The next day, more than a dozen boxes were moved to Guo's mansion. Guo Shao opened them in the room to check. One of the boxes contained copper coins, not ordinary copper coins, all of which were newly cast and freshly made of new and good colors, and then wrapped in red silk. The other one opened was a box made of silver with exquisite patterns. When it opened again, it was a golden gold box. The innermost part was a large box of gold and gem jewelry, with a large bead the size of a quail egg in the middle. He couldn't help but pick it up and observe it, thinking in his mind whether this thing was a night pearl and its value.

Guo Shao took the bead and looked at it for a while, thinking: It really costs a lot to marry a wife, I am almost bankrupt now.

Zhao Kuangyin died at the end of last year and needed another marriage; the loss should be quite large, and the money spent on the Ming Dynasty's official marriage to get married was obviously wasted.

No matter how much money is, it is not enough. It is not easy to save some money in Guo Shao. When he attacked Shu, he would kidnap prisoners and blackmail them. After attacking Shouzhou, he robbed the Southern Tang government and plundered the city's large households. In addition, he had received the salary of senior military generals and local officials for a long time. The money was gone at once... He also asked for a big advantage from Mrs. Chen, otherwise the betrothal gift would have to be paid at least half. I think Mrs. Chen also invested a lot of money, and this money would be under pressure on senior military generals and bureaucrats like Guo Shao.

Of course, because of her background, Fu Ermei was worth more than this little money. She was not that person who could not marry her with so many betrothal gifts... As Guo Shaozeng said, it is worth changing the Sixteen Prefectures in Huainan. The problem is that the Sixteen Prefectures in Huainan is not his.

Compared with the two sides, it is easy for Yulian and Yang to get it. It is basically the same as they are free, and there is also Jingniang. No wonder women are generally unwilling to be concubines. No one wants to show their value and wealth. It is probably not a pleasant thing to be taken home without any movement.

Guo Shao didn't care much about it. Marrying Fu Ermei would be enough for him to do anything. He had to worry about this for a while.

At the same time, a caravan of the "Shen Chen-Li" trading company will soon go to Youzhou to enter and export goods. Guo Shao felt that only sending his personal soldiers and staff would not necessarily have the knowledge to find out any valuable information, so he fooled Zhou Duan and asked him to go to Youzhou as the spy leader. After the matter was done, he made a clear and price-oriented promise that he would be the second leader of the shogunate of the Zhongwu Jieduan of Xuzhou (Zuo You Guai Changshi).

Zhou Duan, a branch of the Zhou family in the Southern Tang Dynasty, had no reputation and no achievements. Is there any talent that depends on his own words that it is not easy to become an official; if the official position is so easy to obtain, everyone will become an official.

Although Xuzhou Jie Town has no elite troops, it is a big city at all. The governor rules and regulations that do not interfere with the government affairs of local prefectures and counties, he can be a local emperor in a city. Guo Shao and Zuo You are often not in Xuzhou. If Zhou Duan is the Minister of the Mu, his power can directly surpass all the officials in Xuzhou, and he has no reason to refuse.

...

Zhao Kuangyin started marrying the King of Hebei Shizhong before Guo Shao, but now he cannot get married. The funeral of the Zhao family has roughly ended. He wrote a letter to Ding You, but was rejected if he was not surprised. The emperor did not want a person he regarded as a capable general, but his father would not be able to use it because he died.

Now the military generals are relatively idle, and Zhao Kuangyin and Guo Shao have no contact. They went to court on the first day of April to meet in the hall.

The military generals did not speak at the court meeting, and the emperor and civil servants were all focused on ensuring agricultural production in various places. Li Gu submitted detailed measures to prevent and control the Yellow River, and strongly advised the abolition of military farms, the implementation of a new tax system and service law, and quarreled with several other officials in the hall. Wang Pu wrote a letter to continue planning, expanding the Tokyo city, and improving the canal transportation system. Wang Pu presented Hebei water conservancy irrigation map... Some people also suggested various strange ways to prevent locusts.

The emperor finally focused on governing the country, and civil servants all rushed to offer suggestions, hoping to show their achievements and value.

Zhang Yongde, Zhao Kuangyin, Guo Shao and others didn't say anything, regardless of who they were right or wrong.

After finally dispersing the court meeting, the senior military generals walked out of the palace boredly. Zhao Kuangyin and Zhang Yongde did not hide their friendship. One of them was the commander of the Palace Front Office and the other was the inspector of the Palace Front Office. The two of the Zhou Dynasty had the most military power.

The two of them went out from Donghua Gate, then rode to the palace office of the front office, and walked to the rest room to drink tea.

Zhao Kuangyin was one year older than Zhang Yongde, but he respected Zhang Yongde very much in his words and often called him "gong": "After the Battle of Gaoping, if Gong had not requested me for me, Zhao would not have been today, and he would not have been able to forget the kindness he knew about."

Zhang Yongde shook his head and said, "The officials are the ones who know that they are grateful to Brother Zhao. I just discovered the talents for the officials."

Because there was no outsider, Zhao Kuangyin poured tea for Zhang Yongde himself, opened his mouth as if he had something to say, but he swallowed it from his mouth and then said: "The official is determined to govern local affairs, which is to have sufficient supplies during the Northern Expedition to avoid worries. Wang Pu did not say that as long as the harvest is good this summer and autumn, the Northern Expedition will start next year! It seems that the weather is good this year and there is no major disaster. We should wait a few months before we go into battle."

Zhang Yongde said seriously: "It's not just to prepare for this year... After the Jinyang Battle, it's been three years since now. When will the government not prepare for the Northern Expedition? Attacking Qinfeng and Huainan are all about eliminating the worries of the Northern Expedition. Since Shi Jingtang presented it to the Liao Kingdom, Youzhou has always been a pain in the Central Plains. If this place can be recovered by the government, it will definitely be a great achievement that has been praised in history for generations. Our imperial guards have fought so many battles, and they are waiting for that day!"

"It seems that the key to this battle is to capture Youyun, and you only need to drive the Khitan soldiers out of Hebei." Zhao Kuangyin said.

Zhao Kuangyin felt that the emperor was in a hurry... Could it be because his body was getting weaker? He and Zhang Yongde were both people who often saw the emperor. They could observe the emperor's complexion and physical condition.

There was no expression on his black face, and Zhao Kuangyin pondered for a long time. He wanted Zhang Yongde to say something in front of the emperor, but he didn't know where to persuade Zhang Yongde... He opened his mouth before, just to start by borrowing Guo Shao's marriage with King Wei; but he also thought that he had a marriage with Guo Shao, so it was too obvious to mention Guo Shao, so he looked at him from the left.

There was a very obvious thing lingering in Zhao Kuangyin's mind: Once the official's family dies, the longest prince Chai Zongxun is only three years old, and the queen of the talisman will inevitably be regent.

Zhao Kuangyin had to consider that Guo Shao was a military general who was born in the Wei Wang Mansion and was in a confidant of the queen. Now he wanted to marry the Fu family and go further. If Queen Fu took power, would he Zhao Kuangyin have good results?

This situation is irrelevant as long as the emperor Chai Rong is in power, but now seeing that Chai Rong is in a weak state, Zhao Kuangyin is under great pressure. After the Fu Empress was seriously ill in Huainan, she didn't hear anything wrong with her. She was still so young and should have lived longer than the official family. And Guo Shao was in her twenties.

Zhao Kuangyin felt increasingly that it was not Guo Shao who threatened him, but his grudges with him were just accelerating the conflict... The most difficult thing to deal with was Queen Fu.

The queen has not shown up for several months, but as long as she pays attention to her layout, it is not difficult to find that everything is very beneficial to her.

The queen is also in charge of the name of the mother of Prince Chai Zongxun; no one can threaten her in the harem. In recent months, she has been cautious in her words and deeds and has been silent and has refused to make any mistakes. The imperial guards have generous favors, and the prestige in the hearts of the soldiers is very high. She only has prestige and support for her even surpassed Zhang Yongde... Not only that, she also promoted her confidant, concretized military power, and further consolidated the power of the imperial guards through marriage.

Guo Shao has a great power in the Guards Department. The elite troops are not as strong as those in the Palace Front Department, but it doesn't matter at all. In the future, as long as he is inserted in Tokyo, it will be enough to threaten everyone and dare not resist to protect the will of the Regent Center. Moreover, the position is appropriate. If Guo Shao is now at Zhang Yongde's position and is the queen's personal, the emperor will not be willing to reuse it.

The Fu family was granted the title of queen more than a year ago. Zhao Kuangyin did not pay any attention to this woman at that time, and he couldn't take care of himself at that time. But just a year later, when he looked back, Queen Fu had already deployed everything.

Zhao Kuangyin had to look up to this woman. He said to Zhang Yongde quietly: "I used to go to court and occasionally saw the queen, but I have never seen her and the official family enter and leave the hall in recent months."

Zhang Yongde looked upward and thought for a moment and nodded to say yes.

Zhao Kuangyin said again: "Fan Zhi once told Dou Yi about a secret matter. Did you hear it all? It is rumored that when Taizu died, he mainly focused on two people. One was to let Wei Renpu be the Privy Councilor, and the other was to strictly order the official family to be the queen. Taizu believed that only with these two people could the great throne be handed over to the official family."

Zhang Yongde shook his head and said, "I have never heard of this. However, the current queen is extraordinary and has the demeanor of a mother in the world."

Zhao Kuangyin thought to himself: Wei Renpu's role is completely understandable. At that time, the official family was not stable at the beginning of the throne. He needed a person who was both capable and reliable to control the military power of the Privy Council. What direct effect could the talisman queen have? Is Taizu's long-term vision and has considered that all the descendants of the Guo family were massacred and had no successors, so he had to think about the third generation of the throne? If the queen was determined to maintain the Great Zhou royal family, and if she had someone like her in charge of the government affairs a hundred years later, it would be much more stable.

But now it seems that no matter what she thinks, it will not be a good thing for Zhao Kuangyin... If the Zhao family could marry the Fu family and there was no such confidant general Guo Shao, Zhao Kuangyin would naturally not feel the threat of the queen. It was the queen's actions that made him very uneasy.

He said quietly: "Taizu's will is a long-term plan, and Wei Renpu is still the Privy Councilor."

Zhang Yongde said without hesitation: "I see the situation, Wang Pu may replace Wei Renpu as Privy Councilor."

After hearing this, Zhao Kuangyin said again: "The empress was also what Taizu said earlier. If the official family was on the expedition and was no longer in the court, the empress could also take charge of the overall situation."

After hearing this, Zhang Yongde was stunned and felt that his tone was a little wrong. Doesn’t that mean that there are all emperors in the world, and that even if there is an empress, you can control the court?
Chapter completed!