Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

Because this secret letter was written by Prince Zhao Zhen and rushed from Bianjing, Lu Ci failed to stay in Mizhou for the New Year.

After he hastily packed his bags, he sent someone to hire a boat that was willing to leave on the [-]th of the new year.

After all, the situation in Beijing and China has changed drastically, and the cause is sensitive. If the response is not handled properly, and if people with intentions add fuel to the flames, the rift between the father and son of the Tian family will probably grow day by day, and may even turn into an irreconcilable situation.

Now look at the people who are quite trusted around Zhao Zhen and can advise him, mainly Kou Zhun and Li Di.

In the relationship between Li Di and Liu Shengren, they were destined to be at odds with her since the last time they "said honest advice" in front of the officials; although Kou Zhun was talented, he had always had an extremely violent temper, and the officials also deliberately made her The promotion of his political opponents to the point where he just overwhelmed him greatly angered him.

It is considered a great progress not to confront the officials, but to swallow their anger for the time being.

And Zaifu should have the demeanor and means to manage yin and yang...you can't count on Kou Zhun.

In the final analysis, beside the current prince, there is still a lack of a forbearing person who is smooth on the surface, good at planning and strategizing, and good at hitting with every blow.

Lu Ci sighed regretfully.

——It would be great if Wang Dan was still here.

As for those who meet these conditions, he can still think of Wang Zeng, who is not in Beijing at this moment, but has been demoted to other places to become a local official, waiting for the opportunity to recover.

In this regard, it is beyond our reach.

Even though in the eyes of most courtiers, the officials should be willing to obey such absurd request because they favor Liu Shengren too much, but Lu Ci thinks that the truth is not necessarily so simple.

It's more likely that Zhao Heng is pretending to be confused, but in reality he's just going with the flow.

It is probably because it is not good to withdraw the golden words of the prince to supervise the country too early, thinking that it would be so embarrassing, and he is unwilling to let the court follow the control of the flourishing prince and gradually exceed his control.

As a result, Zhao Zhen had no choice but to ask for a retreat by secretly coercing him.

It is reasonable for the emperor not to want to delegate power prematurely.It's just that what Zhao Heng didn't expect was that because of the "creation of gods in heavenly scriptures" that had lasted for many years, the fact that he was "on a whim" was deeply rooted in the hearts of all the important officials who knew the inside story, so that even though he was pretending to be confused, he was now In their eyes, it is almost true and they are insane.

It is not childless under his knees, but he took his brothers and heirs into the palace to raise them - the intention of Liu Shengren's move can be big or small.

The small ones are for self-protection of prosperity and wealth, and the big ones are for blackmailing the East Palace.

If you are serious, you can also contact the shadow of the sound of the ax and the shadow of the candle that was so suspicious decades ago that people dare not discuss it.

According to Lu Ci's understanding of the officials, if Zhao Heng hated Zhao Zhen because he performed too well in the position of 'supervising the country', he would rather hand over the throne to the son of a brother who was not close to him. Obviously nonsense.

But to suppress Zhao Zhen just like that, and let him lose his vigor before Zhao Heng really dies, honestly, it's easy.

Although Zhao Zhen was somewhat aware of his father's intentions, in his bones, there was a temper that was soft on the outside and stubborn on the inside, unwilling to admit defeat easily.

Facing the setbacks and blows that could not be overcome, he felt lost and puzzled, and he still had no intention of giving up the track of his own rectification, and reviving the bad habits that were once rampant in the court.

After seeing that his father was vaguely aiming at him, he only hid his grievances in his heart, and calmed Kou Zhun, Li Di and others as usual.

In the dead of night, he finally couldn't hold back and sent a distress letter to Lu Ci who was far away in Mizhou.

Even if it's only for this precious trust and reliance, Lu Ci has lost the desire to continue to watch the fire from the other side and spend the festive season with relatives and friends in a leisurely way.

Although Ding Wei took advantage of the east wind of sharing the same hatred with Liu Shengren and the rivalry between officials and Kou Zhun, he skyrocketed and became the second assistant, but aside from his character, his ability is indeed outstanding.

After he attained a high position, Kou and Li would probably change from going smoothly to being restrained.

In such a situation of internal and external troubles, Lu Ci did not dare to delay, so he decided to set off as soon as possible.

It was inconvenient for him to announce the specific reasons, especially the contents of Zhao Zhen's secret letter, he didn't even mention Di Qing and Niangqin.

He only said goodbye to his teachers and old friends apologetically on the grounds that he was in a hurry.

The mentors of the academy headed by Mrs. Li, it is a pity that they were not able to drink a few more glasses with this proud student, and then took him out to walk around the streets to show off a few times...

However, when he learned that Lu Ci put his official business at the top of his list, he immediately changed his words and praised him a lot.

As for the benign or malicious speculations of outsiders, Lu Ci naturally wouldn't take them to heart.

The only thing that really made it difficult for him to speak was his own mother.

Everyone in the neighborhood knows that in recent years, Lu's mother, who has been obsessed with taking care of the thriving small business, has been leaving early and returning late. Since her only son came back, she often doesn't even have the heart to patrol the shop, and would rather go home more often. , Cheerfully cook in person.

As the end of the new year approaches, she is even more prepared for this: Not only did Yang Luci write couplets early, she hung peach charms in her shops, but also bought Tusu wine for New Year's Eve and pepper and cypress wine for New Year's Day in advance...

With her frugal style, she even hired two cooks just to prepare a feast for the delicious Lu Ceng.

A few days ago, Lu Ci watched her busy inside and out, and felt warm in his heart. He also smiled and accompanied her to busy with her, tidy up inside and outside.

But he didn't want to make her hopes come to nothing after only a few days had passed.

Thinking of disappointing her and making her sad, Lu Ci, who was always eloquent, felt a rare embarrassment that he couldn't speak.

Di Qing saw Lu Ci's guilt and embarrassment, and felt very worried.

——It would be great if he could speak on behalf of the grandfather.

What Lu Ci and Di Qing couldn't think of was that when they paid New Year's greetings to the master of the academy and made up their minds to explain it to her who was so excited, they saw that the servants helped pack their bags for some reason. The room was moved to the living room, but Lu's mother was still flipping through the thick ledger and fiddled with the abacus.

Facing the situation where Dong Chuang's incident was clearly happening, Lu Ci's heart sank slightly, and he sighed and called, "Mother."

"Wait a minute!" Lu's mother shouted decisively, without putting down the abacus in her hand, and the sound of 'ba da pa da' fiddled with the beads became louder: "don't talk to me now!"

Obviously, in front of her at this moment, the sky and the earth are big, and she didn't even figure out this complicated account.

Lu Ci stopped crying dumbfounded.

However, Di Qing's eyes lit up, and he cleverly pulled the chair away. After watching Lu Ci sit down, he sat down next to him.

Mother Lu's expression was stern, her fingers fluttered, and she knocked intensively like a war for a long time before finally finishing the job.

"After counting five times, it can be regarded as a match!"

Mother Lu sighed, pushed the account book in front of Lu Ci, and said casually, "Just take another look, isn't it right?"

She didn't carry her luggage all over the floor, and she didn't mention that she had done something wrong, and she stood by with a face full of shame. She didn't dare to look at Lu Ci's healthy servants, and only asked Lu Ci to settle the account seriously.

Lu Ci took it as she wished, glanced at it briefly, and came up with the answer through mental calculation.

He raised his eyebrows, and re-wrote a series of numbers underneath.

When Mother Lu heard that he hadn't said a word, she had an ominous premonition, so she frowned and moved closer.

After seeing the completely different answer from what she just wrote, she almost didn't answer: "You!"

Lu Ci couldn't help laughing, and said gently, "Let me do it."

Di Qing watched with his own eyes. After the grandfather took over the thick stack of account books, he began to flip through them.

Unbelievably, the next sound of paper flipping was as fast as his writing.

When Di Qing stared blankly, Lu Ci didn't feel any difficulty - after all, Mr. Accountant's handwriting was huge and cumbersome compared to the Arabic numerals he used for his own convenience when doing calculations.

Therefore, in one page, there were not many calculations actually involved, and he had frequent contact with accounts in modern times, so he could write them down at a glance, which made Di Qing's astonishing brushwork so fast.

Mother Lu waited by the side with a solemn expression, she was obviously used to this, and she was not as surprised as Di Qing.

It didn't take long for Lu Ci to clean up the pile of account books that gave her a headache.

Most of the answers given are correct, only a few are different and need to be checked again.

Mother Lu frowned, took over the sum of the accounts that Lu Ci had written, and sighed, "There are always a few who are not doing things safely, and we have to go to the shop to watch."

Lu Ci vaguely heard what she meant, and his thoughts moved slightly.

Lu's mother said to herself again: "It's also my fault that I spend all my time on you these days, or I'm busy around the stove, and I don't have the heart to watch them do their work. Flaw."

Lu Ci blinked, and took the blame calmly: "What mother said is very true."

Mother Lu immediately waved her hand and complained: "Since I heard it, why don't you go on your way? You stayed at home for a long time, which not only delayed your business, but also delayed mine. Although I'm a woman, I don't understand righteousness as well as you, but I also know how to eat the king and serve the king. What's more, you have studied hard for so many years, isn't it just to benefit the people? How much do I count? There is no need to work on you for the small matter of returning the account, so you can go back earlier."

Di Qing was anxious and wanted to defend Lu Ci, but Lu Ci put his hand on the back of his hand and gently stopped him.

Lu Ci glanced at Mother Lu who was pretending to be impatient with complicated emotions, and said in a low voice, "Mother."

Lu's mother didn't look at him, but pointed to the luggage: "I've checked your eyes for you, and I've checked it carefully, so don't worry. I also found someone, and I finally hired you a boat for tonight. Listen to me and set off as soon as possible."

Having said this in a hurry, Mother Lu said with relief: "I have a lot of things on me, so I won't see you off."

Lu Ci wanted to say something else, but Mother Lu didn't care to listen.

She was very forceful to 'drive' the person out, and asked her servant to carry the luggage away, but she really didn't go to deliver it, but sat quietly in the living room, and continued to flip through the account books that had made mistakes before.

However, when the candles were about to burn out and the lights were intertwined with light and dark, the account book in her hand had not been turned through the middle of the night.

The expression on his face was even more like a clay sculpture, never changing a bit.

Only when the candlelight was finally extinguished and the servants guarding the door came in to add candles, she quickly tilted her head to wipe away a tear that was about to fall from the corner of her wet eye.