Zhu Nao

In a blink of an eye, it has already entered autumn, and the crops in the field are gradually ripening.In the past, this was the happiest time for farmers, and the joy of harvest should be everywhere.Not so this year.

Seeing that the autumn harvest is getting closer, the farmers in Jianzhou feel more anxious.

The reason for the anxiety is that the situation in Jianzhou is extremely chaotic at the moment.In the past two years, many refugees have flooded into Jianzhou. When there are more refugees, the law and order will be chaotic.Whether in the city or in the countryside, theft and robbery happened every day.It can be said that the current chaos of refugees in Jianzhou is even worse than the disaster of bandits in Langzhou two years ago.

However, the government of Jianzhou has no way to govern this.

The farmers have worked hard for a whole year and finally waited for a bumper harvest.And this time is also the time when bandits and bandits are most eyeing.The farmers dug ditches and built earthen walls, but they couldn't stop the thieves.Not only will the thieves bring them huge losses, Jianzhou is not like the nearby Langzhou where taxes have been reduced or exempted, and the people of Jianzhou still have a lot of exorbitant taxes to pay.In this way, there will be very few farmers who can keep it in their hands at that time, and it is not known whether they can survive the coming cold winter.

In this way, how can farmers not be anxious?

Unfortunately, anxiety doesn't change anything.What should come will always come.

……

In a blink of an eye, the first wave of wheat in the field turned yellow.

At this time, there was no laughter and joy in the field, but crying and howling.

"Stop! Stop quickly! You can't cut it!" An old man and a young man tried to stop five or six people who were cutting wheat in the field, but those who were cutting wheat were not only crowded, but also fierce, waving The scythe warned them not to come near.

"Go away! Do you want to renege on the land rent?!"

"No, no, we will find a way to pay the land rent. But this wheat is not raw, you can't cut it all!"

"If we don't cut it, let the thieves cut it off! Don't talk nonsense, this is the landlord's order. If you have anything to say, go to the landlord yourself!"

The old man and the young man are father and son, and those who reap the wheat are the evil servants of the landlord's family, and it is the wheat field of the father and son's family that they cut.

Although the wheat in the field is ripe, it is not yet ripe, and some leaves are still green.At this time, it is not impossible to cut the wheat in advance, but at least [-] catties of yield per mu will be lost.The landlord will not bear this loss. The landlord has always collected rent according to a fixed amount. No matter what happens to the farmers in drought or flood, the landlord will not reduce the rent.The irony is that although the losses caused by harvesting raw wheat are not borne by the landlords, they are actually nothing to the landlords. The farmers who can bear these losses are likely to lose a life-saving food.

"There are people on duty every night in our village, and we drove away the thieves after a few waves. I beg you, wait two more days, and the wheat will be fully ripe after two more days!"

"Come on, look at the bald ones on the edge of your field. Didn't they get cut by thieves? Could it be that mice gnawed them? Or did you cut them yourself and hide them secretly in order to repay the land rent?!"

The old man said anxiously: "Well, that was two days ago. We found the thief halfway through the cut and drove him away. We have strengthened the guard these few days."

On the edge of the field, there is a field that is already bald. It was indeed cut off by thieves in advance.The thieves also don't care how much loss they will cause if they cut it early, they only care about how much food they can grab.

No matter how the old and the young plead, the servants of the landlord are still desperately cutting.Bundles after bundles of rice seedlings fell down and were loaded onto carts by them.

The old man sat on the ground crying in despair, while the young man clenched his fists and his eyes were red.

Suddenly, the unbearable young man broke out.He rushed towards the wheat cutter closest to him, and strangled the man's neck with his arms from behind.The reaper was startled and struggled desperately.However, the young man was so strong that he didn't let go of his hand. In just a moment, the wheat cutter's face was flushed, and the veins on his forehead were bulging.

When the other wheat harvesters saw this scene, they were startled and rushed over to help.However, they were far away, and before they approached, the wheat cutter who had been strangled lost his strength, and the sickle in his hand dropped to the ground.

The young man immediately let go, bent down to pick up the sickle, and stabbed it into the wheat cutter's chest.Blood spurted out instantly!

He drew his knife again and turned to the other reapers who were approaching him.He was covered in blood and looked fierce, as if he had just crawled out of hell.The wheat cutters were frightened and stopped immediately, not daring to go forward.

If they didn't go over, the young man refused to let them go.He shouted and brandished his scythe, and rushed towards a reaper.The wheat cutter was so frightened that he almost peed his pants. He didn't dare to fight, he didn't want the wheat he had just cut, so he turned around and ran away without his life!

"Crazy, this guy must be crazy!"

Several other wheat harvesters saw this situation, although they all had sickles in their hands, which one dared to risk their lives?At the moment, they all retreated and ran away.

After everyone ran away, the young man dropped his sickle and slowly knelt down on the ground.In front of him is his frightened and desperate father, surrounded by a bald wheat field, and a tall pile of wheat is piled beside him.

As the autumn wind blows, the ears of wheat make rustling sounds, from far to near, and from near to far, slowly fading away in the quiet and desolate fields.

……

Wei Yue was riding on a horse in bright clothes, and several people were behind him, passing by the edge of the field.They were dressed like a caravan.

Suddenly there was a scream in the distance. They stretched their necks to look into the wheat field, and happened to see the young man stabbing a wheat harvester to death.Everyone was taken aback and stopped in their tracks. Wei Yue also stopped his horse and stopped to watch.

They were far away and couldn't hear what those people were shouting.I saw the young man madly rushing towards a few people with sickles in their hands, and those people were quickly frightened and ran away without their armor.

Although the scene they saw had no beginning and no end, but looking at the still green wheat in the field, everyone quickly understood the cause and effect of the matter.This is not a rare thing, especially in the past two years.

Wei Yue looked at the young people in the field, hesitated for a moment, and called, "Boss Zhao, second brother Zhao."

The Zhao family brothers rushed up to him and asked, "Brother Wei, what's the matter?"

Wei Yue raised her chin in the direction of the father and son, and said, "Go and ask them if they would like to come with us."

The Zhao family brothers were taken aback, that young man killed the landlord's servant today, and there will be no good fruit in the future.His whole family is afraid that they will also be implicated.It's better to leave like this, maybe there is still a way out.

Boss Zhao hurriedly said: "Okay, let's go now." As he said that, he pulled his younger brother, and the two brothers went to the wheat field.

Wei Yue didn't stop to wait for them. It was too ostentatious for a group of people to stop here, so he led the group to continue walking in the direction of Jianzhou City.Tao Bai walked beside him, helping him lead the horse, looking back from time to time.

Wei Yue looked at the vast fields.Golden yellow is always a festive color in previous years, but for some reason it looks bleak this year.

Today's wind is not small, blowing one after another, making people unable to distinguish whether it is the wind or someone crying in the distance.

Wei Yue suddenly said: "Before I didn't quite understand why Zhu Nao asked me to do it after the autumn harvest. Now I understand."

Tao Bai looked back at him blankly: "Brother Wei, why?"

Wei Yue said: "Don't you think the sky in Jianzhou is gloomy recently?"

Tao Bai looked up subconsciously.Today's sky is actually not bad, the sky is blue, but there is no sun.Thinking about it carefully, it seems that the weather has been like this recently, and it hasn't rained much.But I don't know why, when Wei Yue said this, he felt like this again, feeling gloomy every day.I don't know where this feeling came from.

Wei Yue said: "This year is more chaotic than last year."

Tao Bai nodded, and agreed: "Yes, we have encountered several groups of thieves along the way."

Wherever they passed, almost every village was robbed, and groups of refugees could be seen every few miles they walked.It's dangerous to say it, their team has been targeted by refugees several times, and they were almost robbed.Fortunately, there were so many of them and they had weapons in their hands, those refugees finally gave up their idea.

Wei Yue said: "I thought about one thing before. You said that in this world, the life of the poor is getting poorer every day, and the life of the rich is getting richer every day. Is there no change in this day? Anyway, I I can’t figure out how to change it. Even those of us who are thieves only dare to steal from the poor, not the rich. Officials also protect the rich, not the poor. The rich will probably stay rich forever. The richer you get, the more ruthless you become richer."

Rich people have many fields and many servants. They can build castle walls in the fields and high-walled mansions in the cities.It's not that thieves don't want to start with the rich, but that they don't have the ability.What they can get is often only those poor people who can't even build high walls.

Tao Bai was ashamed by what he said, but Wei Yue herself didn't, and remained calm.Thoughts like being ashamed were just banal to him.

Wei Yue continued: "However, I discovered recently that things will change. The refugees can't survive, so they can only rob farmers who have no money; the farmers who have no money can't survive, and they can only resist landlords who are not strong enough; Landlords who are not strong enough to survive may have to resist the government. If they can’t survive even the government, it’s time for the rich to spit their money out.”

Tao Bai was confused and didn't understand what Wei Yue wanted to say.And Wei Yue didn't go any further, so he could only recall what Wei Yue said earlier.After thinking about it, he seemed to understand a little bit, and raised his head to look at Wei Yue in a daze.

Wei Yue glanced back, and the Zhao family brothers had already chased him from a distance.Another gust of wind blew, he closed his clothes, and told everyone: "Let's go faster and try to enter the city as soon as possible. The city is safer anyway. Otherwise, we thieves pretend to be rich for a few days and let other thieves If it is robbed, it will ruin the reputation of a lifetime."

Everyone was also panicked by the staring eyes of the refugees along the road, and hurriedly quickened their pace and rushed towards the direction of Jianzhou City.

=====

Inside Langzhou Mansion.

There was a knock on Zhu Nao's door, and he said, "Come in."

The door was pushed open, and it was Jing Zhe who came in: "My lord, is there news from Jianzhou?"

Zhu Nao asked, "How?"

Jing Zhe said: "It is said that the date has been fixed. It is the last day of October."

Zhu Nao nodded and ordered, "Call Yu Changming and Dou Ziyi."

Jing Zhe said: "Yes."

Not long after, Dou Ziyi came.After waiting for a while, Yu Changming also came, wearing the uniform of the Xiangdu Commander, dusty and dusty, it looked like he had just come down from the training ground.

Zhu Nao said: "It is said that the date has been set, the end of October. How are you preparing?"

Dou Ziyi licked her lips, looking quite nervous.Yu Changming was as usual, he only doubted: "Will that Wei Yue succeed?"

Zhu Nao touched the small matter and said: "Such a small matter, he shouldn't mess it up, right?"

Yu Changming and Dou Ziyi: "..." If these are small things, what else is a big thing?

In fact, if Wei Yue's plan is implemented properly, it is indeed not too difficult to implement.

The task Zhu Nao gave Wei Yue that day was to take down the Jianzhou government. The so-called taking down meant that the Jianzhou government should collapse so that Zhu Nao could settle in smoothly.At first glance, ordinary people would think that this mission would require a bloodbath to cleanse the Jianzhou government, but in fact, such a large-scale fight is not necessary to achieve the goal.As the saying goes, go up to attack the strategy, and go down to attack the city, this is the truth.

After Wei Yue took over the task, the first thing she did was to spend two or three months inquiring about the news.Because he is from Jianzhou himself, he is quite familiar with the situation in Jianzhou.He spent a lot of effort to inquire about the situation of the officials in Jianzhou Prefecture, as well as the news of some powerful local families.

After inquiring about the news, he recruited some more people, and then transformed himself into a businessman from Chengdu.He made up a complete life story for himself, claiming that his family is a big family in Chengdu, with many children, he has an elder brother and a younger brother, and he is caught in the middle without embarrassment, and is not taken seriously by his family.So he wanted to make some achievements by himself, so that he could get his family's change.So he took some people to travel away from home, all the way north, looking for opportunities.

After he arrived in Jianzhou, he found that Jianzhou was rich in minerals. If these minerals could be mined and transported to Chengdu, where the industry and commerce is more prosperous, it would be a profitable business.So he entrusted some people to get in touch with the Jianzhou government in order to facilitate this matter.

Wei Yue has been cheated and abducted in recent years, and has assumed many identities. Pretending to be a businessman is also easy.Moreover, Zhu Nao also contributed a lot. He taught Wei Yue a lot about business, and also allocated a few people who had been in business with him for many years to help Wei Yue, making Wei Yue look more like a businessman.Not only that, but he also initiated some connections, first introducing Wei Yue to the merchants in Jianzhou, and after the merchants in Jianzhou believed in Wei Yue's identity, they recommended him one by one, and finally introduced him to the government.

After pretending to be a businessman, Wei Yue did not spend a lot of money to strengthen his disguise.On the contrary, he acted very low-key, only bought a small house in Jianzhou City, and kept everything simple. He wore expensive silk brocade for his close-fitting clothes, but his outer robe was just ordinary silk.His identity was only disclosed to a few businessmen, and he will never publicize it again.

What he did did not arouse other people's suspicion, but made people more convinced - the richer the son from the richer family, the less need to show off.Moreover, the situation in Jianzhou is so chaotic now, it seems strange that anyone deliberately reveals their wealth.

After his idea of ​​mining minerals was disclosed to the Jianzhou government, it aroused great interest from Jianzhou officials.Jianzhou is considered a barren land in central Shu, no matter how harsh the taxes are, the money collected is limited.Officials already worry about where to get the money.Although there are minerals in Jianzhou, the officials don't know how to mine them, and they don't know how to use them.If someone can do it for them, they just need to sit and share the money, which would be great.

Originally whetted the appetite of the officials, Wei Yue should strike while the iron is hot.But he didn't. Instead, he took people to Langzhou every now and then.Because he discovered that Langzhou also has mineral veins, and the law and order in Langzhou is better than Jianzhou.

Originally, the officials of Jianzhou Prefecture still had some doubts about Wei Yue's identity, so they wanted to leave him alone and slowly verify his identity and background.As a result, after Wei Yue ran to Langzhou twice, the officials of the Jianzhou government became anxious. They put aside any doubts and quickly recruited him, lest he go to Langzhou and refuse to come back.

Wei Yue pretended to be in contact with the officials of Jianzhou for a while, coaxing them into confusion.Seeing that the time given to him by Zhu Nao was almost up, he also started his final plan——

Hongmen Banquet.

……

Jianzhou City.

October [-]th was a rainy day, and it rained continuously all day long.The air was filled with steam, damp and uncomfortable.

After late autumn, it gets dark much earlier than usual. Coupled with the rain, the sun has sunk below the horizon just after Shen.The officials in the government were busy with their work and went back to rest one after another.

After Zhou Tianmu sorted out the official documents in his hand, there was no one around him.He sat for a while, and waited until it was dark outside before he stood up slowly and walked outside.After leaving the second hall, the outside was empty and there were almost no people.He was overjoyed and continued to walk out slowly.

All the way to the gate, except for those who were on duty, all the people in the state capital had already left.He was in a good mood and started humming a little song.

Stepping out of the gate, he walked towards the city, planning to drink a cup of hot tea to warm up before the teahouse was fully closed.It's already a little cold.However, just two steps away, a voice suddenly sounded from behind.

"Zhou Gongcao, you can figure it out."

Zhou Tianmu was startled, and turned his head abruptly, only to see a man standing by the high wall of the state capital, with a carriage parked not far behind him.The man smiled and said, "I'm the coachman who came to pick up Zhou Gongcao to the banquet, let's go quickly, the hour has already passed, I'm afraid there is already drinking."

Zhou Tianmu looked embarrassed: "Since it's already late, why don't I go? Or disturb everyone's elegant mood."

The coachman said: "That can't be done. Mr. Wei has ordered that he has prepared a big gift for every distinguished guest today, so that we must receive every distinguished guest."

Zhou Tianmu secretly rolled his eyes.

He knew that Mr. Wei, it is said that he was a rich man from Chengdu Mansion. His family was very rich, his business was very big, and his relatives were officials in Chengdu Mansion.He came out to start a career, took a fancy to Jianzhou's minerals, and has been dealing with the government recently.Several senior officials in the government wanted to facilitate this matter very much, so the two sides fought fiercely.Today is said to be the birthday of Mr. Wei. He doesn't have many relatives and friends in Jianzhou, and the one he has the most contact with is the government, so he arranged a banquet and invited many officials to attend.

It's not that Zhou Tianmu hates Mr. Wei.It's just that he doesn't have any friendship with that Mr. Wei at all, and he doesn't know what the mining has to do with him, but he somehow appeared on Mr. Wei's banquet list.He originally thought that the number of officials who went to the banquet was enough, so it didn't matter if he didn't go, and he didn't want to go into this muddy water.He deliberately delayed coming out so late, thinking he could hide, but unexpectedly he was caught.

Originally he sneaked away, but afterward he found an excuse to fool him, and it didn't matter much after thinking about it.But now that the coachman stopped him, he still forcibly refused, which is indeed a bit too shameless, and I'm afraid it will offend others.

He hesitated for a moment, and finally said helplessly: "I'm sorry, I was feeling sick in my stomach, so I came out late. Since Mr. Wei is too kind, let's go quickly."

He got into the carriage, and the carriage drove away.

……

The carriage stopped at the entrance of a mansion, Zhou Tianmu walked in, walked through the corridor, and came to the backyard, only to hear the music inside.He walked in following the arrangement of the lanterns, only to see that the banquet was set in the backyard, and a group of women were singing and dancing to add to the fun.

The banquet was not too lively, there were less than 20 people in total, except Mr. Wei and a few of his friends, the rest were high officials from the state capital.There was a seat vacant at the table, presumably reserved for him.

He was even more puzzled, and he didn't know why he was invited.While everyone was watching the singing and dancing, he quietly groped over and sneaked into the table without attracting much attention from others.

After a while, someone came over and filled everyone's wine glasses.

After the song and dance performed a wonderful passage, everyone's attention returned to the banquet.

Mr. Wei raised his wine glass and said to everyone: "Thank you all for coming to celebrate my birthday today, come and have a toast!"

Everyone quickly raised their wine glasses, said some congratulations, and drank one after another.

Zhou Tianmu doesn't like to drink, but only likes to drink tea.After taking a sip among the crowd, he put down the cup.However, Mr. Wei glanced around, fixed his eyes on him, and said with a meaningful smile: "Everyone give me Wei some face, I have to drink until I am not drunk."

Zhou Tianmu: "..."

He cursed in his heart, bit the bullet and drank all the wine.

The person who refilled the wine immediately came up again, and filled everyone's wine glasses one by one again.In order to speed up the refills, two people also came, one refills wine for some of his business friends on Wei Yue's left, and the other refills wine for the officials on his right.

Everyone chatted a few words about mining, Mr. Wei raised his glass again, and said boldly: "Come on, finish this cup!"

Everyone raised their glasses again, and Zhou Tianmu drank another glass in pain.

Everyone continued to chat.

Today's wine was very strong, after only two glasses, Zhou Tianmu became a little dizzy.He knew that he didn't drink very well, and he had been drunk several times before, but for some reason today, he was extremely dizzy.Fortunately, he was not the host and guest, and he didn't need to speak much, just lowered his head to relieve the alcohol.

The drinker came again, and Mr. Wei persuaded him to drink again.The drinker came again, and someone persuaded him to drink again...

Zhou Tianmu didn't know how many cups he had drunk. Suddenly, he heard a loud "boom" beside him, which startled him.He stared at the method with dazed eyes, only to realize that the person sitting next to him had slipped to the ground.Furthermore, he discovered that the singing and dancing stopped at some point, and he was probably really drunk, so he didn't notice it at all.

Hearing another "bang", someone at the table staggered and stood up. He couldn't stand firmly, and directly threw himself on the table, knocking over a table of wine and food.

Zhou Tianmu shook his head, trying to wake himself up, but the effect was limited.Not only him, most of the people at the table were staggering and drunk like him.But there are still half a table of people sitting upright, not in a state of drunkenness.

Someone from outside ran in and ran to Young Master Wei: "Brother Wei, everyone outside is down."

"Oh?" Mr. Wei got up, flung his clothes, stepped on the chair with one foot, he was no longer like a well-educated rich businessman, but full of rascal, "Tsk tsk, this is too fucking smooth, these gangs of wine bags... "