Xu Xiang stepped into the hall in a hurry, the official robe on his body had turned gray, and he could hardly distinguish the original color, and the sweat on his face flowed down, rushing out of the ravines, looking like a whistle.

"His Royal Highness sent someone to summon urgently, I don't know what the important thing is?" Bowing to Zhu Youzhen, Xu Xiang asked undecidedly.

Looking at Xu Xiang's appearance, Zhu Youzhen was quite moved, and immediately instructed the female envoy to bring clean water and prepare a towel, but she actually twisted the towel with her own hands and handed it to Xu Xiang. "It's hard work, let's wipe your face first."

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Xu Xiang took the towel with both hands, wiped a few handfuls on his face, threw the towel into the basin, and smiled at a group of people in the room: "Everyone, the body is sour, everyone smells it, don't dislike it!" After discussing things here, Xu will go back and clean up and take care of it. ”

"Who's going to dislike it?" Zhu Youzhen smiled: "This is what doing things looks like." Xu Changshi, sit, please sit. ”

"His Royal Highness has entrusted me with a heavy responsibility, and I should not be on top of it." Xu Xiang sat down and said, "Your Highness, the drought is even more serious than we imagined, many small rivers have been cut off, and wells have dried up. This year's production will be reduced, that's for sure. ”

"How big is the impact?" Zhu Youzhen asked.

"Let's see if our next measures can be implemented." Xu Xiangzheng said: "This time I went down for a turn, and I saw many times that different villages and towns fought for water, and that scene was like a war, and along the way, I was more coordinating these things." The water conservancy facilities in Wuning are too deserted, and it is impossible to recover them in a short time. This requires a great deal of people and material resources. ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded: "Right now, I'm afraid we won't be able to spare more manpower and financial resources to manage this matter." ”

"Xia Guan also thought of this, so this time I went down, and I asked them more to save themselves." Xu Xiang said: "First, in places where there are rivers, those rich and wealthy people are required to do their best to do more waterwheels and other things, and second, each village must organize manpower to dig as deep as possible." ”

"You're not going to force those rich people with knives again, are you?" Zhu Youzhen asked with a smile.

"Of course not. This time, the lower officials were moved by emotion and reasoned. Xu Xiang smiled and said: "If there is really a large-scale harvest, their life will not be good at that time, Your Highness, I still have to ask you for the guilt." ”

"Xu Changshi is so hard, what is the crime?" Zhu Youzhen said curiously.

"Under the banner of His Highness, I sold a lot of officials!" Xu Xiang said: "But it's not a real job, it's just some loose official names, and I promised them that I will definitely make up for them in the future." ”

"Selling officials?"

"That's right, sell officials, raise money!" Xu Xiang said: "As long as it is a well with water, for each well, I will give them a subsidy of fifty yuan, and this money is not available to His Royal Highness now, so I made this idea and used all the money from selling officials on it." ”

Zhu Youzhen was silent for a long time before saying: "At an extraordinary time, do extraordinary things, that's it, I admit it." You're asking me to go back and reissue the paperwork! ”

"Yes, those people are very cunning, they don't see official paperwork, and they don't give money! Now that the well has been dug in a large area, I am waiting for the rice to be put into the pot! Xu Xiang looked at Zhu Youzhen with a blank eye.

"You are Wu Ning Changshi, you can do it yourself! Not an example! Zhu Youzhen waved his hand.

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Xu Xiang was overjoyed: "I don't know if His Highness summoned me back, is there something wrong?" ”

Zhu Youzhen glanced at the people in the room and said, "Everyone, the letter from Prime Minister Chang'an is very important, so gather everyone together and discuss it together, so it is more appropriate to decide what we should do next." ”

Everyone in the room suddenly sat up straight.

"It's not just that we have suffered from drought here, the situation in Guanzhong is even worse, and more importantly, there are not only natural disasters in Guanzhong, but also **." Zhu Youzhen shook his head: "Most of the money allocated to build water conservancy last year fell into the pockets of corrupt officials and corrupt officials. In his letter, Jing Xiang said that judging from the current situation, he is afraid that most places in Guanzhong will be cut off this year. ”

Speaking of this, Cao Bin, Liu Xinda and others all shuddered. The impact of this incident is not as simple as the failure of the grain harvest. Without food, there will be a large number of displaced people, and once the imperial court does not handle it properly, it will immediately cause a catastrophe. More than 20 years ago, Datang misresponded to the catastrophe, which triggered a nationwide riot. At that time, the situation of Datang was much better than that of Daliang now, at least, it was not surrounded by strong enemies like now. Once such a scene really occurs, I am afraid that Li Ze in the north will immediately raise troops to go south.

"Therefore, the prime minister wants us to speed up our southward movement, at least before the autumn harvest this year, to take Eyue and other places. In this way, the grain of Huainan and the land of Hubei can be used to make up for the shortage of customs, and try to maintain the stability of Chang'an and Luoyang. Zhu Youzhen said.

"It's been a few months, and I've been a little nervous." Cao Bin frowned, feeling a little embarrassed.

Tian Guofeng, who was sitting at the bottom, said disapplausively: "What is there to be nervous about, just raise the troops and do it, Your Royal Highness, Tian Guofeng is willing to be the vanguard." ”

Zhu Youzhen said with a smile: "I know the heart of Guofeng who dares to fight, but this time, we can't afford to lose at all, and we can't even delay it in time, otherwise it will affect the entire overall situation." I thought about it for a while, and this time, we're going to do our best, and we're going to do our best. I am ready to send a three-way army to attack Eyue. The first way, 10,000 horses and horses from Tian Guofeng's army headquarters, attacked Suizhou, occupied Yingcheng, and then approached Ezhou, the second road, led by General Liu Xinda Liu 10,000 horses, occupied Macheng, attacked Huangzhou, and then forced Ezhou, and the third road, led by Huainan Gong Yunda, through Huangmei, occupied Daye, and then together with the upper two roads of people and horses, surrounded Ezhou, after taking Ezhou, the three roads converged into a road, directly forced Yueyang, and controlled the Dongting Lake basin in their hands. ”

Standing up and walking to a huge map hanging on the wall of the lobby, Zhu Youzhen said: "In this way, we can look west to Jingnan, south to Hunan, and east to Jiangxi." Ladies and gentlemen, do you have any objections? ”

"There is no problem with the Third Highness's plan, but can the Third Wayman Gong Yunda's department send troops on time? Now Yangzhou has been turned into a pot of raw rice by them, or I will lead a group of people to help him take Yangzhou! Cao Bin said.

Zhu Youzhen shook his head: "As soon as we make a move on our side, we are afraid that the Tang army in Pinglu will attack Gunhai, General Cao, you have to be ready to enter Gunhai at any time, this is a great opportunity for us to meddle in Gunhai, and we definitely cannot tolerate the Tang Army taking Gunhai, because that will also pose a great threat to us, how can we let Gunhai survive this period of time first." As for Yangzhou, Gong Yunda is reluctant to let us interfere, he is afraid that after we interfere, Yangzhou will no longer belong to him. Let him clean up this matter by himself, but he will definitely do it when he divides a group of people into Eyue, otherwise he will give us a reason to meddle in Yangzhou, and he knows this very well in his heart. Although Yangzhou is important, he is alone after all, even if he has the support of the Tang people, he will not be able to make any big waves for a while, and after we take Eyue, if Gong Yunda has not quelled the Yangzhou rebellion, we will take action again. ”

"Understood, Your Highness!" Cao Bin said.

"Our two armies, send troops on the same day, I will live in Wuning first, deploy logistics supplies for you, and when several armies gather in Ezhou, I will come in person." Zhu Youzhen looked at Xu Xiang with a smile: "Xu Changshi, do you know now why I called you back in a hurry?" ”

"Understood." Xu Xiang said: "Your Majesty should assist His Highness in the logistics supply of the armies. ”

"That's the first thing Kyung Xiang said in his letter." Zhu Youzhen continued: "There is a second thing, that is, my eldest brother is about to return to Chang'an from Shannan Dongdao and serve as the commander of the forbidden army. And Dai Chao will take over the army of Shannan Dongdao, and they will also march to Jingnan. ”

"What?" Cao Bin's face changed greatly: "Could it be that Your Majesty has already made up your mind?" ”

"Not necessarily!" Zhu Youzhen said: "If my father really wants to make the eldest brother the crown prince, he will not transfer the generation out of the chao." Respectfully, my father's move is like holding a whip and beating me constantly! If I slack off, he might push me back. ”

"Your Highness, Chang'an has 50,000 forbidden troops, and that is the most elite army in our Great Liang." Cao Bin said: "And Your Majesty's move, I'm afraid that many people will misunderstand, especially Xuanwu's side......"

"Don't worry, where is Uncle Xuanwu, Prime Minister Jing personally sent someone over." Zhu Youzhen said.

Tian Guofeng, who was on the side, was a little impatient when he heard this, and stood up and said: "Third Highness, how can there be so many twists and turns, tell me to say, let's just do our own thing, take Eyue, let's go to fight Hunan again, and then go to fight Jiangnan, beat them to the ground, and then raise ourselves to be strong and strong." In this way, none of us are afraid, if the emperor dares to make Zhu Youyu the crown prince, let's wave our troops and drive him down. ”

"Rude!"

"Bastard!"

There was a burst of shouting and reprimanding in the room.

Tian Guofeng saw that Zhu Youzhen's face was also very ugly, so he immediately picked up his tail and sat down, but he was still not convinced, and said in a low voice: "That's it, otherwise the Third Highness will stand on his own and won't play with them, as long as there is territory and an army, what are you afraid of!" ”

Xu Xiang smiled and said, "Your Highness, everyone, although this rammer is not good, at least one thing is correct, and the iron has to be hard." As long as our own strength is strong enough, Your Majesty in Chang'an City will not turn a blind eye. ”