Things on the Wuzhou side, everything was arranged, Li Xun was about to return to Fengjing, but the arrival of the two letters disrupted all plans.

One is a letter from Zhao Xun, the king of Qi.

The drought in the Central Plains has been very serious, starvation is everywhere, the situation is turbulent, small-scale civil unrest has risen one after another, and the imperial court, but there is not enough money and food to relieve the disaster, Zhao Zhi has increased the Jiangnan tax several times, has caused the dissatisfaction of the Jiangnan power group, and began to have a confrontational mood, and this Central Plains drought, involving Henan, Hedong, Shannan and other provinces, the scale of the disaster is very huge, relying only on the financial resources of the Jiangnan region, can not solve the fundamental problem, now the weather is getting colder and colder, once it is winter, eat without eating, wear without wearing, The situation of the people will become more and more critical, and at that time, a larger-scale civil unrest may be inevitable.

The only thing Zhao Zhi can do now is to do his best to raise money and food, and drag this winter over, and by the beginning of spring next year, the situation may improve.

The drought in the Central Plains as early as half a year ago, there was already a sign, the ministers of the political hall, many times reminded Zhao Zhi to prepare early, Zhao Zhi listened, and did some things, but not active, at that time Zhao Zhi, full of thoughts, how to carry out the next military action, is also actively preparing for war, his actions, so that the princes of the world, all suspicious, people's hearts float, but all Zhao Zhi's ideas, with the drought in the Central Plains, can only be a bubble.

In Henan, Hedong and other places, there has been no drop of water for several months, and in some places, it has not rained a decent rain for a whole year, and the drought came very quickly, so fast that Zhao Zhi had no time to react.

Due to the lack of preparation in advance, in terms of grain reserves, there was no preparation in advance, and when the drought broke out on a large scale, Zhao Zhi realized the seriousness of the situation, and when he wanted to gather food, it was too late.

In the early days, when the grain was cheap, the imperial court did not take any action, and when the drought slowly surfaced, those who had grain in their hands began to consolidate the grain and jointly raise the price of grain. As time goes on and the drought gets worse, you will find that even if you have money, you may not be able to buy food.

A few days before Zhao Xun wrote this letter, Linwang Zhao Ji was asked about his crime and went to prison.

After the drought broke out in full swing, other major grain merchants, in order to avoid the imperial court, temporarily ended the grain business on the surface, but secretly collected grain everywhere, waiting for the situation to change, which is also a means to raise the price of grain, but it is very secret, only the Shanglin commercial house, but it is still open to do business, the food supply is enough, but the price, today is more expensive than yesterday, the day after tomorrow is more expensive than today, one day is more expensive than one day, blatantly raising the price of grain, It is even more important to release all kinds of news, the imperial court is in financial difficulties, and there is not much grain in stock....

The imperial court is in financial difficulties and does not have much grain in stock, what does this news mean? It shows that the imperial court has no ability to suppress grain prices, and in the end, it can only spend a lot of money to buy grain from the major grain merchants, and it is still necessary to seek the help of the major grain merchants.

The news came out, caused a great panic, the people of the capital, have to invest in the purchase of grain, reserve grain, in case of emergency, the price of grain in just a few days, was raised to the height of once the grain twelve taels of silver, in this case, Zhao Zhi had already collected three million taels of silver, ready to six taels of silver once the price of grain, half buy half credit form, from the hands of the major grain merchants, buy one million deniers, but the move of the commercial bank, so that the plan finally went bankrupt, the imperial court planned to buy grain capital, In just a few days, it has shrunk by half.

When Zhao Zhi heard the news, he was furious, and immediately ordered the seizure of the entire capital, and the twenty-seven grain stores belonging to the Shanglin Commercial Bank, and then, as the review progressed, the figure of Zhao Ji, the king of Lin, gradually surfaced.

Zhao Ji is the thirteenth son of Pingzong, with an arrogant personality, but he has no political ambitions, he only likes money and beautiful women, and he has no interest in anything else, when Zhao Zhi competed for the position of the prince, Zhao Ji also made a contribution, so after Zhao Zhi succeeded to the throne, he was not bad to Zhao Ji, but after this incident broke out, Zhao Zhi did not have any politeness, and immediately ordered to arrest Zhao Ji and go to Zongzheng Temple in prison.

The person who presided over Zhao Ji's case was none other than Yang Luwang.

Zhao Ji can be described as a huge rich, among the kings and magnates in the capital, it is all worthy of the name, only in the Guannei, its large and small manors are dozens, tens of thousands of fertile land, hoarding more than three million tons of grain, and the rest of the gold and silver are innumerable.

Yang Luwang reported this information to Zhao Zhi, and persuaded him to severely punish Zhao Ji, the king of Lin, and confiscate his family property to relieve the danger of the court and the world.

Zhao Zhi finally agreed to Yang Luwang's suggestion, but the means of operation could not be too direct, after all, Zhao Ji was a member of the royal family, and if he was directly punished, his intention would be too obvious, and it would easily cause dissatisfaction and suspicion among other kings of the royal family.

On August 16, after being interrogated by officials of the Division, the criminal department was the official of Lang Zhong An Bihuai, and Zhao Ze, the son of Zhao Ji, the king of Linwang, had a very close relationship, Zhao Ze had a brutal personality, and had raped several women from good families to death, and then with the help of An Bihuai, he was able to get away with it.

On August 27, Zhao Ji's case became bigger and bigger, and the You family, which had a very good relationship with the An family, was also implicated and attacked, and You Mingyuan himself was removed from all official positions, sent to prison for questioning, and severely interrogated.

It was also on this day that Zhao Xun, the king of Qi, wrote a secret letter in his own handwriting, asking people to rush to Wuzhou, informing Li Xun that the recent political turmoil in the capital and the uncertain future of the You family, although Li Xun and You Min knew a lot of people, but the two had not decided to marry, as long as Li Xun did not come back, they would not be affected in any way.

Qi King Zhao Xun's letter arrived only five days later, the second letter followed, it was a handwritten letter from his aunt Li Yi, the letter made it clear that Li Xun should not come back, Zhao Zhi had made up his mind to beat Zhao Ji to the end, and anyone who had anything to do with him would be severely punished.

Li Xun is also hesitant about this matter, he can't talk about whether he likes You Min or not, maybe he has some good feelings, but the most is just a pity.

Originally, they were going to leave for Fengjing in early September, but as soon as this incident came out, Zhao Xun and Li Yi both wrote letters asking them not to come back, and Li Xun didn't know what to do for a while, so it was delayed until October.....

asked Fan Zhongyun, Fan Zhongyun did not give a clear opinion, but just said lightly that he didn't want to go back, and he could find a lot of excuses.