Zhang Rui looked at Li Lin like a junior, full of patience, but deep in his eyes, he occasionally revealed the same coldness as Zhang Xutang.
The more gentle and patient you are, the calmer and colder you are deep inside.
"I asked you to resign for your own good. Now that King Jin is in the limelight, the actions against me will become more and more frequent. I have to retreat and endure it, let alone you. King Jin has not yet used his methods.
, I still have a case waiting for him to investigate, and it is a major case. If you are still here, you will definitely be implicated. You have to wait for the storm to pass."
Li Lin took his words to heart, broke them apart word by word, and thought about it. After a while, he stood up, knelt down, and kowtowed to Zhang Rui: "I will remember the Prime Minister's teachings, so I will go to my superior to apologize.
"
Zhang Rui's soft face became softer and softer. He helped him up and personally escorted him out of Baoxia.
It's an icy and snowy land outside, with dark clouds hanging over people's heads, quietly brewing a heavy snowstorm.
Li Lin plunged into the wind and snow and did not go home. Instead, he walked all the way to Tuqiao Square under the outer city and knocked on the door of the second room. A middle-aged man with dark skin and skinny figure came out: "
Why is Xianggong Li here?"
"Soon I won't be my husband anymore," Li Lin walked in and closed the door, "Are you the only one in the house?"
The thin black man nodded: "Are you okay?"
Li Lin didn't answer. He opened the door of every room with a solemn face and checked, even the toilet. The thin black man frowned and was about to pull him away, but seeing that he looked wrong, he didn't say anything and let him go.
Check.
After looking around every corner, there was indeed no one. Li Lin breathed a sigh of relief and stood by the water tank to take a sip of water.
This was well water brought from a well. It had a bone-chilling chill. It numbed Li Lin's lips, teeth, throat, and internal organs, but his mind was unusually clear.
Throwing away the gourd and gourd, he walked to the main room and sat down, looking up at the roof and remaining silent.
He said nothing, and neither did the thin black man. They sat opposite each other, one in silk and satin, the other in coarse linen, separated by a table, as if they were separated by the Chu River and Han Dynasty.
After a full quarter of an hour, Li Lin reached out and wiped his face from top to bottom, and sighed: "Zhao Li, you are really right, the rabbit will die and the dog will cook."
Zhao Li sneered: "You are a dignified deputy envoy of salt and iron. You don't even do what humans do like dogs. You don't care about the lives of more than 400 people in the smelting field. Do you still care about the rabbit dying and the dog cooking?"
"Of course I'm not afraid if it's not me who dies. But when my own death is imminent, I will naturally be afraid." Li Lin didn't know everything about Mr. Zhang, but he really knew everything about Zhao Lizai.
They were companions, classmates, and once close friends - until Li Lin worked for the Zhang family, and Zhao Li was too upright to gain a foothold in the officialdom, so he rented a house in Kyoto to educate others.
Li Lin told Zhao Li exactly what Prime Minister Zhang said: "Do you think Prime Minister Zhang really wants me to quit?"
Zhao Li was silent for a moment and then said: "You have been a slave for ten years. Prime Minister Zhang will not abandon you. If he asks you to quit, you will quit for two years. After two years, you will come out again. Why are you panicking? You are
Mr. Zhang’s favorite disciple should know him well.”
Li Lin smiled bitterly: "It is precisely because of understanding that I feel uneasy."
He knows so much, once he withdraws with so many secrets, will he really still be alive?
Thinking of this, he fell silent again.
Zhao Li was also silent. He had already stayed away from the officialdom. The vicissitudes of the officialdom were beyond his control, so he could only sit with them.
Li Lin crooked his body and slumped on the chair. The snowy light outside was dazzling, and he had to squint his eyes to hide the tears in his eyes.
Finally, he couldn't hide it anymore after squinting his eyes. He took off the bunny hat on his head and put it on his face, revealing only the lower half of his face. Under the soap-colored hat brim, his two lips were colorless.
"Heili," his voice had a hint of crying, "I know that I have done bad things and it will not be unjust to die, but I am afraid, I am afraid of death, and I am not willing to accept it. It is not easy to pass the exam, but in the end I passed the exam.
, I was about to be squeezed out again. Only then did I know why Mr. Lu Hong of Yuelu Academy did not allow his disciples to become officials. After much deliberation, I had no choice but to join the Zhang family, thinking that if I could gain a firm foothold, I could realize my ambitions...
..”
Unexpectedly, power, wealth and wealth are like an abyss. Once you step into it, you can never get out.
If he wants to avoid being stepped on by others, he has to do everything, otherwise why would he hold this position?
This selfless confession made Zhao Li moved and sighed secretly.
The two of them came from a poor place to study. They were the only two scholars in the whole country.
Even the money to take the exam was raised by the clan from one hundred to two hundred cents.
He was defeated all the way in the officialdom, while Li Lin made rapid progress. Now sitting together, he is still the poor boy he used to be. He can only cry with his face covered.
Because of this move, Zhao Li temporarily forgot about Li Lin's attitude of angering both humans and gods. He leaned over and patted his shoulder: "Okay, just tell me what you want me to do."
Li Lin kept his hat covered from beginning to end, only the corners of his mouth were turned down. Zhao Li patted him, but the corners of his mouth were still turned down: "Good brother, I know you have a good memory, and you just read it silently. Now I have something to tell you."
You, you must remember, if anything happens to me, you go to King Jin, King Jin is a good man and will protect you."
Zhao Li looked at him, in a dilemma.
He really didn't want to get involved in official affairs anymore, especially when it involved the battle for the crown prince.
But Li Lin seemed to be taking care of the funeral arrangements, so he had no choice but to help.
Forget it, just help me once.
"you say."
"In the 22nd year of Zhang De's reign," Li Lin said slowly, "Brine, dampness and miscellaneous evils, weighing less than a catty, and priced at forty-seven qian, were stolen from the Xia Kingdom, and the green and white salt was sold at half a catty to a catty, but it was pure and not pure.
Miscellaneous, sold for twenty, stolen millions of catties, got a total of two hundred thousand taels, and delivered them to the Chief of the Palace of Yan."
"Qingbaiyan?" Zhao Li stood up awkwardly, "Did you say it wrong or did I hear it wrong?"
After the Xia Kingdom became emperor, the Queen Mother Pei issued an edict to cut off the officials and titles given by the surname, and stopped mutual trade. The Emperor of Xia also cut off the exchange of envoys and sent a letter to insult the Queen Mother Pei.
The two countries have also had wars break out many times. In recent years, Xia State has ceased trading with each other and the national treasury is not full, so the war has ceased.
They even sent money to Xia Kingdom.
"You heard it right, and I said it right," Li Lin covered his eyes and his voice had calmed down, "At that time, when King Yan came out of the cabinet to be crowned king, there were too many places where money was needed, and there were many things that were hidden from the light -
For example, training dead soldiers to kill the King of Jin."
Zhao Li sat down bitterly and slammed the table: "You're all fucking crazy!"
"Don't get excited, remember what I said. Since the 29th year of Zhang De's reign, salt in Huainan has been very good. It was transported from Tong, Tai, and Chu to Zhenzhou, and from Zhenzhou to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Jinghu. Along the way, Jiangxi
The thieves stole a total of 7.8 million jins, and sold each jin for 30 taels, making a total of 230,000 taels, which they brought into the Yan Palace."
Zhao Li sneered: "No wonder Jiang thieves are notorious, it turns out you are the one who blames them for everything."