Chai Shao fled back to the city from Li Xiu in a hurry, and when he saw that Princess Pingyang behind him did not chase him, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, but then he began to worry again, because he knew that Princess Pingyang would definitely not give up, and if she went to His Majesty to complain, I am afraid that he would be unlucky. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Thinking of this, Chai Shao immediately began to think about countermeasures, but he couldn't stop Princess Pingyang from entering the palace at all, so he could only think of a way on his side, but after thinking about it, he only thought of a way to ask for help from others, but among the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty, only the prince or the king of Qin could help him, and the king of Qin was not in Chang'an, so only the prince was left.

In contrast, the relationship between Chai Shao and Li Jiancheng is very ordinary, after all, he is a military general, and he used to serve under Li Shimin, so his relationship with Li Shimin is a little better, but now he has no choice but to beg Li Jiancheng.

Chai Shao hurried in the direction of the East Palace, and scolded in his heart that Feng Shilang couldn't do things, if he rushed directly into Li Xiu's house and arrested the other party, so that Princess Pingyang didn't have time to react at all, I'm afraid he wouldn't be so embarrassed. Poor Chai Shao still doesn't know that there are still two county kings in Li Xiu's family, if Feng Shilang's ignorance of life and death rushes in directly, I'm afraid those East Palace guards would have made their corpses all over the ground.

Chai Shao ran to the gate of the East Palace non-stop, and then reported that he had not seen his name, thinking that even if he and Li Jiancheng had an average relationship, the other party would definitely see him, but what he didn't expect was that he waited outside the door for a long time, and in the end only a hunchbacked old chamberlain came out, and said indifferently on his face full of loose wrinkles: "Huo Guogong, please go back, the prince has something to do today, and it is inconvenient to see foreign guests!" ”

"What? Have you reported it, why didn't the prince see me? Chai Shao was furious when he heard this, he was also Li Jiancheng's brother-in-law, and he came to visit in person, but now he can't even enter the door, this is too shameless, right?

"Huo Guogong, please go back, this is the prince's own order, and the prince asked the old slave to tell the prince that the king of Anlu County has been studying in the Li Sacrifice Wine Mansion during this time, and I hope Huo Guogong will do it himself!" The old chamberlain said slowly again at this time, and after speaking, he ignored Chai Shao's reaction, turned around and left with three shakes.

"What! This...... How is this possible? Chai Shao heard the words of the old chamberlain, but he stood there dumbfounded, and his eyes lost focus, he finally figured out who those guards rushed out before Princess Pingyang rushed to Li Xiu's house, it turned out that they were all palace guards who protected Li Chengdao, no wonder he felt those familiar eyes, but unfortunately it was too late to understand these now.

When Feng Shilang's guards were beaten by the palace guards, these guards had already sent people into the palace and reported the matter to the East Palace, so Li Jiancheng knew so clearly, and Li Chengdao also told the person who reported the news that he was almost injured, which made Li Jiancheng also very annoyed.

Chai Shao left the East Palace in despair, and didn't know where to go for a long time on the street, and finally returned home helplessly, and then locked himself in the study to think about countermeasures, but unfortunately he couldn't come up with a corresponding solution after thinking about it, so he could only passively wait for the punishment of the court.

Although Li Yuan rejected Princess Pingyang's request to reconcile with Chai Shao that day, he was also very guilty when he saw the sad departure of his favorite daughter, and finally this guilt was also transformed into anger against Chai Shao.

A few days later, a holy decree was sent from the palace to Chai Shao's mansion, the content of this holy decree was very short, and he was directly removed from the post of general of the right Xiaowei, fined for three years, and let him think about it behind closed doors for a month, and did not say any reason, after all, such a matter involving internal contradictions in the royal family has never been made public, anyway, the person who was punished knows the reason, and he does not dare to have any opinions.

Chai Shao couldn't help frowning after receiving this holy decree of dismissal, the punishment and thinking about it behind closed doors are irrelevant, but the removal of his general is a bit serious, after all, in this way, he will become a nobleman with no real power, and the weight of his words will be greatly reduced, if he is replaced by other officials, it is almost equivalent to being dismissed on the spot, and there is no hope of recovering in the future, and the whole person's career will be ruined.

However, although Li Yuan removed Chai Shao from his actual official position, he did not move his title of Duke of Huo Guo, which gave Chai Shao a glimmer of hope, which showed that Li Yuan did not really want to refrigerate him completely, but gave him a serious warning, and it was very likely that he would be used again in the future, after all, he still had a deep-rooted family behind him, which was by no means comparable to ordinary officials.

Thinking of the above, Chai Shao couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, although Li Yuan's punishment was heavy, but at least it left him a glimmer of hope, as long as he behaved honestly during this time, just don't provoke Princess Pingyang again, especially when it comes to the New Year, he will take this opportunity to enter the palace to admit his mistake to Li Yuan, and it is estimated that this matter will pass.

Holding the above thoughts, Chai Shao honestly stayed at home for a month, he is a person who likes to be lively, and being locked up at home every day is simply a kind of torture, but in order not to make Li Yuan angry, he still endured staying at home for a whole month, and even after the closed-door thinking expired, he also tried to go out as little as possible, creating a kind of simple appearance.

Chai Shao's most frequent place is a casino near Chang'an East City, called Dong'an Casino, although Datang prohibits gambling, but there are dozens of large and small casinos in Chang'an City, Dong'an Casino is the largest of them, and this casino is ostensibly opened by a businessman from other places, but the actual controller is Chai Shao.

Chai Shao is good at gambling, this is almost a common problem of all military generals, when he was still a former Sui, when he was still a thousand cattle of the Great Sui, he often gambled with a group of noble children, and he had brains than ordinary noble children, when he saw the huge profits from gambling, he thought of opening a casino in person, this Dong'an casino was opened when he was young.

Later, because of the war, Dong'an Casino was closed for a time, but after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Chai Shao also became famous, so he opened this casino again, and became the largest casino in Chang'an City, with this Dong'an Casino, one is convenient for Chai Shao to play by himself, and the other is also to deliver a lot of money to the Chai family, so Chai Shao also attaches great importance to these, and used to come to play a few hands every few days, that is, after the gambling addiction, he can also inspect here by the way.

However, although Chai Shao is good at gambling, he is not a bad gambler like a rotten dogskin, and he will not play in the lobby like ordinary gamblers, in fact, there are not a few aristocrats like him who are good at gambling, so there are many nobles who go to the casino every day, and these nobles generally play in the specific private rooms of the casino, so Chai Shao does not have to worry about the lack of gamblers.

After thinking about it behind closed doors, Chai Shao went to Dong'an Casino to play a few handfuls for the first time, and for the next period of time, he didn't go to other places, only when he was addicted to gambling would he come to Dong'an Casino to play two, for people like them, winning or losing is no longer important, playing is a heartbeat.

On this day, Chai Shao came to Dong'an Casino again, this casino is next to the East City in Shengye Fang, covering a very large area, from the appearance, I am afraid that people who do not know will think that this is the other courtyard of which noble, but when you enter the inside, you will see a very wide hall, the hall is divided into different areas according to the different ways of gambling, each area is crowded with people, and there are gamblers who are losing red eyes everywhere are roaring.

In this huge casino, there are people who lose their families and bankrupt every day, and even more people who lose their red eyes lose their wives and children to others, and some people borrow money from the casino but can't pay it back, and they are cut off by the casino thugs on the spot.

After Chai Shao came to Dong'an Casino in the evening, he first habitually walked around the hall and felt the feverish atmosphere in the hall, which made him a little enthusiastic, and at the same time his hands were more itchy.

"Master, there are a few big gamblers here today, each with a large amount of gambling money, do you want to play a few?" As soon as Chai Shao came here, a middle-aged man in Chinese clothes immediately came up with a flattering face and said, this middle-aged man's surname is Liu, because he is missing a finger, so he is called "Nine Fingers Liu", on the surface he is the owner of this casino, but in fact he is Chai Shao's house slave.

"Oh? Then I'm going to see it! Chai Shaozheng felt itchy hands, and he has always liked to gamble, every time he came here, Nine Fingers Liu would arrange a few big gamblers for him to have a good time, and this time was no exception.

At that moment, Jiuzhi Liu led Chai Shao to a separate small room, and when he entered it, he saw that there were already three people sitting inside, and each of them was wearing a special hat on their heads, the tulle on the hat just blocked their faces, but it did not affect their vision, and they were also wearing wide clothes, so that people could not see their figures clearly.

After all, gambling is not a glorious thing, not to mention that it is expressly forbidden by the imperial court, so the nobles who come to the casino generally do not like to reveal their identities, and fame and fortune are caught, so the casino has slowly formed an unwritten rule, that is, guests who come here can cover their faces, and they only need to bring enough gambling funds to let go of the big game.

Chai Shao is the owner here, this is almost an open secret, and Chai Shao's foundation is hard enough, he is not afraid of being caught by others, in fact, even if someone stabs him for gambling, Li Yuan will not blame him for this little thing, for example, when Chai Shao came here in the past, he never liked to wear a veil, which is also his confidence, but now the situation is special, so he also wore a special hat when he came in.

The nobles who came here were addicted to gambling, so Chai Shao didn't talk nonsense after he came in, and directly announced the start of the gambling game, which is interesting, although Chai Shao hated Li Xiu very much, but he liked to play the cards made by Li Xiu when gambling, and the same is true for this gambling game, the four of them played a game similar to the tractor of later generations, but there were some differences in the rules.

Chai Shao's luck today was very average, he won a few handfuls at the beginning, but he lost more and more later, but the guy sitting opposite him was very lucky, and his front was quickly full of chips.

Playing until the sky in the east turned white, Chai Shao almost lost all the chips he brought today, which made him a little annoyed and pushed the table and stood up and said: "Don't play, your luck is really bad today, play another day!" ”

Chai Shao turned around and left, but at this moment, he saw the guy who won the most across from him suddenly said: "It seems that Huo Guogong's bad luck has not passed, I think you should not gamble in the near future, otherwise you will only lose like that rotten dogskin!" ”

Hearing the other party's words, Chai Shao also turned around suddenly, stared at it with blazing eyes and asked sharply, "Who are you, and what do you mean by saying these words?" ”

"Hehe, Huo Guogong is really a noble man who forgets things!" I saw that the other party suddenly stretched out his hand as he spoke, and then took off the hat on his head, revealing a young face full of smiles.

"Li Xiu! You...... You're here! Chai Shao also exclaimed in surprise when he saw this young and familiar face, he never expected that the person who played cards with him all night turned out to be Li Xiu.

"Hehe, it's just a casino, I didn't expect Lao Tzu's luck to be inferior to your kid!" didn't wait for Li Xiu to speak, only to see the person on Li Xiu's right also spoke, and then reached out and took off his hat, revealing a mighty face, but he was the horse master who had the best friendship with Li Xiu, he was worried that it would not be safe for Li Xiu to come here alone, so he also came with him, and by the way, he also had a gambling addiction, but he didn't expect that he still couldn't play Li Xiu when playing cards, except for Chai Shao, he lost the most.

"Hehe, I didn't expect General Ma to come too!" Chai Shao couldn't help but squint his eyes when he saw Ma Ye, and then he looked at the man wearing a gauze hat on Li Xiu's left, "Then who are you, you must also be Li Xiu's gang, right?" ”

"Hahahaha~, it's interesting and interesting, I didn't want to play a few cards to encounter such an interesting thing, but Huo Guogong, you can rest assured, I'm not the person from this Li Saijiu and General Ma!" I saw that the person on the left had a long laugh, listening to the meaning of his words, it seemed that he knew Li Xiu and Ma Ye.

It's just that Li Xiu felt that his voice was very unfamiliar, and glanced at him at the moment, but he couldn't see the other party's appearance through the veil, so he had to give up, then looked up at Chai Shao, and showed a bright smile and said: "I didn't expect that the dignified Huo Guogong would secretly run such a big casino, and I don't know how many people are bankrupt here every day, such a heinous thing, isn't Huo Guogong afraid of thunder and thunder?" (To be continued.) )