Tianliangyuan

Chapter 251 The Loyal King's Scheme

Jiang Fu was having a hard time, and it was Jiang Ning who was worried about her, because Jiang Ning and Jiang Fu were sisters born of the same mother. If others didn't care, Jiang Ning couldn't possibly ignore it.

However, Jiang Ning's current abilities are limited, and her position in the Prince Zhong's mansion is not as secure as she imagined.

With the Jiang family frequently encountering troubles, Prince Zhong, who was determined to ascend to the throne, clearly favored the Zhao family, which had a noble lineage and a stable history.

Zhao Yue took this opportunity to further enhance her reputation with the prince, and naturally reaped considerable benefits.

Xu Zhaozhao is currently flush with cash and has just received a new fiefdom, so she can't be more smug.

Jiang Ning's life was clearly much worse.

Although her dowry was not small, she lost a lot of money in the past, so there were actually only a few shops in her dowry, and they were all rented out, with only rent collected year-round.

Of course, the amount of money collected from rent is much less than that of running your own business.

However, Jiang Ning's abilities were really not impressive, which is why the Deng family made this arrangement on purpose.

Jiang Ning owns two estates, and they are quite large.

If the Loyal King wants to ascend to the throne, simply winning over the court officials is clearly not enough.

He still needs to have his own support.

For example: troop strength!

However, the military generals of Daxing were basically all directly loyal to His Majesty, and the wife of the Prince of Zhong's family only had connections through civil officials and did not have any military connections.

However, there were some people who, through some roundabout means, managed to get involved with military officers.

However, since the relationship is too distant, it is naturally difficult to guarantee the benefits. Therefore, King Zhong now plans to train his own private army.

According to the laws of Daxing, a prince's residence can have sixty personal guards, twenty of whom are personal bodyguards.

Although the number of guards may seem small, they actually represent only a portion of the prince's military power.

Daxing forbade officials and members of the royal family from keeping private armies; if discovered, it would be considered a serious crime of treason.

However, even princes have their own personal guards.

Daxing implemented the Fubing system, and Prince Zhong had a fiefdom. However, for some reason, Emperor Yong'an kept him in the capital, and the Zhechong Fu soldiers in his fiefdom belonged to Prince Zhong.

However, since the Prince of Zhong was not in his fiefdom, and since the commanders of the Zhechong Prefecture were all dispatched by the imperial court, it was impossible for the Prince of Zhong to actually mobilize those troops.

That's why King Zhong got so anxious.

He didn't want to leave Beijing because once he left the power center in Daxing, he might experience delays and lags in receiving information.

However, if he does not leave the capital, he will not be able to truly control the soldiers in his fiefdom.

This is contradictory.

However, comparing the two, staying in the capital city still has more advantages.

Therefore, the Loyal King had the idea of ​​training a private army.

He is the eldest son of the emperor, and if we consider seniority, he should be the one to inherit the position in the future.

What's the point of talking about legitimate and illegitimate children?

snort!

So what if Prince An is the legitimate son? The Empress is out of favor, and the relationship between the Empress and Consort Jiang can be described as irreconcilable. What power does he have to defeat himself?

If the Loyal King wants to train a private army, he needs money, men, and a secret place.

One of Jiang Ning's villas would be the perfect choice.

With the mountains as cover, they can send their men directly into the mountains to train troops. The wild animals in the mountains alone can help them train a group of good soldiers.

However, we can't rush it. The most important thing is that this requires a lot of money and secrecy.

The Loyal King originally planned to train 5,000 elite soldiers first, which would then be of some help in his struggle for the throne.

But imagination is beautiful, while reality is harsh.

Training troops near the capital is tantamount to suicide!

After much effort and hard work, they only managed to gather five hundred strong men. The daily expenses for these five hundred strong men, plus their weapons, armor, and so on, were like eating silver.

Therefore, King Zhong dared not make any more big moves.

The main problem is that it's too close to the capital. If a big commotion is caused, something bad is bound to happen.

Therefore, the Loyal King still felt that it was most appropriate to train troops on his own fiefdom.

However, his fiefdom is too far from the capital. Even if he can train five thousand elite soldiers, how to get them into the capital and how to hide them are all problems.

Reality is reality, not a storybook. How can such a big problem be solved with just one sentence?

Just a few years ago, a military officer, who also held the title of Duke, was impeached by the Censor because his wife swaggered through the city with five hundred soldiers. The Censor sent a memorial to the Emperor to impeach her.

The final result was that the military officer not only lost his official rank and title, but also had his family property confiscated and was exiled.

Do you think he was wronged?

He may not have had any rebellious intentions, so he was just careless and was implicated by his wife.

But you say he wasn't wronged?

He did things that the court explicitly prohibited, which shows that he disregarded the laws and regulations of the court.

How could it be unjust to punish such a person!

Therefore, lately, the Prince of Zhong has been troubled by the matter of his private army.

He now resents that his fiefdom is so far away.

If you want to do something, even just sending a message, it would take about ten days for the whole journey, even by fast horse.

If one's own fiefdom is also near the capital, why go through all this trouble?

Zhao Yue had come to understand the prince's predicament these past few days, and after much thought, she actually found a solution.

Keeping a private army is a serious crime, but Zhao Yue also wants to be empress!

Who wants to always be overshadowed?

“Your Highness, I recently returned to my parents’ home, and my father specifically instructed me to bring back twenty men to serve as servants in our household.”

The Prince of Zhong was not concerned; they were just twenty servants, and it was not worth mentioning them to him.

"Ah."

“These twenty men are all strong and robust. I’ve heard that some of them are as strong as oxen, and others are skilled in riding and archery.”

At this point, the Loyal King finally relented.

"You mean, these people are all guards trained by the Zhao family?"

"Your Highness, please do not speak nonsense. They are just some strong and capable servants. Our manor is already fully equipped with guards."

With a wink from Zhao Yue, the Loyal King understood.

"Your Highness is right; I was just confused for a moment."

When the Prince of Zhong raised his hand, all his trusted confidants outside withdrew, leaving only the couple inside.

"Your Highness, I heard that the estate under Madam Jiang's name has been delivered to you?"

"Yes, the location is good, and there are mountains to provide cover, so we can make use of it."

"Your Highness, if that's the case, why not openly recruit some tenants or laborers, saying that you want to plant some trees or medicinal herbs on the mountain and need someone to help clear the rocks and keep out wild animals?"

King Zhong is a smart man. Zhao Yue didn't need to be too direct. With just a brief explanation, King Zhong could think of something much deeper.

"Wonderful! The Princess is so wise. Her words today have solved my troubles of the past few days."