The center of power of the Tang Dynasty moved to the Daming Palace decades ago, and Taiji Palace had long been reduced to a retirement home for concubines, maids and eunuchs.
The guards in the Taiji Palace were very lax, and without any effort, Guo Song left the Taiji Palace and returned to Xuanyangfang Mansion.
As the emperor's most secret killer, Guo Song knew that he should not take action today. Although Zhao Chun was important, it was not his turn to take action. However, it was difficult to refuse the favor. Yang Yu did not know his identity. If he rejected Yang Yu,
, there will be a rift in the relationship between them, which is a result that Guo Song never wants to see.
Guo Song returned to the mansion. As soon as he entered the inner house, he saw a letter nailed with a throwing knife on the door of his study. He thought it was Gan Lei leaving a message for him, but when he picked up the letter, he realized that it was Gongsun.
A message left by the aunt for herself.
There was only one sentence in the letter, 'After seeing this letter, I will meet you at the North Pier of Dongshi City.'
Guo Song sighed. The last thing he wanted to see now was Aunt Gongsun.
He looked up at the eagle's nest. Mengzi was not in the nest. He must have flown to Qujiang Pond.
Guo Song didn't have time to go into the house to clean up, so he left the house directly and headed to Dongshi.
There are two wharves in Dongshi, one is the north wharf and the other is the south wharf. The south wharf is purely a cargo wharf, while the north wharf is a passenger and cargo wharf, where some passenger ships or boats are often moored.
Guo Song rushed to the North Pier and saw dozens of large and small ships moored at the North Pier, but there was only one passenger ship, and it was a painting boat.
"Master Guo, please come here!"
The boatman on the painted boat waved to Guo Song from afar. Guo Song stepped forward and saw Aunt Gongsun sitting in the painted boat at a glance.
He quickly walked in. Two young women in the boat lowered the bamboo curtains, and a man stood at one end with a long sword on his waist, looking very alert.
"Guo Song, sit down!" Aunt Gongsun pointed to the couch opposite.
Guo Song sat down cross-legged and found that there were bamboo curtains hanging on the windows. From the inside, you could see outside, but from the outside, you couldn't see into the ship.
The ship sailed slowly along the Cao River, with noisy cargo ships on both sides.
Aunt Gongsun glanced at him and sighed secretly.
"You are not being sensible today!"
"Auntie, are you talking about me shooting Zhao Chun?" Guo Song took a sip of tea and smiled.
Aunt Gongsun nodded, "Your greatest advantage is concealment. The less you appear, the greater the threat to the enemy. Your goal is valuable. It is not a cat or a dog like Zhao Chun!"
Just as Guo Song was about to speak, Aunt Gongsun interrupted him again with her hand, "You know you want to say that favors are hard to refuse, but you are an assassin. If an assassin still talks about favors, then he is not called an assassin."
Guo Song shook his head, "I never think of myself as an assassin. If my sister-in-law thinks of me as an assassin, it would be a big mistake."
"Okay! What I said was inappropriate. You are indeed not an ordinary assassin, but you are the secret weapon to carry out the emperor's orders. You should not deny this!"
Guo Song said calmly: "Sister, I know what you want to say. You are very reserved, but I can say frankly that it is indeed inappropriate to assassinate Zhao Chun on behalf of Yang Yu today. As you said, there are too many cats and dogs to be killed."
My identity has also been reduced, and the risk of exposure has increased. This is just this time, and there will not be a second time."
Aunt Gongsun nodded, "As long as you understand, I just scolded Yang Yu severely for using people outside the Hidden Sword Pavilion to perform the task, which seriously violated the rules of the Hidden Sword Pavilion. He will be refrigerated for half a year and go to Baihe Mountain Villa to think about it."
Pass."
Guo Song pondered for a moment and asked, "Did Yu Chaoen find any clues about me?"
Aunt Gongsun said lightly: "Yang Wanchun sealed off Guangzhaifang and searched each house. They got a clue from the gatekeeper of Guangzhaifang. A very tall young man walked into Guangzhaifang with a bow and arrow on his back. The only one they have now
The clue is a very tall young man. It is estimated that the whole city will offer a reward for his arrest soon. I heard that the reward is 30,000 taels of silver. If you provide a clue, you will be rewarded with 10 taels of silver."
"I'm actually worth thirty thousand taels of silver!"
Guo Song smiled and said, "Yu Chaoen thinks too highly of me."
"Don't underestimate the power of the reward. Basically the whole city is mobilized. Beggars, gangsters, idlers, etc., everyone wants to get the reward. Many of your previous whereabouts will be reported by interested people, so you must leave the capital immediately."
"Now?" Guo Song was stunned.
Aunt Gongsun nodded, "Now I will take you to Qujiang to meet someone and give you a new task. Of course it is the task assigned to you by the Holy Father. Then you can leave Chang'an directly from Qujiang."
"Wait a minute!"
Guo Song suddenly said anxiously: "I haven't packed anything or made any arrangements. How can I leave the capital now? I have to wait until tomorrow at least."
"no!"
Aunt Gongsun flatly refused, "I will help you make arrangements. I will take out your Fire Dragon King from Qingxu Temple for you. You can write a letter at the wine shop and I will send someone to deliver it to you. What else do you have?"
Do you need to explain?"
Guo Song had no choice but to say: "I can write two letters. My aunt will give them to my senior brother Gan Feng and third senior brother Zhang Lei for me. I really need to ask my aunt for my horse. In addition, there is a box in the drawer of my desk."
, there are a few items from my collection inside, which are relatively expensive jewelry. I would like to ask my sister-in-law to keep them for me, but there is nothing else."
"What about your eagle?" Aunt Gongsun asked again with a smile.
"The eagle is fine. It is in Qujiang. I will find it later."
Guo Song immediately wrote two notes and gave them to Aunt Gongsun.
At this time, Aunt Gongsun took out another box and placed it in front of Guo Song, "This is the reward given to you by the Holy One. You assassinated Li Fuguo and got the roster. The Holy One is very satisfied. If I hadn't stopped him, I'm afraid the Holy One might not have even paid 200,000 taels."
I will reward you with money."
"Sister, why are you trying to stop me? I can pretend to refuse, but I can still accept the money!" Guo Song complained in a low voice.
Aunt Gongsun glared at him angrily, "Don't be so greedy. Two hundred thousand taels of silver can help many victims. Your wine shop is already very profitable, so don't take money so seriously!"
After a pause, Aunt Gongsun said coldly: "Don't think I don't know. Li Fuguo has a luminous pearl. He keeps it close to his body and often shows it off to others. But it's not in the items you handed over. How dare you say it's not there?"
In your hands?"
"This... this is my nephew's hobby, please let me go!"
Guo Song quickly clasped her hands and begged. When she goes to her house later, she will definitely find this luminous pearl.
"So I asked you not to be greedy. I know it all."
Aunt Gongsun then pointed to the box, "This is the reward you deserve, see for yourself!"
"What is it?"
Guo Song curiously opened the box and found four items inside, a scarlet official uniform, a turtle button silver seal, a scroll, and a silver fish bag.
"Does this mean I will be an official?" Guo Song asked hesitantly.
Aunt Gongsun sneered, "Don't think too much. You don't have a specific official position in the court, just an official title. Your sister-in-law and I also have the title of Third Grade Silver Qingguanglu Doctor, which is much higher than you, but you think I am a high-ranking official."
?"
"What is this?"
Guo Song picked up the turtle button silver seal, with four seal characters engraved on it in Yang script: Viscount Lingwu.
"Is this a title?" Guo Song suddenly reacted.
Aunt Gongsun smiled and said: "The emperor will make you a viscount, promote you to a guerrilla general, and give you a whitebait bag in Fei uniform. From now on, when you go out, unless it is absolutely necessary, try not to show the emperor's gold medal, just use a fish charm, from the fifth grade silverbait
Fu, no one dares to despise it.”
Compared with the guerrilla general, Guo Song was more interested in the title. He played with the silver seal for a moment and then asked: "Does the master have a title?"
"Yes! I am a county prince, only two ranks higher than you. I earned it by working as a personal guard for twenty years. Let me tell you this! Except for you, all the warriors in Chang'an have no title."
Guo Song said with a smile: "Looking at it this way, the emperor seems to treat me well!"
Aunt Gongsun snorted, "What do you think?"
...........
The painting boat went all the way south along the Cao River, and soon sailed from Qinglongfang into Qujiang Pool. In the center of Qujiang Pool was a large passenger ship, at least three thousand stones in weight, with a two-story ship building above it.
"Go up! Someone is waiting for you."
Guo Song got on the ship, and a middle-aged man in his fifties greeted him with a smile, "I've heard about Mr. Guo for a long time, and I just got to meet him today. Nice to meet you! Nice to meet you!"
Guo Song saw that he was tall and fat, with fair skin and deep eyes, but his temperament was gentle, elegant, calm and noble, but he didn't know who he was?
At this time, Aunt Gongsun stepped forward and introduced Guo Song: "This is Yuan Xiangguo, you should know."
This middle-aged man turned out to be the Prime Minister of the Yuan Dynasty. Guo Song had admired his name for a long time. He quickly saluted and said, "It turns out to be the Prime Minister of the Yuan Dynasty. I'm sorry for being so disrespectful."
"Haha! You're welcome, we all work for the Holy Lord, it's the same."
Yuan Zai pulled over another official who was nearly sixty years old behind him and introduced him to Guo Song with a smile: "This is our God of Wealth of the Tang Dynasty, Liu Yan, the Duzhi Envoy. He has just been appointed as the governor of Yangzhou and the salt and iron transporter of Jianghuai River."
The envoy will leave for Yangzhou to take office today."
When Guo Song saw that Liu Yan was thin and not very handsome, he was leaving for Yangzhou today. He knew that Liu Yan might be related to his next mission. He also cupped his fists and saluted, "Please take care of me, Governor Liu!"
Liu Yan smiled gently at Guo Song and saluted him in return, but he didn't say much.
"Let's go in and sit down!"
Yuan Zai invited everyone into the main hall of the ship. He asked several of his followers to step back and closed the cabin door. Yuan Zai then said to Guo Song: "Your identity has been told to me and Governor Liu by the Holy One. We can speak freely."
.”
Guo Song nodded, it seemed that he was going to Jianghuai.
Everyone sat down, and Yuan Zai said to Guo Song: "Ten days ago, the Salt and Iron Order and the Salt and Iron Transfer Envoy Wu Qi died of illness. This important seat related to the Tang Dynasty's financial resources has become vacant. Everyone is staring at this seat.
But Yu Chaoen was still there, and his reason could not be rejected by the emperor. According to the convention, the minister of household affairs should take over, so Huangfu Wen naturally took up the post of Fifth Qi."
Guo Song said with a smile: "So the Prime Minister of the Yuan Dynasty came to drain the firewood and removed Huangfu Wen."
Yuan Zai shook his head, "It is impossible to be isolated, but it can restrict Huangfu Wen to a great extent. After all, 70% of the world's salt tax belongs to Jianghuai. What we are most worried about is that after Yu Chaoen controls the salt tax, he will directly control it.
The military expenditure of the Shence Army is a terrible thing. Once the military expenditure of the Shence Army is controlled by him, the army will be completely controlled by him, so no matter what, we must prevent this from happening."
"Then why not stop the emperor from appointing Huangfu Wen?" Guo Song asked puzzledly.
Yuan Zai shook his head, "On the surface, everyone must abide by the rules. It's not to the point of breaking out, so we can only fight for it secretly."
"What do you need me to do?" Guo Song asked again.
Yuan Zai looked at Guo Song and said: "The Holy Lord's intention is for you to accompany Liu Jishishi to Jianghuai as his aide. The two of you will work together to break this situation and defeat Yu Chaoen's attempt."