Chapter 275 Everyone is Gone
Zhao Yulin and his wife took their children to meet their parents. The old scholar said with a smile that his eldest grandson had gone to Chengdu, and the house had become deserted. It was a good opportunity to listen to Guangfeng's crying to relieve their fatigue.
However, Fenghuang hesitated and said that Guangfeng was still young and she wanted to keep him by her side, so she asked Chen Chen to send the pair of children to be taken care of by their father-in-law.
His mother said Chen Chen did not agree, because the godmother of the two children often came down the mountain to teach martial arts. Why? Her grandson was still young.
The Fire Phoenix immediately looked at Zhao Yulin with a playful look.
Of course he knew the secret, and he immediately said with a smile that one must build a foundation for martial arts from an early age, so let Chen Chen do as he pleased.
The old scholar was a little unhappy, saying that the two kids from Yujiang stayed in Cuiping Mountain after they came back and never crossed the river to play. Well, they all left, and it would be quiet.
Zhao Yulin couldn't persuade him for the moment, so he ate lunch quickly and left.
When they arrived in Jiading, Fenghuang said with a smile that her father-in-law wanted to take care of his grandson, and asked Chen Chen to send both kids back. Zhao Yulin immediately stopped them.
He felt that the old scholar was just in a state of excitement for a while, and it would be nice to let the old man have some peace and quiet for two days.
Chen Chen told him that it was probably because Mr. Zhang went to Chengdu and his father-in-law had no one to talk to in Yibin and was bored, so he got angry.
Only then did Zhao Yulin remember that Zhang Xiangyang had gone to Chengdu to run a newspaper, and the old scholar no longer worked as a volunteer teacher at the academy.
The old scholar looked down on Chen Zhongshun because he came from a distillery. He was also far superior to Chen Yun in terms of official rank, so they couldn't even talk to each other. The old women who had to stay with him all day must have been depressed.
Fenghuang said with a smile that this was easy. When she arrived in Chengdu, she would tell Si Niang and Xiao Niang that her father-in-law had thought of them.
Chen Chen immediately covered his mouth and burst out laughing.
Zhao Yulin ignored the two women and went into the house to take care of the children.
In Lin'an, Shi's son was also at home looking after his grandson.
The King of Lu of the Mongol Empire sent him the false emperor Zhao Wangbing. He had no choice but to drive Zhao Du out of the palace. A few days later, Zhao Bing killed Zhao Du, his queen and the baby in her belly with a cup of poisoned wine.
Obviously, Zhao Bing is not as easy to control as Zhao Du.
This man is ruthless and cruel. He is the successor selected by the Empress Dowager and the Emperor. Many of the old and young people are his acquaintances. With the support of Prince Lu, his wings are much stronger than Zhao Du's.
Zhao Bing was more manipulative than Zhao Du. Within three days of taking the throne, he appointed two new ministers to relieve the pressure on Prime Minister Shi, cut the salary of the prime minister, and replaced the Minister of Revenue. He called it frugality in building the country, but in fact he was taking power in the court into his own hands.
After seizing the financial power and controlling the money, even the Song army in northern Jiangsu became much more obedient than when Shi's son was in charge. They would retreat when ordered to do so, otherwise they would not be paid.
Zhao Bing forced Yu Jie and others to give up Xuzhou and three other cities to King Lu, and signed a peace treaty between the two sides.
The officials of the small court still obeyed the emperor like Zhao Bing.
First of all, the external threat is temporarily gone as we have signed an alliance with the Mongol Empire.
Secondly, he cut the salaries of the prime ministers and officials above the rank of minister of various ministries. The lower-ranking officials were not affected at all and certainly supported it. The senior executives could still afford to eat even after the salary cut. If they wanted to resign, they would certainly worry about having no food. Yet they were all working .
In this way, only Shi's son will be depressed.
He was extremely upset and simply asked Zhao Bing for leave on the pretext of poor health.
In the past, when Zhao Du was the emperor, everyone listened to him on all matters, big or small. Now, he can only make decisions on 40% of the matters at most, and the rest are almost all arranged directly by Zhao Bing. This is not a matter of how much money is lost.
If the money is gone, you can still get it back by using your power.
What should I do if I lose my power?
Shi's son sat in the flower hall and watched his grandson running and laughing in the hall. He said helplessly to himself: This child is so innocent.
Inside the palace, Zhao Bing had no son to bother him, so he could do his work more smoothly.
He raised his hand and took back all the officials that Shi's son had sold to the salt merchants, on the grounds that his predecessor had spent money extravagantly and disrupted the government, so their positions were not counted and he had to start over.
If you want to be an official, you can go to Zhao Bing to buy an official position. He will also test you to see which level of official you are suitable for. You can't become an official just by having money.
The officials in the court were delighted, and they all smiled happily.
Although these old men and young men had mediocre abilities, they all entered the government through imperial examinations. They simply disdained spending money to buy an official position and did not like to discuss government affairs with them.
Of course everyone will be happy if the fake emperor wants to drive these people away.
In fact, the false emperor Zhao Bing did not want to drive these people away, but wanted them to pay money again to buy official positions.
The reason was very simple. Because Zhao Yulin cut off the tax revenue from Lin'an, the small court was not like Chengdu which had no shortage of money to spend. The King of Lu was still waiting for him to pay tribute of silver and hand over silk.
Officials only received half of their salaries, and people everywhere were asking him for money with their mouths wide open.
So, he had to find a way to get money.
At this time, Zhao Yulin had already arrived in Xinjin and was preparing to eat at the river fish restaurant at the dock. Fenghuang told him that officials who came and went said that the river fish here was fresh, especially the yellow croaker, which tasted authentic.
As expected, Xinjin yellow croaker lived up to its reputation. Zhao Yulin became interested and happily accompanied Fenghuang to the restaurant.
As soon as Feihu entered, he asked for a room upstairs. The shopkeeper saw Fenghuang wearing gorgeous clothes and followed by several handsome soldiers from the Shenwei Army. He thought that she must be rich or noble, and immediately led her to an elegant private room at the east end overlooking the river with a smile on his face.
Zhao Yulin was very satisfied with the surrounding environment, with green mountains and clear waters and no one disturbing him.
However, just as he sat down to take a sip of tea and waited for the food to be served, he suddenly heard a loud shout from the corridor: "Who is so blind as to dare to occupy Mr. Shao San's Tianzi restaurant?"
The shopkeeper kept apologizing with a smile, saying, "We are all guests. Mr. Shao San, please change rooms. I will waive the bill for you."
There was only a crisp sound of "pop", and someone cursed: "Looking for death, does the Third Master need that little money to spend?"
Following the sound of a group of people's footsteps coming closer and closer, the door of Zhao Yulin's private room was pushed open with a loud noise.
Zhao Yulin laughed secretly, damn, there are big guys everywhere.
He was still thinking when a man with a face full of flesh came forward and stepped on the bench where Fire Phoenix was sitting and shouted, "Didn't you see Third Master Shao is here? Get out of here!"
The shopkeeper covered his swollen right face and asked the soldier to change to another private room with great embarrassment, saying that he would eat for free today.
Feihu saw the fat man stepping on the bench where Fenghuang was sitting and threatening her. He was so angry that he went up to the fat man and slapped him eight times without waiting for Zhao Yulin's signal. The man was dizzy like a top and then he kicked him to the ground.
The people behind were stunned and looked at the soldiers in surprise. A skinny man in a silk gown yelled: "How dare you hit my Third Master Shao's men? You are dead, all of you are dead."
"Call someone, call someone for me quickly."
The group retreated to the corridor as they talked.
In the inner room, Zhao Guangfeng, the child in Fenghuang's arms, was frightened and started crying.
The shopkeeper kept apologizing and saying that he was unlucky and how did he get into this trouble? He asked the soldier to leave quickly, otherwise if he angered Mr. Shao San, he would demolish his shop.
Fenghuang said coldly that whoever dared to demolish the store would have to pay compensation, and told the shopkeeper not to be afraid and just serve the food.
Zhao Yulin smiled and asked Feihu if he was itching to fight and if he could handle it. If not, he should send a signal to call his brothers to come.
Feihu said with a look of disdain that a few shrimps were nothing, and that the five brothers would take care of it.
Fenghuang said with a smile that her maid Qianqian was an expert in Emei Tai Chi sword.
Feihu said honestly that the girl just needed to hug the lady on behalf of the madam, and the brothers could handle it.
Yang Qianqian, the maid of Fenghuang, was very angry. Her face flushed and her eyebrows raised as she asked Feihu whether he looked down on their Emei Sect or her?
When Fenghuang saw the two of them fighting, she said with a smile that Qianqian had long had her eyes on Brother Feihu, so they should go down and practice together and defeat those people, thus getting rid of this harm to the people.
Geng Feihu's dark face turned red, and he called the shopkeeper to clear the area so that the young master and his wife could have a good chat.
Zhao Yulin was very satisfied that Feihu was smart and did not reveal his identity.
He wanted to see how rotten the officials here were, and Shao Laosan's behavior of causing trouble just became a touchstone for these public officials.
Feihu led his brothers downstairs, but two lackeys stood on the stairs blocking the way, shouting that they were not allowed to go and were waiting to be beaten. He went over without saying a word and kicked the two men down one by one.
There were several tables of people eating in the hall and they were so scared that they immediately stood up and wanted to leave. Yang Qianqian said with a smile that they came down specifically to beat the dogs, and told everyone to eat without worry.
Those people had already paid the money and were reluctant to waste it, so they slowly sat down and bravely became spectators.
This situation was so damn embarrassing that Shao Laosan was shaking with anger. He called on his lackeys to go and call for help and scolded his men for being incompetent.
Before he could finish his curse, the guard came up and slapped him three times, grabbed his arm like a chicken and threw him out of the restaurant.
Shao Laosan was thrown onto the street like a dead dog, hitting everything he should and shouldn't have touched. He rolled on the ground in pain, shouting for someone to come quickly and ask Brother Song to lead the troops to arrest the man.
The spectators who were eating immediately started to discuss: "Wow, so fierce, where did this ruthless person come from ?"
"Who is this? How dare he hit Mr. Shao? He is the underground county magistrate of Xinjin."
The guards clapped their hands and said, "We are the Divine Might Army, specializing in dealing with evildoers."
Some spectators murmured, "The soldiers in the city wear the same clothes as them, but we've never seen them fight with Shao Laosan?"
Some people say that even though they have changed their clothes, the soldiers are still the same soldiers. Don't you see that the regiment commander often drinks and watches operas with Shao Laosan? They are the same group, not the real Shenwei Army.
People at the next table were whispering that they didn't know where these soldiers came from.
They are definitely not in the same group as the soldiers in the city, and they don’t know Shao Laosan, otherwise how could they deal with him?
Zhao Yulin escorted Fenghuang down to the hall. Feihu hurried up and said that it was dangerous. The master and the mistress should stay upstairs in peace, for fear that our young lady would be frightened and cry again.
