At night, Li Li had a dream. In the dream, he led his army to travel all over Hebei.

As a result, an elite team of Qi army attacked the imperial camp and captured Huang Gui.

Then, the troops fled to Anping, Boling County, and then he led his army to surround Anping.

The desperate Qi army led Huang Gui to the top of Anping City and forced him to withdraw the siege, otherwise Huang Gui's life would be.

But Huang Yan asked him to ignore it and attack directly.

He was furious and asked Liang Sen to pull the "Poyang Cannon" and aim it at the top of the city wall, forcing the Qi army to release people, promising that as long as he releases people, he would let the other party go.

However, the Qi army refused and insisted on withdrawing the encirclement first, otherwise they would die together.

Li Li hesitated, and Huang Gui suddenly cursed: "Li Cun-Qing, are you still a man? Fire up!!!"

Seeing that Huang Gui did not cooperate, Qi Bing drew his sword to chop, and his head became hot...

Then he woke up.

I found Zhao Mengniang sleeping beside me, and the oil lamp on the table next to me emitted a faint light.

It took him a while to come back to his senses and remembered that he was resting normally. Tonight it was Zhao Mengniang's "rock" because the palace was still "cleaning", so he used the private place opened by treacherous ministers and scholars of Qi as the palace.

Huang Gui was in Huaiyin and served as a staff officer for the country's beloved son, but he never came to Hebei.

As for Zhao Mengniang, since the Northern Expedition, she went on a war with Xue Yuechang and Duan Yuying as her family members, but she had been in the camp before and did not come over until Yecheng was captured.

Li Li looked at the sleeping Zhao Mengniang with the dim light.

Although Zhao Mengniang was a concubine, she was his first woman, and she entered the Li family's door better than her husband Huang Yan.

After nearly thirty years of living together, Zhao Mengniang has long become his relative.

The vicissitudes of time left traces on the faces of the two of them, but Li Li, who insisted on training, was still energetic, while Zhao Mengniang was not in a fight with the world, had a good mentality, and paid attention to maintenance, so she looked young.

The days of that year are vivid in my mind, as if not long ago, the two lived together on the East Riverside of Baishi Village.

That day, he was carefree, and he didn't need to think about the country and the country, and there were not so many heavy burdens on his shoulders.

Li Li got up, put on his clothes, then pulled up the quilt, covered it with Zhao Mengniang, then turned to the desk and sat down, and lit a candle.

After all, the light of the oil lamp is not bright enough. If you read books with the oil lamp lighting, your eyes will easily break down.

There was inevitably some movement in this process, and a voice sounded quickly outside: "Your Majesty? I am waiting for my order."

"Ah, are you awake?" Li Li thought for a while and said, "Pour some warm water."

"Yes." The outside room was silent for a moment, and a man lifted the curtain and walked in with a kettle.

However, Zhang Lihua, who looked tired, was wearing a long skirt and a fox fur shawl. This treatment was not the case for other maids.

Because Zhang Lihua is under age, she is now just the emperor's maid. She helps to serve tea and water, organizes books, and takes turns to work with other maids at night.

In more than half a year, Zhang Lihua has grown a lot taller, her face gradually grows, and her appearance becomes more and more gorgeous.

After all, her diet is different from that of ordinary maids and palace maids. People know that this young lady will be the emperor's concubine in the future.

But at present, because of his young age, he doesn't spend many hours at night.

Li Li drank a bowl of warm water and asked Zhang Lihua to drink too. Zhang Lihua shook her head: "I am not thirsty..."

"No, no one who gets up in the middle of the night is not thirsty." Li Li pointed to another cup, "Pour water to drink by yourself, don't be restrained."

"I am not thirsty..." Zhang Lihua lowered her head, her voice was a little small, and her ears were red.

"You are afraid of ghosts and dare not go out at night..." Li Li smiled, Zhang Lihua's face turned red when she was told about the central problem.

Li Li waved his hand: "Okay, okay, you have trouble, I won't tell you anymore. I'll look at the information and go to bed later. You don't have to wait, go to bed."

This is not in line with the rules. How dare Zhang Lihua leave behind the emperor who read at night and go to bed by herself.

"If you don't sleep, then you won't be sleepy?" Li Li suddenly had an idea, "I'm free, so tell you a strange story?"

"Ah..." Zhang Lihua was so scared that her face turned pale and she kept shaking her head: "No, no, no, I dare not, I don't know, how can you tell stories to me?"

In fact, she was afraid that after listening to the strange story, she would become more and more difficult to sleep alone.

"Yes, just wait a moment, I'll go to bed." Li Li's attention quickly turned to the map in his hand, which painted the situation in Hebei region.

Zhang Lihua said yes, stood aside, quietly looked at the emperor from time to time, and then lowered her head.

She knew her identity, so as time passed, her heart beat faster every time she saw the emperor.

Li Li didn't know what the little beauty next to him was thinking. He was thinking about the Battle of Anping...the situation in Hebei.

Hebei is densely populated and has thousands of miles of fertile land, so there are many local snakes everywhere, and a large number of gentry have lived in it for generations. Among them, the Cui family of Boling, Cui family of Qinghe, and Li family of Zhaojun are first-class families.

In addition, there are also first-class gentry such as the Lu family in Fanyang, as well as local gentry represented by the Feng family in Bohai.

So many local snakes are entrenched in Hebei, with their interests and connections in each other. It is basically impossible for the court to control the grassroots:

The administrative cost is too high, so high that the court's finances cannot support it.

For example, in order to collect one hu of grain, you have to spend two hu of grain to collect the grain.

Therefore, even though the troubled times lasted for nearly three hundred years, the local snakes in Hebei still rely on compromise with rulers of all generations to maintain their status as a "local powerhouse".

Now, the State of Chu is gradually becoming the "master" of Hebei region, but if it cannot establish good relations with the real "masters", it will not be able to stay in Hebei.

The civil unrest and the horse thieves who flew around but could not be cleaned were enough to turn the administrative costs of the court's management of Hebei into irresistible expenses.

Therefore, if you want to "take over" Hebei, the safest way is to compromise with local tyrants according to "convention".

Recognize the privileges of the gentry, that is, the ninth-rank Zhongzheng system; recognize the rights and interests of the powerful, and allow the powerful to "deeply" intervene in grassroots governments.

We must turn a blind eye to the land under the names of the gentry and the powerful, and give them political benefits to the gentry and the powerful, that is, the gentry is in the capital and the powerful have a place in the officialdom of the prefectures and counties.

As long as we do this, like the Yuan Wei and Gao Qi, the hearts of the people in Hebei will belong to the court.

If you can't do it, you're embarrassed to force the people to rebel, and the people have to rebel.

However, Li Li did not want to follow the old path and did not want to bribe the aristocratic family according to the old rules, because this means that the aristocratic politics would "parasien" in the upper class of Chu and slowly erode the "brain" of Chu.

He believes that times should change, so there is no need to maintain a corrupt system.

The gentry was destroyed by force, and the strong clan established the local foundation of the surname, confiscated their land, and used military troops in the military field, as well as soldiers who settled in Hebei to replace these powerful people and become the "roots" that went deep into the grassroots.

Relying on these "roots", the people who are like scattered sand are gathered together.

He would not pay a high price to redeem the cheap loyal and disobedient people of Hebei local snakes, and they would not be killed or arrested, and the whole family would be exiled to Lingnan to eat lychees.

The land and population of Hebei must be under the control and control of the court. Now it is fighting, and it is just right to "openly hold on to war" and clean up a group of local tyrants.

This move will inevitably arouse "public grievances" in various places, and then another round of suppression will stop.

The Qi army in Jinyang will be blocked to the west of Taihang Mountains, and no one will come to rescue the gentry and powerful people in Hebei.

The "light of the right way" that these people are looking forward to will never shine on the land of Hebei.

Li Li put the map and prepared to go to bed. When he turned around, he caught a glimpse of Zhang Lihua standing, feeling puzzled: "Why are you not sleeping yet?"

"I serve Your Majesty..." Zhang Lihua quickly answered, and Li Li came to his senses: "Oh... I forgot..."

Looking at the clock, it was already three o'clock in the morning. Li Li yawned, blew out the candle, and waved his hand: "I'm sleepy, so you can go and rest quickly."

Zhang Lihua replied: "Yes, I understand..."

Li Li looked at the little girl's back as she left, without a trace of **.

If so, it is really worse than beasts.
Chapter completed!