Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 67: Horse Trading

July.

After the early rice is harvested, the late rice is planted.

Fang Yong opened up half an acre of paddy field in his mansion to improve his farming talent.

Under the blue sky and white clouds, the breeze brings a few wisps of floral fragrance.

Daiyu walked barefoot in the paddy field. Her white and tender feet left crescent-shaped arch marks on the ground.

Fang Yong waded through from behind, turning the originally clear paddy field into muddy.

Suddenly, Fang Yong caught up with Daiyu and picked her up like a princess.

"The water is cold, let's do something else!"

Daiyu blinked her bright eyes.

"Aren't you going to plant rice?"

Fang Yong carried Daiyu into the room, saying, "No hurry, let's talk about it later."

Daiyu blushed suddenly.

"Wait, you're not going to use my legs again..."

Datong.

Xue San led the caravan around the city.

Whenever he came here in the past, Xue San would always go into the city to enjoy the women of Datong.

However, Shanxi is in chaos now, and although Datong is a military stronghold, it is inevitable that it will be affected. After thinking it over again and again, Xue San decided to take a detour and come back to enjoy his wife in Datong next time.

This business trip was fruitful.

Wu Yuan's letter of recommendation was very effective.

During his time in Corning, Wu Yuan and his good friend Li Hao went to Beijing to take the exam.

After the imperial examination, both of them were on the list, and Wu Yuan even ranked first, becoming the champion.

The two of them were very famous for a while.

Next comes the palace examination.

Generally speaking, the palace examination is just a formality and will not eliminate talented people like previous examinations.

As Wu Yuan ranked first in the imperial examination, even if he could not become the emperor's chosen top scholar, he could at least be second or third place, or at worst be selected as a scholar-official.

Therefore, Wu Yuan and Li Hao began to celebrate in advance.

Who would have thought that during the palace examination, Emperor Kangning demoted Wu Yuan to the third class of Jinshi candidates because of his appearance.

Generally speaking, with Wu Yuan's grades, he could at least get a Shujishi and enter the Hanlin Academy as an official. But now he was ranked third, so he could forget about becoming a Shujishi. Unless he had a powerful backstage, he could only be sent out to serve as an official.

The futures of the two were completely different. Wu Yuan was young and hot-headed at the time, so how could he tolerate this?

He immediately wrote a poem mocking Emperor Kangning for judging people by their appearance.

Said:

The emperor chooses talented people based on their appearance, not their appearance.

The horse was lost because it had no eyes, so how could it recognize Cui Wei?

Emperor Kangning was very surprised when he heard the poem, and immediately stripped Wu Yuan of his official title and demoted him to a commoner.

Li Hao was not originally involved in the incident, but when he saw his good friend end up like this, he could not help but step forward to plead for Wu Yuan. Then Emperor Kangning waved his hand and demoted Li Hao to a commoner.

At the same time, Emperor Kangning ordered that the two men would never be allowed to take the imperial examinations.

Afterwards, Wu Yuan and Li Hao, who had nowhere else to go, resolutely joined the team to fight against Xi and restore Ming.

It's just that during the Kangning period, although the court was slightly corrupt, the people could still get by, and land annexation was not serious. Fang Yong's grandfather still had four acres of paddy fields to live on, so the road to rebellion for the two men was naturally not very smooth.

During this period, Li Hao saw that there was no hope for rebellion in Daxi, so he went north to join the Tartars. Now he is the first military advisor under the Khan of Kahe, the largest tribe of the Jurchens.

Xue San came to the grassland with Wu Yuan's letter and soon gained Li Hao's attention.

After some negotiations, Xue San exchanged the large amount of salt he brought for a total of 3,500 top-quality war horses.

In order to prevent the target from being too large and attracting attention, Xue San broke up the caravan into dozens of parts and prepared to transport the war horses back on a small scale.

As Shanxi was in chaos and the government troops were fighting against rebels, Xue San chose to take a detour through Zhili to avoid any unexpected events.

On the road, he often saw groups of refugees fleeing famine heading towards Shanxi. Xue San was very curious about this.

Why didn't the refugees from Zhili flee to the capital, but instead ran to war-torn Shanxi?

Xue San stopped a refugee.

This was an old man holding a baby in his arms. Xue San gave him a pancake and asked him the reason.

The old man was so grateful that he begged, "Master, please have mercy on me. My baby has been hungry for a long time. Can you let me feed the baby first?"

Xue San had no objection.

The old man tore the cake into small pieces, held them in his mouth to soften them, and then fed them to the baby in his arms.

At this point, there is no such thing as hygiene or unsanitary.

The child was obviously extremely hungry. He no longer had the strength to cry or shout, but just instinctively ate the biscuit bite by bite.

After feeding about one eighth of the cake, the old man carefully wrapped up the rest and licked the crumbs on his hands. Only then did he have time to talk to Xue San.

The old man said, "Master, you don't know that I can't go to the capital. If it's the young and strong who are good at fighting, they can go to the capital, but at my age, I can't go to the capital."

Xue San was very curious when he heard this. Why is there an age difference when going to the capital? In terms of distance, isn't Shanxi farther?
The old man explained: "It's not because of the long distance, but because I am old and not as good as before. I can't avoid the imperial court's artillery and sharp arrows, so I can't reach the capital."

Xue San was stunned for a few seconds after hearing this.

"Cannons, sharp arrows?"

The old man nodded and said:

"You don't know that there are large armies stationed in the counties surrounding the capital. They will fire cannons and shoot arrows at those who are fleeing from the famine. The young ones are good at hiding in the woods and taking small paths, so they may be able to avoid the cannonballs and arrows and reach the capital. But people like me, I'm afraid, have no chance."

Xue San was silent for a long time.

"So you're going to Shanxi? There's war going on in Shanxi right now?"

The old man nodded: "Yes, I am going to Shanxi. I heard that Admiral Dong in Shanxi opened his warehouse to provide disaster relief. We can eat and survive. As for the war, people like me will starve to death. Let there be war."

Xue San opened his mouth when he heard this, wanting to say something, but in the end, nothing came out.

What else could he do? Take the old man to Huaizhou?

……

"Thank you for all you said. Please give me two more pieces of cake!"

The old man looked around, carefully took a few more pieces of cake and hid them, then thanked him repeatedly.

Beijing.

Emperor Longqing summoned the governor of Shuntian Prefecture.

“Have all the refugees been dealt with?”

Shuntian Prefecture Governor said: "It has been handled. I have found them stable livelihoods in their respective hometowns and gave each of them twenty taels of silver as resettlement allowance. Now they are all happily returning home."

Emperor Longqing breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

Not long ago, when the prince went hunting, he unexpectedly met a refugee in the royal hunting park. No one knew how this person avoided the layers of guards and got in. At first, the prince thought he was a savage and chased him and shot several arrows. Later, when the other party begged for mercy, he realized that he was a refugee from Zhili.

Afterwards, this matter was reported to Emperor Longqing.

Emperor Longqing was very surprised when he learned about it. How could it be possible? He had implemented the new policy for such a long time, and there were still refugees in this best place in the capital?
After a series of investigations by officials, it was finally concluded that a small drought had occurred in a county in Zhili, which led to a small number of refugees.

However, these refugees were only a minority. After detailed statistics, the number of people affected was less than three hundred.

Emperor Longqing attached great importance to this and immediately ordered the governor of Shuntian Prefecture to solve the survival problems of these refugees.

The capital city is the face of the royal family, how could there be refugees fleeing famine?

Afterwards, the governor of Shuntian Prefecture consulted with several senior cabinet ministers and quickly resolved the matter perfectly.

There will be no more refugees in the capital from now on!

Emperor Longqing was very satisfied with this and told all officials about it as an example.

It was also on this day that the news came.

Duke Shanguo, who had been dawdling all the way, finally arrived in Beijing.

A cold light flashed in Emperor Longqing's eyes.

(End of this chapter)