In the blink of an eye, another two months have passed.

At this time, it has reached October of the first year of Yuan Zhao, and the autumn harvest is generally almost finished at the end of August, which has ended for more than a month at this time, and it is time for the imperial court to collect autumn grain.

As always, the household department sent tax collectors to the southwest provinces to supervise the payment of taxes, but Zhao Jia's kind of dripping temperament naturally made it impossible for these people to take away the grain in the southwest, whether it was coaxing, cheating, delaying, or refusing, in short, the officials of the household department arrived in the southwest for more than half a month, and they were stunned that they did not take a grain from the southwest.

Moreover, the attitude of the southwestern state capitals is surprisingly consistent, not that they don't want to give, but they really don't have it, no matter how these household officials search, the granaries of the provinces are clean, and there is not a grain of grain.

This soft tax strike kicked the ball back to the imperial court.

The court had no choice but to drag it out like this.

At the end of October, there was a group of more than ten horses, rushed to Yongzhou Mansion, after asking for directions in Qiyang County, came to the Li Mansion at the foot of Qishan Mountain, and reported the name to the porter, not long after, Li Xin, the Marquis of Jing'an, took a family and personally went out of the main gate to greet the people.

Hou Ye Li walked at the front and bowed to the middle-aged man standing at the front: "I've seen Senior Brother Ye." ”

These dozen or so people, led by the Marquis of Ningling of the Great Jin Dynasty, and Ye Luan, the secretary of the Ministry of War.

After Li Xin saluted, the ninth princess and his pair of children also followed to salute Ye Xuan.

Ye Lan hurriedly returned the salute: "Chang'an is polite." ”

He looked at the ninth princess deeply: "Don't dare to be the eldest princess." ”

Because of the three generations of the Son of Heaven, the current ninth princess is the aunt of the Son of Heaven, so she has been "upgraded" from the eldest princess to the eldest princess.

Looking at a pair of children behind Li Xin, Ye Lan bent down again, took out two pieces of jade from his arms, and hung them around the necks of the two children as a meeting gift for his uncle.

After the politeness, Li Xin pulled Ye Lan into his house, and said with a smile: "Isn't Senior Brother Ye in charge of the military department, it stands to reason that he should be busy with affairs, how can he have time to come to my poor country?" ”

Ye Lan followed him into this house, looked left and right, and saw that the courtyard was deep, and the courtyard was full of red and yellow leaves, which was quite elegant, and he sighed: "The undercurrent in the capital has been surging in the past few months, Chang'an, you are here to be happy." ”

The Marquis of Jing'an squinted his eyes and said with a smile: "I can't afford to hide naturally, my younger brother has offended a few auxiliary ministers in the capital, and if I stay any longer, I am afraid that my net worth will not be guaranteed, so I can only go to this poor country to hide and be clean." ”

He looked at Ye Lan and said with a smile: "Senior brother hasn't told me yet, what are you doing in Yongzhou?" ”

Ye Lan sighed and said in a deep voice, "Let's sit down and talk." ”

Li Xin nodded, said hello to the ninth princess, and then led Ye Lan to a quiet room in the backyard of Li's house, where there was a low table and two futons, which was where Li Xin and the ninth princess drank tea on weekdays.

The two senior brothers each knelt on the futon, Li Xin reached out and poured a cup of tea for Ye Luan, and said with a smile: "I haven't been close to my senior brother in these years, since my senior brother is here, stay here for a few more days, and our brothers will drink well." ”

Ye Lan picked up the tea that Li Xin gave him, and said with a wry smile: "Brother Wei came on the orders of the emperor." ”

Li Xin paused, then poured tea into his cup, and smiled: "The Son of Heaven has never been in power, where is the emperor's order?" ”

Ye Lan shook his head slightly: "The Son of Heaven is ready to govern himself." ”

He looked up at Li Xin and said in a deep voice: "That's why he asked Brother Wei to rush to Yongzhou in person, and ask Chang'an for you to return to Beijing." ”

"There are still three auxiliary ministers in the court, if the Son of Heaven is in charge of the government in advance, I am afraid that the situation in the court will be unstable, so the Son of Heaven wants to ask Chang'an to go back and preside over the parentheses."

Speaking of this, Ye Lan paused and continued to speak: "The Son of Heaven said, it doesn't matter if the southwest tax exemption is three or five years, or even ten years, as long as Chang'an and you return to Beijing, nothing in the past will be mentioned again." ”

This Ye Shangshu sighed.

"The Marquis of Jing'an and my Ye family are in the same breath, and I don't want to see Chang'an you go to the old road of the army, at this time you go back to the capital, you are still the Taifu of the Great Jin, and the Li and Ye families support each other, so you don't have to be afraid of anyone."

Li Xin picked up the teacup, took a sip of it himself, and then said with a smile: "Senior brother can guarantee the life of the family after I return to Beijing?" ”

Ye Luan's face was solemn.

"For my brother, I will protect my life."

Marquis Jing'an grinned: "This is just one more family." ”

Ye Lan smiled bitterly: "Chang'an, no matter what those auxiliary ministers think, at least Your Majesty has no ill will towards you, before I came, Your Majesty invited me into Weiyang Palace to talk in detail for more than an hour, he is still a young man, but I can't see any bad intentions." ”

"If Your Majesty wants to harm you, Brother Wei will never come here."

Li Xin drank another cup of tea by himself, then pondered for a while, and looked up at Ye Luan.

"Senior brother, I won't be going back to the capital in the near future."

Ye Xuan frowned: "Why?" ”

"My wife is pregnant."

Li Xin said with a smile: "I only found out last month, the doctor said that I was already three months pregnant, and I was waiting for this child to be born in Yongzhou." ”

"The positions in the imperial court, the younger brothers who can resign have all resigned, only the errand of the right battalion of the forbidden army was handed over to He Song, He Song is the general of the Ye family, and he is very reliable in doing things, so there is nothing to worry about."

"As for the matter of His Majesty's personal government......"

Li Xin smiled dumbly: "It is already the end of October of the first year of Yuan Zhao, and it will be November soon, seeing that it is the second year of Yuan Zhao, and there will be more than a year for Your Majesty to be able to justifiably pro-government, such a short time, there is no need to take risks, Your Majesty is still young, just wait slowly." ”

"Senior brother, write a letter to Your Majesty and tell him this sentence, a year is a very short time, and it will pass in the blink of an eye."

Ye Lan smiled bitterly and arched his hand at Li Xin.

"Congratulations."

Li Xin winked at Ye Lan and smiled, "Senior brother, just stay with me for a few more days?" ”

Ye Lan took a deep breath, shook his head and said: "I don't understand, how did things come to this situation, the first emperor and you clashed because of the southwest, it is understandable to be a brother, but now, Your Majesty has agreed to no longer bind the southwest, why are you ...... Chang'an?"

He was halfway through his sentence when he was interrupted by Li Xin.

Marquis Jing'an's face was calm, and he said indifferently: "If Master Ye is still there, I can pack up my things and go back to the capital with you." ”

"But Master Ye is no longer here, if something happens to me, no one will really be able to protect me."

Li Xin looked at Ye Lan and slowly exhaled a breath.

"How did I offend a few auxiliary ministers, senior brother should also understand, at that time, as long as His Majesty nodded, he was already in power half a year ago, I had a conflict with the auxiliary ministers, and after making a big fuss, the auxiliary ministers were still in power, how should I deal with myself?"

As he spoke, a playful smile appeared on his face.

"Senior brother, you might as well guess, since I returned to Qiyang, how many more people have come out of Yongzhou Mansion and Qiyang County inexplicably?"

Ye Xuan was silent.

The Marquis of Jing'an stretched out his hand again and poured a cup of tea for Ye Luan.

"Qishan is not said to be beautiful, but it is also a good place with good scenery, and the younger brother is very accustomed to living here, so he will not return to Beijing for the time being."

"After my third child is born, I will consider whether to return to the capital."