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

It took His Royal Highness the King of Chu two full months to travel from Chang'an to Lingnan.

Fortunately, there were no blind bandits blocking the way, especially the officials of various states and counties. After learning that King Chu was about to pass through, they spent a lot of effort to rectify the local evil forces in advance - they were also afraid that the blind little thief would rob His Royal Highness the King of Chu. After all, when it comes to bandits, the whole world now regards King Chu as the best.

Therefore, His Royal Highness the King of Chu made great achievements just by going south. Especially when he arrived in Chaozhou, he heard that there was a plague of crocodiles in the court. So without saying a word, he immediately took a giant crossbow and used a live sheep that had been bled as bait in the evil stream. After throwing down a piece of "Ode to Killing Crocodiles" full of "Tang Dynasty elegant language", the King of Chu gradually became murderous and shot dozens of giant crocodiles in just one day, making the Chaozhou people, who were originally panicked by the crocodile plague, grateful to him. (Note 1)

Of course, adhering to the principle of "don't waste dead crocodiles", the King of Chu salvaged all the crocodiles ashore, and then asked the Governor of Chaozhou to select craftsmen from leather merchants to skin all the crocodiles, and then distribute the crocodile meat to the onlookers. His actions also successfully made the reputation of "the virtuous King of Chu" famous in the south.

In response to this, King Chu said: Since the people of Chaozhou, no, since the people of Lingnan are in need, then this king will naturally make more plans for everyone: from today on, the Chu Palace will allocate funds to set up a special animal hunting camp - since wild beasts are rampant in Lingnan, then this king will make these wild beasts disappear from the areas where people live and drive them into the deep mountains and old forests!

In this way, it can be considered a great good deed.

"Your Highness, no!" In the Chaozhou government office, Wang Xuance saw that his own king did whatever he wanted - after shooting and killing the giant crocodile, he still felt unsatisfied and had to challenge the bottom line of His Majesty Li II, and started to set up an "animal hunting team" in Lingnan. Isn't this purely asking for trouble?

To be honest, according to Tang law, the number of troops under the King of Chu's command has long exceeded the limit to the point where "anyone who mentions it will be embarrassed". Because even after losing the 3,000 dead soldiers, there are still 4,000 to 5,000 Dou's troops who moved out of Yushan. These people have already gone to Qiongzhou. As for their families, they temporarily stayed in Lantian County and moved to Yangzhou in autumn. After all, the elderly and children cannot stand large-scale long-distance migration.

“Xuan Ce, I must let the people of Lingnan know that I am here, and they will have a purpose in life. Besides, they are all the people of the Great Tang, and I will never be partial to one over the other. If I can destroy the entire Turkic tribe to protect the people of the northern border from foreign invasions, then I can also send my men to destroy the wild beasts to protect the people of the southern border from suffering from wild beasts.

Besides, I have already thought about it. I will send one thousand people, 20 people in a team, to various places to serve as the vanguard in batches, and then the local government will organize militia to assist. In this way, the efficiency will be greatly improved, and at the same time, the tyrant king will know that I am really doing practical things. "The King of Chu knew what Wang Xuance was worried about, but since he had already left Chang'an, he simply let go and did what he thought was the right thing - he didn't need others to take responsibility for him if something went wrong.

"Your Highness, have you really thought it through?" As Wang Xuance's teacher, Xie Minlin actually agreed with his student's idea in his heart. However, after listening to the explanation of His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu, he suddenly realized one thing - since His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu has no intention of becoming the emperor, he should not be timid in doing things. Otherwise, not to mention that His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu himself would feel bored, wouldn't they, as the family ministers, have no place to use their talents?

"——My life's actions..." His Royal Highness the King of Chu was about to be a little arrogant, but for some reason, many faces suddenly popped up in his mind: such as God, Dou Shuer, Yu Shi, Xiao Shi, Yu Aweng... So he thought about it and decided to speak carefully: "——I still need to explain to others, but that tyrant king is not included."

"That's great." Xie Minlin smiled and nodded, "Then Your Highness, do whatever you want."

“Your Highness…Your Highness…” Cui Quan, as the governor of Chaozhou and the only outsider in the room today, had a sweat on his forehead. “Your humble servant…Your humble servant…Your humble servant has something to say…I don’t know whether I should say it or not…”

"You say it." His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu raised his eyebrows slightly when he heard this. He had originally intended to ask this old guy whether he should "not change a single word" in the memorial he wrote to the tyrant emperor. Who would have thought that the other party would actually launch an attack first.

"Your Highness, it is good that you care about the people of Lingnan, but I think it would be better if this matter could be explained in a different way."

"For example?" His Royal Highness the King of Chu was obviously interested.

“Your Highness, when you passed by Chaozhou, you saw with your own eyes that a woman washing clothes on the bank of the E River was attacked by a crocodile. So out of compassion, you planned to kill the giant crocodile in the river.

Afterwards, your righteous act was praised by the local people, and you were also begged by the local respected elders, so you made up your mind to do more practical things for the people of Lingnan even at the risk of being suspected. I saw all of this with my own eyes.

I will report the whole story to your majesty in the memorial I write, and I will never falsify it. "Cui Quan was not a sycophantic minister who deceived the emperor, nor was he a flatterer - he just felt that people should learn to adapt, and that His Royal Highness the King of Chu was obviously doing good things, so there was no need to act as if he was ready to wait for Chang'an to send troops to attack at any time.

"You must write your memorial truthfully. Are you sure you can make no changes to a single word?" His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu felt as if he had picked up some treasure.

"Of course," Cui Quan said solemnly, "I am from the Qinghe Cui family. I am willing to use my family's reputation as a guarantee!"

"Come on..." Upon hearing this, King Chu immediately gave up the idea of ​​picking up rags: "Your family master has already surrendered to the enemy..."

"Your Highness, your scolding is a bit harsh..." Cui Quan was helpless when he heard it, but he knew that in front of a big man like His Highness the King of Chu, all he could show was sincerity: "But Your Highness, you can think about it from another perspective - I have been the governor of Chaozhou for five years. Do you think... if the family values ​​me, I would be exiled here and stay for five years?"

Your Highness, I really want to move...