The autumn wind is rustling, the sun is warm and the sun is setting. In the Bozhou Mingdao Palace on Huainan East Road in the Song Dynasty, light and shadow are interlaced, and the air is refreshing and warm.

Not only that, at this moment, in this huge building complex that has the functions of a temple, a garden, and a palace, you can see armored warriors and nobles in purple everywhere. You can see countless civil and military officials from the Song Dynasty.

here.

Among them, the hill with the highest position on the apse is even more tightly guarded and well-ordered. From a distance, it looks old, but it still represents the supreme authority of King Wu's scepter.

Everything is exactly the same as ten years ago, and everything is completely different from ten years ago.

The notice boards in various passages have been posted early on. This itinerary is very tight. Today is the limit for meeting and arriving, and tomorrow you will burn incense and bathe, meditate and concentrate. Three days later, you will have a sacrifice. After the sacrifice, you will only have to be quiet for one day.

Another banquet was held to discuss matters, and the trip lasted only six or seven days, which naturally aroused non-stop discussions in the civil and military circles.

Even senior officials such as Chen Gui, Liu Ji, and Yan Xiaozhong were a little uneasy.

Of course, as Mr. Lu is old and virtuous, he can naturally go to rest early. Without Hu Yin, Zhao Ding and Zhang Jun can still walk in the garden calmly as they did ten years ago, and even Lin Jingmo can

Lin Shangshu took up the position, making up the three of them.

The atmosphere was very harmonious.

"Speaking of which, have you watched the last episode of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons"?" Zhao Ding casually chatted while walking.

"Look." Zhang Jun ignored that there were still people around and laughed on the spot. "Guanyin said that the Eighty-one Difficulties were not enough, so he used the introduction that he had hidden dozens of times before, turned over, and revealed the wordless scripture... The result

However, Sanzang of the Tang Dynasty had a profound enlightenment, saying that the Buddha still needed profit and market, and there were still monsters in the Buddhist Kingdom of Tianzhu that cannibalize people. Only the Dragon King of the Tang Dynasty rained rain at the wrong time, and as a result, the emperor's intercession was not successful. It can be said that the government is well-educated and the laws are strict... It can be seen that

, Buddhism has spread eastward long ago, Tianzhu has long been an empty shell, the true scriptures are in the east, and the practice is at your feet... He became a Buddha with just one word... It is really the work of Wu... Master Wu."

Zhao Ding also twisted his beard and laughed: "It is indeed the work of the Wu family."

Just like that, the two of them, together with Lin Jingmo, laughed together for a while. After a while, they saw a stone table and bench under the shadow of a tree. The three of them walked over together, but did not sit down. They just stopped beside it.

Then they continued chatting... After this action, the knowledgeable people around him had already stayed away.

"Prince Jingsai wrote a letter against this trip?"

Under the shadow of the trees, Prime Minister Zhao Ding was thoughtful.

"yes."

Zhang Jun stood with his hands tied, his face calm. "It is said that Mingdao Palace is unlucky for the official family... For the sacrifices, the prime minister can do it on his behalf. For the declaration of favor, why not do it in Tokyo... In short, the memorial conveyed by the Privy Council

I am urging officials not to come here."

Zhao Ding nodded, then shook his head again: "What do you think of Xifu?"

"How can I see it?"

Zhang Jun was still calm. "The official family did fall into a well here, and Prince Yang also had some embarrassing things here... When he executed Kanglu with his hands that day, Yudi and Lu Gongxiang were standing aside, and it was normal for him to have some taboos in his heart. It's just that

…”

"only……?"

"It's just that Prince Yang sent a letter to the Privy Council instead of to the Secret Letter, but I don't know what his intention is?"

"It's impossible not to follow the secret path."

"Then the secret letter and the Privy Council came together to send it." Zhang Jun said seriously. "The reaction is becoming more and more excessive... Is there really some inside story that you and I don't know about?"

"What do you think, Lin Shangshu?" Zhao Ding hesitated for a moment, then looked at Lin Jingmo, who had been silent.

"My official believes that Prince Yang is called the commander, but he is actually the leader of the internal ministers. Whatever he wants to say and how he says it will be taken care of by the officials... We other ministers don't have to think too much." Lin Jingmo did not hesitate and acted immediately.

answer.

"I thought so too."

Zhao Ding nodded and brushed it off. "It's another matter. Have you two heard about it?"

"Which thing?"

"The incident caused by Wanqi Yuanzhong... said that Zong, Lu, Wang, and Zhang were going to directly pursue the holy gods as a special case of Zhongxing. Zong, Lu and Zhuisheng were carried into the Confucian Temple, and Wang and Zhang were among the gods.

A formal sealing edict will be carried out during this sacrifice."

"Forgive me for being honest, I am afraid that Xiang Zhuang's sword dance is aimed at Pei Gong... What he wants to do is to lift these four people up and not compete with everyone for these eighteen positions... But he is a little anxious, and his methods are too much.

It's a bit crude. How can Mr. Lu be ranked with the three dead people if he is alive? Moreover, what about Mr. Lu of Yanjing? People there say that the Northern Expedition has hollowed out his inner being, and he can hardly survive the next one.

In winter... do you want to go in together? Into the temple or to the gods?"

"Brother Yu thinks so too. We, the scholars, don't care about titles or divine positions. As for things like the Confucian Temple, it's not about merit, it's about knowledge. They don't stand next to each other...

...Today you and I say privately that if we really want to talk about the Confucian Temple, only Mr. Lu will be more sure of the future."

"Why is Mr. Lu so unsure?" Zhang Jun shook his head and smiled bitterly. "However, Wanqi Yuanzhong is not to blame for this... When the eighteen kings came out that day, everyone was still talking about it, but now it is the turn of the civil servants to compete for these eighteen positions.

, but all of them think it is too little, and Wanqi Yuanzhong’s contribution is really a bit far away... It is not just Wanqi Yuanzhong who is jumping up and down on this matter."

"That's true."

"I think this may not be the case." Just as Zhao and Zhang were discussing the matter frankly, Lin Jingmo, who had been silent behind him, suddenly spoke, causing the two people in front of him to stop and look back.

"What do you think, Lin Shangshu?" Zhao Ding asked frankly.

"Wanqi Jinglue's move is naturally Xiang Zhuang's intention to dance with Pei Gong, but it is not, or it is not just a wish to be ranked among the eighteenth rank." Lin Jingmo also stopped, and answered fluently. "Because civil servants do not compete with military generals,

There are still many battles to be rescheduled. Within ten years, the eighteen ranks must have been arranged in the official family. It cannot be done by external forces, and Wanqi's methods are too clumsy...

I would venture to guess that Wanqi Jingluo did this because he expected that he would most likely not be ranked, so he used it to express some grievances and remind the officials not to forget him, so as to exchange for actual benefits!"

"Besides his title, is there anything else we shouldn't forget about him?"

Zhang Deyuan looked surprised, while Zhao Yuanzhen frowned.

"Yanjing." Lin Jingmo glanced at the two husbands and answered seriously. "Weren't there rumors about moving the capital a few months ago? Compared with his posthumous reputation, Wan Qi Jinglue probably wants to make further progress in his lifetime, right? If

If we can take this opportunity to transfer to Hebei, the chancellor will not be far away."

Hearing this, Prime Minister Zhao Ding seemed to have expected it, but showed no emotion at all. Zhang Jun, who was originally surprised, became surprisingly calm after hearing this, even a little too calm.

After a brief pause, the current prime minister and leader of the Wood Party turned around and looked at the current prime minister, speaking calmly: "Brother Yuan Zhen, according to my foolish brother's point of view, Yanjing is one thing.

But it’s not the same thing, because the official family is back... When the official family is back, there will be people who can make the decisions. When the official family is back, the country will be at peace... If you don’t move the capital, you won’t move it, but if you really want to move the capital

, the officials will definitely inform them directly, and will we still oppose it then? Even if we oppose it, with the prestige of the officials now, can it be done? If the incident of moving the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty really happened, who would be embarrassed?"

After hearing this, Zhao Ding was silent for a while. After a while, he finally nodded slightly, then turned around and walked away deep in the shadow of the tree. Upon seeing this, Zhang Jun turned around and glanced at Lin Jingmo, and continued to follow him calmly.

As the sun set, there was no need for much discussion, and the sacrificial ceremony officially began the next day.

As we all know, the Zhao Guan family's behavior on certain matters is actually particularly ridiculous.

He likes to make people look like gods, and likes to write some strange stories about ghosts and gods by himself, but he has no respect for ghosts, gods and sacrifices... In the past, he scratched the Taoist ancestor and the Buddha's golden body was nothing more. At that time, he was really helpless...

...but not to mention anything else, just a few months ago, when I went to Juhua Island, I asked the abbot of Dalonggong Temple, which has been passed down for seventy or eighty years, what the "imperial" is and what the water in the octagonal well can do.

You can't live forever, how long can you live if you put a few fish in it, which makes the decades-old host cry, it's not something that ordinary officials can do.

Back to the present, although the Zhao Guan family kept saying that they were grateful to Taoist ancestors for blessing them, and that they had accomplished ten years of work, so they came back as they had hoped at the time, but when it came time to offer sacrifices, they were just perfunctory... Bathing and dressing in the first three days were very inappropriate.

He even shot a duck at Guohe Horse Racing, and when the sacrifices officially started three days later, he just wore the old ancestral dress, made a shopkeeper with his hands, and left Lu Haowen, Zhao Ding, Lu Benzhong, and Yang Yizhong at their mercy.

toss.

When it was his turn, the official only went up, placed a stick of incense on the altar outside Xuanyuan Hall and in front of Taoist Jin in Xuanyuan Hall, and then let it go.

All I can say is that fortunately, a handful of incense ash didn’t get on Daozu’s face.

One day later, the official actually directly issued an order to hold a banquet to discuss matters in front of the altar in the courtyard of Xuanyuan Hall... No one dared to speak out and accept advice, so they just followed the official's fooling around.

, there are even a few shameless people who quote scriptures and insist that such behavior is appropriate.

But there is one thing to say, the standard of the banquet is still very high. In addition to the necessary ministers of the emperor, the civil servants need to have the experience of being a senior official in the central secret cabinet or the local manager's resume, and the military generals also need to start from the county king. It seems that this banquet can really

Decide many things.

And the official family really lived up to everyone's expectations.

The sky was clear and the autumn air was crisp. The banquet had just started and before the wine was drunk, Zhao Guan's family got down to business.

"Your Majesty."

Zhao Jiu, who was sitting on the high ground in front of the stage, raised a glass and drank to himself, and then spoke with a smile. ""Laozi" has a saying: 'When success is achieved, the people all say: It's natural for me.' When Han Zhaolie became the king of Hanzhong, he also said, 'After success, everything is done'

Standing, the ministers and others retreated and corrected their sins, even if they died without regrets'. But, they are saints and famous kings, we can't compare... Why do we come here to offer sacrifices? Isn't it because of the autumn day ten years ago, we are

Are you here to make up your mind not to go to Yangzhou and instead grit your teeth to fight against the Jin? Now that the Jin Kingdom has been destroyed and Northern Xinjiang has been leveled, it can be called a success, so I come back to give a report to Daozu and the old man... Now that the sacrifice is over, we don’t have to do some things.

Are you being humble...Mr. Lu?"

"The old minister is here."

The person closest to Zhao Jiu immediately stood up from his seat.

"No need to get up."

Zhao Jiu poured himself a glass of wine again, just holding the cup to indicate. "Let's discuss heroes over wine here... The generals will discuss their military exploits. This thing has been settled... Let's talk about the merits of making a decision... Lu Gongxiang thinks,

It has been ten years since the founding of the Yan Dynasty. Who is the person who has made the decision?"

The courtyard suddenly became quiet, and only the sound of autumn cicadas and the whistling of autumn trees could be heard clearly.
To be continued...