"Is there something going on?" Seeing Li Xiao staying in his study, there must be something going on, and it's something that is inconvenient for Zhang Huangyan to know. It must be a big deal for Li Xiao to act so cautiously and personally!

"There is one thing. The manager of the Qinhuangdao Water Supply Office is a nephew of yours?"

Li Xiao's question was a bit inexplicable. Sun Chengzong blinked twice and tried to think about it, but still couldn't remember it.

He is a first-grade official of the imperial court and a steward of a water supply office in Qinhuangdao. He is a low-ranking petty official and a standard ninth-grade sesame official. There are more such officials than the bastards in Jinshui River. How could he remember it!

"how?"

"The thing is like this, my second daughter-in-law is going to do some business. Then she will join forces with my family to invest in a luxury inn in Qinhuangdao. You know, apart from Beijing, Jinzhou, Xi'an, and Jinan, there is only one place in Qinhuangdao.

With complete water and electricity facilities and beautiful scenery, opening an inn must be a good business!"

"Your family owns an inn, what's the matter with me?" Sun Chengzong became even more suspicious.

It stands to reason that Li Xiao's family should have given the green light to open an inn. How could he contact his nephew?

"It was not convenient for women to come forward, so they approached Mr. Wu and nominally invested in him to build a luxury inn in Qinhuangdao.

The fifth master arrived in Qinhuangdao and met with the prefect. He quickly bought the land and started construction. After more than a year of construction, it finally had some appearance. But when it was about to open, the manager of the local water supply office said... he needed to report to

He paid 50,000 silver coins to provide water!" When he said this, Li Xiao's face had darkened.

Looking at Li Xiao's face, which could almost swell with tears, Sun Chengzong frowned deeply.

Although the Ming Dynasty had regulations for paying construction fees to the Water Supply Bureau, it definitely did not require as much as 50,000 silver coins all at once. Moreover, Li Xiao emphasized that this money was for the management of the Water Supply Bureau. In other words, his own

A nephew scratched the ground and hit the tiger's head.

Sun Chengzong knew that the steward of the Waterworks Office must be his nephew. Although he couldn't remember which one it was, with Li Xiao's temper, if he hadn't been his nephew, his head would have been hanging on the flagpole and blowing in the wind.

.

Seeing Sun Chengzong's face, Li Xiao knew that this matter was definitely not caused by Sun Chengzong.

Starting from Liaodong, Li Xiao and Sun Chengzong have always cooperated happily. Sun Chengzong was in charge of civil affairs, and Li Xiao was in charge of military affairs. These two best partners have always cooperated in a tacit understanding, and there has never been any rift.

It would have been easier if Sun Chengzong hadn’t been the one in charge!

In fact, the fifth master had already gone to the Qinhuangdao magistrate's office and told the magistrate about steward Sun's blackmailing him. Li Xiao strictly restrained his family members and acted in accordance with the Ming Law. Anyone who disrespected the law would be severely punished.

Therefore, after the fifth master was blackmailed, the first thing he did was to petition. He thought that the other party knew that the transaction was between the handsome brothers and did not deal with the bastard who was crazy about money and not severely. But he did not expect that the magistrate would

With a look of pain on his face, he told the property manager...he couldn't deal with this person.

After the fifth master inquired curiously, he found out that this person was actually a nephew of Sun Chengzong, and he was a relatively close relative.

Sun Chengzong was in charge of civil affairs, and the magistrate belonged to Sun Chengzong. How dare he offend the chief minister?

You can't offend the chief minister, and you can't afford to offend the commander-in-chief. The chief envoy of Jinzhou was stripped naked by Li Xiao two days ago and hung on the roof of the building as a pendulum. I heard that he was censored by Lu Xiangsheng for several days because he had a high fever.

And died.

God knows how people die! Anyway, there are rumors that the chief envoy died in a miserable way.

When gods fight, the prefect can only stand by and watch. If you have the ability, go and fight it yourself. But we want to see who is more powerful, the commander-in-chief or the chief assistant.

"Send someone to check if there is such a thing. Regardless of whether he is my nephew or not, the law of the Ming Dynasty is supreme and no one can violate it." Sun Chengzong sighed. He has been immersed in officialdom for a lifetime and has become a master for many years.

How could you, old fox, not smell the conspiracy in this?

There was no one in the court to support him, and the clan nephew who was in charge was crazy, so he would fight with a standard boss like Li Xiao. If that guy hadn't been his nephew, maybe there wouldn't even be any scum left.

"Lu Xiangsheng has come back, so let him go. This man is upright and upright, and everyone believes in him."

"Yeah! Just him, I can trust him too." Sun Chengzong agreed, but he didn't explain too much because he knew that even explaining might not be useful.

Li Xiao bowed his hands and walked out of Sun Chengzong's study.

"Call the boss." Sun Chengzong sat on the chair and thought for a while, then ordered his eldest son, Sun Quan, to be called over.

Because of what happened to Li Xiao last time, Sun Quan was sent back to his hometown by Sun Chengzong for more than a year. Because he felt unwell and needed to be treated by Divine Doctor Li, he returned to the capital.

"Greetings to father! Did you call me?" Seeing Sun Chengzong's calm expression, Sun Quan hurriedly bowed his head and saluted.

"There is a member of our family at the Qinhuangdao Water Supply Office. Do you know who he is?" Sun Chengzong asked while holding an official document in his hand.

"I know! It's Sun Cheng from the third uncle's family. The third uncle came to me to have a love affair. A few years ago, I asked someone to find the prefect of Qinhuangdao to install a ninth-grade official who was not popular, but I didn't dare to alarm you."

When Sun Chengzong asked, Sun Quan bowed and answered.

"Oh! I remembered, it's Sun Cheng from the third family. I remember that when I was a child, that boy had been friends with you. He would follow you around all day long, calling you Brother Quan, Brother Quan! His words were leaky, and he was a little careless.

Yaya." Sun Chengzong was still reading official documents and talking at the same time.

"Yes! It's him. He's also educated. But in recent years, the imperial court has stopped the imperial examination. He is really unworthy of being a farmer at home. After all, he is also a scholar. My son is brave, so he asked the prefect of Qinhuangdao to arrange such an errand."

The butler brought a cup of tea, and Sun Quan took it and placed it on Sun Chengzong's desk.

"It's not too much to support a close brother. Besides, Brother Cheng has also read a book. It's just that you let him stumble the Li family and openly ask for bribes from the Li family. This is how you are harming him. Tell your third uncle.

, get ready to collect the body. Li Xiao has the temperament of the King of Hell, he is destined to die." Sun Chengzong didn't even look at the cup of tea, he was still reading the official documents, as if he was talking about something that had nothing to do with him.

"Father! You can't. Brother Cheng is your nephew. He, Li Xiao, wants to be held accountable. Let him come after me." After hearing Sun Chengzong's words, Sun Quan suddenly became anxious.

"It's useless to yell at me. Lu Xiangsheng is already on the way at this time. And he should have arrived by airship! Even if we send someone to report the news now, Brother Cheng can't escape."

"Father! Lu Xiangsheng is your student. If you speak, your words will definitely help." Sun Quan was anxious. This Sun Cheng had been following him since he was a child. Among all his younger brothers and sisters, he liked this cousin the most.

"Ha! Who did you ask him to take advantage of? It's Li Xiao, the commander-in-chief of the Ming Dynasty today."

"You are the chief minister of the imperial court, and the civil affairs of the world are under your sole control. Even the Ministry of War is actually your responsibility." Sun Quan said anxiously.

"Haha! I am in charge of the Ministry of War, but do the people in the Ministry of War listen to me? They will listen to Zhang Huangyan and Li Xiao, but they will not listen to me. Li Xiao often said that political power comes from the barrel of a gun.

Do you understand what I mean? The barrel of the gun is in other people's hands, and the political power is also in their hands. Why does he not want a position in the court, but chooses to get the title of Marshal? He is just watching, very patiently.

Let's see who is really helping him and who is the one who has second thoughts. If he wants to ascend the throne, he will be the emperor tomorrow.

You don’t understand! That’s why you were jealous when you saw the Li family amassing money, and that’s why you ordered Brother Cheng to stumble them. That’s why you gave Brother Cheng’s life.

Now you know why I don’t let you serve as an official. If you are too thoughtful and ruthless, and show inappropriate thoughts, our whole family will suffer. You don’t think that you can put a clean team through

Let Li Xiao die. You are too naive, do you think Ao Canghai transferred the decorations back to the capital?" Sun Chengzong put down the documents in his hand, stood up and looked at this son who had high ambitions but low abilities.

"You and Li Xiao conquered this country together. Why can he... just...!"

"shut up!

Confused! The Ming Dynasty was defeated by the two kings of Zhongshan and Kaiping. But what happened to them? Even though Li Xiao was joking and laughing on weekdays, he was definitely more ruthless than Emperor Hongwu. Do you want your father to be Li Shanchang?

Or sapphire?

Do you think you can escape Li Xiao's eyes with this little move of yours? What does Li Yongfang do?"

"My son is not afraid. Sima Yi was the same back then...! He has fought three generations of my Sun family. If you don't believe me, you can't beat Li Xiao."

"Perseverance! Cruelty! Patience! You have neither, and you still say you want to imitate Sima Yi? If you were not my son, Sun Chengzong, you might be hit by a car and die when you go out one day. When it comes to being cruel and ruthless, you are not even as good as Li Hu, let alone

Talk about Li Xiu and Li Xiao.

From...forget it! You go back to your hometown immediately. You are not allowed to go out, you are not allowed to visit relatives, and you are not allowed to see me." Sun Chengzong angrily issued the most severe restraint order, which was even more severe than the last time.

"I can't even see my son?"

"no!"

"Why?" Sun Quan shouted loudly.

"Because I am your father! Because I am now the head of the Sun family, and because I don't want you to harm your son or our entire Sun family again." Sun Chengzong pointed at Sun Quan's nose and cursed, hitting it directly with the tip of his finger.

Sun Quan's face also turned unnaturally red because he was too excited.

"Dad! You are the chief assistant!"

"He is an uncrowned emperor!"

"Dad! Find a way to save Brother Cheng, he is your nephew. I was wrong! Isn't it okay that I was wrong? Please!" Sun Quan knelt on the ground, holding Sun Chengzong's sleeves and crying loudly.

"Child! Some things can't be solved by admitting your mistakes." Sun Chengzong was a little helpless, but he thought in his heart that as long as there was a glimmer of hope, he still didn't want Sun Cheng to die. Whether he was exiled to the frontier or served his sentence in prison, there was no way he could do it.

Better than a "click" of a knife in the neck.

"Father……!"

"Come here, take the boss back to his hometown in Gaoyang. Zhijie, come here, grandpa will explain something to you." Seeing Sun Zhijie at the door, Sun Chengzong waved him in.

Sun Quan looked at his son with a thunderstorm in his eyes. When he passed by, he reached out and grabbed his son's hand.

"Pa!" The ruler hit Sun Quan hard on the wrist. When he raised his head, Sun Chengzong had already pulled Sun Zhijie over.

As expected, things went as Sun Chengzong expected. Lu Xiangsheng took people to Qinhuangdao by airship. They arrested Sun Cheng that day and raided Sun Cheng's home and study.

If you don't check, you will be shocked. You will find 200,000 silver coins in the cellar of Sun Cheng's home, and 37 kilograms of gold. There are also title deeds to 68 properties in the capital.

The results of the search also frightened Lu Xiangsheng. At first, he just thought it was a rift between Li Xiao and Sun Chengzong. Unexpectedly, this little ninth-grade sesame official turned out to be a huge corrupt man.

House prices in Beijing have risen to such an extent that he actually has sixty-eight houses in one hand. This bastard is really good at raising money!

When the news reached the capital, Sun Chengzong was also shocked. He just thought that Sun Cheng did this after listening to Sun Quan's words. Unexpectedly, this was already a routine operation.

"Sun Cheng is domineering in the local area. He has a bad temper, a bad reputation, and is extremely greedy. There are even rumors in the local area that he has a gang background. He dares to accept money from anyone, and will not provide water to factories and merchants who do not pay.

If the money is too little, the water supply will be cut off. Even during his tenure, he will take advantage of the power and resources in his hands to provide water pipes for the military.

He has controlled the local water supply system for many years. In recent years, most of the newly built resorts and sanatoriums have been exploited by him. If new units and real estate projects want to connect to water pipes, they need to go through Sun Cheng, otherwise there will be no water at all. When someone wants to connect to water

, Sun Cheng would also take the opportunity to do pipeline projects. If he didn't obey, he wouldn't go through the procedures.

The train station was also forced to cut off water because it could not meet Sun Cheng's requirements. The station was built three years ago and is only a few dozen meters away from the Beidaihe Water Supply General Administration. However, because the conditions proposed by Sun Quan were not met, it was even shut down.

The water meter installed in the station was removed. To this day, the station still has no running water and can only rely on two large water tanks to store water.

Sun Cheng also had a bad relationship with his superiors and subordinates. He would even flip the table if he disagreed with him during a meeting. He would always say that Sun Chief Fu was his biological uncle. Anyone who dared to quarrel with him would be at odds with Sun Chief Fu. Even when he was interrogating him,

He even threatened me." Lu Xiangsheng showed no expression, holding a manuscript in his hand. He reported the investigation results in front of Li Xiao and Sun Chengzong.

The more Sun Chengzong heard this, the worse his face became. I didn't expect! I didn't expect! Such a person would come out of the Sun family's heir of poetry and etiquette.
Chapter completed!