Chapter Ninety-One: The Minister

At this time, Qian Hongzuo paid a fine for Lian Huilu, and arranged for him to be a scribe to the official who held the pen in front of the palace.

Qian Hongzuo carefully scrutinized Lian Huilu's life experience, and felt that he was not the biological son of the Shaoxing businessman, the outer room raised by this businessman was far away from Shaoxing, and when Lian Huilu was born to the age of three or four, the Shaoxing businessman was fighting for Wu Yueguo as a soldier. It is said that it was the first time they met his father after returning from the expedition, so his father named him "Homecoming". Qian Zuohong speculated that Lian Huilu was a child bought by the outer room to coax the businessman, saying that it was his own flesh and blood. Lian Huilu's appearance is so similar to Xie Xiangcun, it is very likely that Xie Xiangcun has been looking for a long time, but he has not found his younger brother.

In this way, Lian Huilu was blessed by misfortune and was able to enter the officialdom of Wu Yueguo, and two years later, he took up the post of Bingbi in front of the palace.

And his appearance also has extraordinary significance for Qian Hongzuo. The long-lost smile reappeared on Qian Hongzuo's face. He spoiled Lian Hui to the point of being very indulgent. Lian Huilu is not as polite and sensible as Xie Xiangcun, but greedy for fun, although he has few talents, he has a lot of fun. I love to fight crickets, play cards, dice and other games with winning and losing. When Qian Hongzuo was free, he persuaded Qian Hongzuo to play with him in every possible way; When Qian Hongzuo was busy with government affairs, he used the banner of Qian Hongzuo to eat, drink and have fun everywhere, eat the most precious, wear the most peculiar clothes, and drink the most high-end ones, and then asked the royal treasury to pay the bills for him, saying that the money was spent by the saint. The important ministers of the court, someone complained to Qian Hongzuo about the way back, but Qian Hongzuo said: "He is such a villain, let him spend it, how much can he use?" The lonely king is thrifty, that is. ”

But the most criticized thing is not that Lian Hui likes to be poor and extravagant, but often violates the palace prohibition and stays in the palace. His own mansion was small, and he did not want to live in it, and he longed to make it his home. Sometimes he lives in Qian Hongzuo's sleeping palace, sometimes he lives in the imperial garden, and sometimes he simply lives on the dragon boat in the palace, enjoying the night view of the palace along the waterway. He has the waist card of the inner palace given by Qian Hongzuo, and the inner servants and palace maids can only let it go, and even the two concubines of Qian Hongzuo can't do anything about him.

The only time Qian Hongzuo scolded Lian Hui was because he took down the portrait that Zhen Jinshu painted for Xie Xiangcun hanging in Qian Hongzuo's bedroom. put on the portrait of himself dressed in a flamboyant manner, when Lian Guilu complacently pointed to his portrait and wanted to surprise Qian Hongzuo, a slap slapped him in the face without warning, Qian Hongzuo's hideous expression was so frightened that he didn't even dare to ask why Guilu was beaten.

Just a year or two after Lian Hui Lu became the temple before Bingbi, there was a major flood that affected almost all countries, Wu Yue was seriously affected, and many places along the coast had dam failures. Several major mountain ranges in Wuyue, as well as the surrounding high-lying prefectures and counties, have become places for disaster victims to flee.

Qian Hongzuo, as the lord of the country and the generalissimo of the soldiers and horses, personally led the soldiers to repair the embankments in the coastal areas and evacuate the victims by boat. Some important officials of the imperial court were sent to various places to distribute food for disaster relief. The main treasury granary of Wu Yue State was concentrated on Tianmu Mountain, and its reserves were sufficient to survive three disaster years.

Lian Huilu recommended himself to Quzhou for disaster relief, Qian Hongzuo was afraid that he would have an accident, so he originally wanted to take him with him, but Lian Huilu said that he had no merit to the country and was looked down upon by the adults in the court, and wanted to use this disaster relief to make meritorious contributions, so that he could raise his eyebrows in the court in the future. Qian Hongzuo saw that he was quite sincere, so he agreed to return to the road to become the disaster relief supervisor of Quzhou, went to the Tianmu Mountain treasury to receive grain, and took a warship to Quzhou under the protection of soldiers and horses all the way.

Quzhou is surrounded by mountains such as Yaowang Mountain, and most of the people have been evacuated to higher ground, but because they are surrounded by floods, the officials and people are waiting for the imperial court to send people to help them while building dams to resist the floods.

After Lian Huilu led the grain ship to Quzhou, he actually persuaded Huo Chengren, the deputy general who came to Quzhou with him, to sell the grain for disaster relief from the imperial court at a high price, and launched a national disaster. At that time, because of the catastrophe and the lack of news, the officials of Quzhou did not know whether the grain transported by the imperial court was distributed to the victims for free or sold to the victims. In less than a few days, even the return road earned tens of thousands of taels of silver, and in the face of such huge benefits, he and the deputy general Huo Chengren were close to madness.

It was also at this time that Foguang Temple on Yaowang Mountain began to lend grain to the people. Foguang Temple is a temple built on the highest peak of Yaowang Mountain, famous for its abundant precious medicinal materials, mainly dedicated to Medicine Buddha. This temple itself is very wealthy because of the medicinal herb business, plus many donors, and has a lot of food reserves, and because of the high terrain of the location, there is little damage due to disasters, so it has a certain ability to relieve disasters. The abbot of the temple, originally heard that the imperial court was going to provide disaster relief, and did not have the original intention of releasing grain, but even the return road robbery like the high price of grain sales, almost looting the people, under the persuasion of many monks, the abbot decided to lend grain to the people.

There are two kinds of treatment for the people who come to borrow grain, if they are the benefactors of Foguang Temple in the past, they are exempted from paying back the borrowed grain; For people who have never given alms, they should write down their names, hoping to form a Buddha relationship in the future, at least after the disaster, they should go to Foguang Temple to burn pillar incense.

The borrowed grain of Foguang Temple greatly impacted Lian Huilu's financial resources, and under anger and hatred, Lian Huilu decided to take the deputy general Huo Chengren to Yaowang Mountain to arrest the monks of Foguang Temple, accused of stealing the disaster relief food transported by the imperial court. Not only must we arrest all the monks of Foguang Temple, but also get all the food in the temple and sell them together to make a fortune.

Before dawn this day, Lian Huilu and Huo Chengren took many officers and soldiers to climb the mountain, and when the sky was bright, they had already rushed to the gate of Foguang Temple. Foguang Temple is a building built on the top of the mountain, the mountain is steep, there is only one plank road down the mountain, after the plank road down the mountain was blocked by officers and soldiers, the monks did not even want to escape.

The officers and soldiers pushed away the monks guarding the mountain gate and broke directly into the square in front of the medicine hall, and the abbot heard the news and hurried to greet him.

Huo Chengren held his blade and asked the abbot, "Are you the abbot here?" ”

The abbot said: "The poor monk's name is not empty, it is the abbot here." Dare to ask all the adults, the high surname? ”

Huo Chengren said: "This is the pen in front of the palace - Lord Lian, a close confidant of the saint, I am his deputy general surnamed Huo." ”

Bingbi in front of the palace is not a great official, so Huo Chengren said that the saint's cronies are also regarded as official positions.

The abbot said: "The poor monk greets the late arrival, and hopes to forgive his sins." Ladies and gentlemen, please go into the living room at the back and have a cup of tea. ”

Lian Huilu glanced at the abbot and said, "This official was ordered to go to Quzhou for disaster relief, how can he have spare time to drink tea?" I have come today to arrest the thief who stole the relief food. A few days ago, the relief grain escorted by this official to Quzhou was stolen by thieves, and someone reported it, so it was hidden in your Foguang Temple! ”

The abbot said: "My lord, I'm afraid it's a misunderstanding, stealing is a great precept for monks, not to mention the food used for disaster relief?" The poor monk vouched for his life, and there was no such thing. ”

Lian Huilu glared and said: "I look at you, don't cry when you don't see the coffin, wait a while we will find the food, and the official still dares to be stubborn when he sees you?" ”