The Frightening Threat
"Despicable people, despicable people," Yun Ye scolded as he walked. He wasn't scolding that ** Hu Ji, but rather his own friends who were like a pack of wolves and wild dogs.
Just now, all the brothers resisted Hu Ji's temptation, especially Chang Sun Chong, who listed the pros and cons of Hu Ji's body, from taste to chastity, skin, and warmth, perfectly demonstrating an excellent silk quality, and finally made a decision.
"My brother is a noble son, how can he become brothers-in-law with a merchant and a soldier? This Hu woman doesn't know how many people she has served. When my brother is treated as a servant who washes pots and pans, it's a great shame." Without saying anything else, the bodyguard next to him swung his sword scabbard and hit the Hu merchant, who fell to the ground begging for mercy in broken official language.
Li Fulu chuckled and joked on the side: "The Hui people are all greedy, every one of them is blinded by desire for a few pieces of copper money. They use their wives, sisters, and daughters to lure in customers with revealing skin, and it's common for those who can afford it to sleep with them." After finishing speaking, he held his belly with a look of disdain. It seems this guy has already tasted the Hui woman before.
Li Fulu saw that the crowd was not interested in Hu Nu, so he brought up the fact that many guilty families had been exiled to Longyou during this rebellion. They were sold by the government, with the better-looking ones becoming official prostitutes and the mediocre ones being sold as slaves. There are still quite a few of them in the government offices now, which is a big headache. This bastard was intentionally saying this, as the common saying goes: "Three years in the army camp, even a mother pig can become a beauty." Not to mention these three young masters, who have been visiting brothels since they were 14 or 15 years old. They're not even pure youths anymore. Their eyes had turned green as they said, "Brothers, let's go comfort those poor women. It's the responsibility of the young men of Chang'an. As for the salt trade, it has nothing to do with them, so let's trouble Xiao Yan." After finishing speaking, he urged Li Fulu to take them to comfort the poor women. Even Yunyan's personal soldiers were brought along. Li Fulu had a benevolent smile like Maitreya Buddha and instructed his subordinates to lead the way. He himself slowly walked towards the government office with Yunyan.
Smart people, Li Fulu is a smart person, privately sent Yunyan 500 taels of silver cakes, saying that he was grateful to Yunyan for making Lanzhou this poor place rich, selfless contribution of the ancestral salt-making secret recipe, benefiting one side, Lanzhou has already carved a monument to record it, and future generations will not forget... ...what spirit, in order not to let the benefactor benefit the masses and go begging, local gentry gathered 500 taels of silver as a token of their intention. Anyway, good words were said in a heap. Private matters are all easy to talk about, but once public affairs are mentioned, his face changes, completely with an air of righteousness, opening his mouth is "this county", closing his mouth is "the people", in short, one sentence, no money, or else ask Ping'an County to wait for half a year and collect the taxes next year? Yunyan's face turned red like a pot bottom, and he said: "There really isn't any silver, but there is a lot of grain, why not take some grain back?" Yunyan had never dealt with such an official before, and was confused by his changing face. For a while, he was at a loss for what to do. Longyou doesn't lack grain, people are originally scarce, land is as much as you want, plus the Turks blocked the grain road leading to Chang'an, last year's taxes haven't been sent to Chang'an yet, and the commercial road has also been cut off, local grain merchants have a lot of grain in their hands, it can be said that it has become a disaster. It can only be seen rotting in the warehouse. This is the result of poor transportation. Li Fulu was also worried about these precious grains day and night, never thinking that grain would one day become a burden. Turning to history books, it's simply unheard of.
Grain? Yun Xiang's mind seemed to have something that he couldn't recall, very important, and it must be related to grain. What was it? He stopped Li Fulu who was chattering nonstop, pacing back and forth in the main hall, leaving Li Fulu bewildered.
Li Fulu's living room was decorated just like everyone else's, with four large vases placed in a row. The flowers were all the same, not bright green or yellow, but rather dull and wilted, like someone who had been beaten up. The bird on top of the vase was blurry, and it was unclear whether it was catching ants or crickets from its long whiskers. Outside the window, the willow tree had already lost its leaves, and its soft branches were swaying wildly in the wind, whipping against the eaves. The third year of the Zhenguan era was approaching.
Yun Yan's mind was no longer confused, and he said with a smile: "Liu Gong, you're really a good official, clear as water and bright as a mirror. I admire you very much. Since I was a child, I have only learned about loyalty and integrity. Now, we two are arguing over trivial benefits, it's really shameful. Why don't we put aside our official duties for today and just enjoy the beautiful scenery? Let's talk about something else." Li Fulu didn't understand what Yun Yan was up to, so he ordered his servant girls to prepare wine and dishes.
Yun Ye indeed didn't discuss official business, and instead chatted with Li Chubby, laughing and joking together. Unexpectedly, this chubby guy was a scholar from the imperial examination hall, whose name had once appeared on the golden list of honors. However, he came from a humble background and didn't have any powerful connections in the court, so he ended up taking office in this remote area. No wonder he dared not to give face to Old Cheng. This guy had managed to govern the small county with less than 10,000 households in an orderly manner over the past four years. He effortlessly brought up various anecdotes and historical stories, which were far beyond Yun Ye's knowledge. Fortunately, Yun Ye also had his own strengths - he could talk about the customs and habits of people from all over the world, leaving Li Fulu speechless. It wasn't until Cheng Chu Mu and the others came to find Yun Ye, satisfied with their conversation, that they finally parted ways.
On the way back to the camp, Yun Ye's face was gloomy and he didn't speak. Li Huai Ren, Chang Sun Chong, and Cheng Chu Mo thought he had been bullied, so they wanted to turn their horses around to find Li Ao Zi to settle the score. Yun Ye repeatedly advised them against it before they finally gave up.
Yun Yan arrived at the commander's tent with a sack full of silver, Old Cheng was chatting with some veteran generals. When he saw Yun Yan return, the veterans knew something was up and bid farewell, waiting for everyone to leave the tent. Old Cheng looked at Yun Yan's gloomy face and asked: "What's wrong, did you get angry? That Liu Fu Lu may look foolish, but he is a capable official, the two armies have a total of 30,000 people, and there has never been any shortage of food or supplies. He also executes the emperor's orders very well, I won't make things difficult for him, and you shouldn't either, otherwise, you'll be punished with military rods."
"Uncle, I didn't achieve my goal today, but I had a great conversation with Liu Fulu. He's a very learned man, and I wouldn't be rude to him. It's just that when we were drinking and chatting, I remembered something my teacher said, which made me lose all joy. So I hurried back." Yun Ye saw something resembling an ant on Liu Fulu's vase and suddenly thought of the great locust disaster in Guanzhong Plain during the third year of Zhenguan. The locusts poured down from the sky like a tidal wave, eating away all crops along the way, even trees and wild grass couldn't escape their mouths. The entire Guanzhong Plain was left barren for thousands of miles. There were rumors among the people that this was heaven's punishment for Li Er's killing of his brothers. Only by returning power to the Taishang Emperor could the locust disaster be eliminated. Li Er was at a loss, and in his grief and anger, he issued an edict saying: "If I have committed crimes, let the locusts eat my heart, punish me alone, don't eat my people's food."
