Wei and Jin Cooks

Xunfan looked at the bowl of noodles in front of him in silence, "You feel this way when you are with me, let alone the common people?"

"In order to prevent disasters during this period, I went to villages and counties, and the number of people I saw was not tens of thousands, but thousands. Among them were local nobles, merchants and craftsmen from wealthy families, and people from ordinary and poor families. , and there are lonely people, but no matter what their status is, when they mention the general, they only have admiration." If they fight back, they will also arrest people in the county government office, and rumors often die before they even start."

"I thought those student officers would deal with those who spread rumors angrily, but they gave them a lecture and only fined them for ten days of hard labor before letting them go. They said that the general had a destiny and met the person who scolded her. , you must ask clearly for the reason, and if there is a reason, you must write to her; if there is no reason, you must not retaliate for selfish reasons. The maximum punishment is fifteen days of hard labor."

"The punishment is so light, I thought the rumors would not stop. After all, the maximum number of days of hard labor is fifteen days. As long as you give enough money, someone will risk it to make money. Who knows, there are very few people spreading such rumors among the people. On the contrary, It is rumored that the general got God's will and knew in advance that the disaster was coming and saved the people from the fire and water. Some people even said that it was God's will for the general to be the emperor, so he had this kindness. Otherwise, there would be no success in all dynasties. I have heard that a solar eclipse will be used as a warning before a major disaster, so that the people of the world have more than a month to prepare."

Hearing this, Fengbi looked at Xunfan worriedly, "Master Lang..."

Xun Fan shook his hand at him and said: "I have been mentally prepared for a long time, but I did not expect that she would have such a reputation among the people. When Wang Mang stole the country, it was nothing more than this. I am only worried whether she can always be like this. If she and Wang Mang If success fails, won't it harm the people of the world?"

 Fengbi: ...So you are already thinking about the future from the position of a general?

 Writing a pen, he said worriedly: "Master Lang, Mr. Sanlang has always been unwilling to give up..."

　　When mentioning his troubled younger brother, Xun Fan immediately lost the desire to think about it any more. He picked up a chopstick noodle and said expressionlessly, "Don't worry about him. Fortunately, the general doesn't like to get involved."

 So, since you can’t be persuaded, just let him go, as long as it doesn’t harm your family.

 Feng Bi reluctantly responded.

Xun Fan said that he invited Yuan Li to come over, not to scare Yu Hong. After eating the noodles, he immediately wrote a letter and planned to send someone to send it to Yuan Li the next day.

Yu Hong, who was two yards away from him, hesitated for a while. If he killed Xun Fan ruthlessly, would the matter be buried here?

But thinking that many people have seen Xun Fan today, I am afraid it is difficult for him to pass away from a sudden illness. Although he is a county guard, it is because he was a county guard originally. This city was first captured by the Xiongnu, and he took it with him When the soldiers and people in the city fled, they encountered Zhao Jiajun. Zhao Jiajun took the city back because he knew the place better. When he knew that his official reputation was still good, Zhao Hanzhang still appointed him as the county guard.

It's just that the county magistrates under him died in battle or fled, so Zhao Hanzhang re-appointed county magistrates. It can be said that 70% of the magistrates of the counties under his jurisdiction are new and only 30% are old.

Regardless of whether he is old or new, his prestige is limited, especially among the student magistrates, who have many problems and have no respect for him. If Xun Fan died suddenly, they would definitely be suspicious.

Considering the consequences of being found out after Xun Fan's death, Yu Hong could only suppress his murderous intention and consider other ways to deal with the aftermath.

How could he call Yuan Li here?

 Victory can be won without force, victory can be won without force!

If you vote for a person who the governor, governor, or magistrate of each state least wants to see, then Yuan Li will definitely be elected with the highest number of votes.

Even if the Qing Dynasty was just like Zuti, he would not like Yuanli to inspect his area.

 Yuan Li is too strong, and he has his own rhythm in governing the place. His arrival will disrupt his own steps.

 What is right does not necessarily mean it is right.

And in the positive and negative situations, one side will definitely lose. No matter how Yu Hong calculated that he was not the one with a chance of winning, he couldn't help but feel a little desperate.

Zheng Zhi, however, could not share the same feelings as his brother-in-law. After the initial fear, he became arrogant and said to Yu Hong: "What are you afraid of? This is our territory after all. At worst, we will kill Yuan Li together and throw his body into the Yellow River. It was said that when they went to inspect the river embankment, the embankment collapsed, and the whole person fell into the river, and no matter how hard they fished it out, they couldn't fish it out."

“Nonsense, do you think Yuan Li is a helpless scholar like Xun Fan? He still has two hundred soldiers, how can you kill him?”

"Give them medicine. They must eat and drink. Give them a dose of sweat medicine, and kill them all, 200 or 2,000 people." He then said, "Invite Yuan Li to come into the house and ask some musicians to sacrifice. He must be unprepared. When the time comes, I will send people to ambush him. No matter how powerful he is, he only has two fists. I don’t believe he can beat dozens of us."

"Stop being ridiculous and sell the remaining grain at a fair price. What is the price of grain given by Zhao today?"

 The confidant who was kneeling beside him, pretending that he did not exist, immediately said: "Twenty-one coins per dou."

Yu Hong was surprised, "Why is it even lowered by one penny?"

Confidant: "The Fang family's grain store also dropped a penny, and other stores were closed. They seemed to be watching the news."

 Actually, it depends on whether the Yamen will deal with the newly opened grain store and the Fang family.

Yu Hong said to Zheng Zhi: "You will open today."

 Zheng Zhi, "Let's go tomorrow, it's past noon today."

 He ​​still wanted to kill Yuan Li and Xun Fan, so that there would be no need to provide food at a fair price. If they were killed, they would naturally have the final say here.

Zheng Zhi sneered. He wanted to see how much food they had to fill the hole.

What Zheng Zhi didn’t expect was that the next day, the newly opened grain store dropped another penny.

The common people who went out to buy food with their whole families every day were confused. The excitement of hoarding food finally faded away. If the price will drop tomorrow, wouldn't it be more cost-effective to buy it tomorrow?

At the same time, the door of a small grain shop in the county town also opened, and the prices followed Zhao's.

 Other families in the alliance with Zheng Zhi saw this and became uneasy. Could it be that the Zhao family had really prepared so much food and could keep reducing the price?

It took time for Yuan Li to arrive, and grain prices dropped much faster than he did. Zheng Zhi had no time to think about Yuan Li. He wanted to transport the remaining grain to other disaster-stricken counties and sell it at a high price, but he hadn't left yet and went out to inquire about the news. The alliance came back, "There are also Zhao's newly opened grain stores in other counties."

Zheng Zhi looked ugly, "Is it all driven by the general's mother?"

"No, more are opened by the seventh prince of the Zhao family. Although he is not as willful as Mrs. Wang, the price is one cent a day, and the price is not high. It is between twenty to twenty-five cents, and there is disaster relief from the court. Grain and work-for-relief measures, and now grain merchants outside have followed suit and lowered their prices.”

The alliance glanced at Zheng Zhi and whispered: "Mr. Zheng, a snake cannot overwhelm a dragon. We will all have to live under the rule of the general in the future, and it is not easy to fight with her. Let's lower the price."

Zheng Zhi sneered, "It's too late to think about lowering the price now."

"It's not too late," the alliance said calmly: "The floods this time are very widespread, and the rise in food prices is reasonable. We are just following the trend, not driving up prices. There are many businessmen in the world who do this. According to us As we know, the seventh prince of the Zhao family also took advantage of this wave of floods to make a fortune. The general is only asking for evil intentions to drive up prices, but we are not, so we will be fine."

“But now that food prices have dropped, if we are still stubborn, that’s another situation.”

 They did not know that Zheng Zhi planned to kill Yuan Li and Xun Fan. If they had known, they would not have discussed such a matter with him.

Zheng Zhi lowered his eyes, raised his head after a moment and said with a smile: "Okay, let's sell it at a fair price."

The allies breathed a sigh of relief and went home one after another after saluting. The next day all the grain stores in the city were open. Zhao's grain shop marked "nineteen cents" a bushel of wheat, and everyone silently followed suit and lowered it to the same price.

 Correspondingly, the prices of millet, beans, etc. have also been reduced.

When the people in the city saw this, they were no longer in a hurry. The people who were crowding in front of Zhao's new grain store and Fang's grain store slowed down and bought only one bucket before taking their families home. "Maybe it will be cheaper tomorrow." Woolen cloth."

People in the countryside who heard the news and came to buy grain saw that there were so many grain shops open and the prices had dropped to about the same as in previous years, so they were no longer in a hurry.

The grain price posted by Zhao stayed at 19 cents for three days, and then dropped to 18 cents. By this time, the people's minds had been determined, and the flow of customers in the grain stores had returned to what it was before, and there would be no more queues. Long queues are a thing.

At this time, Yuan Li also entered the city.

Unbeknownst to others, the people in the new grain store breathed a sigh of relief. There was not much grain left in the warehouse. The grain store would not be able to open for a few more days. When General Yuan came, they could find an excuse to withdraw.

 According to the usual practice, when a Beijing official comes to a place on a business trip, he or she will stay at the inn or at the county governor's house, depending on how close he is to the county governor.

That's why Xun Fan came here to provide disaster relief and stayed in the governor's mansion, because he and Yu Hong were good friends.

Yu Hong was also very enthusiastic about Yuan Li and directly invited him to stay in the governor's mansion.

Yuan Li declined. He didn’t even stay at the inn. He found an empty house in the city with a government office name on it and moved in there.

He brought two hundred soldiers with him. No post station anywhere could accommodate so many people. If he lived in the inn, the soldiers would have to camp outside the inn to catch the wind.

It is already summer, and it is not cold to sleep in the open. However, there are many mosquitoes outside, and just after the flood, it is the time when we need to be most careful about drinking water and mosquitoes, so whenever he enters the city, he will find an empty house to live in.

The soldiers took down the door panels, slept ten people in one room, hung curtains on the doors, and smoked moxa incense every day to drive away mosquitoes. After a month, no one in his team got sick.

Yu Hong didn't expect that he would rather live in an empty house with a leaky roof and in disrepair than live in the governor's mansion. He paused and then said: "General Yuan is tired from traveling and traveling. I have prepared wine and food in the mansion for you to wash away the dust. Please give me a favor from General Yuan."

Yuan Li said with a smile but not a smile: "The Zhao family's army has strict orders. The soldiers are not allowed to harass the people or take things from the people. The governor of Yu County is also a citizen. We dare not violate the military rules."

Rejected Yu Hong's invitation, and then went straight to the point, "I heard that the wife's brother, the guardian of Yu County, has a grain shop in the city?"

Yu Hong felt nervous and didn't dare to deny, "It's not really, it's just that his friend wanted to open a grain store and was short of some capital at the time, so he borrowed some from him, and he gave the money to his friend to run it."

Yu Hong said gently: "He is a scholar and studies all the time. How does he know about this business?"

Yuan Li smiled softly, "Really?"

When he smiled, the scars on his face were crowded together, making him look very ferocious. Yu Hong's heart trembled when he saw it, and he lowered his head and said nothing.

 Yuan Li has the power to act expediently. Although he was punished by Zhao Hanzhang not long ago, he still has great power and can handle cases independently.

So he started investigating after meeting Yu Hong and Xun Fan. He didn't like to take his time. He divided his troops into three groups and went all the way down to the people to ask the people in and outside the city what they had been doing in the past three months. The common people feel the situation most deeply;

Along the way, we will go to the Yamen to check various documents and records, and then we can compare the opinions of the people;

 The last step was to meet various grain merchants. The first person Yuan Li met was the Fang family.

 Waiting until night, Yuan Li sat in front of the case and looked at the various information found today.

The door panel was removed, so the wind passed through the hall. The huge hall was empty, except for a long table with a broken leg. Yuan Li asked someone to bring a similar stone and put it together with two wooden boards. It pads up.

Yuan Li's material desires have been reduced to the lowest level since he accepted the assumption that he would be broke all his life. If he had been in his early years, he would never have endured this hardship.

What a joke, he followed the girl through life and death, isn’t it just for glory and wealth?

But now his goal is more clear. His goal is glory and nobility, not even wealth.

The soldier saw that he only had one candle and had to get closer to the desk to see clearly, so he immediately lit another candle and brought it over to make it brighter.

 After putting down the candle, the soldiers turned around and the candle was extinguished.

The soldier was stunned for a moment, glanced at Yuan Li, and quickly and quietly took it down and lit it. As a result, he put it down, but before he could turn around, the candle that had been fine all the way was gone again.

 Jinbing:…

He didn't believe in evil anymore, so he didn't even take it out. He just picked up the candle and poked the wick of the candle next to it. After lighting it, he pressed it on the table. Then he moved his body to block the wind blowing in from the door and glared hard at the flames. look.

The flame flickered for a moment and stabilized, the soldier grinned, and then the old candle next to him went out.

 The soldier's smile froze on his face, and after a while he quietly reached out to the old candle...

Yuan Li, who had been quiet all this time, raised his eyelids and glanced at him, saying, "No need to click."

The soldier felt aggrieved, so he responded in a low voice, bowed and retreated. When he went out, he couldn't help but slap the back of his hand, telling you to be more hands-on, knowing that the general is unlucky...

Yuan Li was unlucky, but very capable. Before he could put his things in order, a man in a cloak came quietly and followed the soldiers into the house. When everyone left and only Yuan Li and him were in the room, he He opened his cloak and knelt on the ground. He was one of the long followers following Yu Hong.

 “Nu Duxin meets with the general.”

"Get up," Yuan Li asked, "What's going on with Yu Hong and his wife and brother?"

"I don't know much about this matter, but Zheng Quan who is next to Yu Hong must know that he is Yu Hong's confidant, and he will not hide anything about Yu Hong from him." Du Xin took a careful look at Yuan Li and said: "The slave has tested Zheng Quan. He has two sons who study with the princes in the palace. Their knowledge is not inferior to that of the princes. Occasionally, the princes want to write articles and ask them to ghostwrite them. Last year, he wanted to have two sons. The child ransomed himself and sent him to school, but Yu Hong refused."

Yuan Li laughed and said softly: "Destroying someone's future is like killing their parents. The general has paved a bright future for them, but he is unwilling to let go. No wonder he is resentful."

Yuan Lidao: "Tell him that as long as he can help me investigate the case, I will protect his family's redemption and good behavior, and so will your family."

Du Xin suppressed the joy in his heart, knelt down and kowtowed: "I would like to be a general, and I will die for the general!"

 Two chapters combined into one, see you tomorrow