Chapter 851

851

After Cheng Yeran arrived here, he first went to the news department and then wandered around the provincial capital. Although the provincial capital is not as good as the capital, it looks more prosperous than the small county town where they were before. However, there are more thieves, so they have to keep their wallets safe.

After his purse was stolen once, he no longer went out by himself, but took the guards with him, and asked the guards to protect him secretly. He also captured two petty thieves and the people sent by Lord Li to follow him.

Cheng Yeran put the man who was following him into jail for interrogation. That man was not a professional tracker. He was just a servant in Lord Li's family. He had no professional training. He was so scared when he was first taken to jail that he told everything before he was interrogated.

Cheng Yeran summoned all the adults in the province. They were all working hard to write the report that Cheng Yeran wanted. They were so busy that they looked much more haggard when they were called over. Xia Xiaowu still took sick leave and did not dare to come.

Cheng Yeran pushed the captured man in front of everyone and said, "Some people don't do their job properly, but think about sneaky things all day long. They even sent people to follow me? Lord Li, are you free?"

When everyone heard this, they all turned to look at Lord Li. Lord Li was so scared that he broke out in a cold sweat. "Misunderstanding, Lord Cheng, this is all a misunderstanding. I don't recognize him."

"Since you don't know him, that means someone is impersonating you and wants to frame you?" Cheng Yeran asked him.

Lord Li nodded quickly, "Yes, someone framed me."

Cheng Yeran looked at the other officials, "Who among you framed him?"

"Don't slander us." The other adults were very angry. One of them pointed at the servant who followed Cheng Yeran and said, "Isn't this your servant? I saw him last time. Do you want to accuse us of this?"

Several adults started cursing on the spot. Although Lord Li was not in the right, he cursed them all the same and even said that they had bribed his servants.

In fact, they were just acting for Cheng Yeran, thinking that Cheng Yeran would definitely come to mediate, and then say that it was okay this time and it would not happen again, and they would thus escape this disaster.

After all, everyone present had sent people to follow and find out what Cheng Yeran was doing recently, but Lord Li was unlucky and was caught.

Now that they knew how powerful Cheng Yeran's guards were, they didn't dare to follow them so blatantly. They should just be more secretive next time so that he wouldn't find out.

If Cheng Yeran found out, he would just scold them. What else could he do?

As a result, they cursed at each other for a long time, rolled up their sleeves and fought for a long time, but Cheng Yeran did not try to stop the fight. Instead, he picked up the melon seeds and looked at them with relish. Was he treating this as a monkey show?

They stopped fighting and lowered their heads waiting for Cheng Yeran to lecture them.

Cheng Yeran took out a document from his bosom: "After I caught him, I wrote down his confession and what happened, and handed it to His Majesty, rushing it eight hundred miles. Now His Majesty has also responded."

He shook the document in his hand and threw it into Lord Li's hand: "Take a look for yourself."

Lord Li took a look at it and his face turned pale instantly. There was a lot of content in it, but to sum it up in one sentence, he would no longer be the county magistrate as he had been dismissed by the emperor.

Not only Lord Li did not expect this, but no one present expected this.

Isn’t it said that Cheng Yeran colluded with the Second Prince to collude with the enemy, and the Emperor disliked Cheng Yeran? Why did they just send people to follow Cheng Yeran, but his own official hat was in danger?

After this incident, everyone's fear of Cheng Yeran reached its peak. No one dared to look down on him or send people to follow him anymore.

This time, the emperor wrote a letter to Cheng Yeran, saying that he would send a teacher to teach Cheng Zhao, and that the teacher would arrive in two months, so he should not worry.

Cheng Yeran didn't even tell the emperor about Cheng Zhao's studies, so how did the emperor know about it?

Did the emperor send someone to monitor him? Or maybe the emperor was worried about Cheng Zhao and guessed that the teaching quality here was not good, so he sent someone from the capital?

If it were in the past, it would be fine if the emperor cared about Cheng Zhao's affairs, but why is it that now that he has been demoted, the emperor is still so good to Cheng Zhao?

It has been verified before that the emperor is not the original owner's biological father who had been lost for many years. Could it be that the emperor felt that the second prince was more powerful than him this time, and was afraid that the second prince would rebel if he gained too much support from the people, so he deliberately framed the second prince. He was just implicated, and the emperor still wanted to use him in the future, so he sent the teacher to tell him that the emperor has not forgotten him.

…

With no more obstacles, Cheng Yeran went to several county towns to check. After checking these county towns, he realized how wealthy Shen Yuntang's hometown was. The county towns here were gray and the houses were much simpler.

Not to mention the countryside, even brick houses are rare.

There are five villages under the county town. In at least three of them, villagers do not own their own land and are all employed by the landlords.

There are two other villages that are slightly better, with farmland and sugarcane visible, but they are still very poor, not as good as their hometown.

Cheng Yeran thought of his hometown again. The land was fertile, the grain output was high, and the country was rich. In addition, the officials there were good and never oppressed the people.

He saw many sugarcane fields here, but the sugarcane could not be sold at a good price, and the sugar produced by the local sugar factories was also very rough.

Their home can

Whispering Wind

When I bought sugar online, I didn't pay much attention to the seasonings. Now I realize that most of the sugar eaten in this world is brown sugar, there is no refined white sugar, let alone rock sugar.

If he could make white sugar and rock sugar and build a sugar factory here, the economy here would flourish.

However, he had too much to do and did not have the manpower to open his own sugar factory, so it would be better for him to support the existing local sugar factories.

When Cheng Yeran came back, he saw Cheng Zhao teaching a few children to write. He was very serious and looked like a little teacher.

When Cheng Yeran left, Shen Yuntang didn't let the children get in touch with Cheng Zhao. But when he came back this time, the children seemed to be very familiar with him.

Cheng Yeran observed those children and found that they were still skinny, with dull eyes and no energy at all. They were dressed like little savages. Now they are dressed neatly and their faces are much rosier.

They were about the same age as Cheng Zhao, all five or six years old, but they were obviously much thinner than Cheng Zhao.

Although they were all children of the same age, they were very afraid of Cheng Zhao. They would do whatever Cheng Zhao said, like little puppets.

"Dad, you're back?" Cheng Zhao was so happy to see Cheng Yeran that he wanted to run over and throw himself into his arms. Usually, Cheng Zhao always pretended to be a little adult, but in fact, he was still a naive child at heart. He still missed his father when he saw him who had not come home for a long time.

If it were in the past, he might have run over, but today he was a young teacher and didn't want that student to see his immature side, so he had to force himself to hold back.

Cheng Yeran walked over, picked him up, and pinched his face, "Is Master Cheng teaching?"

Cheng Zhao rubbed his face in dissatisfaction, "Someone is here, give me some face!"

"Master Cheng, how many words can you write? You teach others?" Cheng Yeran teased him deliberately, making his little face puff up with anger.

Cheng Zhao leaned over to his ear and said, "I've already told you to save my face. They won't listen to me anymore."

"When did you become so familiar with them?" Cheng Yeran asked him.

"Today." Cheng Zhao said.

The four children were very shy. Before they were bought here, they heard that the owner of the place was an official, and that the official was scarier than a man-eating monster.

The four of them were shivering and hiding in the corner, one next to the other. Cheng Yeran wanted to talk to them, but he was stunned when he saw the actions of these little guys. He touched his face and asked, "Am I that scary?"

Cheng Zhao looked at his father's face, which was still as handsome as ever. But he thought of how his father always teased him, so he also teased Cheng Yeran and nodded seriously: "A little bit."

Cheng Yeran also touched his face. Did he grow a beard in the past few days? Rather sloppy? He looked down and saw Cheng Zhao laughing secretly, and pinched Cheng Zhao's face again, "I haven't seen you for a few days, and you have learned to lie. A mature child will never lie."

Cheng Yeran called the three children over and asked them gently: "How old are you? What are your names?"

A few children came over, knelt down with a plop, and kowtowed violently. Cheng Yeran couldn't stop them. The old woman who was taking care of them heard the noise and ran over to scold them loudly.

Cheng Yeran was frightened by the old woman's voice, and was just about to say, "Won't they cry even louder if you scold them like that?" Then he heard the old woman say: "If you keep crying, be careful that Master Cheng will take you away and behead you."

Cheng Yeran:""

Just when he was confused, the children stopped crying, but looked at him with even more fear.

Cheng Yeran patiently asked them why they were so afraid of him, and the children said tremblingly that it was because he was an official.

Cheng Yeran asked them again why they were so afraid of him just because he was an official? They also said that all the things in the house were taken away by the government. Even the child whose father was a gambler said the same thing. He said that it was because the things in the house were taken away by the government that his father went to gamble in order to make more money to support his family.

They talked for a long time, and Cheng Yeran finally understood that the taxes collected by the officials here were very high, much higher than those set by the court, and there were many taxes that he had never heard of.

Cheng Yeran had been away for a few days, but hadn't found out anything. Unexpectedly, he got the key from the mouths of these children.

He knew there must be a reason why this place was so poor, and this was the reason.

Cheng Yeran asked them if they knew which government agency collected the taxes. They shook their heads. How could such young children explain it clearly? However, Cheng Yeran had a direction for investigation.

He thought that maybe he could ask the fathers of these children, especially the gambler. Other parents might be hesitant and dare not tell the truth, but if he gave the gambler money, he should be able to tell him something useful.