The prince is more stable

Chapter 586 Private Visit on Weibo
There was a welcoming banquet in the evening and both the guests and hosts had a great time.

Han Zhongyan and the other two did not dare to act like elders in front of Zhao Xiaoqian. They were very respectful in their words and kept expressing their admiration for Zhao Xiaoqian.

After all, their current job is to conquer the territory that Zhao Xiaoqian led his soldiers to conquer. Han Zhongyan and Liu Anshi are officials in the capital, so they have naturally had dealings with Zhao Xiaoqian, but they are not too familiar with him. This time they can have close contact with Zhao Xiaoqian, and their faces are full of smiles.

Zhao Xiaoqian had heard something about the reputation of Han Zhongyan and the other two.

In general, the three people Zhao Xu chose this time should be pretty good.

However, strangely, these three people have one thing in common, that is, they were all ostracized by the court.

Han Zhongyan has an unclear political stance and a vague attitude towards the struggle between the new and old parties, so he is disliked by both sides. He probably got to the position of Minister of the Ministry of Personnel today by relying on his seniority.

Liu Anshi, a die-hard member of the old party, has been around for most of his life, and now he is just a counselor. He has been up and down all his life, just like the K-line of the stock market. He should be thankful that he can hold on to 3000 points.

Lu Huiqing was originally a member of the New Party and should not have been excluded. However, he had a conflict with Wang Anshi, the leader of the New Party, and the two became enemies. When Zhang Dun became prime minister, he simply demoted Lu Huiqing from the court in Bian Jing to the prefect of Daming.

Zhao Xiaoqian drank with them, and the resumes of the three people kept flashing through his mind, and a concept gradually took shape.

Zhao Xu sent these three people to do the job, probably not only because he valued their abilities and personalities, but also because he wanted to check and balance the New Party in the court.

It is impossible for the emperor to allow one party to dominate the government. If the only voice he can hear in the court is the New Party, the emperor should feel a sense of crisis.

By that time, the New Party will have absolute power, and the emperor's decrees will be impossible to implement. The power of the entire party will be gradually stripped away, and eventually powerful ministers will emerge, posing a great threat to the imperial power.

Therefore, Zhao Xu sent these three people to deal with this matter, probably in order to deliberately win over those court officials who were suppressed by the New Party, give them merits and qualifications, and impose constraints on the New Party.

In real history, the struggle between the new and old parties in the Song Dynasty lasted for decades, and reached a fever pitch, especially during the reign of Zhao Xu.

Many people believe that Zhao Xu condoned Zhang Dun's suppression of the old party in order to eliminate the power left by the Empress Dowager, but this is not the case.

Zhao Xu did condone Zhang Dun's suppression of the Old Party, but he would never allow Zhang Dun to completely destroy the Old Party. He just wanted the two forces to form a situation of mutual restraint and balance to facilitate his rule.

It's a very simple logic. If the emperor really wanted to destroy the old party, with the cooperation of the prime minister, the old party would not have been able to exist in the court for so long. The struggle between the new and old parties continued until the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty.

This shows that Zhao Xu secretly retained some of the old party's forces, or people with ambiguous positions and attitudes.

This includes Zhao Xu's trust in Zhao Xiaoqian. It can be said that it is a clan brotherhood, but Zhao Xu also has realistic calculations. After all, Zhao Xiaoqian is also one of those people with ambiguous political positions. In the past two years, Zhao Xu gave Zhao Xiaoqian military power and promoted Zhao Hao to an honorary position above the prime minister, etc.

In fact, they were all a kind of check and balance on Zhang Dun and the New Party, especially letting Zhao Xiaoqian take charge of military power. His invincibility was one of the reasons, and the recovery of Yanyun was also one of the reasons.

Another reason is that with Zhao Xiaoqian in charge of the military power, no matter how big the trouble was in the court of Bianliang, Zhao Xiaoqian would immediately mobilize his troops and march to the capital to defend the king at the command of Zhao Xu.

The army had appointed General Xu as deputy envoy, and Zhao Xiaoqian's parents, wives and concubines were all in Bian Jing, so Zhao Xu was not worried that Zhao Xiaoqian would have other ideas.

After more than two years of personal rule, it must be said that Zhao Xu, an emperor in his twenties, has become more and more mature in his work. His imperial mentality has quietly taken shape, and he has his own methods of controlling court officials.

Zhao Xiaoqian gradually became worried. Would the emperor, who was gradually maturing, continue to trust him, the commander-in-chief of the border defense with a large army?
At this moment, he suddenly felt a little hesitant about his father's sneaky and furtive behavior.

Originally, he did not agree with Zhao Hao's approach, but now...

Zhao Xiaoqian still had no ambition and no desire for the throne, but he suddenly felt that he should still keep some cards to protect himself.

Coming to this world, working hard to change the fate of himself and his family, if the final result is that the fate of the country is changed by him, but he and his family end up being abandoned after their rabbit has died, who is he working hard for?

Zhao Xu is growing up, and Zhao Xiaoqian is also growing up.

The price of growing up may mean giving up a lot of things.

…………

The welcoming banquet was enjoyed by both guests and hosts.

Zhao Xiaoqian returned to the mansion drunk to the point of drunkenness. The three girls, Nianiao, waited for him until midnight. When they saw him coming back, they hurried forward to help him bathe and change clothes, and made him smell fragrant. Only then did the three girls happily hug him and fall asleep.

The night was peaceful. After all, Zhao Xiaoqian was not an animal in heat who had to do something when he saw a woman.

When he got up in the morning, Zhao Xiaoqian did not get intimate with the three girls, but went straight to the government office.

Under Li Qingchen's guidance, Zhao Xiaoqian dealt with some long-pending official duties. After all, he was also the prefect of Zhending, so he still had to do his job.

Zhao Xiaoqian worked until the afternoon, rubbing his temples wearily. He was about to go home for dinner when he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. "Chen Shou, take your men and horses and explore the villages outside the city," Zhao Xiaoqian suddenly ordered.

Chen Shou was somewhat surprised by Zhao Xiaoqian's decision, but he still quietly gathered about 200 imperial guards and followed Zhao Xiaoqian out of the city.

Going out of the city for a private visit was a temporary decision made by Zhao Xiaoqian. Han Zhongyan and others were about to survey the land and fields. Just like Han Wei and others' original idea, they also planned to migrate a group of people from the nine counties under the jurisdiction of Zhending Prefecture to the newly occupied areas to build villages and set up government offices.

Zhao Xiaoqian quite agreed with the general direction of Han Zhongyan and others. There was no shortage of land under the jurisdiction of Zhending Prefecture, but a lot of land was occupied by landlords. Individual farmers did not actually own much land, and Zhao Xiaoqian would not be stupid enough to target the landlords. People from this class should not be easily offended.

Migrating part of the population to the newly occupied areas is not a bad thing for farmers, at least it can ease class contradictions.

Zhao Xiaoqian went out of the city in disguise, mainly to understand the basic conditions of the villages and forts in the nine counties under the jurisdiction of Zhending Prefecture, so as to prevent tragedies like Ge Laozhang from happening again.

After leaving the city, the destination was very random. Zhao Xiaoqian looked around, closed his eyes, and pointed in a direction at random. The group then rode their horses and galloped in that direction.

After running for dozens of miles, we finally saw an unknown village at the end of the vast fields.

Zhao Xiaoqian reined in his horse and observed the village from afar. Judging from the number of houses, the village seemed to have a large population, at least hundreds of households, which was considered a large village in that era.

It was almost dusk, and it was time for the farmers to have dinner. However, strangely, there was no smoke rising from the houses in the village. From a distance, people could be vaguely seen gathering, but no one knew why.

Zhao Xiaoqian lowered his head and looked at what he, Chen Shou and others were wearing. In order to travel conveniently and not attract attention, he, Chen Shou and others were all wearing casual clothes.

However, there were about two hundred people in his group, especially the killers under Chen Shou's command, who only knew how to disguise themselves and did not know how to hide their temperament. Even when they were wearing plain clothes, they looked like a group of wanted criminals who had escaped from prison.

Zhao Xiaoqian thought about it and asked Chen Shou and Jia Shi to take a dozen people to follow him, and the rest of the troops would find a secluded place to camp.

A group of more than a dozen people walked through the farmland and headed towards the village.

Chen Shou asked in confusion, "Sir, why did you choose to stop in this village?"

Zhao Xiaoqian smiled and said, "Do you know what 'random' means? It means to be unexpected and take advantage of the situation. I don't know which county I am in or what the village is called. The officials and villagers don't know where I've been. This way, what I see is often the most authentic."

"If I greet the officials below before my inspection, and the officials and the people come out to greet me with drums and gongs for ten miles, and see only beautiful people and things, then these things will certainly be joyful to see, but do you think you can believe them? I want the truth, not deception."

Chen Shouzan said: "If the prince did not command the army, but only served as an official in the local area, he would also be a living Bodhisattva who benefits all people."

"Don't flatter me. Haven't you seen my face when I'm corrupt and accepting bribes?"

Zhao Xiaoqian narrowed his eyes as he looked at the village in the distance where a crowd of people had gathered. He said, "I chose this village for a private visit today for a very simple reason...where there are crowds of people, there must be something exciting to see."

"Who can resist watching the fun?"

The group entered the village. The faces of Zhao Xiaoqian and the dozen others were very unfamiliar, and the villagers looked at them curiously.

Zhao Xiaoqian greeted the villagers politely and introduced himself with a smile, saying that he was a passing merchant. It was getting late and he missed his place to stay, so he wanted to stay in the village for one night.

The people of that era were still quite simple. Seeing that Zhao Xiaoqian and his group were dressed quite luxuriously and had a faint aura of wealth, they didn't look like businessmen. But since they were so polite and humble, the villagers naturally gave them a warm welcome.

Zhao Xiaoqian greeted the villagers and his eyes involuntarily looked towards the place where a crowd was gathered not far away.

The villager who hosted him followed his gaze and sighed, saying, "They're offering sacrifices to the Dragon King over there. The first snow this year wasn't heavy, and there's a rumor that a small amount of snow won't kill insect eggs. We're afraid there'll be an insect plague after next spring's planting. Look, the villagers are offering sacrifices to the Dragon King."

Zhao Xiaoqian asked curiously, "Is there a river near this village?"

"Yes, it's called the Taiping River. It's right next to the embankment two miles away. The fields in the village are all irrigated with water from the Taiping River."

Zhao Xiaoqian smiled and said, "This place is nestled in the mountains and beside the water, and the location is excellent. How is your harvest every year?"

The villagers smiled and said, "A year ago, things were a bit tough. Most of us in the village were tenant farmers. After paying rent to our landlords every year, we could barely feed our families, even if we were half hungry. But things are better in the middle of this year. I heard that a great prefect has arrived in Zhending Prefecture. He's a prince and a brother of the current emperor."

"This new prefect has done a lot of practical things since taking office. The most practical one is to exempt the nine counties of Zhending Prefecture from taxes for three years. Ah! This living Bodhisattva who brings Buddha to thousands of families has saved our lives!"

The corners of Zhao Xiaoqian's mouth twitched.

Everyone likes to hear good words, especially when they are said without knowing the person's identity. Naturally, they are the truth from the heart.

(End of this chapter)