Most of the people at the bottom were involved in raising the price of grain, and coming to discuss the matter was also hindering the reputation of the Qin Cha, so she asked directly, and there were many people who were weak and had a stagnation on their faces.

Jiang You turned to the local gentry in a hurry: "Since you don't say it, then the official will come and ask, before I arrived in Yangzhou, I heard that someone deliberately raised the price of grain in order to make huge profits, which led the people to make a living, but is there such a thing?" ”

As soon as the people below were about to speak, Haixi took a step forward and opened his mouth first, and he said solemnly: "Zhang Jianjun said cautiously, our businessmen in Yangzhou have always followed the rules and obeyed the law, how can they do such a scourge to the people?" ”

Jiang You glanced at him lightly: "The prefect of Hai's words are a bit short, if it weren't for the fact that the grain price in Yangzhou is much higher than that of the surrounding prefectures and counties, this official would not have come from Jinling to investigate this matter." The homeless people have no livelihood, and it is always the dereliction of duty of the parents and officials. ”

Haixi's face sank, but he didn't speak, a glance passed, and a gentleman in a sauce-red robe immediately stood up next to him and shouted: "The prison army doesn't know, although we have the heart to help those victims, but since the snow disaster, the surrounding granges produce very little grain, scarce and expensive, and the cost is high there, excluding the cost of transportation and inviting people, we don't make any money from trading, so we can't sell at a loss, right?" Whether the price of food is high or not is really not something we can determine. ”

Although these words are a bit profitable, but the businessman is doing business for profit, and it is not too much, Haixi saw Jiang Youmeihua refute, his face showed a slight smugness, and he scolded the gentleman: "If you don't understand the rules, don't retreat." After he finished speaking, he smiled slightly: "Zhang Jianjun was born in Zhong Mingding's family, I don't know if these folk trivial things are also natural hahaha." ”

These words seem to help her out of the siege, but in fact, they are ridiculing her for not being diligent and not distinguishing between grains and grains. Jiang You looked at him unhurriedly: "In terms of understanding of the people, I am naturally not as good as you, but I also know that a large amount of grain was shipped from the DPRK a few days ago, and there should be no shortage of grain in Yangzhou Prefecture, how can the price of grain be so high?" ”

Haixi thought that a young man could make him retreat by squeezing a few words at will, but he didn't expect him to be so difficult. He couldn't help but sit up straight and argued: "When the snow disaster first happened, a large number of displaced people took refuge in Yangzhou City, and the grain distributed by the imperial court was distributed to these people. In fact, he also contacted Shang Jia and sold it.

Jiang You said casually: "So the food in the government is gone?" She glanced at Haixi, who wanted to refute, "Leave this matter aside for the time being, the imperial court has recently sent another batch of grain, and the official will personally supervise the distribution." After she finished speaking, she looked at those gentry with surprise on their faces, and then spoke unhurriedly: "Presumably, this time the food problem in Yangzhou should be solved." ”

It will take some time before the DPRK and China send grain over, and even if they do, they may not be able to manage it for a long time, so the top priority now is to bring down grain prices first.

Haixi's face tightened, and he hurriedly tugged at the corners of his mouth, and reluctantly smiled: "The prison army is busy with official business in Jinling, how dare you supervise the distribution of labor supervision and distribution, it is better to leave it to this official." After he finished speaking, his expression was solemn again, and he said in an aggravated tone: "In the final analysis, this official is the parent official of Yangzhou, how can he let the prison overstep his authority?" ”

If the grain from the imperial court is delivered, with this grain that does not cost money, who will buy the high-priced grain in the hands of those gentry? If it is left in their hands for a long time, they are afraid that they will become moldy and deteriorate, and even if they don't lose their money, they will have to break their muscles and bones.

Jiang You took a shallow sip of tea: "The prefect is blaming the official for trespassing?" She saw Haixi hurriedly bow her head, and did not hide the indifference in her eyes: "This official is ordered by the emperor to settle the displaced people, of course, he has to finish the matter, in case the food sent by the imperial court is distributed by the Hai Governor's Mansion again, I can't afford this responsibility." ”

When Haixi heard what she said, she almost pointed her nose and scolded herself for being corrupt, she stood up angrily and said angrily: "You! ”

Jiang You ignored him at all, turned his head to the gentry over there and said: "I won't hide it from you, I'm afraid that the grain of the imperial court will only be able to be transported for a while, and you all know in your hearts the purchase price of this grain, if you take advantage of the time when it has not yet been transported to lower the price of grain, then your grain will not be able to sell it even if it rots in your hands!" ”

The Yangzhou gentry below are all cold in their hearts, and this is what they are worried about. Haixi's face changed, and he turned his head to Jiang You and sneered: "The supervising army is acting like this, is it threatening the gentry here to sell grain cheaply?" He turned his head and looked at those people fixedly: "This official is the parent official of Yangzhou, and he will never allow this to happen." "If the grain is sold at a low price, he won't be able to get anything on his side.

His words were implicitly threatening, and the gentry, who had already planned to reduce the price, inevitably hesitated. Jiang You didn't answer his words, but gave Chonglan who was sitting in the gentry a look.

Chonglan immediately understood, got up and laughed loudly: "Since the prison army said so, it is not good for us to disobey, and now the grain prices in the surrounding towns are stable, and we can still make some money by selling them at a reduced price." She said with a straight expression: "Today, on behalf of the Chong's Commercial Bank, I promised Zhang Jianjun that I would sell grain at a low price to relieve the victims." ”

Chonglan is a businessman, with an excellent reputation, and the imperial merchant Chongjia is also famous in the shopping mall, as soon as she spoke, several people looked at each other, and also stood up and responded: "We are willing to follow the arrangement of the prison army!" ”

As soon as she finished speaking, she saw Haixi turn her head suddenly, staring at her with hatred in her eyes, he deliberately spread the news in order to accept her, wanting to ruin her reputation first, and now who in Yangzhou doesn't know that Chonglan is going to give her a concubine, she is helping Jiang You like this today, isn't it obvious that she is slapping him in the face?

He was furious, and he couldn't do anything to her in front of everyone, so he could only lower his voice and threaten word by word: "You still have most of your belongings in Yangzhou, but you have to think carefully and be cautious!" ”

Chonglan's red lips curved just the right amount of arc, and she looked at him squarely, quite a little arrogant: "Thank you for the prefect of the sea for your concern, the grass people naturally made the decision after thinking clearly." ”

Haixi glanced at her fiercely and said in a loud voice: "The price of grain is related to people's livelihood, how can you say that it is high and low?" Don't be kind to the prison army and do bad things! ”

Jiang You snorted coldly, but he still couldn't help scolding: "The homeless people in Yangzhou are dying of illness, and the prefect of Hai still has the face to talk to me about people's livelihood?" I really don't know how to write the word shame! She said in a deep voice to the people below: "I don't want to investigate the past, as long as you ensure the food supply during the period when the imperial court transports grain, I will not blame you for what you have done in the past." ”

When she said this, she looked at the people with different faces, subconsciously imitated Xue Yuan's previous posture, looked at the bottom with her hands down, and said indifferently: "If you don't want to, it doesn't matter, this official will temporarily transfer grain and grass from Jinling Zhenjiang." She slowly dragged out her voice, her voice was clear, and every word seemed to be knocked on people's hearts, "It's just that the matter of raising food prices a few days ago will be properly settled." ”

There was silence for a while, and the gentry who were sitting in the same place slowly got up, said in unison, bowed down and said, "We are willing to follow the arrangement of the prison army." ”

As if he had been stepped on by his tail, Haixi said loudly to Jiang You: "This official wants to impeach you for forcing the gentry to sell grain cheaply, and you have repeatedly coerced everyone, what do you want!" ”

Jiang You pursed his lips, impeachment will be impeached, anyway, the fold will end up in the hands of her, the emperor. The matter has been done, and she didn't bother to look at Haixi, raised her hand and said: "You are all dedicated to the imperial court, and the official is very pleased, it will take time to prepare food, so let's disperse and prepare." ”

After she finished speaking, she took the lead in walking back, and she didn't even owe it to Haixi, Chonglan followed behind her, and when she passed by Haixi's side, she was pulled by him, he gritted his teeth, and said in a low voice: "You cheap. Slave, why did you join forces with him to plot against me? Could it be that he fell in love with this young man?! ”

Chonglan said twice: "My lord, you don't want to have a reputation for molesting folk girls after you bear the name of greed." She withdrew her hand as she spoke, and smiled at him: "Zhang Jianjun is young and handsome, naturally no one doesn't love him." After saying that, he raised his sleeves and walked away.

She really doesn't have much thought about 'Zhang Donglan', the status difference between the two is too far, and she doesn't want to be a concubine, these words are just to provoke Haixi. Today, she and Jiang You's purpose is to lower the price of grain, and the second is to anger Haixi and force her to show her feet.

Haixi is quite sick, although he doesn't treat the women in the house as people, but he doesn't allow others to touch the slightest, after listening to Chonglan's words, his eyes are red with anger, and he can't breathe in place. The steward next to him hurriedly came over to pick him up, and asked cautiously, "My lord, what's wrong with you?" ”

Haixi grabbed him away, her fingertips trembled with anger, and her eyes were full of violence: "Go, go and think of arresting Chonglan for me to the house, the official wants her to live and die!" ”

In the post house, Xue Yuan sat in the courtyard with flowers and plants, looking at the idle book in his hand with his eyes down, and Chengbei next to him was afraid that he would be sunbathing, so he stood aside with an umbrella to block the sun, which could be regarded as stealing half a day of leisure.

At this time, as soon as the main door of the post house opened, Yan Nan strode in and knelt down on one knee in front of him: "Overseer." ”

Xue Yuan closed the book and asked, "How is the emperor?" ”

Yan Nan's always tense face showed a smile: "The emperor has done things well, and the profiteer has promised to lower the price of grain." There were spies from the East Factory in the garden, so he recounted the scene very vividly.

Xue Yuan's original expression was flat, but the corners of his mouth chuckled after listening to it, Cheng Bei wanted to speak and stopped, but he still couldn't help but interject for a while, and said with a smile: "The emperor is getting more and more neat, and the servants look at it and act a little similarly to the overseer, they are all the same vigorous and resolute, and they go straight to the point." ”

Xue Yuan didn't know what to think, lowered his long eyelashes, and said in a faint voice: "She has always been extremely smart, and she can see through a little, not to mention that she has been around me for two years." He looked sideways at the peony blooming in the courtyard: "It's so big in the blink of an eye." ”

Cheng Bei saw that he was not in a good mood, so he stopped his mouth, Xue Yuan seemed to be a little distracted, he put the book aside, and folded his hands on his knees: "Do you think she made such a big move today just to lower the price of food?" What she really wants is behind, and if she doesn't punish this adulterer, she won't stop doing this. ”

Cheng Bei was thinking about how to answer, but he saw him close his eyes slightly, and said to himself: "The days I have spent with her are not the longest, but after a detailed discussion, I have taught her more things intentionally or unintentionally than the emperor taught her."

He has a vicious and suspicious temperament, and he has done countless things to play with power, and he has never felt that there is anything wrong with him like this, but he doesn't want Jiang You to become a person like himself anyway.

He thought about it, inexplicably anxious, what is wrong with having him to protect him for a lifetime of peace and joy? Why do you have to fight with people? Cheng Bei frowned suddenly when he saw him, and he didn't dare to say more, and when he was silent, suddenly a report came from the outer courtyard: "Zhang Jianjun is back!" ”