In the snow, a team of carriages with honor guards came to a mansion, in front of the house gate is a red wall, the courtyard is very broad, the house door is also a flying eaves arch, the lintel is tattooed with all kinds of wood carvings.

In the middle, a strange four-wheeled carriage stopped in front of the mansion gate, and the carriage curtain was opened, revealing Liang Tingdong's ruddy face. He stepped out of the carriage with the help of the servants, and the porter of the Wen Mansion greeted him, bowed to Liang Tingdong and said hello, his attitude was enthusiastic, and he was not arrogant or humble at that time. This disciple has a proper attitude, if he is an official in the imperial examination, he is more proficient in drilling camps than many officials. Liang Tingdong was familiar with Namenzi, he talked with Namenzi affectionately, and the two entered Wen Tiren's mansion through the side door together.

Wenfu covers a vast area, there are more than 10 small courtyards, according to the north-south axis symmetrical arrangement, Wen Tiren lives in the middle of the position, along the way rockery fish pond, although the flowers and trees are withered, but the dead branches are scattered and have a snowy scenery.

Wen Mansion is not as crowded as generally thought, ordinary people who have no way, most of them come to the door to eat a closed door, Wen Tiren is very careful in this regard, the people who ask for it are generally from his henchmen, and it is difficult for people who only give silver to see him directly now.

Menzi led Liang Tingdong to the study, which was spacious and elegant, and the furniture decoration was not extravagant. There are two charcoal basins in the middle, which are warm like spring, dry and thin Wen Tiren is practicing calligraphy, and when he saw Liang Tingdong coming in, he put down his pen and greeted him.

"My lord is so elegant." Liang Tingdong flattered Wen Tiren.

"Bing came and sat down." Wen Tiren greeted Liang Tingdong politely, the affairs of Liang Tingdong's military department have been very good recently, especially the great victory of Lushun, Wang Tingqian and Chen Xin both praised Liang Tingdong's strategic work in the good news, saying that the Lushun defense line benefited from Liang Tingdong's guidance and obtained the essence of the Western Law Guntai, so it could resist the tide of attacks of the Jiannu.

With this premise. The emperor was very pleased with him. At present, the southwest is pacified, the northern liukou are besieged in a small area in northern Henan, the Shanxi-Shaanxi border army is closed to the north, the Henan Maobing, the Sichuan army, Changping, Baoding, Daming, and Jingying are closed to the east, and the west and south are the surging Yellow River.

Although the two mansions of Huaiqing and Weihui were looted, the Liukou caused no harvest of autumn grain, and after the arrival of winter, the Liukou had nowhere to forage, and a large number of homeless people froze and starved to death in northern Henan, and Zijinliang was captured and executed in Beijing. The morale of the 36th Battalion was completely exhausted, and no one in the court thought that they could still do evil, so they only waited for tens of thousands of elites to destroy them in one fell swoop.

"The court push has passed, and the emperor is also the most favored by you, and you will be a colleague in the cabinet in the future."

Liang Tingdong said calmly: "Your Majesty Longen." But the lower officials also have to thank the old gentleman for his promotion, and if there is anything wrong with walking in the cabinet in the future, I will ask the adults to mention it. ”

Wen Tiren smiled and shook his head, "The cabinet is the highest place for us, but it is not the highest place in the imperial court, if you want to do things smoothly." The celebrant has to be on the right side, so you can visit your husband according to the customary practice, and you have to show some expression of a few Bing Pen. You have been in Beijing for many years, and you understand all those things. How to deal with it, there is no need to say much. ”

"The lower officials will take care of it." Liang Tingdong looked attentive.

"Official, the official recommended you to be the secretary of the ministry, but the emperor doesn't seem to want others to be the secretary of the military department. Yes, there are some annoyances. It is also in the past ten years that you have won the most victories against Jiannu during your tenure. This time the Lushun War ended, some people are already talking about three years of peace, and the emperor is afraid that he will also have some intention in his heart, at this juncture, it is reasonable not to let you leave office, and you should not have resentment in your heart. ”

Liang Tingdong was a little helpless, in fact, since Wang Yongguang stepped down, he has always wanted to change to the secretary of the ministry, and he was a little frightened by the secretary of the military department, especially during the half year of the siege of Dalinghe, he could hardly sleep at night. Fortunately, he was lucky, Hong Chengchou and Cao Zhao in Shaanxi were very capable, and Dengzhou Town sent good news at critical moments, which kept the position of the secretary of the military department, but now because of these military exploits, he can only continue to be the secretary of the military department

"How can the lower officials have resentful words. If the emperor has already made up his mind, the lower officials can only do their best. ”

"That's right." Wen Tiren stood up, walked a few steps around the house, turned his head to Liang Tingdong and said: "The major affairs in the DPRK and China are still headed by Liaodong, although Jiannu has a small setback, but the strength still exists, it is on Chen Xin's side, you have to take care of it, Liu Yulie said that Zhu Guobin will be transferred to Datong as the chief soldier, you must not agree." Although Chen Xin is polite, he doesn't like anyone to move other people's money and food, Zhu Wannian's matter earlier, I later heard that Song Wenxian was doing it, because Zhu Wannian was against him in Denglai. Chen Xin can fight and know how to be a man, you have to help him in the military department, and it is only for a long time that there are contacts. ”

"Xiaguan understands that Liu Yulie is a dog jumping over the wall in a hurry, and has been biting Dengzhou Town in Henan recently and not listening to Xuanmo's dispatch, and claiming that the fierce generals cannot be gathered in a corner of Denglai, and wants to transfer the generals of Dengzhou Town. It's just to pull Chen Xin out, just say that Dengzhou Town supports the army and is self-respecting, and then pull the generals to attach themselves to the ministers, so that the officials will no longer pay attention to Zhou Yanru's affairs, and the lower officials will never allow him to mess around. ”

Liang Tingdong thought about it and said: "It's just that this Chen Xin has reached the top of his martial arts, and recently he seems to be bent on making money and becoming a rich man, always thinking about some business, and he keeps occupying land in Denglai, and the lower officials are also worried that he has no intention of going to the battlefield again." Recently, Dengzhou Town occupies an area of land among the people, and many gentry have fled to Beijing and found relatives and friends who are officials to complain about injustice, saying that Dengzhou Town is rampant, wantonly robbing the people's assets, setting up business cards in Denglai to collect taxes, and even privately training troops in an attempt to misbehave. ”

Wen Tiren squinted his eyes and smiled: "Just look at these people to find a way out of Beijing, they are not people, Chen Xin is a soldier, you have seen a few generals reasonable, as for saying that he is plotting against him, what do you think?" ”

"This kind of excerpt has also been on a few occasions, the emperor is there to stay in the middle of the hair, and the lower officials have also learned some fur, the reason is to occupy the field, set up a fort and train private soldiers."

Wen Tiren touched his beard and said leisurely, "Then what do you think about Liaozhen?" It's still the same items, but Liaoxi is narrow and occupies less land. If you want to say that it is different, it is nothing more than that Liao Town can't beat Dengzhou Town. However, I think this Chen Xin is still like Liao Town, but it is just an earlier Liao Town. ”

Liang Tingdong said in a low voice: "The old gentleman is talking about Li Chengliang? ”

Wen Tiren lowered his head and thought about it, and said thoughtfully: "When the official is over, he has to fight for some property." It is said that Chen Xin is Qi Jiguang. The official saw that he wanted to be Li Chengliang, Li Chengliang was in Liaodong with 8,000 families, and he was only 3,000 soldiers, which family was not a private soldier, every family had land and a house, where did Li Chengliang's land come from? It didn't fall from the sky, and the Mongolian border trade was all in the hands of Li Chengliang, what is the difference between what Chen Xin is doing now. Chen Xin doesn't make some money, why should the people below give him his life. He asked for something. It's all up to him, thanks to him that he has another set of business. If you want to say that Chen Xin is plotting against him, then Liu Yulie himself doesn't believe it, Chen Xin will be beaten every time he meets Jiannu, and he offends the gentlemen in Dengzhou. didn't accept the hearts of scholars, and fought with the natives of Denglai countless times, which is considered a misdeed. ”

"Hearing what the adults said, it is true, and the lower officials also feel that Chen Zongbing is not that kind of person, but not as clear as the adults think."

Wen Tiren turned his head to look at Liang Tingdong and said with a smile: "The soldiers are about to enter the cabinet, and the affairs of the DPRK and China will be complicated in the future." After all, some things are like this, and he will go if he can't control them. ”

Liang Tingdong thought in his heart, in fact, Wen Tiren's words were quite exculpatory for Chen Xin, and he knew that Wen Tiren was also beneficial to Chen Xin's trading company. Wen Tiren also sent his own servant to Shandong with the name post, and brought a message to Xu Congzhi, suggesting that Xu Congzhi took care of the business of the trading company. I will never cut off my own financial path. At the moment, he no longer asked about Dengzhou Town, but talked to Wen Tiren about the current situation in the DPRK and China.

After coming out of Wen Tiren's mansion. Liang Tingdong sat back in the carriage again, and the guard of honor in front of him cleaned the street first. Then the carriage started slowly, which was much wider than the previous wide carriage, this carriage was four-wheeled, also from the gift of Chen Xin, Dengzhou temporarily only had a small number of four-wheeled passenger cars, the military did not have a shock-absorbing device, the efficiency of cargo transportation was much higher than that of two wheels, the four-wheeled body can bear the load, and the mules and horses pulling goods do not need to bear the weight of the vehicle.

The Ming Dynasty also had four-wheeled carriages, but they did not have a steering device and were only used in specific areas in the south, and sixteen-mounted carts could transport goods of fifty stones (see Tiangong Kaiwu). Front-wheel steering was available in the West in the first century BC, but until the end of the Ming Dynasty, this uncomplicated device was not widely used in the East.

The four-wheeled vehicle in Dengzhou has a front-wheel steering device, which is connected to the chassis by a rotating pivot shaft, allowing the four-wheeled carriage to steer more flexibly. This kind of passenger car for officials also has original reed shock absorption underneath, which is much more comfortable than the original two-wheeled carriage, and more importantly, the exterior is not luxurious, but the interior is very exquisite. This is very much to the appetite of the Beijing officials, because it can avoid attracting the attention of those who speak of it.

Liang Tingdong was half-lying comfortably in the seat, touching the pear wood armrests wrapped in fox fur, although this armrest is a small design, it can relax the arms, and the backrest is also curved like the Taishi chair, which is very close to lying down. It was warm on the seats, as there was a small copper stove under the seats, which was charcoal from outside by servants.

The incense burner on the incense stand wafted out of the slightest fragrance, Liang Tingdong, who likes sandalwood, is even more comfortable, he can't put down this carriage, he hasn't even sat in a sedan chair recently, and he takes this carriage when he goes out. Chen Xin only gave one to the acquaintance, and people outside couldn't find a sample car if they wanted to imitate it, because these officials would not borrow it.

This car also has a brand, written on the lower edge of the car on the four sides, called "East Fence", suitable for these vassal and elegant officials, Chen Tingdong in the military department of several henchmen are asking him where to buy this car.

"Lord Wen is right, even if that's the case, what can we do, if we can't manage it, he will go." Liang Tingdong grabbed the little Fang Jin next to him and put it on his lap, squinting and muttering to himself.

He and Chen Xin have a very close relationship now, military merits, military equipment, military horses, Liao salary kickbacks, trading companies, money villages, etc., Chen Xin can always give Liang Tingdong what he needs, and he can always get the best military equipment of the military department, and Liang Tingdong takes more than 70,000 taels of silver from Dengzhou Town every year, not counting the honor money for some temporary affairs. What's more, the two are also allies in politics, Chen Xin can't go to Wen Tiren for everything, but the military department has the most opportunities to deal with, Liang Tingdong needs the support of Dengzhou's military merits, and he also needs Dengzhou to suppress Liaozhen and other military leaders, and Chen Xin needs Liang Tingdong to speak in the court.

The sky was full of ice and snow outside, and the sedan chair was warm, Liang Tingdong closed his eyes to recuperate, "Li Chengliang is Li Chengliang, isn't it." ”