peasant young lady

Chapter 301
Du Zhong looked out from the crack of the door of the house opposite Princess Yongqing's house. He didn't understand why Cheng Xia stopped walking and stayed at the home of an old couple. He didn't see these two old people. It happened, and I don't know who is sacred, but let the angry Cheng Xia stay.

For the past two days, he has been boarding opposite them. Every day when he has nothing to do, he lies on the crack of the door and pays attention to the movement on the opposite side, but he has never seen them go out to do anything. Du Zhong was feeling very bored, and suddenly saw a The sedan chair stopped, and Du Zhong regained his energy in an instant, and quickly opened the door a little wider, watching closely.

Du Zhong opened his eyes wide to see, but he never thought that a little girl jumping out of the sedan chair was really surprising.Fortunately, another man came out from behind, Du Zhong couldn't believe it even more, because he actually knew this man.

Isn't this his father's classmate, the chief envoy of Nanjing, Shen Zhihang, Mr. Shen?According to his father's words, when the two were studying in the Imperial College together, they shared similar interests like brothers, so they simply changed their names under the witness of the master. One was called Du Zhiqian and the other was called Shen Zhihang. Even though the capital city and the Nanjing city separate the two places, it still does not hinder the growth of feelings.Every spare time, each other goes north or south with their families, and the two families are also familiar with each other.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have happened that the old lady of the Shen family disliked her.

Thinking of this, Du Zhong couldn't help curling his lips, and when he looked up again, he saw that Shen Zhihang and the little girl had already entered the door, and Du Zhong couldn't see it anymore, so he turned his eyes back and went back to the room to rest.

Cheng Xia and Princess Yongqing opened the door and the chief envoy came in. Xu Pu looked into the courtyard from the window and saw that Shen Zhihang had brought his little daughter, so he hurried out and hugged the child in his arms. Nodding in satisfaction to Shen Zhihang, "How do you know that I like your little girl?"

Shen Zhihang smiled heartily, and followed Xu Pu into the door, "My old lady has nagged me several times, saying that I must take Tongtong with me when I came to visit you, so I'd better ask you for advice."

Cheng Xia couldn't help but chuckle, this Nanjing chief envoy looks like an honest man, he doesn't say anything.

Hearing the laughter, Shen Zhihang turned his head and smiled at Cheng Xia. He didn't ask who she was, but looked directly at Xu Pu, and said without any shyness, "Men, I will invite you to In my mansion, I want to tell you about Zhao Dezhong, the supervisory censor of the two Zhejiang provinces. I never thought that I would receive a report from a fast horse just after you arrived at the mansion, saying that it was Zhao Dezhong who withheld money and food. I thought it was urgent, so I went I might as well have gone to Zhejiang, but it would be a waste of time to bother my teacher."

"Hey," Xu Puhun waved his hands indifferently, "it's important. Besides, if you hadn't left in a hurry, I would have wandered around your house in my free time, but I still wouldn't have found such a cute little girl." Xu Pu said and smiled as he watched Tongtong running around in the yard.

"It's an honor for Tongtong to be in the eyes of my mentor. I was thinking of finding an enlightenment teacher for Tongtong a few days ago, but I haven't found the right one. Now my mentor sees that Tongtong is okay. That's really Tongtong. The good luck of Tong's previous life." Shen Zhihang said with a pious face.

Cheng Xia immediately retracted his honest evaluation just now, this Shen Zhihang is worthy of being the person who can serve as the chief envoy for more than ten years in the most important place in the south, he really has a lot of intentions.

Taking advantage of Xu Pu's love for his youngest daughter, he made Xu Pu her teacher. Who is Xu Pu?That's not to mention, once Xu Pu is persuaded, the little girl's knowledge will be taught, and the morality and behavior of the female workers will be solved together. After all, there is a princess of the Ming Dynasty by Xu Pu's side, so this child But you really don't have to worry about it.

Cheng Xia couldn't help but look back at the innocent little girl in the yard, hey, it's great to have a father like the Chief Minister of Nanjing, who can beat others at the finish line at the starting line.

Xu Pu was taken aback when he heard Shen Zhihang's words, and immediately reacted and kicked him angrily, "My old man is already dying, and his ideas have long been out of fashion, and then I will teach your precious daughter to be pedantic. "

As soon as he said this, it was tantamount to admitting the matter, Shen Zhihang hurriedly called Tongtong into the room to kowtow to Xu Pu.When the work was over, Shen Zhihang carefully wiped the sweat from his forehead, hey, it really is their old lady who is wise.

The topic changed again, and finally talked about Zhao Dezhong again. Cheng Xia followed Princess Yongqing's instructions, poured tea for the two people who were talking outside, and then stood behind Xu Pu, listening attentively. with.

Shen Zhihang took another look at her, didn't say anything, just continued, "I invited you to go that day mainly because I received a letter, which contained a lot of records that Zhao Dezhong was in charge of the Jianning Mansion. The wrong thing he did when he was the magistrate of Chong'an County. Zhao Dezhong condoned his relatives and friends to harm the village, opened casinos privately to make money for himself, and blatantly used the timing of the autumn exam to bribe the invigilators sent by the imperial court. As for other random judgments There are countless things like this. I thought about asking my teacher for advice on how to play this matter."

Xu Pu frowned, "What are you worried about?"

Cheng Xia listened to the conversation between the two of them, and couldn't help admiring Xu Pu.As expected of a person who has lived in the aspect for a long time, he can easily hear the meaning behind Shen Zhihang's words.

Shen Zhihang slightly clasped his fists at Xu Pu, "To tell you the truth, the letter also pointed out one thing. When His Majesty was still the crown prince, he had been to Chong'an County and was besieged by some villains. It was Zhao Dezhong who rushed to rescue His Majesty in time. Of course," Shen Zhihang let out a sigh of relief, "according to Zhao Dezhong's character, this matter itself is strange, but no matter what, His Majesty believed it, and specially promoted Zhao Dezhong to Liangzhe for this reason. When the supervisory censor jumped directly from the seventh-rank county magistrate to the fourth-rank official, it shocked the government and the public at the time."

Xu Pu nodded, "What you are worried about is that if Zhao Dezhong is exposed regardless, you are afraid that His Majesty will be embarrassed?"

"That's right," Shen Zhihang nodded hastily, "It's just that Zhao Dezhong committed another crime before I could figure out why."

"What?" Xu Pu said calmly, "What did he do?"

Shen Zhihang took a quick look at Cheng Xia, probably feeling a little shy.

Xu Pu waved his hand indifferently, "But it's okay to say."

Shen Zhihang calmed down, but couldn't help but take another look at Cheng Xia, thinking that this girl is very powerful, and she can make his teacher treat him differently.

"Men, it's like this. The most recent letter was sent by the chief envoy of Zhejiang Province. He stated that the relationship between Zhao Dezhong and Wang Yue is not normal."

Cheng Xia was taken aback, how could he have anything to do with Wang Yue?
Xu Pu didn't seem to have thought about it, and was very surprised for a moment, "He and Wang Yue haven't met, and he hasn't met, how did the two of them get involved?"

"That's it," Shen Zhihang said leisurely, "I was also surprised at first, but there was one thing written in the letter from the chief envoy of Zhejiang Province, that is, Wang Yue was mobilizing food and grass. There is nothing wrong with mobilizing food and grass. After all, Zhao Dezhong, as the supervisory censor, was responsible for the supervisory officials responsible for transporting the grain to the capital. Now that it was the season of escort, Zhao Dezhong was in charge of this kind of thing for the first time. Heart, as a result, you can see the problem at once."

Shen Zhihang took a sip of tea and continued, "Master knows that this Qiantang has been prosperous since ancient times, and the grain and grass in the two Zhejiang areas are often more than the sum of several provinces. This amount is naturally larger. In the past, grain transportation was carried out by water. The canal was sent directly to the capital. However, the problem that the Zhejiang chief envoy discovered was that only part of the grain was transported from the water to the capital, and the other part went northward by land. The total amount of grain collected by the Zhejiang chief envoy was not clear, because the water transport This is not within the jurisdiction of the chief envoy. But he always felt that something was wrong, so he told me the news."

Xu Pu took a sip of hot tea, blowing away the green tea leaves, and drank slowly, before asking, "Then you went to Liangzhe, did you find anything?"

"Yes," Shen Zhihang nodded affirmatively, "As the chief envoy of Zhejiang Province said, Zhao Dezhong did divide the grain soldiers into two routes, one for water transport and the other for land transport. .”

"Then what does this matter have to do with Wang Yue?" Xu Pu asked again.

"I asked the chief minister of Zhejiang the same way at the time. He told me that he had been to Zhao Dezhong's mansion. When he entered the study, he happened to see Zhao Dezhong folding a letter in a panic. In a hurry, the chief minister Seeing Wang Yue's inscription and the words "Water Transport", he went back and thought about it carefully, and felt that the matter was not so simple."

Cheng Xia listened carefully, but she didn't understand too much. The only thing she could understand better than Xu Xiang and Shen Zhihang was that she knew from Lihua that Wang Yue was going to fight against Oala and Tatar after the Chinese New Year. As the saying goes The soldiers and horses went ahead without using food and grass. I am afraid that this food was collected for the expedition.

However, there is a wave of water transportation and a wave of land transportation. Why is this?Could it be His Majesty's order?That shouldn't be the case, after all, the time before the expedition is very tight, and I'm afraid I won't be able to make it by land.

Just as he was thinking about it, Cheng Xia heard Xu Pu say, "Well, you should keep your face on this matter and pretend that you don't know anything about it. You and the chief envoy of Zhejiang will communicate with each other first, asking him to pay close attention to Zhao Dezhong's situation." Every move, as for the food that is traveling by land, you secretly send people to follow them to see what their plans are, and wait until you have real evidence."

"Okay," Shen Zhihang immediately responded, "I'll listen to my mentor."

After Shen Zhihang left with Tongtong, Cheng Xia bid farewell to Princess Yongqing and Xiang Xu.

"Xiao Xia, don't you want to stay a few more days?"

"No," Cheng Xia smiled gently, "Thank you, grandpa and grandma, for your hospitality during this time. I just heard about Zhao Dezhong, and I suddenly want to go to Chong'an County to get something." Cheng Xia turned to look at Xu Pu, A little embarrassed, he said, "Grandpa, if the chief envoy finds out what the food on the land route is used for, can you write me a letter and tell me?"

Although Xu Pu didn't understand why, he nodded readily, "No problem."

Cheng Xia quickly wrote down the address, and handed it to Xu Pu respectfully. It was the address of Zuihonglou, and she didn't want the Shao family to know about it.

When Cheng Xia led the horse away, she hugged Princess Yongqing reluctantly, "Grandma, I will come back to see you."

But I don't want to leave this way, and it has been 15 years since we met again.

(End of this chapter)