Zhang was stunned, and then said to Zhao Yu unhurriedly: "You made it clear, what is going on?" What have the servants of our family done? Do you have a lot of money? That's hateful, but how do you know that? ”

Zhao Yu was choked. yes, how did he know? What does the money in the second room, the property in the second room, and the slaves in the second room have to do with his clan?

He quickly adjusted his angry expression, and tried to say to Zhang in a tone of "I'm thinking about you": "It's that I didn't make it clear, it's not the servants of your family, it's the stewards of Xiaochangfang who are in charge of Fengxian's land, they make false accounts, and they don't truthfully record the actual income on the fields over the years, but reduce it by nearly half, and they are swallowed by all the silver." There are thousands of taels of silver a year, and the sum of five years is simply unimaginable. Diao slaves bully their masters to this point, it is really unheard of, and it must be severely punished! ”

Zhang understood it, although he was also surprised, but he was not very angry, because it was the small long room that suffered, not the small second room. She nodded to Zhao Yu: "What you say is reasonable, but those people do not belong to the small second room, although the land property has to be returned, the servants are still from the small long room." They are also greedy for the money of the small long house. It's better to leave it to the owner. Although Zhao Ze lives with you and calls you uncle, you are only a clan relative after all, and it is not good to act on your behalf. ”

Zhao Yu was choked again. Zhang's every sentence is right, but he can't accept it. Leave people to be disposed of in the small long room? Then what else is going on with their clan? That's not a small amount of money, a few thousand taels a year. It's tens of thousands of taels in five years! A few lowly servants dare to be greedy for so much silver? Why?! Now most of these fields are included in the clan, and the products in the fields are naturally the things in the Zhao family's pocket. The elders of the sect around him, of course, have to recover all the silver.

It seemed that Xiao Erfang didn't plan to help him, so he said with a righteous face: "Escorting people back to the capital and then disposing of them is really a long night's dream, and besides, the greedy silver always has to be recovered, and it is too time-consuming and laborious to come back and forth." Brother Ze is the only male in Xiaochangfang in Fengxian, and he is the eldest son and grandson. He should be in charge of the affairs of the small long house, but he is too young to know how to guard against people. I promised in front of my grandmother that I would take good care of him. You can't just watch this child being calculated. He doesn't know how to do housework, so I'll take care of it for him, otherwise it will be difficult to explain when I see his grandmother in the future. ”

Zhao Yu said. I was just trying to make excuses for myself. But after saying that, he himself believed these words, and suddenly had infinite courage, felt that everything he said and did was righteous and bright, and soon took his leave, and ordered someone to escort the steward of the little long room to leave quickly.

Zhao Xiu looked at the back of them leaving, and remembered that he had just seen the calm and indifferent expression on the steward's face, and always felt that something was wrong.

Zhao Wei smiled at his grandmother Zhang: "Zhao Ze probably couldn't have dreamed of it. Uncle Yu, who thought he could be a backer, would actually be moved by profit. Instead, they calculated the property of their little long house. I just don't know how the person named Liu Ying will mess with Uncle Yu after hearing about it? ”

Zhang sighed: "What is this called?" In the past, although you Uncle Yu were a little confused, you were not so greedy as this. How did you go to the capital once and become so powerful? She thought thoughtfully: "But what he said is really interesting, I can't believe when the steward of Xiao Changfang dared to be so bold." When the head of the village reports to the master's family, it is commonplace to seek some benefits for himself, and some are greedy, and it is not strange to swallow two or three percent of the silver, but a few thousand taels a year? That's almost half. Where did those people get the confidence to dare to do this? What's even more strange is that Niu Shi was so confused that he didn't notice it? ”

Zhao Xiu thought for a while: "Is it because when my grandfather was there before, it was your grandmother who was in charge of the house, and you were in charge of the accounts in the fields in the south, she didn't know how much money she could make." And after she took over, she never came back, and the steward sent was also a newcomer, and he never interacted with the clansmen on weekdays, even if he did something wrong in the account, no one noticed that something was wrong, suing sù Xiao Changfang? ”

Zhang shook his head slowly: "This is impossible, although I was in charge of the housekeeper in the past, the Niu family also had my own dowry to manage, and I didn't know anything about the affairs of the house, when I was in charge of the house, she often came to audit." After all, she is the wife of the prince and wants to inherit the Hou Mansion, how can I stop it? ”

"She knows what the normal amount of the Grange to the south should be each year?" Zhao Xiu felt the disobedience again, and remembered the expression on the face of the steward just now, "Grandmother, did you see it just now?" The person escorted by Uncle Yu had no fear on his face, as if he had been caught filling his pockets and making false accounts, and he didn't care. ”

Zhang slowly thought about it, and also sensed that something was wrong. Zhao Wei asked: "Could it be that he thinks that he is a person from the small long house, and Uncle Yu is from the sect, so he can't control him?" ”

"Uncle Yu can't control him, Zhao Ze can!" Zhao Xiu looked at his grandmother, "Does he have a greater reliance?" ”

Soon they didn't have to guess, because the steward, along with the other subordinates who had been arranged by Xiao Changfang to manage the fields in Fengxian, had mysteriously disappeared that night. They were originally imprisoned in the firewood room in the backyard of the Zongfang house, and there were about a dozen people guarding them, but at night these ten or so people all mysteriously fell asleep, and they did not wake up until they were poured cold water the next morning, and there was no one in the firewood room.

Zhao Yu was furious, he hadn't asked from these people where they had hidden the greedy silver. That steward is a hard bone, and he seems to be an ordinary servant, but when he is whipped and boarded, he can endure it without saying a word, which really makes people angry!

When the clansmen heard the news, they scolded the people who fled, and at the same time, they were also complaining about Zhao Yu, on the one hand, because he didn't take a good look at people, and on the other hand, because he locked people in his house and didn't send them to the official. This kind of subordinate who is greedy for the master's property should be sent to the official to be brought to justice, even if the people in Xiaochangfang know about it, they will not object, and there is still Zhao Ze, as long as Zhao Ze nods, what else is there to scruple about?

Zhao Yu couldn't tell his selfishness. You can only take your breath out on those who have fled. He quickly reported to Tao Cheng, the new magistrate of the county, who was busy with post-disaster resettlement and didn't have much energy to care about other things. I heard that it was the Zhao family's small long house again, so without saying a word, I ordered the head of the county government to take people to search for it, and issued a sea fishing document, and the whole county collected those people.

But after three whole days, no one found any trace of the escapees.

And Zhao Yu led people to raid the homes of those people, and found that they lived in ordinary brick houses, which can only be said to be the level of ordinary well-off families. No matter how much food and clothing you eat, it is far from luxurious. When I asked people who knew them, they all said that they did not squander money except for their arrogant attitude towards people. The shot is not generous. Are they really greedy for the Lord's ten thousand taels of silver? Where is all the money you have been greedy? Didn't they ever spend it?

Zhao Ze has been paying attention to these news, he is very uneasy in his heart, and he wants to find out the truth. After all, Xiao Changfang is now the only man in his hometown, and he has the responsibility to keep the property for his family. He was too young to stop the matter of leaving the clan. But the next person is greedy for money, it's always something he can manage, right? But Zhao Yu didn't tell him anything, he went to find Liu Ying, although Liu Ying looked anxious, but also unexpectedly told him not to meddle in his affairs, just study with peace of mind, which really made him at a loss.

Is this an idle matter?

Zhao Yu and Zhao Ze were irritable, but there was an unexpected gain on the second room.

Since that day, Zhao Xiu mentioned the matter of leaving the family in the small long house. The news quickly spread among the servants in the nearby neighborhood, and everyone was very interested in the stewardship seats vacated by the industry. Even if you can't fight, it's good to be able to squeeze into the old house as an errand. So everyone scrambled to tell what they knew.

There was a manservant who often went to a tavern with the people of the small long house and said that those people were not always in Fengxian, and they always had to go to other places to do business for a few days every month, sometimes to Songjiang Mansion, sometimes to Suzhou Mansion, and some to Yangzhou Mansion.

The county's carriage and horse dealers confirmed this statement, and the people of Xiaochangfang always hired his family's car to transport grain and cotton to the big trading houses in Songjiang to trade, instead of patronizing the merchants of the outer six houses. But in each transaction, they only sold most of the cotton, and the remaining small part of the cotton and all the grain were transported to the Nanhui wharf for loading. At the same time, there were grain and cotton brought from other places, and the people who escorted the car talked to the people in the small long house, it was obvious that they were acquaintances. As for where the ship will transport these things, they don't know.

There is also a girl who once discussed marriage with one of the people in the small long room, but the marriage was abandoned because the other party was arrested, said that the person who proposed marriage to her once talked to her through the mouth, saying that she was not a lowly slave, and she would be able to soar in a few years, and if she married him now, she would enjoy a happy life in the future, and she would not have to worry about becoming a lowly person. The girl who said this, she was not the girl of the second room, her father was the second shopkeeper of a shop under the name of the sixth room of the outer six rooms before his death, and belonged to the good people class, just because of some qualifications, and the family was also a little decent, and he never looked down on the young people who were slaves. If it weren't for the person in the small long room who had shown her a sign, saying that it was an identity nameplate for the nobles, she would definitely not consider discussing marriage with the other party.

There are a lot of other bits and pieces of news, and in summary, the subordinates of Xiao Changfang are acting strangely, and to say that the masters above are unaware, and it is unbelievable.

Zhang asked people to go to Songjiang, Suzhou, Yangzhou and other places to inquire, and really heard about the rumored local industries of Xiaochangfang, but according to the records of the government, the owners of these industries are not anyone in Xiaochangfang. But the local people also confirmed that the stewards of Xiaochangfang had gone to manage these fields, and they had also dealt with the people of the local government and paid taxes, and there was no ambiguity at all.

Zhang's heart sank, and combined with Liu Ying's strange behavior on the side of the sect, she had a bad association.

She opened her mouth and said to her grandchildren in front of her, "Leave this matter alone, go down, I want to rest for a while." ”

Zhao Wei and Zhao Xiu glanced at each other, they were a little puzzled, they withdrew, and couldn't help but look back, only to find that their grandmother had ordered someone to take a pen and paper, as if they were planning to write a letter to someone.

Write?

Zhao Xiu had a vague thought, she pulled Zhao Wei to the corner of the courtyard, and asked in a low voice: "Brother, these stewards of the little long room only came five years ago, right?" Are they all people who used to be used in the house? ”

Zhao Wei thought for a while and shook his head: "These people are actually from four years ago, not the old people of our family, all of them are very young. I asked other people in the family, and said that it was not a relative of the family, and it must have been bought later by Xiao Changfang. ”

That's weird! The small long house is rented out room by room, do you still have time to buy new people?

Zhao Xiu sneered: "I'm afraid that these people are not the servants of Xiaochangfang, right?" I think it's strange, Xiao Changfang has been so comfortable in the past few years, and there is the support of King Ying's mansion, just because they gave Princess Ying a white jade kang screen, and the relationship between Zhao Jue and her grandfather? There must be something else! There was so much money missing in the account that they could not have not noticed, unless they knew it from the beginning and pretended not to know. That fake account is not for them to see! ”

Zhao Wei looked at her in surprise: "Sister, what do you want to say?" ”

Zhao Xiu said categorically: "I want to say that Xiao Changfang may be secretly providing money and food for King Ying's mansion!" (To be continued......)