If Suzhou wants to develop, in addition to its own strength to grow, it must cut off some contact with the outside world, and the most important connection must be to cut off the smuggling line, Yuan Xiuyuan has been ruthless since he took office, and has removed a group of officials in the city.

In addition to some important positions, they also included some big families, such as the Confucian family, who had risen in the past ten years.

Yuan Xiuyuan has had a headache how to deal with the Kong family in the past few months, the sphere of influence of the Kong family is not only in Gusuzhou, but there are also people in the capital, as for the official position, Yuan Xiuyuan did not check it carefully, and his practical head thought about it a little, this official to the third grade or above, there are only a few people surnamed Kong.

This fat man has been anxious recently, and he wanted to find the man who likes to play chess in the yard, but then he thought about it, since Liu Xinxing is about to go to Beijing to take office, then these things can only be done by himself.

The delicate lady saw her husband during this time, and joked that her husband had lost weight. Yuan Xiuyuan looked in the mirror and felt that he was really thin, but it happened that the tailor had recently given Yuan Xiuyuan a brown dress.

This garment is neither big nor small, just like his own official, neither up nor down.

Although this official is not big, this current Yuan Tongju, the upcoming Yuan Governor's Mansion wore this brown coat and walked on the street, proud of the spring breeze.

Gu Suzhou is rich in the west and expensive in the east, there is a mansion called Confucius Mansion located here, the mansion is not big, but there are many servants, and there are few guests in the house, so the basic servants who walk around the house are some servants. Every once in a while, the servants would go out to buy a large number of daily necessities, such as grain, cloth, etc.

The Confucian Mansion is different from the mansion of a knifeman, since the latter's identity was revealed, the mansion is full of people coming and going, and there is no fear of people from the official government coming to check, but the Confucian Mansion is mysterious, even as the most powerful family in the dark side of Suzhou Guzhou, they dare not come and go in the open to deal with these businesses.

A white-faced young man on crutches stopped at the door of the mansion, he hesitated a little and did not dare to enter the door, the young man seemed to have some problems with his feet, wrapped in a large white cloth, and the blood was oozing out.

It seemed to be a very miserable young man, but this expression was not a painful expression, but a very tangled look, after a stick of incense, he gritted his teeth and knocked on the door solemnly.

With a knock on the door, a man with a simple knife in his hand had a frosty face, he slowly opened the door, the white-faced young man took that step with difficulty, he looked around after he came in, and felt that it was still a little familiar, but the moment he came in, his eyes were still squinted, and he seemed to feel that the sun was a little dazzling.

The white-faced young man looked at the man with the Pu knife next to him, and asked in a low voice, "Uncle Hong, my father... Still angry?"

The latter still said coldly: "Go back to the young master, you can go and see it yourself." ”

The white-faced boy nodded, still walking with difficulty on crutches.

The old man with the Pu knife was named Hong San, who had been in the Confucian Mansion for 30 years, and it was said that he was a former person from the 12th Prison, but was later expelled from the 12th Prison for committing a crime, and he did not know how to wander to the Confucian Mansion in Suzhou.

Hong San controlled his steps extremely slowly, as if he was deliberately taking care of the young man with injured feet, and walked for a long time to reach the innermost room.

The small house is very simple, just like the entire Confucian Mansion.

There is a large table, a reclining chair, and a landscape painting on the wall.

"Ancient and modern ghosts, not others, there are heavenly ghosts, there are also landscapes and ghosts, and there are also people who die and become ghosts" is for the landscape. This landscape painting was painted by Yuheng in the Spring and Autumn Period, called You Chun Tu, which shows the situation of water and sky meeting each other, with green mountains towering above and lakes melting below.

It's like the pattern of Suzhou.

The old man in the house was dressed in a green shirt, holding a string of Buddhist beads in his hand, and there was some luster on the Buddhist beads, and if you looked closely, there was some pale golden light.

The white-faced young man thought about it outside the door, but knocked on the door anyway.

There was no response from inside the door, just a gentle cough. After a while, the old man said lightly, "Come in." ”

The white-faced boy thought for a moment, put away his crutches, and slowly touched in against the door. When the old man saw it, his pupils first constricted, and then quickly recovered, and his gaze swept over the young man's face.

The young man stared at the old man, first smiled, and then said, "Don't come to harm?"

There was no response from inside the door, just a gentle cough. After a while, the old man said lightly, "Come in." ”

It's just that the old man stopped stroking the beads.

The white-faced boy thought for a moment, put away his crutches, and slowly touched in against the door. When the old man saw it, his pupils first constricted, and then quickly recovered, and his gaze swept over the young man's face.

The young man stared at the old man, first smiled, and then said, "Don't come to harm?"

The old man made a straight face and said, "You talk to your grandfather like this?"

The boy scratched his head embarrassedly, opened his hug, and motioned for a hug. As a result, the old man rolled his eyes for a while, and by the way, he gave the young man a kick.

Of course, it didn't kick the teenager in the leg.

However, the boy still "screamed" softly.

The old man didn't look at it, he looked at the picture of You Chun with his hand behind his back, and said seemingly casually: "What do you think of this picture?"

The young man didn't think about it, and said casually: "Okay, this picture cost a lot of silver, right?"

The old man ignored it and continued, "Do you know Zhan Yuheng?"

The young man thought for a moment and said, "That Spring and Autumn Painting Saint?"

The old man nodded.

"How much money did it cost?" the boy was clearly more concerned about the question.

"Silver," the old man touched his chin and said softly, "It seems that there is no silver?"

The young man was dumbfounded, and whispered to the old man, "How much silver can this painting sell for?"

The old man obviously had no tolerance this time, turned around and kicked the white-faced young man again, and the latter fell to the ground in response,

After the young man struggled for a while, he got up and said, "Grandpa, this painting was given to us by the painting saint?"

The old man was a little surprised when he heard this, but he didn't pay much attention to it, he no longer stared at the painting, but turned to look out the window, as if recalling some past events.

The old man's surname is Kong, and his name is Honghe. Kong Hongzhen is the head of the Kong family in Suzhou, and he doesn't like to go out on weekdays, so he likes to stay in the small room and write a few words and look at the painting on the wall. When he came back from his thoughts, he said to his grandson, "You know our business, right?"

The white-faced young man didn't know why the old man suddenly asked him this question, and he whispered, "Pawnshop?"

The old man decided not to look at the eldest grandson, but was silent.

His head hurts a little, why did the Kong family have such an eldest grandson.

Kong Honghei hated that iron could not become steel, and he raised his voice and said, "You really don't know what our family has done?" The white-faced young man didn't giggle this time, and the expression on his face was a little more solemn. He said, "Could it be that this painting is from outside?" He seemed to say to himself: "Grandpa, something happened to Gu Suzhou?"

When Kong Hongji heard this, his mood calmed down a little. He said slowly: "Our business has been affected a little, and that little fat man is now admitting death, and I can't turn back." ”

"Yuan Xiuyuan?" said the white-faced young man and sat down on the chair.

The old man smiled and said with a little relief: "It seems that your legs have not been beaten in vain." ”

The white-faced young man's face was covered with black lines, and he continued: "Yuan Xiuyuan will immediately become the prefect of Gu Suzhou, this is something that everyone in the city knows, if he Yuan Xiuyuan wants to climb up, it is not impossible to cut off the line of our family." ”

Kong Hongji continued to stare at the young man with interest.

"Recently, I have noticed that although the city customs office has been relaxed, the goods received by our government are much less, so I can only think that the situation in the city is now loose and tight. The white-faced boy said.

Kong Honghean nodded first and asked, "Then what do you think of the solution?"

The white-faced young man seemed to frown a little, but he still said, "Kill Yuan Xiuyuan?"

The old man shook his head and said softly, "Not good enough." ”

The white-faced young man was silent for a while, and said in a deep voice, "Then let's do it all." ”

The old man nodded with satisfaction.

--------

The pigeon in the capital came back and brought news to Zhiqiu.

Have mixed feelings.

The good thing is that the other side seems to be okay with Ji Zhengyi's departure, but the bad thing is that obviously the old flower farmer is not very satisfied with the situation in Gusuzhou.

However, after all, he didn't disturb Zhiqiu's mood here, he didn't go to Fengxuan Tower to pick up two pots of wine today, but went to the street to casually pick up a few pots of miscellaneous wine.

Zhiqiu staggered to Mian's house, and happened to bump into the latter in Zamabu. It seems that Mian Zhi is not in a good mood, and he doesn't pay attention to Zhiqiu, so he still takes care of himself.

Zhiqiu ignored him reluctantly, and did not feel a little disappointed, but sat on the stone table in the courtyard and opened the wine jug.

The aroma of wine was everywhere, and it just entered Mianzhi's nose. But he still seemed to be indifferent, and he had been walking stupidly like this, but this sniffing of his nose was discovered by Zhiqiu.

Zhiqiu lifted a pot of wine and drank it in an exaggerated gulp.

Mian Zhi couldn't help it, pretended to be casual, patted Zhiqiu's shoulder with a "snap", and said loudly: "Yo, Xiao Zhiqiu, long time no see!"

Zhiqiu sighed and felt a little pain, so he hid the wine jug aside and scolded: "Go, go, tie your horse." ”

Mian Zhi laughed twice, snatched the wine jug, stepped on the stone table with one foot, and drank like that.

Sweep away the gloom in your heart.