In the yamen of the eunuch guarding the town outside the Xihua Gate of the Imperial City, Zhu Daolin finished reading the secret letter written by Cao Huachun to Wu Jingxian, leaned on the back of his chair and thought quietly, without the slightest panic and fear on his face, still as calm and calm as usual.

Wu Jingxian, who was on the main seat, admired Zhu Daolin's unfazed bearing very much, and motioned to the little eunuch standing aside to change a cup of hot tea for Zhu Daolin.

Zhu Daolin folded the letter and stuffed it into the envelope, put it on the table in front of Wu Jingxian, and smiled slightly: "It seems that the reason why the emperor was not bewitched by that group of shameless ministers, the prince and the prince of Cao must have made a lot of efforts, and several princes in the capital, Hou Ye, Zhang Tianshi and others may have also said a lot of good things for me and Ziyangguan, otherwise it would not be as simple as letting me go to Beijing to report on my work." ”

Wu Jingxian nodded lightly: "Let's have a cup of tea first, you haven't taken a sip of tea after coming in for so long, the weather is gradually getting cooler, and if you don't drink it again, you will have to change it later." ”

Zhu Daolin nodded, picked up the teacup, took a few sips and then put it down, and asked with concern: "Uncle, when do you estimate the holy decree will arrive?" ”

"Within 7 days at the fastest, within 10 days at the slow, after receiving the holy decree, you must arrive in the capital within 1 month, report to the military department first, and then stay at the Guanglu Temple outside the Donghua Gate to wait for the summons...... If you don't see you for a day, you have to stay in it for a day. Wu Jingxian said in detail.

Zhu Daolin breathed a sigh of relief: "In this way, there is still more than a month to prepare, so there is no need to be in a hurry......

Wu Jingxian shook his head: "Aren't you afraid that this will be more than lucky?" ”

Zhu Daolin pursed his mouth: "You are old and scary, what is there to be afraid of?" When the time comes, I will bring 200,000 catties of copper, 20 tons of overseas white sugar, 50 special four-wheeled carriages, 50 general cannons, and 2,000 military swords. 20 large mirrors, 20 large pendulum clocks, and a few boxes of gemstone jewelry to the queen's mother, 500 horses of high-quality silk cloth of seven colors, 5 pedal sewing machines, needles, threads and brains, etc., the emperor can still show me a face? ”

Wu Jingxian was taken aback: "This ...... That's a million taels of silver! Are you really willing to do it? ”

"Why can't you give up? You're welcome. The emperor's surname is Zhu, and my surname is Zhu, which was a family 500 years ago...... Oops, it doesn't seem like that. Zhu Daolin smiled and closed his mouth.

Wu Jingxian laughed, and after laughing, he asked in a low voice, "You haven't told me all this time, where is your ancestor?" What's your father's name? ”

Zhu Daolin sighed faintly: "People who are living abroad, what do you say about your ancestors?" I don't know where my ancestors were, but I remember that my grandfather settled in Jinling a long time ago......"

"My father's name can be told to you all the time, his old man's name is Zhu Kanpei. 61 years old this year, like to drink tea, play chess and practice calligraphy, before retirement in Tianshu Pavilion as a non-mainstream knife and pen officer, he only had mine when he was 35 years old, my mother is 9 years younger than him. ”

"Our old Zhu family is not prosperous, the deceased grandfather is the only son in the family, my father is also an only son, and he is still an only son in my generation. Therefore, the two elders always pin the hope of the old Zhu family to blossom and scatter the leaves on me......"

"Alas...... Let's stop talking nonsense, let's talk about what happened in the capital. Are Zhou Yanru's grandsons crazy? Dare to say such shameless and absurd lies in front of the emperor, do they really think that the emperor has no brains? ”

"Shut up!"

Wu Jingxian pointed at Zhu Daolin's mouth: "You can never say such disrespectful words again!" Don't you think you're getting into enough trouble? Do you understand that three people become tigers? ”

"You don't pay attention to the rules, and even make strange moves, and those of us who are close to you are also forced to go into battle shirtless by you, and in the past few months, you have forced the gate lords of the Southeast Family and the Donglin Party to be in a hurry, and suffered heavy losses. They already hate you for being a daring fellow, and they will kill you if they have the chance, no matter how ridiculous they are! ”

"There is also this time of the food game, if today's incident reaches the capital, I don't know how much shock it will cause. Can they not frame you? ”

"Fortunately, you are blessed with a great life, four muskets can't kill you, and there are so many people who help you say good things and support you, if you are someone else, your bones will be broken a long time ago!"

The more Zhu Daolin listened, the more annoyed he became: "Grandma's! When the opportunity comes, I will raise the butcher's knife and kill him completely! ”

Wu Jingxian was startled, and before he could speak, a middle-aged eunuch strode in the door and came to Wu Jingxian and bent down to report: "The third prince and the eldest son and the younger prince of the Longping Hou family came to visit. ”

"Let them in!"

Wu Jingxian waved his hand, ordered to bring people in, slightly tidied up his clothes and slowly stood up, and looked at Zhu Daolin, who came to him: "I'm afraid your brothers are here to report the news." ”

"You always sit, I'll go and welcome them in."

Zhu Daolin strode out of the door, and soon came in with the smiling brothers Ying Changpei, Zhang Dezhong and Zhang Deyi to meet Wu Jingxian, greeted each other for a while, and sat down separately, and the two little fathers-in-law came up to take the gifts brought by Ying Changpei and respectfully put them on the table on the side.

Ying Changpei and the other little fathers-in-law who served fragrant tea stepped down and immediately reported to Wu Jingxian and Zhu Daolin: "The Jiangnan family gate valve and the grain merchants from all over the country have collapsed, and their high grain prices have risen for more than 40 consecutive days, and finally collapsed under the continuous impact of our several families, and they have plummeted for thousands of miles. ”

"Before we came, the price of grain in the whole city had fallen to 1 tael and 5 yuan per stone, and the second-grade japonica rice was 1 tael and 3 yuan per stone, and the purchase of more than 100 stone at a time could be traded at the price of 1 tael and 2 yuan, which has returned to the price before the Yellow River flood."

"Although the gate valves of the major families are rich and have not lost much, at least 15 grain merchants who are making waves behind the gate valves have lost all their money."

"A few days ago, several of our families sold 460,000 taels of silver three times at the price of 4 taels of 2 yuan and 3 taels of 8 yuan per stone, and made a net profit of 770,000 taels of silver after removing wages and freight.

"Uncle Zhang Shi was a little unable to pull it off, so he could only accept 80,000 stone of grain from the Jiangbei Wang family in the name of buying military rations, which was very confidential and would not cause fluctuations in grain prices."

Zhang Dezhong hurriedly explained: "My uncle knelt down in front of my grandmother, cried for a long time with a handful of snot and tears, and slapped his face, beating all the blood, there was really no way, my grandmother couldn't see it and spoke, my family could only help him quietly......"

"However, my father has clearly warned him that although he bought his 80,000 stone of grain, the grain must continue to stay in the official warehouse rented by him and several gate valves in Jiangnan, and it will not be transported until the matter is over, and it is estimated that it will not cause grain prices to fluctuate......"

"My father specially asked our brother to come and explain, Daolin, don't be angry!"

Zhu Daolin smiled and waved his hand: "When the matter comes to this point, it can be said that the dust has settled, and it is useless for the major family gate valves and a few big grain merchants to hold on, and there is no shortage of food in the homes of the people of Jinling, and the remaining grain in the hands of the gate valves is estimated to be about 700,000 stones. ”

"In addition to the 700,000 disaster victims in the whole of Jiangnan, no one is short of food, I will never buy a single grain from them, let them continue to hoard, hehe!"

"If they ship it back, the freight plus labor and loss will lose at least 20%, and what is even worse is that the autumn grain will come down immediately, and the autumn grain from Huguang and Huainan will also be transported, and no one will buy their grain at that time...... Their only way out is to sell to the government to replenish their stocks. ”

"If the government dares not to buy it back to fill the shortfall, look at it, I will definitely go to the emperor to sue the emperor, and ask the emperor to send a few fair and honest messengers down to check the official warehouses in the north and south of the river, and I am afraid that when the time comes, I am afraid that I will not launch a few substitutes for the dead ghosts to hide."

When everyone heard this, they looked at each other.

Ying Changpei said suspiciously: "Even if you can see the emperor, I'm afraid there will be no result, this kind of thing has long been commonplace, and the officialdom does not blame the public, it is difficult!" ”

Zhu Daolin smiled confidently: "If I say to the emperor: Shengshang, as long as I send a messenger to check and find out how many losses, how many holes I Zhu Daolin will use silver to make up, and then I will find Lord Wen Tiren Wen and tell him that as long as he is willing to join forces to do a big job, we will support him and his people to take over the prefectures and counties in Jiangbei, support his statecraft strategy, and deepen exchanges with each other in the future, support each other, and help each other, you can talk about it, are the emperor and other forces in the court and the central government except the Donglin Party willing?" ”

Ying Changpei was dumbfounded, and the Zhang brothers were shocked, such a vicious strategy of killing a thousand enemies and self-inflicting eight hundred, even Wu Jingxian felt chills down his spine. (To be continued......)