When they walked to the embankment, they could clearly see that the silver-white water was flowing down the dug ditch into the bottom of the reservoir below, and the water hit the steel gate, splashing three or four meters high, and there was already a shallow pool of water at the bottom of the reservoir that had been dried up under their feet, and the area and depth of the water surface were growing at a visible rate.

"Lord Liu, is this water coming from the Yan River? Why is it so clear? A gentleman asked in a trembling voice.

"Yes, it is brought from the Yan River, and in order to prevent the sediment from being brought in to fill the bottom of the reservoir, the water entering the reservoir has passed through the sluice gate, so it is much clearer than that in the Yan River."

"I see, it's really ingenious!" The gentleman nodded in admiration.

"Then the water of the Yan River has come here, and what about the water on the original river?" The other gentleman asked suddenly.

"It's already the dry season, and I'm afraid the water flow will be much smaller, and it won't be restored until it's full."

"What?" The gentleman's face became extremely difficult to look at, obviously remembering the fields downstream of his house.

"So today I ask the list to get an idea, you must know that after the construction of this Pitang ditch, how to distribute the amount of water is not a simple matter, and this Pitang dam is not once and for all, it must be cleaned and maintained from time to time, there must be craftsmen and canals, how to collect these expenses, and please take a note to show it."

Everyone here is a clever person, and as soon as they heard Liu Cheng's words, they understood the other party's off-string sound. Once this Liminpi is repaired, it is a cornucopia, and when the weather is dry, who to give water to and who not to give water is not a sentence in charge of Pitang, it is the price of a bucket of water and a liter of grain, and others have to buy it. The food money collected is only said to be used for maintenance and cleaning, and the craftsmen's food and silver, is there still someone who comes to check the accounts? Those gentlemen didn't care about the bad things they said about Liu Cheng behind their backs on weekdays, and they came up one by one with shy faces.

"Liu Dusi. This is a major event that benefits the future, and in Xia Lishang, we must make a contribution to the township! ”

"Yes, in Lower Solomon, such things that accumulate virtue and do good deeds are never left behind!"

"In the sea of clouds in Xiawu. Please count it in the next one! ”

"Good, good, good!" Liu Cheng smiled and made a gesture towards the people who came over, and said with a smile: "The rank is so enthusiastic, it really deserves to be a saint's disciple, thank you in advance here!" But according to what you can see below, let's set up a game! ”

When the gentry heard it, they applauded, it turned out that the Ming and Qing dynasties were extremely powerful, and the county officials appointed by the imperial court often had to rely on the gentry in the township to maintain the affairs of the township. As a result, there is a freak of a half-official and half-gentry "bureau", which is usually led by a certain meritorious gentry, and some collect taxes, repair roads and bridges, and maintain water conservancy. Liu Cheng made this suggestion, making it clear that he was putting this large amount of benefits in their hands, and for a while, these gentlemen had a much better impression of Liu Cheng.

"Since you want to establish a bureau, then you have to nominate someone to do things. I thought that Mr. Ma was highly respected and the leader of the Shilin in Yanzhou, and Mr. Ma should be the head of the Pitang Bureau! ”

I heard that Liu Cheng recommended Ma Ziyi as the director of the bureau. The demeanor of the gentlemen became complicated. A few days ago, they would have been suspicious of the rumors that spread in the city of Yanzhou, but they saw that Liu Dusi was bent on pushing Ma Ziyi to the position of the principal. And it is impossible for them not to be suspicious. Besides, the head of the Pitang Bureau is a seat that can stuff the silver of the white flowers into the purse, even if they broadcast the name of the Ma family, they can't stuff all the benefits into their mouths!

"Liu Dusi!" A white and pure fat man walked out, arched his hand at Liu Cheng and smiled: "In the next surname Zhao, the family is three, and Lord Dusi will call me Zhao Laosan." ”

"Don't dare. Hello Mr. Zhao! Liu Cheng had already recognized that this was the man who put a piece of tape on his face in Mafutang that time, and only pretended not to recognize him, and also arched his hand.

Zhao Laosan snorted and said with a smile: "Mr. Ma's knowledge and morality are trustworthy, and it is said that he is the head of the Pitang Bureau." But after all, this Pitang Bureau is a laborious job. Money and rice calculations, ditches and ditches. The old gentleman is also old, if there is a bad one, wouldn't it be for the outsiders to laugh at us people in Dunzhou who don't know the etiquette, put the burden on the old man, and hide aside to relax. Do you think what I Zhao Laosan said is right? ”

"Yes, yes!"

"Not bad!"

"Exactly!"

Zhao Laosan's words immediately aroused a chorus of approval among the gentry masses, and Lu Boqi, who was the governor of the state, watched coldly from the sidelines and did not speak, anyway, he was a liuguan, and after this term was done, he would take the silver and slap his ass and leave, so he didn't bother to meddle in the dirty things in the gentry of Yanzhou.

Liu Cheng smiled and said, "Master Zhao, then who do you think is the head of this bureau?" “

"As you can see below, the person in charge must have three conditions: 1. It must be a native of our country, and only the local people can handle this Pitang as their own business; 2. You must act steadily and be trusted by everyone. 3. If you don't have a good body and bones, how can you bear this crowd? “

Zhao Laosan was talking proudly, and a voice came out of the crowd: "Isn't that Zhao Laosan, you are the only one, there is a wife and five concubines in the family, and there are six or seven girls in the room, and they are still soaking in Yihong Mansion two or three times a month. “

This ridicule immediately caused a burst of laughter in the crowd, and Zhao Laosan's face was like a city wall, not only was he not annoyed, but he replied triumphantly: "That's natural, don't dare to say anything else, if you want to say that this body is no worse than others in this Dunzhou, if you don't believe it, let's go to Yihong Mansion tonight to let Your Excellency see it!" “

Facing Zhao Laosan's cheekiness, Liu Cheng could only shake his head, he stretched out his hand to suppress everyone's laughter, turned to Ma Ziyi and asked, "Mr. Ma, I don't know if what this Zhao said is true?" “

Ma Ziyi coughed, stood up, and arched his hand towards everyone: "As Master Zhao said, this year is over sixty years old, and his body bones are not as good as before. However, this Yanzhou is the hometown of my Ma parents, and I have to make a contribution no matter what, so be it! Speaking of this, he turned around and beckoned to Ma Rencheng, and said to Liu Cheng: "The old man, the second son, is very unsuccessful, but he is quite diligent in his work on weekdays, so let him go to the bureau." Let's do something for the elders of Dunzhou! Rencheng, don't give Lord Liu a salute! “

Ma Rencheng is not a fool, he hurriedly stepped forward and knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Liu Cheng twice, and after kowtowing, he didn't wait for his son to get up, Ma Ziyi walked to Liu Cheng's side, handed the cane in his hand to Liu Chengdao: "Lord Dusi." If there is something wrong with this little beast, you can only teach a lesson, and if you don't listen, you will do this law for the old man and beat him to death! “

Liu Cheng took the crutches a little crying and laughing, handed it to his subordinates on the side, and stretched out his hand to help Ma Rencheng up: "The old gentleman said that he laughed, your son has been trained by you since he was a child, what will go wrong?" "Speaking of which. He turned around: "In this case, Mr. Ma will be the head of the bureau, and Mr. Ma will act as the director on weekdays, what do you think?" ”

The gentry watched from the side, and they didn't know that this was a play played by Ma Ziyi and Liu Chenghe, but the matter had come to this point, and they couldn't say anything against it, so they had to nod their heads in agreement. That Zhao Laosan had already broken his belly. I was thinking about finding some reason to speak out against it, but I saw that no one on the left and right responded. I had to give up.

Since it was determined that Ma Ziyi was the head of the Pitang Bureau, everyone recommended a few "respectable" gentlemen who were "highly respected" on weekdays as assistants and co-organizers, and they set up the shelves of the Pitang Bureau. After all, he is a foreign soldier, and he can't intervene in this Pitang Bureau. Although he and Ma Ziyi have now reached an alliance, who knows if the other party will turn around and turn their faces? That Zhao Laosan has ambitions and ideas, and he openly competed with Ma Ziyi for a seat just now, is it already a tear in his face, if this person is also stuffed into the bureau. The two will inevitably fight to the death, so that Liu Cheng can control it, maintain a delicate balance of power between the two, and thus ensure his influence on the Pitang Bureau.

"The rankings are where the northwest context is, today Pitang is impounded, and a blank stone tablet has been prepared below, and please leave some ink treasures for future generations to see!" Liu Cheng smiled and waved his hand, and the soldiers behind him took the four treasures of the study, and he arched his hand towards everyone: "I am a rough man below, and I don't know who is the main writer, please take care of the ranking." ”

Everyone looked at each other, and their eyes suddenly focused on Ma Ziyi and Lu Boqi, one of these two people has the most famous department, and the other is a local parent, Ma Ziyi smiled slightly: "If it is something else, the old man can only hide it, but this thing that benefits the country and the people is the right thing to do." Ma Rencheng hurriedly stepped forward to grind the ink, Ma Ziyi groaned a little and wrote on the snow-white rice paper "Ze was Juzhou" four big characters, and then wrote down the payment and date, all the gentlemen came forward to watch, and they were amazed by Ma Ziyi's calligraphy. Liu Cheng watched it from the side, and had to admit that the other party's handwriting was dignified and majestic, vigorous and vigorous, and extremely skillful.

Since all things are over, Liu Cheng ordered to send wine and food, so that Zhu Jingentry and Lu Zhizhou can enjoy the scenery of Pitang, according to the practice at that time, everyone began to carry out the wine order, and the loser had to write a poem as a punishment. Liu Cheng saw that today's goal had been basically achieved, and he wanted to find a reason to retreat, but he didn't want Lu Boqi to be in a bad mood, and Liu Cheng, who saw it, wanted to slip away, so he grabbed Liu Cheng's sleeve: "Liu Dusi, you are the master of today's banquet, where are you going." ”

"Lord Zhizhou!" Liu Cheng smiled bitterly: "I just want to go down there to see if there is less wine prepared below." ”

"Why do you need to ask for such a thing?" Lu Boqi grabbed Liu Cheng's sleeve and didn't let go: "Just let your subordinates do it, come on, come on, you will sit next to the official." Liu Cheng didn't say anything, so he had to give Du Gu a few words, and then sat down beside Lu Boqi.

After three rounds of drinking, the drinking order began, and after a while, a few gentlemen were punished, although these gentlemen couldn't chant any famous sentences, but the poems still came out. Liu Cheng also secretly admired these gentlemen on the side, not to mention anything else, after decades of tossing and turning in the imperial examination, not to mention anything else, the kung fu of playing this word game has already arrived at home. This skill may seem worthless to people in modern society, but in a society where 90 percent of the members are illiterate, the skill of writing verses and poems in the language mastered is an extremely remarkable skill, just as tailoring was a good skill before the mass spread of ready-to-wear, and then it almost disappeared.

Just when Liu Cheng was secretly distracted, he suddenly heard Lu Boqi next to him whisper: "Liu Dusi, Liu Dusi, it's your turn!" As soon as he came back to his senses, he saw dozens of pairs of eyes staring at him, and then he realized that the wine order had come to him, and hurriedly excused himself: "I can't write poems and essays in the future, so I will admit the punishment and drink a glass of wine." ”

It was not surprising that Liu Cheng could not write poetry, and they nodded their heads in agreement, seeing that this level had passed, but they heard someone get up and speak: "Lord Liu, you said that you can't write poems, and you are willing to punish wine, which is okay, but you can't only punish one glass of wine, but you have to punish three bowls of wine!" ”

Liu Cheng looked up, but it was Zhao Laosan who was talking about the failure of the competition with Ma Ziyi for the head of the Pitang Bureau, and the other party's face was full of mocking smiles, obviously this was revenge for his secret support for Ma Ziyi. Before Liu Cheng could speak, Lu Boqi next to him asked: "Master Zhao, why is it that when others can't recite poems, they are punished with a glass of wine, and when they reach Lord Liu, they are three bowls?" ”

"My lord, Lord Liu said that he couldn't write poems, so he was punished for drinking. But things in this world can't escape the word fairness, although Lord Liu can't write poems, but his muscles and bones are strong, the tiger's back and waist, presumably the amount of wine is very large, if he is only fined a glass of wine, wouldn't it be a little unfair. ”

"This-" Lu Boqi also knew that Master Zhao was a crooked reason, but all the gentlemen also coaxed at this time, and he couldn't think of anything to refute for a while, so his eyes couldn't help but turn to Liu Cheng, obviously letting Liu Cheng decide for himself.

"Damn, it's really the news of the world, and it's coming quickly. Emotional playfulness is a reserved program at your scribe's banquet! Liu Cheng couldn't help but scold himself in his belly, but a smile appeared on his face: "What Master Zhao said is very true, but he is a martial artist, and it is indeed difficult for a strong man to write poems under him, so why don't you choose a good thing to demonstrate, how about drinking for you?" ”

"It's good!" Zhao Laosan thought that Liu Cheng was going to dance a sword in front of everyone, and he was secretly happy in his heart: "Look at your collusion with that Ma Ziyi, Lao Tzu is not going to humiliate you today, let you see how powerful your old man Zhao is!" ”

"Someone's coming!" Liu Cheng stood up and whispered a few words to the soldiers who came, and the soldiers took a drum, and everyone looked at each other, and when they saw Liu Cheng walking to the drum, they thought that the other party was going to beat the drum for fun. (To be continued......)