Just after the court meeting, Bai Changqing walked out of the palace quickly with a cold face, then got into his carriage, lowered the curtain and headed back home. I'm so upset today that I can't read the official document, so I'm going home to take a rest.
On the carriage, Bai Changqing clearly felt that the bustling Junhou Street was much quieter than before. Opening the corner of the curtain, you can see restaurants, teahouses and other places outside, but Luoque is not as prosperous as it used to be.
Speaking of which, most of the many restaurants and teahouses in the upper half of Junhou Street are supported by the monks in the temple. Others will not spend much more money on tea and drinks for the sake of ostentation and elegance than other places. Only in the temple The gentlemen who want to be superior to others in everything like this kind of tone.
Of course, including Bai Changqing, the expenses for them to come to these places do not need to be paid out of their own pockets. Some people line up to invite them to come and sit here.
Recently, this trend has been suppressed by the clouds of war. Even those who like to come out the most try to avoid suspicion to avoid getting into trouble.
Bai Changqing hasn't come out to drink tea with his colleagues for a long time. He usually either goes to court or goes to work. The rest of the time, he doesn't want to go anywhere and just stays at home. Now he is considered a member of the famous Gu family in the court.
If it were anyone else, if Bai Changqing liked to stay at home and stop socializing, he would definitely be ridiculed and said to be henpecked. But no one dared to say anything to Bai Changqing.
He is a dignified household minister, and he is over seventy years old. How can ordinary people dare to laugh at him? And Bai Changqing himself didn't care.
On the contrary, now that the situation is not good, Bai Changqing is still happy to be regarded as "family-oriented" or "henpecked", which saves him the trouble of turning down those cynical private invitations.
Who are these people? They want to win him over at this time. Bai Changqing feels a little chilled in his heart. Especially the few hints that Left Prime Minister Ye Lansheng gave him before made his heart tremble slightly, and he felt that he should have planned for many things in advance.
Bai Changqing's house is in the west of the Imperial City. It is a newly purchased house and is much larger than the previous one.
As soon as Bai Changqing entered the door, he saw a pair of sisters running towards him with smiles on their faces. The coldness on their faces immediately turned into smiles, and he spread out his arms to hold the sisters in his arms.
This kind of behavior without "manners" is not seen in other families, and it is even less likely to appear on the head of a housewife. "Dignity" is what a hostess in a high-class family with red walls should look like. But this doesn't work in Bai Changqing's family. At least it won't work after he marries the Xu sisters.
The age gap of more than fifty years made Bai Changqing more tolerant when looking at the Xu sisters, and it could even be said to be "doting". And he, who is accustomed to romance, also happens to like the agility and romance in the Xu sisters. Even if they are innocent, he likes them very much, because these are things that he once had but have long since passed away.
"Master! It's so early to come back today! Can I cook for you today?"
"Master, the uniforms I have sewn for you are ready. Will you try it out later?"
The chatter was very lively. The surrounding servants were used to it and were not surprised. They lowered their heads, smiled but had different thoughts, standing far away and inconvenient to approach.
"Haha, okay, wait for me to wash up before trying on clothes and then eating, okay?"
"Yeah!" The two women smiled and took Bai Changqing's arms all the way to the backyard bedroom. As intimate as a young newlywed couple.
But Bai Changqing's gray hair looked dazzling.
After eating and changing into new regular clothes, Bai Changqing chatted with the two women for a while before entering the study. He needs to sort out what happened at today's court meeting.
Now the situation in the temple is becoming more and more unpredictable. The rise of the military and the decline of the civil servants made Bai Changqing feel sad, but unlike many civil servants, he was actually able to accept the current situation in his heart. Because in Bai Changqing's view, factional disputes can only be limited to the premise that there will be no external threats within the country. If a war like this breaks out now, then you have to take it easy. Factions cannot override the national war.
This does not conflict with Bai Changqing's previous strong advocacy of "peace talks." "Peace talks" are his political demands, but now that his demands have failed, he can't act recklessly. If the emperor wins and the army wins, then let's follow the winner. This is called letting go even if you can afford to lose. So now the undercurrent in the temple made Bai Changqing secretly frightened, and even broke into a cold sweat on his back.
Why? Because many key figures in the civil service group, including Ye Lansheng, are still communicating in private, without acknowledging the loss of their right to speak, and have an idea that makes Bai Changqing frightened: If the battle ahead does not go well, or the battle losses are huge, then there will be Chance stood up and accused the military of wasting the national treasury and the lives of soldiers, and once again strived for peace talks to regain the right to speak.
Even in order to achieve this goal, Ye Lansheng hinted Bai Changqing several times to put some pressure on the military in terms of money and food, and even "relaxed appropriately" in terms of ordnance. How did Bai Changqing respond to these words? How dare you answer the question?
At this court meeting, the emperor had already clarified the strategy of tightening money and grain, and asked the Ministry of Revenue to collect grain and put it into the warehouse at the end of October to start implementing it in batches.
If it were just like this, it would be easy to handle. Although Bai Changqing had not experienced the co-ordination work during the war, the Ministry of Revenue had detailed documents. He found out the various strategies of the Ministry of Revenue in recent wars, synthesized them and then changed them into some details. You can get through it if you think about it. Moreover, Bai Changqing had borrowed these documents and read them before. He also brought some rubbings back to his home study today to ponder them carefully, and he was prepared in his heart.
But the more prepared he was, the more entangled he became. Because once the tightening strategy starts to be implemented, if the war is not over in a few months, food will be distributed to each city in the form of quotas. Bai Changqing does not want this kind of errand that conceals great invisible power and is extremely sensitive.
However, Bai Changqing is sure that more people will come to him on his way to work tomorrow to "get together for tea" or "have a banquet and a few drinks at home" in private.
Bai Changqing looked down upon this invisible and huge power, and even regarded it as a scourge that should be avoided, but there were so many people who wanted to take advantage of it. Although Bai Changqing hasn't thought it through yet, he still knows about it. But the problem is that Bai Changqing doesn't know who he can throw this matter to at the moment. Will the emperor let him throw it out? Or, does he need to discuss this matter with Left Prime Minister Ye Lansheng?
Thinking of Ye Lansheng, Bai Changqing frowned deeply. I didn't feel that before, but now some of Ye Lansheng's actions increasingly make Bai Changqing disagree, and even feel that they are very inappropriate. Moreover, with the failure of the last counterattack led by Ye Lansheng, the civil servant group's voice has plummeted, and Ye Lansheng's prestige among the civil servants is not as good as before.
Now that the situation is changing, Bai Changqing feels that he should have his own plans instead of blindly following Ye Lansheng.
