Pei Gonggui

Since Jiang Yue's expedition, Jiang Xuan has continued to recuperate in the Zhongyihou's Mansion for eight days. He takes a decoction for acne every morning and evening, but his whole body is still red and swollen, and his mind is dizzy.

In order for him to scratch the pimples, Pei Yan wrapped cotton on his fingers.Jiang Xuan's whole body was itchy to death, but he couldn't scratch it, so he couldn't help crying every day.

Because of this, Pei Yan had cried behind her back for a few times, she was always unwilling to rest while guarding Jiang Xuan, she was haggard and weak from suffering, but she would not listen to any advice from Uncle Dong.Pei Jun stayed by his side when he ignored things, and he could only tell stories to amuse Jiang Xuan, and occasionally comfort Pei Yan, but he couldn't help at all with other things.Seeing that the acne doctor was about to be at a loss, and all the servants were expecting Ai Ai, he couldn't help but think of Jiang Xuan's premature death in his previous life. Facing Pei Yan's grief, his heart was covered by a dark cloud. Shen.

Everyone thought there was no turning point.

But in the early morning of the ninth day, the acne doctor suddenly found that there were no new acne on Jiang Xuan's body, and the old acne had begun to scab. The redness, swelling and low fever all over the body also began to subside, which seemed to be a sign of the disappearance of the acne.

The pox doctor was overjoyed, and quickly fumigated and washed the pox vaccine in Jiang Xuan's nose with licorice soup, removed the pox medicine, stripped off the pox clothes all over the house, and sterilized the pox with incense, and that's how it started Anti-acne conditioning.

Hou Zhongyi's mansion went up to Pei Jun and Pei Yan, and down to the old woman who was sweeping, they all heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that they could finally sleep well, but unexpectedly at night, Pei Yan, who was watching the night, found that Jiang Xuan's right neck was swollen, Sudden suffocation, the situation is critical.

After emergency injections by the doctor, combined with constant adjustments and dressing changes with prescriptions for reducing swelling and detoxification, Jiang Xuan was completely out of danger after three days.So far, the acne treatment, which lasted for half a month, came to an abrupt end.

Pei Jun and Pei Yan were busy with work, staying up all night, and lost a lot of weight. Uncle Dong and Mei Linyu looked distressed, so they took turns to stew chicken, duck and fish every day to make up for their bodies. Lao Yao took care of the two of them in every possible way, and finally had a rest here.

But Pei Jun couldn't rest.

Right now, the princes of several lands have fled back to the fief, and they seem to have broken with the court. Naturally, the fiefs and cities will never be handed over to the court, which makes the already tight treasury even more stretched.The household department's finances were difficult, and they tightened their waists even more. Fang Mingjue was so worried that he ran to Pei Jun's house every day to discuss how to break the money.

Under such circumstances, the imperial court was forced by the border, the garrison in the north, and the rebellion in the south. Naturally, it was unable to spend military resources and materials to crusade against the king of Thailand and others one by one, and could only stand in a stalemate with these princes.

The princes asked the court to release Cheng Wang and treat the royal family well, but the court insisted that Cheng Wang was guilty, and even threatened to severely punish the escaped royal family. Neither side was willing to give up a point, and the situation in the court was torn apart for a while.

Faced with such a situation, Pei Jun asked Mr. Zhao to use the name of Jiang Yue to contact the fleeing Thai king and others, and tried his best to persuade them to join forces with Jiang Yue in order to confront Jiang Zhan in the future. The trusted courtiers secretly set up traps and fine-tuned personnel in case Jiang Yue could use them after returning to Beijing.

At the same time, based on Jiang Yue's daily letters and the time it took for the letters to and from, Pei Jun expected that the army had gradually passed the Yanling Pass, and Jiang Yue should be on the battlefield soon, so his mind became more and more tense day by day. .

Not only did he ask Fang Mingjue to release the food and grass for King Jin's army unconditionally, but he also considered that if Jiang Yue was in danger and retreated urgently, Beijing and China would most likely cut off the support, so he called for Mei Linyu and borrowed an extra sum of money from his own account. Grain and grass, as emergency supplies, were parked in Ningcheng, an important town at the Nanjing Pass, which relieved Jiang Yue from worries.

After Jiang Yue received this news, he knew that Pei Jun was getting more and more worried. Apart from notifying the trend along the way, he also wrote about the scenery of the southern land and anecdotes about the military, just to relax Pei Jun's heartstrings.

But compared with him, Pei Jun's letters look like a bad old man who doesn't know how to be elegant. He doesn't talk too much about the world, birds, beasts, insects and snakes, and doesn't write romantic poems, idle poems, and essays. He only asks about three meals a day. He wants to take care of Jiang Yue's trivia about everything in the army, and he has to find out everything before he can feel at ease. He also reminds Jiang Yue to check the manpower and beware of Cai's or Jiang Zhan's tricks. Among the thousands of troops, they couldn't laugh or cry.

It wasn't just Jiang Yue's military and Fang Mingjue's accounts that gave Pei Jun a headache. After Cai Yan took a break, the cabinet accepted the case of Mr. Jiang who he had transferred, and took the opportunity to ask Yushitai to check the accounts of the six departments.In the midst of this busy time of difficult settlement of accounts, the household department was so angry that they quarreled and pushed each other with the people from Yushitai several times.

On this day at the end of June, Fang Mingjue rushed out from the household department with the account book in his hand, and hurriedly arrived at the Zhongyihou's residence.

At that time, Pei Jun was sitting on a stone bench in the backyard feeding Jiang Xuan medicine.There were military defense drawings and a stack of letters spread out on the stone table beside him, and the ink stains on his hands had no time to clean, so he fed Jiang Xuan and lectured: "Your mother hasn't slept well for half a month because of you. Now, she took a nap and you led the dog to lick her, do you think you are annoying?"

The scabs on Jiang Xuan's face have not yet fallen off, as if he had pockmarks.After he opened his mouth and drank the medicine, he laughed bitterly, but he didn't dare to show it in front of Pei Jun, he just lowered his head and said aggrievedly: "Puppy licks mother only when he likes mother."

The dog on the side drooped its ears, echoed two whines, and stood in front of him, rarely yelling at Pei Jun.

Pei Jun wanted to reprimand him, but he heard Pei Yan walking over while inserting the last hairpin in her hair: "Pei Jun, you are busy enough, so don't talk about him. I'm awake now, I'll come Just feed him."

"You're just used to this kid." Pei Jun angrily let her take the medicine bowl, and wanted to say a few more words, but seeing Pei Yan's expression, he couldn't get the words out of his mouth.

He was really busy right now, and he had no other choice, so he just told Pei Yan: "When Doctor Zhang comes tomorrow to change Xuan'er's medicine, you ask him to prescribe some prescriptions for you, or you will soon collapse. .”

"Hey, I got it." Pei Yan answered him, turned her face and secretly winked with Jiang Xuan, and the mother and son suddenly covered their mouths and laughed.

Seeing this, Pei Jun sighed and picked up the unfinished letter, raised his hand and nodded at her, then at Jiang Xuan, shook his head and said, "Girl, little man."

"This villain is not that villain. I see that the busier you are, the worse your mouth becomes. You are almost an old mother. Even Xuan'er laughs at you!" Pei Yan opened his hand, smiled and fed Jiang Xuan the medicine. Uncovering the teapot on Pei Jun's table, seeing that it was empty, he summoned a little maid and said, "Go, bring some tea to Mr. Pei."

Fang Mingjue came in at this time.

He bumped up against the maid who was walking away with the teapot, came into the courtyard and nodded hurriedly to call out to Sister Yan, before he even had time to touch Jiang Xuan's head, the fingers of his right hand had already touched the tip of his tongue, and he opened the account book full of receipts in his hand , hastily spread it out in front of Pei Jun:

"Da Xian'er, take a look. The order from our household department to allocate grain and pay to Prince Jin was sent out early in the morning. As a result, I have been annoyed to death by the old bastards at Yushitai these days. I almost forgot about it. Today When I thought about it, I checked and found out that the cabinet hadn’t approved the list yet!”

As soon as he heard that it was about Jiang Yue's safety, Pei Jun quickly put down his affairs and took over the account books to read.Fang Mingjue went on to say: "When the Prince of Jin left Beijing, he didn't bring much military rations with the army, and it was only enough for ten days. This is about to go to the battlefield. If this batch of rations can't make up for the front line, the army is likely to be finished." We will run out of food in the first battle!"

Pei Jun saw that the receipt Fang Mingjue had opened said that it was five or six days ago, and that the ticket sample torn off on the left had not yet been approved by the cabinet, so it was really procrastinating.

He felt anxious, and couldn't help thinking about the recent affairs in the court. After a few thoughts, he suddenly frowned: "No wonder Yushitai has been making a lot of noise recently." He put down the account book and stood up, "The old people in the cabinet Things, it seems that I dare not let Jiang Yue have any surplus food, and I must want Jiang Yue to have a fight before deciding whether to give him food."

Fang Mingjue was startled when he heard the words, rolled his eyes and said, "That Zhang Ling asked Yushitai to drag the Ministry of Households back, just to let me find out about it in a hurry, so I borrowed Mr. Jiang's affairs to investigate the Ministry of War. It's just a cover!"

Jiang Xuan was still by his side, Pei Jun didn't swear any bad words, at this moment he just pushed aside the album and letters on the table, picked up the seal and was about to leave the mansion to talk to the cabinet.

Fang Mingjue hastily bid farewell to Pei Yan and Jiang Xuan, and followed Pei Jun out of the Zhongyihou's mansion, but just as he went out, he saw several servants blocking him at the household department, now blocking the door of the Zhongyihou's mansion .

The first imperial servant said: "Master Pei, Fang Shilang, we have been ordered by the emperor and the cabinet to count the six ministries, and we need to check the account transfers between the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Households in the past three years. I would like to ask you two for your convenience."

"Even more convenient?" Fang Mingjue grew impatient for a long time, and shouted loudly, "I gave you what you asked for yesterday, do you want more? Then you can go to Mr. Jiang!"

Another censor said: "Lord Fang, what I gave yesterday was nearly one year, and what the cabinet wants is nearly three years—"

"I've been waiting for you for nearly three years, and you should ask me for nearly ten years. I'll go to you!" Fang Mingjue interrupted him sharply, not bothering to chat with him anymore, and dragged Pei Jun out.

A few people stepped forward and stopped again, this time they looked at Pei Jun and said, "Master Pei, we are also doing things for the cabinet, you should..."

"Cabinet?" Pei Jun glared at these people with a dignified face, "This court is going to the cabinet to ask what kind of account they want to come to my Zhongyihou's mansion. Ask me for it! "

Seeing that he was angry, several imperial servants looked at each other and dared not stop him.But Pei Jun and Fang Mingjue hadn't walked seven or eight steps away, when twenty or thirty guards with knives in purple pattern narrow-sleeved shirts suddenly surrounded the streets and alleys, blocking their way across half a street.

The purple patterned narrow-sleeved shirt was the clothing of the secret guards of the Imperial City Department. Pei Jun and Fang Mingjue knew immediately that it was someone sent by the palace.

The two stared at each other, Pei Jun blocked Fang Mingjue behind him, and saw a tall man with a cold demeanor coming out of the crowd of hidden guards, judging from his appearance, he was actually the black-clothed man who threatened Cao Luan's family back then. people.

This person bowed his hands to Pei Jun, and said with a cold smile: "Master Pei, I have offended you."

Suddenly, a group of hidden guards attacked Pei Jun.A thought flashed through Pei Jun's mind, and he pulled Fang Mingjue back into the mansion, shouted: "Close the door!" Then he and Fang Mingjue opened the doors one by one, and slammed the door shut just before the hidden guards rushed in.

"What, what's going on here?" Fang Mingjue was still panting. He heard the knock on the door outside, looked at Pei Jun in panic, and said, "Why did the palace send someone to get you? Prince Jin's list of grain and grass is still in the cabinet. It's not a problem for us to hide here, what can we do now?"

Pei Jun yelled "Come here" to the mansion, and Fang Mingjue asked anxiously, thinking that Jiang Zhan in the palace would definitely tear face with him by this move, but now he is not attacking in the court, but has sent the Imperial City Secretary Wei came to arrest him, probably because he didn't want to be involved in the affairs of the officials, so the Judiciary would not know about it.

——If he was arrested and taken into the palace so quietly, he would never return.At that time, without him sitting in the capital, Jiang Yue's safety will not be guaranteed.

Jiang Zhan really wanted to divide and conquer!

Thinking of this, Pei Jun looked at the door of the mansion that was being knocked loudly from outside, and his heart ached when he thought that Jiang Yueyuan was about to be cut off from food and grass in the southern land.

Seeing the nurses in the mansion gathered, his heart sank, and he suddenly raised his hand and whistled.

This whistle was agreed with Jiang Yue earlier, and was used to dispatch Jiang Yue's troops around the Zhongyihou's mansion.

There are more than [-] guards in the courtyard, all of whom are the elite of Jiang Yue's army. Hearing about this post, three people were hurriedly sent out from the back door to seek reinforcements.

The voice of the leader of the hidden guard came from outside the gate: "Master Pei, if you don't open the door again, don't blame us for being rude!"

Just when he was about to make people climb over the wall and hit the door, the door of Zhongyihou's mansion suddenly opened.About fifty guards in good health had each taken a weapon from the weapon racks in the porches on both sides. At this time, when the gate was opened, they all attacked the hidden guards.

The secret guards were ordered to arrest Pei Jun, a civil official. Unexpectedly, there was such an ambush in the Zhongyihou's residence, and there were only 30 people in his party.Seeing these guards, they thought they were just thugs raised by ordinary officials, and they were no match for these big insiders, so they were not afraid of their numbers. Only elite soldiers on the frontier can have it.

"Not good! Quickly retreat!" The leader of the dark guards was startled, looked back during the fight, and saw that all the dark guards had already wrestled with the nurse, and it was extremely difficult to retreat at this moment.

Just at this time, the three guards who went to dispatch the soldiers had already led the two hundred people who were ambushing nearby to surround them again, within a short time, the dark guards were completely defeated, either dead or injured, It was quickly defeated.

The nurse captured the hidden guard who wanted to escape and the Yushi Tai's servants, tied them up and threw them in the yard.With Pei Jun's order, the nurse and the newcomers guarded the Zhongyi Hou Mansion so that none of them could escape.

The guard escorted the leader of the dark guards to kneel in front of Pei Jun. The leader had wounds on his face, but his anger was even worse.He glared at Pei Jun and said, "It is said that King Jin's army is full of masters, and it seems to be true now. It's a pity that King Jin is so talented in leading troops, but he will soon die on the battlefield..."

Pei Jun gritted his teeth and asked him, "What are you going to do?"

The leader grinned, spat blood and said, "It's not what we are going to do, but what the emperor is going to do. Mr. Pei, it is useless for you to kill us. You can run today, but you can't run tomorrow...Jin There has been an ambush around the king for a long time, the emperor will never let the king of Jin return to the capital alive, and how can he allow you to resist and make trouble!"

When Pei Jun heard this, his heart suddenly turned cold, and he raised his foot in anger and kicked the leader's chest heavily.

The leader of the dark guards vomited blood and fell to the ground.Pei Jun knew that if he asked this person again, he wouldn't be able to find anything good or bad, but right now, the food and the murderous intent lurking beside Jiang Yue were imminent.

The situation did not allow him to hesitate any longer.

He frowned and thought for a moment, the fingers under his sleeves clenched into fists, and immediately ordered the guards in the court: "Soldiers, take off the clothes of these hidden guards and put them on, and carry me into the palace to receive the reward!"