Fu Tang

Li Congjia watched Zhou Zong silently for a long time after hearing this, Zhou Zong called him twice worriedly: "City Lord...City Lord?"

Li Congjia came back to his senses and asked, "What? What are you talking about? I didn't hear clearly."

Zhou Zong looked at him very worriedly, but still said: "The crown prince passed away."

Li Congjia seemed to have just realized it, and immediately stood up, and after turning around twice, he asked: "What's going on? Why is it so sudden? How old is he?"

Zhou Zong said: "It is said that he died of a sudden illness."

Sudden illness?This is the same as Li Hongji's death in history, but... the time is different.

Historically, Li Hongji passed away in the second year of Jiaotai, at least half a year away from now.

But thinking that Zhao Kuangyin could not wait for Guo Rong to die before rebelling, it doesn't seem strange that Li Hongji's death time was caught by the butterfly.

Li Congjia sat back slowly, and began to think about whether he should attend Li Hongji's funeral. He asked, "What do you think of the chief assistant?"

Zhou Zong didn't answer, but said: "If the city lord goes back at this time, the crown prince will be within his grasp."

Li Congjia asked, "Oh? You mean, I should go back now?"

Zhou Zong was a little entangled: "The city lord... the one who should go back is the crown prince after all."

The position of prince is very important, and it is very important to be righteous!

As if Li Congjia knew his worry, he told about the Emperor's seal in his hand. After hearing this, Zhou Zong's breathing became heavy, and it took him a long time to calm down.

Li Congjia waited for him to calm down and asked again: "What does the chief assistant think?"

Zhou Zong thought about it and said: "The city lord has not yet started his business, so it is not suitable for him to leave. What's more, the Western Regions are thousands of miles away from the south of the Yangtze River. When the city lord returns, the dust may have settled. Please think twice."

With the emperor's seal, who cares if the prince is not a prince? With this thing, Li Congjia is the real orthodox!And it was orthodox in the Tang Dynasty!

Li Congjia let out a long breath: "That's true. It's just that my elder brother passed away. I feel very sad. I have to work for the first assistant in the political affairs these days."

Zhou Zong didn't say anything, anyway, they didn't have much to do now, so Li Congjia would be fine even if he rested for two days.

After Zhou Zong left, Li Congjia sent someone to tell Zhou Ehuang. Zhou Ehuang was very reliable and ordered his servants to find out all of Li Congjia's plain clothes. It was withdrawn.

After Li Congjia changed his clothes, he sat in his study for a while, then got up and went to Shi Xueting's place.After Zhou Zong knew it, his heart skipped a beat, but he felt helpless. He couldn't stop Li Congjia, could he?

Shi Xueting was practicing. Li Congjia didn't speak when he got there, but just watched quietly. While watching, various barrages circulated in his mind, such as how handsome the mage is, how good the mage is, don't say it, see After arriving in Shi Xueting, even his depressed mood became clearer.

After Shi Xueting finished his set of punches, he turned his head and saw Li Congjia couldn't help being slightly taken aback. Li Congjia walked over with a smile and handed Shi Xueting's monk robe to him: "The weather is not so warm now, so you don't have to be afraid if you don't wear a coat." freezing."

Yes, when Shi Xueting was practicing, his upper body was naked. At this time, he took the clothes but didn't put them on. He just asked, "Are you in a hurry?"

Li Congjia immediately understood what he meant, shook his head and said, "No hurry, you can go take a bath first."

When Shi Xueting came back from the bath, Li Congjia had already made a pot of tea and put out some snacks for him.

After sitting down, Shi Xueting asked, "What happened? You... don't look very happy."

Li Congjia took a sip of tea and said in a low voice, "Li Hongji is dead."

Shi Xueting was also taken aback: "What?"

Li Congjia looked up at him, Shi Xueting slowly put down the teacup: "What happened?"

Li Congjia shook his head: "Nothing happened, it is said that he died of a sudden illness."

"It's not like." Shi Xueting had doubts in his eyebrows: "The Prince's face is one of longevity, how could he die young?"

After hearing this, Li Congjia couldn't help being taken aback: "What? Longevity? Did you read that right?"

Shi Xueting also hesitated for a while, and after a little thought, he said: "It should be right at the time, but things like facial expressions can't be done accurately. The fate of a person is not static, and the fate of Lang Jun can be changed. Yet?"

Li Congjia felt a little guilty. His fate was changed because he took someone else's body. Can this not be changed?

Could it be because of him that Li Hongji died early?But it's not right to think about it. In history, Li Hongji only lived less than a year longer than he does now, so it can't be considered a long life anyway.

Shi Xueting changed the subject and said, "Your Majesty is in a bad mood because of this?"

Li Congjia took a long breath: "Yes, and no."

Shi Xueting didn't speak, just listened quietly, Li Congjia continued: "It's just that life is impermanent and the world is unpredictable."

To be a good person means to die, no matter how prominent he was in life, what awaits him is nothing more than a pile of loess. This is the key point of Li Congjia's emotion. The closer someone dies suddenly, the more he will feel this way.

But in front of Shi Xueting, he dared to tell the truth directly. In front of Zhou Zong, he still had to express his grief for his brother's death. After all, the relationship between him and Li Hongji was not good, but it was not bad. After becoming the crown prince, they regarded him as a competitor, but before they could do anything, Li Congjia was "abducted" by Shi Xueting.

So when dealing with the death of Li Hongji, Li Congjia was very complicated.

Shi Xueting didn't persuade him either, he knew that Li Congjia could regulate himself well.

Li Congjia did recover quickly, sighed and said, "Hey, it looks like I'm going to be vegetarian for a few days."

Shi Xueting looked at him in surprise, and Li Congjia shrugged: "As a city lord, you must have the awareness to be a role model. It's not right that you can't go to pay homage to your brother after his death. Fortunately, there is an excuse of the long distance, but if you act too easily No, since you can’t go, let’s go vegetarian for a few days to express our condolences.”

Shi Xueting couldn't think of anything wrong with such a treatment, but seeing Li Congjia's dejected face, he couldn't help smiling and said: "It's only a few days, if you are not happy, I will accompany you Just be vegetarian."

Li Congjia looked at Shi Xueting dumbfounded: "What does it mean to be a vegetarian with me? You are supposed to be a vegetarian. Have you ever heard of a monk who eats meat? You broke the precept, do you know that?"

Shi Xueting was quite calm: "I checked the history of Buddhism, and when Buddhism first spread to the east, it didn't require disciples to be vegetarians, the rules were set by later generations."

Li Congjia looked at him quite speechless, it's really embarrassing for you to study history just to eat meat.

However, if he was just a vegetarian, Li Congjia was also worried that Shi Xueting's body would not be able to bear it. After all, he still had to practice martial arts, so Shi Xueting said so, and he did not continue to refute. Otherwise, when it comes to telling history, it is estimated that Shi Xueting is not his. opponent.

Seeing that Li Congjia's mood improved slightly, Shi Xueting asked, "I really decided not to go back? If I go back, the crown prince will be in your pocket."

Li Congjia waved his hand: "Forget it, even the prince is controlled by others. It's good to be controlled by father, but when I think of other people's constraints, I think... it's better to stay here."

Shi Xueting didn't persuade him after hearing this, in fact, he had the same idea as Zhou Zong, with the seal, the position of prince is not so important.

Walking out of Shi Xueting's temple, Li Congjia's facial expression adjusted to a sad one. Everyone felt that he was very sad because of his brother's death. It's just that the two are deeply brothers, but one south and one west, separated by thousands of miles, Li Congjia can't go back to attend the funeral.

Li Congjia was silent for a few days. After making everyone see him, the first thing he said was to comfort him not to be sad, he finally couldn't take it anymore, and left Anning City under the pretext of going to inspect the property with Yang Xin.

Long Lei's support for Yang Xin is indeed a great effort. Yang Xin's restaurant is located in the best area of ​​Jiuquan County, and those who can open a restaurant here basically have some backing.

Li Congjia glanced at the restaurant that was still under renovation and asked, "Do you have all the private rooms mentioned earlier?"

Yang Xin said with a smile: "Don't worry, there are all of them, and as you said, each one is different, and the boxes are divided into three, six, and nine classes."

Li Congjia nodded. This is a class society. Sometimes the place where you eat and drink also symbolizes your status. The most common thing is that the more expensive the food and the more expensive the wine, the more people will look up to you. So Li Congjia directly Many ideas from later generations were integrated with the aesthetics of this era, allowing Yang Xin to create a batch of noble boxes.

Except for nobles, no one can enter these boxes, no matter how rich they are. In order to reciprocate, one of them belonged to Long Lei. The style is a fusion of exotic style and Central Plains style, although it is peculiar but not obtrusive, and the decorations inside are all high-quality gold and silver jewelry, and the price of this box is naturally very expensive.

The name of the restaurant has been decided long ago, and it was Li Congjia who personally proposed the plaque named Wanlixiang.

After wandering around Jiuquan County, Li Congjia said to Wu Lang and Zhou Ye beside him, "Did you see anything?"

Zhou Ye was a little confused: "What does Mr. Lang mean?"

"Did you see the difference between Anning City and Jiuquan?" Li Congjia asked while feeling the specialness of the business in the Western Regions.

Zhou Ye said cautiously: "An Ning City...too small?"

Li Congjia chuckled: "It's not small. Anning City is only building the main urban area. Outside the valley, a large part of the outside is ours. If it is built, it will not be smaller than Jiuquan."

Whether it is Li Congjia or Zhou Zong, they have seen real prosperous towns, so when building the city, they will ask for it to be bigger within their ability, and the designed city is not as big as a county town?Shame on you?

Zhou Ye bowed his head and said, "Wu Lang is dull, please show me."

Li Congjia glanced at him and said, "Just chatting casually, don't be too formal."

Zhou Ye pursed his lips and did not speak, because he had a chief assistant father, and he was under a lot of pressure. When he was at home, Zhou Zong often taught him to live up to expectations. Taking advantage of the lack of people in Anning City, he learned some skills. , so that he can contribute to the city lord in the future.

Of course, contributing to Anning City is one aspect, and the other aspect is to keep the Zhou family undefeated. Zhou Ye must not be too mediocre. That Yang Xin, who was focused on going to the kitchen, was about his age, and now he has come out to open a shop, and he still needs to squat at home to study.

This kind of comparison made him feel inferior. It was a rare experience to come out with Li Congjia this time, and he couldn't let go of his hands and feet.

Li Congjia noticed Zhou Ye's nervousness, and after a word of comfort, he didn't say anything, but said: "People, the biggest difference between Anning City and Jiuquan is people. If there are so many people in Anning City, I can guarantee that Anning City will be better than Jiuquan in the future." More prosperity!"

Li Congjia's tone was arrogant, but Zhou Ye didn't think there was anything wrong, he just looked at Li Congjia with admiration and said, "Mr. Lang must have a way."

Li Congjia was stunned, and glanced at Zhou Ye. He really didn't expect that besides Liu Yi, a stupid fan, there was actually an invisible fan of stupid beside him.

What can he do?He has nothing to do. In fact, if he really wants people, he can tell Long Lei that Long Lei will definitely be able to find some poorer tribes and let them migrate to Anning City.

However, even though he was in the Western Regions, Li Congjia did not want too many people from the Western Regions in Anning City. National integration has always been a very troublesome thing. When two different nationalities live together, friction is inevitable. Then because of their Each has its own customs, and this friction is not easy to resolve, so Li Congjia will not allow too many people from the Western Regions to exist in Anning City unless necessary.

What's more, what are so many poor people doing here?Apart from being able to build cities and sell their labor, the poor are useless to promote economic development. He is not a professional in poverty alleviation. When those poor ghosts come here, he still has to worry about their rations.

Li Congjia took Zhou Ye around Jiuquan County. After returning, Zhou Zong saw Li Congjia's first question was almost the same as Li Congjia asked Zhou Ye before: "What can the city lord see?"

Because of the many affairs, since Zhou Zong arrived in the Western Regions, he had never been out of the stockade at the beginning, and later he had never been out of Anning City, so he asked this question not to compare Li Congjia, but to know more information.

Li Congjia took Zhou Ye to sit down and said: "The folk customs here are tough, and there are mixed fish and dragons. It's hard to say, hard to say."

Zhou Ye was stunned for a moment, didn't Li Congjia still say that Jiuquan County has more people than Anning City during the day?Why is it hard to say again?

Zhou Zong glanced at his son, and found that his son looked a little dazed, he couldn't help but sighed, his son was five years younger than Li Congjia, it's just the difference... not just five years old.

Zhou Zong had these thoughts in his mind, but he said: "Even if it is difficult, we must find a way."

Their goal is to swallow up Suzhou first, and then plan other things. Zhou Zong and Li Congjia asked and answered, and they talked about this matter.

Li Congjia said: "Although Suzhou is small, it has all kinds of internal organs. There are also many Long families and families dependent on them. If you want a smooth transition, you must uproot these few families."

Zhou Zong's complexion changed: "This... I'm afraid it won't be easy."

Li Congjia smiled and said, "Isn't there still Long Lei?"

Zhou Zong slightly disagreed: "How could he break his own arm?"

"When he is not in power, there may be his help or arm in it. However, these people's support for him is not unconditional. When he is in power, he will repay it. What if he doesn't want to repay it?"

Zhou Zong's face froze. It's not that he didn't think of this, but he pushed others and himself. Could it be that Li Congjia was telling him not to go too far?

After Zhou Zong came, he did intentionally or unintentionally hold more rights in his own hands, but he didn't reject Li Ping, Zhu Yuan and the others. Of course, there were only a few of them in total, and they really haven't reached the point of party struggle. .

Zhou Zong thought about this in his heart, but he said: "In this way, we can indeed make a good plan."

"Don't worry, take your time. Long Lei shouldn't take the position too early, at least after we have the power to fight him." Li Congjia knew that Long Lei would definitely not let go of his hatred, and when Long Lei became the Dragon King, they would be soldiers from both sides When the blades meet.

Zhou Zong had a brief conversation with Li Congjia, and was about to leave to deal with affairs. Before leaving, he glanced at Zhou Ye, and just as Zhou Ye was about to leave, he heard Li Congjia say, "Let Wulang stay."

Zhou Zong looked at Li Congjia in surprise, Li Congjia leaned back on the chair and said lazily: "What can you tell when you always read at home? Reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles, reading is important, and practice is equally important, let him Stay with me and sort out the paperwork, young people always have to go through experience."

Zhou Ye was very excited after hearing this, but Zhou Zong's heart fell heavily. Fortunately, he has a good eye for people. At the beginning, he felt that Li Congjia was affectionate and righteous, although such a person may be influenced by emotions as a ruler , but also because of this, he will not easily kill the people around him for various reasons.

Zhou Ye stayed by Li Congjia's side, which is very good news for the Zhou family. Zhou Ye himself worked very hard, but gradually, after getting along with him, he found that Li Congjia was actually very kind in private, and Zhou Ye naturally became closer to Li Congjia. .

Also because of the closeness, Li got a lot of news from Jia that he might not have known before, for example, Tiance Mansion made an appointment with the Jinghuai Army to find a time and place to compete.

Since Li Congjia brought back the Tiance Mansion, he has hardly taken care of it, and handed everything over to Shi Xueting. His idea is that there are no battles to fight now anyway, let these people get used to the outside life first, and other things later. Besides.

As a result, I never expected that the Tiance Mansion had a conflict with the Jinghuai Army. Of course, it was just a small conflict of mutual comparison. Although the soldiers of the Tiance Mansion had lived in seclusion for a hundred years, they were proud in their hearts. After all, the name Tiance It represents their uniqueness, but this kind of pride is very false in the eyes of the Jinghuai Army. They have all experienced real battles. How can they value such a superficial guy?

The two groups of people came and went and refused to accept each other, so they simply made an appointment to compete, but they didn't tell anyone about this agreement, it was basically an agreement between the officers and soldiers at the bottom.

Zhou Ye got the news, thought for a while and ran over and asked, "City Lord, do you want to stop them?"

Li Congjia smiled and said: "No need, they are not people who don't know how to measure themselves. Well, when do they decide? Let's go and see."

Zhou Ye mentioned a date, and Li Congjia took Zhou Ye to find a place to watch quietly after finishing the matter that day.

Needless to say, the final result is that the Jinghuai Army won. Whether it is physical fitness or experience, the Jinghuai Army is better. There was a loophole in the formation, and it was only defeated after being found by the Jinghuai Army.

After the competition, the Jinghuai army was naturally elated. Li Congjia just wanted Zhou Ye to find someone to reconcile, so that the two sides would not form a deadly enemy, but he saw a handsome young man in Tiance armor rushing out, blushing. Shouted: "I refuse to accept! This competition is unfair!"

Li Congjia was slightly surprised, walked over and asked, "How?"

The young man looked at Li Congjia, a trace of awe flashed in his eyes, he lowered his head and stammered, "Mo... Mo will meet the city lord."

Li Congjia smiled immediately: "Yo, you still know me, come on, tell me, it's not fair."

The young man muttered twice, and just about to say something, a handsome man who was slightly taller than him walked over and said, "Reporting to the city lord, he is just a child at heart, he is not convinced for a while, there is nothing else."

Young Lang blushed: "It's unfair, we don't have horses, this battle requires the cooperation of cavalry, how can Tian Ce Mansion not have cavalry!"

A look of helplessness flashed across the face of the person beside him, and he whispered, "Speak!" Then Li Congjia stopped him when he saw what Li Congjia was about to say.

"No wonder just now I saw that this battle formation does have loopholes. It turns out that there are no cavalry, but even if you are given horses, you don't have any cavalry." Tian Ce Mansion may have cavalry in its original configuration, but cavalry is not enough for infantry to mount horses of.

The boy's eyes lit up: "We can train! We have trained!"

"What do you use for training?" Li Congjia was slightly surprised. When the Tiance Mansion moved, they didn't see any horses.

Young Lang blushed, bowed his head and said nothing, Li Congjia didn't continue to ask, but just asked, "What's your name?"

The young man saluted immediately and said: "The last general is the Tiance Mansion cavalry Cao Shenjun Lu Youyuan, he is the meritorious Cao Shen military Qinlou."

Li Congjia immediately understood why this young man was so obsessed with horses. Isn't riding Cao Shen military just to manage livestock?The most important thing in Tiance Mansion is naturally the horse.

He patted Lu Youyuan on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, there will be horses." After speaking, he appeased both sides and criticized their bad habit of fighting in private, and then Li Congjia left.

After returning to the city, Li Congjia went to Shi Xueting and asked, "I heard that there are cavalry in Tiance Mansion, is it true? If there are, I will go get some horses. We don't have enough now, Jinghuai." The army must be unwilling to separate the horses and go out."

Shi Xueting nodded: "Yes."

"How did they train the cavalry?" Li Congjia looked puzzled.

A smile flashed in Shi Xueting's eyes: "Use the antelope."

Li Congjia watched him for a long time before realizing that Shi Xueting...wasn't joking, and burst out laughing.

It's really... too miserable, people are miserable, and sheep are also miserable!

After laughing, Li Congjia began to worry about where he was going to get horses. After all, he had promised, not to mention that he really needed a troop of cavalry.

It's just that, before that, he needs to have a grand belief. When he first arrived in the Western Regions, it was not long after the New Year. He really didn't expect that the New Year would be so soon, and the time was so fast.

Because this was the first New Year in the Western Regions, the Anning City was very lively with lights and festoons that night, and Li Congjia felt a sense of accomplishment after seeing it.

On the night of New Year's Eve, Li Congjia and Zhou Ehuang took Li Zhongyu to a reunion dinner, but this reunion dinner also included Shi Xueting and Yang Xin, which made many people mutter.

After dinner, when Li Congjia was about to take Li Zhongyu and Yang Xin out to set off fireworks, he saw Liu Yi walking in from the outside with a strange expression on his face, "City Lord, the guard just reported that someone is visiting."

Li Congjia was slightly surprised: "Who is it?"

Liu Yi struggled and said: "It's your old friend, you...you can see it yourself."

old friend?Li Congjia thought about the letter Zhou Zong wrote to the Southern Tang, and wondered if someone had come over?But why are you in such a hurry?The New Year's Eve was saved?

He asked people to come in while wondering, and after he saw the leader, the fireworks in his hand were scared away.