Traveling to an ancient peasant family: I got rich by doing business

Once the urge to kill appears, it can no longer be suppressed.

Prefect Hong pondered for a moment, waved to Luo Peng, and whispered a few words in his ear.

Luo Peng was only a businessman after all. He was worried when he heard that an official of the imperial court was going to be killed. However, when he thought that wealth and honor are achieved through risk, he was not so afraid anymore. "Don't worry, sir. I will go back and call for help."

"Hurry up." Prefect Hong said in a voice that only the two of them could hear: "Make sure they come over as soon as possible. Also, get the people to stand up and tell them that we are dealing with bandits. Got it?"

Luo Peng: "Understood."

*

Luo Peng left quickly. Han Zheng looked at him and suddenly realized something. He said, "Did Lord Hong ask Manager Luo to go back and get reinforcements? It seems that you don't plan to let us leave Nanzhou Prefecture today."

Although he had a lot of people on his side, Han Zheng had General Xiao Liang on his side. They had been on the battlefield before, so the chances of winning a fight with them were too slim. So Prefect Hong was prepared to pretend to be friendly with Han Zheng for a while, but at this moment, a group of people came up behind Han Zheng and his men.

There were hundreds of people in the group, holding torches, and shouting with full energy: "One hundred and five people from Qinglong Village have come to receive the food. Is that Lord Hong in front?"

Prefect Hong was not very satisfied with the behavior of Qinglong Village. Although there were few people at night, they could not shout like that. What if they were discovered? They were indeed brainless and reckless men!

But it was a good thing that they came at this time. Prefect Hong changed his mind instantly and stopped pretending. After responding to the other party, he looked at Han Zheng like an ant: "It seems that Lord Han has guessed it. He is worthy of being the top scholar. That's right, since you are back today, you should stay in Nanzhou Prefecture."

As he spoke, Governor Hong retreated. When he reached the city gate, he tiptoed and shouted, "Listen, people of Qinglong Village. The people in front of you are our enemies. You don't have to show mercy. Kill them all."

The people of Qinglong Village responded in unison, and then the sound of weapons striking was heard from behind Han Zheng and his team.

Magistrate Hong was extremely satisfied with what he heard, and called on his officers and soldiers to start fighting as well.

In just a few breaths, a melee broke out between the two sides.

*

Magistrate Hong watched calmly.

He waited to see Han Zheng and Master Jiang being killed, but gradually, he discovered something was wrong.

There were clear sounds of weapons being heard all the time, but the number of people on Han Zheng's side did not decrease. Instead, the officers and soldiers transporting grain on his side were injured or killed. Slowly, they were almost retreating to the city gate.

Are all the people in Qinglong Village useless?

After cursing in his heart, Magistrate Hong looked back. He was expecting to see the figures of common people or Luo Peng and the Luo family servants, but behind him there was no one except the carriage loaded with money and grain.

Somewhat anxiously, Prefect Hong shouted, "Qinglongzhai, what's wrong with you? Kill them now!"

No one responded.

Prefect Hong thought his voice was too soft, so he raised his voice and shouted, "Did you hear that? Where are the people?"

Still no one responded.

Prefect Hong was completely panicked. He took a few steps back and stood inside the city gate, wanting to ask people to close the gate first, but the gate was blocked by horse-drawn carriages carrying grain and could not be closed at all.

Seeing his men retreating, he finally couldn't hold on any longer and turned around and ran away.

He still didn't give up at this time. After all, the city of Nanzhou Prefecture was full of civilians. As long as the civilians came out, it would not be a big deal. He didn't believe that Master Jiang and Han Zheng would dare to order people to kill civilians!

After running a few steps, several people suddenly appeared in front of him.

Those men were wearing ordinary people's clothes and looked very strong.

Thinking that the people were coming to help, Prefect Hong quickly pointed to the city gate and said, "Bandits are coming to steal the city's money and food. Go over there quickly and don't let them succeed."

Several people didn't move.

Prefect Hong was anxious and angrily asked, "You don't obey my orders? Who are you from and what are your names?"

The man standing in the middle raised his head and looked at Prefect Hong, saying, "Master Hong, don't you recognize me?"

Prefect Hong looked carefully, and the next moment, his left foot tripped over his right foot, and he lost his balance and fell to the ground.

*

"You..." Magistrate Hong ignored the pain in his body and looked at the person who was speaking in astonishment, "You are Lord Pei, aren't you dead?"

"I didn't expect that Lord Hong still remembered me. It's really not easy." Minister Pei waved his hand, and the guards standing on both sides of him immediately stepped forward and held the man down.

Prefect Hong: “…”

"Take him to the city gate." Minister Pei ordered.

The two guards obeyed the order and took their men away. Prefect Hong refused to cooperate and was kicked twice by one of the guards.

He was suddenly in so much pain that he couldn't even cry out.

*

At the city gate, soldiers from Nanzhou Prefecture were still fighting with soldiers led by General Xiao Liang.

Minister Pei walked over and shouted, "Officers and soldiers of Nanzhou Prefecture, listen up! Magistrate Hong has been captured. If you know what's best for you, put down your weapons immediately and I will spare your lives!"

As the situation became one-sided, the officers and soldiers of Nanzhou Prefecture had just lost their confidence. After these words were spoken, they decisively laid down their swords one after another.

When Magistrate Hong saw this scene, he wanted to kill someone.

He opened his mouth and wanted to call out to the people in Qinglong Village again, but Han Zheng saw his intention and said before he could make a sound, "Are you looking for someone from Qinglong Village? I'm really sorry, but those holding torches are soldiers from Beizhou Prefecture."

Prefect Hong: “…”

Han Zheng ignored him and walked to Minister Pei with Master Jiang, saying, "Master Pei, this matter is all thanks to you, otherwise these money and grain would have been shipped out."

*

Before returning to Nanzhou Prefecture for disaster relief, Han Zheng thought of many possibilities regarding Minister Pei's whereabouts, even the possibility that "Minister Pei might have been injured and lost his memory, and was taken to another state by a passing merchant."

It was not until the day he returned to Nanzhou Prefecture, after he and Master Jiang had seen the people sick with the plague and returned to the inn, that he saw Minister Pei's guards in his room.

The other party gave him a letter.

The letter was written by Minister Pei, describing his whereabouts and some of his discoveries over the past month.

It turned out that when Minister Pei was inspecting the counties below, he accidentally discovered that Prefect Hong and the Magistrate of Huaiting County had colluded to hide government money and grain and abuse the people. When Prefect Hong and the Magistrate of Huaiting County knew that he had discovered it, they were afraid of being imprisoned and beheaded, so they sent people to kill him.

However, among the people sent by Prefect Hong, there were two people who had greater righteousness in mind and were unwilling to kill Minister Pei, so they secretly revealed the news to him.

Minister Pei thus escaped a disaster, but in order to facilitate the investigation, he and his guards pretended to be dead, then disguised themselves and blended in with the people.

After his investigation, he found that Magistrate Hong was also connected with the bandits in Qinglong Village.

It is the misfortune of the people that such a person is the official. In order to bring down Prefect Hong, Minister Pei first went to Beizhou Prefecture and joined forces with the prefect of Beizhou Prefecture to capture all the bandits in Qinglong Village.

They were also lucky, because when Han Zheng, Li Yu and others returned to Nanzhou Prefecture with relief money and food, they killed the leader of Qinglong Village, whose surname was Meng. The remaining people in Qinglong Village were all deceived civilians and some idiots, so they basically didn't have to spend any effort.

Afterwards, in order to see if Prefect Hong would make any other moves, they arranged for some officers and soldiers from Beizhou Prefecture to live in Qinglong Village as bandits. In order to prevent Prefect Hong from finding out something was wrong, they forced the bandits who were in contact with Prefect Hong to help them.

So they waited for a while and finally got the news.

Prefect Hong plans to transport a batch of money and grain to the imperial mausoleum, and asks the bandits in Qinglong Village to help with the transportation, but there is no exact delivery time.

Minister Pei thought at that time that Prefect Hong might be afraid that Han Zheng and Grand Tutor Jiang were in Nanzhou Prefecture, and was afraid that they would find out, so he did not dare to transport it.

So he asked his guard to send a message to Han Zheng. Han Zheng had been to Donghaizhou with him to handle a case, and knew his handwriting and what his personal seal looked like.

After reading the letter, Han Zheng was sure that Minister Pei was fine, so he discussed it with Grand Tutor Jiang and decided to leave Nanzhou Prefecture to create an opportunity for Prefect Hong.

Sure enough, as soon as the news of Han Zheng and Master Jiang's departure spread, Prefect Hong passed the message to the people of Qinglong Village and gave them the exact time to deliver the food.

It can be said that everything tonight is under the control of Han Zheng and his team.

*

"Take all the money and grain back to the warehouse." After a few simple words with Minister Pei, Grand Tutor Jiang ordered, "Take all the officers and soldiers of Nanzhou Prefecture into the prison."

After saying that, he looked at Prefect Hong and said, "Sir Hong, when I came to Nanzhou Prefecture that day, Sir Han and I told you about the Qinglongzhai bandits. You swore that Nanzhou Prefecture could handle such a small matter without Beizhou Prefecture taking action. I believed you and called back the officers and soldiers heading to Beizhou Prefecture. But what did you do?

Not only did you embezzle government money and grain, you also colluded with bandits. Governor Hong, do you admit your guilt?"