Chapter 561: Troops inside and outside Jiangling City
The huge Jiangling City seemed to be shrouded in a strange atmosphere for some reason, and the people in the city didn't understand what was going on.
But he knew that it was related to the Ouyang family and several other big families in the city. After all, since morning, he could see people from these big families entering and leaving the prefectural government office in the city one after another.
Moreover, all the yamen runners disappeared, and were replaced by people from several major families. Even in the city, there were people from several major families patrolling.
The people in Jiangling City didn't dare to say anything, and they didn't even dare to gossip or talk about it in private. They only dared to wonder what was going on in their hearts.
The first floor lobby of the Ouyang family mansion is where Master Ouyang Huai's study is located.
There are many plaques in this pavilion. Many plaques written by many people in the world's literary circles are here. They are all presented to Ouyang Huaishi, Ouyang Wenyu and others.
However, right in the lobby on the first floor, there is a plaque hanging in the front with four characters "Daily Farming and Monthly Studying" inscribed on it. The writing is very imposing, and the three characters "Su Wenqing" are inscribed at the end.
When Master Ouyang Huai was in the court, his two main political enemies were the then Grand Tutor Yang Shanchang and the then Grand Master Su Wenqing.
Master Ouyang Huai hung the plaque given by his political enemies in the most conspicuous place in his library. Many people complimented him on his broad-mindedness. On the contrary, Su Wenqing was criticized for his mean behavior, because he gave the book given by Master Ouyang Huai to Yang Shanchang. He gave it to Yang Shanchang, which was simply disgusting. Therefore, no good words about Su Wenqing's reputation were spread in the Ouyang family. Master Ouyang Huai himself never said a bad word about Su Wenqing, but he never stopped others from scolding Su Wenqing.
In the lobby on the first floor of the library, there are a few tables, a few chairs, and books everywhere.
In the past, there was actually just a table and a chair here, because only Master Ouyang Huai read here.
But today, several chairs are filled with elderly people who look frail and frail.
And just behind the old people stood some middle-aged men and women.
But the elderly people sitting there all closed their eyes and looked as steady as a rock.
However, the middle-aged people standing behind them frowned, looked outside from time to time, and seemed a little anxious.
Master Ouyang Huai sat in the main seat, with only Ouyang Wenyou standing behind him. The other people from the Ouyang family were not qualified to be here.
Master Ouyang Huai held the poem "Preface to Yunmu Pavilion" in his hand. At this moment, Master Ouyang Huai saw a line and said, "Wen You, old but still strong, would rather change his mind than move his head. Poor but still strong, would never lose his ambition to rise to the top. Why?"
Hearing Master Ouyang Huai speak, the elders who were truly in power in the various families below opened their eyes one after another.
The people in the library were not unfamiliar with this sentence. After all, it was the preface written by the Queen Mother. They had read it too many times. It was truly a preface that no one could match.
Ouyang Wenyou looked at his father, bowed, and then said, "I have little education, so I only have a superficial understanding. I think what the Queen said should mean that the more difficult it is, the more we should not give up our lofty ambitions."
Master Ouyang Huai smiled and looked at the people below: "Do you have your own opinions?"
An old man took a sip of tea from the tea bowl and said, "Young people may have lofty ambitions, but how many of them can achieve them when they are old? Moreover, the journey is difficult, and how many of them can still have such lofty ambitions? Young people read this sentence and feel deeply moved, but they don't know that when the truly old people read this sentence, their lofty ambitions will become nothing but a joke."
As soon as the old man finished speaking, another old man spoke up: "Why don't you add a sentence, especially for officials?"
Another old man spoke slowly: "The sentences are good, and the preface is really good. To be able to write such a preface at such a young age, in terms of talent, even we are a little far behind. But you are still young, and you have experienced so little, but you are already full of emotions. You haven't read too many books, and you haven't eaten too many meals. Some things are just good to say."
A chubby old man smiled and said, "He is still a child after all. And the truth that you don't know how difficult things are until you get old is something you will finally realize. Especially in the officialdom, it is easy to improve yourself but difficult to improve your official status. Who understands this when you are young? You are busy with your lofty ambitions. When you get older, you don't have any lofty ambitions anymore. It is hard enough to survive all the way."
Master Ouyang Huai listened to what the people were saying and smiled and shook his head, "You guys are talking about poetry again."
Upon hearing this, the elders below bowed to Master Ouyang Huai.
Master Ouyang Huai placed the preface in his hand on the table: "However, I just wrote it down suddenly."
The old foxes present saw through it all but didn't say anything. At this critical juncture, you suddenly brought out the sentence "Old but still remember your lofty ambitions". The old foxes saw clearly what you meant.
And if you think about it carefully, what they are doing now is not to fulfill the thoughts that occasionally pop up in their minds?
A high-ranking official is not necessarily a powerful official.
The one who can control and harness dragons is the pinnacle of being a minister.
And when that time really comes, who is the king and who is the minister will be another matter.
An old man said softly, "Come to think of it, it has been four hours since the news came in that we encountered that group of people."
Hearing this, the expressions of the middle-aged family heads who were already anxious became serious.
Ouyang Wenyou bowed to the old man of the Gan family and said, "Yes, it is already the end of the Shen hour, which means it has been almost four hours."
The old man from the Gan family did not continue to say anything more, but instead asked, "How is Zhao Yulang?"
A family head immediately spoke up: "He was imprisoned with the people from the prefectural government, but in order to prevent him from escaping and getting in the way, one of his legs was broken. We wanted to pull out his tongue, but we didn't do it. We just blocked his mouth."
The old man of the Gan family continued to talk about this and that: "Since Mu Xu came to the south, he has been visiting everywhere, giving lectures, and meeting with students, just to shut up the gossips."
But after saying this, the old man of the Gan family sighed again: "I don't know what the result is there?"
The lobby suddenly became quiet.
No one dared to respond, because they all knew that it was talking about Yao Xisheng intercepting the emperor and his entourage.
I dare not speak because this matter is too big.
It’s big enough for all these old men to gather together.
It was so big that these old men looked frail and steady as rocks, but they sat here for several hours.
The purpose is to wait for first-hand information.
After all, it concerns the survival of major families, not the petty quarrels of the past.
Master Ouyang Huai broke the silence: "The past cannot be changed. Just wait for the result. There is no need to think about these things, which will only cause trouble."
The old people nodded one by one and said nothing more.
There is no point in saying more, just wait, so they came here to wait for the results together.
However, the heads of the families looked more and more impatient when they saw that the old men didn't say much.
"We should be able to win, after all, we have paid so much," one of the family heads couldn't help but speak.
It's not about what happens, but these old people are just reassurances. He wants to hear the three words "can win" from these reassurances, otherwise his heartbeat would be too fast and it would be a bit unbearable.
An old man said, "The poet Zuo Cunxu from the Zuo family said that he went to Yan alone. After the Qi family sent so much money, Qi Qi is also going to Yan to take up a post. Qi Pei, who is working as a ghostwriter in Guangling City, is also required to go to the capital."
This irrelevant answer made the middle-aged man at a loss for words. He just looked at his father with beads of sweat on his face, and the uneasiness in his heart became more and more obvious.
Seeing him like this, Ouyang Wenyou smiled and handed him the handkerchief.
After thanking him, the man took the handkerchief without any hesitation and started wiping his sweat.
A middle-aged man looked at the man's useless appearance and said, "The emperor likes to use power to suppress others, but this time, the power is on us, not her."
Soldiers and horses, the ultimate strength of the strong.
It's all on our side.
They had also considered in many ways where the emperor's reinforcements could come from. Apart from the troops from Luzhou, no other places could arrive in a short time.
Moreover, the elite cavalry they keep are invincible.
The troops in Luzhou are really not enough, unless the troops coming are the murderous troops from the southern border.
But the southern border is at least a month's journey away from Jiangling. Calculating the time, unless the emperor intends to directly use the southern border troops to kill them all when he comes to the south, there will be no time to dispatch the southern border troops over.
But let’s not talk about whether the emperor had such a ruthless determination from the beginning. Just with so many soldiers along the way, how could they escape their eyes and ears?
Even if he could escape their eyes and ears, how could he escape the eyes and ears of the King of Shu?
According to their own investigation and what Yao Xisheng said, there were no signs of other troops.
In the past few months, the only people who set out from the southern border for the capital were Li Xuance and dozens of his followers. Although they stayed in Luzhou for a few days, according to intelligence, they just stayed to see the Luzhou troops.
If it is really possible to mobilize troops from the southern border, it would be possible at that time, but the prerequisite is to hide the troops in Luzhou.
But that was December last year. Hiding so many troops in Luzhou without letting anyone know would have cost a lot.
At that time, the emperor had just seized power. How could he pay such a high price? And where did so much money come from? He dispatched troops from the southern border to Luzhou. Wasn't he afraid that the southern countries such as Tianzhu would invade the southern border?
Everyone in the hall is best at weighing the pros and cons, calculating gains and losses.
So before doing this, all kinds of possibilities have already been analyzed.
Someone couldn't help but say, "I'll ask someone to hurry up. According to the time, the result should have come out by now, and the news should have been sent back by now."
Seeing that no one spoke, especially the old people, he bowed and turned to leave.
But the door is just opened.
Then I saw a person running towards me like the wind from a distance.
The servant of the Ouyang family came to the door, looked at the head of the family, and then looked at Master Ouyang Huai.
Ouyang Wenyou knew that the servant didn't know what they were doing, and he wasn't sent out to wait for news, so he asked, "What happened?"
The servant swallowed his saliva and said, "Old Master, Master, soldiers, a lot of soldiers came and surrounded our mansion. They didn't do anything but surround our mansion and didn't let anyone in or out."
Hearing this, everyone in the hall was stunned. It was a sensitive time at the moment, so how could these words not make them nervous?
Ouyang Wenyou walked up to the servant and asked, "What soldiers? Can you tell where they came from?"
The servant shook his head: "I don't know, I just know that their flag has 'fire' written on it and 'summer' on the other side."
As soon as these words came out, before the servant could speak, a family head blurted out: "Looking for fire soldiers in the southern border!?"
After saying that, he turned around and rushed outside.
(End of this chapter)
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