Refugee? How can it be?!

There is also an old version of the national atlas in Xie Mulin's study space, and the map on it is of course of average value to her before she crossed over, but now, it has become an important treasure in her hand. With this atlas, she was able to figure out the topography of the mountains and rivers of any big city and county in the Ming Dynasty without leaving her home.

Looking at the Zhejiang part of this atlas, she clearly knew how far Huguang and southern Zhejiang, which were rumored to have great disasters and displaced people, were still far from Jiaxing. Even if there were a large number of displaced people in the disaster area who went north, it would not be possible to reach them in just a few days, let alone not alarm other large states and counties along the way, and suddenly appeared on the waterway between Jiaxing and Nanjing.

It is not a vast and sparsely populated remote area, but the most prosperous and wealthy area in the south of the Yangtze River, how many big cities and towns and villages along the road, how many official garrisons, is everyone blind? !

Xie Mulin repeatedly asked the middle-aged manservant who had just returned from Pingwang Town: "Are you sure that the rumors say so?" Is it really a homeless? ”

The middle-aged manservant hesitated a little: "The rumors are so, but whether it is true or not, no one knows." It is said that the robbers were dressed in shabby clothes and seemed to have suffered a lot. ”

Xie Mulin asked, "Do you think that the clothes they are wearing look like they have suffered a lot, or do they look like they have suffered a lot?" "There's a big difference between the two.

However, the middle-aged manservant couldn't say clearly: "The little one hasn't seen those people either, but I just heard about them in the teahouse in Pingwang Town." The man had a friend who was working as a boatman on a grain ship that had been robbed at the time, and he almost lost his life. It's just that the grain ship was carrying official rations, and the errand was smashed, and half of the people on the ship were killed by the robbers, and they died in vain, and the remaining half escaped with their lives, but they also lost their errands. The boatman had no choice but to go to Pingwang Town to seek refuge with a friend, and then borrowed money to see a doctor treat his injuries. His friends complained for him, and complained a lot in the teahouse, and many details were clear, but what he didn't mention, others couldn't know. Moreover, some of what he said was true, some of it was exaggerated, and some of it was difficult to discern the small ones. ”

Xie Mulin understood his difficulty, and he didn't ask any more questions, but he still felt a little incredible: "If you are really a homeless person and want to rob the grain ship of the official's family, you can't go to the prosperous area between Jiaxing and the capital to commit a crime, right?" Even if he grabbed the food, would he still be able to transport it back to his hometown? ”

The middle-aged manservant thought about it, and also felt that something was wrong: "Or ...... The little one went back to Pingwang Town and inquired more clearly? It's just a matter of spending some money, and I'm going to ask the boatman who escaped. ”

Xie Mulin nodded, and said to the Lu Yao family on the side: "Go back, you give him ten taels of silver, use it first, it's not enough." ”

Ma Lu Yao's family responded, and paused again: "Second girl, if it is really the homeless people who robbed the official food, is the place where the accident happened too close to us?" ”

Xie Mulin was reminded by her, and hurriedly asked the middle-aged manservant: "Where was the grain ship hijacked?" ”

The middle-aged manservant replied: "It's in the Hongmiao area, not far from Jiaxing." ”

Xie Mulin didn't check the map, and he didn't know where this was for a while, but Ma Lu Yao's family gasped first: "That was just out of Jiaxing and was robbed?" That outcast's guts are too big, right?! The local officers and soldiers in Jiaxing didn't notice it? ”

The middle-aged manservant smiled bitterly: "There are also many people in Pingwang Town who are talking about this matter, but the leader of the local Qianhu Office and the military attache in charge of the Qianhu Office in Pingwang Town are brothers-in-law, and for this matter, they also sent people to the town to arrest a few people who said bad things about his brother-in-law, and the merchants and people in the town are very dissatisfied and have a lot of discussions." Helplessly, no one dares to do anything except say a few words of gossip in private. ”

"Could it be ......" Ma Lu Yaojia gave the other party a look. The other party returned a vague look again: "Isn't it still him?" ”

"Who the hell is it?" Xie Mulin was confused, "You all know who is the head of the Thousand Households in Pingwang Town?" Does it have anything to do with our family? When we passed by there before, we didn't see any movement. ”

Ma Lu Yaojia replied with a wry smile: "The second girl probably didn't think about it for a while, I only said one sentence, and you will understand." That Lord Qianhu is actually the nephew of Mrs. Chengenhou's mother's family, so he is so young that he is in this position, or in a rich and peaceful place like Pingwang Town. ”

Xie Mulin suddenly realized: "It turned out to be from his family!" ”

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The middle-aged manservant sighed: "Not only that, but he is also a general in Hangzhou, and he is really his top boss." With his Lao Tzu protecting him in Hangzhou, and the support of the Chengenhou Mansion in Beijing, who dares to care about him? But this person is a gentleman, he just likes to eat, drink and have fun, and in the thousands of households in Pingwang Town, he is a master who doesn't care about things, and he has hundreds of households under his hands to cook all affairs. But this person acts in a bit of a measured manner, never provokes those big merchants, big caravans, and will not scrape the merchants in the south of the Yangtze River, usually from the merchants in Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangzhou, or the Northwest and other places, and will not cause death, as long as the money is just, the food is not too ugly. Therefore, the merchants in the town will put up with him a little, just want to take money to eliminate the disaster, and dare not alarm the backers behind him. It's really a big fuss, and it won't be him who suffers. ”

Ma Luyao's family said to Xie Mulin: "In the past, when Mrs. Cao's was still there, she also told her master that he would hand over the business in Hangzhou to her companions, saying that they were shrewd and capable, and they could borrow the power of their in-laws in Hangzhou, which was better than our own hard work." The old man didn't listen, and still let his own shopkeepers govern. Mrs. Cao didn't say anything, but her subordinates were not convinced, and wanted to go to Hangzhou and ask the people from the Hangzhou general's family to make trouble for our Xie family's business, but they were blocked back by the housekeeper over there. Our Xie family respects the General's Mansion in Hangzhou every year, and the rules are full of rules, if the Hangzhou General's Mansion breaks the rules first, who will believe him in the future? The Cao family's companion rooms are to cut off other people's financial routes, and there is no compensation, only a few subordinates touch their mouths, and they want people to cut their meat, so that people don't make stupid mistakes! ”

It's not so much that the people in the General's Mansion in Hangzhou refuse to be stupid, but it is better to say that the in-laws of the Chengenhou Mansion are not very fond of Pingnanbo's sister, who has always been at odds with the Chengenhou Mansion. If that was the in-laws of Pingnanbo's Mansion, the Xie family would be really dangerous.

The Hangzhou general seems to be a reasonable and well-behaved person.

However, this reasonable Hangzhou general seems to have been unlucky this time because of the robbership of official food. I don't know why the news spread so quickly, the officials of Hangzhou and Jiaxing have not yet found out the true identity of the robbers and the whereabouts of the official grain, and the rumors about the homeless people robbing the grain have spread in the Suzhou-Hangzhou Hujia area. Immediately afterwards, within two days, a holy decree was passed down in the capital, and the general of Hangzhou was dismissed from his post and escorted to Beijing for trial, and the military affairs of Hangzhou were temporarily handed over to an unknown general to act as an agent.

It is said that the general's wife is Lin Zhaoyi's cousin.