"Where is the fire? Where is the fire! ”

In the office hall of Tanxing, Mrs. Liu was so anxious that she jumped to her feet and shouted at the top of her voice.

Two charcoal merchants came in with a person from the outside, and pushed it in front of Liu Daguan: "Dou Er, the fire is up from this shop, the big official just asks him!" ”

Liu Daguan pulled up the thin Dou Erlai, put his face near his nose, glared and asked, "Tell me, why did your shop catch fire in this cold and snowy place?" ”

Dou Er's face was gloomy, and he shook his head, where could he still speak?

Liu Daguan's other hand slapped Dou Er's head violently: "You said it!" Why did your shop catch fire? Who made your shop catch fire? The sun in the sky is helping us, and we don't dare to come out and show our heads, so why do you dare to let your shop catch fire? You're tired of dying by yourself! Why bother us! ”

After speaking, he put Dou Eryi on the ground, still unable to understand his hatred, gritted his teeth and stepped on a few feet.

Dou Er was in pain, coughed a few times, and said weakly: "I heard that the coolies in Xiangguo Temple are making trouble, and they want the prefect to come and seal our charcoal line." There is still so much charcoal in the library, if this is publicized, how can Cheng Xianggong spare us? Just set a fire and burn the charcoal. Without physical evidence, how can Kaifeng Mansion help us? ”

"Did you get kicked in the head by a donkey, or was you bitten by a mouse? How did you come up with the idea of setting fire to charcoal? The fire prevention patrol in Kaifeng Mansion is set up there in vain! Afraid of a fire in the charcoal line, the government let the charcoal storage warehouses be set up by the Bianhe River, you charcoal has been sold for so many years, you don't know? Can you burn it? ”

Dou Er was kicked by Liu Daguan several times so that the corners of his mouth dripped blood, and he said weakly: "Now that the Bianhe River is frozen, where will the water come from to fight the fire!" Official, I advise everyone to follow my example and light all the charcoal in the library—"

Liu Daguan was so angry that Dou Er's teeth itched: "If it freezes, there will be no water in the river, right?" Just your brain, how did your father raise you? Well, do you believe that the patrolmen will throw you into the river to break the army? ”

At this time, there was the sound of bangs outside, and there was a noisy noise.

Liu Daguan bent down and looked at Dou Er on the ground: "Tell me why do I want to burn charcoal?" Was my charcoal stolen or robbed? I'm just using it as charcoal for purchases, and if I don't want to sell Kaifeng Mansion, I can still be used as an army! ”

Straightening up his waist, the more Liu Daguan thought about it, the more annoyed he became: "How can there be a person like you in the charcoal industry?" Why? You live a good life, why did Kaifeng Mansion seal us charcoal? That Cheng Lin said that he would be a prefect when he broke the sky, and a waiter from the Ministry of Industry took the bachelor of Longtu Pavilion, and the city of Kaifeng was much bigger than his officials, where did he get the courage to seal the charcoal! ”

Transactions with rich and powerful people have always been the responsibility of the head of the bank, Liu Daguan, how can others know? Dou Er belongs to the marginal people in the charcoal line, so he doesn't know it anymore, he just covers his injuries on the ground and hums.

The merchant on one side whispered to Liu Daguan: "The patrol who extinguished the fire has arrived, and we have no chance to remove the charcoal now, and once the matter spreads, Kaifeng Mansion will definitely not give up." That Cheng Lin, when he knew Kaifeng Mansion during the Heavenly Sage years, he didn't even give the face of the ruling queen mother, how can we fight? What should I do? ”

Liu Daguan sneered: "What can I do?" We didn't violate the laws and regulations of Kaifeng Prefecture, we just set a promise not to sell the goods and raise prices. It should be filled with the army, it should be distributed, everyone hurry home and pack their luggage! ”

The merchants on one side immediately became anxious: "Why did the big officials say that?" We have this confidence because powerful people profit from this charcoal business. They took the money happily when they took it, and now they leave it alone when something happens? ”

"What kind of powerful people, don't talk nonsense out of thin air!" Liu Daguan stared at a few people with wide eyes, "I don't know if you have made friends with powerful people, I don't have them here!" is still the same sentence, hurry back to their own shop to clean up, and when you see the official, don't say that we collude to raise the price, only that it is cheap and unprofitable. If we can be reasonable, let Kaifeng Mansion just confiscate our charcoal, this difficulty will be crossed, and there will always be a time to make a comeback. ”

The other merchants looked at each other, what is this? At that time, when everyone decided to act according to Liu Daguan's plan, he clearly said that the matter was supported by strong people, and the profits were shared, so that everyone could just do it, and someone would naturally settle the big thing. At this time, why did you change the rhetoric?

But these external liaison matters have always been done by Liu Daguan alone, and the others don't know who is involved, and in what way, they just give money to Liu Daguan.

Liu Daguan only pretended not to see other people's faces, and walked out of the conference hall first, and said, "If you don't leave, I'm leaving." Now this joint, be careful of being raided by Kaifeng Mansion, and leave a little bit of valuable things if you can. ”

But he just sneered in his heart, the powerful people helped, that was conditional, and Tan Xing had to keep himself from having an accident. Now that the merchant is on fire, with Cheng Lin's means, he will inevitably take this opportunity to check the charcoal storage of the charcoal store.

In this joint where people's hearts are in turmoil because of the price of charcoal, as long as Cheng Lin has definite evidence in his hands, which powerful person dares to come forward? Is it fake to be the head of the Kaifeng Mansion? As long as he has something to do with the charcoal line, the prince will have to be thrown into the ditch!

It is not easy to live in Kaifeng City, in addition to the palace, the highest income in the city is the family of the Eight Kings Zhao Yuanyan, but even the Eight Kings shout every day that the money is not enough, and they borrow money from the public every year, and they can't pay it back. How can high-ranking officials and nobles live on food and drink alone? Inevitably, you will have to make money from the side door. But the people who came out to do things were all domestic servants, and even the Liu Daguan who was specifically handed over didn't know whether these domestic servants acted under the orders of their masters, and of course he didn't dare to ask, anyway, it was a confused account to come and go. It's good if nothing happens, but if something happens, you can only suffer a dumb loss.

Not to mention implicating the powerful people, Liu Daguan didn't even dare to implicate the officials in Kaifeng Mansion, although there were many people who took money from him, but if something happened, he had to carry it. Dare to identify people out, Kaifeng Mansion will not have to come back for the rest of his life.

But then again, as long as these connections are there, no matter how big the blow is, as long as there is still a life left, he can return to Kaifeng Mansion to continue his former rich and happy life.

Most of these commercial houses in Kaifeng City have this complex background. But if you really want to investigate, unless it happens to happen, you really can't find anything. Everyone knows that there is no way for everyone.

As soon as Cheng Lin heard that Tanxing was on fire, he let out a sigh and said in a deep voice to the soldiers around him: "Bring people to surround Tanxing, and put out the fire immediately." I'll talk about the rest when I get there! ”

The official took the order and went.

Cheng Lin looked at the leader of the coolies who had lost his momentum on the opposite side, and said lightly: "Come on, let people watch these laborers, don't leave the prisoners!" You say that the charcoal shop has a love affair, so I will go to the charcoal shop first. However, you people, it's better to be responsible, and when I find out what happened over there, you can go back to Kaifeng Mansion with me here! ”

After saying that, he took the officials around him and went away, leaving only a group of soldiers to surround the coolies.

The breath of these coolies is all in the charcoal industry to play hands and feet and disregard the people's livelihood, and now Cheng Lin has a breakthrough and turns his head to deal with the matter of the charcoal industry, and the momentum of these coolies has also been released, so he has to wait silently.

In the official hall of the third director, Xu Ping and Zhang Cun chatted for a while, and the relationship was much closer than when they were in Lingnan.

Zhang Cun was appreciated by Kou Zhun back then, and the leader who later entered the court was the current privy envoy Wang Shu, who had nothing to do with the major political forces in the current court. Now that he has taken up a post in the Third Division, he is out of the political whirlpool, and he is relatively open.

In less than an hour, Kou Ying hurried back from the palace and said to Xu Ping and Zhang Cun: "It just so happens that you are all here, because the price of charcoal is too high, and the people's grievances are boiling, let the assembly discuss a solution." The palace listened to the meaning of the officials, and they liked the charcoal distribution according to the household mentioned by Xu Ping before. Let's discuss it first, and then we'll go and discuss it with the priests. ”

Speaking of this, he summoned the guard at the door and ordered, "Go and ask the deputy envoy of the king of the household department to come." ”

The guard complied and turned to go.

At this time, Li Hong, the deputy envoy of the three divisions, was ordered to send an envoy to the Khitan, and he was still on the way to the north.

The guards left, and Kou Ying said to Xu Ping: "You came up with this method, let's listen to it specifically." ”

This is not a formal meeting within the division, no one supervises the meeting, and no one records it, Xu Ping said casually, and said to Kou Ying: "This day is snowing heavily, and it is suddenly cold, which is different from usual. First, it came early, just entered the end of October, and it was still early before the beginning of spring. Another long time, usually suddenly cooled down, but only three or five days, at most seven or eight days, this time it looks like it will take half a month. In this way, it is not a question of whether the people can afford to buy charcoal, but whether they can afford it or not, the charcoal is not enough to sell. In addition, the days when it snowed were catching up with the court's reward, the officials in the court, and the forbidden army inside and outside the city, had a lot of living money in their hands, and the price of charcoal was raised, but they could still afford it, and the price of charcoal could not be lowered. ”

Kou Yang nodded: "Makes sense, go on." ”

"The officialdom sold charcoal at half price, which was originally to force the charcoal industry to reduce the price, but they didn't reduce it, so it was embarrassing. The charcoal in the officialdom is said to be cheap, but it is actually ten times as high as usual. The people who buy charcoal are afraid that most of them are those who have been rewarded in front of them and the rich families in the city, and as for the poor people, the charcoal in the officialdom cannot be bought. ”

Speaking of this, Xu Ping raised his voice: "So, the people who lack charcoal in the city now are originally poor. No matter how much they sell charcoal, they can't afford it after the previous toss. The city is not as good as the countryside, it really can't stand the cold, and it can make do with picking up some dead branches and fallen leaves for a while. If you don't want to freeze to death in the capital, you have to distribute charcoal by household, and you can limit the charcoal to a few households, and the rest is still sold by the officials. (To be continued.) )