Yongjia South City, Yonghua Fang.

This place is located in the northwest of the imperial palace, and the people living in the square are basically martial arts generals, such as the current general Wang Yan and the general Liu Shouguang of the Southern Ya, as well as the Han Lingfu of Jingguo Gong who was enshrined after Li Duan ascended the throne.

On Ningding Street, there is a three-room mansion with a main entrance, and a pair of gold-lacquered beast-faced tin rings are nailed to the door. There is a pair of Ruyi drum stones on both sides of the gate, the drum base has a peony relief with a curly grass pattern, and the drum surface is a pattern of five lions guardrail, showing the majesty of the wealthy family.

There are four big characters in the royal pen book on the gatehouse: Shanyang Houdi.

This is the Hou Mansion given to Lu Shen by the Son of Heaven.

Lu Shen stood under the treadway, looking up slightly at the imperial pen on the gatehouse, and dozens of personal soldiers stood at the bottom of the steps on both sides.

A young official in his thirties stood beside Lu Shen solemnly and said respectfully: "Marquis Lu, the mansion has been cleaned up and relocated in accordance with His Majesty's will. If Lu Hou needs it, the lower official can arrange for someone to make changes, and if he wants to add furnishings and furniture, the lower official will also complete it as soon as possible. ”

This person's name is Yu Shouwen, and he is now a general of the Privy Council, and can be regarded as a subordinate official of the Privy Envoy Guo Congyi.

Lu Shen said indifferently: "Since it is Your Majesty's arrangement, there is definitely no need to make any adjustments." Moreover, Ben Hou has lived in the military camp for a long time, and he is not very particular about food, clothing, housing and transportation, and everything is subject to simplicity. Everything is complicated, and there is a lot of trouble, and Ben Hou is grateful. ”

"Lu Hou said seriously, this is the duty of the lower officials, and it is the honor of the lower officials to serve Lu Hou."

Yu Shouwen smiled humbly.

Lu Shen naturally didn't take his words seriously, and the words "Guo's henchman" were almost written directly on this person's face.

Yu Shouwen said: "Because I don't know Lu Hou's preferences, the lower officials don't dare to make their own claims, so there is only one housekeeper, more than ten servants, and six maids in the mansion, all of whom are innocent slaves. ”

He knew that the young marquis beside him had a lot of money, not to mention twenty servants, and he could afford to raise several times the number, but he didn't want to arouse the other party's disgust.

Lu Shen shook his head and said, "Forgive me, Ben Hou is not used to strangers staying around, so I bother you to take them all away." ”

Do these people in the Privy Council really think of him as a chick who can only fight wars and knows nothing else?

The embarrassment on Yu Shouwen's face flashed away, and he immediately nodded and said, "Obey Lu Hou's order." ”

Lu Shen didn't invite him into the mansion to talk about it, and Yu Shouwen also took the initiative to say goodbye with interest, of course, he didn't forget to take those people in the mansion away before leaving.

This Shanyang Marquis Mansion is a brick and wood structure with a traditional north-facing and south-facing system, and the overall layout is symmetrical along the central axis.

After entering the main entrance, there is no rockery in front of you, but two wide inner flats on the left and right, and wings on both sides. Further to the right is the stable, and to the left is the outer study and the inverted seat where the family will live.

Through the vestibule is the sedan hall, the four-sided hall, the main hall hall, and the back into the instrument door is the back house area.

Generally speaking, the area of the Hou Mansion is about twice as large as that of the Guangling Lu family.

Lu Shen walked around the mansion roughly, and his personal soldiers had already completed the investigation inside and outside, and at the same time arranged the light and dark sentry posts in an orderly manner.

About half an hour later, four carriages and more than 20 servants arrived at the Hou Mansion, and the leader was Chen Shu, the chief treasurer of the Lu family's firm in Yongjia City.

The year before last, Lu Shen entered Beijing for the first time, Chen Shu'an was very attentive, and after Lu Shen left Beijing, he was responsible for the Lu family's business in the capital.

"The villain pays a visit to the Hou Ye, congratulates the Hou Ye on his meritorious deeds and the title of Marquis!"

Chen Shu, who was over forty years old, was extremely excited, and knelt down to kowtow to Lu Shen while talking.

Lu Shen held his arm and smiled, "My family doesn't have to be like this. ”

Chen Shu sighed: "The villain has been very concerned about Hou Ye in the capital for the past two years, and every time he hears the news of Hou Ye's victory, the villain is very happy, but he is worried about Hou Ye's safety, and he prays for Hou Ye every day." ”

Lu Shen did not deliberately change his title, after all, this is an era when the national rite is greater than the family rite, even if he was only a man in Shanyang County before, the people in the house should also be called a knighthood, not a young master all day long.

At this moment, hearing the middle-aged man's true feelings, Lu Shen couldn't help but feel something.

For an old man like Chen Shu, Lu Shen is Lu Tong's only son, that is, the only object of their allegiance in the future, so they naturally want to see him soar, but at the same time, they will inevitably worry about whether he will go steadily.

After all, the future of the Lu family depends on him alone.

Looking at the look of pride and concern on Chen Shu's face, Lu Shen said gently: "Uncle Chen has a heart. From now on, this Hou Mansion will be the place where our Lu family will live in the capital, but the two houses in Dongcheng will continue to remain, and I remember to send people to clean them from time to time. ”

"Don't worry, the villain remembers it."

Chen Shu said with a smile: "After receiving the letter from the master and the Hou Ye, the villain has already finished the dots and brought all the subordinates over, many of whom have been seen by the Hou Ye when he entered Beijing the year before last. They are all old men of our Lu family, their hands and feet are clean and their mouths are tight, and the Hou Ye can also use them with confidence. ”

Lu Shen bowed his head and said, "Okay, then the affairs of the family will be left to you to take care of, and go and get busy." ”

Chen Shu respectfully responded, and then took on the responsibility of the chief steward of the Hou Mansion, arranging various affairs in an orderly manner, and the first thing was to transfer a few big maids to Lu Shen who were responsible for personal waiting.

After lunch, Lu Shen came to the flower hall to meditate alone, and the two maids stood obediently outside the door, thinking curiously and admiringly about the young master in the hall.

Lu Shen was a little tired.

Re-entering the capital today, from the time he arrived in the northern suburbs to the present, he has seen all kinds of undercurrents surging in just half a day, and the abundance of information has almost filled his brain.

The three princes have shown their temperament one after another, regardless of the fact that their performances in front of Lu Shen have several layers of disguise, compared with the last time Lu Shen entered Beijing, he has obviously become a hot celebrity in the court.

The eldest prince and the second prince expressed their intentions to Lu Shen in different ways, but Lu Shen paid the most attention to the third Li Zongjian.

According to his understanding of the third prince, he has been doted on by Queen Xu since he was a child, and his character can be described as extremely bad, so he has the same smell as Li Sanlang in the Zuo Prime Minister's Mansion.

Even if this kind of person is confined to today's special occasion, he will not bow his head and submit to weakness in front of Lu Shen.

"The Marquis of Shanyang is a person who has made meritorious contributions to the country, and this king will naturally respect it."

This is what Li Zongjian said before, Lu Shen remembers it word for word, and from this sentence, he can tell that Li Zongjian has something hidden in his heart, otherwise he can completely ignore Lu Shen, there is no need to go against his heart to ease the atmosphere.

Of course, Lu Shen was not an immortal, he couldn't judge his true thoughts from Li Zongjian's attitude, but he vaguely felt that something was not quite right.

The princes have their own ghosts, and the sons of heaven in the palace seem to be preoccupied.

At this moment, sitting alone and meditating, Lu Shen gradually sorted out the context of some things.

After the Yuanjia Incident, Li Duan survived because he happened to be not in Heluo City. Later, he crossed south to Yongjia and ascended the throne with the support of the Jiangnan clan headed by Li Daoyan, which was undoubtedly the weakest stage of the Li royal family at that time, but fortunately, Li Daoyan and Qin Zheng and others were loyal enough to let Li Duan survive that difficult time.

However, this has also led to the existence of some problems left over from history, that is, the internal structure of the Beijing army.

The military strength of the Gyeonggi region of Great Qi can be divided into several parts, the first is the forbidden army guarding the imperial palace, which is elite but not many in number, only 8,000 people in full battle. After more than ten years of hard work, the Son of Heaven has now held this power in the palm of his hand.

Then there is the Beiya Sixth Army guarding the capital, which is led by the general Wang Yan on the surface, but in fact, the six commanders have their own origins, and they are inextricably linked with the Jiangnan Shi clan, and there are only one or two people at most who can be regarded as Wang Yan's henchmen.

The 12th Army of the Southern Ya was responsible for garrisoning all parts of Gyeonggi and was divided between two great generals, and with Li Jingda taking the Zhenwei Army to Dingzhou, the Southern Ya actually only had the 11th Army.

At the beginning, taking advantage of the opportunity of the original command of the Wei army to make Xu Wen and the enemy traitorous to be investigated and punished, and the twelve border army generals entered Beijing, Li Duan asked Chen Lanyu to take over the Dingwei army, which was regarded as tearing a gap in the Beijing army system, but it was nothing more.

In other words, Li Duan, as the Son of Heaven of Great Qi, has a very weak control over the Beijing army, although both the Northern and Southern Governments seem to be very loyal to the Son of Heaven at present, but which emperor does not want the army around him to be controlled by his own people?

Even if he could only master one of the two, Li Duan could sleep more peacefully, which was an important reason why he wanted to keep Lu Shen in the capital.

With Lu Shen's great military exploits in the past two years and the support of the border army for him, as well as the fact that Lu Shen has not yet been assigned a suitable military position, Li Duan obviously intends to let Lu Shen tear open the gap.

Thinking of this, Lu Shen couldn't help but sigh lightly.

This power struggle is not a battlefield, but it is more dangerous than a battlefield, because you can't be sure who is a comrade and who is the enemy.

"Master Hou."

Chen Shu's voice sounded outside the door, pulling Lu Shen out of his thoughts, and then turned his head and asked, "What's the matter?" ”

Chen Shu walked into the flower hall, holding a greeting note in both hands, and bowed his head and said: "Lord Hou, the eldest prince of the right prime minister's mansion came to visit, and now he is waiting in the gatehouse." ”

Right phase? The eldest son?

Lu Shen didn't react for a while.

Seeing this, Chen Shu said: "Master Hou, this eldest prince's name is Xue Ruogu, and he is now the editor of the Hanlin Academy. ”

Lu Shen glanced at him thoughtfully, and said with a smile: "It seems that my father asked you to take care of the business in the capital, and at the same time, he also added the task of finding out the news for you." ”

Chen Shu also said with a smile: "The master said that everyone in the family must do their best for the Hou Ye, and there can be no slackness. ”

"Okay."

Lu Shen responded, and then got up and said, "Then go and meet what kind of person this prime minister's prince is, and invite him to meet in the main hall." ”

"Yes, Master Hou."

Chen Shu immediately took the order and left.

Because of the relationship between the old divine doctor Xue Huaiyi and the center's support for the border army in the past two years, Lu Shen had a good impression of Xue Nanting, the right minister, and naturally would not suspect that the other party had bad intentions.

Merely...... I have just arrived in the capital, from the Son of Heaven to the right minister, how can these big people in the city look a little unbearable?

He walked slowly out of the flower hall, his gaze becoming deeper and deeper.

(End of chapter)