Chapter 5 Wei Zheng’s Decision (I)

In late spring in March, the rain broke out.

The climate in western Guangdong is very humid, and looking around, it is full of lushness...

After passing Jiuyi Mountain, even if you officially enter the Annan Governor's Office, a convoy will follow the flat official road, magnificent and powerful.

The big crow on the car is written with a big word "Pei".

Anyone who understands it can tell at a glance that this is the Hedong Pei family's convoy!

The relationship between Li Yanqing and the Pei family in Hedong can no longer be described as simple intimacy. Everyone knows that Pei Cuiyun, the princess of Henan, was born in the Pei family in Hedong. He was previously appointed as the general of Bingzhou and is now the general of Zuo Xiaogu and the guardian of Dujidao. Pei Xingyan, who is even more acquainted with the King of Henan. To put it bluntly, he is a childhood friend... Therefore, as early as the sixth year of Wude, when Li Yanqing began to accelerate the development and governance of Lingnan, the Pei family in Hedong began to lay out the layout in western Guangdong, establish industries, and promote commercial affairs.

Especially with the execution of King Li Luo Dou, the Pei family gradually moved from simply developing in Jiaozhou to Qinzhou, Yongzhou and Guizhou.

It can be said that the Pei family has made a vague achievement with Li Yanqing's tacit approval.

In contrast, the Zheng family in Xingyang and Li Yanqing have a close relationship, but they seem to be somewhat deficient in their enterprising spirit.

Even though Zheng Hongyi became the governor of Guizhou, the Zheng family was not very supportive.

Perhaps in the eyes of the Zheng family, Li Yanqing has always been a vassal king, and it is not worthy of their support for Li Jiancheng, and investing too much money and manpower in western Guangdong. Compared with the Pei family, the Zheng family cares more about political speculation and is not as flexible as the Pei family.

Although Zheng Renji wanted to take the opportunity to expand the power of the family, he was subject to many constraints.

At this point, Zheng Renji obviously cannot speak out like Pei Shiju, the patriarch of the Pei family.

It was a coincidence that he took over the Zheng family. If Zheng Yuanshou had not voluntarily retreated, Zheng Renji would not have taken over successfully. Now, as the father-in-law of the Crown Prince Li Jiancheng, Zheng Yuanshou naturally hopes that the Zheng family can fully cooperate with Li Jiancheng to make a smooth transition.

Therefore, with the Zheng Yuanshou brothers, Zheng Renji naturally shrank his hands and feet when doing things.

However, as Li Yanqing's control over the western Guangdong region became stronger and stronger, and Zheng Hongyi took advantage of the Feng family's power to successfully gain a foothold in western Guangdong. Even if the Zheng family did not attach much importance to western Guangdong, they had to start increasing their investment in western Guangdong.

After all, among the many Zheng family members, Zheng Hongyi has achieved the greatest achievements.

Even though Zheng Yuanshou once said in private: Zheng Hongyi was sent to Guizhou, he would probably stop at the top of a state in the future and would be difficult to enter the center...

But he must also admit that from the moment, Zheng Hongyi has the highest official position.

How old is Zheng Hongyi?

It's only twenty-seven or eight, and it's already guarding one side.

What about Zheng Yuanshou? He is in his fifties, but he is only one rank higher than Zheng Hongyi. Everyone is the governor of a state. Zheng Yuanshou was appointed as the governor of Yuzhou, which is considered a central county, while Zheng Hongyi is the governor of the lower county, with a rank of the fourth rank and a rank lower than Zheng Yuanshou.

"Brother Hongda, I thought this south was in a wilderness and the road was difficult to walk.

I never thought that the journey would be so smooth... It was a smooth journey from Hongzhou, and it was no less than the road in Guanzhong."

On a large carriage, Changsun Shunde praised him for his whiskers.

Indeed, the road in Lingnan is indeed very flat, and it is extremely smooth along the way.

Pei Shiju, who was sitting aside, nodded slightly. Qinghuang's face showed a look of admiration, but he didn't say a word.

There were three people sitting in the carriage.

It was Pei Shiju and Changsun Shunde who were inspecting Lingnan under the imperial edict.

Wei Zheng, who had a serious face, was obviously a bit short of that in front of Pei Shiju and Changsun Shunde.

He went to Jiaozhou to meet Li Yanqing in private at the order of Li Jiancheng to investigate Li Yanqing's attitude. However, on the surface, he was also a member of the imperial envoy. With his lips pursed, Wei Zheng remained silent. His thick eyebrows were frowned, as if he was thinking.

Speaking of which, Wei Zheng is no stranger to Li Yanqing.

As early as before the world was turbulent, Wei Zheng had heard of Li Yanqing's name.

Then he joined Wagang and learned about Li Yanqing's various methods. From the bottom of his heart, Wei Zheng admired Li Yanqing very much, and could even be described as respect. As a poor man, he was particularly grateful for Li Yanqing's behavior of establishing the Qilin Pavilion in Gong County. Moreover, when the heroes in the world were competing for the country, only Li Yanqing insisted on promoting education.

Unfortunately, although Li Yanqing was famous at that time, he was not enough to compete for the country in terms of qualifications, age and background.

It is precisely for this reason that Wei Zheng finally chose Li Yuan.

But he never expected that Li Yanqing was also a child of the Li family, which surprised Wei Zheng very much.

When Li Yanqing was in Chang'an, although Li Jiancheng deliberately wanted to win over Li Yanqing, Wei Zheng did not agree. In Wei Zheng's opinion, Li Yanqing was a tiger, but Li Jiancheng was not the one who could tame a tiger... Looking at the entire Li Tang royal family, unless Li Yanqing's biological father Li Xiaoji was reborn, no one else could make Li Yanqing truly surrender and return...

Therefore, when Li Yanqing was exiled to western Guangdong, Wei Zheng strongly agreed.

But now it seems that his exile seemed to have become a return to the mountain... Li Yanqing's development in western Guangdong was obviously beyond Wei Zheng's expectations. It not only stabilized the situation in western Guangdong, properly handled the complex relationship between local mountain people and Han people, but also took advantage of the opportunity of Li Shimin pacifying Houliang and swallowed the important land of Jingxiang in one fell swoop. When he was in Hongzhou, Wei Zheng had contacted Fang Xuanling several times and had found that Fang Xuanling was extraordinary. But such a person praised Li Yanqing more than much.

Wei Zheng couldn't help but worry, whether he really wanted to invite Li Yanqing to return to Chang'an?

"Xuancheng, why don't you speak along the way?"

Pei Shiju suddenly spoke, causing Wei Zheng to wake up immediately.

He smiled, "I was thinking that the King of Henan has built a large-scale construction in this wilderness, which is really awesome."

"If you talk about courage, you will be really good at raising your strength.

I heard that Yang Zhen intends to build ten roads of the same level in the entire Lingnan region to completely open up the connection between Lingnan and the Central Plains... When the First Emperor set up Guanzhong, he only built eight roads. Yang Zhen’s spirit is even better than..."

"Duke Xue, be careful of your words!"

Pei Shiju suddenly opened his eyes and interrupted Changsun Shunde's words.

Changsun Shunde was also a little proud... Li Yanqing married Changsun Wugui and was also a student of Changsun Sheng, so he was naturally inseparable from the Changsun family. Seeing that Li Yanqing had achieved such achievements in just a few years, he couldn't help but feel happy.

But this is obviously not suitable.

What kind of person is Emperor Qin Shi?

If Li Yanqing is taken out and compared with the First Emperor, if it is spread...

Changsun Shunde couldn't help but feel a slap in his heart and was scared and sweated in a cold sweat.

"Two sirs, we have been on our way for a long time until now this morning.

It’s better to have a break in the inn ahead and then set off on the road... I guess we can arrive in Gu County before dark."

Pei Shiju said: "Okay, let's take a look at the customs of Guizhou."

Wei Zheng quickly got out of the car and vaguely heard Pei Shiju behind him whispering to Changsun Shunde.

Did you really make the wrong choice?

How much power is hidden behind Li Yanqing?

Since Pei Shiju sutured to Li Tang, he has been very silent.

He never expressed any opinions in the court, nor did he surrender to any force. But Wei Zheng would not naively think that Pei Shiju was really invincible! Behind him is the huge Hedong Pei family, and Pei Renji and his son are important officials in the court... In this case, Pei Shiju was a bit too low-key. What's the reason? Before that, Wei Zheng thought that Pei Shiju was like this to please Li Yuan. But now it seems that Pei Shiju's real purpose is probably not as simple as imagined.

Everyone knows that Li Yuan is already old!

Over the years, I became more addicted to wine and sex, and gradually neglected the government.

The court was divided into two factions, Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin. These two people must be the ones who will take charge of the world in the future.

But why didn’t Pei Shiju make a choice?

Wei Zheng felt that he seemed to have touched some truth.

But now, he is still unable to be sure...

"Mr. Wei, the river water in front of him was Baishiyi. I heard from the locals that it is exclusively for passing vehicles and pedestrians to rest. It is only three or four hours away from Guxian. It is very safe... Why don't we just rest in Baishiyi?"

"Baishiyi?"

"Just on the banks of Baishi Water, it is said that the scenery is not bad."

"Then, just rest for a while in Baishiyi..."

Pei Shiju and Changsun Shunde, as imperial envoys, naturally could not handle these matters personally.

As the deputy of the two, Wei Zheng actually took on all kinds of miscellaneous tasks... After he made the arrangements, he replied to Pei Shiju and the others and went back to the car to rest.

In a short while, the convoy arrived outside the gate of Baishi Station.

This Baishi Post is not so much a station as a hotel.

It is adjacent to Baishishui and is located on the bank of a row of green willows. In a courtyard covering an area of ​​about 30 acres, three-story buildings rise from the ground.

At the entrance of the courtyard, there were people dressed in postmen to pick up and drop off the guests.

Just looking at their appearance, they don’t look like clerks in the court, but more like a group of hotel friends.

Wei Zheng was not surprised by this situation along the way. He knew that these so-called stations had actually been subcontracted by Li Yanqing. The name of the station was actually not very different from ordinary merchants.

And these postmen are actually all held by local natives.

In name, he was working for the court, but in fact, Li Yanqing was not responsible for their salary at all.

All the expenses of the station are at your own risk. If you do well, you can not only care about your capital, but also earn real money.

To the outside world, it is to do things for the court.

In front of the villagers, it seems to be superior and quite proud.

Such posters began to appear in Hongzhou. At the beginning, whether it was Wei Zheng or Pei Shiju and others, they had some complaints about this. But later they found out that the posters in this poster were not only responsible for picking up the arrivals, but also shouldered many responsibilities... because these posters were safe and sound along the way. Even if they could not get the leftovers, they could be considered peaceful. The rental of the poster could not help but open a way for merchants, and also solved the food, clothing, housing and transportation of a large number of refugees and the indigenous people.

Wei Zheng discovered that these stations had formed a huge network.

It not only covers the entire Lingnan area, but also brings considerable income to government offices in various places.

“Is it necessary to set up these many stations?”

Wei Zheng once asked the locals privately.

But the answer was very surprised by Wei Zheng... With Li Yanqing's development of western Guangdong and the increase in past merchants, the flow of goods in the Lingnan region seemed to be as close as Guanzhong. In the Central Plains, business travel was just a last-distance occupation. But for Lingnan region, business travel was nothing wrong. Even in western Guangdong, business travel has become a trend, driving the development of the entire Lingnan region... Regardless of whether Wei Zheng recognized it or not, it has to admit that Lingnan has indeed become much more prosperous.

The vehicle slowly drove into Baishi Station.

Wei Zheng stood at the gate of the station, silent for a long time, and did not move for a long time!
Chapter completed!