In the middle of the night, Li Yuan arrived in Wujin County, under the rule of Changzhou. Although the people were sleepy and lacking, Li Yuan was also relieved to be able to arrive in Wujin ahead of the Jin army's ships in advance.

At night, the gate of Wujin County was closed, and Li Yuan naturally couldn't enter the city. Coupled with the fatigue of the people and horses, Li Yuan had to decide to spend the night at the post station next to the official road outside the northern city, and then enter the county seat to find the local officials at dawn tomorrow. Although time is pressing, the Jin army's fleet will not arrive in Wujin until at least tomorrow evening, and there is still a day and a night to prepare, and it is not a burning eyebrow.

There was nothing to say all night, and when the rooster crowed the next day, Li Yuan got up early, and after grooming, he led the horse out of the store.

After riding a horse for half an hour, when the sky was bright, Li Yuan had already arrived outside the gate of the north city of Wujin County. But what surprised Li Yuan was that the north gate of Wujin County was tightly closed, and there were no people entering the city at the city gate, and even the city tower was empty, and several banners embroidered with the word "Tang" were lazily fluttering at the head of the city.

Li Yuan shouted a few times towards the city, but there was not even a single figure on the city.

When I was anxious, I suddenly heard the sound of the wooden wheel turning "squeak" coming from the path under the city, and when I looked at it, it was a person pushing a Taiping car from the Qianmo path under the city from west to east.

Li Yuan hurriedly stepped forward and asked, "This brother, dare to ask, why doesn't this north city gate open the door?" ”

The people in the cart looked Li Yuan up and down, wiped their sweat and said, "Are you a foreigner?" Don't you know that the North City Gate is not open today? And not only today, but also tomorrow and the next two days, and the gates of the city will not be opened. ”

Li Yuan's heart moved, and then he hurriedly said: "I am indeed not a local, I am from Changzhou City in the north." But I don't know why the north gate doesn't open. ”

"From today on, at the wharf of the East Gate, the merchant ships of Wu Yueguo's Gu family will give our people grain at a reasonable price on the wharf, and the officials and soldiers of Wujin County will go to the wharf to maintain order, everyone is busy, where is there still someone to open the north city gate? In the past few days, only the east gates of the city have been opened, and the gates of the other three cities have been closed. No, I'm going to the docks to get food. The people explained.

Although Li Yuan didn't quite understand what he said, it was obvious that the north city gate would not open the door, but the east city gate was open, so he could only go around the east city gate to enter the city.

Li Yuan had the heart to inquire about the inside story, and immediately beckoned to the people and said: "Brother, you get on the horse, I will give you a ride, and you will lead the way for me, it is all a small river and a small path, I am afraid that I will go a fork." ”

The man waved his hand and said, "Don't dare, I haven't ridden a horse, and I'm afraid I'll break my bones." Besides, did I lose this chariot? ”

Li Yuan smiled: "Don't worry, my horse is very stable." The chariot is very simple, hanging behind the horse's buttocks. ”

After saying that, Li Yuan immediately bent down and reached out, grabbed the gang of the Taiping car, lifted the car with one hand, and hung it on the hook behind the side of the war horse, and fixed it slightly with the rope, which was also very stable.

The people wanted to stop him, but it was too late, so he just stood on the ground and smacked his tongue: "Yo, your little brother looks so thin, how can he have so much strength?" I can't move this car alone. Your big horse is also very powerful, with this heavy object hanging behind your buttocks, and you can't move at all. ”

Li Yuan smiled and said: "People can't look good, don't look at me thin, my bones are full of meat." Come on! ”

The man clumsily climbed on the horse's back and sat behind Li Yuan, and as soon as Li Yuan lifted the reins, the horse walked forward, and the man was so frightened that he hugged Li Yuan's waist. Being surrounded by a big man, although Li Yuan felt a little strange, he could only endure it.

After getting off the official road, he walked east along the Qianmo trail outside the city wall, although Li Yuan wanted to save time and reach the east gate quickly, but there were trails and ponds and lakes all the way, and the path was dense like a spider web, and he couldn't get up if he wanted to hurry. And if it weren't for the people pointing the direction behind and telling Li Yuan that the road leading to the river was feasible and there was no bridge, and that there was a small bridge connecting the road, it would definitely be inevitable that there would be a lot of unjust roads.

Although it was delayed for some time, Li Yuan also asked what happened on the way. Last year, the war in the Southern Tang Dynasty had too great an impact, coupled with the drought, which brought about many adverse effects, because of the great drought and chaos, the grain prices in the south of the Yangtze River soared, and the illegal businessmen hoarded Juqi to raise the price of grain, but the people were forced to pay taxes to the government with low-priced grain, resulting in the local people could not afford to buy grain.

Faced with such a situation, the Gu family, a wealthy family of Wuyue who had lived in Wu County in Suzhou for generations, took the initiative to express their willingness to take out a huge amount of grain and sell it to the people of the neighboring Nantang at a flat price, with the intention of naturally relieving the people. Such a good deed was naturally welcomed by the people.

Since the autumn of last year, every two months, Gu has transported many ships of grain from Suzhou across the border, and Wujin County has also been assigned three ships. So when it came to the day of grain distribution at a low price, the county commanders of Wujin County and the training soldiers of the official service regiment all went to the Dongmen Wharf to assist in the distribution of grain.

Therefore, several other city gates were not opened because of the limitation of manpower, and the people also gathered at the East Gate Wharf to buy grain at a low price according to the household.

"You say, this is the Gu family in Suzhou? Which Gu family? Li Yuan asked.

"It's the Gu family, don't you know this?" Sun Da looked at Li Yuan as if he was looking at a monster.

"Who doesn't know the Gu family now? The first wealthy family in the southeast, one of the top businessmen in Wuyue country? The Gu family has thousands of acres of fertile land, hundreds of millions of furniture, and is so rich that they are very rich. It is said that their family also has something to do with our Tang Dynasty, didn't the first emperor be buried in Suzhou? ”

Li Yuan suddenly, the so-called first wealthy family in the southeast, the Gu family, is estimated to be one of the four surnames of Wuzhong handed down from the Three Kingdoms Dongwu period, to the end of the Tang Dynasty to accumulate high-ranking officials, and in the history books have also recorded that the Gu family in the late Tang Dynasty and the fifth generation due to war, the family gradually withdrew from the political field, transformed towards the merchant and achieved great success, with a strong economic foundation has been prosperous until the Southern Song Dynasty, until the Mongolian invasion of the Kou did not disappear.

Li Yuan didn't expect this Gu family to be so good at things, at a time when the price of grain was as expensive as gold, he was willing to take out a large amount of grain to sell it at a low price, and it also benefited the people of other countries, this is not an ordinary magnanimity and open-mindedness.

You must know that this Wujin County is only a small county town, and you can get relief here, not to mention the large and small cities in the south of the Yangtze River, how big and small it should be. However, in Li Yuan's opinion, these big businessmen and wealthy families naturally have their purpose in doing this, and they have spent money to win people's hearts, which is probably the reason why they stand up at this time.