These not-so-big things made Tan Xiaopei laugh heartily. Although a life of pleasure wasn't what this ambitious king hoped to see, he always understood that when a country became strong enough, this situation was inevitable. Control and guidance were far more realistic and effective than prohibition. Moreover, he also believed that the development and expansion of Dongping was a common goal of the Dongping court and the public. As long as this goal remained, it wouldn't matter if some ministers and generals occasionally "relaxed" and indulged in extravagance. Even he himself had become enamored with the comfort of saunas, hadn't he?

"Du Fengchi's business acumen doesn't stop there. He originally wanted to take over all the inn businesses affiliated with the post stations in Yunzhou, so that the post stations could focus on managing horses and messengers. Du Fengchi initially asked Lord Ye about it. It is said that Lord Ye greatly appreciated Du Fengchi's idea, but in Lord Ye's position, handing over this business that currently doesn't seem to be very profitable to Du Fengchi would only cause trouble for himself. Lord Ye didn't agree, and Du Fengchi is currently discussing the matter with Her Highness the Princess, but Her Highness hasn't agreed either. After all, regardless of whether Her Highness has married Lord Ye or not, this is always a matter for the imperial court. It is said that Du Fengchi sent envoys to Yunzhou, preparing to first persuade the old General Xu," Li Sishu added, "Although I don't know what ideas Du Fengchi has, he is willing to pay 800,000 taels a year to buy out the operating rights of the post station inn business for at least ten years, and the price seems negotiable. Such courage… hehe, is rarely seen."

Tan Xiaopei didn't know much about the relationship between economic development and the service industry, but he also felt that if Yunzhou could develop with the efforts of all parties, then the big investments that seemed so large now would become a continuous source of wealth for the Du family. Tan Xiaopei thought for a moment and said, "Let Lin Chengzhe talk to Du Fengchi. Don't Ye Tao's people like to plan ahead? Have Du Fengchi come up with a plan. If it's really feasible, it's not impossible."

"Yes," Li Sishu responded with a bow, "However, Your Majesty, is it not necessary for this old servant to be the one to direct Lord Lin."

Tan Xiaopei was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Alright, I'll give the order. You really are careful."

The matter of Ye Tao going to Xiling was to be kept absolutely secret, disguising Ye Tao's return to Danyang as a report from Yunzhou, and then preparing for the wedding with Tan Weixin. This was not difficult at all for the internal affairs guards who were always accustomed to various concealment activities… now under the intelligence bureau. The impending change in Ye Tao's status meant that he received different treatment. Whether it was the various officials he encountered or the important figures of the noble families, they all showed Ye Tao extra respect and warmth. The only attitude that hadn't changed might have been Tan Xiaopei's. It had to be said that Tan Xiaopei was a very typical father who doted on his daughter. The fact that his own smart and beautiful daughter, whom he had raised with his own hands, was about to leave him was the root cause of Tan Xiaopei's increasing anxiety. It was also why he was planning to reuse Ye Tao in the future, while at the same time giving him a hard time when summoning Ye Tao, and bluntly stating that he had better not be idle in the next few months and would have other things for him to do… such a typical fatherly mentality made Ye Tao feel somewhat dumbfounded. However, Ye Tao didn't feel that there was anything wrong with the temporary assignment that hadn't been determined yet. Although Tan Xiaopei liked to exploit his labor, he wouldn't give him impossible tasks.

"But… is it really okay for us to not care about the wedding at all?" Ye Tao asked Tan Weixin.

"Did you understand the regulations that Li Mian gave you last time, which were prepared according to the rites?" Tan Weixin asked with a smile.

"…Not at all… The ancient texts are far beyond my reading ability," Ye Tao replied helplessly.

"That's the thing. You won't be able to rest for a few days. Heaven knows what Father wants to assign you to do. As for the wedding, a group of very experienced people are handling it anyway. Even on your side, didn't you let Li Mian take care of it? And Lu Dan is helping. It's just like that anyway. Weddings are always so troublesome," Tan Weixin said with a light laugh.

Ye Tao sighed and said, "I just feel that you don't seem like the kind of person who would allow themselves to be manipulated. Moreover, given Dongping's usual carelessness in implementing etiquette, I always feel like my father-in-law is deliberately trying to make things difficult for me."

"If you were to handle it, what would it be like?" Tan Weixin asked curiously.

"…It definitely wouldn't be like *The Lion Roars*," Ye Tao said teasingly. Although the wedding vows in that movie were memorable, they were just memorable.

"Hmm, okay… So you don't want to listen to me, you're unwilling to listen to me, or… are you already prepared to bully me instead?" Tan Weixin pouted, making a pitiful expression that was rarely seen, but it made her seem especially adorable.

Ye Tao squatted next to Tan Weixin's recliner, gently pinched her nose, and said, "How could I?… You know, I've always felt very sorry for you. After all, I already have Sophie, and Qiuyan…"

Tan Weixin's expression was very intriguing, as if she was a little touched, but also a little helpless. She said gently, "Okay. Haven't I said that I don't mind? What do you think I brought Isabella and Allieze to your side for?… I'm afraid I can only ever be your nominal wife. I understand that."

Tan Weixin pursed her lips and said, "I've always agreed with one saying: managing a marriage is like managing a company. Now, I'm not the sole owner of this 'company', but one of the members of the company's board of directors and the chief executive officer. To always ensure my leading position in the company, in addition to constantly contributing to the company, the easiest way is to constantly dilute the shares in the hands of other shareholders."

Ye Tao felt that he should break out in a cold sweat in response to Tan Weixin's words: "Hey, what are you talking about… You're not planning to do anything, are you?"

Tan Weixin raised her eyebrows challengingly and said, "Heaven knows."

Regardless of whether Ye Tao had thought about participating in the wedding preparations, he actually didn't have the time. After Tan Xiaopei summoned him again, he asked him to report to Nie Rui to discuss teaching the intelligence bureau people how to approach and persuade people, and how to analyze a person from details such as their behavior. Compared to the "students" selected from the internal government's affiliated industries, the people in the intelligence bureau had broader knowledge. Many of them had even been active in the martial world before being recruited. In terms of foundation, they were much better than those secretly transferred to the Lei Yin Demon Sect from the internal government. However, these people wouldn't accept everything Ye Tao said like the people from the internal government, but instead would constantly raise various counterexamples to refute what Ye Tao said.

In fact, such an atmosphere was more conducive to teaching this originally very virtual discipline. The application of psychology, behavioral science, and so on should originally be very interactive. And although Ye Tao wasn't an expert in this field and couldn't answer every question, he didn't shy away from admitting his ignorance in certain areas. He was always able to guide the problems that he couldn't solve to a path of joint discussion and analysis. And in Danyang, an environment that everyone was very familiar with, and with the trainees from the intelligence bureau being so diverse, Ye Tao arranged countless "internships" for everyone.

This kind of lecturer work was still relatively entertaining for Ye Tao now. However, another task was very troublesome. That was to continue to improve the historical research articles he had written.

Ye Tao couldn't bring himself to write new chapters now, but with Feng Zi's help, and with the archives bureau, which had been established not long ago but already had a decent-sized collection of literature and data, as his backing, solving the problems in the original chapters one by one was a good way to kill time. But then another problem arose. Tan Weiming and Tan Weiran, who had also read what Ye Tao and Feng Zi had originally written, had completely different opinions on many of Ye Tao's views. Although Tan Weiming was still the Canal Governor, his identity determined that his position was mainly for him to familiarize himself with government affairs rather than to immerse himself in them. Anyway, it wasn't too far to travel back and forth to Su Feng City, so he was happy to travel back and forth. As for Tan Weiran, he was very interested in both military and government affairs. Especially recently, while helping Tan Weixin establish the archives bureau, he had read a large number of precious historical materials, and his interest in more abstract historical research had become increasingly strong. While the crown princes and other princes of Chunnan or Northern Liao were fighting openly and secretly for the right to inherit the throne, the atmosphere in the Dongping Tan family was one of peace and harmony. Tan Weiran could not only openly express his interest in government and military affairs, but also clearly state that he wanted to gain more experience. And when the two princes simultaneously asked him about their incomprehension of the theories and research methods proposed by Ye Tao, they themselves started arguing because of their different understandings.

With Tan Weixin's deliberate instigation, and with the encouragement and tacit approval of Tan Xiaopei, Zhuo Mang, Zhuo Xiu, and other core figures of Dongping, the debate quickly turned into an organized debate. Tan Weiming, Tan Weiran, and Ye Tao could each form a "debater" team of five people, and they could also measure their own strength and form an advisory group to provide opinions and material analysis for the debater team. Then, they began to debate one issue after another. The debates were held every afternoon. After several times, everyone realized that this frequency was not enough to collect relevant data and data, so they changed it to every other day, and then to once every three days.

As the crown prince of Dongping, Tan Weiming naturally had all kinds of excellent young talents around him who wanted to gain his attention, so he effortlessly formed a luxurious debater team and advisory group. Although Ye Tao was lazy, he had always had a great fondness for intellectual games, and he was the actual writer of those historical research articles. With Lu Dan, who now had a very solid military and technical experience, and Chi Yun, who was already the second-in-command of the Imperial Guards, plus two students recommended by Huang Xuping, the lineup was also very strong. Ye Tao's advisory group even included a large group of outstanding talents, including Tan Weixin herself, as well as many accounting talents, including Shi Wei, the chief accountant of Deloitte Accounting, and Wei Zhi, the chief accountant of the Ye Mansion. With the help of a considerable number of students from the Imperial College and the National Academy, such an advisory group had the ability to analyze a large amount of historical data in a short time and quickly summarize various data with reference value.

Faced with such opponents, Tan Weiran shouted that it was unfair. Although the Dongping royal family had allowed Tan Weiming and Tan Weiran to have their own residences from the beginning, Tan Weiran was usually relatively low-key, and perhaps he was also a little afraid that gathering his own forces would cause a bad reaction, so he couldn't put together a team all of a sudden. Usually, when Tan Weiran was assigned to a position, if he didn't have suitable talents in his hands, he would always ask his father to recommend someone or simply ask Tan Weiming or Tan Weixin to borrow someone. But now, if it wasn't because he had always been very interested in the military and had a close relationship with the officers in the Blood Kirin Army, and Zou Shuangwen had actively stood up, he might have been completely at a loss.

However, in order to continue this interesting debate, Tan Xiaopei appointed some very interesting people who didn't have heavy workloads at the moment to join Tan Weiran's team. Among them, the most interesting was the Imperial Inspector Qu Yan… He happened to be the father of Qu Fengzi, who was using the pseudonym Feng Zi and enjoying it. As a senior Imperial Inspector, and very likely to take on the full reorganization of the Imperial Inspectorate, Qu Yan's experience and ability were naturally beyond question. Especially when it came to the various systems of Dongping and the origins and development of these systems, he was the absolute authority, after all, that was how he made a living.

Although Zou Shuangwen understood military affairs, he mainly understood training and manpower arrangements. His understanding of the overall military situation and the relationship between military affairs and politics was still very shallow. Feeling that Tan Weiran's team was still relatively weak, Tan Xiaopei actually invited the veteran Dai Ye of the Dai family to join. And in terms of economy, agriculture, and so on, he recommended Mu Anlong, the old family retainer who had just come to Danyang to report to Tan Xiaopei and Tan Weixin on the overall situation of the farms under the internal government last year and submit this year's goals. Mu Anlong was also the one who operated the internal government before Tan Weixin fully took over. Although the policy-oriented things were decided by the Queen Zhuo Xiu at the time, Mu Anlong was the one who turned the policies into concrete implementation strategies. Later, when he discovered that Tan Weixin, whom he had watched grow up since childhood, had displayed an amazing business talent, he happily abandoned all the business affairs of the internal government and focused on managing the farms under the internal government. Mu Anlong was originally not good at business. He was good at agricultural and forestry management and the development of planting technology. Because the farms of the internal government had always been managed by the most loyal and reliable old family members who were most enthusiastic about the royal family, Mu Anlong had become increasingly focused on studying agricultural technology and the history of agricultural technology in the past ten years, making things that others thought couldn't be grown alive, and growing things that others couldn't grow well, became Mu Anlong's greatest pleasure. And in these fulfilling ten years, he had read a large number of books on agriculture. He might not understand the changes of dynasties, but when it came to the planting structure and yield of a certain region in a certain period, as well as the weather disasters at that time, he could recite them like a treasure.

With the addition of such a large group of national treasure-level figures, and with Tan Xiaopei allocating a large group of people, including Li Mian, to Tan Weiran as advisors, Tan Weiran could be said to be well-equipped. Not only did he have the strength to challenge Tan Weiming and Ye Tao, but he also faintly had the momentum to corner Ye Tao and Tan Weiming.

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