The night was dark and windy, Han Qian did not ride a horse, but took a carriage, surrounded by Zhao Wuji and others, and walked slowly in the night, so that it was convenient for him to sort out his thoughts on the road.

After a lot of twists and turns, it was already the end of the ugly hour when he arrived at Lanting Lane.

Han Qian walked through the car window and saw that the sky was slightly red, Jinling City was immersed in the quiet night, and no more people could detect the murderous intent hidden under the night.

At this time, Zhao Wuji, who was riding a horse in front of the carriage, stretched out his hand and signaled the coachman to stop the horse.

Han Qian looked ahead, they were still some distance away from the entrance of Lanting Alley, and faintly saw several black shadows in the shape of carriages parked across the street.

Lin Zongjing put the saber at his waist in front of him, drove his horse forward a few steps, and asked in a suppressed voice, "Who is there?" ”

"Han Jiaxian's nephew, do you really want to see the old man?"

Several people walked through the street, and under the illumination of the bright corner lamp, it was Feng Wenlan, who had a white face and long beard, and Feng Wenlan's eldest son, Feng Yi, Kong Xirong and others, Han Qian didn't know which gate they came from to enter the city, and they actually stopped him at the entrance of Lanting Alley.

At this time, Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, and Lin Haizheng walked out of the alley with more than a dozen people.

They had long noticed that several cars of unknown origin suddenly stopped at the entrance of the alley late at night, and they didn't know what was going on, but they were secretly on guard in the alley, and only when they saw Han Qian enter the city at night did they come out of the alley to meet.

Han Qian motioned to Tian Cheng to let everyone below retreat first, there was no need to alarm the neighbors.

Xi Ying opened the curtain of the car, Han Qian saw Feng Wenlan's temples white under the bright corner lights, his eyes were slightly puffy and haggard, and his long beard covered his chin in a mess, looking quite depressed, and he sighed slightly and said: "Lord Feng, you think too highly of Han Qian - if the matter is really as serious as Lord Feng predicted, even if Han Qian is willing to put this cheap life into it, I am afraid that he will not be able to help Lord Feng make any waves." ”

"Nephew of the Han family, you insisted on stuffing hundreds of loads of tea from Xuzhou to the Feng family, but the old man didn't block it; And Yi'er secretly helped Linjiang Money Shop raise funds, and the old man also turned a blind eye. Feng Wenlan said.

Seeing that Feng Wenlan, an old guy, was actually playing the emotional card with himself shamelessly, Han Qian could only play haha and said, "I'm afraid the matter is not as serious as Master Feng said." ”

"Then why did the Han family's virtuous nephew hide back in Lanting Lane overnight and didn't want to see me?" Feng Wenlan asked.

"That's Lord Feng scaring me." Han Qian said.

"Can Han Jiaxian's nephew introduce the old man to meet His Royal Highness?" Feng Wenlan stared at Han Qian and asked.

"Lord Feng wants to see His Royal Highness, it's so late, it's really inconvenient!" Han Qian snorted and said.

Zhao Ting'er and Xi Ying were all sitting in the carriage, they were all in the dark, looking at Han Qian's face under the illumination of the bright corner lamp, revealing a little lazy, and they couldn't guess whether Han Qian was saying that it was too late at this time, or that Feng Wenlan was too late to see the third prince.

"Does the Han family's nephew really think that the old man went to see His Highness too late?" Feng Wenlan asked.

"Lord Feng, if you think so, the little nephew has nothing to say." Han Qian still said vaguely, thinking to himself, aren't you talking nonsense, if not, why would Lao Tzu avoid you?

"Nephew of the Han family, can you invite the old man into the house to drink saliva?" Feng Wenlan asked with perseverance in staring at Han Qian.

Seeing that Feng Yi and Kong Xirong, who were standing behind Feng Wenlan, both had a deeply frightened look on their faces, Han Qian finally had no way to harden his mind to keep them out, and replaced the waist card with Gao Shao, and said: "You go and invite Jiang Shu and Yuan Guowei to come over, and say that Lord Feng visited Han's house at night, and bothered them to come over so late." ”

Gao Shao didn't know what it meant, he was slightly stunned for a while, took the waist card handed over by Han Qian, and didn't lead the horse, jumped directly onto the wall, and flew through the wall to block the streets, like a civet cat at night, running towards the residence of Jiang Shu and Yuan Guowei at the fastest speed.

Only then did Han Qian signal the coachman to continue driving towards the Han family's mansion in Lanting Lane.

Looking at the figure of Feng Wenlan who was staggering into the carriage behind him, Zhao Ting'er asked Han Qian: "The Feng family chooses to stand on the side of the third prince at this time, and it is not exempt from disaster?" ”

"As a courtier, not speculating on the holy judgment is the only way to save your life." Han Qian said with a chattering expression.

"Aren't you just speculating all day long?" Zhao Ting'er said coquettishly.

"If the Feng family still has a chance to avoid disaster at this time, how could he hide in the city overnight like a dog?" Xi Ying glanced at Han Qian with disdain and said, "And Feng Wenlan can intercept us here, obviously he also knows how serious the situation is, but he still has illusions, and he even hopes that when the imperial historian Zhang Han goes to impeach the Feng family, the third prince can stand up and help him speak, I'm afraid it's not smart enough." ”

Han Qian didn't pay attention to Xi Ying and Zhao Ting'er's words, and looked through the car window when Feng Wenlan was in a hurry, and sighed slightly in his heart, the Feng family thought that they could wait and see, maybe it was one of the reasons why Emperor Tianyou finally lost his patience, but it was definitely not the only reason.

The Jingxiang War has passed, Du Chongtao finally held the Xiangzhou Army after all, and when the reinforcements arrived, the imperial court did not punish Du Chongtao, and naturally he would not admit the defeat in the Jingxiang War.

The local forces in Jingxiang were purged before and after the war, which will greatly strengthen Jinling's control over the Jingxiang region, and to a certain extent, it cannot be regarded as a bad thing.

However, the huge war expenses and the subsequent investment in the construction of the defense line and the rewards for the meritorious soldiers were really like a huge mountain pressing on the precarious finances, so heavy that it seemed that there was a violent squeaking sound constantly echoing in everyone's ears.

In addition to the huge expenses in the direction of Chuzhou and Shouzhou, the war expenses in the direction of Deng Xiang in less than a year, although the degree support envoy has not yet been finally written off, Han Qian does not expect that it will be less than 4 billion yuan.

This does not take into account the huge amount of construction funds for the subsequent construction of the Deng Xiang Defense Line.

The annual income of the Great Chu treasury is only about 12 billion yuan.

Although a considerable part of the huge expenses before and after the Jingxiang War were advanced from Jiangsu-Hubei and other prefectures, since they were advanced, it is natural that Jiangsu-Hubei prefectures should justifiably deduct this separate expenditure from their taxes in the next few years.

This will also directly lead to the revenue of the Great Chu treasury, and will directly lose the tax contributions from Jiangsu, Hubei, Jinghuang and other states.

However, coupled with the deduction of war expenses in the two directions of Chuzhou and Shouzhou, how much can Dachu's treasury revenue be left this year? Can you make all the official money of the Manchu Dynasty's civil and military officials?

In the past two years, the climate in Jianghuai, Jiangnan Dongdao, Jingxiang, and other places has been very different from previous years, and small disasters have been reported almost every day, and major disasters, such as the bursting of the Huai River's embankment and the flooding of Sizhou City, have already caused the DPRK and China to be overwhelmed, and the news of the further aggravation of the floods in Poyang Lake has also come from Ganzhou, Hongzhou, Jiangzhou, and other places in the past few days.

In addition to the matter of establishing a successor and preventing relatives and border marshals from abusing power, there are many things that cause Emperor Tianyou a headache at this time.

The Feng family is still too fat.

The Feng family, like the Han family, is from Xuanzhou, but the ancestors of the Feng family moved into Jinling very early to develop, and served as the salt and iron transshipment envoy of the Jiangnan East Road, and once controlled the taxes and mining taxes of Yue, Hu, Run, Xuan, Xi and other prefectures, and the Feng family had accumulated a lot of wealth before Emperor Tianyou built the capital Jinling.

Feng Jia's judgment of the situation, before Emperor Tianyou raised troops to attack Jinling, he surrendered to the past, and donated more than 200,000 stones of grain to help Emperor Tianyou pacify Ning, Jiang, Xuan, Hong and other prefectures, Feng Wenlan's father Feng Yue also served as the first salt and iron transfer envoy after the founding of Great Chu, Feng Wenlan also climbed step by step to the high position of the household servant.

How rich the Feng family's family property is, Han Qian had secretly found out before.

The Feng family has a grange in Xuanzhou, Jinling, Yangzhou and Runzhou, with a total of 1340,000 acres of land and nearly 10,000 slaves and maids, in addition to more than 100 mines, tea mountains, iron yards, ship yards, weaving mills, medicinal herb shops, silk villages, pawn shops, gambling cabinets, restaurants and warehouses.

As for the gold and silver goods secretly hidden by the Feng family, this is not something that Zuo Si's spies can investigate clearly.

…………

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Entering the mansion, Han Qian asked everyone else to retreat, leaving only Zhao Ting'er and Xi Ying to serve tea in the courtyard, seeing Feng Wenlan's white and fat forehead oozing fine beads of sweat, it was said that it was already the end of August at this time, and it was autumn, and the air felt humid and hot in the middle of the night, which made people restless.

Han Qian took the tea that Zhao Ting'er had brewed, took a sip, and then asked Feng Wenlan again: "Why does Lord Feng have a premonition that a catastrophe is coming. ”

"In Zhang Han's reference book, he slandered my Feng family for deliberately destroying the dragon vein of the Imperial Tomb, and had bad intentions," Feng Wenlan said bitterly, "And presumably the virtuous nephew also knows that although Zhang Han has been a small servant in the past few years, none of the people he has participated in can stand." ”

Han Qian looked at Feng Wenlan, and he didn't know whether he was smart or confused, thinking that since he could have such a strong desire to survive and vigilance at this time, why had he stayed in Jinling City and watched by the wall before, and why did he be greedy for this little bargain and hand over the handle alive?

Seeing that Han Qian was silent, Feng Wenlan said, "If the virtuous nephew can help the Feng family survive this catastrophe......

Han Qian saw Feng Wenlan open his mouth to promise, intercepted his words, and said: "Lord Feng, don't hurt me, I still think that my head can stay on my neck for a few more days, at most, I will help Lord Feng invite Jiang Shu and Yuan Guowei over." ”

Zhao Ting'er glanced at Xi Ying suspiciously, in the presence of outsiders, it was inconvenient for her to ask Han Qian directly, since they all directly refused to take Feng Wenlan to see the third prince, what was the use of inviting Jiang Shu and Yuan Guowei over?

However, Zhao Ting'er didn't say anything more after seeing Feng Wenlan hear Han Qian's words, but walked around the courtyard restlessly, and was shocked, could it be that Feng Wenlan already knew the identities of Jiang Shu and Yuan Guowei, and also knew that Han Qian invited Jiang Shu and Yuan Guowei over, what was he doing?

Zhao Ting'er sighed bitterly in her heart, looking at Feng Yi and Kong Xirong's restless expressions full of confusion, obviously she didn't guess what kind of dumb riddle Han Qian and Feng Wenlan were playing!