Song Yi

Chapter 324
A few days later, the bamboo buildings replaced by burned houses in the city have become quite large. Rows of bamboo buildings are neatly and orderly located in the city. You can lie on it and sleep. Some ordinary people have moved in one after another, and other bamboo buildings are still under construction. If you look around, the wounds of the war can hardly be seen in the whole town.

It has only been half a month since entering the city, and Du Wenhao feels like he has lost a lot of weight. He has not closed his eyes for three days. It is probably because of God's mercy. It has been cloudy for several days in a row, neither rain nor sun , so it was just suitable for rushing to work, and he was reluctant to spend this time sleeping. He took officials around to deal with various problems in the lending of "Huimin Rice Bank", as well as the epidemic prevention work in the city and the construction of bamboo buildings. .

The shareholders of Huimin Rice Bank are all veterans, and they are familiar with lending. Du Wenhao didn't have to worry about this aspect. After Hou Zhong's accountant made clear accounts and the management was in place, Du Wenhao was even more at ease.

Since this is the time when the crops are not available, after learning that they can receive them, there is an endless stream of people who borrow grain with land deeds, and some of them hold deeds, or ask guarantors who own houses to be guarantors, and borrow money to start business again. of.In just a few days, half of the food and silver in their warehouse had been loaned out. All the shareholders were very happy, saying that if they continue to develop like this, they will have to expand their operations and double their share capital.

Du Wenhao handed over the daily affairs to Hou Zhong to take care of, and he was mainly responsible for the rebuilding of buildings in the city.

Some local gentry and rich merchants also contributed money and strength one after another. Everyone in the whole city of Yazhou was full of energy, and there was a row of fiery atmosphere, which made Du Wenhao even more energetic and wanted to do more.

At noon that day, the sun was shining brightly. Du Wenhao was tired all morning. Sitting under a tree, he felt sleepy and didn't want to eat. After drinking some rice soup, he leaned against the tree to take a rest, but fell asleep.

In a trance, Du Wenhao seemed to have walked into a garden. In the courtyard, there were exotic flowers and plants, pavilions, pavilions, birds and flowers, and there was a melodious sound of piano not far away. Du Wenhao felt as light as a swallow, and walked briskly towards the piano. walk away.

I saw a light veil being lifted by the breeze at a gazebo, a woman in Chinese clothes was concentrating on playing the piano, and did not notice Du Wenhao's appearance at all. Du Wenhao could not see her eyebrows clearly, as if she was separated by a layer of veil .

Suddenly there was a voice: "My lord, I think I'm hungry. I've already prepared some wine and we're waiting for you to drink together."

I saw some elegant women appearing out of nowhere, each one as beautiful as a flower, smiling and holding a plate of delicacies passing in front of Du Wenhao, Du Wenhao swallowed secretly, and followed those women towards the Go to the gazebo.

"Master, wake up, wake up!"

When Du Wenhao heard someone calling him, he opened his eyes and saw that a face dripping with sweat was almost touching him. Du Wenhao pushed the opponent away with his palm. After a closer look, it turned out to be a monkey.

Du Wenhao cursed in his stomach, you brat came at the wrong time, disturbed my dream, neither let me see the beauty's face clearly, nor let me have a good meal in my dream.He yawned, rubbed his eyes, and said, "What's the matter, have I slept for a long time?"

The monkey approached and whispered in Du Wenhao's ear, "My lord, I found a good place and I'll show you there."

Du Wenhao stood up and saw that everyone had already started working again. He didn't know how long he had slept. Seeing the mysterious look on the monkey's face, he said, "Why don't you lead Madam and the others up the mountain to collect food? Come here What are you here for?"

The monkey said: "Madam asked me to call you, let's go, we will go now, you will be happy to see you."

Du Wenhao was not interested, and said: "Let Miaoshou go with you, I will go to the state government later, there are still many things waiting for me to deal with."

Seeing that Du Wenhao wasn't going, the monkey got anxious and said, "It's really a good place. I found a horse. You won't waste much time riding the horse."

Du Wenhao saw that there was indeed a horse tied up not far away, and said: "Okay, then I will go and have a look with you, then what do you do?"

The monkey smiled slyly and said, "I can run no slower than you."

Du Wenhao didn't believe it, the monkey said: "Sir, get on the horse, I will lead the way, even if you run ahead, you don't know the place, so don't worry."

Du Wenhao thought so, so he followed the monkey to the horse, and the monkey helped Du Wenhao onto the horse. Du Wenhao told Li Pu, and then went east with the monkey.

After leaving the city, Du Wenhao really experienced the monkey's leg strength. The speed along the way was almost as fast as his own mount, and he didn't show any intention of slowing down. After walking about five kilometers, the monkey reined in the horse. Du Wenhao said: "My lord, we're here."

Du Wenhao got off his horse and saw that there was nothing here, but the wilderness, so he jokingly said: "You are not an undercover agent of bandits, you are sent to catch me, right?"

The monkey was puzzled, and while finding a place to tie the horse, he asked blankly, "What is an undercover agent?"

Du Wenhao said with a smile: "It's just pretending to be a good person, but he is actually a bad person, and then hide among the good people and do some bad things."

The monkey was unhappy, pouted, and muttered, "I'm not a bad person."

"Okay, I'm joking with you, is this the place you mentioned as a good place?"

The monkey quickly pointed to a mountain behind, and said: "It's in the mountain, but horses can't get in. The lady said that there should be some mechanism or path in this mountain, but we haven't found it yet."

Du Wenhao followed the monkey into the mountain, and he didn't walk for a while, probably because Du Wenhao didn't rest or eat well for several days, he found himself a little top-heavy and out of breath.

After walking for half an hour, the monkey stopped.

Du Wenhao looked up, and found that it was a flat land, as if it had been deliberately mined out, and not far away was a dense jungle that could not be seen at a glance.

Du Wenhao: "Are you here?"

The monkey nodded and pointed to Du Wenhao's side. Du Wenhao turned around and was dumbfounded. He saw a stone bridge not far away, and there was a big house behind the stone bridge.

Du Wenhao stood up, and the monkey said, "My lord, let's go, Madam and the others are waiting for us inside."

Du Wenhao walked by the bridge and found that there was a wide river below, and the river was rushing. A stone tablet was erected at the stone bridge, and the tablet read: "Kejia River".

Du Wenhao said with a smile: "Whoever is so proud, even the river is his own."

The bridge is about ten feet long.
The stone bridge was built very firmly, and the consumables were very careful. Almost all of them were built with a single block of marble. The patterns carved on the bridge were also very delicate. It seems that this bridge and this house should have an inseparable relationship.

After crossing the bridge, the monkey walked to the gate of the house first. The door was ajar. The monkey pushed the door open. Du Wenhao looked up at the door. At least three of them were as tall as himself, and he looked very impressive.

After entering the door, Du Wenhao was once again shocked by what he saw in front of him. It was not so much a manor at this time as it was a bunker, facing an ancient castle built on the mountain, and it was another door. The door is exactly an iron door, and there is a pool in front of the door. There is nothing in the pool, just a pool of clear water.

Du Wenhao walked to the iron gate, which was slightly shorter than the front gate, and he tried to push it, but it remained still.The monkey said: "Before we couldn't get in, it was the fourth lady who climbed over the wall and opened the door." He pointed to a high wall beside it, and ordinary people would never want to go in. Of course, for Lin Qingdai, That was a piece of cake, of course.

Just as he was talking, a small window on the door opened. A woman looked at it and said hastily, "My lord is here. I'll ask someone to open the door right away."

Du Wenhao: "You just go into other people's houses?"

Monkey: "There is no one living in this house."

Du Wenhao was wondering when the door suddenly opened with a loud noise, which made people feel flustered.

Lin Qingdai came out, with a rare bright smile on her face, walked up to Du Wenhao, and said: "This door is very interesting, the people outside the door can't hear the people inside, but the people inside can hear the words outside the door. Wen Hao, hurry up and come in."

Du Wenhao walked into the gate, and saw that there really was another cave inside. Although it couldn't be compared with those ladies' bedrooms in the imperial palace in the capital, it could be called grand and gorgeous. There were beautifully carved pane corridors everywhere. Looking at the decaying weather, although the flowers and plants in the yard are growing well, they are a bit messy, as if no one has taken care of and trimmed them for a long time, and cobwebs and dust can be seen everywhere on the eaves.

"How do you know there is no one in this house?" Du Wenhao said to Lin Qingdai.

"We didn't know it before. When we walked to the gate, Qin'er found that the door buckle was rusted. Generally, this kind of situation should not happen to such a big family, and there are no footprints all the way from the bridge to the gate. Recently, it has often rained. , there should at least be dirt on the stone slab at the door."

Du Wenhao looked around for a while, and said: "Maybe I went to visit relatives, your curiosity will kill people, so hurry up. I thought it was a good place."

Lin Qingdai quickly said: "Wen Hao, don't be angry, listen to me and tell you slowly, we thought so too before, but later we found a few graves behind this house, which looked like new graves, and Nothing in the house has been touched, and a letter was found in a study."

Du Wenhao was helpless, and said: "You are really bold, what are you doing to inquire about other people's houses so clearly?"

Monkey: "The main reason is that we found that there is a lot of hoarded food in this house."

When it came to food, Du Wenhao's eyes immediately lit up. What everyone lacks now is food, so he said, "How much?"

Lin Qingdai said proudly: "There are so many that you can't imagine!"

Du Wenhao smiled and said, "No way?"

Lin Qingdai tugged at Du Wenhao's sleeve and said, "Come on, I'll take you to see them one by one, and you'll know that I haven't lied to you."

Du Wenhao thought for a while, but still felt that something was wrong, so he said: "Forget it, let's send someone to check the situation of this house first, this city has just been ransacked by Fan Jun, we can't be the second Fan Jun, let's go No one can touch anything here until it is cleared up."

Lin Qingdai saw that Du Wenhao was serious and didn't seem like joking with her, so she had to ask everyone to come out, but Du Wenhao didn't continue to move forward, turned around and led the monkey out of the gate.

"My lord, don't be angry, we will never dare again." Seeing Du Wenhao's gloomy face, the monkey said timidly.

"Breaking into a private house is not what we should do. I went in today, so everyone is at fault if it is wrong. By the way, Monkey, you should be familiar with Yazhou. Go and check the situation of this family."

"Yes, my lord."

"This matter must be kept secret, and the people who come with you, please tell me."

"Many people went to the field with Uncle Li and the others today. There is no place to put the wild vegetables and fruits collected in the yard, so it's just me and the four wives. I won't talk nonsense."

"That's good, let's go, let's go back."

After dark, everyone returned to the state capital.

Du Wenhao asked Pang Yuqin and the others to go to the bedroom with him and closed the door. Pang Yuqin and the others knew that they had done something wrong, so they did not dare to sit down. The four of them stood in front of Du Wenhao and waited for a lecture.

Du Wenhao said: "It's unreasonable for you to break into a private house. Don't mention this matter to outsiders, and don't mention it to Mr. Su for now."

"Wen Hao, don't blame the three of them, it was my idea." Lin Qingdai said shamefully.

"Even if it's your idea, there should be a sensible person to stop it." Du Wenhao sternly reprimanded.

"We knew we were wrong." Pang Yuqin whispered, not daring to look up at Du Wenhao's face.

Du Wenhao sighed, and waved his hands: "Okay, you are tired after a day of tossing around, go and rest." He said, lying on the simple bamboo bed made of bamboo, and closed his eyes tiredly.

Xue Fei'er wanted to say something, but Pang Yuqin glanced at her and motioned her not to say anything.This night it was Pang Yuqin's bedtime, Lin Qingdai and the three of them withdrew and closed the door behind them.

The young couple was lying on the bed, and Pang Yuqin had already fallen asleep in Du Wenhao's arms.But he didn't feel sleepy, and this matter kept churning in his mind.

Ancient houses, deep mountains and old forests, new tombs, Kejia River, grain storage, although Du Wenhao closed his eyes, he kept thinking about these issues in his mind. Rich people should build their houses in densely populated places. Such a huge project , how long did it take to complete the repairs, what kind of people lived in this house, why did they all die suddenly, could it be the work of the Fan army, but it seems not, if they found this house, they should not have preserved it like this Well, at least a lot of valuable things inside have been looted, there must be someone in this house, otherwise no one would bury these dead people, so where is that person now, is it still in that house?There should be this possibility, thinking about it, Du Wenhao fell asleep unknowingly.

It was dawn as soon as he woke up, Du Wenhao rolled over and sat up on the bed, and Pang Yuqin was already up, dressing up.It's okay to look back at him, and said with a smile: "Sir, don't you want to sleep for a while?"

"No, it's late, and there's still a lot of things to do."

Du Wenhao got up and hurriedly put on his robes and went out. When he came to the construction site, he found that there were not many people working on it. He felt strange. Seeing Li Pu not far away, he walked over and said, "What time is it? Why is no one coming out to work?"

Li Pu bowed and said: "Yesterday, more than a dozen craftsmen suddenly fell ill, and I went to the doctor to see them. I thought they were too tired to support them, so I privately ordered everyone to rest for half a day today, and then work again in the afternoon when it cools down. "

"Sick? Then why didn't you call me?" Du Wenhao said.

"Your Excellency is already very tired. I guess it's just a minor ailment like a cold. It's enough to have a doctor."

At this time, I saw Su Shi's wife, Mrs. Wang, running over in a hurry: "Doctor Du, I'm looking for you."

"What's the matter, ma'am?"

"I went to the river to wash things just now, and I smelled a stench. I searched for the smell and went upstream. I found that there were still some unburied corpses upstream, which had already rotted in the water."

Du Wenhao was very surprised, and said: "Li Pu, didn't I ask you to send someone to transport the dead to the suburbs for incineration?"

Li Pu faltered and said: "Mo... I will ask about this, I did find someone. Maybe I didn't find those corpses."

Wang: "This matter is no small matter. This river is the source of drinking water for the city. Those people don't seem to have been killed. Could it be that they died of illness? That would be bad."

Du Wenhao's heart sank. Wang is also a well-informed, talented and intelligent woman. What she said is correct. One of the sources of infection for typhoid fever is drinking water. If these people die of typhoid fever and the people in the city drink water The polluted water, I am afraid that the plague will break out in the city soon!

Thinking of this, Du Wenhao suddenly remembered that Li Pu said that many craftsmen were sick, and he became even more nervous, and hurriedly took Li Pu and others to follow Wang to the upper reaches.

Wang yelled in surprise: "Hey! Where are the corpses? They are obviously here, there are several of them!"

Du Wenhao walked to the place Wang said, squatted down, and inhaled with his nose, but he didn't smell the smell of corpses. He carefully inspected the cobblestones by the river, and found no traces of corpse water, and they hadn't been rinsed. trace.He stood up and asked, "Mrs. Su, did you remember the place correctly?"

"It can't be wrong. There is also a crooked neck tree here. At that time, I was so frightened that my feet were weak and I couldn't walk. I leaned on it for a while before I ran back."

Du Wenhao and the others searched up the river for a while, but they didn't find the body, nor did they find any other abnormalities.

Li Pu breathed a sigh of relief, and said cheerfully: "Mrs. Su, you must have been delusional. You took rocks or drifting wood as corpses. There are no corpses here. Let me just say, a few days ago All the corpses around the city I brought were cleaned up, and I have been to this river several times, so there shouldn’t be anyone slipping through the net.”

Mrs. Su looked around and said to herself: "Probably not, I see it very clearly, and it stinks!"

Du Wenhao was relieved: "Madam is busy these days, she must be tired, forget it, since there is no, it is always a good thing. Let's go back."

Du Wenhao said so, but he was still a little apprehensive. When he returned to Zhoucheng, he immediately went to check the residences of those sick craftsmen.

The results of the examination made Du Wenhao very disturbed. Some of these people contracted typhoid fever. However, there are quite a few people suffering from typhoid fever in the city now. It is not certain that their illness was contracted from drinking the river water.Moreover, the typhoid virus from several corpses dissolved into the entire river, and after being diluted, it might not be a big problem.

Even so, Du Wenhao still couldn't calm down.Fortunately, in the days that followed, there was no large-scale outbreak of typhoid fever in the city, which reassured him a little.

Han Jiang brought disaster relief food from Chengdu, and it happened to help, and the people in the city became more stable.

On this day, Wang Chaoyun, Su Shi's concubine, asked Pang Yuqin to go to the street to buy some things. Du Wenhao and the others had been in the city for more than a month, and many merchants opened their doors to do business.

Because Su Shi's two wives were both surnamed Wang, and the two families had been very close since entering the city, Pang Yuqin and the others called the second wives Sister Yun.

Although the two women were both dressed in simple clothes, they were gorgeous. As soon as they arrived at the market, they immediately caused quite a commotion. I'm sorry.

"Sister Yun, look at these people, they are so annoying. These people's eyes are sharper than eagles." Pang Yuqin said in a low voice with her head bowed shyly.

Wang Chaoyun was cheerful and generous, and said with a slight smile: "Let them watch it. What else can we do in broad daylight? Let's just treat them as nothingness and non-existence. Besides, there are guards following behind." , leave them alone."

The two walked to a needlework stall, and Pang Yuqin thought that many of the silk threads brought home were not complete in color, and many clothes needed to be mended. Although there were many things that the maid could do, she didn't want to be idle, and she had to prepare first when she saw something needed. Some are good, so I bent down to choose them.

"Sister really can't tell that she is a woman from an official family. She is careful in doing things and not delicate. Just from the selection of silk threads here, you can see that you are a good hand inside and out." Wang Chaoyun praised.

Pang Yuqin quickly selected the silk thread, smiled and said to Wang Chaoyun: "I didn't do these things at home before, and I started to learn these slowly after entering Du's house." Then he handed the silk thread to the peddler, and from Take money from your purse.

"There are seven kinds of silk threads in total, three strands of each, and a total of 21 strands. This eldest sister, please give me seventy grains." The peddler counted the money neatly, and his eyes would glance at the faces of Pang Yuqin and Wang Chaoyun from time to time.

Wang Chaoyun's face darkened, and he said sharply, "Why is it so expensive? It's just some silk thread, and you want seventy lines?"

Pang Yuqin seldom went out to buy things. Lian'er and Xue Fei'er usually went there, but Wang Chaoyun only came out today when she asked her to come out. Hearing what Wang Chaoyun said, she was still surprised, how did the second lady know that the price was expensive, but It's hard to talk, just stand aside and listen.

The peddler didn't know them. Seeing that Wang Chaoyun was angry, he quickly explained: "This elder sister doesn't know something. In the past, it was true that the silk thread cost less than ten lines, but now we buy it from the silk thread merchant and it costs fifty lines. It was caused by Fan Jun, you can ask if you don’t believe me, it’s not that my stall sells you so expensive!”

Wang Chaoyun looked around, saw a silk thread stall not far away, and said, "It's okay, it's so expensive, who can afford it, let's take a look." Then, he really pulled Pang Yuqin towards the front stall go.

(End of this chapter)