A parade storm came quickly and faded quickly, but it had a great impact. The matter was discussed everywhere in Zhongdu City, and various conspiracy theories and power struggles were circulating in the streets and alleys.

At night, in the Ping'an Inn near the Taixue, Lu Han and the other four were gathering in their room for a drink and dinner. They were not affected by the outside world's public opinion at all. It seemed that the demonstrations that took place today had nothing to do with them, but they were talking about the Battle of Goguryeo.

Lu Han picked up the wine glass and smiled and said, "Goguryeo is not a powerful country. After three Sui army conquests, their national strength is already very weak. It should be no big problem to defeat Goguryeo. The key is how to deal with it and directly destroy it and establish counties. I think it is not the time."

Cui Guangping next to him took a sip of wine and said, "Brother Lu is right. I have heard from my grandfather that the third expedition to Goryeo could have conquered Pyongyang, but the emperor thought that the cost of destroying Goguryeo was unbearable and would only make Silla and Baekje grow stronger, so he ordered that Pyongyang be not allowed. Lai Hu'er was dismissed from office for this reason. But my grandfather said that this decision was not wise. Can Brother Lu think of the reason?"

Lu Han smiled and said, "The current war is the reason. Goguryeo is hard to eliminate ambitions. He wants to seize Liaodong and even get involved in Hebei while taking advantage of the civil strife of the Sui Dynasty. Therefore, it is a wrong decision to not attack Pyongyang. Capturing Pyongyang does not mean that Goguryeo will destroy Goguryeo. On the contrary, Goguryeo can be completely purged, supported the pro-Sui faction to come to power, and eliminate the ambitions like Yuan Taizuo. Only after thorough rectification can Goguryeo become our loyal vassal state."

Cui Guangping nodded repeatedly, "Brother Lu and my grandfather's views are completely consistent."

Just then, a hurried knock came from outside, and the inn shopkeeper said outside: "Mr. Lu, there are important guests to look for!"

Lu Han stepped forward and opened the door, and was stunned. Outside the door, in addition to the inn shopkeeper, there was an angry old man standing behind him. It was Lu Zhuo, the head of the Lu family. Lu Han hurriedly bowed and said, "See the head of the family!"

Lu Zhuo snorted heavily, pushed the door and walked into the room. The other three were so scared that they stood up and saluted together. Lu Zhuo said to the three of them: "You can avoid it first!"

The three of them looked at Lu Han. Although they were reluctant, they had to leave the room. Lu Zhuo said coldly: "Close the door!"

Lu Han closed the door, lowered his head and stood in front of the head of the family. Lu Zhuo sat down and slapped the table hard and said, "My evil, are you going to kill our Lu family?"

Lu Han whispered for a while: "The clan grandson dare not!"

"Why don't you dare! You organized three thousand scholars to come and protest, but you still dare not do anything. Why don't you organize the scholars to pick up their swords and rush into Ziwei Palace to kill us all!"

Lu Zhuo finally couldn't help but roar. Lu Han knelt down and said in tears: "The head of the family must say this, and the clans have nothing to say, but we did not hurt a person or break into a private house. We just wanted to appeal, but we just hope that the court can pay attention to the difficulties of the scholars in Hebei and protect the interests of the scholars in Hebei."

Lu Zhuo stared at him for a while, and finally said coldly: "I might as well tell you that you were the second place in the imperial examination and Jinshi, but because you organized this reckless action, the Ministry of Rites has removed you from the list of gold. Now I'm afraid you can't even enter the Imperial Academy."

Lu Han's tears surged out, and he said in a trembling voice: "Is this the court's revenge on me?"

"No! This has nothing to do with the court, it is my firm request. I will never allow you to harm the interests of the Lu family."

After saying that, Lu Zhuo snorted heavily, got up and left. Lu Han knelt on the ground, crying for a long time. At this time, Cui Guangping and the other two rushed in from outside the door. They all heard Lu Zhuo's words, and Li Zhaoxi said angrily: "This is clearly to protect his official hat, but to use family interests to suppress others."

"that is!"

Cui Guanglin also responded: "The second place in the imperial examination! This is the one who wants to be appointed as the county magistrate, and he was forcibly removed from the list by someone."

At this time, Cui Guangping advised: "This is just your head's own idea. The court may not accept it. It's better to wait until the list is released tomorrow!"

Lu Han wiped away his tears and nodded silently

The next morning, there were crowds of people in the Taixue Square, and tens of thousands of scholars came from all directions. Today, not only was the imperial examination released, but the list of admissions for the Taixue School also had to be announced. There were only 100 places for the imperial examination, and the number of people was too small, and most of them did not have hope.

However, the Taixue School wanted to admit 5,000 people, which made many scholars full of expectations. The benefits of the Taixue School were also obvious. After three years of study, not only did they have to be free of food and accommodation, but also the scholars also had a subsidy of five dou of rice and three stagnant of money per month. Studying and studying can support their families, which is very attractive to the children of poor families.

The joint imperial examination list of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel was crowded with scholars. Thousands of scholars raised their heads and looked for their names on the Phnom Penh List. Lu Han searched on the list three times. He saw the names of the Cui brothers and Li Zhaoxi, but he could not find his name. This means that the head of the family said nothing wrong and he had been removed from the list.

He turned around and left the Golden List silently. At this time, Cui Guangping squeezed out and was admitted to the 23rd place. This shows that the court did not hold grudges, but Lu Zhuo deprived him of his grandson's opportunity. Cui Guangping suppressed the ecstasy in his heart and whispered: "Or, let's go to the Imperial Academy to take a look! There should be the name of his brother on it."

Lu Han shook his head, "So what if I have my name? Do you think I will go to Taixue to study?"

"What will my brother do? Will you take the exam next year?"

Lu Han held back his tears, looked up at the sky and said, "How can a real man stand between heaven and earth be trapped by fame and fortune? I believe that Lu Han will have a day to stand out."

He walked up and patted Cui Guanglin and Li Zhaoxi on the shoulders, "You are good at serving as an official and benefiting the people, we will have a date later!"

"Brother Lu, let's appeal again!"

"Brother Lu, don't worry, let's make a long-term plan!"

The three tried their best to keep Lu Han, but Lu Han's intention to leave was decided. He bowed to the three of them and then disappeared into the vast crowd. The three of them looked at Lu Han's back and disappeared, and they were very melancholy. At this time, an official shouted: "The scholar who passed the imperial examination will go to the Ministry of Rites to report in an hour!"

The three of them looked at each other, and their endless joy of being on the list was ignited in their hearts. At this moment, they didn't care about leaving Lu Han for the time being.

......

In Yancheng, Liaodong, various Sui army gathered from all directions, not only the Sui army from Liucheng, but also 15,000 soldiers from the Marine and Xi tribes. Within ten days, a total of 90,000 troops surrounded Yancheng.

There are 40,000 Goguryeo troops stationed in Yancheng, and 30,000 stones of grain stored in the city. If you save a little, you can support them for a month and a half. Although there is no shortage of food in the city, the Goguryeo soldiers are still under great pressure and are looking forward to the arrival of reinforcements every day.

The pressure the Goguryeo soldiers was not only due to the Sui army's siege. In fact, the Sui army did not attack the city, but accumulated a huge earth slope outside the city. The height of the earth slope far exceeded the city wall. The Sui army soldiers sent arrows and throw stones down the earth slope, which made the Goguryeo soldiers in the city not have peace day and night.

In addition, Yan City is not big, with a circumference of only twelve miles and can only accommodate up to 20,000 people. However, now it has squeezed into 40,000 troops. The narrow living space makes every Goguryeo soldier unbearable, but he has to endure it under the threat of death.

On the morning of that day, Zhang Xuan and more than a dozen generals walked up to the Tushan outside the city. The Tushan was located in the west of the city, about five feet high and was built up by a 50,000 army of 50,000. It was volcanic cone-shaped. The top was leveled by soldiers and was covered with stone slabs. It was an area of ​​one and a half acres. There were three heavy trenchers on the top, constantly projecting huge rocks into the city.

Zhang Xuan walked up to the top of the mountain and looked into the city. More than a dozen soldiers rushed forward and blocked the coach with their shields. Zhang Xuan took a shield and smiled and said, "A shield is enough, everyone else should step back!"

The soldiers retreated, and just as Zhang Xuan walked to the edge of the earthen mountain, a cold arrow shot up. Zhang Xuan reacted quickly and blocked the cold arrow with a shield. Everyone was startled. Zhang Xuan waved his hand and signaled that it was not injustice. He leaned his head and looked down. He saw that the defenders were no longer visible on the west city wall. To be precise, the defenders were all hiding behind the wall. The cold arrow just now was shot by a soldier hiding behind the wall.

There were rows of dense stone houses in the city, but the stone houses within two hundred steps near the west wall were smashed to pieces by catapults. On the other three walls, there were Goguryeo soldiers, with as many as ten thousand people. They all looked vigilantly at dozens of Sui generals on the earthen mountain.

Zhang Xuan looked at it for a moment, smiled and asked Luo Shixin, "I heard that you started a siege strategy competition among soldiers. Have you gained anything?" (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!