Kou Zhong has found out the house purchase case. He coveted the position of general manager as usual, but everything seemed to make Cheng Congyuan feel more relaxed. However, even if the old guy was satisfied, he never showed his appearance, and remained as calm as if he was waiting for all opportunities to surface. , and finally had to skillfully catch the fish and haul in the net, which made Kou Zhong feel powerless.
From now on, there was no need to worry about the purchase of a house. Cheng Congyuan also took time off to find other things for Ye Mansion. He went to Ye Yongjia to discuss and discuss the shortcomings together. The two sat facing each other. Ye Yongjia picked up the porcelain bowl on the table, sipped the tea in it, and stared at the horizontal lines of the wooden table, as if thinking about things; Cheng Congyuan squinted his eyes and read the news in the newspapers. I would sometimes close the account books and meditate; they would all be as silent as death. After a long time, Ye Yongjia focused his eyes and said: "Looking at this account, I found that after our government bought land on a large scale, the grain harvest did not increase much..."
"Indeed," Cheng Congyuan nodded slowly, "I wonder if I have any clear opinions on this?" Ye Yongjia lay back on the chair and gently rubbed his brow bones, "I see that the mansion is recruiting more refugees, so The land is rented, but the refugees are in exile, and there is no land for permanent cultivation. The skills in managing the fields are clumsy and difficult to be effective. This is one of the reasons. Each field is sent by the government to supervise it, and there is an extra person in charge. It is inevitable that they will enrich their own pockets, and this is the second one. It is easy to get rid of the first one; but if we get rid of the second one, I am afraid that the farmers will have the opportunity to take advantage of it, which is a big problem." He then said nothing and repeated Thinking again.
"That's what I'm thinking about." Cheng Congyuan said, "The Zhou family saw that our house had this shortcoming. They had a memory, so they hired farmers and paid them monthly money. People were eager to go to the Zhou house. I think they imitated him This is feasible." Ye Yongjia shook his head slightly: "The gourd drawn according to the pattern will not be as good as the real thing."
"What you said is wonderful." Cheng Congyuan closed the account book completely and said in a deep tone: "But the gourd in the painting may not be as beautiful as the real gourd."
Ye Yongjia suddenly became energetic: "What can Mr. Cheng do?"
"Of course we can't apply all their methods," Cheng Congyuan smiled slyly: "Farmers prefer grain to monthly money. So our government can make an agreement with them. When harvesting grain, the farmers will get one-third of the grain, and we will get one-third of the grain. Seven points; if this is the case, they must have worked hard for food, so supervision is naturally unnecessary."
"I'm afraid the farmers won't come even if this happens. They hold the fixed monthly silver at Zhou's house, and it will last for a long time. But once our government enacts this law, if there is a drought year, the farmers will have no harvest. Mr. Cheng estimates Guess, why would they come to my house and take such risks?"
Cheng Congyuan was speechless for a moment. He didn't know where to start for a long time, so he frowned and thought deeply.
Ye Yongjia took a sip of tea and continued: "Mr. Cheng's method is wonderful, but there are some shortcomings. I think we can allocate moon silver based on this system. It doesn't need to be given more. It is enough to keep the farmers alive." . If they don’t want to live in poverty, they should ask for more harvests. With the risk gone, they have done their best, what does Mr. Cheng think?"
Cheng Congyuan glanced at him with admiration, and then laughed heartily: "I didn't expect that I am better than me! I have gained a lot of experience in the past few years!"
Ye Yongjia just smiled back and said "too much praise", paused, and then changed the topic again: "Mr. Cheng, has there been any news about the master in the past two days?"
Cheng Congyuan pondered for a moment, frowning, "There is a lot of news, but none of it is good." As he said that, he walked to the table and held it with one hand.
"Recently, people from Liu Zhennian's side have launched an impeachment offensive, but only a few scattered people have submitted letters. There is no sign of his downfall yet; but the people sent there said that Liu Zhennian is preparing to get a group of people to jointly submit a petition. , then we were in a dilemma..." Ye Yongjia listened calmly, with no trace of anxiety on his face. Cheng Congyuan glanced at him and sighed: "Although I sometimes play tricks on some people, I am an upright person. He may not be able to handle matters in the court well. Faced with this kind of thing, I'm afraid It will make things worse. If the old lady at home hadn't been seriously ill for a long time and needed me to calm down the situation in the house, I really wanted to rush to the master!"
"Yes, when I think about my mother's condition taking a turn for the worse since the fall, it's really troublesome both internally and externally." Ye Yongjia sighed and rubbed his browbones. "There is nothing we can do about this," Cheng Congyuan looked out the window, "Let's settle Zhou Jingshi's case first. This is the most important thing at the moment."
"Who will be sent to interrogate?" Ye Yongjia put aside his worries for the time being and asked.
"Kou Zhong." Cheng Congyuan flashed a smile.
Several slaves opened the way in front, removed the firewood piled in front of the utility room door, reached out to unlock the door, and then stood on both sides of the door, looking directly at Kou Zhong who was coming. "You go in." A slave stepped forward and said respectfully. Kou Zhong waved his hand and walked straight into the room without answering. There is almost nothing inside, and there is a thick layer of dust on the ground. If you push it with your feet, it can rise up in the air and even dazzle people's eyes. Zhou Jingshi was surrounded by several bundles of firewood. He was sitting in the middle, his clothes so dirty that his original shape could not be seen.
"Manager Zhou, just admit the corruption. Everyone who bought the house has been tried. There is a lot of evidence for you here..." Kou Zhong spoke slowly and gently to persuade. Zhou Jingshi slowly raised his head, with a complicated expression that showed whether it was anger or sadness, and he stared at him intently. Kou Zhong was not disturbed and remained calm as before.
"Steward, I won't excuse myself, but you and I are just helping each other out of profit. Please don't talk about kindness, Steward Zhou, and just plead guilty." Kou Zhong said softly without any shame.
"You still have the nerve to talk like that?..." Zhou Jingshi's low voice was filled with anger.
"I won't talk about morality today. I'm afraid that even Steward Zhou can't explain these things." Kou Zhong said calmly, "I'm here to ask Steward to plead guilty. I won't ask about anything else."
"I'm facing a dead end now, and there's nothing I can do if I don't admit it!" He sighed deeply, paused for a long time, and then said, "I plead guilty." Kou Zhong smiled, but said nothing.
"Okay. If you are willing to plead guilty, then come out with me, but the specific amount has to be explained to the people in the conference hall. I am not qualified to interfere in these matters. Okay." After that, he made a 'please' gesture and asked Zhou Jingshi stood up.
"Can you wait a while?" Zhou Jingshi said, "Just a moment."
Kou Zhong sighed softly: "Okay, but Mr. Cheng can't wait too long."
"I understand." Zhou Jingshi closed his eyes, and then said: "I want to die more clearly... I want to ask you a few questions."
"Just ask."
"You never planned to be loyal to me from the beginning to the end?"
"Manager Zhou should have known better today." Kou Zhong deliberately did not answer.
"Why did you harm me?"
Kou Zhong thought for a long time and responded seriously: "I just want to get rid of your control."
"My clamp?" Zhou Jingshi asked.
"You may think I'm lying, but I really feel a feeling. This feeling has fueled my desire for power and has almost become hopeless." Kou Zhong stared at the peeling wall. As if talking to himself. "As long as I feel that there is something I must obey, shackles will arise in my heart; no matter how kind and righteous that person is to me, I will always be stinging like I am living among thorns. No matter how much time is delayed, I can't overcome it. .”
"I'm afraid you'll never get rid of it, and you'll end up being despised by others."
"As long as I do it without hesitation, I will one day reach the top and get rid of it completely." Zhong Kou turned his attention to Zhou Jingshi again and seemed to be angry at his words. "But I can't see Manager Zhou anymore." Kou Zhong said with a pretentious smile.
Zhou Jing sneered ten times, turned his head away, and remained silent.
After calming down for a while, Zhou Jingshi straightened his clothes and strode straight to the door without speaking to Kou Zhong; Kou Zhong smiled angrily and had no choice but to follow him.
Zhou Jingshi was escorted to the meeting hall by his servants. Kou Zhong explained the matter to Cheng Congyuan and silently withdrew. "Stand." Cheng Congyuan turned his back to him and shouted casually. Kou Zhong had no choice but to stand, but he was so nervous that sweat suddenly formed on his palms.
"It's nothing. The master wants to reward you personally. Go and see the master in the back room."
"Ah, yes." Kou Zhong agreed, then exhaled; wiped his hands on his clothes, bowed towards Cheng Congyuan, and walked forward with his head lowered. Why are you afraid of him for no reason? Kou Zhongli was very puzzled.
No matter what, I met the master now. The back room of the meeting hall was originally for the old lady to give orders to her servants, but because the old lady became increasingly unwell and could not move around, she used this place as a place for Ye Yongjia to rest and summon his servants.
Kou Zhong had not seen this master for a year or two. When he knelt on the ground, he would always catch a glimpse of how Ye Yongjia's face was different from before. I found that his eyes became more decisive, but lacked some so-called vitality; his body shape was not as thick as before.
"Kou Zhong, you are the first one to come forward and expose the person who purchased the house. I should meet you and reward you personally." After saying that, Ye Yongjia took out a silver note from his sleeve, "This note is written as twenty Two pieces of silver is quite a lot." He then asked Kou Zhong to stretch out his hand and handed the silver note to his hand.
"If you are willing to work hard, you might be able to succeed Mr. Cheng in the future."
"Thank you for the compliment, Master," Kou Zhong first smiled with a smile on his face, but suddenly he looked hesitant again, like a rat emerging from the middle of the night, and carefully said every word: "But I am different from Mr. Cheng, maybe I am smarter than him... Of course, Quan Let the master judge.”
Ye Yongjia listened to his words carefully and remained silent for a long time before replying: "You are all just servants, how can we talk about differences?"
"The slave does not want to be distinguished from Mr. Cheng. It's just that the slave has something that can match the master, but Mr. Cheng has absolutely no such thing."
Kou Zhong continued, "Mr. Cheng is so considerate of the Ye family that he often ignores his master's thoughts. The master himself knows that Mr. Cheng killed Zhang Ping with a stick. As a slave, it is not easy to say anything. Of course, a slave is not Mr. Shu Luocheng, but the master probably doesn’t want to be surrounded by people like this. How many people are needed to be loyal to you alone?”
"It's never your turn." Ye Yongjia said resolutely with a sneer on his face.
"Master will need me sooner or later." Kou Zhong shook his head, rolled up the banknotes and stuffed them into his sleeves, and smiled at him: "Master, I take my leave." He knelt on the ground, looking directly at him, waiting for a reply.
But there was no reply at all. He could only kowtow and slowly exit.
The refugees were all expelled with a piece of paper, and they had no place to stay in Jinan Prefecture. Naturally, Ye Mansion did not care about the livelihood of these people and was busy recruiting farmers. It was said that "the profits of the harvest will be shared first, and the money and grain will be distributed in the end." Within a few days, dozens of farmers came to invest, and many came from the Zhou family. . Coupled with the corruption and bribery in the government, within a few months, the Ye family had received so much grain that the Zhou family was almost outnumbered. Cheng Congyuan also devised strategies to win over people's hearts. Every time he provided relief and disaster relief, he was obligated to do so. Even the people who had not received relief rushed to praise the good governance of the Ye family. The Ye family seemed to be a distinguished family, with both wealth and hope.
It happened that these two days were about ancestor worship, and Cheng Congyuan suggested that Ye Yongjia use this opportunity to make a big splash and show off the prestige of the Ye family. Ye Yongjia readily agreed, but it seemed that he had ulterior motives that no one could know. Cheng Congyuan suddenly felt scruples in his heart, but he didn't dare to ask. He could only squint his eyes and look out at the gloomy space, and then hurriedly left.
Tomorrow after the discussion was over, the weather turned out to be surprisingly good. The servants of the Ye Mansion were surrounding each other, with Ye and Cheng in the middle, forming a formation. The sound of gongs and drums suddenly became noisy and crowded into the avenue of Jinan City; Ye Yongjia was riding a dark horse, his eyes scanning the distance. It instantly attracted many people, and crowds of people crowded on both sides of the road. Cheers mixed with the sound of gongs and drums. The noisy sound was extremely shocking inside and outside the city. Some people blocked the front directly, and most of them were relief workers from the Ende Ye Mansion.
Kou Zhongxing was in the front, also sitting on the horse, and immediately shouted: "Everyone! My master, in accordance with the wishes of our ancestors, will definitely let the people of Jinan City enjoy peace forever! Why is it necessary to mobilize troops like this? This is all within the scope of my government!" After saying this, there was a wave of shouts. Cheng Congyuan glanced at Kou Zhong, then turned his head to talk to Ye Yongjia.
"Mr. Cheng, wait a moment. Seeing the support from the people in front, I have to say something. If I have anything to do, it's not too late to talk about it another day."
Cheng Congyuan nodded: "There are many people in front of us, master, be careful." Ye Yongjia agreed, slowly pulled the reins, and walked to Kou Zhong in front. Kou Zhong took a few steps back and shouted from the front: "Although everyone is grateful for the virtues of my Ye family, if our family is not prosperous, how can we have more money to help the poor? Based on this argument, this person should be praised even more!"
Saying that, Ye Yongjia pulled Kou Zhong over: "This person's name is Kou Zhong. He is responsible for detecting corrupt criminals in the house, and is impartial and honest. He has revolutionized the atmosphere! Without this move, we may not be as prosperous as we are today, and we may not be as powerful as we are today." Support!" After hearing this, Kou Zhong looked at the master stupidly.
Cheng Congyuan could hear clearly from behind, those words were very harsh. He suppressed the anger, shock and grief mixed in his heart and looked straight at Kou Zhong. Seeing some people sincerely taking off their red robes and throwing them to Kou Zhong, Kou Zhong put the robe firmly on his body and spread his arms. His voice could not be heard in the noisy crowd, but he seemed to be bragging about his achievements, just like fighting in battle. Returning soldiers.
…
This is a clever plan that the master came up with. Cheng Congyuan's mind became clearer. That's a trick to help the upstarts come to power. Cheng Congyuan washed his face, put his hands behind his back in the room, and faced the beam.
"Hero of Qingfeng and uprightness!" the people on the road once shouted.
This is tantamount to erasing the original Kou Zhong and replacing it with a whitewashed appearance.
What are you worried about here? It's just a passing cloud. He instantly felt that Kou Zhong was not worth mentioning. His master still had a lot of trust in him. Such an opportunistic villain would not be glorious for a few days. Besides, he has many countermeasures, but Kou Zhong can only look up to his master. Thinking of this, he closed his eyes smoothly, and his mind was very clear at this moment. Cheng Congyuan no longer worried about this, but the crisis far away in the capital could not make him relax.
