After speaking, He Angelica regretted her words again, she shouldn't have spoken to him in such a familiar tone, she should have "not known" him at all, so she hurriedly changed her words: "You are, that General Chang, right?" The little woman saw the salute, I don't know how the general came to my house, or at this untimely hour, now, not even the fifth watch. ”

At this time, how can there be a normal person haunting other houses, he is not very familiar with Meng Xuan, and he stands in the courtyard of Meng Xuan's concubine for Mao to watch the stars. Or is he, like that Guan Mo, a well-dressed beast and flower thief who is serious on the surface, but is actually obscene and shameless? Looking at the majestic man with an uncertain expression and restrained eyes, she took two steps back vigilantly, and retreated back to the threshold before asking, "What does the general have to do?" Please talk to the steward of the outer court, I, I'm afraid to see the living. ”

Chang Nuo knew that she had misunderstood, so he also took two steps back and explained calmly: "I also just arrived here, just stand and leave, if there are bad intentions, I won't stand downstairs, and I won't let you find out my whereabouts." ”

He Angelica thought it was reasonable, and once in the bitter bamboo forest of Luofu, he hijacked her to go to the cave, and he hugged the past, but only hugged the "two ends" and did not touch the "middle section", the so-called gentleman is cautious, he is not good when he carries people on his back, not to mention that now she is a wife. She frowned and asked, "Is the general lost?" Is that a good place to stand? ”

Chang Nuo paused before saying, "Actually, I still have something to come to you, but day and night, it was not dawn when I arrived here, so I waited for you to wake up." ”

"The general is looking for me?" She made a puzzled expression, "I don't know what to say." A hundred thoughts turned in his mind for a moment, and his subordinates also lightly pressed the dagger engraved with two small portraits that he had collected closely.

Chang Nuo said in a deep voice: "The girl may also know that Yangzhou has been shaking again a few days ago, and the amplitude is much larger than the previous earthquake. After the earthquake, all industries in the city were depressed, and they were more dilapidated than during the war, and the rice merchants took the opportunity to raise the market price. ”

This is very unfortunate, and she has heard about it intermittently, but what can she say about these people's livelihood and suffering. After thinking about it, she asked tentatively: "Could it be that general, are you here to mobilize for disaster relief?" ”

Chang Nuo nodded and said: "It's better to be famous than to meet, the girl is really clear, I heard that the warehouse in Qingyuan is full, and there are 20,000 stones of newly planted rice in this autumn." ”

He Angelica secretly sighed in his heart, what is famous is better than meeting, he is very good at pretending.

In recent days, a radius of several hundred miles in Yangzhou has been harmed by ground movement, and the withering situation of the people's livelihood can be imagined. I heard that a large number of refugees displaced by the ground movement have emerged in the cities and towns around the city, and the number of refugees is doubling every day.

Some of them are just living a good life, belonging to the Zhongping family who can still fill their stomachs, but after a wave of hungry and fierce refugees passed, the poor robbed the poor, the evil bullied the good, some of the refugees who did not care about it robbed the food of ordinary people, those families were gone, and they could not wait for death at home, so they joined the army of refugees, and followed the example of others, even begging and robbing slowly towards Yangzhou, the rumored rich land, hoping that the government could solve their problems.

Dozens of rich people's courtyards near Qingyuan are naturally not worried about food, although ten rooms and nine are empty, but unlike the situation of refugee residences, they have too many houses, and there are only a few nobles, so they are vacant. In addition, each annex has at least 1,000 koku or more in stock, but it is relatively rare to have 20,000 koku of Shinya like Seien.

After He Angelica took over the accounts of Qingyuan, she was also taken aback when she saw that there was so much grain in stock, and when she was moved, she thought that the grain was Meng Xuan in the past, who followed the experience of her previous life and hoarded 20,000 stone of grain in advance in case of emergency. She herself also has a little impression that in the middle of March of the 31st year of Hongwu in her previous life, Yangzhou had a great earthquake, and she was carried away by the palace sedan chair in early March, and the news at that time was also blocked, so she didn't know this section.

Looking at Chang Nuo's stern face, she straightened her collar and said with a smile: "If it is for this matter, then it really can't be pushed to the steward of the outer courtyard to deal with, just because before my husband left, he handed over the most important keys in the garden to me, although I don't understand these mundane affairs, I don't dare to live up to his trust." ”

"What do you think? Can I open a position for disaster relief? Chang Nuo's eyes locked on her.

She said with a smile: "20,000 stone of grain is a small amount, compared with the millions of stone polished rice and white noodles in Yangzhou City today, it is indeed not enough, but standing in the courtyard dry at this time is a bit too child's play." Why don't you go into the hall and use some clear tea, and wait for me to take care of my makeup and then talk about it in detail. ”

Chang Nuo nodded and said, "That's very good." ”

He Angelica invited him into the house to sit, tea and snacks and a small stove of clay were ready-made, and he ate it when it was hot. She went upstairs by herself, and the moment she turned around, she pondered, Chang Nuo probably didn't come to ask for food for the victims in the Lianghuai area, one is that he is not in his position and does not seek his own government, a general, no matter how many soldiers he manages, he will never be able to manage the people's livelihood, even if the Yangzhou government really has the virtue of ordering the rich families in the city to provide food for disaster relief, it should be the government officials to negotiate door-to-door.

Second, if Chang Nuo has a benevolent heart, and after seeing the suffering of the people, he is moved by compassion, with his financial status, and the money and grain of the boats, horses, and grains in Fengyang's hands, which are more than ten times the inventory of Qingyuan, why should he take the liberty of coming to Qingyuan to look for food?

Puzzled like this, she went upstairs and woke up Qing'er first, and whispered to Qing'er about Chang Nuo's visit and her considerations. After listening to it in a daze, Qing'er said in surprise: "It's a liar, I didn't expect such an insidious thing, wait for me to send him away." ”

He Angelica stopped and whispered: "I have the heart of disaster relief, and it is estimated that Meng Xuan will not object, but there has been no good channel for distributing money and food, and since this Chang Nuo is here, I will listen to what he has to say first, if there is any flaw, let's take care of it." There is another strange thing, that is, these days there is a lot of chaos outside, but our area is very quiet and peaceful, I feel a little uneasy in my heart, and I can't say why. ”

Qing'er said haha: "Let's go, get dressed and meet guests, and see what kind of handsome guy this Chang Nuo is." ”

He Angelica knocked on her head and said, "The people downstairs can hear it, sister, don't be ashamed this time." "Actually, Qing'er is not the first time to see Chang Nuo, one night in Taoyao Courtyard, Chang Nuo came to bring a news, but at that time he was pretending to be Fengyang, and he was scolded by Qing'er.

After a while, the two of them were dressed neatly, washed and put on makeup, and went downstairs, and saluted Chang Nuo with a brush, He Angelica smiled: "The general has been waiting for a long time, it is our negligence, please forgive me." I don't know if bad tea can still be eaten? ”

Chang Nuo's expression was not as serious as when he first met, and he smiled back: "The time I came and the way I appeared were inappropriate, and the girl didn't shout 'catch the thief', so I should have thought of you." "As for tea, her tea is just like her people, and when a hundred people see and taste it, ninety-five of them will praise it. It's only been two months since we met, she seems to be tall and slender again, her appearance is still second, there are so many beauties in the world, only her temperament has been out of the way like a rain flower stone after repeated rain washing, moist and unassuming, so that people can't find a flaw.

He Angelica took Qing'er into the seat and introduced: "This is Liaomen's daughter Qing'er, my friend and my deputy. Although General Fangcai's intention was explained, there were some ambiguities in his words, and I asked her to help with the details. ”

"Oh?" Chang Nuo asked with a smile, "What do you think I said is not clear enough?" ”

He Danggui added a second bubble of water to the teapot, and said without hesitation: "I don't know much about the affairs of the DPRK and China, but when I was a child, I listened to the opera, saying that the civil officials are in charge of the people, the military attaches are in charge of the army, the civil officials are in charge of the seal, and the military attachés are in charge of the tiger talisman, and the only one who can go on the horse to manage the army and get off the horse to manage the people is the highest administrator of each place, such as the prefect of Yangzhou, Lord Han, the Jingzhao Mansion, and so on. And the general, you stood up for the people and called for running, which made the little girl admire, but also some confusion, and wanted to take the liberty of asking, you came to requisition my family's food for disaster relief, do you have the kind of document with a red stamp from the government? ”

"I came in a hurry, I forgot to take it." Chang Nuo was silent for a moment, and he could only perfunctory her like this. Xiao Nizi knows a lot, and she is suspicious of him, which is not very good.

He Angelica used a pointed fork to pluck the tea powder on the edge of the teapot and asked, "Dare to ask where are you from?" Which yamen assigned me to collect the grain, or to collect the grain from all the rich families in the area? ”

Although Chang Nuo drank several cups of tea, his mouth was still a little dry at this time, and he felt that this girl was really difficult to deal with, so he had to reply while thinking: "I came from the north, and I was appointed by the yamen of the Yangzhou prefect. I have seen many rich families who are not benevolent to the rich, and they did not do rice and grain business, but this time they saw a business opportunity and coveted this huge profit, and a bucket of rice was originally the purchase price of 18 Wen, but they dared to sell it at the sky-high price of 180 Wen. ”

Qing'er gritted her teeth and said: "I am most annoyed by the kind of businessman who makes such black-hearted money, at this time, I am sorry for the party if I don't reduce the price...... The emperor and the people. ”

Chang Nuo continued to talk eloquently: "If it goes on like this, the imperial court will have mountains of gold and silver, and it will not be enough to use them for disaster relief, not to mention the situation of the treasury, just look at the tax policy in the past two years. Miss He and Miss Liao may not know that not only did a food shortage break out in the north of the capital, but those victims also brought the epidemic in the northern region. Now that Cheng is an eventful autumn, even the emperor and the harem lady in the imperial city have cut back on food and clothing, and bought rice for disaster relief with the silver money they saved, not to mention you and me? ”

Qing'er was excited, and said impassionedly: "I'm not stingy, and the disaster relief is also my share, and I will pay 1,500 taels!" ”

He Angelica felt that there was something wrong with Chang Nuo's rhetoric, and before he could point it out one by one, he called Qing'er, a stunned young man, to rush away. She was just about to stop it, and explained to Qing'er that she had to find out the basic knowledge of the channel for donations, but Chang Nuo himself said: "Silver is not the most scarce, Yangzhou has always been rich, and the treasury and government silver are enough for the time being, but there is a shortage of food." In order to raise the grain of the major merchants in the city, the prefect was really angry, and even had the heart to kill. Miss Liao, I heard that you are a relative of Yangzhou Guanfu, if you can persuade your uncle to give out tens of thousands of stone grain, or go back to Mocha Villa to transfer some, it will really help me a lot, and I am more grateful than the silver. ”

Looking at Qing'er who patted her chest and packed the ticket, He Angelica's two eyelids jumped together, and felt that this thing was too unusual, Chang Nuo's news was really well-informed, and even Qing'er's network resources were clear. He didn't even think that today was the first time he met Qing'er, and he even opened his mouth to say that he knew that Qing'er had lived in the Guan Mansion and had been appreciated by Master Guan, and now he lived in Mocha Villa, and mixed with the advantages and disadvantages of the financial manager and the back kitchen. These are Qing'er's privacy, is he not afraid that others will be jealous of him when he says this? Or did he really have something so urgent that the dog jumped off the wall in a hurry?

Thinking of this, He Angelica asked Qing'er to go upstairs to help water her white jasmine, and said with a smile to Chang Nuo: "Qing'er's meaning is what I mean, making money in the year when the wind and rain are good, and scattering money in times of natural and man-made disasters has always been the wish of both of us." I myself have a dowry of several thousand taels, and I am willing to hand it over to the treasury to help the disaster victims, which should be shared, but the stock of grain in the Qingyuan cannot be taken away by the general for the time being. ”

"Why?" Chang Nuo asked tightly, with an anxious look on his face.

He Angelica poured a cup of fragrant tea with wolfberries, pushed it in front of him, and explained earnestly: "I am a housekeeper for others, and the greatest authority in my hand is to scatter dozens of hundreds of buckets of rice, copper coins, and cotton clothes to the victims in the past - in fact, since the day and the earth have moved in the afternoon, a porridge shed has been set up at the door of my home, but not half of the victims have passed here." I can freely dispose of the thousands of silver in my name, but I dare not solve the 20,000 stone grain rice without asking my husband himself. ”

"But the imperial court levied grain, and you dare to resist and disobey the order?" Chang Nuo was so anxious that he first came up with such a sentence, but Xu felt that it was too serious, and said in a slow tone, "What kind of person the seventh prince is, I know it deeply, if you hand over the 20,000 stone of grain today, I guarantee that he will not blame you in the future." When he returns, I'll help you talk about it, and I'll keep you safe. ”

He Angelica spread out a thin white jade hand, and asked softly: "The Yangzhou Mansion is only half a day's journey from here, and a capable person like Gongzi you can't use half a pillar of incense back and forth, since you are ordered by the prefect's yamen, why don't you take a look at the disaster relief documents." One can make the little woman doubt and open her eyes, and the other is to let the garden steward also make a witness together, and the work is more sloppy. ”

"I'm sorry, I have a leg injury, it's inconvenient to travel, and I'm afraid you won't be able to read the paperwork." Chang Nuo said stiffly and solemnly, "There are a large number of disaster victims more than ten miles away, every time you and I say a word, two or three people will starve to death on their side, girl, do you really bear to withhold the food idle in your hands and watch them starve to death for a rigid clerical matter?" My identity is from Wupin Xinwu General, the first word is a 'letter', the door is the capital Changfu, and there is Miss Liao to testify, are you still afraid that I am a liar, and I can't run away if I cheat the grain? ”