Time flies, the military salary incident has come to an end, more than half a month has passed in the blink of an eye, in this more than half a month, Wu Yuanming temporarily avoided the limelight according to the instructions of his father Wu Sangui, hiding at home is not out of the door, even when Geng Jimei and Shang Zhizhi left Beijing, Wu Yuanming did not see them off on the pretext of being unwell, but only sent Wu Lu to confess to them and sent some Beijing souvenirs; Every day at home, I just learned from Yao Qisheng the way of officialdom and the strategy of using troops, and the rest was just fooling around with Red Peony and Shi Jianmei at home, after this incident, the relationship between Wu Yuanming and Shi Jianmei improved by leaps and bounds, and after Wu Yuanming explained in every possible way that killing Shi Longbiao at that time was an unintentional move and tried all kinds of efforts to please him, he finally pulled Shi Jianmei, who was ashamed, into bed again, and officially gave Shi Jianmei the name of the side room. In general, among the many things in the family, except for Princess Jianning's dinosaur going home to eat and live, and Mu Shenbao and Mu Meng's brothers and sisters saying goodbye on the night of the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, these two things made Wu Yuanming feel unhappy, and everything else was quite smooth.

First on the night of the Lantern Festival, Wei Dongting and Cao Yin, who were imprisoned in Dali Temple, found poison in dinner, but Wei Dongting and Cao Yin had Kangxi's special care and the food was good, and the jailer who delivered the meal enjoyed a little bit of wine and food on the way to deliver the meal. However, the cook who cooked for them fell into the well and drowned for some reason, cutting off the trace. After that fright, Wu Liuyi immediately took Wei Dongting and Cao Yin to the Yamen, the commander of the infantry army, and guarded them by his own personal soldiers, so that Wei Dongting and Cao Yin did not encounter other accidents.

On the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, Wu Liuyi and Mingzhu and Bomu Bogol Santang retried Wei Dongting and Cao Yin and other criminals, Wu Liuyi deserved to be Wu Qingtian of the Qing Dynasty, and it only took one hour to clarify the case, Wei Dongting's secret letter to Shi Jianmei was forged, and the first to get rid of the relationship, as for how Cao Yin got the forged secret letter - naturally it was handed over to him by the executioner who tried to cut off Wu Yingxiong's head with a big knife and was picked off his tongue. According to Cao Yin's confession, it was the executioner who used Wei Dongting's fake letter to deceive him, making him think that Wei Dongting was going to attack Wu Yingxiong, so Cao Yin went to Wu Yingxiong's house to find Shi Jianmei to pretend to rob the law field.

As a result, Wei Dongting was acquitted, Cao Yin was deceived and the crime was willing, the official was demoted by one level, and Yu Lu, who was sixty taels of silver a year, was also severely punished for two years; As for the culprit executioner, he was naturally pushed to the entrance of the vegetable market to ask for a knife, and several of his accomplices, that is, the soldiers who tried to kill Shi Jianmei and the few imperial guards who teased Hui'er's little girl at the right wing gate, also accompanied him to the ground. Although Ao Bai Ao Zhongtang, who enforced the law impartially, expressed a hundred thousand protests against this result, the party Wu Yuanming himself did not protest, and Ji Bilong, who received a large sum of money and four little beauties, kept diluting the mud and fighting Taiping Boxing, and everyone was happy to understand this case.

Wei Dongting and Cao Yin returned to Kangxi's side to continue to be on duty, Wu Liuyi was still in front of his Nine Gate Admiral, continuing to guard the most important nine gates of Beijing for Kangxi. And Kangxi, who took out a large amount of military pay to buy peace, also fell into the dilemma that his finances were about to make ends meet, and he urgently needed to open up new financial sources to solve the current urgent need. In the blink of an eye, the time has come to the day when the second dragon raises its head in February......

"Boom ——!" Just after noon. The lightning like a golden snake broke through the sky of Beijing shrouded in dark clouds, just as it was said in the solar terms, the rumbling spring thunder seemed to wake up the hibernating dragon and flew up, one after another over the city of Beijing; The wind blew away the headscarves and hats of passers-by, overturned the lids of the cloth pots on the stalls, blew off the signboards of the shops, and blew the branches of the trees to dance; After another moment, the soybean-sized raindrops fell sparsely, first ten drops and eight drops, and then thousands of drops, and it became a continuous trend in an instant, shrouding the city of Beijing in a gray rain curtain.

"Good rain, spring rain is as expensive as oil, February 2 is a sting, can rain so much, this year's north is afraid that it will be a good harvest year." Wu Yuanming stood in front of the window mullion, while admiring the rain scene, while talking to himself with a sad face to study the agricultural scene in the north this year, and cursed in his heart Why did the Xiaoice River period end doing this? It's like helping the Manchu Tartars to sit down in the world. Shi Jianmei next to her pursed her lips and smiled: "I have never seen a person like you, saying that this year will be a bumper harvest, but his face is as sad as his wife who has just died, are you happy or sad?" ”

"If my wife suddenly kicks her legs, I will only be happy, and I will never shed tears." Wu Yuanming cursed his wife early death without conscience, which made Shi Jianmei, who was already Wu Yuanming's little wife, furious, and shouted at Wu Yuanming's ears, Wu Yuanming was not angry, not to mention that Hongshao was still sitting in the room, pulled Shi Jianmei into his arms, reached out and reached into Shi Jianmei's underwear, pressed it on Shi Jianmei's towering chest and stroked it, and said softly: "Don't worry, I want that princess wife to stare at her legs, as for you, of course I hope you will give me a baby son who is taller than me." ”

Shi Jianmei's figure is very fit, and she is half a head taller than Wu Yuanming, so Wu Yuanming said such things. Shi Jianmei was so ashamed that her face was flushed, and when she was leaning on Wu Yuanming's shoulder and was about to be coquettish, Wu Yuanming's bedroom door was knocked on urgently, and then Wu Lu's voice came from outside the house, "Shizi, I'm Wu Lu, something big happened." ”

"Wu Lu, what's going on?" Wu Yuanming hurriedly let go of Shi Jianmei and went over to open the door, as soon as the door opened, Wu Lu, who was drenched all over, knelt down on Wu Yuanming's knees outside the door, tears mixed with rain fell to the ground along his face, Wu Lu choked and said: "Shizi, the slave is incompetent, he didn't complete the task you gave him, and when the slave found a place, Xiao Maozi's mother was already ...... He had already been covered with mulberry paper dipped in water and suffocated to death. ”

"What?" Wu Yuanming took a few steps back, and his rather handsome face immediately became extremely blue. It turned out that last night, Wu Sangui ambushed in the palace came to the inside line, the eunuch Xiao Maozi who risked his life twice to send a letter to Wu Yuanming was scalded to death by hot boiling water, Wu Yuanming immediately guessed that this was Kang Mazi settling accounts after the autumn, and hurriedly asked the three brothers of the Wu family to find Xiao Maozi's blind old lady, and prepare to take her to a safe place to retire and send her to the end of her life, in order to thank Xiao Maozi for her kindness. But Wu Yuanming didn't expect Kang Mazi's methods to be so vicious, and even a blind old woman refused to let go!

"Amitabha." Shi Jianmei and Hong Peony thought of the tragic scene of being suffocated to death by mulberry paper, and they both shivered involuntarily, and at the same time recited the Buddha. Wu Yuanming gritted his teeth and asked, "Have you found out who did it?" Brute, even a blind old woman can do it! ”

"Hui Shizi, according to our spy investigation, it should be the hand of Li Xu, the second-class imperial guard." Seeing the tragic scene of the unjust death of a dying old man with his own eyes, Wu Lu was also full of anger, gritting his teeth and answering Wu Yuanming's question. Wu Yuanming shouted: "Pass the order, let my father's people be Li Xu within three days, and avenge Xiao Maozi's mother and son!" ”

"Piercing!" Wu Lu replied menacingly. Wu Sangui's hidden strength in Beijing City is actually very amazing, and now that there are two hundred new soldiers of Wu Sangui's guards who are strong in martial arts and loyal and reliable, it is not difficult to secretly kill a royal guard. Shi Jianmei also stood up and shouted: "Shizi, let me go with me, I used to be with Wei ...... When Wei Dongting was together, he had been to Li Xu's house, and he had also seen him, so he was familiar with the situation. ”

"Good." Wu Yuanming was about to agree, but a thin and withered old man suddenly stood up next to Wu Lu and shouted: "No, no one is allowed to touch Li Xu now!" Wu Yuanming looked fixedly, but it was Yao Qisheng, the godmother who volunteered to stay in Beijing to assist him, Yao Qisheng's expression was calm, and he asked slowly: "Do you still want to fight with the emperor's people again?" Since the Lantern Festival, the people of Ao Bai regard you as an enemy, and even Ba Bu Shan does not dare to openly contact you, if you conflict with the emperor's people again, Ao Bai will take the opportunity to retaliate. ”

"Father-in-law, the child can guarantee that no traces or clues will be left behind." Wu Yuanming tried to argue. But Yao Qisheng's face sank, and he shouted: "Childish! If there are no traces and clues, others can't do anything about you? Have you forgotten how Wu Liuyi was almost dragged into the water by Aobai? Some time ago, when you and the emperor's cronies fought to the death, Ao Bai was the ultimate beneficiary, and after tasting the sweetness, didn't he want to provoke a fight between you and Kangxi again? ”

Wu Yuanming stopped talking, gritted his teeth and muttered for a long time, Wu Yuanming sighed and said, "Forget it, Wu Lu, you go and bury Xiao Maozi's mother." Spend some more silver to buy Xiao Maozi's body from Zuojiazhuang and bury it with his mother. Wu Lu lowered his head and was about to go down, but Wu Yuanming stopped him again, "Wait, you prepare a blank account book, write Li Xu's name on the first page, and the account book will be kept by you in the future." ”

"Shizi, what are you writing his name for?" Wu Lu was full of confusion, but Yao Qisheng laughed, nodded and said, "Yes, this is like my Yao Qisheng's righteous son." It's not that you don't report it, the time has not come, and when the time comes, you will not be able to escape. ”

"The minion understood." Wu Lu was also smart, and soon understood that Wu Yuanming was preparing a must-kill list, and went down to prepare according to Wu Yuanming's instructions. Yao Qisheng did not leave in front of Wu Yuanming's bedroom, but called Wu Yuanming out of the room. While walking in the corridor with Wu Yuanming to enjoy the spring rain, he asked Wu Yuanming: "Child, has the imperial court paid your family's military salary?" What is the plan for the 30% of the money that your father promised you? ”

"It is said that eight million taels will be paid first on the tenth day of the second month, and the other eight million taels of silver will be issued next month." Wu Yuanming replied respectfully: "Because Yunnan is in urgent need of cash to buy rice from Siam and horses from Tibet, the child only plans to keep one million taels this time, and the remaining three million taels of silver will be intercepted next time." ”

"That's all you keen?" Yao Qisheng was a little surprised, and said worriedly: "You promised to give Aobai, Mulima, Bamburshan, and Suo Etu half percent of each of the military salaries, as well as half of the money your father promised to Kubilong, but they all have to be deducted from these three percent, and you only have one million taels left, which is only enough to pay one person's silver." ”

"Those eight lambs, they didn't help at all, and they still want to reach out and ask for silver?" Wu Yuanming said that the military salary he promised to Ao Bai and others became a big fire, and at the court meeting on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Wu Yuanming was able to get 16 million military salaries, which was completely dependent on Wu Yuanming to fight for Kangxi himself, and Ao Bai and others were just picking cheap on the side, and Wu Yuanming would feel comfortable in his heart. So except for the silver that his father promised to give to Kubilong, Wu Yuanming didn't want to give it to anyone.

"Confused, who said they didn't help you?" Yao Qisheng was greatly annoyed by Wu Yuanming's stinginess and stinginess, and reprimanded: "What do you know? If there is no Ao Bai standing in the Taihe Hall to threaten Kangxi, Kangxi will obediently let you blackmail? Without the fanning of Bambulshan and Mulima and others, would Ao Bai fall to your side? Although Ao Bai did not publicly support you, the news that he fell to you had already reached Kangxi's ears, so Kangxi gave up wooing Ao Bai and turned to find the support of Ji Bilong. Besides, because of Wu Liuyi's incident, you have already offended Aobai, if you break your word on him and get fat, he won't come to peel your skin? ”

"The child has been taught." If Wu Yuanming has any advantages, it is that he can listen to the correct opinions, so Wu Yuanming immediately nodded and said: "Then this time, the children will leave half of the military salary first, and each of them will send half of it first." It's just because of the matter of Jufeng Qianzhuang, now the credit of the silver tickets in the capital has collapsed, and they can only send cash to them, but will it be too eye-catching to send cash in the past? ”

"Isn't it easy?" Yao Qisheng said contemptuously: "The silver account opened in the capital before has no credit, you won't arrange for a few people to open a silver account by yourself?" The prince of Pingxi is the silver number opened by the owner, and there are thirty percent of the military salary as the capital, can the silver ticket issued be credited? Last time, I asked your people to bring the code book of Jufeng Yinhao, because Jufeng Yinhao has a hand in preventing the forgery of silver tickets, and it was prepared for you. As long as your bank's name and credit are out, your actions and expenses in Beijing can be much more convenient. ”

"The father-in-law is scheming, and the child is so impressed that he throws himself to the ground." Wu Yuanming suddenly realized, and said in his heart that his godfather, called Hanako, was really not a dry meal, and his long-term vision of thinking about things was definitely not comparable to himself. Wu Yuanming thought for a while and said: "It's not difficult to open a silver account, the two stores in Jufeng have been sealed, and the child asked Wu Shou to take my name thorn to find Shuntian Mansion Yin, you can buy the store together with the silver vault that we smashed, and renovate it a little, and then you can open it." It's just that the protection of this silver vault is difficult to do, and the child only has 200 guards on the surface, and if he uses his father's secret agents, he will be killed in a pot once something happens. ”

"It's not that hard." Yao Qisheng continued to give his godson a bad idea and said: "Some of the refugees in the enclosure in Beijing are called Huazi, if you spend some silver to recruit hundreds of young people, take some silver to buy them some knives and guns to arm them, and then let your father's guards train them strictly, won't there be qualified Kuding?" These people may be of great use when it comes to critical moments. ”

"Count it in one fell swoop, and it's a brilliant plan! Father-in-law, your old man is really clever, Zhuge is reincarnated. Wu Yuanming applauded and patted his ass, and Yao Qisheng twisted his beard and smiled: "Okay, don't pat the fart, let's get down to business first, after you get your money, you have to take the initiative to send it in person only in Aobai; As for the others, wait for them to urge you and beg you, and then take advantage of their lack of money to make more gains, and then give them the silver ....... ”

Yao Qisheng and Wu Yuanming, father and son, were discussing some poisonous time to cut off their children and grandchildren, when a porter of Wu's mansion hurriedly came over, handed over a famous thorn with both hands and said, "Shizi, there are people outside the door who ask to see you." Wu Yuanming said that there are not many guests in his house, and now it is raining, who will come to him? Curious, Wu Yuanming took the thorn and only glanced at it, and his face immediately changed color.

"What's going on? Who's coming to visit you? Yao Qisheng curiously came over to take a look, and saw six italics written squarely above the bamboo name thorn - Yang Qilong, the late dependent. And Wu Yuanming only had one thought left in his head, "The fake third prince Zhu is here, what is he looking for me?" Do I see it or not? ”