son of Heaven, it is good for signing a three-year contract next year. Wang Yun knew this truth very well, and he took the initiative to ask to accompany Fu Wan to go to the cities, and Liu Xiu readily agreed.

Most of the Shuofang and Wuyuan counties were originally empty, but later Liu Xiu wanted to hoard the land, considering that the city would be safer, so he moved all the people to live in the city, and only went out of the city when it was time to sow seeds and harvest. Now it is not yet harvest time, the people are all in the city, and they are certainly not idle, except after undertaking the usual defense, most of them are engaged in handicrafts, and only children under the age of thirteen can go to the school in the city without doing things.

Wang Yun knew that Fu Wan was a scholar, and of course he was most interested in the school, so he took him to the school in Shuofang City at the first stop. Looking at the school hall that was not tall and majestic, but was cleaned up, looking at the schoolchildren who were sitting straight and serious, and looking at the books they had neatly stacked on the desk, he was very satisfied.

"Very good, very good, I didn't expect that there is such a strong style of study in this frontier." Fu Wan looked at the schoolwork of a school, and said with a smile: "I originally thought that Jinyang School was doing so well because Cai Bojiao was presiding, but now it seems that my opinion is a little biased." ”

"The adult's opinion is also good, the gentlemen of these schools are all students who have studied in the Jinyang School, they are routinely learning to be a gentleman in each county for a year, and then go to the army to be a soldier for a year, and then go to the tuntian or industrial and mining fields in various places to investigate and travel for a year, and finally they can enter the temples to do the history." Wang Yun said, "This is to let them have a long insight, know that the people's livelihood is difficult, and be able to sympathize with the people's feelings after becoming officials, and don't just care about absorbing the people's fat and people's ointment." ”

After listening carefully, he kept nodding his head, and raised some questions: "The books these children read are only "Analects" and "The Book of Filial Piety", if there are good seedlings, what will happen?" ”

"There are good seedlings for reading, all of them are selected to be sent to Jinyang School to be burned by Cai Bojiao, and those who like the art of hundreds of crafts can also go to the Taoist College of Jinyang School. When they get there, they can concentrate more on their studies, and the schoolchildren in various places are just laying some foundations, being able to read some papers, and counting numbers, and of course they are far from being able to talk about learning. ”

"Dao Academy?" After Fu Wan, he was a little unimpressed.

"The Taoist Academy is the cradle of skilled craftsmen." Wang Yun's original attitude was the same as Fu Wan's, but he had changed now, "Is there anything special about adults drinking wine from Yuanzhou?" ”

Fu Wan'er smiled: "Guizhou's wine, not to mention the rest, this strong is second to none." ”

"That's what the students of the Dao Academy did." Wang Yunmei said: "The recipe for this wine was originally brought by Mrs. Lu from Shuzhong, and there are a few good wine people in the Taoist Academy, who feel that although the wine is more fragrant than ordinary wine, it is still not enough, so they got together to improve it, and after more than two months, they really found a simpler way." ”

Fu Wan was very curious: "Is it, how to do it?" ”

Wang Yun smiled mysteriously, shook his head and said, "This is a secret, I can't tell it." My lord, if you want to drink, I can supply it for free, but if I spread this recipe, I will be beaten with black sticks, and when the time comes, the heroes of the state will hunt me down, what can I do? ”

After smiling, he didn't ask any more.

Wang Yun immediately said: "My lord, please here, I will take you to see the meat processing workshop, the dry food for the march is processed from there, our army can win a hundred battles, this is also one of the killing weapons." ”

(To be continued)