Chu and Han contend for the throne

Chapter 352 Bewitching people
Xianyang, Changle Palace.

Even though it was midsummer, the entire Changle Palace was wrapped airtightly. Since the sunlight could not penetrate, almost all the palaces in the Changle Palace looked gloomy.

The palace of Prince Liu Ying was especially gloomy.

Liu Ying, who is only 24 years old, has become skinny and has only one breath left. Last winter, he took his guards to Nanshan to hunt, but he met a white tiger. The horse was frightened and threw Liu Ying off. After Ying was rescued by the guards and returned to Xianyang, she fell ill. Dozens of imperial physicians tried their best to improve her condition instead of getting better.

Lu Zhi was standing in front of Liu Ying's sick bed, weeping silently. At this time, Lu Zhi's mood can only be described in one sentence, that is, nothing is more sad than heartbreak. Seeing that his only son, Liu Ying, will recover in a few days After living, Lu Zhi felt that the whole sky had collapsed. If the son of that bitch (Ms. Qi) was really allowed to inherit the throne, what would happen to his Lu family?
Therefore, Lv Zhi directed a poisoning case, but unfortunately, in the end, all the merits were lost.

However, Lu Zhi did not give up on this. She was secretly in contact with a hero, and was going to pay a lot of money to hire a few assassins to assassinate that bitch and Liu Ruyi. Liu Ruyi, she doesn't care if she will be exposed, even if she is exposed, so what?Liu Ying died, and she didn't want to live anymore.

Although Liu Ying was dying, she had already guessed Lu Zhi's thoughts, and immediately persuaded weakly: "Mother, don't embarrass Ruyi anymore, there is no holiday for the child, it is the child's life, and it has nothing to do with Ruyi." Oh, and Ruyi is extremely intelligent, she will definitely be a competent monarch in the future..."

"Ying'er." Lu Zhi hurriedly stopped Liu Ying and said, "Stop thinking about it, the imperial doctor has already said that you are just a little frightened, and you will be fine. , The throne of this big man is yours, no one can take it away, the queen mother assures you, um, you go to sleep."

Liu Ying sighed, and soon fell into a drowsy sleep.

Seeing that Liu Ying was fast asleep, Lu Zhi tiptoed out of Liu Ying's bedroom, summoned the guards and said, "Prepare the car and go to the Green Willow Villa in the north of the city."

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Ziling, the upper study of the Chu Palace.

Xiang He is reporting state affairs to Xiang Zhuang. The current power structure of Chu State is somewhat similar to the prime minister responsibility system in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Only when there are important state affairs, it needs to be submitted to the study room, and the king of Chu will personally guard it.

Putting down the memorial in his hand, Xiang Zhuang couldn't help but say, "The first batch of 20 shi of rice is coming out of Sichuan soon?"

The Qin family in Bazhong is worthy of being a business family, and Mrs. Qin is indeed a business genius. In just over a month, they have raised 20 shi of rice, and they will soon be able to leave Sichuan by water, which is more convenient than land. When Wang Jian destroyed Chu, he confiscated 60 shi of rice from Bashu, and he traveled by water.

But Xiang He said with a bitter face: "But Your Majesty, the price of this batch of rice is as high as two hundred qian per shi, and one tael of gold can only buy ten shi of rice, which is fully double the price of rice in Ziling! !" After saying this, Xiang He said again, "Besides, this batch of rice is specially purchased by the king, and there is no need to pay lijin along the way. The Qin family is too dark, right?"

"It doesn't matter." Xiang Zhuang waved his hand and said calmly, "Now we have money in the treasury, but there is no food in Taicang. As long as the Qin family can get us food, it doesn't matter if the price is higher."

This is true, the state of Chu is really not short of money nowadays, Likin alone is a big income.

More than ten years ago, the land tax of Chu State was very low, and the operation of the court was basically supported by the profits of wine making, paper making and book selling. This was actually a national policy of hiding wealth for the people. , the people of Chu had accumulated considerable wealth, which was the initial primitive accumulation.

With primitive accumulation, industry and commerce have the capital to develop.

After more than ten years of development, Jiangdong's industry and commerce are now extremely prosperous. Lijin alone can contribute millions of taels of gold every year. A few months ago, one guy distributed nearly ten million taels of gold. The industry and commerce of Chu State is another huge stimulus. It is foreseeable that this year, the industry and commerce of Chu State will usher in another explosive development.

In this case, there is really no need to worry about money. Taking a step back, even if the treasury cannot make ends meet, isn’t it still possible to plunder gold from the Middle East through ocean trade?There is so much gold in the Mesopotamia, and luxury goods such as silk, porcelain, paper, and liquor are extremely popular in the West, so the gold is rushing in.

After Xiang Zhuang made his statement like this, Xiang He didn't say anything more, and he also heard a faint rumor that Mrs. Qin, the head of the Qin family in Bazhong, was that charming widow who was with the king There seems to be some entanglement between them. It is said that they spent the night in the palace before leaving Ziling, but I don't know if it is true or not.

Immediately Xiang Xiang picked up the second memorial and said to Xiang Zhuang: "Your Majesty, there is also news from Liangdi. Since three days ago, people from Liangdi have fled into Jiujiang and Hengshan counties. And the governor of Hengshan County has set up porridge sheds on the border to help refugees, but there are not many refugees who have fled into the two counties."

Xiang Zhuang nodded and said, "Tell the governors of Jiujiang and Hengshan that the refugees in Liang must be properly resettled, and no refugee must be starved to death. Otherwise, I will only ask them!"

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Chen County, Ruyin County.

No less than 500 people have gathered under a century-old mulberry tree in the east of the city. Seeing so many people gathered together, in the spirit of joining in the fun, more people continue to gather from all around to under the big tree. In the center, a young man in his twenties is standing on a big rock and talking loudly.

"You don't know that in Jiangdong, as long as you turn in [-]% of the harvest, the rest will be yours, and there is no poll tax other than the land tax. A few cotton plants and a few bolts of cloth are planted in the field, and you can get it back. It’s a lot of money, and now every family has a lot of fish and meat, and the rice in the barn is too much to eat, and it’s all rotten.”

"Coax ghosts." Someone said disapprovingly, "There is no need to pay poll tax, who would believe it?"

"It's true." Someone immediately retorted, "I have a clan brother who sold cloth in Jiangdong, and I heard that there is really no poll tax there, and the people there seem to be quite rich. You can entertain guests with wine and meat, by the way, my elder brother moved his family to Jiangdong last year."

The young man on the big rock smiled and said, "What I'm saying is the truth. If you don't believe me, you can go to Jiangdong and have a look. But I can assure you that if you go to Jiangdong, you definitely don't want to come back."

After saying this, the young man said again: "Here, you have worked hard for a year, but you still can't fill the stomachs of the whole family, but in Jiangdong, you can not only fill the stomachs of the family, but also provide food for your wives and children." Wear new clothes, live in a new house, and you can drink and eat meat yourself, how beautiful would this day be?"

This remark touched the heartstrings of many people. At the moment, someone asked: "But if we really go to Jiangdong, how can we support our wives and children without land? Why can't we just beg for food?"

The young man immediately replied: "You don't have to worry about this. As long as you go to Jiangdong, you will be allocated ten acres of land immediately. Although it is not familiar land, as long as you are willing to work hard, it will definitely not be a problem to support the family. After waiting After a few years, if the raw land becomes mature land, then we will live a good life, ha ha."

Now someone is really tempted: "Damn it, I can't live this life anyway, why don't we go to Jiangdong to count the ball."

Immediately someone echoed loudly: "That's right, I really can't live here, brother Heizi, when you leave, you can say hello, little brother will go with you."

Someone took the lead, and someone immediately joined in, and the crowd suddenly became commotion.

I have to say that the life of the people of the Liang Kingdom is indeed not very easy. There are a lot of miscellaneous taxes and taxes, and the land tax is also heavy.

But at this moment, someone outside the crowd suddenly shouted: "Officers and soldiers, officers and soldiers are here!"

Everyone looked back anxiously, and sure enough, they saw a group of yamen servants leading more than a hundred officers and soldiers rushing over here aggressively. Hundreds of people uttered a cry and scattered away. Taking advantage of the chaos, when the yamen servants and officers and soldiers arrived, there was no one under the old mulberry tree.

The leading Ruyin county lieutenant was so angry that he jumped up and down, but there was nothing he could do.

On the contrary, a small official next to him was more vigilant, and immediately reminded the county captain: "County captain, the situation seems wrong. It seems that someone is spreading rumors everywhere in our county and encouraging these unscrupulous people to flee to Jiangdong. In my opinion, we should hurry up It is only serious to report the situation in our county to the county lieutenant's mansion."

"En." The county captain said indifferently, "you can do it as you see fit."

"Here!" The little official took the order, turned around and left in a hurry.

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In Dingtao, Liang Palace has become Han Xin's residence.

Lou Jing handed a secret letter to Han Xin and said respectfully, "Your Majesty, this is King Zhao's reply."

Han Xin opened the envelope, took out the letterhead and read it hastily, a sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth, and said: "Zhang Ao and Guan Gao are quite knowledgeable about current affairs, and they didn't refuse the widow's request for food loan, but they only agreed to give 30 shi. , which is 50 shi less than the 20 shi that Zijin asked for, so it seems that the grain can only be transported from Linzi."

Lou Jing nodded and said, "It's the only way to go now."

Han Xin twitched his beard curled up at the corners of his lips, and said coldly: "However, Zhao Guo only gave 30 shi, but it was an excuse for the widow to use troops. When the situation in Liang Guo is settled, the widow will personally raise an army to conquer Hebei."

While the monarch and his ministers were talking, Su Weilang took Cao Yu into his heart and said, "Your Majesty, Master Zhao is asking to see you."

"Please hurry up." Han Xin said after a pause, and then said, "Also, from now on, there is no need to report to the military adviser for a visit."

"Here!" Cao Yu took the order and went away. After a while, Zhao Yan hurried into the study, greeted Han Xin and Lou Jing respectively, and then said solemnly, "Your Majesty, I have received reports from many counties. In the past ten days, some people have spread rumors in various counties and counties in Liangdi, encouraging the local people to flee to Jiangdong."

(End of this chapter)