When Pei Yue first came to Luliu Village, eight young people joined him.

Unfortunately, Cheng Xue died in the night battle at Green Willow Village, and Geng Yi had to leave because of a wrong step. The remaining six people are now considered to be the top figures in the game.

Before Qinyuan opened, Pei Yue made some fine-tuning of their responsibilities.

Qi Jun is still in charge of the Shouyang Mountain Mine, which is the foundation of the Xiangyun Hao. Although the products currently sold by the Xiangyun Hao are briquettes, rice noodles and cloth, briquettes are still the core. And after Luo Ting made that request, Pei

Yue had other plans in mind, preparing to conduct secret research in the Shouyang Mountain Mine.

He has never thought about changing the world's technology tree by himself. In fact, he does not have that ability, but using black gunpowder to make some life-saving weapons is a must. Now he is close to Emperor Kaiping, but Ban Jun

It's not a lie to be like a companion to the tiger. In addition, he also has some hidden enemies, so naturally he won't be immersed in the scenery in front of him.

Wang Yong is in charge of the Xiangyun, which is still Pei Yue's biggest treasure trove, bringing him considerable profits every day.

This time Qinyuan was able to amaze everyone, and the initial investment was very large. The purchase of land, construction, related supporting workshops such as wineries and ice houses, a large number of priceless antique furnishings, and a large number of maids and servants in the garden who are well-informed and courteous.

Each transaction was not a small amount, and Pei Yue invested more than two million taels in total.

If it weren't for the support of the money from the Xiangyun, I'm afraid Pei Yue would really have to ask Ye Qi to borrow money, so he had to let Wang Yong take charge of the Xiangyun.

Deng Zai commands the Beiwei Camp. Although there are currently only a thousand people, they are elites carefully selected from the Tibetan front guards. At present, Deng Zai cannot be compared with Wei Rui's generals, but Beiwei Camp, as Pei Yue's close

The guard camp is always with Pei Yue. The general does not need the ability to strategize, he only needs to be absolutely loyal.

Pei Yue ordered Qi Min and Yang Hu to become the stewards of Qinyuan, and at the same time asked Chen Danian to break away from the Xiangyun and work hand in hand with these two people.

In other words, from now on, Qinyuan will have certain information spying capabilities, and the identities of Qi Min and the other three people will gradually become public.

Pei Yue never explained the reason for doing this, but Qi Min could vaguely guess that his young master was obviously making preparations both overt and covert. On the surface, Qi Min, Yang Hu and Chen Danian used Qinyuan to collect ordinary intelligence, but secretly they must have

There is an elite manpower. Qi Min is a little curious and can't figure out who else around the young master can take on this important task.

However, after several years of training, Qi Min has corrected his previous out-of-touch temperament and gradually became calmer, and will not inquire at will.

Now Pei Yue has two hundred soldiers accompanying him, which is not excessive for a second-class prince. The leader is Feng Yi, and his deputy is Gai Ju. These two people were the second batch of eighteen disciples of Green Willow Village.

The most outstanding among them.

In the evening, when the sky was dim, a group of more than 20 riders rode into Dongcheng Xingyefang.

Arriving on the street in front of the Guangping Hou Mansion, the concierge was obviously taken aback. He hurriedly walked down the steps, bowed and saluted: "Greetings to the Marquis."

Pei Yue said gently: "No need, uncle, is he in the house?"

The concierge replied respectfully: "The master is in the mansion."

Pei Yue didn't ask any more questions, casually handed the horse rein to Feng Yi next to him, and walked quickly to the mansion. With his relationship with the Gu family, he certainly didn't need to post a message in advance or wait for communication, and the concierge also understood this.

, calling Feng Yi and the soldiers to go to the other courtyard to take a rest.

Gu Liang was slightly surprised by Pei Yue's arrival. At this moment, he was chatting with Zhao and Gu Zhen in the flower hall.

After hearing the maid's hurried report, Gu Liang pondered for a moment and then said calmly: "Brother Yue, please go to the study."

"Yes, sir." The maid took the order and left.

Gu Liang glanced at Gu Zhen, who looked slightly worried, and then smiled at Mrs. Zhao and said, "This guy is probably here to have a meal. Just take Zhen'er to get some food to go with the wine."

Zhao said angrily: "Seriously, how could you arrange Brother Yue like this?"

Although she said this, she still left the flower hall with Gu Zhen.

After a while, in the outer study room, Gu Liang looked at Pei Yue's furrowed brows that finally no longer concealed them, and wondered, "Did someone go to Qinyuan to cause trouble today?"

Although Pei Yue still doesn't know the reason why Gu Liang helped him in the first place, he has always respected this middle-aged man, so he helped him pour tea first, then sat down and said: "I don't know, uncle, I stayed in Qinyuan for a whole day."

One day, I didn't meet anyone who came to cause trouble."

Gu Liang laughed and said: "Although everything in the world is going through ups and downs, you are now at the time when the demons are fighting for change. Who would come to jump in front of you at this time? People with such courage do not have this ability, and neither do people with this ability.

To be so heartless."

Pei Yue smiled slightly, and then asked with great interest: "Uncle, did you stay in Chengjing most of the time when you were in the south? I heard that Chengjing is the richest city in the south, and the situation must be very complex."

Before returning to Beijing this time, Gu Liang's military duties were to be in charge of the military camps in Chengjing and in charge of the border army camps in the south. In addition, he could supervise the five southern states of Si, Qin, Li, Ding and Yao. The Commander-in-Chief's Office was located in Qinzhou Prefecture.

Chengjing is also the capital of Daliang.

There is no permanent official position in Chengjing's business operations, and it has been temporarily vacant after Gu Liang returned to Beijing.

Gu Liang's heart moved slightly and he asked: "How can you be so relaxed and elegant today? Instead of staying there on such an important day as the opening of Qinyuan, you came here to talk to me about the customs and customs of the south?"

Pei Yue said: "After the assassination, I asked several of my personal followers to go to Qinzhou and Lingzhou and other places. Originally, I just wanted to determine in advance a suitable place for building Qinyuan, but I didn't expect to hear bad news. The people I sent to Qinzhou

I followed the horse and rushed back to Kyoto to report that there is a severe drought in Qinzhou this year, and the people have almost no harvest of summer grain."

Gu Liang frowned. There were droughts in many places in the south of Qinzhou, Yuzhou and Dengzhou. Of course he knew about this. Moreover, Emperor Kaiping also led to a conspiracy in order to pray for rain. But he did not expect that the severe drought would be like that.

It was so serious that after seeing it with his own eyes, Pei Yue's personal followers had to temporarily put aside their tasks and hurried back to Kyoto to report.

He shook his head slightly and said: "Brother Yue, although I can supervise the government of the five states as the governor of Chengjing, you have been fighting fiercely with the Wu army in the Western Region in the past two years, and the Southern Zhou Dynasty is not honest either. I spend most of my time there.

I am dealing with military affairs. In addition, our Daliang civil servants and generals have never been very harmonious, and I generally do not directly interfere in the political affairs of the local government."

Pei Yue deeply agreed with this, and he knew that this was probably a sequelae of Lin Qingyuan's implementation of national policies when the country was founded, but was opposed by the ministers.

He sighed softly and said: "My aide said that the current situation in Qinzhou is relatively stable. This is because the people can barely sustain themselves with last year's autumn grain. But by August and September, if the summer grain cannot be harvested at all,

Relying solely on the government's Changpingcang might cause big problems."

Gu Liang didn't know much about these things. He said doubtfully: "The Changpingcang in Qinzhou alone cannot solve the problem, but there are thirteen states in Daliang, plus the four major granaries around Kyoto, can't we

Help Qinzhou tide over the difficulties?"

Although Pei Yue has never been a civil servant, he has read too many related books and film and television works in his previous life, and he is well aware of the horror of food shortages in this era.

He said slowly: "Uncle, not only Qinzhou was affected by the disaster this time, but Yuzhou and Dengzhou were also affected. These three places were originally major grain producers in Daliang. The imperial court fought for more than half a year last year, and the grain stored in the official warehouses was not as good as in previous years.

Once a food shortage breaks out in the three places, the consequences will be unpredictable. The most troublesome part is that most of the people's food is in the hands of merchants, and they will never let go of this opportunity to make a fortune."

Gu Liang frowned and said, "Are the grain merchants in Qinzhou hoarding grain?"

Pei Yue nodded lightly and said solemnly: "My personal entourage traveled all the way to Chengjing under the banner of Zhongshan Marquis Mansion. Moreover, his trip was to select a site for Qinyuan, so he had many contacts with local merchants.

Judging from his description, those grain merchants have been hoarding grain since the beginning of the drought."

Gu Liang was silent and his expression gradually turned ugly.

After a long time, he said in a deep voice: "One hair can affect the whole body."

Pei Yue nodded and said: "That's right. There are no big rivers in Qinzhou. There is no Qishui in Yongzhou in the north. Si, Ding, and Yao are adjacent to the Tiancang River in the south. Faced with this rare drought this year, the government even wants to

There is nothing we can do, after all, it is impossible to temporarily dig a large canal connecting the north and the south."

He paused and said with a headache: "The drought is a big trouble after all, and if it is not handled well, it can easily lead to the emergence of large numbers of refugees. As for the tricks of those grain merchants, I am confident that there are ways to solve them, and I don't even have to raise a knife.

It's just killing people. Anyway, my reputation in the court is not good, so I don't care about having another title like murder."

To this day, he actually hopes that Emperor Kaiping can break his inherent cognition and really bring a heavy rain to alleviate the drought.

Gu Liang looked at Pei Yue intently, and he suddenly noticed a slight change in the young man in front of him.

Although he cared more about Pei Yue than his own son for reasons that he couldn't express, he also knew that Pei Yue had a slightly cold temperament. No matter how humble he looked on the surface, he was actually very hard-hearted and would never let others easily.

Things shake.

However, now he saw a bit of benevolence in Pei Yue.

Gu Liang suddenly felt very comforted by his old feelings, but did not change the topic and said seriously: "The official structure of Chengjing is very complicated. After all, it has been the capital for nearly a hundred years. In addition to the local aristocratic families, there are many people like Kyoto.

The bureaucratic family who moved there. Brother Yue, although this matter is very serious, you can't raise your sword easily. The south is not Kyoto. If you kill too hard, problems will arise."

Pei Yue said: "I understand, but I'm afraid this matter cannot be delayed any longer. The court has not received a detailed report from Chengjing, which already shows the seriousness of the problem."

Gu Liang muttered: "At least Silent Cloud must have noticed some signs. Let's do this. I will enter the palace with you tomorrow and explain it carefully to the two people from Dongfu in front of His Majesty. You'd better not do this.

It is most appropriate to come forward and let Luo Jiyu and Han Gongduan handle it."

"Yes." Pei Yue did not look disappointed. He just didn't want to see thousands of victims starving to death, rather than wanting to stand out.

Gu Liang chuckled happily, and then said: "You came here in such a hurry, you must not have eaten. I asked your aunt to prepare a few dishes to go with the wine, and our family will have a simple reunion dinner."

Hearing these words, Pei Yue finally showed his first smile since entering the mansion.
Chapter completed!