Lady forced to seek prince

At dawn, the servants in Zhao's village got up one after another. Unlike usual, they all woke up extra late today, but fortunately there was no movement in the main house.

The steward's mother first opened the courtyard door of the main house and let the servants outside come in one after another to serve Zhao Xuewen and Jiang. But strangely, the steward's mother knocked on the door twice, but neither Zhao Xuewen nor Jiang came out.

Although these two people are from farmers, the rules have been very strict recently. If you don't pay attention, you will be scolded. The two girls in the house were beaten because of this yesterday.

Although the mother in charge is not afraid of these two "masters", after all, they are transferred from the clan village, but one more thing is worse than one less thing. If you can't gain a foothold in this village, you won't be able to explain to your serious master when you go back, right?

With this thought in mind, the steward's mother hesitated to open the door and enter. When her eyes fell on the door knocker, the steward's mother's expression completely changed.

There was clearly a trace of blood on the door knocker.

Seeing this, the mother in charge immediately pushed the door open without caring about anything else.

A strange smell hit her face, and then the housekeeper's mother saw the messy inner room and the dried blood on the ground.

"Come on people!"

The mother in charge immediately shouted, alarming the whole yard. After a few more people entered the room, they boldly walked into the inner room.

Soon, they saw a scene they would never forget.

The two stewards who had just been assigned to the mansion were lying on the ground. The woman was hanging from the beam in her middle coat. Zhao Xuewen was huddled in the corner, and his clothes were soaked in blood.

The mother in charge and the servants' eyes widened. They never expected that in one night, the master and his wife of the Zhao family were all killed.

While everyone was immersed in fear, Zhao Xuewen in the corner suddenly moved, and something fell from his hand to the ground.

"what……"

The servants were so startled that they shouted, and several younger maids had already fled outside. The older mother in charge barely managed to steady her steps, but the next moment the hairs all over her body stood up because the one that fell was a A bloody ear.

This was not the scariest thing. What was most unacceptable to her was that Zhao Xuewen's head suddenly raised, and a strange sound came from his mouth and throat.

snoring...

A dead man suddenly comes to life.

Jiang's body, which was hanging on the beam, also began to float.

"Ghost, ghost..."

Everyone rolled and crawled out of the door. When the guards from the mansion arrived, they saw Zhao Xuewen's body desperately crawling out.

Zhao Xuewen stretched his hands out hard. When he was about to reach out of the house, a voice seemed to ring in his ears: "Be honest in this yard, otherwise it won't be so easy next time."

Zhao Xuewen withdrew his hand again, and the next moment he tremblingly touched his ears. Both ears were gone, cut off by the knife.

Last night was his punishment because he was tempted to go to Taozhou to find out the news.

So the steward died, and he and Mrs. Jiang were almost killed.

There will be another time...

Zhao Xuewen believed that he would end up like the two stewards.

Thinking of this, Zhao Xuewen stood up unsteadily and made an incredible move in front of everyone. He reached out and closed the door of the main room.

Half a day later, the news that Zhao Xuewen and Jiang were assassinated spread to many people's ears.

There was also a team of guards outside the Zhao residence. The guards did not hear any sound. The servants in the Zhao residence seemed to have been drugged and knew nothing about what happened last night. No one saw the assassin's appearance and didn't know where the assassin came from, so various speculations arose.

Naturally, it involves the remnants of Feng Dang and the Grand Master.

The Zhao family is related to King Yu, and someone may use this to warn King Yu not to be aggressive anymore. After all, at the great court meeting, King Yu presented a memorial, requesting that the escaped Feng party be hunted down in Daqi.

Some people also speculated that the Palace of Prince Yu was responsible. Zhao Xuewen did not get along with the Zhao family, and he was so arrogant in Beijing. If this continued, it would only be detrimental to the Palace of Prince Yu.

No matter how the court traced it, the assassin was like a mud cow drowning in the sea and there was no news again.

Zhao Xuewen and Jiang have never stepped out of the Zhao family's house since then.

Assassinations continued one after another, but there was still no progress in the case. There were fewer and fewer voices in the court urging King Yu to enter the capital. King Yu's memorials to rectify the northwest have never stopped. Taking this opportunity, King Yu has completely taken control of the vassal territory. In this case, it is not that important to force King Yu to come to Beijing early to express his gratitude.

The Taishi Party also understood that they had lost the best opportunity to deal with King Yu.

As winter turns to spring, Xiao Min has grown a lot taller. He has begun to learn riding and shooting. After practicing hard for a while, he will ask the teaching officials whether he has made any progress.

"Your Majesty makes progress every day."

"But it's still a lot worse than King Yu," Xiao Min said. "I asked King Yu that he did these two things very well within half a year of returning to the capital."

The teaching official could only say: "Prince Yu was older at that time."

Xiao Min shook his head: "Pretty much, King Yu is smarter than me. If King Yu is like this, he is the pillar of the country."

The official has heard many such words, and he can feel that the emperor trusts King Yu more and more. Maybe this is because blood is thicker than water.

After the spring plowing in the northwest, Xiao Min learned about "cotton" again from the memorial. The Ministry of Household Affairs submitted a memorial, asking the court to withdraw the decree that exempted the northwest from tax for two years. The sixteen states in the northwest have more cultivated land than in previous years, and the autumn harvest is not as good as in previous years. , during the Tubo War, they calculated taxes based on the harvest of the past three years, and this was the result of tax exemption. According to the current trend, it is reasonable that the Yu Prince's Palace should actually pay a part of the taxes.

Naturally, the memorial was rejected by the emperor. The decree had been issued and there was no reason to withdraw it.

But because of this memorial, the courtiers also knew that the changes in the northwest far exceeded expectations.

The vassal territory not only changed in the cultivated land, the King of Yu also expanded Taozhou and took over several cities in Tubo. Taking advantage of the civil strife in Tubo, he supported Chashuo and sent troops to the northwest several times to consolidate Chashuo's position in Tubo. Perhaps One day Zha Shuo will really be able to take charge of the Tubo royal court.

In this case, Northwest will be stable.

As the autumn harvest approaches, the Grand Master has more cloth in his hand, which is woven from cotton grown in the northwest.

"All the feudal lords are weaving cloth like this."

The grand master heard the steward report: "That female member of the Zhao family is in charge."

The Grand Master asked: "A lot of cotton is grown in the Sixteen Prefectures?"

He already knew the answer, because the news came back to the capital during spring plowing, but they didn't know much about cotton at that time.

When cotton turns into cloth, everything becomes clearer.

The steward said: "At least enough to sell in the sixteen states." Of course, he didn't mean that there would be enough cotton to make cloth, but that at least the people in the sixteen states would be aware of the benefits of cotton.

The Grand Master said after a long while: "If you look far enough, in a few years, King Yu will be able to influence the weather of the entire Daqi even in the vassal territory."

"Besides...that's not a female member of the Zhao family anymore. In two days she will be Princess Yu."