Go to ancient times and engage in construction

In the evening, a caravan of more than [-] people came outside the north gate of Kangcheng.The horses of the caravan are strong, the guards are all strong and vigorous, and the leader of the caravan is tall and straight, with an extraordinary appearance.This pair of pedestrians, businessmen and horses looks obviously aggressive, and pedestrians will unconsciously avoid them when they meet.

The caravan handed over the document at the city gate and entered the city smoothly. A middle-aged man walked up not far from the north gate of the city. He bowed his hands to the leader of the caravan and lowered his head slightly.

"My little one has seen my master, the place where I'm staying has been tidied up, my master can go to rest early."

"Well, lead the way." The leader of the caravan didn't look too good, and there was no smile on his face.

"Here!" The visitor retreated to the front of the caravan and led the way, leading everyone to a secluded courtyard.

From the outside, the courtyard looks like a very ordinary dwelling, but when you enter the courtyard, you will find that there is something special about it. The main house of the stables is well-equipped, the weeds in the courtyard are cleaned up quite clean, many ornamental flowers and trees are planted, and the furniture in the room is exquisite. It is by no means the home of ordinary people. can afford.The middle-aged man who led the way led the caravan into the yard, closed the gate, and immediately saluted the leader of the caravan again.

"The humble official Wei Zou sees His Royal Highness the Crown Prince! There were too many people at the gate of the city just now, and we couldn't perform the full ceremony. Please forgive the humble official!"

The middle-aged man is Zhao Guomi's head, named Wei Zou, who has settled in Kangcheng, the capital of King Wu, as a businessman for four years.The person in front of him was none other than Zhao Xuan, Prince Zhao.As early as the end of last year, Zhao Xuan wanted to make an unannounced visit to the state of Wu in person, but he couldn't find time until mid-May this year because of the numerous state affairs.Zhao Xuan entrusted the state affairs to Wen Zai and his cronies, and brought his family Wu Xian, Wu Zai Boyao and thirty martial arts masters into Wu from the throat.

"When doing things outside, be careful. How can I care?" Zhao Xuan waved his hand. He was satisfied with Zhao Guo's operation at this secret point in Cannes. With this information point, Zhao Xuan could understand Cannes's movements.

"His Royal Highness has worked hard all the way, should you take a bath and change clothes first?" Wei Zou knew that Zhao Xuan was going to Cannes, and these days, Wei Zou would wait at the north gate every day.

"Yeah." The weather was hot, and Zhao Xuan's clothes were already soaked in sweat from the rush, so it would be best to take a shower and change into clean clothes.

Wei Zou's subordinates prepared a large bathtub for Zhao Xuan, and the servant who came to bathe Zhao Xuan was handsome and thoughtful.Zhao Xuan closed his eyes and leaned back on the wooden barrel, while relaxing his body and let the servant massage him, while recalling what he saw and heard after entering Wu, the more he recalled, the more depressed Zhao Xuan became.

Zhao Xuan arrived at the throat border at the end of May. Both sides of the border, whether it is Zhao country or Wu country, are very lively, and there are bustling people who come to buy and sell goods.In addition to merchants and hawkers, farmers in the surrounding areas often come here to trade. They transport their agricultural products to the market and sell them in exchange for the agricultural tools or daily necessities they need. The price is higher than that sold to vendors who come to buy, and the farm tools and daily necessities bought are much cheaper than those bought from vendors.

Since the people around the throat knew the benefits of the bazaar, they ran very diligently in the bazaar, especially the people of Zhao State, even if they had to walk on the road for a day, they would try their best to carry their own agricultural products to trade here.You can get more coins after a hard trip, because the price of Wuyan in the bazaar is half that of Zhao Guo's. Even if you pay a little checkpoint tax, it will be a big profit for the farmers.

Zhao Xuan was very happy to see that his checkpoint was very busy collecting taxes, but he just wondered why the price of Wu's salt was lower as it was sold.Now the price of salt in Wu State is four or five times lower than that of four years ago, which has led to a high demand for salt in Zhao State, and the amount of imported salt has doubled compared with previous years. There are also more and more salt vendors.Zhao Xuan was sure that those salt dealers who sold Wu country's cheap and high-quality salt would earn a fortune for their families, even if the northern Rong people went south to rob, they couldn't frighten these merchants who wanted money and life.

In the past few years, the winter has been extremely cold, and countless livestock of the nomadic peoples in the north have froze to death. The Rong tribe, facing the crisis of survival, formed an alliance to form a robbery team and went south to the middle and upper reaches of the river.Large counties are protected by high walls, and the Rong people are often unable to attack the city. Those small counties and villages with poor protection are unlucky. Both the young and old captives were killed.Where the Rong people's horseshoes passed, they left a piece of blood and scorched earth, which was extremely miserable.If the merchants in the merchants met the Rong people, they could not escape, and they could only lose their lives and property.

In fact, the salt in Wu State is getting cheaper and cheaper. First, it is due to the change of salt production methods in the salt factory on the coast of the East China Sea. In addition, it is also due to the help of the climate.In the past few years, the coast of the East China Sea has been sunny with little rain and sufficient sunshine, shortening the time for salt formation. The salt production on the coast of the East China Sea has continued to increase, resulting in the accumulation of salt in the salt warehouse.In order to sell all the salt, the salt factory can only continue to cut prices to stimulate consumption.

The salt harvest in Wu State was abundant, and the people of Wu State also benefited. The salt they were reluctant to buy was already at a normal price, and some people even began to use salt to marinate meat that they could not eat.

Zhao Xuan is very curious about the East China Sea Salt Factory in Wu State. He has already sent several groups of people to the East China Sea to investigate, but the surrounding area of ​​the East China Sea Salt Factory is heavily guarded, and there is a high wall outside the salt factory. All in warehouses outside the salt factory.The workers working in the salt factory on the coast of the East China Sea all live in the salt factory and do not have contact with the outside world. The spies sent by Zhao Xuan could not get information from the salt factory, but they were arrested because they were always wandering around the salt factory. After losing several batches of spies, Zhao Xuan had no choice but to give up.

Zhao Xuan's joy at the border when he saw that his checkpoints were busy collecting taxes disappeared when he entered the throat city.

Zhao Xuan led troops to garrison in this small city more than three years ago. At that time, the throat city was neither dilapidated nor prosperous, and the city walls were not very tall. , turning the not-so-tall city wall into an ice wall, so that Zhao Jun could not build a ladder on the ice wall to attack the city, and the city at the throat had already been taken by Zhao Xuan.

In just three years, the Throat City that Zhao Xuan saw was no longer the small city before.The area of ​​the city has expanded by one-third, and the city walls have been completely rebuilt to be tall and generous. In addition to the city, there are two satellite castles guarding them. The satellite castles are all garrisoned by the Wu Kingdom. There are as many as [-] people, including more than half of the cavalry. .

With a gloomy face, Zhao Xuan led his men into the city of Yanhoukou. The city seemed to be a large construction site, with ditches being dug and houses being built everywhere. Even if the weather was hot, it couldn't stop the enthusiasm of the young laborers from hundreds of miles around the city of Yanhoukou to work and earn money. People were sweating profusely. working.

Seeing the hard-working people, Zhao Xuan no longer wondered that there were no supervisors with whips around him, because he knew that these people worked voluntarily.These people are not in labor service, unlike the former conscripts in the vassal states, who have to provide their own dry food to work for the nobles in addition to giving their strength for nothing. Now they are paid to work on the construction site.Zhao Xuan's Wen Wei Po in the past few years is not in vain. Well, in April, Dacheng's Nanfang Daily appeared.

After Dacheng Nanfang Newspaper came out, Zhao Xuan thought about running a newspaper himself. Unfortunately, Zhao country did not have printing technology, and the paper had to be imported from Wu, and the price was expensive. A newspaper sold for half Wu coins, even if it sold for two Wu coins. , Zhao Xuan could not recover the cost.Due to the high technology and cost, Zhao Xuan can only keep this plan in imagination.

Zhao Xuan and his party did not stay long in the throat city like a large construction site, and went across the city to Qucheng.Zhao Xuan had never visited Qu City before, so he didn't know what Qu City looked like more than three years ago. He only saw that the city in front of him was more prosperous than Zhao's city, with dense population and many vendors.Wu Xian, Zhao Xuan's servant, went to Wu State twice as an envoy, and he visited Qucheng. He told Zhao Xuan that Qucheng was at least twice as prosperous as when Beihou ruled.

After staying in Qucheng for a day, Zhao Xuan and his party went on the road again. Zhao Xuan planned to visit Kangcheng, the capital of King Wu, and then go to Ulsan. After seeing Ulsan, he returned to Zhao.

The road leading from Qucheng to Kangcheng has just been completed, and the horse-drawn carriages driving on the flat road can make travel less painful for tourists, but for Zhao Xuan, the more convenient the transportation in Wu country, the more bored he is.The convenient transportation can make Wu country's military dispatch quickly, which is not good news for Zhao Xuan who originally wanted to occupy Wu country's territory.

Just after leaving Qucheng, Zhao Xuan's convoy encountered a Wu cavalry, and was blocked by the marching troops who cleared the way to the side of the road to make way.There were three thousand cavalry, the flags were fluttering, the morale of the riders was high, and the march was orderly. In just a moment, the large group of people and horses passed in front of Zhao Xuan.Zhao Xuan noticed that the general of the cavalry was tall and burly, his face was obscured by the helmet, but Zhao Xuan was amazed by the general's aura.After the cavalry left, Zhao Xuan learned from the people beside the station that the leading general just now was none other than General Wu Chu Chaohui.

Along the way, Zhao Xuan saw that the army of Wu was strong and the people were healthy, so he knew that the original policy towards Wu had to be changed.Wu Guo was no longer a country that Zhao Guo wanted to annex, but a strong neighbor that Zhao Guo had to guard against. Thinking of having such a strong neighbor by his side, Zhao Xuan was in a very bad mood along the way.

Zhao Xuan's closed eyes suddenly opened, and his fingers pinched the boy's slipping hands, causing the boy to cry out in pain.

"His Royal Highness, please take care of me." The young man's skin was very fair. He rubbed Zhao Xuan vigorously just now, and his face was already flushed. Now because of the pain, his eyes were a little teary, but he looked charming.

The place that the servant just met was the sensitive side of Zhao Xuan's lower body. It has been seven or eight days since Zhao Xuan set off from the capital of King Zhao. As soon as the servant teased Zhao Xuan, he became aroused. Seeing that the servant had a special demeanor, his heart moved. He couldn't help pulling the servant into the tub, tearing off his underwear, letting the servant turn over and lie on the wooden barrel, and entered the servant's room with a gun. In the back acupoint, he found that the boy had already done dilating, and knew that Wei Zou had specially prepared it for him, so he immediately galloped hard on the boy, venting his desire and depression along the way.

Zhao Xuan took a shower for an hour, and came out of the bathroom only after feeling refreshed.Zhao Xuan left the bathroom, and the servants in the yard went in to tidy up, and by the way, helped away the servant who was made unable to walk by Zhao Xuan.

"Wei Zou, what's new in Cannes?" Zhao Xuan sat on an armchair and drank a cup of tea comfortably. Wu Xian and Boyao had already washed and changed their clothes and sat under Zhao Xuan.Wu Xian and Bo Yao were still a little unaccustomed to this way of sitting, chairs were not popular in Zhao country yet, they still kneeled and sat on the mats.

"His Royal Highness, General Chu Chaohui of the Kingdom of Wu took [-] cavalry to inspect the Northwest County three days ago." Wei Zou's news is outdated, and Zhao Xuan met Chu Chaohui outside Qucheng three days ago .

"Do you know when Chu Chaohui will return?"

"I don't know." Wei Zou bowed his head. The information he inquired was all inferred and judged from the phenomena he could see. Chu Zhaohui led three thousand cavalry out of Cannes, and Wei Zou and his men saw the cavalry leaving the city. As far as I know, Chu Chaohui's destination was also deduced by asking the businessman who met the cavalry on the road.

"Is there any other news?" Zhao Xuan frowned. Wei Zou has been active in Cangcheng for nearly four years. Except for being close to a few worthless officials in the royal court of Wu, he has not been able to win him over so much that he can really speak in the royal court. officials.

"I also found out that Wu Wang and the young master will go south to Ulsan for patrol tomorrow." Wei Zou told Zhao Xuan the news that he only confirmed yesterday. In fact, this news is no longer a secret. Zheng Yuming and Wu Wangsheng went south as early as a week ago. According to the court agreement, the news came out from the mouth of the steward who came out to buy from the palace, and some civilians in Cannes City had already heard about it.

"Oh, King Wu and Young Master are going to Ulsan?" Zhao Xuan was looking for a chance to meet the legendary Young Master Luoyan in Cannes.

"Yes, I also found out that the king of Wu and the young master will take a boat to Nanbu tomorrow. This evening, the Gaomadi ferry has been under martial law. Tomorrow the road from Kangcheng to the ferry will also be under martial law." A notice will be posted on the wall of the palace in advance to let the residents of Cannes know in advance, and the start of martial law will be marked on the king list.

Zhao Xuan put down his cup and gave an order: "Wei Zou, help Gu find a place to observe, Gu wants to see this son of Wu Guo with his own eyes."

Zhao Xuan wanted to see Zheng Yuming's true face, but he didn't know that his whereabouts had been exposed in Cannes.Zhao Xuan's departure from Zhao Guo to Wu was done secretly, and Huang Zhong's intelligence personnel in Wangdu didn't notice it.But when Zhao Xuan went to Cangcheng to meet Wei Zou, the intelligence officers of the Wu Kingdom who had been monitoring Wei Zou discovered that Huang Zhong was already on his way to the Prime Minister's Office when Zhao Xuan was taking a shower in the stronghold and tossing around with the servants.