Follow General Cao to mix the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 23 The water is deep

Yu Bing didn't come empty-handed. Cloth is a hard currency that is harder than copper coins these days. He just brought a box of Shu brocades here. If the value is compared with later generations, it is equivalent to giving Wang Hou a big car, which is still 66. The same style as the oil spill.

For him, a small official with a salary of only a hundred stones, this amount is definitely considered a cut, but even if he cut the flesh, Yu Bing would enjoy it. No one thought that the newly appointed Lord Cangcao was really capable. In three days, the bad debts in Taicang were settled, and they were handed over to the prime minister. Now there are twenty warehouse rafters, and four chief officials in charge of entering and exiting warehouses, all of whom are in panic. The beginning of the year is going to lose your head!

At this juncture, Cangcao Wang Lingguan didn't invite anyone, but only invited himself to drink in the mansion. Although the matter may not end like this, it still shows that he has a chance!After getting the invitation, the little fat man with thin eyes and mouse whiskers ran over.

It's just that he got out of the car just now, and before he could offer the gift enthusiastically, Wang Hou himself was the first to be as happy as a flower, and grabbed his hand suddenly, muttering full of complaints.

"You say you, we are colleagues, just go over the government to make friendship, what do you bring! I have a clean sleeve, if this gets out, you and I will not be good officials!"

"Cangcao, this is Shu Brocade, from Bashu to the Yangtze River."

"I understand! Brother Yu is a nice person! If I don't accept this, wouldn't it be a slap in the face for you? Pole, if you don't move it in, it's not an example! It's not an example!"

As soon as Wang Hou raised his hand, several servants were already carrying down the box happily, and Yu Bing's fat face turned red again, and he stuttered sadly: "Cangcao, this is Shu brocade."

"You guys, drive Yu Cangzhuan's ox cart to the backyard, let's go, the wine is ready, and I have made some new food for this brother, we won't go home until we're drunk!"

After all, without giving him a chance to tell how valuable his present was, Yu Bing was dragged into the room by Wang Hou. Seeing that this guy was still there talking to himself, Yu Fatty felt so depressed that he wanted to vomit blood.

After entering the courtyard twice, the master bedroom in the third room made him feel confused again. In this era, the food sharing system is still popular. It has not yet appeared that a large family sits and eats together in later generations. Case Zhang, good guy, Wang Hou stingyly set up a case, and at the other end, there was a chick dressed in a rather masculine style sitting there tapping the rim of the bowl with chopsticks from boredom.

However, the cooking utensils for eating are quite special. The whole thing is made of precious brass, and it is the first time that someone puts the pot directly on the table.

"Brother Yu, please go to the kang! Wang Fu, don't wait for Brother Yu to undress!"

"Oh! No need! I'm afraid of the cold! I'm afraid of the cold!"

I don't know if he is still used to the poor warmth of this era, or he is afraid that Wang Hou will leave his clothes as a gift again, but Yu Bing slaps his fat hands again and again. As soon as the guest came, Wang Hou ignored him, took off his coat and hung it up, then crossed his legs onto the kang, and followed him carefully to sit on the other end, but Yu Bing jumped up in surprise as if he had been stung. .

"Hey! Cangcao's couch is so warm!"

"Heh, a little skill, Wang Fu, hurry up and serve the wine!"

Satisfied, he put the sesame paste mixed with salt and leek flowers from the jar on the plate. Wang Hou immediately made another gesture of invitation. He was used to his novel tricks, so Cao Hongjie unceremoniously filled it up for himself. With a large spoon, on the other end, Yu Bing, with a hot fat face and flushed face, followed Wang Hou's example, dipping the thinly sliced ​​mutton into the clear fish soup that had already boiled over the charcoal fire twice, and then dipped it in He sipped the sauce, and a few seconds later, the fat man couldn't help but his eyes lit up, and he gave a big thumbs up.

"Cangcao is really the reincarnation of Pao Ding. It is really a great enjoyment to have this delicious soup and sweet meat in the cold winter months!"

He is still boasting here, just now when Cao Hongjie's face turned sunny and cloudy, a large piece of mutton was caught in the second chopsticks and has been dipped into the soup, and a piece of chive flower sauce was dipped into his bright red mouth, Wang Hou couldn't bear to see it He shook his head amusedly.

"Brother Yu and I hit it off right away, it should be clear, come, drink!"

After drinking two large bowls of rice wine given by Chen Deng, both of them had red wine on their faces. The official rank is overwhelming. In Xuzhou, Wang Hou is a grandson, and he has to praise Lu Bu Lu Ge everywhere. Kuaqun, but when he got here, it was his turn to listen to the boast. Yu Bing kept flattering him while eating, but unfortunately, Fatty Yu's professional level was not good enough. It was Cao Hongjie who was eating noodles with broth and sesame sauce and rolled his eyes.

But after all, he came with something to do. Several times, Yu Bing raised his wine bowl and asked worriedly: "Cang Cao, I don't know about the Taicang matter, Prime Minister"

But every time, Wang Hou interrupted him with a smile while holding a wine bowl: "Today we only talk about romantic affairs, not business affairs, just for the sake of having a good time, come and drink!"

Looking at the wine bowl that Wang Hou held high, Yu Bing had no choice but to drink it down.

In Romance, the ancients drank from jar to jar, as if they drank a lot of alcohol, but in Wang Hou's eyes now, it is definitely drizzle and sprinkling water!First of all, there is no distillation technology in this era, and the alcohol content is low. The jar of rice wine in front of me is only about ten degrees, which is similar to the beer of later generations. It is not surprising that the jar is drunk.

Then, the wine of this era is very precious, at least a small official like Yu Bing does not have the financial resources to hold a jar to drink every day, and without exercise, the alcohol tolerance will be even worse. There is nothing wrong with Wang Hou brought by his own drinking capacity, this guy has already started to show drunkenness, and his speech is not so clear.

It was the first time she ate noodles, and Cao Hongjie was still fighting inhumanely with the noodles in the bowl, but Wang Hou suddenly poked her arm, then straightened her face, and shook her head with emotion.

"Brother Yu, you are General Yu Jin's nephew, and you are still in charge of the granary. You are very rich. I am quite envious of you!"

As soon as he got drunk, his mouth loosened unconsciously. Hearing that Wang Houruo pointed out something, Yu Bing, who was full of praise and flattery just now, finally changed his tone.

"Cang Cao, don't want to make fun of Yu Mou! Your old man, when you come back, you will be given a house, five hundred acres of land, and grain, wine and cloth from Xuzhou. You are old, you are the only one!" Bo Fei, we little officials, we can’t even envy you! Us, hiccup~~~, where do we have any oil and water?”

Although it was still flattering, the tongue-in-cheek words obviously had a strong sense of jealousy, and coupled with the Kang fever, this guy's old face was almost as red as blood oozing at this moment.

Wang Hou listened thoughtfully, but the outspoken Cao Hongjie couldn't hold back anymore, and hummed mockingly.

"There are 8000 million stones stored in the C warehouse, but there are only 4 stones in real storage, and more than [-] stones are recorded in the account at once. Yu Cangcao is still crying poor here, but it is not authentic!"

With a bang, Yu Bing jumped up in a daze, scaring Cao Hongjie and Wang Hou all of a sudden, but immediately, this guy was very angry and yelled full of cynicism.

"Sister-in-law, you don't know. If there are more than 4 shi of grain, brother, brother, I would be willing to have my head chopped off! The problem is that there is no such thing at all!"

"You don't know, it's hard work for us as an official! According to the field records, so much grain should be paid in, but which bastards in the local area are really willing to hand over the grain? Take Chen Liulai, who was received in my warehouse. He said, on the books, [-] shi should be put into the warehouse this autumn, but in reality? [-] shi is mixed with most of the old and mildewed things! There is also Wai Huang, [-] shi is not even [-] shi! The little food in the warehouse was forced to be paid by the lower officials who went all out to offend people and got stuck in Jiyang, Xiaohuang and several poor counties."

Thumping his ass and sitting back on the kang, this guy actually filled himself up again, full of resentment while pouring, while humming resentfully: "Indeed, our hands and feet in charge of the warehouse must not be clean, but that is Worried about getting a dozen or twenty shi to help the family, the family has a large population, and there are not as many closed fields as Cang Cao, so it is difficult to live! But Cang Cao cleared up the shortfall of [-] shi in one go, and let the next official... Dismissed."

After uttering the truth after drinking, this guy sprawled on the table and began to cry loudly. The crying Cao Hongjie had a helpless face, while Wang Hou pinched his chin and became thoughtful.

"Since the counties made fakes and turned over insufficient food, why didn't you report to the Prime Minister's Office earlier and impeach them?"

"Is impeachment useful? Most of the city's subordinates are composed of nobles from these states and counties. Their officials are three levels older than us, and each person's saliva can drown us small officials first! It's difficult!"

I really drank too much, yelling in a daze, this guy just slapped rice cakes on the hot kang, a few seconds later, the heavy snoring sound came over, looking at this guy's flushed fat face, Wang Hou couldn't help sighing, rinsed the mutton in the pot again with chopsticks, then threw it into his mouth, and began to chew heavily.

He completely misunderstood. He originally thought that the problem was in the central government, or the heroes, or the old officials of the Han Dynasty used their power to collude and oppress these warehouse rafters, and stole a large amount of grain from Taicang. There is not so much food in the account at all.

But when you think about it, it’s not impossible. With Dong Zhuo’s final blow to the central court at the end of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty actually existed in name only, and the local rule it relied on completely collapsed, and the previous effective money and grain allocation disappeared. Even though Prime Minister Cao seems to be sitting on three prefectures of Qing, Yu, and Yan, with a vast territory, in fact, the internal rule is loose and tight, and the local government is completely controlled by the local aristocratic family.

This situation abounded in the late Han Dynasty. To give one of the most obvious examples, Tao Qian!When he entered Xuzhou, Guangling scholar Zhao Yu once pointed his nose at him to fight against him. In order to gain the support of Xuzhou nobles, Tao Qian still had to pinch his nose and appoint him as Guangling prefect. Another example is Mr. Cao himself. When he separatized Yanzhou, he killed a group of scholars who were against him, which immediately caused dissatisfaction among nobles like Chen Gong, and colluded with Lv Bu to invade the bandits, almost embezzling all of Cao Cao's foundations. With the hope of counterattack, there may be no Wei Gong who wrote poems horizontally in history.

Looking at Guangling Chen Deng again, how rich his family is, he has more than [-] shi of grain to support the army for a month.Press down on the tenant farmers and servants, and cut off the state tax and fertilizer!
Are these greedy aristocratic families willing to pay taxes according to the book?

"How to do?"

Knowing the seriousness of the problem, Cao Hongjie looked eagerly at Wang Hou again.Just as he was about to roll his eyes, Wang Fu, who was waiting outside the door, suddenly came in nodding and bowing.

"Master, general, my master Wang sent someone to send you a message!"

(End of this chapter)