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Chapter 172 Cai Jing's secret hand

Who is the final beneficiary of the rumors in Beijing?

Just do a little analysis and you will know.

Before those little cursive scripts appeared, the rumors circulating in the capital were all about His Majesty the Emperor. Most of them said that he sent two "three feet of blue sky" to the disaster area, and then transported gold and silver treasures to the capital one by one.

The "three feet of blue sky" here is not a compliment, it means that the official scraped away three feet of the land and made the sky three feet higher.

He Shen Yansong's reputation was not very good to begin with, but now that His Majesty the Emperor is getting mixed up with them, his reputation is getting worse and worse.

But when those small cursive scripts appeared, people's attention was immediately shifted to those things.

The result of the matter was that people no longer paid attention to His Majesty the Emperor, but turned their attention to the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty.

His Majesty the Emperor succeeded in getting out of this mud, and then he also poured shit all over the civil and military officials.

I have to say, brilliant.

Zheng Chen also said with emotion: "With this incident, Your Majesty can not only get rid of those stigmas temporarily, but also make all the momentum created by those people in the capital disappear."

"They can't make a big impact in Xingyang and Bianzhou, and their efforts in the capital are still resolved by His Majesty. In this way, we have the advantage on both ends."

He smiled and said: "It seems that the issue of the levee is stable."

He Shen also nodded. He put his hands behind his back, looked at the prototype of the embankment in the distance, and said with emotion: "Mr. Zheng, you can't be too relaxed."

"This man is willing to do anything for his own money and land."

Zheng Chen was startled and seemed a little confused: "What other methods do they have?"

He assured He Shen: "Master He, I am not bragging about Haikou. No matter what they do, they will definitely not cause any trouble in this three-thirds of an acre of Xingyang."

We have the Zheng family in Xingyang below, the support of many squires, the supervision of the county governor Yan Gaoqing in the middle, and the protection of His Majesty the Emperor and Lord He above... There is no reason why this matter cannot be done!

He Shen looked at the embankment, frowned and shook his head.

"Mr. Zheng, how difficult would it be to build this embankment?"

Zheng Chen didn't expect him to ask this question. After thinking for a moment, he replied: "Of course it is extremely difficult."

"It's not like the Zheng family has never thought of building such a stone embankment, but it's too difficult."

He looked at the workers working in the distance and the embryonic form of the embankment, with some emotion on his face: "The clan elders mentioned it several times, but they ignored it several times."

"Now that construction has started, we can see many problems that we did not expect."

"It will take several years to repair the dozens or hundreds of miles of stone embankments along both sides of the river."

He Shen nodded in agreement, but then his voice changed again: "But how long will it take to destroy such a levee?"

Zheng Chen was stunned, as if he had not expected the possibility He Shen mentioned.

"This... this... only needs three or four people, one to watch the wind, and the other two holding hammers and chisels, to dig out the dam when the water is strong..."

Or one person can use gunpowder to explode.

Wanting to understand this, Zheng Chen became a little incoherent: "Isn't it possible? Their land is also behind the embankment. If the embankment subsides, won't those people's land also be flooded?"

Although many people are clamoring to buy land, they probably won't be willing to do so if the levee is damaged.

Because those people's fields are also behind the embankment, they also enjoy the benefits of damming and silting the land.

If the levee is destroyed, not only will the farmland in hand be left untouched, but the originally good farmland will also be flooded.

He Shen kept frowning: "Mr. Zheng, don't underestimate others. Some people are stupid, but you can't understand what they do."

"Besides, since those people have gone to court to find someone to make decisions for them, then what happens next is probably beyond what these fools could have predicted."

Zheng Chen understood it all at once and slowly uttered four words: "It's hard to get off the tiger?"

"good."

He Shen nodded. The original purpose of those wealthy squires might have been to find someone in the court who could speak with them and ask them to help them change the notice prohibiting the purchase of land.

But when many officials in the capital also learned about so many fertile fields, they immediately joined together like sharks that smelled the fishy smell.

It's easy to ask the gods but hard to give them away. Today's big business owners not only move forward on their own, but there are people behind them who are constantly pushing them, thus forming a powerful force.

Sometimes the officials of the imperial court are responsible for leading the charge, but sometimes this situation can be reversed.

Zheng Chen was silent for a moment, then nodded slowly.

He Shen smiled and continued walking forward. Zheng Chen was born in the Zheng family in Xingyang. He said that his family was extremely wealthy, so he underestimated them.

This kind of person does not need to make money at all when he is an official. Even if there are a few exceptions, after making money for a while, he will suddenly find that after working hard for so long, he has not earned enough monthly money from his family.

Why are you working so hard? You might as well just lie down and lie down.

People like Zheng Chen, who comes from a wealthy family, generally have no experience in making money, so naturally they cannot imagine the hardships of the officials in Beijing. It is normal to not understand when encountering such a thing.

"Then, sir, what should we do?"

Zheng Chen quickly caught up with He Shen, frowned and asked, "Are we just going to let those people do harm behind our backs?"

He Shen sighed: "I am in the light, and the enemy is in the dark. It is impossible to guard against it. There will be a gap in the hundred secrets."

"We can only do our best and obey fate."

Zheng Chen also nodded heavily.

It is indeed difficult to prevent this, and usually the people who do this are dead warriors and the like. Even if they are caught, they may not be able to interrogate the person behind the scenes.

Even if the mastermind behind it could be found out, it would probably only be from one family.

What they have to face are many dissatisfied wealthy gentry households on the south bank of the Yellow River.

"Sir, I will ask the people below to select a few patrol teams to patrol the construction site day and night." Zheng Chen said solemnly.

No matter what, avoid this kind of thing if you can.

"Okay." He Shen nodded in approval.

The two of them were getting closer and closer to the embankment. After a while, people saw them from a distance, and there were waves of discussion in the distance.

"Huh? Look, that person looks familiar? He looks a bit like that... that person's name is..."

"Shen He! Isn't this Shen He?"

The theater troupe had just withdrawn from the construction site at noon, how could the people forget about them so quickly.

The little fat man in the distance is exactly the same as the little fat man who played Shen He in the troupe.

Seeing that there were government officials around, many ordinary people who were working did not dare to come up to them, so they could only discuss things from a distance.

But the sound of discussion was still accompanied by the breeze, and was sent to the ears of Mr. He.

"It is said in the opera that Shen He is a handsome young boy. I think the owner of the opera troupe was blind and chose such a fat guy to act."

"That's right, don't you think this is an eyesore? It makes people uncomfortable..."

The smile on He Shen's face froze, and his steps paused for a moment.

Just when Zheng Chen behind him didn't know how to comfort him, the people's discussion continued.

"But no matter what others do with the casting, this little brother Shen He is a good official."

"Yes, yes, what do you care about other people's parents? If someone dares to argue with a corrupt official like Yan Gaoshan, no matter how good-looking you are, how dare you?"

"What is this called? This is called character, this is called the magnanimity of an upright official!"

"That's right, what do people call this... what is uprightness?"

"Fuck you, I just learned two words from Li Xiucai, and now I'm dragging you..."

He Shen touched the mustache on his mouth and turned to look at Zheng Chen: "Mr. Zheng, do I have the integrity of an upright official?"

Zheng Chen hurriedly smiled and said: "I have never seen an official who is on good terms with your lord and has more integrity."

He Shen turned his head with a strange expression and continued walking towards the embankment.

This is the first time someone calls him an upright official.

~~

There are many smart people, especially those who are officials.

What He Shen and others can think of, many officials in the DPRK can also think of.

Even when cursive script became popular, they were so confused that they couldn't figure it out for a while. But now, after the fact, they still can't figure it out?

After thinking about it, the ministers realized that even if His Majesty did not do this, it must have something to do with him.

It's just that as long as there is no evidence, this kind of thing cannot be stated openly.

Beijing, Cai Mansion.

It’s still the study room with the strange stones with the tiger’s wandering mountain pattern, and it’s still the same group of Cai Jing’s gang members.

"Your Majesty's method is too underhanded!"

Song Qiaonian paced back and forth angrily, his face turning red with anger.

This incident left him with an unforgettable memory and an indelible impact.

If nothing unexpected happens, the title "Caterpillar" will accompany him throughout his life.

Once this nickname is mentioned, Mr. Song will inevitably think of this time, and the dead memories will begin to attack him...

And the culprit of all this is His Majesty the Emperor who lives in the palace.

"Don't talk nonsense."

Cai Jing picked up the gold wire cup on the table and took a sip of tea.

Also ranked among the "Three Heroes of Cursive Script", he is much calmer than Song Qiaonian.

"How do you know that His Majesty did this?"

Cai Jing glanced at Song Qiaonian and said, "Don't talk about groundless slander outsiders."

This time, not only Song Qiaonian, but also everyone else in the study echoed.

"Sir, is this matter settled?"

Although Song Qiaonian agreed, he was still furious and couldn't help but said: "Your Majesty... the people behind the scenes fabricating such rumors are really too sinister!"

"If you don't avenge this revenge, it's hard to get rid of the hatred in your heart!"

Cai Jing remained silent.

If you want to talk about being angry, he is even more angry than Song Qiaonian.

But don't be impulsive when doing this kind of thing.

It is difficult to stop rumors. Even if small cursive scripts are banned now, if someone wants to spread them in the future, there will still be nothing they can do.

Without cursive writing, you can still write on the wall, write on the table, put up big-character posters, and even spread it by word of mouth...

So in the final analysis, this thing depends on the quality of the content and its appeal to the people.

And what happened before has also proved that the rumors they came up with and the rumors from His Majesty the Emperor are not of the same quality level at all, and they are completely dismissed by the other party.

So if you want to continue to compete with others on this, I'm afraid you're just asking for humiliation.

For now, we still need to change our thinking.

After a moment of silence, Cai Jing slowly opened his mouth and said: "How is the newly established yamen, the Guangwen Department doing now?"

Everyone was startled, but only Deng Xunwu said: "Xiaguan has been to that place in the past few days, and it is very crowded. There are not many people at all."

Cai Jing nodded slowly: "No one... no one..."

He frowned and said: "How can there be no one in the Yamen established by Your Majesty?"

Song Qiaonian frowned: "Sir, it's just a small eighth-grade yamen, so you don't need to pay too much attention to it, right?"

"Even if something goes wrong, it won't have much impact..."

Cai Jing seemed to have thought of something, and kept nodding his head: "Whether the impact is big or not depends on what happened, what yamen, who..."

He stood up, walked back and forth for a few steps, and said, "No matter what, this is the yamen established by His Majesty himself. If anything happens to the Guangwen Department, he will pay attention to it, and all officials will also pay attention."

Song Qiaonian was startled, then a look of joy appeared on his face: "Sir, are you saying that you can use this to make him disgraced?"

"What disgrace?"

Cai Jing turned around and glared at him: "How can I, your ministers, have any dissatisfaction with Your Majesty?"

"It's just that the people have the truth in their hearts and it needs to be reported to the emperor!"

"Master Cai, I understand, I understand." Song Qiaonian smiled and nodded hurriedly.

Then the voices in the study became lowered a bit, and Cai Jing seemed to be planning some plan with his party members...

Another small Cai Mansion is separated by a wall from Cai Mansion.

Cai Bian was sitting at his desk, writing a draft meticulously, making corrections from time to time.

Cai You sat beside him obediently and helped him organize the documents on the table.

"Second Uncle, do you still read this Buddhist scripture?" When Cai You was sorting it out, he accidentally discovered a handwritten copy of "Lengyan Sutra". Judging from the ink and paper, it was obviously newly written in the past few days.

"I thought you stopped watching after you left Jingzhao Mansion."

Cai Bian finally finished writing the draft, lifted the pieces of paper to dry for a while, shook his head and replied: "There is great wisdom in the Lengyan Sutra, but with my knowledge, I cannot understand it."

Cai You looked at him with great interest: "Second uncle, what have you learned? Can you teach it to your nephew?"

But Cai Bian had already put the draft on the table, and then took out a few pieces of clean plain bamboo paper and started copying it meticulously.

It wasn't until he finished copying the contents of several drafts, dried the ink on them, and put them into envelopes that he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and turned to look at Cai You.

"You have not studied this scripture and have no own understanding. What I have learned can only mislead you."

Cai You said with a playful smile: "Second uncle, you are just joking. My nephew has long known that you are a man of great ability and wisdom. What you have realized must be extraordinary."

"Perhaps he is better than Wang Lingyin who has read Buddhist scriptures all his life!"

Cai Bian sighed faintly: "Wang Lingyin wants to be stronger than me, but since you want to hear it, I happened to encounter a confusing incident recently, which is related to your father."

Cai You was startled: "What's the matter? Second uncle?"


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