The next day, Shi Luosheng came to the East Palace where the prince lived, but he didn't expect the prince Xiao Yan to wait in the courtyard early, as soon as he heard the report of the chamberlain, Xiao Yan personally greeted him, and first saluted Shi Luosheng: "Taifu is here, and the student Xiao Yan has seen Taifu." ”

The prince was so polite, but Shi Luosheng was a little uncomfortable, and said busily: "The minister sees His Royal Highness the prince." ”

Xiao Yan said with a smile: "Yesterday, my father said that he had found a teacher for me, and I was not happy at first, but then I heard that it was Taifu You, and I was very happy." In fact, Xiao Yan admired the name of Taifu for a long time, and three years ago, Taifu went to Wuling Mountain alone to assassinate Jiang Huan Chu, the fourth prince of Qi, forcing Chu to truce with our Great Song Dynasty. Recently, it took less than half a year for Taifu to exterminate the bandits who had harmed Dongshan for many years, and also put down the rebellion of Zhang Mancheng in Jeju, Xiao Yan admired it even more in his heart, and wanted to find time to meet Taifu, now it is okay, Xiao Yan can often hear Taifu's teachings. ”

When Shi Luosheng heard the prince's words, he was secretly surprised in his heart, His Royal Highness the prince was young, only fifteen years old, but he spoke decently, he knew how to win people's hearts at such a young age, and the children who grew up in the palace were really not simple.

Shi Luosheng also politely coped with a few words, and then began to teach Xiao Yan's homework. In terms of academics, there are naturally other great Confucians in the court to teach, Shi Luosheng is mainly in teaching martial arts and the art of war, but the martial arts of Tianluo Sect must not be taught to the prince, as for the kung fu of Tiandaomen, he is not very good at learning, plus Tiandaomen is also on the side of the family, so it is naturally inconvenient to teach too much Tiandaomen's kung fu. Fortunately, Shi Luoshengzi and Jiang Huanchu dismantled every day in the three years of Wuling Mountain, and Jiang Huanchu, as the prince of Qi State, in addition to following Hou Ying to learn art, he also learned a lot of martial arts from several major sects of Qi State, and in the past three years, Shi Luosheng has learned a lot of kung fu from Jiang Huanchu, and now he is teaching it to Xiao Yan.

In fact, it is not very important whether Xiao Yan learns martial arts or not, he is the prince of the Great Song Dynasty, and he is also surrounded by masters, and it will not be of much use if he learns martial arts himself, if there is really a critical situation when he needs to take action by himself, most of them will not be able to change the situation. Now the reason why Xiao Yan is so polite to Shi Luosheng is mainly because his father said to himself that the biggest problem facing the Great Song Dynasty now is not external troubles, but internal worries, if the problems of the five major families are not solved for a day, the power of the royal family will be unstable for a day, and there are not many people who can use it in the court now, and the Shi Luosheng in front of him is one of them.

Shi Luosheng has been concentrating on teaching Xiao Yan's martial arts for the past two months, and all the work of Wei Wei has been pushed to Wang Lun. After the end of the day's teaching, Xiao Yan said to Shi Luosheng: "Mrs. Yuan, who taught me my homework yesterday, told me about the customs and customs of many places, and I listened to them with relish. Last night I said to my father that I want to go out for a walk, see our Great Song Kingdom, and experience the life of the people, my father neither agreed nor objected, he said he didn't care, let me ask Taifu you, said as long as Taifu agrees, he agrees, Taifu or you take me out for a walk, right? ”

Shi Luosheng thought to himself: "If Xiao Daocheng doesn't agree, he will directly refuse, why bother to let the prince ask himself, the prince is the king, he is the minister, can he object?" If you oppose it, it means that the prince can't suppress himself, and when the prince ascends the throne, can he still use it? Xiao Daocheng obviously agreed with his son's idea, but he asked him to test himself, could he still not agree. ”

Shi Luosheng had no choice but to say: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince wants to go out for a walk, but the minister naturally has no opinion, I don't know where His Highness wants to go?" When to go? ”

Seeing Shi Luosheng agreeing so readily, Xiao Yan was a little surprised, but it was more of a surprise: "Let's set off tomorrow, let's go to Xu County first, there is a long history, outstanding people, and the economy is also the most developed among the northern cities, I have long wanted to go and see it." ”

When Shi Luosheng heard that he was going to Xu County, he couldn't help asking: "Xu County is Lord Taiwei's hometown, are we going to tell Tian Taiwei this time?" ”

Xiao Yan shook his head and said, "Just a few of us go around, don't tell the Taiwei, except for my father and emperor, no one else in the palace will know that I am out of the palace." ”

Hearing this, Shi Luosheng understood, this is why His Royal Highness the Crown Prince wants to go out for a walk, this is obviously His Majesty is going to attack Tian Yulong, first send the prince to Xu County secretly to see the situation there, and then take the next step.

Shi Luosheng asked again, "Then who does His Highness plan to bring with him this time?" ”

Xiao Yan replied: "There don't be many people, just Mr. You, plus Yuan Taifu, well, considering the safety on the road, you have to find two more masters to accompany you, one is to let Liu Hanfeng, the deputy commander of the imperial guard, and the other take Lieutenant Liu Zixuan." ”

In terms of candidates, he and Zixuan have nothing to say, Yuan Taifu's name is Yuan Chengce, and he is Xiao Yan's other prince Taifu, who is responsible for teaching Xiao Yan's studies, and Liu Hanfeng, the deputy commander of the imperial guard, is the nephew of the former Concubine Bin and Xiao Yan's cousin, and these two have nothing to do with the five major families.

Shi Luosheng said: "Since His Highness has already planned, the minister will go and inform Zixuan to prepare, and we will wait for His Highness here tomorrow." ”

Just when Shi Luosheng and Liu Zixuan were packing up their things and preparing to go to Xu County, Xiao Daocheng in the palace said to Xiao Yan: "Yan'er, Xu County is Tian Yulong's base camp, you must be careful when you go this time, don't expose your whereabouts, I don't want Tian Yulong to know that you have been to Xu County." ”

Xiao Yan said: "Father, rest assured, all the people brought by the sons and ministers this time have nothing to do with the five great families, but can Shi Luosheng and Liu Zixuan really be trusted?" Aren't they the people of the Great General? If we clash with the general in the future, which side will these two people stand on? ”

Xiao Daocheng sneered: "This is very reassuring, both of them are smart people, even if they are now the generals, after all, they are not surnamed Deng, as long as I give them enough benefits, I don't worry that they will not stand on my side in the future." ”

Xiao Daocheng hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Yan'er, there is a sentence I didn't want to tell you now, but now that the royal power is falling, you, as the crown prince, have to stand up in advance to share a part for me, although the most powerful of the five families are now the Chen family and the Tian family, but I am most afraid of the Deng family, the Deng family has held military power since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, especially the current Deng Yuanjue, because of the long years of resisting the invasion of the Chu State, and is deeply loved by the people, and now they are all known as the pillars of the Great Song Dynasty, The prestige is even higher than that of the emperor. Looking at the army, there is a general who was not promoted by him, he used to be busy dealing with foreign enemies, and his forces were only in the military, but now with the end of the war, he actually took out to meddle in government affairs, and this time the candidate for the Taishou of Jeju City was arranged by him with his own people. In addition, although Shi Luosheng and Liu Zixuan are young, they are both dragons and phoenixes among people, if they also help Deng Yuanjue, I am afraid that the Great Song Dynasty will really change their surname to Deng in the future, this time I asked you to take them to Xu County, in addition to letting you go to investigate the situation of the Tian family, it is also for you to win them over. ”

Xiao Yan has always thought that his father is most afraid of the Tian family, since the marriage of the Tian family and the Li family, the Tian family has surpassed the Chen family to become the most powerful of the five major families, I really didn't expect that the most feared by the father would be the Deng family, but think about it, after all, the general has a heavy army, although his power is not the largest, but he is the easiest to succeed in rebellion.

Xu County was originally a small county town in the north of the Song State, and during the reign of the Chu State, a merchant named Tian Qing made a fortune by selling illicit salt, and the Tian family also became the richest merchant in Xu County. Later, Xiao Yuancheng, the general of the Chu State stationed in Jianye, supported the army and established the Song State on his own, and Xu County also became the territory of the Song State. Although the state of Chu was suffering from internal and external troubles at that time, it could not let Xiao Yuancheng become independent, so he sent a large army to crusade against the Song state. After Xiao Yuancheng resisted for a period of time, military spending gradually became tight, and food began to be unable to supply. At this time, Tian Bolong, the third-generation head of the Tian family, appeared, and he sold his wealth to help Xiao Yuancheng tide over the difficulties, and soon after, the Chu army could not support the retreat. Xiao Yuan became a repaid Tian Bolong and made Tian Bolong a marquis, and since then the Tian family has entered the political world from the business world. After that, the Tian family was a high-ranking official of the Great Song Dynasty for several generations, and in this generation, Tian Yulong became the imperial lieutenant of the dynasty and a very popular minister.

Because of the relationship between the Tian family, Heo County has developed rapidly for more than 100 years, and although it is only a county at the administrative level, its prosperity is no worse than that of ordinary county capitals, and it is much more prosperous than Jeju City.

Xiao Yan and his entourage walked on the streets of Xu County, looking at the Tianjia restaurant, Tianjia rice shop, Tianjia inn everywhere, and even the hawkers were Tianjia baked cakes, Tianjia steamed buns and the like. Xiao Yan was very curious and bought a few buns and asked by the way: "I see that the whole street is full of Tianjia grocery stores, Tianjia pharmacies and the like, are all of you surnamed Tian?" ”

The hawker shook his head and said: "The guest officer just came to our Xu County, we are not actually surnamed Tian, but doing business in Xu County must be under the banner of the Tian family." ”

Xiao Yan said strangely: "Do you have to fight the banner of the Tian family?" Why? ”

The peddler sighed and said: "If we don't play the banner of the Tian family, they won't let us do business here, and under the banner of the Tian family, the Tian family will take away 30% of the profit every month, saying that this is the brand usage fee of the Tian family, and it has been like this for so many years." ”

Xiao Yan was a little unconvinced: "Brand usage fees? Or take 30% of the profit? The tax revenue of the imperial court is only 20% of the profit, and you have to pay 50% at once, do you still have money to make? ”

The hawker said: "It may be really useless to change to another place, but you can still make a lot of money in Xu County, the head of the Tian family is the captain of the dynasty, and a large number of people come to Xu County every day, these people want to go to the door of Tian Daren, don't they have to spend money on food and housing?" If we raise the price a little bit, we can make more money. ”

Xiao Yan shook his head when he heard this: "I didn't expect that I could support a county town by looking for a relationship and going through the back door." ”

Yuan Chengce also sighed: "Lord Taiwei, this is really a good calculation, so many people who came to their family to do business, they helped to collect a share of money, if they didn't help, these people also had to eat and drink in the county, and part of this part of the expenses flowed into the Tian family, and the ancestors of the Tian family deserved to be in business." ”