On the eighth day of the eighth month of August, it was the last day before the start of the township examination, and when night fell, there were no questions from the Gongyuan side, which made the Zhang brothers extremely angry. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

“…… The two lords were not humble and did their best, but Shen Yude and Jin Zhongyun were too tight-mouthed, not only did they not leak the exam questions, but also ordered the Imperial Forest Army to strictly guard the place where the test papers were printed. Tang Ying seemed very wronged, he had already done everything he should have done, but in the end he fell short.

Zhang Heling was furious: "Didn't you say hello to the Inner Curtain Printing Bureau before this?" ”

Tang Yingzhan replied tremblingly: "Back to the Hou Ye, I have not encountered such a situation in the previous township examinations...... Moreover, every time the Inner Curtain Printing Bureau is temporarily transferred from the Master of Ceremonies and the Guozijian, if you add the Imperial Forest Army, so many people are involved at once, not to mention the cumbersomeness, it is easy to leak the news, so that it ...... Neglected in his duties! ”

Zhang Yanling had a bit of mockery on his face: "This is Shen Yude, who the eldest brother trusts?" It seems that he doesn't give us face at all! ”

"Pingning, you go back, remember to keep an eye on the Gongyuan, and report anything in time!"

Zhang Heling didn't get angry, because he knew that it was useless to be angry, since he didn't get the exam questions before the exam, he could only start from inside the exam room, and after getting the questions, pass them outside and then let people write them and send them in, or do tricks on the final marking and opening of the seal.

Waiting for Tang Ying to retreat, Zhang Heling said, "In front of his subordinates, don't mention who helps us do things, do you want everyone in the world to know who among the courtiers is connected with us?" ”

"Big brother is right to be worried, but he also has to look at the object, even if he lends nine dares to Tang Ying, he dares to commit a crime and go against our Zhang family? Also, that kid Shen Xi, it's not once or twice that he doesn't deal with us, I heard that Xie Ge Lao appreciates him very much, I'm afraid he doesn't have the heart to defect to us...... Don't end up cultivating him and turn him into a woe! Zhang Yanling's tone was not good.

Zhang Heling couldn't help but explain to Shen Xi at this time: "Don't talk nonsense!" Shen Yude didn't know that we were the instigators behind the four books and literature exam questions, and it was also necessary to be on guard. Alas! It's also because my brother didn't consider Zhou Xiang, and he should have been informed earlier. ”

Hearing that his brother not only did not hate Shen Xi, but maintained it in every possible way, this made Zhang Yanling suddenly angry. He thought to himself, "That kid has set us along, how can we let him go so easily?" ”

"Big brother, the emperor is going to summon you and me into the palace tomorrow, do you know what's going on?" Zhang Yanling suddenly changed the subject.

Zhang Heling sighed because he didn't get the exam questions, and said, "Do you know? ”

"Is this an unknown thing, it will take time before the autumn grain is put into storage, but several prefectures in Shandong and Henan, which are close to Beijing, are experiencing locust plagues, and I heard that the drought in Sichuan this year has seriously reduced production, and Your Majesty is probably worried about money and grain at this time, this is a great opportunity for you and my brother."

Zhang Yanling said in a somewhat demagogic tone.

"Oh!? Opportunity? Where to start? ”

Zhang Heling frowned, "Do you want to ...... Let's reach out to those officials who secretly turn to us and ask for money and food? ”

"Why bother with your own people, there are not a few merchants selling grain around the capital, the imperial court turnover is difficult, these merchants are still doing business of buying low and selling high, I heard that some merchants are still colluding with the people of Fanbang, we use this as an excuse to let the Shuntian Mansion and the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies make some articles, then the money and grain will not be there?"

Zhang Yanling came up with an idea that seemed to him to be very good.

In the final analysis, it is to plunder the merchants, turn the merchants' goods into theirs, and then pay most of them to the imperial court, and generate income for the imperial court in disguise.

Zhang Heling said with some concern: "In recent years, there have been constant border troubles, civil strife, and the merchants around Beijing have long been in the rumors, and after the beginning of this year, the household department has put the money and grain dispatch under its direct jurisdiction, and it is not easy to draw money and grain from the hands of the merchants at this time." ”

"Big brother, do you remember the Tingzhou Chamber of Commerce?" Zhang Yanling asked suddenly.

Zhang Heling thought for a while, and then nodded: "It seems to have a lot to do with Shen Yude." ”

"Exactly."

Zhang Yanling said, "In the first year, the Fujian local political envoy seized a large number of shops and warehouses of the Tingzhou Chamber of Commerce in Fujian, and the silver money obtained was not a small amount. ”

Zhang Heling thought for a while and asked, "Didn't the Tingzhou Chamber of Commerce collapse because of the local government's suppression of the ice?" How did it appear in the capital? ”

Zhang Yanling said with a smile: "I also just heard that it is the big boss of the Tingzhou Chamber of Commerce, who gathered a group of rabble and established a Fujian businessman association...... It's really a big joke, daring to set up a merchant organization under the nose of the imperial court, which clearly has the intention of rebellion. ”

"I thought that the Tingzhou Chamber of Commerce had nothing left, but now I realized that the savings of the Tingzhou Chamber of Commerce were far greater than I expected, and from them, I could get at least tens of thousands of taels of silver, as well as a large amount of food and goods. When we make a move, the Beijing businessmen will not only not help, but will celebrate because they cut off a strong enemy! ”

"What's the reason for that?"

Zhang Heling looked at his younger brother, he felt that Zhang Yanling should have planned for a long time when he said this.

Zhang Yanling said: "Those outsiders who go to the capital to do business, their hearts are not stable, they have bribed the local government and county yamen officials, and even the officials of the household department and the Ministry of Industry are also involved. ”

"When the time comes, we only need to say that these foreign businessmen have openly bribed the government and corrupted the atmosphere of officialdom, and we can be convicted of the crime and confiscate their goods. When we see the emperor tomorrow, as soon as we talk about the matter, the emperor should readily agree to investigate thoroughly to the end, and at that time we will be ordered to handle the case. ”

Zhang Heling hesitated for a moment, at first he was also cautious about plundering merchants, because many merchants were inextricably linked with the Zhang family behind them, so they had the intention of killing chickens and taking eggs. But it seems that this foreign merchant has nothing to do with the Shouning Marquis Mansion!

"Hmm."

Zhang Heling finally nodded, "When I see Your Majesty tomorrow, I will submit this matter to see what Your Majesty means." But I would like to declare that if Your Majesty does not allow it, the matter will be stopped, and the merchants in other places will be gone, and this Fujian merchant has something to do with Shen Yude, and it is definitely not a good deed to do things like this. ”

Zhang Yanling said yes, but in his heart he was quite disapproving, and secretly ruthless: Lao Tzu wants to serve a pot of merchants from Fujian! Who told you that Shen Xi doesn't know each other, dare to embarrass our Zhang family, don't hand over the exam questions obediently, let you know now that it's amazing, and confiscate all your property, and in the end, you don't want to come back and beg us to be one of our dogs?

……

……

Just when the Tingzhou Chamber of Commerce was being targeted, Song Xiaocheng had already taken out all the warehouses along the Baozi River near Chongwenmen in accordance with Shen Xi's instructions, turned them into silver coins and stored them, leaving them to buy those carriage shops in the capital, in order to make a comeback.

Song Xiaocheng did everything according to Shen Xi's instructions, and tried not to have anything to do with the court and those in power.

But on Hui Niang's side, things are becoming more and more extreme.

In order to regain the authority to transport grain to the imperial court, Hui Niang repeatedly bribed the officials of the household department through her connections, and sent seven or eight hundred taels of silver, and was promised that she would be able to regain the qualification to transport grain for the household department at the end of the year.

"I've hired a ship now, and the manpower is also ready-made, as long as I can get the business of the imperial court, even if I don't have him, the business won't still prosper?"

Hui Niang is very proud, because she feels that she can finally escape from Shen Xi's shadow and be an independent woman, no matter what Shen Xi does, it has nothing to do with her, and she can also rely on her own ability to make the business bigger and bigger.

Her affordable mother is not an ambitious woman, what she pursues is only to keep her original inheritance. It was Shen Xi who made her develop to a height that made her feel in danger, but when she let go, she felt reluctant and desperately wanted to take back everything she had lost.

She did all this hard work just to prove to Shen Xi that she had the ability.

Hui Niang spent two or three months hiring a lot of ships on the North Canal line south of Tongzhou, these ships can only help people transport some goods, but because there is no big business, they are basically trading at a loss. She already felt that she didn't have Shen Xi to plan for her, and she was constrained everywhere in doing things.

She desperately wanted to get the errand of transporting grain for the household, and the situation was very different after having the umbrella of the household, and many businesses could rely on shipping, become bigger and stronger, and truly realize her dream of monopolistic operation.

For Hui Niang, bribes to the local government have always been unimpeded in the past, and this time it should not be a surprise.

"I can't lose all the money that my sister of the Shen family put here with me, I want her to have money that she can't spend for several lifetimes when she comes back...... Think of it as my dowry for Xiaoya. ”

Thinking of marrying her daughter into the Shen family, Hui Niang was somewhat relieved.

Lu Xi'er can live well, even if she fulfills her last wish. When she went to pick up Lu Xi'er and go home that day, she also thought that instead of letting Lu Xi'er be unhappy with her, why not leave Lu Xi'er by Shen Xi's side? That was her daughter's own choice, and she believed that even if her daughter married as a concubine, Shen Xi would not be treated badly.

Thinking of Shen Xi's appearance when she was a child, her heart was warm, but when she remembered Shen Xi's "desperation" for her before, her heart would have a heart-rending pain.

On the tenth day of the first month of August, Hui Niang suddenly received a message, saying that the household department had already agreed on an errand to transport grain for the household at the end of the year, and that there would be someone in the Fujian merchant village who had a ship, and it was a matter of time before she was selected, so she took a thousand taels of silver to the designated place to settle the "final payment".

Because it had been discussed before, once the matter was successful, she would have to pay all the bribes.

Hui Niang felt that something was wrong in her heart, because she felt that things were going too smoothly, so smoothly that it was beyond her imagination. She thought to herself, the imperial court agreed so quickly and released the authority to transport grain?

Hui Niang was also suspicious of those who accepted bribes from her, but she was relieved to think that these people didn't dare to make things public.

"If the matter is poked out, these officials can't end well, I'm just cheap, and they, who are officials, are willing to be buried with me?"

The more she thought about it, the more determined Hui Niang became, and in order to prevent accidents, she still brought some more people, all of whom were brothers who were born and died with the chariot and horse gang.

Just like a female general who was going to fight the enemy, Hui Niang prepared everything that should be prepared, and when she got into the carriage, she took one last look at the empty gate of the Shen family.

It was the old mansion of the Xie family, where Shen Xi once lived, after Shen Xi moved to the mansion near the rice field, it was left for Shen Mingjun and his wife to live in, but now it is as empty as her home.

Even her heart is now empty, Hui Niang wanted to say something for a while, but in the end she couldn't even speak, and suddenly her throat was a little choked.

After getting into the carriage, Hui Niang hugged the warm pillow and cried for a long time, and in the end, she didn't know why she cried.

"I'm so tired."

Hui Niang looked at the scenery outside the window and thoughtfully, "If you can let me take a break, how good would it be?" Or, it is better to die than to live ......"

**************

PS: The fourth update is here!

What should Hui Niang do?

The plot has reached the most critical moment, Hui Niang's life and death are between the thoughts of the Son of Heaven, I hope everyone will speak enthusiastically in the book review area, I want to hear your most real voice!

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