Li Mu smiled and was not polite. He found a chair to sit down and said, "Isn't that right? I heard that the price of food in Chang'an City has increased recently. I know that Wei Gong is as clear as water and as bright as a mirror, and his salary is meager. He still has to give to his relatives. I'm worried about your food."
I can’t afford food, so I’m here to help.”
After all, Wei Zheng was also an imperial censor, a third-rank official. How could he stand hearing such ridicule? He threw the rice bag next to Li Mu and said: "Take your things, I don't care, I will starve to death."
I don’t need your help!”
"Ouch... look, look, this is so annoying!" Li Mu put the bag up against the legs of the chair and said with a smile, "It's okay, I'm not doing it for your sake, I feel sorry for your daughter...
..., don’t look at me like that. I have no other intentions for Wei Yingluo. She now works in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and is considered my subordinate. Isn’t it right for me to care about her? Is it possible to take a vacation and let her
Are you starving to death at home because you can’t afford rice due to rising food prices?”
Wei Zheng heard that Li Mu couldn't afford rice and food prices were rising, so he knew his purpose. However, Li Mu spoke in such a strange way, Wei Zheng was also annoyed, and deliberately refused to answer, saying: "Aren't you exempted by His Majesty?"
Now that you have become an official, what do the affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have to do with you?"
"Ha!" Li Mu crossed his legs and said: "Old Wei, you don't tell lies in front of real people. Do you think the current Ministry of Internal Affairs can survive without me, Li Mu? There are five surnames and seven looks, dozens of wealthy families, their business
Who do they rely on to make ends meet? Without the Ministry of Internal Affairs and without me, Li Mu, how many orders would have been made in vain, how many people's goods would not be shipped, and how many people's money would not be returned? All the land and shops they mortgaged to the bank would be lost, and they would all be bankrupt.
!Without me? Ha! I dare to think about it!"
Faced with Li Mu's arrogance, both Wei Zheng and the people eavesdropping in the woodshed next door remained silent. People are arrogant and have the ability to be arrogant. This is the fact. No matter how dissatisfied anyone is, they must admit the reality.
Li Mu seemed to have opened up a chatterbox, and kept talking: "Why did Your Majesty dismiss me from my post? You must have heard about it. We are the only ones here, and I won't hide it from you. I just pretended to pass on an imperial edict, and for Your Majesty's sake
Punish me, beat me, and remove me from my position, but you also know in your heart that sooner or later you will have to use me. If you don't use me, who can you use? Should I use you old people who know nothing about business? "
What a "pretend to pass on an imperial edict" and what a "knowing nothing old man", each sentence was more heart-wrenching than the other. Wei Zheng suddenly felt a little difficult to breathe and his lung tubes hurt a little. He originally wanted to persuade the Shandong nobles to make peace with Li Mu, but when he saw
With this look on his face, Li Mu suddenly felt that he was a bit redundant. Let them do it. What does it have to do with him?
While they were talking, Wei Yingluo, who learned of Li Mu's arrival, brought two cups of tea. She came mainly to see if the two of them were fighting. Because Wei Yingluo had seen the Shandong nobles come just now. Enter the house.
At first glance, Wei Zheng was huffing and puffing with anger, while Li Mu looked calm and relaxed, and somehow his mood became much more relaxed.
Wei Yingluo bowed, put down the tea, turned to go out.
"Xiaoying, come here, take this rice. Food prices will rise in a few days. When you can't afford rice, make some porridge."
Wei Yingluo turned around, glanced at her father carefully, picked up the rice bag, and quietly left.
The door closed again. Wei Zheng took a deep breath, suppressed the anger in his heart, and said: "Li Mu, I know the purpose of your coming, so we won't beat around the bush. The Shandong nobles did this without telling me. I didn't know.
But it is indeed wrong. Now that things are at a critical stage, there must be a solution. His Majesty has gone to you and wants you to calm down the price of food. As for the Shandong nobles, I have also talked with them. As long as you bear this
Food prices have been rising for a while..."
"Stop, stop, stop!" Li Mu made a pause gesture, looked sideways at Wei Zheng, and said, "What's wrong, Old Wei? You want to tell me that as long as I bear the difference in the grain prices they used to push up,
They will stop, and then I have to ask you for a favor? Old Wei, are you an old fool? Don’t you know me?"
Wei Zheng frowned and said, "How come I don't know you? What do you want to say? Just say it!"
"What are you talking about?" Li Mu raised a smile and said, "Old Wei, if you want me to bend over, you may have made the wrong calculation! No one in this world can make me bend over, not even His Majesty.
Depends on my mood! Who are you? Do I need you to do me favors? The Shandong gentry are nothing, but they are worthy of fighting with me? Do you want me to give them money? Are they deceived by lard?
Are you stupid?"
Li Mu's voice became colder and colder, and he said: "They think they can threaten me like this. What can they threaten me with? Even if the price of food is more expensive than gold, can't I, Li Mu, afford it? But do they dare to make the price of food so expensive?
They don't dare, unless they want to rebel!"
"If I'm not wrong, they are also ants on the hot pot now, right? They are worried that His Majesty will be angry, kill him, and want to reconcile with me? Haha, let me tell you, there is no way, I will not reconcile!"
"You are doing the first year of junior high school, and I will be doing the fifteenth. Taking a step back, even if I take out the money, I will not give it to them. Can't you increase the price? I will spread the money on the streets and give it to the people.
For example, on the day my gambling house opened, I stood upstairs and threw money down, letting the people pick up the money and buy rice. Why did I do this? Because I am happy, I am happy, I am happy! I have money and nowhere to spend it, so I
I just won’t give it to you!”
Wei Zheng was sweating profusely when he heard this. When he saw Li Mu's gaze, it was that of a madman. He didn't dare to look directly at him!
"If you do this, won't they still make money away from you? Why can't we sit down and talk about it?"
"Don't talk about it!" Li Mu said loudly: "The money can be earned by you. But how do you take away the points? It's against the rules for you to take it away. It's against the rules. If I turn around and mess with you again, it's natural and you can feel at ease. You just follow me.
Whatever you take in your hand, you must spit out double the amount."
The woodshed next door was about to explode. Li Mu was too arrogant! Many people were filled with indignation, but no one dared to stand up and confront Li Mu.
Wei Zheng was also overwhelmed by his momentum, but after all, he had seen strong winds and waves, and he could still maintain his attitude and said: "You just have to go big? Have you ever thought that since His Majesty asked you to handle it, he just wants to
You have reduced this matter to a trivial matter, and your Majesty will not be able to explain it to you if you do this!"
"You are the ones who are ungrateful!" Li Muxie smiled and said: "You are underestimating your own abilities! I really don't understand which genius came up with such a stupid way to go against me. I control the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Industry, and I am the best in the Tang Dynasty.
Technical skill, not to mention other things, is the Zhenguan plow. Needless to say, the importance of this thing. I have the final say on who to sell it to and how much to sell it to. If you raise the price of food, I won’t sell it to you. You can raise it as you like.
If you survive this year, next year in places other than Shandong, tens of thousands of acres of fertile land will be reclaimed by Zhenguan plows. There will be as much food as you want, but your food will rot in the ground!"
"There is also the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and all walks of life. I will order later that all orders from the Ministry of Internal Affairs will exclude the transactions of Shandong nobles. Those who do business with Shandong nobles will not be able to get a single order. Then you will
Shandong gentry, you produce and sell your own goods, you play with yourself, let’s see how long you can hold on!”
Seeing Wei Zheng dripping with cold sweat, Li Mu sneered and said: "Old Wei, I still have many tricks. If you play with me, you have no chance of winning. Because I set the rules, and I am the one who sets the rules. If you can beat me
?Unless you break out of this rule, then you will have a chance of winning!"
Wei Zheng murmured: "Jump out, how to jump out?"
"Rebellion!" Li Mu laughed loudly: "If you can successfully rebel, then you will decide all the rules!" Suddenly his face changed again, staring at Wei Zheng and said: "But if you don't dare to rebel, then just be obedient.
.I am a knife and you are a fish. What I say is what you listen to. Maybe I am in a good mood and can give you some scraps. But if you want to play, then let’s play. I want to see what the Shandong nobles are like.
, with a thousand-year heritage, can an opponent with enough brains come out!"
"Old Wei, to be honest, I have been troubled by my own excellence. I am already invincible, and I am very lonely! You, and those eavesdropping people next door, you bastards, do your best!
Isn’t it okay to do what I’m doing? You have to challenge me in the areas I’m good at, so why are you so hard on yourselves?”
Having said that, regardless of Wei Zheng's expression, Li Mu turned and walked towards the door. His voice reached the ears of Wei Zheng and the eavesdropping Shandong nobles: "I give you three days to calm down the price of food, and then each of you will take out five hundred guan and donate it to
The orphans of the Salesian Bureau, let them have a good year. No one can run away. If there is one who fails to do it in three days, then don't blame me for being rude. I want Chang'an City, and there will be no more businessmen in Shandong.
Merchants, if you don’t believe it, you can give it a try!”
After leaving these words, the person had already walked out.
Wei Zheng's face turned green, he was so angry that he almost lost his breath. When the Shandong nobles saw Li Mu walking away, they all rushed in and were filled with indignation.
"Li Mu is arrogant. Let's fight him. I don't believe he can cover up the sky with one hand!"
"Wei Gong, why didn't you speak just now? You should talk to him..."
Everyone was noisy and complaining about Wei Zheng.
"Shut up, everyone!"
Wei Zheng couldn't stand the splint anymore. He shouted loudly and said over everyone else's voices: "You are all out now. Just now, when Li Mu was here, he pointed his nose at you and scolded you. Why didn't you see someone stand up? Yours
Where is your courage, and where is your courage?"
"If you think you can withstand his revenge, what are you going to say to me? Go back and prepare to continue raising food prices!"
Everyone looked at each other and fell silent.
"If I had known today, why bother in the first place." Wei Zheng sighed and said, "He has already marked out the path. You can decide for yourself what he wants to do. I am old and am no longer Li Mu's opponent. You don't need to ask me for some big things in the future.
Whoever you want to find!"
"Wei Gong, you..."
Wei Zheng grabbed the tea cup and threw it on the ground: "See you off!"
…
The news spread like wildfire.
Soon all forces received the news. Some people thought Li Mu was overbearing, while others thought the Shandong nobles were cowardly. They all had different opinions. There was only one thing in common, and that was that they all began to re-examine the importance of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The three words "House of Internal Affairs" are too confusing. When it was first born, everyone thought it was a government office dedicated to serving the palace. But now it seems that this is not a "House of Internal Affairs", it is simply
A "God of Wealth", without saying anything else, just talks about this order. Whoever it gives the order to will make money. The people who work are too worry-free. All you need to do is follow the requirements of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and make what he wants.
Just ask for something.
You don’t have to worry about selling, it doesn’t take a lot of thinking, and even when someone places an order, they even give you a part of the deposit. Get the money first and then do the work. When has such a good thing happened before?
We do whatever we say, and we never default on payment! Who can worry about such a customer? In private, businessmen have to worry about whether the other party has the final say. In the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there is no such problem, as long as it is covered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs
If you get the big seal of the government, you will get the money. Because it is impossible for the Ministry of Internal Affairs to break its promise, and no businessman dares to deceive the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
That was the yamen of Zhulu Hou Li Mu. Who dared to lie to him? Wouldn't he think he would die quickly enough?
Now that the Shandong gentry thing has happened, ordinary businessmen are even more afraid. Li Mu's erratic temperament has been mentioned again and has become a topic of conversation on the streets.
There was a woman who liked to tell stories, and she said that Li Mu was half-human and half-human, but like a ghost, saying that he was smiling at people one moment, killing people the next, and that he was moody and unpredictable.
He also said that when he saw a beautiful woman, he could leave three-thirds of the noodles thin. If he met an ugly one and thought it stained his eyes, he would chop it into meat sauce and feed it to the dogs.
As for these rumors, Li Mu, who was caught in the whirlpool of public opinion, did not respond a word. As a big brother, how could he have the time? There are many things waiting for him, the big brother, to do.
For example, accompany your younger brother to see what his fiancée looks like.
Li Mu came out of Wei Zheng's house, but before he got home, he met Li Siwen on the road. Li Siwen stopped Li Mu and wanted him to help with something. When they were engaged last time, he didn't see Miss Qin's appearance, and he always felt unhappy.
At the end of the day, his impression of Miss Qin's family was still the same as the one he met when he was a child, a little chubby girl with a long nose.
Li Siwen felt paralyzed at the thought of marrying such a thing. After getting engaged and making such a big fuss, he must be married. He had to accept this fate, but he had to take a look first so that he could be prepared.
So Li Siwen came to Li Mu and wanted to go to the Qin family with him to find a way to see what Miss Qin's family looked like.
This matter is a bit difficult to handle. The Qin family is not a small family. It is the palace of the Duke of the country. Both families have status, and things must be done according to the rules. From the time of engagement to the time of getting married, according to the rules, it is not allowed to
We met. And today is the New Year, why should I come? Just say that I want to meet your girl who has not left the court? Do you really think Qin Qiong can't hold the ace?
"This matter..." Li Mu pursed his lips and thought for a long time, and finally made a decision: "It's easy to handle, let's climb over the wall, take a look and run away!"