Later, I became the prince of the group

Huguo Temple in Yanjing.

The white-clothed monk walked out of the meditation room, raised his eyelids lightly, and saluted silently to Li Pingrui who was waiting outside, and Li Pingrui returned the salute, then Liang Ye came out and said in a soft voice: "Master Li, Your Majesty has a request."

Li Pingrui nodded and went in alone.

In the meditation room, the white air on the tea has not dissipated, and the faint scent of sandalwood is lingering. On the table are a white porcelain vase, a lamp and a note with orders written on it.

Speaking of which, Emperor Chengxing came this trip in person for the sake of King An.

The emperor remembered that Chu Yan's fate was also considered rough, and remembered that there was an eminent monk in Huguo Temple who was often praised by the Queen Mother, so he wanted to come and do the fortune-telling for Chu Yan.

Emperor Chengxing was usually not interested in these things, but this time there may be other reasons besides a whim, and I don't know how the order was written, anyway, it can't be seen from Chengxing's preoccupied appearance.

After Li Pingrui sat down, Emperor Chengxing said nonchalantly: "I received a secret letter yesterday."

Li Pingrui understood: "Your Majesty, what about His Royal Highness King An?"

Emperor Chengxing threw the secret letter to him directly.

There is nothing important about it. It was written by Lord Liu. First, he reported safety and said that King An had arrived in Jiangcheng. Second, he said that the border inspections in the Southern Jin Dynasty became more stringent, and all merchant ships had to be recorded. His people wanted to go by sea. It's a little difficult to get in, so I'm going to consider posing as a Lu businessman and leaving Huizhou.

This secret letter traveled half of the Northern Qi Dynasty, in order not to leak out and make others guess, there was no urgent order, so it was already written half a month ago.

Emperor Chengxing said in a chatty tone: "He has been in the Southern Jin Dynasty for nearly a month, and I only give him a deadline of twelve months, 200 million silver. Tell me, how can he get the 50 stone grain."

Li Pingrui pondered for a moment, then shook his head: "Shu Chen couldn't think of an idea for a while, 50 shi is not a small amount, and each soldier in my court eats one shi a month, and 50 shi can make 50 soldiers march for five days. Now in the Southern Jin Dynasty The price of food is soaring, and thousands of gold are hard to come by. Although His Royal Highness brought a lot of money, but excluding food, clothing, housing and transportation, getting one hundred thousand shi of grain is the ultimate. If His Highness buys and rents land with the principal, within a year Not so much can be produced, and 100 shi is a burden for the Southern Jin Dynasty today, not to mention King An, who only brought [-] troops and has no roots. In addition, the Southern Jin Dynasty now strictly prohibits the outflow of grain. Come to the government to search."

Emperor Chengxing sighed quietly: "You should have said this to him long ago."

"Even if I said it, His Highness will insist on going." Li Pingrui said with a smile: "Your Majesty, don't worry, raising 50 shi is a merit, and raising [-] shi is also a merit, not to mention that since King An said he has a way , I am afraid that the amount raised is more than what I estimated. Isn't your majesty sending His Highness King An out just to make His Highness meritorious service?"

Emperor Chengxing said: "I asked you to mention Zhu Ting's merits in front of the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, and let him secretly raise food in the name of going to the fiefdom. Do you know what I mean?"

According to the original plan, Chu Yan should continue to hide his merits and fame in Cheng Guogong's affairs, but Emperor Chengxing improvised and asked Li Pingrui to tell all the things that King An did in the plan. The emperor also suspended the reward for him in the name of "King An meditates and cultivates himself in the fief".

Li Pingrui had already guessed in his heart, but as a courtier, this kind of speculation is absolutely unacceptable. At this time, Emperor Chengxing would raise it himself, and Li Pingrui was not surprised, but he thought it over: "Mr. ……clear."

Emperor Chengxing raised his head and glanced at him: "Since you understand, why hesitate?"

Li Pingrui's face was calm, and his tone was a little more respectful: "I didn't intend to figure it out, but Your Majesty mentioned so many points, if I don't understand, I should understand."

Emperor Chengxing immediately understood the subtext of these words: I am loyal to you, and I have no intention of speculating about other things, but if you want me to think about other things, I will think about it.

Emperor Chengxing was even more satisfied.

"It's difficult for me to let him make meritorious deeds. The idea of ​​going to the Southern Jin Dynasty was proposed by himself. He has only been sober for a year, and he has never traveled far, but he dared to bring his idea to the south, saying that he would not take the usual path. But, it’s okay to say that he doesn’t know the heights of the sky and the depths of the earth. I set him a hard-to-reach 50 stones to let him know that talking about wars on paper is not advisable, and that no matter how feasible the plan is, it must be considered in reality.”

Li Pingrui thought to himself: What if King An really got it all together?

Emperor Chengxing thought of something with him, and said: "But if he can really do it, then I don't need to worry about him having an idea and not having the ability to be down-to-earth."

Li Pingrui nodded involuntarily: "His Royal Highness Wang An is young and lacks training. This time is indeed a good opportunity."

Seeing that the point was almost finished, Emperor Chengxing pushed the slightly curled note in front of him: "Bingrui, spring is coming, you should know how to train this group of disciples."

Li Pingrui immediately sat up straight, and solemnly took the note: "I know."

He lowered his eyes, and saw that the order was written in a very simple way: more wisdom must be frustrated, only then can great power be achieved.

Not long after in Chunwei, with Li Pingrui as the chief examiner, he can naturally recruit a group of helpless children from poor families.

In the final analysis, these disciples are still disciples of the emperor, but there must also be some people who, apart from being loyal to the emperor, must also be of one mind with him, or in other words, with the future prince.

Your Majesty is using his hand to pave the way for the future prince.

Not surprisingly, in His Majesty's mind, there will be no second candidate for that position.

After speaking, Emperor Chengxing took a step ahead to admire the plum blossoms outside the temple.

Li Bingrui burned the note with a wick, went out, and met the monk again, and they stopped each other.

The monk asked, "What is great power?"

Li Pingrui was taken aback for a moment, then realized that this should be what Emperor Chengxing had asked.

The monk replied: "The talents of heaven and man are the luck of the world."

Li Pingrui clasped his hands together: "Thank you, master, for your help."

The monk smiled and nodded.

On the Dahe Mountain outside Jingzhou City, the bandits who have practiced with the professional soldiers brought by Chu Yan for many days—now they should be called Yan’s Army, just stopped training and lined up to cook.

The ladies and old people who were picked up from the village brought pots of steaming food, and the children sensibly divided the bowls and chopsticks.

Speaking of which, in the days after Chu Yan came, everyone's food immediately went up to a new level.

Regardless of whether the rice and steamed buns should be rough or rough, it is because there are too many bandits and little food in this place, and the grain merchants have all gone to other places, leaving no good food at all.But it can keep you full. I used to be reluctant to add more after eating one bowl, but now it is more than enough to add two or three bowls.

He could still eat meat once every two or three meals. Chu Yan directly took back the poultry from several nearby villages, bought some chickens and piglets, and set up a place on the mountain for the elderly and women. They feed them, so they are willing to pay them wages.

These farmers really felt that it was a great blessing for them to be able to eat enough to eat and have someone to protect them, and they refused to collect wages, but Chu Yan still asked Liu Qi to keep the account and give them as rewards later.

After all, there will be more people added later, if it is true that so many people are paid directly... Chu Yan really can't afford it, and there are still a lot of places waiting for him to spend money.

Father is really insane, there are more than 2000 million taels of silver in the treasury, if you count the money from the Zhu family, Liang Wang's mansion, ministers and officials who ransacked their homes this time, plus this year's tax money, it is estimated to be 4000 million taels It's not enough, so I allocated 200 million to him!hehe.

Because he couldn't buy good rice or noodles, what Chu Yan ate himself was no different from theirs. Someone helped him prepare the rice, so he took it and went to the house to find Liu Qi.

Liu Qi didn't close the door, and was keeping accounts.

Somebody has already delivered his portion of food, Liu Qi grabbed a steamed bun, took two bites, then took tea and poured it down his throat.

He has been eating the most refined food since he was a snack. He can't swallow this kind of rough noodles, and his stomach can't stand it. He has a stomachache every two days, and he refuses to take medicine, saying that he must let his body adapt to it. OK.

Chu Yan took the steamed bun in his hand, and Liu Qi said, "I'm almost there."

Chu Yan broke off a small piece that looked soft and put it into his mouth, saying, "You write, and I'll feed you."

Then he broke off another hard part and ate it by himself.

After finishing the calculation, Liu Qi said solemnly: "According to the current expenditure, if we really want to recruit 1 horses in the Jin Kingdom, we simply cannot afford to support them."

Chu Yan took the opportunity to feed him a piece of meat, and wiped the crumbs from the corner of his mouth for him: "Well, don't worry, my little abacus, you can talk about it after you finish eating."

Liu Qi started to eat quickly, and Chu Yan knew that he would have to pour water after eating, so he went to turn the cold water in the teapot into warm water, so as not to make his stomach cold.

Then I ate my own food leisurely, and heard Liu Qi say: "We have 3 soldiers to station, but they all bring their families and mouths, at least 150 in total. Even if they farm by themselves, they have to wait until the next day." It takes half a year to have a harvest. Now the price of grain in the Southern Jin Dynasty is almost ten times higher than ours. In the first half of the year, they will spend more than [-] million on food and clothing plus monthly silver. Collect grain to buy weapons and horses."

Chu Yan asked: "Do you know why the price of grain in the Southern Jin Dynasty is ten times higher, but I still have to come here to collect grain?"

Liu Qi propped his chin and tilted his head: "Are you testing me?"

Chu Yan raised her eyebrows and agreed.

Liu Qi thought for a while, and suddenly realized: "You can't... you don't plan to use it at all, do you?"

Chu Yan smiled and said, "That's right, I called Qu Laotie and the others to discuss today, so I plan to talk about this."

Qu Laotie was the former head of Qu Village.

Liu Qi couldn't help laughing: "You said you looked like a gentleman, why did you just do something like a bandit!"

Chu Yan had some vague ideas as early as in the Northern Qi Dynasty, but he didn't say them out because he didn't understand the actual situation in the Southern Jin Dynasty, otherwise it would be too embarrassing if he found out that it was not feasible after saying it.

Later, after learning about it, I slowly decided on a strategy.This was what he thought about day and night, and in the middle of the night he couldn't help muttering "I have to find another 1 people", and Liu Qi heard it, so Liu Qi thought about going to the bandit's lair.

These people are no longer regarded as ordinary people by the Southern Jin Dynasty, and they are the easiest to win over.

After noon, the Yan family's army went to reclaim the land and prepare for this year's spring planting. This is also learning the usual military system and self-sufficiency.

And Qu Laotie and others came to the meeting.

The content of their discussion is also very simple——

We have to stockpile food so that we can fight in the future. What should we do if there is not enough food?

Chu Yan's face was like a gentleman's, and his words were like a hooligan: "It doesn't matter, grab it. The border granary has food reserves all year round. Let's find a way to get it. If it is not enough, we will rob those rich businessmen who colluded with the government to raise prices maliciously. If it is not enough, we will rob corrupt officials. When robbing tribute, apart from not robbing the people's living food, no one will be spared."

Qu Laotie and the others were dumbfounded.

What if there are not enough weapons and horses for so many people?

Chu Yan smiled: "Of course I have to grab this."

Qu Laotie raised his hand: "My lord, the horses and weapons in our stockade have basically robbed the Jingzhou government office. Are we going to go to other places to rob them?"

Chu Yan shook his head and said: "It's too slow. We don't have enough weapons and horses. To put it bluntly, it's because the officers and soldiers haven't come to fight. Look at the old force Hutou Village. The imperial court sent a bunch of useless snacks to fight two or three times. Well, no, we have all the weapons and horses.”

Qu Laotie and the others were thoughtful.

Chu Yan asked: "We are also short of people, do you know what to do?"

Qu Laotie subconsciously said: "Grab it!"

Chu Yan: "The money is not enough, what should I do?"

Everyone: "Grab it!"

Chu Yan: "If there is a battle to be fought in the future, armor must be indispensable."

"grab!!"

"Good, children can be taught."

Chu Yan applauded with satisfaction.

Qu Laotie and the others also subconsciously applauded.

I thought to myself: As expected of the person who became our boss when he came here, he is much more skilled at being a bandit than us...

Liu Qi: "..."

The author has something to say: Chu Yan: Be a gentleman in the Northern Qi Dynasty, and a bandit leader in the Southern Jin Dynasty.