Dragon of the Three Kingdoms

Li Yi returned the gift, and he was really ashamed to help everyone, because he asked Tao Qian because he was afraid that Tao Qian would swell his face and make himself fat, and then starve his future people to death. Don't want to move these people.

After everyone stood up, Li Yi turned to Tao Qian and said, "I will tell you the truth, I am going to raise food for this battle in Yangzhou by myself."

Tao Qian was startled, then thought of something, then turned to look at Mi Zhu, this is a big family in Xuzhou, although he doesn't know how much food Mi's family still has, but it must be no less than what is in his treasury.

But Tao Qian doubted how much food the Mi family was willing to give Li Yi. After all, in Tao Qian's eyes, businessmen were very greedy.

Li Yi continued: "Brother Mi's family is in business, and I have small savings in Jingzhou, so I plan to use Guangling as the foundation, and ask Brother Mi to use money to buy grain from big households in Xuzhou. I roughly estimate that the grain and grass obtained in this way should be enough. I will use it in May and June, and then it depends on whether the war goes well, if I can conquer a few more cities and get hundreds of thousands of grain and grass, the battle of Yangzhou will be safe."

Tao Qian heard the words, but his expression was a little heavy. He opened his mouth, intending to remind Li Yi, but looking at the people present, he didn't know how to speak.

It's not unreasonable for the big man to rot into what he is now. As far as Xuzhou's disaster is concerned, it is reasonable to say that no matter whether it is officials at all levels or the local family, they should work together to tide over the difficulties. But in fact, those hands The big households who store grain in the village don't care about the life and death of the people, and take advantage of this time to raise the price of grain. Only a few months have passed, and the price of grain in Xuzhou has increased by more than five times compared to before the war!

At this time, Li Yi wanted to buy grain from the aristocratic family. It would be great if he could buy food for six months, but now he could buy two months.

As Xuzhou Mu, Tao Qian was very dissatisfied with this situation, but he was powerless to change it. He could send Zhang Zhao to prison with his own joy and anger, but Tao Qian really couldn't do it by making him fight against the big family. I don't have the courage either.

Therefore, Tao Qian could only sigh in his heart, and made up his mind that if Li Yi was really in trouble, he would grit his teeth and support him, so he could be regarded as worthy of Li Yi.

However, Li Yi didn't know Tao Qian's thoughts. He also knew about the rise in food prices in Xuzhou, because Mi Zhu was one of the main promoters at the beginning, but Li Yi didn't participate, and he didn't want to compete with the family for the time being. As for the purchase of grain he said, it was actually just imitating the money laundering of later generations, and through the channels of the Mi family, the grain in Xiapi was legalized so that he could use it in the open.

It is worth mentioning that after learning that Li Yi was going to send troops to Yangzhou, Mi Zhu stopped the sale of grain, and decided to give all the grain stored in Mi's family to Li Yi for use, and he even wanted to spend all his money on behalf of Li Yi to other people. The aristocratic family purchased grain. It can be said that the Mi family has supported Liu Bei in history, and has no reservations about Li Yi.

Li Yi was very moved by the attitude of the Mi family, but he only accepted the food from the Mi family, and did not let Mi Zhu continue to spend a lot of money to buy food.

Because Li Yi himself is not short of food, what he is worried about is that there will be a large-scale famine in Xuzhou and Yangzhou during the period from autumn to next year. The hole is too big, and even if Mi Zhu is sold, it cannot be filled. Therefore, If that happens, Li Yi intends to "beg" for food from the local aristocratic family. If he can get it, everyone is good friends. If he can't, then don't blame him for doing everything he can.

After talking about the food, Li Yi went on to say: "When sending troops to Yangzhou, the people's feet will naturally need a lot of strength. Originally, I was very troubled by this, but I heard that there are many fleeing people in Xiapi and Guangling who are waiting for the government to resettle them. Therefore, I want to discuss with the envoy, recruit [-] young and strong people to transport food and grass for me, and all the expenses will be settled by me, which can be regarded as sharing the pressure for the envoy, I don't know what the envoy wants?"

"oh, I see"

Tao Qian pondered for a while. He originally wanted to agree directly, but he is the lord of a state after all, so he had to think carefully when making a decision, not to mention that Xuzhou is now in need of manpower.

Seeing that Tao Qian had been thinking for a long time, don't drive Zhao Yu to cough lightly, and said, "Master, this subordinate thinks it's feasible."

Hearing this, Tao Qian looked at Zhao Yu, then at Li Yi, and said, "To tell you the truth, I am naturally willing to help the Marquis Xiang, but I am a little hesitant because of spring plowing."

Before Li Yi could speak, Zhao Yu said, "Master, Chun Geng does need manpower, but, alas, many people are afraid that they will not dare to return to Pengcheng."

Tao Qian was silent, sighed after a while and said: "Okay, I will follow Xianghou's wishes. Alas, if it wasn't for Xianghou, I don't know how to arrange them for a while."

Li Yi shook his head and said: "All the people in the world are descendants of the Han family, and Yi and the envoy are both ministers of the Han family, so some things within our ability should be done, and naturally we must do them."

Tao Qian nodded vigorously, although his mouth was silent, but his eyes were full of admiration.

Seeing Li Yi and Tao Qian's eye contact, Wang Lang smiled and said, "If that's the case, sir, can we congratulate Zi Zhong for his promotion? I heard that there are a lot of fine wines in his house, and Wang has been thinking about it for a long time." gone."

Tao Qian felt much better when he heard the words, he let go of the hand that had been holding Li Yi, laughed and said, "Okay, Zizhong, from now on you will..."

Tao Qian was about to announce his appointment, but there was a "bang", the door of the hall was knocked open, and a guard walked in quickly with a man dressed as a servant.

Tao Qian's words were interrupted, and he was suddenly upset, especially with Li Yi present, it was his face that the guards were rude, so he shouted coldly: "What's the matter!"

The guard knew that Tao Qian was angry, so he hurriedly bowed to Tao Qian and said loudly: "Report to the envoy, Xiapi urgent report, Xiapi Ruo Guoxiang, and dozens of Xiapi officials were killed, Xiapi Chaos!"

"what!"

"how can that be!"

"Where did the news come from, is it true or false!"

Hearing this frightening news suddenly, everyone was silent at first, and then they all let out exclamations of surprise.

"Silence!"

Tao Qian's face turned red, he scolded everyone to be quiet, then walked quickly to the guard, stared at him and asked, "What happened!"

Li Yi watched this scene, squinted his eyes, and then stood behind Tao Qian with a serious face. Although he didn't make a sound, he seemed quite nervous about this matter.

The guard wiped the sweat from his forehead, pointed to the person who came in with him and said: "This is from the Chen family in Xiapi, he sent the news."

Tao Qian turned his head and looked at the man with burning eyes. Compared with usual, Tao Qian at this time really looked like a state shepherd.

The man did not wait for Tao Qian to ask questions, he presented something with both hands, and said: "The villain is accompanied by the Young Patriarch, this is the seal certificate."

Tao Qian didn't wait for the guard to reach out, and opened it directly. He saw Chen Deng's private seal on it, which confirmed the identity of this person.

Taking a deep breath, Tao Qian asked in a deep voice, "What happened to Xiapi? If you talk nonsense, I will spare you!"

"The villain dare not!"

The man hurriedly bowed to Tao Qian, then got up and said: "Only three days ago, Prime Minister Ruo Guo went to the temple outside the city to prepare for the Buddhist meeting. Unexpectedly, hundreds of strong men came to kill him. He took several guards, lost to the enemy, and was captured by a strongman. When the strongman learned of the identity of the Prime Minister, he threatened the Prime Minister's life and asked the officials in the city to send money and food in exchange for the Prime Minister's life. However, before the city could respond, the Prime Minister They were killed by those strong men, and the monks in the temple and the officials of the same country were also slaughtered."

A Xuzhou official couldn't help asking: "Why is this? They are obviously asking for money, why do they want to kill people!"

The man explained: "After the young patriarch got the news and arrived, he found a monk who had escaped a catastrophe hiding under the hut, and was told that those strong men were indeed waiting for the ransom from the city, but not long after, they found the temple. The treasures piled up like a mountain, far exceeding the ransom demanded. The leader of the strongman was angry, thinking that Xiangguo and the monk deliberately deceived him, so he ordered to kill, and then fled with the temple's belongings.

Chapter 508 It's All Li's Fault

When they heard that Ruo Rong was murdered, everyone was shocked.

After all, Ruo Rong is the number one person in Xiapi. His murder has a very huge and bad impact on Xuzhou's officials and local management, especially Xuzhou has just been ravaged by Cao Cao. Before recovering his strength, Ruo Rong died, which made things worse.

As for those who get along well with Ruo on weekdays, or admire him, they feel even more sad and heartbroken.

For example, Tao Qian, like Zhao Yu, Tao Qian is Ruo Rong's good friend, Zhao Yu was deceived by Ruo Rong's hypocritical side, and always thought that Ruo Rong was a good person.

Especially Tao Qian, at this time Tao Qian's eyes were already full of tears, his relationship with Ruo Rong was very one-sided, otherwise he would not have been so conniving to Ruo Rong.

However, after the people sent by Chen Deng told the story of Ruo Rong's murder, Tao Qian's tears could only roll in his eyes, and he wanted to fall, but he couldn't.

The same goes for other officials. Many people who were angry or sad just now began to lose control of their facial muscles, and they could only maintain their current appearance very hard.

There are also a small number of people, such as Wang Lang, who have long known that Ruo Rong is not a good person. Now that they have heard the cause of Ruo Rong's death, although they don't express anything on the surface, it is not difficult to find it deep in their eyes when they look closely. That touch of schadenfreude.

Everyone knows that Ruo Rong is building a Buddhist temple in Xiapi, so where does the money for building the Buddhist temple come from?

Naturally, it is taken from the government.

Ruo Rong likes to hold Buddhist meetings, and often gives food to the people in the name of Buddhist temples. Where does the money come from?

It was also obtained from the government.

To put it bluntly, Ruo Rong is a moth in Xuzhou, constantly poaching Xuzhou's corners, and fulfilling his own reputation, but his methods are clever, the accounts are justifiable, and the face project is very good. He even got Tao Qian's support. Friendship, and the recognition of high-ranking officials like Zhao Yu, is why they have been stable and not overturned.

But the murder of Ruo Rong this time, apart from the incident itself, also brought the evidence of Ruo Rong's corruption to the surface, and tore apart Ruo Rong's good reputation.