Upon hearing this, Mei Ti's heart moved, and he instinctively stood up immediately and bowed in the hall.

At the same time, when Lin Shangshu saw this, he just picked up the milk tea that had cooled down, took a sip, and suddenly waved his sleeves: "Our families are family friends, and your uncle and my eldest brother are close friends and relatives by marriage, but I

Now that I have become the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs and the secret cabinet, you are a newcomer who has returned to the capital to confirm your appointment. Before being appointed, it is difficult to keep you at home to raise suspicion. You wait in the front hall until your younger brother comes back.

After a portion of sweet and sour fish, please return to the official post as soon as possible to wait for the imperial edict."

Mei Li was caught off guard when she heard this, and even panicked... In the final analysis, although there were some obvious points raised in this exchange, the most critical issue, which is currently the so-called three major cases in the capital, the other party only mentioned one thing in a vague way.

Things, and two other major events involving the imperial camp generals, my uncle had no words at all.

If this comes up during the interview, how should I respond then?

Just telling the truth?

However, with doubts in her heart, Mei Yue did not dare to say anything, especially since the other party did not have any suggestions, so she had no choice but to suppress her uneasiness, respectfully bid farewell, and then waited for a takeaway of sweet and sour fish at the concierge, and took it back with her.

The next day, the snow stopped for a whole day, but then it started to rain again the next day, causing the humidity and cold to continue to cause trouble. And another day later, which was the last day of October, Mei Ti lifted.

Suddenly he received a summons, saying that officials were finally going to summon him.

Mei Qu didn't dare to neglect, even though she knew she might be disliked, she still couldn't help but trimmed her eyebrows according to her habit, and then went to Donghua Gate to transfer to the provincial capital... At this time, Mei Tiju knew that the official wife

I was so busy that I actually summoned five people at the same time, including Zhao Boyao, the number one scholar in the same department, Chao Gongwu, the second best scholar in the same department, in addition, Cui Tongling, the commander of the imperial camp navy who was restless, and a

Huang Tongpan from the border county came from northern Shaanxi.

Obviously, all five of them are here to review their duties, and their futures will all be decided in the face-to-face meeting. This is already very nerve-wracking.

In fact, the last two among the five were already restless, probably due to their background and the fact that they were meeting the saint for the first time, but the top three among the top three Jinshi in the same discipline were also obviously uneasy... because they were already keenly aware of

, when my group of people get together, I am afraid they will have to directly face some complex and sensitive issues.

The five of them were uneasy, but after having a working meal... it was still sweet and sour fish... When they set off together to the famous place in the harem in the afternoon, the sky gradually darkened, but intermittent snowflakes started falling again.

It is estimated that the Hanfangyuan Cuju Competition will be postponed again.

"Zhengzhou was sentenced to Zhao Boyao, Mizhou was sentenced to Chao Gongwu, Liangzhe Economic and Strategy Department promoted Wenzhou Shipping Secretary Mei Qu, Cui Bangbi, the commander of the Imperial Navy Navy, Qingzhou was sentenced to Huang Sheng..."

The summoning ceremony was extremely simple. Fan Zongyin, a bachelor of Hanlin Academy, stepped forward to check the list with the officials from the capital and province, and then led the five people to the stone pavilion. Then Lan Gui, the imperial guard of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, came forward again and called out the list one by one.

After receiving the response, he immediately turned around and reported. "Guan family, five people have arrived today!"

"It's snowing, come and sit down in the pavilion!"

When everyone heard this, they understood that it was official speech, so they hurriedly thanked him, and then entered the pavilion nervously. Under the attention of many family members, bachelors, lords, soldiers, and officers, they carefully sat down opposite Zhao Guan's house - here is the stone.

There was no cushion on the bench, but it was warm. This was not because someone had heated up the stool, but because the earth dragons under the stone pavilion and the surrounding ground were obviously burnt.

It was the first time for the five of them to come here, but they all knew about this because it was reported in the newspaper around the beginning of winter. Some people had objected... It was not that they were opposed to providing some heating facilities for this famous stone pavilion.

Instead, they objected to the use of earth dragons, because earth dragons obviously learned how to burn kangs themselves, and kang burning was brought by the Jurchens.

The Di newspaper published some remarks about "just use it as you please", starting from King Wuling of Zhao's horse riding and shooting in Hufu, and he refuted some of the opponents.

So it was known all over the world that Zhao Guan's family burned Dilong in a pavilion in the harem.

Then, it became popular throughout the North and Central Plains, and even in the South there were people who got crazy and imitated it.

Not to mention Dilong, just that the moment they sat down, the five of them almost had a tacit understanding. They secretly raised their heads together to take a peek at Zhao Guan's house where they had just dropped some documents. Then they quickly lowered their heads again and hurriedly looked at what was already under the stone bench.

The cracked slate texture... These textures have been seen and studied by countless people in the past few years, and I am afraid they will continue to be looked at in the future.

"There's no need to be so formal, and there's no need to get up. If I have a question, you can just answer it."

Zhao Jiu, who was wearing a cotton robe, was certainly aware of the small movements of the five people opposite him, but after seeing too much, he was too lazy to complain. "Winter should have already entered before Bo Yao set off from Zhengzhou. Do you know if the people along the way were feeling cold or discouraged?"

?”

"The officials are joking!" Uncle Zhao was startled and quickly raised his head to answer seriously. "Zhengzhou is said to be another state, but in fact it is almost the same as in recent times. If the people along the way here are cold and discouraged, what will happen to the world?

?”

"Yes." Zhao Jiu nodded, and then sighed slightly. "This question is a bit ridiculous. In fact, after the snowfall the day before yesterday, I even rode to Huazhou to see... Most of the lines along the Yellow River were replaced by military camps.

Villages are doing a good job of keeping out the cold, but in the surrounding cities and cities, some poor people in the cities are suffering from lack of firewood... Although Taizong of this dynasty offered help in times of need, it still bought people's hearts, but if you think about it carefully, from the poor people's side

It turns out that it was a life-saving move after all, which is commendable."

Hearing this, Zhao Boyao pretended not to hear the word "buying people's hearts" and just complimented him: "The officials have this intention, which can be said to be the same strain."

But Zhao Guanjia immediately became solemn: "Bo Yao, the thing is like this. After the fall of Xixia, the historical materials were also confiscated. I intend to make you a Hanlin bachelor and leave you to compile "History of Xixia", but apart from this, you still have to do other things."

...I will allocate some coal and grain to you, and you will patrol the area on my behalf in the past few weeks, and provide work as appropriate in order to prevent as many people from freezing to death as possible."

"This is benevolent government, I dare not obey orders!" Zhao Boyao immediately responded, but hesitantly.

"What?" Zhao Jiu certainly understood.

"Guan family." Zhao Boyao said carefully. "Whether it is compiling history or going on a relief tour, it is a first-class errand. Since I have been ordered, I naturally have nothing to say. But this time, it would be too much to directly transfer to the internal affairs department.

I'm sorry... The former Xinke Jinshi in Jingkang came back from his post and was transferred to the cabinet post, but it has never been so fast."

"What do you want?"

"I take the liberty of saying that after a few days of providing relief to the officials, they still went to the local government."

Zhao Jiu thought for a while and nodded immediately: "That's fine! It's very appropriate for you to have this intention! Judging from the results of this relief effort, if you do well, you can directly serve as the official seal of a state."

Zhao Boyao was overjoyed... Obviously, this official was very tolerant of his first number one scholar and son-in-law who died as prime minister. Of course, it was also because this number one scholar understood current affairs.

You must know that the imperial court has always been dissatisfied with the simple and crude approach of cleaning up the palaces and directly merging the two classes of scholars and bachelors. Especially this time, the new Jinshi gradually turned around. Once they were directly promoted to the rank of Shiren, bachelors and other close ministers would inevitably

There was some suspicion that he was lucky enough to be promoted, and if he simply wrote history and was idle, this official family has always been very particular about doing things, so he himself became dissatisfied first.

Therefore, it was a good start for the number one scholar to ask for a foreign post.

After saying that, Zhao Jiu looked directly at the second person: "Chao Qing."

"I'm here."

"Many people below say that you are very knowledgeable in writing. I have the intention to let you add a title to become Bo Yao's deputy. And then you decide whether you want to study history or go somewhere..."

"Chen..." Chao Gongwu never thought of choosing him. He was nervous for a moment, but he didn't dare to hesitate. "Chen really wants to write history."

"Okay!" Zhao Jiu nodded, but didn't know what to think.

"I thank you..." Chao Gongwu quickly wanted to thank him.

But at this moment, Zhao Guanjia suddenly interrupted the other party: "You are in Mizhou, do you know about Zhang Zongyan's unauthorized sending of troops this time?"

As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere inside and outside the stone pavilion suddenly came to a standstill.

Let's say that the three most talked about things in Tokyo today are the so-called three major winter cases - one is the case of Pan Guozhang's nephew privately selling his share of national debt in advance; the other is the murder of Yang Zheng by Wu Jie'ai, the imperial army's rear guard.

The concubine skinning case; and the last one, and the most controversial one, was Zhang Zongyan, the commander of the imperial camp right army Zhang Jun, who crossed the Yellow River without permission to send troops in October, and was defeated by Wang Bolong of thousands of Jurchen households in the Shang River of Dizhou.

A case of failure.

Of the three cases, the first one was a personal financial obsession, but also involved relatives and national debts, while the latter two simply involved the most sensitive imperial camp and commander-in-chief, and may very well affect the basic policies of the imperial court in the past two years... No

One is simple. And there are arguments in every case. Even in the case of Yang Zheng, someone used his contribution to pacifying Xixia to plead for mercy, let alone Zhang Zongyan.

However, at the same time, it is true that the principal culprits in the three cases have all been imprisoned, and that there are corresponding opinions calling for severe punishment in each case.

And this matter is also the topic that the local officials who come to resign this time are most afraid of.

"Your Majesty." Chao Gongwu was nervous, but he quickly answered. "Of course I know about Zhang Zongyan's dispatch of troops and horses, and the acquisition of supplies. Mizhou has provided him with civilians and ordnance stocks early, and not only do I know about it, the entire Jingdong

Not many people don't know... But Chen and Liu Zhizhou only thought he was... he was..."

"What is he?" Zhao Jiu frowned and urged.

"He was fighting for supplies with the imperial navy on behalf of the imperial army. Who would have thought that he would take the initiative to cross the river to attack Dizhou?" Chao Gongwu lowered his head to face each other. "But now that I think about it carefully, I was confused at the time...

…With the military exploits of the imperial camp’s front army, left army, rear army, and cavalry on the Western Front, it is unusual for Zhang Zongyan to be unable to restrain himself. He should have taken precautions against such behavior long ago... This is my dereliction of duty.”

Zhao Jiu did not comment and looked directly at Cui Bangbi: "Commander Cui, where are you?"

"I and others from the Royal Camp Navy Department think so." Cui Bangbi immediately responded. "After Li Tongzhi (Li Bao) learned that Laizhou's military supplies inventory had been emptied, he almost wanted to merge with the Royal Camp Right Arms... This matter

Your Majesty should know."

Zhao Jiu shook his head again after hearing the words: "Actually, I can't blame you for this matter. It's easy to guess his mentality, but even if he guessed it, who would have thought that he would be so bold? Yaoshan ruined so many imperial soldiers for nothing.

A lot of the morale that was built up later was drained in vain.”

Not to mention the few young people who reported their work, the surrounding ministers were also silent... Zhao Guan's family clearly meant that he would be dealt with severely.

"As for you, Huang Tongpan, you are an old acquaintance of Hu Shangshu and Wu Dutong, and you have been neighbors with Yang Zheng for several years. Do you know the attitude towards Yang Zheng in northern Shaanxi?"

"Of course..." Upon hearing this, Judge Huang Tong instinctively stood up and wanted to speak. When he saw the official's calm face, he was startled and immediately changed his words. "Of course, most of them wanted to beg for mercy, and they all said that the official

Killing a hero for a woman is too much, and Hu Shangshu is too harsh."

Zhao Jiu nodded, still noncommittal. In fact, he had made up his mind on these three cases from the beginning, and he had already made up his mind on the Yang Zheng case. It was just to see if the person named Huang was honest.

And whether this person reacted or was really honest, he didn't need to delve into it.

After thinking about this, Zhao Guanjia looked at the last person again: "Mei Tiju...I heard that you translated a foreign miscellaneous book? What is going on? Can you learn a language in two years?"

When it was his turn, even though he had rehearsed it thousands of times in his mind, Mei Yue was still extremely nervous. What's more, he never thought that the official would ask about this matter, but he still kept in mind his uncle's reminder and told the truth:

"In order to let the officials know that when I was young, my father was working in Quanzhou. At that time, my house was next to the cannibal store. I learned some cannibal language. Later, I was promoted to the shipping department and came into contact with them again. Although the writing is
To be continued...