I had a lot of fun the night before, and I drank a lot of wine, and through the conversation between the four princes and the princess and Zhao Yingqi's intentional or unintentional clichés, I knew a lot of things about Zhou Guo, although it was not a secret, but it was also a lot of help for Zhao Yingqi, of course, these news could not be fully believed or disbelieved, and could only be confirmed slowly.

A few people didn't fall asleep until 10 o'clock.

When I got up in the morning, the prince's personal guards were already preparing to return to Tongying Mansion, and they had a good time in the past two days.

Zhao Yingqi did not return to the city with several princes, but delayed for two hours and returned to the city with the princess and Li Qingfang.

On the way back to the city, Zhao Yingqi and the princess and Li Qingfang and his party, as well as more than 30 internal guards, including the bald man Ding Feng.

After Ding Feng defected to Li Yuanbai, he was appointed as a captain, and he still needed to be appointed by the Ministry of War before he could take office, and he was temporarily in a state of absence, before Zhao Yingqi helped Ding Feng buy a yard in a small town outside the city, and at the same time took Li Niang's mother and son to the yard.

Zhao Yingqi was also ready to move over, and the four princes didn't keep too much, after all, the emperor had already said hello, if Zhao Yingqi was still only the second class, the four princes could still think of being a doorman or a subordinate official in King Ning's mansion, but now Zhao Yingqi's master and servant are all in the top rank, and it is no longer something that he can tolerate in a small Ning Wangfu.

On the way, Zhao Yingqi chatted with a few people, and somehow was caught by the princess and Li Qingfang about his confidante in Chen State, which exploded all of a sudden, and the two of them kept asking about the Duanlingyun girl, from how they met to how they knew each other.

Zhao Yingqi was very helpless, and even Zhao Tong's look of listening attentively seemed to be very curious.

But Zhao Yingqi's memory is forced into his mind, or it is better to say that he occupies the magpie's nest, and the memory loss is serious, I only know that there is such a very caring woman, but I can't even remember my appearance and the like.

The princess and Li Qingfang only said that Zhao Yingqi was not real, and the words were not clear, and it was not a shameful thing, what a happy thing to be a confidant in life.

Zhao Tong also looked at his husband, and his eyes never moved, as if to say, "Why don't I know." ”

Sometimes the princess was so happy that she couldn't help but be a little excited on horseback, Li Qingfang reminded several times not to be naughty on horseback, but the princess just didn't listen, still shaking around.

No, something happened, I didn't step on the stirrup, it snowed in winter, the soles of my shoes were slippery, and I slipped under my feet and almost fell off the horse.

Fortunately, Zhao Tong was extraordinary, a long body fished for the moon, picked up the princess by the waist, and put the princess on his horse.

The princess was frightened for a while, patted her not very majestic chest, and began to behave again, one turned over and sat behind Zhao Tong, reaching out to protect Zhao Tong's waist.

also said vigorously, "Miss Tong is so skilled, Miss Tong has a good figure." ”

"Miss Tong, you should be my master." The princess hugged Zhao Tong's waist and leaned a little head on Zhao Tong's shoulder.

"Nope." Zhao Tong refused very simply.

"Why? How well-behaved Mengmeng is. The princess's greasy tone made Zhao Yingqi almost die when she heard it.

"To be my apprentice is to be a maid to my husband, can you accept it?"

The princess looked at Zhao Yingqi, and Zhao Yingqi looked at the princess, one frowning and the other shrugging.

"What kind of rule is this?" The princess is inexplicable.

"I am the master of the door, and I should maintain the rules of the door." Zhao Tong said it as a matter of course.

"Miss Zhao is the master of the door, so what is Mr. Zhao?" Li Qingfang asked suspiciously.

"Xiaotong is one vein, and I am another vein." Zhao Yingqi hurriedly explained, otherwise he would be exposed.

"How can one mountain accommodate two tigers? The two masters, who among you has the final say? "The princess is not a child of the royal family, and her thinking is full of the idea of self-respect.

"Eggs can't be put in one basket, naturally the two veins are not in one place, and they will be together when the heirs are born." Zhao Tong's words made Zhao Yingqi look sideways, which was very reasonable.

"Then why is Miss Tong so powerful, but Mr. Zhao has the final say?" The princess had no stirrups to step on, so in order not to be upside down, she had to hug Zhao Tong tighter.

"No matter how high the martial arts are, there are only a thousand enemies, ten thousand enemies, there are more than tens of millions of people in this world, and the one who can lead everyone forward is the most powerful." This is very thought-provoking.

Being the boss is generally not the most powerful, and the most powerful being the boss generally does not end well.

Zhao Yingqi decided to expose this article, otherwise it would be endless, and he would be exposed sooner or later.

"Almost everyone in the Zhou Kingdom rides a horse, and an equestrian like a princess will fall off a horse?" Cho Young-ki decided to make fun of the princess.

"Isn't it because the stirrups don't fit, the stirrups of the internal guard's military horses are too big, and people can't step on them steadily." Princess, is this the end of the work? The sound of anger made Zhao Yingqi very uncomfortable.

"Then don't you want to improve the stirrups?" Zhao Tong also felt that the stirrups did not fit very well.

"How to change it, my big Zhou good horses are more than hundreds of thousands, and the number of horseback riders is hundreds of thousands, no matter how much you improve it, you can't change it."

"The princess invited me and Xiaotong to drink on the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve, how about I help you improve this problem?" Zhao Yingqi remembered a very great invention.

"But what should I do if I want to accompany my father and emperor in the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve."

"It's okay, let's talk about it then."

The group has arrived at the north gate of Tongying Mansion, after entering the north gate is a small city, the small city is used for defense, and the small city is the imperial city again, the north gate is generally not opened, only opened for the royal family, so the princess said goodbye to everyone first, and entered the palace from the north gate with the internal guards.

And Zhao Yingqi, the master and servant, as well as Li Qingfang and Ding Feng, continued to advance along the gallop outside the city wall from the west side.

When he entered the city at the west gate and sent Li Qingfang back to the palace, Zhao Yingqi was ready to leave with Ding Feng and return to the town outside the city, and he was not going to go to the palace of the fourth prince Ning Wang.

Before saying goodbye, Li Qingfang said that he also wanted to participate in the wine banquet of several people in the Chinese New Year's Eve, and Zhao Yingxi also agreed.

And every man went back to his house, and for several days he was silent.

The princess has not left the palace in the past few days, but Li Qingfang took Zhao Yingqi to visit Tongying Mansion for a few days, and she was very dedicated.

Until the twenty-ninth day of the lunar month, the two classes of the yamen and the six temples of the six departments have also begun to prepare for vacation, and the emperor's will has come, summoning Zhao Yingqi into the palace for an audience, which is slightly later than Zhao Yingqi thought.

It's nearly noon this day, Zhao Yingqi is watching the tiger baby boxing in the small courtyard, the tiger baby is very interesting, although he has worshiped Ding Feng as a teacher, Ding Feng has also taught him a lot of good boxing, but he still finds time every day to practice the two or three plausible boxing techniques that his father taught him before his death.

In this regard, Ding Feng didn't have much to do, in Ding Feng's words, I wouldn't have beaten the leopard to death with different boxing techniques back then, as long as I was willing to practice.

There were two yellow gates and an old eunuch in the courtyard, and from the two small yellow gates, I knew that this old eunuch was one of the top armor masters of the Zhou State, Song Lao, known as "beard and hair".

Zhao Yingqi and Zhao Tong followed Song Lao all the way into the palace until outside the study next to the Great Zhou Palace, Zhao Yingqi looked around slightly, the emperor's study was not big, and compared with the Great Zhou Hall on the side, it was just a small ear room.

After a while, Princess Yongle pushed open the door with a smile on the corner of her mouth and called Zhao Yingqi in.

This study is divided into an outer hall and two wings, east and west, the emperor is in the study on the west side, through the bead curtain to see that the east wing room should be a place to rest, and there are several bookshelves.

The princess asked at the door of the study, and then took Zhao Yingqi and the master and servant in.

There are two other people in the study, they have all seen it, that is, when he was outside the city before, he had a fight with Zhao Tong before, "there is not much money", there is not much money, and "it is difficult to open a single mouth" Lu Wen.

Think about it, the emperor is looking for himself for nothing more than two things, the first is the "Xiaoice River Period" that he said to the princess before, and the other is to recruit himself.

Qian Wuduo is the secretary of the household department, in charge of people's livelihood finance. Lu Wen is a servant, and he likes to patrol all parts of the country with the right to refute the seal. These two people are the high-ranking officials who have the most say in the "Xiaoice River Period".

Just when Zhao Yingqi was struggling with whether to kneel, the old emperor helped him dispel this concern.

"Mengmeng, why don't you introduce your father to the emperor?" The old emperor knew that most of the heirs of these hidden sects were high-minded and arrogant people, so he didn't mention the issue of kneeling at all, and the rites of the Zhou State were very similar to the Han rites in the previous life, mainly bowing, and kneeling was rare.

"Father, this is the Zhao Yingqi Mr. Zhao I told you, this is Mr. Zhao's maid Zhao Tong."

"I have also heard of the two, Mr. Zhao made a plan to annihilate all my 15,000 elite horses in the Spring Inner Dao, and also rejected Yuan Bai's 30,000 troops from the Spring Inner Dao and could not be saved, Miss Zhao also fought with Yuan Bai, regardless of victory or defeat, they are all young talents." The old emperor sat behind the central bookcase, dressed in black clothes, without a crown ornament, and his gray hair was pulled up with a jasper hairpin on the top of his head.

Looking at this outfit, Zhao Yingqi knew that this was just an informal meeting, and there was no need for too much etiquette, and it was just a bow salute at the moment: "Zhao Yingqi in white clothes of Chen Guo, with his maid Zhao Tong, has seen Zhou Guojun." ”

"A few days ago, Mr. Zhao and I went hunting outside the city and said something to Yongle, do you remember?" Ask the person in advance, don't talk about specific things, make sure that the thing has been done to the person first.

"Yes, at that time, I chatted with Princess Yongle, and talked about the fact that the winter in the northern Xinjiang of the Zhou Kingdom has become longer and colder over the years, and I guessed that it was the 'Xiaoice River Period'."

"The day after Mr. finished talking to my Yongle child, Yongle sent a message to the palace. I verified some of the information that the DPRK and China have grasped over the years, and found that it is no different from what I said, there are many cases of heavy snowfall, drought, and the southward movement of the snow line in northern Xinjiang. Saying that, the old emperor looked at the book of the household, and there was not much money.

Qian Wuduo took over the conversation: "Judging from the 20 years of the 43 counties in the northern Xinjiang of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the county chronicles, and the county orders to return to the dynasty to report on their work, the snow line has moved south between 120 and 200 li in the past 20 years, and at present, six counties have been abandoned, and all the residents have moved south. ”

In the past five years, the longer the winter, the shorter the summer, and even worse, the summer time is no longer enough to cultivate and harvest grain, and there are many horse farms and grasslands where houses collapse and freeze to death, and the situation is very bad. ”

"Is that all?" Zhao Yingqi just looked at Lu Wen in the service and asked.

"What do you mean, sir?" Lu Wen didn't understand what Zhao Yingqi meant.

"I heard that many horse farms in the Zhou army have collapsed, and the princess also knows the situation of the tiger baby, is it just an official horse farm? Isn't this the case in private houses? ”

Lu Wen's face changed slightly, and he only said that the year-end work reports of each county were these situations, and he still needed to confirm it.

Zhao Yingqi's words are actually very offensive, for the monarch, for the venerable, for the trouble, for the former is the basic of officials since ancient times, if you insist on tracking, I am afraid that there are few clean ones.

In Zhao Yingqi's opinion, it is too late to investigate and verify these days, not to mention that the first day of the year is approaching, and the emperor's birthday on the eighth day of the first month of the first month, he will definitely not go through these old accounts that make the officials unhappy.

Then calling Zhao Yingxi over today should not be specifically for the "Xiaoice River Period", but I am afraid that the second one may be what I really want to say.

Similarly, Zhao Yingqi also has some small ideas to talk to Zhou Guojun, such as the Southwest Yue Kingdom...