You don’t necessarily have to go to the south of the Yangtze River. The Grand Canal spans four provinces, from north to south, and many of the scenery along the way are worth savoring.
However, his father is reluctant to return to the capital. If he leaves the capital, who will guard Shengjing and handle daily government affairs?
Moreover, since he finally went on a long trip, he would definitely have to take his sons with him.
Who to take?
Unable to make up his mind, Sheng Hong decided to draw lots, which was the fairest way.
He called several princes to the Qiuxian Hall, and then made a few paper balls in front of the princes. If he drew the one who left the capital, he would follow him out of the capital.
The one who draws Shengjing will stay in Shengjing to handle trivial government affairs on his behalf.
The drawing process was very simple. Several princes opened the paper balls in their hands. As soon as the sixth prince saw the word "departure from the capital" on the paper, he immediately looked up and looked at the paper balls of other brothers.
Because his right arm could not use the strength, he was the slowest in opening the paper ball. The remaining princes had already unfolded the paper ball.
The fourth prince's paper ball was written with the word "departure from the capital".
The same goes for the second prince and the eldest prince.
When the Sixth Prince saw this, his eyebrows immediately wrinkled, and he looked at the Seventh Prince.
The word Shengjing was written on the ball of paper in the palm of the seventh prince's hand.
Sheng Hong smiled and said: "Next year, Xiao Qi will supervise the country."
Hearing this, the sixth prince said with some gloominess: "Father, can't you leave one more brother to oversee the country with your seventh brother?"
Supervisor, this is the kind of treatment only a crown prince can get.
He also wants to supervise the country.
If he left the capital, he would have to leave for half a year. For such a long time, he would rather stay in Shengjing and learn how to approve memorials.
"Well... let's smoke it again."
Sheng Hong thought for a while and changed his mind.
The Sixth Prince was overjoyed when he heard this. When he was choosing paper balls from the jar, he deliberately touched the Zhenguo Jade Seal placed on the imperial desk with his left hand, so that he could soak up the dragon spirit of the jade seal.
But when the results came out, he frowned again. The person who won the title of Shengjing this time was the second prince, his second brother, the second brother who didn't want to compete for the throne!
The second prince looked at the paper ball in his hand and felt it was hot. He didn't want to be the emperor. What kind of country was he overseeing?
"Father, I want to go out to play. This time it won't count. How about I quit and the fourth brother, sixth brother and seventh brother will do it again?"
"No, if it is invalidated this time, then every subsequent one may be invalidated. That's it."
Sheng Hong shook his head and persisted.
However, looking at the ugly expression on the sixth prince's face, he added: "If the trip goes well next year, then my father will go out to play often, and then you will take turns supervising the country."
As soon as these words came out, the ugly look on the Sixth Prince's face immediately disappeared. He looked at Sheng Hong in surprise: "Father, are you serious?"
"Of course it's true. It will definitely let each of you experience what it's like to supervise the country." Sheng Hong said with a smile.
"Okay!" The sixth prince became truly happy.
He has been having bad luck in recent years. Last time he won the Western Shem province and lost an arm. This time he failed to supervise the country, but next time he won't be drawn by lot.
If we take turns, it will always be his turn!
The seventh prince looked at the joy on the sixth prince's face and felt a little bitter in his heart.
He would rather exchange paper balls with his sixth brother.
He doesn't want to supervise the country.
He wanted to go south to meet Meng Yue.
In this scene where some people were happy and others were sad, Sheng Hong called out Li Qiao from behind the screen. Li Qiao would definitely accompany him. He asked Li Qiao to come over and discuss the stopping places along the way.
Li Qiao named Weiqing County without hesitation.
He wanted to visit Weiqing County.
Sheng Hong laughed a few times when he saw this and nodded in agreement.
This time he went out in search of excitement. Since Li Aiqing's dock was very lively, of course he couldn't miss it.
Seeing this, the other princes also pointed out their own docks, saying that they could also go to their respective docks to have a look.
Of course, the stopping place cannot be decided in one day and must be discussed slowly.
Because of this tour, all the civil and military officials in the court became excited. It has been almost eighteen years since the Holy Emperor ascended the throne. This is the first time he left Beijing with great fanfare. Many officials enthusiastically signed up and wanted to join the fleet to see both sides of the Grand Canal. scenery.
The weather has been cold in recent years, and when officials go on annual vacation, the Grand Canal is frozen solid.
If you want to enjoy the scenery, you have to take advantage of the spring-autumn time period, but they are not Li Qiao, so they don't have the nerve to ask for a month's leave.
Therefore, if you want to experience the Grand Canal, this is the best opportunity.
Chapter 263 During the Chinese New Year, Sheng Hong’s southern tour was short of manpower.
A group of courtiers really wanted to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Grand Canal, not just to gain a sense of presence in front of Sheng Hong.
Li Qiao was very emotional when he saw this.
It is said that accompanying the emperor is like accompanying a tiger, but in the great prosperity, all the ministers excitedly wanted to travel with the emperor, what a wonderful sight.
Even Xu Ying approached Li Qiao and wanted Li Qiao to help talk to Sheng Hong so that he and Shen Hua could also visit Yangzhou with fireworks in March.
Shen Hua yearned for Jiangnan, but he didn't have time to accompany Shen Hua on a long trip. He didn't want to miss this rare opportunity.
Of course, another reason is that now he and Shen Hua only have one child, Brother Xin. His parents are picking on Shen Hua every day. Shen Hua can't avoid it even if he hides in the charity hall. He wants Shen Hua to get out. Take some time to relax.
Apart from Xu Ying, the three little guys who shouted the loudest in front of Li Qiao were the three little guys.
The southern tour, according to the normal speed, it takes a month from Shengjing to Suzhou and Hangzhou. If you go back and forth, it will take two months. If there are many stops on the road, it will take at least one return. It will take four months to return to Beijing.
Four months!
How can they bear this?
They will miss their daddy, daddy/uncle, uncle, and uncle so much that they can't sleep.
Woohoo.
Ying Ying Ying.
Hum hum.
The three little guys were crying, acting coquettishly, and rolling on the kang in various ways, but Li Qiao had no intention of relenting.
It's not that Li Qiao is cruel, but there is no room on the boat.
Although this was Sheng Hong's first southern tour, Sheng Hong did not intend to make a big splash. He did not plan to bring too many people with him from the beginning, so he left the seventh prince and the second prince to supervise the country. He was only responsible for handling some of the seven princes. The prince and the second prince had urgent matters that they couldn't handle. In this way, he didn't need too many courtiers to accompany him.
According to Sheng Hong's preliminary idea, the entire fleet, including the accompanying guards and forbidden troops, could not exceed 150 ships.
Sheng Hong also did not want coastal officials to search for people's wealth and anointing to please him, so he brought many supplies with him.
As a result, there must be dozens of transport ships carrying daily supplies, and only a hundred can carry people.
Of these one hundred ships, Sheng Hong, the prince, and others must each have their own one ship, while the concubines and concubines in the harem will each have one ship.
The Imperial Guard also occupied thirty ships.
What remains are the boats of cooks, handymen, and others.
As a result, there are not many ships that can be distributed to nobles and ministers.
Moreover, in the entire fleet, except for the royal ships, which were larger in size and were four stories high, the rest were all two- and three-story ships that were common on passenger ships and cargo ships on the Grand Canal.
Because large ships have deep drafts, and some rivers in the Grand Canal are shallow, large ships have to rely on trackers to pull the boats forward if they want to pass through these shallow rivers.
Sheng Hong was unwilling to recruit people to work as trackers for the fleet for free. If Sheng Hong used trackers, he would definitely pay trackers like other ships on the Grand Canal.
If there are too many ships accompanying them, there will definitely not be enough trackers, so a group of people will have to be recruited at any time.
At that time, Sheng Hong will have to pay more wages to the people.
Sheng Hong was unwilling to shell out the money.
Moreover, Sheng Hong felt that there was no need to spend this money.
Although the comfort of a small boat is not as good as that of a big boat, it is not impossible to ride on it, because the so-called small boats have the same specifications as those luxury boats used by the rich and noble people on the Grand Canal.
Since the rich and noble people took this kind of boat when they went out alone, why couldn't they take it during the southern tour?
There are regulations on the number of ships and ship specifications, and there are too many people who want to go, so the location becomes very crowded.
However, these have little to do with Li Qiao.
Because as Sheng Hong's favorite, Li Qiao will live on Sheng Hong's dragon boat.
Li Qiao was embarrassed to bring along three little guys after taking Tao Zhu. Although the three little guys were sensible, Sheng Hong was the emperor after all. What if the three little guys bumped into Sheng Hong accidentally? .
Moreover, Sheng Hong was not seen being very close to any of the emperor's grandsons on weekdays. He judged that Sheng Hong did not like children very much. In this case, he naturally could not let the three little guys follow him.
Of course, he had other options. He could arrange for the three little guys to live on other ships, but he didn't worry.
The boat was in such a small place, and even though the three little guys knew how to swim, they couldn't keep an eye on them all the time, which made him feel uneasy.
Tao Zhu thought the same way. He and Li Qiao worked together to harden their hearts and refused to accept the coquettishness of the three little guys.
Amid everyone's expectations for next year's southern tour, winter is coming.
This winter is still very cold.
Everyone in Shengjing has been forced to get used to the severe cold in the past few years, and they have prepared all kinds of supplies before winter.
In the past few years, the shantang has been distributing warm clothes every winter. For four years, the poor people in the Shengjing area have gone to the shantang to receive all they can.
Even people on the border between Shengjing and Jibei Province went to receive it.
Cotton clothes and bedding are not disposable items. They can be worn for several years. With cotton clothes and bedding, and in the countryside there are dead branches, fallen leaves, weeds, wheat straw and other things that can light the fire, so this winter, Li Qiao is not for Shengjing. The lower class people in the area are worried.
The three little guys kept their plan to work in the shop once a week. They could earn one tael of silver for a day's work, which was not much for the three of them, but for the people at the bottom, one tael of silver was a huge sum of money. Can do a lot of things.
They save the money they get from their part-time jobs so that they can provide targeted poverty alleviation at some point in the future, just like the old man in Jibei Province who needs a keel waterwheel.
