Liu Tan frowned slightly when he saw the last sentence. Although the first three sentences seemed obscure, there was nothing wrong with reading them carefully. However, the fourth sentence, with the mountains and rivers stained with blood, looked ominous at first glance.

When will the mountains and rivers be stained with blood? Of course, when there is war.

The first sentence points out the northern border, the last sentence implies war, and a Qiang flute in the middle implies foreign races.

Liu Tan pointed at the paper thoughtfully and asked, "What does the Prime Minister think?"

Huo Guang said bluntly, "This nursery rhyme seems to imply that Your Highness has rebellious intentions."

Liu Tan paused, looking at him in horror: "What?"

Huo Guang was a little surprised: "Your Highness didn't notice?"

Liu Tan said, "I thought this ballad was about our feud with the Xiongnu, implying that I couldn't stop the Xiongnu's cavalry. Does that mean I have any rebellious intentions?"

Huo Guang was silent for a long moment before he said, "This ballad alludes to two people. The cloud steps refer to Your Highness, and the Qiang flute probably refers to the King of Wusun."

Liu Tan lowered his head and took another look, gradually understanding what Huo Guang meant. Descending from the cloud steps to the human world, this was in line with the setting that everyone thought he was a god who had descended to the earth. If Qiang Di referred to Lu Xuan... carrying their great names, the northern border was thousands of miles away, perhaps referring to the fact that this place was located in a remote area with high mountains and far away from the emperor, so no one would notice that he was secretly accumulating strength.

There seems to be nothing wrong with this understanding, but Liu Tan feels that there is nothing wrong with his understanding.

The bottom line is that the direction of this ballad is not that clear.

Liu Tan narrowed his eyes and said, "This ballad is so obscure, the common people probably won't understand it at all. What is the purpose of those who spread it?"

Ballads that want to spread usually tend to be straightforward, but this one is mostly allusive. Even he and Huo Guang had to analyze it word for word. Who among the common people would analyze it word for word with you?

Huo Guang thought for a moment and said, "I feel... this ballad is incomplete."

Liu Tan looked up at him and said, "You mean there's a second half?"

Huo Guang said, "The first part is just foreshadowing. People may not pay much attention to it, but they will definitely think more about the last sentence. So if there is a second half, it may be a supplement to this part."

Liu Tan thought for a moment, then suddenly looked up and said, "Why are we analyzing this? Since this song has ill intentions, why not just ban its spread? Then, we can track down the source of the spread, arrest the person, and question their motives."

They don't have to think too much about the meaning of the song itself.

Huo Guang said, "I have sent people to investigate, but the source of the ballad seems to be from the refugee city, and there are all kinds of people there, so it is difficult to find clues."

Liu Tan lowered his eyes and said, "Then wait until the second half comes out. If the second half is to spread, there will be a limit, right? Keep an eye on it carefully."

Huo Guang immediately said, "Yes."

Liu Tan actually didn't take this matter to heart. However, when Huo Guang came to him, he was writing a memorial in his hand, which was a memorial requesting reinforcements.

This was an order from Liu Che before, asking him to add more soldiers, mainly for the harmony and stability of Guan City. Of course, the more important reason was probably because the mentally ill Wu Shilu had been wandering around here with people, and both Liu Che and Liu Tan felt a little uneasy.

But the emergence of such a song now made Liu Tan somewhat hesitant.

His guard regiment already had an excessive number of personnel. Unless he took the elite regiment out of the palace and placed it within the imperial court, it would be too easy for him to be feared if he added more troops.

Liu Tan thought about it. It’s not that he was reluctant to give up the elite regiment, but he felt that large-scale training was not easy, especially after most of the soldiers in the Northern Border Kingdom were transformed into professional soldiers. The corresponding treasury expenditure would increase a lot, and the money needed for training would be especially high.

Now the Northern Border Kingdom has just breathed a sigh of relief because Liu Tan has built a workshop and started purchasing soybeans in large quantities. The Northern Border Kingdom’s treasury has become a little more relaxed. After all, Liu Tan has to pay taxes when selling those things.

Liu Tan scribbled on the paper for a while, then said to Huo Guang, "If there's nothing serious going on lately, start reducing the military."

Huo Guang was slightly surprised: "Disarmament? Why do we need to disarm?"

Since Wu Shilu often brings people here, they don’t even have enough time to increase the troops, so how can their prince still want to reduce the army?

Liu Tan said, "I'm going to merge the elite regiment into the Northern Border National Army and then train a new batch of troops. So it's not a large-scale disarmament. The elite regiment has always maintained a thousand people, and each period in the future will basically be the same number. We can carry out irregular disarmament according to this number."

Huo Guang said helplessly after hearing this: "What about His Highness's own guards?"

If this were done, it would be equivalent to Liu Tan using his own money to train soldiers for the Northern Border Kingdom. Of course, Huo Guang didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Although the military power was now in the hands of Wei Buyi, didn't Wei Buyi still listen to Liu Tan?

In military matters, Wei Buyi might not even listen to Huo Guang's words, but he would definitely listen to the King of the Northern Territory.

These people trained in the palace are naturally loyal to the King of the North, so even if the organization is changed, it is just a change of name. In fact, with such replacements in batches, the military power of the Northern Kingdom will be firmly in the hands of Liu Tan.

Could this be the purpose of their prince? Huo Guang looked at Liu Tan thoughtfully, but quickly rejected this idea - it's not that he looked down on Liu Tan. If Liu Tan had such a scheming mind, he wouldn't have to worry about it every day.

Liu Tan didn't really think that far ahead. He just said, "I've always had guards. Don't we recruit people every year?"

Huo Guang was helpless: "So the guards around His Highness are all new recruits every year. How can this be possible?"

Liu Tan laughed and said, "What's wrong with the new recruits? After two or three months of training, the new recruits are much better than the previous ones."

Huo Guang vaguely sensed what Liu Tan was thinking and simply asked, "Your Highness, are you worried that someone will take advantage of this opportunity to cause trouble?"

Liu Tan's face darkened. "Do we even need to guess? They're not taking advantage of the situation to stir up trouble. They just want to stir up trouble. I can't say what this memorial will lead to."

He did not forget that there was a Liu Qumao in Chang'an who was watching him covetously, waiting for him to make a mistake so that he could bring him down.

In fact, both Liu Che and Liu Ju were partial to him, otherwise the things Liu Tan did would have been easily reported, and there would have been no way to refute it.

But then again, if it weren't for the indulgence of Emperor Wu of Han and Emperor Taizong of Tang, based on Liu Tan's personality, he would have already run away and hid away by now, and would never have caused so many troubles.

After Liu Tan finished speaking, he set fire to the unfinished memorial in his hand.

Huo Guang did not stop him. As a favored prince, some privileges were a good thing, but too many were not appropriate.

He no longer doubted whether Liu Tan was doing this to compete with Liu Ju for the throne, but it was not a good thing after all that the princes were so powerful that even the crown prince could not compare to him.

After the burning was over, Liu Tan said calmly, "It's settled. Cutting down a thousand soldiers a year isn't a lot. We'll slowly replace them. We'll tentatively recruit soldiers after the autumn harvest each year and start the downsizing process at the same time. Once we're fully recruited, we'll let those who were laid off go, and then replace them with my own men. Oh, and let's start with the Surrender City."

Huo Guang took a look at Liu Tan and knew that he had set the date after the autumn harvest so that the people would still have a labor force to take charge of the autumn harvest. More importantly, it would be winter soon after the autumn harvest, and some people with poor families and nowhere to go would have a hard time enduring the winter, so this was like giving them a chance to survive.

Huo Guang couldn't help but say, "If Your Highness wants to do this, it would be best to lower the conscription standards."

Liu Tan said helplessly, "I know. It was different before. At that time, I thought I only had these thousand people around me, so of course I had to make it a little closer. But now it's considered a large-scale conscription. I will discuss with Wei Buyi how to lower the standards."

Huo Guang didn't say anything else. Although the prime minister had a high status, he would not speak unless Liu Tan took the initiative to discuss it with him when it came to military power.

After Liu Tan burned the memorial, he began to deal with other matters. However, their prime minister was too capable and there were not many things that needed his attention, and one of them was the matter concerning the refugee city.

Because of his momentary compassion, he built capsule apartments for the refugees. Oh, of course, people don’t call them capsule apartments now, they call them bird’s nests.

No matter what it is, although this house is small, it is a place that can shelter from wind and rain, and it is even better than many people’s original homes.

So many refugees now have no intention of leaving—why would they? Life here is good, and it's close to the capital, with plenty of job opportunities. Many refugees are earning good money and living much better than before.

Because of the large population, a small town gradually formed there, and the name of the place changed from the original refugee camp to the refugee city.

It might seem like everything is going in the right direction, but there are many hidden problems. The most important one is household registration. How could refugees take everything with them? There was no electronic system to check information at any time, so the refugee city was a mixed bag, and management was not particularly strict.

Liu Tan admitted that this was his own negligence. He originally intended that the refugee city be used to shelter refugees. After all, there might be various disasters every year. Now that the conditions in Shuofang City are good, those refugees will naturally come here.

At first, Liu Tan thought that after the disaster, the refugees would go back to rebuild their homes, so the refugee camp would be empty and wait for the next wave.

Who would have thought that so many people would simply not leave?

No one paid much attention to such a temporary town, but since it had already grown in size and was not far from Shuofang City, Liu Tan had to take ruthless measures to govern it. In the process, he might be able to find the person who spread the rumors.

After Liu Tan gave orders to Jiang Chong and Wei Buyi respectively, he looked at the time, stood up and prepared to go find his father.

Although it was still early for lunch, the distance between the palace and the Changshou Palace was quite far.

Liu Tan simply rode his horse all the way over, and before he saw Liu Che, he saw Lu Xuan coming out to greet him.

Liu Tan was a little surprised: "Why are you here?"

Lu Xuan smiled and said, "Waiting for you."

Liu Tan was helpless: "I'll go see my father first."

Lu Xuan warned, "Be careful, His Majesty seems to be in a state of anxiety."