Zhenyuan County suddenly had nearly 10,000 people, and the available manpower for repairing the city was much more abundant. According to Xu Liang's plan, nearly 6,000 people were selected from the people to participate in the city repair operation, and more than 6,000 people were divided into dozens of groups, divided into two batches during the day and night, and worked in turns.

In the face of the bloody lesson, no one dared to raise the slightest objection. It's just that Huang Xiancheng looked at Xu Liang's face and became more and more unfriendly.

At noon on another day, Xu Liang checked the construction progress under the sun, and just hid back under the shade of the tree to enjoy the shade, Mao Yujie, the head of the house, hesitated forward and whispered: "Big, my lord, my subordinates have something to report." ”

"What's the matter?"

Director Mao cautiously glanced at Xu Liang's face, and when he saw that there was no displeased expression, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief and said respectfully: "There are suddenly tens of thousands more people in Zhenyuan City, and the grain stock in the county treasury is about to run out. ”

"Then go buy some more." Xu Liang said.

Director Mao smiled bitterly: "I can't even find a copper plate in the county treasury." ”

Xu Liang listened, pondered, looked at Master Mao, and said, "Do you think that our Zhenyuan City, where is there still food?" ”

Master Mao thought about it, raised his eyes and saw Xu Liang looking at him with a smile, his heart moved, and he blurted out: "The grain and rice store on the street must have grain in stock." ”

"Then take someone to borrow as much as you want." Xu Liang said quietly, "Let Inspector Huang take someone from the Inspection Division to accompany you." ”

When Master Mao heard this, he shivered. I bow and retire more respectfully.

On this day, the officers and soldiers of the inspection department knocked on the doors of all the grain and rice shops in Zhenyuan City with a cart and a small car, and the colonel who led the team entered the door and wrote a piece of paper on both sides of the borrower, leaving only an IOU for filling in the gap of the grain and rice quantity on the counter of the store, holding a saber in his hand, and his tone was solemn: "The shopkeeper, on the order of the master of Zhenyuan County, came to your store to borrow grain, this is an IOU, you fill it out, brothers are good to move!" ”

This is borrowing grain, it is clearly grabbing grain! In the face of the bright knives and guns, the shopkeepers of several grain and rice stores dared to be angry and did not dare to speak, and in desperation, they swallowed their anger and honestly opened warehouses to "borrow" grain.

When a team of officers and soldiers came to the largest grain store in Zhenyuan City to "borrow" grain, the shopkeeper inside was not afraid at all, and called more than a dozen men in the store to take long knives and actually blocked the people of the inspection department outside. The old shopkeeper in the store, who was over half a hundred years old, was black and thin, and he clicked on the dry tobacco bag, and his tone was contemptuous: "Our Louji grain store has been in business for hundreds of years, and we have never borrowed on credit!" If the county of Zhenyuan is in urgent need of food, you can buy it with silver! Lou Ji is by no means short of two! ”

It was the first time that the sentry officer who led the team had encountered this scene, and he heard the soldiers around him whispering in their ears about the famous Lou Ji Grain Store, and he hesitated for a moment whether to do it. Just when it was difficult to ride a tiger, Mao Yujie, the head of the house, rushed to the scene and asked about the situation, but she didn't dare to make up her mind, so she had to appease the officers and soldiers of the inspection department, and hurriedly ran to the city to find Xu Liang for instructions.

Half an hour later, Chief Mao rushed back to the Louji Grain Store and brought back the officers and soldiers of the Inspection Department who stayed there to confront the guys in the store.

Just when people speculated that the government had touched a nail in Lou Kee Grain Store and did not dare to make any move, without warning, the next day someone suddenly sued Lou Ji Grain Store for selling rotten rice and eating an old man to death. In order to find out the facts of the case, the county magistrate immediately sent the shopkeeper of the Lou Ji Grain Store and the others to the case, and the Lou Ji Grain Store was also sealed.

Only then did the people of Zhenyuan City really feel the ruthlessness of the county lord.

It was late at night, the lights outside the town were bright, and the voices of people were boiling, but the backyard of the county government was quiet. In an elegantly decorated room, Feng Suqin was wearing a thin white coat, pillowed on the head of the bed and flipped over a few pages of books in her hand, yawned and asked the girl who was asleep with her chin on the side: "Why hasn't the young master come back yet?" ”

Yahuan woke up, rubbed her worried eyes, looked around in confusion, saw Feng Suqin's inquiring eyes, and said, "The young master entered the study when he was in charge of the lamp, and it seems that he has not come out yet." ”

Feng Suqin tightened her coat and said, "You follow me to the study to have a look." ”

The master and servant went out of the bedroom, and saw that the light was still on in the study, and the two walked lightly to the door, Feng Suqin looked into the room, only to see that a red candle on the desk had been burned out for the most part, Xu Liang pillowed his arm, leaned on the edge of the table, but fell asleep. When you get closer, you can hear soft snoring. Feng Suqin took a blanket and covered Xu Liang with pity, and then put her eyes on the account book that Xu Liang had read half on the desk, which was the list of materials in the Zhenyuan County Treasury, and there were question marks on several items.

Yahuan whispered: "Young lady, if you don't wake up the young master, if you fall asleep like this on this table, your neck will be sore after a long time." ”

Feng Suqin nodded, shook Xu Liang lightly, and called: "Xianggong, Xianggong, wake up?" ”

Xu Liang woke up quietly, raised his eyes and saw that it was his own lady, so he smiled and said, "Why did I fall asleep?" ”

Feng Suqin looked pity, and said softly: "Xianggong hasn't been able to rest for three days in a row, so he is naturally tired." It's too deserted in the study, so go back to your room and sleep. ”

Xu Liang rubbed his face with both hands, made himself more energetic, shook his head and said, "No, I'll have to go outside the city to see it in a while." ”

"Xianggong ......"

"Suqin doesn't have to worry about me anymore, after learning Master Chang Hui's Great Prajna Gong, your father-in-law's body is no longer what it used to be, even if you don't sleep for five days in a row, you can hold on," Xu Liang gave Feng Suqin a comforting look, and saw that Feng Suqin came out with a single coat, and couldn't help but blame again: "It's you, your body is weak, go back and rest." As he spoke, he asked Yahuan to accompany Feng Suqin back to the room quickly.

Feng Suqin wanted to persuade again, and suddenly saw Huang Ziren running in with a cool breeze outside the door. Seeing Xu Liang dancing with his hands, he was so excited that he was incoherent: "Brother, it's done!" This time we really sent it! ”

Xu Liang and Feng Suqin both looked at him in amazement, and asked puzzledly, "What's wrong?" What's the matter with you, happy to be like this? ”

Huang Ziren's face was red with excitement, and he was about to blurt out, when he suddenly saw the Yahuan on the side, he waved his hand to send the Yahuan out, and carefully closed the door of the study.

Xu Liang smiled: "Ziren, what's the matter with you?" Sneaky? ”

Huang Ziren came to Xu Liang and Feng Suqin, took a few deep breaths, calmed down, and then said: "At night, when several of my subordinates were dismantling the rockery of King Han's Courtyard, they found a secret room there. Wan Wenshan, the sentry officer who led the team, immediately reported to me, and finally we smashed open the sealed stone door, haha, eldest brother, sister-in-law, guess what was found inside? ”

"Isn't it the treasure that Lord Han secretly hidden?" Feng Suqin said with a smile.

"It's more than just a baby!" Huang Ziren said with a smile: "At that time, we went in and looked, wow, a room full of gold and silver, pearl agate, antique jade. ”

Xu Liang and Feng Suqin were also stunned, and Xu Liang asked urgently, "Can you put away those things now?" ”

Huang Ziren said: "Not yet, little brother, I was too surprised for a while, so I came to you in a hurry." Besides, with such a large amount of treasure, my inspection department has a lot of eyes, and there is nowhere to hide. ”

Xu Liang was anxious when he heard this, and told Suqin to go back to the house to rest, and he and Huang Ziren hurried to the other courtyard.

The entrance to the open secret passage in the courtyard was already guarded by soldiers from the Inspection Division. Xu Liang and Huang Ziren went down the secret passage, walked a passage of about fifty meters, and entered the secret room where the treasure was hidden.

The room is actually not big, and the size is as big as a normal guest room, but although the room is small, there are a lot of things in it. The first four large chests were full of silver and gold, some in ingots and some in pieces. Next to each other put two boxes of pearl agate, over is a row of cabinets with a good dark grid, the cabinet is full of antique jade, a bronze statue in the corner of the wall is draped with a battle armor, and there are knives and guns scattered under the feet, seeing that the color is a newly cast thing, the blade has not yet opened, and it still shows the dark red color of the furnace. On the ground three steps away from the bronze man, a red cloth covered the things underneath, Xu Liang pulled it out, and there was actually a cannon below, this cannon was about two meters long, the front end of the muzzle was thinner, the rear end was almost half larger than the front end, and there were three barrels about two feet long on the side of the cannon. Xu Liang was immediately shocked, after crossing to the Ming Dynasty, Xu Liang heard that the Ming Dynasty army had begun to use artillery, but he had never seen it in person, and now there was such a cannon in front of him, Xu Liang couldn't help but take a closer look.

"My lord, this cannon is small and you can recognize it, it's a Buddha machine gun." A junior colonel of the inspection department behind him saw Xu Liang staring at the artillery, so he hesitated to step forward and report.

"Oh?" Xu Liang was surprised and looked at the little colonel: "How can you recognize this thing?" ”

The little colonel said respectfully: "The family used to live in Xiamen, and when the court expelled the seaside Japanese in the past few years, the elder brother was in the army, and he told the flag about this kind of cannon after returning to his hometown." ”

Huang Ziren pointed to the junior colonel and said, "Big brother, this is Wan Wenshan, the sentry of the inspection department who discovered the secret passage." ”

Xu Liang looked at the Wan Sentinel Officer in front of him seriously, but seeing that this person was of medium stature, his complexion was slightly dark, and his pair of black eyes under his double eyelids looked very energetic, he patted Wan Sentinel on the shoulder appreciatively and said, "Wan Wenshan, you are very good!" From today onwards, this official will promote you to the position of chief inspector of the inspection department, and you will be rewarded with 100 taels of silver! ”

"Thank you, sir!" Wanwenshan was overjoyed and hurriedly thanked him.

Xu Liang nodded, and said to Huang Ziren and Wan Wenshan: "You must pay attention to the confidentiality of the secret passage, and you must not leak the news." Mr. Wan, you take someone to find a few big cars, and quietly send these treasures to the backyard of the county government overnight, especially this Franc cannon, you have to hide it carefully for me, this is a treasure. Tonight, each soldier involved in this matter will be rewarded with ten taels of silver, but they must be told to keep their mouths shut. ”

"Yes. The subordinates will do it. Wan always responded.

That night, Huang Ziren transferred a team of men and horses from the inspection department, and twelve horse-drawn carriages covered with black cloth quietly drove into the backyard of the county government. Xu Liang also instructed the housekeeper Tietou to send additional backyard guards, and the sky was already slightly bright.