In the city of Datong. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Zhong Yu sat on the chair with a tangled face, but this time he did not sit in the upper seat as before, and now there was an old man in his sixties or so who was still in good spirits. Although this old man's hair is gray, his face is full of red, and he can't see a trace of old appearance at all, and his bearing is extraordinary, which makes people dare not be presumptuous.

However, people who know Zhong Yu's identity will still have doubts when they see this situation, even if this old man is so magnificent, but daring to sit higher than Lord Qincha is also quite arrogant, where did he get this courage?

However, after being entangled and silent for a while, Zhong Yu gave the answer: "Third uncle, are you also here to be a lobbyist?" "It turns out that this old man is Zhong Yu's third uncle, in the era of the young and the orderly, even if he is a Qincha, he does not dare to sit in front of the elders. However, there was not much intimacy in his tone.

The old man Zhong Qian coughed lightly to hide the embarrassment on his face, and then said: "Who told you that you refused to sell your thirteenth uncle's face, for the sake of the future of our Zhong family, I can only beg you for this nephew with this old face." As he spoke, he sighed softly.

Seeing him speak like this, Zhong Yu couldn't say what he wanted to say, and could only sigh. In fact, now he is still more concerned about Yang Zhen's life and death, and he doesn't want to get involved too much in the kind of things in front of him.

In the past two days, he, Cai Yingyang and others searched all over the north and west of Datong, and almost ran to the territory of the Mongolian people, but they still did not find Yang Zhen's whereabouts. Instead, he found Huang Bang, who was seriously injured, and two other Ming soldiers. Also, there are the remains of some soldiers who died on the battlefield.

Thinking that Yang Zhen didn't know whether he was alive or dead now, maybe he would be kidnapped by the Meng, or even killed in a corner where he couldn't find it, Zhong Yu felt uncomfortable in his heart, and he couldn't even sit still. But no one has been found for several days, which has made his soldiers have little hope for this, and Liu Yingji and they have also persuaded him several times to let him not always risk going to the vicinity of the Mengming border, if he is attacked by those Tartars, it will not be good. In desperation, Liu Yingji had no choice but to return to Datong, and only asked Cai Yingyang to continue their search.

But as time passed, although everyone didn't say it, they gradually accepted a fact in their hearts - Yang Zhen was afraid that something bad had happened. Otherwise, if he is still alive, he will definitely find a way to come back.

It was precisely because he felt that Yang Zhending was unfortunate and knew that all this was a conspiracy set up by Liu Yingji and them, so Zhong Yu was determined to report the truth of the rebellion to the imperial court, so that these guys who were corrupt and perverted the law, disregarded human lives, and collaborated with the enemy and traitorous would be punished as they deserved.

Unexpectedly, just when he made up his mind and thought about when to report everything to the court, the third uncle Zhong Qian suddenly came to him, which made him feel a little shocked and embarrassed at the same time.

The third uncle is the real master of the Zhong family now, although there are still elders from the grandfather's generation in the family, but they are too old to have too much energy to deal with affairs. Generally speaking, Zhong Qian is sitting in Taiyuan's home, and no matter how big things are, he will not work him. But this time, he actually went to Datong to see him in person, which shows how much the family attaches importance to this incident, and also reflects how serious this matter is from the side.

Thinking of this, Zhong Yu's face became even more solemn, and he said with a wry smile: "Third uncle, the state has national laws, and my nephew is an official of the imperial court, and he is sent by order, and what he investigated is where the disadvantages of the Datong Mutiny lie, how can I ignore the truth for some personal reasons?" ”

"You ......" Zhong Qian saw that he was talking about such a big truth, and it was a little difficult to refute it for a while. After a moment of silence, he said slowly, "Do you know what the truth of all this is?" Do you think that as long as you report to the imperial court, you can cleanse the officialdom and military atmosphere in the entire Datong and even Shanxi? You are wrong, if you really do this, it will only make the whole of Shanxi completely chaotic, and even affect the border security of Daming. ”

"This ...... Not really, right? Zhong Yu frowned slightly, and at the same time, he was a little dissatisfied with his alarmist statement. In his opinion, this is just a means and words used by the other party to persuade him.

But Zhong Qian shook his head solemnly: "Do you think I'm alarmist? No, what I said is true, and I don't mean to exaggerate. ”

Zhong Yu was stunned again when he heard this. He is still very clear about the third uncle's personality, this is a person who speaks one thing and hardly talks big. In front of himself, it seems that the third uncle doesn't need to use these big words to oppress people, if this is true, I'm afraid the matter will be really serious.

After a while, he looked up at Zhong Qian: "Can the third uncle tell me the truth?" Let me also have a judgment and decide what I should do. ”

Zhong Qian looked at this nephew for a long time, judging the intention of his words, whether he really considered his own words, or just wanted to lure himself into revealing more truths. After weighing it for a while, he nodded and said, "Since you want to know, it doesn't hurt for me to tell you." As he spoke, he just looked at Zhong Yu deeply.

Facing his gaze, Zhong Yu's face was calm, without the slightest excitement or other expression, he just nodded and said, "Nephew listens." ”

"You already know the real reason for this mutiny, right?" Since he was planning to tell his nephew the truth, Zhong Qian got straight to the point as soon as he came up.

When it came to this, Zhong Yu felt that there was nothing to hide, so he nodded: "It is said that it is with the grain fields in the army, as well as ...... Smuggling has a lot to do with it. ”

"Not bad." Although the matter discussed by the two was extremely sensitive, Zhong Qian did not see the slightest concern, and just nodded indifferently: "Among them, the third one is the most serious, because everyone knows that as long as people find out that someone in the army is smuggling iron, salt and other things to the Mongolian people, many people will be implicated." It was precisely because they knew that they would die at all that those soldiers would start a rebellion. ”

Zhong Yu's eyes showed a look of resentment: "Since you know this, why would you do such a thing for your own selfish desires, which led to today's situation." ”

"You are just a scholar's words, you don't know that the situation in my Shanxi is of course so reasonable! But the reality here is that if we don't do this, the little military expenditure allocated by the imperial court alone will not be enough for us to raise hundreds of thousands of horses. Zhong Qian sneered and said.

Zhong Yu was stunned when he said this, he really hadn't thought about it. Seeing him like this, Zhong Qian continued to put pressure on him: "In fact, not only in the army, but also in the people. You also know how big my Zhong family is, is it enough for a few hundred people to rely on that little bit of land and normal shops? You don't want to think about how much you've always spend. ”

"I ......" Of course, Zhong Yu knew how huge the amount of silver a big family spent every year, and how much silver he had to exchange for being able to clean himself and at the same time not lose his dignity or even far exceed the pomp and circumstance of the officials of the same dynasty. It's just that he had been ignoring how the silver came from before, and now when he heard the third uncle say this, he suddenly realized that his own affairs had already been put in front of him.

Seeing him look stunned, Zhong Qian smiled again: "Only by using unconventional means can we gather enough money for family expenses." And we are in Shanxi, and the most convenient way is naturally to make an idea from the Tartars. They were in the grasslands, and ordinary things such as gold and silver were of no use to them, and what they lacked was daily necessities, salt, and silk...... Naturally, we can exchange these with them. In fact, not only our Zhong family, but also the Li family, the Liu family and other famous families who are far more famous and powerful than us are also doing the same thing. ”

"What? Even the Li family in Taiyuan ......, "Zhong Yu has really changed his face this time." The Li family is the most powerful family in the entire Shanxi region, and since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the Li family has established a unique position in Taiyuan City. Although it has gone through the Song and Yuan dynasties and the current Ming Dynasty, the momentum of the Li family in Taiyuan has never fallen, and it is not an exaggeration to call it the first in the northwest. I didn't expect even them to do such things behind their backs.

"What's so strange about that? The Li family has a bigger family business than our Zhong family, so naturally they have to think of other ideas to get money. Therefore, if you really want to report the fact to the court this time, it will not only move Shanxi's officialdom and military circles, but also the entire local forces. Do you think that when the disaster of extermination comes, the Li family, the Liu family and other big clans will really honestly lead their necks and kill them, and let the court destroy him? My Zhong family would definitely not make such a decision. ”

Even in today's era of great power of the Son of Heaven, the family power is also a force to be reckoned with in the local area. Moreover, at this time, people have a very strong family concept, and sometimes they are more valued than Zhongjun, so Zhong Qian's words are definitely not to scare Zhong Yu. What kind of king wants his ministers to die and his ministers have to die, that's just a lie. If the imperial court dares to destroy the people, any wealthy family will brazenly resist to the end.

Zhong Yu was also very aware of this, so his face became very ugly at this moment. Before, he only said that some people in his family were involved in Liu Yingji's business, but now it seems that it should be the other way around. It was Liu Yingji and these court officials who were dragged into the water by local wealthy families, and this is the smuggling. In other words, if you really play the truth, the real culprits should be Li, Liu and the people of your own family.

And once these wealthy families really resist with iron heart, then the whole Shanxi will definitely be in chaos, so as to give the Mongolian people an opportunity to take advantage of.

Zhong Yu didn't expect that the truth that he had been struggling to find out would be such a behemoth, was it really possible for him to fight against it?