The steward of the Wang clan in the caravan walked up to the soldier guarding the gate to reveal his identity and asked to enter the city.

"The goods of the royal family of Qingfufang in the south of the city," the cold face of the soldier led by him suddenly melted, the royal family of Qingfufang is a huge rich man in Runan City, and has a close relationship with Li Zhen, the king of Yue, and is regarded as the spokesperson of the palace in business, how dare they be embarrassed by these guards of the door?

The soldiers hurriedly waved their hands and let them go, and even the officials of the people checked the road guides, and let the caravan slowly pass through the city gate and enter the city.

The Wang family's Qingfufang in the south of the city occupies a quarter of the place, and it can really be called the first wealthy merchant in Runan and even Caizhou. The batch of goods escorted by Li Rong and others was just a small part of the Wang family's business.

Because the Taiping Carriage and Horse Society had cooperated with the Wang family before, the Wang family's housekeeper had a decent attitude towards everyone, leading the caravan into a mansion of the Wang family, ordering everyone to move the goods to the warehouse, and An Ran Xin Yuan and others lived in the side courtyard next to it.

Xin Yuan let Li Rong live in one room and the others in another room.

"What's the difference between Yuzhou and neighboring Xuzhou?" Li Rong suddenly asked everyone.

"Compared with Xuzhou, the roads in Yuzhou are difficult and dangerous, the water is abundant, and it is easy to defend and difficult to attack." Dong Xuanjing said.

Dong Xuanjing has been in the army for a long time, and he is a veteran of the flying cavalry, and he is somewhat familiar with military strategy, otherwise he would not be able to be a brigade commander.

"Yes, the terrain in Xuzhou is flat, which is suitable for the movement of large armies, and Yuzhou is different, there are many mountains and rivers, and it is not easy to march." Ge Fushun and the others said in a rambling manner, generally focusing on the comparison of the topography of the two states.

"How many pedestrians do you see on the road, how many are riding horses in Xuzhou, and how many are in Caizhou?" Li Rong asked.

Everyone thought for a moment and looked at each other, who would pay attention to the comparison of how many people were on horseback.

"If there are 10 out of 10 pedestrians in Xuzhou riding horses, there are 20 people in Caizhou, the proportion is quite high, all of them exceed Shendu, Zhengzhou, Xingyang and other prefectures and counties, which is not uncommon in the mainland." Li Rong said.

"What do you mean?" The crowd was still puzzled.

"The number of households in Caizhou two years ago was 21,832, with an average of 6 people per household, about 120,000 people, and about 20,000 to 30,000 young and strong people. Li Rong continued to analyze.

During the three days he stayed in the palace, Li Rong was not idle, he inquired about Caizhou's information through various channels, transferred the number of Caizhou households and the amount of taxes paid over the years from the household department, estimated the number of soldiers that Li Zhen, the king of Yue, could levy soldiers, got a topographic map of Caizhou from the military department, and even secretly invited several Caizhou people and Runan people, and asked them carefully about the customs and characters of Caizhou Runan, road traffic, and drew a picture scroll. Afterwards, the Li Mansion put them under temporary house arrest to prevent the news from being revealed, and of course they would also be given a generous supplement.

Li Rong observed the situation in Caizhou along the way and confirmed the information in his mind one by one, and had a further understanding of Caizhou.

Training a cavalry is not an easy task, especially in the interior, where there is no large-scale source of horses and few people who can ride it, and it is even more difficult to build a cavalry.

"Three thousand cavalry?" Dong Xuanjing was stunned for a moment, "How is it possible, King Yue got so many horses from there, and got so much money from there?" ”

Caizhou is just an ordinary state and county in Henan Province, in terms of population and wealth, it is in the middle of the middle in Henan Province, and the annual tax is only 20,000 or 30,000 yuan, all of which are used for military expenses, so that it can afford to support 3,000 cavalry. The taxes can be diverted for their own use, and the court will find out as soon as possible, and they will already send someone to destroy the king of Yue.

"You have also seen that Caizhou is rich and beautiful, there are not a few people who raise horses, and there are many people who can ride skills, and it is not difficult to put together three thousand cavalry," Li Rong said, "I don't know if you have noticed that the price of salt in the realm of Caizhou is twice that of neighboring states and counties, and in Shendu, a bucket of salt is ten Wen, and Caizhou costs thirty Wen, the price difference is two times, without the approval or even connivance of Li Zhen, the king of Yue, will this be the case?" The extra money fell into his hands and turned into military expenses to support his recruitment. ”

"Li Zhen is really treacherous!" Ge Fushun said.

"If Li Zhen were an ordinary person, the Holy Mother God Emperor would have sent someone to bring him to the gods, and he would still need to send us over to investigate secretly?" Li Rong said.

Li Rong didn't know about Li Zhen's robbery of Jianghuai tribute, otherwise he would be even more surprised.

"So what do we do?" Dong Xuanjing said.

"Our task is to find the soldiers and horses that Li Zhen secretly trained, and transmit the number of soldiers and horses, armaments and other information back to Shendu." Li Rong said.

"Caizhou is so big, it's normal to hide three or five thousand people, where should we go to find it?" Dong Renyun asked.

"If Li Zhen did train private soldiers and wanted to take the opportunity to plot a rebellion, he would definitely not let these private soldiers stay too far away from the city, so as not to be caught off guard and difficult to control when the incident arises." Li Rong said, "Besides, thousands of men and horses, the need for countless grains and grass materials, always have to be transported by carriages and horses, inevitably leaving clues, you will leave the city tomorrow, along the main roads around Runan City to look for traces of large-scale carriage and horse walking, as soon as possible to find out where the camp is, as soon as there is news, according to the original plan, send the information to Xin Yuan." ”

"Yes, sir." Everyone whispered.

Early the next morning, they left the king's house and went out of the city. Li Rong did not leave, found a secluded place, changed into a green robe, wore a long knife, pretended to be a traveling scholar, and wandered around the city of Runan. Dong Xuanjing and the others left with Xin Yuan, scattered on the way, and each acted according to the goal. Xin Yuan knew the identities of Li Rong and the others, and specially told the porters not to say much.

Runan City is also very prosperous, and it seems that it has not been depressed because of Li Zhen's looting, which shows that Li Zhen himself does have considerable talent.

Li Rong walked aimlessly along the streets and alleys of Runan City, admiring the customs and customs here, while conceiving in his mind the topographical map around the Thorn Mansion of Li Zhen, the king of Yue.

He was going to sneak into the Assassin's Mansion at night to find out what was going on and see if there would be any unexpected gains.

When night came, Li Zhen changed into the prepared night clothes, quickly went over the house, and came to the Thorn Mansion with little effort.

Li Zhen's palace is the Caizhou Thorn Mansion, and he did not build the palace after he took office, so he took the Thorn Mansion as his own place of residence.

According to the regulations of the imperial court, the Thorn History Mansion in various places has a fixed layout, the building is roughly the same, Li Rong came to Caizhou and did not have large-scale changes, reconstruction, he himself is ambitious, not a person who pays attention to personal enjoyment, on the contrary, he has accumulated a huge amount of wealth through business, established a private army of his own, and secretly controlled the price of salt is only a part of his business.

The guards of the Assassin's Mansion are strict, every corner is guarded by soldiers, there is a two-story attic in the courtyard, and there are special soldiers in the attic who condescendingly look at the streets outside the palace, the wall, and keep scanning around, paying attention to the surrounding movements.

Seeing the soldiers in the attic on the high place temporarily look away, Li Rong was like a tanuki, lightly turning over from the shadow of the corner of the wall and jumping into the courtyard, hiding in the dark.

His "microscopic eye" sees night as day, and he can see every move of the guards, and clearly see the subtle expressions on the guards' faces.

Evading a team of patrolling soldiers, Li Rong slowly took over the main hall.

The main hall of the palace was brightly lit, and the figures in the hall flickered, and from time to time there were servants coming in and out, with hurried footsteps and nervous expressions, as if something big had happened.

Li Rong hid behind a rockery, staring at the lobby, pondering the actions below.

Although I don't know what the realm of King Yue is, according to all parties, King Li Zhen of Yue is a real seven-grade grandmaster. Li Rong did not dare to approach easily, and there was a danger of being discovered.

"Qu Chongyu's army has begun to evacuate, and it will take at least more than a month to enter Guanzhong in general, our preparations cannot be slow, seize this month's time, prepare the grain and grass materials, and act at any time." Li Zhen said.

"Your Highness, a while ago, Wufeng sent a lot of people to sneak into Caizhou to investigate the movements of the prince, and we caught a few." Li Gui said.

"Kill them all," Li Zhen frowned slightly, "Although Wu Zetian is busy dealing with the Tubo people, he will not relax his surveillance of us, and he will continue to strictly check the pedestrians and merchants entering and leaving Caizhou, and not let the people of the imperial court mix in and find out our truth and truth." Ande, you assist Gui'er in taking charge of this matter, take the masters in the mansion to inspect everywhere, and if you find it, you can cut it first and then kill it immediately. ”

Ande is a middle-aged man with a thin figure and a somewhat cold face who kneels on the lower position of Li Zhen's right, he is a close confidant who has followed Li Zhen for many years, has superb martial arts and a mysterious background, and has won Li Zhen's trust, and often sends him to perform some things that are not easy to do on the surface.

"Yes, Your Highness." Ander said, his voice low.

He has always had a cold temperament, and he doesn't like to talk much, but he is not liked by other officials in the palace, but unfortunately Ande doesn't care about other people's opinions.

Li Gui's face was slightly excited. Ande is a close confidant of his father Li Zhen, and a group of people under him are all masters of the rivers and lakes, acting as Li Zhen's cronies and internal guards. Li Zhen let his son Li Gui command these internal security masters, with the intention of making Li Gui take over the power of intelligence, which is very helpful to inherit Li Zhen's huge wealth and power in the future, if Li Zhen succeeds in rebellion and ascends to the throne, then Li Gui may become the crown prince and control the entire empire.

"Your Highness, Tianshan is urging grain and grass again." A civil official said.

"It is also common sense for cavalry to spend food and grass, and you send people to transport it to the mountains as soon as possible." Li Zhen said.