choke element

The sky is gloomy today, with thick clouds.

Accompanying Shi Kuanzhi, Jia Sidao turned back from the street, passing the Yujie Street south of Zhong'an Bridge, seeing that the heavy rain was coming, he hurried into a familiar tea house, opened an upstairs elegant room, and just sat down , The rain came down suddenly.

The tea house faces the largest north tile in Lin'an City, so the surrounding area is extremely lively and crowded.At this moment, the people on the road also took refuge in the eaves of various places.Several storytellers had just eaten tea and food, and were about to rush back to their Goulan yard, but they were blocked by rain.

They happened to be directly below the elegant room, and they didn't notice the rich or expensive attire of Shi Kuanzhi and others upstairs, so there was a conversation mixed with the sound of rain.

"Hey, the first game in the afternoon should be my first prize! Now I can't make it, it's all over!"

"It's raining so hard, how can anyone go to the yard? It's all over when you get there."

"You bastard!"

"God doesn't reward the meal, what can we do? Don't worry! Don't worry!"

"It's not that I'm in a hurry, the old man at home has been suffering from physical pain recently, and he can't sleep peacefully day and night. I planned to scrape together two hundred cash today to buy a dose of Ginseng Baidu Powder from Chen Zhiweng's pharmacy..."

"Your father has always been healthy, so it's not a big deal, but... two hundred cash? Chen Zhiweng's ginseng Baidu Powder is still selling for two hundred cash?"

"Uh, what's the point?"

"Ginseng Baidu San uses the Heji Bureau Prescription, and it uses Bupleurum, Licorice, Campanulaceae, Ginseng, and Poria cocos as the assistants of the monarch and ministers. A large number of licorice and ginseng shipped from the north were sold in the industry the day before yesterday, so General Yang led the medicine shop. He Ren'aitang Cooked Medicine Shop has already put up a post, and all the medicines that use licorice and ginseng are cheap! You go to those two to buy, at most 160 Wen!"

"That's good, but I'm still short of fifty coins..."

"I have it here. Fifty Wen... Take it, don't rush to return it!"

The common people who are walking rarely have savings, and even if they do, they will not have much.These entertainers earn more than ordinary people, but in daily life, the ghosts and snakes in the Goulan courtyard have to be filial, and the head of the association and the head of the line are divided. Unless they are famous storytellers, they don’t have enough money in their pockets to buy medicines. And so on, you have to be extra frugal.

"Thank you! Thank you!" The person who spoke before sighed: "A while ago, the child in the family was sick, and now it is an elderly patient. I am now earning money for the medicine every day. You said that the medicine will be cheaper. That is a good thing. "

"Since last year, the medicinal materials produced in the north have been much cheaper. I only hope that the war in Kaifeng will not affect the trade route, otherwise..."

"It's bitter, if this battle is fought for a long time, I'm afraid it will affect the trade routes. Wouldn't the medicinal materials go up? Those merchants will do things, who can predict it? If my ginseng Baidu powder..."

The storyteller, who was planning to buy medicine, jumped up, walked back and forth twice under the eaves, and finally asked the shopkeeper for a large tarpaulin 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 wants to be famous, so it won't mess around. What's more, 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 months, and it will be over."

"Brother Yin said so!"

The man who borrowed the money greatly agreed:

"There are a lot of absurd exaggerations in our daily conversations. For example, it is said that Guo Ning is eight feet tall, his waist is also eight feet, and the iron bone in his hand weighs eight hundred catties. As a pawn on the frontier, he became the Duke of Zhou and the Marshal of the capital in three years. How can he rely on the courage of a man? Look at his previous battles. Every time he fought suddenly, he won every battle. How could this time be an exception..."

Having said that, someone in the teahouse said angrily: "You people of the Great Song Dynasty, what are you worrying about for a usurper from the Kingdom of Jin! This guy was able to hit the city of Kaifeng because he deceived the court and used the skills of the Great Song court. Soldiers and horses to attract the main force of the Kaifeng Jin army, this is a blood debt!"

The person who spoke was very imposing, he should be the son of an official or a scholar in Lin'an City, and what he said made sense.This man had several companions with him, and they all said: "What the Yamen said is true! This Guo Ning is a fraudulent person, a person who owes the blood of the Song Dynasty! The gangsters in the court didn't realize it, so they sent the soldiers His blood was shed in vain!"

Several people yelled together, and some people called Yun Yun, a traitor in the court, which immediately frightened the storyteller.They didn't dare to argue with the nobleman, so they had to retreat step by step, from the eaves next to the door to under the eaves, and squeezed together with a group of porters.

At the same time as the yamen spoke, 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, but there is still no conclusion.

According to the usual habit, the officials began to play dead behind closed doors, assuming that everything was decided by the prime minister.However, Shi Xiang has become powerful in the past few years, and it is true that the decision lies in the house door, and the power lies in the bed, so he has been discussing with civil and military officials in the capital hall and in private houses for several days.

But for some things, it's okay for the important officials of the imperial court to discuss in secret, how can they be left to the outside world to receive the fierce mouth?
If everyone thinks that it was Guo Ning who deceived the Great Song Dynasty and owed the Great Song Dynasty a blood debt, then there will be a series of problems that cannot be avoided.

Who is responsible for Da Song 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?
The war didn't last long, so no one in Lin'an City felt the loss directly.But sooner or later, someone will find that their relatives and family members were not destroyed by the war, and their hometown and fields were destroyed by the war.When they start to get angry, who will come forward to explain and who will take responsibility?
Even if someone deliberately pursues it, they will find that in the past year, Song Dynasty sold a lot of materials to the north through the sea trade route, including a huge amount of grain, copper and iron, swim bladder glue, arrow shafts, etc.These are all strictly restricted by the imperial court over the years, and disclosure is strictly prohibited. According to the law, if caught, you will have to flee for three thousand miles.

That Guo Ning suddenly mobilized his army, pretending to overthrow the Kaifeng court in one fell swoop, among which was the credit of the Great Song Maritime Merchants.So, who allowed those sea merchants?Who condoned it?Who is taking advantage of it?
And who thought that they had reached a tacit understanding with Guo Ning, that they could control Kaifeng with old coins, and control Zhongdu with Haimao, so that they could have their own way...but they were slapped in the face by Guo Ning's military actions?
The combination of all these things will definitely cause 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!
"Lang Jun, let me check, who is talking?" Jia Sidao asked.

Shi Kuanzhi sneered twice: "No need. We bumped into one right now, and there are a hundred or a thousand in Lin'an City, so what if we find out?"

"Lang Jun, you don't necessarily want to let them talk nonsense!"

Jia Sidao stomped on the floor.After stamping, he resentfully said: "These people continue to yell like this, and the more they speak, the bolder they become. Sooner or later, they will be involved... Sigh, sir, 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 big spender, but in fact he has some means, he can handle affairs, and he has some special channels for dealing with maritime merchants.

Accompanying Xuan Zang on his mission before, he was ordered to arrange a fast boat to deliver the news halfway, so he never went to Zhongdu together, so he was not ridiculed for neglect like Xuan Zang.The competent people he arranged sent back the news in the shortest time several times in a row, regardless of whether it was true or false, at least it bought time for everyone in the Shi Party to deal with it.

So Shi Kuanzhi had Jia Sidao to accompany him whenever he went out these few days, especially as a show of kindness.In fact, there is no need for him to specifically say that the two young people, one with his back to the current prime minister, and the other with a lot of money, are naturally compatible with each other. In the past few months, the two of them have already become close friends.

Seeing him anxious now, 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 off from Haizhou, Shandong, and raised his troops to attack Xuzhou. In the past two years, Dong also invested a lot of money and food in recruiting the rest of the Red Coat Army, and asked the imperial court for the title of "Loyalty Army", but Guo Ning took the lead.

The Huaidong side couldn't justify these two incidents anyway, and Jia She, the new envoy of the Huaidong system, naturally had to bear the responsibility.

Jia Sidao is so worried, it can be seen that the relationship between the father and son seems to be estranged, but in fact, after all, blood care is somewhat similar to Shi Miyuan and Shi Kuanzhi's father and son.

Shi Kuanzhi smiled and said, "Why don't you get involved in making the prime minister... I am!"

Jia She was the one making the appointment, and it was very sincere to be able to guarantee this in Shi Kuanzhi's capacity.

But Jia Sidao didn't look relaxed at all.

What he and Shi Kuanzhi thought were not on the same page at all, because he did not have a deep friendship with Jia She, even if Jia She was torn apart, it would not affect Li Yun, the left and right secretary of the Tianjin government.

He raised his head and stared at Shi Kuanzhi for a while, then suddenly said: "Lang Jun, are you safe?"

What does this kid mean?
Shi Kuanzhi froze for a moment, his thoughts turned.

As the eldest son of Shi Miyuan, Shi Kuanzhi was instructed by his father to prepare a new army in Huainan to consolidate power.Outsiders don't know its importance, but who in the court doesn't know that Shi Kuanzhi is the one who actually makes the prime minister's decision in Huainan?With the current situation, whether it is Jia She's negligence, or Cui Yuzhi, Li Dadong and others' crimes, can Shi Kuanzhi be bypassed?

He is the eldest son of Shi Xiang, and he is gradually stepping into the official career and taking power; this alone is enough to attract criticism from the government and the public, using him as a breakthrough against the entire Shi Party.So, does Shi Xiang have no special arrangements for this?
While he was thinking about it, Jia Sidao said another sentence beside him: "Over the years, the government and the public have not talked about the king, and Shi Xianggong has increasingly concentrated his decision-making circle on his cronies. But in the past few days, there has been no Zhao Langjun was discussing the matter, but met some yellow-mouthed children..."

"Shut up!" Shi Kuanzhi shouted abruptly, got up abruptly, and walked back and forth in the quiet room.

After walking a few steps, his forehead was already covered with sweat, and his temples were drenched with sweat.Lin'an City in summer is extremely sweltering, even if there are showers, it doesn't seem to be fun.Shi Kuanzhi was used to being well-dressed, so he was prone to sweating, and when he was particularly nervous, he looked like he was fished out of the water.

"The matter of Huangkou Xiaoer... is it true?"

"Your Majesty, if I, Jia Shixian, claim to be the No. [-] patron of Goulan tile houses in Lin'an City, no one will dare to say that I am the No. [-]. Even if I have been working in Qingyuan Mansion a few days ago, this Lin'an City The city foxes and social mice in the city will still inquire about news for me. What they say will never be false."

"Hey……"