"Eunuch, it's not as bad as you think."

Liu Sisong hesitated and said that he looked at his boss with a slight sympathy, and the new boss didn't understand the real situation.

"If the matter was serious, the prefect Wu would have come to you long ago. In fact, the movements of the canal workers have been under his control. He could only almost cause trouble in the morning. But now..., envoy, do you understand what I mean?"

Li Qingan slowly sat down. He carefully thought about Judge Liu's words, and gradually, he felt a little bit of it.

"You mean, was he arranged the gathering of the canal workers?"

"I didn't say that. In fact, the houses of the canal workers are almost out of business. They have no money to buy rice, and they want to make trouble, but it is a bit worth discussing when 20,000 people come together."

Liu Sisong was still talking hesitantly, but Li Qing'an already fully understood what he meant. Indeed, 20,000 canal workers need to be organized, and organizing canal workers to cause trouble is a death sentence. Most people would not do this and do not have such great ability. He organized the canal workers in several states together. After thinking about it, he stopped mentioning Wu Qing, but changed his question.

"Tell me, how do these canal workers usually operate?"

Li Qing'an handled a salt case in Yangzhou. At that time, Du Bosheng's family controlled thousands of salt workers in the Jianghuai area in the form of a salt gang, and Bianzhou should be similar.

Without mentioning the local officials, Liu Sisong's words immediately became much smoother. He smiled and said, "The envoy may not know that the canal transportation is also a business, including a commercial business, including a franchises, Bian, Song, Bo, Xu, along the Caohe River, there are hundreds of ships carrying cargoes, all of which have fleets, ship workers, and canal workers carrying cargoes. Each ship has dozens of canal workers to hundreds of people. Among these hundreds of ships, there are three ships, which are particularly large in scale and closely related to the government, and have their own backstages. All ships obey the command of their three families, one is the Xu family in Kaifeng, and the other is the Chenliu Tao family. These two are Bianzhou ships, and one is in the Zhao family in Songzhou and Songcheng County. These three ships basically monopolize more than 50% of the cargo transportation. The 20,000 canal workers along the Bian River are under the control of the three families."

Only then did Li Qing'an understand that Wu Qing could mobilize more than 20,000 canal workers to attack him by controlling these three large ships. But why did he do this? Is there anything shameful about him?

Thinking of this, he smiled at Liu Sisong and said, "This is it! I'm the first time I came, you should work hard, first order a few tables of banquets for me in the best restaurants in Bianzhou City, and then invite the boss of Xuzhou and Chenliu Tao's family in Kaifeng, and then say I'll invite them to drink."

"Then the prefect Wu..."

"I will invite you to the prefect Wu, just give me a list."

Since it took half a day to get from Chenliu to Kaifeng, the banquet was booked the next day. Li Qing'an wrote dozens of invitations to teach Liu Sisong to arrange for someone to send them. He left the yamen and, under the leadership of a yamen runner, came to Helixing, the largest Hu jewelry store in Bianzhou City. There were four most profitable businesses in the Tang Dynasty, including cabins, salt shops, tea shops and Hu jewelry shops. In Bianzhou City, there were no exception. Helixing had a partner and more than 30 craftsmen, almost monopolizing the jewelry business of nearby prefectures and counties such as Bian, Song, and Xu.

He Liexing is located in the middle of Baishui Street. The store covers a huge area and is a huge narrow building. In front of the shop and back, Li Qing'an walked up the steps and immediately greeted a enthusiastic friend.

"What kind of jewelry customers want to buy, there are everything you need for small shops, which are good and cheap, and the customers are satisfied with the customer."

"I'll talk to your shopkeeper to have a big deal. Is he here?"

The guy was stunned for a moment and hurriedly said, "Here! Guest, please follow me."

Li Qing'an and several guards walked into the shop. The shop was very spacious, with dozens of couches. There were low small tables on the couches and two seated people. A middle-aged man was telling customers about Kang Guo's gems.

"Shopkeeper!" The guy called the middle-aged man twice, "There is something here."

"I'll lose my companion!" The middle-aged man said apologetically to the guests, then walked over quickly, "What's the matter?"

"This guest is looking for you and said there is a big deal." The guy pointed at Li Qing'an.

"Does the guest need my help?" the shopkeeper smiled, his eyes slightly strange.

Li Qingan took out a golden gold medal from his waist and shook it in front of him. The shopkeeper's face immediately became extremely serious.

"Please follow me!"

He hurried to the backyard with Li Qing'an and came to a small house without windows. He opened two large iron locks and creaked open the heavy iron door.

"Please come in!"

It was dark inside, and it was almost impossible to see the bottom of the situation. Just as several personal soldiers were about to enter first, Li Qingan waved his hand and stopped them, "You are waiting at the door!"

He walked into the hut, and when he entered the hut, he found that it was the entrance to a passage, and there was an iron door more than twenty steps ahead.

"This is our warehouse where precious jewelry is stored, please follow me!"

The shopkeeper took Li Qing'an to the end and opened the door again. When he saw him suddenly lit up, there was a circular room with a very Arabic style. It was surrounded by large bluestone and a few lamps were lit. There were cleverly designed vents, without any lack of oxygen.

With a loud bang, the shopkeeper closed the door. Li Qingan looked around with his hands behind his back. There were wooden grids around the room, and there was a dazzling piece of jewelry in each grid, which looked very valuable.

"Empress, let me introduce it first. My name is Yang Tang, who is the chief leader of the Han and Tang Association of Henan Province."

"Do you know me?" Li Qingan squinted his eyes and looked at the shopkeeper.

Manager Yang smiled bitterly and said, "Last year, I have been in the Beiting shop, met Li Envoy Li, and have been in Li Envoy Li's military camp for a few days."

"Haha! It turns out to be an old friend."

Li Qingan smiled and took out the gold medal just now. It was the gold medal given to him by Li Huichun. There were only three in total. With this gold medal, it could mobilize all the power of the Tang Dynasty Han and Tang Association.

Of course, not many people can recognize this gold medal, and Manager Yang is one of them. He picked up the gold medal and looked carefully, and then he bowed and said, "Please give me the order!"

"Come on! Sit down first, I want to ask you a few things."

The two sat down. Li Qingan thought for a while and smiled, "I came to Henan Road for inspection this time. I feel that the officials here are guarding against me everywhere. I want to know what interesting things happened before I came?"

"Interesting things? You are so good at joking. Those who are officials are shameful things, how can there be interesting things?"

"What I'm talking about is shameful."

Manager Yang was stunned for a while, and then he sighed and said, "If I say that many officials are happy about the arrival of this drought, will you believe it?"

"Why?" Li Qingan didn't quite understand.

"Because the arrival of the drought can erase all their evil deeds, such as those who embezzled official grain, it can be said that the disaster relief was used up, or the hungry people robbed the official warehouse. I heard that there were hungry people in Songzhou who robbed the official warehouse, but it was empty and there was no food at all, so the court had no way to investigate. For example, if a false report of the promotion of the household, they could say that the people had escaped or starved to death when the drought came, which could make a lie. In short, the arrival of the envoy may infringe on their interests. For example, if the envoy rebelled in Songzhou, the envoy would probably lose the official hat if the envoy investigated the reasons for the rebellion of the hungry people."

"Do you know what's the reason?"

Manager Yang shook his head, "I don't know very well, but I heard it is related to the land."

Li Qing'an nodded and said, "I will investigate the problem of Songcheng County, but today I'm here to find you. I have two things to ask you for help."

Manager Yang quickly stood up and bowed and said, "The matters of the Han and Tang dynasties are of no size. The envoy told me that we will obey the order."

"Okay!" Li Qing'an praised and said, "That's right, there are 20,000 canal workers on the dock outside the city. I want to hire two thousand people from among them to form a militia to serve me, but I don't have so much money and grain, so you will pay for this money and grain for me."

The Han and Tang dynasties were very strict, and the orders between superiors and subordinates must be decided to obey. Although Li Qingan was not a member of the Han and Tang dynasties, he had the gold medal of the highest power of the Han and Tang dynasties. Manager Yang immediately bowed and said, "We obey the order. If there is not enough money here, we will transfer from Jianghuai."

He hesitated for a moment and said, "But Immortal, we have more than 500 people in Henan Road, and we can serve the Immortal."

"I know!" Li Qing'an waved his hand and smiled: "The Han and Tang Association can only support it secretly and cannot show up publicly. I need a brave team in my hands. The canal workers gathered and gave me a chance."

Speaking of this, Li Qing'an said again: "I also need a fleet of grain transporters, and I also need some money to buy grain from Jianghuai. All of these will be raised by the Han and Tang Dynasties for me."

He took out a plan and said to Manager Yang: "Just do what I said above. I will start recruiting militias tomorrow morning."

The gathering of more than 20,000 canal workers was obviously putting pressure on Li Qing'an, perhaps to distract him from his energy and have no time to inquire about the officialdom. This was a stumbling block on him by the Henan officialdom. Of course, there is also the meaning of some high-ranking officials in the court.

But Li Qing'an discovered another business opportunity from it, that is, 20,000 canal workers can solve the problem of insufficient manpower. Henan Road also has troops stationed, but mobilizing more than ten troops must require the instructions of the Ministry of War. The Minister of War was Yang Guozhong. It is conceivable that he could not mobilize a soldier. In addition, the Han and Tang dynasties had strong financial and material resources, so the problem of insufficient manpower was solved.

The next morning, the observer's yamen set up a recruiting platform on the Bianzhou wharf. A big red flag was raised high, and the big "大" was written on the banner. More than a dozen yamen runners and one hundred guards were busy and maintained order. Li Qing'an personally served as the recruiting officer. Twenty guards with big waists stood behind him, staring at the surrounding situation with vigilance.

Some people have long gone to the dock to promote it, three liters of rice a day, two hundred cents of money, wearing a waist knife, and soap robe. These generous conditions make the canal workers jealous. Three liters of rice a day can support the whole family, and two hundred cents of money can earn more than they were tired and exhausted when they were doing canal workers. Some people are still hesitating, but when these hesitant people figured it out, there was no chance. 20,000 canal workers lined up in more than a dozen long queues, and they couldn't see the end at a glance.

Two thousand people were selected out of 20,000 people, and they were all muscular and hard-working canal workers. The two thousand people were very smoothly selected. They were no more than 30 years old, about seven feet tall, and could lift a stone lock of 100 kilograms. In the end, the standard had to be adjusted to 130 kilograms. At noon, the two thousand people were recruited.

Li Qing'an divided the 2,000 people into four battalions and sent his own personal guards to command them. Li Qing'an gave them a nice name: the disaster relief volunteer camp.

The first task accepted by these two thousand disaster relief volunteers was to take care of the remaining nearly 20,000 wastewater workers and not allow them to cause trouble. The nearly 20,000 people had to let them go home. To solve this problem, it was a banquet at dusk.

Yisonglou, at the entrance of the south city of Bianzhou, is the largest and highest-end restaurant in the city. The severe drought has also affected the business of this restaurant. The business is usually deserted, but Yisonglou was particularly lively tonight. Li Qing'an, who had just arrived in Bianzhou, booked the entire restaurant to invite local officials in Bianzhou and some famous local wise men to discuss drought relief plans.

More than 100 people received the invitation, including the prefect, chief minister, Sima, Caos, generals, county magistrates, county magistrates, chief clerks, chief clerks and other officials at all levels. Then there were more than 80 wealthy families in Kaifeng County and Chenliu County. Some of these wealthy families were retired officials, some were merchants and merchants, and some were landlords and wealthy officials. Most of them were honorary officials.

The honorary officials are equivalent to today's March 8th Red Flag Bearer, May 1st Model Worker, etc., and also have ranks, such as the second-rank Shangzhu Kingdom, from the second-rank Zhuguo, etc., mainly to commend the contributions made by ordinary people to the country, such as paying a lot of grain, running schools, fighting for the country, etc. This is an honor, but the honorary officials began to proliferate in the middle Tang Dynasty. After the Anshi Rebellion, the court recruited a large number of civil servants, but had no money to reward, so they used honorary officials to make up the numbers. Someone donated money to get a fourth-rank Shangluo lieutenant, who was so happy that he danced. He was also a fourth-rank official. Unexpectedly, the coachman who drove his carriage smiled bitterly: "This master, I am still a Shangzhu Kingdom!"

I'm too far away, so I'll come back first. These famous wise men heard that the observations invited themselves to dinner, and they all paid special attention to it. They started preparing from noon. They changed the best silk robes one by one, washed them cleanly, wore gauze hats, soft-soled black boots, and tied a leather belt around their waists. But some people felt that it was not good. They discussed the drought-resistant plan, and they wouldn't have to pay them!

It was still an hour before leaving the banquet, and an impatient person came in a carriage. The banquet was set up on the second floor. Before the owner's future, he could not go up yet, so everyone drank tea and chatted in the hall on the first floor.

"Who is this envoy Li? What is the background?" asked a big businessman who was not very concerned about current affairs.

His ignorance immediately attracted a look of contempt.

"Brother Ji, you may not be too ignorant! Didn't Li Qing'an know? The Beiting Jiedushi, the first person to clean up this time."

"Oh! Could it be that Anxi Li Divine Arrow who played well in polo?"

"It's him! He was demoted to Liuzhou, but then he shook himself to serve as an observer in Henan."

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"Hey! Hey! Is there any rumor that the imperial concubine fell in love with this Li Qing'an, is it true?"

"Shh! Sigh it down, you can't talk nonsense."

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To be continued...