Zhang Liang has great talent, and Li Yang obviously wants to reuse him.

It's just that at the moment, Li Yang can't directly promote him to the center of the imperial court.

Because of the previous promotion of Han Xin, Xiao He and a group of other people, they have been controversial by everyone in the DPRK and China.

Although Han Xin, Xiao He and others have now proved their abilities with their achievements, this does not mean that everyone will not question Zhang Liang.

What's more, now that the First Emperor is not in the court, entrusting Zhang Liang with a heavy responsibility at this time will inevitably leave people with the impression of developing their own power.

Because of this, Li Yang only reinstated his official and let him continue to be the county magistrate of Wanxian County. When there are achievements in the future, it is not too late to be promoted.

Because Zhang Liang once served as the county magistrate of Wanxian County, he is also familiar with the situation in Wanxian County.

He told Li Yang that the household department had allocated the chili peppers to two places, one in the Yellow River basin and the other in the Dajiang (Yangtze River) basin.

In the Yellow River Basin, the cultivation base was selected in Henan Province, and Henan Province mainly selected the cultivation base in Wanxian County.

That is to say, the pepper base in Wanxian County is far more than the 100 acres of Taoyuan Pavilion, but is distributed in more than a dozen townships and counties, adding up to a total of no less than 2,000 acres of land (about more than 400 acres in later generations).

Hearing this, Li Yang was shocked!

This is tantamount to saying that Gongsun Rong used his power for personal gain, and the benefits that he could embezzle from it were simply an amount of money that ordinary people could not imagine.

At this time, Li Yang Fang understood why the officials would degrade a county order promoted by a province at any cost, because the benefits that this Wanxian county order could bring were too huge.

It can be said that the county order of Wan County is the biggest fat difference in the world.

After understanding the truth of the matter, Li Yang was even more glad that he found out about it, otherwise this year's chili pepper would have become the private property of the Gongsun family.

Because under the rule of Wan County, there is nearly half of the country's chili pepper base, so Li Yang asked Zhang Liang directly: "Zhang Liang, how do you plan to dispose of the levied chili peppers?" ”

Zhang Liang pondered for a moment and said: "The public auction will be carried out, and all the proceeds will be put into the government treasury and used for the construction of water conservancy projects in this county." ”

Li Yang nodded: "Okay, let's do it in this way!" ”

"Whoa!" Zhang Liang received the order.

…………

On the same day, under the warm invitation of the villagers, Li Yang stayed in the village for lunch.

The villagers took out the best wine and meat in the house, slaughtered chickens and sheep, and entertained him with the highest courtesy.

In the afternoon, perhaps because of the news, the governor of Henan Province came to meet him with the county guard of Nanyang County. As a result, these two were naturally reprimanded by Li Yang for a while, and scolded a bloody dog!

In their rule, such a bad thing happened, can the governor and the county guard not be scolded?

Regarding Zhang Liang's demotion to the pavilion chief, the governor of Henan said that he did not know about it, and the Nanyang county guard did not report it, and Li Yang did not directly dismiss him, even if his subordinates showed mercy.

The two trembled with fright, and after they returned, the governor of Henan immediately launched a work to rectify the governance of officials in the province.

In particular, on the issue of the expropriation of new crops, it is even more strictly managed and vigorously grasped, for fear that a second such thing will happen.

…………

The next day, the two Yulin soldiers escorted Gongsun Rong into Xianyang and handed him over to the Criminal Department.

Because Gongsun Rong was escorted to the Criminal Department by Li Yang sent by Yulin, Meng Yi, the Shangshu of the Criminal Department, naturally knew the seriousness of the matter, and did not dare to be the slightest slack, so he was immediately interrogated strictly on the same day.

And at the same time, in the Gongsun Mansion in Xianyang City.

The butler led a man who looked like a merchant into the council chamber.

Sun Jing, the secretary of the ministry, sits in the upper seat of the hall.

The visitor saluted and said, "What do you command, brother, when you call me?" ”

This person's name is Gongsun Ji, in his thirties, he is the cousin of Gongsun Jing, and he is in charge of the Gongsun family's restaurant, Zuixiao Lou.

The industry of Zuixiaolou is huge, there are three stores in Xianyang City alone, and there are branches in each county, and more importantly, its luxury and style can be said to be no worse than the world, and a year ago, its name was even the first in the world.

It's just that since Tianxiaju was invested by Li Yang, countless new recipes have suddenly been invented, and for a while, the drunken Xiaolou has been trampled on the soles of his feet, and he is pressed to death.

This made Gongsun Ji feel worried, and tried his best, but he couldn't regain the business of Zuixiaolou.

"Brother Ji, has the cook in Tianxiaju dug it up?" When Gongsun Jing saw that Gongsun Ji was coming, he cared about the affairs of Zuixiaolou.

Gongsun Ji said with a smile: "Brother Hui, he has already dug it up, he knows all about the recipe of the spicy hot pot base, and the recipe of the hot pot base has been passed on to all parts of the store." Nowadays, it can be said that the chili pepper is missing, as long as the chili pepper arrives, we will be able to immediately launch the spicy hot pot in Zuixiaolou, and it will be popular all over the country! ”

Yes, it's big business.

Zuixiaolou, there are more than 40 branches across the country, all of which have launched spicy hot pot one after another, and the income of Zuixiaolou this year will be unlimited. You must know that in this Xianyang City, it is not a matter of money to eat a spicy hot pot, even if you have money, you can't eat it.

Gongsun Jing said with a smile: "Brother Ji, I called you over this time to tell you about chili peppers." ”

"Oh? Could it be that Gongsun Rong has already started picking chili peppers? Gongsun Ji became excited.

Gongsun Jing nodded proudly: "That's right, I received a message from him yesterday, saying that they have started picking recently, and this year's pepper production is quite abundant, and it is expected that the first batch of peppers will reach 600 stone (more than 30,000 catties)." ”

"Six hundred stones?" When Gongsun Ji heard this, his eyes widened, and then he was overjoyed: "Six hundred stones, great!" It's just great! These chili peppers are enough for more than 40 of our stores in Zuixiaolou for a year. ”

You must know that 600 stone of fresh chili peppers can be made into about 100 stone (nearly 6,000 catties) of dried chili peppers.

It can be expected that the first batch of chili peppers picked in Wanxian County will be able to reduce the income of nearly 20,000 gold for Zuixiaolou.

What is the idea of 20,000 gold?

It is said that last year, the rich Luo family in Xianyang tendered for the construction of the Great Wall in Guxian County, and it took a whole year to earn a profit of 10,000 gold from the project.

And that's already a lot of money.

And this time, the first batch of chili peppers picked in Wanxian County alone is expected to bring nearly 20,000 gold to Zuixiaolou, and its profit is twice as high as the construction of the Great Wall project, which can be called a huge profit.

It is precisely because of such huge profits that Gongsun Jing will try his best to monopolize the source of chili peppers from the source of the base.

Thinking of the huge profits that chili peppers can bring, Gongsun Jing, who is a scholar of the Ministry of Officials, couldn't help but feel excited, and said with a spring breeze on his face: "Gongsun Rong said that once the seeds are picked and dried, they will be sent to Xianyang immediately." Calculate the time, at most it will not take half a month, so you have to prepare early, and as soon as the chili peppers over there arrive, you can launch spicy hot pot and various spicy dishes. ”

"Whoa." Gongsun Ji was overjoyed and nodded excitedly.

However, while being happy, Gongsun Ji did not forget the way of safety, and raised his head and said: "This time Li Yang's southern tour, it is appropriate to let Rong Rong be cautious!" ”

Gongsun Jing chuckled: "Brother Ji, don't worry, then Li Yang went south to inspect, and he was going to Guangdong Province, even if he passed through Henan Province, he was in a hurry, could it be that he still ran to the fields in the township pavilion?" What's more, Gongsun Rong is not stupid, how could he levy chili peppers in front of Li Yang. ”

Gongsun Ji thought about it, and he was right.

That Li Yang went south to inspect this time, with 500 feather forests, although the pomp and circumstance was not as good as the first emperor's eastern tour, but no matter where he went, this posture was also known to the local counties and people. Gongsun Rong is very smart, how could he collect chili peppers when Li Yang's team appeared.

Thinking of this, the worries in Gongsun Ji's heart suddenly dissipated, knowing that he was thinking too much.

"It's still the elder brother who thinks about things carefully, it seems that the younger brother can't compare."

Gongsun Ji slapped a sycophant, and then the two laughed, full of expectations for the future drunken Xiaolou......

"Master, it's not good, something happened!"

Just when the two of them were full of joy, the butler suddenly rushed in, as if something big had happened.

Seeing that the housekeeper was so panicked, Gongsun Jing couldn't help but be displeased: "What's wrong?" ”

The housekeeper said: "Someone in the clan came to report that there was an accident in Wanxian County, Li Yang went south to inspect, and there was a case of Gongsun Rong disobeying the decree and forcibly expropriating chili peppers, and now Gongsun Rong has been escorted to the Criminal Department!" ”

"What!"

As soon as he heard this, Gongsun Jing almost fell to the ground one by one, and his heart was horrified!

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