Stepmother Shaoguang

"What should I do?"

A group of people gathered together scratching their heads, unable to discuss why.

"This price can't be raised!" Brother Hai bit down to death with only this sentence.

Although Hai Lao San knew that his elder brother would definitely say that, he was also very worried about the movements of the chamber of commerce, and muttered in his mouth: "Then we will be kicked out by the chamber of commerce? Will we not do business in Dingzhou in the future?"

The third room of the Hai family fell into an eerie silence again.

Second sister-in-law Yan sighed, thinking of the letter from her mother's family, writing about the difficult situation of the people in the village this year, and the usually densely populated Lihua Village is also showing signs of withering.

When Yan was a child, she grew up with her grandmother in Lihua Village, and had a deep relationship with the villagers. They had a difficult life, and she felt uncomfortable hearing it.

Originally, I told my grandmother in the letter that the price of my grain shop has not risen to the same level as other grain shops. The village can send some young and middle-aged people to line up. Relieve some.

It's just that the Hai family also has such a big difficulty, and they may not be able to withstand the pressure to raise prices.

The third sister-in-law Hai also had red eyes, remembering the scenes she saw at the foot of the mountain when she went to the Buddhist temple to offer lamps the day before yesterday: "Brother, brother, we can't lose our conscience just to make money!
Now the Hongye Temple is full of villagers from nearby villages who can't eat. The temple takes them in, and the monks in their own temple can only drink porridge mixed with wheat bran.

I told them that the Hai family had sixty cents a bucket of wheat, and they were all overjoyed.We, we don't follow up with the increase in money, isn't it just so that someone can eat? "

Big Brother Hai nodded, and said seriously: "It can't be raised, but the third brother is right, and the chamber of commerce has to give an explanation."

The five old men and the three daughters-in-law looked at each other, not knowing how to prevaricate.

It was Mrs. Hai Youshi who stood up and made the final decision: "Let's write a letter to my little sister and ask her to go home."

"That's right, my younger sister has the most ideas, let her come back." Hai Er Er had no idea about the family business, and when he heard his sister-in-law wanted to call his younger sister back, his headaches for many days eased a lot.

Mrs. Hai wrote a letter, saying that Dingzhou is not far from Beijing, and you can go back and forth in one day, and you got a reply soon.

Haishi has decided to leave, and He Jingsong's face is full of worry: "Can you go alone? There is no one to accompany you on this road...how about letting Chang Feng go with you?"

Haishi stared: "I will have to stay at my mother's house for more than a month at least. Chang Feng will get married after the Chinese New Year. It will be less than two months. How will someone receive him when he leaves?"

He Changjie was sent to Yanzhou, and the border army in Yanzhou was greatly changed. The saint needed his own people to monitor the movement of the border, so he sent more than a thousand people from Lu Xiaowen's Xishan camp to go there.

It is even more impossible for He Jingsong to leave his post without authorization for so many days.

Hai Shi didn't think there was anything wrong, she waved her hand: "Don't worry about it—what are you afraid of for a day's journey?"

But He Shaoguang told her there was something.

"Now there are quite a few refugees outside the city wall, except for the two prefectures of Xiazhou and Dingzhou, there are also many people who have come all the way from the west, and they nest under the wall every day, guarding the carriages on the trail.

Last time, a wealthy household who brought two carts of grain into the city was robbed.They don't care who you are, and they don't care about this life. How can they reason if they hurt you? "

He Shaoguang persuaded Haishi who was patiently packing his luggage.

In fact, if these grain merchants hadn't all scrambled to raise prices, the food in the city would barely be enough to last this winter, and it would be able to survive the busy spring next year, and there wouldn't be so many refugees.

They smelled that this year was unusual, and they made big purchases when the price of autumn harvest grain was low.

In order to pay taxes, many people sold their rations without even keeping enough for their own food. Thinking that there was not enough food, they mixed wheat bran tightly.

Unexpectedly, the people in the capital had shouted for so long to reduce the autumn tax, and they thought there was great hope.Every family is looking forward to their own villages being exempted, but only one or two serious towns can be exempted.

The grain was sold early, even if the petty officials who came to collect the tax turned a blind eye and turned a blind eye to release the water, they still had to tighten their belts to pay enough autumn taxes, and the grain merchants took the opportunity to raise prices.

There are so many refugees this winter.

"Dingzhou Chamber of Commerce has done too much, I have to go home to support your uncle and aunt!"

Not being able to persuade Haishi, He Shaoguang rested his forehead and sighed. Her eyes were not angry when she saw those refugees, and only when she saw their carriages did her eyes glow green.

"Is the disaster in Dingzhou serious?" Lu Xiaowen was surprised by what the Hai family did after learning about what the Dingzhou chamber of commerce did to the Hai family.

"Although the drought is not as good as those two tax-exempt places, the lives of residents in Yanghua County must be difficult."

"Why don't we go back with our mother-in-law." Although he is a general, Lu Xiaowen is always concerned about people's livelihood, "I will go to the palace tomorrow to report the situation to the sage, and send the censor to go with me to investigate the disaster area. In dire straits, I immediately asked the saints for disaster relief."

This is naturally a good idea for He Shaoguang, she said happily: "That is the best!"

The saint heard the news from Lu Xiaowen's mouth, which was completely different from what the officials below reported, and couldn't help being furious.

He summoned the officials who had counted the disaster situation and scolded him, and ordered him to take Lu Xiaowen to all the disaster-stricken counties in Dingzhou Prefecture. If there was any further concealment, Lu Xiaowen found out and could deal with him directly.

In addition, Xue Litai, the servant of the household department, was appointed as the imperial envoy to accompany Lu Xiaowen on inspections, and the prime minister was responsible for disaster relief.

Xue Litai pondered for a long time, but couldn't figure out the proper meaning of the word "Prime Minister".

After thinking about it, he knocked on the door of his superior, the Minister of the Household Department, and wanted to ask the other party to instruct him on how to act this time.

Hubu Shangshu only said one sentence: "The sage is getting angry about this matter, and Hubu can't get involved any more now."

It is absolutely impossible not to go, Xue Shilang was enlightened, and said that he would put General Lu first in everything and obey the orders of those two people in everything.

Hubu Shangshu heaved a sigh of relief. His subordinate is good at everything, but he is not clever. If he didn't come to find him today, he would send someone to tell him, for fear that he would shake the airs of an imperial envoy because of an official sentence from the saint. Come on, I thought I was really the boss.

Fortunately, Xue Litai is not such a person.

They set off on the second day, Lu Xiaowen chose to ride on the road, followed by an inconspicuous carriage, in which He Shaoguang and Hai Shi sat, and three people's simple luggage, the rest, the Hai family would prepare for them.

Carriages are not commonly used by the Lu family for travel. They are black and gray sheds, and they look like ordinary people.

He himself was wearing simple, semi-new fine cotton clothes.

Xue Litai had already asked, so he was dressed in a simple and refreshing manner at this time, so that no one could see his identity.

On the other hand, the leading official who was scolded by the sage was dressed in fine clothes and a tall horse.

Lu Xiaowen finally knew why he was scolded.