Fu Song

Lu Wenhuan burst into flames, furious.

The situation in Suzhou is changing every day, and the rapid development is far beyond everyone's expectations.

"Shoufu, I will arrange troops and horses to enter Suzhou as quickly as possible to suppress the rebellion!" Lu Wenhuan said sharply. At this moment, what happened in Suzhou has already been defined by him as a rebellion.

"Lu Shangshu, the surrounding area should also be tightly sealed. They must not be allowed to wander around. The surrounding area is rich and prosperous, including Suzhou. If we let them wreak havoc, our loss will be great." Cen Zhong exhorted.

Lu Wenhuan nodded and said: "Don't worry, Mr. Cen. After the incident happened, I immediately issued an order to the surrounding guards, asking them to abide by their duties, take care of their own people, and guard their own gates."

"How did things develop to this point all of a sudden?" Cen Zhong picked up a report that had just been delivered on the table, still a little incredulous.

Suzhou is no longer just a small-scale civil unrest.

Shi Jie, the commander of the imperial army stationed in Suzhou, didn't know that his tendon was wrong, and actually led his subordinates to rebel. After killing all the officials in Suzhou Mansion and looting the treasury and arsenal, he joined forces with the Taihu Navy and fled quickly. Into Taihu Lake.According to intelligence, thousands of people fled with them.

But before leaving, a robbery caused Suzhou to suffer a great disaster.

This time the trouble is really big.

Taihu Lake is adjacent to Wuxi, Jiangsu Province in the north, Huzhou in Zhejiang Province in the south, and Changzhou in Jiangsu Province in the west. There are many islands in the lake for thousands of miles, and these people who escaped into Taihu Lake this time are basically locals. The situation is all familiar.

The difficulty of destroying them suddenly rose to the difficulty of hell.

"Wu Ke, tell me!" Xiao Cheng kneaded his brows and felt a little headache.

Wu Ke nodded: "Judging from the information we have so far, it should be that spies from the Qi State or the Liao people have infiltrated Suzhou. This time, the method of attacking Bachelor Zheng is quite familiar. .”

"That's right, quite familiar!" Xiao Cheng said coldly: "They used this method many times in Tokyo back then. Unexpectedly, Lin Ping's bones were rotten, and his old skills were inherited by others. come down."

"Chongwen, so the whole thing was done by spies from the Liao Kingdom?" Cen Zhong said.

"They are just making the best use of the situation!" Xiao Cheng let out a sigh of relief, shaking his head and said, "This person is really not simple. He is well aware of our current internal difficulties, and he has also keenly discovered that our current reform has caused harm to the interests of some people. The great damage first encouraged the first civil unrest in Suzhou, and then pushed forward step by step, making things bigger and bigger, and finally, it caused the current situation!"

"But even so, it's just a mustard disease!" Lu Wenhuan sneered.

"Lu Shangshu, this person's original intention was to cause a civil war in the south!" Xiao Cheng shook his head and said, "All the evidence is more and more clearly pointing to specific people. What should I do? Do I do it according to the law or pretend I don’t know? If I do it according to the law, these people will never be arrested? Moreover, for these people, this time, they are really wronged!"

"I'm afraid I won't be wronged!" Lu Wenhuan said.

Xiao Cheng shook his head: "That Suzhou governor Shi Jie, I wish I could investigate. His behavior is unreasonable."

"Do you suspect that this person has been bribed by the Liao people?"

"Maybe it's a pseudo-Qi!" Xiao Cheng said. "There are two things right now. The first thing is to stabilize Suzhou as quickly as possible. This requires our imperial court to send high-ranking officials to sit in the town. The second thing is to wipe out these rebels who have escaped into Taihu Lake as quickly as possible. .Lu Shangshu?"

"Don't worry, Chief Assistant, Lu Duan has already set off, and Shi Congming will be able to enter Taihu Lake in ten days at the latest!" Lu Wenhuan said: "I will rush to Suzhou to sit in town."

"Lv Shangshu is going, why don't I go!" A tired voice came from outside the door.

Everyone looked up, but it was the Second Assistant Secretary Chao who limped in.

Seeing him, Lu Wenhuan suddenly stood up, snorted coldly, didn't even say hello, flicked his sleeves, and walked away like that.

Wu Ke smiled, cupped his fists and bowed, and silently exited the first assistant hall.

Seeing the two people leave, Cen Zhong also stood up, smiled at Si Junchao and said, "Sigong, this time I played too much."

"Qianli, I said I didn't know, do you believe me?" Si Junchao looked at Cen Zhong and said seriously.

Cen Zhong was startled, and then laughed again: "I don't believe it, it doesn't matter now, what matters is how it ends! I still have business to deal with, so I won't accompany you, so I bid farewell!"

Xiao Cheng clapped his hands, and the scribes outside came in and cleaned up the tea cups in the room.

Xiao Cheng made a gesture of invitation, signaling Si Junchao to sit down, but the seat was directly opposite to Xiao Cheng's big case.

Looking at the position between the two, Si Junchao sighed silently and sat down.

Last time I came, there were three cups of tea.

This time, there was not even a decent seat.

"Shoufu, the development of the matter in Suzhou to the present stage is beyond my expectation, and it is definitely not my intention!" Si Junchao said.

"Company, so you know about the first civil unrest!"

Si Junchao didn't make a sound, which was his tacit consent.

"Company, I remember I told you in private back then that no matter what conflicts arise, everyone can talk about it in the open, but as long as it is passed at the court meeting, everyone must fully support it without any hindrance." .”

"Shoufu is a good means. Now I understand the original intention of Shoufu to formulate this court proposal. Now it is only necessary for Shoufu to propose any plan. Will it be rejected after the court meeting?" Si Junchao shook his head and said: " always pass."

"It wasn't like this at the beginning." Xiao Cheng said indifferently: "If you get the right way, you will get more help, but if you lose the way, you will get little help. It's nothing more than that."

"Originally in the Suzhou Rebellion, the death of a few insignificant people was pouring cold water on you, the chief minister. I want you to calm down and think about the interests of the people in the south of the Yangtze River. You can't put the people in the south of the Yangtze River for your northern expedition plan. All in the midst of water and fire." Si Junchao said: "It is unacceptable for the people of the south of the Yangtze River to take advantage of the people and impose all kinds of harsh policies on the people of the south of the Yangtze River."

"Are you talking about the method of recruiting soldiers, the method of young crops, or the method of paying taxes and food?" Xiao Cheng said.

"It's all!" Si Junchao said seriously. "Back then Taizu said that the king and the scholar-bureaucrats ruled the world together. Over the past few hundred years, the Great Song Dynasty has been flourishing. This is the case. But Shoufu, you have gone too far now. In your eyes, the gentry is not as good as Guizhou muddy head!"

Xiao Cheng didn't speak, but stood up, took a file from the bookshelf behind him, and pushed it in front of Si Junchao.

"This is a series of statistics and analysis related to the national economy and the people's livelihood in the past ten years, such as the number of people, fields, merchants, looms, agricultural taxes, and commercial taxes in various places in the south of the Yangtze River." Xiao Cheng said: "It looks like flowers are blooming, but in reality I was already sitting on the crater in the morning, Cifu, not to mention other places, just talk about how many proletarians are there in our present Jiangning Prefecture? How many people have no overnight food? How many people have no roof tiles? The body, without a foothold? Is it true that the number of people has not increased but decreased in ten years? If it is not true, where did the extra people go? The agricultural tax was in my Song Dynasty. It is very low, but even with such a low tax, it is still getting less and less, because there are fewer and fewer self-cultivating farmers. Where did they go? Where did those acres go? When you walk to the street, you can see that commercial activities are extremely prosperous. The commercial tax itself is also the foundation of our country in the Song Dynasty, but the current commercial tax is still the same as the commercial tax revenue ten years ago."

Having said this, Xiao Cheng's face was already very ugly.

"It is the transaction of bulk materials controlled by the imperial court. You have to intervene in those disputes and seek benefits from it. The maritime trade is so huge, but you are not willing to pay taxes, and you still want to smuggle it on a large scale. Sigong, if Taizu knew that the scholar-bureaucrats he was talking about looked like this, do you think he would kick open the coffin board and jump out, knocking you to death one by one with a stick?"

Si Junchao's expression was extremely ugly.

"A gentleman loves money, and he gets it in a proper way!" Xiao Cheng said coldly: "The scholar-bureaucrat class is the elite class, they should know that there is a country to have a family, and they should know that there is no reason to die when the nest is overthrown? But each of them was blinded by greed, they could only get in and out, don’t they know that if this goes on, they will break themselves?”

"Shoufu's words are exaggerated!" Si Junchao said.

"Exaggerated?" Xiao Cheng said angrily, "Isn't the case in Suzhou an explanation? The Green Crop Law, you are not allowed to participate? You think that the [-]% interest rate is too little, and what you want is huge profits. The tax office is stationed, Why are you afraid? Because the amount of tax you have evaded over the years is too large!"

"Shoufu, no matter what happened before, but when things have developed to this point, there must be a third-party force fueling the flames and sowing discord, which is definitely not our intention!" Si Junchao yelled.

"You are not stupid, and you know that someone is using you!" Xiao Cheng said: "But the eggs have no seams, so how can flies bite in? The fence is not tied properly, and wild dogs get in. How can you complain?" who?"

"Go back to Suzhou, within a month, let Suzhou return to normal!"

"Then what? The traitors in Taihu Lake, you can also restrain them with a single word!" Xiao Cheng asked with a sneer.

Si Junchao's face was extremely ugly.

Certainly not.

Shi Jie killed dozens of people in the Suzhou government office, robbed the treasury, the grain depot, and the arsenal.

"I won't bother you about the pacification of Suzhou. Luo Xin is already ready to go." Xiao Cheng said coldly.

Luo Xin, the nephew of Luo Kaixian, the leader of the Jiangnan Silk Weaving Guild, is currently working in the Sixth Division.

Luo's power in various places in the south of the Yangtze River is not small, and his family is even richer. In order to make his nephew flourish, Luo's will definitely do his best to help Luo Xin restore peace in Suzhou in the shortest possible time.

"As for the suppression of the rebellion in Taihu Lake, hehe, Lu Shangshu has already made arrangements. Around Taihu Lake, all the garrisons are ready to fight. Don't ask them to suppress the bandits, just keep an eye on the family. Lu Duan and Shi Congming will also set off soon. I would like to see how long this Shi Jie can last?"

Whether it is Lu Duan or Shi Congming, they are all experienced and brave generals who followed Lu Conghuan in the corpse mountain and blood sea in Xiangfan. Although Shi Jie is also a high-ranking general, he has never experienced a big battle in his life. Comparing the two, Xiao Cheng didn't think the other party could stir up much trouble with the cooperation of these two people.

He was worried that there would be some mistakes by the generals stationed around.

Si Junchao nodded: "In that case, I understand. Shoufu, Si is old and weak, begging for his bones. Tomorrow, Si will submit a proposal to the official. Only after the official's approval, Si Immediately pack up your belongings and go home, and from now on, you will be an ordinary citizen in peace."

Looking at Si Junchao for a moment, Xiao Cheng nodded, "This move by the company shows a strong patriotic heart. The company is in the south of the Yangtze River and has a long-standing prestige. In the future, Xiao will rely on the company for many things. .The company wants to retire to take care of the body. Naturally, there is no problem. I think that although the official family is small, it will understand the company. You have worked so hard for the country for so many years, and you will definitely give the company a face. But it is not necessary to go back to your hometown. , Jiangning is small, but there is always a place for you."

Si Jun laughed aloud, unexpectedly Xiao Cheng was still unwilling to let him go, was he afraid that he would cause some troubles if he went back to his place?
Forget it, since you have raised your hands and surrendered, let's surrender more thoroughly!

Xiao Cheng still wants to win over Jiangnan forces for him.

Xiao Cheng didn't want the various forces in the south of the Yangtze River to become headless birds doing their own thing, would it make him feel more difficult to deal with?The so-called punching the master to death.And the cooperative attitude he showed now made Xiao Cheng feel that bringing these people together would be more beneficial to the government.

And this is exactly what I want.

The Si family must show its own ability in order to have the value of existence.

Liu Xin suddenly appeared at the door, bowed and said, "Master, someone suddenly came to Cifu's house, and they are anxious to see him."

Si Junchao was stunned.

What is the most urgent matter, but you have chased him here?

"Let him in!"

The old butler of the Si family rushed in with a pale face, glanced at Xiao Cheng after the big case, his lips trembled, and he didn't know what he was talking about.

"Say!" Si Junchao said angrily.

"Master, Second Young Master, he ran away!" said the old housekeeper.

Si Junchao suddenly stood up, and after a while, sat down again.

Xiao Cheng sneered and said, "I guess, your son's escape must be going to Taihu Lake."

"There is no such person in the Si family anymore. In the future, life or death will have nothing to do with the Si family!"

He stood up and staggered out.