After Zhao Qingyun left, the business in front of Mati Lake returned to normal.
As for the accompanying gifts, Xu Mu did not keep them and threw them directly on the roadside. The shopkeepers who were galloping back took them away in twos and threes with cheerful smiles.
"Caiwei, how about the list?"
"Xu Lang, it's still good. I still have orders for five thousand altars."
Xu Mu breathed a sigh of relief. For a five-thousand-tank moonshine order, excluding the cost, each tank would earn at least three taels.
After careful calculation, there are seventeen or eight thousand.
"By the way, Xu Lang, a shopkeeper was entrusted with this invitation and kept it."
"Invitation?"
Xu Mu was startled, then he took the invitation and opened it with a sneer on his face. He thought it belonged to an old friend before, but he didn't expect that it actually belonged to one of the four major families in Tangjiang City.
The general content is also very simple, saying nothing more than "It is better to dissolve enemies than to marry them" and "Let's drink tea together when we have time".
Xu Mu tore it into pieces and threw it into the wind.
When he brought twenty-two people from the village to Tangjiang, he was not as good as the four major households, let alone the current situation.
"After winter, there may be heavy snow. Please allocate some money and buy more charcoal firewood."
…
Tangjiang City.
Lu Zizhong, whose body was beaten to a pulp, could not stop grinning while wrapped in a warm robe.
Even after applying the ointment dozens of times, the pain still penetrates into the skin.
"Zizhong, drink the medicinal soup." Lu Yuan wiped away his old tears and brought a bowl of medicinal soup in front of him.
Unexpectedly, as soon as Lu Zizhong opened his mouth, the wound was suddenly affected, and two mouthfuls of blood came out of his mouth.
One can imagine how much the beating went to the little boss who broke the willow branch.
"Third uncle, listen, I heard that an invitation was handed over."
"Handed it..."
"Why do you want to hand it over? A damn broken household. If you are brave enough, you can wait until I join the officialdom next year."
"After spring, the little boss will die."
"He has the surname of Hou Xiangbang."
"Then I will go pay homage to Xiao Zaifu."
This was undoubtedly an angry remark. As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Zizhong suddenly looked embarrassed. He wanted to cling to the prime minister of the current dynasty, but the background of the four major families in Tangjiang was far from enough.
God knows how that little boss managed to climb the high tree of the country's surnamed Hou.
"Zizhong, if not, we will go to the chief commander and tell him that the little boss killed someone in Weicheng."
"you're so dumb--"
Lu Zizhong was so angry that he coughed up three liters of blood. Because of the blood, his tone became a little unclear.
"Who wants to set up the General Office? It's the Marquis with the surname of Guo! The best official office in the world! Damn it, that little Marquis should die of illness soon!"
"That evening, when Li Wang'er, the miracle doctor from Yunzhou, came out of the Marquis' Mansion, he was asked to question him. At first he didn't dare to say anything, but when he was frightened by someone raising a knife, everything trembled."
"What's shaking?"
"Li Wang'er said that it is very likely that Hou, whose surname is Guo, will not be able to survive this winter."
"The poison in your body is cold, and if you are exposed to the frosty air, your body will freeze to death."
Lu Zizhong suddenly looked overjoyed.
He didn't want to get involved in other matters. But if the surnamed Hou fell, the Xiaodong family would have no backer. At that time, there would be many ways to bring down the Xiaodong family.
After all, the wine business in Tangjiang City has been deteriorating day by day. The wine market at the beginning of the month not long ago was really a ghost. The four major households together only had less than a thousand orders.
"Die as soon as possible, you sick and consumptive ghost."
The tuberculosis ghost undoubtedly refers to Hou Yuan Tao whose surname is the country.
On the cold official road, the miracle doctor Li Wang'er was riding a skinny donkey while muttering, not knowing what he was talking about. The two disciples following him looked frightened.
After only a few dozen miles, I didn’t know how many times I was stopped.
There were men in black, killers, and officials with pockmarked faces, and the content of the questions was the same.
How deep is the poisoned man named Hou, and how long can he live?
Li Wang'er told them one by one, saying that medicine and stones were ineffective and they could not survive this cold winter.
"Master, can you rescue the Marquis?" The two disciples who were following him kept asking, crying all the way.
Li Wang'er felt bitter in his heart.
"The Marquis is the pillar of the great era and cannot fall."
Even the weakest disciples understand the truth, but many people in the world do not understand it.
Li Wang'er did not answer. He recalled from a distance that year, when the late emperor was lying on his sickbed, and the young marquis, dressed in white and dressed in snow, led his 200,000 troops to fight in the north and south, quelling internal strife and stopping foreign enemies.
Corresponding to Li Poshan, the general who conquered the north, the north and south correspond to each other, and are called the Double Walls of the Daji.
"There is nothing left." Li Wang'er lowered his head, with unspeakable sadness in his voice.
"Master's family, someone is blocking the way again."
Li Wang'er raised his head, his old face looking even sadder for a moment.
…
Click.
"Surround the mountain."
In the east side room of the Hou Mansion on the bank of Xiaowang Lake, the room is warm with red charcoal. There is also a pot of ginseng tea boiling on the stove.
Yuan Tao coughed and twisted the chess pieces.
"Master, I am a rough man and don't know much about chess." Gu Ying looked sad. This morning, he never expected that his master would come to play chess with him this morning.
Yuan Tao's pale face rarely showed a smile.
"Would you like a review?"
"Master, I don't understand very well."
Yuan Tao sighed slightly, retracted his hands into the sleeves of his robe, slowly stood up and walked to the door, looking at the last bleak scene in the courtyard of the Hou Mansion.
It won't be long before frost and snow arrive, and it seems to be even colder than in previous years.
Gu Ying hurriedly took the cloak and put it on Yuan Tao.
"Gu Ying, Li Wang'er must have been a hundred miles away."
"Even if you ride a skinny donkey, you should still have it."
"Someone should have stopped him and asked." Yuan Tao's eyes were blurred and he looked towards the north of Changyang City for a long time.
When he first chose the location of the Marquis Mansion, he only chose this place in Xiaowang Lake. The reason was very simple. At that time, the late Emperor was lying on the sickbed, and he was afraid that there would be palace changes. If he was closer, he could see clearly whether there was any smoke.
, it would be better to lead troops to rescue him as soon as possible.
"Master, if not... I'll go back to Cangzhou later." Gu Ying hesitated and persuaded again.
"I can't go back. I'm playing a game of chess and it's already started."
Gu Ying didn't understand, but he didn't dare to ask any more questions. He put on his cloak and hurriedly walked in again, holding up a cup of ginseng tea with a medicinal aroma, and the smoke was curling up.
Smelling the aroma of old ginseng, Yuan Tao hesitated for a while, then finally took it and slowly put it to his mouth.
"Master, I heard that it was freezing cold and the people who fled from the border were hungry and freezing. About hundreds of thousands of them died."
"Afraid of disaster, the imperial court allocated 200,000 taels of silver for disaster relief. But the brothers from Hutang went to check and found that it was less than 5,000 taels, and it went to the Disaster Relief Department."
Yuan Tao closed his eyes in silence, his body trembling a little.
During those two or three years, the late emperor fell ill and was lying on the bed. He planned to supervise the country and temporarily gave Shang Fangjian. He also encountered disaster years.
"Master, this cold disaster is just like that time."
"I remember clearly that my master killed one hundred and twenty-three dog officials with his Shangfang sword."
"Countless poor people knelt down all over the officialdom and called their master 'the most virtuous prince in the world'."