After hearing the news, Li Xin was stunned at first, and then remained silent.

After a long while, he looked up at Shen Gang and asked slowly, "What is the situation?" ”

"The man is already lying in the palace of the state and is bedridden."

Shen Gang lowered his head and said: "The news from the capital was seven or eight days ago, and more than twenty imperial doctors had already lived in the Guogong Mansion seven or eight days ago, and it is said that General Xiaoye of Jimen Pass is also on the way back to the capital now, and the lowly rank went to the Guogong Mansion to ask as the identity of the Li family, and the family of the Guogong Mansion said......"

"It's not going to be good."

Speaking of this, Shen Gang paused and said, "It is said that Ye Guogong has been bedridden for several months, and the medicine stone is useless, so it should be impossible to survive this winter." ”

Li Xin's face was expressionless, and he slowly exhaled.

To put it in his heart, the relationship between him and Chen Guogong Ye Ming is far less deep than the relationship between him and the old Guogong Ye Sheng, after all, in those years, Li Xin ran to the Guogong Mansion almost every day, accompanying the old man to play chess, and Ye Ming was either in Jimen Pass or in Ningling, the two of them did not get along for a long time, and they did not get along with Ye Sheng so well.

But Ye Ming is also Li Xin's more respected brother, I heard that he is critically ill, Li Xin really wants to go to Beijing to have a look, Yongzhou is more than 2,000 miles away from the capital, and it will take four or five days to get there if you ride an ink horse overnight.

But...... Now it is not convenient for him to enter Beijing.

In the past three years, the imperial court has more than one edict inviting him to return to Beijing, but he has refused because of illness, and in the past three years, the contradictions between the southwest and the imperial court have become more and more intensified.

In the past, the southwest soldiers and horses were reorganized from the Hanzhou Army of the Mu family and Li Shuo's Pingnan Army, but there were some problems, the foundation of the Hanzhou Army was a group of rabble, the military quality was not high, the overall age was too old, and the battle on the battlefield basically relied on the thunder, otherwise even the local garrison led by Pei Jin could not be defeated, let alone the forbidden army in Hanzhong.

In the past three years, a large number of veterans have been discharged from the southwest army, and ordinary soldiers over the age of 45 have all been returned to their hometowns.

Not only the original Hanzhou Army, but also the Pingnan Army in the Southwest Army, most of them were still the same group of people who followed Li Shen back then, but the military quality of the Pingnan Army was much stronger, and the standard for retirement was set by Li Xin at the age of 50, and those over 50 years old would not be forced to leave the army if they still wanted to stay in the army.

At present, more than half of the young people in the southwest army are young people aged one or twenty, and the scale is also larger than the original, with 50,000 people in Hanzhou, 50,000 in Jincheng, and 50,000 in Li Shuo's Ningzhou.

A total of 150,000 troops.

Although the number of people has not increased much, the overall combat effectiveness has been raised to a higher level than three years ago.

And the imperial court is not idle, in addition to the eighty or ninety thousand people stationed in Hanzhong, Pei Jin has recruited more than 50,000 troops in Ankang at the southwest gate in the past three years, trained according to the standards of the forbidden army, and has basically formed combat effectiveness until now, counting some scattered local garrisons, the imperial court has also displayed 150,000 troops at the southwest portal.

The two groups of people competed with each other, and the situation became more and more tense.

In the past three years, Mu Ying has asked Li Xin more than once for instructions to lead troops to raid the Ankang army, which has not yet completed training, but Li Xin has blocked it.

At the same time, Yuan Zhao Tianzi used the "Heavenly Thunder" given by Li Xin, but did not test with any results, so in the past three years, the imperial court has used almost all means to infiltrate the southwest and get the recipe of the Heavenly Thunder from the southwest.

In Jincheng alone, at least hundreds of people from the imperial court have been killed in three years, including many elusive plum blossom guards.

And the county seat of Qiyang, where Li Xin is located, has naturally not been peaceful in the past three years, and hundreds of corpses have been buried in the belly of Qishan Mountain behind Li's house.

Now the relationship between the two sides is very stiff, Li Xin entered Beijing at this time, and it is unlikely that the imperial court will kill him, but it is estimated that it will be difficult to let him go out of Beijing again.

After closing his eyes and pondering for a long time, the Marquis of Jing'an slowly opened his eyes and said, "The information of the capital will be sent to me at any time, find a way to enter the Ye family and send a letter to Senior Brother Ye for me." ”

Shen Gang bowed his head respectfully.

"My subordinates will do it."

After Shen Gang left, Li Xin's face was a little gloomy, and after he sat alone in the room for a long time, he slowly got up, pushed open the door of the study, and came to the courtyard of the eldest princess.

The eldest princess is studying food in the courtyard with her eldest daughter Li Shu at this time, the mother and daughter are grilling skewers and brushing oil on them, and the mother and daughter are each sitting on a small bench, looking at the skewers with their eyes shining.

At this time, Li Shu was already ten years old, and her height was also on Li Xin's chest, and when she saw Li Xin coming, she quickly stood up, handed a skewer of grilled meat to Li Xin, and smiled sweetly: "Daddy, this is for you to eat." ”

Li Xin shook his head with a smile: "Daddy doesn't eat it, you can eat it yourself." ”

"You two are pretty laid-back today."

The eldest princess said with a smile: "Xiaoxiao has been a lot more diligent in the past two days, and took the initiative to help me watch Jing'er, otherwise where would I have time to grill skewers here?" ”

The Li family now has a lot of subordinates, but the children are generally brought by their own family members, and outsiders are not very at ease.

Li Xin coughed at his eldest daughter and said, "Ah Han, you go to play with your brother first, my father has something to tell your mother." ”

Xiao Ahan's eyes rolled, and he bent down to pick up all the dozen or so boats of barbecue on the grill, and the two meaty little hands narrowly took it and ran out in a hurry.

By the time the eldest princess reacted, the little girl had already run away.

She glanced at Li Xin with some annoyance.

"Anyway, what's the matter?"

Li Xin slowly exhaled a breath and smiled reluctantly: "Madam, I want to go out." ”

"Going to the southwest again?"

The eldest princess sat back down and began fiddling with the grill.

"You, you are not at home for four or five months a year, every time you say that you have business to go to Jincheng, you quit your official position, where is there any official business, most likely you have a foreign house in Jincheng, spend half a year with me, and go to her for half a year."

Marquis Li smiled bitterly and sat down to help the eldest princess clean up the grill.

"Look at what Madame said, old husband and wife, when did I deceive Madame?"

"You've lied to me too much."

The eldest princess gave Li Xin a blank look.

"You just take me for a fool and refuse to tell me anything, it's just that, I don't want to know what you're doing, just go out if you want to, you Mrs. Li is busy with business, where can I be restrained by a woman's family?"

When the Marquis of Jing'an heard this, he sighed helplessly.

"Madam, news has just come from the capital, Senior Brother Ye is afraid that he won't be able to last long, the Ye family treats me quite kindly, such a big thing, I can't stay in Qiyang with peace of mind, turn a blind eye, right?"

The Ninth Princess pursed her lips.

"You're going to go out, when did I stop you?"

She lowered her head and sighed as she rummaged through the grill,

"Just remember to come back."

(End of chapter)