Mrs. Dong's letter was only a few pages, but Gu Haotian was very emotional. In order not to make him suspicious, he wrote down a few key points and sent him back to his original place.

The letter was sent from Yizhou by the eldest son of Dong Taigong, who was a scribe next to the Yizhou Sihu Army, although he was not a prominent official position, but with his family's money and his own drill camp, he became the confidant of the army.

The gist of the letter was that the spring famine in Yizhou was serious this time, and the imperial court allocated more than 200,000 stone of relief grain, of which 60,000 stone was distributed to Yishui County, and he asked Yishui County to hand over about 20,000 stone of relief grain in the northern Dongdian area to his father for distribution, and asked his father to take advantage of the identity of the township clerk (that is, the later township chief) and the favorable conditions of the villagers in the northern mountainous areas who were not well informed to embezzle this batch of relief grain.

It is easy to come to the court for relief food, but it has become the meat of Tang monks for officials at all levels, no wonder the people will rebel, Gu Haotian sighed in his heart.

Taking advantage of the moonlight, Gu Haotian and Shi Qian walked on the official road back to Yishui County. However, the content of the letter always lingered in his mind, "On February 24, the grain ship arrived at the wharf in Yishui County, and on the 27th, it arrived at Dongdian, and asked my father to handle it properly to avoid accidents." On February 24, that is, seven days later, Gu Haotian calculated that he would never let the relief food fall into the hands of the Dong family's father and son.

The next day, the two returned to Zhu Guitang's nephew's shop, and Li Kui and Bian Xiang had already arrived. Along the way, Gu Haotian thought of a lot of plans, but he felt that they were not perfect. Report to the official, think about it, forget it, if there is no interest at the state and county levels, how can the Dong family be greedy for 20,000 stone of grain with the son of a scribe. It is also unrealistic to distribute it to the people, the Dong family is bound to refuse to take the initiative to release grain, and it is impossible for the people to come and grab grain without organization, so even if he robs and distributes it on the spot, I am afraid that it will not be distributed much, and it will face the encirclement and suppression of officers and soldiers. The rest is to rob the grain, 20,000 stone of grain is a fleet, even if he has the time to organize people to rob it, but from Yishui into the canal and back to Liangshan, on the way to the state and county checkpoints, how can he get by.

After lunch, Gu Haotian gathered Zhu Gui, Shi Qian, Bian Xiang and others to discuss.

"The Dong family is vicious and in trouble, just wait for me to go in and cut off the heads of his family's birds, and see how that guy can swallow the life-saving food." Li Kui was furious when he heard this.

"Brother Li Kui, it's easy to kill the Dong family, but how can the food be born." Although Shi Qian has no strategy, this point is clearer than Li Kui.

"Little official, or let's make Zheng Jiaji's old plan. Wouldn't it be more convenient to move brothers here now? Zhu Gui experienced the matter of Zheng Jiaji, so he naturally thought of that action.

Gu Haotian pondered it again and again, and finally felt that if he wanted to get the food, he could only buy the grain through the channels on the surface, and finally see if he could pick up the grass and beat the rabbit to get back the capital, anyway, it was better than staying in the hands of those moths. As for the relief of the victims, he can only do his best to obey the destiny of heaven.

Now that he had made up his mind, he asked Bian Xiang to take Li Kui and his entourage back to Liangshan first, and asked Mr. Wen to send people over to do things. But Li Kui must stay if he lives or dies, Gu Haotian is helpless, thinking that Li Kui must have been wanted by the government, and it may not be a bad thing not to go with them, so he agreed.

Let's say that in recent days, there have been rumors in the Dongdian area, all saying that the imperial court has relief grain that will arrive soon, and even where and how much grain there is on a certain day of a certain month, it has been spread that there are noses and eyes, and the Dong Mansion, which is in charge of the distribution power, has been surrounded by people every day, and even some security chiefs from neighboring villages have gone to the Dong Mansion to inquire face to face.

The most significant change is that the population of Dongdian has increased a lot, and hungry people from all sides have rushed over when they heard the news, blocking the streets and alleys.

Mrs. Dong was furious in the mansion and scolded the housekeeper half to death, because the two of them knew about the letter. The housekeeper was aggrieved to death, and took out the eighteen generations of his ancestors as a guarantee to prove his innocence. The two finally decided that there was a problem on the Yizhou side, but it was already like this, so they could only try their best to deal with the aftermath.

"Taigong, you can't transport the grain back to Dongdian, otherwise you won't be good. Don't we have a manor more than ten miles north of Yishui County, just unload there, and then find a buyer to sell quickly. ”

"After a while, I went there again to find a big buyer."

"I'll leave for Yishui County to investigate immediately, maybe I can find my next home."

"Alas, that's all there is to it, you go and come back quickly." Mrs. Dong had no choice but to take one step at a time.

The Yishui River flows through the west of the county, so the west of the city has become a commercial area, especially the varieties of grain that rely on water transportation, which are gathered here. The housekeeper of the Dong Mansion was also lucky, and after only walking through three rice shops, he met a big grain merchant from the south, but this businessman heard that there was a shortage of grain here, and he came to sell grain instead of buying grain. When the housekeeper saw that the merchant was young, richly dressed, and extraordinary, and that he could not find a suitable home for a while, he vaguely said that he had a big deal at hand, and asked the merchant to go to the teahouse to talk about it.

But when the merchant heard that the steward said that he was selling grain, he was reluctant to talk about it at that time, and only said that I had come all the way from the south to sell it at a good price, and now that I had not sold out of my own grain, I would go to buy grain.

However, a thin man who looked like a bookkeeper on the side persuaded him, saying that if the price was cheap, he could consider it, and even if he turned it on the spot, he could make a small profit.

When the merchant heard this, he hesitated and responded.

The housekeeper couldn't find a buyer for a while, and he was afraid of leaking secrets when he sold it to the locals, but he didn't dare to make his own decisions, so he had to ask again and again, and finally brought the merchant back to Dongdian and asked the old lady to make the decision himself.

When the old lady announced the amount of 20,000 stones, the merchant retreated, saying that there was no way to raise a huge amount of money for a while, and that it was difficult to gather ships. In the end, under the good talk of the old lady and the housekeeper, the price of 750 wen and one stone was negotiated, and the goods were received in the north of Yishui County seven days later.

That night, Mrs. Dong invited the little nobleman to a banquet, and the guest of honor drank happily, and after a few glasses, the young merchant seemed to be a little drunk.

"Taigong, if you don't say a word, I hope you will forgive me if there is anything wrong."

"It doesn't hurt to talk about it."

"Now there is a spring famine, Yizhou is short of grain, why does Taigong sell a lot of grain to an outsider at a low price, this grain seems to come from - there seems to be something wrong ——"

"My master drank too much, and he didn't care." Before the young businessman finished speaking, the accounting office on the side desperately pulled his sleeve and covered it up.

"Hugh has to be disturbed, I just look at the sincerity of the Taigong, so I can speak, otherwise in time, the Taigong will cause trouble, how can I rest assured."

"What do you mean by that?" That Mrs. Dong was silent, worthy of being an old fox.

"When I entered the town below, I saw that the town was crowded with victims, as if the food was related to the victims." The young man seemed to have stopped deliberately.

"What if?" Mrs. Dong was already in a hurry.

"Those disaster victims will not be able to see food by then, but they are afraid that they will make trouble, if there are people who have the intention to stir up trouble, it is possible that there will be a civil uprising, and the safety of the Dong Mansion will ...... at that time."

"When how is it good." Mrs. Dong has no calm, the hungry people are in turmoil, and there are rumors from time to time that if it happens in Dongdian, the Dong family will suffer, not to mention, the embezzlement of relief grain will inevitably be exposed, and the scapegoat of the end will not need to think about it.

"There's the best of both worlds."

"Please teach me." Mrs. Dong hurriedly made a salute and asked for advice.

"I have recently placed a large manor in Xiajia, and I urgently need a group of people, if this group of disaster victims is recruited, not only will the prince save the troubles, but there will be no need to bother to find people in Xia. Just ......"

"Lang Jun just talk about it?"

"It's a long way from here to my next home, and if there are no boats, these thousands of victims can't be transported away for a while."

"Just rest assured that the old man should do his best."

When Dong Taigong heard that this young merchant was willing to take away thousands of victims, he was overjoyed, and some boats were naturally not a problem. Immediately, he instructed the housekeeper to immediately bring the people in the house to recruit the victims. The young merchant took his leave and left, and the two sides agreed to meet again in the north of Yishui County ten days later.

Yishui River, Gu Haotian and Shi Qian sat on the boat sent by the Dong family, the trip to Dongdian was unexpectedly smooth, not only collected the grain and did not take much effort to get the thousands of victims by the way, which was extremely refreshing. It turned out that this young businessman and account were Gu Haotian and Shi Qian, and he wanted Zhu Gui to go out, but he was a local in case he was found out, it would be inappropriate, and it was too late for Liangshan to transfer people, so the rest were himself and Shi Qian, so he had to go out hard, but fortunately, the Dong family was in a hurry to get rid and did not suspect it.

Seven days later, the fleet led by the Ruan brothers arrived outside Yishui County, accompanied by two teams of escorts led by Sun An and Bian Xiang. After Shi Qian connected with the housekeeper, he conveniently changed the 20,000 stone grain to the dock ten miles north of the city in three all-nights. Gu Haotian asked Ruan Xiaoer, Ruan Xiaowu, and Sun An to escort the grain back, and instructed Ruan Xiaoer to organize boats to meet the victims at the intersection of Nayi Water and the canal, and leave Bian Xiang's team and Ruan Xiaoqi behind.

After the grain was shipped, Gu Haotian took Bian Xiang, Shi Qian, and Ruan Xiaoqi to Dongdian again. Under the rare generosity of the Dong family, the more than 1,000 victims of the disaster in Dongdian have finally eaten some hot food in the past few days, but there are few responses to the Dong family's propaganda of going to the Southern Manor. The Dong family had no choice but to promise one or two silver per person for relocation compensation, and only then did some people want to go and gradually enthusiasted, and finally reached more than 1,500 people, so there were few victims left in Dongdian.

The arrival of Gu Haotian and a few people made Old Lady Dong breathe a sigh of relief, he was really worried that the young businessman would take care of himself and leave him with this big burden. It was also the suffering of the past few days, so he immediately asked the victims to load the ship and asked Gu Haotian to take them away. At the request of the village, he wrote a document in the name of the township scrivener, explaining that these villagers had difficulty in making a living due to the spring famine, and went to work in a certain manor to tide over the famine.

In the afternoon of the same day, Gu Haotian and his entourage set sail with the ship, and picked up Li Kui and others outside Yishui City that night.

Let's say that in the evening of the next day, in the Yishui River, 20 miles north of Yizhou Capital, a boat unfortunately capsized, and both people on board fell into the water and died. Later, an official from the Yizhou Prefecture arrived on a mission, but there was nothing unusual at the scene, but one of the scribes had a blue face, and someone who knew him said that the scribe's surname was Dong.