after being kidnapped by the general

Various places in Xiapi County quickly set up porridge stations.

The smell of food spread in the city, and refugees lined up to receive food.The rest of the grain will be centered around Xiapi, and will be supported by Sifang counties and counties.

Yuanli ordered other people to take care of the disaster relief, and asked Chu Hechao to resettle the army.I said a few words to Ouyang Ting alone in the governor's mansion in Xuzhou, but before I said a few words, all the local nobles in Xuzhou came to ask to see him.

Ouyang Ting looked at Yuanli, who put the tea bowl on the table with a calm expression, "How many people are here?"

"Everyone who should come has come, and they are waiting to see you outside the mansion," the servant in the governor's mansion boldly said, "Many of them are people who just refused our master's request for food."

"Don't talk too much," Ouyang Ting reprimanded, and then asked Yuan Li, "Le Jun, do you want to see these people?"

Yuan Li smiled coldly, "No see."

Ouyang Ting knew that the disciple was angry for himself, so he pressed the words in his heart, and persuaded him a few words, "They came to visit you this time to show their kindness to you, Le Jun, if you don't see one of them, they might have trouble sleeping and eating. .”

"Then let them have trouble sleeping and eating," Yuan Li said unmoved, calmly, "When I first came to Xuzhou, they rushed over to see me, which shows that they also know that what they did before will offend me." To me. Teacher, people are like this. They always take chances, bully the weak and fear the strong. The more I see them, the more sincere and fearful they become. The gentry in Xuzhou have been doing whatever they want for a long time, so they should be afraid."

Ouyang Ting looked at this disciple deeply, and felt that Yuan Li had changed a lot from when he was in Luoyang a few years ago.Become more determined and means, and more deterrent.

He didn't say anything more, he just asked his servants to turn down those aristocratic families who wanted to visit Yuanli.

Those families who were rejected included the Liu family.The patriarch of the Liu clan stood with his legs stiff before he waited for the word "I don't see you". He was filled with fear and anger, but he didn't dare to show this anger on his face, so he put down the gift in a hurry and left.

The same was true for other families, not only sent salutes to Yuanli and Chu Hechao, but also the food, gold and silver that Ouyang Ting wanted to borrow but failed to borrow.

After the news came out, Ouyang Ting was in mixed emotions and sighed incomparably.

Human nature, nothing more than this.

But Yuanli did not accept the things given by these aristocratic families, and returned them all together with food, gold and silver.

Ouyang Ting hesitated to speak, and finally asked in a low voice: "Le Jun, although you brought back a lot of relief food, but the food is not too much but too little in the face of the disaster, since these aristocratic families have sent food, why should they return it? "

Yuan Li shook his head, "Teacher, I can't take their things. Because once I take their things, I won't be able to settle with them."

Liquidation?

Ouyang Ting's eyes immediately turned bright, "What do you want to do?"

"In the correspondence between the teacher and me in the past years, every year, he mentioned the allocation of funds to order counties and counties to clean up the river silt and build river embankments. Since maintenance is carried out every year, it is reasonable to say that the river embankment should not be so fragile and cause waterlogging. Even if If there is a real flood, it will not flood most of Xuzhou so badly," Yuan Li had doubts for a long time, "Furthermore, the flood in Xuzhou is so serious, but nothing happened in Yangzhou and Qingzhou. Could it be that the rain only falls in Xuzhou, and the water only Are you going to Xuzhou?"

Ouyang Ting's face gradually sank, "You mean that the waterlogging may be caused by man?"

Yuanli nodded slightly.

Ouyang Ting took a few deep breaths, and calmly said: "The Xuzhou family is deeply intertwined, and one hair can affect the whole body. Most of the people who hold official positions in Xuzhou are members of the Xuzhou local gentry. It is difficult to move an inch, and it is even more difficult for a foreigner to control Xuzhou. The governor's government allocated funds to build river embankments and clean up the silt. If it is really artificial, it must have the meaning of the gentry. You can't find anything."

Yuanli thought so.

Ouyang Ting sighed, "If you want to liquidate, you can't just liquidate the officials. Le Jun, if you want to investigate, you will definitely find Xuzhou, a huge gentry. But if you move the gentry, this Xuzhou It's completely messed up."

If you move your whole body with one hair, if you deal with one gentry, other gentry will naturally form a group to resist.

This is also the reason why Ouyang Ting has difficulty moving an inch in Xuzhou.

First, once he makes a move, the officials will form a group, and the aristocratic family will counterattack, and the aristocratic family has a tribe, and the military equipment can be called a small army.Second, the powerful families in Xuzhou are inextricably linked to King Chen. Once Ouyang Ting makes a move, I am afraid that King Chen will use this to send troops against him.The third is that Ouyang Ting has no justifiable reason to attack the aristocratic family.

Yuan Li naturally knew Ouyang Ting's scruples. He looked at Ouyang Ting with a very serious expression, "Teacher, because of this, we must not tolerate it. You can't liquidate Xuzhou, but I can. To tell the truth, I want to let You temporarily hand over the power of Xuzhou to me, and let me have the right to thoroughly investigate the flood in Xuzhou on your behalf."

Ouyang Ting was surprised, "I can give it to you, but Le Jun, do you really want to investigate thoroughly?"

"It must be checked," Yuan Li's eyes darkened, "Teacher, we just came across the vegetable market when we first entered Xuzhou."

He narrated the tragic scene he saw in a few words. Although the words were plain, it made Ouyang Ting feel as if he saw it with his own eyes.Ouyang Ting's hands trembled slightly, and he murmured: "The counties and counties outside Xiapi have already reached this point..."

And the source of all these disasters may be the artificial means after the struggle for political power.

Ouyang Ting only felt heavy in his heart, he opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a word, his whole body was filled with powerlessness.

"It's really ridiculous..." Ouyang Ting closed his eyes, and two lines of hot tears flowed down his old face, "After the waterlogging, it's autumn harvest! They directly flooded the fields where the common people will be able to harvest in autumn. That's what the common people planted. Years of food! Most of the fields in Xuzhou have been flooded. How much food is that? How many people can be fed? Poor people don’t dare to eat more food on weekdays, and the result of a year of hard work is ruined... It’s really hateful! "

I hate him so much!

It's fine if it's a natural disaster, but if it's man-made, who can accept such a thing?

Ouyang Ting's face was condensed and sharp, "Le Jun, you are right, this matter cannot be tolerated. But you have to think clearly, your reputation has always been very good, and you have always been known for benevolence and righteousness. Forcibly dealing with scholars is just a It will damage your reputation. You have to know that the people of the world in our mouths actually refer to scholars. The pen is held in the hands of scholars. The pen in the hand and the mouthpiece in the mouth are all invisible things that kill people. You move If you leave the gentry, they will definitely write a lot about what you have done, and your name of benevolence and righteousness will also become the name of cruelty."

Yuan Li smiled.

In the closed room, the light was dim.There are fine dust floating in the air, ups and downs.

In the house where there were only the two of them, the master and the apprentice, both of them relaxed a lot, and they could even say some things calmly.

"Teacher, the reason why I pursued a good reputation in the past was because I had to have a good reputation to go up and have more power," Yuan Li said in a calm tone, "but now I have three states and five troops. More than one hundred thousand, I have been the Wen Gong inherited from generation to generation. I have reached the point where I don’t need to worry about my reputation to do things. I seek a good reputation for my official career and to save more people. , then I put the cart before the horse. It’s just a Xuzhou gentry, what can they do? At most, they can’t criticize me, and they don’t even dare to say in front of me if they scold me.”

Yuan Li seemed to find it funny, so he smiled again, "In troubled times, whoever has the strength and food has the power to overturn the table. Teacher, I already have such power."

Ouyang Ting didn't speak for a while, he keenly discerned something from Yuan Li's words.This thing made him short of breath, and after a long time, he said with difficulty: "Le Jun, are you to the Son of Heaven..."

Yuan Li looked directly at him, and asked back: "Teacher, how many people in the world can really put the people in their eyes? Do you think King Chen and the Son of Heaven will be one of them?"

Ouyang Ting smiled hastily, how is this possible.

He saw the burning flame of ambition in Yuanli's eyes.

But that flame has nothing to do with selfish desires, but the people of the country.

Ouyang Ting said with trembling lips: "Okay, Xuzhou, Xuzhou will be handed over to you..."

In Yuanli, the county soldiers in the hands of Ouyang Ting came, and they took control of Xiapi and the surrounding cities vigorously, closing the city gates tightly, and preventing everyone from entering and leaving. After cutting off the internal and external communications of Xuzhou, they began to clear Xuzhou from Xiapi .

When he came, he was very powerful. Xuzhou was such a big place that it had already been infiltrated by King Chen's forces.Presumably what he did will be reported to King Chen as soon as possible, even so, Yuan Li did not have the slightest fear.On the contrary, he will speed up to completely rectify Xuzhou's officialdom and powerful gentry forces, and control Xuzhou within the time difference before King Chen receives the news and reacts!

When Mrs. Liu heard that Yuanli controlled the seal of Xuzhou's governor and began to investigate the flood, she was terrified.Immediately sent someone to write a letter to King Chen quietly, but who knew that the gate of the city was closed, and they couldn't get out if they wanted to.

Patriarch Liu lost his temper once, but there was nothing he could do. He could only wait in fear for what Yuanli could find out.

As time went on, more and more officials and noble families fell under the horse.Yuanli used the force of thunder to rectify Xuzhou drastically. Before many powerful gentry could react, they surrounded their manors and trilogy and beheaded them for public display.

After killing the gentry, he seized the food, gold and silver of the gentry for relief of refugees, and collected the trilogy for his own use.

All his actions were as fast as lightning, and Chu Hechao took over the county and county soldiers in Xuzhou. In just one month, everyone in Xuzhou's powerful and powerful gentry was in danger and trembling.

As Yuanli's investigation deepened, he discovered that there was something else hidden about the flood.Many embankments were either artificially damaged or cut corners. Those involved were imprisoned one by one. Xuzhou’s dark net was forcibly inserted by Yuanli. There was a bloody storm, and the streets of Xiapi had been cleared for several times. times bloody.

Yuan Li is not someone who wants to beat everyone to death with a stick without giving evidence, but the gentry with ulterior motives are very disturbed.They did something wrong, and knowing that Yuanli would take the knife on him sooner or later, they huddled together and tried their best to resist.

However, they couldn't defeat the army led by Chu Hechao, and Yuan Li was not afraid of infamy.These gentry got together secretly, and really didn't know what to do.After much deliberation, they could only ask Chen Wang for help.

As the gentry who have been stationed in Xuzhou for a hundred years, when they gathered everyone's efforts to pass the matter to King Chen, even Ouyang Ting was powerless to stop it, let alone Yuanli who had just arrived in Xuzhou for a month.

The patriarch of the Liu clan heaved a sigh of relief when he got the news that the letter had been passed out safely. He was very grateful in his heart, and felt that once King Chen knew about it, his life would be saved.

After the letter was sent out, the patriarch of the Liu clan was looking forward to it every day, hoping to receive a reply from King Chen.But a few days later, before he could wait for King Chen's reply, Yuan Li led his soldiers to the door instead.

These soldiers forcibly pushed away the servants in Liu's mansion, rushed directly into the hall savagely, and directly pressed Patriarch Liu into the yard.

In the courtyard, Yuan Li sat leisurely on the chair brought by the soldiers, his back was as straight as a green pine, and he was dressed in a green shirt, showing his elegance and nobility.He looked down at Patriarch Liu, who was pressed down to kneel in front of him by the soldiers, with a calm expression.

Patriarch Liu struggled desperately, sweating all over his head, "What are you doing, Mr. Wen!"

As soon as the questioning was finished, other descendants of the Liu family cried and howled from behind: "Who are you, and where do you want to kidnap us? Do you know who we are!" "Bold, let me go!" "Grandfather rescued me!" I--"……

After seeing Patriarch Liu in the courtyard, the descendants of the Liu family exclaimed, and before they could ask for help, they were rudely pushed behind Patriarch Liu and knelt down by the soldiers.

The sound of plopping and kneeling was deafening, making these people aware of the unusual situation at this time, swallowing curses and asking for help, leaving only a faint whimper.

The patriarch of the Liu clan was panicked, he swallowed his saliva, "I don't know, I don't know what Wen Gong's move means?"

Yuan Li looked at him with a smile.

When he smiles, he always looks gentle and amiable, which makes people let down their guard.But at this moment, his smile made the patriarch Liu's scalp tingle, and fear rose to his throat.

"The reason why I came to find Patriarch Liu, doesn't Patriarch Liu know?" Yuan Li said slowly, "The embankments in Xiapi, Liangcheng, Huailing, Quyang... these counties, are you buying the county magistrates? , did it damage it?"

The head of the Liu clan dilated his pupils, and a chill spread all over his body in an instant.

Yuanli, Yuanli know.

His face was pale, "I, I don't know what you are talking about."

Yuan Li looked down at him, his calmness was creepy, "It doesn't matter if you don't know, as long as I know."

He stood up and ordered: "Take them to the gate of the governor's mansion, explain the reason to the people, and behead them for public display."

"Wait!" The patriarch of the Liu clan shouted in horror, "I am a subordinate of King Chen, how dare you kill me?! Duke Wen, do you really dare to confront King Chen?!"

Yuan Li stopped, looked back at him, and smiled slightly, "Why don't you dare?"