The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

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The city of Yangzhou was in good order. After the 50 shi of grain arrived, the first thing Su Jin did was to fill the official warehouse with [-] shi of grain, and filled the big hole in the general grain. , Song Xiang and Gou Dasheng let out a long sigh of relief. This time, he finally let go of a big stone in his heart. Although the aftermath of this incident has not been eliminated, he has made up for some mistakes after all. I know there has been such a thing.

A nerd is a nerd, and Song Xiang summoned Pan Jiang, who was guarding the official storehouse, and other officials in Yangzhou, and sternly warned them not to spread the matter to the outside world, and to strictly abide by the fact that the official storehouse had been opened. , Gou Dasheng, Pan Jiang and others, the others didn't know it at all. Even if they knew that it was military rations, the Shangguan's order to open the warehouse must have been approved by the court. Who would doubt that the warehouse was opened privately?Song Xiang's warning was really deceptive. All the subordinate officials who thought it was a normal opening of a warehouse to help the people all understood at once.

Su Jin is convinced of this confused magistrate of Yangzhou, but he is not worried about this right now. Song Xiang can do whatever he wants with these things. He is busy setting up a place to sell the grains brought in at a cheap price. Prices, so that the food in the black market is temporarily unprofitable, suppressing the arrogance of the black market.

Anyone with a discerning eye knows that this period of peace will not be too long, and in less than two months, everything will return to its old ways, and Su Jin is going to use this respite time to dig out the grain as soon as possible.

More than ten days have passed since the deadline stipulated by the imperial court, and it is already the twelfth lunar month, and there is not much time left for Su Jin. Su Jin does not know the situation of confiscation in other state capitals, but from Yangzhou's point of view, it is still nothing to do. Don't jump, it seems that this strict policy is not a blizzard, but a cool breeze of willows blowing across Yangzhou City. No one takes this order seriously.

After discussing with Song Xiang, Su Jin decided to take a two-pronged approach. First, the magistrate's office stepped up publicity efforts, preached the imperial court's policies throughout Yangzhou City, and posted notices to create a sense of urgency. At the same time, secretly dispatched dozens of The team officials pretended to be civilians and made unannounced visits among the people, looking for people who knew the truth.

Su Jin judged that since Feng Laohu had hoarded nearly a million shi of grain, it was impossible to have such strict confidentiality measures when transporting it back and forth. Find out carefully, the next step is to meet this Feng Laohu.

For three days in a row, the news spread to Su Jin like snowflakes. The smoothness of the investigation was beyond Su Jin's expectation. A large amount of news showed that two places in Happy Valley in the southwest of Baoyang Lake in the North City and Liuzhier Hutong in the East City were most likely Feng's father. Some people saw a large number of mules, horses and vehicles entering and leaving the tiger's food storage place more than a month ago, and there were piles of heavy objects wrapped in hemp on the vehicles, which looked like food.

In order to confirm the news, Su Jin ordered people to continue to investigate the people who carried the coolies and the car dealers who transported goods in the city, and confirmed that a large amount of grain had indeed been moved into these two places. Su Jin finally settled down. The place is where the granary is, and it's time to meet this Feng Huo.

In the early morning of the fourth day of December, Su Jin took Wang Chao Ma Han and led 150 horse troops to Sanli Hutong in Beikou, where the black market Wu Erlang said was located. Su Jin did not expect to find food here, and a large amount of food arrived in Yangzhou There is no shortage of food in the city for the time being, and the black market will naturally die down until the official food is exhausted and reopened. Su Jin came here only to find the mysterious Feng Huo. No one knows where he is, even Weidu, who is not familiar with Yangzhou City After inquiring for a long time, he failed to find out Feng Huhu's residence. In desperation, Su Jin could only come here to try his luck.

Beikou Sanli Hutong should not be called an alley, because it is so spacious that it is not much different from the main street in Yangzhou City. A hard thorn stabbed straight into Yangzhou city, no matter how domineering it looked.

What was even more unbelievable was that there were tall gates with iron fences on both ends of the alley, and there were huge iron locks on the gates, so that the brigade couldn't enter the alley here, which made Su Jin a little annoyed.

Everyone stopped outside the fence gate at the south entrance of the alley, and a horse soldier stepped forward and slapped the fence and shouted: "The officers and soldiers are patrolling the city, come and open this iron gate quickly."

After beating for a long time, there was not even a probe in the alley, and the whole alley was quiet without a single sound, which formed a huge contrast with the bustling flow of people on the street behind Su Jin.

"My lord, what should we do?" Wang Chao came up and asked.

Before Su Jin could answer, Ma Jun and Zhao Dutou yelled, "Go to hell, you can blow them away."

Su Jin smiled and said: "Good strategy, Zhao Dutou's method is simple and straightforward, and it works."

The servant of the Yangzhou government hurried forward and said: "My lord, you can't, this Beikou Sanli Hutong is an alley, but in fact the whole alley is one person's property. This is private property. He put a fence in the private property We have no reason to break into private homes."

Su Jin secretly clicked his tongue, what a big hand, this man is too rich, unexpectedly the whole alley is his private property, this is not a backwater, but a bustling city of Yangzhou.

"Feng Huhu's private property?" Su Jin frowned.

"I don't know about this villain, but it's definitely private property. Even during the martial law period, no patrol team ever patrolled the alleys.

Su Jin sneered and said: "It's a grand style, but the king's land in the whole world, no matter who's private property, it belongs to the emperor. We serve as the emperor's errand, so we can enter anywhere."

The yamen servant hurriedly said: "My lord, please be safe and don't be impatient. The prefect of Song Dynasty told me when I came here, and asked the young man to tell the adults that there must be no trouble. Now the city is a little bit more stable. If there is a leak, I'm afraid it will be wrong." beautiful."

Su Jin said: "I'm afraid of this, I'm afraid of that, I didn't say anything, I'll take care of it, and I've brought your words, so I know."

Seeing that he couldn't be persuaded, the yamen servant rolled his eyes and muttered: "There must be a reason, just barge in like this, isn't this leaving a clue?"

Su Jin heard it clearly, and laughed loudly: "The reason? It's easy to handle; listen, brothers, Bagong Mountain captured a bandit who escaped from Yangzhou City. This envoy ordered the entire city to search for the bandit. Both official and private residences need to be searched carefully, do you understand?"

All the horsemen laughed and said, "Understood, my lord."

Su Jin reprimanded: "Don't make a playful smile, why don't you do it when you understand?"

The horsemen jumped off their horses laughing and rushing towards the iron fence, grabbing the iron fence and beating wildly, making a loud clanging sound.

Ma Han asked suspiciously: "My lord, who escaped? Why don't I know?"

Wang Chao slapped him with a slap and cursed: "Food! Fake!"

Su Jin was speechless, and turned to look at the fence gate. Dozens of horse soldiers and ants were lying on the iron fence, pushing and pulling, but the fence gate didn't move at all. Zhao Du was so angry that he cursed at the iron fence.

Even though it was so noisy, no one in the alley came out to open the door. Su Jin stretched out his hand and beckoned Zhao Dutou, "You guys are stronger, or are the horses stronger?"

Zhao Dutou patted his forehead and said, "Look at my stupid brain, I forgot about this."

He turned around and raised his hand and shouted: "Stop pushing, hurry up and find me a rope, find a thick and long rope."

The soldiers immediately moved into action, pulled more than a dozen long ropes from a rope shop nearby and carried them over. Zhao Du said: "Climb up, and tie the rope firmly to the top of the fence, and tie the other side to the fence. On the horse's lap, I want to see if the iron fence is as stable as Mount Tai."

Everyone hurriedly climbed up and down to fasten the rope. More than 20 tall horses dragged the rope back, and the rope jumped straight in an instant.

The people on the street pointed and pointed. Everyone knew that this was Feng Laohu's place. The officers and soldiers were going to pull up the fence of Feng Laohu's house.

Zhao Du shook his whip and shouted: "Excuse me, please stay away, if the horse bumps into you, we will not be responsible."

The common people shouted to get out of the way, Zhao Du made preparations with his head, and more than [-] soldiers on horseback raised their whips high, and when Zhao Du gave his head a shout, they beat the horses together and pulled hard.

At this moment, a loud shout came from the alley: "Who the hell is so arrogant? You have bullied our Master Feng, stop it quickly, if you don't stop, you will be told to walk around without food."