Just in the Qingcheng Mountain, this big and small young Yingjie and the fierce general of the Western Army, laughing and laughing, when discussing the general trend of the world, outside the gate of Chang'an City, Jingzhao Mansion, there is a team of forbidden troops, escorting several carriages, to the left of the gate of Chang'an.

The leader of the forbidden army who led the team has been promoted to deputy general. At this time, he was obviously shouldering the same duties as a bodyguard, which made him appear careless, and even a little deliberately negligent.

He instructed a few of his soldiers to bring official documents and documents to the city gate for the soldiers guarding the gate to inspect.

While waiting, he held his head high, flicked the horsewhip in his hand casually, and looked at the situation near the Chang'an City Gate boredly.

Politically, Chang'an is under the jurisdiction of Jingzhao Prefecture, is the heart of the Song Dynasty in Shaanxi, more than 100 years of operation, has become a large city with more than hundreds of thousands of households.

It's just that the Huangchao Rebellion and the destruction of Zhu Wen in that year, the originally prosperous and incomparable world metropolis was already dilapidated in the early Song Dynasty, with weeds growing and foxes and rabbits rampant. Soon after the recovery of vitality, it encountered the invasion of Jin soldiers, its military guarantee Yongxing military road could not withstand the enemy's attack, Tongguan, Huazhou, Shaanzhou Lingbao and other portals fell one after another, Chang'an naturally could not maintain the original security.

In the second year of Jingkang, the main force of the Jin soldiers withdrew from Shaanxi, and the Song army took the opportunity to recover Chang'an. Soon after, the main force of the Jin army arrived, and Chang'an fell again.

In this way, several times and three times, the same big war was staged in Chang'an, making this already unstable city more and more dilapidated and lifeless.

At the beginning of the founding of the Song Dynasty, Taizu still said that after the country was peaceful, the capital moved westward to consolidate Guanzhong to establish a 10,000-year foundation. It's just that the Bianqu is broken, the grain transshipment is difficult, and Kaifeng is becoming more and more prosperous, so that the emperors of later generations will never have this idea, and there is no intention of moving the capital.

And by mistake, Zhao Huan, the original king of the Northern Song Dynasty, had to stay here at this time.

The deputy general was originally also from Shaanxi, and he has worked hard to fight in the north and south over the years, and he has also made some contributions. When he returned to Shaanxi this time, he was very reluctant to take on the task and felt that it was overkill. He also saw that at this time, the city was still dilapidated inside and outside the city, the city was not repaired, the people were in chaos, their faces were hungry, and countless refugees were inside and outside the city, repairing huts to temporarily shelter, sewage flowed sideways, the sick were born, and all kinds of filth were unbearable, which made him frown.

Wherever he stood, people kept coming into the city, in groups, with vegetables on their faces, and when they got closer, they smelled of it. He knew that this was the return of refugees after the war, but he still couldn't help but turn sideways, not daring to let these people get too close.

Because of the Lord's general, some of his own soldiers shouted loudly, and even waved their whips, so that the people were not allowed to come near.

In the midst of the chaos, there was a coughing sound of an old man in the carriage, and after a while, a thin old man in a green cloth robe and cloth shoes stepped on the pedals given by the coachman and stepped out of the car.

Although the deputy general had an unruly face, when he saw the old man getting out of the car, he only barely squeezed out a smile on his face, and with a little strength in his legs, he rode his horse to the old man, turned over, and then said with a smile: "Master Li, seeing that you are about to enter the city, why do you bother to come down, it is not good to brave the wind and cold." ”

The old man didn't speak at first, but first looked around with his eyes, glanced around, and saw countless refugees just building shacks and sleeping outside the city, and Chang'an here obviously had just fallen a heavy snowfall, and the remnants of the snow had not yet melted.

He frowned unknowingly, and then nodded to the deputy general: "Thank you for the kindness of the general, but I have been very aggrieved in the car, since I have arrived, it is better to get down and walk around first, and live up to my body." ”

The lieutenant general said: "In this case, my lord will wait for a while, and the soldiers at the door will check the documents, and then we can enter the city and rest first." ”

The two of them didn't say anything for a while, but stood dumbfounded, watching a group of soldiers drive out of the city, drive away the people, make an open space to build a tent, and after a while, a large group of vehicles came out, transported rice and grain, buried the pot and made a fire, and began to cook porridge for relief.

They watched for a while, and they were able to enter the city at this time, but they were not in a hurry to leave.

After half a ring, the old man sighed and said, "Fortunately, there is a matter of giving porridge and giving relief, otherwise it will be really difficult for the people to survive the winter." ”

Seeing that the lieutenant's face was full of indifference, he had to shake his head and sigh again, and then said to the lieutenant general: "General Wang, let's go into the city." I don't know if the city has arranged a place for me to live. ”

"The last general doesn't know. It's just that the edict came down, and the lord was ordered to go to Chang'an as soon as possible. On the way, I heard that His Majesty is still in Chengdu, and even if I go back at this time, I guess I haven't arrived. ”

The two looked at each other speechless for a moment. The old man was the famous Li Gang, who was successively appointed by Zhao Huan and Zhao Gou as high-ranking officials in charge of the war, and even once served as the left servant and the subordinate Lang, ranking as the left minister.

It's just that the two brothers are worthy of being from the same school in the matter of appointing Li Gang, and as soon as the situation is a little tense, they use Li Gang to resist the war, and as soon as they ease up, they will dismiss him.

Zhao Gou's methods were even more ruthless, and soon after Li Gang was promoted to the position of Zuo Xiang, he began to revoke and reduce the power in Li Gang's hands, and after two years of Jianyan, he was full-fledged, and he deprived Li Gang of all official positions, and degraded to Wan'anjun (now Hainan Province) for the people.

It is precisely because of this that Li Gang is very popular with the main battle faction between the government and the opposition, and in the hearts of ordinary people, Li Gang and Zong Ze are both the heavenly pillars of the Great Song Dynasty, and they have a rare prestige for ordinary people.

Soon after Zhao Huan mastered Sichuan and Shaanxi, he immediately announced that Li Gang would return to the dynasty, but he also took Zhao Gou's army, faintly pulling people's hearts to his side.

It's just that the edict is vague, and it just asks Li Gang to return to the court, but there is no mention of his appointment. When they arrived near Chang'an, they also taught this group of people to hesitate.

Li Gang didn't care about his own status and status, and only instructed Wang Quan, the deputy general who was escorting, at the moment: "Since the holy driver is not here, let's just enter the city and find a place to live first." ”

He saw that Wang Quan was just holding his teeth, and his face was embarrassed, but he suddenly woke up and hurriedly said: "You just sent me over on the orders of General Han, at this time your mission has been completed, and you can go back after entering the city in a while." ”

"Okay, Master Li said so, the last general will escort the adult into the city in a while, and then go back to hand over the order."

Wang Quan showed joy on his face, hugged his fist, turned over on the horse, and the iron armor leaves on his body made a chaotic sound.

A group of more than 200 people, except for more than 100 soldiers, who were Li Gang's family members, walked through the city gate one after another, but saw that dozens of officials dressed in vermilion were already waiting in the city.

Li Gang saw it clearly from the car window, hurriedly ordered to stop, quickly got out of the car, and arched his hand to the purple-robed official who was headed: "Lord Zhang, how dare Li?" ”

He is only a white body at this time, Zhang Jun is a member of the Privy Council, Sichuan and Shaanxi Xuanfu, and his position is like a cloud.

The rest of Zhao Ding, Xie Liang, Wang Shu, and Zhu Shengfei, who were also members of the imperial court, stepped forward to greet Li Gang in turn.

Li Gang also knew that these officials in front of him were representatives of the main battle faction in the DPRK and China, so he was summoned by Zhao Huan from all over the country, although most of these people were his juniors, when he was an official in the DPRK, they were only low-level officials or held local positions. But at this time, he did not take advantage of his identity, and greeted these people in turn, although it was inconvenient to talk about state affairs here, but he also expressed encouragement and support to them from his own expression and attitude.

When he saw Zhang Suo and Fu Liang, his attitude was slightly different, affectionate but with a hint of shame. Back then, he recommended these two people to serve as Hebei Zhaofu envoy and Hedong economic envoy respectively, but because of his own reasons, Zhao Gou was afraid that these two people would sit big, and in order to cut off Li Gang's wings, he first dismissed these two people from office, and even the overall situation in Hedong, Hebei was erosive, and he didn't care.

Everyone was greeting themselves, Zhao Ding saw a loophole, and whispered to Li Gang: "My lord, Your Majesty has arrived in Chang'an last night, but he has not made a noise for the time being. ”

Li Gang was taken aback, and also whispered to him: "Why is this?" ”

Zhao Ding smiled and shook his head, and only said: "Such adults will know when they see Your Majesty." ”

Before the two finished speaking, Zhang Jun stepped forward and said with a smile: "Did Lord Zhao also say hello to Lord Li in advance?" ”

Zhao Ding took two steps back and said with a smile: "Such good news, it is better for Lord Zhang to say now." ”

Li Gang was slightly surprised, and only said: "What is so mysterious?" ”

Zhang Jun's tone was slightly jealous, but he still had a smile on his face, and said to Li Gang: "Your Majesty has already made books, and I want to worship the Lord for Pingzhang Military and State Affairs!" ”

In the Song Dynasty, there had never been a minister who had been entrusted with such an important task as Pingzhang military affairs, but it is no wonder that the attitude of Zhang Jun and others was envy and jealousy.

In this way, if Li Gang's power is far above the prime minister and privy envoys, the military and political power of the Song Dynasty is in his hands.

Li Gang was also overjoyed, but after a while, he came to his senses, and his face changed color and said: "This official is not a minister who can be a minister, I will stubbornly resign and let Your Majesty take back his life!" ”