high official

Chapter 119
The two were talking, when Hu Butou came in and reported that most of the people had dispersed, but there were still a group of people who knelt and refused to leave.

"Why don't you leave?" Wei Zhixian asked.

"They were the ones who knelt down and forced the old man to sell the fields, and drove the victims out of their homes." Hu Butou replied, "Maybe they thought that if they went back like this, they would be scolded to death by the neighbors, so they had to ask the old man forgive."

"Let them kneel!" Wei Zhixian still remembers revenge.

"My lord, let's meet them." Wang Xian quickly persuaded, "There's no need to be angry with the common people."

"Hmph..." Wei Zhixian was just talking angrily, so he asked Li Guan to be called.After Li Guan arrived, some representatives were called in.

It was still the old people from last time, but their expressions changed from aggrieved to ashamed. They knelt in front of Wei Zhixian, kowtowed to make amends, and cried: "Our dog bit Lu Dongbin, and we don't know good people. , I'm sorry, my lord..."

Since Wei Zhixian asked them to come in, he naturally didn't want to show their faces.But there is a question, he must know, and said with a straight face: "Now you can say, who are they?"

"Yes, it's Li Yuanwai and them." The old man would no longer hide it for the big households, but said bitterly: "They are not human. They obviously waited for a few days for the food to arrive, but they lied to us that the county's grain ship was caught in Suzhou. Withholding it, and encouraging us to drive the victims out of the house, and making us kneel in the county government office... This is using us as gunmen to stab the old man!"

Wei Zhixian said in his heart, if people tell you to die, you will go too?Glancing at Li Guan next to him, Li Xingshu wrote the transcript and handed it over to a group of elderly people, asking them to sign and mark it.

Most of the old people have been village chiefs and are basically literate. When they saw the transcript of the confession just now, they made a mistake: "Can I not sign it?"

"It's your responsibility not to sign." Li Guan said coldly: "Blazingly disobeying the county's orders and gathering crowds to cause trouble has already violated the king's law, you know? ! "

"I'll sign, I'll sign..." The elders didn't dare to offend Wei Zhixian again, they all signed and stamped on the transcripts, and those who couldn't write also pressed their fingerprints.

Only then did Wei Zhixian show a friendly smile and said: "Everyone, get up quickly, you are also thinking of Fuyang's elders, how can I blame you?"

Feeling relieved, the old people kept saying that they would never dare again, and offered to ask the victims to go back to live and promise to treat them like their own family members.

"Hahaha, yes, yes..." Wei Zhixian laughed happily, and said in his heart that he really has a lot of chess muscles and can do everything.It's so cool! "Families who have accumulated good deeds must have more celebrations, and you old people must have a long life!"

The old people were very grateful to go out, and in the afternoon, each family invited all the victims back.Whether it was due to guilt or the pressure to survive, in the days that followed, there was no friction between the people of Fuyang and the victims of the disaster, and even many families developed feelings and formed in-laws. Of course, this is a later story.

.

In the Li family's industry, the atmosphere of panic and anxiety is still strong, but it has reached the most critical moment, so we can't sit still and wait for death.All the members had to cheer up and discuss countermeasures.

"Everyone, there is more than one Fuyang County in Zhejiang Province, and the grain prices in each county are high." Li Yuanwai gritted his teeth and said, "We can't sell rice in this county, we can sell it elsewhere!"

"Sell to other counties..." Everyone's eyes lit up, but then they said sadly: "There is no impenetrable wall in the world, and other counties will soon know what happened in Fuyang. If you want to lower the price to death, it would be good if you can sell it for two taels and one stone."

"Hurry up, before the news gets out, you can still sell it at a higher price." Li Yu said, "We will sell it to Chun'an County, where the price of grain is five taels a stone, so we should be able to sell it for three taels and five!"

"That's right." Everyone nodded and said, they can only be treated as a living horse doctor. Rather than being trapped to death in the county, they might as well go to other counties... Now they don't want to make a lot of money, they just want to get back their money.

So they quickly split up and loaded the ship with a full warehouse full of grain. When it was three o'clock, they quietly set off for Xin'an River.

Tonight, the moon and stars are scarce, the waves are dull, the ship's side is broken, and there is a slight rushing sound, and the cool breeze brings the fragrance of reeds.

In order to go to Chun'an as soon as possible, several members of the crew personally escorted the boat.At this time, on one of the ships, the solitary lights in the cabin were like beans, and the atmosphere was very gloomy.Several members outside were drinking and talking in low voices...

"Even if it goes well this time, we won't make any money. If we don't make money, we will lose money, and we will definitely lose money." Member Yu drank a glass of strong wine, and tears came out of his eyes. "It's such a big joke."

"Yes." A few members nodded gloomily and said, "If we had known that the government could buy rice from Huguang, we wouldn't have done it if we were killed."

"Actually, we can still make a lot of money if we make a move a few days earlier, but some people just..." Someone said angrily: "It's too greedy! Let's wait, wait, wait for something to happen now." .”

"I don't think he's thinking about us at all, he just wants to pull us to fight against the county magistrate." The other said angrily, "It's too late for a ruthless character like Wei Zhixian to avoid him. Why do you have to provoke him? ?”

Everyone thought it was true, but Yu Wai worried: "Keep your voice down, it won't be good for Brother Li to hear you."

"What are you afraid of? He's not on our ship." The man said nonchalantly, "So what if I heard about it? I don't intend to get involved with him anymore."

"That's right. Now I hope that this time it will go smoothly, and I can buy back the [-] mu of land passed down from my ancestors, and live in peace, and stop messing around." Others also echoed.

Seeing that under the heavy pressure from the outsiders, everyone has their own ideas, and he is also the leader. He wanted to say a few words to unite people's hearts, and said: "Everyone, victory or defeat is a common matter in military affairs. With Mengde's strength, there are still defeats." Take Huarong Road, but..."

"But it's not always about Guan Yunchang!" Obviously, the blow to the gentry this time was bigger than expected.Although they still followed Li Yuanwai's footsteps due to inertia, they no longer had the slightest fighting spirit in their hearts.

"Alas..." Yu Yuanwai couldn't help sighing inwardly, his heart was broken, and the defeat was already decided. He was about to say a few more futile words when he suddenly heard a loud whistle outside, breaking the silence of the night.

Immediately afterwards, the sound of beating gongs, beating drums, and shouting and cursing rang out, and the surface of the river seemed to be boiling.

"What's the matter?" Li Yuanwai was in a bad mood, ignored anyone, fell asleep in the cabin, and rushed out immediately when he heard the voice, "Have you met a water bandit?"

"No, it's the inspection department!" The boss of the ship turned pale and said, "Let's stop the ship for inspection."

Li Yuanwai took a closer look and saw the torches shining on the river, and the fast boats were carrying lanterns with black letters on a white background, and the word "inspection" was written on it!
"Didn't you say hello to Inspector Zhao, aren't they going to patrol the river tonight?" In another boat, member Yu said anxiously, "Why..."

"It's been tricked!" Li Yuanwai's complexion was whiter than that of a lantern, and hissed, "I've been waiting for us for a long time..."

The grain ship was heavy and slow. In front of the fast boat of the inspection department, he didn't even have the idea of ​​escape, and of course he didn't dare to resist... They all have families and mouths. Who dares to kill officials and rebel?I can only watch a dozen Clippers approaching closely.

During the Guo Dynasty, inspection departments were set up in all towns, cities, and key points of the pass, which were under the jurisdiction of the county magistrate.Dozens of hundreds of archers under its jurisdiction have the responsibility of arresting smugglers and thieves, and leading them out when there is no way to check.

The inspection department of the county is located at Dongziguan, which tightly restricts the waterway entering and leaving Fuyang. Anyone going west by boat must pass through this water pass.At this time, the torches were turned off and the lights were brightly lit, the archers were holding rockets on the water tower, and the three iron locks on the river were pulled up, making it impossible for any boat to pass through.

The fast boat of the inspection department surrounded the grain ship, and the soldier Zhang Gong shouted: "The inspection department boards the ship for inspection, everyone lies on the deck, and anyone who gets up will be killed!"

The military equipment of this era has not yet been slackened, even the township militiamen have very accurate bows and arrows.Even if it was not allowed, no one dared to make fun of their lives, and all the people on board got down obediently, even a few members of the crew were no exception.

The black lights are blind, and the archers can't tell the difference, are you Li Yuanwai or Li Laosan...

Inspection Director Zhao Xunjian personally led people on board the ship. He was tall, dressed in a ninth-rank official uniform, and had a long horse face, which was quite majestic.Standing still on the boat, he glanced at the people lying on the deck, and said coldly: "What are you doing?"

This happened to be the boat that Li Yuanwai was on. The boss of the boat looked at Li Yuanwai. Li shook his head, motioning for him to speak, and the boat boss had no choice but to say, "Master Zhao, it's me."

Inspector Zhao took the lantern, squinted his eyes, and scolded with a smile: "So it's Boss Chen, you don't want to sleep, what are you doing?"

"The villain is for people to deliver goods." The boss of the boat laughed with him, got up, took out a stack of treasure bills from his arms, and stuffed them into Zhao Xunjian's hands.

"What kind of goods are you transporting, and you have to ship them secretly in the middle of the night?" Zhao Xunjian refused to pick them up.

"This...is food." The boat boss swallowed.

"Food?!" Zhao Xunjian's tone immediately became severe: "You are also a veteran of boats. Don't you know that there is an order in this county that only grain can be imported and not allowed to go out, and no grain of rice is allowed to flow out of Fuyang!"

"I don't know..." the boss of the boat shrank his neck.

"Then there is no other way. The county lord has a strict order, and our inspection department must implement it." Zhao inspector said in a deep voice, "Detain it!"

"Wait." Li Yuanwai finally couldn't bear it, got up from the ground and said, "These grains are mine!"

"It turned out to be Li Yuanwai." Zhao Xunjian hurriedly clasped his fists and said, "I didn't know Yuanwai was on the boat just now, so I'm rude."

"It's okay, Mr. Zhao has worked tirelessly, of course we have to cooperate." Li Yuanwai said lightly: "I know the ban in the county. But from time to time, now that there is rice from Huguang, there is no longer a shortage of food. This ban It's meaningless."

"Hehe, there is no point in talking about it." Zhao Xunjian shook his head flatly and said, "But the ban has not been lifted, and the lower officials cannot let you go."

.

　Why is it not good, dizzy, very inefficient...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)