【 Chapter 838 】
General's Mansion.
In front of the mansion, Guo Jia personally sent Youzhou Chief Shi Guanjing and his group out of the mansion, watching them get on a carriage and leave.
Guo Jia has done a lot of things like this in the past two days, including the Youzhou mission that has left at this moment, this is already the fourth group.
In the two days before this, two groups of missions were received every day, one group in the morning and one group in the afternoon, and no reception was arranged in the evening.
Yesterday morning, Li Li rushed back from the Chencang front line. After returning to the mansion for a while, he put on his brocade robe and received the Jingzhou delegation.
The head of the Jingzhou mission was Cai He, a prominent Jingzhou clan, who was the younger brother of Cai Mao, who was the famous Jingzhou clan.
When they met, Cai He was very well-behaved. Not only did he take out the list of glutinous golds presented by Liu Biao, but he also offered an extra considerable "wishness" on behalf of the Cai clan. Seeing that the Cai family was so generous, Li Li naturally would not refuse, so he accepted it calmly and was not stingy. He rewarded the Cai clan with great rewards: Cai Mao was appointed as the General of Jingzhou, Marquis of Shouting in Han Dynasty, Zhang Yun was the General of Fenwu, Cai He was the General of Fenwang, and Cai Zhong was the General of the Central Army.
At noon, Li Li held a banquet in the main hall to entertain the Jingzhou delegation, and called Cai to the inner hall alone during the meal to talk. This conversation took half an hour. As for what both parties said, except for the parties involved and Guo Jia, who was accompanying him, no one could know. He only knew that when Cai He left the General's Mansion with the delegation, he looked very excited, with his right hand bulging, as if he was carrying something, he happily took a carriage and returned to the inn.
The mission that entered the General's Mansion that afternoon was somewhat unexpected. This group of people was the envoy sent by Lu Bu. The leader was Wei Xu, the general who almost died at the hands of Li Li in the Battle of Ba River three years ago. Wei Xu did not bring much tribute to the tribute, because the war in Yanzhou is tight now, and it is difficult for a large group of chariots to pass through Cao Cao's territory. Therefore, he was considered a light carriage and only carried four rare items, as well as Lu Bu's handwritten handwritten books, which was very sincere.
However, the secret letter written by Lu Bu revealed the intention of asking for help, which obviously could not resist the fierce attack of Cao Cao's army. Yanzhou was about to be unable to save it. Therefore, Lu Bu, who had never given in favor, couldn't help asking Li Li for help, hoping that Li Li could send troops to Henan County and take down Cao Cao's temporary nest. For Wei Xu and his party, Li Li also treated Wei with courtesy, and held a banquet in the evening, which was suitable for both guests and hosts. He did not give in to the face of Lu Bu's delegation.
However, Li Li sat at the banquet for only a moment and left the lobby early without commenting, without formal statement. Guo Jia was then responsible for entertaining Wei Xu and his group. As for what Guo Jia said to Wei Xu, no one knew. Wei Xu looked embarrassed when he left the general's mansion, as if he had encountered something very difficult but could not refuse. The most important thing was that he could not make any decision at all, so he could only return to Yanzhou as soon as possible to report to Lu Bu, and in the end he had to make an idea.
This is yesterday's reception, all arranged by Guo Jia, and welcoming and seeing off. I was very busy.
This morning, Li Li met the mission sent by Yuan Shu in Shouchun. The head of the mission was Yuan Shu's clan's uncle Yuan Yi, and he also brought two generals to protect the mission's safety along the way. The gift list of gold was quite generous, with a total of 30,000 stones of grain and 15,000 gold. This was the first time for Yuan Shu, who had always been stingy, and it was the most tribute to the past three years. It was rare to be generous. However, the Yangzhou mission claimed that it had only 30,000 stones of grain and grass, and did not tell the truth. This was exactly Yuan Shu's usual style. He cherished his face very much and would not show weakness to anyone. He was simply pretending to be fat.
Facing Yuan Yi and his party, Li Li was very humble. He held a banquet, served wine and meat, and praised Yuan Shu's generous donation. However, he only praised verbal praise. In fact, he was perfunctory and did not mention the matter of decreeing the Yangzhou Governor and punishing Liu Yao in Yuan Shu's letter. Midway through the banquet, Li Li left early on on the pretext of being busy with military affairs, and then Guo Jia received them. Guo Jia didn't say much about Yuan Shu's delegation, but was just doing it for official business and was ordered to welcome and send it to him.
In the afternoon, Li Li met with the Youzhou delegation and made an exception and entertained them at a high standard. During the meal, Li Li held a banquet in the inner hall of the main courtyard and had a secret talk with Guan Jing. It took an hour to go. After the discussion, Guo Jia personally sent Guan Jing out of the mansion. The reception specifications were so high that he was the leader of various delegations. Guan Jing was quite flattered, and his vanity was greatly satisfied, and he left happily.
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"I finally breathed a sigh of relief after leaving. Such cumbersome social engagements are really troublesome and tormenting. They are much harder than leading troops to fight."
In the main hall, Li Li Hao sat leisurely under the hall and enjoyed tea. When he saw Guo Jia coming in, he waved to him to sit beside him.
"What the lord said is very." Seeing that Li Li was indeed a little tired, Guo Jia smiled and said, "For several days, the lord has been traveling between the front line of Chencang and Chang'an. It is indeed very tired. I know that the lord has never liked socializing, but this time it was a last resort. Otherwise, I missed a good opportunity to make friends with all the princes. Therefore, I sent a quick horse to Chencang and asked the lord to come back to take charge of the overall situation. If I could not see the lord, the delegations of all parties would not want to leave, and I could not report to their respective lords when I returned. So???????????, the capable ones work harder, and they can only trouble the lords to go more. Hahaha!"
After saying that, Guo Jia smiled happily, with a casual expression and no restraint. This is what Li Li admires most. He speaks casually but has a proper attitude. In front of Li Li, he is neither restrained nor respectful, which makes people feel comfortable and willing to talk to him.
"Hahaha!" Sure enough, Li Li laughed happily and said loudly: "To be honest, I have worked hard to serve filial piety recently. Facing these chattering envoys all day long, this is the most harsh thing."
Guo Jia smiled and said, "This is the duty of the empress, and it is not hard to say. On the contrary, the empress does not care about the troubles of social engagements like this, but also hopes that more will be better. In just half a month, various princes and missions entered the capital one after another, and donated hundreds of thousands of stones of food and grass to our army, and more than ten thousand gold. Why not do such a generous social engagement?
The money donated by these princes is only a small part of the many inputs this time. What is really worthy of gratitude is that dozens of gentry and powerful gentry from various states and counties followed the princes to Beijing this time, which is the biggest gain."
"Oh? Could it be that these gentry and gentry also presented us with a lot of food and supplies?" Li Li asked in surprise.
Guo Jia nodded happily and said with a smile: "That is, in recent days, the streets and alleys in front of the General's Mansion have been like dragons, and the streets and alleys are blocked. If it were just the missions of the princes from all sides, at best there were only thousands of people, and it would not be so lively. The people who really blocked the streets and alleys were the gentry and gentry of the states and counties. Among the crowd, a single family was not enough to compare with the missions of the princes, but it was better than the number of people, covering all the states and counties in the world. In this way, they would be far more than the team of troops, occupying the four streets and alleys in front of the General's Mansion.
According to detailed reports, in the past half month, more than 80% of the inns in the city have been full, and those who stay in the inns are nominally caravans coming to Chang'an to conduct business. In fact, it is indeed a team sent by aristocratic families and gentry to find ways to meet.
Among them, most of the aristocratic families and gentry in the Central Plains states. I think they must have seen that after the Battle of Sili, the princes of the Central Plains were not enemies of our Xiliang army, so they were eager to find a way out. They wanted to secretly make friends with our army and seek a way out for their respective families. Therefore, they took advantage of the opportunity of the princes from all sides to enter the capital to bribe the personnel of the delegations of various parties and come to Chang'an with them, and then tried every means to find a way to find a way with the generals and a group of subordinates in the army. For this reason, they donated a large amount of food, grass and supplies in the name of their respective families, which was far above the gold and even several times the amount of money and grain donated by the princes.
As of this morning, Gongcao, who was in charge of the treasury, reported that the grain and grass donated by the major gentry and gentry through various channels had reached more than 500,000 stones, and the money was as high as 87 million. After the sum of the money and grain was summed up, it was three times the amount of gold that the princes had donated. This is not all. It is understood that there are still dozens of caravans in the city who are still looking for ways, and there must be a large amount of investments followed, and the amount is quite considerable. If not expected, the money and grain fund received by the General's Mansion within a month would be the annual tax revenue of the four prefectures of Xiliang, and it is even more than that. This means that this income alone can completely make up for the entire consumption of our army in the Battle of Sili. There is even a surplus. And this is the biggest gain after the great victory of Sili."
Li Li was surprised after hearing this and asked in confusion: "Why is this? During the Battle of Sili, our army had already made a lot of gains from all the materials stored in the Allied camp. Why did Fengxiao think that now is the biggest gain after the war?"
Guo Jia smiled slightly and said respectfully: "Lord, in recent years, the princes of all sides have fought for years, and the losers have often been defeated, while the winners can quickly recover their strength. The fundamental reason is that they have received funding from various families and powerful people. The reason why our Xiliang army did not receive funding from various families and powerful people before was because many aristocratic families were searched by the lords. In addition, Xiliang is a place where wars have occurred frequently. For the past thirty years, there have been constant wars. There are relatively few major families of aristocratic families, and many major families have migrated to the Central Plains Prefectures and counties.
However, this battle of Sili is completely different from the past. After this battle, our Xiliang army will be able to intimidate the states and counties of the Central Plains, and will make their troops to advance to the Central Plains at any time. In this way, it will inevitably affect the family interests of the great gentry and powerful gentry, and even directly destroy them, confiscate their property to serve as military funds. This forces them to prepare in advance, and it is best to have a secret relationship with our army. Only in this way can they protect their family business and try to avoid being affected, otherwise their families will be destroyed."
"Well, so that's it." Li Li nodded happily and said with a smile: "I have never thought about these twists and turns of interest entanglements before. Now I heard Fengxiao explain it, it's really the case. This is true; if you are willing to plant flowers but don't bloom, you are unwilling to plant willows and willows to form shade. Hahaha!"
Guo Jia was surprised when he heard this and said with a smile: "The lord's words are incisive, and he hits the point. I have another report. Just now, Mrs. Zhang from the inner palace asked the maid to pass the message and wanted to ask the lord to go to the Nanyuan Restaurant in the evening to taste the newly arrived seafood delicacies. I wonder what the lord's wishes?"
"Oh, seafood?" Li Li was shocked and smiled, "I just said it casually before. I didn't expect that she was really interested. It's not easy to get some seafood right now. Since that's the case, I'll go with me later and try fresh dishes. Hahaha??????"
Seeing that Li Li agreed, Guo Jia was immediately overjoyed and laughed and said, "I dare not ask for what I wish, I am not willing to ask for it. I obey my orders."
Li Li keenly noticed that Guo Jia's expression was strange and asked, "It seems that the person who came to pass the message just now is not simple. He dares to put pressure on you, or directly threaten you to complete the task. I'm not wrong, right? Hahaha!"
"Uh, this??????" Guo Jia looked stunned, his cheeks flushed, and he couldn't help but show his embarrassment, and said with a smirk: "My lord is wise. The person who came to pass the message just now is a slut. The imperial doctor said that she was pregnant the day before yesterday. Unexpectedly, she brought the mission given by her mother-in-law today. Therefore, it is difficult for me to refuse, so I can only bite the bullet and tell the lord that if the lord doesn't go, I really don't know what to do. Hehehe!"
Li Li laughed and said, "The newlyweds of Fengxiao have only been around for one month, and it seems that Fengxiao is also a person with a temperament, which is really true! Hahaha??????"
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Chapter completed!