The dark clouds covered the palace courtyard and fell into coldness. The compulsory negotiations in the room were the key to maintaining the future situation of Shanggu County in the future. The confrontation between the government and the aristocratic families would sooner or later turn to another fixed direction. The guard holding the weapon turned his head, and a hysterical roar came from behind the door: "Li Wen! Are you crawling and biting randomly." Then, he turned back, pretending that he didn't hear it.

The wood was burning and the hands that were roasting fire were retracted. The middle-aged scholar didn't care about the other party's roar, and stood up and smiled on his face: "It's not important to climb and bite, slander, what's important is that I just have an excuse to take down the three of you."

"You are really despicable villains. You must know that you have just come to Shanggu County as officials, so we did not make things difficult for you, otherwise you would not have been able to sit so easily!"

"I was wrong in the previous sentence. I was the only one who was despicable, but it was no longer interesting to say such words now. In fact, if anyone was an official, you didn't care. All the aristocratic families were like this. I wish someone could sit on it to shelter you from the wind and rain. Now, using winter to control the food prices, they forced the government to give you convenience." Li Ru looked at them with his hands in his arms, and his smile gradually turned serious, and his tone was gloomy: "Look, your head has come to you."

"So you're framed me? People outside don't believe this."

Li Ru shook his head: "Three should know the reason why people leave and tea is cold." After saying this, his eyes shook over the three of them, turned around and patted his palms. The door creaked and opened. When the guard stepped in, he ordered: "Take them down and keep them separate from their family."

"yes!"

The guard came over with shackles and took the two of Su Wang and Zhao directly. Su Zhan's gentry struggled to raise his head and shouted: "Li Wen! A despicable villain, he is a little bit of a wife and daughter. I won't let you go even if I become a ghost."

"If you don't let me go, it's not just you, just arrange it well, right?"

Li Ru waved his hand and asked someone to take them out. The noisy room quietly came down. Dongfang Sheng poured wine and gave him: "Brother Wenyou has taken great pains. Why don't you just kill the chicken to scare the monkey? This conflicts with your previous thoughts."

Here, after taking the warm wine, Li Ru asked him to sit down, and he also sat down beside him, "In fact, there is no conflict. The purpose is to stabilize the food price. The grassland matter has come to an end. Killing these people is not enough. In the future, the rest of the people will still rush up. Just like in Xiliang, my father-in-law killed the Qiang people one after another, but it will come next year. What do you think in the middle? In fact, those aristocratic families have self-respecting themselves and force the people on the border to be unable to rely on themselves. They can only rely on them to survive in the northwest. The horses, Han, Yan and other tribes are mixed up, and they will burn their bodies when they move. People as fierce as their father-in-law dare not touch them easily."

After drinking a sip of wine, he paused for a moment: "Fortunately, there are almost no large clans who can take action in Shanggu County, but killing alone is obviously not advisable. Killing will only make people frighten, but it will not make them convinced. In the future, the army will go out, and these people will use their means behind their backs, which will make people worry."

Dongfang Sheng laughed, coughed twice, and his head shook: "So you must eat them?"

"I'll definitely eat them!"

Li Ru smiled and nodded.

************************************************************

In the afternoon, news that the three wealthy families of King Su and Zhao were imprisoned spread in the city, and there were naturally people who were suspicious of the people. But soon after, it was almost evening. The three families were in the village, and their families were escorted back to the city. Those who had doubts disappeared after seeing the escort team passing through the streets.

The powerful families have been married since ancient times, either flattering or stable, and their relationships are naturally complex, and the news between them is quite smooth. On the day when the three families of King Su and Zhao were strictly handled by the government, the news was conveyed as quickly as possible, especially when the other party had a serious crime of assassination, many people began to separate their relationship to avoid bad luck.

Soon the food prices began to fall.

On October 28th, on the end of the month, a businessman group led by the government was also formed. A large number of cattle and sheep began to be delivered, and the horses were subject to quantity control. Gongsun Zhi issued an order to Li Ru and Dongfang Sheng in the first two days of the delivery: "Scarcity is precious, and horses still need to be restricted. We cannot let too many war horses in the Central Plains, so we have no advantage, especially Yuan Shao's territory, and give him a horse ban order in the beginning of next spring."

With such orders, the merchants in the two prefectures of Hebei will naturally suffer. Gongsun Zhi has the two huge horse farms, the Yanmen Xiongnu and the Liaoxi Xianbei, and will give them to them. Unless Yuan Shao's troops can cross the west, the two northern mountains will cross the grassland to grab them, or do business with the Liaodong Xianbei and Wuhuan. However, they are all merchants who travel around the world, and they understand that the Liaodong grassland is actually not big, and it is impossible to share a large number of war horses. The matter of trading is gradually coming to an end, and another thing is also being rolled out.

...

The blood-stained shirt hung on her body, ragged and unspoken feet walked naked on the snow.

It snowed again at the end of the month. The rooftops and the streets were covered with snow. The weather was biting cold and there was almost no one coming or going on the street. Occasionally, a wild dog stood at the entrance of the alley and barked at dozens of figures shaking and stomping on the snow. Most of the dozens of Su Zhan's family, who were thrown out of the Juyang prison, were injured. It was probably because they were numb to the barking of the wild dogs. Even though there was news from the government office that the assassination had nothing to do with them, it was still suspected, so it could be released. However, the family business was temporarily under the supervision of the government office. There were not necessarily those who were released from prison. They lowered their heads and muttered syllables that were incomprehensible.

There were not many people on the street, and occasionally one or two passed by, and no one paid attention to the down-and-out beggars. However, this group was a bit large, with both old and young, and both men and women. The nearby wine shops were still lively. Businessmen from all over the country were poking their heads out from the second floor when the ice and snow melted in spring.

"Oh, come and see, isn't this a family named Su from the big family in Shanggu County?"

"No wonder it looks familiar"

"A man surnamed Su, do you want to come in? Please have a drink to warm up your body. In such a cold day, are you taking Jiaxiao out for a walk?"

The words of talk attracted more people to come out of the restaurant, laughing and teasing the past, the family that was once glorious, and slowly walked over with a bunch of figures. The woman sobbed in the words of these people. The old man closed his eyes and sighed. The child holding his hands looked at a fat businessman at the door of the restaurant with a piece of mutton and chewing it all over his mouth.

"I'm hungry" the child swallowed.

The old man pinched the child's hand and whispered: "Be good at Lian'er, let's eat before going home."

"Well! After you go back, let the manager raise the fire and make Lian'er's favorite red date pastry." His dirty little face raised, and his eyes flashed with hope.

"Okay! When you go back, let the in charge do it for you." The old man said with a smile, looking forward at the back where he buried his head down, his expression was gloomy, and his palms patted the child's head lovingly.

Behind them, they pointed and buzzed and buzzed around Su Zhan while walking, and his head lowered even lower. The once famous figure has been recognized by people now, which is simply a torment. After the sun sets west, they slowly walked out of the city, fell down, and returned to their own village.

"Why don't you let us go in... This is my family, why don't you let us go in!" A woman rushed towards the soldiers guarding the gate of the courtyard with her hair spreading her hair and holding her arms. She cried and rushed in desperately. The ragged family grabbed the weapons that crossed and blocked and shook them hard, screaming at the soldiers: "The house that I have lived in for decades, passed down by my ancestors, and I won't let you go back. You might as well kill us... Su Zhan, you are a sinister person."

Like the old lady in the family, she fell to the ground and patted the ground, crying and shouting: "You are a sinister person, you have caused the whole family to suffer and suffer, and killed me, the old bone!"

During this moment of conflict, the maid and servant in the yard who were confined to look around. Su Zhan held his head and squatted in the corner of the wall, trembling slightly. Many people in the mansion wiped their tears. After the night fell, they quietly took some cooked food and threw it out of the wall to help them spend tonight.

The next day, Su Zhan temporarily found an uninhabited dilapidated house. The snow collapsed the eaves. A large hole broke out in the roof of the house. The snow fell from above and piled up on a pile of broken wood tiles, which could not be occupied at all.

"You guys stay here first, I'll meet other people and get some money to turn over."

However, when I saw the several families that I had been around him on weekdays, I didn't let him enter. The doorman brought a message: "My master is not here, come again in a few days... The people at home who are not in trouble, go and leave quickly."

More directly, I lost some things and sprinkled them at Su Zhan's feet. The sound came from behind when I closed the door: "It's a bit... take it to eat, at least it's over the New Year..."

The depressed figure looked at the food, hesitated for a moment, leaned over to pick it up, and suddenly laughed from behind the door gap. Su Zhan gritted his teeth and stood up and staggered back, holding a few cold and hard cakes in his hand shaking. Under his fluffy hair, his lips trembled slightly and turned pale.

"...Haha, they are all people of power."

"I can see this group of people clearly... I used to be heart-to-heart, but today I saw it clearly... I was really blind at the beginning."

The shaking figure whispered and laughed, walking aimlessly in the snow. With his eyes, he looked at a crooked tree on the hillside, walked over, and approached, he realized that he was so poor that he had no more belts to hang, and he suddenly leaned against the tree body.

The snow fell down and fell on her shoulders.

"Woooo...ah...wow...ah...ah..."

Squatting on the snow, Su Zhan choked and cried hoarsely, and his hands holding the cake kept slapping on the ground. Broken cake crumbs splashed everywhere, and his hands rubbed their messy hair, and burst into tears.

At the end of the road, a carriage drove through the white world, drew a wheel track and slowly stopped on the hillside. The carriage caught up with someone and looked at the figure crying under the tree: "I didn't expect that the rich man Su from Shanggu County would have fallen to this point, not even a belt to hang."

The figure that got off the carriage was Li Ru. He walked up under the guards under the snow. On the other side, Su Zhan, who was crying and hurriedly stopped crying and raised his eyes: "It's not thanks to you."

"What the rich man Su said was a bit over." Li Ru squatted in front of him, without much politeness, and raised his finger: "I will give you two ways, I will return your family business to you, so that you can continue to be a great fortune in Shanggu County. But you also saw what the people who are circling around you on weekdays have the sinister world. You should know more than anyone else. The second way, you will just live like this, until the day when your whole family starves to death."

"There is no such good thing in the world, let's talk about the conditions."

Li Ru patted his head, stood up and turned around: "There is no need to talk about the conditions, you just need to know that there can only be one voice in Shanggu County, and what Su Cai mainly does is to maintain this person, those small families you once under, look at it more strictly, and you know what to do if you make trouble."

"Do you want me to bite the dog?" Su Zhan raised his head, looked at the left back in shock, "You are such a villain."

"The rich man Su said it appropriately, and he really asked you dogs to bite them."

The words paused, and the steps stopped there. Li Ru turned his face and narrowed his eyes: "If you do something wrong, you have to bear it. I am an example, so I can only be such a villain in this life, but you have to be careful not to even do villain."

Su Zhan pinched the snow, his fists shook, and then... let go, he suddenly knelt down toward his back, and spoke in a low voice.

"yes!"

The snow covered the sky and the earth, and the picture was frozen at this moment.

*********************

In the mansion of Gongsun in Juyang, a huge copper tripod ignited a raging flame in the hall. At the banquet where the wine was toasted, Gongsun Zhi held a cup and looked at the hanging sheepskin map.

A dagger stabbed in Shangdang County, a city on the right side of the Taihang Mountains.

There will be no war in the beginning of the next spring, but this is an important strategic step in the next step. It is a move to divide Hebei and merge the two states, and even a path connecting the Central Plains. There is no reason why such fat meat will not be gnawed.

He turned around, sat down, supported the long desk, and glanced at the generals present: "Brothers, wait until Daijun and Yunzhong are taken down, and take this Shangdang too!"
Chapter completed!