"How do you know I'm going to Suzhou?" Li Xiu looked at the child in front of him who only reached his chest with a surprised expression. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

"It was the concubine who told me!" I saw Li Ke saluting Li Xiu very respectfully, and today he suddenly came to the door and asked to go with Li Xiu and them, which made Li Xiu also very surprised.

"I see, but you don't stay in Chang'an, why do you want to go to Suzhou with me?" Li Xiu also nodded a little bit of understanding when he heard this, Concubine Yang and Li Shimin have a very strong relationship, and Concubine Yang has always wanted to let Li Ke get close to him, so it is not surprising to find out his whereabouts from Li Shimin.

"Actually, I'm not going to Suzhou, but I'm going to Yangzhou to take office, because I also hold the post of a governor of Yangzhou, according to the rules of our Tang Dynasty, all the princes have to go to the foreign government after the establishment of the mansion, originally I wanted to wait for a few years to grow up before going, but I heard that uncle, you are going to Suzhou, just by the way to take me to Yangzhou, and I don't plan to stay in Yangzhou for too long, just need to go there to make a show, and when you come back, just bring me back together, so that I can often listen to my uncle's teachings on the way!" Li Ke said the truth again.

The so-called "official", in fact, refers to the prince to serve in the fiefdom, this has two intentions, one is to allow these royal families to contact the place, understand the suffering of the people, and the other is to let these princes leave Chang'an, so as not to fight because of the throne, speaking of this rule is still Li Yuan, and he also did the same to other sons, but the three sons are very tolerant, which also led to the later struggle between Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng.

However, compared with Li Yuan, Li Shimin, who is a father, is even worse, Li Yuan finally drove those sons to the fiefdom, but when it came to Li Shimin, the rule of the prince going to the official in the field has become an ornament, for example, Li Ke and Li Tai have left the palace two years ago, and they should have served in the fiefdom, but Li Shimin never mentioned this matter, and even when the other sons grew up, they didn't take this rule seriously, and they were generally like Li Ke, who went to the fief to take a turn and came back. After all, the foreign country is not as prosperous as Chang'an in any case.

Hearing that Li Ke didn't pay attention to the officials who went out, Li Xiu couldn't help frowning slightly, but then he smiled a little self-deprecatingly, he had already decided to stay away from the court as much as possible, what else did he care about these things? Therefore, I saw that he seriously thought about it at this time and said: "If you go to Yangzhou as a prince, won't there be so many cars and horses with you, not to mention anything else, just the guards have to bring a thousand people, so many people follow us, I'm afraid it will be inconvenient, right?" ”

It's not that Li Xiu doesn't want to take Li Ke, but he feels that it's too troublesome, after all, with Li Ke's identity, he must have a lot of guards and servants when he leaves Beijing, and Li Xiu already has a lot of people in his own family, if Li Ke is added, then the scale of this team is too large, and it must be very inconvenient on the road.

"Uncle, don't worry, I've already considered this, your family travels, and the safety must be very thoughtful, so I decided to only take two maids with you, as for the other guards and slaves, you can let them take a shortcut to Yangzhou and wait first, anyway, uncle, you must not be in a hurry, if you walk and play on the road, when we arrive in Yangzhou, my people will definitely arrive a long time ago." When Li Ke said the end, he also showed a little smile on his face, and it seemed that he also seemed to know the real purpose of Li Xiu's trip to Suzhou this time.

Since Li Ke said so, Li Xiu couldn't refuse again, so he nodded after thinking for a moment and said: "Okay, since that's the case, then King Shu, you can go with us, three days later, you bring someone to meet us here, and then we will leave together!" ”

Seeing that Li Xiu agreed to take him on the road, Li Ke also thanked him excitedly and loudly, and then Li Xiu asked him about his situation in the academy again, and then let Li Ke leave.

Three days later, Li Xiu's family was finally ready, and before dawn, Li Ke had already rushed to Li Xiu's house, and he really only brought two maids, Princess Pingyang and they already knew that Li Ke was going to Suzhou with them, so they were not surprised, especially Li Ke was still Princess Pingyang's nephew, so he took great care of him.

In addition to Li Ke, there are a few people who are not members of Li Xiu's family who go with them, in fact, it is not accurate to say this, because they are all Li Xiu's students, such as Wu Mingkong and Wang Fangyi, as well as several sisters of Li Chengdao, etc., in this era, the relationship between students and teachers is sometimes closer than that of father and son, so it can be regarded as half of Li Xiu's family, and traveling is also an important means to increase knowledge, not to mention following Li Xiu, the gentleman, so they will naturally not give up such a good opportunity.

After breakfast, Li Xiu's family got into the carriage, and the front was opened by the guards, and the group drove towards Luoyang, for this trip, Li Xiu almost took away the guards and slaves at home, leaving only a small number of slaves to watch the house, so the team is also very large, if it is an uninformed person, I am afraid that it will be an army traveling from afar.

In fact, the southern section of the Grand Canal, that is, the section of the Tongji Canal, is to divert Luoshui from Luoyang to meet with the Tongji Canal, when Yang Guang toured the south, he also boarded the dragon boat from Luoyang, and because the dragon boat draft is very deep, the Tongji Canal is also dug very deep to ensure that the dragon boat passes, so it is also called "the royal river" by the locals.

Li Xiu is not the first time they have gone to Luoyang, and the places they can play on the road have already been played several times, so they did not delay time on the road, but even so, it took them more than ten days to reach Luoyang, mainly because there are too many people in the team, there are more than 1,000 guards alone, plus at least 1,200 or 300 slaves and the like, so many people travel, it can be compared with an army going out, but most of them do not have the discipline of the army, so the road is also very delayed.

But in any case, in the end, Li Xiu and they still arrived in Luoyang smoothly, and then they stayed in Luoyang for a few days, as early as before, Li Xiu had sent people to Luoyang to rent and buy ships, so when they arrived, the required ships were ready, and after Li Xiu and they rested, the group abandoned the boat and prepared to start the journey south, but just as Li Xiu and their ship left Luoyang, they encountered a fleet that Li Xiu did not expect.