Regarding Tianziqi's seemingly random question, Liu Sheng thought about it again and again, and finally did not rush to give an answer.

Because Liu Sheng knew very well in his heart: what Tianziqi really wanted to ask was not the simple sentence 'How is Gillian doing'.

——Last autumn, I couldn't resist my aunt who was getting more and more impatient: Princess Liu of Guantao, and felt that there was no room for turning around in the short term, Liu Sheng finally followed Tianziqi's suggestion and formally requested the Empress Dowager Dou of the East Palace to canonize her cousin Gillian as the crown princess.

That's right;

Now only seven years old, Gillian Weng has become Liu Sheng's crown princess.

All parties are happy about this outcome.

- A big stone in the heart of the Empress Dowager Dou fell to the ground, and she had no reservations about Liu Sheng since then, and she had already made a gesture of 'I will personally help my grandson sit on the throne';

Through this marriage, and the next generation of Han Tianzi got into a relative, the princess of Guantao Liu was also satisfied, in order not to cause trouble to Liu Sheng, who is still the prince, even the Shaofu did not go often.

For Liu Sheng to promote this matter so rationally, Tianziqi is obviously also very relieved.

After all, back then, when the storage position was doubtful because of Liu Yi, the king of Liang, Tianziqi also relied on this hand to stabilize the storage position;

Now, seeing that his son Liu Sheng also made the same choice, Tianzi Qi is naturally deeply grateful.

It's just that today, when Tianziqi seemed to point out the sentence 'How is Gillian doing', Liu Shengzong can always react no matter how dull he is: For this matter, Tianziqi, I'm afraid he has other doubts······

"Since moving into the palace, Gillian is always depressed on weekdays, and even her meals have been reduced a lot."

"Erchen didn't know what to do, so he could only go to the door and ask Aunt Guantao for help."

"Since the beginning of spring this year, Aunt Guantao has come to the door every three or five days to talk to Gillian;"

"Every now and then, Erchen will also take Gillian to visit Aunt Tangyi and Guantao."

"Now, Gillian seems to be used to the life of the palace, and there is nothing wrong with it."

"It's the concubines who Aunt Guantao sent to Gillian and married into the palace······"

For a while, he couldn't figure out Bai Ziqi's intentions, and Liu Shengzi had to follow the conversation and try to answer Tianziqi's question;

As Liu Sheng expected: after he responded, Tianziqi quickly introduced the conversation into the right track that should have been started a long time ago.

"Concubine Teng······"

"Hey ······"

"Sister is good anywhere, this is the ·······"

"Hey, that's it······"

···

"In recent years, I've been careful."

"The concubines who married into the palace with Gillian have all sent someone to check."

"Although there is no problem, after all, it is a woman sent from the Tangyi Marquis Mansion."

"If you can, try not to touch it."

"-As for Gillian, she is still too young, and she is really too womb to live in."

"As for the Coming ······"

In the end, Tianzi Qi only glanced at Liu Sheng meaningfully, although he didn't say it too clearly, but the deep meaning in his eyes was enough to make Liu Shengfu feel good.

Even so, Tianzi Qi still did not forget to mention one more sentence at the end: "After I have been for a hundred years, if Mrs. Bo is still alive, I will go to Handan and be the Queen Mother of Zhao for Lao Qi." ”

"The vacant Beigong ······"

"Hmmm······"

"It's okay to keep it for Gillian······

With a chilling whisper, Tianzi Qi lowered his head and took a sip of the ginseng soup in his hand.

Liu Sheng was silent.

Everything seems to be in plain sight······

"Horses."

"The matter of contact with Donghu and Chang'an Hou."

The short thought was interrupted by the low reminder of the Son of Heaven, and it also brought Liu Sheng's temporarily scattered thoughts back to his eyes.

Recalling a little about the past year, the hard work he had invested in this matter, and the development process of the whole thing, Liu Sheng still shook his head with a wry smile, and helplessly showed his hands to Tianziqi.

"The price of Chang'an Hou is really too high."

Erchen wanted to nod several times, but in the end, he still couldn't make up his mind.

"-oh?"

"—Lu Tazhi, what do you want?"

"—Or should it be said: He, Marquis Chang'an, what price did he offer to the prince of my Han family?"

"Ordnance ······"

With just a few words, the relaxed look on Tianziqi's face suddenly disappeared, and was replaced by a touch of depth and gloom that people couldn't see at a glance.

In the past year or so, Tianzi Qi has naturally maintained a high level of attention to Liu Sheng's attempt to contact the Xiongnu Donghu Department to facilitate a horse smuggling and import agreement of a certain scale.

After all, having been the crown prince for more than 20 years and the emperor for seven years, it is impossible for Tianzi Qi not to understand how appalling the importance of sycophants has reached for today's Han family.

Just like the games of later generations, for a certain task, there is often a progress bar;

For today's Han family, the speed of obtaining horses will directly affect the speed of reading the progress bar called 'Decisive Battle of the Huns'.

To put it more bluntly: if you gather enough war horses one day earlier, you can prepare for a decisive battle with the Huns one day earlier;

And the deterioration of Tianziqi's physical condition has also made the middle-aged Tianzi, who is about to come to the end of his life, more and more obsessed with the words 'decisive battle against the Huns', and even has become Tianziqi's obsession.

But as Liu Sheng said: Lu Tazhi's horse driving for the horse smuggling transaction is indeed 'high', which is somewhat beyond the expectations of Tianziqi.

"Ordnance ······"

"Although the Donghu Department is in the south of the Munan, whether the Huns are going west to pursue the Yueshi people, or going south to attack our Han family, they will never dispatch the army of the Donghu Department."

"As for the other Makunan tribes, although they have coveted the pastures of the Donghu tribe for a long time, due to the indispensability of the Donghu tribe, every time the Makunan tribe wants to get involved in the Donghu tribe, they will also be stopped by the intervention of the Xiongnu Shan Yuting."

"There is no need to recruit externally, and there is a single court protection inside, and the Donghu Department doesn't even need to maintain too many troops."

"What is the use of the ordnance that he wants it?"

···

"Hmmm······"

"What kind of ordnance does he want?"

"How much?"

A light inquiry only provoked Liu Sheng to smile bitterly again and again.

"A well-bred mare shall have five swords, a halberd, or three longbows, each with a hundred arrows."

"A fine stallion horse, three stomachs, or ten four-stone crossbow machines, each with a crossbow lost a hundred ······"

With just a simple sentence, Tianzi Qi's frowning brows quietly loosened.

But what is obvious is that Tianziqi's loose brow does not mean that this price is 'acceptable';

But after hearing the exact price, Tianziqi almost without thinking about it came to the conclusion in his heart: This business has nothing to discuss······

"In the past, not to mention ordnance, even the bronze utensils used for agriculture and sacrifices, my Han family was strictly controlled, and they were never allowed to flow into the grassland."

"Of course, horses, especially stallions and high-breed mares that can be used to store war horses, are also things that the Huns strictly guarded and were never allowed to cross the Great Wall."

"I originally thought that if Lu Tazhi was willing to secretly export horses for my Han family to build a horse garden, then the bronze would not be able to give him Lu Tazhi."

"But I really didn't expect that the 'bronze' he asked for was actually an ordnance;"

"Not only ordnance, but also armor stomach and crossbow machine, even in the Han family, it is never allowed to be privately hidden, and hiding it is a heavy weapon of 'rebellion'······"

···

"Let's leave this matter at that."

"Lu Tazhi's line, don't worry about it anymore."

The Son of Heaven made a decision, and Liu Shengzi was also as good as a stream, and after only a moment of entanglement, he also left the matter behind.

It's just that even if he has made the decision to 'no longer consider this matter', Liu Sheng still has a doubt in his heart.

- Lu Tazhi, why do you want ordnance?

As the Son of Heaven Qi Fangcai said: in the grassland, Lu Tazhi's Donghu tribe did not need to participate in the Xiongnu's external conquest, nor would it be attacked by other tribes;

If there is no need for war, Lu Tazhi's Donghu Department should have no demand for ordnance.

But for Liu Sheng's invitation to 'do some business', Lu Tazhi asked for not to mention weapons, but to find a random piece of high-control weapons at home, which was enough to kill a household register······

"Is it a tactful refusal of this business, and you want me to retreat?"

"Or is it the situation of the Donghu tribe in the grassland······

Seeing Liu Sheng's brows tightly locked, he lowered his head and fell into deep thought, and Tianziqi, who saw Liu Sheng's doubts, also fell into a short period of thought.

Soon, Tianzi Qi, who had come to a general conclusion, put his guess in front of Liu Sheng.

"Today's Xiongnu Shan Yu is the grandson of Mao Dun and the son of Lao Shangji Congee: the military minister of Su Yu."

"It's different from the bravery of the old man and the old scheming: the military minister is a bit petty."

"During the reign of Lao Shangji Congee, the military ministers of the Xiongnu presided over the raid of the Xiongnu against the Yueshi people as the Xiongnu Zuoxian King;"

"And after succeeding to the throne, the military ministers of the Sui Dynasty purged the power of the Right Xian King in one fell swoop, and naturally they were in the Xiongnu Shan Yuting, creating an atmosphere of 'it is incorrect to attack the Han family in the south'."

"In addition, the military minister himself was once the king of Zuoxian, who was responsible for attacking the Yue clan, and after succeeding to the throne, he naturally saw that the Yue clan people were in a more important position."

"So for my Han family, although the attitude of the military ministers seems to be very tough, it is actually a lot milder than the old Shangji porridge when Emperor Taizu Gao was Emperor Taizu and the old Shangji porridge when he was the first emperor."

"—after all, a dog that bites, doesn't bark."

"Even though the military ministers sometimes bark and sometimes intimidate our Han family, in fact, they are more inclined to ignore our Han family."

"And the existence of Lu Tazhi, and even the entire Donghu Division, is just that when the Huns went south to attack the Han border, there was a group of people who were familiar with my Han family."

"Since the military ministers have shifted their focus to the west, with the Yue clan people as the primary disaster, then Lu Tazhi's 'Han Family Pass' is naturally becoming less and less important."

"Lu Tazhi is no longer important, Donghu is in the grassland, so naturally he will no longer be protected by Shan Yuting."

"And after losing Shan Yuting's protection, if Lu Tazhi still wants to protect the whole clan, the only way is to use everything to strengthen his own ······"

Tianzi Qi's words came into his ears, making Liu Sheng nod thoughtfully.

Liu Sheng can figure out these things.

- In the Xiongnu steppe, or the vast majority of the entire history, the nomads often believed in the naked law of the jungle.

To put it bluntly, it is a big fist and a big voice, the winner takes all, and the loser loses.

Specific to today's Xiongnu, although it is a loose tribal alliance of nomadic civilization as a whole, the Xiongnu often adopt a tacit attitude towards the conquest between member tribes in more cases.

The reason is simple: in the grassland, only those who can fight are qualified to speak.

When the sky is over, that is, after the end of the war, Shan Yuting will come forward to maintain order and remind the victorious side to adhere to the rule of 'not killing women and children' in the grassland.

Nothing else.

And under such a naked law of the jungle, if Lu Tazhi's Donghu tribe wants to protect itself, especially on the premise of losing the protection of Shan Yuting, the only way to protect itself is naturally to make itself strong enough.

】

Only when it is so strong that other tribes dare not covet it, can the situation of the Donghu tribe in the grassland be barely regarded as 'peace of mind'.

For a unique tribe like the Donghu tribe, which is almost entirely composed of Han Chinese but lives on a nomadic basis, the best way to strengthen itself in the short term is, of course, to obtain a batch of advanced weapons and equipment.

In this known world of this generation, those who can claim to be 'advanced in weapons and equipment' in front of the Huns, except for the Roman republican civilization tens of thousands of miles away, only the Han dynasty remains······

"If that's the case······"

"Or ······"

"—no."

"—absolutely not."

Considering the internal reasons, Liu Sheng, who had already given up the 'deal' with Lu Tazhi, was only ready to move again in his heart;

But before Liu Sheng could speak, Tianzi Qi resolutely denied Liu Sheng's temptation.

"Ordnance, unlike anything else."

"If other things flow into the grassland, the court can still whitewash the peace, saying that it is a merchant who has made a profit;"

"But weapons and ordnance are things that only the army and the Shaofu have."

"In case the matter is revealed, then in order to give an explanation to the people of the world, I can only pull out a few generals, or directly send Shaofu to Dongshi to be beheaded."

···

"It's not worth it."

"For the sake of horses, it is not worth it to lose the generals and Jiuqing, and at the same time to greatly damage the prestige of the court."

"Don't even think about it."

"If there is nothing else to do, think about Zhou Yafu and how to deal with it."

was full of resolute statements again, which finally made Liu Sheng completely let go of all luck;

When the Son of Heaven opened his mouth and heard the long-lost words 'Zhou Yafu' again, Liu Sheng's face became strange again.

"Disposition?"

"Oh······"

"Yes;"

"Zhou Yafu's 'private collection of armor stomach' is ······"