Lu Jia recuperated at home for a long time and was finally summoned by the king again.
Liu Chang originally had a lot of prejudice against him, but the courage shown by Lu Jia when he was in the Huns convinced Liu Chang, and Liu Chang no longer dared to look down on this excellent lobbyist. Although Lu Jia was not young,
He was young but very healthy. He often walked to and from the city, and his retainers could not keep up with him.
These old men who founded the Han Dynasty are really powerful, and all of them are talents.
Liu Chang summoned Lu Jia in the Houde Hall, and sitting beside him were Zhou Chang and Zhao Ping.
Liu Chang grinned, exchanged warm greetings, and asked about Lu Jia's family affairs.
"I have five sons. When I went to South Vietnam as an envoy, the King of Nanyue gave me many things. I sold these gifts in exchange for a thousand pieces of gold, which were divided equally among the five sons. I myself rode in a luxurious vehicle with ten dancers.
With his attendants and a sword worth a hundred gold, he took turns staying in the homes of his five sons for ten days in each house."
"I tell them, whichever son's house they die in in the future will get my car, the singer's attendants, and the sword."
"Therefore, no matter whose home I went to, they were always respectful, very welcoming, and even asked me to stay longer."
Lu Jia said proudly.
Liu Chang shook his head, "You raised them, and they should raise you. Why bother?"
"Haha, your Majesty, you don't know something. I left home when I was young and traveled around to study. Later, I went on an envoy for your Majesty. I lacked care for you. Besides, my son is not alone. They also have wives, concubines, and heirs, so they still love me.
, Serving all day long, I am afraid that I will lose love. I am still strong now, but if one day I am unable to get up, they will feel disgusted after serving for a year or two."
"Gong Lu has made great contributions to the Han Dynasty. If one day you are rejected by your heirs, I will raise you personally!"
Lu Jia was stunned, looked at Liu Chang's sincere expression, and couldn't help but laugh, "Your Majesty, there is no need to curse me like this."
"Mr. Lu suddenly told me about this matter, maybe he had other intentions?"
"The king is indeed smart."
"The king is the lord of the world, and he should treat everyone in the world as his own children... If the king has a thousand pieces of gold, every place should have two hundred."
Lu Jia talked about his thoughts, and Zhou Chang shook his head secretly. He still wanted to persuade the king? Does the king seem to be able to listen to advice?
"Oh? When have we not treated everyone equally?"
Lu Jia straightened his face and said seriously: "I heard that your Majesty wants to take over the power of minting coins from all countries in the world, but he also allows Hexi and Zhao to mint coins. How can this be done? If you are unfair to the disciples, you will lose the power of the rest.
Love.”
"Zhao and Hexi are the poorest countries. Zhao has never recovered, and Hexi has Huns outside to resist...these two countries are different."
"No, Your Majesty, the third of my five sons was born with a disability...Should I give him more money? If I give him an extra fifty gold, will the other children hate him? Will they hate him when I am gone?
How about joining forces to deal with him? Only by treating everyone equally can we prevent brothers from fighting each other and bring peace to our families."
"Governing a country is the same as governing a family. What do you think, Your Majesty?"
Lu Jia asked respectfully.
Zhou Chang sighed secretly, this person is still too immature and has not seen through what kind of person the king is...
"Hahaha, what you said makes sense! Okay! I'll do as you say!"
When Liu Chang accepted Lu Jia's advice with a smile.
Zhou Chang was stunned for a moment, staring at his king with complicated eyes.
Lu Jia then made several more suggestions of his own, and Liu Chang accepted them all without any refutation.
Zhou Chang's eyes became even more resentful.
Liu Chang took Lu Jia's hand cordially and said: "Mr. Lu, I originally wanted Zhao Yao to go to Hexi to serve as a guest, to contact the Western Regions, and to deal with the Xiongnu together, but this guy actually rebelled and hid the armor secretly.
Stomach!"
Lu Jia's face twitched, but Zhou Chang said coldly: "The current Wang Tingwei has a talent for finding things, and he can find armor anytime and anywhere."
"It would be such a waste not to let him come to Shangfang to make armor for the soldiers."
Zhou Chang didn't like such framing. In his opinion, even if Zhao Yao was guilty, he should be dealt with through legitimate means. How could anyone hide armor secretly? Every time Tingwei arrested someone, he always hid armor secretly.
, the Han Dynasty has not made so many armors in the past ten years! Don’t you Tingwei have any other reasons?
Liu Chang glanced at Zhou Chang and asked: "Prime Minister Zhou, you will make mistakes if you talk too much."
"Do you know how Kuai Che died?"
"You'll die for hiding your armor."
Zhou Chang replied angrily.
Seeing that his king was about to roll up his sleeves, Lu Jia hurriedly pulled him and said: "Zhao Yao deserves it! Does your king want me to go to Hexi to serve as a guest?"
Liu Chang's anger was interrupted, and then he looked at Lu Jia and said, "Wait a minute, I have to go with this old man..."
"Your Majesty, forget it."
Zhao Ping also hurriedly pulled him and whispered: "This matter of salt and iron, Your Majesty."
Only then did Liu Chang put away his anger. He was the one who couldn't bear the grievance the most. The matter of Zhao Yao had nothing to do with him at all! This old man dared to wrongly accuse me!
"This has nothing to do with...forget it, it was just me who did it!"
"I have such a temperament, such a man, and such a king! If anyone dares to provoke me, I will kill him!"
Zhou Chang was not afraid of the gourmet's intimidation and just snorted coldly.
Liu Chang looked at Lu Jia on the side and continued: "Let's get back to business. I want to take you as a guest from Hexi and send you to the countries in the Western Regions to ask them to come and submit to my Han Dynasty. Don't follow Jizhu, lest you mislead yourself.
life!"
Before Lu Jia was summoned, he thought of the king's purpose and made preparations.
"Your Majesty, I will set off right now..."
"We must fight for external affairs day and night!"
However, Liu Chang took his hand and said seriously: "Compared with those other countries, I care more about the envoys. You must not take risks! Otherwise, how can I summon a million troops to go to the Western Regions!"
Lu Jia chuckled and shook his head after listening to Liu Chang's threats.
"The king has his mission, and we have ours... If my ministers die because of state affairs, please don't send troops because of this matter... How can a king send troops out of joy and anger?"
"My mission is to protect this world, including you!"
"Go get ready!"
Liu Chang couldn't listen to the advice. Lu Jia smiled bitterly and bowed to Liu Chang. Then he was about to leave, but Liu Chang said: "Prime Minister Zhou stays."
Zhao Ping was stunned and said, "Your Majesty... Why don't I also stay here?"
"No need!"
Zhao Ping glanced at Prime Minister Zhou worriedly, and then left with Lu Jia.
The two walked out of the palace, and Lu Jia smiled and said: "In the past, when envoys went out, wise kings would advise them to have a death wish and not forget their mission... No wonder everyone said that the king is fatuous. The king is really a good person."
Everything goes against a virtuous king."
Zhao Ping smiled bitterly and said: "Yes, recently the king said several times in court meetings that he would make himself the General of Zhenxi and go to fight in Hexi... He was scolded by the Taiwei, so he gave up the idea, and then said
I want to set up a sacrifice for myself, saying that my contribution exceeds that of everyone in the past. Even Emperor Gao can create a black emperor, so I have to do it too. I want to make myself a purple emperor..."
"Hahaha...that meeting will definitely be interesting."
"It's interesting, but I'm afraid that when these old ministers are gone, the king can do whatever he wants, and no one can control him anymore."
The two of them were chatting and walking, and in the hall, Liu Chang was sitting next to Zhou Chang.
"Father Zhong, there were so many people just now... I will apologize to you!"
Liu Chang grinned stupidly and held Zhou Chang's hand.
Zhou Chang didn't know what to say for a moment. Liu Chang's look, tone, and words were exactly the same as Emperor Gao!
Seeing that Zhou Chang was still a little angry, Liu Chang said again: "Father Zhong, don't worry, don't worry, next time someone offends me, I will let Ting Wei give him a fair trial, and I will never do this again!"
After Liu Chang persuaded him several times, Zhou Chang's face looked much better.
"Your Majesty, you never listen to my advice every time. Then why do you obey Lu Jia so much?"
"Everything he said is right. I am not my father, so of course I can listen to good advice."
"Is the minister's advice wrong?"
"Father Zhong, state affairs are the most important. We can discuss such things later. Let's talk about salt and iron. How about it? The national treasury will not be exhausted this time, right?!"
"If a few people recruit three million young people, can they support it?"
Zhou Chang's feet went weak, "Your Majesty, I am old... Please allow me to retire and return to my hometown!!"
........
Not long after Lu Jia left Longxi, he saw a group of cavalry.
He didn't take these cavalry seriously at all and sat proudly on the carriage, making people question who was leading the team.
The leading knight jumped off his horse, walked quickly to Lu Jia, and leaned down to salute.
Lu Jia looked at the man in front of him. He looked more and more familiar. He suddenly jumped up and hurriedly got out of the car.
"I didn't know it was Prime Minister Luan who came here. How rude! How rude!"
This knight was Luan Bu, the Prime Minister of Hexi. Luan Bu said with a smile: "I was very happy to hear that your Majesty sent Duke Lu here, so I led the people to greet him."
"Please get in the car."
After Lu Jia made several requests, Luan Bu got into the car and the two of them went forward together. Luan Bu explained: "There are many thieves here, and I'm afraid of hurting you... The roads here are not easy to find..."
Facing such courtesy from Luan Bu, Lu Jia felt very touched.
Luan Bu came so impatiently because he actually had something important to do and wanted to question this Hun expert urgently.
"Hutu's troops frequently appear in the counties and counties in Hexi, plundering our people... They just made up their minds and don't want us to get on the line with the Western Regions..."
Lu Jia listened carefully and said: "I am most familiar with Hu Tu. He is outspoken but also suspicious...I also know his subordinates quite well..."
The two exchanged opinions, and at night, everyone found a place, lit a bonfire, and sat down to rest.
Lu Jia suddenly thought of something, pointed to the soldiers not far away and said: "Aren't you here to see Luan Xiang under orders? If you have any orders, you can tell me, and then leave early!"
Luan Bu looked at the soldier in confusion, and Lu Jia explained: "This man was sent by the king. He said he came to see you and give you something as a gift, and he will go back."
The soldier walked up to Luan Bu, bowed and saluted, and then ordered someone to take out a suit of armor.
Luan Bu looked at the armor. It was really good. It was much more luxurious than Liu Chang's original armor. It had more patterns and was extremely heavy. It was difficult for the soldiers to pick it up.
The soldier said: "Luan Xiang, this is the armor that Marquis Jiancheng gave to the king. I heard that it was once the armor of Zhou Luhou. After it was modified, it was given to the king. It is said that it can protect against strong bows at close range. This pattern is even more powerful.
The best craftsmen...."
The soldiers introduced them seriously.
Luan Bu was a little touched. He didn't expect that the king would actually give the stomach to him. He knew that the king liked this kind of thing the most.
Looking at the stomach, Luan Bu couldn't help but think of the time when the king and his ministers got along, and tears filled his eyes.
He stretched out his hand and felt for the stomach.
"Alas, I also miss the king very much... Come, put it on for me!"
However, the soldier said with some embarrassment: "Luan Xiang, this is not for you...here comes someone."
One of the soldiers took out another set of armor, which was really Liu Chang's original armor.
"This is for you."
Luan Bu was stunned, "Then why do you bring this armor and stomach here?"
"The king is suffering from the fact that no one appreciates his precious armor, so he specially asked us to send it to Luan Xiang to see his precious armor."
The emotion in Luan Bu's heart disappeared. He raised his head and looked at the bright moon in the sky. Did he come all the way to show it off to me?
Why did I go to deliver the letter in the first place?
Lu Jia laughed loudly, "Your Majesty, you really don't regard Mr. Luan as an outsider."
"Yes, he doesn't regard me as an outsider, nor does he regard himself as a human being..."
...
Liu Zhang took out a pile of bamboo slips and placed them in front of Liu Chang.
"Your Majesty, Zhao Shi wants to rebel."
With just one sentence, the smile on Liu Chang's face froze.
"What did you say?"
"Your Majesty, these are the people he has met in person in the past few days. They are all people sent to Chang'an by South Vietnam. We didn't know it before... Before this, he had also communicated with these people through letters, and the letters were burned.
Well...his recent behavior is a bit strange...he deliberately concealed it from the king."
"We found a lot of South Vietnamese people. After interrogation, we found that they were sent to Dahan very early. Zhao Tuo sent them to... inquire about Dahan's situation and report to him at any time."
Liu Zhang produced a lot of evidence to prove that Zhao Shi had frequent contact with these South Vietnamese spies during this period.
It seems that they deliberately secretly sent the information obtained from Liu Chang to South Vietnam.
Liu Chang frowned and looked through the evidence in front of him.
The embroidery was done very carefully and did not disturb too many people.
"This guy used all the spies...I don't know what he wants to do. We haven't found out the whereabouts of some people yet..."
"I hope your Majesty will be careful not to reveal too many things in front of him."
Liu Chang frowned, "But South Vietnam has surrendered, Wu's troops have begun to station, and Zhao Tuo has gone to Wu to meet with Fourth Brother... What do they mean?"
"Your Majesty, Zhao Tuo is cunning and cannot be trusted easily."
"Your Majesty, are you going to arrest them all?"
Liu Zhang asked seriously.
Liu Chang began to think deeply. Zhao Tuo, like Liu Bang, would never talk about personal affairs in front of national affairs, but the way Zhao Shi behaved these days did not seem like a scheming person. His character
Irritated, tough-tongued, and stubborn in temper, but Liu Chang didn't quite believe that he was planning a big conspiracy. On the contrary, Zhao Mei was more likely. Could it be Zhao Mei who planned it and Zhao Shi would execute it?
"There's no rush...just keep an eye on the person and see what they want to do."
"Lu Lu will probably be back soon..."
Liu Chang stroked his chin, and then Liu Zhang left.
Having been with Zhao Shi and the others for a long time, even though they quarreled every day, Liu Chang had gradually come to like them and treat them as his own. Liu Zhang's news made Liu Chang extremely disappointed.
This person hates deception the most.
In the following days, Liu Chang got along with Zhao Shi and the others calmly, and his attitude towards them did not change much.
According to Liu Zhang, Zhao Tuo has placed many people in Han Dynasty over the years.
If they make any unusual move, they can be caught in one fell swoop, and at the same time, there will be reason to take action against the surrendered South Vietnam.
Zhao Mei was smiling all day long and didn't notice anything, but Zhao Shi was always frowning, "Chang, have you been doing something wrong lately?"
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"Why aren't you smiling? Did something happen?"
"Nothing happened."
Zhao Shi was still a little worried and asked secretly: "Is it possible that there are ministers in the court who are against you?"
"be opposed to?"
"Anyone who dares to oppose me or deceive me has already gone to see Kuai Che."
"Who is Kuai Che?"
"He is a person who talks a lot..."
Zhao Shi laughed, "I know you are worried about state affairs, don't worry, you will be happy soon!"
At this time, the salt and iron monopoly gradually got on the right track. After those armed resisters were executed a few more times, the wave of opposition gradually subsided. Officially operated salt and iron sales agencies were established in various places, and a large amount of wealth suddenly poured in.
It fell into the hands of a big man. The big man, who had been poor for many years, finally ushered in his spring at this moment.
In addition to the salt and iron incident, the Chidao incident also aroused public discussion. Zhou Chang decided to set up a professional team to inspect Chidao in various places to see how to repair and change it. Over the years,
, a lot of things are happening in various places, and if you want to carry out such a big project, you must first measure it. No matter where something goes wrong, the money and food wasted is not a small amount.
In such busyness, time passes extremely quickly.
In the darkness, Zhao Shi opened the door, and two people walked in immediately.
"How's it going? Have you brought the things?"
"Bring it!"
"Quick, let me see."
Zhao Shi looked at it carefully under the light and said with a smile: "Okay! Very good! It can be done now!"
At this time, there was a sudden roar outside the door, and then hundreds of people in embroidered clothes surrounded the place from all sides. Liu Zhang led the people into the house, while Zhao Shi looked at them blankly.
Zhang looked at the object in Zhao Shi's hand, uh... Is that a rice? It's a little different from the rice in the Central Plains... But it's clear that it's a plant.
"Do you just want to use this thing to poison the king?"
"Poison the king?!"
Zhao Shi looked at Liu Zhang and thought of the changes in Liu Zhang over the past few days. His face became more and more angry. He yelled: "So what?!"
.......
“This is rice??”
Liu Chang looked at the strange plant in his hand with confusion, and Liu Zhang on the side said: "According to Zhao Mei, this rice is grown in the south of South Vietnam. It has higher yield than Central Plains rice, matures earlier, is drought-resistant... and has many advantages.
..Zhao Shi wants to dedicate this thing to the king."
"Ah...where is Zhao Shiren?"
"In Tingwei's prison."
ps: I recently read a historical novel called "Sir, You Need to Pay More". It is full of black humor. If you are interested, you can read it!