In the capital, at night, when the noise of the day gradually faded with the night, the capital fell into silence again, and the people returned to their homes to close the door.

This year has been both a year of joy and a year of sorrow for them.

This year has been too much for them, the capital fell, and then it was recovered, and then before the end of the year, the imperial court returned to the capital, which means that the war is finally over, and the people can finally live a stable year.

It's just that this year has been turbulent and the war has not stopped, resulting in no surplus food in the people's homes. And the war, the first thing that affects is definitely the price, after all, there is a shortage of strange goods, and grain, on the contrary, has become the most important commodity in the capital.

When the foreigners occupied the capital, they did make efforts in this regard, they tried their best to ensure that the price of food would not be affected by the war, and even in order to spread their reputation, the foreigners even punished those profiteers who planned to make war profits.

After the foreigners left, the price of grain in the city was still stable, and the Qing army at that time also attached more importance to this aspect.

But I don't know why, and then overnight, the entire capital guard force seems to have been reduced by half.

The army, which had struggled to control food prices, seemed to evaporate overnight. And the army that remained was already unable to control the price of grain.

In the past two months, the price of grain in the capital has been increasing, not to mention those ordinary Han people, even some Manchu magnates, some of them can't bear the high price of grain.

It's just that the imperial court is about to return, and there are still a lot of things waiting to be dealt with in the capital, so the above didn't have time to deal with this matter.

The above didn't have the heart to deal with this matter, but the people below had some complaints in their hearts. If this court doesn't come back, everyone's life can still get by, and when this court comes back, everyone seems to be unable to even get by.

For a while, the people also complained about the court, but no one dared to say it.

Desheng Gate!

Today's Deshengmen guards have changed a unit, but this unit was also trained by Wang Sirui a few months ago, maybe others don't know, but these soldiers know better than anyone else that there is a big gap in the capital now.

10,000 people to guard the capital, this force is not enough, but now in order to ensure the safety of the palace, 2,000 people from these 10,000 people have been transferred to guard the palace.

There were only 8,000 men left, and they had to be divided into two groups to rotate, and there were no extra troops to do anything else at the moment.

In order to maximize the saving of troops, the Qing court arranged a guard of 200 people on the side of Deshengmen.

These people did not need to be on duty, they guarded the city walls and gates during the day, and at night they slept at the city gates, or they lay on the ground directly on the walls.

The cold winter forced these bunked soldiers to warm up with a few sips of wine before going to bed.

But this wine is also out of stock in the capital.

In the same way, money is needed to buy wine, and these soldiers have never even paid their salaries, so where do they get the money to buy wine? Therefore, in the end, the unlucky ones can only be those who enter the city, and every citizen who enters the city has to pay an extra 20% of the fee, and the caravan has to pay more.

At about eight o'clock in the evening, Liao Qing walked into the gate tower of Desheng Gate with a jar of wine in his arms and a package in one hand.

"My lord, I got some good wine, drink?" Liao Qing walked into the city gate tower with a smile, looked at the somewhat listless city gate envoy, and said.

The city gate envoy glanced at Liao Qing, and after seeing the jar of wine in Liao Qing's arms, his face immediately changed his expression, but soon, the city gate envoy's expression recovered.

Liao Qing, this kid is very picky on weekdays, how could he be willing to hold such a big jar of wine today? No, there must be something going on with this kid.

"I said you kid don't want Lao Tzu to be whipped, right?" The envoy of the city gate said cryptically, as the so-called nothing to be courteous, either a traitor or a thief.

"Hehe, what did you say, my lord? The small ones do have to ask the adults, and this only requires the adults to open their mouths, and they can't be beaten with whips. Liao Qing put down the wine jar in his arms and began to sort out the appetizers he brought with him.

Hearing Liao Qing's words, the face of the city gate envoy looked a little better, as long as it was not a violation of the regulations, it was easy to say.

Besides, how much power can he have as a gatekeeper? It's nothing more than putting a caravan in and not charging money, and if you live to collect less money or something, no matter how big the right is, he doesn't have it.

"Let's talk about you first, don't drink your wine to let Lao Tzu know that you can't afford to drink." The gatekeeper said.

"My lord, for you, it is naturally a trivial matter, and you will drink this wine today." Liao Hua said with great certainty, but he didn't continue to sell Guanzi, and then said: "I have a distant relative who asked someone to bring a message a few days ago, and wants to get a batch of grain into the city to sell in the next few days.

However, my relative's business is not very large, and the amount this time is not large, so the profit must not be guaranteed, so it is not easy to guarantee me, this is not just thinking of me, you want me to say a few good words here to your lord, and let my distant relative go to the city. ”

"Huh, you kid!" When the city gate envoy heard that it was this job, his heart was instantly relieved, and there was no pressure to do this kind of thing.

Immediately afterwards, the envoy of the city gate pretended to be majestic and said, "Presumably your distant relative has already gone outside the city, right?" ”

"Your Excellency, what you said is really accurate, before closing the city gate today, my distant relative sent someone to inform me, no, he gave me ten taels of silver, let me come to your place to explore the wind first." Liao Hua said with a harmless expression.

Looking at the appearance of the city gate envoy enjoying it, Liao Qing also sneered in his heart, such a person, it is strange that the Qing Dynasty is not dead.

Liao Qing's frank admition was relatively useful, so that the city gate envoy was very useful, and he didn't even have any doubts.

However, since he can be appointed as the envoy of the city gate, then he will definitely not be an honest person, at least, this person must be very flexible.

Ten taels of silver, plus Liao Qing's words before, it seems that the business of his distant relative this time should really not be very big, just ask him for forty taels of silver. The gatekeeper was secretly thinking in his heart.

"Liao Qing, don't say that Lao Tzu didn't take care of you, you know our rules, this time for your sake, let your relatives give the brothers forty taels of silver." The city gate envoy picked up the wine bowl in front of him, drank it in one gulp, and then added chopsticks to the dish, with a gesture of Lao Tzu giving you face.

"Well, of course I know our rules, but you don't know them, my lord. A few days ago, the flames of war also burned to my distant relative's house, and his loss was not small, in fact, this time he only had a profit of about 100 taels, and he could earn 60 or 70 taels of silver at most, throwing away the cost of inviting people and the round-trip carriage and horse fare. Originally, I had a good family business, but this war forced my distant relative to start over, so my distant relative meant, give you twenty taels of silver! Liao Qing said.

The face of the city gate envoy suddenly fell, but it was all pretended.

Previously, he only needed forty taels of silver, which was already for his own sake, after all, everyone has a relative who wants to enter the city, and everyone understands that it is no problem for your family to be cheaper, and when the time comes, my family will also be cheaper, and no one owes anyone.

Forty taels of silver, and finally fell into the pocket of the city gate envoy at most only ten taels of silver, after all, there are more than two hundred people below, and this court does not pay silver, they have to find a way to get some money for the brothers to support their families? And there is a cold winter drink?

This directly gave the city gate envoy twenty taels of silver, although Liao Qing's distant relatives saved a lot of money, but the city gate envoy earned an extra ten taels of silver.

As Liao Qing said, this matter really only needs to be moved by his mouth, as long as he says that this is his relative's caravan, he can just let it go, and no one dares to interrogate.

The reason why the city gate envoy did this was nothing more than to make a show, lest Liao Qing, the kid, have a loose mouth and leak this matter.

"My lord, don't worry, you know about this matter, I know, my relatives know, but if there is a fourth person who knows, you can ask me when the time comes." Liao Qing continued.

"Okay, you kid has been with me for so long, and I still have to give this face." The envoy of the city gate smiled, as if he had made a very difficult decision, and immediately lifted the wine jar, and lifted the empty wine jar under the table to the table, evening out two-thirds of it.

This jar of wine is as much as twenty catties, and even if two-thirds of it is even, there are still about five or six catties left in the jar, which is enough for one person to drink at the city gate.

"Take this jar of wine out and give it to the brothers, and let the big guys drink less to warm up on a cold day." The angel of the city pointed to the jar of wine and said.

What are the benefits of being a soldier and not being able to occupy it alone, especially those who are in charge, what are the benefits of giving a little to the people below, otherwise who will be willing to give you your life?

Just like this time, the city gate made the wine drink, eat the food, and get the money, and let Liao Qing owe him a favor, and with this matter, Liao Qing can only follow him more diligently in the future.

…………

"My lord? My lord? Liao Qing gently pushed the city gate envoy to make sure that the city gate envoy was indeed drunk, and then he breathed a sigh of relief.

This wine is not so delicious, although the city gate envoy is already very cautious, but he can't stand the wine given to him by Liao Qing, who has been with him from the beginning, and he definitely never imagined that Liao Qing would do something in this wine.

Among the more than 200 people in the Desheng Gate City Gate Guards, ninety-two of them were Wang Sirui's subordinates, which was the smallest of their own troops in the entire capital, and they did not account for half of the proportion.

At this moment, except for his own people, the remaining more than 100 people have all lost consciousness.

"Report to the platoon commander, the city gate has been controlled."

"Signal!" Liao Qing nodded, and the flattering expression he had before had long since disappeared. (To be continued.) )