fifth form

Chapter 1828 Unreliable and Reliable
Zhang Xuezhou and others lined up at the city gate to enter the city at five in the morning, but it was almost twelve o'clock when they entered the palace.

This is due to reasons such as customs inspection and clearance, as well as the speed of the convoy after entering the city.

The most important reason was that they could not see the emperor whenever they wanted. Without the official title of "Jieshi Zhong", Zhang Xuezhou and Sang Hongyang had to make a request before entering the palace and then wait to be summoned.

"I need to report this first and let His Majesty know the amount involved. Then I can unload the goods and exchange them for money. It will take about half an hour!"

"I just need to have a few words with His Majesty!"

"Then please go first, Brother Dongfang!"

The eunuchs who summoned people into the palace were not summoned one at a time, but Zhang Xuezhou and Sang Hongyang were summoned into the palace at the same time.

After a brief exchange, Zhang Xuezhou walked in front, while Sang Hongyang followed behind.

The familiar Weiyang Palace remained the same, and Zhang Xuezhou even saw Li Guang, the chief guard who was responsible for patrolling and guarding the Weiyang Palace.

Zhang Xuezhou seemed a little strange as he hadn't seen him for a long time. Li Guang even looked at him several times for inspection. When Zhang Xuezhou smiled at him, Li Guang suddenly remembered Zhang Xuezhou, the young man with whom he had interacted several times before.

"Still alive!"

Li Guang muttered something, as if he was a little surprised that Zhang Xuezhou could live so long after his head was cut open.

This left Zhang Xuezhou speechless.

"Your Majesty may live forever, but I must live at least 500 years!"

Zhang Xuezhou shrugged and responded.

"Ambitious!"

Li Guang replied, and the two sides passed each other. Zhang Xuezhou entered the Weiyang Palace, while Sang Hongyang was waiting outside the main hall of the Weiyang Palace.

"Little Lamb, now people outside are saying that you have made a lot of money with the help of His Majesty. Is this true?"

Zhang Xuezhou went into the hall to see the emperor, while Li Guang was bored and arguing with Sang Hongyang.

"Captain Li, please don't talk nonsense. I don't make a lot of money," Sang Hongyang defended.

"I didn't say that," Li Guang waved his hand and said, "I heard it from others. I just happened to see you and asked casually!"

“I don’t make a lot of money!”

Sang Hongyang repeated his emphasis again and shook his head continuously.

Not only did Sang Hongyang not make a lot of money, his father also used the Luoyang Merchant Group to do things, spending a lot of money on turnover, which allowed Sang Hongyang to deliver cartloads of goods to Chang'an City.

The goods in normal circulation were intercepted, which inevitably offended some interested parties. This not only involved Luoyang City, but also Chang'an City.

These rumors may be a way to target the Sang family, making people mistakenly believe that Sang Hongyang is greedy for the royal family's benefits.

Whenever more people talk about it, some things will be passed on to people with ulterior motives, and someone might seize some small handles to accuse Sang Hongyang of something.

Sang Hongyang could only be thankful that he was good at arithmetic, as all the accounts were recorded in detail and every item was clear.

He came back to his senses and for a moment he didn't know whether Li Guang's question was out of curiosity or a reminder.

"I'm just doing a little errand!"

Sang Hongyang muttered in a low voice.

In the main hall of Weiyang Palace, the new emperor was also quite curious about Zhang Xuezhou who came back alive. He was extremely curious about how he handled things despite his illness and to what extent he had handled things.

"Your Majesty, may you be blessed. I have traveled all over the country and finally found Li Shaojun. After hearing about your majesty's generosity, Li Shaojun is willing to come to Chang'an City to show his abilities!"

"What about people?"

"He needs to cultivate his character before he can set off. He should still be on his way to Chang'an City now!"

Zhang Xuezhou simply said a few words, which prevented the new emperor from asking further questions.

He felt that Zhang Xuezhou came back just to report, but he had no way of confirming whether the matter had been done or not.

If Li Shaojun didn't come to Chang'an City, we would have to wait forever. If Li Shaojun died on the way, this kind of thing might also happen.

Regardless of whether Zhang Xuezhou succeeded in doing this or not, the other party seemed to have some reasons.

The new emperor felt that it was difficult for him to evaluate Zhang Xuezhou's degree of completion of such a task.

Anyway, it’s good to come back alive.

If the task is accomplished, the new emperor will be very happy. If the task is not accomplished, Zhang Xuezhou will at least be able to guess the cover, and he will not lose face when he takes it out for gambling.

"When I invited Li Shaojun, the great scholar Gongsun Hong was still there. He heard with his own ears that Li Shaojun guaranteed to come to Chang'an City to see His Majesty!"

When Zhang Xuezhou named a notary, it gave the new emperor a headache.

Gongsun Hong did a terrible job. He took more than a hundred people with whom he had nepotism and went out, but they didn't get anything done. When they came back, half of the people were gone.

There are a lot of complicated relationships that need to be dealt with here. Many people have come to Gongsun Hong for help, and there are also people who want to ask Gongsun Hong for an explanation.

The new emperor could only ask Gongsun Hong to stay away and drive him out of Chang'an City.

After waiting for three to five years or even ten to eight years, these new accounts will become old accounts, and Gongsun Hong will be able to get rid of the many troubles he had during his previous mission to the evil country.

It was quite unreliable for Zhang Xuezhou to use such a person as a witness, and the new emperor had no way to find the other party to verify the facts.

"You've had a hard time along the way. You've been to Huainan, Jiangdu, Guangling, Linhuai, Mount Tai, Beihai, Jiaodong, Suiyang, Bohai, Zhending, Changshan, Julu, and Nanyang. The places you've been to are quite complicated!"

The new emperor took the official document handed over by Zhang Xuezhou and looked at the seals on it. He recited some familiar big cities and felt that Zhang Xuezhou had traveled to many places in the past six months, so many that the new emperor found it hard to believe.

The seal will not lie. Considering the long journey the other party has gone through, this can be considered as a reward for his hard work.

If what the other party said was true, the new emperor felt that Zhang Xuezhou was doing a pretty good job.

"Li Shaojun is a man with no fixed whereabouts. We can only look for him when we hear some news." Zhang Xuezhou said: "Fortunately, we finally found him after traveling thousands of miles!"

"I know!"

The new emperor nodded.

Li Shaojun was not brought along, and the official documents had been handed in. The new emperor had no reason to reward him, but it seemed unreasonable not to reward him for his hard work along the way.

This made the new emperor ponder for a few seconds.

"Go home and have a rest first, and wait for Li Shaojun... I will call you later!"

He originally wanted to let Zhang Xuezhou bring Li Shaojun here and then give him some rewards, but when he thought that recruiting Li Shaojun seemed unreliable, the new emperor had to change his mind quickly, lest Zhang Xuezhou go home and wait for Li Shaojun which would take several years or even his whole life and he would never be able to come again.

"Okay, I'm going home then!"

Zhang Xuezhou was serious for only a few seconds. When the new emperor announced that he could leave, he left happily.

He agreed quite readily, turned around and left the hall, which made the new emperor suspect that Zhang Xuezhou was running around and failed to complete the recruitment plan.

"Dongfang Shuo ran away too quickly after he finished speaking. It seems that he is a bit unreliable. But he traveled to so many places to do this, and it was very hard along the way. But if this hard work has no results, then does his work count?"

The new emperor did not blame Zhang Xuezhou for breaking the rules by leaving the Weiyang Palace, but after thinking about it over and over again, he found that he could not judge whether Zhang Xuezhou's behavior was good or bad.

The other party seemed to have done something, but also seemed to have accomplished nothing.

After being away for more than half a year, Zhang Xuezhou took a stamped official document and completed the task he was originally assigned.

As to when Li Shaojun came to Chang'an and whether he was recruited, there is no definite conclusion at the moment.

If all his subordinates acted in this way, the new emperor felt that he would not be able to govern.

"The lamb still wins my heart!"

Zhang Xuezhou was very unreliable, but Sang Hongyang, who was waiting outside the hall, was very reliable.

No matter what Sang Hongyang did, the other party would record it, and there were relevant records available for inquiry.

Most importantly, Sang Hongyang's work brought obvious results.

The wealth in the new emperor's private treasury is increasing rapidly, and now he finally has private money to use for rewards and to win over the hearts of the people.