"Are you saying that the Xuan family thinks that the Li family will make a fuss about the grain and the river embankment?" In the second hall of the county government, Yang Chen couldn't help frowning after listening to his brother's report. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 Info then left his chair and paced slowly around the room, seemingly feeling uneasy.

"Although Xuan Weixin didn't say it explicitly, I can see that he is most concerned about the Puyang River embankment." Yang Zhen analyzed: "Although they spent a lot of money to buy a large amount of grain, to be honest, if there are no major variables, no matter how much food they have, they will not be able to pose a threat to us." Only when a natural disaster suddenly befalls the county, such as a flood besieges the city, can food become the most powerful bargaining chip in their hands. ”

Yang Chen's footsteps were paused, and the uneasiness in his heart became a little stronger: "The matter of the river embankment has always been presided over by Jiang Chong, but he has entrusted such an important project to the Li family, which is indeed very inappropriate!" After all, this Puyang River embankment is related to the life and death of tens of thousands of people in Zhuji! ”

As the magistrate of Zhuji County, Yang Chen has long had a full understanding of the Puyang River outside the city.

This is a mother river that has nurtured the splendid culture of the entire ancient Yue and nurtured countless people in Zhuji. But at the same time, the Puyang River has also troubled generations of Zhuji people, because it always ravages both sides of the river when the flood season arrives. In the past 10 years, the Puyang River has burst its banks three times, destroying the farmland on both sides of the river and the homes of the people. Some people in Zhuji once compared the Puyang River to the Yellow River and called it the Little Yellow River, which is precisely because of this.

Now, if the Li family really hits the head of the Puyang River and tries to let the river surround the entire county, it will indeed bring great trouble to Yang Chen, the county commander. Even if there is enough food, he is the county magistrate who cannot escape the blame for the destruction of the embankment.

The more he thought about it, the more uneasy Yang Chen's heart became. Finally, he slammed his feet and said: "No, I can't sit trapped in the county government just a fantasy, I have to go out of the city and take a look on the river embankment." If there is really any problem, it can be remedied before the flood season arrives, otherwise it will be too late. ”

Yang Zhen naturally had no objection to this, but muttered in his heart: "Will the Li family really be so bold and cut corners on the river embankment?" ”

Although the snow has long since stopped, the north wind is still blowing. The winter of the second year of Wanli is much colder than in the past years, and even the small county town of Zhuji in the south of the Yangtze River has also made people feel cold only in the north.

Yang Zhen and his brother braved the cold wind and came to the Puyang River, which was three miles away from the city. Because he knew that this matter was extremely important, Yang Chen did not inform the others, and only the two brothers who came here were dressed in ordinary clothes.

Climbing onto the embankment, which was made of rammed earth and poured stones, it looked very steep, and after smashing the seemingly solid embankment with his hands a few times, Yang Chen slowly exhaled a breath of white air: "Looking at the situation here, it seems that there is nothing wrong with the embankment. ”

Yang Zhen was close to the inside of the embankment, looking at the river a few feet below. At this moment, because it is a dry season, the river is still some distance away from the embankment, so naturally there is no threat to it. Hearing his brother say this, he also replied casually: "Yes." This embankment is quite solid, and unless the water is extremely strong enough to cross the three-zhang high embankment in one go, it is impossible to pose a threat to the county seat. In this case, why did Xuan Weixin deliberately mention this matter? ”

"Could it be that he really just wanted us to check the accounts of the Li family when they repaired the embankment?" Yang Chen guessed.

"Impossible." Yang Zhen shook his head categorically and said, "He suddenly mentioned this matter at that time, the purpose could never be so simple. There must be something else going on with this embankment. ”

"Then let's take a closer look." Yang Chen suggested after pondering. He suddenly thought of the usual method of some people -- there are those who repair the embankment, and often build the embankment extremely firmly and firmly in the place where people can see it most easily, but once they leave that section, the project becomes very frizzy, and even a tofu scum project. Yang Chen didn't know if the Li family would do such a thing.

But the result made him feel a little relieved. The two brothers walked along the embankment for five or six miles, but all the way down, the embankment was still as strong as the section out of the city, and even the height of the water was almost the same as the section outside the city. It can be seen that at least when repairing the Puyang River embankment, the Li family still did their best.

In fact, this is also very easy to explain, after all, the root of the Li family is the harvest of farmland inside and outside the county, if there is a problem with the river embankment, the river water is poured into the field and washed away, but I am afraid that the biggest loss is the Li family itself. They should not be so stupid as to be unable to distinguish between the important and the important, and make the embankment unstable in order to deduct the wages for repairing the embankment.

"It seems that this time we really guessed them with the heart of a villain." Yang Chen couldn't help but laugh at himself after knocking on the embankment in front of him again and finding that it was still stable.

Although Yang Zhen still had some doubts in his heart, the facts in front of him also made him speechless: "If their target is not on the river embankment, then where is it?" ”

Seeing Yang Zhen's doubts, Yang Chen patted him on the shoulder and said, "There are some things that can't be seen now, so don't worry." After two days, we may be able to find out what the problem is. At least one thing we already know, the Li family must have a back hand to prepare, so after this year, we must be careful. ”

The two brothers stayed by the river for a long time before returning to the city. It's just that they didn't notice that not far from the river embankment, there was a pair of eyes that were closely watching their every move.

In the courtyard of the Li family's house, a picture scroll more than two feet long is spread out on top of the long cases. Li Chenggang, Li Chengjin and another stout man in short clothes were carefully studying the scroll. It's just that the painting they admired was not a beautiful picture of flowers, birds, mountains, rocks, and beauties, but a sketch of a causeway.

To say that it is a "sketch" seems to be a bit wrongful because the depiction of the causeway seems very accurate. If the two Yang Zhen brothers were standing in front of the painting at this moment, they would definitely let out an exclamation, because the long causeway in this painting is the Puyang River embankment they had just climbed.

This painting not only included the overall image of the causeway on paper, but also copied some of the changes in direction of the embankment caused by the bending of the river. It can be said that as long as you look at this picture, people don't need to go to the riverside to know the situation of the Puyang River embankment.

Li Chenggang's hand slowly swept across the picture, and finally stopped at the section of the embankment close to the county seat, and said with his index finger: "It's really worthy of the whole picture of the embankment that Master Xie spent more than half a year drawing, it's really vivid." But I don't know where the weakness of the embankment is hidden in the painting he mentioned before. As he spoke, he suddenly looked back at the strong man behind him, apparently asking him.

When the strong man heard him say this, his eyebrows couldn't help but jump: "Uncle Li, are you really going to do this?" So many will suffer! ”

"What about the suffering of many? They found it themselves. If they hadn't listened to Yang Chen's instigation, they had to be enemies of my Li family, and they were so aggressive and refused to forgive, I wouldn't have used this means. Li Chenggang's eyes showed a fierce look: "What is the situation of our Li family during this period of time, you also see it in your eyes." If we don't think about driving Yang Chen's county order away, our Li family will really be in his hands. ”

"Big brother, you're right, we must not ask a county order to ruin a century-old family business!" Li Chengjin also echoed: "As for saying that someone will suffer, we have already been prepared, and when the time comes, there will be enough food, and no one will starve to death!" ”

When the strong man saw that his two brothers had made up their minds, he stopped persuading each other. After groaning, he walked up to the scroll and pointed to several places in the causeway in the painting: "These five places are the places where the embankment is most likely to be broken by the water." As long as Uncle Li sends someone to dig a hole at night when the flood season comes, the entire river embankment will be destroyed. After saying this, his face was full of unbearable color.

"Good!" Li Chenggang nodded with satisfaction, picked up the pen, and dotted five ink dots on the painting: "Next, we just need to wait patiently for the arrival of the flood season." ”

"Uncle Li......" The strong man wanted to persuade a few more words, but was interrupted by Li Chenggang waving his hand: "You don't have to say it again." However, I have written down your credit, and after this incident, the rebuilding of the river embankment will naturally be indispensable to the benefits of your Xie Kun. ”

Just as Li Chenggang was planning the future with excitement on his face, a subordinate came to the door and whispered: "Uncle, Sun Liu'er asks to see you." ”

"Huh? I told him to look at the embankment, why did he suddenly come here? Could it be that something didn't go wrong? Li Chenggang frowned, but still nodded and said, "Call him in." ”

After a while, a skinny man was brought in, and when he saw them, he hurriedly saluted and said, "I've seen the uncle, I've seen the third master." ”

"Tell me, why did you suddenly come to see me at this time?"

"Lately, uncle, didn't you let me keep an eye on the other side of the river embankment in case something went wrong? Today, the little one found that there were two young men who were wandering around for a while, as if they were checking something. The villain was worried about the danger on the embankment, so he hurried back to report. Sun Liu'er reported to Li Chenggang with a flattering smile.

"Huh? You said that two young people braved the cold wind today to go to the riverside outside the city to see the embankment? Li Chenggang suddenly narrowed his eyes, and there was a faint guess in his heart: "Do you see their appearance clearly?" ”

"The villain was worried that it would be bad for the villain if they found out that I was following them, so I stayed a little far away and didn't see their faces clearly."

"Hmph, waste, this can't be done." Li Chengjin snorted dissatisfiedly.

Li Chenggang smiled gently: "But you can find out about this, but you have made a contribution, I wrote it down, go to the tent to receive the reward." ”

"Thank you, uncle!" Sun Liu'er hurriedly thanked him gratefully, and then went happily.

Li Chenggang waited for him to leave, and then smiled: "I don't know what clues Yang County can let them see." ”