The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 897 The Zheng family of Xingyang is menacing

On the night when Yang Tong came back from Jicui Palace, he stayed in Jiang Fengyi's bedroom. Half the night was windy and windy, and he was lingering for a few times. rainwater?
At dawn, Yang Tong got up, opened the window and looked, and saw that the sky and the earth were as clear as a wash, and the long-lost sunny day finally appeared in the sky of Luoyang.

As soon as the window was opened, fresh and cool air rushed over in an instant. Outside the window, the red flowers and green leaves on the bank of Jiuzhou Pool were dripping wet, emerald and bright red. He said in surprise and joy: "Did the rain stop last night?"

Jiang Fengyi pulled off the thin quilt to cover her exquisite and graceful body, and said lazily, "You slept like a dead pig last night. Didn't you hear the thunder that struck so loudly in the middle of the night?"

Yang Tong laughed: "Running here and there in the first half of the night, the flames of war raged, and the calm and calm in the second half of the night. Naturally, you should have a good rest. How can you hear any thunder?"

Jiang Fengyi gave him a winking look, rolled over her smooth jade back and threw it to him, yawning and saying: "Close the window, I will sleep for a while."

"Yeah!" Yang Tong looked up at the sky and said, "Generally speaking, after a heavy rain, there will be a long period of sunshine. If the weather is too hot, it's not easy to march."

After hearing this, Jiang Fengyi turned around and asked, "Husband is going to fight again?"

"Don't ask me about this matter. You should care about when you will give me a baby. Look at Xiao Wu, she got pregnant casually."

Wei Fengwu, the queen, only gave birth to a pair of twins, and there was no movement after that. I don't know why Yang Tong had worked hard for a few months, but she was pregnant all of a sudden.

Speaking of this, Jiang Fengyi was filled with resentment: "If you can't conceive a baby, is it because you are not up-to-date?"

"Why do you blame me for not being up to date?" Yang Tong called Qu and said, "Since you gave me the 'aphrodisiac' in Fengyi shop, I have watered your fertile paddy field a lot. If you can't conceive, I can What can I do? It’s really weird, people say that big butts are easy to grow, how come you are wrong? You, you really gave birth to a big butt for nothing..."

Before the words were finished, a pillow flew over.

Yang Tong took the light hidden weapon casually, "If you want to conceive a child, posture is also very important."

"Really?" Jiang Fengyi was dubious, her eyes seemed eager to try.

"Of course it is!" Yang Tong closed the window casually, dressed neatly and went out. Jiang Fengyi usually gets up early to practice, but Yang Tong made a lot of trouble last night. I retracted into the quilt, wanting to sleep for a while, but as soon as I felt drowsy, I heard bursts of giggling and giggling, and then ran around. It sounded like a few children were chasing after me. Hui's milky voice said childishly: "Father, the sun is coming out! The water in Jiuzhou Pond is running low! Toads...the frogs have all jumped to the shore. Father, will you take us to catch the frogs?"

Yang Tong suppressed his laughter and his voice suddenly sounded: "Father still has big things to deal with, so I can't accompany you to catch frogs, go to your Aunt Jiang, your Aunt Jiang is the best at catching frogs, that's the best way to catch frogs." A certainty."

"Aunt Jiang!" Yang Lu immediately called out confidently.

"This scoundrel! Sincerely don't let people sleep late..." Jiang Fengyi sat up in a panic, grabbed her clothes and put them on, and answered as she put them on: "Come on, come on, Aunt Jiang will be here soon, don't come in... "

However, as soon as they got dressed, Yang Hui, Yang Wan, and Yang Lu rushed in excitedly.

Looking at Jiang Fengyiyu's face, which seemed to be dyed with rouge, glistening and radiant, blinking her big black and white eyes, she asked with cute concern: "Aunt Jiang, your face is so red, are you sick?"

It is often said that a woman who is nourished is the most beautiful, and Jiang Fengyi is like this at this moment. It seems that her moon-like skin has become radiant overnight, and there is a hint of rosy clouds flowing in the whiteness.

Even these cute little girls can be seen.

Jiang Fengyi blushed even more when she heard Yang Hui's concern, thinking that Aunt Jiang was more than just blushing?There are many places on your body that have been made redder than this by your badass father...

Seeing several pairs of big black and white eyes scanning her body non-stop, the guilty Jiang Fengyi was afraid that these girls would keep asking, so she hurriedly said: "Don't look, Aunt Jiang will go wash up first, and then catch frogs with you."

Yang Lu expressed doubts: "Aunt Jiang, can you catch frogs?"

"Yes, very capable. Aunt Jiang caught her all night..." As soon as she finished speaking, Jiang Fengyi wished she could slap herself a few times.

What did you say yourself?

"Where? Where?" The three little girls looked around ghostly.

"Your father took it away!" Jiang Fengyi retaliated.

"Aunt Jiang lied, father and emperor have empty hands and nothing."

"You guys go find some jars first, and we'll put frogs in later..." Jiang Fengyi's head was as big as a bucket, so she hugged him silently, looked left and right, and used 'frogs' to attract the attention of these little devils.

……

When Yang Tong came out of Fengyi Hall, it was still early.

Just like practicing martial arts in the past, there is no need to rush to the court, practice archery, and after sweating profusely, take a shower and read a book.

In the past at this time, he usually read military books and studied various tactics and tactics, but today he took "Gui Guzi" to watch.

"Guiguzi" is a wonderful book left by Guiguzi. It gathers the essence of psychological speculation, speech skills, political strategy, military diplomacy, and business negotiation. canon.

The various manifestations of resourcefulness and power revealed by it are widely used in the fields of internal affairs, diplomacy, war, economy and trade, and public relations.

However, this well-known book, because of its advocacy of strategy and power, as well as the skills of speech, debate, and sophistry, was regarded by the rulers of all dynasties as "the forbidden fruit of wisdom, an unrivaled book". !Because of this, the content of "Guiguzi" was almost extinct before. Even Yang Guang's Royal Library, which has many classics and rich content, has not received the complete "Guiguzi".

Yang Tong's complete "Guiguzi" was copied by Mai Mengcai from the Zheng family's house when he played the Tang army in Xingyang and slaughtered the Zheng family in Xingyang.

Yang Tong has lived in the Sui Dynasty for so long, got used to everything here, and has improved his understanding of ancient Chinese, so it is naturally not a problem to understand "Guiguzi".It's just that the philosophy contained in "Guiguzi" is applicable to all walks of life. People of different ages and status can read it at different times, and they can gain something. Therefore, it is not a matter of one day and one night to understand it thoroughly.

Just after reading an article, someone came to remind me, after breakfast in a hurry, I went to Xuanzheng Hall to hold today's morning court.

Since today is the regular court for doing practical things, Yang Tong’s clothes are not as grand as the Yuan Day Winter Grand Court Meeting and the Shuo Wang Dynasty Meeting. He only wears a purple gold crown on his head, wears a black embroidered gold imperial robe, and a jade belt around his waist. , a pair of thin-soled soft boots, simple and refreshing.

When he arrived at the main hall, he found that the courtiers were smiling, as if they were celebrating the new year. He knew that it had been a long time since he had been hit by heavy wind and rain. Finally, the sunny weather appeared, and he felt relieved after being suppressed for a long time.

"Your Majesty, this spring, there was a long drought and no rain in various places, resulting in a sharp drop in spring grain. Recently, due to the torrential rain, the people are worried that there will be another severe drought after the rain, which will affect the harvest this autumn. They have bought grain for storage. Affected by this wind direction, Then the price of food rose." After discussing the important affairs of the government, Yang Shidao, Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, bowed to Yang Tong.

Are you finally starting to make up for the deficit?

When Yang Tong heard this, a sneer flashed in his eyes. He listened to Fang Xuanling's strategy and asked Yin Hongzhi to secretly control the White Horse Warehouse Order Zeng Zhong. The governor of the school, and then let him brew spontaneously. Unexpectedly, the day before yesterday, the order to praise Shi Yu was issued, and the price of grain rose. Behind this must be the Zheng family of Xingyang who purchased a large amount of grain to fill the white horse warehouse. The purpose is to keep Shi Yu, an important chess piece. .

"Only in Luoyang did the food price rise, or did it also happen in other places?" Yang Tong asked.

Master Yang submitted an official document: "Reporting to the Holy Majesty, Jiyin County has also experienced considerable fluctuations. This is an urgent report from the prefect of Jiyin County."

"Submit it!" Yang Tong gestured to the officer on duty, and one of them stepped forward to take the official document from Yang Shidao.

The letter stated that in recent days, Jiyin has not only been a major grain producing area, but also the location of the combined warehouses of the four counties of Dongjun, Dongping, Jibei, and Jiyin. The county grain store was sold out, and the price of grain rose accordingly.As the news spread, grain merchants from the four counties of Dongjun, Dongping, Jibei, and Jiyin rushed to Jiyin one after another to buy up the grain and took the opportunity to drive up prices, causing the people to boil.

At this time, the spring grain tax paid by Chengshi, Chengwu, and Shanfu counties under the Jiyin rule arrived at Jiyin Warehouse. Because the tax was paid and not checked into the warehouse, it could not be sold for a while.And because the officials went all over the country to control the flood, no one was checking the food and put it in the warehouse temporarily. As a result, the Dongjun people who brought the food here were stranded in the county. Because they were responsible for their own food and lodging expenses, they rushed back to their hometown to control the flood and resume production. For other reasons, there are also complaints.

Soon, some people bewitched the people to petition Huang Ming, the magistrate of Chengwu County. Huang Ming generously accepted the people's petition, and led the county officials, local gentry and petitioners to the county government to plead for the people.

Sheriff Chu Long came out of the mansion and answered correctly, unexpectedly there was a quarrel and a civil uprising almost broke out. Sheriff Chu Long was chased, beaten and scolded by the "people" in front of him, and retreated into the government office in a panic.

In order to quell public grievances, Chu Long had no choice but to order the re-opening of the warehouse to sell rice. In one day, the grain sold in Jiyin warehouse exceeded 30 shi.

Chu Long and other county officials found out that something was wrong, so they ordered the county soldiers to follow up and investigate secretly, and found that most of the grain had been transported to Dongjun.

When Yang Tong came here, he already knew that the Zheng family of Xingyang must have purchased a large amount of grain from Jiyin to make up for the shortfall in order to exonerate Shi Yu.

Chu Long finally said that now it can be concluded that the foreign grain merchants who drive up prices are actually the same group as the grain buyers, and they came here just to create momentum for them.As for the three counties who came to pay taxes, I am afraid it is not a coincidence, and because things happened too fast and too tightly, there is no evidence to check the origin of the grain merchants.

Chu Long’s official document stated what happened without embellishing the words, but Yang Tong could imagine how strong the Zheng family’s control over these old spheres of influence was, and how many “merchants” they had in their hands. When they heard Shi Yu After being promoted, it took only one or two days to complete such matters as controlling grain merchants, driving up prices, pretending to pay taxes, and inciting public grievances.

Afterwards, Huang Ming begged to see the county magistrate in the form of a people's petition. Under the turmoil of the crowd, it was too easy to create trouble and stimulate the people to erupt. When the people's uprising happened, these people would come out and force Chu Long and other county officials to "respond to public opinion." .

Even if this incident is reported to the imperial court, it is an act of "responsiveness to power" to appease the people and calm the situation.

Thinking through the whole incident, Yang Tong was startled.

This incident is simple to say, but it is not easy to accomplish so many things in such a short period of time, and to prevent grain merchants from all over the country from being tracked by the government; There is no place to do evidence work, Zheng's energy, organization, and control have far exceeded Yang Tong's estimation.

Yang Tong's complexion became quite ugly. He thought that the Zheng family had been weakened to the extreme during the war, and had fallen to the point of dying, but the strength they showed in the incident in Jiyin was really shocking. He no longer dared to underestimate these families that have been passed down for thousands of years.

(End of this chapter)