Zhu Nao

Don't say that Lu Qinghui found it incredible, even Xu Yu was a little surprised.He had the same idea as Lu Qinghui.If he were Junao, the best thing to do right now would be to act as low-key as possible.To be honest on the surface, it is best to pretend to be cowardly with Yuan Jilu and admit his mistake, so that Yuan Jilu can let go of his vigilance against them and not rush to put the attack on Langzhou on the agenda.Behind the scenes, they can secretly recruit troops to increase their strength, and then wait for an opportunity to fight against the Chengdu government.

But Zhu Nao's approach is the exact opposite.In the past when the imperial court imprisoned military power, he more or less sold himself to the Chengdu Mansion and gave Yuan Jilu a gift.Now that the military power has been lifted, he is preparing for war with open arms?Could it be that Langzhou already has the strength to fight against Chengdu Mansion? !

But the possibility of this is extremely low.Langzhou, even if Jianzhou is added, these two states are in the back of Shu, with many mountains and rivers, and the population is not so dense, so this account does not make sense.

Taking ten thousand steps back, even if Langzhou really has the strength to fight Chengdu Mansion, it would be better not to fight.Even if the desperate battle is won, it will be a lose-lose ending.No matter how many years Zhu Nao has accumulated in Langzhou, he will lose all his wealth.Is it really worth it?

The two young Yins of the Chengdu Mansion were all at a loss, and they couldn't figure out what Zhu Nao was thinking even if they tried to break their heads.

However, one thing is clear.Lu Qinghui sneered and said: "He has always been known as benevolent in Langzhou for the past few years. The people in Langzhou regard him as a parent official, and our Chengdu officials as jackals and leopards. Now his fox tail is finally about to show What benevolence, righteousness and generosity are all his means to win people's hearts. For his glory and wealth, hasn't he decided to go to war? When the war starts and all kinds of military supplies are spent, I'll see when he will become a jackal!"

What Lu Qinghui said was somewhat bitter.He also knew how the people scolded officials like them, but many times the officials were really helpless.In such a huge Chengdu mansion, the annual expenses are placed here, and money and food must be handed over to the imperial court.Where does the money come from without increasing miscellaneous taxes?If it is possible for the rich to spend more money, who is willing to exploit the poor?

However, many wealthy households have means of avoiding taxes. Firstly, there is no mistake in the law, and secondly, the wealthy households have intricate backgrounds, which are really difficult to control.As a result, the officials have all kinds of constraints, and many things can only be done intentionally and powerlessly.

Lu Qinghui was young and had ambitions, but he was born at the wrong time and could not fulfill his ambitions.How could he not feel sour when a fool like Zhu Nao who broke the order appeared out of nowhere?However, he would never admit that he was jealous, and only found many righteous reasons to accuse Zhu Nao.In fact, these reasons are not used by him to fool others, but by him to deceive himself.

He couldn't understand it himself, but Xu Yu understood it very well from the side.However, Xu Yu is a fine person, and he knew that if Lu Qinghui broke through this layer, he would turn out of shame and leave.So he just laughed and joked: "You were listless just now, why did you get excited when you talked about Zhu Nao and Langzhou?"

Lu Qinghui was taken aback: "Is there?"

He thought about it for a while, and was suddenly dumbfounded, so he took a sip from the wine glass embarrassingly.

Xu Yu said again: "I don't know about the matter in Langzhou, but you said that Zhu Nao is for glory and wealth, but I don't think that's what he's after—don't ask me what he's after, I've already said he's a fool , who knows what he thinks. As for your benevolence, righteousness and generosity..."

After a pause, he said with a faint smile: "Who is really benevolent and generous who can be an official? Who doesn't have the means to win people's hearts? Why do you have to criticize him alone?"

Lu Qinghui immediately retorted: "Why should I criticize him? It's you who help him speak and do things. I've tried to persuade him to do something that's not a traitor, but you still approved it for him! What's your intention? "

Seeing that he was in a hurry, Xu Yu hurriedly raised her hand and leaned back, as if surrendering.

Lu Qinghui was depressed and had nowhere to vent, so he added more wine to himself.

Xu Yu said: "Qinghui, today we can be regarded as heart-to-heart. Since no one else is around, I have a few questions that I am really curious about, and I really want to ask you."

Lu Qinghui raised his eyelids and tilted him.Xu Yu, an old fox, didn't say a word about his own thoughts, so he had the nerve to say "confidentially" here with the cheek.

Xu Yu didn't care what he thought, and started to ask, "You hate Yuan Jilu, don't you?"

Lu Qinghui sneered.It's not that he doesn't want to answer, but that this kind of question doesn't even need to be answered.

Xu Yu said again: "You also hate Zhu Nao, don't you?"

Lu Qinghui remained silent with a sullen face.

Xu Yu asked slowly: "So, Yuan Jilu or Zhu Nao, which one do you hate more? Or, if only one of them can survive, who do you hope?"

Lu Qinghui was stunned.

After a long time, he still didn't say a word, but picked up the wine glass on the table and drank it down!

=====

In the government office, a row of officials stood tremblingly in front of Yuan Jilu.

Yuan Jilu leaned on the grand master's chair and scanned the crowd.His expression was not vicious, and he even seemed to be smiling, but a row of officials were all terrified.

Just a few days ago, because the recruitment situation was still unsatisfactory after changing the recruitment order twice, Yuan Jilu dismissed an official in charge of recruiting immediately with a swipe of a pen, and dismissed the official who was 70 years old and over [-] years old among the relatives of the three ethnic groups. All men under the age of [-] were exiled to the army, and women were sold into brothels.

Yuan Jilu didn't like killing people, but there were ways to torture people more than killing people.The recruitment of soldiers was almost the first time he personally presided over an event in a serious manner. He was also learning how to get along with officials, and gradually found fun in it.

Therefore, in the eyes of the officials who were being scrutinized by Yuan Jilu at the moment, Yuan Jilu's eyes were clearly picking the next target.How to teach them not to tremble?

Yuan Jilu finally said, "Send me the latest recruitment situation for me to have a look."

Someone immediately stepped forward and handed over the list of soldiers recruited by the states recently.

Yuan Jilu took a look in his hand and was startled: "Eh? So many?"

Not long ago, there were only more than 5000 people, but now the total number of states has suddenly reached 5000.If this trend continues, it should not be a problem to recruit 2 people before Qingming.

Yuan Jilu frowned and said, "Could you have done something to trick me? Why couldn't you recruit people for more than a month ago, and suddenly recruited so many people these days?"

All the officials broke into a cold sweat, and quickly shook their heads in denial: "I dare not!"

Someone explained: "Fu Yin, we have increased the amount of military pay and increased the preferential treatment for joining the army. Previously, the conditions were probably not attractive enough for the common people, but now they are very generous. Naturally, the applicants also They flocked."

Yuan Jilu raised his eyebrows, wondering if he believed what he said.

After a while, he said: "Since so many people have been recruited, don't let them sit idle and eat. The first ones recruited should be trained first. The trash in Zhechong Mansion said that the newly recruited soldiers must Practice for half a year before you can use it. Half a year? How can there be so much free time!"

The officials dared not respond.

Yuan Jilu sucked his teeth, and said very uncomfortablely: "You should have heard the news from Langzhou, right? They trained soldiers, opened mines, and repaired the city wall, and they never idled for a day. You know they have How many soldiers have you recruited? At least five or six thousand! A mere Langzhou, even if he adds another Jianzhou, he can recruit five or six thousand people. I have a big Chengdu, but let you recruit 6000 for me People, how do you do things?" After speaking, he slammed the list in his hand on the table.

All the officials trembled in fright, and their timid calves began to tremble.

The figure of five or six thousand was not made up by Yuan Jilu casually, but came back from the people he sent out to inquire about the news.In fact, Zhu Nao only planned to recruit 1000 people, but this was a secret of the Langzhou government. Unless the spy had the ability to sneak into the Langzhou government and steal the recruitment list, otherwise it would be impossible to know the exact number anyway.Therefore, the spies can only figure out their own way to guess.

The spies first saw that the recruiting team lined up very long every day, so they knew that the number of recruits was absolutely indispensable.Besides, he didn't care whether Zhu Nao was recruiting soldiers or workers. Anyway, so many people had already arrived in Langzhou, and they were doing what the army should do. How could he know that this was not an army formed by Zhu Nao under another name?In addition, it is okay to report too many people in this kind of thing, but the number of people reported is too small. Zhu Nao obviously has five or six thousand people, but he only said two or three thousand people, which caused Yuan Jilu to lose the battle because he underestimated the enemy. No one can bear the responsibility .Therefore, in the end, all the spies who were sent to inquire about the news reported such a number, and Yuan Jilu naturally believed in this.

Fearing that Yuan Jilu would commit another crime, the officials hurriedly patted their chests and promised that enough people would be recruited before Qingming.

Yuan Jilu was probably satisfied with the recent rally, and he received assurances from the officials that he finally did not punish anyone this time.He warned with a smirk: "It will be fine if the recruitment is full. If the recruitment is still not enough in the end, next time it will not only implicate the three clans. You fill in all the relatives of the nine and ten clans of your own family." In short, the number of people I want must not be less than one."

Xu felt that there is only a threat, and no reward is not very authentic.Yuan Jilu touched his round double chin, and said: "When my army breaks through Langzhou and sees Zhu Nao's head, I will give you all the ranks."

The officials forced a smile and thanked Yuan Jilu for his kindness.

Yuan Jilu waved his hand: "Okay, let's go to work."

Everyone didn't dare to wait for a moment, and ran away quickly.

=====

Langzhou.

After Zhu Nao was busy with the business in hand, he took Jing Zhe to wander around the market in the city.After walking around, he came to the previous silver shop again.

He walked into the shop, took a silver jug ​​similar to the one he saw last time, and asked the shopkeeper, "Shopkeeper, what's the price of this pot now?"

The shopkeeper hurriedly came out and raised his palm: "Zhou Mu, now we have to sell five taels of silver."

Zhu Nao raised his eyebrows: "It's growing so fast?" When he came back, it had only grown from one tael to two taels of silver, but now it has more than doubled.

The shopkeeper wondered: "I don't know why the price of goods has risen so fast. The price of silver has not risen much, but the price of craftsmanship has risen sharply. My business is almost out of business. Originally, everyone spent one or two taels of silver to buy a They are happy to go back to the exquisite utensils, but the price is so high that no one is willing to buy them.

He said again: "Some people still call me a profiteer. I am really wronged. When this batch of goods is sold out, I will not buy any more. Let's do another business."

Zhu Nao nodded, just asked the price as before, put down the things and went out.

Zhu Nao wandered around the market for a long time, inquired about various prices, and returned to the state capital. It happened that there was a new letter from the grain store.At the beginning, Zhu Nao and Wei Yue said that Fei Qiang's eyes were his eyes, but now he has indeed fulfilled the task of his eyes.

The stewards of the grain banks in each state will record the price changes of each type of grain every day, as well as some major events and new events in the state, and then send news to Junao every five days.Letters poured in from all states, and Junao received letters almost every day.

This grain line is different from the government.The grain bank may not know the secrets of the government, but doing business, especially the grain business, is for the common people, so people in the grain bank are even more keenly aware of the changes in the folk than the government.And that's exactly what Junao needs.

After opening the letter, Zhu Nao quickly read it, then put the letter aside, with a calm expression on his face.

Seeing him like this, Jing Zhe thought that there was no news recently: "My lord, is there anything new?"

Zhu Nao pointed to the letter and said, "You can read it for yourself."

Jing Zhe picked up the letter, and after reading a few lines, his face suddenly changed, and he said angrily, "This... there is such a thing!" He looked down line by line, and the more he looked, the tighter his fists were, and when he saw that the letter paper had already Crumpled by him.He tried his best to restrain the letter and slowly put it back in place.

His eyes were red, he gritted his teeth and said: "...those damn dog officials!!"

But Zhu Nao just said indifferently: "Go and help me find Wei Yue."

=====

In a simple village in Mianzhou, crying and cursing were resounding everywhere.

"Let go, let go of my son! You bastards, you bastards, you bastards!"

An old couple yelled and cursed loudly, while pulling the hands of several officials vigorously.Those officials escorted a young man, who was their eldest son.Their youngest son, a boy of seven or eight years old, also jumped out of the house and bit an official's hand, trying to make the official let go of his brother.

The officials kicked the boy away, pushed the couple down, and threatened viciously: "If you dare to hinder us from performing official duties, you and your family will be arrested and put in prison!"

"You are simply bandits!" The old woman cried and patted the ground, "Why did you arrest my son to join the army? Why did you do this?!"

An official said coldly, "Whoever told you to default on taxes, you will be exiled if you break the law, no one else is to blame!"

The father hurriedly said: "We will pay, and we will pay for everything! As long as there are any valuable things in our house, you will take them all! But you can't rob people."

The official was unkind: "It's too late to pay now. This is the current law, there is no need to discuss it! Don't talk nonsense, don't keep up, or I will arrest your youngest son and join the army!"

The old couple originally intended to fight desperately to get back their eldest son, but when they heard such threats, they became a little cowardly.Their youngest son is too young, if he is really taken away, he may not be able to survive at all.

The arrested young man also resisted vigorously at first, but after hearing this, he eased his struggle.After a while, he turned back with tears in his eyes: "Father, mother, I'm fine, I will find a way to come back. Take good care of my brother!"

The old man chased forward a few more steps, and said eagerly: "Catch me, I'm going to join the army, and you let my son go."

It's a pity that the officials ignored him at all.

The recruiting has been going on vigorously for two months, and it seems that there are not many days left until the Qingming Festival, and the nature and form of recruiting are completely different from when it first started.

In the beginning, admissions were based on merit.What the Chengdu government wants is an elite and capable army, so it has set strict requirements, and only those who meet the requirements can apply.However, there were very few people who responded, and Yuan Jilu insisted on so many people. The officials were afraid that they would suffer if they failed to complete the task, so they could only apply downward pressure.Finally, recruiting has changed from voluntary application to government grabbing people.Chengdu is the capital, and the situation is slightly better.But the people in the rest of the states are not so lucky.

In order to complete the task, the governments of various states can only try their best to convict the common people.What kind of tax payment is late for a few days, and it used to be a matter of paying interest at most, but now it has become a major crime to be sent to the distribution army.What's more, in order to arrest people, officials can only falsely accuse innocent people at will.Some people were walking on the road, but they were directly taken away by the officials just because they met the conditions for recruiting soldiers, and they insisted that they were taken away by fugitives.

As for the criminals who were originally held in prisons in various states, they were the first to be sent to Chengdu.Who cares what crimes these people have committed, it is a big deal to be able to make up the numbers now.

The officials quickly searched the entire village, and in the end dozens of young men were arrested. Men from almost every family were arrested.When collecting taxes for a certain item a while ago, the government deliberately indulged and procrastinated, causing households to pay less and pay late.In fact, this is a deliberate frame-up by the government to find an excuse for forced conscription.

In order to prevent these dozens of men from resisting and fleeing, the officials tied their hands with ropes, and tied them together with long ropes, and then walked to the recruiting place.

The old couple's son was named Yue Dong, although he felt hopeless and frightened at the moment, he still held back his tears.He was afraid that his parents and younger brother would chase him out to see him, and he didn't want to cry until he left the village.

Yuedong was dragged by the rope and walked two steps forward, suddenly felt someone bumped him lightly from behind, he turned his head quickly, only to see his good friend Buxi standing behind him.He was so flustered just now that he didn't even notice that Bu Xi was also in the team being robbed.

Bu Xi's mentality seemed to be much better than Yue Dong's.When he saw his friend's eyes were red, he knew how he was feeling, and he was able to comfort him with a smile: "Ah Dong, don't be afraid, I'll be with you."

Yuedong looked at his smiling face, his despair was diluted a lot.

Bu Xi said: "Look at you, what kind of expression is this? Isn't it recruiting soldiers? It looks like the sky is about to collapse." He looked around and saw that the officials were far away from where they were, and whispered, "I hear It is said that Chengdu Prefecture will recruit more than 2 people this time. Think about it, what is the concept of more than 2 people? There are only 500 people in our village including men, women and children. Are you clear? Are we afraid that we won't find a chance to sneak back?"

After hearing what he said, Yue Dong felt that it made sense, and his mood gradually became clearer.Buxi has been the king of children in the village since he was a child. He has the most evil ideas, and the elders have a headache for him.However, having someone like him by his side at a time like this is really reassuring.

Bu Xi said again: "Besides, I have never been to Chengdu since I grew up. I really want to see what it's like there. This time I join the army, maybe I will encounter some interesting things. It's no better than farming at home. Interesting? Thinking about it this way, maybe this is a good thing..."

Seeing that he was starting to lose track of what he was talking about, Yue Dong hurriedly said, "I just want to go home."

Bu Xi said: "Okay, okay. Anyway, I'm here, don't be downcast."

The two of them were talking when they suddenly heard a shout from behind: "What are you muttering about? Stay away from me and don't talk!"

The officials began to doubt and reprimanded them, Bu Xi secretly made a face, and then distanced himself from Yue Dong.

He was indeed not in a bad mood at all, and after walking for a while, he hummed a little song happily.

=====

Chengdu recruiting office.

The officials in charge of recruiting soldiers yawned one after another.It was really boring for him to sit here. The recruitment has been open for so many days, and there are really no newcomers.But the stall couldn't be withdrawn, he was so bored that he could count the hairs on his hand.

After yawning big and deep, he vaguely saw two people approaching with tears in his eyes.He thought he was just passing by, so he didn't care at all, and continued to prepare for the next yawn.

However, the two stopped in front of the stall.

"Brother, do you sign up here to join the army?"

The official was startled: "Huh?"

It took him a while to realize, he quickly rubbed the water out of his eyes, cheered up and said, "Yes. Both of you want to sign up?"

Of the two men, one was tall and thin, with wheat-colored skin, and a smile on his face, a little ruffian.The other was much smaller and more reserved.

It was rare for someone to take the initiative to sign up, and the official hurriedly wrote: "Name? Native place?"

One of them said: "Wei Wangyue." The other said: "Tao Dabai."

The official said: "Come one by one. You, you come first."

These two people are none other than Wei Yue and Tao Bai.Wei Yue was first pointed out by the officials who signed up, so he first reported his name, hometown, family and other information.

After the official questioned, he asked again: "Have you brought your household registration?"

Wei Yue sneered: "Brother, I came out in a hurry and forgot to bring it."

The official looked at him and then at Tao Bai.The two men were dressed in tatters, and they could be seen as refugees at a glance.Now it doesn't matter what refugees are or not, as long as they are living people.

So the official didn't say a word, just wrote down all the information, and pointed to a pillar next to him: "Go and measure your height."

Wei Yue walked over, turned her head to take a look, and reported: "Seven feet nine."

The officials recorded seven feet nine.

After registering Wei Yue's information, it was Tao Bai's turn.After writing down the household registration information, etc., the officials asked Tao Bai to measure his height, and Tao Bai was a little nervous.He wasn't even seven feet tall, not even six feet five.

However, when he stood by the pillar, the officials didn't even look at it. Xu knew early in the morning that he was not enough to count, so he directly wrote the word "Qi Chi" on the notebook.

After everything was registered, the official gave each of them a wooden sign and reported an address, and asked the two of them to report by themselves.