After the dynasty was over, Li Zhiyun was about to leave Wude Hall when a eunuch came to him and asked him to go to the inner hall. Li Zhiyun followed the eunuch to the inner hall and saw that his eldest brother and his second brother were both there. His father was sitting on a soft couch waiting for him. He quickly walked over and stood next to his second brother.
Abba looked at them and said: "I am keeping you three here because of the matter of Chu Luo. I want to hear your opinions. If it is completed, you can talk first." The eldest brother raised his hand and said: "Abba, I agree with you just now. According to the opinions of several ministers, the Turks are powerful and we cannot afford to offend them. If Shibi is angered and he leads an army to attack us, the country will be in danger."
"Shimin, what's your opinion?"
"My son believes that it would be unjust for us to kill someone who has no other way out and has come to seek refuge."
Finally, Abba turned his attention to Li Zhiyun: "Zhiyun, tell me." Although Li Zhiyun was here, his thoughts were distracted. He went to the arsenal yesterday. He encountered some problems in the development of new weapons. He was thinking about how to solve them. When his father asked him, he said "Ah" and then he woke up. When the Turks raped women on Chang'an Avenue, he smashed Kang Sheoli's head with a brick. As a result, his father beat him thirty times. Therefore, he never had a good impression of the Turks. When his father asked him, he said casually, "That's a matter between the Turks. It's not appropriate for us to interfere. Let them resolve it themselves."
When the eldest brother and the second brother heard this, they looked at him in surprise. That means that when my father asked you how to deal with Luo, you simply answered the wrong question.
However, after listening to his words, Abba pondered for a moment, nodded and said: "Zhiyun is right, just do as he wants." After hearing this, Li Zhiyun looked at his eldest and second brothers with a proud expression. As if to say, so what, am I the smarter? One push, three, six, nine, you can’t do this? And let me teach. How clever is the eldest brother and the second brother? I immediately understood what Abba was going to do.
The next day, Chuluo Khan was summoned to the palace by his father. Led by a eunuch, he walked into an inner hall and saw his father sitting next to a table filled with delicacies.
Abba saw Luo Khan come in, stood up and asked him to sit down. Chuluo Khan saluted and the two sat down together. Chuluo Khan said: "Your Majesty, do you want to entertain me?" Abba nodded and said: "I am busy with government affairs and I don't take good care of you. I invite you to come today and let's have a meal together. It's for you. Apologize."
"Your Majesty, you are too kind."
The eunuch waiting on the side poured the royal wine into a sheep bottle. In ancient times, "sheep" and "xiang" were common words, and using sheep bottles to hold wine represented wealth and good luck. Abba picked up the goat bottle and said, "Come on, let's do it." The two clinked their glasses and each took a sip. After my father put down the sheep bottle, he said: "Chuluo Khan, you were once the king of a country. You should know how difficult it is to be a king. My cousin Yang Guang gave up and went west and left this mess to me. It is really not easy to be this family! The mountains and rivers are broken, and the people are in dire straits. Take the Guanzhong area as an example. In the ten years since the great cause, there were still 1.2 million households, but now there are only 420,000 households left, not even 40%. In other places, the population has declined even more severely. As the saying goes, 'white bones are exposed in the wild, and there are no roosters crowing for thousands of miles'."
Chuluo Khan didn't know why his father told him this. He just listened blankly and didn't know what to say.
Abba continued: "Although I am a nine-five-year-old and look very beautiful, my life is very simple. I usually eat wild vegetables with dipping sauce and simple meals. What can I do? The country is too poor, and many people are living in poverty. Can't I save some money when I can't eat? I'm not afraid of your jokes. Sometimes I really look forward to hosting more banquets, because only by hosting banquets can I drink some fine wine and eat some meat. ...Forget it, I won't say this. It’s a happy event, come on, let’s drink!”
After the banquet, Chuluo Khan thanked him and left. Looking at his back disappearing at the door, Abba's face turned gloomy, and he sighed and said: "Our vast country cannot protect even one person." The eunuch chief on the side comforted him: "Your Majesty, don't be sad, he They are also Turks." Abba glanced at him without saying a word.
Chuluo Khan walked out of the palace under the guidance of a eunuch. There was a carriage parked at the door. The eunuch turned around and said, "Khan, please." Chuluo Khan thought he was being sent back to his residence, so he got on the carriage. , the eunuch also got on the carriage.
The carriage drove along the street for a while and turned into Baoen Temple Street. When Chu Luo saw that the direction was wrong, he quickly asked the eunuch: "Where are we going?"
"Go to Zhongshu Province."
"Why are you going to Zhongshu Province?"
"Someone wants to see you."
"Who wants to see me?"
The eunuch smiled and pretended to be mysterious: "You will know when you get to the place." Chu Luo saw that the other party was trying to pass him off, and it was not easy to ask further questions, so he turned and looked out the window. After the carriage passed Baoen Temple, it turned into a narrow road. Because there were pear trees on both sides of the road, this road was called Liyuan Road. Finally, the carriage stopped at the entrance of a courtyard, and Chuluo Khan got off the carriage. The courtyard covers a large area, and there is a plaque hanging on the gate tower with the three characters "中书省" written on it.
The gate of the courtyard was open, and the eunuch who followed the car said: "Chuluo Khan, please go in. The people who want to see you are waiting for you inside." Chuluo Khan hesitated for a moment, but walked in anyway. door.
There is a long corridor in the yard, with trees of all sizes planted on both sides of the road. At the end of the road is a main house used as a government office, with several wing rooms on both sides of the main house. At this moment, the door to the main house was open, but there was no one around. The whole yard was quiet, eerily quiet.
Chuluo Khan walked for a while, and his pace gradually slowed down. The door in front was dark and nothing could be seen clearly in the room. For some reason, he suddenly felt that this door was a bit like the mouth of a beast. If he went in, he would not be able to get out. He hesitated for a while, and finally decided to turn around and walk back.
Just at this moment, the door of the courtyard was closed with a bang, and several people hiding behind the door came over. Chu Luo was startled, and when he took a closer look, it turned out to be Qi Lifu and his three followers. Zhilifu walked up to him holding the hilt of his sword and said with a evil smile: "Daman, you are finally here. We have been waiting for you for a long time." When Chuluo Khan saw them, he felt like he was seeing a ghost, and he was so frightened that his whole body trembled like a ghost. Sifting chaff, he stammered: "You...what are you going to do?"
"What are you doing? Send you on your way!" After Lifu said this, he waved his hand and two attendants immediately stepped forward and roughly dragged Chu Luo to the foot of a big tree. Another attendant held a knot in his hand and tied it. The loose hemp rope was tied around his neck.
Chuluo Khan was so frightened that he lost his mind and begged with a pale face: "Zi Lifu, you and I are both Ashinas. Three generations up, we are still relatives. Please show mercy and spare my life." !" Zilifu said fiercely: "Your grandfather Datou betrayed the Khan Court. His crime is unforgivable! You are not a good person either. It is Shibi Khan's order to execute you, so you must die!"
Chuluo Khan was desperate. But he was not willing to die like this. Even though his arms were grabbed by two thick followers, he still struggled and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Help!... Someone is coming quickly!..." The attendant had already The other end of the rope was looped around a thick branch overhead. Zilifu waved his hand, and the entourage immediately tightened the rope. As a result, Chuluo Khan was hoisted into the air like a log, and his screams were choked in his throat. His eyes rolled white, his tongue stuck out, and his feet kicked wildly, flopping around like a rooster that had been stabbed. However, after he struggled for a short time, he could no longer move...
Li Zhiyun has been back to Chang'an for almost a month and plans to visit his future father-in-law Liu Hong. It's not that he just thought of his prospective father-in-law now. In fact, he went to Liu's Mansion just a few days after returning to Chang'an, but he was rejected. Upon inquiry, it turned out that Liu Hong and his entire family had gone back to his hometown to worship their ancestors.
Li Zhiyun sent someone to find out that Liu Hong had returned from his hometown, and visited him with gifts. Liu Hong entertained him in the hall. The two sat and chatted for a while, and then they talked about business matters.
"King Chu, our bank is running well, but we have opened too few branches and the coverage is not very wide. I originally planned to open a few more branches, but the funds cannot be turned over. Our inn Although Hejiu Fang is very profitable and Qianfang has a lot of money, the expenses of the new army and arsenal are really staggering."
Li Zhiyun knew that supporting the army and developing weapons was indeed very expensive. He pondered for a moment and said, "No, just find someone to partner with."
"I approached some wealthy businessmen in Chang'an, but we couldn't negotiate. Either the other party couldn't afford that much money at the moment, or the price they offered was too high and we couldn't accept it."
"What about outside Chang'an?"
"I've looked for it too. There is a building member in Pizhou who is one of the richest businessmen within hundreds of miles. It is said that when he was young, he went to Nanyang to do business and made a lot of money. There was a mountain of gold, silver and jewelry at home. I looked for him. , he is willing to partner with us, and the conditions have been agreed upon, but he made a request."
"any request?"
"This person, Lou Yuanwai, is very cautious. He said that he must meet you before he is willing to contribute money. Lou Yuanwai is over fifty years old and is unwilling to travel far, so you must come to visit. However, Pizhou is four to five hundred miles away from Chang'an. , the distance is really not close, I wonder if King Chu is willing to take the trouble?"
Li Zhiyun thought for a while and said: "I'm not afraid of the hard work. Anyway, I haven't had anything important to do in Chang'an recently, so I'll just take a trip. Anyway, there are our shops in the city walls we pass along the way, and we can also check the business situation."
"Okay, I'll get ready and we'll set off in two days."
"All right."
As soon as he finished talking about business with his father-in-law-to-be, Li Zhiyun couldn't wait to go to the back house. He and Liu Yinglian hadn't seen each other for half a year, how could he not be eager to see her? Liu Yinglian already knew that he was coming and sent her personal maid to wait in the courtyard.
