"Envoy, things aren't as bad as you think."

Mr. Liu said he looked at his boss with a slightly sympathetic look, and the new boss did not yet understand the real situation.

"If the matter was very serious, Wu Taishou would have come to you a long time ago, in fact, Caogong's movements have always been under his control, and he couldn't grasp it only at the moment when he almost made trouble in the morning, but now ....., Jun, do you understand what I mean?"

Li Qing'an sat down slowly, he pondered Judge Liu's words carefully, and gradually, he realized a little taste.

"Are you saying that he arranged the gathering of the workers?"

"I didn't say that, in fact, the families of the cao workers are almost out of the pot, they have no money to buy rice, and they also want to come and make trouble, but 20,000 people actually came together, it is a bit debatable."

Liu Sisong still said it in a hurry, but Li Qingan already fully understood what he meant, indeed, 20,000 cao workers need people to organize, and organizing cao workers to make trouble, this is a capital crime, ordinary people will not do this, and they don't have such a big ability, organize the cao workers in several states together, he thought about it, so he no longer mentioned Wu Qing, but changed the question.

"Tell me, how do these workers usually work?"

Li Qing'an handled the salt case in Yangzhou, and at that time, the Du Bosheng family controlled thousands of salt workers in the Jianghuai area in the form of a salt gang, and Bianzhou should be similar.

Not to mention the magistrate, Liu Sisong's words immediately became a lot smoother, and he smiled: "You may not know that this Cao Yun and commerce also have lines, there are lines, Bian, Song, Bo, Xu, along the Cao River, there are hundreds of large and small ships carrying goods, these ships have fleets, there are boatmen who drive ships, and there are workers who carry goods, each ship has dozens of workers to hundreds of people, and there are three of these hundreds of ship lines, the scale is particularly large, and the government is close, and they all have their own backgrounds. All the shipping companies are under the command of the three of them, one is the Xu family in Kaifeng, the other is the Chen Liutao family, both of which are Bianzhou shipping companies, and the other is in Songzhou, the Zhao family of Songcheng County, these three shipping companies basically monopolize more than fifty percent of the cargo transportation, and the 20,000 workers along the Bianhe River are under the control of the three of them. ”

Only then did Li Qingan understand that Wu Qing was able to mobilize more than 20,000 workers to attack him by controlling these three big ship companies, but why did he do this? Is there something unsightly about him?

Thinking of this, he smiled at Liu Sisong and said, "That's it! When I first came to Chadao, you worked hard, first booked a few tables of banquets for me in the best restaurant in Bianzhou City, and then invited the big proprietors of Kaifeng Xuzhou and Chen Liutao's family, and said that I would invite them to drink. ”

"Then Wu Taishou...."

"Wu Taishou will invite me, you can open a list for me."

．．．．．．．．． Because it takes half a day to rush from Chen Liu to Kaifeng, so the banquet is booked in the next day, Li Qingan wrote dozens of invitations, taught Liu Sisong to arrange someone to send them, he himself left the yamen, under the leadership of a servant, came to the largest Hu jewelry shop in Bianzhou City, He Hunting Xing, the most profitable business in the Tang Dynasty has four kinds, cabinet shop, salt shop, tea shop and Hu jewelry shop, in Bianzhou City is no exception, He Hunting Line has more than 30 people and craftsmen, almost monopolizing the jewelry business in Bian, Song, Xu and other nearby states and counties.

He Liexing is located in the middle of Baishui Street, the store occupies a huge area, it is a huge building of narrow type, the front shop and the back shop, Li Qingan walked up the steps, and immediately greeted a warm guy.

"What jewelry customers want to buy, the small shop has everything, good quality and low price, and customers are satisfied."

"I'll talk to your shopkeeper about a big deal, is he there?"

The guy was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly said, "Here!" Guests, please come with me. ”

Li Qing'an and several guards walked into the store, which was very spacious, with dozens of couches with low small tables on the couches, two people sitting, and a middle-aged man telling customers about Kangguo's gems.

"Shopkeeper!" The guy yelled twice at the middle-aged man, "There's something going on here." ”

"I'm out of company!" The middle-aged man said apologetically to the guests, and then walked over quickly, "What's the matter?" ”

"This guest came to you and said there was a big deal." The guy pointed at Li Qing'an.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" The shopkeeper smiled, his eyes a little strange.

Li Qingan took out a golden gold medal from his waist and shook it in front of him, and the shopkeeper's face immediately became extremely serious.

"Please come with me!"

He hurried to the backyard with Li Qing'an, and came to a windowless hut, where he opened two large iron locks and squeaked open the heavy iron door.

"Please come in!"

Inside was a swarthy patch, bottomless, and several pro-soldiers were just about to rush in, but Li Qingan stopped them with a wave of his hand, "You guys are waiting at the door!" ”

He walked into the hut, and when he entered, he found that it was the entrance to a passageway, and there was an iron door more than twenty paces ahead.

"This is our warehouse for precious jewelry, please come with me!"

The shopkeeper took Li Qing'an all the way to the end, opened the door again, and suddenly there was a round room in the Arabic style, surrounded by large bluestone, lit a few lamps, with cleverly designed vents, and no sense of lack of oxygen.

With a bang, the shopkeeper closed the door, Li Qingan looked around with his hands behind his back, and a circle of wooden lattices was placed around the room, and in each lattice was placed a dazzling jewel, which looked very valuable.

"Envoy, let me introduce you first, my name is Yang Tang, and he is the general leader of the Han Tang Association in Henan Province."

"You know me?" Li Qingan squinted his eyes at the shopkeeper.

Shopkeeper Yang smiled bitterly and said, "Last year, I have been in the shop in Beiting, I have seen Li Yuanjun, and I have also stayed in Li Yuanjun's military camp for a few days. ”

"Huh! It turned out to be an old friend. ”

Li Qing'an smiled and took out the gold medal just now, which was the gold medal given to him by Li Huichun, there are only three in total, and with this gold medal, all the forces of the Tang Han and Tang Associations can be mobilized.

Of course, there are not many people who can recognize this gold medal, and Shopkeeper Yang is one of them, he picked up the gold medal and looked at it carefully, confirmed that it was correct, and then bowed down and said: "Please Li Yuanjun command!" ”

"Come on! Sit down first, I want to ask you a few things. ”

The two sat down, Li Qingan thought about it, and said with a smile: "I came to Henan Province to inspect this time, and I feel that the officials here are wary of me everywhere, I want to know, what interesting things happened to them before I came?" ”

"Interesting? Envoy, you are really joking, these officials only have unsightly things, how can there be interesting things? ”

"I'm talking about unsightly things."

Shopkeeper Yang was stunned for a while, and after a while, he sighed and said, "If I say that many officials are overjoyed by the arrival of this drought, do you believe it?" ”

"Why?" Li Qingan didn't quite understand.

"Because the arrival of the drought can erase all their evil deeds, such as embezzling official food, it can be said that the disaster relief used up the grain, or the hungry people robbed the official warehouse, I heard that there are hungry people in Songzhou who robbed the official warehouse, but it is empty, there is no food at all, so that the court has no way to investigate, and for example, those who falsely report the promotion of the people, as soon as the drought comes, they can say that the people have fled, or starved to death, so that they can round a lie, in short, the arrival of the king may infringe on their interests, For example, there was a rebellion of hungry people in Songzhou, so as long as you investigate the reason for the rebellion of the hungry people, it is estimated that someone will lose their official hats. ”

"Do you know what the reason is?"

Shopkeeper Yang shook his head, "I don't know, but I heard that it has something to do with land." ”

Li Qingan nodded, and said, "I will investigate the problem in Songcheng County, but I came to you today to ask for your help with two things." ”

Shopkeeper Yang hurriedly stood up, bowed down and said: "The affairs of the Han and Tang Dynasties are no matter how big or small, and we will obey the orders of the envoy." ”

"Good!" Li Qing'an approved, and said: "That's the case, there are 20,000 workers on the wharf outside the city, and I want to hire 2,000 people from among them to form a militia group to serve me, but I don't have so much money and food, so you will pay for me." ”

Although Li Qing'an is not a member of the Han and Tang Society, he has the gold medal of the highest power of the Han and Tang Society, and the shopkeeper Yang immediately bowed down and said: "We obey the order, if the money here is not enough, we will transfer from Jianghuai." ”

He hesitated for a moment, and then said: "But the envoy, we have more than 500 people in the Han and Tang Societies in Henan Province, and we can serve the envoy." ”

"I know!" Li Qingan waved his hand and said with a smile: "The Han and Tang Societies can only support secretly, not in public, I need a brave team in my hands, and the workers gather to give me a chance." ”

Speaking of this, Li Qingan said again: "I also need a convoy to transport grain, and I also need a sum of money to go to Jianghuai to buy grain, all of which will be raised by the Han and Tang Dynasties for me." ”

He took out a piece of paper and said to the shopkeeper Yang: "Just do what I said above, early tomorrow morning, I will start recruiting the militia." ”

．．．．．．．．．． The gathering of more than 20,000 cao workers was obviously to put pressure on Li Qing'an, perhaps to distract him from his energy and not have time to intervene in the affairs of officialdom.

But Li Qing'an found another business opportunity from it, that is, 20,000 workers can solve the problem of lack of manpower, Henan Province also has a garrison, but the mobilization of more than ten troops must be ordered by the Ministry of War, and the secretary of the Ministry of War is Yang Guozhong, it is conceivable that he can not mobilize a soldier, plus the Han and Tang Dynasties will have strong financial and material resources, the problem of lack of manpower will be solved.

Early the next morning, the observation envoy yamen set up a recruitment platform on the Bianzhou wharf, a big red flag was erected high, and the big flag was written with the word "recruitment" written on it, and more than a dozen officials and 100 guards were busy before and after, maintaining order, Li Qingan personally sat as the recruiting officer, and behind him stood 20 guards with big shoulders and round waists, watching the surrounding situation vigilantly.

Some people have already gone to the wharf to hype, three liters of rice a day, two hundred yuan, wearing waist knives, wearing soap robes, these generous conditions make the workers red-eyed, three liters of rice a day can feed the whole family, two hundred dollars more than they do the tired work when they work, some people are still hesitating, but when these hesitant people figure it out, there is no chance, 20,000 workers lined up into a dozen long lines, and they can't see the end at a glance.

Among the 20,000 people, 2,000 people, and all of them are muscular, hard-working workers, these 2,000 people were selected very smoothly, no more than 30 years old, about 7 feet tall, can lift a 100-pound stone lock, and finally this standard had to be adjusted to 130 catties, at noon, 2,000 people were recruited.

Li Qing'an divided the 2,000 men into four battalions and sent 200 of his own guards to command them, and Li Qing'an gave them a nice name: Disaster Relief Volunteer Battalion.

The first task that the 2,000 volunteers accepted was to take care of the remaining nearly 20,000 unsuccessful workers and prevent them from causing trouble.

．．．．．．． Yisonglou at the gate of Chengnan City of Bianzhou is the largest and highest-grade liquor shop in the city, and the serious drought has also affected the business of this restaurant, and the business is usually deserted, but tonight Yisonglou is particularly lively, and Li Qing'an, who has just arrived in Bianzhou, has just arrived in Bianzhou, and Li Qing'an, who has just arrived in Bianzhou, has contracted the entire restaurant, and invited the magistrates of Bianzhou and some local celebrities to discuss the plan to fight drought.

There are more than 100 people who received the invitation, Taishou, Changshi, Sima, and Cao joined the army, and more than 20 officials at all levels such as county orders, county officials, county lieutenants, and chief bookkeepers, and then there are more than 80 people from big families in Kaifeng County and Chenliu County.

The commander is equivalent to today's 38 red flag bearer, May 1st model worker and the like, there are also ranks, such as the second grade of the Shangzhu country, from the second grade of the pillar country, etc., mainly to commend the contributions made by ordinary people to the country, such as paying more food, running schools, fighting for the country, etc., this is an honor, but after the Tang Dynasty, the honors began to flood, after the Anshi Rebellion, the imperial court recruited a large number of people, and there was no money to reward, so they used the honors to make up the number, someone donated money to get a positive four products on the light car captain, happy to dance, he is also a fourth grade official, Unexpectedly, the coachman who drove him smiled bitterly and said: "This lord, I am still a Shangzhu country!" ”

The words are far away, come back first, these famous and virtuous people heard that the observer invited them to dinner, one by one paid special attention to it, and began to prepare it at noon, and the best satin robes were changed one after another, freshened cleanly, put on a gauze hat, pedal soft-soled black boots, and tied a leather belt around the waist, but some people faintly felt that it was not good, and discussed the drought fight, it would not be for them to pay!

There was still an hour before the banquet time, and a person surnamed Anxious came in a carriage, and the banquet was set on the second floor, and the host could not go up for the time being before the host, so everyone drank tea and chatted in the hall on the first floor.

"Who is this Li Yuanjun? What is the background? A big businessman who doesn't care much about current affairs asked.

His ignorance immediately drew a look of disdain.

"Brother Ji, you may not be too ignorant! Don't Li Qingan know? The North Courtyard Festival made the first person to clean the tide file this time. ”

"Oh! Could it be that Anthy Lee, who played excellent polo? ”

"That's him! was originally relegated to Liuzhou, and then he became an observer of Henan Province. ”

...... "Hey! Feed! There are rumors that the concubine has fallen in love with this Li Qing'an, is it true? ”

"Shhhh Be quiet, you can't talk nonsense. ”

......., "Brother Zhao, do you think Li Qingan will let us pay the money tonight?" ”

"Who knows? I guess I got some blood. ”

．．．．．．． Everyone talked about it, and in a private room on the first floor, Taishou Wu Qing was discussing the matter of Cao Gong with Xu Minzhi, the great proprietor of the Biansong Boat Company, and Tao Gui, the great proprietor of the Chen Liusi Sea Boat Company.

Xu Minzhi is about sixty years old, is a thin little old man, he is a Caoyun family, the family is huge, although he looks dry and shriveled, but married eighteen concubines, in his mansion covering an area of 100 acres to build eighteen flower pavilions, each hall lives a concubine, is a famous affair in Bianzhou.

At this moment, he said worriedly: "Wu Taishou, I'm afraid things are not good, then Li Qingan recruited 2,000 people in Caogong today, saying that it is a disaster relief group, I am very worried that Caogong will not be able to exert pressure, but will be controlled by him." ”

Wu Qing's face was very gloomy, and he snorted: "You are really useless, can't you even control your own hired workers?" ”

Tao Gui, who had a fat head and big ears next to him, smiled bitterly and said: "How to control it now, the water level is so low, there is no way to sail at all, there is no work to do, but every family has to eat, and it is impossible for us to raise idlers, this Li Qingan gave money and food, and Cao Gong naturally followed him, there is no way!" ”

"Strange, where did he get so much money?"

Wu Qing was muttering to himself, and at this moment, a shout came from outside: "Henan Provincial Observation Envoy Li Zhijun has arrived!" ”

Li Qing'an came, and Wu Qing immediately said to the two: "I don't care what method you use, the Caogong gathering must hold on for another five days, do you remember?" ”

The two were helpless, so they had to nod and say, "We remember." ”

Wu Qing got up and walked out, at this time Li Qing'an had already come in surrounded by dozens of guards, he arched his hand and smiled at everyone: "Thank you for enjoying the light tonight, I hope you eat and drink well!" ”

"Where! Li Yuanjun set up a banquet, and we were fortunate in three lives. ”

Wu Qing stepped forward to give a salute and said with a smile: "Li Yuanjun is very busy today!" ”

Li Qingan smiled slightly: "No way, since the Holy Lord asked me to be responsible for coordinating the drought control of Henan Province, I have to do my best." ”

He said to the crowd again: "The hour is not early, everyone go upstairs!" Let's start the banquet early. ”

Everyone stood up one after another, walked up to the second floor, and set up a total of ten tables of wine banquets, each seat with the names of the guests, everyone sat down separately, and they were in chaos for a while before they gradually quieted down.

"Everyone, be quiet!"

Li Qing'an raised a wine glass and said loudly: "Today, I invite all the magistrates and local elites to come here for a banquet to discuss drought control matters, I am the Henan Provincial Observer appointed by the Holy Lord, and I am responsible for fighting drought, I have promised the Holy Lord that no one will starve to death, and there will be no starving people making trouble, but as soon as I come to Bianzhou, there will be 20,000 Cao Gong to make trouble, give me a blow to the head." ”

Speaking of this, Li Qing'an's gaze became cold, and he glanced at Xu and Tao, the two great proprietors of the ship, and both of them lowered their heads weakly.

Li Qingan snorted heavily and continued: "Since I come to Henan Province, I have to do things in my way, and in the future, the officials of Henan Province will have to adapt to my style, not me to adapt to you." ”

His voice was very stern, the hall on the second floor was silent, and everyone showed fear on their faces, Wu Qing slowly tasted a little taste, I am afraid that today's banquet is a Hongmen banquet.

At this time, Li Qingan clapped his hands, and his fifty guards each came up with a large plate, and the plate was covered with a large round lid, and he didn't know what was there.

Fifty guards put the plates on the table like flowing water, five plates per table, only to hear Li Qingan say coldly: "This is the first dish I prepared for you, called 'Warning first!'" ’。 ”

As soon as his voice fell, fifty guards lifted the lid at the same time, and the hall suddenly burst into exclamations, and almost all of them covered their mouths and looked at the plates in horror.

I saw forty-eight bloody human heads on the plate, with hideous faces, and two plates were empty, Li Qingan pointed to the empty plates and said to Xu Minzhi and Tao Gui: "These two empty plates are for the two of you." ”

(To be continued)