After listening to Hu Zongxian's consolation, everyone present was in a much better mood.

Just as everyone began to discuss the next countermeasures, they saw a guard with a hurried expression enter the meeting hall.

As soon as he entered the meeting hall, he knelt on one knee and reported to Hu Zongxian.

"Your Excellency the Governor, outside the Governor's Palace, there is a person who claims to be sent by Cao Shunhe, the governor of Jiangxi, saying that there is a letter to be handed over to you in person!"

When Hu Zongxian heard this, he was about to get up from his seat excitedly, and immediately commanded.

"Let him in!"

"Yes, Lord Governor!"

The guard did not pause for a moment, and quickly turned away.

After everyone in the council hall learned the news from the mouths of the guards, their mood at this moment was the same as Hu Zongxian's, and they were extremely excited.

He didn't even dare to come out of the atmosphere, and his eyes were staring at the door, and his eyes were blazing with unconcealable heat.

After a short time, under the guidance of the guards, the visitor entered the chamber of the Governor's Palace.

As soon as he entered the conference hall, while kneeling on one knee, he carefully took out the envelope from his arms, and then looked at Hu Zongxian, who was sitting at the top, and said respectfully.

"Your Excellency Governor, this is my reply to you!"

"Before leaving, he told me that I must deliver the letter to you in person!"

After listening to the words of the visitor, Hu Zongxian immediately spoke.

"Well, bring the letter!"

"Yes, Lord Governor!"

After getting Hu Zongxian's permission, the visitor slowly got up from the ground and approached Hu Zongxian step by step.

The guards around him who were responsible for guarding Hu Zongxian's safety were highly nervous, and while staring at the person with a pair of eyes, their hands had quietly touched the weapon on their waists, as long as this person made any abnormal moves, they would kill him on the spot!

Fortunately, from the beginning to the end, the visitor did not make any actions that could easily cause misunderstanding.

Seeing Hu Zongxian take the envelope from the hand of the visitor, the guards present couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and the hand that was originally holding the weapon was also quietly released.

After Hu Zongxian took the envelope from the hand of the visitor, he withdrew his gaze and immediately spoke.

"Well, the official has already received the letter!"

Seeing that the goal of his trip had been accomplished, the stone in the heart of the person who came to the heart also quietly landed, and the whole person couldn't help but relax.

Seeing this, Hu Zongxian said this to the visitor.

"You go down and rest for a while!"

"Thank you, Governor!"

Then the visitor followed the guards of the governor's palace and left the council hall.

At this moment, the eyes of everyone present were invariably focused on the envelope in Hu Zongxian's hand, for them, the contents of the envelope would determine whether they could survive the crisis in front of them.

Because of this, everyone's eyes were full of expectation, and in order not to disturb Hu Zongxian, everyone held their breath and stared, and they didn't even dare to make a sound.

General Hu Zongxian took in the expressions on the faces of everyone present, smiled, and then unhurriedly opened the envelope and began to browse the contents of the letter, which were as follows.

"Brother Ruzhen, I have received the letter you sent earlier, and at present, there are 28,000 stones of grain available for mobilization here in Jiangxi."

"I have sent someone to load the grain on the ship immediately, if nothing happens, in about three days, the grain will be transported to Zhejiang in batches, and I hope Brother Ruzhen does not have to worry!"

When Hu Zongxian took his eyes away from the last word on the letter, he met the expectant eyes of everyone, stroked his beard, and laughed loudly: "Haha, good, good!" ”

Seeing Hu Zongxian's face full of joy, everyone couldn't help but be curious about the content of the letter.

Subsequently, I saw Ma Ningyuan take the lead in standing up and asked Hu Zongxian.

"Teacher, what is the content of the letter, can you tell us about it?"

As soon as Ma Ningyuan's words fell, He Maocai on the side also followed closely with Ying Hedao.

"Yes, Lord Governor, tell us about it!"

At this moment, Hu Zongxian was in a good mood, so he did not refuse everyone's request, only to see Hu Zongxian put away the envelope and said slowly.

"Jiangxi Governor Cao Shunhe said in the letter that the current grain available for mobilization in Jiangxi is a total of 28,000 stones!"

"He has now ordered his subordinates to load the grain on the ship immediately, and if nothing happens, the grain will be transported to Zhejiang in batches in about three days!"

After listening to Hu Zongxian's explanation, everyone's hanging hearts finally let go.

After listening to Hu Zongxian's words, Zheng Michang's face was full of excitement, and he stood up from his seat abruptly and said excitedly.

"Your Excellency the Governor, please forgive your Majesty, 28,000 stone of grain, even if only 20,000 stone is transported to Zhejiang, it is enough to survive this time, and it is even more than enough!"

"In another month or two, when the mulberry seedlings mature, everything will be no problem!"

As soon as Zheng Michang's words fell, Gao Hanwen on the side also followed closely with Ying Hedao.

"Yes, Lord Governor, with these 28,000 stone of grain, the government will no longer have to worry about those mulberry farmers!"

At this time, He Mao took this opportunity to propose to Hu Zongxian.

"Your Excellency the Governor, why don't we take advantage of this time to distribute all the relief grain in the warehouse to those Sannons?"

"In this way, you can save a lot of things."

After listening to He Maocai's proposal, Hu Zongxian keenly sensed the inappropriateness in it, and immediately shook his head and rejected it categorically.

"No, before the grain is actually delivered to Zhejiang, it must not be taken lightly!"

When Hu Zongxian said this, he paused for a moment, looked around, and then continued.

"I ask you, if the ships responsible for transporting grain have any accidents on the way, resulting in the inability to deliver grain to Zhejiang on time, how should we respond?"

The voice fell, and without waiting for everyone to respond, Hu Zongxian continued to take care of himself: "By then, the grain from Jiangxi has not yet been delivered, and the grain from Zhejiang has been exhausted, let's think about it, what will be the consequences?" ”

When everyone present continued to think about Hu Zongxian's train of thought, the picture presented in their minds made them shudder.

After this, I saw a look of shame on He Maocai's face, and he immediately lowered his head and admitted his mistake to Hu Zongxian.

"Lord Governor, it was the lower official who was abrupt, and the lower official was too excited, so he didn't think of this layer, and almost caused a big disaster!"

Hu Zongxian didn't care about this, he saw that he withdrew his gaze from He Maocai, and continued: "It's okay, during this time, the amount of relief food distributed will be kept as much as possible as before. ”

"Only then will we be able to survive this time!"

Hu Zongxian's words fell, and everyone got up from their seats and said in unison.

"Yes, Lord Governor!"

……

Jiangxi, Nanchang Province.

At this moment, night fell, and Cao Shunhe returned to his mansion in the city after a day's official duties.

In the past, Cao Shunhe was a proper easy-to-sleep physique, as long as he lay on the bed and dipped his pillow, he could fall asleep in the blink of an eye.

But tonight, no matter how Cao Shunhe tossed and turned, there was no sleepiness at all, and in addition, an indescribable palpitation filled his entire body and mind.

Helpless, Cao Shunhe had to put on his coat, get up from the bed, and then came to the study.

After lighting the candle in the study again, I saw Cao Shunhe take a book from the bookshelf on the side, and he planned to read the idle book for a while before going to sleep.

Next to the wharf, there were more than a dozen large ships responsible for transporting grain quietly docked, and around the wharf, except for a few errand boys, there was no one to be found.

Perhaps tired of it, I saw a few officers stop patrolling and gossip together.

"Alas, our brothers are really unlucky, they don't sleep at night, but they have to look at these broken ships on the dock!"

"This person, it's just incomparable, look at Lao Li, he doesn't do anything all day, just revolves around Lord Zhang, he lives much more comfortably than us!"

"Bah, if he hadn't secretly sent a large amount of filial piety to Master Zhang, people wouldn't have bothered to look at him!"

"Oh, there is still such a thing, or else, let's make a sum of money another day to come out and honor Lord Zhang and his old man?"

"Come on, this salary of the government is difficult to support yourself, how can you make up this money, and those adults, not long ago, the imperial court just raised their salaries for them!"

"It's better to study, if you pass the imperial examination, you won't have to worry about anything!"

Among those errand soldiers, I don't know who it was, raised such an emotion, which resonated with everyone present.

"yes, it's better to read!"

And just as they were chatting hotly, they didn't notice that a group of men in black had quietly bypassed them and went straight to the ships docked on the edge of the dock.

"Hey, do you smell anything, it looks like something is burning?"

At that moment, one of the servants stopped chatting, sniffed the air with his nose, and then asked his companion about it.

"Where did it smell from, why didn't I smell anything?"

"Come, where did we talk just now, yes, it's the girl from Dongxianglou, it's a must in that regard, it is said to be ......"

Before the officer could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by the officer on the side.

I saw the officer suddenly stand up from the ground, his face was extremely pale, trembling all over, and he pointed his finger at the dozen or so large ships docked on the edge of the dock.

"Fire ...... Fire, the ship is on fire! ”

"What!"

When they heard this, they could not help but be shocked, and immediately looked in the direction pointed by the officer, and saw that the dozen or so ships responsible for transporting grain that had been docked at the edge of the dock had already ignited a raging fire, and the fire was getting bigger and bigger, and there was no hope of extinguishing it.

And the orange firelight reflected not only the scene around the docks, but also the extremely panicked faces of the officers.

"It's on fire, come on!"

"It's on fire!"

……

Cao Shunhe closed the book in his hand unsatisfied, and at this moment, in his mind, the bizarre plots in the book still kept appearing, and then, a sleepiness struck.

Just as Cao Shunhe was about to go back to sleep, he heard a rush of footsteps outside the door, and the housekeeper pushed the door in and reported to Cao Shunhe: "Master, it's not good, the government sent someone to inform you, saying that there was an accident on the dock!" ”

When Cao Shunhe heard this, the sleepiness that had been brewing for a long time suddenly disappeared, and the whole person suddenly became excited, and asked in a deep voice: "What happened?" ”

Faced with Cao Shunhe's questioning, the housekeeper didn't dare to hide it in the slightest, lowered his head, and cautiously responded: "Master, the dozen or so big ships parked by the dock to transport grain are on fire!" ”

"What!"

After learning the news from the housekeeper's mouth, Cao Shunhe did not dare to stop in the slightest, and after putting on his official uniform, he hurried to the dock under the escort of the guards.

Perhaps because everything that could be burned had already been burned clean, when Cao Shunhe arrived at the dock, the fire had gradually decreased, and the people of the government also took this opportunity to start vigorously extinguishing the fire and trying to rescue some surviving materials.

Seeing this, Cao Shunhe's face was full of gloom, and he looked at the big ships that were still burning not far away, and didn't say a word.

The official in charge of the wharf saw Cao Shunhe coming in person, and knew that a catastrophe was coming, so in order to reduce his guilt, he hurriedly stepped forward and explained the reason to Cao Shunhe.

"Patrol ...... Your Excellency, this ...... This ......"

Cao Shunhe just glanced at the official rather indifferently, and did not give him any chance to explain, but commanded.

"Call all the officers in charge of patrolling on the docks tonight to the officer, and the officer will personally question them!"

"Yes, yes, Your Excellency, Governor, you ...... Wait a minute, ...... The subordinate is going to call them over! ”

Hearing Cao Shunhe's order, the official in charge of the dock answered in fear while constantly wiping the fine sweat that was oozing from his forehead with his sleeve.

In a short time, all the officers who had been patrolling the vicinity of the dock were all escorted.

As soon as the officers were escorted up, they fell to their knees with a thud and kept kowtowing to the ground to beg for forgiveness from Cao Shun and the governor of Jiangxi.

"Sir, spare our lives!"

"This is an errand of the government, we are all doing our best, and we dare not relax in the slightest!"

"My lord, I have an eighty-year-old mother to support, and a one-year-old child waiting to be fed, please spare my life, I will definitely be a cow and a horse for you in the next life!"

As they spoke, they cried sadly, telling about their own hardships, and they all wept sadly.

And Cao Shunhe just glanced at them, then withdrew his gaze and said in a deep voice: "If you dare to talk nonsense again, this official will send you to see the king of Hades immediately!" ”

Hearing this, the servants were struck by lightning, and they had to kneel on the ground in resignation, not daring to say another word.

Immediately afterwards, I saw Cao Shunhe stretch out his index finger and point to the dock, the more than a dozen big ships that were about to turn into wreckage, and asked in a deep voice.

"Now I ask you, how did these boats docked on the edge of the dock burn?"

Hearing Cao Shunhe's words, after exchanging glances with each other, those messengers hesitated for a long time, and did not give a more convincing statement.

These servants knew very well that if they told the truth about what had happened, they would surely die.

If nothing else, they will have to lose their heads on the charge of dereliction of duty alone!

On the government's side, if the murderer can't be caught for a long time, in order to set an example, these servants will be pulled out by the government alone and treated as scapegoats!

After this, seeing that Cao Shunhe's patience was about to run out, one of the officers suddenly had a flash of inspiration in his mind, pointed to the sky, and immediately swore to report to Cao Shunhe.

"My lord, to tell you the truth, not long ago, the brothers saw several fire dragons suddenly flying in the air, and after that, the ships docked near the dock caught fire for no apparent reason!"

As soon as the officer's words fell, the rest of the officers followed closely behind.

"Yes, my lord, we really saw those fire dragons flying through the air!"

(End of chapter)