Traveling through the Gaowu Tang Dynasty, Li Kuan and Li Shimin became the second sons of the Prince

When the word "pioneer" came out of King Chu's mouth, all the generals and retainers present shivered subconsciously.

Especially Li Jing, what he regrets most now is that he allowed this little bastard to go exploring and lead the way.

Fortunately, this kid made a bet on the situation and won. If he had lost, the brothers would not be in the Western Regions now, but would be gathering at the execution ground in Chang'an City.

"Your Highness, if you don't want to leave this task of exploring the road to Li Ji." Although Zhang Gongjin is a loyal minister of His Majesty Li Er, he also has due loyalty to the King of Chu: he doesn't want a star to rise quickly. The generals of the Tang Dynasty were defeated in the Western Regions.

"..." Li Ji looked at Zhang Gongjin who was thinking about the King of Chu. Why did he suddenly feel that this person was very annoying?

Although King Chu did not follow me, I undoubtedly took less risks, but in this way...

Could it be that this guy was playing into his trap: just because of his teasing words, the King of Chu sent one of his powerful generals to do scouting work?

Li Ji was very upset.

Now, this is the biggest problem with people who are deep in the city. No matter what others do, they can't escape their careful analysis in their hearts. Once they find out the "suspicious things", they will feel resentful for a long time.

Life for such a person is actually quite tiring.

"No, please don't call me 'His Royal Highness'. Please call me Mr. Yang Kuan!" Someone who was deeply involved in the drama began his performance: "Generals, please come back. I will take my old master with me." The housekeeper has gone to Qianquan City to sell goods, so don’t waste my time!”

"..." Everyone looked at His Royal Highness King Chu who was already involved in the drama, and for a moment, they didn't know how to respond.

"Let's go!" His Royal Highness King Chu waved his hand, and then set off with the caravan.

After leaving Gaochang City, Young Master Yang Kuan and his old housekeeper Li Ji began their business journey.

"His Royal Highness the King of Chu..." It was difficult for Li Ji to understand how he had become His Highness the "most trustworthy person" of the King of Chu. He looked at the horse riding on the horse, leisurely admiring the lonely desert. With the smoke and the sun setting over the long river, His Royal Highness the King of Chu could not help but feel resentment in his heart: "Isn't it unsafe for us to come out like this?" (Note 1)

"Don't all merchants in the Western Regions have to be like this?" Li Kuan turned around and glanced at his manager, and suddenly said displeased: "As I said, when you go out, you give your identity to yourself. My name is Yang Kuan now. If you want, You can call me 'Master', I can bear it!"

"..." Looking at Mr. Yang who was getting ready again, Li Ji... no, Li Ji suddenly felt that he had completely boarded a pirate ship.

"Then... Young Master, we only have so many people around us now. If we encounter horse bandits..." Li Ji wanted to say that if we don't have enough people with this weapon, something could happen easily.

"Then chop him off! Need more words?" Li Kuan rolled his eyes at Li Ji, and then said plausibly: "Look, our caravan looks like it has few horses, and more horses. Camels, in this way, can perfectly avoid the suspicion of the army. At the same time, this caravan has few guards, so isn't it just a fat sheep? The horse bandits in the Western Regions must be greedy for our goods. For safety reasons, we , when the time comes, shouldn’t it be natural to join other people’s caravans? In this case, who will be able to distinguish between a caravan and an army?”

"..." After listening to King Chu's words, Li Ji thought about it carefully and felt that it was really true, but he then said: "Then you let Chai Shao, Li Daozong, Jiang Qu, Jiang Sheng, Dou Shilun, Yuan Tiangang, these people I can understand that each leads a caravan, but you let Qibi Heli and Zhihuan Sili lead thousands of cavalry to act as horse bandits... I mean why go to all the trouble, can't we all be horse bandits together?"

"Hey, do you think this is reasonable? There are nearly ten thousand bandits suddenly appearing in the Western Region. Are you a fool to think that the top management of the Western Turks is a fool?" Li Kuan discovered for the first time that Li Ji's resentment was so heavy that it was even All of them affected the latter's judgment of the entire situation: "Let me tell you, Mr. Li, why do I find that you are always speaking a little out of tune recently?"

"..." Li Ji felt it was extremely shameful and humiliating to be scolded by the most incompetent person in the world.

"Your Highness the King of Chu," Li Ji suddenly sighed slightly, and then said: "I understand that the reason why you only brought me and my bodyguards forward is because you don't trust me and are always worried that I will retreat at the critical moment. , rather than..."

"No, I just think that you are arrogant, so I have to take you with me for this life-threatening job!" At this moment, a certain person would rather be labeled as "good at holding grudges" by the other party than admit that he is far-sighted and has chilled the heart of a good minister.

Yes, Li Ji nodded, there was nothing to talk about today.

From Gaochang to Qianshui, you need to pass through the three cities of Yanqi, Qiuci, and Shule. It takes about ten days to get to the first stop, Yanqi City.

His Royal Highness the King of Chu's caravan encountered horse bandits on the second night after setting out on the road.

To be precise, they witnessed a robbery.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk...Uncle Li," His Highness the King of Chu was on a sand dune, looking at the Hu Shang camp below which was plundered by nearly a hundred horse bandits from the Western Regions. He was used to seeing big scenes and looked at the small scenes in front of him, so Tsukuru exclaimed: "The local gangs are so rude, they don't even spare their own people."

"Your Highness, the situation in the Western Region is complicated. Even the Hu people are divided into many races. Moreover, even if we are of the same race, we are not relatives but not friends. This kind of thing is normal." Li Ji explained to him calmly.

"Alas, it seems that the one who really needs me, the 'First King of Qin', is the Western Region!" His Highness the King of Chu, who once lost the title of "Qin Shi", suddenly sighed with his hands on his hips.

"..." Li Ji no longer knew how to evaluate someone's ambition. When he left Chang'an, he had heard His Majesty Li Er say that the latter wanted to build a new belt. He didn't know how it was going now. .

"Li Ji, take some guards and send some manpower to wipe out the gang of horse bandits below for me." Li Kuan suddenly ordered as he watched Hu Shang below gradually dying in the fight with the horse bandits.

"Wei!" Li Ji obviously also thought that this was a good opportunity to integrate into the Hu caravan. He was unambiguous immediately and made a gesture behind him. Then, more than thirty people on strong horses swooped down from the sand dunes and joined. After joining the battle group, the horse bandits were driven away shortly afterwards.

As the battle ended, not long after, all the men sent by Li Ji returned. Immediately afterwards, another bearded Hu merchant came to Li Kuan and others. This man first saluted Li Kuan respectfully. Then he spoke humbly in Chinese, "My kind lord, my master would like to thank you for your help just now. I wonder if you could give me a favor and go to my master's tent to talk to him."

(Follow-up updates will be guaranteed to be twice a day, and the same is true for the Chinese New Year. As for explosive updates, I will still find a way to do what I promised.)