On June 20, in the early dynasty, Emperor Dade announced that the imperial official Lu Baiting would serve as the county magistrate of Longyang County, and King Xuanyuan Zichi of Jin would serve as the new imperial official. Longyang County is the original site of Longdu three hundred years ago, and today's Longyang County is also the most important city among the six counties of Longdu Prefecture under Longdu Prefecture, which undertakes the supply of Longdu City from north to south and the transportation of grain, and even the Xuanwu Army is stationed around Longyang County. There are two major roads between Longyang County and Longdu City, one is an official road for people to walk, and the other is a waterway for ships to transport goods. Merchants from all over the north and south mostly transport by water, and every year it is only the cost of waterway transportation, which is a large amount of silver, so all the counties in the country, none of them can be as rich as Longyang County. This Longyang County has also become the first of the 100 counties in the country, and even its importance exceeds that of the remote governors or economic envoys.

Lu Baiting made Longyang County Order, which immediately aroused the eyes of many people, and some people took the opportunity to start wooing him, but they never expected that a royal official in the imperial study would now become the head of a hundred counties. It is conceivable that in another 20 years, there will be one of the positions of the left and right phases, and if the relationship is established now, the future can be expected.

Xuanyuan Zichi also secretly likes to serve as a royal official, although there has never been a precedent for a royal child to serve as a royal official, but is he not the first person in history? The young Xuanyuan Zi was blazing, and he couldn't help but be triumphant. In fact, the official position of this imperial official is still less than six grades, and the so-called imperial official is the mouthpiece that stood beside the emperor in the early dynasty, read the recital for the emperor, passed the words for the emperor, and sang and drank slogans such as the previous dynasty and the retreat from the dynasty. Although the position of the imperial official is not high, he is the closest person to the emperor and the emperor's confidant, and the king of Jin serves as the imperial official, which shows that the emperor has let the thirteen-year-old king of Jin come into contact with government decrees.

But the Nine Emperors being a royal official is equivalent to announcing one thing in disguise, Emperor Dade is really not good. The emperor was sick and weak, the plague in Longdu, and when the people were panicking, Zhang Xiaowu received a holy decree to enter Beijing to meet the emperor.

Zhang Xiaowu hurriedly asked the imperial envoy about the reason, and the new imperial envoy smiled and said: "The eight epidemic prevention strategies in Saibei have resonated in Beijing, and the emperor summoned you to Beijing to inquire about the epidemic prevention policies in Saibei." Zhang Xiaowu then asked about the plague in the Central Plains, and the imperial envoy shook his head and smiled bitterly, saying that the plague in the Central Plains was serious, and some places were flooded, and some places were dry and rainless, and this year was another disaster year. The envoy traveled all the way north through Sizhou, Yongzhou, Daizhou and Hunzhou, all of which were badly affected areas, and some fields were not even cultivated. A month ago, 200,000 people died of the plague in the Central Plains, and now a month has passed, and I don't know how many people have died from the disease.

Zhang Xiaowu exclaimed: "How can the plague in the Central Plains be so serious? Even the first place where the plague first occurred in Saibei, it was not as serious. ”

Now that the plague in Saibei has disappeared, the people have resumed their daily lives, and even the population of Mucheng has increased a lot, and even Xiao Kai's wife Xingzhi has given birth to a big fat son. Xiao Kai's son was named Xiao Wuxi, everyone laughed and said that you are treating a small name as a big name, and you will be ridiculed if you become a scholar in the future, Xiao Kai said My son, I am willing to call him whatever name he wants, and take care of other people's bird affairs.

The envoy also said that because Zhang Xiaowu entered Beijing on a pilgrimage, the bus general Xiao Kai took the post of commander of the ghost guard, and after the ghost general returned to Saibei, he would enter Beijing to take office. The bus general is just a small tooth station under the military department, and it does not belong to any important department, and it is the same whether Xiao Kai goes or not.

Xiao Kai was naturally willing to stay, and Zhang Xiaowu was also relieved to hand over the ghost guard to Xiao Kai, so he arranged for the entourage of the saint to enter Beijing, Wang Yijin, the secretary of the march, Ruan Qingwen, the military Sima Ruan Qingwen, the confidential battalion school Zuo Chen Guanxi, the captain of the personal guard battalion Xia Ming, fifty personal guards, and Xiao Kai's two generals Bao Yin and Jia Siye.

Wang Yijin is responsible for managing money and logistics, Ruan Qingwen is familiar with the situation in Beijing, Chen Guanxi is responsible for intelligence information, Xia Ming is responsible for protecting security, and Bao Yin and Jia Si also went to Beijing in advance to familiarize themselves with the environment.

In addition, the face saint also needs to carry a large number of gifts, in addition to the captured Inui armor and blades, the most important gift is the gold armor of the Tartar Khan.

In addition, because the local products of Mucheng are cowhide boots and refined salt, Zhang Xiaowu is ready to bring some into Beijing to see if these items can be sold. Guan Xiang was very excited when he heard the news, and immediately began to make arrangements, not only putting the 8,000 pairs of boots that were owed to the merchants of the Central Plains last year on the carriage, but also pulling 5,000 pairs of cowhide boots for him to sell.

When Zhang Xiaowu learned of Guan Xiang's plan, he was immediately depressed, and said in his heart that I am a face saint, what do you mean by getting me more than 10,000 boots, so he called him to his face and said: "Guan County Order, these 13,000 pairs of boots, do you know how many cars to pull?" ”

Guan Xiang said: "It's just eight carriages." ”

Zhang Xiaowu was so angry that he vomited blood: "Eight carriages, it's just that, do you go to face the saint, or do you go to do business?" ”

Guan Xiao said: "The general is wrong in what he said, can't he do business at the same time as the face saint?" Is doing business a delay in meeting the saint? Besides, you went to the Central Plains and got the money to sell boots, and after you arrived in Beijing, you would also be able to do activities and give gifts. ”

Zhang Xiaowu couldn't stand him, so he had to undertake this arduous task, and as a result, Mian Sheng's convoy changed from the original four carriages to pull supplies to fifteen carriages, of which five were team supplies, eight carriages pulled leather boots, and two carriages pulled refined salt. And in order to protect the goods, the original 50-man personal guard team had to be expanded to 80 people.

There are 300 people in the guard battalion, and 80 of them should be selected to accompany the general into Beijing, which is a good errand, everyone wants to accompany Zhang Xiaowu into Beijing, so they find Xia Ming one by one and ask to enter Beijing. Xia Ming was so noisy that he asked: "You all said that you should be selected among the eighty people, so why don't we compete and get the top eighty people to enter Beijing?" ”

"Fair."

"The best."

"We support you!"

Xia Ming held a competition in the general's mansion for riding, archery, martial arts, force, and literature, a total of five, respectively, to test horseback riding, archery, martial arts, strength and reading literacy, of which the first four items are naturally understood, but what you don't understand is the fifth, why try to read and write? Xia Ming said, this time into the Beijing face saint, you represent the Saibei ghost guard, if you enter the city, you don't know the big characters, you don't even know where you live, wouldn't it be embarrassing.

Everyone was convinced, so they tried according to Xia Ming's requirements, and Zhang Xiaowu also took the opportunity to arrange the battalions of the ghost guard and arrange for Saibei to act.

Xiao Kai served as the general of the ghost guard, Wu Song assisted the military, Guan Xiang assisted the civilian, the three deputy generals performed their duties, the lieutenants and lieutenants of each battalion needed to obey the arrangement, and Hu Sanwan sent people to transmit information at any time. But Hu Sanwan said: "The plague in the Central Plains is serious, so it's better to delay it for a while before leaving." ”

Zhang Xiaowu didn't care, but just told everyone to run Mucheng well, and don't let Inuyi take advantage of the loophole.