Early the next morning, Hua Hua, Kong Haoyu and Nangong Xue began to act separately according to the things they had discussed.

Hua Hua tried to take a little more time every day to go out to Xicheng to survey the geology, when he explained his intention to each household, and got the permission of the residents, Hua Hua began to carefully measure the area of each household's original house, and recorded the location of each household on the floor plan in detail. The entire recording and survey work took nearly a month to work overtime. In the time that followed, Hua Hua was extremely serious about designing the house.

After discussing with Hua Hua and Kong Haoyu, Nangong Xue visited the official kiln yamen in the capital that specializes in firing red bricks, and the officials of the official kiln yamen were also polite when they saw Nangong Xue. The head of the official kiln yamen politely bowed to Nangong Xue and said, "The next official is Ding Wenbo, the chief manager in charge of the official kiln yamen, and I have seen the inspector here. I don't know what the Inspector has ordered here. ”

"Lord Ding doesn't have to be restrained, this is your yamen, I am a guest at your own convenience, please sit down and talk." Nangong Xue replied with a smile, "Lord Ding's little girl is a straightforward person, and the little girl will get straight to the point, if you are offended, please forgive me." ”

"Inspector Envoy, what are you talking about," Ding Wenbo hurriedly replied, "Xiaguan, this small official kiln yamen is under your jurisdiction, even if you send a message, Xiaguan must listen carefully to your teachings." ”

"I can't talk about the instructions, but I want to discuss something with Lord Ding, and I hope Lord Ding can fully cooperate." Nangong Xue explained, "Presumably, Lord Ding should have known what the little girl came to do when the little girl visited, right? Ding Wenbo nodded slightly in agreement, and after seeing Ding Wenbo nodding in response to his judgment, he continued, "The Holy Lord ordered me to do a good job in the transformation of various yamen, and I decided to start with Xicheng first, there are many people there, if the transformation of Xicheng is as I imagined, it will be supported and sought after by more people, and the people's hearts will be more closely connected with the country at that time." As the saying goes, the people live and work in peace and contentment, and the country can be peaceful and peaceful. Therefore, I want to let the people live well first, which will be more conducive to the development of the country in the future. Mr. Ding, do you think I'm right? ”

Ding Wenbo hurriedly nodded in response: "What the Inspector said is extremely true. Xia Guan agreed. Then, according to the Inspector, what do you think the lower officials should do to cooperate with your great cause? ”

"Lord Ding, you manage the official kiln in the capital, and whatever you do in the capital, as long as you need red bricks, they will be approved from you, so the little girl is here for this." Nangong Xue said, "So my visit this time is also for the red brick thing, I don't have too much silver on hand now, in principle, the state pays for the reconstruction, but I don't want the country to burden too much, after all, the garrisons in the northwest and southwest need to be fed, and all parts of the country also need to be funded by the state to manage and maintain, so I want to find a way to get the funds for this transformation, I know that it is not easy for the official kiln to burn red bricks, so I will first make an IOU with you, and I will definitely make up for it for you in three or four months. Do you think you can? ”

Having said this, Ding Wenbo thought about it for a while, and said: "The Inspector is really concerned about the country, and he really admires the officials. After all, the matter of the official kiln, and my small official kiln manager did not dare to make decisions at will. After speaking, Nangong Xue thought for a while and replied: "What Master Ding said also makes some sense, so I am anxious to consider it." Ding Wenbo hurriedly replied, "Where is it, the inspector is always concerned about the country and the people, and it is understandable that you are anxious, so the lower officials will play the saint tomorrow, and if the saint is allowed to play the lower officials, it is incumbent on them to serve the inspectors." How is it? As soon as the words fell, Nangong Xue smiled and nodded, "Okay, then I'll wait for the news of Lord Ding." ”

After speaking, Nangong Xue stood up and said goodbye to Ding Wenbo and left. After Nangong Xue left, Ding Wenbo called an attendant, whispered something in his ear, and then the attendant left in a hurry. After touching for about an hour, the attendant returned to the yamen, whispered a few words in his ear, and Ding Wenbo only nodded silently and responded with a few words, "Got it." After the attendant finished speaking, Ding Wenbo waved his hand and instructed: "Okay, you go down first, don't talk about this matter with others." The attendant nodded and replied, "Yes." The villain understands. With that, the attendant withdrew. After that, Ding Wenbo packed up the bookcase and went to the brick kiln.

When he arrived at the brick kiln, Ding Wenbo asked the workers who fired the red bricks: "Liu Gong (Liu Gong is the abbreviation of Foreman Liu, this person is named Liu Peng), there is nothing wrong with the brick kiln recently, right?" Liu Peng nodded and responded: "Lord Hui, it's normal, it's fine." After finishing speaking, Ding Wenbo nodded with satisfaction and instructed: "Liu Gong, you have to do more work recently, the inspector of Kyoto Prefecture wants to use a large number of red bricks, and at present, the red bricks in the library are not enough." Let's use all the brick kilns. There will be more work, and there will be no shortage of you. Liu Peng responded: "Yes, my lord." After speaking, Ding Wenbo looked around for a week, nodded with satisfaction, and turned to leave. After Liu Peng sent Ding Wenbo away, he explained Ding Wenbo's orders to all the workers one by one.

……

……

"The red bricks used to build the house are in place. The next step is to figure out how to raise funds. That's a lot of money. I've got to plan it well. Nangong Xue thought to herself. Ever since she left the official kiln yamen, Nangong Xue has been thinking about this matter in her mind. I was tired from walking, so I found a teahouse, asked for a pot of water, sat in front of the window, and rested while drinking. "If this is renovated, the four urban districts will be as prosperous and lively as Dongcheng. It's a very rewarding thing to think about. In this way, Nangong Xue sat on a teahouse and drank boiled water while pondering.

As he was drinking, he was attracted by a group of people not far away. There was also a middle-aged man in the group, and behind this man stood a man and a woman, two children, who looked like they were in their teens, and there were seven or eight strong men standing in front of them. Due to the busy traffic on the street and the fact that it was still a little far away, Nangong Xue couldn't hear what they were talking about. Nangong Xue's intuition told her that it must not be a good thing, and the ten ** ones were bullying the weak. At this time, the two shopkeepers of the teahouse chattered and discussed: "Now these creditors really can't afford to provoke and can't hide, and they come to the door to ask for debts at two ends in three days, and now this business is not easy to do, and the restaurant has no customers and it is not easy to make money, where does the rich money come from to pay off the debts, hey." Poor and pitiful. "Who's to say it's not, the honest family is made panicked by creditors every day. It's not easy. I'm really worried about them. As soon as Nangong Xue heard this, the sense of justice in her heart exploded. She stood up, took out seven or eight copper plates, put them on the table, and walked out of the teahouse angrily, and went straight to the gang of debt collectors.

"You're really easy to find, old fellow." A strong man rebuked viciously, "When will you pay back the money?" If you can't pay it off, you can pay off your shop and your house. ”

The middle-aged man prayed again and again: "No, the house is left by my ancestors, and it is the place where we live; My shop is the livelihood of our family, and both of these are debts, don't you let our family starve to death on the streets? I'm also trying to find a way to repay the money these days, but my shop doesn't have much business, so there is really no rich money to repay the money. ”

"I'm lenient with you, we can't explain it to our fifth master." The strong man threatened, "Either pay back the money or use the house to pay off the debt, you can choose one, otherwise you will be ...... tomorrow." ”

"Just let what? In broad daylight, a few young children dare to bully people at the feet of this son of heaven, where is the reason? . Nangong Xue strode forward and reprimanded angrily, "It's right to repay debts, but you also have to be reasonable, people say that they will find a way to repay the money, but now there are indeed difficulties, what is the reason for you to coerce like this?" ”

"Yo, where did you come from?" The strong man said contemptuously, "What's the matter with you here?" Uncle, I advise you to stay away. Otherwise, you won't be able to eat and walk around. As he spoke, several other strong men around him surrounded him. All of them have extremely vicious faces. The middle-aged man leaned behind Nangong Xue, gently pulled Nangong Xue's clothes, and whispered: "Little girl, these people are not good at stubble, you better not have to fight with them, we can't afford to mess with these people." Even if she persuaded Nangong Xue in the slightest, she still leaked a disregarded expression to these strong men, and a trace of contemptuous smile leaked from the corners of her mouth, at this time, as soon as a strong man stretched out his hand to teach these people a lesson, Nangong Xue stretched out his hand and grabbed the other party's arm and made a backhand, directly locking the other party's hand to his back and unable to move, as long as he struggled a little, he barked in pain, at this time, several other strong men saw that their companions were accused like this, and they also went up to help, but they didn't think about it. Nangong Xue is very good at kung fu, one hand here is holding people, and there is a punch and kick over there, and it is easy to come to a thousand catties and directly talk about these seven or eight strong men knocked to the ground, and several strong men also knew that they couldn't afford to provoke this aunt for the time being, so they all begged for mercy: "Auntie spare your life, aunt and grandmother spare your life, the little ones don't know Mount Tai with their eyes, you raise your noble hand to spare the villain, and the villains are also acting on orders." If you have a lot of them, let us go. As soon as Nangong Xue saw that they were all begging for mercy, she stopped arguing with them, and reprimanded: "For the sake of you knowing your mistakes and correcting them, I will spare you, but I warn you, if you dare to oppress the people next time, I will definitely make you crippled, do you hear clearly?" Several strong men nodded again and again: "Yes, the little ones heard clearly, next time, oh there will never be a next time." Never again. ”

After speaking, Nangong Xue nodded with a little satisfaction and ordered: "In this case, you quickly disappear in front of me, I don't want to see you again." When the impressed strong men got up again and again and quickly packed up their outfits and were about to turn around and run away, Nangong Xue suddenly thought of something, so she hurriedly stopped them and said, "Hey! Wait, you guys come back to me first. Several strong men hurriedly turned around and responded: "Yes, what else does the woman command?" Nangong Xue asked, "How much does this uncle owe to your owner?" The strong man replied: "He owes our owner nine hundred taels, and if you add the interest for half a year, it will be three thousand six hundred taels." Nangong Xue said secretly in her heart one day, "The good guy took nine hundred taels, and the interest has tripled in just half a year." Loan sharks are really deadly. In the future, I must make usury completely disappear from this society. It must not be allowed to plague the world anymore. Thinking of this, Nangong Xue said while taking out the money from her sleeve pocket: "I paid him back this money, but I don't have so much money on me now, so I will give half of it first, and the other half will be at this time tomorrow or this place, you come to withdraw the money." I've promised you, you're not going to flip it over for me, are you? The strong man replied again and again: "No, no, as long as you are willing to let go of our brothers, what do you say." The little ones obey the teachings. When Nangong Xue heard this, she replied: "Since this is the case, it is decided, tomorrow or this hour, you come to withdraw the money." I don't want to beat people up every day. I think it hurts to hit someone. ”

After speaking, Nangong Xue gave the silver ticket of 1,800 taels to the strong man, and sent them all away.