Chapter 262: Decision

After signing the contract in the palace, Han Qi decided to return to Qizhou.

The King of Yan invited him to a banquet, but he was in no mood and declined.

Two million and four hundred thousand taels of silver were given to the King of Yan.

And he had to pay one million and two hundred thousand taels of silver before he saw the cannon.

This was simply robbing money.

His heart ached.

"The craftsmen in Qizhou are all useless. It's better to kill them. The cannon made by the Liang family is too useless." Sitting on the horse, Han Qi muttered angrily.

If the craftsmen could imitate the cannon, why would his Han family be so humble in front of the King of Yan.

But thinking of the great power of the cannon, he suddenly felt relieved.

The money seemed to be worth it.

...

The palace.

Zhao Xu gave the contract to Feng'er for safekeeping and went directly to the Armory.

The Han family came first.

He believed that the other powerful families would definitely not be able to hold back next.

The eight powerful families have always been united in dealing with the royal family.

But they value their own interests.

There are also intrigues within the clan, and they want to suppress the other side.

Therefore, they will not let the Han family go ahead of them.

"Divide and conquer." On the way to the Armory, Zhao Xu suddenly thought of this word.

When he dealt with the Zhang family, he used the strategy of division.

First, this can prevent them from focusing their fire on him.

Second, it can make them wary of each other and involve their energy.

Now, the Xie family, one of the eight powerful families, has always wanted to win him over to support the deposed prince.

This may be an opportunity.

As far as he knows, Zhao Heng did not depose the prince willingly.

It was just under pressure from the officials of the powerful families.

In fact, he has always wanted to restore the deposed prince.

Therefore, if he chooses to support the prince, he can not only gain the trust of the Xie family, create a gap between the Xie family and other powerful families, but also satisfy Zhao Heng.

At the same time, he also expressed an attitude to everyone by doing this, that he, the King of Yan, has no intention of being the crown prince, thereby reducing the malice from the capital.

After all, storing up food, claiming the throne slowly, and building high walls are his way of survival.

Arrived at the Armory.

Zhao Xu immediately joined Wang Ying in the research and development of the drilling machine.

For the next three days, he lectured at the Three Great Schools in the morning and spent the afternoons at the Armory.

At noon on the fourth day, an urgent decree from the court arrived.

Almost at the same time, the intelligence sent back from the capital by Yan Wei also arrived.

Zhao Xu immediately called Chang Wei and Liu Fu over.

"The emperor ordered me and the new head of the Ma family, Ma Chong, to send troops to Jinzhou to recapture Jincheng. What do you think?" Zhao Xu asked.

"Ma Chong? What about this man?" Liu Fu asked.

"According to the information I have obtained, this Ma Chong is not the legitimate son, but the eldest son of the Ma family. This person is greedy and has no achievements in the Imperial College. It is also said that he has close contacts with Dou Wei's eldest son Dou Kuang."

"Dou family." Liu Fu's eyes turned, "Your Highness, why do I feel that this matter is a bit too strange, the Jincheng generals rebelled, and then the Ma family father and son died tragically, this is too coincidental, it seems that someone deliberately stirred up the chaos in the northwest of Dasong."

Chang Wei didn't think there was anything wrong, but when Liu Fu said this, he immediately became suspicious and narrowed his eyes.

"Whether it is a coincidence or not is not important. Now that it is a fait accompli, someone has to settle the chaos in the northwest." Zhao Xu said.

He knew that Liu Fu was suspicious of the Dou family, and he believed that there were people in the court who suspected the Dou family.

But no one can conclude that this matter was done by the Dou family just because the eldest son of the Dou family and Ma Chong had close contacts.

And even if the Ma family's affairs can say that the Dou family is suspected.

But the rebel generals in Jincheng can't find any connection with the Dou family.

So the cleverness of this matter lies in the fact that he and many others are suspicious, and there is no way to solve it.

What's worse is that after Ma Chong inherits the Ma family, he may get close to the Dou family.

In this way, the Dou family will undoubtedly be the largest force in Dasong.

It is estimated that Zhao Heng is also very afraid now.

"But if it is true, I think it is obviously aimed at your highness." Liu Fu looked worried, "but your highness doesn't seem to have provoked the Dou family."

Chang Wei's face flushed, and Liu Fu said that he was angry, "Even if your highness provoked him, how could he watch the 80,000 imperial guards in Jincheng die for his own selfishness!"

Liu Fu frowned and glanced at Chang Wei, "Childish! What does the life and death of the imperial guards have to do with his Dou family? These powerful families wish that the imperial guards would die and let their own troops control the capital."

"If it is true, Dou Wei really deserves to be cut into pieces!" Chang Wei's fists clenched and rang.

Zhao Xu paced back and forth.

When the Ma family came to question him that day, he felt a strong smell of conspiracy spreading in the northwest of Dasong.

Someone wanted to deal with the Ma family while creating trouble for himself.

"If it was really the Dou family, he must have a deep plot." Zhao Xu said slowly.

And about the Ma family, it might have been a deep chess game.

But in order to deal with him, it was activated in advance.

But this also made the Dou family suspicious.

Maybe Dou Wei weighed the pros and cons, and finally he felt that it was more important to deal with himself.

As long as there is no evidence, what can others do about it?

Of course, the premise of all this is that their guess is correct.

Liu Fu and Chang Wei looked at each other after hearing this.

After a pause, Liu Fu said: "As your highness said, the powerful family and the royal family are incompatible. Dou Wei can do such a crazy thing. Your highness should always be vigilant in the future. If..."

Speaking of this, Liu Fu remained silent.

Chang Wei listened and saw that Liu Fu was no longer talking. He spoke frankly and said: "If the world is in chaos, your highness should be prepared."

Zhao Xu nodded.

In his opinion, there will definitely be a bloody storm between the powerful clan and the royal family in the future. Either the east wind will prevail over the west wind, or the west wind will prevail over the east wind.

But not before they kill themselves.

They don't have the guts to break up with the royal family yet.

And if they wanted to kill him, he wouldn't give them this chance.

"Let's put this matter aside for the moment and let's talk about Jinzhou. Even if there is no decree, allowing Jinzhou to be occupied by Xiliang will also be a threat to Yanzhou." Zhao Xu said.

In his opinion, this battle must be fought, even for the sake of Jinzhou's population and coal resources.

"We will definitely fight, but the Ma family is unreliable like this, so the general thought that His Highness should ask the Emperor to postpone it for three months and give Yanzhou three months to train new soldiers." Chang Wei said.

Liu Fudao: "General Chang is right. We must not rush to accept the battle this time. Otherwise, if Beidi takes the opportunity to come, Yanzhou will be in danger."

Zhao Xu nodded.

He agreed with both of them.

But besides training new recruits, he had an idea.

That is to try to make a batch of flintlock guns within these three months.

In this way, he will be more confident after the battle in Jinzhou.

After discussing the matter, he immediately wrote a note and asked Zhao Heng to allow him to send troops to Jinzhou in three months.