Traveling through time and space and becoming a deposed prince, he just wants to survive!

As soon as the prefect sent Mu Qiang out of the city, Zhao Heng called the prefect to his house for tea.

By the way, Li Shiyuan and Li Jun were introduced. In fact, Li Shiyuan's father was also there, but he was working as an accountant in the palace at the time and it was not convenient for him to show up.

He Hairen was a little confused by Zhao Heng's behavior. What did these two people have to do with him? Even if Li Shiyuan was a great beauty and he, Zhao Heng, wanted to marry her, or make her a princess in the future, was it necessary to introduce her to him so anxiously?

Zhao Heng did this entirely to paralyze He Hairen. If he directly talked about what happened to Mu Qiang today, He Hairen would become alert. He introduced the two of them as soon as he arrived, especially Li Jun, which would make He Hairen mistakenly think that Zhao Heng was finding a job for him.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Heng said at this moment: "Master He, you have been in Chuzhou for three years!"

This question startled He Hairen, but he quickly realized that Zhao Heng had no say in the appointment of this official, and he might have other intentions in asking this question.

Who knew that Zhao Heng continued, "My father said that Chuzhou was second only to Shangjing in prosperity, so he made Chuzhou my fiefdom.

As far as I know, Chuzhou’s greatest wealth is salt production; another is crystal; the third is aquatic products; the fourth is fertile farmland with high yields, and this fifth…”

What Zhao Heng said was all true, and He Hairen didn't think there was anything wrong with it. But Zhao Heng finally said, "It's been three years since I was enfeoffed, and I haven't received a penny. Where's my money?"

According to the regulations of the Zhou Dynasty's vassal states, local taxes belonged to the vassal states, but all the money over the years was taken away by Zhao Wei because he needed the money to manage many relationships and even prepare some weapons and people.

When asked this by Zhao Heng, He Hairen was speechless. He really didn't know how to answer this question. The taxes collected every year should be given to whoever they should be given to. Even if they were not given to the vassal kings, they had to be handed over to the emperor's inner palace.

Where did this unclear money go? How should He Hairen answer this question?

Zhao Heng had to pretend to love money. He came to Chu to enjoy himself. If He Hairen couldn't explain where the money went today, he would not be able to leave the Chu Palace.

It seemed that at this time, Zhao Heng raised another question. A letter from the capital said that the price of salt had risen because Chuzhou had stopped supplying salt to the capital.

What did you say? He Hairen felt so bitter. The biggest salt merchant in the capital is your Wei family. Who dares not let the Wei family pass the salt?

"Why? Lord He won't give an explanation? Or is there no salt left in Chuzhou, or is the whereabouts of this salt unknown?"

Zhao Heng asked He Hairen word by word, he was so anxious that he was sweating profusely. He hoped that Mu Qiang could go there today and settle the matter.

"Your Highness, the King of Chu, I have already sent people to the salt fields to maintain order so that the salt can enter the capital smoothly today."

"Oh, that's fine. As long as the salt can be delivered to the capital today and the price of salt can be stabilized, I will be relieved. How about this, Lord He writes a handwritten order and I will send someone to supervise it."

Zhao Heng was worried that He Hairen might become suspicious, so he added, "Don't worry, I only want to ensure that the salt from the capital is shipped out smoothly. I don't care about anything else."

How could He Hairen dare to disobey at this time? He wrote a letter to the Chu Palace and also wrote a notice, which roughly meant that no one should block the salt transportation, otherwise he would be treated as a rebel.

After writing it, he gave it to Zhao Heng.

At this time, Zhao Heng's expression changed and he said, "Forget it, I won't send anyone there. You can find someone to send them there. My people are not familiar with that place."

Upon hearing this, He Hairen arranged for the prefect's messenger to hand the letter to Mu Qiang and post the notice at the gate of the salt field.

Secretly, Zhao Heng notified the people from the Cao Gang to go in and haul the goods without saying a word, and not to mention who the goods were destined for. If the Salt Gang tried to stop them, they would just start fighting and then say that the goods were being transported to the capital.

Just like that, people from outside appeared at the salt field and went straight in without even saying hello and started loading the goods.

While Mu Qiang was still hesitating, someone sent him the letter. After reading it, he thought to himself that it was not good. No one could stop them today. A fight might break out, and the Salt Gang might suffer.

Just as I thought of this, I wanted to go find Fu Gang to negotiate, but unexpectedly, the Salt Gang had already started fighting with the people who were transporting the goods.

Since the salt gang took the first action, several people who were transporting the salt were injured. In an instant, people outside the field rushed into the salt field with weapons. There were at least four or five thousand people.

When the soldiers outside wanted to come in, someone came forward and told them that the goods were being shipped to the capital, and anyone who tried to stop them would be guilty of treason. He also advised them to arrest the salt gang members.

Some soldiers and generals who could read also understood the meaning of the notice and thought that it was the prefect's intention to help arrest the salt gang at this time.

In this way, even if Mu Qiang and Zhou Li wanted to help the Salt Gang, they were powerless and could only let the situation develop.

The Cao Gang that participated in the fight was large in number and powerful, and although the Salt Gang had thousands of people, they were beaten to a pulp. Later, it was the government soldiers who stopped the killing and the situation was slightly suppressed.

In this incident, Fu Gang had one of his arms broken and was thrown into jail!

There is a Jing County to the west of Dingzhou County, which is a coal-producing area. Further north is the mountain, which the locals call Pingshan. Zhao Sheng and the princess went hunting and accidentally discovered that there were iron ore resources underground.

"Princess, I think the iron ore here is enough for my Great Zhou to mine for fifty years."

Li Shuya was moved by Zhao Sheng's words. She was anxious to go back and report the matter to her father, but was stopped by Zhao Sheng.

"Actually, it's better to keep this a secret for now. I have a way to increase the iron yield and make the steel stronger, but have you ever considered that if we do this, we'll attract more political enemies?"

Zhao Sheng's words deeply hurt Li Shuya's heart. In fact, Li Xin once told him that as a princess, she should have been married off to an imperial concubine and become a hostage, marrying into the palace.

At that time, he adopted his uncle's son as his own and used the surname Zhao. However, due to the jealousy of his talent, his cousin died on the battlefield fighting the enemy.

Because Li Shuya liked martial arts and looked a bit masculine, the emperor wanted to marry his daughter to the third prince, but some people opposed it. They were afraid that if the two of them were in the north, they would form a separatist faction if they joined forces.

Later, I thought of Lao Liu and talked about it with Li Xin. At that time, they were both still young and had not yet settled down. Who knew that fate would play such a trick on them? In the end, the two of them were together, but Zhao Sheng married into the princess's mansion.

After Zhao Sheng's reminder, Li Shuya asked, "My dear, what do you think we should do?"

Zhao Sheng looked around and said with a smile, "Let's build a charcoal kiln here now and station a border defense force there, and then we can plan it slowly later."

Li Shuya looked at Zhao Sheng with a strange smile, thinking that this guy must have some plan, but he just didn't want to say it. Then she would wait until he had a plan before asking!

In fact, Li Shuya guessed right. Zhao Sheng planned to set up a weapons research institute in Luancheng, and Pingshan would become a metallurgical site. This would be his material supply base, and he would not let others get involved so easily.

Just like Shigang Village, most of the land was purchased by him, and the people working in the village were his employees. He took care of their food, drink and accommodation, and their lives were much better than before.

The only requirement is that they must obey Zhao Sheng's arrangements, otherwise there will be no living space for them in Shigang Village.