The yamen of the Privy Council is located in the palace city, opposite to the political hall, so it is called the east and west houses. Wu Haogu is the chief of the Hanlin Painting Academy, and he is naturally familiar with the outer part of the palace. After checking your identity through the right gate, you will enter Miyagi. Then enter from the Changqing Gate on the right, and on the left is the palace where the imperial books and paintings are stored. It's Baowen Pavilion, Tianzhang Pavilion, Longtu Pavilion or something. Every emperor of the Song Dynasty had such a palace, which was used to store his imperial books and paintings, important royal documents and treasures, etc., and would also be equipped with bachelors, straight bachelors, pending systems, straight pavilions and other personnel. However, most of these are a name to indicate the dignity and grace of status, and are called "guanzhi" or "posting".

Because Wu Haogu was a scholar of the Hanlin Painting Academy, and he was a trickster in charge of court paintings, he could also enter these palaces to watch or copy imperial paintings.

By the way, Wu Haogu also went to the Longtu Pavilion where Zhao Guangyi's imperial paintings were collected, consulted the list of collected paintings, and determined that he did not find the famous **** picture "Xiling Xingxiao Zhou Hou Tu...... Whether or not this is the case, the painting definitely did not exist in the court of the Northern Song Dynasty.

However, today Wu Haogu did not go to those palaces to see paintings, so after entering the right Changqing Gate, he turned to the right and passed in front of the Wende Hall where the Great Dynasty Meeting was held, and then went west to the political and military center of the Great Song Dynasty - that is, the Zhongshu Gate and the Privy Council, which were also known as the Political Affairs Hall. One of them is in the east and the other is in the west, so they are also called the East and West Prefectures.

There are 12 rooms under the Privy Council, namely the North Room, the Hexi Room, the Branch Room, the Beijing Room, the Teaching and Reading Room, the Guangxi Room, the Soldiers' Room, the Militia Room, the Officials' Room, the Miscellaneous Room, the Horse Room and the Small Officials' Room, and there is also a Compilation and Revision Department responsible for compiling military books, war books, formation maps and maps.

Such a yamen, if you want to compare it with the institutions of later generations, is about the General Staff or the Ministry of National Defense. And it is not the general staff or the Ministry of Defense of ordinary countries, because the Privy Council is in charge of military and political affairs separately from the subordinates of the Zhongshu Sect. Therefore, the Privy Council of the Northern Song Dynasty is about equivalent to a strong general staff such as the Great General Staff of the Second German Empire, and in terms of system, it is actually quite advanced.

It's just that the officials who serve in the "Great General Staff" of the Privy Council are all civilians! Not only are the Privy Envoys, Privy Envoys, Privy Councillors, and Privy Vice-Councillors civil officials, but the Privy Councillors, Privy Councillors, Privy Councillors, and Privy Secretaries who work below are all civil officials. And most of them are heroes who are famous outside the Donghua Gate......

And who were the Wen Jinshi of the Song Dynasty? Of course, those who are born in the examination of poetry are all poets, and those who are considered philosophers of the examination of scriptures and righteousness, although there is also a person who is both civil and military, but it is not enough to be the elite of the General Staff!

For example, Zhang Dian and his nephew Zhang Yuan, who are good at archery, are at most poets and athletes, and they are not enough to be military strategists.

Later generations of staff officers of the General Staff were generally professional officers trained through a set of practical and theoretical training procedures such as military academies, grass-roots units, and staff academies. Otherwise, even if you are familiar with military books and can ride a horse and shoot arrows, without the actual experience of the troops, the battle plan drawn up will be full of mistakes.

And the Privy Council, the general staff of the Great Song Dynasty, is a bunch of poets and philosophers who have never served in the army and are blind staff officers. It is rare for a privy deputy envoy Di Qing, who was a front-line general, to come in, and he is also in a panic that he can't stop squeezing out.

With such a "general staff", it is normal that the army of the Song Dynasty is not able to fight. Not to mention the Song Army, even if the United States, which dominated the world in later generations, replaced all the people in military uniforms in the Pentagon with poets and artists, it would definitely have to look foreign.

As for the military department of the Great Song Dynasty, it is about the equivalent of the Ministry of Defense, and the situation is the same. The officials in it are also poets and philosophers, and there are basically no soldiers.

Wu Haogu has now injected his official body, although he has not obtained the official notice, but the official uniform has been prepared. So today, I wore the green robe of the Jiupin official, wore a hood on my head, tied a leather belt around my waist, and put official boots on my feet, and came to the door of the Privy Council with a swagger.

The little official guarding the door had already been informed, and after inspecting Wu Haogu's Huang Mu, he led him into the yamen. However, Wu Haogu was not brought into the main hall, but turned around a few times and arrived in a side hall.

There were already three people in the hall, two of them were Da Mink, Tong Guan and Li Zhong, and the other was a civil official, who was Ji Yi, the editor of the Privy Council.

"Li Daguan, Tong Daguan, Ji Editor."

Wu Haogu saluted the three of them, and the three of them also got up and returned the salute.

"Okay, I'm already an official." Li Zhong, the official of the Hanlin Picture Academy, said with a smile, "Chongdao, in our Hanlin Picture Academy, there is no edict in the past that is faster than you to become an official, and there will probably not be one in the future." ”

"It's not up to you to take care of it." Wu Haogu said with a smile on his face.

Tong Guan smiled and beckoned to Wu Haogu: "Chongdao sit down and talk." ”

Wu Haogu saw that a rose chair beside Tong Guan was empty, so he walked over and sat down. Tong Guan took out an official notice from somewhere at this time and handed it to Wu Haogu.

"Chongdao, this is for you."

Wu Haogu took the official notice, opened it and looked at it, it read: The right class hall is straight, and the door is waiting for Pan Xiaoyi.

"Chongdao, this is the identity of Liao."

Wu Haogu is a spy! Of course, spies often use pseudonyms and fake identities. And this right class is straight, and Pan Xiaoyi is the public identity of Wu Haogu when he went to the Liao State - of course, you can't tell the Liao people that you are the head of the Hanlin Painting Academy, or people will immediately know that you are here to paint spy paintings, but it will be difficult to move an inch.

"You and the Pan family are world friends," Tong Guan said, "If you want to come to the Liao people to ask, you can also answer freely, right?" ”

"Yes," Wu Haogu replied. "This Pan Yi'an is recognizable."

Pan Xiaoyi is indeed a person, Yi'an is his cousin, Wu Haogu still recognizes him, he is Pan Xiao'an's brother, a few years older than Wu Haogu, married the daughter of the Zhao family, the military attache of Yin Bu, and is currently working as an errand in the Gate Division.

"It's good to recognize it." Tong Guan said with a smile. "Then the day after tomorrow, I will set out in the name of this Pan Youdian, and I will be an attaché in the mission."

"Okay."

Tong Guan then said: "The date for the mission to leave Beijing has been set, and it will be on February 18, that is, the day after tomorrow. Before the day after tomorrow, you must meet in the Northeast Water Gate. ”

The Northeast Water Gate is located in the east chamber of Kaifeng Mansion, which is the passage of Wuzhang River in and out of Kaifeng Mansion.

Li Zhong added: "According to the custom of the envoy, it is possible to bring a servant boy and concubine, and an attaché can bring a maximum of two people. ”

The quota for the two of them is enough, Wu Haogu thought to himself: Zhang Zeduan will be a servant boy, Ximen Qing, of course, he is a concubine......

……

Wu Haogu stayed in the side hall of the Privy Council for less than two hours before leaving, and in the end he didn't see any big officials, only one Privy Councillor came over and issued a letter from the Privy Council to Li Zhong, Tong Guan, Ji Yi and Wu Haogu.

A letter is a kind of descending official document, which is generally used to convey orders to subordinates. The letter that Wu Haogu received was also a notice of appointment, that is, informing him that he had been given a temporary assignment - to make Liao attaché. Theoretically, there would have been a formal edict, but with the Privy Letter, it was possible to take office without an edict.

After getting the letter and getting a fake identity, Wu Haogu officially received the order to envoy Liao.

After leaving the Privy Council, Li Zhong and Tong Guan still had to go to and from the Guoxin Office to do errands - because Tong Guan had a secret mission, he also assumed the name of Liao, and his identity was also an attaché, and the deputy envoy of the mission fell to Li Zhong of the Goudang Painting Academy.

And Wu Haogu and Ji Yi went out of the palace together and returned to their respective homes. Because Wu Chengzhi and Feng Erniang both went to Luoyang Province to kiss, Wu Haowen studied hard in Taixue, and the martial arts family was relatively "deserted" in the past two days. After entering the house, he did not immediately go to talk to the housekeeper's wife, but went straight to the house where he lived.

"Lang Jun, are you back?"

"Teacher."

He was greeted by Jin Zhu'er and Zhang Zeduan.

"Is Simon Xiaoyi here?" Wu Haogu asked as he walked inside.

"Yes." Jin Bei'er replied.

"By the way, Xiao Bottle, go and tell the eighteenth sister that I will leave Kaifeng Mansion the day after tomorrow." Wu Haogu then said to his apprentice Zhang Zeduan, "You also go and tell Su Dalang of Christie's that you will convene a shareholders' meeting tomorrow...... Go for it. ”

After sending the two of them away, Wu Haogu went directly to photograph Ximen Qing's door.

"Xiao Yi, it's me."

"Come in, the door is unlocked."

As soon as he entered the door, Wu Haogu saw that Ximen Qing was already packing up.

"Eldest sister," closing the door, Wu Haogu asked with a smile, "Do you know that I want to make Liao, so pack up and accompany me on the road?" ”

When Ximen Qing was asked by him, he subconsciously responded, and suddenly felt that something was wrong, and his face turned red.

Wu Haogu looked at Ximen's shy appearance, he was happy, and laughed again: "It said that you can bring two servant children and concubines, and the servants are Zhang Zhengdao, as for the concubines, ......"

"Da Lang!" Ximen Qing interrupted Wu Haogu with a red face, "Why is there no seriousness?" ”

Serious?

Wu Haogu hurriedly said seriously: "Eldest sister, I will go on a long trip the day after tomorrow, what else do I need to prepare?" ”

"I have to prepare." Ximen Qing said, and handed a handwritten list to Wu Haogu, "You have to bring everything on it." ”

Wu Haogu took it and took a look, there were a lot of things written on it, most of which were needed to go out, in addition to a thousand taels of gold and a hundred paper Buddha statues.

"Gold and Buddha figures?" Wu Haogu was stunned for a moment, "How much do you need to do?" ”

Ximen Qing glanced at him and said with a smile: "Of course you need to, go and prepare...... Since you want to be with me, you will have more time to spend money in the future, so don't be reluctant. ”

"Willing to give up," Wu Haogu didn't know what Ximen's words meant, but he still smiled, "Isn't it just money, I'll prepare tomorrow." ”