Yu joined the army and squatted at the gate of the post house for five or six days, and did not wait for Bai Ziche and Chu Zhixia. Even Cheng Yuan didn't go out much, just practiced Yu Linwei repeatedly in the yard, and occasionally the two met at the door, Cheng Yuan nodded inconspicuously, smiled and passed.

On the tenth day, Yu joined the army and finally couldn't help but stop Cheng Yuan, "Dare to ask General Cheng, has His Royal Highness King Qi gone to Binzhou?" ”

Cheng Yuan pretended to be surprised and said, "The whereabouts of His Royal Highness King Qi and the eldest lady, how can we ask about them?" ”

Yu joined the army with a belly of fire, and then left with a belly of fire. Cheng Yuan slammed the courtyard door shut, turned his head back to the room and wrote a secret letter to Chu Zhixia.

——

Yangzhou City, Hongliangfang.

Chu Zhixia used a hairpin to coil his hair on the top of his head, bit a brush dipped in cinnabar, copied a rabbit hair in his hand, and quickly copied the price of grain in the booklet. Bai Ziche sat on the side and crackled and planned to plate, without blinking his eyes, he recorded the numbers on the side.

I don't know how long it took, Bai Ziche exhaled lightly and said, "It's calculated." ”

Chu Zhixia raised his eyes to look at him.

"The average price of grain in Yangzhou City is one hundred and seventy yuan a stone."

"That's the price today." Chu Shixia circled the booklet with a cinnabar pen and said, "Last month's price was one hundred and twenty yuan and one stone, and the surrounding towns were driven by Yangzhou City, and the price also rose from one hundred yuan and one stone to more than one hundred and twenty. ”

Since the death of Emperor Ling, the normal grain price in Great Zhou is often between seventy and one hundred yuan per stone.

Sunlight poured in through the windows, and the floor was piled with calculations and pages of grain price records. Outside, several feather guards snuggled up to each other and snoozed, and the finches were bouncing on the branches.

This was the third day that Chu Shixia and Bai Ziche had arrived in Yangzhou City, and they had been nesting in this inn for three days.

Yangzhou is ripe, and the world is full. Yangzhou's reputation for abundant products is well known all over the world, which is also one of the reasons why Chu Zhixia did not directly transfer grain from the imperial capital this time, but carried more silver taels to the south.

"Generally speaking, there are only two scenarios for food price increases. First, wars or natural disasters have reduced grain production and grain prices have naturally risen. Chu Zhixia raised his second finger, "The second is to maliciously hoard food and show panic." ”

"Raising the price of grain is against the laws of the Great Zhou," Bai Zi said concisely, "Ying Tianfu can directly take people." ”

Chu Zhixia threw down two pens, spread his hands and said: "Most of the reason for the plague in Binzhou is that hunger is everywhere, and corpses are piled up and breed epidemic poison. There is a lack of medicine, and there is little food and clothing. Even if they take people to prison, they will not sell us food if they are willing to take the money. ”

Bai Ziche chewed every word she said, and noticed a hint of something wrong, "We? ”

"The Qincha and Yangzhou officials from the imperial capital are not the same thing for these merchants."

Chu Zhixia put a cup upside down on the table, his white and slender fingers on the bottom of the cup, and said, "Yangzhou is prosperous in business, and it is impossible for businessmen and high-ranking officials not to be contaminated at all. In their eyes, Yangzhou officials and businessmen are the same group. Even if we arrest people in the name of raising food prices, as soon as we turn around and leave, Yangzhou Thorn Shi will be able to release people immediately. ”

After thinking about it seriously, Bai Ziche said: "Even if we order the transfer of grain from the official warehouse in Yangzhou, the history of Yangzhou Thorn will shirk in every possible way, and in the end, there will be no one out of ten grains that can be brought out, and it will not be enough at all." In the end, you have to buy it from the market. ”

"If we mention the price of grain in Yangzhou, the history of Yangzhou will definitely say that there is a clear distinction between officials and businessmen, and the official authority cannot be used to force the people, otherwise it will lose the face of the emperor. The imperial capital is surrounded by tigers and wolves, all of them are staring at us, and I wonder if His Highness will be impeached. Chu Zhixia buckled another cup and said slowly.

"There are still many places to use money, and you can't all smash it in Yangzhou." Bai Ziche shook his head.

"That's my third point." Chu Shixia deducted the third cup, "Of the six states in the south of the Yangtze River, only Yangzhou has soaring grain prices, why is it?" ”

Bai Ziche thought for a while and said, "Because there is no fear." ”

Yangzhou granary is quite abundant, and it is not a problem to feed the entire Jiangnan by itself. Yangzhou's annual taxes are paid quickly and sufficiently, and Yangzhou businessmen can not be more appropriate to dot the relationship between the top and bottom, and live up to its name of exquisiteness.

"It's because of fear," Chu Shixia said in a deep voice, "It's because of money, but also because of power." At this time of crisis, they did not forget to watch from the wall and make a lot of money. ”

"If you want to solve this problem, you should start here." Chu Zhixia raised his hand and clicked the first cup.

"Divide the relationship between high-ranking officials and businessmen in Yangzhou?" Bai Ziche raised his eyebrows.

"Your Highness is a nobleman, why bother so much." Chu Shixia smiled and said.

——

Yangzhou Thorn History Mansion.

Yu Senjun slapped the table angrily and said loudly: "How many days have it been, even if you go, you should go to Yangzhou City." How could Your Majesty let such a child do such a big thing, isn't this ignoring the misery of the people? ”

Thorn Shi poured him a cup of tea and reassured him, "Maybe something happened on the road." ”

"Before I arrived in Yangzhou, I sank the boat on the river first, and there was an accident on the dry road, could it be that His Royal Highness and Yangzhou are incompatible?" Yu joined the army and went crazy, and he didn't choose what to say.

"Hey, be careful!" Thorn Shi rolled up his sleeves, looking like a good old man and angry, "Your Royal Highness and the eldest lady have lived in the imperial capital for a long time, maybe they are attracted by the scenery of Yangzhou, and they may be delayed on the road." ”

Yu joined the army even more angrily, and before the more ugly words could be spewed out, he saw Changshi running in in a panic and said, "Qin has arrived." ”

The smile on Thorn Shi's face almost couldn't be hung up, "Where are you?" ”

"At the door." Changshi slapped the army on the shoulder and said nervously, "Why are you sitting so firm?" Don't go out and greet it yet! ”

Thorn Shi's eyelids jumped at his fuss, and he asked uneasily, "What are you panicking about?" ”

"Can I not panic? That eldest lady of the Chu family went to get the fish scale book first and then came over! ”

——

Chu Zhixia was wearing a hat, his boots were stained with mud, he was holding the drinking stream snow in his arms, and he was holding a thin white grass stalk in his mouth. She led the white horse and stood at the door of the Thorn Mansion, looking like a wanderer at first glance, but she was still a wanderer when she looked closely.

Bai Ziche stood next to her, exhausted from days of calculations and transcriptions, and his eyes were blue and black, like a poor sour scholar with his head hanging from a beam and a thorny stock.

Cheng Yuan rushed from the post house and saw such a scene. He turned over and dismounted and saluted the two, and Chu Zhixia waved his hand at him listlessly, signaling him to get up.

The three of them, Thorn Shi, Chang Shi and Yu Joining, came out neatly, all with smiles on their faces, but they smiled with their own tastes.

Thorn Shi's fat round face was full of smiles, lack of sincerity, and more than enough smiles; Yu joined the army with a strange smile, and his facial muscles were as stiff as those of a man who had been dead for three days; Changshi laughed a lot, as if he was afraid that Chu Zhixia would look at him twice.

"I don't know that His Royal Highness and Miss Chu are coming, and they are not far away!" Thorn Shi confessed his guilt and said in a loud voice, "Please also ask the two distinguished guests to forgive their sins." ”

Chu Zhixia smiled and showed a mouthful of snow-white teeth, "Lord Thorn Shi is serious. ”

As soon as Thorn Shi was about to go back politely, he heard Chu Shixia say, "Your crime doesn't stop here. ”

A smile froze on Thorn's face.

"Cheng Yuan, take him down."

"No, what's this for?!" Thorn Shi looked at her in shock, and asked Bai Ziche, who was talkative, for help, "His Royal Highness King Qi, you should quickly comment on it!" ”

Bai Ziche thought so, looked at him with apology and sympathy, and looked at Chu Zhixia with a condemning gaze: "Start lightly." ”

Yu joined the army and drew his sword awe-inspiring to block in front of the assassin Shi, raised his eyebrows coldly, glared at Cheng Yuan and said, "Who dare to do it?" Even if it is a chincha, you can't arrest the court officials for no reason! Miss Chu, don't be presumptuous! ”

Chu Zhixia swept Cheng Yuan away with one palm, and the hilt of the sword was firmly pressed on the wrist of the army, forcing him to put the knife back into the sheath. She moved quickly and agilely, and she didn't react when she joined the army, and she felt a numb wrist in her instinct, and the next moment she received a solid slap.

Yu joined the army and was stunned by her.

Drinking the stream of snow and twisting it, he easily disarmed him. Chu Zhixia kicked on his knee, and Yu Shenjun knelt on the ground suddenly, and the snow pressed on the back of his neck, heavy like a guillotine.

"Dare to move the knife in front of His Highness, I don't think anyone is more presumptuous than you."

Chu Zhixia's voice was light and crisp, and he said condescendingly, "Li Yu, the assassin of Yangzhou, is suspected of favoritism, forgery of fish scale books, and annexation of land in the name of the New Deal. Now that Yu Lin Wei is being interrogated, who has any objections? ”

Changshi grabbed Yu Shenjun, who was blushing, and knelt down, and hurriedly said, "I have no objection." ”

Cheng Yuan waved his hand, and the well-trained Yu Linwei immediately put the thorn down the stab. People came and went in front of the Assassin's Mansion, and many people stopped to watch and discussed.

——

Before it was dark, the news that Li Tingshi was questioned by the minister of the Qin Mission, was imprisoned, and was interrogated after Rong flew all over Yangzhou City. This news was like a thunderbolt, which made the people of the Yangzhou Chamber of Commerce panic and suspicious, and their hands trembling when counting the money.

"Isn't it a matter of Pingqing Prefecture and Binzhou that Qincha went south? Why did you repair the officials in Yangzhou first? ”

"In my opinion, it's just that these two young hairy children want to give a dismount." The owner of the largest grain inn in Yangzhou City knocked down his pipe on the table, and said disapprehantly, "But it has been done, and it has been passed to the imperial capital, and they have no good fruit to eat." ”

"I don't think so. I have always wanted to bring something from Yangzhou, but I have done it quietly. Even if Li Tingshi is soft and makes such a big fuss, what good can they get? ”

Someone took a deep breath and doubted, "Could it be that the minister of the Qin Mission, the lion, opened his mouth and was rejected by Li Tingshi, and became angry and ashamed?" I heard that His Royal Highness the King of Qi is not from a good background. ”

The Chamber of Commerce had a sad face, and they were sent to us, and they were familiar with dealing with officials. But at present, the minister of the Qin Mission lives in the Thorn Shi Mansion, and he is closed to guests, and Yu Linwei strictly guards Li Thorn Shi, as if he is a monolith, and the water cannot be splashed, which is confusing.

"Remind everyone not to drink overnight iced milk, it will really cause nausea and vomiting〣 (oΔo)〣

The author is almost grunt."