Chapter 39: A terrible threat

“Bitch, bitch.” Yun Ye cursed all the way. He wasn’t cursing the flirtatious Hu Ji, but his own friends.

Just now, the brothers resisted Hu Ji’s temptation, especially Chang Sun Chong, who listed the advantages and disadvantages of Hu Ji, from her body to her chastity to her skin and even her gentleness, perfectly demonstrating the qualities of an outstanding young man. Finally, he made a decision: “My brothers are the sons of high-ranking officials, how can they become brothers-in-law with peddlers and laborers? This Hu Ji has served so many people, and when my brothers are the ones who clean up after others, it is a great shame.”

Needless to say, the guards next to him swung their scabbards and smashed them, and the Hu merchant fell to the ground, begging for mercy in half-baked Mandarin.

Li Fulu smiled and said jokingly, “There is no good among the Hu people. They are all greedy for money. For a few coins of copper, they will offer their wives, sisters, and daughters to solicit business. It is not uncommon for those who can afford to pay to sleep with them.” After saying this, he held his stomach and looked cheap. It seems that this guy has already tasted this Hu woman.

Li Fulu saw that the crowd was not interested in the Hu woman, so he said that many of the guilty clans had been exiled to Longyou during the rebellion, and they were sold by the government. The outstanding ones were used as government prostitutes, and the mediocre ones were sold as slaves. There are still many of them in the government office, and he is very worried.

This bastard is deliberately saying this. As the saying goes, “Three years in the barracks, and a sow can be compared to Diaochan.” Not to mention these three spoiled brats, who have been frequenting brothels since they were fourteen or fifteen years old. They are not even pure teenagers. I haven’t seen their eyes turn green. They said, “Brothers, go comfort these poor women. This is the responsibility of the sons of Chang’an. As for the matter of taking over the salt fields, it has nothing to do with them. I’ll leave it to Xiaoye.”

After saying that, he urged Li Fulu to take them to comfort the poor. Even Yun Yue’s personal guards were taken away. Li Fulu, with a benevolent look like Maitreya Buddha, smiled and sent his subordinates to lead the way. He himself slowly walked towards the government office.

Smart man, Li Fulu is a smart man. He secretly gave Yun Yue 500 silver ingots, saying that he was grateful to Yun Yue for his selfless contribution to the poor place of Lanzhou, which was able to become rich and surplus, and for his contribution of the ancestral secret recipe for making salt, which benefited the area. Lanzhou has has already engraved a tablet to record it, and the descendants will never forget the noble, selfless, respectable, sacred… what spirit of Ping’an County, so that the benefactor does not beg for alms to benefit the public, the local gentry gathered 500 taels of silver to express their gratitude.

Anyway, he said a lot of nice things. When it comes to business, he has a stern look on his fat face, and he talks about the county and the people. In short, he says that there is no money, or that the people of Ping’an County should wait for half a year and pay the taxes next year.

Seeing Yun Ye’s face as flat as a pot bottom, he said, “I really don’t have any money, but I have a lot of grain. Why don’t you take some grain back?”

Yun Ye had never dealt with such a corrupt official before, and was confused by the other party’s face-changing technique. For a moment, he was at a loss.

Of course, there was no shortage of grain in Longyou. There were few people, and the land had as much grain as it wanted. In addition, the Turks had blocked the grain route to Chang’an, and the taxes from the previous year had not been sent to Chang’an. The trade route had also been cut off, and the local grain merchants also had a large amount of grain in their hands, which could be said to have become a disaster. They could only watch it rot in the warehouse. This was the result of poor transportation. Li Fulu was also worried day and night about these precious grains. He never thought that one day the grain would become a burden. It was unheard of in history books.

Food? Yun Ye seemed to have forgotten something important, something to do with food. He stopped Li Fulu, who was talking incessantly, and paced around the hall, leaving Li Fulu confused.

Li Fulu’s living room was as bulky as everyone else’s. There were four huge vases, and he didn’t miss any of the good things in life. The green and the blue were like the face of someone who had been beaten up. The yellow was not trashy, but it was I don’t know whether this gentleman is just enjoying the level of art or deliberately trying to disgust Yun Ye. The yellow bird catching bugs on the top is so blurry that I don’t know whether the yellow bird is pecking at a grasshopper or a cricket.

The willow tree outside the window has no leaves, and the soft branches are like whips lashing the eaves in the wind. The third year of the Zhenguan reign is coming.

Yun Ye no longer had any doubts in his heart. Is Lao Tzu giving you face? Then let Cheng Yaojin come to you. Fat man, you are slippery, but in front of the bandit-born old Cheng, you are not good enough to see. You are just a grasshopper that will not be around for long.

Yun Ye smiled and bowed to the fat man, “Lord Liu is a good official who is as clear as water and as bright as a mirror. Since I was a child, I have studied nothing but loyalty and forgiveness. It is a shame that you and I are arguing over trivial matters. Why don’t we not talk about official business? It’s a rare day when the wind is light and the sky is clear. How about you and I just talk about romance?

Li Fulu couldn’t figure out what tricks Yun Ye was playing, so he ordered the maid to set up the wine and food.

Yun Ye really did not talk about official business, and Li Fatso exchanged cups and plates, laughing and chatting happily. He never expected that this fat man was actually a scholar, and he had also been named on the Jinxian list. However, he was born in a poor family, and he had no powerful backers in the court, so he had to come to this remote place to be an official.

No wonder he dared to ignore the old man. In four years, he had managed to bring order to a small county with less than ten thousand households. He was very familiar with all kinds of anecdotes and was extremely well-versed in the classics. Fortunately, Yun Ye also had an advantage. He talked about the customs and mores of all the provinces in the world, and Li Fulu was speechless. It was not until Cheng Chumo and the others came to find Yun Ye with their teeth gleaming that the party broke up.

On the way back to the barracks, Yun Ye was sullen and silent. Li Huai Ren, Chang Sun Chong, and Cheng Chu Mo thought he was upset and wanted to turn around and find Li Fatso’s bad luck. Yun Ye persuaded him to give up.

Once in the barracks, Yun Ye brought a sack full of silver to the general’s tent. Old Cheng was chatting with some old generals. When they saw Yun Ye return, they knew something was wrong and left one after another, waiting for everyone to leave the tent. Old Cheng looked at Yun Ye’s gloomy face and asked, “What, did you get angry? Although Liu Fulong is fat, he is a capable official. The two armies have a total of 30,000 men, and the supply of food and fodder has never been in short supply. He has also carried out the wishes of His Majesty very well. I will not make things difficult for him, and you should not make him look bad, or you will be punished with a military rod.

“Uncle, although I didn’t achieve my goal today, I had a very pleasant conversation with Liu Fulu. This man is a learned man, so how could I be rude? It was only when I was drinking and chatting that I remembered a sentence my teacher said, which made me lose all my joy. So I hurried back.”

Yun Ye suddenly remembered the locust plague that swept the Guanzhong Plain in the third year of the Zhenguan period when he saw something that looked like a grasshopper on Liu Fulu’s vase. The locusts poured down from the sky, eating up the crops along the way, and even the trees and weeds could not escape the locusts. The entire Guanzhong Plain was a thousand miles of red earth. There were rumors among the people that this was heaven’s punishment for Li Er’s killing of his brother and brother-in-law. Only by returning the political power to the emperor could the locust plague be eliminated.

Li Er was unable to distinguish between the two, and in his grief, he swallowed the locusts. The edict said, “If I am guilty, let the locusts eat my heart and liver. It is enough to punish me alone. Don’t eat the food of my people.”