At 10 o'clock in the morning of May 19, 319 of the Great Song Dynasty, Hao Ren Wanhu met Xiong Shang of the Great Song Rite Department in the Great Song Rite Department.

Xiong Shangshu recorded his itinerary in the work notebook sent to him, and he was also unhappy in his heart. This kind of book is printed very elegantly, and the simple form left on it can be fully utilized. Each person is issued a copy every month for use as a work record.

At such a point, Xiong Sheng will of course feel resentful. But it's pretty easy to use, at least when Xiong Sheng needs to remember his schedule, he can look it up.

After a simple greeting, Hao Ren went straight to the point. "I don't know when the official family will carry out the enthronement ceremony?"

Xiong Sheng replied coldly: "This is still being discussed." If the envoy is not in a hurry, he can return to Dayuan for the time being. ”

Being treated like this, Hao Ren felt that the bear dress opposite was quite interesting. Since this topic is about the end of the topic, Hao Ren will move on to the next topic, "I have another matter here this time, I want to discuss with your country the extension of the armistice agreement. ”

Xiong Shang only had some spirit after listening to this speech, but he thought very maliciously in his heart, if he stopped this news, maybe Da Yuan would go to war with Da Song. Come to think of it, Xiong Shang didn't want to do that. Such a big thing must not be hidden, if it is poked out, Xiong Shang is asking for his own hardship. So he asked very businesslikely: "But I don't know how Dayuan is going to extend?" ”

"Extend it for another three years." Hao Ren said with some hesitation. If he hadn't seen the queue of students after school, Hao Ren wouldn't have been afraid. Seeing the well-trained student team, Hao Ren felt uneasy. At present, there is still more than a year of peace agreement between the Great Yuan and the Great Song Dynasty, and if it is extended for three years, there will be more than four years of peace.

If you are content with peace now, what about four years from now? The eleven or twelve years old in this group of students are all fifteen or sixteen years old, and they are already ready to go to war. With the sharpness of Song Guo's firearms, coupled with the training that these students have been having, it is not good news for Dayuan at all. was depressed in his heart, and Hao Ren's mood was not high.

"I will inform the official family about this." Xiong Shang is still on business.

"It's hard work." Hao Ren Wanhu is also coping with errands.

Both of them had something on their minds, so they didn't say anything more. After Hao Ren left, Xiong Shangshu wrote a document to Zhao Guan's family, informing Zhao Jiaren of what he had encountered.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Jiaren's instructions were sent to the Ministry of Rites the next day, "agreeing in principle to Dayuan's request to extend the three-year peace period, and asking the Ministry of Rites to understand all of Dayuan's requirements." ”

When things got to this point, Xiong Shangshu could only continue his work and invite the envoy Hao Ren to discuss the matter.

Hao Ren's mood was lower than the previous two days, and he took advantage of his leisure time to walk around the city of Hangzhou. He found that there were no wild children in Hangzhou during the day. You can see some little dolls running around here in most of the capital, and you can see all kinds of laborers on the streets of Hangzhou, there are also babies who are about one or two years old or two or three years old with their mothers, and there are also teenagers who look at fourteen or fifteen years old, but they can't see those children who live in the middle age.

As soon as school was over, the dolls who had been sent to school left the school in a neat line. Not only male babies, but also female babies. According to Wu Li Buhuachi, at the beginning of the implementation of the "Compulsory Education Law", the staff of various public security and police stations in Lin'an City were dispatched, and uniformed people such as courts and procuratorates also went out to help, conducting door-to-door investigations, and asking adults to send their children to school.

Now Hangzhou's population is about one million, which means that in a few years, if there is a full-scale war, Hangzhou can urgently pull out 100,000 troops with basic training. If nothing else, the gang has to be cohort trained 300 days a year.

Thinking that the power of the Great Song Dynasty was getting stronger day by day, Hao Ren was of course depressed. Depressed, he listened to Xiong Xiang's low mood, and did not feel dissatisfied or offended, Hao Ren replied: "As long as the agreement is continued." But I don't know what conditions the Song Kingdom has? ”

Xiong Shang also had no desire to extract the most out of this matter, and he replied, "I'll go back and report it." ”

Mongolia is willing to admit it, and Zhao Jiaren is of course happy. When he was young, he was very unimpressed with the statement that 'the country needs enemies', and felt that it was too negative. Now that he has some life experience, Zhao Jiaren feels that this is quite reasonable. A country has to have external enemies to balance its internal contradictions.

Xiong Sheng soon received an official letter, and Zhao Jiaren agreed to extend the time of the Huaxian peace conference by three years. As an official, Xiong Sheng invited Hao Ren over and told him the news.

Hao Ren was shocked when he got the news, he didn't expect things to go so smoothly. Thinking about the reason, Hao Ren understands. After a series of battles, Dayuan knew that the existing Han army could not win, so he could only carry out military reform and establish a more effective government army. The news of the expansion of the Great Song Dynasty to 300,000 is public, and this is by no means a move of swords and guns into Kuma to release Nanshan. Thinking that the two sides would go to war as long as they were ready, Hao Ren Wanhu felt his heart beat faster and was filled with a feeling of powerlessness.

"Where does Da Yuan want to sign the contract?" Xiong Shang asked the next question businessmanlikely.

"Wait until I send someone back to report it." Hao Ren replied.

"Hmm. Then I'll wait for your news. ”

“…… Shangshu looks like he is in a hurry? ”

"Naturally, we have something. Why don't I send you back to the embassy? ”

Hao Ren didn't dare to refuse the suggestion of the Great Song Dynasty Rite Department, so he could only go together. As a scholar, there is a carriage issued by the imperial court, and the style is similar to that captured by Hao Ren. Along the way, Xiong Sheng absentmindedly responded to Hao Ren's questions, which made Hao Ren feel very lost. The carriage sent Hao Ren to the door of the embassy, and Xiong Shang walked away without any intention of continuing to talk.

Xiong Sheng really didn't have the heart to talk nonsense with Hao Ren. Whether it is a war or not is not a matter that the Ministry of Rites can call the shots at all, the Zhao Guanjia controls the army, and he says that he will fight when he fights. Now that the situation is already like this, Xiong Sheng is too lazy to bother with national strategy.

The wide ash road was not softened by the rain, and the carriage made a brisk southward journey on it. After running for a while, the car stopped in front of a small three-story residential area. In the dim sky, these small buildings have no lights, and they look gloomy. Xiong Shangshu was not afraid or retreated, he opened the car door and held an umbrella into the empty residential area.

The street trees and gravel roads are very clean and tidy even during the rainy season. On both sides of the road, three-storey buildings are built into a two-family row townhouse model, each with a front yard and a backyard, a flower bed in the front yard, and an independent fountain in the backyard. The fountains that have not yet been used have canals leading to an artificial river with a stone embankment, which first flows into a small lake surrounded by a stone embankment, and then flows out from another channel on the other side of the lake, along the culvert into the large river in the distance.

Walking in this large residential area with an umbrella, Xiong Xiang's heart fluctuated, and he couldn't help sighing. It is a residence for high-ranking officials. As a scholar, Xiong Shang can get a set in it. Lin'an has always been densely populated, housing prices are extremely expensive, and prime ministers have to rent houses. As for the living conditions, not to mention, it is common to brush the manure bucket on the left side and fetch water on the right side of a river. A load of clean water sells for three cents, and many people can barely afford to drink it.

Most of the houses in the community have been completed, and there is a set of wooden doors open. Xiong Shang walked in. There are only two small rooms on the first floor, and the rest of the space is equipped with a kitchen, dining room, toilet, bathroom, and toilet with flush in the toilet. There is a porcelain jar on the roof of the building for hot water, and if you are willing to carry water into it manually, you can take a hot shower in the bathroom on the first floor. These devices are already used in the first batch of high-end residences. There are also small fireplaces with flues in the bedrooms and studies on the second and third floors, and in winter, Xiong Sheng and his wife don't want to leave in the warm wood-floored study of Wen Tianxiang's house in Lin'an.

With such an environment and living conditions, the house in front of him was something that the prime minister didn't dare to think of before. If he loses his official position, Xiong Sheng loses the opportunity to live here. Even if the Ministry of Rites Shangshu was unhappy in his heart, he had to consider the matter of allegiance to Zhao Jiaren and Zhao Guan's family. As a scholar of the Ministry of Rites, Xiong Sheng felt a little wronged that he didn't live in such a house in the end......

Wen Tianxiang, the first batch of Lin'an prefects who lived in this kind of house, did not expect that the Ministry of Rites Shangshu was still thinking about the house at this time, if he knew, Wen Zhifu would probably understand. During the rainy season, the third floor with wooden floors is still dry. This is something that Governor Wen did not expect. There are separate bathrooms on the second and third floors, and you have to pour it yourself just to flush it. The prefect of Wen did not know that the Zhao family regretted that they could not use the water tower to supply water, and as far as the prefect of Wen was concerned, he felt that the living conditions were beyond the imagination of a powerful man like him. If you complain any more, you will be overly poor and extravagant.

At this time, the prefect of Wen was sitting in front of Zhao Guan's house, and the purpose of his visit this time was not to talk about the house, but to talk about the latest diplomatic issues.

"Official, is the extension of the three-year truce with Mongolia to confuse them?"

"You know I don't like to play this little trick. Give us three more years, and we will be able to complete a few more land reforms. Although it is not stated in the military service law, this military service law is actually closely related to the state ownership of land. Time is on our side, and the longer we prepare, the stronger we are. ”

"Will the Mongols confuse us?"

"It depends on the deployment of our troops in the area south of the Yellow River. It is possible that the Mongols would attempt to cross the Yellow River from Shandong in the winter, so trade with the Mongols, especially with the powerful and powerful, can help us gather better information. ”

"Do the officials think they'll report the news?"

"I think they're going to be very protective of their own interests."