The dark clouds enveloped the annex of the prefectural government, and it was cold, and the forced negotiations in the house were the key to maintaining the future situation of Kamiya County, and the confrontation between the government and the family clan would sooner or later turn to another fixed direction. The guard with the weapon tilted his head, and a hysterical roar came from behind the door: "Li Wen! You're biting indiscriminately—" Then he turned back as if he hadn't heard.

The wood crackled and burned, and the hands that were roasting the fire were withdrawn, and the middle-aged scribe didn't care about the other party's roar, and got up and smiled on his face: "It's not important to bite or slander, the important thing is that I have an excuse to take down the three of you." ”

"You are really despicable villains, you must know that when you first came to Shanggu County as an official, we didn't make it difficult, otherwise where would you be able to sit so easily!"

"The last sentence is wrong, I am the only one who is despicable, but now it is no longer interesting to say this kind of thing, in fact, it doesn't matter who was the official at the beginning, the family is like this, I wish someone would sit on it to shelter you from the wind and rain, and now I am using the winter to control the price of food, forcing the government to give you convenience......" Li Ru looked at them with his hands, his smiling eyes gradually turned serious, and his tone was gloomy: "...... Look, your heads are sticking out. ”

"So you're framing us? No one on the outside will believe it. ”

Li Ru shook his head: "The three of you should know the truth of people going to tea and cooling." After saying this, his eyes flickered over the three of them, and he turned his back and clapped his palms, and the door creaked open, and when the guard stepped in, he ordered: "Take them down and separate them from their families." ”

"Yes!"

The guards came over with shackles and directly took Su Wang Zhao and the others, Su Zhan's gentry struggled to raise his head, and shouted: "Li Wen!" Despicable villain, taking a wife and a daughter's family, what is it, I won't let you go if I'm a ghost—"

"If you don't let me go, it's not just you, arrange it well, right......"

Li Ru waved his hand to take them out, the noisy room quieted down, and Dongfang Sheng poured wine and served it to him: "Brother Wenyou is really painstaking, the twisting arrangement, why don't you just kill the chickens and make an example, this is a bit in conflict with your previous thoughts." ”

Here, taking the warm wine, Li Ru invited him to sit down, and he also sat down on the side, "In fact, there is no conflict, the purpose is to stabilize the price of grain, the matter of the grassland is over, it is not enough to kill these people, and other people will still rise up in the future, just like Xiliang at the beginning, my father-in-law killed the Qiang people one after another, but it should come or will come in the coming year, what is the middle of your road?" In fact, in those families, thieves are self-respecting, forcing the border people to be unable to support themselves, and they have to rely on them to survive...... The Ma, Han, Yan and other big clans in the northwest are intertwined, and if they move, they will set themselves on fire, and people as fierce as Yuezhang dare not touch them easily. ”

After taking a sip of wine, he paused for a moment: "Fortunately, on the side of Shanggu County, there are almost no big clans who have taken the shot, but it is obviously not advisable to kill alone, killing will only make people chilling, but it will not convince them. ”

Dongfang Sheng laughed, coughed twice, and shook his head: "So you're going to eat them?" ”

"Eat them!"

Li Ru smiled and nodded.

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

In the afternoon, the news that the three big families of King Su and Zhao were imprisoned spread in the city, and there would naturally be people who would be suspicious, but soon after, when it was almost evening, the Zhuangzi of the three families was sealed by the government, and the family members were escorted back to the city.

The family has been married since ancient times, or knotted, or stable, the relationship is naturally complicated, and the news between each other is also quite smooth, the day when the Su Wang Zhao family was strictly handled by the government, the news was transmitted as quickly as possible, especially when the other party had such a major crime as assassination, many people began to clear the relationship, so as not to let their own bad luck.

Soon food prices began to fall.

On October 28, at the end of the month, a merchant group led by the government was also formed, a large number of cattle and sheep began to be delivered, and the horses were subject to quantity control, Gongsun Zhi gave an order to Li Ru and Dongfang Sheng in the first two days of delivery: "Rare things are expensive, horses still have to be restricted, we can't let the Central Plains have too many war horses, we have no advantage at all, especially Yuan Shao's territory, give him a ban on horses in the spring of next year." ”

With such an order, the merchants of the two states naturally had suffering, and said that Gongsun Zhi had the two huge horse farms in his hands, the Yanmen Xiongnu and the Xianbei of Liaoxi, and he would give them to whomever he said, unless Yuan Shao's soldiers and horses could cross the two mountain ranges in the west and north to cross the grassland to rob, or to do business with Xianbei and Wuhuan in Liaodong, but they were all merchants who traveled in all directions, and they understood that the grassland in Liaodong was not big, and it was impossible for war horses to be given in large quantities. The mutual market matter is gradually coming to an end, and another thing is also being rolled out.

……

The bloodstained sackcloth hung from his body, tattered, and his shoesless feet walked barefoot on the snow.

At the end of the month, there was another heavy snowfall, the roofs and streets were covered with snow, the weather was bitterly cold, and there were almost no people on the streets. Most of the dozens of members of Su Zhan's family who were thrown out of the Fuyang prison have injuries, probably numb to the barking of wild dogs, even though there is news from the government that the assassination has nothing to do with them, but there is still suspicion, so they can be released, but the family business is still under the care of the government for the time being, and there is not necessarily the joy of being released from prison between the eyebrows, with his head down, and muttering incomprehensible syllables in his mouth.

There are not many people on the street, occasionally one or two pass by, and no one pays attention to the down-and-out beggars, but this one is a little large, old and young, both men and women are in it, and the nearby wine shops are still lively, and some merchants from all over the country such as the ice and snow have poked their heads out from the second floor.

"Yo, come and see, isn't this the family of the big family surnamed Su in Shanggu County?"

"No wonder some ...... familiar"

"The surname Su, do you want to come in, please have a drink to warm up, on such a cold day, take the family out for a walk?"

The gossiping words attracted more people to come out of the wine shop, laughing and ridiculing the family in the past, shrunk a figure and walked over slowly, the woman sobbed in these words, the old man closed his eyes and sighed, and the child in his hand looked at the door of the wine shop, a fat merchant holding a piece of mutton and gnawing on it, eating a mouth full of oil.

"I'm hungry......," the child swallowed.

The old man squeezed the child's hand and whispered, "Lian'er, let's go home and eat again." ”

"Hmmm! After going back, I asked the steward to turn up the stove and make Lian'er's favorite red date pastry. The dirty little face was raised, and the eyes sparkled with hope.

"Good! When you get back, I'll let the steward do it for you. The old man said with a smile, looking at the back of the head buried in front of him, his expression was gloomy, and he patted the child's head lovingly with his palm.

Behind and around, the words of pointing and teasing and banter buzzed around Su Zhan in the walking room, his head was lowered, and the characters who used to have heads and faces were now recognized, which was simply a torment. After the sun set in the west, they slowly walked out of the city, and at night, they returned to their village.

"Why don't you let us in...... This is my house, why don't you let it in! "A woman with a cloak and an arm raised rushed to the guards guarding the courtyard gate, crying and rushing in. The old and young in the ragged family grabbed the weapons that crossed the resistance and shook them vigorously, screaming at the soldiers: "The house where we have lived for decades, handed down by our ancestors, if you don't let people go back, you just kill us...... Su Zhan, you evildoer—"

Like an old lady in the family, she sat on the ground and slapped the ground, crying and shouting: "You evildoer, you will cause the whole family to suffer and suffer, and kill my old bones!" ”

At this moment, the conflict was noisy, the grounded maid and servant in the courtyard looked around, Su Zhan squatted in the corner with his head in his hands, trembling slightly, many people in the house wiped their tears, and after nightfall, they quietly took some cooked food and threw it out of the wall, which was regarded as a foil to spend tonight.

The next day, Su Zhan temporarily found an uninhabited and dilapidated mud house, the snow collapsed the eaves, a large hole was broken in the roof of the house, and the snow fell from above, piling up on a pile of broken wood tiles in a thick layer, which could not be inhabited at all.

"You stay here first, I'll go meet the others and get some money to turn around."

However, when he saw the few houses that surrounded him on weekdays, they didn't let him in, and the porter came out with a message: "My master is not here, come back in a few days." ”“…… If you don't want to make trouble at home, go and go—"

More directly, he threw something out and sprinkled it at Su Zhan's feet, and a voice came out from behind the door: "It's a little ...... here Take it and eat it, it's good to ...... the New Year."

The down-and-out figure looked at the food, hesitated for a moment, leaned over to pick it up, and suddenly there was laughter from behind the door, Su Zhan gritted his teeth and got up and staggered back, holding a few cold and hard cakes in his hands and swaying, under the fluffy hair, his lips trembled slightly, and he turned pale.

“…… Hehe, they are all powerful people. ”

"I can see this group of people...... In the past, I poured out my heart and lungs, but today I can see clearly...... I was really blind at the beginning. ”

The swaying figure laughed, walking aimlessly in the snow, looking at a crooked neck tree on the hillside, walking over, and approaching, he found that he was so poor that he didn't even have the belt to hang himself, and leaned abruptly against the tree.

The snow fell in a trickle and fell on the shoulder.

"Woo....ah...... Wow, ahhhh......h

Squatting on the snow, Su Zhan choked and cried hoarsely, the hand holding the cake kept slapping on the ground, the broken cake crumbs splashed everywhere, his hand rubbed his messy hair, and he cried out in pain.

At the end of the road, a carriage drove through the white world, drew a wheel trajectory to the side of the hill and slowly stopped, and someone on the car came out, looking at the figure crying bitterly under the tree: "I didn't expect that the rich man Su of Shanggu County would also fall to such a point, and he didn't even have a hanging belt." ”

The figure who got out of the carriage was Li Ru, he stepped on the snow and walked up under the guards, over there, Su Zhan, who was crying bitterly, quickly stopped crying and raised his eyes: "It's not thanks to you." ”

"What the rich man said is a bit excessive." Li Ru squatted down in front of him, not too polite, and raised his fingers: "Give you two roads, I will return your family business to you, and let you continue to be a tycoon in Shanggu County, but you have also seen what kind of faces those people who revolve around you on weekdays, the world is sinister, you should know better than anyone else." The second way, you pass like this, until the day when your whole family starves to death. ”

"There is no such good thing in the world, let's talk about the conditions."

Li Ru patted him on the head, stood up and turned around: "There is no need to talk about the conditions, you just need to know that there can only be one voice in Shanggu County, and what Su Cai mainly does is to maintain this person, those small households under you, look at it strictly, and you know what to do if you make trouble." ”

"You want me dog-eat-dog?" Su Zhan raised his head, stunned, and looked at the back of the person who left in horror, "You are really a villain-"

"What Rich Su said is apt, he really let you dogs eat dogs."

The words paused, the footsteps stopped there, Li Ru turned his face sideways, and narrowed his eyes: "If you do something wrong, you have to bear it." I'm an example of this, so I'm only going to be a villain in my life, but you have to be careful that you don't even have to be a villain. ”

Su Zhan pinched the snow, his fists trembled, and then ...... Letting go, he knelt down abruptly towards his back, his voice low, and spoke with difficulty.

"Yes!"

Covered with snow and covered with heaven and earth, the picture freezes at this moment.

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

In the mansion of Gongsun Fuyang, the huge copper tripod ignited a raging flame in the hall, and the feast was staggered, and Gongsun Zhi held a cup and looked at the hanging sheepskin map.

A dagger slammed into a city located on the right side of the Taihang Mountains - Shangdang County.

At the beginning of the spring of next year, there will be no big war, but this is an important piece of strategy in the next step, a move to divide Hebei and merge the two states, and even a path to connect the Central Plains, there is no reason why such fat meat will not be gnawed.

turned around, sat down, held the long case, and swept his eyes over the generals present: "Brothers, wait to take Daijun and Yunzhong, and by the way, take this party too!" ”

The words are plain, but they faintly reveal the ferocity that eats people.