Lu Ming was a little anxious, so he stood at the bow of the boat early, looking at the Hongqiao, looking at the city gate, looking at the dock, and waiting for the ship to reach the ground.

He traveled eastward, and was delayed on the road at Tongguan Road for three full days. When I set off, I was two days late. Fortunately, after coming from Luoyang, there was some snow on the river, just enough to take a boat, and finally managed to earn back a day and a half of time.

It is said to be a boat, but it is actually a boat-shaped sled.

More specifically, two sleds were attached to the underside of the small river boats used to carry people, an amphibious vehicle used only in the canals around Kaifeng.

Nowadays, sledding cars have become popular in the north, and even have development, for example, according to whether the chassis is equipped with skates or sled boards, it is divided into two types: ice skates and snow sleds. The snow on the Bianshui ice has not melted, and it is nearly a foot deep, which is where the sled cart comes in.

In the vicinity of the capital, only in the canals such as the Bianhe River, which is closed in winter, there will be a stable, coherent and smooth ice surface, unlike the natural river with flowing water, the ice condenses slowly, and there are often many potholes and undulations, and the sleds and ice sleds are easy to damage when driving on them, and the donkeys and horses and other livestock pulling the carts are also easy to hurt their hooves.

Six mules pulled the boat, gliding on the snow, through the city gate, through the double rainbow bridge, and directly to the exclusive dock of the Yongqin Chamber of Commerce.

Lu Ming stepped on the pedal and got off the boat, and the gantry crane on the dock hung down with a net bag, and a little cargo on the ship was thrown into the net bag, and it was quickly unloaded. Lu Ming's companion was sorting out the gifts, and the steward on the dock had already trotted over.

Lu Ming was anxious, but he still had the patience to talk to the steward for a few words, and in just a few words, a carriage drove over. Looking at the sky, it was still early, and neither Zhang Dian nor Han Gang would have time. took a companion and got into the car directly, and Lu Ming instructed the coachman: "Go to the hall first." ”

As for the goods he brought, the steward had already skillfully arranged for another wagon to be loaded with goods, and followed behind.

In the carriage, Lu Ming kept frowning.

He had already heard some news at the Yongqin Hall in Luoyang before. News about the illness of the Son of Heaven, news about the queen's curtain, news about the great worship ten days ago.

The emperor had a stroke, and the queen hung the curtain, which was of course a big surprise event. But in the past ten or twenty years, Renzong has died, Yingzong has died, and Emperor Cao has lowered the curtain, and at Lu Ming's age, he is actually used to it. He was concerned about the situation of his two backstagers, and when he heard about Han Gang's performance on the winter night, he was relieved about the situation in the capital.

But in the next big farewell, several names that have disappeared from memory reappear in front of people, and even unimaginable personnel arrangements. The old party completely collapsed, and the new party flourished, but his benefactor did not move, and Han Gang successively refused the appointment of the governor and the privy deputy envoy. However, in the guild hall in Luoyang, he also heard that it was because the official family insisted on letting Wang Xianggong and Mr. Dacheng in Luoyang be the prince's teacher, which angered the new Hanlin and Senior Bachelor Xiao Han.

It's just that no matter what, there is no need to worry about the situation in the capital. The backstage position is stable, and Lu Ming is actually envied in Luoyang, but there is still one thing in his heart, which is so heavy that people can't laugh.

When he arrived at the Yongqin Guild Hall, he sent someone to Zhangfu to deliver a post. At night, you can go directly to see Zhang Dian, he is a guest of Zhang's family, this is the difference from officials. I just don't know that it is inconvenient for Lu Dao to stay in Zhang's house now, so I can only wait in the hall first.

The Yongqin Hall in Beijing has become a gathering place for Guanxi businessmen in Beijing and many Shaanxi officials in Beijing. Let's talk about the world and expand your network by the way. For businessmen and officials, their complementarity is actually very strong. This meeting place is very popular.

In the guild hall, Lu Ming is also a celebrity, there are rumors about the inscription of the West Taiyi Palace back then, and more of them are Zhang Dian and Han Gang behind him. As soon as they saw him, many people surrounded him and forced him to come into the table and speak. Lu Ming pushed left and right and drank two glasses of wine before getting out. After making such a fuss, he didn't dare to stay in the hall for a long time, so after freshening up, he changed his clothes, took the gift and went straight to Zhangfu.

After sitting in Zhang's Mansion for a long time, Zhangdun finally came back.

In Lu Ming's eyes, Zhang Dan's complexion was not bad, and he was not discouraged because he did not gain anything during the Great Worship. And in Zhang Dan's pair of eyes, Lu Ming's look was very wrong.

didn't even say a word of greeting, and after the guest sat down, Zhang Dian asked, "Mingde, is there something wrong with Kansai?" ”

"It's Bronze Gorge." Lu Ming said in a deep voice.

More than a year has passed since the Song Liao divided Western Xia, and the Khitans have completed the migration work. Needless to say, the Black Mountain River Land was already the location of Yelu Yisin's Urud. And Xingling, who was given to him as a trophy and distributed to his tribes, gradually had more and more Khitans.

"The Khitan, Bohai and Xi tribes that have arrived in Xingling have reached 40,000 accounts. The Han people are okay to say that there is no trace of the party members. Lu Ming said the news he had inquired about.

"What about the Bronze Gorge?" Zhang Dian asked anxiously.

"The situation is not good!"

The Yellow River flows through the Qingtongxia into the Xingling area east of Helan Mountain, and after the peace agreement between the two countries, the Qingtongxia River Valley is all occupied by the party tribes who have withdrawn from Xingling.

On the one hand, the party members hated the Liao people to the core, and the Ye family and the Ren family were extremely hostile to the Khitans. But on the other hand, it is a well-known fact that party members bully the weak and fear the hard. When more and more were oppressed by the Liao, they were more likely to defect to the Liao, and then cooperate with the Khitan iron cavalry to raid the Great Song Dynasty in the south.

"Fifty miles south of the mouth of the gorge, no walled city shall be built. In this way, the party departments of Qingtongxia will never be able to make up their minds. ”

This is naturally a very dangerous situation. Zhang Dian frowned. Basically, from the Bohai Sea to the Western Regions, in the 10,000-mile border between Song and Liao, this section of the defense line is the weakest, and it is an obvious breakthrough.

So at the southern end of the Qingtongxia River Valley, Mingsha City—nearly sixty miles from the mouth of the northern gorge—hoarded a full 6,000 forbidden troops. And the Yingli City in the rear also stationed an elite army of 5,000 Western Army.

"What did Liu Zhongwu say?" Zhang Dian asked his henchman in the army, who is also the current Jingyuan Road Capital, the city lord of Mingsha City.

Lu Ming immediately took out a letter from his sleeve, and the fire paint marks on it were like them.

Zhang Dun took the letter, and he didn't bother to open the letter with a knife, so he tore the seal directly. He took out a thick stack of letter paper, swept through the ten lines at a glance, and his face was even more cloudy

Lu Ming looked at Zhang Dian worriedly. Zhang Dun read it three or five more times from beginning to end before putting down the letter.

"I can't see these details on the memorabilia sent from Jingyuan Road. I didn't expect the situation to deteriorate as much as promised. At that time, I had to discuss it with Yukun Haosheng. ”

Zhang Dian sighed. Then he picked up the pen and hurriedly wrote a post, and was about to hand it over to a close attendant, but withdrew his hand. Turned to Lu Ming and said: "Don't rush this day." Tomorrow, I will invite Han Yukun to come to the house for a drink. ”

Although he said so, the sadness in Zhang's eyes was incomprehensible. Xiao Xi is about to enter Beijing, and the Liao people will definitely cooperate with him - otherwise Yelu Yixin will not let him be the Zhengdan envoy. Once the 30,000 Tent Dangxiang tribe in Qingtongxia is driven by the Khitans, then Jingyuan Road and Huanqing Road will face a big battle.

If the Son of Heaven does not have a stroke, it can only be said that the credit is coming, and the top and bottom will be gearing up. But now that the heroine is in the court, it really can't be reassuring, and she is also a queen without any military experience. Once the Liao people received this news, the first thing they did was to immediately increase their troops, and even go into battle in person, instead of using party members as agents.

"Didn't you say that the official family can still be a director?" Lu Ming comforted Zhang Dan, but he was also tempting.

Zhang Dian subconsciously shook his head, and with his eyelids, it was already great to control the personnel of the two governments, how to deal with dozens of urgent reports at the border every day. And although the Son of Heaven, who is seriously ill at the moment, is still conscious, it is estimated that he will not rest assured that he will let the famous generals lead the troops outside.

Over the years, Zhang Dian has also seen through this emperor...... Suspicion is too heavy.

If the Liao people really want to blackmail again, this time it may be a copy of the abandoned land in Hedong during Xining.

At that time, the Liao people were coerced outside, and the patriarch was intimidated inside, and the emperor began to force Han Jin, who had negotiated in front, to sign and cede the land.

The elders who had already left the court, such as Han Qi, Zhang Fangping, and Wen Yanbo, asked the emperor one by one to read the humiliation and forbearance for the sake of the century-old good relations between the Song and Liao countries, and said that they would lose the battle with the Liao. Anyway, they are not in the court, and they don't have a backache when they speak. The ruling party on the stage, regardless of the new party and the old party, is desperately trying to stop them, and it is their reputation that will be damaged after the land is cut. Han Jin, who was in charge of negotiating with the Liao, also gritted his teeth and refused to have a bad reputation.

But the Son of Heaven's determination was made quickly, and he directly bypassed the two prefectures and sent a secret letter to Han Jin, "On the boundary matter, I visited Wen Yanbo and Zeng Gongliang, and they all thought that the north and south had been connected for a hundred years, and the living beings in the two places could rest. The court has promised, and Qing is still stubborn, in case something happens to the north, can the Qing family be guaranteed? ’

The emperor used the family to threaten each other, where did Han Zhen dare to stand up again, and directly demarcated the boundary honestly according to the requirements of the Liao people - if you have a request, you should deal with it as appropriate.

If you still play this hand this time, it will be really difficult.

Thinking about it, the candle in the glass lampshade burst and exploded, and Zhang Duan finally gave up, and there were some things that would not help if he was distressed at home.

"Mingde, when you go back to Guanzhong this time, do you have anything to do with Yukun?" Zhang Duan asked casually.

Lu Ming nodded, "Yes." Han Zizheng asked the villain to collect the books of the big food, saying that he wanted to learn from it. I also entrusted the villain to find an interpreter. ”

Zhang Dian couldn't help frowning at Han Gang's hobby: "Translating the scriptures and running the text makes that the prime minister's errand, he doesn't let the privy deputy envoy do it, but he manipulates the prime minister's heart." ”

Lu Ming didn't know what Han Gang was thinking, "Actually, there are still some seeds. Feng Si was also collecting it. In Gongzhou, the Han family's Zhuangzi recently built a greenhouse with a glass roof, saying that it was to grow vegetables in winter. ”

Here in the capital, there are hot spring vegetables, there are greenhouse vegetables in the cave, and there are a lot of vegetables out of season. But his Zhang family is also building a glass workshop now, and he knows exactly what the raw materials of glass are. It's really not a luxury.

Forget it, he sighed, and waited until he discussed it with Han Gang tomorrow.