Zuo Shaoyang still didn't say a word. He knew that Sang Mu recognized that she was a person who valued affection and righteousness, and she should not live up to Sang Xiaomei's affection. So although her daughter is crazy, she is not worried that no one will marry, and she refuses to give up this seventy dowry.

Shopkeeper Zhu happily put away the silver, and said: "Sang Laohan, it's not me who said you, your mother-in-law is really ruthless, if it weren't for the small Langzhong, not only would you not be able to collect this tea shop, but even you would have to work as a partner." Not only are you not grateful, but you deliberately make things difficult, and you do this kind of thing. It's really the most poisonous woman's heart! Forget it, I don't want to mind your business, I got the money and left! - Zuo Gongzi, thank you. Leave! After that, he arched his hand at Zuo Shaoyang and walked away.

Zhu Medicine Cabinet also got up and said, "Yes, Zhu Laohan, the old pervert, didn't do personnel before, but what he said just now was not bad." Forget it, I'm too lazy to care. You face, I don't bother to look at it, it's not disgusting! With that, he walked up with his hands behind his back.

The old tea customers also shook their heads and followed.

Sang Mu muttered, "What did you say?" I naturally remember Xiaolangzhong, if I can't remember, I won't promise him that he can marry Xiaomei, but the dowry is unavoidable, and I'm missing ten times, which is interesting enough. - Young Master Zuo, when you have enough money, you can come and marry the third girl at any time. Hey hey"

Zuo Shaoyang sneered and bowed his hand to Sang Mother and Sang Father: "I will never forget Ling Yan's kindness in my heart." However, my daughter-in-law can only be a life partner who is in love with me and can grow old, it is the result of mutual love, a union of sincere love, not a gift bought with money! Don't say seventy yuan, it's a penny, and I won't take it out to buy a wife to go home! Leave! ”

After that, Zuo Shaoyang flicked the sleeves of his robe, turned around and walked away.

Sang Xiaomei cried out, covered her face and turned around and ran upstairs. Huang Qin called a few times, Zuo Shaoyang didn't answer, stomped his feet, and ran upstairs to see Sang Xiaomei. Only Mother Sang and Father Sang were left looking at each other.

Zuo Shaoyang returned to the pharmacy, depressed, and didn't tell his father Zuo Gui about it.

On this day, several patients came to the pharmacy to seek medical treatment, although they were all relatively simple headaches and brain fevers, they still received twenty or thirty yuan for consultation, which can be regarded as some income.

In the evening, Hope and Fennel came over. Carrying a knife of pork and a gourd of wine. Laughing. Zuo Shaoyang knew that his brother-in-law Hou Pu was a big speaker, and he came over at this time, he must have come to talk about something. Seeing him smiling like this, lifting meat and wine, maybe it's a happy event.

Liang and Fennel were busy in the kitchen, and Zuo Shaoyang accompanied his father Zuo Gui and brother-in-law Hou Pu to talk in the front hall.

Zuo Gui stroked his beard and said, "Uncle, if you come later, don't go back to Duti to get meat and wine, you are not rich." ”

Hou Pu said with a smile: "Don't worry, old man, these wine and meat are rewarded by the yamen today, everyone has a share, and it doesn't cost money." ”

"Oh, it's not a festival, why do you want to give out wine and meat?"

Hou Pu glanced at the two of them, lowered his voice and said, "I tell you, don't talk about it!" ”

Zuo Shaoyang smiled and nodded, according to past experience, to the point where his brother-in-law knew, it was no longer a secret, and the people of the yamen would soon spread it to outsiders, and the whole city would soon know about it. Ancient communication equipment is not good, and the speed of this person-to-person transmission is not worse than that of modern times.

Hope then said, "Tell you! - Shopkeeper Qu, you know? The shopkeeper of the rice shop who borrowed money at usury everywhere was arrested! ”

Zuo Shaoyang thought to himself that this was the case, and almost everyone in the city knew about it, so how could there be any secrets to speak of, so he pretended to be stunned: "Is it?" Why? ”

Zuo Gui was also taken aback: "Won't it?" The shopkeeper Qu has a lot of money and a big business, how can he be arrested? Make no mistake, right? ”

"How could this be wrong!" Hou Pu said with a smile, "My knife meat and this pot of wine were exchanged for this case!" ”

Zuo Gui said: "What's going on? ”

"A few days ago, a group of people came to the capital to arrest fast, all of them were plainclothes, and when they arrived at the Yamen, they only said that they would let the Yamen arrest quickly to assist in the investigation of the case, and they didn't say a word about the specific case. When I moved my hand in the middle of the night last night, I realized that it was the shopkeeper who grabbed the song. Because there are many shops and a lot of buddies, and there are not enough people to catch fast, the county lord let all the yamen people, the three classes of officials and our group of scribes, including the sedan chair man, umbrella man, changfu, etc., all be used, and they were busy all night, and they were captured in one fell swoop. Qu's shopkeeper's house and all the shops were raided, hundreds of people were arrested, and they were all locked in the yamen, and the prison could not be closed, so they locked all their entourage in the warehouse. The officials from the capital were also generous, saying that the Yamen brothers had worked hard to assist in the investigation of the case this time, and everyone was rewarded with a knife of pork, a pot of wine, and a string of money. Hey. ”

Zuo Gui stroked his beard and said: "So that's the case, then what did this shopkeeper commit to causing the whole family to be arrested and the family property to be confiscated?" ”

Hou Pu lowered his voice and said: "I heard that this shopkeeper is a big liar, he relies on that mouth to be powerful, and he deceives people into the capital, he lends five cents of interest, sometimes even seven points of interest, and at the beginning of this guy can still do what he says, five cents of interest and seven cents of interest are paid even with interest, so many people believe that he is indeed rich, and they all lend him money." deceived many people in the capital, and some of them were deceived and invested money in him. He borrowed the east wall to make up the west wall, and deceived countless amounts of money. ”

"And how did the case come to be?"

"Tear down the east wall to make up the west wall, it's okay at first, to the back, the hole is getting bigger and bigger, it can't be filled at all, there are more and more creditors, and if he can't pay the debt, he hides in the city, and the creditor can't find him to go to the yamen to sue, which alarms the yamen. The secret investigation found out the matter, so he was arrested. Alas, what's the use of people being caught, there is no money to repay debts at all, I heard that some creditors are borrowing usurious money to lend to him, ready to eat the difference. The result is not enough, there have been several cases of families taking poison and jumping into the river to death. It's miserable! ”

Zuo Gui asked: "The shopkeeper Qu is a rice shopkeeper, isn't there still a lot of rice noodles?" ”

"There are some, but there are not many, they are all used to save face, otherwise, where would people believe that he is rich? The yamen decided to sell these rice noodles, along with the house and shop of the shopkeeper Qu, into money, and divide them equally among the creditors. Alas! ”

Zuo Shaoyang thought of the Sang family's money, if it weren't for Xiao Feirat who revealed the news in front of him and helped later, the result would definitely be as miserable as them, although Sang Jiaen would take revenge, but that was another matter, Xiao Feirat's side, he had to thank others.

Speaking of this, Hou Pu whispered to Zuo Gui mysteriously: "Uncle Yue, tell you a secret, but don't spread it." ”

"That's nature." Zuo Gui stroked his beard and said.

Hou Pu's voice was lowered: "Feng Li, the prince general who rebelled last year, and Fan Jianshi of Longzhou, they are making trouble again!" ”

"Huh?" Zuo Gui gasped, "Didn't you calm down?" ”

"That's what I said at the time, but now I know that Feng Li and their rebels are very powerful, all the way to Wangjing, the imperial army is blocked layer by layer, they are very cunning, bypassing the interception army, turning to our side to kill, killing Qinzhou, Fengzhou, Liangzhou, and finally in Mianzhou and Fan Tingshi's army converged, and then divided into two groups, in the deep mountains around Mianzhou and Suizhou, the officers and soldiers have been conscripted several times without any result. They often go down the mountain to rob homes and houses, kill officials and rebel! ”

"Oh, Suizhou is near the left, don't make a fuss about our Hezhou."

"That's it, haven't you seen the price of this grain rise every day, I'm afraid that I won't have anything to eat when I fight."

Zuo Gui's face was worried: "Yes, in the past, the price of grain was 330 Wen, but by the end of the year, it had risen to 360 Wen!" We don't have any money, and if we have money, we should buy some rice and noodles to save, just in case. ”

Hou Pu said: "Uncle Yue don't have to worry, hehe, although we don't have many generals stationed in Hezhou, our Hezhou is not a military powerhouse, and it doesn't matter, and the people are poor and hard, and there is not much grain, so it is not attractive to them." ”

Zuo Shaoyang's heart is full of sorrow, if it is not for the iron of the brain, or if the army is strong, generally will not attack important towns, according to the old man Mao's idea of encircling the city in the countryside, the establishment of base areas in some backward mountainous areas in the three regardless of the three areas, is the best choice, when the Red Army established the Soviet area, as well as the various base areas behind it, to develop and expand the ranks, this is the case.

However, it is useless to tell my brother-in-law, what can he do as a little scribe, besides, now Li Shimin is the emperor, a victorious general who has experienced a hundred battles, and it is now the first year of Zhenguan, and it will be the prosperous era of Zhenguan in the future, and it will be better and better, so Li Shimin will definitely be able to eliminate these rebels. But he didn't bother to remind himself. There is no way to remind it.

After gossiping for a while, the meal was ready, there was wine and meat, and this was already heaven for Zuo Shaoyang. Meimei had a meal.

Full of wine and food, Mr. and Mrs. Hope said goodbye and left. Zuo Shaoyang used the excuse of going to the thatched house, slipped out the back door, and came to Qingfeng Temple through the alley. Looking left and right at no one, he took a branch and stuck it in the grass to the left of the temple gate.

Back in the kitchen, boiling water to wash his face and feet, he was sitting on the bench in the open space in front of the stove and was about to take off his shoes and wash his feet, when he suddenly heard the sound of mice squeaking overhead, and looked up through the dim oil lamp, he saw a man in black hanging overhead, who was making a grimace at himself, it was Xiao Feimouse. I was overjoyed in my heart, and I was about to say hello, but I saw Xiao Fei's finger in front of his mouth, signaling him not to make a sound, and hurriedly swallowed his words.

Xiao Feiquin landed lightly and said in a low voice, "Talk outside." ”

(To be continued)