In the evening, a cool breeze enters the palace.
When Li Longji woke up, his old eyes were half-open, and he leaned there lazily listening to Gao Lishi's talk about the latest news in Chang'an.
"Xue Bai is narrow-minded, and the Prime Minister wronged him once during Liu Ji's case. From then on, whenever this kid did anything, he always shouted to the Prime Minister, 'You will wrong me again'. This time, even Wang Zhongsi was implicated, and he was always a 'Jiao Structure' ', who never gets tired of hearing that?"
"Um."
Just listening to the results, Li Longji still felt boring.
There had been a "Han Yu" incident before, and it happened again today. He had no patience to listen to the details.
"Wang Zhongsi's 'unknown origin' Xue Bai is actually willing to attack Shibao City, saying that the weapons given by the saint may be useful. Let him think of a way."
"Will you fight?"
Li Longji raised his hand and let Gao Lishi lift him up. His expression was unpredictable, making people wonder what he was thinking.
Gao Lishi said: "If you are willing to fight, the whole court will say that he 'disobeys the holy orders', 'shows kindness to subordinates' and 'raises his own troops'. However, as soon as he heard that there was a way, he ignored the rules and went directly to the suburbs of the city to build a private factory" Arms'."
"He regards strategy as more important than my will!" Li Longji still cursed.
But after hearing the word "strategy", Gao Lishi knew that the saint's anger towards Wang Zhongsi had subsided a lot.
Not attacking Shibao City due to strategic considerations and not wanting to attack because of some selfish motives are completely different things. The life of the general who was guarding the border was at stake, and it only depended on the saint's thoughts.
"After all, the child was raised by the saint. How can the saint not understand his temper?"
"General Gao, you are talking nice to others again."
"The old slave must be Wang Zhongsi of 'Jiao Gou'."
"Hahaha."
Li Longji hadn't fully woken up yet, so he shook his head and wondered whether he should invite the imperial concubine to perform a dance in the Liyuan today, go boating with Concubine Mei, or invite the two nieces of the Zhang family to the palace to play cards.
Zhang Ting's eldest sister Zhang Si also has excellent card skills.
Just as he was waking up, Gao Lishi had handed over several scrolls.
"Sage, General Chen has brought him back."
"Yeah." Li Longji was already used to reading stories to wake himself up, and murmured, "We're going to Gao Laozhuang."
Gao Lishi reminded him as if he remembered: "Sage, the right minister is still waiting to see you."
Li Longji seemed not to hear anything, and finally put the scroll away.
"The wording is too rough and unpolished, so I sent it back for rewriting."
"Here."
"Do things like making a fuss, work in a hurry, and report rough and inferior results. Are you fooling me?" Li Longji was slightly dissatisfied, "Let me go back and do my job well."
~~
"Why didn't Grandpa explain clearly to the saint? This matter has nothing to do with Grandma at all."
"Explanation? The truth is that the prime minister of a country has been humiliated by his son again and again. Could it be that the saint wants to hear the prime minister say, 'Your Majesty, I have been tricked by that young boy, I am so wronged.' This is what you want me to do Any explanation?!"
"But in this matter, I clearly didn't fall into the trap..."
"Snapped!"
"How dare you talk too much."
Li Linfulin raised his hand and slapped Li Xiu.
"Trash! As a general supervisor, you don't know how to discipline your subordinates, but you discipline me instead?"
"My child doesn't dare." Li Xiudang fell to his knees on the ground, at a loss, "My child doesn't know..."
"check!"
Li Linfu scolded angrily: "If you don't know, why don't you go check it out? Are you going to stay with me and feed me for the rest of your life?!"
"Snapped!"
Li Xiu raised his hand and slapped himself, then ran out in a panic.
In fact, this matter had nothing to do with him. It was just that the old man was angry. There were 20,000 people in charge, including craftsmen, and he didn't know Xiao Fangzhi at all...
~~
It's night, the Ministry of Punishment is in prison.
As the iron chains clanked, Xiao Fangzhi was tied to the torture rack, with a look of shock and disbelief on his face.
"Everyone, are you mistaken? It was I who exposed Wang Zhongsi and Xue Bai's private manufacture of weapons. They were good at manufacturing heavy artillery in the capital without any supervision. I investigated impartially and did not violate any laws. I am an official of the imperial court. What do you think? Charge me with this?!"
He shouted for a long time, but no one answered.
Until someone started talking outside the torture chamber.
"Do the officials in the Ministry of Punishment also know how to torture? It's better for me to do it."
"I have admired Luo Gong's name for a long time."
"Come here, bring my donkey's colt."
Xiao Fangzhi looked around and when he saw a shadowy man wearing a light green official robe coming in, the hairs all over his body stood up in an instant.
Because he knew who the person in front of him was, Luo Xishi, Luo Qian.
Standing behind Luo Qian were three purple-robed officials who actually came to the execution room to watch the execution in person.
"No, no, you have no crime against me!"
"Xiao Fangzhi, you framed the general of Border Town, who instigated it?!"
Luo Xishi hadn't taken action yet, still asking people to move things.
Xiao Fangzhi couldn't bear it anymore, and said tremblingly: "Luo Yushi, I am one of my own, the right minister asked me to do this, it is really the right minister's order..."
"Now that things have happened, you still dare to quibble?"
"Really! Really! It was the censor like you who ordered me to do it with his right hand..."
"It doesn't matter." Luo Xishi smiled, "I was tough at first. I have plenty of time to ask you slowly."
"..."
Screams rang out, and even the torches on the wall swayed.
~~
Xue Bai has returned to the house in Changshoufang.
Qing Lan knew that he was afraid of mosquitoes, so he took a lot of mugwort and fumigated the house as soon as he came back, so he slept particularly soundly that night.
It seemed like he had a dream, in which he inserted many fishing poles on the shore. The first one he pulled up was empty, and the second one had an unknown person hanging on the hook. It was miserable.
When he pulled the third one, he caught Princess Xianyi. She cried very sadly and said that he could punish her in any way. Xue Bai took a closer look and found that she had a body and a fish tail, and she turned out to be a mermaid...
What a strange dream.
"Lang Jun, are you dreaming?"
Xue Bai opened his eyes and saw Qing Lan squatting beside his bed.
The weather in late April was a bit hot, and her spring shirt was not tied high, making her look very green.
"Um."
"Are you going to the teacher's house today?"
"Anyway, I got up late. I'll go to the county office to find the teacher later."
Xue Bai turned over and Qing Lan looked at him and felt that his bed looked very comfortable.
After staying in bed for a while and waiting to get ready, Xue Bai was practicing on the corridor when he vaguely heard someone knocking on the door in the inner courtyard.
After walking around the bamboo garden and opening the door, I saw Xue Shiyilang standing there, knocking on the door and sweating profusely.
"I'm so tired. Sixth brother, why don't you put a knocker on the courtyard door?"
…
Xue Zhai, front lobby.
Liu Xiangjun and Du Wulang are entertaining guests.
What came was a guard named Guan Chongsi under Wang Zhongsi.
"There's no rush. The general didn't send a greeting card first, so I took the liberty of visiting. It doesn't hurt to wait a while."
Guan Chongsi was indeed willing to wait, but Xue Xin kept staring at him from the side, making him a little uncomfortable.
"General Guan, how tall are you?"
"Don't call me General, just call me 'Chong Si'. I respect General Wang, so I changed my name. I am seven feet two inches tall."
"That's really high. Has the general ever killed an enemy on the battlefield?"
"There are nine thieves' heads in the tent."
"Wow." Xue Xin asked again, "Can I compete with the general?"
Just when he couldn't stand this talkative child, Xue Bai came. Guan Chongsi stood up quickly and said respectfully: "I have met Xue Lang. General Wang would like to invite you to meet him."
This attitude was not directed at anything else, but he knew that if the giant stone cannon could save the Helong Army from killing a few people, it would be his comrades around him, or even himself, who would save their lives.
"We have met. General and General Wang went to Fenggu Prison and measured the distance of stone throwing. I remember that the general's name should be Guan Chongsi?"
"Xue Lang actually remembered the villain, I'm so honored." Guan Chongsi was pleasantly surprised.
"Let's go."
"Xue Lang please."
Du Wulang deliberately got up early and came over. He combed his hair carefully and put on new clothes. He had something to say to Xue Bai. Unexpectedly, Xue Bai was invited away just after they met.
He had no choice but to follow.
~~
Yanshoufang, Wang Zhongsi's residence.
The courtyard is large and seems quite empty, with arrow stacks erected in the front yard. Two strong men wearing only their trousers were wrestling, and a group of military men were surrounding them, shouting and watching the fun.
Guan Chongsi led Xue Bai and Du Wulang all the way inside, passed through the square and simple double courtyard, and went straight to the lobby.
"General, Xue Lang is here."
Wang Zhongsi was standing in front of a simple sand table. When he saw the guests coming, he just nodded and talked about business.
"Let's take a look at the terrain of Stone Castle City. You and I can talk about how to use the giant stone cannon."
Xue Bai stepped forward and took a look. The sand table was made of clay, and he could clearly see the steepness of the Stone Castle City more intuitively than the map.
There is also a large map next to it, depicting the surrounding terrain. There is also a poem inscribed on the map, "Whoever opened the stone city gate will be more likely to hear the wind fall and the stone will fall. The white ridge in the sky is better than the golden soup, and half of the southwestern sky is suppressed."
Wang Zhongsi picked up a few small wooden frames and placed them in front of the sand table.
"If you can't throw a boulder weighing two to three hundred kilograms onto Stone Castle City, can you do it if it's twenty or thirty kilograms?"
Throwing an object of this weight would not be powerful enough to hit it. Xue Bai thought about it and asked, "General, do you want to attack with fire?"
Wang Zhongsi did not answer, but asked: "What do you think?"
"I have read in a book that when the Qin people were building the Five Feet Road, there was a method of 'burning rocks with fuel', which allowed the rocks to be burned red and then explode when exposed to cold. But I wonder what the terrain of Shibao City is like?"
The reason why Xue Bai built the giant stone cannon was because he had a little understanding of the history of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. He knew that the Mongolian army liked to use the cannon carts to throw fireballs when attacking cities and burn the city walls with corpse oil.
Wang Zhongsi nodded and replied: "It's called 'Stone Castle City', which means the stone city is strong."
"What does the general want to use to make the fireball?"
"Fat, what about you? What do you think?"
Xue Bai pondered and said: "Burning rock requires a strong fire for a long time. You can use stone fat water, also called stone paint. I have seen it in the West Market. It is used to burn lamps and make inkstones."
Wang Zhongsi ordered Guan Chongsi to buy stone paint and come back.
He demonstrated on the sand table and told Xue Bai what kind of gun carriage he needed.
When Guan Chongsi came back from buying Shizhi, Xue Bai smelled it and felt a spicy smell.
Wang Zhongsi actually moved a stone directly into the courtyard, poured stone paint on it, and with a little fire, a raging fire burst into flames.
Du Wulang was startled, feeling the hot air hitting his face. Looking around, he saw black smoke making the yard a mess and a mess. The scene was very scary.
"Ah, this... is my home..."
Wang Zhongsi didn't seem to see it, and continued to talk to Xue Bai despite the raging fire.
"Xue Lang took action to save me this time. I understand and remember it in my heart. Unfortunately, the military situation is urgent and I cannot stay in Chang'an for long. I will seek repayment after taking Shibao City."
"General Wang is too polite." Xue Bai refused to be polite to him. "It's an honor for me to be able to contribute, and I also have selfish motives. I just hope that General Wang will not forget my request when he repays his merits."
"Okay, magnanimously." Wang Zhongsi said: "If you can't get the Jinshi, you can come to my court and practice, and I will recommend you to be an official."
"Thank you so much, general. If Chun Wei fails to ascend the throne, he will definitely join the general's service."
Wang Zhongsi has been in the border town for a long time and is used to speaking freely, but he is not completely unreasonable. He smiled and said: "Of course, with Xue Lang's talent, he will definitely be able to reach the top."
"Thank you General for your kind words." Xue Bai said: "By the way, there is one more thing. I wonder if I can invite General..."
"But it doesn't matter."
"Xiao Fang, the prison chief, reported that we were secretly manufacturing weapons. Regardless of the purpose, it did not really hurt us. I heard that he has been sent to the Ministry of Punishment Prison, but his family is innocent, and his son had an affair with his sister-in-law. engagement……"
"Okay!" Wang Zhongsi waved his hand and said, "I will protect the Xiao family."
"Thank you."
"No need to thank you. You have a great spirit and a broad structure, so why should I be so petty? There is a fighting cock in the court. In recent years, you have taken advantage of the whole family at every turn. I can't stand it for a long time."
To Xue Bai, this was not a big deal.
He knew that it would be Dong Gong who would silence Xiao Fanzhi, so he asked Wang Zhongsi to protect his innocence and see if he and Li Heng were of the same mind in everything.
…
The fire wrapped the stone and made a "crackling" sound. Wang Zhongsi personally carried a bucket of water and stood aside waiting, and the people were like stones.
Until the time was almost up, he poured a bucket of water down, and the heated stone suddenly became cold and exploded with a "bang".
"Stone paint can be used." Wang Zhongsi said, "Stone Castle City is hot during the day and cold at night. This method may be feasible."
After the discussion was completed, the craftsman An Boboy was invited to make weapons according to this method, and Xue Bai just left.
~~
After leaving the king's house, Du Wulang breathed a sigh of relief, only to feel that he was suffocated by the murderous aura.
He was a little regretful that he could not talk to Wang Zhongsi and did not even greet him.
But I think the Jiedushi of the four towns was busy with important affairs, so how could he have time to think about a young man like himself? On the contrary, he felt more and more remarkable about the other party.
"The general is indeed a general. He is different from the people in Chang'an City."
"Um."
"By the way, you also know about me, right?" Du Wulang said: "Sanniang and I... that..."
Xue Bai said: "It depends on Sanniang's wishes. If she is willing to marry you, we can discuss the marriage after you are appointed as an official in spring."
"real?!"
"It doesn't matter what I said, I'll ask your grandpa, ask Liu Niang."
"Hey, why do you keep calling your grandma 'Liu Niang'? What a blessing." Du Wulang said: "I have to coax her for you every time to prevent her from getting bored."
Xue Bai was too lazy to talk to Du Wulang.
Now that his talents are gradually accumulating, even Li Linfu does not dare to trap him easily. Then when he is officially appointed and his connections are spread... In short, if he has enough strength, he may become Xue Pingzhao and seek for Hedong County. Duke's title.
He doesn't care if it's true or not. Anyway, he can't really respect anyone as his biological father and mother. What matters is whether you can take on this identity.
There's still a lot to go wrong at the moment, but I already have an idea.
~~
After leaving Yanshoufang, it was already afternoon.
The two of them drove their horses back to Xue's house in Changshoufang. They happened to see a luxurious carriage parked at the door, but it was Mrs. Guo Guo who wanted to see Xue Bai.
Xue Bai had already expected it, and this time he brought Qing Lan with him.
…
"Is this your personal maid?" Yang Yuyao liked beauties. When she saw Qing Lan, she looked at her carefully for a while and said in surprise: "You haven't shown her face yet?"
"yes."
After hearing this, Qing Lan wished she could bury her face in her collar. Yang Yuyao felt more and more amused and said to Xue Bai, "If you don't touch her, don't say it's for me."
"In order to concentrate on my studies." Xue Bai said: "She is the granddaughter of Huangfu Deyi's mother's family, so some people accuse her and I of being Li Ying's remnants and colluding with each other."
"Yes, yes, it's amazing to focus on your official career." Yang Yuyao covered her mouth and laughed, and spat: "You monster, you want to take advantage of me again."
"It's not about taking advantage of her. I want to get some credit for her so that I can redeem her citizenship and become a good citizen. I have entrusted Wang Zhongsi with this matter. I am worried that someone will make an issue of it in the future, so I will tell you first."
"This little maid is lucky enough to meet such a master... Mingzhu, you take her to play, eat some cakes, and get some new clothes made."
"yes."
After the maids retreated, Yang Yuyao picked up a cherry, threw it gently on Xue Bai's neck, and spat: "I haven't been here for many days. I have climbed up to Princess Yuzhen. I won't be needed in the future." .”
"Want to know why I'm like this?"
"Come here and tell me." Yang Yuyao raised her foot and hooked Xue Bai.
"Princess Xianyi said that I am Xue Xiu's wife. I don't know whether it is true or not. But if I am framed again, I will definitely die. Please prepare more means to protect yourself..."
"Don't be afraid, my sister will protect you."
After Yang Yuyao heard this, she lowered her head and bit off the cherry she had just thrown away from Xue Bai's neck. She swept her eyes with a look of flattery.
"I want to succumb to the demon."
"Can it be lowered?"
Xue Bai made a move, forcing Yang Yuyao, with a look in his eyes teasing her for not being strong enough.
Not to be outdone, she snorted.
"I have a binding spell to tightly bind you, the big monster..."
(End of chapter)
