One Lifetime Is Never Enough

1.81 Young Powerhouses of Da Lang (2)

"Hun'ang's town lord is now getting old, and I heard his only heir does not have the necessary qualifications to manage the hub town's many merchants," Chao HuiBo shifted the conversation away.

He felt sorry for his sister, but duties always came first. Besides, Chao MeiHua herself had decided to come with them to Hun'ang, to check on Hun'ang finances, as well as evaluate future prospects.

She even decided to be self-sufficient and refused to take some maids or servants along for the long trip.

Nevertheless, her personal feelings should be an entirely separate matter, and Chao HuiBo was confident she was perfectly capable of doing so.

"Hn~.," Second Prince JunLi nodded, glancing wryly at the dejected young woman, but quickly also joined in the conversation,

"The security of the town will be under the new Dragon troops, based on SongLi's proposal."

Ji SongLi smiled.

It was precisely as he had intended, ever since he found out Hun'ang was protected under Wolf army's jurisdiction in security, and the Minister of Finance in governance. Old Qian had to report to Minister Chao, and his town would always be protected by the Zhen clan.

As soon as Ji SongLi returned from his last visit from the north, he approached Chao HuiBo, who obviously would not refuse an influential offer of friendship.

With a stroke of luck, Zhen YongWen soon passed his Generalship to Zhen BuFeng, making the young man - whom SongLi had already treated like his own brother - the penultimate power of the wolf clan.

SongLi wanted his own Ji clan's authority to be in Hun'ang as well, but he could not overturn Zhen's family authority there. Even if Zhen BuFeng would hand over the power to him on a silver platter, it was not in SongLi's conscience to cause trouble to Zhen BuFeng. Zheng YongWen would not be happy with his son, the Imperial Family would probably also say a thing or two.

So he could only do things properly - too slow to his own liking. The new Dragon troops was a good outcome, especially when one of the Princes would also be part of the new power.

"Do you know why the Crown Prince withdrew his involvement, JunLi?" - Zhen BuFeng asked.

When there were only them around, they already tossed honorifics out of the window. Chao MeiHua took some time to get used to these young men conversing like there was no difference in titles between them, but somehow, she got used to it in the end. She even liked it and wished she could do the same. Although she had not had such courage so far.

Zhang JunLi shrugged, "I think it was around the time when we decided to send the new Dragon troops to Hun'ang."

"When eldest brother heard that we will need to go to Hun'ang, he decided he does not want to be involved. One of his reasons being the place is too far."

"Eldest brother may have a point though," Zhang GuoFu quipped in, "Eldest brother is always busy with the capital city's many matters, he probably won't have time to travel that far."

"Still," Zhang JunLi pondered as he crossed his arms across his chest, "Usually eldest brother would not let go such an opportunity to travel... ."

"But JunLi," Ji SongLi let out an amused laugh, "It is actually very good that you managed to learn everything in just a matter of months."

He had to admit, he initially thought there would be further delay to their departure to Hun'ang. The Crown Prince's capability was not to be questioned and if he was the one who foresaw all paperwork and necessary arrangements for the new troop, along with him and Zhen BuFeng, they probably would have left much earlier.