"Where is the fire? Where is the fire!"

In the office of the Tanchang Store, Liu Taiguan was so anxious that he jumped and shouted at the top of his throat. ※%

Two charcoal merchants came in from outside and pushed him to Liu Daguanren: "Dou Er, Huo got up from this shop, the high official just asked him!"

Liu Daguan pulled up the thin Dou Erlai, put his face close to his nose, and stared at him and asked, "Tell me, why did your shop catch a fire in this icy and snowy place?"

Dou Er's face was gloomy and shook his head. How could he say anything?

Liu Daguanren slapped Dou Er's head with his other hand and said, "You said! Why did your shop catch fire? Who made your shop catch fire? The sun in the sky helps us, and we dare not show up easily. Why did you dare to let your shop catch fire when you kill me? You are tired of living and die! Why do you implicate us!"

After saying that, he pushed Dou Er to the ground, but he still couldn't relieve his anger and gritted his teeth and stepped on it several times.

Dou Er was in pain, coughed a few times, and said weakly: "I heard that the coolies in Xiangguo Temple were causing trouble, and they wanted the prefect to seal our charcoal business. There was still so much charcoal in the warehouse. If Zhang Yang went out, how could Cheng Gong spare us? Just set a fire and burn the charcoal to the store. Without physical evidence, how could Kaifeng Mansion do anything to us?"

"Did you get kicked by a donkey or bitten by a mouse? How did you think of it? The fire-proof patrol soldiers in Kaifeng Mansion were set up there for nothing! I was afraid that the charcoal store would catch fire, so the government asked the charcoal storage warehouse to be located by the Bian River. You have been selling charcoal for so many years and don't know? Can you burn it?"

Dou Er was kicked by Liu Daguanren, and he said weakly: "Now the Bian River is frozen, where can the water come from to put out the fire? Daguanren, I advise everyone to learn from me and rinse all the charcoal in Curry--"

Liu Daguanren was so angry that his teeth were itchy: "If the ice is formed, there will be no water in the river, right? Just your brain, how did your parents support you? Well, do you believe that the patrol soldiers would throw you into the river and break up the soldiers?"

At this time, the sound of gongzi came from outside, and there were noisy noises.

Liu Daguanren bent down and looked at Dou Er on the ground: "Tell me why I want to burn charcoal? Did my charcoal be stolen or robbed? I bought the charcoal with the goods right away, and I didn't want to sell it to Kaifeng Prefecture and could still be used as a military force!"

When he straightened his waist, the more he thought about it, the more annoyed he became: "How could there be someone like you in the charcoal store? Why? You live a good life, why should Kaifeng Prefecture seal our charcoal store? Cheng Lin said that he was a prefect, and a minister of the Ministry of Works brought the scholar of Longtu Pavilion. He was much older than him in Kaifeng City. Where did he get the courage to seal the charcoal store!"

The transactions with wealthy and powerful families are always the responsibility of Liu Daren, but no one else knows? Dou Er is a marginal person in the charcoal business, so he doesn't know even more. He just hums while covering his wounds on the ground.

The merchant on the side whispered to Liu Daguanren: "The fire-fighting patrol troops have arrived. Now we have no chance to remove the charcoal. Once the matter is spread, Kaifeng Prefecture will never give up. When Cheng Lin was the one who was a Kaifeng Prefecture during the Tiansheng period, he didn't even give the face of the empress dowager. How can we fight? The official told me what to do?"

Official Liu sneered: "What can we do? We did not violate the Kaifeng Prefecture Law. We just decided to be a pampered and not sold, and to raise prices. We should be a military force, and we should be dispensed. Let's go home quickly to pack our luggage!"

The merchants on the side suddenly became anxious: "Why did the high-ranking officials say this? We have the confidence because the powerful people make profits from this charcoal business. When they get the money, they take it happily, and now they will leave without paying attention if something happens?"

"What powerful people, don't talk nonsense out of thin air!" Liu Daguanren stared at several people with wide eyes, "I don't know whether you have made friends with the powerful or powerful people, I don't have it here! Or the same sentence, hurry back to your own shop to clean up. When you meet the official, don't say that we are raising prices, just say that it's cheaper and no profitable. If you can say everything, let Kaifeng Prefecture just confiscate our charcoal, you will overcome this difficulty, and there will always be a comeback."

Other merchants looked at each other, what did they say? When everyone decided to act according to the plan of Liu Daguanren, he clearly said that things were supported by strong people and shared the profits from them, so that everyone could just do it. If something big happens, people will naturally settle the matter. At this time, why did they change the wording?

But these external contact matters have always been done by Liu Daguanren alone. Others don’t know who they are involved, and they are just giving them money to Liu Daguanren.

Official Liu pretended not to see other people's faces, and took the lead and left the conference hall, saying, "If you don't leave, I'm leaving. Now, be careful of being searched by Kaifeng Prefecture. If you can leave some valuable things, leave a little."

But he just sneered in his heart. It is conditional for power to help. The charcoal store must not have any trouble. Now that the merchants are in fire, Cheng Lin will definitely take this opportunity to find out the charcoal store clearly.

In this joint that people's hearts are turbulent because of the charcoal price, as long as Cheng Lin has the exact evidence in his hands, who is powerful and powerful dares to come out? Just as it is fake that the prime minister of Kaifeng prefecture held the four heads? As long as he has something to do with the charcoal industry, the prince will be thrown into the ditch!

It is not easy to live in Kaifeng City. Apart from the palace, the family of the eight kings Zhao Yuanyan in the city is the family of the eight kings. But even the eight kings shouted that the money was not enough, and they borrowed money from the public every year, but they could not pay it back. How could high-ranking officials and nobles spend money alone? They inevitably have to make money from the side door. But those who come out to do business are all servants, and even the official Liu of the specific handover did not know whether the masters had the instructions of these servants, so he certainly did not dare to ask. Anyway, they were just a fool's account. It would be fine if something happened, but if something happened, they would have to suffer a loss.

Not to mention implicating powerful families, Liu Daguanren did not even dare to implicate the public officials in Kaifeng Prefecture. Although many people took money from him, they had to bear it if something happened. If he dared to identify people, he would never have to come back in Kaifeng Prefecture for the rest of his life.

But then again, as long as these connections are present, no matter how much blow he suffers, he can still save his life, and he can return to Kaifeng Prefecture to continue his former wealth and happy days.

Most of these business banks in Kaifeng City have such complex backgrounds. But if you really want to continue to investigate, you can't find anything unless it happens. Everyone knows that no one can do anything.

When Cheng Lin heard the fire in the charcoal store, he breathed a sigh of relief and said to the soldiers beside him: "Take people around the charcoal store and let people put out the fire immediately. Let's talk about other matters when I get there!"

The public official took the order and left.

Cheng Lin looked at the coolie leader who lost his momentum on the opposite side and said lightly: "Come on, let's watch all these laborers, don't leave! You said that charcoal business has bad feelings, so I will go to charcoal business first. However, you should be responsible for it. When I find out the matter there, you can follow me to go back to Kaifeng Mansion here!"

After saying that, he took the public officials around him and left alone, leaving only a group of soldiers to surround the coolies.

These coolies were all ignorant of the charcoal shop and ignored the people's livelihood. Now Cheng Lin has a breakthrough and turns to deal with the charcoal shop. The momentum of these coolies has also been extinguished, so she has to wait silently.

In the Third Director's Office, Xu Ping and Zhang Cun chatted for a while, and their relationship became much closer than when they were in Lingnan.

Zhang Cun was appreciated by Kou Zhun at that time, and later the lord who entered the dynasty was Wang Shu, the current Privy Councilor, who had nothing to do with the major political forces in the dynasty. Now he was in the third department and was relatively relaxed when he was in office.

Less than an hour, Kou Yi hurried back from the palace and said to Xu Ping and Zhang Cun: "You are all here. The emperor is so angry that the charcoal price is too high and the public is resentful. He asked the government to discuss solutions. He listened to the officials' intentions and liked Xu Ping's previous proposal to distribute charcoal according to households. Let's discuss it first, and then go to discuss with the various departments."

Speaking of this, he called the guards at the door and ordered: "Go and invite Deputy Envoy of the Ministry of Revenue to come."

The guard promised and turned around.

At this time, Li Hong, the deputy envoy of the Du Branch of the Three Division, was ordered to go on a mission to Khitan, and was still on the way north. The Du Branch of the Ministry was in charge of Kou himself. With Zhang here, there was no need to call another Du Branch judge Li Zhaoshu to come.

When the guard left, Kou said to Xu Ping: "You came up with this method, let's listen to it in detail."

This is not a formal discussion in the department. No one supervises or records. Xu Ping said casually, saying to Kou Yu: "It's heavy snow and the sudden severe cold is different from usual. First, it comes early. It's just the end of October, and it's still early to spring. Another time, it's a long time. It's usually a sudden drop in temperature, only three or five days, at most seven or eight days. This time it's almost time to go for half a month. In this way, it's not a question of whether the people can afford to buy charcoal, but whether they can afford it or not, the charcoal is not enough to sell. In addition, the days when it snows are coming, the court officials and the imperial guards inside and outside the city have a lot of living money in their hands. When the charcoal price is raised, they can still afford it. The price of charcoal cannot be lowered."

Kou nodded: "It makes sense, continue."

"Selling charcoal at half price in the officialdom was originally forcing the charcoal shop to lower the price, but they did not, which was embarrassing. The charcoal worth 300 citations in the officialdom was actually ten times higher than usual. People who bought charcoal were probably the ones who received the rewards and the wealthy families in the city. As for poor families, they could not afford charcoal in the officialdom."
Chapter completed!