From Qucheng to the mouth of the throat is not a long distance, only two hours on horseback. Zheng Yuming riding the four-wheeled carriage speed is a little slower, more than half an hour. Huo Sizhong from Qucheng has been accompanied to the mouth of the throat, as the head of the Northwest County, Huo Sizhong year-round a large part of the time is to stay in this border city.
Wei Qing has been waiting for the delegation outside the city gate of Throat Pass, and when the scouts report that the delegation's caravan has arrived at three miles, Wei Qing rides his steed from the city gate directly to meet them, leaving the officials and nobles of Throat Pass to stare at each other.
"Wei Qing sees Lord Righteous Father!" Wei Qing hit his horse and ran to the front of Zheng Yuming's carriage, rolled over and dismounted and knelt down to perform the great salute of worship, making a loud noise.
"Eh! Wei Qing'er get up, don't be rude when you're a family member." Zheng Yuming hobbled down from the car, being called so uncomfortable by Wei Qing's loud righteous father.
"Yes! Lord Righteous Father!" Wei Qing replied loudly.
Wei adolescent development period with the Chu Chao Hui side exercise, the body in all aspects of development is very good, one meter seven four people, features handsome, strong body but not stout, a body of strength hidden under a suit of armor.
When Wei Qing took the initiative to defect to the valley, he was not tall, very thin, his body was unusually agile due to survival, giving Zheng Yuming the impression that he was a rat that could not be caught. Now the rat has become a small dragon, how can Zheng Yuming not sigh.
"Righteous Father? Why isn't Big Father here?" Wei Qing's eyes searched for Chu Chao Hui, and by Big Father, he meant Chu Chao Hui.
"Your great father is taking care of some business in Quocheng and will come to the mouth of the throat tomorrow."
Zheng Yuming's face muscles were stiff, he was not at all prepared to be a father, especially a twenty one year old young man's father. Wei Qing's loud and dry address made Zheng Yuming uncomfortable, especially since Wei Qing also gave him and Chu Chao Hui a size division.
Wei Qing eight, nine years of desire suddenly year i early realization, has been happy eyebrows, Wei Qing can not wait for all the people of Wu to hear him call Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui as his father.
"Righteous father, would it be alright to enter the city and take a rest in my child's residence first, and then visit the bazaar in the afternoon?"
With Wei Qing taking the lead, Huo Sizhong dawdled for a bit and followed suit by changing his name to Zheng Yuming. Zheng Chu two people suddenly openly accept the three of them as adopted sons, Huo Sizhong as rejoicing exceptionally, at this time, Huo Sizhong, still do not know that it is the sister's marriage contributed to this matter.
Zheng Yuming sprawled on the four-wheeled carriage rested for more than two hours, his body soreness slightly better, heard Huo Sizhong's proposal, immediately nodded his head and agreed, happy in his heart that Huo Sizhong was considerate.
Zheng Yuming at this point did not think much about why a young man who has not yet started a family, how to see from the walking posture of his physical discomfort. Zheng Yuming there is another point that he did not pay attention to, that is, the mansion in Huo Sizhong's mouth, in fact, it is the real estate that Wei Qing has purchased, Huo Sizhong's own house is in Qucheng it.
The pilgrimage delegation will stay for two days in the city of Throat Mouth, and will not depart for Zhao until the early morning of the day after tomorrow, and there will be two days of free time, which is enough for Zheng Yuming to get a good understanding of the wholesale market in Throat Mouth.
Chu Chao Hui did not travel with Zheng Yuming, he stayed in Qucheng to deal with things mainly Zeng You's mobilization.
After Chu Chao Hui reprimanded Zeng You, he gave Zeng You a transfer order the next day, and Zeng You left Qucheng that day with his wife to rush to Su Plain. The Northwest County Army would be changed to Wei Qing's overall responsibility, and in addition, Chu Chao Hui placed two officers he brought from the capital as senior commanders in the Northwest Army. Chu Chao Hui would put things in order before taking three thousand cavalry to the mouth of the throat.
After Zeng You left, his father-in-law was arrested by the criminal court of Qucheng, the charge is to occupy and buy the people's land, the people who complained to the criminal court recorded a statement, the criminal court confirmed, sentenced Zeng You's father-in-law to two and a half years of hard labor, a fine of 20,000 yuan, the fine is to compensate for the oppressed farmers.
Zeng You's old man was brought to justice by the Criminal Court, which touched the nobles of the Northwest County a lot, and many of them read the laws of Wu carefully to prevent themselves from unintentionally violating them; after all, annexing commoners' land four or five years ago was not a crime at all for the nobles.
When Chu Chao Hui rushed to the city of Throat Pass, Zheng Yuming took Gongsun Pan and Wu Mu, led by Wei Qing and Huo Sizhong, to inspect the outside of Throat Pass. Chu Chao Hui did not go looking for Zheng Yuming, but summoned the head in charge of Zhao's intelligence. There was a branch office of the Wu Intelligence Service at the mouth of the throat.
"Zhao Xuan also wants to reform?" Chu Chaohui raised his eyebrows after flipping through the information.
"Yes, the King of Zhao wants to learn the way the Kingdom of Wu selects talents by using the academic examination to select talents, and according to the news sent back by several scouts, half of the court nobles of the Kingdom of Zhao have a problem with the King's reforms."
The head of intelligence at the mouth of the throat specializes in directing the activities of Zhao's secret agents.
"It's good to be unstable! Order the informants to secretly give more provocations so that Zhao's reforms will end without any problems."
Chu Chaohui hated to see the country of Zhao immediately in great chaos. If the country of Zhao was in chaos, Zhao Xuan wouldn't be able to think nonsense.
The leader was a bit embarrassed, "Great General, this may be difficult, most of Zhao's military power is controlled by the king's beloved Bo Yao, and Zhao's respected veterans are loyal to the Zhao royal family, the king's regime is very stable."
Chu Chaohui was not convinced: "King Zhao just succeeded to the throne, even if the original power, the position will not be ten thousand solid, as long as there is an opportunity to take advantage of, we have to seize the use, now efforts may not see the effect of a moment, the long term will be difficult to say."
The headman suddenly remembered to send back a message, "Great General, there is a gossip in Zhao Wangdu that the Queen of Zhao was reprimanded by the King of Zhao for being sick because the layout of the compound for the Prime Minister was not to the King of Zhao's satisfaction."
As soon as Chu Chao Hui heard this, his forehead veins jumped, and he asked the intelligence chief to tell the details of what happened.
"In that case, Zhao Xuan's harem is not at peace!" Chu Chaohui ground his teeth for a while and suddenly smiled, "Did that queen who married from Yan once ask Zhao Xuan for food for her mother country?"
"Yes! It is said that the king of Yan wrote a personal letter to the Queen of Zhao requesting it, and that the Queen of Zhao was thus disliked by the King of Zhao, and almost failed to be ordained as queen."
Zhao Xuan's secret proposal to Huo Sihua was kept secret by both Zhao and Wu for the sake of saving face and protecting Huo Sihua's reputation. The news that the intelligence chiefs of the Zhao Kingdom have been prying into is just speculation between the Zhao Royal Palace and the nobles of the Zhao Kingdom.
Chu Chao Hui stared at the oil lamp contemplation for a long time, beckoned the head of intelligence to come forward, detailed instructions, the head of intelligence straight to listen to the eyes straight, mouth open to the boss.
Zheng Yuming came back from his inspection and met Chu Chaohui when he returned to Wei Qing's residence. "Is it done?"
Chu Chao Hui nodded, "Zeng You has already moved to Su Plain, fortunately, his father-in-law's accident was not particularly serious."
Northwest County high governor Huo Si Zhong when the official is very clean, had traveled to the old man annexation of land scruples, the farmers only dare to suppress the price of forced sale of land, human life what has not yet dared to commit.
"It's not serious in the beginning, but when you wait until later it will be uncontrollable!" Zheng Yu Ming sighed.
On the issue of official corruption, Zheng Yuming came from Qucheng on the way to the mouth of the throat, has been thinking about this problem. Corruption is the power is not supervised to appear phenomenon.
Ancient times with what above the sword, tiger-head guillotine intimidation is simply useless, modern discipline inspection committee seems to be unable to deter the determination of corrupt officials corruption.
To curb the phenomenon of corruption at all, we can only start from two aspects, one is the legal system, and the other is public opinion supervision, and the registration of the property of officials before they take office is the first thing that must be done.
"When you return from your mission, let's discuss the corruption suppression program."
"I'm leaving for Jo tomorrow morning!"
"Be careful on your way." Chu Chao Hui reached out and pressed his hand at the base of Zheng Yuming's thigh, where his Type 92 pistol was pinned.
"If you don't trust me, you have to trust the Dragon Tiger Army! Those are all one in a hundred warriors, with their protection, I'll be fine." Zheng Yuming was a bit helpless, his own 180 centimeters, because of the assassination incident, caused Chu Chao Hui to protect him as if he was fragile.
"The Dragon Tiger Army is very valiant, but you still have to beware of intrigues and tricks." Chu Chao Hui is still uneasy, there are some curiosities that you have to beware of as well, "I instructed Da Niu, every night in the future, Da Niu and Woody will have to sleep next to you."
Zheng Yuming looked at Chu Chao Hui's face and wisely didn't choose to oppose it, Chu Chao Hui had a big problem with Zhao Xuan traveling with him on the pilgrimage. With Da Niu and Woody following him around like a shadow, Zhao Xuan didn't have a chance to be alone with him.
"I will remain at the Throat Mouth Citadel for the duration of your mission."
Throat mouth of the city has 40,000 garrison, Chu Chao Hui sitting here, is also a deterrent to Zhao Xuan, in order to prevent Zhao to make moves to harm Zheng Yuming, although the current relationship between Zhao and Wu, Zhao Xuan will harm Zheng Yuming when the chance of occurrence is quite quite small.
Chu Chao Hui said while pressing the gun hand changed direction and skillfully moved between Zheng Yuming's legs.
"My back is still sore!!!" Jung Yuming protested.
"We're going to be separated for over a month!!!" Chu Chao Hui sounded as mournful as the night before.
"Doing too much is bad for your health!" Zheng Yuming reminded.
"Who said that? Life lies in movement!!!" Chu Chao Hui retorted with a ragged breath.
"If you do this, you'll be dead."
"Then I'll die first!" Chu Chaohui was brave and not afraid of sacrifice.
"......" Jung Yuming's voice disappeared.
Early the next morning, the delegation waited Wei Qing residence for a long time, only to see Zheng Yuming's four-wheeled carriage from the house directly out, always enough blood Chu Chaohui, face even a little white. But in the end the general is a great general, fighting a night on horseback is still stable, has been the delegation team to the throat mouth barrier, see the delegation into the State of Zhao do not see the horses raise dust, the general only wilt wilt horse turn back.
Zhao and the mouth of the throat neighboring places were originally Wei land, the people of the two places each other have relatives. Because of the close relationship, the people interacted with each other frequently. The cities and towns of Wu promoted the planting of corn, pumpkins, potatoes and sweet potatoes, and in less than two years, they were carried back by the people of Zhao who came to the mouth of the throat to visit their relatives and planted them in their own farmland.
When the mission crossed the border, the crop cultivation on both sides of the official road of Zhao was comparable to that of the farmers at the mouth of the throat. The farmers on both sides were living well because of the larger harvests from their fields. However, these people still envied the people of Wu's throat port because the people there paid less taxes, had more benefits, and could work in factories and workshops to earn wages in their spare time.
After the original Wei land, Wu's unique crops began to decrease, but a large area of cotton and hemp crops began to appear, which were all owned by the nobles of Zhao. The cotton and hemp crops of Zhao were all supplied to the textile factories and workshops of Wu, and the income from planting such cash crops was twice as high as that from planting grain.
Zhao's official road road is not as wide and flat as Wu's. The official road from the mouth of the throat to the capital of the King of Zhao is one of the busy roads in Zhao, and originally had a rugged surface. After the beginning of spring this year, Zhao Xuan ordered to draft the people on both sides of the official road to repair the road, just for Zheng Yuming's visit to Zhao to ride comfortably.
Now this road has just been repaired and leveled, Zheng Yuming four-wheeled carriage has resin made tires, the bottom of the carriage is also placed in the copper spring, shock absorption many, walking on the official road is not too bumpy.
Zheng Yuming lay on the carriage for half a day and regained his strength, so he had the leisure to care about the situation on both sides of the road. Gongsun Pan and Wu Mu both squeezed into Zheng Yuming's carriage, and the three of them stared out the window at the scenery while making comments.
On this trip, the happy one was the German shepherd big wolf dog Woody, who became very wild when he went out of Kangcheng, and never refused to sit in the carriage, but just ran after the team. Sometimes he was nosy and ran into the fields to chase away the birds. Always startled large flocks of birds fluttering in the sky. Good guards and dragon tiger soldiers mounts are well-trained war horses, did not occur because of the wood harassment alarm.
"Zhao's land is better than Wu's! It's all plains!" Zheng Yuming looked at the road on both sides of a vast expanse of good land envy, only one-third of Wu's domestic plains, the rest are hills and mountains, just the two major mountain ranges of the Azure Mountain and Qimen Mountain, which accounted for one-third of the territory of the State of Wu.
"Of the six great powers, Zhao has many good fields." Gongsun Pan also nodded in agreement.
"Huh! The Zhao people repaired waterwheels, haha! The waterwheels repaired are all Gongsun waterwheels." Wu Mu yelled as he pointed out the window, the Zhao waterwheels were built according to the drawings sent by Zheng Yuming.
Gongsun Pan tilted his head out of the car window to get a better look, then shrunk back to Zheng Yuming and issued a question, "Your Excellency, I wonder if Zhao will be a threat to Wu when it becomes strong."
Although Gongsun Pan was a native of Tianzidu, he had been in Wu for nearly ten years, especially after becoming the director of education in Wu, and had long since integrated himself into the state of Wu.
Zheng Yuming smiled faintly, and before he opened his mouth to answer Gongsun Pan, Wu Mu yelled out first: "What need does my country have to be afraid of Zhao? As long as we close the border at the mouth of the throat and stop buying Zhao's cotton and hemp, Zhao will be in chaos!"
Wu closed the throat gate, Zhao will have to face the lack of salt, lack of daily necessities, less tax collection. Zhao aristocrats planted cotton and hemp will have to rot manor, Zhao planted cash crops area accounted for one-third of the total good land, which is still Zhao Xuan on the planting of cash crops to raise the tax levied, some suppression of the situation.
When Zhao and Wu were at war, those nobles in Zhao who grew cash crops would not agree in the first place.
Gongsun Pan shook his head straight after thinking it over, "Industry and commerce are as fierce as tigers!"
Zheng Yuming bowed towards Gong Sun Pan: "It's all thanks to Mr. Gong Sun Pan, who made and improved many machines!" The tools for drawing brine from the brine wells in the salt farms in the East China Sea were made by Gong Sun Pan, and as a result, the output of the salt farms doubled again.
Zheng Yuming provided the theory, Gongsun Pan was hands-on, and Gongsun Pan led his disciples in inventing and improving tools for factories and workshops. Gong Sun Pan was not so much the Director of the Department of Education as the Chief Mechanical Engineer.
"My lord, when it comes to improving the manufacturing tools, there are too few disciples under Pan, not enough to go around!" Gongsun Pan cried out in agony.
Zheng Yuming considered for a while and felt that Wu had reached the point where it was necessary to establish specialized technical colleges to train engineers.
"Mr. Gongsun, in the future, Wu will open a specialized technical college."
Gongsun Pan's eyes lit up. "Pan goes to be the principal!"
"Not only will we open a college to train artisans and craftsmen, but we will also open a medical school and an academy of sciences. Can Mr. Gongsun be the dean of these many colleges?"
Gongsun Pan will only be the President of the Academy of Sciences in the future, specializing in invention research.
In this time and space, witchcraft and medicine are not separated, and most of the old doctors under Jiang Gui are witch doctors. Jiang Gui himself is a pure healer, he is very annoyed with the god of witchcraft, and those witch doctors are not very communication, Jiang Gui are their own disciples.
Jiang Gui alone had limited energy and couldn't take on many disciples, and the vast majority of his disciples were taken on in the Minghui Valley.
The longest of these disciples had followed Jiang Gui for seven years, and the youngest for five years. Some of them were already ready to leave the school.
Kang Kyu wanted to promote the medical arts, so he thought about opening an academy to take in students, and had already mentioned it to Zheng Yuming a few times.
Zheng Yuming's mission to Haojing this time, did not bring the medical skill Jiang Gui with him, but brought Jiang Gui under the excellent a disciple as the mission healer.
Queen Tian is due to give birth in May, and it's dangerous for a woman to give birth to her first child without a cesarean section and antibiotics, and Jung Yoo-myung left Kang-gyu in Kangseong so that Queen Tian's labor would go smoothly.
For Zheng Yuming's heart, how could the thoughtful Queen Tian not understand, because of the gratitude in her heart, Queen Tian eight months pregnant, still insisted on following the Wu Wangsheng to the Kang City outside for Zheng Yuming to trample.
It took three days to travel by carriage from the mouth of the throat to the king's capital of Zhao, and when Zheng Yuming arrived at Qucheng, Zhao's scouts sent the news to Zhao Xuan. When Zheng Yuming departed, Zhao Xuan already knew that Zheng Yuming would arrive at the King of Zhao's capital three days later.
"Prepare the horses, I'm going to the palace." Zhao Xuan was excited to hear the news that Zheng Yuming would be arriving, and wanted to go to the palace to inspect it again to see if there was any negligence in the palace's arrangement.
"Naw!" The attendant hurried off to carry out the order.
"Great King! The Grand Duke has come to ask for peace!" The attendant on duty reported with his head bowed.
"Oh, Rui'er is here, let him come in." Zhao Xuan stopped in his tracks.
Zhao Rui, who was already four years old, was led into Zhao Xuan's palace by the maid.
"Father Father King!" Zhao Rui was a bit afraid of his father and stuttered a bit in his speech.
His son's stuttering made Zhao Xuan frown, "What did Mr. Teach today?"
Zhao Xuan himself had been practicing the six arts since he was four years old, and when Zhao Rui was four years old, Zhao Xuan assigned his son an enlightened tutor. Zhao Rui has been learning from his Enlightenment Tutor for more than a month.
"First Mr. Mr. taught taught five five canon." Zhao Rui answered with a sweat, Zhao Xuan also heard a sweat.
Zhao Xuan silently looked at his son speechless, Zhao Rui lowered his head and suddenly raised his head and said fluently, "Mother's body is sick, is it okay for Father to visit today?"
Hearing his son fluent words, Zhao Xuan eyes slightly narrowed: "Come on people, take the eldest son to the bedchamber, later stay in the palace with the tutor to learn the language properly, usually nothing, do not come to lone here to ask for peace!"
Zhao Xuan paused for a moment and added, "Aside from the tutor, the harem people and others should not bother Gongzi in the future."
Zhao Xuan don't even need to use his head to think, the stuttering son suddenly spoke fluently, that sentence must have been memorized countless times. Zhao Xuan was very sick of women using mind tricks, and the one being used was the future heir of Zhao.
The maid who took care of Zhao Rui's face turned gray and hurriedly led the still confused Zhao Rui to bow and exit.
Zhao Xuan's pleasant mood was interrupted when he walked out of the palace and ran into his concubine daughter Ji and his youngest son Zhao Jing again.
"Your Majesty!" A faintly elegant daughter, holding her young son, saluted Zhao Xuan.
"Father hug!" Zhao Jing was less than three years old and wasn't afraid of Zhao Xuan yet, opening his little hand when he saw Zhao Xuan.
"Jing'er good boy!" Seeing his lively and cute little son, Zhao Xuan had a smile on his face, Zhao Rui looked similar to his mother, while Zhao Jing looked similar to Zhao Xuan when he was a child, a beautiful little boy.
"Great King! Duke Ming will be coming to the royal capital soon, should I first have the cooks prepare the banquet ingredients?"
Zhao Xuan held his son and teased him for a while, looking at the plainly dressed Concubine Ji the more she looked at him.
"Lone is about to go to the palace, Aifei will go with him."
"No!" A smile spread across your daughter's face, it was true that dressing closer to Mr. Ming's preferences would win her husband's favor.
In a gorgeous palace, there was a smell of medicine wafting through the palace, Queen Zhao was lying on her bed looking expectantly at the palace door, and when she saw her personal maid come in, hope flashed in Queen Zhao's eyes.
"Ma'am!" The maid kept her head down as she entered.
"Where is the Prince? Have you seen the king?" Queen Zhao hooked her head to look behind her maid.
"Your Ladyship! The Prince has met the King!"
"What about the Prince?" The personal maid kept her head down, causing Queen Zhao's heart to rise ominously.
"The Prince has returned to his chambers." After Zhao Rui opened his mind, he had his own separate palace and lived separately from Queen Zhao.
"Did your son not say anything to the king?" Queen Zhao was anxious, for her son to say a smooth sentence, Queen Zhao made Zhao Rui memorize for the whole afternoon, and didn't go to school that day's classwork.
"Said it!"
"Told you? The Great King won't come even after you've said it?" Queen Zhao's heart sank.
"The king has ordered that from now on, the prince will study his lessons with his tutor in his bedchamber, and will not be allowed to go anywhere." The personal maid fell to her knees. Zhao Xuan was trying to separate Zhao Rui from Queen Zhao.
"Bam!" Unsurprisingly to the maid, Queen Zhao flung a white porcelain bowl containing tonic tonic over her head onto the ground.
"Get out!" Queen Zhao hissed. "All of you get out, and no one comes in!"
The palace attendants exited the palace in a panic. The valet hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she did not dare to tell her master about the scene of Zhao Xuan's meeting with your daughter's mother and son.
Queen Zhao lying down against the pillow tears, this opulent palace, Queen Zhao suddenly felt so lonely and helpless.