In the evening, a caravan of thirty or so people came outside the north gate of Kang City. The horses of the caravan were strong, the guards were all sturdy, and the leader of the caravan had a straight figure and extraordinary appearance. This pair of merchants and horses seemed to have an obvious toughness, and pedestrians would unconsciously avoid them when they encountered each other.
The caravan in the city gate passes through the ultimatum smooth entry into the city, the city not far from the north city gate immediately came to a middle-aged man, he arched his hand toward the leader of the caravan, head slightly low.
"I've met you, sir. The place where you're going to stay is ready, so you can go and rest in the morning."
"Well, lead the way." The leader of the caravan didn't look too good, not a single smile on his face.
"Here!" The man retreated to the front of the caravan and led the way, bringing them to a quiet courtyard.
From the outside, the courtyard looks like an ordinary residence, but only after entering the courtyard door did he realize that there is a different world, the stables and the main room are all complete, the weeds in the courtyard are cleaned up quite well, and there are many ornamental flowers and trees planted in the room, the utensils in the room are exquisite, which is by no means affordable for the ordinary people's house. The middle-aged man who led the way led the merchant team into the courtyard, closed the courtyard door and immediately saluted the leader of the merchant team again.
"I, Wei Zou, see Your Highness the Crown Prince! Just now at the city gates there were so many people and so many mouths that I couldn't do a full salute, so I ask the Crown Prince to pardon my humble servant for his lack of propriety!"
The middle-aged man was the head of Zhao's secret agents, called Wei Zou, who had already settled as a merchant in Kang City, the capital of the King of Wu, for four years. The person in front of him is no other than Zhao Xuan, the crown prince of Zhao. Zhao Xuan as early as the end of last year would like to personally visit the Wu, suffering from a lot of national affairs can not get out of the way, until the middle of May this year to find time. Zhao Xuan entrusted the affairs of state to Wen Zai and his close friends, and brought with him Wu Mian, Wu Zai Bo Yao, and thirty martial arts experts to enter Wu from the border at the mouth of the throat.
"When acting outside, caution is the best, how could I mind." Zhao Xuan waved his hand, he was still satisfied with the operation of this secret point of Zhao located in Kangcheng, with this intelligence point, Zhao Xuan was able to understand the movements of Kangcheng.
"Your Highness the Crown Prince has had a hard journey, is it time to bathe and change first?" Wei Zou had known that Zhao Xuan was going to arrive at Kang City, and in the past few days, Wei Zou had been waiting at the north city gate every day.
"Uh-huh." The weather was warmer, and Zhao Xuan's sweat from rushing around had long since soaked the clothes on his body, so a bath and a change of clean clothes was of course the best.
Wei Zou commanded his subordinates to prepare a large tub for Zhao Xuan, to rub the bath for Zhao Xuan's boy with a clear face, the service is very considerate. Zhao Xuan closed his eyes and leaned his back on the barrel, while relaxing his body to let the boy for him to rub, while recalling into the Wu after what he saw and heard, the more he recalled, Zhao Xuan more melancholy.
Zhao Xuan arrived at the border at the end of May, and both sides of the border, both Zhao and Wu, were very lively, bustling with people coming to buy and sell goods. In addition to merchants and peddlers, farmers from the surrounding areas often come here to trade, they bring their family's agricultural products to the bazaar to sell, in exchange for their own needs of agricultural tools or household goods, farmers grow their own agricultural products in the bazaar sold at a higher price than the price of selling to the door-to-door purchase of the traders, and to buy the agricultural tools and household goods is much cheaper than from the hands of the goodsman to buy.
Since the people around the mouth of the throat knew the benefits of the marketplace, they ran the marketplace very hard, especially the people of Zhao, even if they had to walk on the road for a day, they tried their best to pick their own agricultural products to trade here. A hard trip can get more coins, because the price of Wu salt in the marketplace is half of the price in Zhao, even if they pay off a bit of customs tax, it's still a big profit for the farmers.
Zhao Xuan was happy to see that his side of the barrier was busy collecting taxes, but he was just wondering why the salt from Wu had to be sold at a lower price the more he sold it. Nowadays, the price of Wu's salt was four or five times lower than four years ago, which led to a high demand for salt from the people of Zhao, and the amount of imported salt had doubled several times compared to the previous years, and likewise, there were more and more salt traders passing through the territory of Zhao to go to other countries. Zhao Xuan was sure that those salt traders were able to make a good fortune by selling the cheap and high-quality salt of Wu, so much so that even the Rong people from the north who came south to rob the country could not intimidate these traders who wanted money more than their lives.
In these years, the winter is very cold, the livestock of the nomads in the north froze to death, and the Rong tribes facing the crisis of survival formed a coalition of robbing team to the south, to the middle and upper reaches of the river to rob like crazy. Large counties have high walls to resist, the Rong people often can not enter the city, those poorly protected small counties and villages will be unlucky, not only food and property to the Rong people robbed empty, the Rong people will also be captured by the women and children, those captured by the strong and the old people are killed. Wherever the Rong people's hooves passed, they left behind a piece of blood and scorched earth, which was miserable and incomparable. If the traders encountered the Rong people, they could not escape, and they could only end up losing their money.
In fact, the salt in Wu was getting cheaper and cheaper, thanks to the change of the salt production method in the salt factory in the East China Sea, and also because of the climate. In the past few years, the East China Sea has been less rain and more sunny days, enough sunshine, shorten the time of salt production, the East China Sea salt production continued to increase, resulting in salt warehouses can not be piled up. In order to sell all the salt, the salt factories could only keep lowering the price to stimulate consumption.
The salt production of Wu was abundant, and the people of Wu also profited. The salt that they could not afford to buy was already at the usual price, and some of the people even began to use the salt to pickle the meat that they could not eat.
Zhao Xuan is very curious about Wu's East China Sea salt factory, he has sent several groups of people to the East China Sea to investigate, but the East China Sea salt factory is surrounded by tight security, salt factory outside the high walls, merchants to pick up goods in the salt factory outside the warehouse. In the East China Sea salt factory workers family size workers live in the salt factory do not contact with the outside world, Zhao Xuan sent scouts can not be from the salt workers to spy on the information, but because of always wandering around the salt factory attracted arrests, loss of several batches of scouts, Zhao Xuan had to stop.
Zhao Xuan's little bit of joy at seeing the busy tax collection at his own barrier at the border dissipated when he entered the city at the mouth of the throat.
Zhao Xuan had led troops to station in this small city more than three years ago, at that time, the throat mouth city was not quite shabby, not quite prosperous, and the city wall was not very tall, if not for Wei Qing taking advantage of the freezing weather and pouring hot water on the city wall to turn the not-tall wall into an ice wall, so that the Zhao army was unable to build a heavenly ladder on the ice wall to attack the city, the throat mouth city would have long since been taken down by Zhao Xuan.
Only three years later, the city Zhao Xuan saw at the mouth of the throat was no longer the same small city as before. The area of the city has expanded by one-third, and the city walls have all been remodeled to be tall and wide, and outside the city, there are two satellite castles, which are guarded by the Wu garrison, numbering as many as 8,000, with more than half of them being cavalry.
Zhao Xuan grimly led his men into the throat mouth city, the city seems to be a big construction site, digging ditches and building houses everywhere, even if the weather is hot, it can't stop the enthusiasm of the young laborers working to earn money for a hundred miles around the throat mouth city pool, people sweating at work.
Seeing the people laboring hard, Zhao Xuan no longer wondered that there were no supervisors with whips around, because he knew that these laborers were volunteering. These people are not in labor service, unlike the original vassal state servicemen, in addition to the white force but also to provide their own dry food for the nobles to work, they now to the construction site work are paid. Zhao Xuan has not read the Wen Wei Po for nothing in the past few years, well, in April there was more of Dacheng's Southern Newspaper.
After the Dacheng Southern Newspaper came out, Zhao Xuan had considered running a newspaper himself. Unfortunately, Zhao did not have the printing technology, the paper needed to be imported from Wu, and the price was expensive, so Zhao Xuan was unable to recoup the cost of a single newspaper, not to mention selling it for half a Wu coin, even if he sold it for two Wu coins. The high cost and technology made Zhao Xuan's plan remain in his imagination.
Zhao Xuan and his party didn't stay long in the large construction site-like throat entrance city and went through the city to Qu City. Zhao Xuan had never patronized Qucheng and did not know what it was like three years ago, but only saw that the city in front of him was more prosperous than the cities of Zhao, densely populated, and with many traders. Zhao Xuan's shepherd, Wu Milling, had traveled to Wu twice and visited Qu City, and he told Zhao Xuan that Qu City was at least twice as prosperous as it had been when it was originally ruled by the Northern Marquis.
After spending a day in Qucheng, Zhao Xuan and his group went back on the road. Zhao Xuan planned to visit Kangcheng, the capital of the King of Wu, and then go to Ulsan and return to Zhao after seeing Ulsan.
The boulevard from Qucheng to Kangcheng had just been completed, and the carriages traveled on the flat road, which could make traveling less painful for travelers, but for Zhao Xuan, the more convenient the transportation in Wu was, the more annoyed he was. Convenient transportation would allow Wu's military to be dispatched quickly, which was not good news for Zhao Xuan, who had wanted to encroach on Wu's territory.
Just after leaving Qu City, Zhao Xuan's convoy encountered a Wu cavalry, which was stopped by the front marching army that had opened the way to the side of the avenue to make way. This cavalry numbered three thousand, with flags flying, riders' morale high, and marching in order, and in just a few moments, the large group passed in front of Zhao Xuan. Zhao Xuan noticed that the general of the cavalry was tall and sturdy, his face could not be seen clearly because of the helmet, but the general's momentum already made Zhao Xuan marvel. Only when the cavalry was far away did Zhao Xuan learn from the people next to the post station that the leader of the army just now was no one else, but the Great General of Wu, Chu Chao Hui.
As Zhao Xuan traveled all the way, he saw that Wu's army was strong and the people were well, and he knew that the original policy towards Wu had to be changed. Wu is no longer a country that Zhao wants to annex, but a strong neighbor that Zhao has to guard against and beware of. Thinking of having such a strong neighbor on the side, Zhao Xuan was in a very bad mood all the way.
Zhao Xuan's eyes, which were originally closed, suddenly opened, and his fingers clamped down on the boy's slipping hands, causing the boy to cry out in pain.
"Your Highness the Crown Prince, please allow the little one to serve." The boy's skin was very white, just now he exerted himself to rub for Zhao Xuan, his face was already red, now because of the pain, his eyes were a bit teary, but he looked kind of chu chu moving.
The boy just touched the place is Zhao Xuan lower body sensitive side, Zhao Xuan from the Zhao King capital departure has been seven or eight days, the road outside, around only guards and men, no women and no clear boy lyrical solution desire, now by the boy a tease, Zhao Xuan fire up, see the boy has a kind of style, the heart of the move, can not help but will be pulled into the barrel, ripped open the clothes and pants, so that the boy rolled over and lie down in the barrel, lifting the gun into the boy's back! Hole, found that the boy has long done expansion, I know is Wei Zou for their own special preparation, then also not polite, in the boy body galloped hard to vent their own desires and all the way to the depression of the gas.
Zhao Xuan took a bath for an hour, and only came out of the bathroom when he was soothed. Zhao Xuan left the bathroom, and the subordinates in the courtyard went in to clean up, and in the meantime, helped away the boy who couldn't walk after being done by Zhao Xuan.
"Wei Zou, what's new in Kangcheng?" Zhao Xuan sat on a reclining chair and cozily drank a mouthful of tea, Wu Mian and Bo Yao had also freshened up and changed their clothes to sit separately at Zhao Xuan's lower head. This kind of sitting method, Wu Mou and Bo Yao are still a bit unaccustomed to, Zhao domestic has not yet popularized the sitting chair, still kneeling on the futon.
"Your Highness the Crown Prince, Great General Chu Chao Hui of the Kingdom of Wu went on a tour of the Northwest County three days ago with three thousand cavalry." This news from Wei Zou was already outdated, Zhao Xuan had already met Chu Zhaohui outside of Qu City three days ago.
"Do you know when Chu Chao Hui will return?"
"This don't know." Wei Zou bowed his head, the news he inquired about were inferred and judged from the phenomena he could see, Chu Chao Hui led three thousand cavalry out of Kang City, Wei Zou and his men only knew it when they saw the cavalry out of the city, and the destination that Chu Chao Hui went to was also inferred from asking the merchants who met the cavalry on the road.
"Any other news?" Zhao Xuan frowned, Wei Zou had been active in Kang City for almost four years, and apart from getting close to a few officials in the Wu King's Court who didn't have any weight, he hadn't pulled in any officials who could really speak up in the King's Court.
"humble servant also probed that the king of Wu and Gongzi Ming tomorrow to go south to Ulsan to patrol." Wei Zou told Zhao Xuan the news that was only confirmed yesterday, in fact, this news is no longer a secret, Zheng Yuming and Wu Wangsheng couple's southward journey was finalized in the court as early as a week ago, the news was revealed from the mouth of the steward who came out to pick up the goods from the royal palace, and some of the commoners within the city of Kangcheng had already heard about it.
"Oh, King Wu and Duke Ming are going to Ulsan?" Zhao Xuan was looking for a chance to get to know the legendary Duke Falling Goose in Kang City.
"Yes, I have also inquired that King Wu and Gongziming are taking a boat to Nanbu tomorrow. This evening, the Gao Ma Di ferry port has been tightened. The road from Kangcheng to the ferry will also be martial law tomorrow." Wherever there were measures to disturb the people, the King of Wu's court would post notices on the palace walls of the royal palace in advance, so that the residents of Kangcheng would know in advance, and the beginning of the time of the martial law was marked on the king's list.
Zhao Xuan put down his cup and gave orders, "Wei Zou, help me find a place where I can observe, I want to see this Prince of Wu with my own eyes."
Zhao Xuan thought about seeing Zheng Yuming's true face, and he didn't know that his whereabouts had been exposed in Kang. Zhao Xuan left Zhao to come to Wu in secret, Huang Zhong's intelligence officers located in the royal capital did not realize. However, when Zhao Xuan arrived in Kangcheng and Wei Zou head, has been monitoring Wei Zou's Wu intelligence officers found, Zhao Xuan in the stronghold of the bath tossing boy, Huang Zhong has been on the way to the Prime Minister's Office.