Handan.

Zhao Dan looked at the information in front of him, and there was a puzzled look on his face that could not be concealed.

After a long while, Zhao Dan slowly said to Mao Sui in front of him: "Is this all the information you can collect about Guo Kai?" ”

Mao Sui nodded very respectfully, and said to Zhao Dan: "Back to the king, this is all the information about Guo Kai and the Guo family that can be collected in the supervision guard. ”

After Zhao Dan listened to Mao Sui's words, the whole person couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

Judging from the information presented by Mao Sui alone, this Guo Kai and the Guo family not only have no bad deeds, but are great good citizens, out-and-out good businessmen, and model businessmen in the Warring States Period.

This is too unscientific.

"No, there must be something wrong here!" Zhao Dan thought to himself.

A merchant family like a white lotus? Zhao Dan felt that this was a big problem in itself.

Zhao Dan glanced at Mao Sui deeply, then threw this information back in front of Mao Sui, and said to Mao Sui: "The widow thinks that there must be something wrong with this guy Guo Kai, so Ru Jia sent someone to keep an eye on it, and if there is anything abnormal, report it to the widow." ”

However, at this time, Zhao Dan didn't have much energy to pay attention to Guo Kai's affairs, because in the past two days, battle reports from various places have been transmitted back to Handan City one after another.

The first is the battle report from the front line of the Yan Kingdom.

The Yan people's determination to hold their positions this time is obviously very great, and Pang Xuan has tentatively launched several fierce attacks on Fenmen City these days, but no progress has been made.

According to Pang Xuan's battle report, if he could, the best way would be to completely besiege the Yan army until finally the Yan army was forced to surrender.

In other words, Pang Xuan prefers to use the siege, which is less damaging but relatively time-consuming, to achieve victory.

Zhao Dan said to the several important ministers of Zhao Guo who had been summoned to the main hall of Longtai by himself in front of him: "What do you think of Pang Qing's opinion? ”

The first to speak was Lian Po: "King, the old minister thinks that if you just look at the battlefield of Yan Kingdom, this is indeed a strategy that can be chosen. But now that the two counties of Henan are also threatened by the Huns, the king should also send troops and horses to deal with the Huns' troops. ”

That's another question in the war report.

The invasion of the Huns is also a very troublesome problem for the current Zhao State, and 100,000 cavalry is not a number that can be ignored casually even in the mutual conquest of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States.

Zhao Dan hesitated for a moment, and then asked Lian Po: "Wu Xinjun, in your opinion, how should this Huns deal with it?" ”

Lian Po smiled slightly, and said confidently to Zhao Dan: "King, this Huns seem to be fierce, but they are just a group of local chickens and dogs. The king only needs to give his ministers an army of 150,000 men, and the ministers will definitely be able to expel the Huns from the country, so that they will not dare to touch the land of Zhao. ”

"One hundred and fifty thousand?" Hearing this number, Zhao Dan hesitated slightly.

To be honest, with the current strength of the Zhao State, even if the 150,000 troops who went out to fight in the Yan State, it would not be a problem to give another 150,000 to Lian Po.

However, in this case, most of the elite forces of Zhao State will be contained by the two battlefields in the northeast and northwest, and the southeast and central plains where Handan is located and the southwest border of Zhao and Qin will inevitably appear to be empty.

Under such circumstances, will other countries have the intention of taking advantage of the situation?

Zhao Dan glanced at Lian Po, then turned his head to Zhao Sheng on the side and asked, "Pingyuanjun, if you go all out to recruit troops, how many troops can you recruit now?" Is there any 500,000? ”

In Zhao Dan's opinion, Changping himself was able to levy 400,000 soldiers and horses back then, and it should be possible to get 500,000 this time.

Zhao Sheng thought about it and gave Zhao Dan an answer with great certainty: "If the king wants to fight with the strength of the country, then mobilizing 600,000 soldiers and horses is not a problem!" ”

"Six hundred thousand?" This answer surprised Zhao Dan: "There are so many?" ”

Zhao Sheng nodded and said with a smile: "Great King, there are now 1.15 million households in Zhao Kingdom, and in terms of five people per household, the number should be six million. It is not difficult for 6 million men to levy 600,000 troops. ”

It was only at this time that Zhao Dan discovered that with the continuous expansion of the territory of Zhao State, the population of Zhao State now had doubled compared to the time of the Battle of Changping, to a very gratifying point.

If this is the case, then Zhao Dan himself was too worried before.

Even if 300,000 elites are deployed, in case another country comes to attack, with the 300,000 trash fish in hand, they can resist for a while.

"Good, very good." Zhao Dan nodded, and said in a deep voice: "Wu Xinjun, the widow will mobilize 150,000 troops to you as soon as you wish." You must drive these Huns out of the territory of the widows, understand? ”

Lian Po nodded vigorously and said, "Please rest assured that the king will not disappoint the king!" ”

Zhao Dan felt that this was a little messy.

If you look at it according to common sense, it is more normal for Li Mu to deal with the Huns, who are mainly cavalry, and Lian Po to attack Yan State.

But the problem is that before attacking Yan, Zhao Dan didn't know that the Huns would suddenly attack him, so Zhao Dan sent Li Mu to Yan to get some merits.

"That's it, it's all come to this, and it's useless to talk about those things. It should be regarded as letting Lian Po get used to the combat methods of the cavalry in advance. ”

It didn't seem like anything was going wrong, but the unexpected happened.

After this meeting, an important minister of Zhao went and returned, and asked to see Zhao Dan again.

This minister of Zhao is none other than Zheng Zhu, the only one among the seven ministers of Zhao who is relatively neutral.

Zhao Dan looked at Zheng Zhu with some surprise and said, "I don't know what happened to Zheng Qing?" ”

Zheng Zhu looked obviously hesitant, and after a long while, he said, "I heard that the king is sending someone to investigate Guo Kai recently?" ”

When Zhao Dan heard Zheng Zhu's words, his heart jumped slightly.

There is a problem.

Big problem.

You must know that the order given by Zhao Dan to investigate Guo Kai was not issued through official channels, but directly to Mao Sui.

Who is Mao Sui? That's the actual controller of the Guardian now.

Supervision and Wei is also an organization that does not go through any Zhao State agency and reports directly to Zhao Dan.

It stands to reason that Zhao Dan's orders to the Guardian should not be known to any of the important ministers of the Zhao State, after all, the original intention of the Guardian was to monitor the courtiers of the Zhao State.

So how did Zheng Zhu know that Zhao Dan gave this order to the supervisor guard, which should have been secret?

Zhao Dan's mind was racing, but he said slowly and quietly on his face: "What does Zheng Qing want to say to the widow?" ”

Zheng Zhu Zhengse said: "What the minister wants to tell the king is that in fact, the reason why this Guo Kai was able to become the number one iron merchant in Zhao is mainly related to the support of two people. ”

Zhao Dan frowned and said, "If Zheng Qing said so, then presumably the identities of these two people should be very remarkable." ”

Zheng Zhu nodded and said, "King Mingjian, these two people who support Guo Kai are Pingyuan Jun and Pingyang Jun. ”

"What?" Zhao Dan was really taken aback at this time, and said, "There is such a thing?" ”

Zheng Zhu nodded very seriously and said, "King, there is no falsehood in this matter. ”

Zhao Dan gently knocked on the corner of the table and fell into thought.

I see.

Trading power for money is not uncommon in any era.

Guo Kai was able to almost monopolize Zhao Guo's iron business for a time, and there must have been a lot of people who offended.

In the case of being able to offend many people, Guo Kai is still able to make his business so big, and live peacefully until now, it is impossible for there to be no one behind him.

It's just that Zhao Dan didn't expect that behind this Guo Kai were his two uncles, which was more troublesome.

Zhao Dan pondered for a moment, and suddenly asked, "How did you know about this?" ”

Zheng Zhu said: "Back to the king, in fact...... Several of his retainers were also in charge of the ironware business. These days, the Guo family suddenly became nervous, so Chen felt that they should be targeted by the guards. ”

Zhao Dan nodded, indicating that he understood: "Very good, I don't know what Zheng Qing thinks about this Guo Kai?" ”

A trace of anger flashed on Zheng Zhu's face, and he said: "Guo Kai, with the support of the two feudal monarchs, is extremely domineering, and he has never been willing to give any opponent a way to live. Moreover, the treatment of the workers under his command was also extremely cruel, often beating, scolding, and whipping, and often craftsmen were beaten to death. ”

Zhao Dan thought for a while and said, "Does Zheng Qing have evidence in this regard?" ”

Zheng Zhu replied: "My lord, there are several craftsmen who have done things under Guo Kai who can testify, they were all beaten by Guo Kai and disabled and kicked out of the Guo family's ironsmith workshop, and then taken in by the minister. ”

Zhao Dan said: "Since this is the case, then someone from the Supervision Guard will contact you in a while, and you will hand over these witnesses to the Supervision Guard." ”

Looking at Zheng Zhu, who was leaving, Zhao Dan's heart was thoughtful.

Zheng Zhu didn't tell the truth completely, but that wasn't the point, the point was the news that Zheng Zhu brought to Zhao Dan.

Guo Kai and the Guo family are actually the spokespersons of Zhao Sheng and Zhao Bao in the commercial field.

In this era, although the ministers are noble, they are far from enough to look at the top businessmen in terms of wealth.

For example, a person like Zhao Sheng, who has 3,000 guests under his command and lives a very luxurious life on weekdays, if he only relies on the tax revenue of the fiefdom, it is obviously not enough, there must be an additional source.

Zhao Dan knew very well that in history, many nobles let their families or slaves run some industries, but what he didn't expect was that Zhao Sheng and Zhao Bao's spokesperson in the mall turned out to be this Guo Kai.

In this case, it seems that there is a reasonable explanation for the strange investigation report sent by Mao Sui just now.

"Come on, call Mao Sui to the widow!"

A moment later, Mao Sui appeared in front of Zhao Dan.

Zhao Dan stared at Mao Sui with both eyes, and his words were full of meaning: "You were a retainer of Pingyuanjun back then, did you already know that this Guo Kai had a relationship with Pingyuanjun?" ”

Mao Sui's body was shocked, and he knelt down with a plop: "The minister asks the king to forgive his sins!" ”

Looking at the kowtowing hair in front of him, Zhao Dan snorted lightly and said: "The widow will give you another chance, if you can't solve this matter this time, then you, the deputy head of supervision and guard, don't do it, let the person who can do it do it!" ”

Looking at Mao Sui, who left in a hurry, Zhao Dan was also quite unhappy in his heart.

I thought it was just a simple thing, but I didn't expect it to start getting complicated now.

Just now it has involved Zhao Sheng, Zhao Bao and Zheng Zhu, and even a guy like Mao Sui who thought he was loyal seems to be a little unreliable.

This Mao Sui, at this time, still wants to give the lord Zhao Sheng a little face? It's just stupid!

Speaking of which, it's really looking into the distance and forgetting that it's under your feet, and it's dark under the lamp.

Well, take this opportunity to clean up all those damn ghosts and ghosts!