The arrival of the Imperial City Commissioner made the last insistence of the Liu brothers quickly dissipated, and they could only obediently agree to the three requests made by Li Ling.

However, if they really want to fulfill these conditions, they are not able to make the decision. They must send people back to the capital to report to the prince, especially the 500,000 taels of silver, which is not something they can easily take out. Even the prince has to raise it from other places, which naturally will delay a lot.

Li Ling did not urge him too much and gave him enough time to turn around. After all, whether he or Lu Zhen, he had many errands to deal with.

Time passed slowly in this busy period. By mid-July, the Guirong people of all ethnic groups who invaded the northern border had been completely wiped out and annihilated, and the war that lasted for more than half a year was finally over. At the same time, the court finally made a conclusion, and did not intend to take advantage of the victory of the Northern Expedition, but made it the main task to consolidate the border and rebuild the pass. For this reason, the court also sent a lot of officials from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works, and there were also a large number of city repair supplies and craftsmen from all over the country.

As for Li Ling, he had guessed that the emperor would make such a decision long ago, so he put more energy on other more important things early on, and no longer planned how to arrange for grain to be transported into the grassland. The so-called more important thing is naturally to visit and check the various situations of these important passes in the northern border, the official roads connected with them, and the Central Plains.

Although Li Ling had a general understanding of the grain transport conditions and roads in northern Xinjiang through the map of the Transportation Department, it was just a paper talk. Many details and changes could not be seen from the map drawn by people a few years or even more than ten years ago. Only by actually walking around the local area and having a more detailed understanding can we formulate a more appropriate grain transport plan according to local conditions and set a route to transport grain.

These things seem inconspicuous, but only those who truly understand the military will understand the weight. In wartime, military rations will arrive one day earlier, and the victory or defeat of a war is likely to be affected. This is not Li Ling alone, or Dong Gongwang and other side generals agree with it.

Therefore, when Li Ling began to visit Jinzhou and surrounding areas on-site, the border generals were very friendly and enthusiastic to him, and he also formed a great friendship with the generals. In addition to making friends with others, Li Ling also did his job in a very meticulous manner, and he recorded three major books on the relevant notes alone.

These notes not only clearly describe the various road problems along the way, city passes, etc., but also write down the details of the future establishment of military posts to transport grain from the north from a professional perspective. If the court can really accept Li Ling's proposal in the future and want to set up a relay station that is more conducive to military grain transportation in the vast area of ​​the northern border, then his notes will save the court a lot of time and time.

It was not until Li Ling walked all the Guancheng here and could continue to go west. When he entered the Youzhou territory, the Liu brothers came to him again. This time their attitude was more humble than before. Without Li Ling's question, they said the prince's meaning: "As long as this matter is stopped like this, we can agree to your conditions. This is the compensation of 500,000 taels you mentioned before. But due to transportation issues, we cannot really take such a lot of silver, so we can only use these silver notes..." As he said that, Liu Suiyun moved a thick stack of silver notes to Li Ling.

Li Ling took it with a smile, and took a few randomly, then nodded to confirm. These silver bills are the largest silver bills in the capital, with each bill of 5,000 taels, and they are redeemable as soon as they see the bill. It can be said that they are the most trustworthy silver bills in the world.

"Since the prince is so happy, I will naturally repay you. Don't worry, this matter will end here. When the Imperial City Department returns, they will only report these fifteen generals to His Majesty because they are bewitched by others and want to flatter the prince. They will never involve other people. They will also testify that the prince is innocent and is kept in the dark by his subordinates." Li Ling said, and gently patted the paper they handed over with the silver notes with the paper that wrote the list of generals.

This action made the Liu brothers' faces darker, and Liu Suifeng even snorted: "Mr. Li, I hope you do what you say, otherwise, even if your official position is not low, my Eastern Palace will have some ways to make you pay for it."

"Of course, I, Li Ling, may not have many other advantages, but as a businessman, the word "integrity" can still be achieved. In the face of business, there is no deception!" Li Ling still looked smiling, and was not angry at the other party's semi-threatening words. "As long as you help me with the third thing, we will not only have no resentment, but will even cooperate in the future."

"Then let it stay for the future." Although Liu Suiyun didn't express much on his face, he felt annoyed. After leaving these words, he stood up and left with his brothers.

This time they lost their lords. Everything was because of their plan that the prince not only lost his face, but also lost money and people's expectations. These will inevitably affect their position in the prince's mind, and the rest of his life will be really hard.

After watching them leave with a smile, Li Ling let out a breath, picked up the stack of silver notes, and handed them to Li Moyun on the side: "After returning to Beijing, I will exchange them, and then according to the list of the casualties, we must deliver the silver that will be given one by one."

"Yes." Li Moyun and Zheng pointed out that they would not even put half a piece of the 500,000 taels of silver here in their pockets.

At this time, Lu Zhen turned from the side and couldn't help but exclaim when he heard this: "Wen Zhong, you really have no selfishness!"

"Haha, a gentleman loves money and gets it well. He said that the money was to be used to support the soldiers and the people, so I wouldn't want it." After a pause, his eyes narrowed and asked again: "Mr. Lü, how about it? Is there any conclusive news from the capital coming back?"

"I really let you talk. This time the prince finally used his power outside the court. Although he did not find him completely, his location was probably already in Huguang."

Li Ling nodded thoughtfully: "The Prince's God of Wealth is actually living in the granary of my Dayue Yue. It seems that I was really wrong before. I thought that the man should be in Jiangnan. No wonder, I asked someone to conduct open and secret investigations in Jiangnan a few years ago, but I couldn't find any clues."

The prince's side never dreamed that Li Lingshi asked them for compensation and another deeper purpose was to find out the power that the prince secretly distributed among the people, and to find out the people who coordinated everything behind them.

The prince had four friends, and this statement was circulated in the court and the public a few years ago. The brothers Liu Suiyun and Liu Suifeng were two of them, and they were his aides and counsels. It was only with their advice that the prince had been entangled with the Yongwang party in the face of unfavorable situations, at least to keep himself from losing his position as a crown prince.

The third of the four friends is Qu Wangyang, who has always followed like a shadow to protect the prince's safety. It is said that this person has very high martial arts skills in the world. The prince has encountered several assassins, but all the assassins were killed or captured, but the prince did not even suffer any fear. That was the credit of this person. It can be said that with this person on his side, the prince is absolutely safe.

As for the fourth person, it is a mystery. Many people only know that there is such an existence, but they do not know their exact identity, nor how he contacted the prince. Compared with the other three friends, this person has a greater effect on the prince, because he is the prince's wallet and is the person who provides financial support to the prince, so he is called the God of Wealth.

The prince was able to buy the hearts of many generals in just a few years in northern Xinjiang. In addition to his identity, the more important thing is that he is willing to spend money and be willing to reward those generals with large sums of gold and silver.

As far as Li Ling knows, the prince is actually not well-off, and even because he is not as errands as King Yong, his income cannot be compared with this brother regardless of light or darkness. Even King Yong has to do something like "killing Aries" because he has to spend money to buy the border generals, which shows how difficult it is for the prince to do in this matter.

But with the continuous supply of that guy named God of Wealth, the prince actually did something that even King Yong could not do, and he had not violated any national laws. Only in this way can we know how rich the God of Wealth is and how important he is to the prince.

However, his low-key and secrets made King Yong unable to find clues. Li Ling naturally had to spend more time trying to find out - after all, he had already formed a deep hatred with the prince, so he couldn't really let him wait for succession to the throne smoothly - so he made this arrangement.

On the surface, Li Ling was trying to get a sum of money, but in fact, his real intention was to find the prince's God of Wealth. As long as he found this person, no matter how he used it, he would have a hard time in the future after losing financial support.

Moreover, Li Ling also believed in a saying that it is difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. Once he lost the support of the God of Wealth, the prince would be tight-fitting, and he might do something wrong. As long as he grasped his fault, he could pull it off from the position of the prince.

Of course, these things have to be left for the future. It is too early to talk about them now. This is just a waste of time.

When the prince's affairs were resolved, it was time for Li Ling to return to the capital.

At this time, August is approaching. With the joint efforts of the military and civilians, the northern border of Vietnam finally came out of the storm that lasted for more than half a year, and everything returned to its original state. Everyone wanted to live their own lives peacefully. At least, within the past or two years, the northern border was unlikely to take the initiative to fight the Northern Expedition.
Chapter completed!