The fox minister in the late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 327

The mighty horse team entered Shangjing, and the figures on the street hurriedly evaded, like a parting water surface. After the team passed, they quickly returned to their previous appearance, and the pedestrians and people continued to do their own things.

After ten years of plundering, population and money became the basis for Khitan to establish a country, and the outside Jin and Liang struggles also made Khitan fully prepared. Liang Qiang will help Jin, and Jin Qiang will help Liang. , this emerging country, compared with the south where they attacked each other, looks peaceful, full of vigor, and faintly has the momentum of prosperity.

Calligraphy and painting, herbs, snacks, and rouge satins gathered from all over the place decorate the shops on the long street. The Khitan women who choose rouge have luxurious dresses like southern women, and they bring maids and maids to pick and choose; , opened the lid, and in the copper spoon scooped up by the shopkeeper, clear water sprayed with sweet fragrance; half-grown children chased and played, and ran around a crazy woman holding a windmill.

In the bustling and noisy market, there are also homeless people in ragged clothes, holding broken earthen pots, taking some food residue from the kitchen slop bucket at the back of the restaurant, and squatting in dark corners; disabled men or women who have no value Leaning against the wall, waiting for the winter cold to take them out of this world, and occasionally throwing a few coins to them.

"Take some leftovers from home, and give them unused clothes."

Said in a muffled voice, a chubby figure stood on the second floor, looking at the huddled figures in the alley below, turned around and said a word to the boy on the side, then walked to the side facing the long street, looking at the people on the street. The crazy woman who was being pushed around couldn't help but sigh.

He has been here for nearly ten years, and the people in the Khitan border are not as beautiful and peaceful as imagined. The Han people here are always inferior, or even second-class. A craftsman with a craft, an ordinary person without a craft, is either a slave or a handmaiden, or a coolie for others, constantly pruning houses, cities, and roads, without any wages, and it is good to have enough food to eat.

Yelu Abaoji, who arrived here, took the throne, and it has only improved in the past few months. The system of treating the Han people well and how to manage them has gradually been perfected.

Tread
The sound of horseshoes spread, and as the passers-by on the street avoided both sides of the street, the Khitan soldiers advancing ahead stepped forward and dragged the woman into a nearby alley and chopped her down.

The fat figure on the second floor just watched this scene and sighed, it doesn't matter if he was killed, or at least simply, he would be frozen to death in winter.

That woman, he knew, was originally a good person, and her husband, they loved each other, but unfortunately her husband was arrested and repaired the city wall, and as soon as he left, two Khitan soldiers broke into the house and locked the woman in the room and ruined it One night, and later he simply occupied the woman until her husband came back.

After the man found out about this, the two Khitan soldiers had disappeared for a long time. He couldn't find who they were, so he ran to the government office and yelled at them. After that, he was arrested and thrown into the prison, where he died before the next day. inside.

Then the government informed the woman to take her husband's body back. Since then, the whole person has been insane. The street prodigals often tease women, take them to remote places to do bullying, and then give them some food to pass.

Being dead now is sometimes a blessing, at least Zhao Hongjun has seen many more miserable things than this in the past ten years.

"Find someone to open the coffin, collect the body of the crazy woman in the alley, and bury it with her husband."

The confidant boy nodded and left.Zhao Hongjun watched two of his subordinates running across the street towards the alley before he turned around and went downstairs. The hall was noisy and bustling. Vendors and drinkers coming from south to north would often come here when they saw the fat figures going downstairs. Say hello.

"Shopkeeper Zhao, business is booming!"

"I heard from them that your daughter was born into the spirit of falling into the water. I don't believe it. She's probably just like you. It's like being pregnant for eight months!"

"Ha ha!"

Amidst the roar of laughter, Zhao Hongjun was not angry. He bowed his hands to them with a big smile on his round face, and then yelled at the Jianghu people who were making fun of him, "I'll give you more money later!"

This remark caused another burst of laughter.

Zhao Hongjun went to the counter, took out the ledger to settle the accounts, and fiddled with the abacus at the same time. He wore a cockscomb hat on his head and a square-hole robe with gold patterns on a black background. He was dressed like a businessman. He had been in Beijing for many years. After buying this building, it was changed to a restaurant, and it was given a meaningful name for him - Ta Qing Lou.

The abacus sounded, and Zhao Hongjun occasionally glanced at the guests who entered the door, surrounded by people who were laughing and drinking, as if they were thinking about it in their minds. When the guests came and went straight to the back hall, he put down his pen and ink and followed.

"Brother, where are you going to get rich?"

"south."

The simple cut was correct, the man indicated that he was introduced by an acquaintance, and he took out a letter and handed it to Zhao Hongjun. The latter just glanced at it briefly, then nodded, and called a sleepy guy at the back kitchen door, They walked to the backyard together, and when they reached a room in the side wing, the clerk took out a copper key and moved a bookcase away, revealing the dark room behind.

"This brother please."

Zhao Hongjun raised his hand towards the man, walked to the front first, took down the tray hanging from the wall, took the torch, broke it and blew it a few times, the sparks that came out lit the oil lamp, and the yellow light gradually filled the dark room There is a long table in the middle where the Four Treasures of the Study are piled up, two bookshelves on the right wall are filled with rolls of paper, and several wooden boxes are stacked on the other two walls.

"My rule is to only accept gold and silver yuan tongbao. It would be even better if there is a 'long live forever'. Of course, iron is also available, but the price is much lower than the first two."

"Rules, I have heard from acquaintances, and my master knows it too." The man was also a Han Chinese, presumably he had managed affairs in a noble family, and his words and demeanor were quite pompous.

Zhao Hongjun took the deed paper, pen and ink, and the other party wrote down his master's name and address on it without hesitation.

"At the end of this month, at three o'clock in Haishi, I sent someone to your mansion. The things didn't stay in the city. I should pull out of Shangjing and go straight to Han. I just don't know if the master of your mansion likes Chang'an, Luoyang, or Jiangnan? Jiangnan's words , need to wait for about the first half of the year, and if the turnover is paid, it will take at least the second half of next year to pay."

From Beijing to Jiangnan, the distance is long, and it takes a lot of time to buy land and shop for business. It is already a great skill to make a profit in the second half of next year and send it to Beijing.

The man thought for a while, then shook his head: "It's too slow, I'd better choose Kaifeng, it's the capital of Liang Kingdom, a prosperous place."

Zhao Hongjun gestured his thumbs to him and said a word of appreciation.

"Brother has eyesight."

"You're welcome." The man smiled and bowed his hands in return, chatted for a few more words, and then left.Zhao Hongjun sent him to the door, and the assistant led him out from the back door. When the figure was far away, he hummed, turned and walked back to the dark room, patted those heavy wooden boxes, and the mouths of the boxes were not closed tightly, and the golden "long live forever" The money flowed out in a splash, spread on the ground, and he still stepped on it, showing no distress at all.

A room full of wooden boxes and hundreds of thousands of huge money is exciting to put in front of anyone, but Zhao Hongjun has passed these money countless times in his hands, and the feeling has long since disappeared, and it is just this. In the second half of the year, the income will be distributed to ten Khitan nobles or court officials.

Of course, externally, it is income. In fact, fundamentally, it is just cheated from other nobles. A noble’s money is divided into ten shares and distributed as half a year’s income. The impact will be more people. Send him money.

Then use the money of these people to draw one or two out, and then distribute it to the next batch, and keep rotating, and eventually there will be an end.

"Yong Wang, oh Yong Wang, why didn't you tell the deception behind. Now, how should I end it?" '

The more Khitan nobles join in, the bigger the gap will be, and the accumulated wealth will naturally increase. I'm afraid the only way to end up is to run away.

'Damn, when you go back, if you don't make me a high official, you will be sorry for my fears and fears in the past ten years! '

His fat lips murmured words that only he could hear. He wrote down the names of the new nobles, closed the register, and blew out the oil lamp. After he went out, it was already late. Since the incident with the madwoman’s family, it was almost dark. , he went home early.

Going out from the back door of the restaurant, the carriage that should have been prepared earlier did not come, but the Han steward of a Khitan noble mansion who had left long ago looked at him with a smile.

Oops--

The sudden two words flashed through his mind, before he turned around and ran to the restaurant, a sack fell from the top and covered his head, and then he was chopped on the back of the neck with a palm, his eyes went black, and he fell to the ground. fell to the ground.

"take away!"

The thin steward waved his hand, and the few people he summoned were all tall Khitan men, and he threw Zhao Hongjun's heavy body into the carriage lightly.

"call!"

The Khitan driver whipped his whip and drove the vehicle slowly out of the alley.

As the night fell, the last stars and moons of autumn hung in the night sky. At an unknown time, the cold water splashed in the dark room.

"I recruit, I recruit—"

Zhao Hongjun, who woke up from a coma, opened his eyes and yelled loudly, which stunned the two Khitan men who were still preparing for execution and interrogation. Both of them can speak Chinese, so they naturally understood what it meant.

"What are you recruiting?"

"That's right. What am I recruiting? You haven't used torture yet, haha" Zhao Hongjun immediately smiled flatteringly at the two of them, and the one who answered him was the whip that had been whipped. Cracked, a bloody mess.

"You are asking, but if you don't ask, how can I recruit!!"

Zhao Hongjun almost fainted again from the pain, but fortunately the second whip was not pulled down, the two people on the opposite side nodded, one of them went out, and came back soon, beside him was a figure wearing a cloak, with dangling robes, You can see the slim figure inside.

Sure enough, when the man walked up to the torture rack, his voice was a female voice.

With a crisp voice, he asked directly, "What is the purpose of what you did?"

"It's just for business, there's no purpose."

"To be honest, I thought you had already figured it out. It seems that you still need to be tortured."

Hearing the word 'torture', Zhao Hongjun straightened his body immediately, and shook his head quickly. Right now, his chest was in pain like a tear. How could he be hit a second time? Seeing that the executioner raised his whip, he hurriedly threw a cloak on him. The figure shouted:

"I recruited. I recruited. These are all taught to me by one person—"

"Who?"

"Geng Qing!"

Under the cloak, the man slightly raised his face, almond-eyed majestic, but unexpectedly surprised, staring at the old fat man on the rack and fell silent.

Thoughts were mixed, and at the moment of ecstasy, I seemed to recall that night, that cheap smile, and what the other party said - 'investment'

Sure enough it was him.

It was really a romantic night.

(End of this chapter)