The sumptuous reception banquet ended in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere, and Liu Cun, who met for the first time, talked very speculatively with Gongsun Min, which could almost be described as old at first sight, and Gongsun Qi, the forty-eight-year-old head of the Gongsun family, was very pleased with this.

Gongsun Min is only twenty-three years old, almost as tall as Liu Cun who is seven feet eight inches, his voice is clear and rich, he looks dignified, he is bold and shrewd, and there is no lack of caution in his talking, which makes Liu Cun admire and sigh very much: The children of the family are really profound!

The caravan of 500 people brought by Gongsun Min only stayed in Xiahe City for three days, and Liu Cun took time out every day to feast Gongsun Min and his chief manager, and negotiated a big business including 2 million catties of Jizhou fine iron, 5,000 foreign war horses, and 800,000 wheat and beans.

Gongsun Min told very frankly that only a small part of the many ingenious luxury goods purchased back will be sold in Jizhou, and most of them will be sold to the vast desert grassland.

Early in the morning of the fourth day, Gongsun Min and his caravan returned along the road with exquisite and expensive items such as ceramics, fine wine, bearings, mirrors, new-style armor, and stainless steel tools, and sent away Liu Cun, who planned to return to Zhushan's house, and unexpectedly ushered in Cheng Binghe Mi Zhu, who had not been seen for a long time.

At Cheng Bing's request, Liu Cun happily took him to visit the soon-to-be-completed Langya Academy, and Liu Ye, who was in charge of the supervision of the academy, was very happy to see Mi Zhu and the familiar Cheng Bing, and led the two to visit after the ceremony.

An hour later, Cheng Binghe Mi Zhu entered Liu Ye's new residence on the shore of Bihu Lake, still marveling at the layout of the majestic library and surrounding buildings, and full of praise for the scale and elegant environment of the academy.

Liu Ye proudly told the two that the academy would be completed in another month, and he planned to return to his hometown Shou County in the near future, bring his wife and children together, and settle down here in the future.

Mi Zhu was slightly surprised, and after thinking about it, he felt natural.

However, Cheng Bing saw that Liu Ye's choice had nothing to do with Liu Cun, but he only smiled slightly: "No wonder Zijian gave Ziyang the only recommendation place in Langya County this year, it's very good!" Ziyang, you are erudite, full of splendor, and you are a royal noble, you should have been out of office a long time ago, if you are willing to be a county commander, you can choose several surrounding counties, and the foolish brother will definitely support you, haha! ”

Liu Ye was taken aback, he didn't know about Liu Cun's recommendation yet, so he immediately turned to Liu Cun, his eyes were full of gratitude: "Brother, ......"

Liu Cun smiled slightly: "The virtuous brother should have been in charge of his own affairs a long time ago, in the past few months, the foolish brother has not only recommended the virtuous brother, but also obtained a quota from the Lord Chen Qi of Dongwu County, and recommended Mr. Zhao Rong, who is filial piety and has made great contributions to the resettlement of tens of thousands of disaster victims. ”

Liu Ye was still grateful, but he was reluctant to leave the Langya Academy, which was full of hard work, and he hesitated for a while and it was difficult to choose.

Liu Cun said with a smile: "If the virtuous brother is reluctant to go to the academy, he will simply take over as the county commander of Langya, and the foolish brother will go to Dongguan or Dongwu, where no one wants to go, and continue to be the county commander, haha!" ”

As soon as these words came out, Mi Zhu and Cheng Bing were shocked again.

Liu Cun laughed and easily changed the topic: "Brother Deshu, can the monarch be healthy?" ”

Hearing Liu Cun ask about the recent situation of the monarch Liu Xi, Cheng Bing hurriedly straightened up and straightened up: "The monarch has been reduced, the county seat of Dong'an, which is adjacent to Taishan County, has fallen again, and the Yellow Turban thieves who have increased to more than 30,000 people have surrounded Dongguan City again, and Lieutenant Xiao has led 7,000 soldiers to retreat to Dongguan City, and the monarch is worried about this, and he can't sleep at night. ”

"Under such a crisis, the saint who lived in the Luoyang Imperial Palace even sent a waiter, asking my Langya country to pay tribute to not less than five inches of gold-inlaid mirrors with twelve sides, twelve pairs of six-foot-high painted white porcelain treasure bottles, 100 bottles of 'Langya jade liquid' wine, and 500 bottles of 'Langya mellow wine' in carved black pottery bottles, and the waiters sent to stay in Wangcheng make noise every day, if it weren't for the greed for life and fear of death and worry about distress on the road, I'm afraid I would have come to Xiahe City, alas! It seems that the angels will not leave without getting their hands. ”

Liu Cun smiled bitterly, not reluctantly, these things are priceless treasures that are difficult to buy for others, and they are ordinary things for Liu Cun, he can take them out at any time, if it is not for the sake of coaxing fame and profiteering, Liu Cun implements strict limited production of mirrors, fine wine above 35 degrees and high-end ceramics, so that the expanding production capacity of major workshops is released to production, and all luxury goods are afraid that they will soon be rotten on the street.

Liu Cun is very helpless about the absurd actions of the current Han Emperor, and he is still obsessed with bringing his own world to this point, and this emperor is too chic.

Cheng Bing and Mi Zhu didn't know Liu Cun's true thoughts, thinking that Liu Cun was unwilling to contribute such a large amount of expensive things, and before they came, the two of them knew very well in their hearts that these tributes sent by the emperor to the waiters were worth more than a thousand gold, no wonder Liu Cun was distressed.

Seeing Liu Cun shaking his head and drinking tea silently, Cheng Bing had no choice but to cough lightly: "Zijian, the monarch is also miserable!" Before the foolish brother left, the monarch took the foolish brother's hand and was sad, and even said that Zijian was destroying the country and relieving the family, and worked hard to settle hundreds of thousands of disaster victims. ”

"But the saint is the pride of the sky, no matter how hard we have, we must uphold the righteousness of the monarch and the minister, so the king finally earnestly advised, see if you can do something for Zijian, if Zijian has a need, even if he speaks, as long as he can do it, the kingdom will spare no effort."

Liu Cun hurriedly stood up, bowed respectfully to the south where the royal city was located, returned to Cheng Bing and sat down, and said humbly:

"When I was young, I read a wise man's words: 'If you live in a temple, you will worry about its people; In the far away of the rivers and lakes, it is worried about its king', so far Liu Cun every time he thinks about it, he is still very impressed, and it is difficult to forget! In Liu Cun's view, this passage is the true portrayal of the monarch, and it is precisely because of the monarch that I have been in Langya for decades, and I have the opportunity to repay the monarch for the hard-working and simple people and Liu Cun! ”

"Now that the court is dim and the world is in turmoil, the monarch is as diligent and loves the people as before, worries about the country, is so self-denying, and so adheres to the morality of the monarch and ministers, which makes Liu Cun ashamed and full of admiration! If he can share the worries of the monarch, it is purely Liu Cun's honor, no matter how hard it is, Liu Cun will not disappoint the monarch. ”

Mi Zhu and Liu Ye were extremely moved, they didn't expect that the monarch Liu Xi would be so lofty in Liu Cun's mind, nor did they expect Liu Cun to have such deep feelings and a heart of service to the monarch Liu Xi.

Cheng Bing was even more excited, and his mouth was still repeated: "If you live in a temple, you are worried about the people; If you are far away from the rivers and lakes, you will worry about it......"

After Liu Cun made some passionate remarks to show his heart, he waved to the two Liu Ye maids standing on the side, and when the two maids continued to serve fragrant tea, he turned to Mi Zhu, who came back to his senses first, and briefly told the trade situation and contract between the Jizhou Gongsun family and the chamber of commerce under his command.

Mi Zhu shook his head while laughing: "You guy, just said a touching and generous word, and in the blink of an eye, you got into the copper stench, and you are not afraid that Brother Deshu and Ziyang will despise you?" ”

Liu Cun laughed: "Brother asked knowingly, if you really want to despise it, you have to fill your stomach before your eyes are sharp, right?" ”

Mi Zhu couldn't help laughing, and it took a long time to put away his laughter: "Such a foolish brother is not polite to you, this time I came to visit the virtuous brother to see if the virtuous brother can still bear the weight of more than 100,000 homeless people?" The second is to send five strong bows to the virtuous brother, and it is estimated that the virtuous brother will soon be able to use them. Finally, I want to ask Brother Xian face to face, who is the hand of the composite armor and the exquisite sword that you sent to Brother Yu? ”

Liu Cun replied truthfully: "The composite armor and saber are designed by the younger brother, and they are from the hands of Mr. Huo Jian, a master smelter. ”

"Huo Jian? Could it be Huo Ziyi, the heir of the Mo family? Mi Zhu exclaimed.

Liu Cun nodded: "It's him, if it weren't for Mr. Ziyi's superb skills, no matter how good the design was, it would be empty." ”

Mi Zhu pounded his chest and regretted: "I didn't expect Mr. Ziyi, who has been in hiding for many years, to be under the command of Brother Xian, and the whole family of Brother Fool has been looking for Mr. Ziyi for seven years, alas! I knew that Mr. Ziyi was here, how could the foolish brother dare to send any strong bow to the virtuous brother? I'm ashamed, the class has an axe, the class has an axe! ”

Liu Cun hurriedly said: "Brother's strong bow was delivered in time!" What the elder brother has always given to the younger brother, which one is an ordinary thing? Besides, no matter how skilled Mr. Ziyi is, it will take at least two years to make a good bow, and the elder brother can't watch the younger brother go out on adventures with an ordinary bow and arrow for two years, right? ”

Cheng Bing and Liu Ye had calmed down, and looked at Liu Cun and Mi Zhu, who were shouting, shaking their heads and sighing.

Liu Cun didn't care about Mi Zhu anymore, and smiled at Liu Ye in a low voice: "Is there one or two pieces of paper left that Zhen'er sent to my brother last time?" ”

Liu Ye immediately went to the spacious and elegant study room in the east, and Xing Chongchong took out two large pieces of white paper and put them among the crowd: "Brother Deshu, have you ever seen such a white and exquisite paper?" ”

Cheng Bing's eyes suddenly turned green, he picked up one and looked at it, touched it and touched it, and asked Liu Ye with an eager face: "Where did you come from?" Where did it come from? ”

Liu Ye was proud: "It was Liu Zhen, the eldest son of my brother's family, who led dozens of craftsmen to spend more than three months around the clock to repeatedly try to produce, and finally used local bamboo, silk and linen scraps, lime, and other materials to carefully brew, and grinded to crush the white paste powder and pine resin, etc., after as many as 12 processes, it was finally successful." ”

"In addition, Liu Zhen and they also use the branches and leaves, straw and wheat stalks that can be seen all over the mountains to create a flexible and comfortable toilet paper specially used for toileting, but unfortunately the output is too small, and the foolish brother repeatedly begged, and only got 100 pieces of writing paper and two catties of toilet paper for his own use every month."

Cheng Bing was heartbroken: "How dare you use such a pure thing to go to the toilet? Oh, my God! Poor and extravagant, tyrannical and extravagant! ”

Mi Zhu, who was holding another piece of paper in his hand, was staring at Liu Cun with blazing eyes at this time, and his posture was a little scary, as if he was about to pounce on Liu Cun if he didn't say a good word.

Seeing this, Liu Cun hurriedly explained: "This paper has just been out for less than a month, although the tenacity and tension are enough, but there is still a lot of room for improvement, the process and formula have not been completely determined, the output is even less pitiful, and the manufacturing process consumes a lot of water, the wastewater after soaking and heating is extremely smelly, especially the water and soil pollution is very large, so the younger brother has not dared to expand production in Zhushan, and so the process and formula in the coming day are completely determined, and then find a way to find a remote place with a water source to build a workshop, if the brother is interested, you may as well work together." ”

Mi Zhu's white face that began to be blessed was suddenly full of smiles, and he laughed excitedly, but he said something else: "I don't blame Brother Deshu for scolding you for being poor and extravagant, tyrannical and tyrannical, such a sven thing, you dare to use it to wipe your buttocks, tsk!" I can't convince you Liu Zijian anymore. ”

Liu Cunbai glanced at him: "Toilet paper is different from more expensive writing paper, the raw materials required for toilet paper such as wolfberry branches and leaves, wheat straw and straw abound, the manufacturing process is extremely simple, only need to invest 500,000 yuan, the construction workshop is made in large quantities, 50 people can produce at least 10,000 catties of toilet paper per month, and the cost will never exceed 100,000 yuan, even if it is added to five times the profit, the price of a pound of toilet paper is 100 yuan, which is enough for ordinary people to wipe their butts for a month, which is more convenient for adult women. ”

Seeing Mi Zhu and Cheng Bing looking at each other, Liu Cun sighed: "I'm afraid the two brothers have the experience of being tortured by bamboo or wooden toilet chips, right?" If you are not careful, you will cut through the delicate skin of that place, and it will be okay to have some blood, but the pain is spicy and unbearable, and it is difficult to sit still, and even you have to cross your legs and step eight times when you walk! ”

The hall burst into laughter, Liu Ye couldn't cover his mouth with laughter, Mi Zhu opened his mouth and looked up to the sky, and his whole body trembled, and Cheng Bing, who had always been elegant and extremely heavy, also laughed unscrupulously.

After the laughter stopped, Cheng Bing, who was full of anticipation, had not yet spoken, Liu Cun seemed to know what he was thinking, and spoke again: "The younger brother has instructed the dog to carefully select two thousand pieces of writing paper, all of which are four feet long and three feet wide of uniform specifications, as well as two hundred catties of high-quality toilet paper, which has been packed in a wooden box. If the elder brother needs it, he will also bring some back, and in the future, the younger brother will let the caravan be delivered to the elder brother's mansion on a regular monthly basis, but the elder brother will have to give the younger brother two framed paintings in the future. ”

Cheng Bing was overjoyed and quickly stood up to thank him.

Mi Zhu stretched out his hand to hold Cheng Bing, and said very solemnly: "Brother Deshu, after you go back, you must wait for the angel to leave before you can enter the monarch, otherwise it will be a heavy burden!" ”

Cheng Bing immediately came to his senses: "Fortunately, Zizhong reminded me that Brother Fool knows what to do." ”

Everyone talked about some major events that happened in various places, and then discussed the ongoing battle of officials and bandits in Dong'an and Dongguan counties in the west of the Langya Kingdom, and felt pessimistic about Xiao Jian, the leading general of the kingdom who was rigid and unrhymed in military affairs.

Cheng Bing, who was worried, didn't know that Liu Cun understood military affairs, let alone knew that Liu Cun had a strong martial arts, so he directly turned the topic to Liu Cun's request to the monarch, after all, Liu Cun shared the huge pressure from the emperor and the imperial court for the monarch, and contributed a huge tribute of no less than 3,000 gold, and did not give Liu Cun the compensation he deserved, even if Liu Cun didn't say anything, the monarch Liu Xi's face was not good-looking, if it spread, Liu Xi's reputation for decades of gentleness, benevolence, and courtesy of Corporal Corporal would probably be affected.

Liu Cun was generous for so long, waiting for Cheng Bing's words, he thought about it a little, and then asked Cheng Bing many things, and learned that Liu Xi, the humble and self-guarded monarch with no ambition, wanted more and more to give up the chaotic and burdensome northern six counties, and was preparing to convene the subordinate military to agree, and then presented the table, imploring the imperial court to restore the Chengyang County that was incorporated into the Langya Kingdom during the Jianwu period of this dynasty, and the ten counties of Dongwu, Zhuxian, Dongguan, Dong'an, Gumu, Langya, Changping, Anqiu, Gaomi, and Qianqian in the north of the Langya Kingdom today, Reassigned to the jurisdiction of Chengyang County, Liu Xi no longer wants to carry these heavy burdens.

In the face of such a major news, Liu Cun, who keenly saw the opportunity, was pounding in his heart, but fortunately, he could still control his emotions and did not let the strong ** that suddenly surged into his heart appear on his face.

Mi Zhu saw through Liu Cun's thoughts at a glance, pondered for a moment and turned to Cheng Bing: "What is the opinion of the Minister of State and other adults on this?" ”

"The prime minister is old, and he is riddled with illness, and he has long had the heart of returning to his hometown to spend his old age, and his colleagues are very chilled by what the court has done in recent years, and the world is chaotic, and the wars are all around, all of which have the intention of retreating, alas! It seems that the monarch has made up his mind, and it may be imperative to take the initiative to reduce the fiefdom, but with the nobility of the monarch, he will never blame the current disaster on the imperial court, and it is estimated that it will be put on the table after the pacification of bandits and the recovery of Dong'an and Dongguan counties, and only in this way will it not affect the reputation. Cheng Bing explained in detail.

Mi Zhu nodded, and looked at Liu Cun, who was pretending to be calm, with a smile: "Brother Xian, why don't you help Brother Foolish?" ”

Cheng Bing and Liu Ye immediately woke up and looked at Liu Cun with a shocked face.

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