Overlord's Road to Ancient Emperors

Chapter 117 1 mountain cannot tolerate 2 tigers

Ji Hanyu chatted with him endlessly. He had been waiting for Jiang Qiuming to explain his intentions. Speaking of which, the relationship between the two was very ordinary. When they were in the military camp, they had quarreled several times because of different educational concepts. I have tripped myself up.

But after all, the two have no deep hatred, and they represent King Shun and General Kou respectively, so there is always a kindness on the face.

As a result, the other party chatted with him but didn't talk about business. Ji Hanyu is now working hard until late at night every day, and sometimes he has to work all night long on business. How can he have free time to chat with the other party? If he has this time, he might as well take a shower and go to sleep.

He pretended to yawn, looked outside and said, "Yeah, it's two quarters of Hai, will the military division return to the barracks tonight?"

"I won't go back, just stay in the city overnight."

"Oh, that's it, it's getting late, the military division should go back and rest early."

Jiang Qiuming looked a little embarrassed, and sighed before the other party asked, "Master Ji doesn't know, but I'm here today to ask a question for General Kou."

Ji Hanyu took a sip of tea and moved his eyelashes, "You ask."

"It's like this. I heard that the prince wants to build a military building, but is it true?"

"It's true, the prince should have mentioned this matter to General Kou."

"Yes, but my general said that since it is a military building, he should have a share. He is a little angry today."

Ji Hanyu smiled, and only said: "This matter is decided by the prince, and the people from the palace are also used to build the house. The lower officials can't take care of the prince's affairs." It means that it is useless to tell him about it.

"Lord Ji, there is no need to be modest, Guo Fu has already told everyone that he went to beg you to pass the message to the prince, and wants to build a brick house, presumably because of this, the prince thought of building a house for everyone. "

Ji Hanyu didn't expect this to happen, and hurriedly explained: "It's not true, I haven't found a chance to mention this matter to the prince, and I don't know how the prince thought of it, but the prince has always been sympathetic to his subordinates. The generals are so cash-strapped that they made this decision."

"It turned out to be like this." Jiang Qiuming had an expression of enlightenment, and he didn't know whether he believed it or not. He poured a cup of tea for Ji Hanyu, then raised the teacup and said to him: "I have been with Mr. Ji for a while, and I don't have a serious relationship with him." You have thanked me, no matter what, Mr. Ji has given lectures to the lieutenant soldiers, and he is kind to the Kou family army. Today, I will offer you a glass of tea instead of wine."

Ji Hanyu stared at him for a few times, but couldn't see what he was planning, so he drank the tea with a gentle expression. Based on what he knew about Jiang Qiuming, once this man showed his favor to you, he must have something up his sleeve.

It is said that there is no room for two tigers in one mountain. He and Jiang Qiuming used to compete with each other when they were in the military camp. As teachers, they naturally compared the students' academic performance and their own level. In terms of knowledge, I am much higher than him. In terms of teaching level, I have more qualifications, but when it comes to the art of war and military affairs, the other party can always talk eloquently and quote classics. Therefore, every time I compare, my students are better in the cultural class, but they always lose to the other party in the military class.

Later, General Kou simply asked them to teach the soldiers how to learn calligraphy, and the other taught them the art of war, so as to make use of their strengths and avoid their weaknesses, but both of them were unyielding. , each has its winners and losers.

When he set up a ring to challenge the Quartet, Jiang Qiuming watched every match. He thought he would compete on stage, but he didn't, otherwise he might be stumped by the opponent's questions.

Seeing that it was getting late, Jiang Qiuming didn't want to disturb others any longer, so he got up to leave.

Ji Hanyu sent him out, but the latter had the cheek to let him see him off, and when he was about to go out, he said with emotion: "Master Ji is in a high position now, living in this small courtyard is too wronged for you, why don't you ask the craftsmen of the palace to give you Build a house."

Thinking of Li Xu's promise, Ji Hanyu showed a little warmth on his face, "I'm already looking for a place, maybe I can have my housewarming wine at the end of the year."

Jiang Qiuming's eyes lit up, "Where Master Ji plans to build a house? I'm more familiar with this Minzhou city, so can I recommend it to you?"

"Originally, it was planned to be built near the military building, but there will be a market in the future, so there won't be much space left. If the military master has a place with good geomantic omen, please recommend one or two."

Jiang Qiuming thought about it deliberately and seriously, and said to him, "Master Ji, have you ever been to South Street?"

"Passing by, that area is full of officials' residences, right?"

"Mostly, the environment over there is better. Most of the people live there are officials. It is convenient to come to have tea on weekdays. I just know that there is a vacant piece of land. It is the old house of the previous Jun Cheng. After his death, his family members Moved away, and then the house was demolished when it was abandoned, and it has been empty."

Since it was the place where officials lived before, it must not be bad, Ji Hanyu was a little moved. "I don't know who owns the title deed now? How big is the place? If it's too big, I don't need it. I can't afford it."

"The title deed is still in Yaxing's hands. It doesn't matter what you think. Why don't I take you to see it tomorrow."

Ji Hanyu thought about tomorrow's itinerary, decided to spare time for lunch and rest, then nodded and said: "Then I will trouble the military commander, and wait at the gate of the county guard's mansion at noon tomorrow."

Jiang Qiuming replied with a smile: "No trouble, it's easy." Then Chao Ji Hanyu cupped his hands, "Then see you tomorrow, and leave."

Walking out of the gate, Jiang Qiuming hummed a little song and walked towards his home. In the middle of the night, the patrolling yamen saw him wandering alone in the street, and stopped him for questioning.

Jiang Qiuming, as the military adviser of Kou's army, although his rank is not high, he is well-known, and he grew up in Minzhou City, so it's over after he reports his name.

Walking to South Street, Jiang Qiuming first went to see the open space next door, and walked around the abandoned house of Weed Congsheng before entering his own house.

The inaugural governor was his grandfather, my dear, his father was ranked fourth in the year, and he was kicked out of the house because he insisted on marrying the daughter of a commoner. Later, after the grandfather passed away, the uncles did not want to develop in South Vietnam, so they moved back to their hometown Chen Jun, his father did not follow, but continued to live in Minzhou with his wife and children.

Uncles couldn't take this old house away. It was originally for sale, but they couldn't find a buyer for a while, so they sold it to his father at the lowest price. Their family population is simple, so they only enclose half of it as a residence, and the other half It was originally rented out, but later the house became old, so they gave up on repairing it, and directly demolished the house, thinking about expanding it in the future when the children and grandchildren will flourish.

Jiang Qiuming's parents died of illness a few years ago, and he became a loner, and he no longer needed a big house, so the land has been left unused.

He didn't think of selling the land at first, but he only thought about it after hearing Ji Hanyu's words. He even thought about it. If Ji Hanyu thinks the land is too big tomorrow, he will make an agreement with him to build a house together. I can borrow the craftsmen from the palace to build an exactly the same house, and neither the prince nor Ji Hanyu would refuse.

What's more, he is not in vain, and the wages that should be paid will definitely not be less than a penny.

Jiang Qiuming felt that he was too witty, so he washed up perfectly and fell asleep soundly.

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At dawn the next day, a flash of lightning flashed across the sky, followed by thunder, and heavy rain woke up the sleeping people.

Li Xu originally planned to go to the glass factory to see the progress, but it was raining heavily, so he didn't really want to go to the factory.

After breakfast, Li Xu read a book for a while, sat by the window and looked at the rain falling in the pool outside, jumped up and called: "Wu Jin, Wu Jin!"

Wu Jin was competing with the new master in spelling, when he heard the summons, he hurriedly threw away the brush and ran into the house, "What orders does the lord have?"

"Go prepare the carriage, let's go to the Sheriff's Mansion."

"It's raining heavily outside, who are you looking for? Little man, go and call him."

"No need." Li Xu went down to put on his shoes, looked at his feet, took off his socks, found the slippers he wore in the shower, and changed into a pair of short brown ones, rolled his trousers to his calves, and went out with an umbrella Let's go, "It's boring to stay at home and watch the rain, let's go to the sheriff's office to check the accounts."

"Do you want to inform the Master?"

Li Xu knocked him on the head, "He is the Lord Chancellor now, in order to distinguish between public and private, you have to call him Lord Ji, and this king's going to check the accounts is a surprise attack, what kind of surprise attack do you call him first?"

"Yes, are you worried about Mr. Ji?"

"Of course not. He has only been an official for a few days. This king will go and check the accounts for him, lest he be fooled by the people below."

It was raining heavily, and his trousers were wet for a short distance. Fortunately, the carriage was parked at the door, and when he got on the carriage, the wind would not blow and the rain would not rain.

The carriage was moving slowly, there were very few pedestrians on the road, Minzhou City under the rain was a bit bleak, Li Xu was a little flustered when he looked out from the window, he always felt that the rain was too sudden and too heavy.

"Xiao Wu, has there ever been a flood in your hometown?"

Wu Jin recalled it for a while, and said uncertainly: "It seems that once when I was young, most of the houses in the county were flooded. I heard that the Huai River Basin destroyed many villages and towns, but it was too young at that time, and I didn't have a deep impression. There are some floods during the rainy season every year, but it doesn’t cause major disasters.”

Li Xu clenched his hands nervously, and said in a low voice, "I hope that South Vietnam will also pass through the rainy season safely this year. Next year, this king will definitely build the dam."

"My lord, don't worry. Didn't you ask everyone to check the river section before? The places that should be dredged have also been cleared, and the places that should be reinforced have also been reinforced. Moreover, it rains so much, according to your request, live in a low-lying area All the people should be moved to a higher place."

"I'm afraid it won't be so easy to change." It's useless to rely on him to open his mouth for government orders. No matter how good his method is, the people under him must cooperate. Let's not mention whether there are officials who have neglected their duties, but the people. It is also impossible for all to obediently abandon their homes and move to higher places.

In the eyes of many people, their own lives may not be as important as a house.

"My lord, we're here." Wu Jin first jumped out of the carriage, put up his umbrella, and protected Li Xu and ran into the Sheriff's Mansion.

Half of such weather officials did not come, and the other half gathered in twos and threes to drink tea and chat. If this was put in a modern enterprise, a group of people would be fired every minute.

Where Li Xu passed by, a group of leisurely people started up, and everyone ran to greet them. Li Xu didn't want to talk to them, and went directly to Ji Hanyu's office. Wait a while.

Wu Jin coughed twice quietly, the people inside looked over, put down the map and ran out hastily.

Ji Hanyu's hair was still wet, and he didn't wear an official uniform, but just put on a gray and white long gown. He probably got caught in the rain when he went out in the morning.

"Why did the prince go out in such weather, please come in quickly." Ji Hanyu invited people in, and then said to the other officials: "Go back and wait, I will talk to you when I am free."

"No hurry, what are you talking about?" Li Xu interjected.

"It's raining heavily today, and the official is afraid that if the rain continues, it will cause disasters, so he called several adults to discuss how to prevent it."

"Is there a result?"

Several officials lowered their heads to their chests, and Ji Hanyu replied helplessly: "Since ancient times, natural disasters have been unpredictable and even more difficult to prevent, and the officials didn't have a good idea. Fortunately, the prince ordered the rectification of the river and explained the immigration. It will definitely be much better."

Li Xu didn't know what to do for a while, the sky was going to rain, and the mother was going to get married, so he couldn't let the sky take the rain back.

He sat down at Ji Hanyu's table, knocked on the table and ordered: "Go and bring the account book of this road construction to my king to have a look."

Ji Hanyu just froze for a moment before going out to find someone to ask for the account book, while the other officials stood shyly aside, not daring to leave when they wanted to, and not daring to show any air.

Ji Hanyu only went there for a while and came back with two ledgers in his arms. The road had just been repaired and the ledgers had just been checked. Ji Hanyu confidently placed them in front of Li Xu, "A few days ago, I went to work with a few adults. Checked the account books and found no problems."

"Okay, I just look through it casually, you can continue to work on your work." Li Xu took the account book and sat aside, first turned to the first page and looked at the summary amount. This number is the same as the number reported to him.

Although this road is said to be repaired by Li Xu, all expenses are accounted for by the government. If there is not enough money, they will be charged on credit. Anyway, the things they buy are all things from the palace. As long as Li Xu nods, the account will be cleared soon.

Accounting in ancient times is definitely different from modern ones, and the capitalized numbers look very laborious, but fortunately, it takes a little more time to understand the account books as they enter and exit.

Labor is free, and only lunch and tea are provided. Lunch is also the largest expense, accounting for [-]%. Tea naturally costs nothing, and the rest are some small tools and consumables.

Li Xu focused on the amount of cement used. The construction of these two roads had been budgeted beforehand. Li Xu only dared to start construction after calculating the output of the cement plant. Otherwise, half of the roads would be repaired and the cement supply would not be available. There would definitely be a negative impact. .

While talking with the officials, Ji Hanyu followed Li Xu's movements. This was the first time he had encountered such a situation of being checked by his boss. Maybe because he knew Li Xu very well, he didn't feel nervous.

When his side came to an end, Li Xu drove the others out, closed the door and asked him: "Master Ji, do you know how much rice was in the city last month? How much was salt? How much was firewood?"

After taking office, Ji Hanyu was very busy. He had to hand over to Lei Zhan and familiarize himself with the daily work. He had no time to learn about people's livelihood. He reported the information for March, thinking that there would be no disasters and difficulties in the next few months. , The price of rice should be very stable.

"Businessmen are well-informed, and they responded very quickly. Ever since the ears of rice in the several acres of experimental fields started to ear, Mr. Zhong informed the public that many businessmen have been able to calculate that grain production will increase in the second half of the year, and grain prices will inevitably fall. Therefore, merchants who store grain will definitely sell at this time, which happens to be the season when the grain is not harvested, and the price of grain is already relatively high. As long as one rice shop increases the volume, other rice shops will definitely follow suit. When there is more rice, the price will increase It will naturally fall, so last month's food price dropped by about [-]% compared to March.

Look, the daily food purchases on this ledger are still based on the retail price in March. The food consumed is close to a thousand catties, and a catty is worth a few cents. How much difference can be made in more than a month. "

Ji Hanyu's face became paler the more he listened, Li Xu pretended not to see it, and continued: "The price of salt is fairly stable. Although a large amount of salt was produced in the salt field, it was all given away by the king, so I didn't lower the price of salt, but you But I only know how much salt is consumed for a meal? According to the account book, if you buy [-] catties of salt every two days, you will consume [-] catties of salt every day. You have also seen their meals. The soup is seaweed and shrimp The soup itself has a salty taste without adding a few grains of salt. There is only one dish. It can be seen from the account book that there will be a dish of steamed meat with pickles every few days. Dead man, where did the salt go?

Let’s talk about firewood, because in the factories in the western suburbs, there have been a lot of people cutting and drying firewood on the mountain in the past two months. It is rising, but this increase is also considerable, and it is impossible to sell it at a sky-high price. They must tell you that firewood is scarce and difficult to buy, and you have to go to the countryside to buy it at a high price, right? "

Ji Hanyu nodded. That was indeed the case. He also knew about the increase in the price of firewood, so he didn't think much about it when the officials below reported it.

"Can the purchase price of going to the countryside be the same as the price that the woodcutter picks to sell in the city? There must be a lot of price difference."

"It's the lower officials who were negligent." Ji Hanyu reflected deeply, feeling a little depressed.

"Okay, how to deal with it is up to you. It's not a big deal. There are not many greedy people. It's not outrageous. When the water is clear, there will be no fish. The king pointed out that these are not for you to punish them, but to give Let me remind you, officials are not afraid of being corrupt, what is afraid of is that you are blind and kept in the dark, and that will only increase their confidence."

"Yes, the subordinate understands."

Li Xu didn't tell him what to do, it's really not a big deal, and Ji Hanyu's goal is to benefit from a loss and gain wisdom.

Seeing that the rain outside was much lighter, both of them breathed a sigh of relief, and Li Xu was also ready to leave.

Seeing that the time agreed with Jiang Junshi was approaching, Ji Hanyu was hesitant to make another appointment. Li Xu waited for him to go out with him, so he dragged him out for dinner. Go to find Jiang Junshi, and ask if you can make an appointment to see the land at another time, if not, forget it."

The servant didn't know where to find someone for a while, but Mr. Ji had already boarded King Shun's carriage, so he had to go outside to find out the news. When he found Junshi Jiang, the other party listened to him and frowned so much that he could kill a fly. Ah, you go and report to Lord Ji, and say that the military commander is fine today, and he is waiting at home, and let him come when he is free."

"promise."

Over there, Ji Hanyu was eating with Li Xu, absent-minded, Li Xu only thought that he was still thinking about the account book, and enlightened him: "Don't worry, everything is not perfect, this small problem is nothing, after a few more experiences Just go back, and the officials in South Vietnam are poor, so it’s rare to have a project that sucks money, and you can’t stop it.”

Ji Hanyu was pulled back to his thoughts, nodded and said: "It is true that the officials are young and inexperienced, so they took advantage of the loopholes. This account book has been handled by more than a dozen people. You must not be the only one who can see the problem. The officials have to deal with them. A single-minded crime of deceit."

"You're good to know."

Seeing his kind attitude, Ji Hanyu couldn't help but talk about the appointment with Jiang Junshi to see the land today. He blushed and said, "Isn't it too ostentatious to go to South Street to build a house just after becoming an official?"

Li Xu laughed loudly, "What are you ostentatious about? You are already a county magistrate, and you still live in that lonely small courtyard in the backyard. That's why you are looked down upon by others. Poor wretch driven out of the house?"

Why didn't I hear that when Ji Hanyu moved out from Xiyuan, people began to spread that he may have been kicked out by the prince not long after he made this step of Qingyun. In the future, the prince will definitely replace him, the old man, with a new man.

Of course, along with this came the rumors that he was the prince's male favorite.

"Okay, let's go take a look together just after dinner, and the rain outside is also light."

Ji Hanyu was naturally delighted, and just in time the servant was also talking back, so he asked someone to lead the way to Jiang Qiuming.

When they arrived at South Street, the two of them stood in front of the gate of Jiang's mansion. They were a little dumbfounded looking at the magnificent gate in front of them. Li Xu said enviously, "It turns out that Jiang Junshi is also a rich man, and he lives in a wealthy family. I still treat him as a man." It's a poor scholar."

Ji Hanyu also thought so, "When I was in the military camp, I saw that the military division used the military camp as its home every day, and the officials thought that his family was in a difficult situation, especially Jiang Junshi's temper was a bit awkward, and sometimes he would quarrel with others for a bite, which is really not good. Like."

"He made things difficult for you, didn't he?" Li Xu asked suddenly.

"Ah, it's not difficult, it's just a bit of rivalry." Ji Hanyu has been targeted a lot since he was a child, and he didn't take Jiang Qiuming's point of attention at all. Besides, the other party has no bad intentions.

"Understood, one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers, and it is the same everywhere." They are all scholars, and it is inevitable to compete for superiority. Jiang Qiuming does not seem to be a modest person. He has Li Xu's most intuitive impression of scholars of this era. Arrogance, debauchery ,uninhibited.

Kou Xiao's ability to use such a person shows that he must have good talent and learning, and his character is not too bad, most likely because of his bad personality.

"Wait, let's see the prestige of this king helping you kill him." Li Xu pointed to the space next to Jiang's mansion and said, "He must recommend this land to you, and it looks like it was divided from Jiang's mansion." The land where he went out must be his own, he is trying to take advantage of you."

Ji Hanyu really didn't see this, "Then he wants to earn money from selling the land? But the location of this land is so good, it's impossible not to sell it."

"Just ask and you'll know."