Great Tang princess

Chapter 505 Entering the Lu Mansion
From Qingdao to Zhuozhou, the distance is not too short, almost [-] kilometers. Even though the cement road to Qingzhou has been paved, it will take at least [-] days to get there.

Li Yuechen was not in a hurry, this time he went there just for investigation, and he hadn't decided whether to fight or not, so the journey seemed very relaxed.

In the past few days, I basically lie in the carriage, or I go out to ride around. The only uncomfortable thing is that I can't take a bath when I'm on the road.

In order to prevent his body from getting stinky after arriving in Zhuozhou, Li Yuechen would stop to take a rest and take a bath when passing by the station on the way.

However, taking a bath outside is not enough. Naturally, it cannot be like in the military camp. All kinds of medicinal materials are soaked, and washing with a piece of soap is already very good.

Wang Wuqiong, the personal bodyguard, can also enjoy it, soaking in the same wooden barrel with Li Yuechen to wash.

But other people don't have this kind of treatment, gentlemen, just bear with it a little bit.

I just walked all the way, and at the end of April, I finally arrived outside the city of Zhuozhou.

This is the headquarters of the Lu clan, many people here do not know the emperor but only know the Lu clan.

As early as a few days ago, Li Yuechen stopped lying in the carriage, but came outside, riding on a horse, protecting Lu Zhenghao's carriage.

Lu Shi has too many eyeliners here, and if he is not careful, he may be exposed. Although he is not afraid of them, he is here to find evidence after all, and the risk should be reduced as much as possible.

……

At first glance, Zhuozhou City is not much different from a city of Qingzhou's level, and the city walls still look weathered.

The soldiers on duty on the city wall and outside the city gate also didn't show much energy, as if they had to dawdle here for military service.

But compared to the soldiers in the mainland, this place is close to the outside of the customs after all, so the soldiers can see a bit of ruthlessness, showing the sturdy folk customs of the borderlands.

Pedestrians passing in and out of the city gate also avoided them as much as possible, not daring to look at them.

Li Yuechen, who saw this scene, also turned his head and said in a low voice: "Stay safe, don't draw attention."

In fact, although she has been emphasizing the issues of education and ethos, these soldiers under her will always have a sense of superiority to other soldiers in their hearts, which is impossible.

Li Yuechen's exhortation was also to prevent them from fighting with the government soldiers, so the gain would outweigh the loss.

Fortunately, this time he followed Lu Zhenghao into the city, so he shouldn't encounter any difficulties.

And at least judging from the situation outside the city, Lu's side has not officially announced any orders, and they can enter and exit as usual.

……

The convoy slowly arrived at the gate of Zhuozhou city, and as expected, the soldier in charge of guarding the city had his eyes fixed and walked over.

This kind of convoy, at first glance, has a lot of money to be made. If the family has a background, as long as they say a few nice words, they can usually get some rewards.

If the background is not high, hey, it depends on the situation.

Seeing the opponent's movements, Li Yuechen who was on the horse gently raised his hand and knocked on the carriage next to him.

Her character is set as a mute, so she can't speak.

But even so, with a height of 1.7 meters and seven standing on horseback, he is still an existence that can be recognized in the crowd at a glance.

The soldier watched her approaching, obviously provocative.

But at this moment, he recognized the groom in front of him who was driving the carriage, and he smiled again in an instant. He came to the carriage and saluted respectfully: "I've seen Lu Alang."

A Lang, in this era, the servants of the family usually address the master, which is similar to the title "Master" in TV dramas, but it doesn't matter if the soldier calls him that.

Lu Zhenghao lifted the curtain on the carriage, with a slight smile on his face: "Well, some goods are coming back, do you need to check?"

Although the expression was smiling, there was obviously a trace of majesty in his tone.

"No, no!" The soldier saluted with a smile on his face, then turned around and waved to the soldier at the door, "Alang from the Lu family returns to the city, let him go!"

In Zhuozhou, you can't mess with Lu's family if you mess with anyone.It is possible not to know who the governor or the magistrate is, but it is absolutely necessary not to know the Lu family.

Lu Zhenghao nodded with some satisfaction, and raised his chin slightly: "Reward!"

Wang Wuqiong, who was acting as a maid next to her, immediately took out a money bag, and threw a bunch of Kaiyuan Tongbao, about thirty or so.

After the mansion soldier caught it, he nodded repeatedly: "Thank you, Lu Alang!" Then he gave Wang Wuqiong a strange look.

I thought that this maid was so rude, she didn't even agree to the master's order.

But they didn't say anything, and of course I wouldn't interrupt, I respectfully stepped aside and let the convoy into the city.

In fact, this is also Li Yuechen's order. Although Wang Wuqiong is not dumb, he also tries to speak as little as possible.

In this day and age, there is no Mandarin that is commonly used throughout the country, so in the eyes of people here, no matter whether it is Li Yuechen or Wang Wuqiong, once they speak, they all have a strong Shaanxi accent.

Of course, the Shaanxi accent of this era is not the future Shaanxi dialect, but the pure Datang Yayin.

To be precise, there is basically no difference between Shaanxi dialect and Luoyang dialect in this era, because the emperor often travels between the two places, which will always have some influence.

Therefore, if Wang Wuqiong speaks casually, it is also easy to arouse suspicion, and Li Yuechen also asked her to try not to speak if she could.

Lu Zhenghao was close to the princess, which was well known to the Lu family. If a maid who spoke Mandarin was suddenly brought back at such a time, it would be obvious that there was something wrong.

Assuming that Mrs. Lu is really conspiring to rebel, it must be a sensitive period now, and we must try our best to avoid unnecessary complications.

……

After the convoy entered the city, Li Yuechen had the opportunity to observe the city with his own eyes.

The commercial atmosphere here seems to be stronger than that in Qingzhou. In this era, only first-tier cities have systems like Fangshi and curfews.

Although this kind of small city generally has horizontal and vertical streets, shops have already appeared along the streets.

The doors of some tea houses and restaurants are facing the street, which looks quite a futuristic style.

Because it is close to the outside of the pass, you can see many people dressed as nomads walking on the streets here, and occasionally some Silla businessmen can be seen here.

Zhuozhou is the seat of the Lu family. The business circle here is almost monopolized by the Lu family. More than 95% of the shops are owned by the Lu family.

Most of the rest are just offices opened here by other big families, and they are used to discuss cooperation with Lu, not for making money in essence.

The convoy was walking in the middle of the street, and civilians leaned on both sides one after another. Although it was not very crowded, it did look somewhat messy.

Unlike Dongdu and Chang'an, the rule of walking on the right has now begun to form, and the order is more orderly than here.

Li Yuechen was riding on the horseback, seemingly not looking sideways, but actually observing the layout of the surrounding shops and streets.

The main street of Chang'an City, Suzaku Avenue, is more than fifty feet wide.The main street here is only about ten feet away, so the field of vision is much smaller.

Lu Zhenghao also has his own mansion here, in the northeast of Zhuozhou City.The convoy arrived unimpeded all the way.

There are usually only a few servants in charge of taking care of this house, and there are usually no people there. After entering, Lu Zhenghao cleared all the idlers and others out.

When there were no outsiders around, he saluted respectfully: "Please sit down, Your Highness."

Li Yuechen nodded and sat on the chair.

The main hall of the upper class in this era has only three walls, and the south side is completely open.

Because there is no transparent glass, this is a helpless choice to ensure lighting.

It is not so much a main hall as a gazebo.

"Your Highness, this subordinate will go to the manor to greet the patriarch later, this..."

"I'm going with you!" Li Yuechen said with a smile, "Just to see if we can find out something."

Lu Zhenghao was slightly taken aback: "Your Highness, is there something wrong with this? In case it is exposed..."

Li Yuechen suddenly laughed: "It's okay, maybe there will be a beheading operation just in time."

Hearing these words, Lu Zhenghao couldn't help being stunned for a moment.

He understood the meaning of the word beheading. It was a special military term in the Princess Army, which meant to capture the king before capturing the thief.

This is indeed the case, follow him to meet the patriarch, relying on the fighting power of the princess, it is almost effortless to kill an old patriarch.

Of course, that's what he said, but Li Yuechen didn't intend to really do it.

After all, many things have not been clarified yet. For example, is this matter the opinion of the patriarch Lu himself?And what kind of role did Yuwenshi play behind the scenes?
The most important thing is that killing a patriarch of the Lu clan will not solve the problem at all.

If the rebellion is true, what Li Yuechen wants to kill is not the patriarch of the Lu clan, but to take this opportunity to completely change the structure of the Lu clan.

They can still be nobles, but they can no longer be nobles.

……

After resting for a while, Li Yuechen followed Lu Zhenghao and set off for the Lu Mansion.

The Lu Mansion covers a large area, almost the size of two or three squares, and it can be seen from a stop at the door that it must be that kind of antique Chinese garden style.

After arriving at the door, Li Yuechen got off his horse and stood beside the carriage with a respectful expression, waiting for Lu Zhenghao to get off from the carriage.

And the servant at the gate of Lu's mansion stared at her with burning eyes.

There is no way, Li Yuechen's height is really easy to attract attention in this era, even if he pretends to be a man.

Although the fake beard on her face has completely covered the lower half of her face, it looks like she is wearing an oversized mask, but the straight eyebrows and bright eyes still attract a lot of attention.

The two servants even thought that if this man had cut his beard, he must be a handsome son!

Li Yuechen was wearing a coarse cloth coat, which looked somewhat dirty, but fit the image of a guard. After Lu Zhenghao got off his horse, he followed him inside.

When the two servants at the door saw Lu Zhenghao, they saluted and said hello respectfully, and then took the reins from Li Yuechen's hand.

Following Lu Zhenghao into the Lu Mansion, Li Yuechen secretly observed the layout, comparing various reference objects with Lai Junchen's description one by one.

Most of them can be right. It seems that he has put in some effort in this area.

All the way to the main hall, before I walked over, I saw an old man about sixty years old sitting in it from a distance.

After comparing his face with Lai Junchen's description, he should be the current patriarch of the Lu family, Lu Wangda.

Li Yuechen is now a guard and is not qualified to enter the main hall, so he stopped in the front yard and stood under the eaves.

Anyway, there is no wall on the south side of the main hall these days, as long as they are not driven away, they can hear their conversations and actions standing here.

When Lu Zhenghao entered the main hall, he immediately saluted respectfully: "Patriarch!"

"Well, sit!" Lu Wangda waved his hand, but he didn't ask about the guards. As the head of the clan, he might not be able to find out that Lu Zhenghao had changed guards.

Holding the teacup in his hand, he asked only after Lu Zhenghao sat down, "Why are you back at this time?"

"The patriarch doesn't know that there is a batch of canned food with the wrong date, so he hastened to bring it back to sell, otherwise, I'm afraid it will be smashed in his hands." Lu Zhenghao replied respectfully.

"So that's how it is..." Lu Wangda nodded, "Forget it, since I'm back, I'm not in a hurry to leave, just stay a little longer."

What he said didn't seem to mean to keep him at all, but instead had a blunt sense of order.

Hearing this sentence, Li Yuechen narrowed his eyes slightly, and although Lu Zhenghao was surprised in his heart, he had a polite expression on his face: "If it is feasible, I also want to stay a little longer. But now that summer is coming, I still have to Hurry up and get ready to make new products..."

If it's a normal courtesy, it's almost done here, but Lu Wangda shook his head: "No hurry, anyway, you know the canned food formula, you can make it yourself at any time, right?"

Having said that, it has obviously changed.

Lu Zhenghao raised his head, frowned and asked, "What does the patriarch mean?"

"Speaking of which, the profit of this can is considerable, and in the future, it can be considered as my Lu's main product..." Lu Wangda changed the subject bluntly.

However, Lu Zhenghao didn't answer, just stared at him with burning eyes, and asked again: "What does the patriarch mean?"

Seeing his firm face, Lu Wangda smiled slightly, and turned to look at Li Yuechen who was standing at the entrance of the hall.

"Don't worry, the patriarch. This man is my guard, but he is dumb. At the beginning, I thought he took him in pitifully, and saw that he was skilled in martial arts, so I stayed by my side as a guard." Lu Zhenghao explained casually.

Li Yuechen also cooperated with the introduction and saluted Lu Wangda.

As the patriarch, Lu Wangda didn't care about the servant's salute and didn't respond, but he was relieved to hear that he was dumb.

Instead, he asked: "If you think about it, you also know that the imperial court's tax system reform, what do you think about it?"

"It shouldn't have much to do with my Lu family." Lu Zhenghao replied, "I cooperate with the princess. I think His Highness should allow me to be exempted from this tax."

"Relying on the princess's ability, it's no problem. But what about the future?" Lu Wangda continued to ask, "Even if the princess can exempt me from Lu's taxes, how many years can I keep?"

What I said is obvious, Princess Taiping cannot live forever, not to mention whether she will be able to keep the throne even if the new emperor comes to power after she dies is another matter.

However, saying such words under such circumstances is already a big problem!
(End of this chapter)