A march came and went away quickly, but it had a great impact, and the matter was discussed everywhere in the central capital, and all kinds of conspiracy theories and power struggles were circulating in the streets and alleys.

At night, in the Ping'an Inn near Taixue, Lu Han and the four of them were gathering in the room to drink and eat, they were not affected by public opinion in the slightest, as if today's demonstrations had nothing to do with them, but they were talking about the Battle of Goguryeo.

Lu Han picked up his wine glass and said with a smile: "Goguryeo is not a strong and powerful country, after three Sui army conquests, their national strength is already very weak, it should not be a big problem to defeat Goguryeo, the key is how to deal with it, directly destroy it and establish counties, I think now is not the time." ”

Cui Guangping next to him took a sip of wine and said with a smile: "Brother Lu is right, I also heard my grandfather say that the third expedition to Goryeo could have captured Pyongyang, but the Son of Heaven thought that the price of destroying Goguryeo was unbearable and would only make Silla and Baekje stronger, so he ordered that Pyongyang should not be captured, and Laihu'er was dismissed from office for this reason, but my grandfather said that this decision was not wise, can Brother Lu think of the reason?" ”

Lu Han smiled slightly: "The current war is the reason, Goguryeo is ambitious, and wants to take advantage of the civil strife in the Great Sui to seize Liaodong, and even get involved in Hebei, so it is a wrong decision to say that the Son of Heaven ordered not to attack Pyongyang, and capturing Pyongyang does not mean that Goguryeo will be destroyed, on the contrary, Goguryeo can be completely purged, the pro-Sui faction can be brought to power, and the ambitious faction of Yuan Taizuo and others can be eradicated, and only after thorough rectification can Goguryeo become our loyal vassal state." ”

Cui Guangping nodded again and again, "Brother Lu and my grandfather have the same opinion. ”

At this moment, there was a hurried knock on the door outside, only to hear the innkeeper say outside the door: "Master Lu, there are important guests looking for you!" ”

Lu Han stepped forward and opened the door, he couldn't help but be stunned, only to see that in addition to the innkeeper outside the door, there was also an old man with an angry face standing behind him, it was Lu Zhuo, the head of the Lu family, Lu Han hurriedly bowed and saluted, "The younger generation sees the head of the family!" ”

Lu Zhuo snorted heavily, pushed the door and walked into the room, the other three were so frightened that they stood up one after another, and stepped forward to salute together, Lu Zhuo said to the three of them: "You guys should avoid it first!" ”

The three of them glanced at Lu Han, although they were reluctant, they had to leave the room, and Lu Ju said coldly: "Close the door!" ”

Lu Han closed the door, lowered his hands and bowed his head to stand in front of the head of the family, Lu Zuo sat down and slapped the table heavily and said, "Evil obstacles, do you want to kill our Lu family?" ”

Lu Han said in a low voice for a while: "The clan grandchildren don't dare!" ”

"Why don't you dare! You organized three thousand scholars to come to protest, but you still didn't dare to do anything, why didn't you organize the scholars to pick up their swords and rush into Ziwei Palace to kill us all! ”

Lu Zhuo finally couldn't help roaring, Lu Han knelt down and wept: "The head of the family must say this, and the grandson has nothing to say, but we have not hurt a person from beginning to end, nor have we broken into a private house, we are just to appeal, we just hope that the court can pay attention to the difficulties of Hebei scholars and protect the interests of Hebei scholars." ”

Lu Zhuo stared at him for a long time, and finally said coldly: "I might as well tell you that you were originally the second place in the imperial examination, but because of your organization of this reckless action, the Ministry of Rites has removed you from the gold list, and now I'm afraid you won't even be able to enter Taixue." ”

Lu Han's tears welled up, and he said in a trembling voice: "Is this the imperial court's revenge on me?" ”

"Nope! This has nothing to do with the imperial court, it is my resolute request, and I will never allow you to harm the interests of the Lu family. ”

After speaking, Lu Zhuo snorted heavily, got up and walked away, Lu Han knelt on the ground, he couldn't cry for a long time, at this time, Cui Guangping and the three rushed in from outside the door, they all heard Lu Zhuo's words, Li Zhaoxi said angrily: "This is obviously to protect his official hat, but he wants to use family interests to suppress others." ”

"That's it!"

Cui Guanglin also responded: "Second place in the imperial examination!" This is to be appointed as a prefectural magistrate, and he was forcibly removed by someone. ”

At this time, Cui Guangping persuaded: "This is just your family's own idea, the court may not accept it, let's wait until tomorrow after the list is released!" ”

Lu Han wiped away his tears and nodded silently

Early the next morning, the crowd of people in Taixue Square surged, tens of thousands of scholars came from all directions, today is not only the imperial examination list, but also to announce the Taixue admission list, the number of places in the imperial examination is only 100 people, the number is too small, the vast majority of people are not hopeful.

The benefits of Taixue are also obvious, studying for three years, not only is room and board free of charge, but also the scholars have a monthly subsidy of five buckets of rice and three money, and they can also support their families by studying and studying, which has a huge attraction for the children of poor families.

The joint imperial examination list of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Officials was crowded with scholars, and thousands of scholars looked up to look for their names on the Phnom Penh list, Lu Han looked for them three times on the list, and he saw the names of the Cui brothers and Li Zhaoxi, but he could not find his name, which means that what the head of the family said is not wrong, and he has been removed.

He turned around and left the gold list silently, at this time, Cui Guangping squeezed out, and he was admitted as the twenty-third, which shows that the court did not hold a grudge, but Lu Zhuo deprived his grandson of the opportunity, Cui Guangping held back the ecstasy in his heart, and said in a low voice: "Otherwise, let's go to Taixue and have a look!" There should be the brother's name on it. ”

Lu Han shook his head, "What if I have my name, do you think I will go to Taixue to study?" ”

"What is my brother going to do, will he take the exam again next year?"

Lu Han held back his tears, looked up at the sky and said: "The eldest husband stands between heaven and earth, how can he be trapped by fame, believe that I Lu Han will have a bright future." ”

He stepped forward again and patted Cui Guanglin and Li Zhaoxi on the shoulder, "You guys are good officials and benefit the people, we will have a date later!" ”

"Brother Lu, let's appeal again!"

"Brother Lu doesn't need to worry, let's think long-term!"

The three of them tried their best to keep Lu Han, but Lu Han had already made up his mind, he arched his hand to the three of them, and then disappeared in the vast sea of people, the three of them looked at Lu Han's back and disappeared, and they were very melancholy in their hearts, at this time, an official shouted: "The scholar in the imperial examination, go to the Ministry of Rites to report in an hour!" ”

The three of them glanced at each other, and at the same time their hearts ignited the endless joy of winning the list, and at this moment, they couldn't care about going far away to Lu Han for the time being.

．．．．．．

In Yancheng, Liaodong, Sui troops from all walks of life gathered from all directions, not only the Sui army from Liucheng, but also 15,000 soldiers from the Yan Ya and Xi tribes, and within ten days, a total of 90,000 troops surrounded Yancheng.

There are 40,000 Goguryeo troops stationed in Yancheng, and there are 30,000 stone stored grain in the city, if you save a little, you can support them for a month and a half, although there is no shortage of food in the city, but the Goguryeo soldiers are still under great pressure, and they are looking forward to the arrival of reinforcements every day.

The pressure on the Goguryeo soldiers did not come only from the Sui army attacking the city, in fact, the Sui army did not attack the city, but piled up a huge earthen slope outside the city, the height of the earthen slope far exceeded the city wall, and the Sui soldiers threw arrows and stones down the earthen slope, so that the Goguryeo soldiers in the city were not at peace day and night.

In addition, Yancheng is not large, the circumference of the city is only twelve li, and it can only accommodate 20,000 people at most, but now it is squeezed into 40,000 troops, and the narrow living space makes every Goguryeo soldier unbearable, but under the threat of death, he has to endure it.

On this morning, Zhang Xuan and more than a dozen generals walked on the earth mountain outside the city, the earth mountain is located in the west of the city, about five zhang high, by 50,000 troops spent ten days to pile up, the shape is a volcanic cone, the top has been leveled by soldiers, paved with stone slabs, the area is one and a half acres, the top is placed three heavy trebuchets, constantly projecting boulders into the city.

Zhang Xuan walked up to the top of the mountain and looked into the city, more than a dozen soldiers rushed forward to block the commander with their shields, Zhang Xuan took a shield and smiled: "One shield is enough, the others retreat!" ”

The soldiers retreated, Zhang Xuan just walked to the edge of the mountain, a cold arrow swished up, Zhang Xuan reacted quickly, blocked the cold arrow with a shield, everyone was startled, Zhang Xuan waved his hand, signaling not to get in the way, he looked down, only to see that the defenders were no longer visible on the west city wall, to be exact, the defenders were hiding behind the wall, and the cold arrow just now was shot by a soldier hiding behind the wall.

The city was lined with rows of dense stone houses, but the stone houses within two hundred steps of the western city wall were smashed by trebuchets, and the other three walls were full of Goguryeo soldiers, as many as 10,000 people, all of whom looked vigilantly at the dozens of Sui generals on the mountain.

Zhang Xuan looked at it for a moment, smiled back and asked Luo Shixin: "I heard that you launched a siege strategy competition among the soldiers, did you gain anything?" (To be continued.) )