Uncle from a poor family - Chapter 738 Secret Meeting

When Qi Niang saw that the person who drove to pick up Zhang Luan was Chang Shun, she finally felt that there was indeed Zhang Yanling's spy around Zhang Luan, and what Zhang Luan said was true, he had to leave tonight.

Because the one who is in charge of the Zhang family now is not Zhang Luan, but it seems that it has been the inconspicuous youngest son Zhang Yanling from the beginning.

"Madam, does the master need more soy sauce?"

The young cook appeared behind Qi Niang, holding a jar of soy sauce in her hand.

I thought to myself that you are really dedicated to your job. You are still carrying the soy sauce jar just to add some soy sauce?"The master is gone, why are you still eating soy sauce?"

Qi Niang glared at her and scolded, "You didn't have the foresight just now... Don't ask for a scolding."

The little cook looked very aggrieved on her chubby face and said, "I don't know what I did wrong."

Qi Niang scolded, "Did I buy you back just to let you eat and drink to your heart's content? Look... what have you become? Originally you were still quite good, and as long as you could win the master's stomach, you could win the master's heart, and by the way, you could get promoted... But what about now?"

Qi Niang bought her back just to conquer Zhang Luan's heart with her cooking skills.

But unfortunately, the young cook was only from a humble family after all. It was true that she had some talent in cooking, but the living conditions here were too superior. The delicious ingredients that she had never seen in the first half of her life were now within her reach here, and she could enjoy them all in the name of food tasting.

Once a new dish is created, people naturally want to eat it to their heart's content, resulting in excess nutrition.

"From now on, you can only eat one meal a day."

The young cook said with a bitter face: "My mother said that it is good for a girl to have some flesh on her body. It makes her look plump and everyone likes it."

"Humph!"

Qi Niang snorted, "What era is it now? Are you still talking about this? Don't you see where we are? This is the outer residence of the father-in-law's mansion. Among all the women here, is there anyone who looks like you?"

"Mrs. Song is not..."

Qi Niang looked annoyed, "What does Song Po do? She is only responsible for making fire and cooking. Do you need her to see the master? Don't you even know what you are doing here?"

The young cook lowered her head and asked timidly, "It's all my fault. I want to ask, just now...was that...the master?"

"of course!"

Qi Niang's anger has not yet subsided.

Qi Niang rolled her eyes at her and said, "How dare you speak! If it's not the master, then who is he? Tell me, what's wrong with him?"

The young cook said aggrievedly, "When my father was alive, he looked more prosperous than him. Why does the master look... so miserable and haggard... like a storyteller at the entrance of the village... who hasn't eaten for a few days?"

"..."

After hearing this, Qi Niang was speechless.

Master, oh master, you are really capable.

It's getting worse and worse!Now even a little maid looks down on you and treats you as Uncle Zhang at the village entrance!If you keep going on like this, I'm afraid no one will take you seriously wherever you go. Even so, you still don't know how to cheer yourself up and have to dress yourself so rustically?"You talk too much!"

Qi Niang glared at the young cook and said, "Before the master comes next time, you must lose weight, otherwise I will let you eat only one meal every three days!"

……

In Xishan, a heavy snow fell at an inopportune time.

The sky and the earth were covered in white.

Zhang Yanling had just been exploring for mineral deposits for two days when he had to suspend his plans and return to the tent of the temporary camp to study the feng shui map.

Qin Yun found a guide and asked a few questions before asking the guide to leave.

"We still don't have enough manpower. After all, the net has been cast too wide!"

Qin Yun introduced, "According to the locations mentioned by the Second Young Master, we have discovered very shallow carboniferous layers. However, the surrounding terrain is a bit complicated, and the trees are very dense. If we want to mine on a large scale, we may have to wait until the beginning of spring."

Of course Zhang Yanling knew where the coal mines were.

This is actually very simple. Wherever coal mines were mined, they would be left with large black holes in relatively fixed locations. Several large mines in Xishan had been in operation since the early Ming Dynasty, but they were gradually abandoned after more and better mines were discovered.

Zhang Yanling said, "Captain Qin, please put aside the mining business for now. I am here just to explore. So, you can go down the mountain for me and bring someone over. I am afraid that he will not be able to find the way and our people will misunderstand that he is here to cause trouble... Anyway, you just need to bring the person over."

"who?"

Qin Yun seemed very curious.

Very few people knew that Zhang Yanling went up the mountain to explore for minerals.

Zhang Yanling said, "It was that Minister Li... He returned to Beijing from Juyongguan Pass, and knowing that I was here, he came to visit me specially..."

"what?"

Qin Yun was a little surprised.

How could Li Zisheng, such a proud and arrogant person, not forget to visit Zhang Yanling on his way back to Beijing?You all have your own jobs, and you don't even have any major connection, but you can still get in touch with each other? And you're still meeting in the wild mountains of Xishan on such a snowy day?But Qin Yun immediately figured it out.

Unfortunately, Zhang Luan was recuperating from an illness, and many things were going to happen after he returned to the capital, so it was too late to ask Zhang Luan for advice.

In this case, it would be more appropriate to discuss directly with Zhang Yanling, the Zhang family's think tank.

Qualifications, connections, background, and status are all nonsense in the face of absolute power...

After all, Zhang Yanling is the person serving the emperor now, so going to Zhang Yanling will be of great help. After all, Zhang Yanling is one of the few people in the court who can communicate directly with the emperor, and they can get along with each other in private and talk about everything. A simple sentence from him can be worth a lot from others.

……

Li Zisheng entered the mountains overnight.

If the person leading the way was not Tan Yun, a powerful figure in the Jinyiwei, Li Zisheng would have been afraid that he would be abducted. After all, this place didn't look like a place where one could do serious work. It seemed more like a place to choose a grave site.

Li Zisheng felt relieved only when he went up the mountain and saw a small camp.

"Second Master, we meet again."

Li Zisheng greeted with a smile.

Zhang Yanling said quickly, "Minister Li, what are you talking about? Addressing you as Young Master... makes me feel uneasy."

Li Zisheng said, "Then I'll just call you my nephew... Captain Qin, thank you for leading the way. I will definitely send the gift to your house when I return."

I think that when you, Li Zisheng, return to Beijing this time, you will be cheated by people in the court.

I don't even know if your property is enough to pay the compensation, and yet you're still giving me money?Sorry, your money is too hot and I don’t want to accept it.

Qin Yun said: "I will take my leave first. If you two have anything to say, please feel free to discuss. I will be guarding outside and will not let anyone come to disturb you."

……

Only Zhang Yanling and Li Zisheng were left in the tent.

The two of them sat facing the stove, and Li Zisheng asked curiously, "This stove has a very peculiar shape. Is this fire tube... used as a chimney?"

As soon as Li Zisheng came up, he became very interested in the stove in front of Zhang Yanling.

Zhang Yanling said: "The coal burned in the furnace is locally produced, but I made it into honeycomb coal... This iron tube is to lead the smoke outside, so that poisoning can be basically avoided. I didn't expect that after the first month of the year is almost over, I would encounter such extreme blizzard weather after coming to Xishan."

Zhang Yanling asked curiously, "It's been two days since Minister Li left Juyong Pass? And he has only come here?"

"This one……"

Li Zisheng was ashamed and whispered, "I'm not in a hurry to return to Beijing... Aren't we still waiting for the prisoners from Shanxi to be escorted over to Beijing together? I have already asked Bingkun to go back... To be honest, he has been really busy recently, and I feel a little sorry for him..."

Zhang Yanling said, "No wonder I didn't see Mr. Pang coming with you."

Zhang Yanling thought, it should be you who is not serious, or rather, it is this weird employment relationship between you two.

……

……

After Li Zisheng's body warmed up a little, he picked up the bowl of hot tea.

"Who would have thought that after receiving military merit from the sky, I didn't even have time to celebrate for a few days, but the civil officials in the court began to target me. Blessings and disasters go hand in hand, and the future is unpredictable!"

Zhang Yanling said: "Isn't this good?"

"Is this... okay?"

Li Zisheng stared at Zhang Yanling with eyes wide open.

Li Zisheng thought about it and nodded, "My dear nephew, what you said makes some sense. I was really confused a few years ago. I was in the imperial prison, in the dark, and I was afraid that I would not be able to get out. But this time, those guys only asked me for money, which is much easier. I just don't know how much money it will take to get rid of them. My dear nephew, can you help me think about it?"

"How did you know this?"

Zhang Yanling obviously didn't want to answer such a sensitive question.

Even your political enemies in the court haven't said how much money they want to extort from you before they let you go. You want me to give you an estimate?

Li Zisheng asked, "My dear nephew, do you think that three hundred thousand taels can be given away?"

Zhang Yanling thought to himself, you, Li Zisheng, are still the richest.

I originally thought that you were at the end of your rope, but who would have thought that the price you offered right from the start was three hundred thousand taels?

What I mean is, you definitely have more than this number on hand!Comrade Lao Zhang thought he had bankrupted you and felt sorry for you, but you still hid so much! ?

"My dear nephew, you are very resourceful. You can meet His Majesty at any time, so you can better understand His Majesty's intentions. Please help me with some advice..."

Li Zisheng said in a pleading tone, "I also know that those ungrateful bastards will never be satisfied with this number. But I can only come up with this much, and this is to be honest with you. If it's more... I can't give it out."

Zhang Yanling smiled.

I was thinking, have you ever told Lao Zhang the truth?How can others believe what you said?

Li Zisheng asked, "You mean, add the money I gave to the late emperor? And the money I spent on managing relationships? In other words, the total value of all the money I received and handled?"

"Ah."

Zhang Yanling nodded.

Li Zisheng smiled and said casually, "Probably around one million taels."

You, Li Zisheng, helped my Zhang family with no less than 100,000 taels before, plus the 300,000 taels you gave this time, plus the little assets you hid - you will have at least 200,000 taels of silver left for yourself... In other words, the money you earned from selling official positions, corruption and abuse of power must be more than 2 million taels of silver.

In this way, it would be reasonable for you to secretly deduct about 30%.

Zhang Yanling asked, "If we let them check the actual accounts, how much can they deduce?"

Li Zisheng seemed very confident and said, "Then I'm afraid they can't even come up with 300,000 taels. After all, no one would keep such an account, not even I have it! Many people gave silver and got benefits, so do they have to spread the news everywhere? After all, the evidence they have is only a minority."

"This……"

Li Zisheng hesitated for a moment.

Obviously there is a big discrepancy between the figures in the public accounts and the actual spending.

Even though he had done in-depth research before, Li Zisheng didn't want to just casually say a number in front of Zhang Yanling.

Li Zisheng sighed, "My dear nephew, to be honest, it's hard to make a specific estimate of how much it will cost. Before, it was just... just a casual remark.

"If we really want to implement it, we should be more cautious, right? Just making a slight turn or extending the river can easily cost tens of thousands of taels of silver! And that doesn't even include the manpower and material resources."

"Is two million taels enough?"

Zhang Yanling asked.

Li Zisheng said, "If we use the Huai River to widen it and divert the Yellow River, it should be... not much different."

Zhang Yanling nodded and said, "Isn't that good? If Minister Li can bear the cost of repairing the river alone without having to allocate a penny from the court, then the people in the court should choose to keep quiet."

"what?"

Li Zisheng’s eyes suddenly widened.

Zhang Yanling smiled and said, "Of course, my father will do his utmost to help and will not stand idly by."

(End of this chapter)