Chapter 36 The Power of Scholars

The flickering candlelight in the mansion dyed Gongsun Yue's eyes red.

His eyes were burned by the candlelight and hurt.

He stood outside the wall and saw the approachable county master, their respected county magistrate, standing next to General Sun and pouring wine for him humbly.

"General Sun, this time I'll trouble you to guard the pass well and never let those bastards break through the pass."

"In addition, you need to have people strengthen the defense in the city and never let these bastards cause trouble."

Hearing the three words "General Sun", the Gan family stretched their necks to see General Sun clearly.

Gan Tian watched the most diligently.

She thought that General Sun was such a pervert and must be ugly, but she didn't expect him to look quite handsome.

Compared with the chief clerks, county lieutenants and the like sitting below, he was much more handsome.

With such looks and such achievements, if he had married and had children, he would have been the dream lover of many girls, but he chose to be a pervert.

Gan Tian looked down on General Sun. No

matter how handsome a pervert looks, it can't change the fact that he is a pervert.

"Don't worry, with this general here, those ants can't make any waves."

General Sun raised his wine glass and drank the wine in the glass. He glanced at the county magistrate with disdain.

"You are a useless thing. You can't even do a small thing. Among the ten county magistrates from Tongmen Pass to Jianan Pass, you are the only one who has caused such a big trouble, and now I have to clean up your mess."

The smile on the county magistrate's face froze in an instant, but in just a breath he put on a flattering face again: "General Sun, please forgive me."

Turning his head, he cursed angrily: "A bunch of scumbags, you think you can force us to open the warehouse and release grain in this way, don't you even look at your own weight!"

The chief clerk flattered: "You are right, my lord, scumbags are scumbags, and they are simply overestimating their own abilities to fight with you!"

"They think that they can make you compromise by sitting in front of the county government and raising their arms and shouting a few times. They don't even look at whether their lives are worthy of it!" As

soon as the chief clerk finished speaking, everyone burst into laughter.

"The chief clerk is right, how much are the lives of these villains worth?"

"You still want to threaten us, it's ridiculous!"

The county magistrate listened to everyone's laughter, happily returned to his seat, raised his glass and drank it all.

He glanced at the beautiful maid beside him, picked her up in his arms, and his big hands kept wandering over her body.

The maid wanted to vomit because of his alcohol, but she could only frown and bear it.

With the beauty in his arms, the county magistrate said with a beaming face: "Just bear with it for two more days, when the price of brown rice reaches ten taels of silver per stone, we can reap the benefits!"

Hearing this, others echoed and praised.

"You are wise, sir. You came up with the idea of ​​sealing Tongmen Pass. Otherwise, how could we earn so much money?"

"That's right. Now it's not just the grain price that has increased, but also the cost of food, clothing, housing and transportation. We don't have to worry about taxes this year!"

"Your Excellency has completed the political achievements that other counties have not been able to complete in several years in just one year. You are definitely not far from promotion."

"Humph, a bunch of idiots."

General Sun put the wine glass hard on the table and scolded loudly: "Do you know who in this world should not be offended?"

"It's the scholars."

"They can think of 108 ways to scold people, and if they are not satisfied, they can write you into the book, leaving you with a bad name for eternity."

"Once this matter is resolved, articles criticizing you will surely appear everywhere, and then we will all be criticized by the people."

Being criticized by General Sun in front of so many people, the county magistrate was not only not angry, but laughed instead.

"The general is a military commander, so he naturally doesn't understand how stupid these people are."

"When the price of grain reaches 10 taels of silver per stone, I will stand out, pretend to be indignant, and go to the grain dealer to negotiate the price. Then I will be chased out in a wolf's clothing, and then go in again... I will repeat this several times, and finally reduce the grain price to 7 taels of silver per stone, and the people will praise me."

"They will say that I am not afraid of the powerful and I really care about the people. I am an honest and good official."

He stroked his beard and laughed: "Before the flood, a stone of rice cost 700 to 800 coins. Now we have raised the price to 7 taels of silver per stone, and they still want to thank me."

"Then I will find a few more people, go to the people and find a few scholars who care about state affairs, and describe the scene when I was humiliated. Those stupid scholars will sing my praises everywhere, and maybe even make an umbrella to praise me."

The county magistrate was already a little drunk, his face flushed, and he was shaking his head.

"Don't look at these scholars who seem to be very knowledgeable and have a lot of character, they are actually very stupid!"

"As long as they are used a little, they will charge into the battle line for me and become my achievements."

Outside the door, Gongsun Yue's face was as pale as paper.

Thinking that he was also one of the scholars who ran for the county magistrate, he felt nauseous.

How could he think that such a greedy and lustful man was a good official who loved the people like his own children?

In response to the explanation of the county magistrate, General Sun said with a smile: "You civil officials are very cunning, I can't compare with you."

"But you have to deal with the person who scattered the paper as soon as possible. My people in other counties also picked up the rough paper!"

"If my people can pick it up, others can pick it up too!"

"Now there are dozens of caravans gathered outside Tongmen Pass, all waiting to enter the pass. If someone among so many people picks up a piece of paper, you can forget about your black gauze hats."

He is a military general, he only cares about fighting, and it is not his responsibility to open the warehouse to release grain.

If it weren't for the fact that these counties gave him dividends, he would not have waded into this muddy water.

The county lieutenant sat up.

"This little thief is so ignorant that he ruined our plan!"

"I'll send someone to kill him!" The county

lieutenant said as he led his men out.

"Wait." The county magistrate stopped him.

"There are so many people, how are you going to find him?"

The county lieutenant stroked his beard and smiled, "You won't find him if you look for him directly, but you can start with this paper."

"Although this paper is the cheapest rough paper, it still costs one to two coins per sheet. This much paper will cost at least a hundred taels of silver. There are only a handful of families in our county who can afford to buy so much paper."

"Just go and ask the paper seller, or screen the wealthy families in our county and find out who has such a "good" man who cares about the people, and compare the handwriting."

Gongsun Yue, who was outside the door, breathed faster.

He thought he would not be discovered if he hid in the dark and used the cheapest rough paper to create momentum.

Unexpectedly, it was so easy to find him.

He was really stupid.

He thought he had done a good thing for the people, solved the food problem, and could give the people food to eat and reduce theft.

But he didn't expect that not only did he fail to accomplish anything, but he also caused the death of several innocent people, and now his family may be implicated.

The county magistrate said slowly: "This man is indeed a talented person, but it's a pity that he is too naive. It has been more than three months since the flood. If I could open the warehouse, I would have opened it long ago. If he had done something more ruthless and robbed the warehouse at night, I would have had a headache."

"After all, there are so many people, where can I find him, but he insisted on doing this and leaving us clues."