After leaving the boundary of Dacheng, the further north you go, the more densely populated, and the more good land you see on both sides of the road. From Dacheng to Wangdu there is a relatively open dirt road, dirt road is man-made out, because long-distance pedestrians are basically riding a horse, this wide dirt road is called the road, to take such a name can be said to be the real name, unlike the twenty-first century called the name of the road, running on it is the car.
Since this dirt road is not built by manpower, there is no official organization specializing in repairing the road, and the work of maintaining and repairing the dirt road is done by the villagers or nobles near the dirt road, after all, the dirt road is used most by the villagers nearby and the people on the manor of the nobles' territories.
The large number of people and fields meant prosperity and affluence, but the commoners Zheng Yuming saw were mostly in rags, yellow and skinny, and looked numb. On the other hand, the nobles in these places have more luxurious residences and expenses than the nobles in Dacheng.
This time and space there is no post to pass the military affairs of the post, the military alarm is set up beacon, pedestrians traveling long distances, night rest is either camping or lodging in the roadside village villagers home. Night sleep is quite unsafe, will night sleep is unable to find the village will do the choice, open field wild beasts are many, is a kind of threat to human beings, the mission night rest are looking for roadside villages, lodging to the village head or villagers home. Live not for nothing, the next day there will be a reward.
Villagers home conditions are not good to where, to the king's capital a total of four nights on the road to tip, the first three nights are living in a small village, Gong Ziguang line live in a very difficult, the last night to live in a nobleman manor, this nobleman is Prince Zhao's disciple, received Prince Zhao's instructions to be well entertained by Gong Ziguang and his entourage.
Gong Ziguang greatly touched, deeply feel Prince Zhao heart remember him this half-brother. Zheng Yuming and Chu Zhaohui did not think so, not Wei Shen sent someone to give Prince Zhao a trick, Prince Zhao now the best thing that could happen to him is to be exiled to the small fiefdom. Assigning a henchman to entertain Dacheng and his party is really nothing compared to the help Dacheng has given him.
Although Prince Zhao's disciples were warm to Gongzi Guang, there was a sense of superiority between their demeanor towards the nobles of Dacheng, after all, when Prince Zhao succeeded to the throne in the future, his disciples would be the close ministers, and in the future, they would all be the important ministers of the temple.
Gong Ziguang and his entourage had a good night's rest at the estate of Prince Zhao's disciples, and the next day they departed from the estate and traveled five hours to Kang City, the capital of the King of Wu.
Kangcheng has a history of more than three hundred years and was built by King Mu, the founding king of the Kingdom of Wu. King Mu was the fifteenth son of the Prince of Qin, and his status was not high. According to reason, no matter how lowly King Mu was among the princes, King Mu's brother, the new King of Qin who succeeded to the throne of the Prince of Qin, should have granted a piece of fiefdom to this concubine brother. However, the bad thing is that the old Qin king is too good at birth, the first son plus the concubine son has a total of more than thirty, all the fief points to be a large piece of land.
After hundreds of years of Qin's history, because of the feudal division system, less than one-third of the original land was in the hands of the Qin Emperor, the new Qin King did not want to divide another two dozen or so fiefs at once, so he called his younger brothers to the royal palace, and cried bitterly to them about how poor his brother was as a son of the Emperor, and how scarce his fiefs were in his hands. In a word, the new King of Qin hoped that his younger brothers would not ask him for fiefs, but would go to the wilderness places to establish their own fiefs.
It was the custom for princes to enjoy the fiefdom, now the elder brother, the Son of Heaven, wanted to deprive them of their proposed rights and interests, which made the princes look at each other in dismay, and after a few moments they all protested vehemently, except King Mu, who rowed out of the crowd, and after asking his elder brother, the Son of Heaven, to ask for some soldiers, craftsmen, and horses, marched to the southeast without turning back, and went all the way to the place of Kham before he stopped, and built a fortress there, and subdued the natives around him, and established the state of Wu.
Because King Mu took the lead, and the new King of Qin refused to grant a division, his concubine brothers had no choice but to follow King Mu's example and asked for soldiers, craftsmen and material goods to fight in the desolate land, and there are more than fifty existing vassal states of various sizes, and a dozen or so of them are founded by those princes to this day. Two of the largest vassal states were Chu and Wu.
Seeing that the commoners had been sent away, the new king of Qin gave the three younger brothers, who were left behind, fertile fiefs. When the new king of Qin made such a favoritism, his concubine brothers were very dissatisfied, and they were very ashamed of the differentiation between the close and distant relatives of the son of Qin. When their children and grandchildren made their country strong, they gradually refused to go to the capital of the emperor to pay homage to him, and the tribute they paid to him was not enough. The Qin Emperor did not dare to denounce them because their ancestors had been wronged. Since then, Qin has slowly lost control of its vassal states. By the time Zheng Yuming and Chu Zhaohui were transported here, the only thing Qin Tianzi could control was his Tianzidu and a not-so-large piece of land near Tianzidu.
With a history of more than three hundred years, Kangcheng has become very tall and lofty nowadays after continuous repairs by more than ten generations of Wu kings. Kangcheng has a circumference of ten miles, the city wall is ten meters high, each gate has a city tower, and the city wall is surrounded by a moat. There are drawbridges at the gates, which are lowered during the day and retracted at night. Dacheng's city wall and moat, compared to Kangcheng, were small and not on the same level.
Dacheng is in the southwest of the capital of Wu, and one has to enter the city through the west gate. After handing out the summoning brocade letter for verification at the gate, a small official at the gate led the caravan to a guesthouse, which was the temporary residence of the Ulsan-kun's pilgrimage group from Dacheng.
The guesthouse is large enough to accommodate a hundred people, surrounded by high walls and guards, it is safe to live in, but of course your movements are closely monitored.
As soon as Wei Shen went to the pavilion, on the pretext that there are too many people, all the attendants in the pavilion were sent away. Outside the guards can not be refused, inside the call of the waiter always have to find an excuse to leave, these waiters inside if there is no other eyes and ears, killed Wei Shen do not believe.
Zheng Yuming all the way by Gong Ziguang called at his side, after entering the guesthouse, Nambu divided into their own independent small courtyard, Zheng Yuming finally got away from Gong Ziguang.
Entering the yard was a busy time, things were moved from the car into the yard, Fanjin and the others cleaned the house and put the utensils inside the room, Huo Si Zhong took the ingredients and called the two artists to the kitchen of the small yard to make dinner.
"Where's Wei Qing?" Zheng Yuming put the odds and ends away in his room and suddenly realized that Wei Qing was missing after entering the courtyard.
"I sent him to Yu Kui." Chu Chaohui rubbed a sharp sword. Wei Qing had traveled from Tang to Kangcheng in July to look for Yu Kui, and stayed in Kangcheng for ten days to map out the topography of Kangcheng city before returning to Nanbu. So Wei Qing was very familiar with Kang City, and when he arrived at the guild, Chu Chao Hui sent him to bring Yu Kui.
The sharp sword that Chu Chao Hui wiped on his hand. It was actually his ornament, Chu Chao Hui was best at pistol shooting and close combat, followed by sticks. Swords and knives were not practiced until this time and space. In Chu Chao Hui's opinion, the practicality of the sword was not as good as the knife. Swords were more lethal on the battlefield, but since soldiers used swords, and commanders used swords. Sword and jade are the same as status symbols, Chu Chao Hui can only bring a sword with the cold weapons he carries this time.
"Is Yu Kuei coming to see us? How did he get in?" There were Wangdu Huben guards outside the guesthouse, and it was hard to say whose cronies these Huben guards actually were; on the surface, it was the King of Wu who had sent them to protect the pilgrimage feudal lords. Secretly, it was uncertain which gang or faction was there.
"There will always be a way." Chu Chaohui trusted Yu Kui's ability to cope.
The two were talking when a clamor came from outside, Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui looked at each other and were about to go out to see what was going on when Fan Jin hurriedly ran into the courtyard.
"Why is there a clamor outside?" Chu Chao Hui asked Fan Jin, carrying his sword.
"Your Honor! It's the Huben guards, they won't allow anyone in the guesthouse to go out."
"No way, didn't Wei Qing go out just now?" Zheng Yuming was stunned.
"It is that Gongzi is not allowed to go out, saying that for the sake of Gongzi's safety, he has to wait for the King of Wu's summons before he can go out." Gongzi Guang wanted to see his father as soon as possible, so as soon as he arrived at the traveling house and put down his things, he wanted to go to the king's palace for an audience.
"It seems that the guards are very defensive of the feudal lord who came to pay homage." Chu Chao Hui and Zheng Yuming used Mandarin for their private communication, and they didn't have to worry about being overheard when they used this language in the royal capital.
"The guards are so tight, how can Yu Kui come in." Zheng Yuming was worried.
Zheng Yuming's words had just fallen, when he saw Wei Qing leading a white-haired old man with a large bundle of firewood on his back into the courtyard door.
"Old man! Sort out the firewood for me before you leave." Wei Qing was loud.
"Yes! The little old man has taken care of the firewood, please reward the little proprietor with a bowl of tea!" The old man's voice was also very loud, and his voice made Zheng Yuming feel a hint of familiarity.
"Yu Kui is here!" Chu Chaohui suddenly laughed.
Sure enough, Wei Qing led the old man in, and when the old man entered the room, Wei Qing brought the door with him and stood outside the door on guard himself.
"Yu Kui pays his respects to the two lords!" The old man whose back was originally a bit hunched straightened after the door to the room was closed, and this person was none other than Yu Kui who had put on makeup.
"Please rise quickly, sir!" Chu Chao Hui took a healthy step forward to hold Yu Kui's arm, preventing Yu Kui from bending over and curtsying to perform a big salute, he and Zheng Yuming now addressed Yu Kui with more respect.
"Sir has worked hard! Please sit down quickly!" Zheng Yuming personally made a cup of tea and put it on the desk table.
Seeing this, Yu Kui was so moved that the knot in his throat slid up and down a few times. However, because he couldn't stay here for too long, Yu Kui didn't have the time to express his feelings of knowledge.
Yu Kui briefly introduced Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui to some of the new developments in the royal capital, and now that the nobles of the royal capital have swarmed to Crown Prince Zhao, the Crown Prince Zhao's palace is bustling with activity every day. Dr. Jiang's court began to fall. Ri Ji, on the other hand, seems to be very calm, and in the royal palace just serves the king of Wu with all her heart.
The information Yu Kuei overhears convinces the two Jung Chu that Ripple Ji won't stop there.
"Qui was lucky enough to overhear the secrets that time, but later on, Ripple Ji wanted to ask the Tang people for any help, but Qui didn't pry into it." Yu Kui had been under Dr. Jiang for too short a period of time, and had not yet been able to gain Dr. Jiang's trust; that time, when Ripple Ji had visited at night, Yu Kui had also been lucky enough to overhear the conversation. How Dr. Jiang contacted the Tang people, Yu Kui had no specific clues.
"Ripple's collusion with the Tang, sir, do not risk prying any further, I have already placed my ears and eyes in the Tang."
Chu Chao Hui went to Tang is to buy ears and eyes to go, the Tang State has several merchants and Nanbu close relationship, these merchants are noble status, through them, Chu Chao Hui has taken care of two important ministers of the Tang State, the Tang State has any move on Wu, immediately someone will give Nanbu tipped off, the Tang State from the master to the ministers, are exceptionally greedy.
"Other than Prince Zhao starting to take a high profile, are there any other new movements?" Zheng Yuming always felt that there was gunpowder buried in Kang Cheng.
"No more. Only the feudal lords who have entered the capital one after another."
The king of Wu did not have many sons, only five in total, two died young, and the survivors were Prince Zhao, Gongzi Guang and Gongzi Yong. One of the sons who died young was Gongzi Ming, the six-year-old brother of Gongzi Guang.
Only Duke Ziguang, the son of the king of Wu, was honored with a fief; of the other feudal lords who entered the capital, two were the uncles of the king of Wu, and three were the common brothers of the king of Wu. One of the king's uncles and one of his concubine's brothers arrived one day before Gong Ziguang.
"Are there guards blocking their courtyard as well?" Chu Chaohui felt that it was fishy, Ripple Ji was not moving, so who was trying to put the seal master under siege?
"It's the King of Wu, only the King of Wu can mobilize the Huben."
"Alas... " Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui looked at each other, truly the royal family is spineless.
"There's another rarity." Yu Kui heard this news from the marketplace. "Two months ago, fifty miles south of the royal capital began to be infested with large groups of bandits and robbers."
"We came from the southwest, we didn't hear of any bandits, the road was safe." Zheng Yuming thought back to the journey, all the way there, he didn't even see small groups of bandits.
"There are bandits near the royal capital? King Wu didn't send anyone to fight the bandits?" Chu Chao Hui felt that as a monarch, he would not tolerate the presence of threats in the surrounding areas.
"Strange is strange here, King Wu sent Huben to fight twice, and both times he didn't see the bandit figure, that bandit disappeared."
"Has it shown up lately?"
"No, the second Huben army returned from their fruitless banditry campaign, and no further news of the bandits has been heard."
"This is a bit strange." Chu Chaohui frowned, the number of people who gathered into bandits in this time and space were not many, if it was a large group of bandits, then the existence time would not be short, this group of bandits that appeared out of nowhere became strange.
For the bandits fifty miles south of the royal capital, Yu Kui and Chu Chao Hui have less information and can't analyze anything, Yu Kui's prolonged stay in the guesthouse will cause the guards to be suspicious, Yu Kui only had to leave in a hurry after finishing what he had to say.