Li Rong listened to Li Chuan's consolation for a long time. She finally felt a little tired. She asked Jinglan to take away the eggs that were almost cold. She looked up at Li Chuan and said, "Okay, stop talking nonsense with me. If you have time, go and find out something for me."

Li Chuan listened to Li Rong's instructions and said hurriedly, "You go ahead."

"Has the examiner for the imperial examination been decided?"

Li Chuan didn't expect Li Rong to ask this question. He subconsciously said, "It should have been decided."

"So early?" Li Rong frowned. Li Chuan thought for a moment and said, "It shouldn't be so early. After all, the imperial examination is not a big deal. Those who pass the exam have their own arrangements for the children of noble families. Those who come from poor families either become useless minor officials or are sent to the local areas and never come back. In the past, the person in charge of this matter was the head of the examination. It was considered a high position for the vice minister to be in charge. So it should have been decided later, but this year is very strange. Minister Wang said that the court really took it seriously this year and selecting talents is the top priority. He took the initiative to tell his father that he wanted to be the chief examiner."

Li Chuan couldn't help laughing as he spoke. He took a teacup from the side, held it in his hand and looked at Li Rong. "Now that he has spoken, who else can say anything? The Shangshu himself is the chief examiner, who else can pass him by? So even though it hasn't been finalized, it's almost certain."

Li Rong was silent, thinking. Li Chuan drank a sip of tea and talked earnestly about her marriage: "Actually, you don't have to be too sad. If the old doesn't go, the new won't come. Otherwise, I'll take you to have a good look recently. If you find someone you like..."

"Alright, alright," Li Rong interrupted him with a frown, "Are you still worried? You should worry about yourself. How's your marriage going?"

"Can I control this?" Li Chuan laughed. "I told them it's up to them. They can choose the Crown Princess whenever they want. I don't care who they want to choose. But now the result is good." Li Chuan approached and said mysteriously, "Sister, guess what happened?"

"What's wrong?"

"My father and mother have reached an agreement in secret," Li Chuan's eyes were filled with joy, "We won't be selecting anyone for now."

"Not choosing anymore?"

Li Rong cried out in surprise, but as soon as the words came out of her mouth, she realized what was going on.

Now that the Shangguan family has given up the idea of ​​marrying the prince, and is examining its own shortcomings, the competition for the crown princess has fallen among other noble families.

For Li Ming, he didn't want the position of Crown Princess to fall into the hands of any aristocratic family, as this would strengthen the connection between Li Chuan and the aristocratic family. He even hoped that Li Chuan would marry some girl from a poor family, or even not marry at all.

After all, it doesn't matter whether Li Chuan's position as crown prince is stable or not, he doesn't want him to be stable.

Each side has its own ideas. Without the strong pressure from the Shangguan family, the position of the Crown Princess would be deadlocked.

"That's a good thing." Li Rong nodded.

Li Chuan peeled some melon seeds beside him, and seeing that Li Rong was not unhappy, he asked curiously, "Sister, aren't you worried that my position as crown prince will be unstable if I don't marry?"

"If you don't marry, your position as crown prince will be unstable," Li Rong turned to look at him, smiling, "then your position as crown prince will really be unstable."

Li Chuan frowned, as if he was puzzled, so Li Rong explained to him: "Chuan'er, remember, to have a stable position in the court, you need only three things: money, soldiers, and people. If you have money, you will have food, soldiers, and people to help you. If you have people who help you do things and speak for you, your words will count. And if you have soldiers, you can protect your money and your people. If you have these three things, whether you get married or not will not affect your position. If you don't have these three things," Li Rong smiled coldly, "even if you marry many girls from aristocratic families, in the eyes of others, you are just a puppet."

"If one day I need to change a puppet," Li Rong tapped her palm with her fan, "do you think it's difficult?"

Just like in the previous life, Li Chuan married five women, and Li Ming set up an inspection department for King Su and seized the military power of the northwest. When the military power of the northwest fell into the hands of Xiao Su, who was left by his side?

"I actually understand what my elder sister said." Li Chuan couldn't help but smile bitterly after listening to Li Rong's words, "It's just that the Queen Mother doesn't understand."

"It's not that my mother doesn't understand, but people always want to take the easiest path. She wants you to get married because she wants to use marriage to obtain these three things. This is much easier than you getting them directly."

Li Chuan nodded in response, turned his head and looked into the distance, seeming a little tired. Li Rong looked at his expression and patted his hands: "Don't think about it, go back early. Have someone keep an eye on the 'small inner cabinet' of the emperor and see who he wants to put in. Those who should be held back must be held back, this position cannot be given up."

"clear."

Li Chuan responded. He knew what to do with these matters.

After giving the instructions, Li Rong let Li Chuan sneak out through the back door and told him not to come again in the future.

It is too risky for him to come to the princess's mansion now, so it is better for him to stay away from it.

After Li Chuan left, Li Rong returned to the courtyard and lay in the rocking chair for a while. Suddenly, she felt that the courtyard was empty.

She turned around and asked Jinglan, "Have you moved all the Prince Consort's things?"

"The prince consort didn't take anything with him." Jinglan was collecting things. Li Rong turned to look at her. "What's the matter? Are you planning to buy everything again?"

"The prince consort said," Jinglan squatted down and whispered, "he will come back sooner or later, so we won't move for now."

When Li Rong heard Jinglan's message, she didn't know why, but she felt that the depressing atmosphere in the yard just now suddenly disappeared.

She couldn't help but ask a few more questions: "Is the Prince Consort moving back to Pei's house?"

"Not really."

Jinglan shook her head: "Prime Minister Pei originally had a house in the capital, and the Prince Consort moved in."

Li Rong nodded. She lay in the rocking chair for a while, then stood up and instructed, "Find Tuoba Yan and ask him to go to the mansion next to the Prince Consort's mansion to ask which family is willing to sell the house. If they are willing, it doesn't matter if the price is a bit high."

Jinglan couldn't help laughing when she heard what Li Rong said. She glanced at Li Rong and said with a smile, "Didn't Your Highness say not to waste money?"

"Buying a house is buying a property," Li Rong said confidently, "how can it be called wasting money?"

Jingmei, who was massaging Li Rong's legs, couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Li Rong raised her eyebrows and looked at her. Jingmei quickly smiled and apologized: "I'm sorry, Your Highness. I didn't mean to laugh at you."

There was no need to explain anything, Li Rong knew what they were laughing at. She raised her hand and tapped Jingmei lightly with her fan, scolding her softly, "Arrogant girl."

The three men were fighting in the yard, and after a while, the chief guard of the Inspection Department walked in.

Ever since Xun Chuan left Huajing, the chief of the guard of the Inspection Department was replaced by a man named Zhao Chongjiu. This man was brought up by Xun Chuan, and Li Rong used him after several assessments. He held a roll of paper in his hand, which contained news sent back from all over the world.

After Li Rong was reborn, she began to ask Pei Wenxuan to rebuild the dark web of her previous life. However, in addition to the dark web established by Pei Wenxuan, she also had a set of backup people.

She was not used to betting all important things on one possibility. Pei Wenxuan was useful, but that didn't mean she would only use him.

Later, after she established the Inspection Department, these dark networks were directly incorporated into the Inspection Department. When Xun Chuan left Huajing, he began to build Inspection Departments for her everywhere. The speed of building these information networks doubled, especially in the northwest and southwest.

With Qin Lin in the northwest, Xunchuan had no problem building a dark network. Although the southwest of Feibai had not seen any significant improvement, there were no powerful officials from aristocratic families there, so it was much easier for Li Rong to send people there to set up a plan.

Of course, at the same time, the corresponding consumption is money.

The Supervision Department has money from Li Ming, but it is far from enough, so she has to fill her own small coffers. But at the current consumption rate, she can't hold on for too long. Fortunately, Pei Wenxuan made a series of arrangements in the industry last year, from inviting Gu Chenzi to teach farming in her fiefdom Qingzhou to acquiring real estate and various industries, and regaining Tuoba Yan to help manage the finances. This year, her accounts are barely able to operate.

Zhao Chongjiu came up with the information and said respectfully, "Your Highness, this is the news sent back from various places recently."

Li Rong responded, took the message and read it quickly.

As she was reading the message, she listened to Zhao Chongjiu saying, "Your Highness, the matter of the divorce has been roughly investigated."

"Go ahead."

Li Rong's voice was very faint as she scanned the paper on which Xun Chuan had written about the situation in the northwest.

There are no major wars in the northwest now, but this winter was extremely cold, and many cattle and sheep were frozen to death outside the Great Xia defense line. As a result, several small-scale looting wars still occurred, targeting a single city and then running away after robbing.

Qin Lin was sent to the front line to defend the city alone. Qin Lin temporarily recruited the civilians whose food was robbed in the city to form the army, and added a lot of people to the army originally controlled by Qin. The biggest problem now is the lack of money, so Li Rong was asked to find a way to help make money.

"Last night in the palace, Su Rongqing and His Majesty had a secret conversation, and then His Majesty issued an edict to cut the expenses of the Inspection Office and to have half of Qingzhou's taxes be handed over to the court to support the northern army."

Hearing this, Li Rong paused for a moment, and after a moment, she brought out the news about Lu Feibai from the southwest.

There have been several big battles in the southwest this year. Lu Feibai was promoted very quickly, but now he is facing problems. On the road to promotion, he needs to bribe officials.

The summary is also two words: lack of money.

Li Rong felt a headache when she saw the money. When she thought that Li Ming's original imperial decree was to ask her for money, she felt lucky. She didn't look up at the news and asked, "Who asked my father to change the news?"

"Your Majesty went to see Concubine Rou," Zhao Chongjiu replied calmly, "and changed his mind when he came back."

Hearing this, Li Rong laughed: "It seems Pei Wenxuan's calculations are not bad."

There was indeed a crack in the cooperation between Concubine Rou and Su Rongqing.

Otherwise, Su Rongqing has already given a plan, and Concubine Rou should have done her best to help push it forward, instead of changing Su Rongqing's mind halfway through.

This made Li Rong breathe a sigh of relief.

Su Rongqing knew too much about the family background of the princess's mansion. He asked Li Ming to cut her income, which really hit her soft spot. Fortunately, Concubine Rou did not listen to him and misjudged her relationship with Pei Wenxuan.

It's just a coincidence like this, and it probably doesn't happen too often.

This time, Su Rongqing must have realized that Concubine Rou had a grudge against him. Since he planned to use Concubine Rou, he would not let this grudge go. He would definitely do something to restore the cooperation between him and Concubine Rou.

But Li Rong couldn't give him this opportunity.

Li Rong pondered over it, and thought about the chief examiner of the imperial examination, when she suddenly remembered someone.

She quickly raised her eyes to Zhao Chongjiu and ordered, "Please contact Cui Yulang for me and ask him if he still intends to continue what he told me last time."

Zhao Chongjiu raised his hand respectfully and replied, "Yes."

Zhao Chongjiu was very efficient in his work. That night, he found Cui Yulang in an alley.

Cui Yulang had just returned from drinking wine and was staggering on the road, reciting poetry as he walked forward. Halfway through his walk, he saw a man standing in the middle of the alley.

Zhao Chongjiu was wearing the uniform of the Supervisory Office, with a sword on his waist. Cui Yulang frowned, leaned against the wall, took a sip of wine and said, "What is this lord doing standing here? Is Cui guilty and going to be imprisoned in the Supervisory Office?"

Zhao Chongjiu remained calm and said, "It was His Highness who asked me to ask Lord Cui."

Hearing this, Cui Yulang raised his head, his eyes slightly cold, and then he heard Zhao Chongjiu say: "Do you plan to continue what you talked about with her last time?"

As soon as these words came out, Cui Yulang was stunned.

His facial expression changed several times, and he seemed to be struggling. Zhao Zhongjiu frowned, and seeing that Cui Yulang did not answer for a long time, he could not help but urged: "Master Cui?"

"Sir," Cui Yulang hesitated for a long time, took a sip of wine, and finally said, "Then I would like to trouble you to ask Cui, if I follow the princess's wishes, can the princess guarantee that my life is safe?"

Zhao Zhongjiu nodded: "Do you have any other questions?"

"And," Cui Yulang answered solemnly, "afterwards, will Your Highness agree to help me investigate the case and give justice to my friend?"

Zhao Chongjiu agreed and confirmed again: "Do you have any other questions?"

"If Your Highness agrees, just let me know." Cui Yulang looked ready to die. "After three days, I will take a rest in the private room on the top floor of Deshun Inn, waiting for Your Highness to come. But before I come, please confirm it and don't let the prince consort know."

"I am but an ant to your majesty," Cui Yulang bowed respectfully, "I hope Your Highness will have mercy on me."

Zhao Chongjiu: "..."

He didn't know why, but he always felt that there was something mysterious about this matter. He just nodded, and when Cui Yulang had nothing else to say, he turned back and conveyed Cui Yulang's meaning.

Zhao Chongjiu repeated Cui Yulang's words almost word for word. Li Rong listened while soaking her feet. Jingmei listened to Zhao Chongjiu's report and couldn't help but ask, "Your Highness, why did he mention the prince consort for no reason? What does he want Your Highness to pity?"

Li Rong glanced at Jingmei calmly, and said in a tolerant and sympathetic tone: "He is ill, we should tolerate him."

After saying that, Li Rong turned around and told Zhao Chongjiu, "Go back and tell him to wait for me at Qingyue Tea House in three days."

Zhao Zhongjiu nodded and went back to pass on the message. As soon as he turned around, Li Rong couldn't help but add, "Also, tell him to stop having these crazy thoughts and be more normal!"

Zhao Chongjiu agreed with this, and he also felt that Lord Cui did not have a good brain.

Li Rong's words reached Cui Yulang. When he heard the location was Qingyue Tea House, he was stunned for a moment, and then he couldn't help but sigh: "Your Highness really knows how to have fun."

Zhao Chongjiu raised his eyes to look at him and said calmly, "Your Highness also said," which made Cui Yulang nervous again, "to let you be more normal."