"My father-in-law, I understand what you said, but the more I persist, the more my clan members will have to pay, and the possibility of reform in the future will be greater. As for the outcome, the worst thing is that this mess will be wiped out.
That's it." Beneath Xu Qinghan's gentle and elegant appearance is an extremely stubborn character.
"It's still a good thing if you lose Wusha!" Zhang Zhiren said angrily: "What if you lose your head? Let them become orphans and widowed mothers?"
"Dad, can't you?" Zhang Ling asked.
"No? The Chen family and King Wu have already given out an extra five hundred thousand taels of salary, the Xiao family has given out three hundred thousand taels, and all the clan members, big and small, are contributing money. Do you think they will be willing to pay for it in vain?
Zhang Zhiren said angrily.
"Isn't there still a prince supporting me?" Zhang Ling asked again.
"Auntie, Liu Cifu quietly told me last night that he should take some rest for a while because of his illness. Maybe the prince will give in as well."
"Liu Yan still has a conscience. The more tough you are, the real winner is the prince!" Zhang Zhiren said.
"Dad, you are in the Ministry of War, where did you hear all this?" Zhang Ling asked.
"Where? The old emperor told me half-jokingly this morning, tell your upright officials to stop! He has raised more military pay, and this time he has made it clear that he will not change the law!" Zhang Zhiren said angrily.
"If I retreat, what will happen to the colleagues behind me? Should I let them be the scapegoats? Father-in-law, I will still say what needs to be said." Xu Qinghan said in a low voice.
"Then just wait until your head falls to the ground!" Zhang Zhiren was extremely angry.
"If the emperor dares to do this, I will go and rob the court!" Zhang Ling became angry and said something angrily.
"Okay, just pretend that I never gave birth to a daughter like you, and you all can become upright officials. If you have the ability, you can destroy all the inheritance that your ancestors have built for me!" Zhang Zhiren was furious, and turned around and walked away.
Zhang Ling realized that she had made a mistake and hurriedly looked at her two children. Xu Muxue and Zhang Mufeng understood each other, one on the left and the other on the right, and quickly ran up, each holding an arm of her grandfather and persuading him to calm down.
He Qizhou also followed and said to Zhang Zhiren, who was still angry: "Master Zhang, let me persuade my uncle."
Zhang Zhiren stopped and said: "Why, are you going to take the lead? You are a mud Buddha crossing the river, and you are still preparing to charge into the battle? I have told the emperor that you will stir up trouble, and you will not have a share in the next court meeting.
Got it!"
He Qizhou said hurriedly: "I really want to persuade Uncle Xu to stop. I also see clearly that since there is no way to change the law, life or death, I will not do it in vain to be used as a gunman. Besides, there are some clues about the Xifengkou case.
I think……"
Zhang Zhiren's anger subsided a little and he cursed: "What do you want, kid?"
"I want to find a chance to meet Ye Xu alone..."
"No way!" Seeing He Qizhou mentioning such a high-risk thing again, Zhang Zhiren was so angry that he walked out of the door without looking back.
"Dad, don't be angry, I will persuade Mo Yan..." Zhang Ling shouted from a distance. She waved her hand and asked Zhang Mufeng and Xu Muxue to accompany them all the way out.
"Mo Yan, dad said that, he won't die without saving his life." Zhang Ling turned to Xu Qinghan and said.
"Uncle, do you want to protect me from disaster?" He Qizhou turned back.
"No, although your memorial lacks some strategy, it is indeed a good strategy to benefit the people and consolidate national defense, so you can fight to the death." Xu Qinghan said.
He Qizhou said: "Uncle, I know you have good intentions, but Liu Cifu may have heard about it from the prince and your majesty. Since I am Yang Zheng's adopted son, and I am currently in the midst of a war, your majesty will not commit a serious crime. Instead, you may become a
What is the target of public criticism, and more importantly, is that no matter how hard we fight, the memorial will never be adopted, so there is no need for you to make unnecessary sacrifices. Why don't we follow the Art of War, recharge our batteries, and wait for the situation to strike."
"He Qizhou, I didn't expect you to be quite tactful. You don't look like Yang Zheng in this way." Zhang Ling said with a smile.
"Isn't it time to fight hard yet?" He Qizhou's face turned slightly red.
"Mo Yan, why don't you listen to your father this time? Don't bring my father into the mix. If you insist on it, you won't be able to escape this disaster, not to mention that Jiang Shan is the cheapest one. Just think of the old man.
"Zhang Ling said.
"Okay, then I will discuss it with some colleagues in the court tomorrow. During the war, it is still necessary for Wang Tian to increase taxes appropriately." Xu Qinghan also heard from the words of Zhang Zhiren and Liu Yan that He Qizhou should not die.
Then he thought about going back to his own strategy of cutting down the vassal states step by step.
Seeing that Xu Qinghan rarely gave in, Zhang Ling breathed a sigh of relief and said, "You! Sooner or later, you have to let me rob the court. Bah, bah, bah, look at my crow's mouth."
Seeing Xu Mu and Zhang Mufeng seeing off Zhang Zhiren's carriage and returning home, Zhang Ling hurriedly asked them to go to her grandfather's house again and let them tell Xu Qinghan that she was willing to lower her demands to prevent the old man from being unable to sleep at night. Of course He Qizhou also lost "
If you have the opportunity to "move your mouth", you can only return to the Privy Council for night duty.
These days, the Privy Council is even busier, with confidential military information from all over the north coming in like snowflakes. What He Qizhou does most is running back and forth between the Privy Council and the military post in the outer city. He just returned from the military post at noon that day, and he bumped into
Xu Mu returned from delivering a letter from the Ministry of War.
Xu Mu told He Qizhou that a letter from his family was sent to the Armed Forces Hall yesterday, along with letters from Yang Shan and Lin Chuan, and it was Lin Chuan who conveyed the message through Liu Junzhi.
He Qizhou secretly sighed, it was a waste of a day. He asked Lin Chuan to ask Liu Junzhi to inform him as soon as there was a letter from home. He might have been on the way to deliver the letter and missed it. After hearing the news, He Qizhou hurriedly asked Huazhu for leave and hurried
Go back to the Arms Hall, that letter will probably contain what you want.
…
In the court hall, Chen Yu proposed that tomorrow's court meeting should be presided over by the emperor himself, because the half-month period has come, and except for the most remote governors who have not yet received a reply due to the time of correspondence, no one else has received a reply.
The opinions have been sent to the cabinet and forwarded to the prince and the emperor. No one raised any objections to this.
…
In the afternoon, when I returned to the unusually deserted Arms Hall, Lin Chuan, who had been waiting in the dormitory courtyard, happily handed a thick envelope to He Qizhou's hand.
After He Qizhou returned to the house, he cut the envelope with a paper knife and found five letters inside.
The shortest one by Yang Zhan is three sentences: I am very pleased that Dahuang has returned home and you are blessed with a horse. Don’t be impatient after clearing the six meridians and take good care of your injuries. It is best to stay here for two more years. With good news coming one after another, it’s time to drink three big cups!
Huang Quan's letter was the thickest, because there was a tube of medicine inside. He Qizhou took it out and smelled it, and knew that it was a good thing that the old man had hidden in the bottom of the box. The previous letter home had already described his injury in detail, so the old man was worried and took the life-saving medicine away.
I've brought them all. Okay, let's take one pill first and read the letter while healing.
His grandfather, Mr. Yang, said that his body and bones could still survive for two years. He hoped that He Qizhou would take good care of himself and go home to see him when he was free.
Her mother He Lian's words were full of worry. Although He Qizhou downplayed all the dangers along the way, it still made He Lian's heart palpitate. In addition to repeatedly telling He Qizhou to be careful, the letter also asked him to tell the story of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.
Write a letter back with more details about what you have seen.
The fifth letter was also the one that He Qizhou paid most attention to. It was a reply letter asking Yang Shan's father, Yang Zhi, to investigate Ye Chang's identity. The content of the letter was exactly what He Qizhou had predicted.
A letter from Yang Zhi said: Ye Dacheng, a person from Jiangjun County, has a son, Ye Chang, who sold his land very early and became a tenant farmer of the Liu family! He was kind-hearted and his family was poor, but he still adopted an orphan, named Ye Xu, and treated him like his own son.
.
The couple died early due to illness, and the two sons had no money to take care of the funeral. Later, with the help of the Liu family, they were able to settle down. After that, the two brothers left Jiangjun Village, and it is said that they went out to study art. For some reason, Ye Chang died a few years later.
He returned to his hometown in fine clothes and established a family business in Fucheng. However, he was killed shortly after at the age of twenty-two.
The case was tightly covered by the government, and not many people knew about it. The Yang family was powerful at the time, so of course they knew about such a big murder. According to Ye Chang's neighbors in Fucheng, Ye Chang made a small fortune after doing business in the north.
Wealth. When the government was cleaning up the relics, they found more than three thousand taels of cash in his home.
He Qizhou also asked a question in the letter, that is, how Liu Jin'an became successful. Yang Zhi replied in the letter: Liu Jin'an was born in Juren County. He stayed in Jiangjun County because there was no official vacancy. He became a clerk in a neighboring county when he was forty years old.
The eighth-rank county magistrate resigned from his official post within two years and took up a clerkship under Yang Zheng.
Seeing this, He Qizhou almost had a vague answer in his mind, and returned to the Privy Council again. Unfortunately, Zhang Zhiren had already returned home, and the questions in his mind could only be asked tomorrow.
At noon on the second day, He Qizhou waited for Zhang Zhiren, who was coming to court, and couldn't wait to see him.
"I'm just looking for you, tell me first, why are you looking for me?" Zhang Zhiren said.
He Qizhou said: "I want to know what specific affairs Liu Yushi was responsible for in my adoptive father's army, and how he was promoted later." He Qizhou heard Yang Zhan say that Liu Jin'an was quickly reused because of his outstanding strategy and careful thinking.
, he was promoted to the rank of fourth-rank general in less than three years. Of course, this is also the result of Yang Zheng's good treatment of his subordinates. Every time he receives merit, he will be subdivided into subordinates at all levels.
Zhang Zhiren said: "Are you suspicious of Liu Jin'an? It seems that you two are really in sync with each other. Liu Jin'an, who had been speaking for you a few days ago, went crazy today and bit you and Mr. Xu, as if to save you from death.
It’s not enough.”
"Is this really so? Then we must hurry up. Mr. Zhang, please answer my question first." He Qizhou said anxiously.
"Okay, Liu Jin'an doesn't know martial arts. He can gain a foothold in the army only by his intelligence. He is the second-ranked military advisor under Yang Zheng, second only to He Qingshan. After collecting the information gathered by the reconnaissance cavalry, he will propose his own
Suggestions." Zhang Zhiren said.
"In other words, the sending and receiving of reconnaissance information is likely to go through his link?"
Zhang Zhiren's eyes lit up, then dimmed again, and he said: "That's true. It's just that he can't be the only one in the Chinese army's tent. It's almost impossible to lie about military information."