Gao was silent for a moment and said, "What do you want?" ”

Shen Ao said with a smile: "Where do students dare to ask for the Empress Dowager's things, but the student is a junior, so he is bold, so he will bet on the golden hairpin on the head of the Empress Dowager, if I lose, all the money I won will be returned, and if the Empress Dowager loses, I will reward the golden hairpin to the student, how about it?" ”

A pair of golden hairpins, no matter how valuable they are, will not exceed 20,000 yuan, on the surface, it is Shen Ao's tearful sale, but from the depths, the phoenix hairpin is the face of the empress dowager, it is a noble performance, if you lose, what you lose is not the phoenix hairpin, but the face.

Gao smiled: "Okay, the mourning family wants to see how powerful you are." ”

The Empress Dowager Qinci gave Shen Ao an encouraging look, Shen Ao shook his spirit, shuffled the cards, this card Gao's cards are good, there are just 300 Wen, 400 Wen, 500 Wen, and another 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, the last two are 200,000 Guan, 400,000 Guan, the corners of her mouth showed a smile, just wait for a 300,000 Guan, this deck of cards will win.

Gao glanced at Shen Ao with disdain, and when he saw Shen Ao's frowning, he knew that he didn't get a good card, and he became more and more proud.

Then he drew a card, it was a Qiwen, Gao's mouth was slightly inaudible with a slight glance, and the Qiwen was played out, and he was bent on grabbing the 300,000 Guan, a few laps down, Gao's was a little impatient, and he said, this card had already been touched out, and it was not good, Shen Ao, the upper family, should also come out of one, but left and right, not even a million cards, Gao was already a little anxious.

In fact, how did she know that from the few cards she had just played, Shen Ao had already calculated that what she wanted should be a million runs, as for tens of thousands of runs, it was still unclear, so although there were many tens of thousands in her hand, she would rather open the cards than play them.

The more Gao played, the more anxious she became, obviously a good deck of cards, but it was going to fall short, and when she grabbed a nine-penny next time, she simply played out 200,000 guan, she was going to change her luck and dismantle the deck of ten thousand cards.

Who knew that as soon as her cards were opened, she regretted it too much, Shen Ao actually played three or four thousand times in a row, so angry that her face turned purple, and when she made up the coherence of Jiuwen, Shen Ao did not have a single literary card, and was in Gao's upset...... Shen Ao put the cards down and said with a smile: "Nine coherence, the Empress Dowager, the student seems to have won." ”

Gao looked at Shen Ao's cards with a straight face, and saw that Shen Ao really put out the cards from the consistent to Jiuguan, angry and annoyed, but not good to attack, took off the phoenix hairpin on his head and put it down, then stood up and left, and said to the old eunuch who helped her when he left: "Go, take 20,000 guan for them." Then he walked quickly.

The Empress Dowager Qinci was overjoyed and praised Shen Ao a few words, originally in her heart, Shen Ao was just a qualified card player, but now that she has earned such a big face, she looks at him left and right very pleasing to the eye, and asks someone to reward him with something before she is willing to let him go back.

After playing cards all morning, Shen Ao was a little tired, and walked out of the harem with gold hairpins and money, and just arrived at the front hall, he bumped into Yang Jian head-on, Yang Jian saw Shen Ao from a distance, stepped up his steps, and said: "Shen Ao, Your Majesty is looking for you, it turns out that you are here." ”

Shen Ao smiled and saluted Yang Jian, and said: "They played a few games of cards with the Queen Mother, and my father-in-law also knew that it was my first time playing cards, and I was always bullied." ”

Yang Jian chuckled: "The miscellaneous family doesn't know you yet, just now the Empress Dowager went out of the Empress Dowager's bedroom, with an unhappy face, saying that she lost 20,000 yuan and a golden hairpin to give a bachelor, and I also said who this bachelor is, it turned out to be you!" Yang Jian paused for a moment, and then said, "Bring the things!" ”

"Something, something?" Shen Ao's heart struck suddenly.

Yang Jian stretched out his hand: "Jin Hai." ”

Shen Ao had no choice but to take out the golden hairpin and said, "Father-in-law, I won this." ”

Yang Jian said angrily: "Knowing that you won it back, you don't want to think about it, this golden hairpin belongs to the Queen Mother, is that the person you should offend?" Later, the miscellaneous family will return it for you, say a few good words to you, ask her old man to stop the fire, and you dare to ask for the queen mother's phoenix, it is really bold. ”

Shen Ao had no choice but to give the phoenix hairpin to Yang Jian, secretly slandering in his heart, he finally won a phoenix hairpin, and he had to return it, the queen mother's shelf was really big.

Yang Jian took the phoenix hairpin, carefully put it away, and stretched out his hand again: "There is more." ”

"What else?" Shen Ao's eyes widened.

Yang Jian said with a smile: "The 20,000 yuan is the Empress Dowager's own money. ”

Even the money had to be confiscated, Shen Ao was sweating profusely: "I was won by the Queen Mother, and I didn't win a point." ”

Yang Jian looked Shen Ao up and down: "You kid, even the miscellaneous family is cheated, the eunuchs in the harem have already reported to the miscellaneous family, this money, all you won, a total of 21,200 yuan, was personally handed over to you by Zhou An in front of the empress dowager." ”

Shen Ao had no choice but to take out a wad of money and hand it to Yang Jian very reluctantly, thinking to himself, does this father-in-law want to eat black? Hey, it's been a wasted morning, and I've wasted a lot of brain cells.

Yang Jian took the money, dipped it in saliva and counted it, and sneered: "Why is there only 20,000 guan, and there are 1,200 guan." ”

"Yes, why is there so much missing, it must have been swallowed by the guy named Zhou An, I want to go to him." Shen Ao rolled up his sleeves indignantly.

Yang Jian sighed and said, "Don't hide it, hand it all over, the miscellaneous family is here for you to eliminate the disaster, send the things back, the empress dowager has a step, and she won't embarrass you in the future." ”

Shen Ao smiled wryly, and had no choice but to say, "I'll find out if I still have anything on me." He touched his body and took out twelve hundred yuan bills, and said in surprise: "Hey, why do you still have so much money on your body, it's really strange." ”

Yang Jian accepted the money and said with a straight face: "Let's go, go with the miscellaneous family to see the emperor first." ”

Shen Ao followed Yang Jian to Wenjing Pavilion, Zhao Ji in the pavilion was looking at an ancient book and was distracted, Shen Ao came in unaware, Shen Ao walked over carefully, and saw that Zhao Ji was reading the book "Painting Yuntai Mountain", "Painting Yuntai Mountain" is Gu Kaizhi's painting theory, which tells some of the essence of painting, and is one of the few authentic works left by Gu Kaizhi, which is precious; In later generations, what Shen Ao read was just a copy.

Zhao Ji raised his eyes with a painful face, sighed, and said, "A good book, but I want to give it away, I really can't bear it." ”

Shen Ao said: "Your Majesty plans to give this book to the county lord of Qinghe?" ”

Zhao Ji only then discovered Shen Ao's existence, and nodded with a loss: "What if you don't send it, this pair of father and daughter, I can't afford to provoke them, send the painting theory, let them stop for a few days, and have an explanation in front of the queen mother." Shen Ao, you sit down and talk. ”

Shen Ao sat down.

Zhao Ji Zhengse said: "This time, I plan to make you the envoy of the country, send an envoy to the Liao State, and let Wu Wencai, the director of the Ministry of Rites, be your deputy, but this letter of state still needs to be carefully considered, Shen Ao, do you have any suggestions?" ”

Shen Ao thought for a while and said, "First, let the lord of the Liao State be a minister. ”

Zhao Ji said with some embarrassment: "Song Liao has always concluded an alliance with a brotherly country, if they are called vassals, I am afraid that they will not will, this is a matter of the face of the Liao people, if this article is added, the Liao nobles must vigorously oppose it, for fear of missing a major event." ”

After the Liao people entered the Guannei, the Southern Yuan has always been to govern the country with Confucianism, and it has been somewhat contaminated with the habits of the Han people, calling them ministers, which is more uncomfortable than them, Zhao Ji has adopted the national policy of Lianliao, and he is bent on signing a new alliance with the Liao people to consolidate the status of the two countries and jointly resist Jin. It's just that the article of being a minister, he expects that the Liao people will definitely not accept it, and once it is accepted, it will greatly shake the entire Liao country, and it is very likely to have a bad effect.

Shen Ao said with a smile: "Your Majesty, since it is a negotiation, that is, the sky-high asking price, and the money will be repaid on the ground, we will add this article, and the Liao people will definitely fight to the death against this article, and it will inevitably be negligent in the subsequent terms, and when the time comes, it will be much easier for us to use the first article to force the Liao people to accept other terms." ”

Zhao Ji couldn't help laughing, and immediately understood Shen Ao's trick, the first one was just a cover to attract firepower, and it was used to scare the Liao people. Call you a big-headed ghost, this is a matter of decency for the entire Liao country, so he used all his thoughts to fight with Shen Ao for the first article, and when Shen Ao reluctantly deleted the first article and made such a big 'concession', shouldn't the Liao people express their expression and obediently regress on other terms?

"You're right, this one should be added, the Liao people have bullied our Great Song Dynasty for so many years, so scare them first." Zhao Ji had a sense of pleasure that the haze in his chest had been swept away, and he laughed a few times and said, "What about after that?" ”

Shen Ao said: "The first is to be a minister, and the second is to ask the Liao State to return the sixteen states of Yanyun, the sixteen states of Yanyun are the foundation of the Liao people at the moment, of course they will not be willing to pay it back, but we first proposed to ask for the sixteen states, the lion opened his mouth, and then bargained with the Liao people, at least to take back a few states." ”

Zhao Ji nodded: "What you said is right, take back a few states." He was quite excited, when Emperor Taizu was there, he couldn't even get back a piece of land from the Liao people, and now he took back a few states, which is enough for him to leave a good reputation for expanding his territory.

Shen Ao put forward many conditions, such as how many war horses to contribute every year, and sending the prince to take hostages, etc., which are all old-fashioned, but in the past, most of the lions of the Liao State opened their mouths, and now it is said that the Song people raised their eyebrows.

Zhao Ji Dayue said: "Okay, I immediately asked the Ministry of Rites to write a letter of state, you go back immediately, and be ready to listen to the will at any time, Shen Ao, I am all about Lianliao, please leave it to you, take out your spirit of refusing to suffer, and give the Liao people a little power." ”

In other words, in normal times, where would Zhao Ji say such a scoundrel in the market, but he has been with Shen Ao for a long time, and he has been infected with a temperament that is unwilling to suffer, and when he says a word, his heart is extremely happy.

Shen Ao said: "Weichen obeys the order, and he must live up to his mission." ”