From street beggar to high-ranking official

Before long, the steward led Lu Li to introduce Zhou Xinqi, the head of the Zhou family.

Inner room.

Lu Li waited while sipping his sweet tea, not understanding why the Zhou family patriarch took so long to read a letter.

After reading the letter, Zhou Xinqi slowly exhaled. He then looked solemnly at Lu Li, and surprisingly stood up from the armchair, kneeling down on the ground with his legs tightly bent.

"Zhou Xinqi is deeply grateful to her father-in-law for saving her life!"

"Oh my god, this terrifies me! Master, what's wrong with you?!"

The one who reacted the most was not Lu Li, but rather the steward who brought Lu Li in.

The scene before them was too horrifying. The Zhou family was renowned in Chengdu Prefecture; even the princess's husband, Ouyang Luntai, had personally paid them a visit. Although not royalty, they already possessed the prestige of a prominent family.

"What is Master Zhou doing? I'm just a messenger." Although Lu Li was saying this, his body was trembling as he enjoyed himself immensely.

If Lu Li could gain a deeper understanding of the Zhou family, he wouldn't be afraid; he would only enjoy it even more.

"Before the Zhou family rose to prominence, they were just beggars on the streets. Before my father passed away, he once said something intimate: the Zhou family only rose to prominence by taking advantage of favorable circumstances. If it weren't for Emperor Qianlong's tea-horse trade policy, would the Zhou family be where it is today?"

"To be a good person, you must be able to stand up, but you must also be able to kneel down!"

Zhou Xinqi's father was Zhou Tianran, who was born a beggar and broke the mystery of his birth, creating a legendary figure in the newly emerging aristocratic family of Sichuan.

"Good!" Lu Li's eyes lit up, and he took the initiative to help Zhou Xinqi up: "What Patriarch Zhou said really resonated with me. Before I entered the palace, I was a beggar on the street. Although your father has passed away, his words are still deeply moving."

Zhou Xinqi wanted to say that Eunuch Lu's wording was inappropriate, but at this serious moment, she couldn't say much. She simply said, "Eunuch Lu, Eunuch Chen instructed me that, apart from necessary matters, I should follow Eunuch Lu's arrangements."

Lu Li remained silent. He didn't let Zhou's words cloud his judgment and start asking for money. Before becoming Chen Gonggong's godfather, Chen Gonggong had instructed him not to be stingy with money. He simply asked, "What can we arrange?"

Zhou Xinqi thought to himself that the eunuch sent by Eunuch Chen was clever. If the other party had started to swindle money right away, then everything would have been difficult.

The Zhou family was a newly established aristocratic family. Although they had countless riches, human greed, especially the eunuchs' greed for gold and silver, could not be satisfied.

"Eunuch Lu, you may read this letter first," Zhou Xinqi said.

After reading the letter, Lu Li put it back in his sleeve, sat down, and said with a smile, "Master Zhou may speak first."

Zhou Xinqi did not insist: "The Zhou family has always had connections with the Jianmen in Sichuan. We will provide silver to offer tea and also allocate manpower to investigate the prince consort."

Lu Li's legs went weak, but luckily he was sitting in a chair so no one could tell he was unwell. He hesitated for a moment and said, "The letter only said that His Majesty will soon thoroughly investigate the tea tax, and the Imperial Son-in-Law..."

Before he could finish speaking, Lu Li understood.

The tea supplied from Sichuan was mainly given to the Tea and Horse Bureau in exchange for warhorses in the northern deserts. This was a national policy established since Emperor Gaozong. However, this year, the tea harvest in Sichuan was poor, so His Majesty began to think about the tea from Jiangnan.

The poor harvest is a fact that no one can change, but the poor harvest of tea in Sichuan is itself a fault, regardless of the natural order or human-caused disasters.

Where is the tribute tea managed by the Chengdu Tea and Horse Bureau today?

Controlled by the imperial son-in-law Ouyang Luntai, in a sense, whether the tribute tea from Sichuan was sufficient depended entirely on how hard the imperial son-in-law worked to plunder the people's wealth.

In previous years, the tribute tea quota was met, and there must have been stored tea leaves and tea bricks. It would not have been difficult to fill this year's gap, but why did it take so long for the emperor to issue an edict to send the Imperial Horse Administration to investigate the tea tax?

unless......

"Master Zhou, I have a question for you, and I hope you will answer truthfully," Lu Li asked.

"Please speak, sir." Zhou Xinqi had already sat back down in his armchair.

"How were the harvests in Sichuan in previous years?"

"I don't know about the other prefectures, but speaking of this place, the weather is favorable and the country is peaceful and prosperous."

Do you think the Tea Horse Road warehouse still has tea stored from previous years?

"That's all."

"That's it?"

"That's all."

"Where did it go?" Lu Li asked subconsciously, then cursed himself for asking a question that already had an answer.

Where else could it have gone?

......

Half a day later, Lu Li met Zhu Shaoxia in the guest room of Defeng Tavern.

The martial arts world, the Jianghu.

Two similar words distinguished two different groups of people.

The older, even gray-haired middle-aged men simply drank their wine and tea silently, listening to the butler's words.

Many young people, who are just past the age of twenty, have indignant expressions on their faces.

"Steward Zhang has made himself very clear," said the middle-aged man with graying temples. "We need to investigate where the Prince Consort's tea went; isn't that just checking the accounts?"

Lu Li sat in the main seat. Although he hadn't intended to be so ostentatious at first, faced with Steward Zhang's insistence on a hundred taels, Lu Li felt that it wouldn't hurt to train properly.

There are some things that Lu Li can do, but others cannot.

"Eunuch Qian's godsons at the Imperial Horse Administration are checking the accounts, but it's almost impossible to find any errors or omissions. We can only investigate where the rotten, moldy, and spoiled tea has gone."

Lu Li pondered for a moment and said.

He stared intently at the middle-aged man in front of him. According to the introduction given by Steward Zhang before he arrived, this man was the Grand Elder of the Sword Sect in Shu, named Su Ningqing, nicknamed Sword Ruler.

The most widely circulated legend about this person in the martial arts world is that he can determine the length of a piece of Shu brocade with a three-foot ruler. It is said that there are tailors in Chengdu who use a shrinking ruler to deliberately cut off more of the Shu brocade. A ten-foot piece of Shu brocade can even be cut off by more than one foot.

The people were filled with resentment and curses, but since the other party had connections with the government, even reporting it to the authorities was useless.

Later, when Su Ningqing heard about this, he also brought three feet of Shu brocade to cut and sell. When he found that the measurement was not enough, he immediately slammed his long sword on the table and ordered the cutter to measure it.

Surrounded by the people, Su Ningqing went door to door, asking each household to measure their three-foot swords.

Those whose measurements were different were sternly reprimanded, and the people angrily cursed the unscrupulous merchants; those whose measurements were correct were treated with kindness, and the people flocked to their doors.

Those tailor shops, clothing stores, and fabric shops that were exposed on the spot all went out of business, while those shops that made accurate measurements quickly became famous and even became the most popular shops in Chengdu.

Su Ningqing, however, simply cut down the bribe money offered by the government with a single sword stroke. He then asked Defeng Tavern for a bowl of clear wine to wash his three-foot sword before leaving gracefully.

Using a sword as a ruler for the benefit of the people, Su Ningqing used his three-foot sword to determine the length of things in Sichuan, and the reputation of the sword-ruler spread from there.

Those in the martial arts world were full of praise for Su Ningqing's noble character and regarded him as a chivalrous hero.

Using his sword as a ruler, he fought for the people's interests, battled against the government, upheld justice, was impartial and selfless, regarded gold and silver as dirt, washed his sword with wine, and rode away triumphantly...

The Shu Gate Sword and Ruler truly deserves the title of a great hero!

When Lu Li first met him, he was thrilled, thinking that his family had finally met a legendary hero. However, the words of the Zhou family head dampened Lu Li's enthusiasm.

"Actually, the sword in Su Ningqing's hand is three feet and five inches long. That sword was specially forged by the Zhou family from black iron and fine steel and given to Su Ningqing."