In the dead of night, the sound of horses' hooves galloping past is like spring thunder rolling in the sweet water alley, the rider jumps off the horse, ties the reins to the horse's post indiscriminately, walks up the steps and grabs the big copper ring "Bang Bang" knock door, the doorman hears the sound of horses' hooves in the inner hall and gets up to look, and then asks: "Who?" ”

"Jinhai urgent letter, has Xiangye fallen asleep, the chief lord ordered to wake up Xiangye's ......"

The vermilion gate "squeaked" opened, the old door official Zhang Cheng poked his head out, the white stubble was a little messy, and they all said that the prime minister was a seven-grade official in front of the door, Zhang Cheng, the door official, really had a grade of Ru Linlang, and he saw the appearance of the person who came clearly by picking out the air dead wind lamp from the eaves, and said: "It's Geng Lantou, the prime minister is waiting for Jinhai's letter......" instructed the little maid to bring the horse in to give food, and take the people to the inner house.

Zhang Xie is the right servant and the middle secretary, nominally the second minister, but because Chen Xinbo only serves as the left servant and does not serve as the subordinate servant, he has the name of the prime minister but does not have the power of the prime minister, and he is not allowed to enter and leave the palace unless he is called, and almost does not participate in political affairs - Zhang Xie is the minister of power who holds the power alone at this time in the Dayue Dynasty.

When only the first month, the cold has not disappeared, the charcoal fire in the big copper basin of the beast head ring in the middle of the west house is burning, Zhang Xie, who was fifty and seven years old, sat in front of the sandalwood table next to the brazier, and was writing the chapter with a pen, he heard the sound of horses' hooves outside the heavy courtyard, and the pen in his hand also stopped slightly, and it was his second son Zhang Ximiao who stood aside and waited for him to write the chapter......

Unlike Tang Haoxin, Zhang Xie's second son Zhang Xitong and Zhang Xilao were both born in Jinshi, and had the reputation of "one door and three jinshi, father champion and son Tanhua" in the current dynasty, the eldest son Zhang Xitong went south with King Ning to become a vassal, and the second son Zhang Xilao was admitted to Jinshi a little later, and he had no chance to be released as Hanlin, so he was an important assistant of Zhang Xie in Beijing.

Zhang Xie's face was tired and thin, slightly narrow, with a sparse beard under his chin, wearing a lake-blue jacket, and when he heard the footsteps into this courtyard, he calmly put down the pen in his hand, and sighed in his heart, he thought that he had seen through Tang Haoxin, his favorite students and his loyal monarchs all wished that he would die, he should resign in frustration and leave, even if he hid to watch the good show here, but he didn't expect that he would save his life, this crisis is far from dissipating!

Zhang Cheng came in with a messenger, Zhang Xie saw that the seal was correct under the candlelight, and then instructed Zhang Cheng: "Colonel Geng came all the way to deliver the letter, I'm afraid I'm hungry and tired, you call Chen Lan up, fry two good dishes and warm a pot of wine for Colonel Geng, I wrote a reply, and I have to trouble Colonel Geng to rush to Jinhai." ”

Jinhai came to see that Xiangye still remembered him as a person, and asked the private cook to get up in the middle of the night to cook for him, kowtow gratefully, and then followed the doorman Zhang Cheng out first.

Zhang Ximiao took the letter from his father's hand and scolded: "This swineherd really dares to speak, where will the household squeeze another million taels of silver to him!" After the Liang family occupied Shandong, he may not be a master who does not eat meat! ”

"The ship of the imperial court is broken again, the Liang family has not the ability to jump out, and Lin Jian has no ability to jump out, what the imperial court can give him, the luxury family can't give it, is it possible that he can still learn from the Cao family when he occupies the big ass place in Chongzhou?" Zhang Xie took the letter and threw it into the brazier......

"Don't let the Holy One know about this?" Zhang Ximeng asked.

"What do you know, do you know that the group of businessmen in Jinhai are blackmailing the imperial court to raise their foot fees, or do you know that Lin Jian pretends to be filial piety, secretly sneaks in Jinhai, and has bad intentions?" Zhang Xie asked rhetorically, looked at the second son Zhang Ximiao for a while, shook his head, and said, "Let the saint know, then you can only transfer the Beijing camp to Jinhai to arrest Lin Tie for the crime of bullying the king and disobedience-Lin Tie will not easily go to a luxury home, but it does not mean that he will never go to a luxury family after being forced into a desperate situation." Tang Haoxin is dead, but it makes it difficult for us to sleep. ”

"Do you want to do what he wants?" Zhang Ximiao asked in surprise.

"I'll write a letter, and you take it to Jizhou to see Li Zhuo......," Zhang Xie said.

"Will Li Zhuo come forward? Would it be useful for Li Zhuo to come forward? Zhang Ximeng asked two questions in a row.

"You'll know when you go. The saint doesn't know Tang Haoxin, I don't know yet? The saint doesn't know Li Zhuo, I don't know yet? Li Zhuo's trick can be hidden from others, but he still wants to hide it from me? Zhang Xie smiled, sat down, took out a piece of paper from the purple gold box, picked up the pen and ink to write a letter to Li Zhuo first, felt that this time a piece of meat was going to be dropped, so his heart ached, wrote a good letter, and said, "Alas, wait until you get through this while, and then clean up this shaft!" "I want the second son Xiluo to take a carriage to Jizhou immediately, and then write a letter to Huang Jinnian, asking people from Jinhai to rest for a while, and then prepare a horse to go back to Jinhai.

***********

Li Zhuo set up a camp in Jizhou.

Since Zhang Xie set up a consul general in Jinhai, fully responsible for the grain and grass transfer affairs of Zhuzhen and Beijing, the Jibei army has all withdrawn from Jinhai to assemble on the north side, and there is no direct contact between the Jibei army and Jinhai, and Gao Zongting also knew the news that Lin Jian might have secretly arrived in Jinhai in the middle of the night, but he was not in a hurry to report, and only after Li Zhuo got up to work in the dawn of the day, did he go over to report.

"He's not too late, cough ......" Li Zhuo was not surprised by Lin Lian's sneaking to Jinhai, and the cold in the house was pressing, coughing violently, and grabbing his clothes.

"Tang Gong died too bently, he shouldn't come to toss, it's not in line with his temperament," Gao Zongting squatted down and pulled out the charcoal fire in the brazier, "What does Li Shuai think Huang Jinnian and Zhang Association will do?" ”

"What kind of reaction can they have, the holes they poked out, and they dare to pick and choose?" Li Zhuo said hatefully, Tang Haoxin's death made his heart ache, and he hated Zhang Xie who was stealing the phase, but the saint trusted him, and even let his son Zhang Xitong serve as the governor of King Ning's mansion, "Zhang Xie doesn't dare to make things bigger, but will do everything possible to cover it up, Lin Jian can't see through this point can easily come to Jinhai?" Let them toss and go! ”

Gao Zongting also sighed slightly, the imperial court used the Liang father and son to go out of Shandong, not only to provoke contradictions, but also to quench the thirst, Tang and Gu may become a couch trouble, and the ambition of the Liang father and son is even more obvious. People in the palace, people in the palace, listening to others tell lies a hundred times, they have to believe it to be true, with Tang Haoxin's experience, Gao Zongting couldn't help but worry about Li Zhuo's fate in the future.

No matter how strong the loyalty and trust are, they can't withstand the slander of the villain who has accumulated over time, and maybe when the situation in Yanbei changes slightly, Li Shuai will be persuaded to retire.

The sun climbed up the treetops, Zhang Xie's second son, Zhang Xilao, took a letter out of Beijing and entered the camp in Jizhou, and Gao Zongting took him to see Li Zhuo.

After reading Zhang Xie's private letter in the middle of the night, Li Zhuo pondered for a moment - he had no good impression of Zhang Xie, leading the army in Jibei, and felt Zhang Xie stretch out an invisible hand to pinch his neck, and finally handed the letter to Gao Zongting, and said: "You go to Jinhai, since Zhang Xiang promised to increase the foot fee by two points, the businessmen who want to come to Jinhai will not be unprofitable......"

A farewell is more than half a year, Gao Zongting also wanted to see Lin Bin, and agreed without hesitation, and went directly south to Jinhai with Zhang Ximao from Jizhou.

*************

Falling asleep to the sound of the waves and waking up to the sound of the waves, but it was more comfortable than the life of being on the boat for days on end.

Knowing that Huang Jinnian had the intention of negotiating, Lin Tie was not tight, and Lin Xuwen and Sun Shangwang had their own on the shore to deal with, even if he was filial piety in Chongzhou, he naturally could not show up in public directly, and the last layer of skin would always be kept for the imperial court. After he got up, he practiced swordsmanship for half an hour, took Xun Niang to eat breakfast and used it for half an hour, and slipped on the island for half the night, but he was ready to eat lunch, and sent someone on the shore to inform him that Gao Zongting and Zhang Ximao had just arrived in Jinhai to see him.

Others can refuse not to see it, but Gao Zongting can't turn it away.

"Mr. Gao is not a particular person, so he can prepare the luncheon casually," Lin Jian instructed Sun Shangwang, "Send our boat to pick it up and see if Zhang Ximao has the courage to come over...... If you don't have the guts, there's nothing to talk about. ”

Huang Jinnian and Lin Xuwen did not show up, and Gao Zongting and Zhang Ximiao came by boat to break the waves.

After going to the island, Gao Shouting thought to himself: Jinwei Island is the Yongye field granted by Lin Tie's lordship, which is considered the private property of Lin Tie's name, how to build the manor, the imperial court cannot interfere, but the dock port and Saibao on the island are too solid, thinking that nearly half of the silver that Lin Tie has obtained from the Jinhai Grain Road in the past half a year has been invested on this small island that is only 1,400 steps a week, right?

This act is confidential, and if you want to come to the Holy Lord, you don't want to hear the news of their secret transaction with Lin Lian, Zhang Ximiao came to Jinhai to hide people's eyes, except for Huang Jinnian, Zhang Wendeng and other two or three people, no one knows that he and Gao Zongting came to Jinhai.

Zhang Ximao has been back to Jinhai twice in the past six months, recognized Sun Shangwang, and saw the young man in a green shirt standing next to Sun Shangwang and Gao Zongting looking at each other and smiling, he knew that he was Lin Tie, and thought that his father was really not mistaken, Li Zhuo and Tang and Gu had already frowned, but he didn't expect Gu Wuchen to work against Li Zhuo in Jiangning, and he really hid it from many people, which reduced the pressure on Li Zhuo to go north to Jibei a lot.

"I can't go over to pick up Mr. Gao to the island in person, Lin Tie is rude," Lin Tie said, glanced at Zhang Ximiao, and he had no courtesy to the Zhang family father and son who forced Tang Haoxin to death, seeing that he and Zhang Xi looked the same, he just raised his eyebrows and said, "There is only a thin banquet on the island, and the little prime minister doesn't look at it in his eyes, but he can take a look at this scenery on the island, and I will talk about things after Mr. Gao and I have dinner." ”

Zhang Ximiao endured the cooing on his empty stomach and said proudly: "Please." He really stayed on the dock and shrunk to look at the scenery, and secretly greeted the ancestors of the Lin family.

Gao Zongting smiled slightly, and didn't care that Zhang Ximiao was drinking the northwest wind there, and went straight to Sebao with Lin Lian.

took the famous donkey meat of Hejian Mansion as a dish, prepared six plates and a bowl of soup, warmed a pot of wine, Lin Jian and Gao Zongting sat down to drink and talk, and Sun Shangwang accompanied him.

"How's it going up north?" Lin Jian asked.

"Every day, there are excerpts handed to the Holy Lord to urge the Governor to send troops," Gao Zongting shook his head and sighed, "The Holy Lord does not approve either, and every once in a while these excerpts are sent to the Jizhou camp, the Inspector is under great pressure, looking at this situation, the Holy Lord's patience is not too much." ”

"As soon as Chen Tangyi fought, the Donglu people drew out 150,000 troops, and the officials in the court thought that five years had passed, and the Donglu people could only draw out 150,000 soldiers, and they all gathered on the western front to encircle Datong," Lin Jian sighed slightly, "Five years have passed, the situation is very different, the Donghu people were not able to organize a war on the western front before, and now they can encircle Datong, I am afraid that Yanbei Wuhu 70,000 or 80,000 Ding are attached to the Dongyu ......"

"The case of the Marquis of Jingbei, the loss of Liaodong; After the defeat of Chentangyi, the loss of western Liaoning, and the failure of nearly one million Dingkou in eastern and western Liaoxi to move back to Guannei, and last year they took away 300,000 or 400,000 people from Dingkou," Gao Zongting said. The Governor argued that the hearts of the people of the two Liaos may not be usable, but he slandered and speculated, and some people said it even more unpleasantly......"

"The last time the border was broken, there were many Liao people, looting and returning, this year there are also quite a lot of Liao people who join the captives to besiege Datong for greed for money or for war merits, not to mention those rebel generals who surrender - some officials in the imperial court always can't see these facts, there is nothing to make a fuss about, if you can see it clearly, the situation will be like this!" Lin Jian said in a suppressed voice.

"You can't come to Jin......hai just for the cost of shipping feet," Gao Zongting asked, "The Governor believes that you will not be a thief who harms the people, so he asked me to come." ”

"Jinhai Grain Road let Zhang Xie and the Liang family intervene, it is destined to be a mess, don't believe it, you will see it in two or three months. At the critical moment, I must ensure that the Northern Army does not become chaotic because of food. I don't care who is the emperor of the Yuan family, whether he supports King Ning or not, but I can't let the Dongyu people enter the pass and ride on the heads of the Han people," Lin Jian said, "I want to build a long-sea fleet from Chongzhou to bypass Shandong and go directly to Jinhai, and I will lack silver in my hands." Zhang Xie and Huang Jinnian allocated a large amount of rice and grain to the private warehouses of grain merchants to greed huge profits, but they could not let them not vomit out any blood. ”

"Zhang Xie's private letter to the governor gave the reserve price of two cents of silver, I think there should be no big problem for you to knock him on three cents of silver." Gao Zongting said.