Zhang Qian said to Bai Buyi's ear, "Prepare some goods, pick the good ones, don't pick the vulgar ones! After the Chief Secretary has asked for forgiveness and dealt with Jia Daquan, you and I can send them to Chang Hou.
!”
"I understand, I will give him any concubine he wants from me!" Bai Buyi chuckled.
Suddenly, he blinked and said, "Brother-in-law, is Jia Daquan willing to support us?"
"What is Dingbao? He deserves it!" Zhang Qian said sternly, "It was his people who insulted the people first, do you understand?"
"Understood, I mean!" Bai Buyi continued, "In the past two years, he collected taxes from the outer city, and all the money went into our house..."
"Tsk!" Zhang Qian shook his head again, "You, you, you are so stupid! You can't comfort him?"
"How to comfort me?"
"Tell him that the limelight is over, give him another place to patrol!" Zhang Qian spread his hands and said, "Isn't that what happens in the world? If something goes wrong, everyone will be happy if they take responsibility. If the superiors don't punish him to death,
He will never be tempted to try to defeat the enemy!"
He continued to speak earnestly and sincerely, "He will understand this because of the ways of the world! As long as he is here and remembers the past friendship, who can treat him badly?"
"Brother-in-law!" Bai Buyi gave a thumbs up, "How about you be the prefect?"
This was originally a compliment, but Zhang Qian sighed, "I can be the prefect because I am good at collecting taxes! The Chief Secretary can't do without me. If I am useless, I'm afraid the Chief Secretary will be the first to take action."
Yes, it’s me!”
"ah...."
"Hey, let's settle this matter first!" Zhang Qian sighed again, "I have been restless these past two days... When this matter is over, I will go back to Beijing and move to a peaceful place.
It’s better to have a idle job than to be on tenterhooks all day long!”
"You are the prefect, what can you do? Besides, you are being transferred and promoted!" Bai Buyi said with a smile, "Brother-in-law, no matter where you go, you have to take me with you!"
~
"Just wait!"
At the same time, in the Chief Secretary's Yamen, Huguang Chief Secretary Wang Lun frowned after hearing the report from his staff.
"You just said that last night when Chang Hou had dinner in the outer city, he saw a tax collector bullying the people, so he immediately started a fight!"
Wang Lun is in his fifties, has a long face, long sleeves, a long beard, and very shrewd eyes.
"Sir, that's exactly what it is!" said the master.
"You also said that how many people were with Chang Hou at that time?" Wang Lun's eyes became solemn, "I heard that they were his nephews?"
"Yes!" said the master, "and it is said that those people spoke the official dialect of Yingtian Mansion!"
"What does that person look like?" Wang Lun asked hurriedly.
"It is said... that one person is tall and tall, Kong Wuli looks like he is a child of a military general's family. There is also another person who is thinner and has a square face and a slightly longer face..." Just as he was talking, the master suddenly exclaimed, "Sir!"
Wang Lun suddenly stood up and knocked over the tea on the tea table in front of him without realizing it.
"Sir..." The Master saw the Chief Secretary's beard twitching and his eyelids twitching.
"What a disaster!" Wang Lun immediately sat down with a puff of sound.
"Sir, where did this misfortune come from? No matter how great Chang Hou is, he can't get around you! The subordinates bumped into him, and they will bear the responsibility..."
"I'm afraid those people around Chang Hou are..." Wang Lun's voice trembled, "The Emperor and Cao Guogong Li Jinglong!"
It was so violent that the staff master was so frightened that he staggered.
"From your description, the tall one should be Li Jinglong, and the square-faced one should be the emperor..."
"Didn't the Emperor go to Guangxi to supervise the army? Why did he come to our Wuchang?" The staff master glanced at his master, "Besides, even if they come, this matter has nothing to do with you?"
As he spoke, he whispered, "Your Excellency is in charge of Huguang Province. You are not very capable of handling the following trivial matters. Can you handle it?"
"It is the responsibility of Wuchang Prefecture to oppress good people by tax collectors..."
"Yes, yes!" Wang Lun felt more at ease, stood up and walked around, and then continued, "Even if the emperor was present yesterday, the crime would not be on my head." As he said that, he thought quickly, and then
He opened his mouth and said, "In the past two years, can the litigation under the Chief Secretary be cleared up?"
"It's the Qingming Festival!" the staff master said with a smile, "In the two years that your Excellency has been in office, Huguang has not only been in charge of the Qingming Festival, but also has been ranked among the top three in this dynasty in terms of taxation..."
"No, no, no!" Wang Lun said quickly, "Hurry, go down and have a look for yourself, see if there are any flaws, and quickly fix them for me!"
At this time, a long attendant suddenly came in from outside, "Sir, the prefect of Wuchang..."
"No!" Wang Lun said loudly, "Just say I'm sick, and now I can't see anyone!"
~~
Things in the world are like this, everyone stays in harmony until something goes wrong, but when something goes wrong they start to make their own plans.
While the officials in Wuchang were scheming, Zhu Yunxi had already led his people and followed the Xu family to their abbot.
The most remote part of Heyan'er Street is a shapeless place, like a refugee camp.
Dirty water flows across the water and dirt can be seen everywhere.
The alley is long, and groups of idle people are looking around aimlessly. One moment they rush into a house, and the next moment they come out boringly.
Zhu Yunxi sighed slightly in his heart and turned his eyes away inadvertently.
On the other side of the river, there are green trees, and as far as the eye can see, there are exquisite courtyard houses.
But here...?
"My home is here!" The son of the Xu family helped his sister push the cart and pointed to a shack in front that was obviously just built. "It turns out that my home also lives in a brick house. It is on the front half of Heyan Street, where all the old neighbors live.
Over there!"
"Later, my house was demolished by the government. The family had no place to live, so we had to find a place here to build a shack! Young master, don't dislike it. Don't look at the dirty outside. My house is clean!"
With that said, the Xu family boy put the car at the door, took out the iron chain and locked it carefully, and then solemnly and carefully moved the things on it into his home.
Zhu Yunxi stood at the door. The light in the room was not very good.
An old woman looked at the ceiling with empty eyes and lay motionless on the bed.
"Mom, my sister and I are back. The business was very good last night. I made some money for you!" After finishing his work, the Xu family boy stood in front of the old woman and said respectfully, "Are you hungry?
Wait a minute, sister will make porridge for you!"
The old woman looked like a living dead, without any expression.
The house was indeed as he said. Even though there was no furniture and only four walls, it was still kept spotless. Even the clothes and quilt on the old woman's body were obviously changed frequently.
"You are a filial son!" Zhu Yunxi smiled and touched the Xu family boy's head.
"Hey, if my mother is not filial, isn't that a thunderbolt?" The Xu family boy smiled, but then his eyes filled with sadness, "My mother actually doesn't want to live a long time ago. If she could move, she would be dead long ago!"
As he said that, he moved a bench out of the room and said, "Master, please sit down. You are a noble person. I told you not to come, but you insist on coming!"
"Let me ask you! You said that your father, your brother-in-law, and more than 20 neighbors all died on the government boat fishing for sand. What exactly happened? Please tell me in detail!" Zhu Yunxi sat down and said with a smile.
The boy from the Xu family bit his lip and stared at Zhu Yunxi, "Can you help me?" As he said that, he suddenly knelt down and said, "You are the nephew of Chang Hou and the cousin of the emperor. You can definitely help me, right?"
"Say it!" Zhu Yunxi said seriously.
"My father and the others went down to the river to fish for sand. The sand boat was not a big government boat, but a small boat from another family..."
"Since the government asked your father to go, why don't you use the government's big ship?" Zhu Yunxi asked.
The boy from the Xu family shook his head and sneered, "All the government ships are returning goods on the Yangtze River! How can it be their turn to fish for sand?"
Zhu Yunxi frowned fiercely, the things here were obviously not that simple.
"The sand boat leaked when it reached the middle of the river!" The boy from the Xu family continued, "There were originally two boats, but the official overseeing the work on the other boat saw that my father's boat sank, but he didn't care..."
The boy from the Xu family said bitterly, "Not even one of my father and more than 20 neighbors came on board the boat..."
The more Zhu Yunxi listened, the more wrong he became.
Since we are fishing for sand, why don't we save him even if he is dead?
Besides, does the boat for fishing sand need to go along the Yangtze River?
Is this too strange?
"Don't you think it's strange?" The boy from the Xu family sneered, "Some of the elders in the neighborhood also said it was strange! Moreover, I also found out privately that the reason why the boat fishing for sand took the Yangtze River was because it was going to Xiangyang!
"
Zhu Yunxi frowned even more.
Seeing this, He Guangyi took half a step forward and whispered in Zhu Yunxi's ear, "It may be smuggling!"
"There is something even more strange!" the Xu family boy continued, "the government asked my father to go out to work to collect sand, but the government notice said that the sand needed by the court for road construction was contracted to businessmen who specialize in the sand and gravel business.
The government buys it from them!"
Zhu Yunxi felt solemn in his heart.
Even if a civilian husband dies, he only needs a good life and compensation.
Is it necessary to be so strict and guard so that no one will complain?