Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

Guo Shao took what Lu Duoxun had offered and retreated to the Hall of Yangde.

At this time, in Yangde Hall, a woman in her thirties was holding an inkstone in both hands. When Guo Shao wanted to dip in the ink, she was able to lift the inkstone in time and reach out to his hand. Because she always pays attention to Guo Shao's most subtle every move, and can judge when he needs something.

This woman was Li Shanggong, her light red dress fell to the floor, covering her lower body, her legs were kneeling on the ground. Although she didn't dare to stare at Guo Shao's face all the time, she kept observing Guo Shao's expression from the corner of her eyes. Guo Shao was very attentive, only seeing the picture in front of him and the crumpled paper beside him, turning a blind eye to everything.

Li Shanggong's arms were weak, and her knees hurt from kneeling, but there was another feeling that made her very comfortable. She loves to see Guo Shao's earnest and focused face, and there is an aura about him that makes Li Shanggong feel good.

From time to time, she carefully peeked at Guo Shao's paintings. There were lines of mountains and rivers. Li Shanggong didn't quite understand them, but she knew that Guo Shao was thinking about big things... Anyway, it was completely different from the trivial matters in the palace. She was looking up at Guo Shao in her heart, and she also felt that he was working hard and had a heart of compassion for no reason.

... At this moment, Guo Shao saw Li Shanggong sideways, and said in a daze, "Aren't you tired from kneeling? Get up quickly."

Li Shanggong blurted out: "My concubine is willing to serve His Majesty..."

After she finished speaking, her face flushed and she tilted her head slightly. Guo Shao followed her gaze, and there were three men standing beside her, Wang Pu, Li Gu, and Zuo You. But they were all serious as if they had heard and seen nothing.

Guo Shao put the brush on the inkstone and said: "It's not easy for Lu Duoxun to make meritorious deeds. Let him be a guest provincial envoy and come to the cabinet study room to add another member to assist the government.

Zuo You hurriedly said, "Here."

The other two did not say a word, because the cabinet was added by Guo Shao not long ago, and it has not yet formed a formal structure. Now it is not known what yamen is in charge of it. Anyway, the Privy Council and the Political Affairs Hall are out of control.

Guo Shao pondered for a moment, and then said: "I want Zuo You to be changed to the Minister of Rites and Huang Binglian's Minister of Punishment. Li Gong (Li Gu) will ask in the Political Affairs Hall, and if everyone thinks there is nothing wrong, then let's take care of these things."

Li Gu said: "I obey the order."

Zuo You hurriedly knelt down on the ground and said: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness."

Guo Shaodao: "The Zhengshitang has been short of people, and you are overworked. It is also a good thing that you two have been helping the prime ministers."

He said again: "This picture needs to be edited, you can come back tomorrow."

After hearing this, the three of them bowed and said: "The minister will leave."

They came out of Yangde Hall, and when they came to a corridor, Li Gu arched and said: "Congratulations to Zuo Shilang for his promotion!"

Zuo You hurriedly said: "Where is it? We should congratulate Huang Fuzheng (Huang Binglian). Huang Fuzheng has really been promoted. The next official is the Shaoqing of Taichang Temple. If he is changed to be the minister of the Ministry of Rites, he will be transferred to the same post. How can he be congratulated by Li Gong..."

Wang Pu raised his head and said abruptly in front of him, "It's just a matter of peace."

Zuo You suddenly stopped talking, and when he looked at Li Gu, Li Gu smiled and stopped talking.

The three continued to walk forward, Zuo You kept thinking in his heart, the emperor's understatement of the arrangement just now really had a profound meaning... Just as Wang Pu said, Zuo You and Huang Binglian served as cabinet assistants and led the six ministers. The emperor seems to have arranged for the two of them as prime ministers from the beginning.

Guo Shao also really needs a prime minister.

After Feng Dao's death, there were only three prime ministers left in the court, Wang Pu, Li Gu, and Fan Zhi. Fan Zhi still made trouble for the emperor from time to time. The prime minister can't just drag a person to the top, and ordinary people can't control all the officials.

To add a prime minister, someone like Zuo You, who is trusted by the emperor and is familiar with memorials and government affairs in the cabinet, is indeed the best candidate.

Thinking of this, Zuo You's eyes became more energetic. However, he still had a humble and serious face, and tried his best not to show his excitement. Zuo You said in his heart: To be a prime minister, of course you must be happy and not show it!

The feudal marquis worships the prime minister, and the world does what it dreams of. Zuo You thought that he was a lowly official a few years ago, and now he was about to pay homage to the prime minister in his twenties. It was hard to describe the feeling of smoke from his ancestral grave.

At this moment, Wang Pu suddenly turned around and said, "Nowadays, we are working hard to govern the country, and the country is rising like the sun. You want to become famous ministers in history, and it is a good time."

...

While the ministers were leaving the Hall of Yangde, Li Shanggong somehow got a bowl of white fungus and red date soup. While stirring with a silver spoon, she blew gently on the soup.

Guo Shao sat on the couch and was meditating, doing nothing for the time being. But from the corner of his eyes, he saw Li Shanggong who was behind him took a sip of the soup, and brought it up. Her cheeks flushed, she turned the bowl slightly in the same direction calmly, and brought the place she drank to Guo Shao.

Guo Shao pretended not to know, but raised his eyes to look at her face, and saw that Li Shanggong was pretending to be nonchalant, but his face was flushed red.

This woman is already in her thirties, but she does some small tricks. However, Guo Shao was not disgusted, on the contrary, he felt very comfortable and relaxed. Although it is a master-servant relationship, getting along day and night has the same feeling of being taken care of by an older sister at home, which makes Guo Shao very useful.

Li Shanggong is not very beautiful, it seems that the maids don't like her very much. But Guo Shao thinks she is very pleasing to the eye... In fact, after getting acquainted with a woman, as long as she is not too ugly, appearance is not particularly important.

Guo Shao picked it up, looked at the delicate white mouth of the bowl, with a little bit of carmine remaining, and put it to his mouth to take a sip. Then when she looked carefully at Li Shanggong, she pursed her lips and tried her best not to laugh.

Guo Shao didn't touch it, picked up a sterling silver spoon and stirred it twice in the bowl, and found that the jujubes inside had been peeled and peeled.

Tremella soup, something that Guo Shao was very familiar with at first, can be eaten casually for three or two yuan a bowl on the roadside in later generations! But here, proper luxury goods are said to be more expensive than gold.

He immediately said: "Tell the people in the palace, don't buy this kind of thing for me in the future. No matter how expensive something is, you can't gain a few catties of fat after eating it. The country still has a lot to spend money on."

Li Shanggong was slightly aggrieved, and said: "Your Majesty...the concubine will follow His Majesty's will."

She said again: "Although I don't know what His Majesty painted, I feel that Your Majesty has worked so hard... I feel sorry for Your Majesty." After finishing speaking, she stretched her head over to look at the picture.

Seeing what she said, Guo Shao almost followed her lead.

... Guo Shao didn't tell her what the painting was, he just looked at the things in the picture. A map centered on the Hexi Corridor, with a scale marked, but it is not accurate, because the information brought back by Ludoxun is not detailed.

On the west side is the Western Region, which is roughly the area of ​​"Xinjiang". Among them, there are many forces. The larger ones include Wuhu, Khotan Tucharian, Xizhou Uighur, Geluolu, Tuqishi and other tribes. There is only one name, and Guo Shao has never seen them before, so he basically doesn't know who they are... Only the Uyghurs have a little idea.

The Hexi Corridor is the passage from the Western Regions to Longyou and other places, and it is also the most affluent area with fertile water plants and abundant grains. Its north and south sides are mountains, the north is deserted and there are few people, and the south is Qilian Mountain. To the south of Qilian Mountain is the Tubo Achai tribe to the west, and the Tubo Tusima tribe to the east.

The Han people in the Hexi Corridor accounted for the majority, thanks to the expansion of military settlements that began during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, but the Han people’s regime only occupied the melon and sandy areas in the west, that is, the Guiyi Army. The central region was occupied by the Uyghurs, called Ganzhou Uyghurs; the western Liangzhou was controlled by the Liugu tribe and the Zhebu clan, two tribes of Tubo.

The corridor goes east into Wushao Ridge, which is Longyou. The Yellow River Hetao "Ji" shaped area.

In the west of Longyou, the Central Plains Dynasty has completely lost this area, and the Tubo Tuosima tribe and Dangxiang were active in it. Only the Lingzhou Shuofang Jiedushi in the north occupied the "Xitao" Yinchuan Plain.

Further to the east and to the south is Guanzhong, which is the territory of the Great Zhou Dynasty. To the north is Xiazhou and other places, the territory of the Li family of the Tuoba clan of Dangxiang, and to the north is the "Dongtao" area in the south of Yinshan Mountain, which enters the territory of Liao Kingdom.

A lot of information is very rough, but Guo Shao at least filled in the gaps in the western part of the territory.

Now he can at least get an idea of ​​what's going on in the west of his country... It's a mess!

In addition to the various barbarian tribes with complicated forces, even the internal northwest feudal towns are semi-independent. For example, the Zhejia in Guanzhong, the Feng family in Lingzhou, and the Emperor Tiangao are far away.

"Hey!" Guo Shao casually threw the brush on the inkstone, and rubbed his temples.

Li Shanggong hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, I will rub my body for you."

"Hmm..." Guo Shao sighed and closed his eyes.

Not only are the forces complicated, but the relationships are also very complicated. Guo Shao thought for a long time, and finally grasped two threads from the mess: his temporary goal in the northwest.

One, expand the war horse.

Second, to prevent rebellion in the west and contain the country's armed forces at critical moments.

He thought along these two goals, and soon thought of the land in Xiazhou...the foundation of the Xixia Dynasty!

Guo Shao opened his eyes and remembered the dossier Wang Pujin had presented to Xiazhou and other four states, so he looked it up on the table. He knew the general direction, which was probably the area south of the Yellow River Hetao and south of Ordos. There may be plains, plateaus, hills and ravines and other terrains.

This piece of land must be a huge hidden danger. In history, neither the Northern Song Dynasty nor the Liao Kingdom could do anything about them. Hanging on Guan Zhong's head is also a great threat to Da Zhou.

Guo Shao decided to learn as much as possible about the Xiazhou Dangxiang area before making a decision. \u003c