After a while, there was a light sound of ringing, and Yang Yuanqing's wife, Princess Pei Minqiu of Chu, walked out of the mansion surrounded by dozens of maids and servants, Pei Minqiu guessed that it was her husband's uncle who came, she didn't dare to slack off, and came out to greet her in person.

Li Jing hurriedly got out of the carriage, took two steps forward and bowed, "Participate in Princess Chu!" ”

"Sure enough, my uncle came."

Pei Minqiu smiled and returned the salute, "Uncle looks more healthy in the past two years, which is gratifying. ”

"Princess Xie cares, is Yuanqing in the mansion?"

"He hasn't come back yet, I immediately sent someone to inform him, the weather is cold, my uncle asked him to rest in the house, Yuan Qing was still very worried about his uncle's recent situation a few days ago."

Pei Minqiu looked at the carriage again, and asked a little strangely: "Why is there only my uncle and my aunt?" ”

"Huh! She can't leave, Fu'er's wife gave birth to her fourth son last month, and she's busy right now. ”

"Cousin Fu already has four sons, why didn't my uncle let people say it, we don't know."

"You're in Toyosu! It's too far. ”

Li Jing was invited into the palace, Pei Minqiu ordered the housekeeper to bring more than a dozen entourages into the palace to rest, and sent someone to inform Yang Yuanqing, and then led his uncle Li Jing into the mansion.

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In the Ziwei Pavilion, Yang Yuanqing was holding a cabinet meeting to discuss specific plans for launching the Hebei offensive and the five prime ministers.

"The situation in Hebei is more complicated, Wei Dao'er, Luo Yi, Gao Kaidao and Dou Jiande are now in a state of confrontation, they are enemies of each other, and they will also unite with the outside world, last year Dou Jiande attacked Youzhou, Gao Kaidao sent troops to support Luo Yi, attacked Dou Jiande's army from the side, so that Dou Jiande was defeated and returned, and Wei Dao'er, he and Dou Jiande also used to deal with Xue Shixiong together, so. When our forces enter Hebei, it is likely to lead to their reunite, and I can foresee that it will be a protracted battle. ”

Yang Yuanqing glanced at everyone. And said slowly: "For us, the difficulty is not only to take Hebei, but also to face the hardships of the people of Hebei, after five or six years of banditry, Hebei has long been the people's livelihood withered, the population has decreased sharply, to put it bluntly." That is, we have to prepare a large amount of money and grain, especially grain, which is gold in troubled times, and it is also up to all the prime ministers to fully realize the importance of seizing Hebei and fully support this battle of Hebei in terms of logistics. ”

Su Wei stood up and said with a smile: "Let me make a statement on behalf of all the cabinet ministers!" The upcoming battle of Hebei was on the agenda of Ziwei Pavilion a few months ago, and this year we have a bumper grain harvest in several counties in the southern part of Hedong Province, but the four counties of Loufu, Mayi, Yanmen, and Dingxiang have not yet recovered from the destruction of Liu Wuzhou. Recently, tens of thousands of immigrants from Guanzhong have been accepted, and a large amount of grain resettlement is also needed, but fortunately, there is a certain amount of grain storage in Wuyuan County and Lingwu County. This problem can be solved, now Taiyuan Cangcheng and Jinyang Gongcang City still have more than 800,000 stone of grain reserves, in order to deal with the battle of Hebei, Ziwei Pavilion discussed, willing to take out 500,000 stone of grain, as a support for the Hebei campaign, in addition, there is also a million hanging new money, also as the military expenditure of the Hebei campaign. ”

Pei Ju also smiled: "If the imperial court can pocket dozens of counties in Hebei, of course we can't ask for it." As early as the Battle of Hanoi, we discussed the countermeasures for Hebei, if the Hebei Battle can be completed within a year, then Hedong can hold on, if it is more than a year, it will be a bit difficult. I would like to add that the 800,000 stone grain stocks that Su Xiangguo said just now only refer to the grain stocks in Taiyuan, and in fact, after the grain harvest in the southern counties this year, the tax grain will gradually be collected, and by February next year, the government will still have about 200,000 stone of grain tax and grain revenue, so our financial resources are still relatively abundant. ”

Today's Ziwei Pavilion meeting is mainly to discuss the logistical support of the Hebei War, and the situation in Hebei is relatively complicated, according to the plan, it will take at least half a year, the war is fought with national strength, soldiers, people, money and various materials support, these must be implemented one by one.

The meeting lasted for a full hour before it dispersed, and there were still a lot of specific affairs to be arranged, Yang Yuanqing returned to his official room, and just walked to the door, a guard reported to him, "Chief, just now the princess sent someone to report, saying that the uncle, who is in charge, is coming from the south, please go back." ”

Yang Yuanqing was stunned, and then his heart was overjoyed, a few days ago he heard an official from his hometown in Anlu County say that Anlu County had been robbed by a transit team of Zhu Wei at the beginning of the year, and he was also very worried about his uncle's safety, but he didn't expect his uncle to come, he looked at the sky, it was almost noon, and he happily said: "Let's go back home first!" ”

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Yang Yuanqing got into the carriage and drove towards Taiyuan City, the weather was sunny today, the winter sun shone in through the window, making the carriage exceptionally warm, Yang Yuanqing squinted, enjoying this rare moment of leisure, the carriage slowly drove across the bridge and stopped in front of the house.

"The master is back!"

When the porter saw him get off the carriage, he immediately shouted and rushed into the mansion to report, and after a while, Pei Minqiu greeted him, and she smiled and said, "I thought you couldn't come back, so I let my uncle go to rest first." ”

As soon as she finished speaking, Li Jing appeared at the door of the East Courtyard, and said with a smile: "Where can I sleep, just wait here for Yuanqing to come back!" ”

Yang Yuanqing hurriedly stepped forward and bowed, "Yuanqing has seen uncle!" ”

Li Jing was a little at a loss, and waved his hand again and again, "Don't dare to be!" Don't dare to be! You are now a prince, and you can't be the same as before. ”

"Now it's my nephew who sees my uncle, and it has nothing to do with my lord."

Yang Yuanqing smiled again and asked, "What about my aunt, have you already rested?" ”

Pei Minqiu walked up from the side and said with a smile: "Your cousin Fu is happy to have the fourth noble son, and your aunt has to take care of her grandson, so she didn't come over this time." ”

"The fourth?" Yang Yuanqing was a little stunned.

"Alas! Fu'er is the life of giving birth to a son, his daughter-in-law's belly has never stopped, and she has given birth to four grandchildren in a row, I am almost numb, and there are many things happening at home! I'll tell you slowly. ”

Yang Yuanqing nodded and took Li Jing to his outer study.

The two came to the study and sat down, a maid served them tea, Li Jing smiled bitterly and said: "I don't know how to mention this matter, but there are still some things to say, I might as well be frank, I am now the Shaoqing of Honglu Temple in the Liang Dynasty." ”

Yang Yuanqing did not show a look of consternation on his face, in family affairs, he was a little shocked to hear that Li Jingyi had four grandchildren in a row, but in politics, even if the sky fell, he could remain silent.

"When did my uncle join the Liang Dynasty as an official?" Yang Yuanqing picked up the tea bowl and took a sip of tea, and asked unhurriedly.

Li Jing saw that Yang Yuanqing did not show anger, his heart was slightly lowered, and he sighed slightly: "Half a year ago, the Holy Lord personally came to my house to invite, I felt his sincerity, so I agreed to enter the office, and your mother's tomb was rebuilt by the Liang Dynasty, covering an area of 100 acres, according to the specifications of the royal family, the momentum is magnificent, there are special mausoleum watchers, and the locals call your mother's tomb the tomb of the Queen Mother......"

Yang Yuanqing listened quietly and did not interrupt Li Jing's narration, but he was quickly thinking about his uncle's intentions in his mind, it was obvious that his uncle came as an envoy of the Liang Dynasty, including Xiao Milling to encircle his uncle and rebuild his mother's cemetery, which can be regarded as a show of goodwill to himself, and Xiao Milling has a strong political purpose.

"The saint said that you had a good personal relationship with him back then, and you used to cooperate in Jiangdu, and he very much hopes that this friendship and cooperation can continue."

Yang Yuanqing's calmness made Li Jing very nervous, he suddenly realized that the thin kinship between their nephews and uncles was not enough to bear the mission he brought, Yang Yuanqing could not agree to his certain request because he was his uncle, it must be considered according to the interests of the Northern Sui, he was very worried that if Yang Yuanqing politely rejected his proposal, how would he explain when he went back.

Yang Yuanqing nodded and said: "I am indeed very grateful to Xiao Mo for his assistance to me in Jiangdu, I don't know what kind of expectations Xiao Mo gave you when my uncle came this time, I mean, what kind of task do you bring?" ”

Yang Yuanqing's outspokenness made Li Jing suddenly not nervous, and he also calmed down, no matter what, he was the Honglu Shaoqing of the Liang Dynasty, and he should at least fully express the wishes of the Liang Dynasty, and also maintain the dignity of the Liang Dynasty.

Li Jing sighed, sat up straight, and said frankly: "This time, I came as a special envoy of the Holy Lord, first, I hope that the Sui Dynasty can recognize the orthodox inheritance of the New Liang Dynasty to the original Western Liang Dynasty, but in fact, I hope that we can become allies between the two dynasties and jointly deal with the Tang Dynasty." ”

'Dealing with the Tang Dynasty together?' ’

This sentence made Yang Yuanqing very interested, although he and the Tang Dynasty had just reached a reconciliation agreement, but the reconciliation was only a kind of mitigation of the hostility between the two sides in the past, or just a truce agreement, which did not mean that they would not meet each other in the future, and the agreement was very clear that there would be no mutual aggression within a year, that is, the reconciliation agreement between the Sui and Tang dynasties was only valid for one year, and a year later, the Tang Dynasty had stabilized the situation in Guanlong and began to expand eastward, and he should have pacified Hebei.

And there is one of the most critical issues in the settlement agreement between the Sui and Tang dynasties, both sides have deliberately ignored it, that agreement only guarantees that they will not invade each other's territory, but it does not guarantee that they will live in harmony outside the territory, such as the Sui army attacking Luoyang, and the Tang army is also attacking Luoyang, so the fierce battle between the two for Luoyang is not within the scope of the agreement, this is a deliberate neglect, and both sides are unwilling to be too bound by this agreement.

If he could become an ally with Xiao Mo, it would be beneficial to curb the Tang Dynasty's expansion into the south, and if there was a fierce battle between the Liang Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty, he could send troops to the Liang Dynasty to participate in the war, or he could support the Liang Dynasty behind his back.

Thinking of this, Yang Yuanqing smiled slightly: "My uncle and aunt had the grace to raise me back then, since it was my uncle who came to make an envoy, how can I not give my uncle face, in addition, I have indeed been friends with Xiao Mo for many years, and I am willing to continue the past friendship with him, so be it!" In response to his dispatch of his uncle to Taiyuan, we will also send an envoy to Western Liang on behalf of the Sui Dynasty, first agreeing to your first request, recognizing the legitimacy of the Liang Dynasty, and then we will slowly talk about the alliance. ”

Li Jing was overjoyed, "Then we can set off tomorrow!" ”

"Don't worry, it's rare for my uncle to come here, just stay for a few more days, get a good understanding of the customs of Taiyuan, tomorrow I will accompany my uncle to visit Taiyuan North City, see if I can buy some gifts for my aunt."