Pushing the door in, it was Bao Kan. He was followed by two junior officers.

Shang Cheng was surprised to find that these two officers turned out to be Sun Zhongshan and Zhao Shishi.

A smile immediately appeared on his face. He also complained about these two guys two days ago, one forgot about his errand after marrying his daughter-in-law, and the other slipped away under the banner of helping to run errands, who knew that they would appear in front of him the next day. Could it be that these two guys have good ears, and they know that they have said to Bao Kan that they will be punished?

I haven't seen him for more than three months, Sun Zhongshan is still the same, he is meticulous in his hat and riding boots, and his body is neatly cleaned up and down, and he straightens his body as soon as he enters the door and takes two steps forward, and his right arm is raised and his fist is on his left chest, and his legs are close to the spurs, and he makes a military salute with a spur, and whispers in his mouth: "Sun Zhongshan, deputy lieutenant of the West Malaysia Zhibian Army, see captain!" ”

Zhao Shishi grinned and was about to come over to laugh with Shang Cheng, when he caught a glimpse of Sun Zhongshan's serious appearance, he couldn't help but be stunned; Seeing that Shang Cheng had already put away his smile and his face was grim, he remembered Bao Kan's advice just now...... But now he is carrying a black clay jar in his left hand and a few treats wrapped in mulberry paper in his right hand, so he can't spare his hand if he wants to salute the army, he hurriedly takes two steps, puts the jar and dim sum on the table, takes a step back, clenches his fist and presses his chest, and makes a salute: "Zhao Shishi, deputy lieutenant of the West Malaysia Zhibian Army, see captain!" Without waiting for Shang Cheng to return the gift, he approached and whispered, "Yue'er asked me to bring you the white cake." This is the 'Four Seasons Fragrance' that Erya asked you to bring......"

Shang Cheng frowned and looked at the wine jar and a few dim sums, and then lifted his eyelids and glanced at Shi Shi and Sun Zhongshan. Is there something wrong with these two guys, taking these things on the road? Or do you think that with the bits and pieces of food brought by Liu Yue'er and Erya, you can offset their super fake punishment? He pursed the corners of his lips and was about to knock down the two oblivious fellows, and then he heard the stone say, "Don't preach loudly. Uncle Seventeen didn't know that the wine was given by Erya......"

Shang Cheng only noticed that there was a person standing outside the door now.

Huo Shiqi! Uncle Seventeen! Why did he come to Zhongzhai?

He didn't care about why Huo Shiqi suddenly came to Zhongzhai, and hurriedly stood up to greet him. He asked Huo Shiqi to sit in the chair on the right side of the table, and while pouring tea and soup for him in person, he said to him apologetically: "...... I was so busy that I didn't see you coming, Uncle Seventeen, and let you stand outside the house. He handed most of the tea soup to Huo Shiqi in both hands, and continued, "How did you remember coming to West Malaysia? How are you at home? How's the New Year? What about my aunt, how is she doing? How many younger sisters? ”

A series of questions made Huo Shiqi simply not know which one to answer first, and Shang Cheng's respect and politeness also made him feel a little at a loss. He opened his mouth while holding the tea soup, and finally said vaguely: "It's all good, it's all good; Your aunt is fine. ”

"Look at me, I didn't even bother to write a letter to your second elder to pay New Year's greetings to your second elder during the New Year......"

Huo Shiqi held the teacup and said: "It's nothing, you don't need to write a letter, you are busy with business, and you are so far away, and the letter is not easy to ......."

Shang Cheng saw that his expression was unnatural, and then he noticed that Huo Shiqi's appearance was very different from before. Uncle Seventeen's white and chubby round face was now dark and thin, and fine wrinkles were crawling everywhere on his originally smooth forehead, and his worried face had replaced his confident and calm smile; Even the lock of black beard that still grew on the chin was now a messy burnt yellow.

It seems that Uncle Seventeen must have encountered a lot of trouble.

But he didn't immediately ask what happened to the Huo family. He thought, even if there is ** annoyance, it is definitely not a matter of one or two days, and there is no need to be anxious for a while; Since Uncle Seventeen came to Zhongzhai, then their uncle and nephew had time to speak. So he said to Huo Shiqi: "Uncle, you sit down for a while, and I will accompany you after I finish talking to them." Seeing that Huo Shiqi was about to get up and avoid it, he held on to Uncle Seventeen's shoulder and said, "No, just two or three sentences." ”

He turned around, his eyes turned on Sun Zhongshan and Zhao Shishi, and his face sank. But although he was a little annoyed in his heart, he didn't know how to deal with these two guys one by one, after all, he didn't set a time when he gave these two people a holiday, he only said that he would come back after finishing his family affairs, how did he know that Sun Zhongshan had been delayed for so long to marry a daughter-in-law...... He silently stared at the two guys with straight bodies for a long time, snorted in his nose, and said to Sun Zhongshan: "Your sentry has been transferred to Shangzhai, you clean up, and rush over the day after tomorrow." Then he said to the stone, "Qian Laosan's sentry has been transferred back to Zhongzhai, he said that he lacks a second sentry, I have promised to send you over, and you will report to him when you go back." ”

Shi looked unhappy, pouted and said, "Why don't you call Lao Bao to ......" Sun Zhongshan took the opportunity of saluting the army to lead the order and bumped him with his elbow, so he had to salute reluctantly, and said in a long voice: "Yes." Obey orders. ”

Shang Cheng also told Sun Zhongshan about the requirements of the border army yamen on the border armies of each village, and when he saw Sun Zhongshan nodding his head, he wrote them down, and then asked, "How are the family affairs doing?" ”

Sun Zhongshan immediately smiled a flower on his face, pursed his lips and nodded vigorously, took out a red satin embroidered purse from his arms, and stuffed it into Shang Cheng's hand without saying anything. Shang Cheng took it in his hand and pinched it, and it seemed that there were a few small gold and silver squirrels, so he joked: "I, a big matchmaker, have so much money?" ”

Bao Kan said sourly beside him: "I only received a few candy miles." ”

Shang Cheng immediately gave Bao Kan an idea: "Then you won't even give him candy when you marry your daughter-in-law." ”

These words not only surprised Sun Zhongshan and Shishi, but even Huo Shiqi, who was sitting on the sidelines, was stunned.

Faced with the repeated questions of several friends, Bao Kan had no choice but to explain that he and Liao Da's second daughter were married, but he immediately complained: "I also said that I welcomed my wife in May, and now it is difficult to say whether I can marry back and kill it in one day, and the money I saved for my daughter-in-law has been moved to repair the cofferdam and dig a well!" Now I don't even know where to look for a new house! ”

Sun Zhongshan and they came all the way, and they had heard some about the great water conservancy in the river of Xima Zhiyi, but they only knew that it was the yamen who paid for the master craftsmen who knew feng shui to drill wells, and the local people contributed their efforts, and they didn't know that Baokan actually advanced money for this matter. They were about to ask the details, Shang Cheng had already grabbed the document urging the money and laughed: "I was talking about how to solve this problem, but it happened that you came back to Yiyi Sun Dacaidong, Zhao Dacai, I know that you are not poor, what you didn't say, one person borrowed thirty yuan first." He shouted for the two of them to pay for it together, but his eyes were only on the stone alone. He knew that Sun Zhongshan and Shi Shi had paid a lot of loot when Dujiadian suppressed the bandits, but Sun Zhongshan had just gotten married, so it was impossible to come up with much money, but Shi was a bachelor, and if he was free to spend his hands and feet, he would always have one or twenty pieces left, right? One or twenty times can last for a few days, and he can also free up time to think of other ways!

At first, Sun Zhongshan thought Shang Cheng was joking, but it wasn't until Bao Kan proved it next to him that he knew that Shang Cheng really wanted to borrow money from them. He turned out his purse with dozens of copper coins left, and said with a bitter face: "I really don't have any money." Buying a house and land in Huojiabao, begging his daughter-in-law to set up a banquet, he was so busy that he almost took on a debt from a river beach, where is the money? ”

The stone was even more desolate, and he didn't even have a purse. He stayed in Yixian under the banner of helping Sun Zhongshan do happy events, but in fact, most of the time was spent wandering on the streets, and the 100 yuan accumulated from several battles in the summer and autumn of last year had already been lost. It's because he lost too much at the gambling table, and he didn't even go to Yanzhou to meet his goodwill.

Shang Cheng threw the official document back on the table with a dark face. I wanted to pay them a few dollars to survive the famine, but ......

He was so disappointed in the stone that he didn't have the strength to teach this ridiculous fellow a lesson.

Huo Shiqi took the official document and flipped it over without saying a word, and said, "I have a method, you can consider it." ”

"What?" Shang Cheng looked at Huo Shiqi in surprise. Hey! How did I forget, Uncle Seventeen is also a veteran of the case in the yamen, and he is the most experienced in dealing with this kind of thing, so maybe he can find a good way for him. However, he was also a little worried, would Huo Shiqi give him a "bad idea"? After all, what these old officials are best at is to increase taxes. He tried his best to make his words sound tactful, and said to Huo Shiqi, "Uncle Seventeen, West Malaysia is a borderland, and it has suffered droughts year after year, and the farmers are not rich, if you don't sympathize with the people, I'm afraid it will affect the reputation of the yamen......"

Huo Shiqi shook his head and said, "The method I said is not this. He pointed to the official document and said, "Although it is the official who guides the people to contribute, but the wells, ponds, and cofferdams are all public, and there is a difference between the land and the land, and there is a difference between the distance and the distance of the terrain, and there is also a gap between who has more and who uses less water. There are two methods, one is to sum up all the capital and then divide it together, and the village households will be converted according to the distance of the land, and each household will share some of the capital, so that everyone has nothing to say. Another way is to first find a large household to borrow, and after the completion of the project, all water must be paid, and a penny of water will be uniformly stipulated by the government, and then it is clearly stipulated that the water money will be paid until the government loan is repaid......"

Before he finished speaking, Shang Chengcheng shook his head. Neither is desirable. The yamen has long said that it will not ask the dealer to pay another money for this matter, and if it changes its mind when it encounters difficulties now, it will be difficult for the government to be convincing in the future. This is not a matter of money or not, but a matter of the credibility of the command post yamen.

He frowned and thought for a long time. At the moment, apart from borrowing money from a few large families in his private name, he really can't think of any better way. In fact, he was ready to do this, and it was a big deal, and there was no money for the next two or three years. He is not afraid of it. He is an officer, and the border army has already been covered with food and clothing, and there are actually very few places to use money, and he has no family to support, so it doesn't matter if he has two years of money, just grit his teeth. What's more, he still has more than a dozen acres of land in Yi County, and there is no problem in providing Yue'er Xing'er's life......

He made up his mind to ask him to make a budget as soon as Lao Jiang came back from the construction site, and then he would borrow money from several large families according to the budget.