Zhu Nao

Inside Yuzhou Mansion.

Two officials walked into the prison carrying heavy porridge buckets.The stench in the prison was endless, and the two of them felt nauseated. After walking two steps, they couldn't help but put down the barrel and ran out to catch their breath.After a while, they came back holding their noses, picked up the barrel and continued walking in.

They put down the porridge bucket at the cell door, filled several bowls of thin, almost transparent porridge, and passed them in through the iron bars: "Eat."

There were seven or eight people crowded in a small prison, all of them looked weary, and even food could not arouse their interest.

One person slowly moved to the edge of the iron rail to take the porridge bowl, and asked, "Brother Guancha, what will the government do with us?"

The two officials looked at each other, couldn't bear it, shook their heads and sighed: "We don't know either."

The man hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Then...Brother Guancha, can I trouble you to send a message to my family? Just say that everything is fine and I can go back soon. My mother is over 70 years old, I'm afraid She worries about me."

As soon as these words came out, the dejected prisoners who had just arrived suddenly woke up and rushed to the edge of the fence. "Brother Guancha, please send a message to my family! I was taken away for no reason that day. My wife may not know what happened to me, so she must be in a hurry!" "My son is still young, and I have been Don't go back, I'm really worried that something will happen to him." "And me and me..."

People scrambled to report their names and addresses, and their voices were mixed together, but they couldn't hear a word.The two officials looked at each other.

In fact, they are not jailers at all, but agricultural officials. Recently, too many people have been arrested in the prison, and there are not enough manpower, so they are temporarily transferred to serve as jailers.Although they eat public food, they are also from the common people, and their official duties deal with ordinary people all day long. They are well aware of the suffering of the common people.Treating these Yuzhou people who were arrested for smashing Zhengda grain store, they were both sympathetic and helpless.

Although I really want to agree to help, but there are too many people, they can't agree to this or not to that.But they didn't have the time to deliver letters one by one.In the end, they had no choice but to harden their hearts and try their best to fish out a few more grains of rice from the clear water-like porridge bucket, and hurriedly stuffed the bowl into the prison. Regardless of the pleadings of the prisoners, they lowered their heads and carried the porridge bucket to the next cell. go.

After distributing food to everyone, the two officials left the prison with the porridge bucket.They were sickened by the smell of the prison, but even worse inside.

"Tell me, what are these things..." one person whispered.

"Yeah, what is this called? Conscientious businessmen are arrested and sentenced to death, but unconscionable ones are domineering..."

"He is domineering, what about us? Are we counting as accomplices?"

"..."

The two looked at each other speechlessly, looking sad.

After a while, one person sighed: "Forget it, don't think about it. Go back quickly, there are still a lot of things waiting for us to do, I'm afraid we will be busy until night again today."

The other nodded again and again: "I still have a lot of things to do." After a pause, he lowered his voice and gritted his teeth, "I really hope those guys will get their retribution."

Those guys in his mouth were referring to Wu Liang and several bullying officials in the state capital.Now all the low-level officials in the Yuzhou Prefecture are annoyed when they mention Wu Liang.

Previously, Wu Liang had arrested dozens of people from Li Xiang and the caravan, and within two days, he had brought back dozens of troublemakers.He almost regarded the prison in Yuzhou Prefecture as his own backyard.He captured all his enemies, he was very happy, but the person who worked for him was very unhappy.There were nearly a hundred more people in the prison, and there were simply not enough jailers.People are needed to guard prisoners, people are needed to prepare food for prisoners, and people are needed to handle cases and interrogate cases.How can there be so many people in the state capital?As a last resort, all officials from various ministries were arrested to help.These agricultural officials were arrested and used as jailers, and the tax collector next door was arrested and used as cooks. There was so much extra work out of thin air that everyone was too busy.

Hard work is not a big deal, but it is a great torture if you work hard and feel guilty.Wu Liang bribed some officials with money, but he only bribed a few high-level officials in power, and it was the lower-level officials who really handled things.How do these officials have no resentment in their hearts?

After complaining, they were very at a loss.How can all this change...

……

Lu Lianshan was sitting in the main office, flipping through the official documents, when he heard a knock on the door.

He looked up and said, "Come in."

The door opened, and several middle-ranking officials walked in.

Lu Lianshan put down his pen: "What's the matter?"

Several people looked at each other, as if they didn't know how to speak.After a while, one person said: "Master Lu, is there no one who can take care of Wu Liang?"

Lu Lianshan raised his eyebrows, and said after a while: "What's wrong?"

"It's not because of the two cases he provoked." The man complained, "The case of Li Xiang has not been investigated yet, and he has provoked another big case. We still have a lot of things to do, people But they were all transferred to handle his case. The state shepherd asked me to finish my official business before the end of the month, but now there are no people doing the work, so what else can I do?"

"What do you mean? You listen to me. Today, Zhou Mu asked me to take someone to Wu Liang's grain store to help him verify the loss, saying that his loss should be compensated by the people who were arrested. But Wu Liang simply Nonsense, a broken wooden door and broken wood worth tens of pennies, he insisted that it was custom-made for 20 taels of silver, isn't this intentional extortion?" Another official said, "Forget those, and he also said that he I put 30 taels of gold in my cabinet and was robbed! He is a grain shop, not a pawn shop, so why hide the gold? Why didn’t he say 30 taels for 300 taels?”

"When I went to his grain store, the people outside looked at me with horrible eyes... Everyone has a knife hidden in their eyes, and they wish they could goug me out..."

"I want to resign. Because of his two incidents, the people in the city think that we are all bastards in the government office. Yesterday my mother went to the cloth shop she frequented to buy cloth. The shopkeeper knew that she was My mother refused to sell the cloth to her, and even ridiculed her. They can scold me, but what did my mother do wrong?"

In the state capital, not only the low-level officials are full of resentment, but the only happy ones are a few who have accepted Wu Hao's benefits, and everyone else is full of complaints.

And these officials were full of anger, so they naturally wanted to find the source.In addition to Wang Zhoumu in the Yuzhou Mansion, there are other officials with high official positions and real power, one is Lu Lianshan, and the other is the prefect Liu Ruhu.Liu Ruhu had already been bribed by Wu Liang to vent his anger through the same nostril, only Lu Lianshan didn't buy Wu Liang's account very much.I heard that Wu Liang wanted to go to the prison to torture Li Xiang to vent his anger two days ago, but Lu Lianshan forcibly stopped him and did not let him take anyone into the prison.Therefore, the only hope for these officials is Lu Lianshan.

After hearing everyone's complaints, Lu Lianshan felt mixed feelings.

As an official, he felt the pain of everyone.Second... before leaving the house this morning, Zhu Nao sent him a message, telling him that there must be a flurry of people in the state capital recently, and this is a good time for him to win people over.

That foolish person really can predict everything...

"Master Lu?" Seeing his silence, an official became a little nervous.

Lu Lianshan came back to his senses, looked at the people in front of him, his eyes became much clearer.He pointed to the chairs opposite, and said gently, "Sit down and talk slowly."

The few officials saw that he was intent on having a long talk, so they quickly found a chair and sat down to continue voicing bitterness.

……

In a mansion in Yuzhou city.

"What?!" The gorgeously dressed middle-aged man suddenly jumped up from his chair, "All the goods were seized by the Langzhou government? Why did they seize them?!"

The boy in front of him had a bitter face: "It is said that someone reported that we had funded bandits, suspected that we had violated the law and discipline, and should seize the goods for inspection."

The middle-aged man was dumbfounded: "Support bandits?"

He is a wealthy businessman in Yuzhou City, named Zhao Qiu.Recently, he happened to have a caravan that was supposed to bring back goods, but after waiting for a long time, the goods did not arrive, only the bad news that the goods were seized by the Langzhou government.

Sponsoring bandits... If it refers to paying road money to bandits who control mountain roads, then he has indeed paid a lot in the past.But all the caravans who wanted to pass through Langzhou didn't pay less!This is not what he is willing to pay.And how long has it been since the bandits in Langzhou have been dealt with, and now they suddenly think of liquidating?Anyway, this is an excuse, right? !

Zhao Qiu hurriedly asked: "Have you gone to Langzhou Mansion to find out the news? Did we offend someone? Or did we do something wrong?"

"I have inquired about it." The boy was still very clever in handling things, but the news he inquired made him even more depressed.Because the reasons given by the other party are beyond their power to change.The little fellow said, "Not only our caravan was detained, but all the shops opened by merchants from Yuzhou in Langzhou were sealed up by the Langzhou government, and all the caravans from Yuzhou passing through Langzhou were all detained. Yuzhou merchants who bought goods from Langzhou were also cut off from the supply of goods. It’s not that we have offended anyone, but that the Langzhou government wants to seek justice for non-traitorous food.”

Zhao Qiu was dumbfounded: "Isn't it a traitor?"

The boy nodded: "The caravan captured by Wu Liang is all from Langzhou. Although the owner of the non-traitor grain shop is Li Township, there are other Langzhou businessmen who donate money to support it. Such a big trouble The non-traitorous food business was seized, and the caravan in Langzhou was arrested. The Langzhou government suspected that this was because the Yuzhou government deliberately suppressed the profit and wanted to suppress the businessmen in Langzhou. So it deliberately retaliated with a tooth for a tooth, in order to give Yuzhou The government put pressure on them to find out the truth and restore Li Xiang's innocence."

Zhao Qiu was stunned: "This... this..."

His mood suddenly became very complicated.Of course he resented that Langzhou government detained his caravan.But after hearing this reason, he was very jealous again.

I have long heard that the nearby Zhuzhou Shepherd loves the people not only for the farmers, but also for the merchants.For a non-traitor business, for a caravan, how could he do such a thing? !On the other hand, Wang Zhoumu of Yuzhou didn't care about anything other than collecting money from merchants.The Yuzhou businessman came to him when he was bullied outside—just kidding, what does it matter to him?

The boy complained: "What happened to Wu Liang caused us to suffer, how could such a thing happen in the world? Then what does Wu Liang have to do with us? We still hate Wu Liang!"

This is not true at all.In fact, many businessmen in Yuzhou City hate Wu Liang.There are many reasons to dislike him, some are jealous that he monopolizes the grain business with his nepotism and makes too much money; some despise him for having no bottom line restraint and bad conduct;Although merchants are richer than ordinary people, they have to hire a lot of people if they want to operate. When the price of food is high, their costs will also rise accordingly.

It's just that if you hate it, you hate it. Although Wu Liang also has the benefit of infringing on them, it is only an indirect infringement after all.No one has ever stood up to object, and some people even have to curry favor with their conscience, so as not to cause trouble for the upper body.

After the boy complained, he came up with another idea: "Boss, why don't we go to Wang Zhoumu and ask him to help us find a solution."

"What are you looking for, Wangzhou Mu?" Zhao Qiu immediately vetoed it, "You said just now that all Yuzhou businessmen's shops in Langzhou were sealed up, and all Yuzhou caravans were detained in Langzhou. Is it true?"

The boy nodded repeatedly: "It's true!"

Zhao Qiu said again: "You said that the Langzhou government did this to put pressure on the Yuzhou government to find out the truth and release Li Xiang? Did they say this themselves, or did you guess?"

The servant hurriedly said, "They said it themselves."

Zhao Qiu patted his thigh: "That's fine! Let's go, let's go find other merchants!"

Yuzhou is not a big place, and most of the rich and powerful businessmen in Yuzhou do business in Yuzhou.On the edge of Yuzhou is Langzhou. If they want to expand their business outward, Langzhou is a place they can't avoid.Whether it is through Langzhou to import and export goods, or to have business in Langzhou, in short, there are not a few businessmen who have relations with Langzhou.

I have to say that Zhu Nao's trick is really poisonous.It is a trivial matter that the goods of Yuzhou merchants are detained, but it is a big matter that Yuzhou merchants cannot pass through Langzhou from now on!The team going out from Yuzhou must pass through Langzhou as long as they go west.In the past, Langzhou bandits were so rampant that no one gave up on Langzhou's trade routes, and now it is even more impossible to give up!

If he went to Wang Zhoumu now, Wang Zhoumu might not follow him, and he might even block Langzhou merchants with an eye for an eye.Maybe there will be a stalemate for a while, and everyone will lose out, and the Langzhou government will soften.But for a businessman like Zhao Qiu, losing both sides is not what he wants.One more day of delay would cost him a lot of money. Naturally, the sooner the matter is resolved, the better.If you can take advantage of the trend to get rid of Wu Liang's cancer, why not do it?

So Zhao Qiu hurried out, and immediately went to find other businessmen in Yuzhou City to discuss joint pressure on the state capital.

=====

backyard.

Zhu Nao sat under the plum blossom tree, Jing Zhe took out a thick robe from the room, and gently covered his shoulders.

I saw three wooden signs standing in front of Zhu Nao, each with words written on them, namely "merchant", "official" and "common people".There are no strong soldiers in Yuzhou Prefecture, so these three wooden plaques represent the three main forces in Yuzhou City.

Jing Zhe thought for a while, and said, "Where's the gentry and landlord?"

Zhu Nao said, "They don't live in the city, don't worry about them."

The gentry and landowners are certainly a strong force, but most of these people do not live in the city, but live in the farm.They don't care so much who is sitting in the government, they care about policies.Those people need to be considered later, not now.

Jing Zhe nodded and fell silent.

Zhu Nao stretched out his fingers and pushed lightly, and the wooden sign with the word "merchant" was easily pushed down on the table by him.He flicked the wooden sign with the word "official" again with his finger, the wooden sign shook for a moment, and finally fell down.

However, he did not touch the third wooden sign for a long time.

Jing Zhe looked at him curiously: "Don't you push me, Master?"

Junao smiled and shook his head: "I didn't push this wooden sign."

Jing Zhe was stunned for a moment, and understood what he meant: the person who can really overthrow this sign is not Zhu Nao, but Yuzhou Prefecture.

Zhu Nao stretched, got up and said, "Let's go, let's go back to the house."

The two turned and left.

The wind was strong in winter, and on the small wooden table under the plum blossom tree, the last standing wooden sign swayed in the cold wind, and finally failed to block the oppression of the strong wind, and fell down in the howling wind.