A tall girl in a green shirt who didn't look much shorter than Lin Xi held hands with Lin Xi, standing on a hill full of wildflowers, looking at an ordinary town in the distance under the sunset.

There is smoke curling in the town.

The unusually delicate and beautiful tall girl is naturally Gao Yanan, she looked at the faint smoke in the distance, and asked softly with some worry: "Chen Feirong has made it very clear in the letterhead that you can't get in or out, I'm afraid Da Dexiang won't be able to support it by the middle of next month, what do you think?"

Lin Xi was reluctant to let go of Gao Yanan's hand with one hand, but scratched his head casually with the other hand.

After Dongjingling, he rarely had this kind of childish action, but at this moment with Gao Yanan, he was very relaxed, but like a child.

"In fact, whether Da Dexiang can get to this point today, or I have the confidence that Qingluan Academy can survive in Yunqin, it is because I know more about the various wars and various power struggles in my mind than anyone else in this world, and most of my confidence comes from insights beyond this world. After scratching his head, Lin Xi said softly.

Gao Yanan frowned slightly, thinking quietly.

Lin Xi looked at her good-looking side face and explained softly: "Actually, I never thought that I could decide how many silver taels, how much financial resources or an army in this world, whether or not to win, after all, it depends on people's hearts." ”

"Yunqin people are very simple, and this simplicity can even change me... Before Dongjingling, I never thought that I would coexist and die with a city, but when I saw those Yunqin soldiers who were going to die, and those ordinary people who knew that they would die, I also changed my mind. The Yunqin people love this empire, and this love will turn into the most decisive courage, and I believe that when the vast majority of Yunqin people really have to choose, they will make a choice that is true to their hearts. So what I bet on is the simplicity of the Yunqin people, and what I bet on is that Da Dexiang will not fall down after doing this for them desperately. ”

"What if I lose the bet?"

"It's really not good, at most it's a matter of fleeing to a place where the emperor can't find us. Lin Xi looked at the faint cooking smoke in the distant town, smiled proudly, and said, "Even if you lose, at least many people will have a lot of full meals." ”

......

In the Yunqin Empire, there were powerful cultivators, but the vast majority of them were ordinary people like Lin Xi's father.

Zhang Qi is an ordinary person like Lin Xi's father.

He is also a middle-aged man with a slightly chubby body and a little depressed, usually timid and cautious, and he is kind and kind, and runs a north-south dry goods store in Qingguo Town, Nanlin Province.

He also had a well-read wife and a mischievous but intelligent son of twelve or thirteen.

When the war in Nanling Province was unfavorable and some of Damang's troops were invaded and harassed from time to time, he closed his shop with all the people in the town, left his homeland, and fled to the province in the north of Yunqin.

Some of the dry goods left in the shop had nothing to lose, but the people in the town had become extremely poor after an escape, and the business of his shop was naturally extremely bleak and unsustainable.

The most unfortunate thing is that his wife and children are all sick, even if it is just an ordinary cold, but he is hungry every day, and the minor illness does not heal, but gets worse and worse.

All the relatives and friends who can be found have already been searched, but only his cousin's family should still be able to get money and food, but his cousin is usually very snobbish, and some look down on him, and he wants to borrow money and food, and he has to bear how many cold eyes and cold words he has to bear, and whether he can borrow it or not, is still unknown.

Usually, if Zhang Qi was because of his own affairs, no matter how difficult it was, he would definitely not beg this cousin, but for the sake of his wife and children, Zhang Qi had already gritted his teeth and made up his mind, even if he knelt down at the door of his cousin's house and begged, he would lend out life-saving money and food.

Only now, he didn't have to beg this usually snobbish cousin, he had a heavy bag of white rice in his hand...... White rice from Dadexiang.

This bag of white rice was nothing at all in a year when there was no war and the wind and rain were smooth, but now, for an ordinary Yunqin person like Zhang Qi, this is a heavy life-saving thing, but this is his face.

This bag of white rice that Da Dexiang owes him on credit can save him from doing things that he is unwilling to do and make him feel shameless.

For many Yunqin people, face is even more important than life.

So at this moment, this ordinary middle-aged man in Yunqin, this ordinary husband and father, he thought in his heart that if Da Dexiang had a place to help himself in the future, he would even give his life.

"Our store, from now on, rice and noodles can be owed on credit!"

In many towns in Yunqin, such voices are constantly ringing.

Many of the shopkeepers who made such a sound knew very well what such a voice meant to Dadexiang, but they all held their chests up, and like the old shopkeeper, they drank this voice loudly and far away with a slightly trembling, proud and respectful voice.

Many Yunqin people also know what such a voice means to Da Dexiang, so they only owe enough rice noodles for their own family life, and before carrying rice noodles out of Da Dexiang's shop, they all bow deeply to Da Dexiang's employees and shopkeepers.

There are also some Yunqin people who didn't think of what this meant for Da Dexiang, but they also knew that the rice noodles in a shop could not be endless, but there were many people like them in the town, so they only owed enough rice noodles to live in their own homes.

The farmers exchanged their last savings for grain seeds, which were replanted in previously abandoned farmland... Some businessmen who have no business, like some fish farmers and hunters, go to pick wild vegetables, learn to hunt and fish, and some goods that can be exchanged for some money, and sell them at a low price... The days passed like flowing water day by day in the hard support of the Yunqin people.

The Yunqin army of Nanling Province is still recovering pieces of lost territory like a bamboo, and good news keeps coming.

Late autumn passed, and Yun Qin ushered in winter.

......

The old shopkeeper, who had sung loudly in a voice like a singing opera, announced that "the rice and noodles in this store can be owed on credit from now on", and stood at the door of the shop early in the morning, wearing a leather jacket, and all the Dadexiang men in the shop behind him, including the account room and the warehouse, were all gathered behind him as they usually did on the first day of the New Year.

In front of the old shopkeeper, there were also many people standing.

And even on the first day, when it was announced that it was possible to pay on credit, there were not so many people.

So many people didn't come to owe rice and noodles on credit today, but they all knew a certain news more or less, and they rushed to the street outside the shop before the shop opened early this morning.

In the winter morning, it's time to open the shop.

The old shopkeeper in a new leather jacket slowly exhaled a white breath, and then bowed deeply to all the neighbors who gathered in the street in front of him, and slowly apologized: "Yesterday I received the news, the big shopkeeper will not be able to raise money for a while and a half, and he can't send rice noodles over for the time being. I'm sorry. ”

Behind the old shopkeeper, all the employees of Da Dexiang's shop also bowed deeply and apologized.

All the people gathered in the street in front of the shop fell silent, silent.

"Shopkeeper, when are you going to reopen?" Suddenly, a voice rang out.

And then a lot of the same eagerness rang out, "When will we reopen?"

In such a voice, the old shopkeeper bowed deeply again, shook his head with difficulty, and said, "I'm sorry everyone... I really don't know. ”

The streets fell silent again.

As the days passed, many people who didn't realize what it meant to Da Dexiang to provide credit all the time also began to realize something... And now, the look of the old shopkeeper also let these people really know that maybe from today onwards, Dadexiang's shop will not be opened again. Maybe many places in Yunqin, Dadexiang's shop will never open again.

Maybe the legendary Yunqin business will not open any more shops in the future, leaving only the name "Da Dexiang".

All of them are sad.

They are sad not because they owe less rice and noodles on credit, but because Da Dexiang finally fell into such a result for them.

......

In the provincial capital of Qiantang Province, a carriage with the mark of Da Dexiang is driving out of a secluded alley.

Chen Feirong sat in this carriage.

In the depths of this alley, there is a few houses, which do not look particularly conspicuous, and do not seem to be different from ordinary rich families.

But there is a famous "Tianyuan Kui" here.

Tian Yuankui is the most financially powerful money bank in the entire Qiantang Province, and at this moment, I am afraid that it is the most financially powerful money bank in the entire Yunqin.

Even though the south has been very unpeaceful, and the previous wave of refugees has even spread to Qiantang Province, the principal of Tian Yuankui still lives in this old mansion.

At the secluded alley where Chen Feirong's carriage drove out, Shen Yulou, the proprietor of Tian Yuankui, and several of his younger brothers, several important treasurers of Tian Yuankui, invited Shen Chongshan, the old lady who founded Tian Yuankui.

"It's difficult..."

The old lady Tianyuankui, who was sitting in the brocade, sighed faintly in the eyes of many people.

"Chen Feirong is difficult... Tian Yuankui is also difficult... A business like Da Dexiang, which is making money every day, has been dragged to the point of closing the shop, how much silver will be lost in this? It is because Dadexiang is not because of business, but because we can have food to eat and porridge soup to drink. Otherwise, if you only come up according to the business field, what else is difficult for you, where can you promise Chen Feirong, do you still need to ask me?"

The old lady's faint voice resounded in the silent hall, like snow falling on such a winter day.

"And Da Dexiang is not a vain, just calculate this day, you know how many silver taels Da Dexiang has sent out, this is the root of a big tree, and so many mouths have been gnawed off. I know that you asked me to come out because you all want to help Da Dexiang. ”

"People's hearts are all flesh and blood, not to mention far, among these businesses in the south, which one does not admire the proprietor of Da Dexiang, and which one does not admire the Chen Da shopkeeper of Da Dexiang? The old lady looked at the children and grandchildren who gathered in front of him and were silent, "I have lived much longer than you, I have seen more than you in bad years, and I also want to help Da Dexiang... But my old bones, I still have to remind you, we will give all the surplus money of Tian Yuankui to Da Dexiang, will Da Dexiang be able to last until next autumn? If so, then I, Tian Yuankui, will definitely fight with Da Dexiang, so that I can still do something to glorify my ancestors before I put this old bone into the ground. But you should also understand that this can't! We can't fill in Tian Yuankui, and we can't fill this gap, so we can only die with Da Dexiang. ”

"We have a lot of industries... A lot of what is being done is still useful to these old folks in the south. Da Dexiang fell, we were able to do something on top, we died together, but it didn't make any sense. The old lady closed her eyes in pain and coughed, "Give me some silver taels, unless you ......"

The old woman's voice was interrupted as she coughed.

However, all the important people of Tian Yuankui understood what he meant, and giving out some silver taels was just to show respect for Da Dexiang, unless Da Dexiang could fill some of the deficits and show some signs of resurrection, Tian Yuankui could also bet his net worth and life on the line.