Do you know: I am the crown prince

Chapter 63 Only the fragrance remains

"Zhong Huai, no matter how cleanly you do it, there will always be traces. Only if you find evidence can I help you." Zhao Xing said.

"I understand. Thank you, Your Highness." Gu Tingye bowed.

"Have you told your grandfather about this?" Zhao Xing asked.

As a salt merchant, Old Master Bai was able to earn such a huge fortune, so he was naturally not a good man.

When Yu Xianggong was in charge of thoroughly investigating the salt business, he encountered many assassination attempts.

Many of those salt merchants kept a large number of death-defying soldiers. When their properties were searched, they encountered stubborn resistance and many people died.

The old man of the Bai family must have some assassins under his command. Who knows if he will send assassins to kill Xiao Qin once he finds out the murderer who killed his daughter.

Regardless of success or failure, my father cannot tolerate the use of assassins in Bianjing.

If Old Master Bai was executed for this, not to mention whether Gu Tingye would be implicated, he would not dare to use Gu Tingye.

"My grandfather is old, and I was afraid he couldn't bear it, so I didn't dare tell him." Gu Tingye said.

"Well, this matter is indeed not suitable to be told to Mr. Bai. You should look for evidence secretly first. As long as you have evidence, everything else will be easy." Zhao Xing said.

"I understand. Thank you, Your Highness. I will take my leave first." Gu Tingye bowed.

"Go ahead." Zhao Xing waved his hand.

After Gu Tingye left, Zhao Xing fell into deep thought.

Now that I have moved out of the palace for some time, it is time to put my own plan of making money on the agenda.

The only thing that bothered him was the issue of personnel selection.

So far, he has not found the right person.

The people around him were either palace maids or eunuchs, and then there were his study companions, none of whom were suitable.

Zhao Xing wanted to build a business network covering all the important cities in the Song Dynasty, and then rely on this business network to establish an intelligence system throughout the world to collect intelligence for him.

The Song Dynasty also had an organization similar to the Ming Dynasty's Jinyiwei, called the Imperial City Division.

However, the main responsibility of the Imperial City Department was to monitor abnormal dynamics in various places and prevent rebellion. It did not have the power and responsibility to supervise the officials.

In fact, at the beginning, the Imperial City Bureau also had the authority to investigate and supervise officials.

However, the officials of the Song Dynasty were a bit stubborn. They were very opposed to the existence of the Imperial City Bureau. The emperor refused to force its establishment, but the spies he sent to the local areas were secretly captured and killed by the local officials.

Because the spies recruited by the Imperial City Bureau were mostly idle ruffians in some local areas, even if the emperor wanted to investigate, the local officials had an excuse.

There were also stubborn ones who, after catching the person, beat him with a stick, tied him up and sent him to the capital. They also blamed the emperor for not trusting the world's talents and favoring villains who took advantage of the power of others.

Under tremendous resistance, the Imperial City Bureau exists only for the people, not for officials.

Even if Zhao Xing ascends the throne in the future, he will still be opposed if he wants to set up a secret agency to monitor officials.

Moreover, Zhao Xing was also worried that the secret service agency he was going to set up would become too powerful and difficult to control, just like the Jinyiwei of the Ming Dynasty.

If we were to say which dynasty in ancient times attached the most importance to secret agencies, it would be the Ming Dynasty.

However, in order to restrict the Jinyiwei, the Ming Dynasty established the East Factory, and in order to restrict the East Factory, the West Factory was established. Later, in order to restrict the East and West Factories, an Inner Factory was established.

Firstly, it was because the emperor at that time no longer trusted the previous secret service agencies, and secondly, it was because their power was too great, so in order to balance the restrictions.

Without an official identity, the spy agency established only has the function of collecting intelligence and will not have excessive power.

And if he hides in the dark, it will not be easy for the civil and military officials to detect him.

Of course, Zhao Xing did not intend to leave the business and intelligence gathering to one person.

He controls both money and intelligence. If he has any ulterior motives, he will become a brave and brave man. But if you want to build an intelligence system, you must have money first, so the ability of the people who make money for him is very important, and they must also be loyal.

After much thought, Zhao Xing finally came up with a candidate, and that was Sheng Wei.

However, he has not yet decided whether to use Sheng Wei.

When Hualan gets married, Sheng Wei will definitely come to Bian Jing, and Zhao Xing plans to meet him before making a decision.

……

Before the holiday, Hai Wenyou left some homework and asked Zhao Xing and others to write a poem.

Ancient literati were very fond of poetry. Apart from various factors, one important point is that poetry requires a high level of cultural knowledge, is easy to spread, and can show one's talent to the world.

Hai Wenyou asked everyone to write poetry in order to test what they had learned.

During class the next day, Hai Wenyu asked people to collect the poems written by everyone.

As Zhao Xing was the crown prince, his poems were naturally placed at the top, so Hai Wen saw Zhao Xing's poems first.

"Beside the broken bridge outside the post station, lonely flowers bloom without an owner. It is already dusk and I am alone in sorrow, and the wind and rain make it worse.

I have no intention of struggling for spring, I just let the flowers be jealous. They fall into the mud and turn into dust, but the fragrance remains the same.

Hai Wenyou's eyes lit up as he looked at it. When he saw the last line, 'Only the fragrance remains the same', he could not help but praise, "Great, great 'Only the fragrance remains the same'! Your Highness wrote this poem really well. I am ashamed of myself!"

Zhao Xing smiled and said, "Master Hai, thank you for your compliment."

Just kidding, this is Lu You’s poem, how can it be bad?

Some people may say that the first half of this poem exaggerates the loneliness and sadness of the plum blossom and its suffering from wind and rain. Lu You used the sadness of the plum blossom to vent his depression and lament the frustrations and hardships of life, which is not suitable for him.

In fact, there are two levels of artistic conception when appreciating poetry. One is the superficial meaning of the poetry.

The other is to feel the emotions that the author wants to express based on the author’s experience at the time.

As the crown prince, the poems written by Zhao Xing naturally give people a different feeling.

If we read it from the perspective of his identity, we can understand that he is using the word to refer to a person. This person is not an individual, but a general term, referring to officials all over the world.

Students study hard in the cold classroom, just like the plum blossoms beside the broken bridge outside the post station.

In the end, it is broken into pieces and turned into dust, but the fragrance remains the same, which can also be understood as reminding officials all over the world to keep their original intentions.

"Your Highness is too modest. This poem not only has great word choice but also profound meaning. It is truly a rare masterpiece." Hai Wenyou praised.

Zhao Xing smiled but said nothing. The Song Dynasty was a time of flourishing literary talent, and as a prince, no one dared to say anything about his literary talent.

However, copying some poems and articles will undoubtedly gain more recognition from literati all over the world.

Now is not the time to reveal the real purpose, it is still necessary to stabilize those civil officials.

He can't remember the articles, but he can still remember some poems.

Hai Wenyou read Zhao Xing's lyrics in front of everyone, and Zhao Xing received a lot of compliments again.

Then Hai Wenyou read through the poems of others, selected a few good ones, read aloud in public, and praised them.

Zhao Xing also rewarded those people with some study treasures that could be brought into the palace.

In this class, Hai Wenyou did not teach the Four Books and Five Classics, but instead explained to everyone the several good poems written by Zhao Xing.

After class, Hai Wenyou bowed to Zhao Xing and left in a hurry.

(End of this chapter)