Broken Iron Clothes

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There was silence in the Yingchen hall.

The cabinet was summoned, which meant that Yan Youqian and Feng Ruoping were in the same room at this moment. The tension between the two of them was hidden under the silence, and not speaking was already the greatest concession to each other.

When Liu Zhaoyu looked down the hall, his gaze also avoided them on purpose, but it was embarrassing for others, seeing them silent, but also suffering in the cold atmosphere like a cellar.

Yuan Mucheng didn't evade like the others, he didn't have time to care about the grievances between the two, so he pretended he didn't know, stepped into the hall and saluted: "Your Majesty, I received a letter from the Imperial State Army the day before yesterday. The newspaper, which records in detail the whereabouts of the Yuzhou camp's military rations, has a total of 9000, [-] soldiers, and the imperial court allocates [-] shi of grain every month. The rations were refused for the reason of freezing the ration roads, and the rations distributed every month for no reason decreased by [-] stone. Every day I rely on hoarding grain to barely fill my stomach. King Jingping also reported the matter of grain and grass to the transfer department, but there was no reply, and the minister was forced to report to His Majesty, and wanted to ask Peng Shangshu for clarification."

Liu Zhaoyu looked at Peng Yan and asked, "Peng Shangshu, what do you say?"

Peng Yan is the Minister of the Household Department. He is smooth and sophisticated, and he does not show his edge on weekdays. In the early years, he had several contacts with Feng Ruoping. He was the one who wanted to mention Song Yun's marriage at the New Year's Eve banquet.

When he was called, Peng Yan stepped forward slowly and said, "Your Majesty, the grain road in Yuzhou was originally built in the mountains and hills. Although it is smoother than crossing mountains and ridges, it is also steep. Winter in Yuzhou is even worse, and the grain roads are blocked by ice and snow. It is really difficult to get through. It is common for grain and grass to be sent back halfway because the roads are blocked. As a result, the grain and grass for the first month were not delivered in time."

The journey from Yancheng to Yuzhou was long and dangerous, and the household department neglected Xuanhe's army and often used the inconvenient transportation as an excuse. Yuan Mucheng was used to seeing it, but he still couldn't calm down his anger: "So Peng Shangshu's remedy is to reduce food and grass? ?”

Yuan Mucheng was imposing, Peng Yan was stunned when he saw it. After all, he had never dealt with Yuan Mucheng before, and the only thing he had an impression of was his quick and unblinking appearance on the night of Liu Zhaoyu's birthday party, so he guessed that the person in front of him must be soft Do not eat hard ones.

So Peng Yan resorted to his usual way of currying favor with others, first bowed slightly to Yuan Mucheng, then gave an apologetic smile, and said, "General Yunfei misunderstood, last year the two prefectures had less grain storage, households The Ministry not only wanted to calculate the military rations used by the Weiming Army, but also ensured the supply of food and grass for the Xuanhe Army, so it re-divided the amount of food and grass allocated to the Yuzhou Camp. Now that the northern border is free from war, each soldier is given one stone per month More than enough, if one shi of grain is enough to fill one's stomach, one person can eat for forty days, so [-] shi of grain per month is enough to feed Xuan Hejun."

There is still a supply of grain fields in the western region, so there is no need to allocate it from the official warehouse, so this batch of military rations allocated to the western region is just a cover. By making an excuse, the accounts can be made clean and beautiful, and the household department can safely search for oil and water from Yuzhou's military rations, and the reduced expenses are naturally embezzled by others and used elsewhere.In this way, Peng Yan and Feng Shi are also on the same path.

Yuan Mucheng sneered: "Peng Shangshu is such a prudent, frugal and moral man, so Xuanhe's army fought desperately to win the battle and quelled the war in the northern border, but they didn't have enough to eat, right? Peng Shangshu was Don't my war horses in the north need food?"

Peng Yan calculated carefully in his heart, then turned his head and lowered his posture and said, "It's true that I was short of consideration, but if there is more than enough food in the western region this year, the military ration households in the northern region will send it as soon as possible." Completion."

Listening, Yuan Mucheng clenched his fists.

"If there is more than enough food in the western region this year", then the matter can only be negotiated and resolved by the end of the year, and the Weiming army in the western region must take the lead in the matter of military rations. The Xuanhe army can only be passive. On the side of the Ming army.

The 9 shi of grain not only needs to feed nearly [-] people a month, but also feeds the war horses. Even feeding is a problem. How can there be more than that? If it is delayed until the end of the year, the strength of the Yuzhou Camp will be compromised What kind of appearance, Peng Yan had managed the grain depot and was the secretary of the household department, could not have imagined it.

Xuan and the army fought desperately in the northern border, fought countless battles and never asked the court for a reward, all they wanted was to have enough food and clothing, and to go home early.The living conditions of the Yuzhou Camp were inherently difficult. The soldiers thought that after winning the battle, they would finally have a good year, and that they might be able to eat more in the coming year, but they did not expect to suffer such grievances, and they would hold their spears tightly when they were hungry. Block the knife for these people who live in the pile of money.

Thinking of this, Yuan Mucheng's heart was blocked by anger, but he still wanted to swallow the anger for the sake of the overall situation. At this moment, he was full of anger and had nowhere to vent, so he could only clenched his fists even tighter.

"Then, may I ask Peng Shangshu if he has ever thought about the lack of a whole hundred thousand shi of grain in the first month, and there is no surplus grain every month. If the soldiers eat up all the grain, and the enemy raids our northern border of Dali in the future, your household Is it guaranteed that the grain and grass will be able to fly from Yucheng to Yuzhouying the next day?" Yuan Mucheng said calmly, his eyes were sharp, and others could feel the majesty and anger in him just by looking at him again.

Feeling the oppression, Peng Yan suddenly fell silent.Seeing this, Feng Ruoping came forward and said: "General calm down, Peng Shangshu was kind at first, and he was negligent because he wanted to take care of the ration problem of the troops in the west and north. Fortunately, the border is still stable, and the ration issue can be solved slowly. "

"Slowly solve it," Yuan Mucheng said coldly, "What's the slow way?"

The angry Yuan Mucheng was too dangerous, Liu Zhaoyu sensed the horror in the hall, and hurriedly said: "Peng Shangshu, this month you will make up the food and grass that was lacking in the previous two months and send it to the imperial court. Go to the state camp, don't delay."

Although Peng Yan was full of reluctance, he could only salute and said: "I obey the order."

At this time, Liu Zhaoyu happened to catch Wen Yao and him looking at each other, but hesitated to speak, so he asked, "Wen Cifu, do you have something to say?"

Wen Yao saluted respectfully and said: "Your Majesty, I heard that King Yin is reclaiming grain fields in Shengning and Ningzhou. If necessary, the military rations of the Yuzhou Camp may also be supported by the western border."

Liu Zhaoyu weighed the pros and cons secretly in his heart, and said with a smile, "This is indeed a solution. Shengzhou is adjacent to Ningzhou. The journey from Ningzhou to Yuzhou takes about six days, which is two full days faster than going from Jade City."

"It's not right," Feng Ruoping said, "The output of Ningzhou's grain fields is not as high as that of Jiacheng, and it's barely enough to maintain the Weiming army's grain consumption."

Wen Yao raised his eyes and glanced at Yuan Mucheng very lightly, and then said: "What Hou Ye said is reasonable, if the magistrate of Ningzhou hadn't been able to guard the city gate, and the fields of Ningzhou hadn't been trampled by big iron hooves, it must be possible now." To grow more grain, if we talk about the grain road, but when General Yanhua was still the escort officer, there was a problem with the grain road, which made King Wei Xu fall into the big man's plan to divert the tiger away from the mountain."

Wen Yao's words were ambiguous, and he singled out Feng Han to talk about it, but the matter of Cui Cheng hadn't been settled yet, and someone suddenly mentioned Wei Ningzhan, Feng Ruoping's face became anxious when he heard it: "Wen Cifu's words are really serious. To be clear, General Yanhua was conspired by the Damo people at first, and he was the same as King Wei Xu. Moreover, in the situation that year, Ningzhou was still taken back from the Damo people, and he also made a lot of achievements. Gong, no matter how you put it, you have folded your merit.”

"It's the old man's inappropriate words, please forgive me, Lord Hou." Wen Yao stepped aside and didn't speak again.

Yan Youqian remained calm the whole time, but he also sensed the panic that Feng Ruoping tried to hide.The thicker the fog of doubt in his heart, the closer Yan Youqian felt that he was getting closer to the truth. He firmly believed that hidden behind the fog of doubt was an amazing secret that could put Feng's family to death.

The hall suddenly fell into dead silence again, Liu Zhaoyu raised his eyes to look at everyone in the hall after hearing no sound.Seeing that no one had anything to say, he sat up straight and was bumped by the translucent jade.

"Everything you said is reasonable, so let's not talk about it. In short, Peng Shangshu will make up the food and grass this month. If there is less," Liu Zhaoyu looked at Yuan Mucheng, "Xiao'an, if there is less, what do you say?"

"If it is less, I will go to the household department to count it myself," said Yuan Mucheng, turning to Peng Yan, and said with a smile, "I am just a rough warrior. If there is any irregularity, please take care of Peng Shangshu."

Yuan Mucheng was threatening him.Peng Yan heard it, and then thought of Yuan Mucheng's ferocity when he killed people that night, the more he looked at that smile, the more terrifying he felt, and a chill came down his back, but he was still extremely unwilling, so he forced a smile on his face, gritted his teeth and said: "The general is polite."

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After Zhong Dingshan finished his lunch break, he walked around the backyard and saw no one, so he moved to the stone table with his arms full of walnuts, and concentrated on smashing the walnuts.He smashed seven walnuts before peeling out half a complete walnut kernel. Just now he wanted to show off to others, only then did he feel empty around him, looking around at no one.

Looking at a pile of carefully selected walnuts, he suddenly felt lonely, and couldn't help muttering: "I said, this boy Gu hasn't received a letter for 30 days, and I don't know what kind of virtue he has done outside."

"I'm going to read this to you." Jiang Yu approached slowly, and when he reached Zhong Dingshan, he handed over a letter he took out from his arms, "Meng Xia sent the letter at noon, and Huai Chuan specifically asked me to , I’ll show it to you after your lunch break, so that you won’t be too excited to fall asleep.”

Zhong Dingshan quickly wiped his crumb-stained hands on his shirt, took the letter and began to read it.

The letter was written by Gu Nanxing, and it filled a whole page, but he didn't mention his injury at all.Zhong Dingshan read the page back and forth twice, and finally his eyes fell on the sentence "Leaving home today" at the end, he looked at those words carefully, and said with a smile: "Oh, this brat finally Knowing that I'm coming back, why don't you get a few more thick skins outside."

Jiang Yu shook her head with a smile, and said, "Nanxing is not here, so why are you so quick-talking? If you have someone in mind, don't be stubborn."

Zhong Dingshan immediately put a smile on his face: "What nonsense are you talking about? I'm worried that he's drunk and stupid, and after being bullied outside, we need to clean up for him when he comes back."

Jiang Yu looked at the walnuts on the table, picked a small piece of walnut kernel, and put it in his mouth, then said: "They are not children anymore, they have ideas now, like going to Qinzhou this time when going south, they don't want to talk to others what to do."

Zhong Dingshan felt strange. He remembered that Gu Nanxing told him that he went to Qinzhou this time because he heard something about Jiang Shiqing, but why did Jiang Yu say that Gu Nanxing hadn't told anyone about it.

"You don't know?" Zhong Dingshan asked.

Jiang Yu turned her head and asked, "Why, did he tell you?"

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New characters in this chapter

Peng Yan: Minister of the Household Department