The sky is gloomy today with thick clouds.
Jia Sidao accompanied Shi Kuanzhi back from the street and passed by Yujie south of Zhong'an Bridge. He noticed that the heavy rain was coming. He quickly entered a familiar tea house and opened the elegant room upstairs before sitting down. , the rain suddenly came down.
The teahouse faces Beiwa, the largest building in Lin'an City, so the surrounding area is very lively and crowded. At this time, people on the road also took shelter on the eaves of various places. Several storytellers had just finished their tea and wanted to go back to their Goulan yard, but they were stopped by the rain.
They happened to be directly below the elegant room, and did not notice that Shi Kuanzhi and others upstairs were dressed in either rich or noble clothes, so there was a conversation mixed with the sound of rain.
"Oh, the first game in the afternoon was supposed to be my lucky draw! Now I can't get there, it's all over!"
"It's raining so hard, how can anyone go to the yard? Even if you arrive, you'll be fine."
"You guy!"
"If God doesn't reward us with food, what can we do? Don't be anxious! Don't be anxious!"
"It's not that I'm anxious. My father at home has been suffering from physical pain recently and can't sleep day and night. I planned to collect two hundred coins today to buy a dose of Ginseng Baidu Powder from Chen Zhiweng Pharmacy..."
"My father has always been in good health, so it's not a big deal, but...two hundred coins? Are you still selling the Ginseng Baidu Powder from Chen Zhiweng's pharmacy for two hundred coins?"
"Uh, what's the point?"
"The Ginseng Baidu Powder is made from the Heji Bureau prescription, which is nothing more than Bupleurum, licorice, Platycodon, ginseng, and Poria. There was a large amount of licorice and ginseng shipped from the north in the past few days, so Yang Both General Pharmacy and Ren'ai Tang Medicine Store have posted notices that all medicines using licorice and ginseng are cheap! If you go to those two stores, you can buy them for up to 160 Wen!"
"That's good, but I still lack fifty coins..."
"I have it here, fifty coins... take it, don't be in a hurry to return it!"
People living here rarely have savings, and even if they do, they won't be much. These artists earn more than ordinary people, but in daily life they have to pay filial piety to the ghosts and ghosts in the Goulan Courtyard. The head of the association and the leaders of the industry have set the rules. Unless they are famous storytellers, they don’t have enough money to buy medicine. You have to be extra frugal.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!" The person who spoke before sighed: "The child at home was sick a while ago, and now he is an elderly patient. I now earn money for medicine every day. You said the medicine will be cheaper. That is really a good thing. "
"Since last year, medicinal materials produced in the north have become much cheaper. I just hope that the war in Kaifeng will not affect the trade routes, otherwise..."
"Bitterness, if this war goes on for a long time, I'm afraid it will affect the trade routes. Won't the price of medicinal materials increase? Who can predict what those merchants do? If my Ginseng Baidu Powder is..."
The storyteller, who was planning to buy medicine, jumped up, walked around under the eaves twice, and finally asked the store for a large tarp to cover his head, and rushed into the rain.
The rest of the people watched him leave in a hurry, and someone said: "The pharmacy has a reputation, and it will never mess up. Besides, Guo Ning is so powerful, how can the Jurchens in Kaifeng stop him? I see this battle, let's fight again Ten days and a half, it’s over.”
"Brother Yin is right!"
The person who borrowed the money greatly agreed:
"We usually make a lot of ridiculous exaggerations in our talk. For example, it is said that Guo Ning is eight feet tall, has an eight-foot waist, and weighs eight hundred kilograms of iron bones in his hands. That is just to deceive the common people. This person uses a As a border soldier, he became Duke of Zhou and marshal of the capital in three years. How could he rely solely on the courage of an ordinary man? Look at his previous wars, every time he started suddenly and won in one battle, how can this be an exception..."
At this point, someone in the tea house said angrily: "You people of the Song Dynasty, why are you worried about a usurper from the Jin Kingdom! This guy was able to defeat Kaifeng City by deceiving the court and using the power of the Song Dynasty court. Soldiers and horses went to attract the main force of the Jin army in Kaifeng, this is a blood debt!"
The person who spoke was very powerful, probably a descendant of an official or a scholar in Lin'an City, and what he said made sense. This man was accompanied by several companions, and they all said: "That's what the yamen said! This Guo Ning is a fraud, and he owes the Song Dynasty a blood debt! The people in the court didn't realize it, so they ordered the soldiers to His blood was shed in vain!"
Several people shouted together, and some called him a traitor in the court, which immediately frightened the storyteller. They did not dare to argue with the noble man, so they had to retreat step by step, from the eaves by the door to under the eaves, and crowded together with a group of porters.
While the Yameni was speaking, Shi Kuanzhi, who was upstairs in the tea house, became increasingly ugly.
The situation in the north is constantly changing, and the court has repeatedly discussed this matter, but there is no final conclusion yet.
According to their usual habits, the officials began to play dead behind closed doors, assuming that everything was decided by the prime minister. In the past few years, the prime minister of history has become more powerful, and indeed he has made decisions in the house and has power in the bed. Therefore, he has been discussing with the civil and military officials in the capital hall and private residence for several days.
But some matters can be discussed secretly by the important officials of the imperial court. How can they be exposed to the outside world and be criticized by others?
If everyone feels that it was Guo Ning who deceived the Song Dynasty court and owed a blood debt to the Song Dynasty court, then there will be a series of problems that cannot be circumvented.
Who was responsible for the Song Dynasty being deceived? Who is responsible for the blood debt?
Who is responsible for the endless wars in more than a dozen military states from Huainan to the west of Beijing, and they all ended up being the head of Guo Ning, the Duke of Zhou?
The war has not lasted long, so no one in Lin'an City has felt the losses particularly directly at this time. But sooner or later, someone will find that their relatives and families have been wiped out by the war, and their hometown and countryside have been destroyed by the war. When they start to get angry, who will come forward to explain and who will be responsible?
Even if someone deliberately investigates, they will find that in the past year, the Song Dynasty sold a lot of materials to the north through the maritime trade route, overtly and covertly, including huge amounts of grain, as well as copper and iron, swim bladder glue, arrow shafts, etc. This is something that has been strictly restricted by officials in the imperial court for many years and is strictly forbidden to be disclosed. According to the law, if caught, he will be exiled for three thousand miles.
Guo Ning suddenly launched an army and pretended to overthrow the Kaifeng court in one fell swoop. Among them were the maritime merchants of the Song Dynasty. So, who allowed those maritime merchants? Who condoned it? Who benefits from it?
And who thought that they had reached a tacit agreement with Guo Ning, that they could control Kaifeng with Sui coins, and control Zhongdu with sea trade, and that they could have both sides... but were slapped in the face by Guo Ning's military operations?
All these things coming together will definitely trigger a wave in Lin'an, and someone will definitely take advantage of the wave and add fuel to the flames, pointing the finger at the ruling Prime Minister Shi Miyuan!
"Mr. Lang, let me check. Who is speaking?" Jia Sidao asked.
Shi Kuanzhi sneered twice: "No need. We bumped into one now. There are a hundred, a thousand in Lin'an City. So what if we find out?"
"Mr. Lang, you may not allow them to talk nonsense!"
Jia Sidao stamped his feet on the floor making a loud noise. After stamping, he said angrily: "If these people keep shouting like this, and the more they speak, the bolder they become, sooner or later they will be involved... Oh, Mr. Lang, this matter really cannot be tolerated!"
Shi Kuanzhi was a little moved and patted Jia Sidao on the shoulder.
Jia Sidao seems to be a young man who spends money like water, but in fact he has some means and is able to get things done, and he also has some special channels for dealing with maritime merchants.
Previously, he accompanied Xuan Zhen on his mission, and he was ordered to arrange a fast ship to deliver the news. Therefore, he did not go to Zhongdu together, so he did not suffer the same ridicule as Xuan Zhen. The capable people he arranged sent back the news several times in the shortest possible time, regardless of whether it was true or false, at least giving everyone in the history party time to deal with it.
Therefore, when Shi Kuanzhi went out on business these days, he always asked Jia Sidao to accompany him as a special show of affection. In fact, there was no need for him to express anything in particular. One of the two young men, one with the Prime Minister's back and the other with money flowing like water, were naturally matched. Over the past few months, the two of them had long become close friends.
Seeing that he is anxious at this moment, he is probably not only worried about Shi Dang's struggle for power in the court, but also worried that his father Jia She, as the envoy of the Huaidong system, will be pushed out as a sacrifice, right?
After all, Guo Ning set out from Haizhou, Shandong, and marched directly to Xuzhou. Haizhou was a few feet away from Chuzhou in Huaidong, but the Huaidong government officials were completely unaware of this. Guo Ning suddenly joined forces with the rest of the Red Coat Army, and In the past two years, Huaidong also invested a lot of money and food in recruiting the remnants of the Red Coat Army, and even asked the court for the title of the "Loyal and Righteous Army", but Guo Ning took the lead.
Huaidong cannot explain these two things in any way. As the new envoy of Huaidong, Jia She naturally has to bear the responsibility.
Jia Sidao is so worried, which shows that the relationship between the father and son seems to be distant. In fact, after all, the blood care is somewhat similar to the father and son Shi Miyuan and Shi Kuanzhi.
Shi Kuanzhi smiled and said: "There is no way it will involve the control of your husband... I am here!"
Jia She was the one who made Xianggong the official. As Shi Kuanzhi, he could guarantee this, which shows his sincerity.
But Jia Sidao's face didn't look relaxed at all.
He and Shi Kuanzhi were not thinking about the same thing at all, because he did not have a deep friendship with Jia She. Even if Jia She was cut into pieces, it would not be able to affect Li Yun, the chief minister of Tianjin Prefecture.
He raised his head and stared at Shi Kuanzhi for a while, then suddenly said: "Lang Jun, are you safe?"
What does this guy mean?
Shi Kuanzhi was stunned, his mind spinning.
As the eldest son of Shi Miyuan, Shi Kuanzhi was instructed by his father to prepare a new army in Huainan to consolidate the power of the prime minister. Outsiders don't know its importance, but who in the court doesn't know that Shi Kuanzhi is the one who really makes the decision in Huainan? The situation has developed to the point where it is now. Whether it is Jia She's oversight or whether Cui Yu, Li Dadong and others are held accountable for their crimes, can Shi Kuanzhi be bypassed?
He is the eldest son of the Prime Minister, and is gradually entering the official career and taking control of power; this alone is enough to attract criticism from both the government and the public, using him as a breakthrough against the entire Shi Party. So, doesn't Shi Xiang have any special arrangements for this?
While he was thinking about it, Jia Sidao said another sentence next to him: "Over the years, the government and the public have not talked about each other, and Shi Xianggong has increasingly concentrated the decision-making circle around his cronies. But in the past few days, there has been no When Mr. Zhaolang was discussing matters, he met some yellow-mouthed children..."
"Shut up!" Shi Kuanzhi shouted, stood up abruptly, and walked back and forth in the quiet room.
After just a few steps, his forehead was already covered with sweat and his temples were soaked with sweat. Lin'an City is extremely hot and muggy in the summer, and even if there are showers, it doesn't seem pleasant. Shi Kuanzhi was used to being well-dressed, and he sweated easily. When he was particularly nervous, he looked like he had been fished out of the water.
"Is the story about the Huangkou child... true?"
"Mr. Lang, if I, Jia Shixian, claim to be the second largest financier of Goulan House in Lin'an City, no one would dare to say that I am the number one. Even if I was on business in Qingyuan Mansion a few days ago, this Lin'an City The city foxes and rats here will still find out information for me. What they say will never be false."
"Hey……"
