The fourteenth year of Qi Jianwu, May 17.

This is a very ordinary and ordinary day, the highlight of the Moyuan Literary Society, Mo Ping, because of Lu Shen's absence, can not create a greater momentum, the people of the capital for the great victory of the frontier gradually subsided, this prosperous and rich capital slowly returned to the peace and tranquility of the past.

Beicheng Datongfang, a simple house.

On the east side of the Eight Immortals Table, a woman in red was sitting with a big sword, and there were several men standing beside her, with a fierce temperament and a fierce demeanor, and at a glance she knew that she was not a good person.

On the opposite side, to the west sat a man in his thirties, with a warm and smiling expression, and the two elders behind him stood in an orderly manner.

The man in his thirties spoke unhurriedly and said, "My master is very grateful to have Miss Lao run by herself. ”

The woman in red said indifferently: "Speaking of which, I don't know who your master's surname is. ”

The man smiled and said, "Ling Zun also asked this question at the beginning, but it doesn't really matter. You take out what my master needs, and we will pay you well enough. It's just a deal, and there's no need to get involved in anything else. ”

The woman in red looked at him fixedly, and then said to the clansmen behind her, "Fetch it." ”

The clansman bowed his head, turned around and brought a wooden box, and placed it on the table of the Eight Immortals.

He opened the wooden box, and the man in his thirties leaned forward slightly, seeing the grass seeds safely stored in the box, and couldn't help but smile and nodded.

Seeing this, the woman in red said, "This is the cloud grass that your master wants." ”

The man was about to speak, when the woman in red said, "The price you originally set was three thousand taels, but I don't think it's worth it." The cloud-entangled herbs are extremely rare, only found on the top of several high mountains in Dajinchuan, and it is very difficult to pick, so we have to ask the old hunters of the Jinchuan Department to get it. These dozens of grass seeds are not easy to come by, and I don't care what you do with them, but you have to pay us enough. ”

The man hesitated: "Please also ask the girl to speak clearly." ”

The woman in red said lightly: "Six thousand taels, not a penny less." ”

The man's face was embarrassed, he thought about it and gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, according to what the girl said, six thousand taels." ”

He took out a stack of silver tickets from his arms, counted out six thousand taels and put them on the table, and said: "Miss Luo, this is the six thousand taels of tickets from Hengchang Qianzhuang. ”

Someone next to him checked the silver ticket, and then nodded to the woman in red.

After a few moments, the three men left the simple dwelling with the wooden boxes, and the woman in red looked at their backs with a cold color in her eyes.

The middle-aged man she called the Twelfth Uncle walked up to him and said in a low voice, "Young Master, someone has already arranged for someone to keep an eye on it." ”

The woman in red bowed slightly.

The middle-aged man asked a little puzzled, "Young master, why do we have to check the details of the buyer?" ”

"Three thousand taels has become six thousand taels, which is fully doubled, this person pretends to be very embarrassed, in fact, he doesn't even blink his eyes, it can be seen that the cloud grass is very important to them, plus these people hide their heads and shrink their tails and don't even dare to mention their names, of course we have to be careful."

The woman in red explained a little, and then said to everyone: "This place has been exposed, let's move out immediately." ”

"Yes."

The crowd responded in unison.

They seemed to be very familiar with Yongjia North City, not at all like they had just arrived, and soon quietly moved to another inconspicuous residence, which was naturally the credit of the twelfth uncle.

In fact, the seven departments of Shazhou are not as barbaric and backward as ordinary Qi people imagine.

As early as more than 100 years ago, when Li Zhongjing, the Taizu of Qi, reused the native soldiers of Shazhou, the Seven Divisions had close exchanges with the hinterland of the Central Plains, especially the Yalong Division, the head of the Seven Divisions, that is, the tribe to which the woman in red and the Twelve Uncles belonged, had a very in-depth understanding of the culture and customs of the Qi Dynasty.

If you don't know the identity of the Yalong tribesmen, just by looking at their appearance, names and words, they are almost no different from the Qi people.

This twelfth uncle named Luo Yan lived in the territory of the Qi Dynasty all the year round, and secretly sold goods for the seven departments of Shazhou.

When she came to another foothold, the woman in red asked, "Twelfth uncle, have you figured out Hou Yu's whereabouts?" ”

Luo Yan replied, "It's been roughly figured out. Hou Yu is now the general of the Nanya of the Qi State Jing Army, and he still lives near the Nancheng Imperial Palace for the time being, because the official office of the Nanya is there. He should have been cautious, but our brother found that these days he was not surrounded by many guards in and out of the palace, the official office, and the mansion, sometimes only a dozen people. ”

The woman in red sneered: "He is luring us to take the bait, there must be a lot of hands hidden in the shadows." In this way, wait a little longer, and you tell the stalking brother to be careful not to be caught by the other party. ”

Luo Yan nodded and said, "Young master, don't worry, I use the manpower of Yongjia's side." They have lived here for a long time and do not show traces. ”

The woman in red pondered for a moment and said slowly: "It's best to wait for the opportunity for a lot of lively and chaotic people, and take advantage of Hou Yu's lack of preparedness before making a move." Twelfth uncle, the six thousand taels of silver will be sent back to Chengzhou as soon as possible, and exchanged for the materials needed by the clansmen and transported back. ”

Luo Yan responded, and hesitated slightly: "Young master, Hou Yu is the general of Qi after all, is this matter-"

Before he could finish speaking, the woman in red interrupted: "We Shazhou people will repay our kindness, and we will repay our revenge." Hou Yu, this brute, killed so many of our clansmen, he hid in the barracks before, and we had nothing to do with him. Now he can't always have hundreds of sharp pawns around him, and sooner or later he will show his flaws. ”

Luo Yan didn't want to persuade again, so he lowered his head and said: "Okay, just follow the words of the young master." ”

The woman in red walked to the window, stared at the early summer scenery in the cramped courtyard, and said softly: "I'm not in a hurry, I have enough patience to wait for that day." ”

……

Imperial Palace, Wende Hall side hall.

Recently, the administrative affairs of the imperial court have been carried out smoothly, and the rewards for the soldiers of the border army, the establishment of the official offices at all levels in Dingzhou, and the handling of the daily affairs of the thirteen prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River have been said to be in good order with the close cooperation of the Zhongshu and the Privy Council.

Therefore, Tianzi decided to hold a small court meeting attended only by important ministers, and everyone's mood was very stable.

It's just that the specifications of this small pilgrimage meeting are not low at all.

The two governors, the privy envoys, the generals, the generals, the imperial historians and the six Shangshu and so on all came, and even the noble scholars of Hanlin and the priest of the country appeared in the side hall.

The important ministers are basically familiar faces with each other, and only two of them have just entered the lobby and entered the inner circle of the court officials.

One of them is Hou Yu, the marquis of Nan'an, the general in charge of the Sixth Army of Nanya.

The second is the Marquis of Shanyang, who was crowned not long ago, and Lu Shen, who has no specific official position at present.

On the dragon chair, Li Duan looked around at the ministers and said to Lu Shizhou: "Give Zuo Xiang a seat." ”

Li Daoyan arched his hand and said: "Thank Your Majesty for your love, the old minister does not dare to exceed the etiquette system." ”

Li Duan looked at the old man who was nearly seventy years old, his eyes showed some complicated emotions, and he said gently but undoubtedly: "Zuo Xiang, I still have to rely on you to assist the Chaogang. No red tape is more important to me than your body. ”

Lu Shizhou moved a round stool and walked closer, and helped Li Daoyan to sit down.

Li Daoyan sat down trembling and full of emotion.

The ministers watched this scene and suddenly realized a problem, Zuo Xiang was indeed old and decrepit, and the old age spots on his face were becoming more and more obvious.

Although Li Daoyan is old, the Lingtai is still clear.

In just a brief answer, he could understand that the Son of Heaven's concern was not for pretentiousness, but for genuine concern about his physical condition.

Looking back on the past, the old man couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed in his heart.

After the Yuanjia Revolution, the Qi Dynasty was on the verge of extinction, after all, the emperor, the crown prince and many important ministers died in Heluo City, and the entire court system was on the verge of collapse.

Li Duan fled all the way to Yongjia, because of the identity of the emperor's seventh son, he was supported by Li Daoyan and Han Lingfu, two important ministers, and hurriedly ascended the throne to continue the Great Qi Guozuo.

In the following ten years, Han Lingfu withdrew from the court due to physical reasons, and the center became Li Daoyan's one-man show.

Generally speaking, the cooperation between Li Duan and Li Daoyan was quite tacit, and except for whether to support the Northern Expedition, there were basically no serious differences and contradictions in other aspects.

Monarchs and ministers walk hand in hand, a long wind and rain for 15 years.

Now Li Daoyan clearly feels that his body is getting older and weaker, and he no longer cares about most of the government affairs, and hands it over to the right minister Xue Nanting and the six Shangshu, and only decides on some key issues.

However, as long as he can appear in the court consciously, the Manchu court secretary must respect the old man's opinion.

This is the reason why Li Duan specially gave him a seat.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I summoned you to the palace today because there is something that has been accumulated in my heart for a long time, and there has been no suitable opportunity to say it."

After showing respect to Li Daoyan, Li Duan looked around at everyone and opened the conversation without hurrying.

This sentence instantly cheered up all the important ministers.

The so-called lord worries and humiliates the lord and humiliates the ministers, and the Son of Heaven clearly expresses the word "accumulation", how dare the ministers be indifferent?

If it was placed when Li Duan first ascended the throne, his words may not have much weight, but now many ministers in the DPRK have become Li Duan's cronies. Especially this year, the border army recovered Dingzhou and attacked Heluo, forcing the powerful Jing Dynasty to sign an alliance, which made Li Duan's prestige skyrocket to an unprecedented level.

After a group of important ministers expressed their loyalty, Li glanced at Lu Shen standing behind Hou Yu without a trace, and then said: "In the past few years, the border army soldiers have reported frequent successes, and I am naturally very pleased, but I always insist that the reappearance of the prosperity of the Great Qi cannot only rely on the border army soldiers. ”

The privy envoy Guo Congyi and the general Wang Yan frowned slightly.

For these smart people who stand at the pinnacle of power, obedience and listening are almost a necessary skill.

The Son of Heaven said that Daqi could not only rely on the soldiers of the border army, but this sentence was not to elevate the status of the Beijing army.

The next moment, Li Duan continued: "I thought about it and considered it in every possible way, but in the end I still felt that the current situation of the Beijing army did not meet the requirements of the imperial court. Therefore, I have an idea, which all of you refer to today. ”

"I want to restructure the Beijing army."

As soon as the words came out, the hall was silent.

(End of chapter)