In the imperial study, Zhu Jun finished reading the house sale report submitted by Yuan Xiu, and he tapped the report on the table with his thick index finger: "Have you investigated such an obvious problem?" ”

A total of 345 official residences were sold, and Li An and Zhang Lei bought 330 of them, paying more than 600,000 yuan, with an average of less than 2,000 yuan per house.

"Who are these Ang Li and Zhang Lei?" Zhu Jun asked dissatisfiedly.

"Your Majesty, Weichen has investigated clearly, Li An is the original imperial merchant deacon, he is the descendant of Li Bi, a nobleman of Guanlong, and has a very good relationship with the Li royal family, and he is also rich enough to rival the country, and Zhang Lei is Guo Song's senior brother, in fact, he is Guo Song's platform person in the mall, he is also a famous rich man in Chang'an, and Meishou wine is his industry."

"No one else dares to buy a house, why do the two of them dare to buy it?"

Yuan Xiu said again: "Your Majesty, no matter how rich the two of them are, it is impossible for them to buy so many houses, obviously, someone is buying a house through them, either Chengdu or Taiyuan, and I feel that Taiyuan is more likely, and both of them have close contacts with Guo Song." ”

Zhu Jun frowned, "You mean to say that Guo Song took the money to buy the official residence in Chang'an?" ”

Yuan Xiu nodded, "It should be so, it is estimated that he is also worried that these official mansions will fall into the hands of ordinary people, and it will not be easy to take them back in the future." ”

"He is so confident, he thinks he will be able to win Chang'an?"

"Your Majesty, it's normal for him to think like this, in fact, Weichen thinks that since he is willing to give money to His Majesty to repair the palace in Luoyang, it can be regarded as a tacit understanding between each other, why not?"

The reason why Yuan Xiu wanted to intercede for Zhang Lei and Li An was mainly because he issued the exemption order, and the cost of repairing the Luoyang Palace was at least because it cost five or six hundred thousand yuan, and the money in the imperial court's left treasury should first ensure the military salaries, and the remaining money was only a hundred thousand yuan, which was not enough to repair the palace, he could only sell the official mansion to raise money, but he couldn't sell it at all, and in desperation, Yuan Xiu had no choice but to issue an exemption order.

Zhu Zhu thought that Guo Song forced him to move the capital, he was really a little unhappy in his heart, he walked back and forth a few steps with his hands, and was a little hesitant, Yuan Xiu persuaded again: "Your Majesty, Weichen has to tell the truth, if we want to move the capital smoothly, it is best to reach a tacit understanding with Guo Song, otherwise he can cut off our passage to the Central Plains at any time." ”

Zhu Zhu was really depressed in his heart, he knew that Yuan Xiu was telling the truth, Luoguan was lost, he fell into a huge passivity, the Guo Song army could enter the pass from Tongzhou at any time, if he hadn't taken care of Li Shi in Chengdu, he would have entered the pass a long time ago, this tacit understanding was beneficial to him, and he really couldn't break it easily.

"I knew it, so I sold it to them, and I agreed."

Zhu Jun put pen to paper and approved the report, which can be regarded as agreeing to the transaction.

Yuan Xiu bowed and retreated, at this time, Zhu Jun suddenly remembered something again, and instructed the eunuch: "Quickly go find Liu Junshi to see me!" ”

After a while, Liu Sigu hurried over and bowed, "See Your Majesty!" ”

"I'm here to ask you, has there been any progress in the experiment of Iron Fire Thunder?"

Not long ago, Taiyuan intelligence spies spent 1,000 taels of gold, and finally got the formula of iron fire thunder, which can be made by mixing saltpeter and fire oil.

Liu Sigu hurriedly said: "The craftsmen have experimented, and there is indeed an explosion phenomenon, which shows that this direction is right, but how to achieve the explosion effect of iron fire and thunder, the craftsmen still need to trial and error." ”

"I don't want to know the process, I just want the result, when will it be made?"

Liu Sigu was really a little embarrassed, and said for a while: "Weichen estimates that it will take about half a year!" ”

"That's good! I'm going to see the iron fire and thunder explode before June next year, and if I can't, these craftsmen won't live! ”

........

The time entered the second half of October, the weather turned cold, the small rivers in the north have not yet frozen, and many fleets that rely on shipping for a living have set off for the last voyage of the year.

Chenliu County is the shipping center on the Cao River, there are several ship lines in the county, almost every ship line is more than 100 tank ships, the whole Central Plains region is indeed the world of tank ships, the river network here is dense, all kinds of materials are almost transported by waterway, not only the government has thousands of tank ships, even the people have thousands of ships.

During this time, more than a dozen collecting fleets were active in the Central Plains, and they specialized in purchasing trough ships at high prices, due to the Yangtze River being transported by the Jianghuai Caoyun, the cargo transportation volume in the Central Plains was sharply reduced, and many small fleets were in a state of serious loss, so the appearance of the collecting fleet was welcomed by many small fleet proprietors, and they realized the fleet.

Needless to say, these dozen or so collection fleets are all from Hedong, Hedong wants to transport food and materials, and ships are urgently needed, so it must be too late to build ships, so Guo Song took the idea of a civilian fleet and sent more than a dozen teams to the Central Plains to collect ships.

In just half a month, they have got more than 3,000 trough ships, all of which have returned to Hedong one after another, and now only the Chenliu County collection fleet remains, they have discovered a secret, the Chenliu County government has a thousand supernumerary fleets, the so-called supernumerary fleet, that is, this fleet does not belong to Bianzhou, nor is it the legal assets of Chenliu County, they are actually the fleet of the salt and iron supervisors, because of Li Xilie's rebellion and stranded in Chenliu County, has not returned, and is now controlled by Chenliu County.

Of course, there is no way back, Bianzhou belongs to Zhu Zhu's Qin Dynasty, and Yangzhou still belongs to the Tang Dynasty, the two sides have become hostile countries, how can Chen Liu return the fleet to Yangzhou?

However, there is no cargo to be transported in Chenliu County, and this fleet has been idle for nearly two years.

At night, the cold air of late autumn and early winter penetrated the clothes, and many people were reluctant to go out, and the night in Chenliu County was particularly cold.

At this time, a carriage slowly stopped at the gate of the county government's back house, and out of it came a twenty-seven or eight-year-old man, his name was Wei Lun, who was the county magistrate of Chenliu County, and he came to visit Wang Zhihe, the county magistrate.

Wei Lun is the sister-in-law of the Wei family in Chang'an, five years ago, he was admitted to the Jinshi, was awarded the Gushu County Master Book, and was promoted to the county governor of Chenliu County two years ago.

As soon as Wei Lun got out of the carriage, a sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy stepped forward, his name was Wang Qing, and he was the eldest son of Wang Zhihe, the county commander.

Wang Qing hurriedly saluted: "Welcome Uncle Wei Shi, my father asked me to wait here." ”

"Nephew Xian has been waiting for a long time, is your father here?"

"Father is waiting in the outer study, please come with me."

Wei Lun followed Wang Qing into the gate of the mansion and came to the small courtyard, where the county commander Wang Zhihe was wearing a flat scarf and a green robe waiting at the door.

"Welcome Wei County Cheng to sit in the Humble House!"

Wei Lun hurriedly bowed and said, "I'm really sorry to disturb the county gentleman's rest so late!" ”

"You're welcome, Qing'er, serve tea to Uncle Wei Shi."

Wang Zhihe waved his hand, "County please!" ”

"County gentleman, please!"

The two politely courteously conceded to each other, walked into the outer study and sat down the guests, and after a while, Wang Qing came in and served them tea.

"Ling Lang will be sixteen years old next year! Have you considered where to further your studies? Wei Lun asked with a smile.

Wang Zhihe sighed and said: "You know that I am from Hongnong County, Yuzhou, and I plan to send my son to the Yang family to study, and I myself came from there, but my teacher is a doctor of Taiyuan Guozixue, and he wrote to me to send my son to him, I am really embarrassed." ”

Wei Lun knows very well why Wang Zhihe is embarrassed, his backstage is Hongnong Yang, he is a protégé cultivated by Yang, and his son should also go to Hongnong Yang, but the teacher asked him to send his son to Taiyuan, on one side is the Yang family, and on the other hand, he is the teacher, so he is so indecided.

Wei Lun smiled slightly: "I suggest that the county monarch write a letter to the head of the Yang family, tell him about the situation, and listen to his opinion, but I believe that the head of the Yang family will let you send your son to Taiyuan." ”

"Why?" Wang Zhihe asked puzzled.

"It's very simple, if the Yang family doesn't let people go, Lingshi won't be able to go to Taiyuan, I think that the county monarch's teacher asked Linglang to go to Taiyuan to go to school, and he must have a tacit understanding with the head of the Yang family."

Wang Zhihe pondered for a moment and said, "You have a little sense, I'll think about it again." ”

At this time, Wei Lun said again: "Three days, I transferred a copy of the boat seller to the county gentleman, it's been three days, the county gentleman should have seen it!" ”

Wang Zhihe realized that Wei Lun came to visit him for this matter.

He took a sip of tea, a little embarrassed: "Although Wei Xiancheng has approved, if the boat is sold, Han Tingshi can't explain it, he takes special care of me, this batch of ships can't move, it's really difficult for me to do it." ”

Wei Lun sneered slightly: "The county gentleman won't think that these ships are really bought by Jianghuai merchants!" ”

Wang Zhihe thought that Wei Lun had been bribed by a businessman to agree to sell the ship, which made him very dissatisfied and kept holding on to the approval of the sale of the ship.

But listening to Wei Lun's tone, it didn't seem to be the case, Wang Zhihe hesitated and asked: "I also heard some news, saying that there are many people who buy boats in the Central Plains states, do they have a background?" ”

Wei Lun said lightly: "I might as well tell the county gentleman the truth, if it is an ordinary businessman who buys a boat, I will never approve it, and I am not rare in any benefits, it is not worth offending Han Tingshi for a group of businessmen, but the people who buy the boat are not businessmen, they are actually from Taiyuan." ”