"His Majesty."

Seeing the long silence of Zhao Guan's family, Liu Hongdao thought that the other party did not know the details and could not judge, so he hurriedly explained in detail. "After the Yellow River turned around Fenglingdu in Tongguan, the water suddenly became violent, but it was not absolutely difficult.

It’s relatively difficult to do it elsewhere…”

"I understand what you mean, and I also understand the conditions of the river over there." Zhao Jiu interrupted the other party directly without turning around. "I have passed by there several times, how come I don't understand? On weekdays, troops and supplies are transported there.

It is enough, but it is an urgent road after all. It is common sense that you are afraid that the Northern Expedition will become a key point to restrict logistics when the Northern Expedition begins... In addition, in the Tang Dynasty, there was an old practice of building plank roads on the Hejian Stone Mountain, the mainstay, for guidance.

The Song Dynasty also had an example of setting up special missions there to clean up the Xixia during the war, so this suggestion was made."

"Yes." Liu Hongdao nodded immediately.

"What do you and Hu Yin mean to repair it?" Zhao Jiu finally turned around and asked. "You are the Water Supervisor in charge of the Yellow River Waterway, and he is the Minister of Works in charge of the general affairs. This matter is the responsibility of both of you."

"Yes." Liu Hongdao became more sincere. "But we must use a lot of gunpowder, otherwise we will definitely not be able to catch up with the Northern Expedition after autumn... The power of gunpowder to open mountains and explode is perfect for this purpose."

"This matter is not that simple." When Zhao Jiu heard this, he was stunned for some reason and then shook his head in response.

Liu Hongdao also felt nervous, and instinctively wanted to speak. However, after glancing at the rain outside through the figure of the official, he fell silent again.

"Since you're here, let's take a rest for now. I'll take a look at the documents and reports you brought and then reply to them all." Zhao Jiu simply dismissed him.

Liu Hongdao had already thought about it and had received the decree, so he naturally resigned cautiously, and then went to the back hall to rest together with Zong Ying who was standing in front of the hall.

However, it is said to be the apse, but it is actually Shengguo Temple on the south side of Phoenix Mountain, which was occupied by the Zhao Guan family.

But there is nothing we can do about it. After all, the Wuyue Old Palace here in Phoenix Mountain is very narrow and in disrepair. There has always been only one bedroom in the back and a main hall in the front. And the so-called main hall is only as wide as three rooms. According to Li Gang

When I mediate with the villagers in Fujian and talk to the local elders about the virtues of officials, they only have three sentences... In fact, if it weren't for this, Zhao Guan's family wouldn't even hold a martial arts conference in the wild.

Now, as the rain in Hangzhou continued in the summer of the ninth year of Jianyan's reign, the two rows of small houses attached to the palace were soaked again, causing water leakage in seven or eight of the ten pavilions, forcing those who originally rested and worked here.

The civil and military officials accompanying him had to withdraw, and the nearest Shengguo Temple naturally responded enthusiastically to the call and made room for Xing Zai, acting as the 'back hall'.

Of course, this also shows that there are indeed many temples in the south.

However, these are none of Liu Hongdao's business. It is more convenient for him to live in a temple, because firstly, the distance is not bad, and secondly, after all, there is a mountain stream and two walls between him and the official family.

Life is also convenient... but there are too many crows. The entire Phoenix Mountain is full of crows. Along the way, the crows are heard from time to time.

Turning back to the present, it was still raining outside this afternoon. Liu Hongdao followed Zongying to Shengguo Temple to settle down for a while. He changed into clean clothes and went out directly. He found the guard in front of the door and asked him what he had just left Qianzhou.

Not long after arriving, Guo Zhongxun, a reserve soldier of the imperial camp, was there, so he asked him to lead the way. Instead, he took an umbrella and went to visit the military camp at the foot of Phoenix Mountain.

Facing a high-ranking member of the Secret Pavilion, who was also the water supervisor of the capital... This job seemed unworthy of mention before, but now it is clearly important in the overall situation of the Northern Expedition... Guo Zhongxun is of course...

Treat each other with courtesy.

What's more, although this visit was unexpected, there was something to be said for it - as the former Jiangnan West Road envoy, Liu Hongdao, now that he was in the south, did not find relevant people to ask about the recent situation in Jiangxi, but it seemed strange.

It's just that he acted too eagerly.

Sure enough, the two met each other, exchanged greetings for a while, then sat down opposite each other in the military camp at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain, and then put tea on the table. They casually started talking about the previous rebellion in Jiangxi, and gradually expanded the topic. In the end, it was not just the topic of conversation.

It is getting wider and wider, and because the connections between the two sides in Jiangxi have been compared, and both sides have a tacit understanding in the officialdom, there is actually a bit of a feeling of knowing each other until it is too late.

Just like that, the two of them chatted in the alley, gradually forgetting the time. Suddenly, there were a few faint sounds of bells and drums in the mountains not far away, but they were not very dense, and there was no atmosphere of fighting... How could the two of them not know?

, this is the rule in the temple. According to the weather, it cannot be said that it is a reminder to end the afternoon activities and let the monks go to Xiangji Kitchen for dinner.

At this time, Liu Hongdao should have taken the initiative to say goodbye.

But for some reason, after glancing at the rain still pattering outside, the left minister of the Ministry of War sat calmly and asked a somewhat sensitive question to the host of the military camp, Guo Zhongxun:

"Mr. Guo, I'm meeting the emperor today. I see that the official's expression is very unswerving, but is there anything wrong here? Is there another disturbance in the Fujian incident, or is there something happening in Hangzhou?"

Guo Zhongxun was startled for a moment, then changed his face and smiled: "So that Liu Shilang will know that the official has only been in Hangzhou for ten days, so he has some inside information. How can he know about it?"

This is a refusal.

However, Liu Hongdao just smiled slightly and continued to ask: "It doesn't matter whether it is true or false, but there are rumors that Manager Guo is right..."

This is a forced question.

However, although these two people sit and talk like friends, their status is completely different.

Among them, Liu Hongdao's qualifications, background, identity, and current assignments far exceed those of the other party. What's more, for Guo Zhongxun, whether he wants to consolidate his political foundation in Jiangxi or make achievements in the subsequent Northern Expedition,

I'm afraid they all need the political resources of the person in front of me.

In fact, this was the fundamental reason why Liu Hongdao came to look for Guo Zhongxun. He knew that the other party was being manipulated to death by him and it was not easy to offend him.

Turning back to his eyes, after hesitating for a moment, it turned out that Guo Zhongxun did not dare to offend the other party, but he smiled bitterly and tried his best to answer: "If so, if there are any mistakes or omissions, please don't laugh at Mr. Liu."

"This is natural." Liu Hongdao nodded slightly, but his urging was obvious. "Please explain it in detail."

Seeing the other party acting like this, Guo Zhongxun knew that if he couldn't tell the truth, he might not be able to send him away today, so he immediately put aside his burden and told everything:

"On his first day in Hangzhou, Xianguan ran into an official and lost his temper, but he still went out in Fujian... It means that Fujian dealt with many rural fights, and many of them were punished with the shackles. The result

The officials were so furious that they announced overnight that such punishments were prohibited not only in Fujian but also throughout the country... Liu Shilang came from Tokyo and might have just missed the news."

"Is this happening? But why is this happening?"

"We were also worried at first, but later Xianggong Lu came over and asked in person and found out that the officials thought that the punishment of hanging one's head in public was too humiliating, especially some officials who did not know the severity and often sentenced to several days of hanging the head after the execution.

, the result is that the person being tortured cannot stand, let alone sit down, and can only lie on the ground like a dog or horse... The official's original words are that even if there are heroes in the country, they will not be able to bear this humiliation, and it is probably because

After being tortured with shackles, he went straight to Liangshan like Lin Chong."

"I see... This means that the officials love the people like their own children, and it also means the new atmosphere after the resurgence of Jianyan... But is there still any more?"

"Furthermore, after Xiangzhou came to Hangzhou, he heard some bad rumors in the local area, which were aimed at the actions of the official government... The so-called 'three hundred guan, a cabinet member; two thousand dan, and a general judge'...

...It seems that the people still have some opinions on how officials use their cabinet positions to collect money and food."

"It doesn't matter...there are some ignorant people who don't know what the imperial government's plans are...are there any more?"

"Furthermore, the rains at the beginning of this summer were quite heavy, which is said to have affected the silk production in the southeast. As a result, although the people in Zhejiang and Zhejiang received the preferential policies of allotment of land and no increase in taxes, there were not many immediate benefits.

The good thing is that the situation is even more embarrassing for households than in previous years, and there are more complaints. It is said that even the summer tax is half a percent less than last year due to disasters reported by several state capitals."

"This is a natural disaster, how can we blame it on the officials? This is not the Han Dynasty. There is no need to talk about the induction of heaven and man... Besides, the fact that it can be like this after a natural disaster actually shows that the new government policy is a favorable policy.

Already."

"Who says it isn't?"

"However, I have always known that the summer tax on Liangzhe Road is very unusual. If there is any slight disturbance, all sorts of things will come out."

"That's exactly what I mean." Guo Zhongxun paused and then said sincerely. "Because of the rain on the Zhejiang Road and the chaos below on the Fujian Road, the summer tax went wrong. In the eyes of Xianguan, this is what happened.

The big difficulty lies in..."

"Who says it's not?" Liu Hongdao sighed slightly while holding his hands. "The summer tax on Fujian Road is reduced by 30%. Although the summer tax on Liangzhe Road is only 10% less, the benefits and disadvantages are higher than those on Fujian Road.

That's more than 30%... because the southern summer tax is originally for silk, and I still remember that the silk silk paid on the No. 22 Road in Jingkang and the Liangzhe Road accounted for 45% of the total in the world.

First, one road is really worth the ordinary five roads... Therefore, half of the summer tax on the two Zhejiang roads is worth 30% of the Fujian road."

Guo Zhongxun also shook his head and smiled bitterly: "The silk produced on Liangzhe Road is not only one-fifth of the summer tax, but even the maritime merchants will be affected... This year, the southeast commercial tax will also suffer a lot."

"But it's still wrong." Liu Hongdao also shook his head, but looked out the already dark window, where there was still the sound of pattering. "It's the summer tax on Liangzhe Road and Fujian Road. The commercial tax is painful.

, but in the overall situation of the country, what does it mean? A little silk is missing, it is just floating wealth, not to mention whether it can be made up by national debts, etc., but what if it can't be made up? Why let the officials control the Northern Expedition?

Are you hesitant about everything? You must know that the Northern Expedition is not just as simple as the preparations for building finances in the past three years... From Jingkang to this year, the ninth year of Jianyan, we do not talk about Yuan Sheng, only the officials are in charge of the government and fight hard to resist the war.

, it’s been a full eight years, right?”

Guo Zhongxun also looked out the window. After a moment of silence, he continued: "If it is not the summer tax, then I think it is the autumn tax... After all, the summer tax is still more on silk, but the autumn tax is more

We have enough food... But if we want to go to the Northern Expedition, hundreds of thousands of bolts of silk will be missing, and even if we have to make up for the national debt, we are afraid that there will be a shortage of food, and even the southeast will be directly affected by disaster, and we will have to provide relief."

Liu Hongdao finally nodded heavily and then said seriously: "So, everyone here thinks that if the officials are hesitant, it must be because of the non-stop rain and they are worried about the autumn harvest in Zhejiang Province?"

Guo Zhongxun also nodded heavily, and while his heart moved slightly, he finally asked: "May I ask Liu Shilang, how is the north this year?"

Liu Hongdao finally smiled bitterly: "In fact, there has been a lot of rain in the north this year, but what is interesting is that the north is just like the south. It is obviously a trouble, but it is not as bad as a disaster."

"If this is the case, it is normal for officials to have doubts in general." Guo Zhongxun couldn't bear it when he saw the topic progressing to this point. "And Liu Shilang came here this time, originally from Tokyo.

I sensed some doubts from the officials, so I came to ask?"

"It's not that serious. It's mainly about official business. However, Hu Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry and several acquaintances in the imperial camp are indeed a little worried. They also asked me to take a look in private... After all, what can be done here in the southeast?

How could Tokyo not think of it?" Liu Hongdao also told the truth, because he could see that the other party also supported the Northern Expedition. "But I didn't expect that the official doubts were so obvious."

Guo Zhongxun sighed slightly, and finally expressed his position: "The current situation has long been such that an arrow has to be fired... and logically speaking, the official family is not such a forward-thinking person... but the autumn harvest is extraordinary, I

If there is an obstacle due to status, and the official does not make it clear for a day, it is difficult for us to speak directly. However, Liu Shilang's qualifications are unusual, and his mission is also extremely important now. If you want to speak candidly, of course it is excellent. That is

It's natural for me to wait a little longer."

Liu Hongdao nodded slightly.

And then, now that he got the answer he wanted to know, the left minister of the Ministry of War certainly would not linger in the military camp anymore, so he turned back directly regardless of the darkness and slippery roads... As for Guo Zhongxun, he quickly sent a team of people

Careful escorting is another matter.

I returned to Shengguo Temple in the rain. I had already had the evening meal here, but Liu Hongdao was so important. Whenever he wanted to talk, monks would cordially greet him... When he entered the room, a monk had already offered him hot water, and he was waiting to change his clothes.

The family had clean clothes, and a monk introduced him outside the Xiangji kitchen, where he fried and served fresh vegetables.
To be continued...