"There is his name, but it seems to have nothing to do with it..."
Before Ye Yongjia finished speaking, Cai Xianqing pulled up the letter and quickly found the passage about Cun Zhao. When he looked carefully, he saw that it read: "Cun Zhao has volunteered to return to Huai'an to investigate the resettlement matter. There is no need to tell anyone." Heart..." Cai Xianqing stared at this seemingly ordinary sentence, her eyelids twitched, and her face turned pale instantly.
"Cun Zhao is an extremely shrewd person, and he is assisted by Chen Dang..." He gently placed his hands on the paper and sighed heavily, "This matter does not seem to be so natural. Tsk, I'm afraid..."
Ye Yongjia also became serious: "Afraid of what?"
Cai Xianqing said: "Huai'an is where the baggage is located. After Xuanhua was lost, it relied on it as the military government. He suddenly gave up fighting for power with us and came here instead. I am afraid he had a premeditated plan to hold on to this important road for money and food. "
"They... how can they do it?" Ye Yongjia asked, frowning.
"It doesn't matter how many tricks they used, the purpose is just this," Cai Xianqing waved his hand and said, "The most important thing now is to simplify the complex. Don't make the problem complicated. Sometimes, the more complex the strategy, the easier it is. It’s full of loopholes.”
Ye Yongjia suddenly became energetic, clapped his knees and said: "What Mr. Cai said really made me realize! If so, Ye has a countermeasure: According to the letter, the governor Zhang Chenghuai is a wavering person, but from now on There's something wrong with him."
Cai Xianqing was overjoyed and pressed his shoulder and said: "Tinglong really got it right. Without further ado, write a letter to Congming quickly. The opportunity is fleeting!"
Ye Yongjia was convinced. He hurriedly opened the letter and added a few more lines at the end. In order to use the words accurately, he even thought hard about it, and his clothes were soaked with sweat.
After entering Huai'an City, Cun Zhao could no longer see Dong Sheng's face, and he felt particularly at ease. After chatting with the magistrate for a while, he gathered together with his confidants and decided not to tell the magistrate first, but to spread the news through the people.
After receiving the instructions from the Secretary, the confidant took the note with him, put on a farmer's attire, and went to the street.
He raised his eyes and looked at a tea shed, with people coming and going on all sides. There were stalls selling various vegetables and fruits nearby. Although it was not crowded, it was still quite a lot for a small town in Huai'an.
"Do you have porridge here?" The confidant rolled up his sleeves, sat cross-legged on the bench, and asked the owner.
The shop owner looked at him doubtfully for a moment, then threw the firewood into the stove and came over and said, "Yes. But I don't think you look like a local?"
The confidant could vaguely understand the dialect he spoke, and replied: "I am indeed not from the local area. I live in Fucheng in the south. I am not helping the government as an errand, delivering messages somewhere, and passing by here."
After all, he was a soldier under Cun Zhao, and he was full of sinews and tanned skin. Naturally, the shopkeeper believed his story, and immediately went to the pot and filled out a bowl of porridge and placed it in front of him.
The confidant had just taken a big mouthful of porridge when he heard a group of people nearby talking about border defense.
"What are you talking about?" He turned to face and asked.
"You don't know?" Those people turned around and said, "The imperial court sent Mr. Dong and mobilized a forbidden army. It is obvious that they want to expel the captives and recover Xuanhua."
Someone nearby also shouted: "This is a great thing! Our county has been harassed several times, and we are frightened every day. These days are endless."
"Yes, even if we are thrown to the front line!"
"What a pity!" His confidant shouted, with a bitter look on his face.
Everyone clenched their fists and looked over with sharp eyes: "What the hell do you mean?"
"I was arrested by the government as an errand in the past few days and learned some inside information," a confidant said, shaking his head. "Not only did Dong Sheng not dare to go north, he also wanted to strengthen the defense line and build a lot of construction projects for this purpose. He built countless buildings on the border within one month. City wall and fortress, time is running out, I’m afraid you all have to go to the front line to do hard labor. What’s more... the military government has no money to allocate, and they won’t even give you a penny of wages."
The people were panicked, pointing at the bridge of his nose and shouting: "What you say is unfounded. Please provide evidence! Otherwise, I will arrest you and report you to the official!"
The confidant sighed and took out the note stating the expenses from his arms: "Here!"
Everyone immediately gathered around and turned their heads to look at the small characters, unable to make them out clearly.
"Who can read? This is so delicately written, who the hell can see it!" Everyone shouted dissatisfied.
"I can," the shop owner put aside what he was doing, hurried over, pushed the blocker out of the way, and read the handwriting carefully: "This says... what is the castle, it cost two thousand taels of silver, and where is it from?" Fort, eight hundred taels..."
"Don't read so verbosely, it's just building these things! There are more than ten places in total, and it requires a lot of manpower!"
The coaxing of the confidants caused everyone to burst into an uproar, angrily cursing Dong Sheng, spittle flying everywhere. Not long after, they rushed out of the tea shed and spread the shocking news to passers-by, causing chaos in the market.
This movement alerted the patrolling officers and soldiers. They held knives and guns and roared like thunder. They quickly maintained order here, tied up a few ropes causing trouble, and asked sternly: "Which thief is spreading rumors so boldly!"
The people were afraid of the power and identified the confidant on the spot. He was still sitting on the stool drinking porridge calmly, looking coldly at the visitor.
"Let's go, follow me to the execution room. I'll beat you to death at least!" The officer in charge grabbed him by the collar, pushed the table away, and spilled the hot porridge all over the floor.
"You thief, kneel down quickly!"
The confidant was pushed into a small study room and saw a clerk sitting in front of him with a fierce look.
He looked around and said with a faint smile: "Who is this, that he can kneel down and bow to each other?"
"He is Mr. Xingming!"
"What punishment name did I mention? It turned out to be the clerk of the county government office! A clerk is qualified to teach people to kneel!"
"How dare you!" The clerk slapped the table and stood up.
"Of course I dare," the confidant said expressionlessly, "haven't you searched me?"
"Don't be arrogant, I'm just..."
The soldiers searched his trousers and pulled out a golden belt card with the four characters "Si Jin Cun Zhao" written on it.
"Master Jun!"
The clerk's eyes widened, he knelt down tremblingly and kowtowed.
"It's good that you know," the confidant broke away from the people on both sides and walked slowly forward for a few steps. "But I didn't come here intentionally to test you, but to save your life. There is no need to panic."
"Please... please tell me." The clerk remained motionless.
"I and Cun Si are here to give your county an order: within one month, find a way to allocate 200,000 taels of silver to support the New Deal. The existing documents are proof!"
