In the courtyard of the Lu family's house in Tonghai County, Lu Yu, the second son of the Lu family, returned home exhausted, and now things are getting more and more difficult to deal with, and he has smashed thousands of taels of silver, and finally Shuyang Mansion Zhou Tongju was relieved, and temporarily promised to let the Lu family pull back the seized goods, but people can't let them go for the time being. In this way, the matter is not finally over, and the lifeline is still in the hands of Zhou Tongju, he can accept it at any time and release it as he wants, for the Lu family, the situation is too passive now.

Lu Yu picked up the water cup and just took a sip, when he saw that the eldest brother Lu Ming happened to come back, the two of them were the same mother, Lu Yu was not polite, lying on the chair, complaining directly to his brother.

"Now these officials are too dark, this time the price is too big, if you want to spend some money, I'm worried that there are other problems in the middle, I also told the old man, if this is the other party's trap, it is to lead us to shoot, then there is really trouble."

Lu Ming is also a scholar, a few years ago, he was lifted, participated in the examination once, but unfortunately his name fell to Sun Shan, and he was preparing for next year's examination, he valued this opportunity very much, so he only thought about Wen Shu, and didn't pay much attention to things at home, but this time the matter was a bit big, and he didn't care about it completely, and he also went out to find a relationship a little in the past two days to see if there was a chance. Lu Ming sat down and poured a glass of water, and then told his younger brother the news he had inquired about.

"I learned about it with a few people in the same year, and the key to this problem is not to rob the Lu family's business, not to smuggle, or to arrest people by the government, but to tell me in the same year that the biggest problem is that some of the goods robbed by the Lu family were found on the ship, and we can't prove that these goods are our own."

Lu Yu was not excited, he was thinking about something while listening, and his mouth was still chattering.

"I also found some people who are familiar with officialdom, and you also know the Zhu Juren, his uncle is in the Jianye Criminal Department, saying that if this matter is to be solved smoothly, the important thing is to find key witnesses, make the source of the goods a death certificate, and take the Lu family out first, you think about it carefully, and see what to do, I really can't help you, if it's money, don't worry, it's really not good, I can go out and borrow it." Lu Ming sighed, knowing this, he knew how difficult it was to be the master of the house, said hello to his younger brother, and walked to the back house.

Lu Yu got up and said goodbye to his brother, although this brother doesn't care much about the affairs of the family, he reads every day, but he values his family very much, and he sees money lightly, and what he tells others the most is that he will go to Hanlin after entering school, and he will be an official such as a scholar and politician, and he wants to write books and teach and educate people, and his family thinks that the Lu family may have a great Confucian in the future.

Lu Yu respects this brother very much, he can't study, so he wants to help the family deal with chores as much as possible, so that his brother can concentrate on studying, and the two brothers must always have one to take care of the family, firewood, rice, oil and salt, and try not to let the brother intervene if he can solve it, so as to be distracted, but this time it is really too big, and some rumors inevitably spread to the back house.

He also wanted to get it, the elder brother went out to find a relationship to listen to the news, but he knew more, and he also knew the powerful relationship in the middle, the current situation is very difficult, it is good to be able to get out of the whole body, it was a little reckless at the beginning, and he wanted to fight against it and hit the other party's arrogance, it seems that he was wrong, and he took it for granted that the treasure was pressed on the new inspector, and if he didn't handle it properly this time, the Lu family would lose his wealth and lose people, and he might be wiped out!

Lu Ming returned to his house, and his wife Yuan Qing came forward, took off his coat, and instructed the girl to prepare clean noodles and tea, and wait for the girl to go down. Lu Ming asked the Yuan family: "Now you think about how much cash you need in your hand, and you need to use it at home," Yuan knew that his father-in-law had never been in charge of things, and now that he said it, he had already thought about it.

Yuan Shi turned around and took out a small box from under the bed, "I have already liquidated it in the past two days, and the earlier item in the money village has also been taken out, and there are still three thousand eight hundred taels of silver, if you sell some useless things again, five thousand taels should be made." ”

"You don't have to sell things, the Lu family hasn't reached that step yet, take out three thousand taels, I'll give it to Xiao Er," Lu Ming looked around this time, his heart was a little bottom, and the outside looked at the wind and waves, and the momentum was terrifying, but often this kind of thing was to think about a quick solution and force the Lu family to retreat, in other words, as long as the Lu family admits planting, it should be a big thing and a small one, it is nothing more than a loss of a little silver, as long as it will be tried in the coming year, the Lu family will not fall. He can imagine that Xiao Er is also a smart person, but he is worried that he will not have the money for a while, and he will make extraneous branches, and then calculate it for others, that will be the trouble.

Lu Ming was indeed right, the disaster of the Lu family was also a bit unjust, it just happened to be in it, and the target was not them, some people just happened to hit the dates.

Half a month has passed in a flash, seeing that the weather is getting hot, Yuan Rui has moved from the house to the yard, sitting on a deck chair and hiding under the tree, and there are a lot of fresh vegetables that Yuan Rui likes to eat on the stone table, Wang Xiaohe sat on the other side, making tea and telling Yuan Rui about the shortcomings of the parents in the village, which is also one of the tasks that Yuan Rui gave Wang Xiaohe.

The two were chatting when someone outside the backyard asked, "Is Xiyan at home?" Yuan Rui hurriedly got up, and when he heard the voice, he knew that the fifth uncle was coming, and took a few steps forward, and at this time, the fifth uncle also pushed the door in.

Let him sit down at the stone table, Xiaohe finished pouring tea, and went out with a smile.

The fifth uncle looked at Yuan Rui, "Well, my complexion has been much better during this time, and last time the boss asked if your illness was really cured, and I was going to find a good doctor for you to take a look." ”

"That's not necessary, last time in Fucheng, the medicine prescribed to me by the doctor was still very symptomatic, and I paid great attention to it during this time, plus the food and accommodation were very comfortable, and now I feel completely better, fifth uncle, is there something wrong with me?"

"Your sister specially brought a letter, it will be the Dragon Boat Festival in a few days, she and Prince Lu will come back to visit relatives together, and I am also thinking about whether I can talk about some things clearly." The fifth uncle knows that Yuan Rui has his own plans, and he also has his own ideas for dealing with the whole thing, but he has no bottom about what may happen next, and he has no bottom about what preparations to make.

"That's fine, everyone sit down, it's all a family, let's talk, deal with the past in front of you first, do business, there are more opportunities, there is no need to die, change your thinking, you do yours, I do mine, the days are long, don't fight for a while." In front of the fifth uncle, Yuan Rui did not hide it, telling the truth, of course, he also wanted to pass it on to the Lu family through the mouth of the fifth uncle.

"What you said is reasonable, the current situation is complicated, and it is very unfavorable to the Lu family, so we have to think about how to deal with it," the fifth uncle agreed with Yuan Rui's idea.

The two chatted for a while, the fifth uncle said goodbye and left, Yuan Rui originally left him to eat, but he said that he had made an appointment with a few brothers in the same room, and was discussing some problems with Yuan's farmland, and made an appointment to come back another day and come together as a guest.

After the fifth uncle left, Yuan Rui thought for a long time, the biggest difference between this dynasty and many historical dynasties is the tolerance of social forms, probably due to the fact that it was a big alliance in the early days of its formation, like the Huai Army, the Chu Army, and the Jiangyin Army, these soldiers were originally from economically developed regions, open-minded, able to quickly accept new things, and dare to try. In the later period, these people had more say in the court, and they had their own thinking about the governance of the country, unlike other dynasties, they still paid more attention to the land and peasants, and the farmers and businessmen, which was the same framework for thousands of years.

In the court, commerce has occupied a very important position, and the state has higher expectations and appointments for merchants, starting from the Xining period about fifty years ago, allowing the descendants of merchants to participate in the imperial examinations, and the status of merchants has caught up with the peasants, of course, in order to avoid corruption, many restrictive norms have been made.

At the same time of encouraging commerce, it also strengthened the management of craftsmen, promoted qualified craftsmen to be officials directly, encouraged craftsmen from all walks of life to innovate and invent, and purchased and popularized the use of public utensils by the government, and at the same time gave rewards, so that many of the crafts facing the loss were immediately rejuvenated, which in turn promoted the prosperity of commerce.