"Your Majesty, it's time to set off," Xiao Chu, the commander of the escort army, came to Zhao Bin and asked for instructions with his fists in his hands.
"This time we have Lao Xiao in charge," Zhao Bin said politely.
"Your Majesty, your Majesty is here. It's your duty as a general. Please get on board, Your Majesty." Xiao Chu made a respectful gesture.
Five hundred guards escorted four carriages slowly out of the city gate. Except for the carriage Zhao Bin was riding in, the other three vehicles were loaded with marching supplies, tents, military rations, and drinking water.
There was a majestic building on the east side of the imperial city. A man showed his token and hurriedly entered the building. It turned out to be the Prince's Mansion.
As soon as King Yan Zhao Bin left the city, someone hurriedly reported the news to the prince. At this moment, the prince was sitting in the hall of the prince's palace, with several aides of the prince's palace sitting below. These were the people who gave the prince advice.
Among them are officials serving in various ministries, such as Zhang Ju, the right minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Zhang Rang, the left minister of the Ministry of War, and Pan Ling, the left minister of the Ministry of Punishment.
"Reporting to the Crown Prince, the Third Prince has just left the city with only a dozen or so servants. The rest have all been sent back to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, including those who arranged for us.
Moreover, Prince Yan's Mansion has recently pawned or sold all the items in the mansion at a discounted price," said a strong man in ordinary clothes kneeling on the ground.
"Okay, I understand. You go down first and have people guard the door. Don't let anyone get close." Prince Zhao Chong replied softly.
"Yes, I'm resigning." After saying that, the strong man gently exited the hall and closed the door.
A man with a thin, sallow face and the look of a scholar said: Prince, since the third prince has left the city, have you arranged for someone on the way? . . . . . As he spoke, the scholar made a gesture of wiping his neck.
"You all heard just now that my third brother is smart and sold all the things in the house. This is to show that he will not return to the capital again, which is obviously a sign of weakness.
In the past, the Ding family had military power, but after the death of old man Ding, most of his old generals have been replaced by us in the past few years. The third brother has no support behind him and cannot pose a big threat. Now the biggest threat is Qi Wang and his fifth brother Zhao Yan. "
"Behind King Qi is the Xue family, a wealthy family in Jingchu, behind Zhao Yan is the Dai family, a wealthy family in central Sichuan. Neither the Liu family in Jiangnan nor the Fang family in Shandong have expressed their stance at the moment. The seventh and eighth princes are currently young, so the future cannot be ruled out... .”
The person who spoke was none other than Zhang Ju, the right servant of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the biological uncle of the current prince, from the Zhang family in Guanzhong.
"My father is currently in his prime, and the seventh and eighth are still young. The Liu family and the Fang family still focus on wooing each other. At present, the main thing is to deal with King Qi and the fifth brother first.
Although I occupy the position of crown prince, King Qi is the eldest son of the emperor after all. There are still many people in the court who support the establishment of the eldest son. Lao Wu is also fifteen years old this year, and his wings will be hardened in two years.
We will start from the following directions for the two companies:
The first is to secretly collect various criminal evidence of the two families, the second is to win over the Liu family and the Fang family, and thirdly, the Ministry of War still needs to gradually infiltrate and try to win over more generals to ensure that the 200,000 royal troops near the capital do not fall into other people's hands.
Uncle, the Ministry of War relies on you. Fourth, arrange some people privately. Some things require a primer, just like Lao San this time. "The prince finished analyzing the current situation in a leisurely manner.
In the secret room of another palace in the capital, someone was plotting something, but the person sitting at the top was not the prince, but the current Minister of Household Affairs, the person in charge of the Great Xia Treasury, Xue Qing, the grandfather of Zhao Tong, King of Qi. . . . . .
A month later, Zhao Bin's motorcade slowly entered the territory of Hebei Province. Zhao Bin rode on his horse and swayed along the official road: "Lao Wu, our Daxia is quite stable, and we have never encountered any bandits along the way. "
"My lord, bandits are not stupid." Wang Wu said with a smile.
"What does this mean?" Zhao Bin turned around and asked
"This Central Plains area is the royal sphere of influence. There are 200,000 troops stationed in the territory. To become a bandit here is to seek death. Moreover, the Central Plains area has less mountainous areas and there are fewer places where you can fall off grass."
"Oh!" Zhao Bin said suddenly, but he felt something was wrong.
Xiao Chu, who was following behind, said: "Your Majesty, we have now entered the territory of Hebei Province. Outside the royal sphere of influence, the situation will be more complicated.
There will be bandits and thieves in the north, and some nomads settled in the pass in the early days. Although we surrendered to Daxia and accepted the rule of Daxia,
However, friction and bloodshed occasionally occur with local residents. In order to prevent the situation from escalating and affecting the overall stability, local governments are courteous to them in every possible way. There have been cases of attacking state capitals before."
Zhao Bin asked curiously: "Are there many people in these ethnic groups?"
"Although the number of people is not large, there are about 10,000 people in the larger tribes and about 2,000 or 3,000 people in the small tribes, but the total number is about 200,000. These are some small tribes who were oppressed and driven out by the Jie tribe decades ago. Tribe." Xiao Chu replied.
"Two hundred thousand, this is not a small force. If you use it properly, it will be of great use, but if you don't control it well, it can easily lead to trouble."
"But fortunately, these tribes are not of the same race, and they are distributed all over the north of the Yellow River. In addition to young adults, there are also old people and children. If they really want to take any action, they have to consider these people."
The three of them were riding horses and chatting all the way in front of the convoy. After half a month of walking and stopping, we finally arrived at the foot of Yanjing City.
