Chapter 618: An honest gentleman wants to borrow one hundred thousand taels?
"A young man from a noble family from the south of the Yangtze River actually arrogantly demands that I issue a document to send his caravan through the border? Xiong Changsheng, Xiong Changsheng, your courage is getting fatter and fatter. Do you dare to agree to this?"
The study room of the Prefect's Mansion.
Le Junzi, who was over a year old but had no silver hair on his temples, glared at this inconspicuous subordinate with a displeased look on his face.
Can you agree to this kind of thing casually?
This is seizing food from the tiger's mouth and hitting Chen Hao, the Marquis of Zhenxi, in the face!
If he hadn't understood Xiong Changsheng's character, he might have thought that this guy had completely betrayed him!
Xiong Changsheng, who had sold his life for twenty years for Le Junzi, had long been accustomed to the eunuch's majesty. He said carelessly: "Sir, it's just something that happened casually. Why not sell him a face? Hehe, that batch of goods I have carefully checked my humble position, and I am a serious businessman. It must be the first time that boy has come out to see the world, and he is bent on getting things done smoothly, so he is begging you, sir."
The prefect said angrily: "Tell me, how much money did you receive?"
He didn't believe that this useless bear would go to all lengths to do something that was of no benefit at all.
"One hundred taels of silver for tea."
Xiong Changsheng took out a one-hundred-tael banknote from his arms, with a trace of obsession in his eyes.
A hundred taels of silver, which is enough for an ordinary family of five to live a good life for three to five years, is nothing more than pocket money in front of wealthy businessmen from aristocratic families.
It’s really like drought leads to drought and waterlogging leads to death.
"One hundred taels is indeed a huge amount of money for ordinary people, but I don't believe that this little money can make you sacrifice your life."
The prefect glanced at Xiong Changsheng coldly.
"Hehe, you really can't hide anything from your master with your clever calculations."
Xiong Changsheng smiled and then spread his fingers.
"Five hundred taels?"
The prefect raised his eyebrows.
"What are you thinking, sir? This is a young man from the south of the Yangtze River. How can we be so stingy? It's five thousand taels. I'll give it to you when the matter is done."
Xiong Changsheng was quite proud.
This is five thousand taels!
With this money, the children's soup and medicine expenses can be covered for the whole year.
The corners of the prefect's mouth twitched slightly.
He has also seen money that is ten times or a hundred times more than this, such as military pay, taxes, etc. from the imperial court.
But that's all the court's money.
It doesn’t matter half a dime to him!
And these five thousand taels went directly into his pocket.
Although he is the prefect of Yumenguan, with an official rank of fourth rank, and his annual salary income is about one thousand taels of silver, his expenses are also very high.
There is a saying that goes well: the poor in literature and the rich in martial arts.
As a martial arts practitioner, the medicine money for tempering his body accounts for most of his expenses every year.
Besides, I still have a big family to raise.
He is an upright official and has never embezzled a penny from the court. Is it easy for him?
In fact, given his status, as long as he had a little leakage in his hands, this little life would be very comfortable, but he didn't.
Because of this, in the eyes of a group of mid-level and senior generals of the Northwest Army, this prefect has a bad temper and a tough temper, and does not consider the people below, so why support him?
Governor Le was ostracized by the generals because he was too upright.
These people under his command are all submissive to him and submissive to him.
After all, it was Le Junzi who blocked the brothers' path to wealth.
The wages of avarice is death. This is an eternal truth.
"Five thousand taels of silver, no wonder you bastard is so excited."
The prefect let out a long sigh.
In fact, issuing a document does not violate court laws, it will just offend the Marquis of Zhenxi.
He also knew that Xiong Changsheng was not greedy for money, but for those children.
"Did the Lord agree to him?"
Xiong Changsheng smiled shyly.
The prefect glared angrily: "If I don't agree, wouldn't it be a loss of your reputation? Then how will you, Mr. Xiong, gain a foothold in the world in the future?"
"Hey hey hey..."
The old bear scratched his head and giggled.
Therefore, the prefect still loves him...
"It just so happens that the imperial envoys will come to Yumen Pass in the next few days. When the time comes, let their batch of goods follow the envoys out of the customs. In this way, Zhenxihou will have nothing to do."
The prefect still focuses on stability.
With the imperial envoys here, the Marquis of Zhenxi should be more restrained, right?
Xiong Changsheng licked his lips and said excitedly: "Then I will go and tell Brother Li the good news tomorrow."
"Yeah. There's no harm in being on good terms with him."
The prefect nodded.
"By the way, sir, do you want to meet him? After all, he is also a young man from a noble family in the south of the Yangtze River. If he can be used by the prefect..."
Xiong Changsheng said meaningfully.
Although he has a big and arrogant figure, he is very thoughtful.
The prefect thought for a while, then finally shook his head and sighed: "Forget it. Jiangnan... is still too far away."
"Sir, although Jiangnan is far away, if that boy has a strong enough background and even has someone in the court, it will still be good for you."
Xiong Changsheng reminded.
The prefect replied: "At most, he only has a few dollars. How can he have any hard background? Otherwise, why would he need to blame me?"
"Okay, I'll go find him tomorrow and explain the situation."
Xiong Changsheng was right in his mind.
Yes.
If someone were to become an official in the real dynasty, why would the 20% profit be given to the Marquis of Zhenxi?
…
The next day.
Li Nuo met Xiong Changsheng at Qingfeng Inn.
Although he didn't have the chance to meet Governor Le, Li Nuo was a little surprised that he agreed to his request.
Everyone says that Le Junzi is unsociable, withdrawn, and only accepts death.
It seems that everyone's evaluation is still somewhat biased.
However, Li Nuo was quite regretful that he could not see the prefect.
However, things soon took a turn for the better.
at dusk.
Xiong Changsheng hurried over again and said that the eunuch wanted to summon him.
This made Li Nuo very curious.
What happened that made this extremely principled governor change his mind?
He asked: "Why did the prefect change his mind? Could it be that Brother Xiong gave me a good word in front of the prefect for my little brother?"
"Hey, let's not talk about this anymore. I'd better go with my brother first. We'll know when we get there."
Xiong Changsheng looked around and talked about him.
In fact, he was a little embarrassed inside and found it difficult to express.
Because the prefect suddenly changed his mind and wanted to meet this boy in order to... borrow money!
Soon, the two entered the prefect's mansion.
"Brother Li, please sit down for a while. The prefect has something to do."
Xiong Changsheng said.
"Well, it's okay. I'll just wait here. Brother Xiong, please help yourself."
Li Nuo said calmly.
Grand Administrator Le is an official of the imperial court, and when he meets the people, he still has to show the airs he should have.
So, after Li Nuo waited for half an hour, the prefect stepped into the front hall.
"Hahaha, it's true that heroes come from young. You are the Young Master from Jiangnan, Li Jinfeng, right?"
The prefect smiled cheerfully.
This smile made people feel like a polite corporal, and it also directly shortened the distance between the two of them.
Li Nuo stood up and returned the greeting with his hands raised: "I'm Li Jinfeng of Yingtian Mansion. I've met Prefect Le."
"Haha, Mr. Li is really young and promising. Come on, come on, you're welcome, sit down and have tea, drink tea."
The prefect also took his seat.
Li Nuo smiled and said: "I would like to thank the prefect for helping me, so if the prefect has something to do, just give me instructions and I will never frown."
"Hey, I'm not very good at talking, so I'll just speak frankly."
Le Junzi sighed.
As expected of a talented man from the south of the Yangtze River, he has handsome features, a clever mind, and a sweet mouth. Anyone who sees him will fall in love with him. No wonder Xiong Changsheng is so fond of this boy.
"You don't need to be polite, Grandmaster, just tell me."
Li Nuo raised his ears to listen.
Grand Administrator Le smiled awkwardly, and then said seriously: "Master Li should know that the 150,000 troops from the northwest have been transferred to Shaoyang Pass."
"Well, I've heard about this. It's because the war at Shangyang Pass is tight, and the court has no choice but to do it."
Li Nuo sighed, showing an expression of concern for the country and the people.
This is not staged.
But true feelings are revealed.
After all, Dayin is now his wife's head, and the Shangyang Gatekeeper is his mentor.
He can no longer act like he did before.
"Yes, the army has been transferred, but there are hundreds of thousands more people in Shangyang Pass. The food must also be transferred. To be honest, sir, I inspected the granary today and found that the granary was half empty."
Speaking of this, Le Junzi was really angry.
Despite all his warnings, something went wrong in the granary!
The food guard general happened to be his promoted brother-in-law, but in the end he betrayed him for money and fell to the Marquis of Zhenxi. He secretly sold more than half of the food in this granary at a low price!
After some operations in the casino, 30% of the silver gained went into the pocket of the Marquis of Zhenxi, 30% was given to the mid-level and senior generals of the Western Army, and another 30% was given to some personal guards and soldiers. The last 10% was his stupidity. brother-in-law's share.
This is a typical reselling of court assets.
If his brother-in-law had not participated, he would not have cared about the life or death of these people and reported it directly to the court.
Now……
The Marquis of Zhenxi will definitely not admit the account, and everything was done very cleanly. It was his brother-in-law who resold the grain. As for the illegal gains, 90% of them were "deliberately" lost in the casino.
Although the remaining 10% was forcibly taken back by him, it was still a drop in the bucket.
As for food...
It had long been transported away by the caravan.
"Shou Cangjiang has a close relationship with the prefect?"
Li Nuo pointed to the essence of the problem.
This surprised Prefect Le.
Are all the children of the Jiangnan family so smart?
It's terrible to guess everything with just one sentence.
He sighed: "He is my brother-in-law. His sister died early and asked me to take good care of him before she died. Alas, my family is unfortunate, but it makes Mr. Li laugh."
Li Nuo asked: "How will the governor of Na Le prepare to remedy the situation?"
Prefect Le said: "Silver, as long as you have silver, you can buy food. Let's clear the court first. I will slowly think of a solution later."
"How much does it cost exactly?"
"I have calculated carefully. The first batch of grain is about 150,000 taels."
Prefect Le said a little embarrassedly.
This is not a small amount of money!
Li Nuo sipped his tea and smiled without saying a word, weighing the pros and cons in his heart.
Of course he can get the money.
However, you can’t just take it out for no reason, right?
That's not called kindness, that's called stupidity.
Upon seeing this, Prefect Le knew that he had to offer benefits in exchange. He said, "Of course, Mr. Li can't let his work go in vain. If Mr. Li's future caravans leave Yumen Pass, I can issue customs documents."
Doing so would worsen the relationship with Marquis Zhenxi, but it was also a helpless move.
Li Nuo smiled meaningfully and said: "Master Taishou, have you never thought about overthrowing the Marquis of Zhenxi? If the Marquis of Zhenxi had not interfered, this Yumen Pass would only be more prosperous."
As soon as these words came out, Prefect Le suddenly narrowed his eyes and said with all his sharpness, "Who is your Excellency?"
Having been able to hang out in the northwest for twenty years, Le Junzi is naturally not stupid, and he immediately became wary.
I thought to myself, could this Young Master Li be the enemy of Zhen Xihou?
But one hundred and fifty thousand silver alone is not enough!
Because the price of falling out with the Marquis of Zhenxi is too high. If he fails to defeat him, he will not have a good life in the future.
Although he was an honest official, he also valued his life.
Because he can't afford to die.
His life doesn't just belong to him.
He would not have taken this step without being completely sure.
When Li Nuo saw this, he thought that someone who had been in the position of prefect for twenty years was indeed an old fox, so alert.
But it is not suitable to reveal the identity directly yet.
Because he is not sure yet whether Le Junzi's belief in being an honest official is true.
There are many such things.
On the surface, the relationship seems to be very bad, but secretly they are as close as one family. There are many such things.
Just like Lao Du and his mentor Jian Yuyan, they have been fighting for forty years on the surface, but they are actually the best confidants.
Outsiders just watch the excitement.
Therefore, only after getting close to Le Junzi, getting to know him, and knowing that he was not really in cahoots with the Marquis of Zhenxi, could he open his heart to Le Junzi.
Now...
It's too early!
Of course, he asked this deliberately as a test.
He pretended to be confused and said, "I wonder why Prefect Le asked this question."
"You have a grudge against the Marquis of Zhenxi?"
Prefect Le asked.
"Yes, this is a big feud! The Zhenxihou's appetite is really too big. Governor Le doesn't know anything about it. I have a business in my family and have traveled through the Northwest Road many times. In this year, at least 50,000 people have died. Two pieces of silver went into the pocket of the Marquis of Zhenxi, are you angry or not?"
Li Nuo said indignantly, giving full play to the young man's impulsive temperament.
"I see, but why didn't you report this to the court?"
Prefect Le also tried it out.
"I have a few relatives who are officials in the imperial court, but I have no choice but to take my position lightly. The Marquis of Zhenxi is a hereditary marquis, and he has two marquises in the same family, and he holds military power. This memorial was stopped before it was handed over to His Majesty. , I have nothing to do."
Li Nuoyi said sadly and indignantly.
"I see."
Prefect Le muttered.
I thought to myself that this Jiangnan prince has a lot of financial resources, but he lacks the support of an important minister in the court.
From this point of view, it is impossible to deal with Zhenxihou.
Therefore, I still have to continue to protect myself wisely.
But I can't offend this young master. After all, he is rich. I will also have requests from him in the future, so I must maintain a good relationship with him.
Of course, it was impossible to have a direct heart-to-heart conversation when they met for the first time, but he was satisfied with this conversation. He said, "It's getting late, so I'll take my leave first. Please ask the prefect to send a trustworthy person to Qingfeng Inn to collect the 150,000 taels of silver."
"Then I'd like to help Mr. Li. I'll ask Xiong Changsheng to take over with you."
Prefect Le stood up to see the guests off.
In short, let’s get over this difficulty first.
It's a bit awkward, let's go over it first and get to the point tomorrow.