In the prefect's study, Xiao Mingchu and Su Yongzhang talked for two quarters of an hour before saying goodbye and leaving.

Yuan Jin waited for Xiao Mingchu and his entourage to leave the magistrate's office, lifted up his cloak and went down from the roof, climbed through the window and entered the study. "Master Su."

"You're here." Su Yongzhang trembled with fright, with a wry smile on his face, "You should already know about the affairs in the court. I wonder if you can give me a clear path."

King Jin just entered the government office privately. I wonder if she knew about it?

"There is a clear path, it depends on your performance." Yuan Jin sat down opposite the desk, "The King of Jin has come to Xingcheng, has Mr. Su received the news?"

Su Yongzhang:......

What kind of person is she? She is usually invisible and appears whenever something happens.

Could it be that the daughter of General Zhao whom the King of Jin asked just now was really her? But the woman on the portrait looked completely different from her.

Su Yongzhang's reaction failed to escape Yuan Jin's eyes. She raised her eyelids, looked straight at him, and relaxed her body to the side.

Anyone can take his position as the magistrate of Xingcheng. The King of Qi was about to fall, so it was reasonable to find another Ming ruler.

It's just that if you are a fence-sitter among a few princes, if you don't operate it properly, you can easily break your back.

The prince has become the king of Chu, and the king of Qi actually still has the ability to fight for it again. There is a big thunder in Yanguan, Yicheng. If the king of Qi persists and continues to dig, he may be able to get the crown prince's position back.

The atmosphere was stagnant for a moment.

"My official has just met Prince Jin." Su Yongzhang lowered his eyes, took out the secret letter from Prince Jin and handed it to him, "The Prince of Jin intends to win over this official. This time he comes to the Northland in secret."

The King of Qi was driven to the Jiangnan fiefdom. Although the emperor did not notice the placement of spies in the garrison camp, he was still abandoned by him.

The King of Chu's behavior has always been ordinary. He has not argued about matters in the north since he became the king. He seems to have no intention of winning over the officers and soldiers stationed in the east border with the Sui Kingdom. Therefore, the imperial edict of appointing a prince shocked everyone in the court and the public.

Only the King of Jin appeared to be bohemian and unrestrained, but in reality he was always eyeing the position of crown prince.

Now, he has not yet figured out the identity of the woman in front of him, and he is rashly cooperating with the King of Jin. He is afraid that a safe official career will become a luxury.

Su Yongzhang went through several thoughts in his mind in a short period of time, but when he saw that Yuan Jin was still motionless, the hand holding the secret letter trembled slightly.

Could it be that I made a mistake in my bet? She is also from King Jin?

"Master Su has decided to change his mind and join King Jin's camp?" Yuan Jin saw his emotional reaction in his eyes, took the secret letter and unfolded it.

Xiao Mingchu's words in the letter were extremely euphemistic and restrained. It seemed like a prince who had been abandoned was depressed. He remembered that his mother's fellow countryman was serving as the prefect of Xingcheng, so he wrote to inquire about the customs and landforms here. Is there anything interesting about it?

Even if this letter was delivered to the emperor, it would not cause any trouble.

It was a fact that he was driven to a fiefdom. His mother and Su Yongzhang were indeed from the same hometown. Su Yongzhang was previously a member of the King of Qi. Some ministers in the court knew this well.

There were no loopholes in the conversation he had with Su Yongzhang just now, and all his words for asking his princess to visit his former father-in-law were spotless.

However, such a letter, coupled with his specially coming to Xingcheng, was enough to stimulate King Qi to go crazy.

His hidden stake was pulled out, and the officials who supported him exchanged letters with Xiao Mingchu. This was telling him that there was a traitor in the team that supported him in his fight for the throne.

When people become suspicious, everyone has problems.

Yuan Jin put the secret letter back, with a slight smile on his lips, "Does Mr. Su know the purpose of King Jin's trip?"

"The official has guessed a thing or two." Su Yongzhang bravely spoke, "The main purpose of King Jin's trip is to win over General Zhao, and secondly to target King Qi."

Although he was not in Beijing, it was not difficult to guess what these princes were doing.

"Have you decided to join King Jin's camp?" Yuan Jin asked the second question.

Su Yongzhang instinctively shook his head.

"You guessed his purpose correctly. It's easy to avoid his dirty water." Yuan Jin took out the fire certificate and played with it. "Just pretend that you haven't received this letter or seen him. At the same time, write a memorial."

Send him back to Shangjing and take the blame for the land allocation."

He knew exactly how to write the memorial.

"Can I pass the test just by writing a memorial?" Su Yongzhang couldn't believe it, "The King of Jin will not let me go."

Before he entered the city, he had checked on the land allocation, and when they met, he deliberately revealed the information to put pressure on himself.

"No matter who sits in your position, they are dispensable." Yuan Jin looked at him sympathetically, "The ones who are useful are Liang Shoubei and General Zhao."

In Xingcheng, the power of the prefect is the same. Major matters are decided by the garrison camp. Small matters and miscellaneous matters are handled by the prefect's yamen. Whether the city can be defended is also the responsibility of the garrison and has little to do with the prefect.

Xiao Mingchu wrote him a letter and asked her privately about his purpose, but he casually tested her. If he could ask about her whereabouts, he would kill two birds with one stone. If he couldn't, it wouldn't matter.

Zhao Yingwu is still alive, and it doesn't matter whether she dies or not. For Xiao Mingchu, marrying her was originally part of the plan.

But now, this link is decoupled.

"The words of the heroine are really to the point." Su Yongzhang smiled bitterly, "The subordinate will follow the instructions of the heroine and take the blame for dividing the fields."

"It's not a bad thing for you to serve here for three more years. Maybe one day things will turn around." Yuan Jin left a vague sentence, leaving him an 'antidote' and took the secret letter, "Believe me.

Take it away, do your work, and come back when I'm done."

Su Yongzhang stood up to see her off.

It was completely dark outside, and the girl's figure blended into the night and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Is she the daughter of General Zhao, Zhao Yuanjin?

…

When Yuan Jin returned to his stronghold, Jiang Ping came over to reply and brought back some pretty good news——

On this trip, Xiao Mingchu did not enter Beidi and go straight to Xingcheng. Instead, he took a detour and stayed elsewhere for three days. The place he went to was one of the iron ore producing areas of Dasheng.

"Did you bring the map back?" A smile appeared on Yuan Jin's face, "It seems that we caught another fat fish."

She originally planned to wait until the weather warmed up, then go to the iron ore producing area to dig out a line for private iron ore smelting, but she didn't expect Xiao Mingchu to come to her door in person.

"I brought it back. I arranged for two soldiers to watch over there and prepare to familiarize them with the passwords for delivering and picking up the goods." Jiang Ping took out the map and handed it to her, with a big smile on his face, "I saw

I want the divine arm bow from the garrison camp, too."

"Isn't the repeated crossbow enough for you?" Yuan Jin raised his eyes, took the map and unfolded it.

The official pits and the private pits are very close to each other. The iron-making place is a government-run iron-making village and the other is in a cave.

The setting is very secretive.

If there is no one to lead the way, it will be easily discovered by the soldiers guarding the place.

After reading the map, she silently wrote it down, folded it and put it aside, "I will come here often in the future in Xingcheng. I have made some new divine arm bows. You will each equip one later."

"Thank you, sister." Jiang Ping smiled happily.

"The seventy soldiers here in Xingcheng will all be managed by you from now on, and your monthly military pay will be sent to you on time." Yuan Jin's eyebrows stretched, and he picked up the prepared training manual, "The training cannot stop, this is new

Training manual, if you want to bring your family over, you can tell me."

"Understood." Jiang Ping happily took the manual, "My family doesn't need to take it over for the time being. My sister sent me a letter, saying that they are fine now and that they have received the money I asked someone to bring back."

My sister gave each of them a very large military salary, which was enough to support their families.

The Northland was still too poor, and he was reluctant to let his parents and younger siblings come over to suffer hardships.

Moreover, his family is too close and he would be easily distracted when he goes out to do errands for his sister.

"Okay, you go back, don't let King Jin's secret guards discover your traces." Yuan Jin guessed what he was thinking and sighed secretly.

Northland will become rich, it just takes some time.

After Jiang Ping left, Yuan Jin waited for Lian Xin to come back and approached her to discuss building a breeding farm outside Xingcheng to raise chickens, ducks and geese.

"Where can I get the seedlings?" Lian Xin was lying on the table looking at her, her brows furrowed, "Xingcheng is a bit far away from other cities. If you buy it back, the seedlings will be almost dead."

"It's up to you to live as long as you can. If you can't buy seedlings, just buy eggs that can be used for dressing, and take them back with wood chaff as a cushion." Yuan Jin raised his hand and poked her forehead, "Whether there will be meat to eat in winter depends on now.

Already."

"Okay, I will arrange for the girls to go out to search tomorrow." Lian Xin regained her composure and looked at her eagerly, "When can I go to the city?"

"After King Jin leaves, don't let him see you while he is in Xingcheng." After Yuan Jin finished speaking, he thought about it and added, "It's okay if he sees you. Your current camouflage skills have improved.

Very big.”

After she learned how to disguise herself for investigation, she rarely used her face to see people, and so did the other girls.

"Miss, you finally praised me for once." Lian Xin giggled for a while, then reached out and said, "Where's our repeating crossbow."

"I'll give you the warrant. You go find Liang Shoubei and give each of them a handful." Yuan Jin took out the warrant and handed it to her, "I will stay in Xingcheng for a few days and find some girls who are good at cooking.

Come here, I will teach them how to cook, and after they learn how to cook, they will open a shop outside the Northland and collect news from various places."

Lian Xin happily agreed.

After Xiao Mingchu entered the city, as Yuan Jin predicted, his whereabouts were not revealed.

He stayed in Xingcheng for six or seven days before going to the garrison camp.

At this time, Liang Shoubei came to the stronghold in disguise to avoid the spies he left behind.

"Three hundred thousand taels of silver?" Yuan Jin raised his eyelids and said in an understatement, "It's a little less."

Xiao Mingchu gave him 300,000 taels of silver, and he knew that he couldn't let go of the child and would not be able to trap the wolf.

"Three hundred thousand is quite a lot." Liang Shoubei took out the banknote and consciously gave half of it to her. "Last time you said you would help me rearrange the garrison camp in exchange for the 500 soldiers in my hand. It's time to honor it, right?"
To be continued...