Chapter 1: Journey to Liaoning (2)

  At this time, Xiong Tingbi and Sun Chengzong exchanged a glance, and the Liaodong Xin Wang was probably gone. He asked: "Your Highness is going to Liaodong, who do you plan to bring along?"

  This sentence has hit the nail on the head. An old ginger is still spicy, although they didn't ask Zhu Yinglong about his purpose in going to Liaodong, but mainly because he let those people follow him, it's not hard to guess some clues. Zhu Yinglong doesn't need some subordinates who only know how to do things after being told, this is the way of a heroic figure, and a true leader doesn't necessarily have to be superior, as long as he knows two things, then he is a king-like talent. One is knowing how to use people, and two is knowing how to control people. With these two points, he can achieve great things without doing anything else. This is why some self-proclaimed extraordinary people are jealous of those who are not better than themselves but have achieved more outstanding results.

  "General Bear, Lieniang, Shen Daguan, Lu Yingchang and fifty fierce tiger camp soldiers." Zhu Yinglong said slowly.

  "Is Lu Haotian...?" Shi Kefa asked with some concern, although Lu Haotian was not very successful in the military and had been assigned to serve under Xinfeng Wang, he usually followed the rules and seemed loyal without any issues, but he hadn't participated in the core yet. Shi Kefa worried about Zhu Yinglong's safety along the way, so he couldn't help but bring it up.

  "If you suspect someone, don't use him; if you don't suspect someone, then use him. This is also a test for him." Zhu Yinglong said calmly, he believed in that low-ranking military officer who was being ostracized and frustrated in the army, because he saw a true soldier's shadow on him, a person who truly loved his soldiers like his own children wouldn't be a bad person.

  The crowd dispersed, and Zhu Yinglong left behind Shi Kefa, Shen Creek, Sun Chengzong, and Xiong Tingbi. Originally, Zhu Yinglong wanted to bring Shi Kefa with him, but he was now a public figure, seriously injured and unable to follow closely, so he could only leave him behind. Sun Chengzong's goal was too big, and he was old, not suitable for long-distance travel, besides the military academy couldn't do without him, it wasn't an option, leaving only Xiong Tingbi. Zhu Yinglong wanted to rely on him to bring Yuan Chonghuan over, so he became the first choice to go to Liaodong.

  "Your Highness, why must you bring me along to Liaodong? What can I do for you besides doing business?" Shen Xi finally asked the question that had been bottled up inside him for a long time.

  Zhu Yinglong smiled mysteriously and said, "Don't worry, Shen Zhanggui, I'll have a private conversation with you later."

  Shen Xi heard this and naturally didn't ask anymore.

  "Director Sun, I need a map of the terrain of Liaodong. Can Director Sun help me with that?" Zhu Yinglong left Sun Chengzong's true intention was to ask him for a map of Liaodong. This time in Liaodong, he was unfamiliar with the place, although there was Xiong Tingbi, but he had been away from Liaodong for five years, and the division of power between the Later Jin and the Ming dynasty had changed somewhat. Sun Chengzong had only returned from Liaodong for half a year, so what he knew must be more accurate than Xiong Tingbi. Therefore, Zhu Yinglong wanted to ask him to draw a detailed map of Liaodong.

  Sun Chengzong seemed to have already understood Zhu Yinglong's intention and agreed with a smile: "The map that the king wants, I will be able to complete it within three days."

  "So, thank you very much, Dean." Zhu Yinglong said sincerely.

  Then Zhu Yinglong told Shi Kefa some trivial matters, ordered Xiong Tingbi to prepare the things needed for Liaodong, and left Shen Xi alone to whisper for half an hour. Finally, Shen Xi walked out of the conference room excitedly and hurried away.

  Zhu Yinglong brought three queens back to Xingwang Mansion in Kaifeng City, and Zhu Yinglong himself also had some preparations to make.

  The next day, the Xinfeng Palace suddenly purchased a large amount of wood, but this time it was not transported to the construction site of the Yinglong Villa, but directly to the Xinfeng Palace in Kaifeng City. Moreover, most of the wood was quite valuable. Following that, the Xinfeng Palace hired many experienced carpenters, claiming to teach them the woodworking skills of Prince Xinfeng. After a few days passed, all the old master carpenters collectively resigned, saying that Prince Xinfeng was a genius and a natural-born carpenter, and their own skills were not enough to learn from him. In fact, this is not surprising, because in his original time and space, Zhu Yinglong's father was a carpenter, and a famous one at that. Having grown up following his father and working with wood, how could his family's traditional craftsmanship be anything but exceptional?

  By Lantern Festival, Kaifeng City was abuzz with the news that Xining Emperor had become as enamored with carpentry as his brother, and that exquisite furniture of unusual design flowed out of the palace, captivating the entire city, some pieces selling for several times their original price.

  After the Yuanxiao Festival, Zhu Yinglong had already bid farewell to the three Wang Fei under the cover of Wang Chengen and slipped away to Kaifeng City's Bogu Zhai with Shen Xi. Then, using a fake identity document that had been prepared in advance, they left Kaifeng City and joined forces with Xiong Tingyi and other private salt smugglers, heading north to Liaodong.

  At this time, the Wang Fu was still flowing out every few days with a piece of furniture made by King Wang himself. Every time it was sold at a good price, and from front to back, it could be seen that it was the craftsmanship of the same person. People saw that the furniture made by King Wang was so valuable, so there were more counterfeit goods on the market. The craftsmen who taught King Wang's woodworking skills became sought after because only they could identify whether it was really made by King Wang himself.

  All of this was just a trick by Zhu Yinglong to deceive Wei Zhongxian, with the goal of making him think that he was still in Kaifeng's Xinfeng Mansion, hiding the fact that he had actually gone to Liaodong. As long as every few days there were pieces of furniture made by the King himself flowing out of the mansion without any regularity, even if Wei Zhongxian suspected something, unless he asked for a royal decree to search Xinfeng Mansion, he would not know that the King had already left the mansion. Of course, even if such a thing happened, Zhu Yinglong had also left a plan for Zhou Yuning to deal with it, as long as Wei Zhongxian did not come down personally, fooling his underlings was no problem.

  Moreover, by doing so, he also catered to his cheap brother who liked carpentry, and may have achieved unexpected results. However, Zhu Yinglong's tactics of feigning weakness and hiding strength had probably reached their limit, and his covert struggle with Wei Zhongxian had turned into an open one.